Here’s the lede buried in that last post: alongside the new Android release of Waking Mars, Austin indies Tiger Style have also launched a brand new and greatly enhanced Windows, Mac and Linux version of the game. The new version (which has also just gone live on the App Store as a ‘Director’s Cut’ update) smooths over some of the rough patches on the the original iOS release, and adds full, professionally acted voice work to the game’s cut scenes.

If you haven’t yet played the game, a brief introduction: coming from the same team that brought you the recently-mentioned Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor, Tiger Style’s taken that same approach to incredibly intuitive and approachable touch mechanics (or, in the PC/Mac case, mouse/keyboard & new controller support) and created a complex adventure that takes place under the surface of Mars, where protagonist Liang has just discovered new life.

Your goal in the game is to continue to restore that life to the cave system, in effect, well, “waking” the planet, by creating biological/botanical “machines” that self-sustain its areas: plants watering and seeding new life, and its fauna feeding off of and reproducing based on those flora.

Waking Mars is at its best when it gives you just enough control to creatively construct those “machines”, engendering a strange sense of personal pride, and while its story isn’t as playfully subversive & “below the surface” as in Spider, it’s still an incredibly compelling ride throughout.

Pick up the new Director’s Cut edition of the game on the App Store here, or buy the new PC/Mac version direct from Tiger Style here.

Quite big news for the Humble Bundle series, as the just-launched latest Android Bundle features the premiere of Superbrothers/Capy/Jim Guthrie’s Sword & Sworcery EP on the device — something the devs long-maintained would probably never come to fruition — alongside Tiger Style’s Waking Mars, Petri Purho’s Crayon Physics Deluxe, Omni System’s Eufloria, Cipher Prime’s Splice, and Amanita’s Machinarium.

Purchasing the bundle also nets you Steam keys for the PC/Mac/Linux versions of the games, and soundtracks for each, making it one of Wolfire’s most essential bundles they’ve offered so far.

Every month, as part of the regular monthly meetings of the Austin, TX independent game community JUEGOS RANCHEROS, we do a very casual & chatty rundown of the ten or so games from the previous month — both local and global, and both indie and occasionally a bit-bigger-budget — for the audience, to give people — especially those curious onlookers from outside the indie community itself — a look at what they may have missed.

In keeping with the tongue-in-tobacco-packed-cheek tone, we call these run-downs A Fistful of Indies, which are be presented here on Venus Patrol for your reference, each fully-annotated, -linked, and off-the-cuff blurbed, in addition to their home on the JUEGOS RANCHEROS site.

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