Freelance: Machinarium, Canabalt

Machinarium and Canabalt: both awesome!

Almost three years since the last edition of Freelance, we're bringing it back for another round!

Whether it's downloadable games made by indie developers, or free online flash games, we're covering the best of those titles that you can point your browser to.

Welcome to another edition of Freelance, our semi-but-not-really-regular look at a random slice of indie gaming. This week I'd like to pimp a couple of downloadable titles close to my heart.

Machinarium

Like adventure games? Bucketloads of atmosphere? Brain-bending puzzles? Then Machinarium is for you. It stars a cute little robot who works his way through a robot city, looking to undo the nefarious deeds of some bad robots - and to get the girl robot, of course.

This is a game dripping in coolness. The visuals are of a wonderfully painted/noire/steampunk style that perfectly capture the feeling of isolation and other-worldliness that the game is going for. Now that I think about it, the artwork is probably some of my favourite for all of 2009.

The gameplay itself is a combination of Monkey Island's "click on everything" approach and Professor Layton's head-asploding logic puzzles. The game is firmly divided into separate rooms, generally with their own self-contained puzzles in them, which makes it surprisingly good to leap into when you've only got five minutes to spare. Sometimes all the clicking can get repetitive (mainly when you're stuck), but it's a small price to pay for the satisfaction of figuring something out.

The music is similarly evocative, echoing the moody, ghost town-like feel of the game's setting. I really recommend not turning the sound down for this one.

But what really seals the deal for me is the fact that it's made in Flash. This means it loads up extremely quickly and can run on Mac, Windows, and whatever else Flash runs on. It also means your crummy old laptop will most likely run this game.

So go get this game! If you're still on the fence, you can play a demo on the developer's website itself at http://machinarium.net/demo/

Canabalt

Another Flash game at heart, Canabalt is about as simple as it gets. Wait, that's not strictly true, but it is very simple. You're a man on the run as your city is destroyed around by...some kind of robot mech things.

The gameplay is just about clicking at the right time: your character is constantly running from left to right, and all you have to do is leap over obstacles and chasms. But a few things add more to the game. You're constantly speeding up unless you hit a non-fatal obstacle, so a bit of strategy needs to be employed. The terrain is also randomly generated in chunks, so you can't memorise level layouts.

The goal is to get as far as possible before you inevitably die, at which point you can upload your score to an online leaderboard and see just how bad at the game you are.

What really sells Canabalt, though, are the stylish visuals. It's all greyscale blown-up pixels, and when combined with fun environmental touches like pigeons on rooftops, soaring rockets, and mechs in the background, it lifts the experience much more than it perhaps should.

Go play it now - it's free! And if you want to play it on the go, it's also available for iPhone and iPod touch.

http://www.adamatomic.com/canabalt/

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