Should indie games belong in retail stores?

Let me first answer your question with another question: why not?

I was reading a blurb on RockPaperShotgun about a developer who put an indie game Divinity to retail and sold to a tune of 100,000 copies.  That’s nothing to sneeze at.  With Terraria and Minecraft looking to also release via real-world boxed copies, it begs the question of when should these games publish and take advantage of brick-and-mortal stores?

Terraria limited boxed edition coming soon

Terraria may be doing it right.  Maybe even more right than Minecraft in terms of distribution.  After releasing on Steam pretty early on, the game has gotten some pretty big updates and seen quite a bit of success, surpassing 1 million sales.  Now Terraria sets its sights on the coveted boxed retail edition.

Was Minecraft’s official release also its death?

After putting Mincraft Monday on hiatus, I quickly realized that I didn’t have much other reason to return to the game.  The official release has come and gone for Minecraft, to much fanfare, but now it seems like there isn’t much more to look forward to and my interest in the game has quickly waned.

The Top 10 indie games of the year

IndieDB posted a user-submitted vote for the best indie games of 2011.  I was very pleased with the results and even more pleased to see that I actively played 8 out of the 10 games awarded.  You can check out the detailed list here or hit the jump for a quick run-down.

How to get NPCs to live with you in Terraria

One thing I didn’t fully understand when I started out in Terraria was the involvement of NPC players and how to even get them near you where they could help out. I put together this short video explaining what you need to do to get NPCs into your home and how to manage them once you do.

Let’s Play Terraria! (or how I learned to beat the Wall of Flesh)

This week Dan and I visited the world of Terraria and checked out how souped up our gear now is. The first boss – The Eye of Cthulhu – is now chump change to us.

As we continued to venture down we finally met up with the aptly named Wall of Flesh. Our first encounter with it did not go so well, but we learned and rebuilt, eventually figuring out how to defeat it. If you are looking for some great gameplay or if you are looking to learn how to beat this thing I highly recommend watching our playthrough!

The quick and dirty – Games of 2011 you must play

2011 ended up being a great year for games, be it sequel, threequel, or even an original performance.  I’ve been wanting to put together my own list of what I thought was the best of 2011, but its been a harder process to get written than I originally expected.  So while you wait for that (soon to be released) article I’ll treat you to this.

If you missed these games then you need to get to buyin’, because these are what I’d call in another form of media “required reading”.  I’ve listed the absolute, can’t-miss single-player games of 2011 right here, no explanations, just a quick list of what you need in your stash (in order of neediness):

Steam is having a “Wishlist Giveaway”, begins with Terraria sale

If you all haven’t guessed it by now, I’m a huge sucker for Steam sales.  My Steam library needs a spreadsheet to navigate.  There are many games in there I’m pretty sure I’ll never get to.  At any rate the promise of a big giveaway is enough to get me to Steam each day, so this latest contest sounds very enticing, plus its free!

All you need to do is login to Steam, put 10 games in your “wishlist” and check out whatever is on sale for the day on the top.  What I can already tell is pretty evil about this contest is that I will likely want whatever is on sale.  Terraria is on sale for only $2.50 today (4 for $7.50!) and I’m already thinking Christmas gifts :D

Hit the jump for details!

Upcoming Terraria 1.1 update adds 222 new items and a “Wall of Flesh”

So I’ve been playing an abnormal amount of Terraria with Dan lately (pales in comparrison to how much he’s played though).  We picked the game up earlier in the year when it released and didn’t pay it much attention.  Now that we’re into it we are extremely excited to hear about the “game-changing” update that will be coming out next month.

According to the developers, the 1.1 update will be bringing 222 new items, 39 new monsters, 4 new bosses and female characters.  Among the updates are improved building mechanics (like building right from the inventory screen), pumps and pipes, a new lighting system and something called a “Wall of Flesh” (?), sounds spectacular.  You can read more about it on the game’s official forum here.

Everything Ever: Terraria 1.1