Insomnia 69 Gaming Festival: Best Indie Games From The Show!
A couple of weeks ago, Insomnia Gaming Festival returned to Birmingham for ‘Insomnia 69’, a four-day event featuring lots of fun, stage guests, and video games.
For those who haven’t been to an ‘Insomnia’ event before, the show is split into two parts. The main floor has the usual things you would expect to find at a gaming festival – mainstream and indie games, lots of gaming merchandise, and stages with fun and talks. The other part is BYOC (Bring Your Own Computer), the UK’s biggest LAN Party, where gamers from around the country bring their set-up from home to compete in esports tournaments, fight off in multiplayer battles and more. Additionally, they offer a unique indoor camping option for those looking for a cheap way to stay over all four days of the event.
On this occasion, I only managed to pop over to the show for one day, and as usual, I focused on the main floor rather than the BYOC side. This event happened to be running at the same time as ‘Gamescon’ in Germany, which possibly contributed to the lack of triple-A publishers at the show, however, there were plenty of indie game developers showing off their latest products. It was an impressive array of extremely varied ideas, from puzzlers to FPS shooters to survival games, and games for Twitch, VR, and AR, there was something for everyone. Here are some of the best I saw at the show.
Cabbie! – Tea Stained Games
‘Cabbie!’ is a wonderfully fun game for one to four players, where you work together (or on your own) as a convoy of cabbies racing against time to complete as many fares as possible. This is not some ‘Crazy Taxi’ clone but is a top-down isometric view, where you drive your cab around the map, picking up fares and dropping them off at the appropriate destinations. The eco-friendly cabs also need to be recharged periodically, which makes for some fun, and often frantic, gameplay. Check out the video below!
We’re excited to bring our improved prototype for Cabbie! which can be enjoyed solo or with a group of friends or family. Up to 4 players can donut, drift and boost thier way around the map to help Cabbie! take the busy residents to their important destinations ???? pic.twitter.com/dYtYgwgkvQ
— Tea Stained Games (@teastainedgames) August 22, 2022
STN – Survive The Nights – a2z(Interactive)
‘Survive the Nights’ is a unique FPS survival game focusing on teamwork, fortification, creativity & strategy. Secure a structure or roam free, the choice is yours. The gameplay focuses on realistic survival, post zombie infestation. Prepare during the day for nightfall. How many nights will you survive?
Whilst it does bill itself as a multiplayer game, there is still fun to be had as a solo player. There are a lot of these sort of zombie survival games out there, but this little indie game does manage to hold its own against some tough and more developed competition.
Slap-It Together!
At the opposite end of the zombie silliness scale from STN, we have the wonderfully fun ‘Slap-It Together!’. Set in a game show that only cares for the fame, you and up to 3 online friends slap, throw and whack your way through hordes of enemies and hand-painted environments in this comedic zombie wave-based fighter.
The game is a frantic and fun battle as you fight off an increasingly growing horde of zombielike creations with your bare hands, or whatever other weapons you can find on the map.
Ziggy’s Cosmic Adventures
Ziggy’s Cosmic Adventures is a VR cockpit game combining ship management with action-arcade combat. Playing as a bounty hunter with questionable morals, and having just stolen a powerful little alien, an ensemble of the evil empire are hot on your tail. Will you be able to escape their clutches?
The game, which is due to launch later this year on PC VR and Quest 2, very much has the “quirkiness” humour of things such as the brilliant ‘Breathedge’, although the gameplay is rather different. You need to manage your one-man spacecraft as bits break down, with every level posing a different set of challenges that you must overcome, requiring you to utilise the systems in your ship differently. All whilst dodging asteroids, and space debris, alongside fighting off enemy ships.
Crossplanet
‘Crossplanet’ is a free-to-play sci-fi shooter where players can go head-to-head in online multiplayer, or squad up with friends and take on thrilling boss battles against huge unearthly creatures. The PvP maps range from 2v2 arenas to large-scale 8v8 battlefields, and feature Team Deathmatch, Free for All, Capture, Snipers, Elimination and more. The PvE mode will feature “Safeguard” where you and up to 3 friends will need to protect a generator from the enemies that swarm you, and big boss battles in “Assault” where enemies have increased health and will test your skill to the highest level.
Super Trunko Go
‘Super Trunko Go’ is an isomentric shooter that takes place in a thrilling space world. You play as Trunko, a super space elephant, who has been tasked with defeating Lord Tusk, stopping him from using his dark magic to control the planet’s citizens and wreaking havoc in every corner of the universe.
To aid Trunko in his task, there are 4 weapon add-ons to discover in the game, each with its unique ability and power, as you battle across six beautiful biomes. I’m not hugely into shooters, but really rather enjoyed my time with this game. It feels well polished, and extremely well put together.
Wormhole Adventurer
‘Wormhole Adventurer’ is a retro-styled game, where you play as an adventurer who has to rebuild your space station by collecting material from across a wormhole network. You can customize your ship to either take on enemies in turn-based battles and loot their wreckage, or mine resources from around the maps. The game releases on 14 October 2022, and can be found on Steam.
Duck Race
Something a little different, ‘Duck Race’ is a Twitch chat integrated racing game, which pretty much does what it says on the tin – allows Twitch streamers to set up races with ducks for people in their chat! Once the streamer has set up the game, all the viewers have to do is enter the chat command !quack and customise your rubber duck with a variety of hats and accessories. The cute little ducks then race through the lovely environments, giving the streamer the chance to offer prizes to the winners.
Click on the titles above to any of these games to find out more about them. Or, if you are looking for a fun gaming event, Insomnia Gaming Festival is well worth a visit. If you missed Insomnia 69, I’m sure the festival will return for the inevitable Insomnia 70. Find out more at insomniagamingfestival.com.
