Secret Maryo Chronicles is an Open Source two-dimensional platform game with a style designed similar to classic sidescroller games. It uses the platform independent library SDL and, since version 0.98, the OpenGL accelerated Graphics Renderer. The game is developed in C++.

An alternate reality game (ARG) is an interactive narrative that uses the real world as a platform, often involving multiple media and game elements, to tell a story that may be affected by participants' ideas or actions.

Introduction

This page contains a collection of small computer programs which implement one-player puzzle games. All of them run natively on Unix (GTK), on Windows, and on Mac OS X.

I wrote this collection because I thought there should be more small desktop toys available: little games you can pop up in a window and play for two or three minutes while you take a break from whatever else you were doing. And I was also annoyed that every time I found a good game on (say) Unix, it wasn't available the next time I was sitting at a Windows machine, or vice versa; so I arranged that everything in my personal puzzle collection will happily run on both those platforms and more. When I find (or perhaps invent) further puzzle games that I like, they'll be added to this collection and will immediately be available on both platforms. And if anyone feels like writing any other front ends - Mac OS pre-10, PocketPC, or whatever it might be - then all the games in this framework will immediately become available on another platform as well.

Cave Story, or Doukutsu Monogatari, is a Japanese freeware PC side-scrolling platformer game developed by StudioPixel. It has been translated into English by Aeon Genesis Translations and will have an official translation script published sometime in the near future.

Cave Story is really one of those games that can be considered a masterpiece of game design. There are so many wonderful and classic gaming elements, that I cannot even begin to describe just one quality well enough to say “It is for this one reason alone that Cave Story is a great game.” There is just so much effort, originality and ingenuity behind this game and it really shows more and more as you play through it.

The developer, Pixel spent five years making this game as fun and as great as it is by adding solid controls, smooth gameplay, a great cast of characters and dialogue, an interesting plot, good music and beautiful old-school 2-D artwork. And on top of all this added multiple endings, several boss battles, tons of items to collect, all kinds of added secret bonuses and special challenges, various and considerably different methods of playing through the game depending on your actions, competition ranking features and an extremely high replay value. For a freeware game it is fairly lengthy too. Cave Story is by far the best freeware game I have ever had the honor of playing through and certainly one of the best games I’ve played.

The gameplay plays like a combination of various NES/Famicom games. Some that come to mind are Metroid, Castlevania, Megaman, Blaster Master and Monster Mash. Pixel’s art style and character design and boss battles are very reminiscent of Treasure games, like Gunstar Heroes, which happens to be one of my personal favorite games of all time. So if you are a fan of any of these titles, then you are in for a real treat. It was a wonderful and addicting experience playing through it and I hope anyone reading this who has not already played this game will give it a shot. You won’t be disappointed. It reminded me of why I enjoy playing videogames.

BV2 is a top down shooter where you control a "Babo," a red or blue orb that rolls around the screen with one of six weapons attached to it. The intuitive keyboard + mouse interface helps you get into the thick of the action as quick as possible. It's as simple as joining one of the many active servers and hitting 'F'. You are immediately dropped into the action and start tossing grenades and molotov cocktails at anything that moves while firing to stay alive.

What is a print-and-play game? A print-and-play game is a game that can be printed out on your computer onto card stock and then played. It also includes games that can easily be made with common game equipment, such as dice, playing cards, pawns, checkers, etc. Here you'll find links to websites that offer such games. You can view the listing of free games by going to the Canonical List of Free Print-and-Play Games or by choosing one of the categories from the column on your left.

But why make your own games? Why not just buy games like everyone else? Well, for one, games you make yourself can often (but not always) be cheaper than games you'd buy at the store or online. Also, many people, including some well-known game designers, have released some of their games to the public for free. Furthermore, making games from scratch can be a very rewarding hobby whose fruits can be shared with others. Besides, why not?