We've done GameTap today, so it's only fair to balance it out by mentioning the release of Eternity's Child on Steam. The game can be purchased for less than USD $5. (trailer, in the press, soundtrack, Wikipedia entry)

Steam: Eternity's Child

The first weekly episode from American McGee's retelling of Grimm's fairy tales is now available as a free download (for one day only, which is today) to GameTap users everywhere. All that's required to play is the free GameTap client, a guest account and a 190 MB game download.

Collect all secrets in each of the six scenes to unlock the gallery.

GameTap's announcement
American McGee's Grimm: A Boy Learns What Fear Is
official web site
trailers
Wikipedia entry

The Spirit Engine 2 is a sequel to the similarly-titled freeware RPG released by Mark Pay back in 2003. The 60MB demo contains the first two chapters of the game, while the full version (nine chapters long) can be purchased for USD $18.

Combat generally involves picking the most effective skills to use during each turn and swapping characters when their health points are low by pressing the space key. Right click on one of the three skill slots for each character to change skills during battle. (trailer)

Name: The Spirit Engine 2
Developer: Mark Pay
Category: RPG
Type: Demo
Size: 60MB
Download page: Click here (mirrors)

Warning: Contains nudity and strong language.

Stench Mechanics is a new adventure game created by cactus for a friendly competition held during the No More Sweden meet. Use the cursor keys to move, and press the up arrow key to interact with objects or skip text. There are three endings to discover.

Name: Stench Mechanics
Developer: cactus
Category: Adventure
Type: Freeware
Size: 2MB
Direct download link: Click here

Warning: Strong language.

A sequel to Kianis' You Have to Burn the Rope, You Have to Fertilize the Egg is a self-declared art game which utilizes only the cursor keys for controls. This effort is slightly reminiscent of cactus' Life is a Race, where players will have to guide the hat-wearing cell from one end of the passage to the other, all in the name of survival.

Name: You Have to Fertilize the Egg
Developer: Kian Bashiri, Mårten Brügemann
Category: Action
Type: Freeware
Size: 2MB

We just got a note from Aleks Krotoski over at the British newspaper The Guardian's notable Gamesblog, and sounds like she's looking for more indies to talk about - here's the info:

"The Guardian's gamesblog knows there's more to games than the mainstream players. Over our four-year history, we've endeavored to cover the indie scene as best we can, and we're even dabbling in our own indie game development project.

But enough about us. We run a semi-weekly feature called 'Game Pitch' in which we ask indie game developers ten pre-set questions about their projects as an opportunity to 'Pitch' the game to The Guardian readership. Here are a couple of examples: Clouds Beyond Clouds, a point-and-click mystery based on the lives and works of the Bronte sisters and the ARG The Sky Remains.

Here's the seed that kicked it all off.

If you've got a game you're working on and would like to see it on The Guardian, please do get in touch. You can contact me at gamesblog (at) gmail.com. Really looking forward to hearing from you! - Aleks."

Corpse Craft is a Collapse-like browser game by the developers of Puzzle Pirates, where players will take charge of a mobile workshop as they attempt to destroy their opponents' work sheds by unleashing hordes after hordes of undead. Click on three or more adjoining pieces of the same color to gain resources, which can then be traded for one of the five available army units.

Name: Corpse Craft
Developer: Three Rings Design
Category: Puzzle
Type: Browser

A fan-made trailer for Dragoon Entertainment's newly-released 2D indie RPG, The Demon Rush. A demo can be downloaded from the official web site, while the full game costs roughly $10. Note that The Demon Rush requires at least 256 MB of free memory to run properly. (fan art by Origami and others in the extended)

The Demon Rush

Games submitted for Eegra's first annual Game Makin' Shindig are now available for download. A total of AUD $3,000 (roughly USD $2,850) were handed out to the four top finishers; everyone else gets nine free games out of the competition.

Eegra's Shindig Competition Results

This is unconfirmed, but apparently download links for all Cave Story ports were withdrawn recently at the request of the original developer Pixel. A poster on Amigaworld.net let slip that the game will be released as a commercial WiiWare title on Nintendo's console sometime in the near future. (mockup cover art: Niklas Jansson)

AmigaOne: Cave Story gets commercial release
download Cave Story
AGTP translation
Doukutsu Monogatari tribute site

Avoid the Evil Space Eel is Nifflas' entry for the No More Sweden friendly competition. In it, players must avoid smashing their ship into multicoloured blocks while timing their keypresses to the sound of the drums played with the background music.

Name: Avoid the Evil Space Eel
Developer: Nifflas
Category: Action
Type: Freeware
Size: 5MB

Passage and Gravitation creator Jason Rohrer is, unquestionably, a great game designer and a great game theorist--though there are as many things I agree with him on as their are things I disagree with.

Here is a small taste of a big interview I recently had with the game designer, writer, and thrifty nature conservist (if he weren't so down to earth, he might be considered an eccentric). The rest of the interview can be found over at The Happy Medium, and be sure to check out his many projects at his personal site.

You mentioned you hadn’t played Shadow of the Colossus. Have you had a chance to yet?

I haven’t had time to play it more than a few hours, but my initial reaction, at least to the beginning, was, “Wow, that was a really long and uninteresting cut scene.”
I think part of that was like uh, last generation graphics are no longer interesting to watch in and of themselves like they were when it was released. it shows the guy riding a horse through some trees, past a river, some rocks, and whatever. It was not something that was impressive to me, not deep and profound like it was supposed to be. But besides that, why is it so long? Why is he riding the horse across the long bridge and not me?

From what I’ve heard about Shadow of the Colossus, people respect it as a work of art because it has this ethical dilemma of some kind. Like you’re killing these giants to bring this girl back to life. I went through one giant encounter and it was one of the most brutal things I’ve ever done in a video game—seeking it out, climbing up, climbing up, stabbing this thing in the head multiple times until if fell down. I felt strange about that, but so far I don’t see how this game puts an ethical dilemma in front of me. You either kill these things or you don’t do anything.

I think the reason people consider Shadow of the Colossus art is because, like you write about, it delivers its message through gameplay. Like you said, you feel like you’re doing something brutal when you kill the giants, unlike other games where the violence seems senseless.

Well yeah, but that’s the thing though, when you look at how the game is marketed, the box says “you get to go up against 16 huge giants,” exclamation mark! You know? the way it’s presented to you, there is nothing about it to indicate that this is even a weird thing to do to beat the game.

[Fumito Ueda] as an artist, is he trying to make a statement about video game violence or is he just making a game with really cool boss battles? I feel like I’m a little bit disappointed by it and I don’t know what people are reading into it. I feel like he didn’t really do it on purpose.

Number None Inc.'s time-bending platformer Braid will be released this coming August 6th on the Xbox Live Arcade service, while The Behemoth's Castle Crashers can be downloaded starting August 27th, 2008. (source: Gamasutra)

Xbox Live: Summer of Arcade

About this time last year, I had a great idea to sell games as an affiliate through Gibbage.co.uk, but hand over all the cash I earned to struggling developers so they could up the ante and deliver some truly astonishing Indie games.

It didn't really work, for various reasons. The usual reasons. I didn't really have the time to dedicate to the project, and as such stopped updating the site with new games, and the whole thing sort of caved in on itself.

Still, we did make a couple of quid, and there were some very kind donations by people who understood and believed in what I was trying to do.

That said, there's not much cash to be had. I've topped it up to nice round £200 ($400ish) - which is enough to buy someone some decent music for their game, or some tasty art to add a bit of spit and polish.

It'll only go to someone who's working on a proper, inspiring example of true Indie ingenuity. If you'd like to get your hands on some genuinely free money, drop me a line to dan@zombie-cow.com with as many details as possible of your project- screenshots are a bonus -and let me know what the cash would be used for.

If you know of someone who's working on something brillo-wow, and would like to nominate them, leave a comment or drop me and email or a pm or something.

We'll go from there. Sorry it didn't work out better, but you live and learn, I guess.

Small Print:
For the sake of keeping my nose clean, it won't go to anyone I've had any serious dealings with in the past couple of years, in case it just looks all a bit dodgy. That said, it needs to go to something and someone deserving, no matter what. I'll probably set up some sort of voting in the Zombie Cow Forums to decide where the cash goes, but my decision is final. Payment will be via PayPal, so you'll need an account. If there's not enough interest in FREE MONEY, it'll go to a worthy charity like helping little children to not be poorly, that sort of thing.

Thanks to everyone who bought a game through Gibbage.co.uk, it's very much appreciated.

The organizers of the Independent Games Festival have announced the nine winners of the Austin GDC IGF Showcase, picking the very best examples of 'local flavor' in terms of indie games from Austin and the Southern U.S. to be exhibited at the Austin Game Developers Conference from September 15th to 17th.

Some of the top local titles span the gamut from one-man teams through tightly focused console indies, including Texas-honed games such as physics-heavy iPhone puzzler Enigmo, CosMind's evocative art-game Glum Buster, Red Fly Studios' Wii/DS quirky Mushroom Men duo, knockabout Guildhall @ SMU student title ToyBox Heroes, and user-generated game website Mockingbird.

The Showcase winners receive complimentary passes and get to showcase their titles in a special IGF Pavilion at the Austin event, which this year features learning tracks including Online, Audio, Writing, Worlds In Motion and Game Career Seminar, and is hosting a local Independent Games Festival Showcase for the first time.

More information about the 2008 Austin Game Developers Conference - for which the early registration deadline is July 31st - is available at the official event website.

The full list of the honored Austin GDC IGF Showcase winners is as follows:

Enigmo (Puzzle, iPhone/iPod Touch)
Developer: Pangea Software, Inc.
Description: "A 3D physics based puzzle game where the goal is to get the falling water droplets into their containers by using various bumpers, slides, sponges, etc. There are 50 levels that get increasingly challenging."

Fireteam Reloaded (Multiplayer Action, PC)
Developer: Pixel Mine Games
Description: "Fireteam Reloaded is a team based multiplayer game that will get your blood pumping and your heart pounding! Play as one of three character classes across a variety of post-apocalyptic urban settings in a struggle to dominate your opponents. Go solo or team up with up to three other friends."

Glum Buster (Action/Adventure, PC)
Developer: CosMind
Description: "A collection of my daydreams, for your daydreams."

Mockingbird: The Game Making Game (User-Generated Game Site, Web)
Developer: Mockingbird Games
Description: "Mockingbird invites everyone to make their own games! Using a simple, intuitive set of tools, Mockingbird takes the pain out of game making and helps people tell stories using casual arcade games. Change anyone's game you play, share them with friends, put them on your blog!"

Mushroom Men: Rise of the Fungi, Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars (Action Platformer, DS/Wii)
Developer: Red Fly Studio
Description: "Mushroom Men shows gamers the mundane world from the surreal perspective of a three inch high Mushroom Man. As a brave Bolete Mushroom, players can wreak havoc on their enemies by transforming common household trinkets and trash into weapons and tools."

Ashen Empires (Fantasy MMO, PC)
Developer: Iron Will Games
Description: "Ashen Empires is a classic fantasy MMORPG and one of the few games that gives its players the freedom to role play with complete control over the character creation process. At any point you may begin training any skill of your choice to aid you in your journeys."

ToyBox Heroes (Action/Adventure, PC)
Developer: Team Shirt @ The Guildhall at SMU (Jacquiline "Kim" Acuff, Arturo Caballero, Christopher Cotton, David Demaree, James Farmer, Mark Flieg, Ryan Jenkins, Jonathan Long, Dane Munkholm, Jonathan Pittman, Adam Reynolds, Brandon Souders, Daniel Talaber, Benjamin Wagley, Eric Young)
Description: "Toybox Heroes is a console-style physics-based fighting game for two to four players. Players select one of four action figures, each available in four colors, and duke it out in a variety of household environments. Weapons range from crayons to cherry bombs to Rubik's Cubes. As players receive and inflict damage, their rage meters build; once full, each character may unleash a unique special move."

Goo! (Action/Strategy, PC/TBA)
Developer: PillowFort
Description: "Goo! is an action strategy game where the player controls a giant glob of amorphous liquid. The players’ Goo is constantly decaying as they fight against a constantly growing and very aggressive Paint Goo. When different color Paint Goo mixes, A.I.s mix and the Paint Goo becomes very aggressive."

Pirates vs Ninjas Dodgeball (Arcade Sports, Xbox 360 Live Arcade)
Developer: Blazing Lizard
Description: "Mortal enemies collide in the ultimate playground sport of Dodgeball. Choose from 4 teams featuring Pirates, Ninjas, Robots, and Zombies and compete across 4 levels in 3 different variations of the sport. Characters come equipped with special moves and melee attacks to make our rendition of the sport a much more action packed experience!"

Austin Wintory has been a busy man. Our first interview with the composer was over a year ago, and since then he has worked on a number of games and media projects ranging from foreign films to indie MMO titles and more. We're most familiar with his music from flOw, both the free Flash demo and the full-featured PlayStation 3 downloadable game. But did you know he also did the score for Captain Abu Raed, the first true feature film to come from Jordan? Not to mention the awards he's both won and been nominated for. We finally managed to catch up with Austin and get his side of the story on all things musical.

The studio that produced flOw, thatgamecompany, has two titles in the works, one of which is flower. Are you involved with either of those?

TGC's second title "Flower" is being scored by a colleague of mine, with whom Jenova had worked on his popular title before 'flOw,' called 'Cloud.' As of now I have no involvement with the game except that I've played it and all I can say is that it's FANTASTIC! But I have unending respect for, and a great friendship with Kellee, Jenova, the rest of ThatGameCompany and all the guys they work with at Sony Santa Monica. It's a truly wonderful team. Their careers are only going to get bigger and better, so I certainly hope we collaborate again! ;-)

An eight-minute long 1UP special recorded at E3 2008, featuring developer interviews and gameplay clips from The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom and Ibb and Obb. (the making of Winterbottom)

July Monthly Round-Up: The July edition of GameTunnel's regular feature is up.

Ginormo Sword: Links to a complete walkthrough, the wiki and fan art for Babarageo's popular 2D RPG game added.

Free Games

GamesRadar: 365 games for each day of the year compiled into a ten-page article. (source: Rock, Paper, Shotgun).

Freewaregenius: A collection of freeware games lists for your perusal.

The clip shown above was originally supposed to appear in the latest Gamemaker TV episode. There is also a poll currently running in cactus' forums which will decide the fate of the third Mondo game. (source: Terry, TIGSource)

G:plus is an arena shooter created by maw, where the player's ship continually moves in a perpetual orbit around the center of the screen. Use the up and down cursor key to increase or decrease your distance away from the middle.

Each game starts off with a timer counting down from ninety seconds, but can be replenished in increments of ten or thirty by collecting power-ups left behind by the gems you've destroyed. Playable on both Windows and Mac platforms.

Name: G:plus
Developer: Marc-André Weibezahn
Category: Shooter
Type: Freeware
Size: 10MB
Platform: Windows, Mac
Direct download link: Click here (right-click to save)

Caution: strong language.

Stallions in America is a new action game from cactus where players will get to choose one of the four available characters to take on a cross-country journey filled with massive explosions and wanton destruction. Use the cursor keys to move, left click to shoot, and press the right mouse button to use your special move. Health is restored automatically when you're not under attack. Clear the area in each level to proceed to the next, but try to avoid falling of the edge of a map or your mission will end abruptly. (Poppenkast thread)

Name: Stallions in America
Developer: cactus
Category: Action
Type: Freeware
Size: 2MB
Direct download link: Click here

Boondog is a puzzle-oriented platformer where you progress from stage to stage by jumping and grabbing ledges, moving blocks, avoiding hazards and activating switches. The game includes a friendly tutorial, two separate level packs consisting of a dozen areas in total, plus a comprehensive text manual which explains everything you need to know when creating new level packs with your own music and themes. (source: Retro Remakes)

Name: Boondog
Developer: Matthew Hart
Category: Platformer
Type: Freeware
Size: 1MB
Platform: Windows, Linux

All twelve games created for the Assembly 2008 game development competition are now available for download; highlights include entries submitted by Petri Purho and Jetro Lauha (developer of the Dismount series). Much like last year's A Tribute to the Rolling Boulder, the updated version of Choke on my Groundhog can be acquired from the Kloonigames web site by the end of this month.

Petri Purho will also be one of the speakers at the Assembly 2008 Summer (Finland's largest computer festival in Helsinki) on Thursday, July 31st 2008. Session starts at around 5 PM. According to the seminar schedule page:

All sessions will be video recorded and made available as video on demand on FTP/WWW servers at www.assemblytv.net. The delay from the presentation to the release of the video on demand file is around 12 hours.

(source: Janne Rautiainen, original entry)

Braid E3 2008 Stage Show Demo (source: GamerBytes, Braid)

From GamerBytes: Metanet have announced that the first of 3 expansion packs for their hit game 'N+' will be coming out this week.

Levelpack #1 features 150 new singleplayer maps of "easier" difficulty -- including a map in which we publicly apologize for 14-4 "Master Control" -- which are designed for those people who like the game but prefer the slightly more laid-back levels you tend to find at the start of each episode/column. Things still get fairly hard by the end though. So not easy, but easier.
There are also 50 new co-op maps, which are (we think) much improved over the co-op levels that came with the game, mostly due to us having months more time to play co-op and figure out what works. These are quite definitely NOT easy -- make sure to sit out of punching range, especially when playing 08-4 "the friendship tester". You've been warned!

The first and second packs will cost 200 Points each. The third will be free.

Metanet are also holding a competition - guess the 8 level names NOT used in the upcoming pack to stand a chance in winning a copy of the game, a notebook pack and a copy of the OXM Magazine with new exclusive gamer pics.

Source: N+ Level Pack Contesque: Part the First

Ceramic Shooter is an abstract action game where players will have to actively avoid destroying objects on screen while attempting to pilot a malfunctioning ship. The clock is ticking and mistakes are costly, plus you'll need all the seconds you can muster for the boss encounters waiting for you near the end of each level.

Use the cursor keys to dodge objects, and press the space key to pause the game at any time. The game has seven stages in total, not including the practice and survival modes. (GMC thread)

Name: Ceramic Shooter
Developer: David Sulon
Category: Shooter
Type: Freeware
Size; 5MB
Direct download link: Click here

Galcon is a multiplayer strategy game where players will wage war with one another in an attempt to wrestle control over an entire planetary system. This is achieved by commanding entire fleets and propagating their influences to as many planets as they possibly can, before their adversaries do the same and overwhelm all other opposing forces.

A simple tutorial is included with the InstantAction version, but players can only access the practice level at the moment as the campaign mode isn't quite ready for the public yet. Multiplayer games will require the use of InstantAction tokens, while the installation of a plug-in is needed to get the InstantAction service up and running inside the browser of your choice. (source)

Name: Galcon
Developer: Phil Hassey
Category: Strategy
Type: Browser

- hospitals are open (NSFW)
- lethality

I Was in the War is a short action game where players are subjected to relentless enemy attacks from all fronts, but can jump or flip to avoid serious injuries. Use the cursor keys to move, press the A key to leap, and tap the S key to switch positions.

The soldier grows in size when moving forward, but shrinks when remaining stationary or colliding with another object. A proper ending is included.

Name: I Was in the War
Developer: Bisse
Category: Action
Type: Freeware
Size: 2MB
Direct download link: Click here (right-click to save)

Super Sniper is a three-hour project created by the developer of Dire Haven, in which players undertake a mission to save diplomatic hostages from the hands of masked terrorists. Left click to shoot, and use the right mouse button to access up to two levels of zoom. (Poppenkast thread)

Name: Super Sniper
Developer: Sean Flannigan
Category: Arcade
Type: Freeware
Size: 2MB
Direcf download link: Click here

Red Baron is a 2D scrolling action game with shades of Castle Crashers, where the objective is to square off against hordes of enemies while collecting coins along the way to finance your finer weapons purchases.

Tap the A key to attack, hold the D key to block, and press the S key to switch weapons. Execute multiple combos to earn additional coins, which can then be used to bargain for special items with the trader. Weapons available for looting include a double-edged broadaxe, scythe, claws and even a light saber.

Name: Red Baron
Developer: Evan Greenstone
Category: Action
Type: Browser

FlashMinesweeper:MP is a multiplayer version of the well-known puzzle game, complete with chat features and penalty-based restrictions to encourage teamwork among players.

A tile is revealed by left-clicking, and marked as unsafe by holding down either the left control, alternate or shift key before pressing the left mouse button. New players cannot join a game in progress when more than half of its field has already been solved. (Kongregate mirror)

Name: FlashMinesweeper:MP
Developer: zproxy
Category: Puzzle
Type: Browser

Stick Ranger is a new Java-based application by the developer of Powder Game, where players will manage a party of adventurers by dragging them towards the enemies to engage in either ranged or melee attacks. Health is restored by consuming rice balls, while experience points can be spent to improve the skills of any character.

The current build contains ten playable stages only, though more additions can be expected in the coming weeks.

Name: Stick Ranger
Developer: Ha55ii
Type: RPG
Category: Browser

Destructivator is a new retro-style platform shooter by Chris Roper, developer of The Pyramid and Return to Sector 9. The objective of the game is to clear an entire screen of enemies to progress from one stage to the next.

Players can duck enemy bullets or shoot while clinging to a ladder, but your weapon cannot be fired when the main character is in midair. There are twenty levels included in total, which will take some time to beat as the game does not allow continues.

Name: Destructivator
Developer: Pug Fugly Games
Category: Action
Type: Freeware
Size: 2MB
Direct download link: Click here

Small gameplay clip from Amanita Design's upcoming commercial venture Machinarium. Best watched in HD, full screen mode.