• Title: Exit Fate
• Developer: SCF
• Platforms: Windows
• Price: Free

Exit Fate is an improvement upon Last Scenario in almost every conceivable area. It’s quite a good RPG, albeit something of a shameless rip-off (not that you’d know it from reviews like this).

First, what Exit Fate gets right. The biggest area of improvement is in the combat system. Exit Fate, like Last Scenario, suffers from BETS (Battles Every Two Steps) syndrome, but the combat system has improved so much that I hardly even mind.

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• Title: Last Scenario
• Developer: SCF
• Platforms: Windows
• Price: Free

Made using RPG Maker XP by SCF, Last Scenario is a typical jRPG with typical jRPG weaknesses. It stands out vis-a-vis other RPG Maker RPGs primarily because it has some nice custom graphics. While most of the tilesets used in the game are stock RPG Maker sprites, Last Scenario has some really lovely character portraits and in-battle character sprites unique to the game.

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• Title: Avernum 6
• Developer: Spiderweb Software (Jeff Vogel)
• Platforms: Windows, Mac
• Price: $28 (plus $6 to purchase it on CD)

I’ll start with a confession: Avernum 6 is the first Avernum game I’ve played. So I write with a fresh eye toward the thing, rather than seeing it as one in a series of gradually improving games.

The writing in Avernum 6 is truly the game’s backbone, and it ranges from competent to quite good.

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Martin Vohland is stepping down as the project manager of PARPG (Post-Apocalyptic RPG), citing real-life commitments and waning output from his team. PARPG, for those of you who don’t know, was an RPG in the Fallout vein set in wintery northern Europe.

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Basilisk Games, of Eschalon: Book I fame, is now seeking beta testers for the creatively named sequel Eschalon: Book II. Quoth their application page:

You will need a minimum of 20-40 hours of free time over a 3-4 week period to properly test Book II.

Presumably, this means Eschalon: Book II will be getting released (on Windows, at least) in a little over a month.

• Title: Caravaneer
• Developer: Dmitry Zheltobriukhov
• Platforms: Windows, Mac, Linux
• Price: Free

Caravaneer has been around since 2007, when Dmitry Zheltobriukhov created it as an homage to the Fallout series. One part post-apocalyptic RPG and one part economic simulation, Caravaneer doesn’t quite fill Fallout’s shoes, but it does stand up quite well on its own two feet.

In Caravaneer, the world as we know it has ended. Global warming has reduced civilization to a few scattered cities dotting a vast and dangerous wasteland. Food is scarce. Cars are a rare luxury. Gangs attack travelers, looking to kill them for the goods they possess and the pack animals they use to carry them.

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• Title: The Spirit Engine 2
• Developer: Mark Pay
• Platforms: Windows
• Price: Free

Indie RPG developer Mark Pay released The Spirit Engine as freeware back in November 2003, then spent four and a half years laboriously crafting a sequel.

Those four and a half years paid off. The Spirit Engine 2 is one of the most-reviewed (and most favorably reviewed) indie RPGs out there right now. And for good reason: it’s a superb game.

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Jeff Vogel is, in his own words, “older than the stones and the dirt.” He’s been releasing indie RPGs since 1994, which makes him one of the great-grandaddies of the indie RPG scene.

Vogel’s company, Spiderweb Software, just released the final chapter of his Avernum series, Avernum 6, on Friday.

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Welcome to IndieRPGs.com, a new web site dedicated to indie computer RPGs! There are two reasons for this site to exist:

1. Mainstream RPG websites fixate mostly on big studio releases;
2. Indie games websites tend to ignore RPGs.

Those two things, taken together, mean that the vast majority of indie RPGs get passed over for coverage. That, in turn, means fewer people learn about indie RPGs, fewer sales are made on the indie RPGs that get released, and fewer developers can afford to keep making indie RPGs going forward.

That just doesn’t sit right with me–that’s why I’ve created this site. The mission of IndieRPGs.com is twofold:

1. To provide an easy resource for people looking to learn about indie RPGs that they would never have learned about otherwise, and
2. To provide hard-working indie RPG developers the attention that they deserve.

Together, I believe that we can make the world safe for indie RPGs once more!

Interested in contributing to the site? Send me an email to talk about becoming a regular contributor!