New Players Join Indie Scene

Independent video-game makers used to be the starving artists of the gaming world. Rather than taking cushy jobs at major companies, they lived off measly donations to create what they saw as a better, more innovative product.

No longer. Independent game makers are coming of age, thanks to new distribution methods that bring quirky, original games right into people's living rooms. And the indie scene is flourishing, just like it has in movies and music.

"We're much more high-profile than we used to be," said Phil Fish, a Montreal game designer whose game Fez, while unfinished, is being courted by large game publishers eager to tap into the indie scene.

Source: http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/business/story.html?93306

Warblade Comes To Macs

EMV Software recently released a Mac beta demo of Warblade, an action shoot'em up based on the Amiga computer classic, Deluxe Galaga. In the game players must defend the earth from alien invaders by blasting as many of the interstellar interlopers as possible.

Warblade is an arcade game with focus on very good playability. It's a shoot'em up type of game like the old classic arcade game Galaga. Warblade is a remake of my old Amiga game Deluxe Galaga. A very popular shareware game for the Amiga computer.

It's a vertical shoot-em up...

The Plot : An alien race is invading the earth and you must try to save humanity. That's the very simple plot of the game. The game is made with gameplay as the most important factor. Fast arcade fun and lots of adrenaline pumping action. The game runs under DirectX and will take advantage of all your hardware.

Full Article: http://www.insidemacgames.com/news/story.php?ID=16359

Team Fuchikoma win compo

Team Fuchikoma bagged the win at the awards night of the first Pinoy Indie Games Competition held recently at Temple Bar in Greenbelt 2 with their game Teddy’s Happy FuN TiEm Wonderland garnering the top scores.

“It was a solid game,” said Game Developers Association of the Philippines (GDAP) president Gabby Dizon. “When I tried it out, I had a feeling this was going to be one of the top contenders.”

The gameplay of Teddy’s Happy FuN TiEm Wonderland consists of a giant zombie-like monster teddy bear rampaging through the city collecting power-ups while crazy hang-gliding ninjas try and stop him. Members Joseph Cunanan, Carlos Nazareno and John Tiangco took home their Intel Core 2 Quad machines as their prizes. They beat out 13 other competitors from various colleges for the win.

Full Article: http://blogs.inquirer.net/hackenslash/2008/03/13/fuchikoma-bags-win/

Shareware on the iPhone?

With Apple’s introduction of an iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK) last week, it seems everyone and their brother is hopping on the iPhone bandwagon or considering the jump. There are still some issues about software distribution to be worked through, however—particularly when it comes to shareware.

Just to recap last week’s happenings, Apple plans a June release for the iPhone 2.0 software, which will include new features and capabilities including an App Store—a way for users to buy and download software for their iPhone. With the possible exception of enterprise users downloading software needed by their companies, this will be the one way for iPhone users to get legitimate software for their system.

Full Article: http://www.macworld.com/article/132455/2008/03/shareware.html

Welcome to the SGR

This is the first news post, on the first day of this the SGR site being live - so hi there to anyone that may be reading this, we're glad to be here, we've been planning this a little while now. We hope you like it.

This site exists because we couldn't find another one like it - no other site out there exclusively reviews shareware titles, indeed, no site we could find seriously reviewed shareware titles at all - and being a group of hairy palmed shareware fanatics we thought it our duty to change that as soon as possible and bring everything we know and love about PC shareware games, old and new, to the rest of the internet!

The first question on your lips is; "What do we define as shareware?"

Traditionally shareware was a free to copy free to own pay for if you feel like it kinda deal. Things have changed in the past decade, we at this site (regardless of what anyone else says) define shareware as any digitally delivered game that although might request you purchase a serial does not deal in the highly realms subscription and irrespective of copyright allows users to pass the software between them to try it out before they choose or choose not to purchase a serial and legitimise their copy of the game! That's quite a mouthfull, but you get the idea.

Digital Delivery. Free to pass on. These are the two things we stand for at SGR!

At this stage we expect to be posting a few reviews a week (there is a hell of a lot of shareware out there to get through) - and as much news on shareware games as we can dig up as and when we find it, interspliced with the odd article/rant about the gaming industry and specifically the future of shareware and independent games. We might even do some audio/video podcasts in the near future!

We hope you all enjoy the ride. Tell your friends. And don't forget that if you want to contact us the address is simply sharewaregamereview [at] hushmail.com - we could do with tips on new games, and tips on shareware related news!

Cheers,

The SGR Staff.