Fun For Free Double-Pack! – Free Lunch Design

Back in the late 90′s-early 2000s I liked to fancy myself an indie game designer. Sadly the farthest I ever got was a couple of scrolling tile engines, a pong clone, and a non-functioning version of breakout. Luckily though, while I was trying to program things myself, I came across a vast array of games other people were working on. While some games I followed are still to this day unfinished, there was one person that seemed to crank them out with gusto; Johan Peitz of Free Lunch Design. All of Johan’s games are of very high quality, but I’m going to focus on two that I just absolutely adored back then, and still do today.

Arguably his most popular game, Icy Tower has a simple premise: climb to the top of a tower without falling off the screen. It’s simple, but it’s addictive. I can sit and play this game for quite a long period of time. Every time I want to quit I end up thinking to myself “just one more time, maybe I can beat my high score!” and bam, another 15 minutes have gone by. That is truly the sign of a great game. Simple to learn, difficult to master. It’s kind of like Ice Climber, but without those jerk yetis. As fun as Icy Tower is though, my favorite game of Johan’s would have to be Happyland Adventures.

Happyland Adventures is a simple nonviolent platformer. Your goal is to gather up all the Happylanders and bring them to the goal in order to unlock the next stage. Like Icy Tower, it is a simple game. But it’s simplicity is what makes it so endearing. To this day, whenever I think of indie games, my mind always goes back to Happyland Adventures. I don’t know how many times I’ve played through this game throughout the years since it came out, but it’s still just as fun today as it was in the year 2000. In fact, me playing through Happyland Adventures again is what caused this weeks Fun for Free to be late. Sorry everyone! As an added bonus, with Happyland Adventures comes the expansion pack Happyland Adventures X-Mas Edition, which may be even more enjoyable than the original.

These are just a couple of the games by Free Lunch Design. Really, all of them should be played at least once. However if you don’t have the time or drive to try them all, at least try these two (and maybe Alex the Aligator 4). You won’t be dissapointed.

Free Lunch Design