BIT.TRIP RUNNER Windows, Mac, Linux game

Don’t let the cold weather get you down. It’s the perfect excuse to stay inside and play indie games, and look no further than the Winter Bundle from Indie Royale to keep you warm all winter long with six great games! Included in this bundle are a gorgeous turn-based single and multiplayer strategy game, Greed Corp; an award winning satirical indie adventure game based on a William Shakespeare play, Hamlet, or The Last Game Without MMORPG Features, shaders and Product Placement; a unique music/rhythm-platformer, BIT.TRIP RUNNER; a massively deep old school turn based fantasy strategy game, Conquest of Elysium 3; and more!

First up is a nice looking yet uniquely challenging turn-based strategy game from W!Games, Greed Corp, available for Windows on Steam. This multiplayer game also offers an extensive single-player campaign and is set in Mistbound, a rich, fictional world inspired by the destructive environmental effects of industrialization. Compete with your enemies for land using mobile attack units (walkers) while funding your militia by extracting as much gold from the land as possible using harvesters, which inevitably destroys the land causing it to fall into the void. Will your greed overtake you causing you to lose or will you die from *not* being greedy enough? IGN raves: “If you fancy yourself a fan of either turn-based strategy games or heady board games, you'll definitely want to check out Greed Corp. The fact that you have to destroy the ground beneath your feet in order to harvest resources makes for some fascinating choices.”

Also included in this seasonal bundle is point and click adventure game Hamlet, or The Last Game Without MMORPG Features, shaders and Product Placement from mif2000 available for Windows on Steam. In this unique game, play a scientist who travels back in time and gets mixed up with characters from William Shakespeare's play, Hamlet as he embarks on a mission to save Hamlet's girlfriend, Ophelia, from the clutches of the evil Claudius. In Hamlet, you’ll solve logic puzzles and fight with monsters to uncover secrets, punish all the villains and rescue the princess. According to Gamezebo, “(t)he puzzles in Hamlet are true brain-teasers, and very creative.”

Next up is a unique music/rhythm-platformer from GaijinGames BIT.TRIP RUNNER available for Windows, Mac and Linux on Steam, Desura and DRM-free. BIT.TRIP RUNNER is the fourth chapter in the award-winning and critically acclaimed BIT.TRIP series. Race across the Moon, kicking down crystal walls and sliding under chomping moon-slugs! When playing BIT.TRIP RUNNER to a chiptune soundtrack that includes Anamanaguchi, you’ll learn the various game mechanics that control CommanderVideo over the course of the first few stages: running, jumping, sliding, kicking and more and work your way through 50 levels of platforming madness. GameSpot says of BIT.TRIP RUNNER: “Simplicity, complexity, and difficulty work in harmony in this marvelously scored entry in the BIT.TRIP series.”

Also featured is an old school turn based fantasy strategy game from Illwinter Game Design, Conquest of Elysium 3 available for Windows, Mac and Linux on Steam, Desura and DRM-free. [NOTE: The Top Purchaser of the Bundle will also get a Conquest of Elysium 3 branded mouse-pad, laptop skin and patch!] Start out this customizable game by choosing one of 17 different characters including Necromancer or Dwarf Queen (each character has unique powers and abilities), then choose the era, determine how the map plays out, identify the commanders for the game, and select the difficulty level of the AI. The myriad of choices will enable you to come back and play time and time again! Other features include an ambient sound-track, team-play and multi-player options, a myriad of monsters and special abilities, and randomly generated maps. Hooked Gamers says Conquest of Elysium 3 “is an entertaining turn-based game that can either last for days or only a couple of hours and given the freedom of choice when you set the game up, you will have a unique experience each time.”

The next game in this chilly bundle is an abstract shooter from Hermit Games Leave Home, available for Windows on Desura and DRM-free. As you slide through a fixed-time gamut of gorgeous levels filled with glowing bursts of death, you’ll muse over the quietly mysterious yet strikingly beautiful visuals. And as you play, you’ll get a different experience every time; the better you do the harder the game will be. DIY Gamer says that Hermit Games “has done an exceptional job with creating a challenging experience worthy of the ones who wish to undertake it.” And Joystiq raves, “(r)egardless of where you play it, you really should.”

Last up is an exploration based game where the horrifying story slowly unfolds from The Working Parts' They Breathe available for Windows on Desura and DRM-free. Play a lone frog who descends into the depths of a flooded forest, not yet knowing the full extent of its tragedy. To survive in a brutal, oxygen-obsessed ecosystem, you must help it see the patterns and hidden truths that make up the system - horrible as they may be. Kotaku says: "They Breathe is proof that you don't need realistic graphics or complicated gameplay to tell a horrifying story."

Finally, those who pay $8 USD or their currency equivalent during the Winter Bundle will get a piano jazz and chiptune pop music album for the soul Ubiktune.org ">’BLUESCREEN’ from PROTODOME! This unique album, available as part of an Indie Royale partnership with seminal chiptune label Ubiktune, was built around an electric piano having a “dialogue” with the bleeps and bloops of a Game Boy, alongside saxophones to liven things up.

You can find more information on the Winter Bundle, including real-time statistics and its current price, on its official website or via its Facebook and Twitter pages. Grab this bundle now while the price is still low (unless kind purchasers lower the price) so that you’ll have hours of indie games to while away the winter days inside!