Helpful tip for humans: if you ever find yourself in inclement weather, such as the rare steel storm that only comes out at night, seek shelter in the nearest building. If you can, find the Temple of Leemeealown, as it offers the best protection from these dangerous conditions.
Steel Storm (Mac/Win/Linux, 258-310MB, free) - A surprisingly robust top-down action game that puts you in control of a mech armed to the teeth with weapons. Blast through destructible environments as you carry out tasks ranging from making it to the exit alive to laying waste to half of everything you see. Very action-packed, yet you always feel in control of your mech and of your fate. The controls are extremely responsive, the levels and missions are interesting, and the game's level of polish is very high. Episode One is free and contains a number of missions along with multiplayer, campaign and deathmatch, and a level editor. Episode Two is in the works as well, and it looks like it's going to be even bigger and better than this one!
Rocky Memphis and the Temple of Ophuxoff (Mac/Win, 6-7MB, free) - Treasures? You want treasures? Well, go get you some treasures, then. C64-style! Guide Rocky through over 600 trap-filled rooms, each stuffed with tons of loot to pick up. Gather everything, then return to your vehicle to see how quickly you worked. Your only ability is the power to jump, so you're mostly helpless against enemies. Some potions, however, grant you temporary powers, such as super speed or an uncanny magnetism to certain pieces of pretty. A great retro-styled game that's fun, even if you're terrible at it!
They Come Out at Night (Windows, 1.4MB, free) - True to its name, They Come Out at Night is a top-down survival shooter where you collect ammo and weapons during the day and barricade yourself in by night from the baddies that appear. A timer counts how much daylight is left, and when the darkness arrives, so do the waves of little critters. You've got plenty of weapons to deal with the foes as well as the ability to move certain blocks with your mouse, but their sheer numbers make it tough to do without some sort of a strategy. The game was made in seven days and, according to the creator, is technically unfinished, but it's still fun to play "hide and don't die".
Note: All games have been confirmed to run under Windows 7 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!
I'm pretty disappointed with They Come Out At Night. There's no benefit for killing "them" (points or anything), and you don't need to fight them at night; just find a room and lock yourself in with any of the blocks. Rinse and repeat the next night and the entire game will pass with nothing happening. Or stay outside and shoot enemies that keep on coming endlessly until you ammo runs out, then die. There is little point in anything about this game. Unfinished, definitely.
SteelStorm looks interesting. I guess I'll find out in about half an hour or so when the 258MB exe finishes downloading. Yes, you read that correctly. All three mirrors show the same download speed.. that is snail's pace!
This is Joe, the creator of They Come Out At Night. I just wanted to say thanks for the feature!
Taleweaver: thanks for the feedback. After finishing the game and having people play it, one of the things I realised was that there was no incentive to kill the... things, so simply barricading yourself in became too easy. I just want to say that I know the problems are there and I have a number of ideas how to fix them. When I find the time to work on it again I will :/
Rocky was fun. Quite possibly the biggest game I've ever played. it was funny, epic, exciting, and delightfully retro.
When I ran They Come out at night it was *tiny*, and there does not appear to be any mechanism to increase the size of the game. If making the game fully realizable is not feasible I'd say at minimum you need to allow the screen to be doubled.
Rocky... hypnotic. Finally a retro platform game which isn't impossible for people with reflexes dulled by - ahem - mature age.
Also, stupid, pointless, repetitive, etc.
Thus a perfect game to kill a few minutes at a time.
Was cleaning up my games folder and realized I started this one last year and didn't finish it. Of course I couldn't just uninstall it without getting all the treasure and Rocky back to the truck. At just over 12 hours of total game play, I'm a 'lazy monkey' and I'm OK with that. Download file archived, game uninstalled, space freed up for new games with no regrets.
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