indie games | Jennifer Awesome v5.0

Tag Archive for indie games

Ningyo hime: Mermaid Princess

December 13, 2013 Jen Ný Games No comments

I just finished finals for this semester, and now I finally have time to upload the rest of the games I made this semester. Ningyo hime: Mermaid Princess is the fourth game I made for Intro to Game Design this past semester using GameMaker 8.1. It is a breakout clone based on the classic fairy tale, The Little Mermaid. I made this game back in October.

The Mermaid Princess has heard tales of mermaids before her time leaving the ocean kingdom to marry princes on the surface. Tired of her life in the sea and wishing more than anything to meet a prince to call her very own, she has stolen a potion from the evil sea witch that will turn her tail into legs if she breathes the surface air.

I went with a sort-of anime-style feel for this game. It can be downloaded from YoYo Games here:

Ningyo hime: Mermaid Princess
Added: 13 December 2013
By: Nybiru

I will be posting the rest of the games I made for Intro to Game Design over the next few days, in order of when they were created. I have five more to go!

Crushing Candies

October 12, 2013 Jen Ný Games No comments

I just uploaded my third game, Crushing Candies (no relation at all to Candy Crush. I swear. My game has cute graphics, a plot [kind of], and actual gameplay! The name comes from the fact that you are in danger of being crushed by candies.)

Crushing Candies is about a candy named Mr. Gumball who was imprisoned in a candy dungeon by the evil Fruit Dragon. Mr. Gumball must find a way to escape from the dungeon while avoiding the evil Fruit Dragon’s evil apple minions and avoid being crushed by falling candies that the Fruit Dragon is attempting to drop on him. Will Mr. Gumball escape? Or will he meet his delicious doom?

You can download Crushing Candies for free here:

Crushing Candies
Added: 12 October 2013
By: Nybiru

It’s a simple game, based on the Lazarus game in The Game Maker’s Apprentice. This was my third lab project for my Intro to Game Design Class. Let me know what you think!

If you found my blog because you played my Pug Garden game at Family Fest today, I will be uploading the beta version of it here soon.

Free Content for Indie Developers

October 8, 2013 Jen Ný Freebies No comments

If you’re just starting out as an indie developer, you probably don’t have a lot of money to spend on your projects. It can be time consuming to create images and music for your games, so you may want to use artwork or music that is already made (either in the final product or as a place holder until you can create your own). Maybe you simply need some inspiration before you dive in to creating your own artwork. Whatever the case, here are a few websites offering free content that you can use in your indie games:

Free Background Images:
BackgroundLabs.com – I have used backgrounds from BackgroundLabs in a couple of my games so far (I will be uploading Crushing Candies, which uses an ice cream background from this site soon).

Free Vector Images:
VectorJungle.com – This site offers a variety of cute vector images that you can use in your own projects for free.
Vector4Free.com – There are a lot of popup ads, and “sponsored ads,” but there is some good artwork available if you are willing to dig for it. Make sure to check the license for each individual file, however, if you plan on releasing your game commercially. Some are for personal use only.

Free Background Music:
JewelBeat.com – You may have to sift through a lot of files before you find music that is suitable for your project, but I have used music from this site for a few of my game projects already.

As always, make sure your read the licensing agreements on any website from which you intend to use content. Every site has their own rules about use and attribution, and they may change their terms of use at any time.

Cheese Catastrophe

September 30, 2013 Jen Ný College, Games No comments

I just published my second game design project to YoYo Games. It’s called Cheese Catastrophe. Here’s the description I wrote for this game:

You are a mouse alien from the Mouse Galaxy, and you must use your mouse starship to mine the cheese moons for fresh cheese to sustain your dying civilization.

You see, the inhabitants of the Mouse Galaxy have long ago mined all of the cheese from their own cheese moons, and must now venture to the far reaches of the universe to mine for cheese on far away moons to sustain their civilization. Your people are currently mining cheese moons in the cat galaxy. The cat aliens don’t like what you are doing, as destroying their moons will disrupt the tidal forces on their planets, flooding their cities. The cat aliens hate getting wet, and have sent evil catsteroids to destroy your mouse starship, before you can destroy all of their cheese moons.

Cheese Catastrophe
Added: 30 September 2013
By: Nybiru

I drew the sprites using crayons and scanned them in. I thought it would be cute to make a game that looked like something a child drew by hand. This game was based on the Galactic Mail tutorial in The Game Maker’s Apprentice.

Stay tuned. Next I will upload my third game, Crushing Candies, which is a lot more in depth than my first two games. I’m also working on my fourth Into to Game Design lab project and another project I’m making on my own that will hopefully be finished in time to show at Family Fest at my college.

Evil Ottilia Goes Berserk

September 19, 2013 Jen Ný College, Freebies, Games, Gaming No comments

I have just uploaded the first game I made in Game Maker Studio 8 for my game design class. It’s called Evil Ottilia Goes Berserk. In the game, you play as a mother dragon who must rescue her babies from Evil Ottilia.

It is a very simple game. There is only one room, where you shoot demons and save baby dragons to accumulate points. When you get hit by a demon or evil baby dragon, the game ends and your high score is recorded. I was trying to go for an old-school Atari-ish feel with the graphics (if you couldn’t already tell by the reference to Evil Otto from Berzerk.) Evil Otto was the most evil thing I could think of, and Evil Ottilia is a reference to him.

I created all of the sprites and the background image with PyxelEdit. For the sound effects, I used audacity (my own voice with the pitch changed). The background music is from StageLight.

Evil Ottilia Goes Berserk
Added: 19 September 2013
By: Nybiru

Evil Ottilia was created in less than one week during my first week of class, based on the Evil Clutches tutorial from The Game Maker’s Apprentice. I may eventually go back and add more levels and features to this game to make it more exciting.

I do have another game ready that I will share in my next post. I am also currently working on my third game project, as well as in the planning stages of another game that I hope to have ready to show off during Family Fest at Lorain County Community College in October.

I will be posting all of the games I create with Game Maker Studio for school to YoYo Games for free download.