Indy! Dino Run

Indy! is something I think I'm gonna start off with until I get a hang of this whole blogging business. Serious business, blogging. I don't think I need to explain, but Indy! is going to cover independent games that are awesome.

I'm choosing to look at Dino Run for two reasons. Pretty much everyone in the world has played it, and it's a game that sells itself. Let me drop some prehistoric knowledge unto thee. You control what appears to be one of them egg stealing dinosaurs, and all you have to do is run away from extinction. If anyone is still reading right now, it is for two reasons:
a) You do not know where to go to find this marvellous game.
b) You didn't read what I wrote properly.

Anyone in their right mind has already left this page to go find this game, but in case you haven't, allow me to elaborate on the concept of this game. You run to the right, eating eggs and smaller dinosaurs, and avoiding rocks and larger dinosaurs. You even earn experience to spend on four main stats such as speed and acceleration.

This, however, does not cement the game as a instant classic. A strong concept does not a good game make (I'm looking at you, Dead Rising). The point that sells me on Dino Run is the sheer amount of detail to gameplay. As you can see, the game is heavily pixelated on purpose, so artistic detail, while present, is not what will wow you. What will wow you, my dear reader(s) is the fact that you will discover small caves filled with dinosaur bones. You will discover other dinosaurs, some willing to help you, and some not so genial. These include Pterodactyls that will lift you over holes in the ground, and triceratops that want to turn you int a kebab. Worms pop in and out of the ground. Meteors will smash into other dinosaurs mere steps away from you. This is not some procedurally generated game. PixelJam has spent hours upon hours of work making every level, of which there are 21, seem like it has its own unique story.

Needless to say, this game is frantic and intense. Maybe I forgot too mention, but you're doing all this while the explosion from a meteor is closing in on you.


Dino Run uses flash, so it is playable online here.
The official PixelJam website is located here. They have a couple other good games, but I wholly recommend Dino Run even if you only have ten minutes at work. It saves your progress so your stats are saved between plays.