Brandon Boyer of Offworld.com had my favorite panel so far… not a lot of information in it… but he did highlight 7 upcoming indie games that’s he’s excited for:

Spelunky by Mossmouth

The games kicked off with Brandon poorly playing Spelunky.  Spelunky is for PC and XBLA and is made by Derek Yu aka Mossmouth of Bitblot, Aquaria, and TIGsource fame.  Surviving in Spelunky is difficult and part of it’s charm…along with it’s NES inspired graphics.  The objective is simple: get to the bottom but that’s easier said than done when the world’s are randomly generated.

Glum Buster by Cosmind

GlumBuster by Cosmind was shown off next.  It’s a charityware game…aka it’s free but you can donate towards the game and the Starlight Children’s Foundation.  The game is atmospheric from the very start with kids playing in the rain…though it was a little slow for the GDC lecture.  After this intro, the character is transported into a surreal and odd world where the player has to sort of teach themselves how to play.  The gameplay consists of you flying around and shooting stuff and opening portals to the next level. Later on there are some platforming elements.  It shines because of its atmosphere and surreal visuals.

The Alpinist came out of the Toronto Game Jam.  Craig Adams’ 3-day game features a very unique art style and is said to be inspired by a Kuro Sawa Movie.  The game has a slow methodical pace which could irk some.  Brandon was especially excited about this game, but it was only shown for a few minutes.

Time Donkey by Blurst

Time Donkey, Blurst’s latest 8 week game was shown along with some laughs. The game is a humorous platformer where you control a donkey who loves tacos.  The game is a pretty open sandbox and definitely was a crowd pleaser.  There are free to play and pay to play versions of the game over on Blurst.com.

Captain Forever by Farbs

Captain Forever was one of the most impressive games shown during the panel.  It’s retro, features ascii fonts, and has these subtle effects that make it look like you are a pilot looking at the radar and instrument panel.  Your guns generate music and it features classic asteroids gameplay, but with a twist: you design your own ship.  As you destroy enemies, you can add their pieces, thrusters and weapons to your own ship – making you bigger and stronger.  Extremely promising.

Tuning is one of Cactus’s numerous freeware games.  It features awesome music and takes a simple concept and flips it on its head.  The player controls a ball that can roll and jump and must get from point A to B, but the catch is that every level toys with the player’s perspective in a new and interesting way.

Fez by Kokoromi/Polytron/Phil Fish

Phil Fish got up to present Fez in its latest glory.  Gomez is a 2D man whose world is turned upside down into a 3D one. Phil went on to describe that the inspiration for Fez centers around his best Christmas ever when he received a NES, Zelda, Mario, and Tetris.  The game is inspired by these 3 games – it’s a platformer like Mario, features small cubes that all belonged to a larger Tri-Force inspired cube, has open exploration style gameplay, and it’s puzzles and blocky look are reminiscent of Tetris.  Phil also had the quote of the panel with, “I like to f$ck with your mind a lot in this game.”  Look for Fez on XBLA in 2010.

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