Sidestepping our perspectives from the big, flashy mainstream and reveling in the comfy, closer-to-home independent scene, we find that a pair of titles under Shrapnel Games, an independent game developer, has been listed high in Game Tunnel's Top 100 independent games list. We reckon this news offers new bragging rights to the US-based real-time strategy developer.

Two titles published by the company, Tiny Hero Studios' Land of Legends and Digital Eel's Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space, have been ranked in the topmost five titles to date, at spots three and four, respectively. In an official announcement made by the company earlier this week, the developers have given their thanks to the patrons of their games, reviewers who've favored gameplay over graphics, and Game Tunnel for their worldwide recognition.

Land of Legends and Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space have been critically-acclaimed and highly regarded in their own right by peers of the independent game industry, including the likes of Seth Robinson, the soloist developer known for the popular freeware RPG, Dink Smallwood.

Last year brought a lot of focus on independent games and developers, what with the increased mainstream exposure gotten by a few games through Microsoft's Xbox Live Arcade service and Valve's Steam. The year 2006 also marked the release of Microsoft's XNA Game Studio, something that will no doubt help newbies and seasoned indie developers reach new heights in game design.

Well, it's now 2007, and Game Tunnel has finally decided on who to include in the fifth Game Tunnel Independent Game of the Year awards. The top ten games of 2006 is an eclectic bunch. No matter the genre, though, all of these are off-beat, original, and carefully crafted games. Just the way we like 'em. Anyway, check out the quick list of top ten indie games below.

1. Gumboy Crazy Adventures
2. Eets: Hunger. It's Emotional
3. Titan Attacks
4. Master of Defense
5. Virtual Villagers.
6. Dawnspire: Prelude.
7. The Odyssey: Winds of Athena
8. Kudos
9. Fizzball
10. Kingdom Elemental

For more info on the aforementioned games, as well as info on how you can get a copy for yourself, click on the "Read" link below.

Gamers are gamers. There are some gamers, and "some" gamers. But nonetheless, all gamers have one thing in common: they love games. And for the past few years, there has been a slowly rising movement pushing the independent development of games forward. Yes, we're talking about indie games here. And just recently, Microsoft has released the XNA, a developer's kit that will encourage indie games.

Now, Game Tunnel is also getting into the game, so to speak. The maiden issue of Game Tunnel Magazine just recently came out. It was born from the hardwork of many volunteers, and they're here to make all the indie developers proud of what they do. Their magazine is actually an interesting read: news of indie games, in-depth reviews and previews, editorials, and interviews.

While the magazine mostly features PC games, that doesn't mean it leaves out the rest of the gaming consoles. It has an interesting feature about the Xbox Live Arcade and the impact of the XNA Game Studio Express by Microsoft">XNA. What exactly do we know what could happen once the XNA is introduced into the larger market? What would  happen to the gaming society once anyone who ever wanted to create their own game now actually can? It's interesting to note what effects the XNA will have, and the special feature in this magazine makes us ask ourselves these very questions.

So, for all you homebrewers out there, maybe sometime in the future, you could get featured here! Keep it up guys, and let's all support each other!

Download: [Game Tunnel Magazine #1]