Why do bees have sticky hair? Because they use honey combs. Why do Weekend Downloads have a bunch of games? Because spending your weekend reading about and subsequently sorting pieces of lint isn't nearly as fun.
Glumbuster (Windows, 12.9MB, free) - A quiet, artistic kind of game with a mysterious storyline and equally entrapping gameplay. Without spoiling too much, your goal in each screen is to shoot enemies with the [left] mouse button, then trap them in an energy triangle by clicking the [right] mouse button for the three points. A gate opens, you enter. But is that all there is?
Jed (Windows/Linux, 10.2MB, free) - A retro-styled platform game with chunky pixel graphics and a nice flipping twist. No, seriously, the twist is that you flip the foreground and background in order to proceed. Each level had a curiously active shaded background that can be "turned on" by hitting the yin-yang looking switches, toggling the back to the front and vice versa. Use this to your advantage as you jump and jetpacky through ten levels searching for 50 lost baby robots.
Awakener (Windows, 5.8MB, free) - A short adventure game by Ben Chandler, creator of Annie Android. You play as Fadi, a young boy who fancies himself an adventurer, helping his aunt just outside of her tavern. Everything takes place in this one area and you'll spend most of your time talking to characters and making use of the items they offer up. Short, simple and sweet.
Note: All games have been confirmed to run under Windows Vista and are virus-free. Mac users should try Boot Camp, Parallels, or CrossOver Games to play Windows titles, Linux users can use Wine. If you know of a great game we should feature, use the Submit link above to send it in!
In Awakener, right click to drop an object. I spent five minutes figuring that out and figured I should share. It's a good game. A little short, but nothing to difficult to figure out.
Glumbuster seems to be having server issues. it was difficult to get the page to load and so far i can't get the download to start. Surely it's not the JIG effect, lol. I'll try again at some point later.
Download glumbuster now.
It is an amazing and is far more than the description gives it credit for.
It is an amazing game, experience.
PLAY IT
I tried glumbuster, and it really is outstanding so far, but I got stuck.
So can anyone help me at the part where
you can turn into electricity and flow in the wires. Can't seem to find an exit from that place. I think it was on the 3rd level
Thank you.
I was enjoying Glumbuster (well I think I was, it's pretty abstract) until:
The gameplay completely changed into a floaty imprecise platformer, don't think I'll keep going if half the game is that wonky.
On the other hand Jed is a blast, I'm at 98% and can't stop until I get all the robots. I'm surprised it didn't get any comments.
rc, I must say that
I loved the platforming just as much as everything else in glumbusters.
I think every part of it is a joy to play.
About glumbuster:
I first tried it on a single core machine played and liked it :). Every time I try on my quad core it freezes on first loading, when I run on ollydbg with manual thread launching it works again.
I am not an experienced re but seems to me like a race condition, just trying to help on debug :)
Glumbuster is amazing and wholly deserving of its own article. The game is much larger than most Weekend Download games, and is surely more more expansive and even thought provoking than games like Jed and Awakener (as enjoyable as both of those were for me). The puzzles and level designs are outstanding, and the graphics and level themes are often breathtaking in and of themselves. The game also has great replay value with the variety of secrets and collectibles available, as well as a harder game play mode once the game has been finished once.
Please give Glumbusters the attention it deserves! Possibly the best of 2009 so far for me.
Update