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The Independent Games Festival is now in its third year of celebrating those game developers who makes titles without multi-million dollar budgets. The field is usually dominated by Windows games, though past Mac recipients include A-Sharp's King of Dragon Pass. This year the lone Mac title is Vortex Next Generation from Feline Entertainment. Developer Rocco Bowling is one of the five selections in the IDF's new Student Showcase. Though he's not eligible for a cash prize, Vortex NG should stand proud as the only Mac title (and Mac-only title) in this year's festival.Vortex NG is not yet completed, but Bowling plans to have it released as shareware sometime next month (unless a commercial publisher approaches him before then). We recently had the chance to sit down and play through an early build of the game -- which is already very polished -- and write up some of our thoughts. Do keep in mind everything mentioned here isn't finalized and could change before Vortex NG is released. The game finds the human race in tough times. Aliens are using interdimensional holes in space, called vortexes, to invade your territory. The only hope is a new ship technology called a Horizon Rider (or hRider for short), which you must navigate through the vortex. Your weapon is the Anti-Gravity Explosive Ball (AGEB) that can tear apart the alien blockades. Also helping you out on your mission are a number of powerups to upgrade your hRider. Gameplay Vortex NG takes an interesting 3D look at the arcade classic game Araknoid. The basic premise is still to break all of the bricks to progress to the next level. Instead of simply moving your paddle along the bottom of the screen, though, now you're challenged with 360 degrees of gameplay. The hRider moves in a circle around the aliens and their blockades, and you must carefully navigate this circumference so as not to lose your AGEB. Because it can sometimes be difficult to see where your AGEB is bouncing next, a handy arrow is present to show its current direction. Beware, though, as there are many forces that can make your AGEB suddenly change direction.
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