There's a lot of "bundle" sites out there now, but there are a few that have been there since the beginning. One of the biggest is the indie game focused Indie Gala, which runs bundles both thematically and on a time basis. The latest Friday bundle deal is out, giving folks 24 hours to snag twelve great games at a solid price. After the timer expires the rate goes up and runs until June 5th. Included in the bundle is the four player co-op shooter - SCHAR: Blue Shield Alliance.

Many of the users on this site likely recognize Nick Puleo as our former managing editor/Co-Optimus founder. A few may also recognize him as one of the two gentlemen, the other being Dave Paul, behind Brain Shape Games. This month in Indie-Ana Co-Op, Nick and Dave give breakdown for us how they went about developing the co-op for SCHAR: Blue Shield...

SCHAR: Blue Shield Alliance, a co-op focused shooter from Co-Optimus founder Nicholas Puleo and Brainshape Games, is available now on Steam for the first time, boasting an array of gameplay tweaks and remastered graphical effects.

Amazon has jumped fully into the independent game revolution. They've launched a dedicated section on their website to feature some of the best indie games available on PC and Mac. The good news for you? Lots of indie games at even cheaper prices.

Pay what you want is all the rage these days among indie developers.  It gives developers a chance to offer their game directly to their fans and cut out the middle man.  And it gives fans a chance to give back to indie devs and reward them by showing their appreciation and getting a game for any price they want.

Today I'm proud to say the Indie game I helped create is now available to purchase via Amazon.  SCHAR Blue Shield Alliance is available in standard and deluxe editions via digital download.  While not a full retail release, to be listed on a major retailer is quite a milestone in my opinion.  We released the game in late August via Desura and had high hopes of getting it on Steam, but even with a Greenlight page I just don't see that happening.

The first patch for the Xbox 360 version of SCHAR: Blue Shield Alliance is now available.  The update brings a host of improvements including difficulty balancing, AI enhancements, control tweaks, and general bug fixes.  It's taken quite some time for this patch to finally be available, and your patience is appreciated.  All of these enhancements have been available on the PC version now since release.

Valve launched their Steam Greenlight service last week to the masses with the goal of getting a spotlight on promising indie titles.  Once it launched though, the unmoderated service quickly filled with spam type postings and the good content started to get lost in the shuffle.  Valve has since implemented a $100 barrier of entry which should help a bit, but indie developers like Brain Shape Games still need your help to get noticed.

As of right now you can pre-order SCHAR: Blue Shield Alliance on PC digital distribution service Desura.  The game is available in two flavors - Standard Edition and Digital Special Edition.  The Special Edition of the game includes the soundtrack, printable manual, ship blue prints, crew logs, and concept art.  SCHAR: BSA is a co-op twin stick shooter created with involvement from current and former Co-Optimus staff members.  It's also available on Xbox Live Indie Games.

To say July was a bit underwhemling on the gaming front would be an understatement.  The month was mostly barren for news and releases, giving true meaning to the summer gaming drought.  The good news is a lot of backlog games were finally played.  

Today I'm incredibly proud to announce that SCHAR: Blue Shield Alliance, a side project I've been working on for the better part of the past year, is now available to download on the Xbox Live Indie Games channel.  The game is a four player local co-op twin stick shooter with plenty of other elements mixed in like an RPG class system and dozens of upgrades to tweak how your ship handles and performs.  With 36 missions, 9 survival missions, and a free play mode there's tons of gameplay to keep you coming back for more.  

We've got some exciting news today for SCHAR: Blue Shield Alliance, the upcoming indie co-op twin stick shooter for Xbox Live Indie Games and PC.  Along with a new trailer we have some info about the game's upcoming release, including a possible date.  Brain Shape Games have just submitted builds to both DreamBuildPlay and the PAX 10 contests with hopes of gaining exposure for their flagship title.