Independent Gaming

PC for Free

Indie games often start out as free PC downloads. Most stay that way, providing shrewd gamers with some of the finest entertainment no money can buy. Behold some of the indie bigwigs.

Dwarf Fortress

Original design: Bay 12 Games

Like its stocky stars, Dwarf Fortress is ugly. But if you can look past the crude ASCII graphics, you'll find one of the deepest, most advanced world simulations ever coded. Build an outpost and help your dwarves search for riches while exploring a vast, persistent world, complete with dynamic weather, dozens of towns, various civilizations and even a few pets. Give it a graphical upgrade and it's Game of the Year material. .

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Desktop Tower Defense

Original design: Paul Preece

How powerful is the web? Just ask Paul Preece, a visual basic programmer who decided to build his own version of the tower defense game style popularized in 2002's WarCraft III. With over 20 million monthly page views and six-figure revenue on Google ads alone, his incredibly fun side project is one heckuva success story.

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Cloud

Original design: Jenova Chen

Funded by a grant from EA, this whimsical USC game project took home awards at both the Independent Games Festival and the Slamdance Film Festival. Play it for a few minutes and you'll see why. Fly around the bright blue sky as you collect clouds and draw pictures in the air.

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