Eets: Hunger. It’s emotional.
Cool Indie Games | IGF | Platformer
Lemmings Meets The Incredible Machine
In Eets, as in Lemmings or Junkbot, your job isn't to control your character or critters directly, but instead to place items on the screen that affect their behavior, and guide them to the exit point of the level. In the case of Eets, the "exit" is a puzzle piece placed somewhere on the screen, and you have a single "eets" -- a cute little animated guy -- whose abilities are determined by his "emotional state," which you can alter. A scared eets will stop and turn around when he comes to a ledge; a happy eets can jump short distances; and an angry eets can jump big distances. Typically, levels consist of several platforms--and you have to figure out how to guide your eets from one to the next in order to get to the puzzle piece, by placing little powerups that he eats, changing his state to make sure the right jumps happen at the right places.
Gish
Arcadia | IGF | Platformer | Sidescroller
2005 IGF Award Winner
Reinventing the Platformer with Physics
At first glance, Gish might appear to be a classic arcade-style game, something like Sonic or Mario Brothers. First glances can be deceiving: yes, this is a sidescrolling platformer, but the actual gameplay is very different, because it's based on a physics engine. Gish, the tar ball who is the title character, needs to get momentum to get up and over objects, controls how high he jumps by compressing and extending himself, can move objects by gaining momentum and running into them, walks on walls and ceilings by making himself "sticky", and so on.
Wik & the Fable of Souls
Arcadia | IGF | Platformer
It takes one minute to know why Wik & The Fable of Souls is an award winning game. It takes ten minutes to know you want this game. What you might not know is "Wik" has a large following. There is a game home page and a forum with tips and answers to any questions you might come up with. You can download the wonderful music to play independently of the game to add to your music library. There is even a "unsupported level editor" so you can add to your game. Not only that, there are others who have already played the game and you can download the master pack that allows you to extend your play. But, those are things that you might wait to do.