I wanted to take a little break to post about an indie game I played that I really, really enjoyed. I saw this game mentioned on twitter by some others in the development community and gave it a shot, mostly because the video looked interesting. The game is called Aurora and is a realtime strategy game.

Gameplay

Aurora distills the RTS genre down to it’s most basic elements: produce units, attack, defeat the enemy. The player starts with one or more suns that slowly produce little pinpoints of light that serve as units. The cursor is a circle and you simply click and drag to send your units to attack an enemy planet or units. Units move slowly, which might frustrate gamers looking for a fast-paced experience. But the slow movement adds to the hypnotic, soothing effect of this game and forces you to plan ahead and get units into a place where they can respond quickly to threats.

Some stars can be upgraded by absorbing units. Upgraded stars produce units at a faster rate.

Graphics

The graphics in Aurora are simple but beautiful. The backdrop is the blackness of space. Stars gleam with a team’s colors and pulse to the background music. Units are slowly-flowing pinpoints of light that gleam softly. As units collide they cancel each other out with a little burst of light. All of this leads to a very beautiful and ethereal experience.

Audio

In some games, sound is an afterthought. The audio in Aurora makes the game. The background music is non-intrusive but sets the ambiance that makes the game such a hypnotic experience. Combined with the steady pulse of the stars, the overall effect is very pleasing. There are audio cues for when a star is upgraded, taken over or under attack. When opposing units meet and cancel each other out, a short note accompanies the burst of light. These notes and the other audio cues are timed to the beat of the background music and play a wandering melody. It’s hard to describe the effect but it is really neat so you’ll just have to play the game to experience it.

So, to summarize everything: Aurora is an amazingly tight indie effort. Usually when I play indie games there are little graphic, sound, gameplay or technical flaws that must be overlooked. Aurora is not like that. The technical, graphic and production quality all adhere to a very high standard. I played this game because I was curious and it really sucked me in. Watch this video if you really need to see more but I suggest you just get over to the Aurora site and try it out.