Best Freeware Games of 2007 - Nominate and Cast Your Votes

Post by **Midnight Synergy** » Sat Nov 03, 2007 5:59 am

Hi All!

I'm planning on a Top 10 Free Puzzle Games of 2007 article for the December Midnight Post and would love to hear your input. Depending on what kind of response/interest I get on this post, I am planning on doing this in two steps: a nomination round, and then a poll/vote.

The games should be puzzle/adventure style, freeware, released in 2007, and either playable in your webbrowser or downloadable. The former is preferred (makes it easier for everyone to check out the games without having to install them).

Here is my list of nominations for a possible top 10 so far (some of these are from previous posts by myself and others), in no particular order:

Bloxorz:
Move an rectangular block to its goal by rolling/tumbling it through a maze.
http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/games/bloxorz

Grow Island:
The newest entry in the Grow series.
http://shingakunet.com/special/10054301/0285/index.html

3D Logic II:
Connect coloured dots on a 3D playing field.
http://www.kongregate.com/games/AlexMat ... ld-of-sage

Fold:
Get a small ant to the exit by creating forcefields.
http://kongregate.com/games/joelesler/fold

Makibishi Comic:
A bizarre adventure set in a strange visual world.
http://comic.makibishi.co.jp/

Launchball:
Get the ball to the exit using electricity, heat, steam, and more.
http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/launchpad/launchball/

Desktop Tower Defense:
Place strategic defenses to overcome an onslaught of creepies.
http://www.kongregate.com/games/preecep ... efense-1-5

I'd love to hear your comments on these games. And, if you have other freeware games that you'd like to nominate (i.e. you feel that this is a really good game!), please post them here for all to check out. Include a brief description.

Once a definite list is set, I'll make a new post for the vote (this won't be for a few weeks, though).

Post by **Midnight Synergy** » Sat Nov 03, 2007 6:02 am

(I should note that I'm also open to expanding the list to non-puzzle games. I do have some nominations for action/etc games as well. Again, let me know what you think of these games, and what games you'd like to see on such a list).

mette · Post by **mette** » Sat Nov 03, 2007 2:04 pm

Hi Patrick,

Great idea

.
Do you want the comments here? Or by PM? Or by mail?

Best,
Mette

jwdo · Post by **jwdo** » Sat Nov 03, 2007 2:56 pm

I would like to nominate this game!
It is created by EyezMaze. This is the blog-entry:

I've just finished a puzzle or problem-solving game featuring dwarfs which appear in on-line RPG game [Lineage II] .
Of course officially.

As I made it with a vigorous effort, you can enjoy it especially for the people who like escaping game.

The challenge level is mid-high.
I think it would be difficult to solve it by yourself.
Please make good use of the community.

And it has the auto-save features, you can stop or start it as you like.
You can play it step by step in your free time.
Thank you!

This is the link:
http://lineage2.plaync.jp/l2fun/flashGame.aspx

It takes a long time to solve this. I used a walkthrough and it still took me 1 hour and 12 minutes.

Post by **Midnight Synergy** » Sat Nov 03, 2007 3:21 pm

Hey Mette - reply here, like jwdo (thanks - I'll check it out). And don't forget to play and comment on current nominations.

Blast!10 · Post by **Blast!10** » Sat Nov 03, 2007 5:01 pm

Can we make the games ourselves Patrick? Just wondering

I probably won't make any though, because I'm not good at making hard puzzlegames, and besides I'm mainly focused on making Shtoot now.
Just a small question

Post by **Midnight Synergy** » Sat Nov 03, 2007 5:23 pm

Blast!10 wrote:Can we make the games ourselves Patrick? Just wondering I probably won't make any though, because I'm not good at making hard puzzlegames, and besides I'm mainly focused on making Shtoot now.
Just a small question

Sure, but the point is to get the absolute best free games of 2007. Would you count your self-made games as one of the best of 2007? If so, nominate away (I can't tell - I haven't played any of this year).

Blast!10 · Post by **Blast!10** » Sat Nov 03, 2007 5:40 pm

Midnight Synergy wrote:
Blast!10 wrote:Can we make the games ourselves Patrick? Just wondering I probably won't make any though, because I'm not good at making hard puzzlegames, and besides I'm mainly focused on making Shtoot now.
Just a small question
Sure, but the point is to get the absolute best free games of 2007. Would you count your self-made games as one of the best of 2007? If so, nominate away (I can't tell - I haven't played any of this year).

Nope

Actually, if you say my selfmade PUZZLEgames, I'd count them as the worst of 2007.

jwdo · Post by **jwdo** » Sat Nov 03, 2007 9:26 pm

Another game:

ENIGMA!

Wikipedia wrote:Enigma consists of approximately 1000 levels, known as ‘landscapes’ which may be played in any order. The player controls one or more marbles using the mouse, and interacts with the landscape purely through the marble. Levels fall into two broad categories: Oxyd landscapes and meditation landscapes. Some levels may appear to fall into one category while actually being in the other.

Often in each level, apart from the introductory ones that introduce the game gradually to the player, each level either contains a puzzle, race or many hazards which the player must solve, win or avoid or risk making the level impossible to solve (in which the player must restart it) or risk having the marble sink, fall down an abyss, destroyed or crushed. This takes away one of the players lives shown in the form of spare marbles in the inventory. The level automatically restarts from the beginning when all lives are lost, with the Oxyd colours randomly shuffled again. Some levels even are/have mazes which the player must find his/her way through.

Download it here: http://www.nongnu.org/enigma/index.html

mette · Post by **mette** » Mon Nov 05, 2007 2:25 pm

Another nommination:
http://www.nitrome.com/games/yinyang/index.php

Yin Yang is a game in black and white. You control two characters, 'Yin' and 'Yang'. One is black and can only move in white space. The other is white and can only move in black space. So what is wall for one is space for the other - and vice versa. Add boxes and different gravity, and you have a real puzzler. The goal is to get both characters to their exit.

----------------------
Comment on Bloxorz:

Excellent puzzle game. I only wish there were more levels. A great test on spacial intelligence. A minus though: Lots of times you have no way of knowing what the buttons do and in my opinion it gets annoying to struggle to get there, just to see what it does.

Blast!10 · Post by **Blast!10** » Mon Nov 05, 2007 6:55 pm

Lol, mette, that reminded me of one of Knytt Stories custom levels, I'm gonna post a video!
:: Edit
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eq3Oy6rqGNU

mette · Post by **mette** » Tue Nov 06, 2007 1:48 pm

I see why

paulm12 · Post by **paulm12** » Wed Nov 07, 2007 10:44 pm

I had a lot of fun puzzle games, but they wern't released in 2007.
Here's a marble blast clone that is fun and has online multiplayer. You can download it here: http://www.marble-arena.com/
(and, yes it is released in 2007)

Qloof234 · Post by **Qloof234** » Thu Nov 08, 2007 3:28 pm

Comment on LauchBall: This one is one of the best puzzle games (BESIDE WONDERLAND) I've ever played. The way it uses its elements and objects makes a game this is incredibly addictive. The level editor is tricky for me right now(Trickier than the WA editor). I would say 9.5/10 out of 10 stars.

Post by **Midnight Synergy** » Thu Nov 08, 2007 5:28 pm

Blast!10 wrote:Lol, mette, that reminded me of one of Knytt Stories custom levels, I'm gonna post a video!
:: Edit
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eq3Oy6rqGNU

You know Yuv, after you posted this video I realized that I have played Knytt before... I checked it out briefly again, it does look very good (and I think you're a fan, yes?).

Is it in fact Freeware? For some reason I thought you had to pay for most of the content. If not, it could be a strong contender for this group... especially since I'm going to expand it to non-puzzle games as mentioned above (I'll post some more nominees later... keep comments and suggestions coming).

rescuefire · Post by **rescuefire** » Thu Nov 08, 2007 7:01 pm

So far the only one I've played is LauchBall and love it! I can't really compare it to the others since I haven't played them yet

Post by **Midnight Synergy** » Fri Nov 09, 2007 3:15 pm

You might have noticed that I have changed the thread title - (a) to include other game categories (not just puzzle games) and (b) to keep it all in one post (rather than one for nominations and one for voting). So keep your suggestions for new games and comments on posted games coming!

A few non-puzzle nominations:

Varia and Prototype II: #1 and #4 respectively of the Shmup2007v2 Competition. Varia is a "bullet-hell" arcade shooter (similar in visual style to the abstract Geometry Wars), Prototype II is a suprisingly full-featured R-Type clone:
http://shmup-dev.com/op2k72/Results.html

Echoes: Another Geometry-Wars-styled arcade blast (man, these are popular these days), this one basically an Asteroids version:
http://www.binaryzoo.com/games/echoes/index.htm

Stranded 2: You are shipwrecked on a tropical island. Can you find supplies, food, water, etc? Beautiful visuals, this game is all about exploring and experimenting:
http://www.unrealsoftware.de/game_stranded2.php

Sumotori Dreams: More of an experiment than a game, but this had me laughing out loud at my computer. A sumo wrestling simulation, based 100% on a physics engine - with nothing pregenerated, the entire game (+graphics and music) is only 129kb (that's, right, kilobyte!):
http://web.t-online.hu/archee83/sumotori/

Blast!10 · Post by **Blast!10** » Fri Nov 09, 2007 7:38 pm

Midnight Synergy wrote:
Blast!10 wrote:Lol, mette, that reminded me of one of Knytt Stories custom levels, I'm gonna post a video!
:: Edit
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eq3Oy6rqGNU
You know Yuv, after you posted this video I realized that I have played Knytt before... I checked it out briefly again, it does look very good (and I think you're a fan, yes?).

Is it in fact Freeware? For some reason I thought you had to pay for most of the content. If not, it could be a strong contender for this group... especially since I'm going to expand it to non-puzzle games as mentioned above (I'll post some more nominees later... keep comments and suggestions coming).

Nope, Knytt (as well as all other Nifflas games) is completely freeware, and actually that's a good thing.

Nifflas himself said (here) that it's kind of odd that some people really love the game and others hate it. I would say that Knytt is one of the games that if you like, you really love, and if you don't like, you just can't stand it.

Another thing: NEVER mix Knytt and Knytt Stories up!

And yet another thing... Yeah I would like to see Knytt/Knytt Stories up there!

scotty · Post by **scotty** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 8:28 pm

the only game i know is bloxorz

Best Freeware Games of 2007 - Nominate and Cast Your Votes

Best Freeware Games of 2007 - Nominate and Cast Your Votes

never heard of them