In my effort to find great, short games to play during long data builds at work, I downloaded and played Oasis, an award winner from the 2004 Independent Games Festival. Where Strange Adventures in Infinite Space could be called a five-minute version of Masters of Orion, Oasis could be called a five-minute version of Civilization.
Oasis is a level-based game where the player has a limited number of turns to reveal a map of cities. After the last turn, a hoard of Barbarians launches an attack, and the player's score and level progression is based on the survival of the cities. There's a ton of ingenious depth to each level, including the ability to mine mountains for technology, reveal a complete desert oasis to unlock bonus rounds, discover nomads to add to your population, and explore each city to enable stronger defenses. Since each decision costs the player a turn, many strategies emerge during each level, allowing for plenty of replay value. I always wish for just one more turn before the Barbarians attack.
The production quality of this shareware game is so polished that I wondered if some experienced game creators were behind it. Sure enough, the credits list the highly respected designer/programmer/lecturer Marc "Mahk" LeBlanc as the designer and lead engineer.
The free downloadable demo allows for an hour of gameplay, and I recommend playing through the tutorial levels during that hour. Afterwords, you'll easily be able to justify the bargain price of $19.95 for the full version.
