The recently released first person puzzle game QUBE, which draws inspiration from the likes of Portal, has been somewhat successful, according to the developers. CUBE had a budget of $90,000, pennies compared to AAA titles, but it managed to recoup its costs after just 4 days of being available on Steam. The game retails for $15, and is somewhat of a short affair, with little story and somewhat repetitive gameplay (yes, we’ve played the game). The game has sold 12,000 copies as of a few days ago, but we imagine those numbers are quite higher now.

Either way, we’re glad to see indie titles succeed in an industry that’s increasingly getting hooked on sequels, remakes and adaptations. The developer is currently looking to port the game to iOS and consoles.

As you’re sure to already know, Mojang Specification’s Minecraft has effectively taken the world by storm. With little to no promotion, the game has already sold over 1 million units with no publisher and just a single developer. Well, now that the game has secured its popularity the godfather of the popular indie title, Notch, is wondering where to take it next.

Newcomers to the game may find things a bit slow at first as other that building things, there isn’t much to do. Many attribute this simple gamplay to the title’s success but those not versed in the game may be turned off. Luckily, Notch has went on record as saing he’s considering adding achievements to the game to fill the none linear void. Below he comments:

“I’ve had the idea to make achievements kind of like the in-game questing. So you’d be able to see the first achievement in a tree of achievements, and you have to unlock the top ones first before you can unlock the ones further down.”

Sounds like a pretty good idea nad certainly something that will have folks playing even more than before. What do you think? Would you like achievements in Minecraft?

via vg247

If you’re into indie games, you’ll love the Humble Indie Bundle concept, where five indie games are packaged together (World of Goo, Aquaria, Gish, Lugaru and Penumbra Overture), and are offered for the sweet price of… you name it! You can buy the bundle for any price you want, and you can decide whether all the money will go to charity or to the developers, or split between them — the average price is around $7, so gamers aren’t that cheap (we can imagine a lot of folks just forking out $1 for the deal).

The IGF — Independent Games Festival — has revealed the nominees for their 12th annual festival, featuring indie games released in 2009. And we must admit, we haven’t heard about half of these games last year. That’s how indie they were.

Seumas McNally Grand Prize:
Joe Danger (Hello Games)
Monaco (Pocketwatch Games)
Rocketbirds: Revolution! (Ratloop Asia)
Trauma (Krystian Majewski)
Super Meat Boy! (Team Meat)

Excellence In Visual Art
Shank (Klei Entertainment)
Owlboy (D-Pad Studios)
Trauma (Krystian Majewski)
Limbo (Playdead)
Rocketbirds: Revolution! (Ratloop Asia)

Excellence In Design
Miegakure (Marc Ten Bosch)
Star Guard (Sparky)
AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! (Dejobaan Games)
Monaco (Pocketwatch Games)
Cogs (Lazy 8 Studios)

Excellence In Audio
Super Meat Boy! (Team Meat)
Shatter (Sidhe)
Closure (Closure Team)
Rocketbirds: Revolution! (Ratloop Asia)
Trauma (Krystian Majewski)

Technical Excellence
Closure (Closure Team)
Limbo (Playdead)
Heroes Of Newerth (S2 Games)
Joe Danger (Hello Games)
Vessel (Strange Loop Games)

Nuovo Award
Today I Die (Daniel Benmergui)
A Slow Year (Ian Bogost)
Tuning (Cactus)
Closure (Closure Team)
Enviro-Bear 2000 (Justin Smith)

Valve is running a sale of all indie games on Steam — with discounts from 10-33%.

Some of the best selling titles are receiving full 33% discount, games like World of Goo, Darwinia, Defcon and Audiosurf. In addition, several new demos of indie games have been released as well.

The offer expires on March 29.