A list of frequently asked questions….
(will be updated every once in a while)
General
What about commercial indie games?
Does this site cover all sorts and aspects of Indie Games ?
Do the games on Pixel Prospector need to be installed….?
Why is game xyz not featured here? It’s super awesome!
What is the difference between PixelProspector.com and PixelProspector.com/indev?
Where are games like GTA, Trackmania etc…. They are also Free!
Where are all the Adventure Games?
Well and what about all the RPGS?
Why are half of the videos 2 min while others are 5 or more minutes?
Will there be more projects from you in the future?
Problems & Solutions
Some games are in zip or rar format…what should i do?
Im on Windows Vista / Windows 7 and Game XYZ doesn’t work. It’s a Game Maker game…
I have a gamepad but many games don’t support it…what should i do?
I have an idea to improve PixelProspector. How can i reach you?
I still have a question… Maybe you can answer it and add it to this FAQ section?
Q: What about commercial indie games?
A: PP is currently only about free…but maybe there will be a new section or a new site sometime for these titles.
Q: Does this site cover all sorts and aspects of Indie Games ?
A: No, of course not. Pixel Prospector neither intends nore claims to cover all aspects of indie gaming . But there is one aspect of indie gaming that Pixel Prospector loves: Reviving the dying genres and mashing classic ideas together. If you should not like platformer, arcade and shooter stuff then that’s ok and no problem but in this case Pixel Prospector might not be very interesting to you. No need to bother cause there are tons of other sites that will please you with games that you like. Therefore there’s no need for you to bother with games that you don’t like…
For more thoughts on that topic including an analogy visit that link:
Why PixelProspector doesn’t cover all Indie Games
Q: Where’s the innovation?
A: Oh, the Innovation topic… Well, Innovation is overrated. If a game is fun it’s fun. It’s really that simple. A game is not less worth only because of that silly “A game needs to be innovative” thing that is floating around and that people always seem to pick up for whatever reason. Pixel Prospector simply likes games that are easy to pick up and with classic values. There is no need to justify that. Play and enjoy these games or let it be and play something else! (If you shouldn’t know what an arena shooter is…please do yourself a favor and give that particular genre a try). There are always people that seem to bash certain stuff for the wrong reasons. “Oh that game is not innovative. It’s only about shooting stuff” (Well it never had the intent to be innovative… and you know what by leaving the whole innovation thing out it manages to establish one important thing: It is simply fun and requires you to pay attention whats going on on the screen… To be in the moment. Completely) Also check out that fantastic write up from Stuart about a certain Videogame. And now excuse me i have to play some arena shooters…
Q: Do the games on Pixel Prospector need to be installed….?
A: Well i personally don’t like it very much when a game has to be installed and fortunately most of the games don’t need any installation.
Usually the games come in an archive format (zip,rar,lhz…) which you only need to extract in a folder of choice (I recommend the free 7-zip for extracting). Some games also seem to need installation at first sight cause the exe says “setup” or “installer” but they are actually only a self extracting archive (this means no real installation which writes stuff in registry and clutters your desktop with symbols you didn’t have asked for etc).
Anyways there are also some games which do need installation…
For that reason i have tagged all games either with Installation required or No Installation required.
Q: Do the games featured here have viruses?
A: No as far as I’m concerned. I always downloaded them from the official site and tested them and none of them had any viruses. (There were some false alarms so i double checked it with multiple online scanners and told the developers about the issue…)
Anyways i highly recommend to do your own reasoning and always check stuff you download by yourself to be sure.
Moreover some false alarms (speak: false positive) may be caused by japanese games (maybe the scanner misinterprets the unfamiliar signs ), games that connect to the net to submit scores or due to heuristic scans.
If your anti virus software has detected something and you are unsure (and think that i is possibly a false alarm) you can upload the suspicious file to these 2 sites in order to scan it by many different anti virus scanners at once.
VirusTotal (about 40 different programs)
Jotti Virusscan (about 20 different programs)
Q:Why is game xyz not featured here? It’s super awesome!
A:Well maybe its already on my list and then it will be on PP somewhat later…or i dont know about it. Therefore consider to suggest the game and chances are that it will be featured.
Q: What is the difference between PixelProspector.com and PixelProspector.com/indev?
A: The main site covers completed freeware games while the indev section focuses on games that aren’t finished yet…games that are in development so to speak.
Q: Wait, you said completed games…How it comes that there are some games on here that are in a pre 1.0 state?
A: Well you are right some are indeed in a pre 1.0 state but note that these games are already in a nearly finished state for a long time and it may take very very long until they reach version 1.0…
And maybe some of these games may never reach 1.0 state so i make an exception in some of these cases.
Q: Where are games like GTA, Trackmania etc…. They are also Free!
A: Well these games aren’t covered here for 2 simple reasoons: They are neither Indie Games nore Freeware Games in the classical sense . They were once big commercial titles and then became “Freeware”. Some of them are ad supported and even have Starforce Copy Protection (WTF?! That makes no sense! Yeah, I thought the same) …. and some were only available for a limited time frame and only in some specific countries…
Anyways you can view a list for those titles on wikipedia.
I recommend GTA + GTA 2.
Q:Where are all the Adventure Games?
A: Well I’m not a big Adventure Game Fan so you wont find them featured here…
But well you can check out these sites:
Best Freeware Adventure Games (IndieGames.com)
2006 / 2007 / 2008 / 2009
Adventure Games on the Freeware Database (Site is maintained by Indie Games Blog Editor Tim W. )
Q: What about Roguelikes?
A: I’m not very experienced in this genre and therefore recommend the Temple of the Roguelike since these guys know what they are talking about.
Furthermore you can also find some Roguelikes on the TIGdb.
So check out these sites if you are interested in Roguelikes.
Q:Well and what about all the RPGS?
Turnbased…not my cup of tea. But no worries….there are again other sites that will help you on your search!
Check out these sites:
RPG’s on the Freeware Database
RPG’s on the TIGdb.
Q:Why it comes that you only link to the developers download page and offer no direct download links of the games (or mirror the games)?
A: For various reasons:
1.) The developers put a lot of effort and love into the creation of their games and i think it’s a good thing when they get some exposure that way and the visitor may also see other creations by the same developer.
2.) Moreover not every developer wants that his games are hosted elsewhere (as you can read from the readme’s of the games) and I respect that.
3.) It’s also a more practical because when a link to the developers site is given you can always be sure to download the latest version of the game instead of an outdated one.
4.) If a game is not available on the homepage or the developer wants an additional mirror i can surely help out.
Q: Why are half of the videos 2 min while others are 5 or more minutes?
A: When i started recording the Gameplay Videos in October 2008 i recorded 2 min videos for 2 reasons:
1.) i had limited storage (consider that an uncompressed gameplay video of 2 min weights between 500 mb and 2000 mb….And since i always want the original raw material for backup purposes etc i needed much space which i hadn’t at that time.
Fortunately i bought a new harddisk in the meantime that is capable of holding 1 TB…so i can record big videos without running out of storage space for now.
2.) my internet connecton was half as fast. Today my internet connection is faster so I am able to upload the videos with greater speed which means bigger sized videos can be uploaded at a resonable speed.
Q: Will there be more projects from you in the future?
A: Probably…i already have some ideas. Lets see…
Q:When will you add new games?
A: Pixel Prospector features 1 new game a week. Every Friday. Maybe more at times…
Q: I would like to check out more freeware games… Do you know any more sources for me to search for games?
A: Sure. Check out the Big List Of Indie Game Sites!
Q: Some games are in zip or rar format…what should i do?
A: Simply get the free 7-zip program and you can extract pretty much every format…
Q:Im on Windows Vista / Windows 7 and Game XYZ doesn’t work. It’s a Game Maker game…
A:Well games created with game maker prior to version 7.0 have known incompatibilty issues with said OS’s
In many cases this simple game conversion program will fix it.
(Just run the program and convert the exe of a game in a matter of seconds.
Q: Oh well such a tiny window… It’s pretty eye straining to play a game with 320×240 resoluton on my 1920×1080 Full HD Screen…What about Fullscreen?
A: If you play a game created with Game Maker simply press F4…. In most cases this will switch to Fullscreen. For Games created with other programs you may check out if the notorious Alt+Enter combination might do the Fullscreen switch.
Q:Some games use X and Z but since I’m on a non amercian keyboard this forces my fingers to do an unnatrual stretch. It is pretty uncomfortable to play that way.
A: Simply swap them on the fly by pressing “Alt+Shift”
Q: I have a gamepad but many games don’t support it…what should i do?
A: Well there is a nice and simple freeware program called JoyToKey that allows you to play any game with a gamepad by assigning keyboard keys to the gamepad.
Q: I have an idea to improve PixelProspector. How can i reach you?
A: Here is the Contact Page
Q: I still have a question… Maybe you can answer it and add it to this FAQ section?
A: Allright. Contact Pixel Prospector
Interesting!
I like this idea a lot! Also the new games from Origamihero are looking very promising! Nice!
lol at the “pepodon” weapon
Greatest platform game ever made!
Did not think there would be a newer platform game that could take the price from the oldies – but here it is.
This game is the best platform game ever in my oppinion.
This is just so… PERFECT Diamond!
The graphic is not that great, but all other things are, it is briliant.
Anyway, give it a try – Iji needs you ;)
Sadly the download link is dead now. :(
Thanks for the info.
I have just reuploaded the game…
Download is working again.
Enjoy :)
Not only one of the best (if not the best) indie game i have ever played, but one of the most fun games i have played in a very long time.
10/10 easily
Now… where is my GunGirl3??!!?!
Thank you very much. :)
Fun game that i had a decent time playing.
My only issue with this game is that the difficulty isn’t refined enough.
To be honest i had a harder time on Beginner than on Advanced or whatever the hardest was called.
Still fun though and i would like to see this refined into a pseudo-starcraft game where the zombies were Zerg and the marines were Terrans. Paper Starcraft anyone?!
Woaw ! :)
Great concept with retro elements !
I love it :)
I will say shortly: 10/10 + the best Indie Game ever while the my 2nd place is Iji :)
@Tw1stedMoogle: What you’re talking about? GunGirl 3 doesn’t exit yet while GG2 is released as a full version recently.
@Mike I Know this, i was just pointing out that i liked GG2 so much that i would really enjoy seeing a part 3 ASAP.
Not actually trying to get him to make it or anything, just another way of showing how much i liked it. Can’t believe you didn’t get that to be honest.
Truly mindless fun… simple as that. :)
Definitely worth checking out. Basically just a scoring game, but you kill “Demons” with a Shotgun!
@Gabe Try GunGirl2 if you want another really fun Platformer/Shooter.
As far as Cave Story goes… it’s terrific! The weapons are cool, the characters and art design is great, the levels are well made, the boss fights are fun and not too tough, etc…
Hard to say something bad about this game to be honest. Definitely in my top 5 indie games i have played.
I told only constructive things on comments, and that’s almost always. Sorry that I didn’t get that as an another way.
By the way, you’re not only who want sequel of this game now. But I doubt it will be made quickly. Paul Schneider created GG2 2 years.
Very handy. Keep this up, and even I will be forced to confront my laziness and make a game.
I love these lists of yours, they are so helpful. =]
SFXR was exactly what I was looking for! Thank you. =]
Another good commercial sound site is http://www.soundrangers.com/
Also FlashDevelop is an excellent free source code editor: http://www.flashdevelop.org/
Are there any hosts that give you a permanent url to the game? So that if you decide to update the game you can still use the same download url instead of having to update everybody’s links?
I love your game dev support posts. The video editing entry was great to.
Keep up the good work!
Delayed my work for several hours due to summoning creatures by keyboard :)
I keep getting runtime errors whenever I try launching the game :(
@Darren
I know about 2 hosting sites that have that feature:
box.net (“upload new version”) and mediafire.com (“update file”)
(other sites may have that feature also but these 2 have it for sure).
@Alman
If you use Windows 7 you might solve the problem with the game converter.
@hermitC
You might also enjoy the similar styled Typogun ;)
Thanks! Looks like Box is the way to go. Awesome site by the way.
This is AAAAA fantastic List!!!!
I get a error reset()failed! when trying to run this game. Any ideas?
Wow! They Missed A Game with a Kitty, though…They’re ALL Awesome! I liked Streambolt and Streambolt Desero too!
Such an addictive game! I cannot put this down for the life of me.
This is a fantastic list. Especially that TIGMN link. ;D
But in all seriousness, this is a pretty good list to have.
Slight correction: XNA is not $99/year. It’s free unless your looking to specifically publish on XBLIG or test on your Xbox360.
@Everyone
Good to hear that you like these lists :)
The next special will be a comprehensive guide…
“How to create a Homepage/Blog for little or no money”
@Jeff Ward
Thanks for the info. I have just fixed it.
When I tried to play the game on my laptop, a window appeared reading “Invalid call” appeared and then the game terminated itself. I run Windows XP; is this a case of something not being on my laptop, or is my computer just crap?
@Dr. Manic
Hm… i don’t know what’s the reason for this error but since this game uses DirectX it might be the case that you don’t use the latest DirectX Driver?
I miss the every 4th level spider levels…
Pro Motion should be under graphics programs as it’s still the best damn spriting tool I’ve ever used.
I feel a mod tracker program such as Open ModPlug Tracker should be up there under music programs cos in my opinion tracker mods are still an extremely useful and flexible way of making game music small in file size and able to do lil tricks in real time. Famitracker and NEStracker also great for doing NES format music for that nice 8 bit chiptune sound too.
@Carnivac
Thanks for the Recommendations!
I have just added them :)
Wow, I love this games nostalgic feeling, a must try for die hard snes fans :D
Kirby fans will like this :)
Highly fun! love it :D
If you wanna play a good game play this, cave story gets a 10/10, and would go in my top 10
Just amazing! thats all, amazing for fans of cave story and la mulana also has a shantae vibe. 9/10
La-Mulana dosent work on linux either, but thats fine, the wiiware release is coming soon and the game is amazing with good difficulty, it gets really tough! so i look forward to the release.
ull need the fan translater but this is darn good fun
Simple but fun
This game is pretty damn good, but the homing weapon was a tad over powered. Didn’t have to worry about hitting anything with it, you just had to keep pressing fire and worry about dodging whatever came your way. Probably should of had a more stick cool down timer. Oh well. But still a great game if you like Contra or GnG.
Also I recommend it on the highest difficulty level, then it really feels likes Contra or GnG. :D
Is there a way to save your game? I keep restarting at the first level every time I play.
the music is crap.