Indie Games of 2011

Atom Zombie Smasher

Developer: Blendo Games
Platform: PC, Mac and Linux
Release Date: January 24 2011

As if the name ‘Atom Zombie Smasher’ wasn’t enough to secure our interest, the game is also being developed by Brendon Chung – the guy behind one of our favourite indie outfits, Blendo Games. Responsible for some of the most memorable, charming and unusual indie titles out there (if you haven’t tried it, we suggest downloading Gravity Bone for free!), Brendon’s next game is out very soon too.

Atom Zombie Smasher starts in 1961 – a time of funk, fun and zombies! A plague of purple-headed monsters suddenly starts to devour the globe and you, as the commander of a nuclear orbital station, are the only person who can stop them.


Well, that’s true in the singleplayer game, at least. In the three player co-op mode you’ll have some back-up to help shoulder the responsibility.

Played from a top-down perspective, Atom Zombie Smasher has you throwing down bombs, directing infantry and rescue operations and tapping your foot to a soundtrack so hip that the musicians must be able to bend over backwards. The fate of the world is in your hands, and all that sits between its survival and total destruction are your million tonnes of Honest John nukes and a whole lot of napalm – use them wisely.

Depth

Developer: Depth Initiative
Platform: PC Exclusive
Release Date: TBA 2011

It's been a bit quiet on the Depth front lately – the last update to the official blog was back in August 2010 – but we’re still quietly hopeful that this year will see an official release for this stunning UDK mod. It’s a title which has caught our eyes in terms of both concept and graphics – there just aren’t enough good stealth games, in our opinion.


Depth’s twist on the usual strategy template is that the game is multiplayer-only, and takes place entirely underwater. Players are divided into two teams - divers and sharks - and given different objectives. At the start of each round, the divers are lowered into the water via a shark cage and tasked with collecting treasure from nearby shipwrecks. Sharks, meanwhile, are predictably tasked with eating the divers and protecting their territory.

What interests us most about Depth, however, is the way in which the vulnerabilities and balances of a real world setting have been translated and communicated so clearly in a game. The ocean is a foreign terrain for the divers and, while harpoons and oxygen tanks afford a certain amount of confidence, the sharks are still the side with all the real advantages. Silent and speedy, they're perfectly adapted to the hunt in every way.

The fact that Depth is being built by some of the team behind the original Killing Floor mod only adds to our anticipation.