Indie Game Highlights for July

By Mike Herauf on August 03, 2018 | Featured Stories Indie Games
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Summer is here and is the perfect time to play some great new indie games!  Instead of laying by the pool, you can load up indie darling Unravel Two from Coldwood Studios.  Or skip that summer vacation and spend the week playing Battletech.  There’s also the beautiful Q.U.B.E. 2 that features NVIDIA Ansel, which lets gamers share screens of this gorgeous game with all of their friends.

This month we’re going to highlight Islands of Nyne: Battle Royale and MOTHERGUNSHIP.

Islands of Nyne: Battle Royale
Publisher: Define Human Studios
Developer: Define Human Studios

Islands of Nyne: Battle Royale is a First-Person-Only Battle Royale game with a core focus on fast-paced, skill-driven gameplay set in a sci-fi inspired universe where anything is possible. Drop in, find a weapon, and stay alive.

 

Players drop into the Dome, massive arenas built by an ancient alien race known as The Nyne, and begin the frantic search for weapons and gear – all while trying to stay one step ahead of the advancing plasma field… or the sights of other contenders. Players use their newly found gear to hunt down other players or inevitably face them during the final stages of the match – for The Nyne will only accept one victor.

The Nyne, a series of advanced AI, are all that remains of an ancient alien race that was once firmly seated in a place of power in the universe. They are now the architects of a massive spectacle of tournaments, used to amass wealth for the genocidal race that destroyed their civilization.

Players can play Solo, team up with a friend in Duos, or queue up as a 4-player Squad.  Players can also spend their queue time mowing down other players in Gun-Game, or practice their recoil control offline in their own shooting range.

With balanced mechanics, sustained engagements, skill-based gameplay, and high-end server architecture that meets the demands of competitive players, Islands of Nyne: Battle Royale stands toe to toe with the best games in the genre. The game features:

  • Pre-queue warm up area with anti-grav zone and "jump training" room
  • First-Person-Only gameplay
  • Multiple game modes (Solos, Duos, 4-player Squads)
  • Character customization system
  • A full ELO ranking system
  • Learnable recoil patterns
  • Adaptive match pacing featuring dynamic staging
  • Custom servers
  • In-game currency for purchasing skins and crates
  • Leaderboards with comprehensive match statistics

In any Battle Royale game, performance is key, and ION: Battle Royale plays great on NVIDIA GeForce GTX 10 series GPUs with a consistent and high FPS.

Gamers and critics are both enjoying Islands of Nyne: Battle Royale.  The game has a mostly positive user score on Steam with over 3000 reviews as of this article, and critics are having a blast.

ARS Technica said:
“This game's elevator pitch—like PUBG but with a harder sci-fi edge—only begins to scratch Islands of Nyne's impressive surface.”

VG24 said:
“Islands of Nyne is what happens when you decide to boil battle royale down to its most basic mechanics, and give them a turbo boost….It is undoubtedly the fastest BR game I have played. “

Islands of Nyne: Battle Royale is available now in Early Access on Steam.

MOTHERGUNSHIP
Publisher: GRIP Digital
Developer: Terrible Posture Games

MOTHERGUNSHIP is the action-packed follow-up to the 2014 Indie FPS roguelite, Tower of Guns. Craft up some of the biggest guns ever seen in an FPS and fight your way through hordes of robotic fiends, dancing in and out of waves of hundreds of bullets while exploring mammoth alien ships. This game is all about throwing you into over-the-top situations...and giving you the over-the-top arsenal to fight back with.

 

Earth has been LOST to an invasion of a robotic alien armada known as the Archivists. There’s only the most fragile of resistances left, and they’ve got a plan to fight back. That plan involves finding you, giving you a big gun, and throwing you into the alien flagship, Mothergunship itself.

In MOTHERGUNSHIP, the focus is on crafting the most elaborate weapons you can imagine in a heavily modular system that feels more like playing with building blocks than anything you’ve seen in other FPS games. Mix and match shotguns and rocket launchers. Make the world’s bounciest laser. Strap 20 barrels to your chain gun. Make a gun that shoots hearts. Or heart shaped patterns. MOTHERGUNSHIP gives you the keys to building the most absurd guns you can imagine and then we step back and let you go to town.

But that’s just where the game starts--MOTHERGUNSHIP’s random levels compositing, light hearted campaign, challenging end-game missions, and endless/sandbox modes will keep you busy for weeks. It’s the kind of game you can pick up and play for ten minutes or ten hours, depending on what kind of mood your in, so long as that mood is “dodge a lot of stuff while firing really silly weapons”.

With the screen littered with bullets and enemies, performance is a big deal.  With GeForce GTX 10 series GPUS, you’ll get solid, smooth, and consistent FPS in even the most intense battles.

With a positive user score on Steam and a 74 Metacritic, players and reviewers alike are enjoying Mothergunship.

Gamespot gave Mothergunship an 8 out of 10 and said:
“When Mothergunship is firing on all cylinders, it's a satisfying and thrilling shooter where it really counts. With an incredibly fun and never uninteresting gun-crafting mechanic, it certainly goes a long way with its clever hook and an endless flow of enemies to gun down.”

Destructoid gave Mothergunship a 7.5 out of 10
“Oh and believe me, this game is fast. Fans of '90s first-person shooters like Quake and Unreal Tournament will feel right at home with Mothergunship. “

MOTHERGUNSHIP is available now on Steam and the Humble Store.

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A couple other games released in July:

  • Semblance - a clever platformer where you use your character to reshape the world (and yourself) to solve puzzles.
  • Outpost Zero - a survival game where players use robots to create outposts for human colonists on an alien world.
  • Fractured Lands - a Mad Max style Battle Royale game where you battle it out in both vehicles and on foot.
  • Rend - a team based survival game based in a fantasy setting.

Next month is looking to be a  BIG month for indie game releases.  We’re tracking several games that you should enjoy.  Until then, give both Islands of Nyne: Battle Royale and MOTHERGUNSHIP a spin!

Several of the above games were part of our indie game developer program, NVIDIA Indie Spotlight.  If you are an indie game developer, apply today!

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