screenshots

Note: This is an unfinished build with no ending screen yet. There is no indication as to when the game will be completed (which is also the case with most of Ikiki's works).

Teppomanto is a new 2D action game created by the author of Nikujin and Teppoman, where players assume control over another naked assassin on a mission to infiltrate the enemy base and take out all adversaries within.

Use the cursor keys to move, press the left control key to attack or shoot, and hold the left shift key to jump. Tap the left or right arrow key twice to make your character run in either direction. If you dash near the edge of a platform and hold the shift key when in midair, the trained killer will extend his cape and attempt to glide slowly back to the ground. Press the down arrow key to open treasure chests or swap weapons.

Strangely enough, but not for the first time, the J key can also be used to commit suicide. You will also need to execute intricate wall jumps and reverse jumps to reach certain areas in the game. (unzip instructions, download mirrors)

Name: Teppomanto
Developer: Ikiki
Category: Action
Type: Freeware
Size: 1MB

Lost in Eldritch is a short 2D platformer created by Joachim Despland for TIGSource's Commonplace Book competition, featuring a protagonist who is stranded on an unfamiliar landscape with no memory of events leading up to his current predicament.

Use the cursor keys to move, press the Z key to jump, and hold the A key to walk slowly. The adventure itself is a short one, although most players would find the control scheme awkward and quit in frustration before reaching the end.

Name: Lost in Eldritch
Developer: Joachim Despland-Lichtert
Category: Platformer
Type: Freeware
Size: 1MB
Direct download link: Click here

From Primordial Egg is a Commonplace Book competition entry created by Logan Ames, developer of the exploration platformer Nothing. Starting out as a baby dinosaur inside an egg, players would have to press a button repeatedly to break the shell and venture forth into the labyrinth for food.

Use the Z key to bite, press the X key to kick out, and hold the C key to jump. You can run by tapping the left or right arrow key twice, which helps increase the jump distance. Enemies receive more damage from bites, and chomping on them once they're lying on the ground restores health by a small margin. Evolution is also gained through eating, with eager chompers shifting from one growth phase to another quicker than a player who avoids confrontation with the archaeologists.

You can restart a level at any time by pressing the F2 function key. A short ending is shown after you've completed the game, but like most Commonplace Book competition entries (e.g. Verge) it hardly rewards the player with anything other than a congratulatory screen after all the key presses their fingers had to endure.

Name: From Primordial Egg
Developer: Logan Ames
Category: Platformer
Type: Freeware
Size: 2MB
Direct download link: Click here

Verge is a 2D platformer created by the developer of Bonesaw: The Game for TIGSource's Commonplace Book competition, featuring music contributed by Alec Holowka. In it, players assume control over an unnamed protagonist who has to traverse between two worlds in order to solve rudimentary block puzzles and reach the exit of each stage. This will require impaling himself with spikes Karoshi-style, using marked tiles on the ground to teleport, or jumping into deep ponds to appear on the other side. Enemies which absorb your soul can be shaken off by pressing the left and right arrow keys repeatedly.

There are nine levels to play in this competition build, and will take about ten to twenty minutes to complete. (forum thread)

Name: Verge
Developers: Kyle Pulver, Alec Holowka (music)
Category: Platform
Type: Freeware
Size: 5MB
Direct download link: Click here

Everybody Dies is an interactive fiction work written by Jim Munroe, with Michael Cho contributing illustrations for the game. The story is centered around three employees who happens to work in the same Cost Cutters grocery store building. We are first introduced to Graham, a pothead assigned to retrieve shopping carts haphazardly misplaced by previous customers after use.

The game is playable on any internet browser with Java Machine installed, or downloaded as a raw Blorb file and executed with one of the many interpreters designed for running Glulx games. Note that you can type x and press enter to examine any object in the current location, including yourself. The final part of the text walkthrough is also slightly incorrect, as players would have to tear off labels instead of taking namecards for the final puzzle. (walkthrough)

Name: Everybody Dies
Developer: Jim Munroe, Michael Cho
Category: IF
Type: Browser, Freeware
Size: 5MB

Play online here (requires a browser with Java Machine installed)
No Media Kings article
review on PlayThisThing (written by Emily Short)
review by Emily Short

Note: contains crude and toilet humour.

Besieged tells the tale of a slave who finds himself in a sticky situation, where the king is seeking for a hero who would volunteer for courier duties and fetch reinforcements to drive back the enemy encampment outside the castle walls. This 2D adventure game is short in length, contains witty writing, and peppered thoroughly with slightly crude and possibly offensive humour.

The point-and-click user interface commonly found in many AGS games had also been simplified down to three cursor icons. Depending on whether you've clicked on an object or person, the hand icon can manipulate the item directly, add it to your inventory or in the case of a character, initiate a conversation between the protagonist and the person you've just chose to speak with.

Name: Besieged
Developers: Jaroslaw Bleicher, Alex van der Wijst and Funkmast (music)
Category: Adventure
Type: Freeware
Size: 20MB

The Consolevania crew is currently reviewing indie games every Friday, and had posted a request for indie game developers to send their releases to them for a bit of media spotlight. Send your money to contact@castlevania.com and they will talk some smack about the game on one of their upcoming shows. Brilliant. There are also two more videos in the extended. (source: Retro Remakes)

Mark Sheeky of Bytten.com had also requested indie games developers to send their games for them to write an article on. The site has been around for more than five years now, and some additional press mentions (and awards) for your commercial indie games wouldn't hurt at all.

Games to review wanted (Indiegamer)

Colk-Cube is a 3D puzzler created by TERU-soach, where players would have to clear as many boxes as they can to advance from one level to the next. Use the cursor keys to move around, press the Z key when standing next to a block to kick it, and tap the X key to jump. You can also nudge a block slightly by pressing the correct arrow key when the push text is displayed on screen. SImply connect three or more squares of the same colour together to remove these blocks from the area.

The entire field can be rotated using the Q or E key, and holding down the escape key allows players to exit back to the main menu and quit the game from there. The number of blocks required to clear a stage is displayed on the upper right side of the screen, as a counter with the word rest above it.

Name: Colk-Cube
Developer: TERU-soach
Category: Puzzle
Type: Freeware
Size: 2MB
Download page: Click here

cactus' Lovecraft game is a mouse-controlled action shooter created for TIGSource's Commonplace Book competition, where a number of ideas from the author's journal form the inspiration for events, objects and situations to encounter in this journey into the macabre.

Use the W, A, S and D keys to move. Hold the left mouse button to shoot, and press the enter key at the main menu to start the game. (TIGSource thread)

Name: Lovecraft game
Developer: cactus
Category: Action
Type: Freeware
Size: 5MB

IGN had posted up four new gameplay videos from the upcoming WiiWare version of Cave Story on their site, although you will need an IGN Insider account to view three of those clips. Audio is WIP. (source: Kotaku)

Cave Story WiiWare Trailer

The objective of Cosmic Invaders is to prevent the invaders from reaching the bottom of the screen. This is done by deploying defensive structures, accessible from the bottom right. Once deployed, towers will automatically fire on your enemies. Each costs money, which along with your remaining life is displayed in the bottom left. Towers can be sold, giving you back half of their original cost plus potentially valuable real estate, by selecting them with the left mouse button and clicking the demolish button. Right click cancels selection and placement. Pressing the escape key exits the game.

Laser turrets fire straight up every few seconds, dealing damage to the first invader the shot hits. Missile batteries fire seeking missiles at a slower rate, but they deal heavier damage, plus splash damage around them. The missiles explode if they fail to hit anything within a few seconds, although they still deal splash damage if they're close enough to anything when they do. Spark towers will deal heavy damage to a single invader, but have much shorter range.

This is a substantial update to a preview build released back in early 2007, under the same name. Towers can now be upgraded, and a boss encounter is thrown at you after every few levels to liven things up a little.

Name: Cosmic Invaders
Developer: X-G
Category: Strategy
Type: Freeware
Size: 1MB
Direct download link: Click here

Herbert West in Carrion Reanimating is an action game set in a large building with multiple exits, where visitors would come knocking at any of the door and request to see if their friends are doing okay. The objective is basically to reanimate and send the right zombie to meet these people, so they can be reassured that nothing has happened and will leave you to your experiments peacefully. Should one of the guests lose their patience from waiting for a response or catch a look at their friends, then a cop will arrive shortly and attempt to find evidence of necromancy in the building. Simpy guide the other zombies away from him as he walk from one exit to another, and things would return to normal when he comes out of his search empty handed.

Use the cursor keys to move and jump, press the left control key to reanimate or kick a zombie, and tap the left alt key to flip switches. Note that zombies will be able to use switches as well after gaining some intelligence from being resurrected multiple times. Hold the tab key to view a map of the location at any time. (trailer, forum thread)

Name: Herbert West in Carrion Reanimating
Developer: Lemmy, Binky, Dan Marshall (writing), Nikolas Sideris (music)
Category: Action
Type: Freeware
Size: 30MB
Direct download link: Click here

Paul Eres had written a guide to distributing shareware games, as a response to the wildly popular threads about making money off your games in the GMC forums. Topics covered include: making a proper game, creating a web site for it, setting up an E-Commerce service account with at least one of the providers, marketing and tracking statistics. (source)

Tutorial: How to Sell Games as Shareware

Everyday Shooter on PSP, Direct2Drive (IndieGames.com)

Big Download is running an article on fifteen indie game recommendations that you should own at least half of for the holidays, with a couple of them a bargain at $20 or less per title (all prices are in USD):

Audiosurf - $10
Aquaria - $30
Noitu Love 2 - $20
Samorost 2 - $6.60
Cortex Command - $18 ( * $9 only for a limited time)
Harvest: Massive Encounter - $25
Armageddon Empires - $30
Mount and Blade - $30
Deadly Rooms of Death: Journey to Rooted Hold - $20
Everyday Shooter - $10
Spirit Engine 2 - $18
Immortal Defense - $15
World of Goo - $20
Multiwinia - $16.60
Lugaru - $20

* Dan had actually reduced the price of Cortex Command from $18 to $9 starting today, although the offer is only valid until the end of this weekend.

Feature: 15 Indie Games for the Holidays (Big Download Blog)

In this round-up, we highlight some of the notable jobs posted in sister site Gamasutra's industry-leading game jobs section, including positions from 2K Marin, Insomniac, Recoil Games, Relic Entertainment, NCsoft and more.

Each position posted by employers will appear on the main Gamasutra job board, and appear in the site's daily and weekly newsletters, reaching our readers directly.

It will also be cross-posted for free across its network of submarket sites, which includes content sites focused on online worlds, cellphone games, 'serious games', independent games and more.

Some of the notable jobs posted in each market area this week include:

Gamasutra.com - Game Industry Jobs

2K Marin: Systems Designer
"2K Marin is looking for a dedicated, passionate and personable Systems Designer to join the team working on Bioshock 2. As a Systems Designer, you'll be the man in the middle of the million moving parts that transform high-level gameplay concepts into concrete player experience (and back again). "

Insomniac Games: Programmers - North Carolina Office
"Insomniac Games, an independent videogame developer ranked among the top 10 best small companies to work for nationally and locally, is opening a North Carolina-based development studio. Our NC studio will blend our experience and proven track record of hits with the tenacity of a start-up. Expanding to the Triangle also allows Insomniac to maintain an ideal size in Burbank while offering an East Coast alternative to attract and retain the best in the industry."

Recoil Games: Lead Programmer
"RECOIL GAMES and RADAR GROUP are co-producing EARTH NO MORE, a groundbreaking original IP action-adventure game for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC. We are now looking for a LEAD PROGRAMMER to become a key member of the company. Setup by industry veterans, we are an English-speaking team spanning seven nationalities based in Helsinki, Finland, a country known for its high standard of living, beautiful nature and a modern way of life."

Relic Entertainment: Senior Tools Programmer
"At Relic Entertainment we are developing an original game for PS3 and Xbox 360 and continue to build on our history of award winning games - games like Company of Heroes, Dawn of War, and Homeworld. Experience freedom of creativity and know your contribution is valued and recognized by the Relic team and also by gamers and industry experts around the globe."

WorldsInMotion - Online Game Jobs

NCsoft NorCal Studio: Powers Designer
"NCsoft is looking for talented individuals to be a part of the world's leading developer and publisher of online PC games. Makers of the world's most popular online game franchise, Lineage, NCsoft has also created many other award winning and groundbreaking products such as City of Heroes, Guild Wars, Richard Garriott’s Tabula Rasa, Aion and Dungeon Runners in addition to various casual games via its game portal, PlayNC.

GamesOnDeck - Mobile Game Jobs

Nokia: Director Of Engineering - Games
"Services & Software will play a leading role in shaping Nokia’s growth and transformation, generating new revenue streams based on software and services. The Services & Software Unit’s portfolio of services creates opportunities for people to connect to each other and the things that matter to them."

To browse hundreds of similar jobs, and for more information on searching, responding to, or posting game industry-relevant jobs to the top source for jobs in the business, please visit Gamasutra's job board now.

Note: Video and screenshots contain spoilers.

Freefall is a short game which puts you in control of a man who has made the decision to end his life by jumping off a bridge. Similar to basic parachuting methods, you use your left and right arm to control the path of your flight downwards. Move the left or right analog stick to steer or orient yourself in the sky, and extend both arms towards your back to dive forward through the air.

An Xbox360 controller is required to play, as keyboard and mouse controls are not supported. (IGF information page)

Name: Freefall
Developer: David Slagle, Warren Post and Kyle Cabral
Category: Adventure
Type: Freeware
Size: 20MB
Direct download link: Click here

http://www.igf.com/php-bin/entry2009.php?id=852

Akrasia is sort of an experimental game which features multiple endings, where players can arrive at a different conclusion based on the number of pills they collect and the state they are in when exiting the maze. One for the art game lovers.

Name: Akrasia
Developer: AHA! Studios
Category: Adventure
Type: Freeware
Size: 30MB

high quality video

Very early alpha test of Cryptic Sea's gun, a game which features cloned Hitlers.

The organizers of the 2009 Independent Games Festival have announced a record turnout for this year's IGF competition, with a total of 226 entries in the Main Competition (an increase of 30% on last year's 173 entries), and a total of 145 Student Showcase entries (up over 15% on last year's 125 entries).

Information on the 226 separate IGF Main Competition entries, including screenshots, descriptions, and links to official game websites, are now available to view on the official IGF website.

Examples of the entries span already announced indie titles, including Jason Rohrer's Between, alternate reality RPG Barkley Shut Up and Jam Gaiden, visually lush point and click adventure Machinarium, and art-game I Wish I Were The Moon, through previously little-discussed titles such as Pieces Interactive's "first walk'em up" Walkie Tonky, new Nifflas-designed title Night Game, and Lexaloffle's "ecological action game" Conflux.

In addition, the 145 IGF Student Showcase entries are also available for viewing on the official IGF website, with descriptions, screenshots, and official website information.

Again, a great diversity of student-made games with original concepts are showcased, with examples including GumBeat, in which you "...blow bubble gum and gather enough supporters to your cause to topple the anti-gum government", High Moon, a "abstract post-apocalyptic zombie western robot romance in 3 acts", and It's MimeTime, in which "you are a female mime artist in Paris, who must earn as much as possible, by miming your way through an invisible maze."

The IGF judges, which currently comprise notable journalists, indie and mainstream game creators, are now in the process of judging this year's titles. with almost $50,000 in prizes to be handed out, including the $20,000 Seumas McNally Grand Prize.

Finalists will be announced in early January 2009, and winners, as picked by the 2009 IGF judges, will be announced on stage at the prestigious Independent Games Festival Awards on Wednesday, March 25, 2009, at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.

The Independent Games Festival Awards are held along the Game Developers Choice Awards, and both award shows are part of the 2009 Game Developers Conference, which also features a two-day Independent Games Summit, with lectures and panels from the best indie developers.

More information and a full list of entrants for this year's Independent Games Festival is available at its official website.

The episode where show host Anthony Carboni and two of his guests playtest a couple of new Xbox Live Community Games releases, your indie game pick of the week is announced, and a call for votes to decide 2008's indie game of the year. (YouTube video)

Bytejacker 11/27/2008

Updates

Cortex Command: Build 22 comes with new weapons, music, display mode, updated AI, and more.

I wish I were the Moon (Redux): Updated with two new endings and one secret ending.

Little Sh*t Planet: New section to explore, and the skating part has been made easier to play.

The Maze of Madness 2.0: Separate mazes can now be created. (forum thread)

Understanding Games: All four episodes updated with remastered sound.

Xoldiers: Level editor added.

Releases

Overgrowth: Weekly alpha versions of Wolfire's new game can be acquired from the forums if you've placed a preorder for it.

Puzzlegeddon: Demo of the new puzzle game by the creators of Fret Nice now available for download.

The Lake is a short adventure game created by the developer of Where for TIGSource's Commonplace Book Competition, in which only two keys are ever used from start to end. Simply tap the left or right arrow key to turn, or press both buttons alternately to begin rowing in one direction.

The game itself takes about five minutes to complete.

Name: The Lake
Developer: agj
Category: Adventure
Type: Freeware
Size: 5MB
Direct download link: Click here

If you've ever wondered about why certain indie games get more coverage than others (or none at all), then this article might shed some light on the matter as Kyle Orland investigates and reports on his findings about the media's lack of (or selective) interest in indie games. Press members interviewed for this column include Russell Carroll (of GameTunnel), Kieron Gillen (Rock Paper Shotgun), and Simon Carless.

Press Pass: Going Indie (Crispy Gamer)

Featured on this week's Free Indie Rapid Fire: cactus and Terry Cavanagh's Xoldiers, Kevin Oke's Lightmare and Jan Willem Nijman's 10800 Zombies. Also discussed on this show, a small piece of advice for Mac users who are still trying to get Windows-only games to work on their machines.

Results for the indie game pick of the week will be posted on Thursday, so get those votes in. (YouTube video)

Free Indie Rapid Fire 11/24/2008

Haritama is a fast-paced vertical shooter created by replicorn, author of the Pipe Dream remake Pipeful Sunday. The game comes with an auto-bomb option, which can be enabled in the settings menu.

Use the cursor keys to move, hold the Z key to shoot, and press the X key to launch a bomb. Reducing your desktop resolution before starting the game helps to increase the display window.

Name: Haritama
Developer: replicorn
Category: Shooter
Type: Freeware
Size: 1MB
Direct download link: Click here

Russell Carroll is currently hard at work compiling a list of nominees for the annual Game of the Year Awards feature, so if you're a developer looking to gather some attention for your release(s), then do make a note to submit your game soon as there is only a couple of weeks left in 2008.

GameTunnel GoTY - pre-production special (Indiegamer)
November 2008 Indie game Round-Up (Game Tunnel)

Jonathan Blow has made the speech he gave out at the Montreal International Game Summit available for download from his web site in mp3 format, which comes together with the slides used for the presentation. The talk is titled "Conflicts in Game Design", partly a revised and expanded version of the lecture he presented at Games:EDU South four months ago. (Gamasutra summary)

On a related note, Esquire magazine had recently posted an article about indie game developer Jason Rohrer, touching on a variety of topics such as his creations, ideas, philosophies, and the ever-present discussion of games as art. (Persuasive Games: Disjunctive Play)

The panel in which Danny Ledonne (Super Columbine Massacre RPG!), Brian Crecente and Robert Denerstein discusses about video games as art (among other things) is also available for download from the Denver Film Society's web site in mp3 format. (source: Kotaku)

Spade Witch is a short vertical shooter consisting of one playable stage, created for the annual Hot Soup Processor Contest. Use the cursor keys to move, and press the Z key to shoot. The left shift key can be used to make your character move slower while focusing her shots as well. Note that the focused shot has to be used frequently in order to defeat bosses quicker.

The game can be played in either full screen or windowed mode.

Name: Spade Witch
Developer: Nanamiya
Category: Shooter
Type: Freeware (single level demo)
Size: 20MB
Direct download link: Click here

Minotaur China Shop is a new physics-based time management game from the folks who made Off-Road Velociraptor Safari and Jetpack Brontosaurus. In it, players can choose either to serve the needs of their customers by fetching the goods they request for, or destroy as many fragile objects in the shop as they can before the local enforcement arrives to arrest our protagonist for misbehaviour.

Your hard-earned cash can be spent on stocking up shop inventory, advertising, more insurance coverage, improving physical abilities and even unlocking new moves at the start of each day. Each ability is assigned to a key, with the corresponding alphabet shown in small text at the bottom left corner of a symbol for every move.

The game is currently in closed beta but should be released very soon.

Name: Minotaur China Shop
Developer: Flashbang Studios
Category: Action
Type: Browser

Unattended Luggage is a short action game where players would have to collect all packages in each room to progress from one stage to another. The task is made slightly difficult by airport security personnels who are out to prevent you from carrying out your given objective, although dodging around them requires nothing more than a bit of skill and luck.

Use the cursor keys to move, and press the space key to advance cutscene text. The game will probably take about five minutes to beat.

Name: Unattended Luggage
Developer: Terry, increpare and Alteisentier
Category: Action
Type: Freeware
Size: 5MB
Direct download link: Click here

screenshots

theRelativity is a funky little 3D application created by the developer of OLE Coordinate System, the engine which SCEJ's Echochrome was originally based on. Virtual characters are now placed inside cubes instead of above them, and selecting any of the four modes will affect the shape of the corridors from the autonomous character's view.

The original mode resembles Echochrome and OLE Coordinate System the most, while translation mode works by joining up two cubes at the exact moment a character moves from one cube to another. Deformation mode attempts to draw the connecting corridors in 3D global view to reflect the actual pathway taken by the virtual character, while impossible object mode will draw impossible shapes in the style of M. C. Escher's artworks to connect corridors, even when such a shape could not exist in natural form. You can quickly switch between modes by using the F1 to F4 function keys as well.

Name: theRelativity
Developer: Jun Fujiki
Category: Application
Type: Freeware
Size: 1MB
Direct download link: Click here

From the development team that gave us Menulis and Miestas comes Pragaras, a new 2D exploration game with more confusing and beguiling elements than its predecessors. Players can now shift between two different forms by using the briefcase icon, an action which is necessary in order to solve some of the puzzles in this adventure.

Use the cursor keys to move, press the Z key to to review your inventory items and hold the X key to interact with people or objects which are close to your character. Note that the game contains imagery which may be considered disturbing by some. (walkthrough)

Name: Pragaras
Developers: Teshla, Jurgis (turbo) and Jurgis
Category: Adventure
Type: Browser

Paper Moon is a short platformer which lasts for only five minutes, featuring artwork by the developer of Nano and Gravity Hook. In it, players run through a couple of small levels in search of apples, bananas and cherries for points before time runs out.

Use the arrow keys to move, press the space key to jump and tap the X key to bring objects to the foreground or background. The O, P, K and L keys can be used to adjust the 3D effects. Hold the Left Alt and F4 key to quit with immediate effect.

Name: Paper Moon
Developers: Infinite Ammo, Adam Saltsman
Category: Platformer
Type: Freeware
Platform: Windows, Mac
Size: 20MB
Direct download link: Click here

screenshots

Super HYPERCUBE is a puzzle game based on the concept of fitting 3D shapes into a hole in the wall, simply by rotating the cluster of cubes around to find the correct orientation. Instructions are provided for the Xbox 360 controller, although the keyboard can be used to play as well. Use the W, A, S, D, Q and E keys to adjust the camera view. Press any of the arrow keys to rotate the cube, and hold the space key to drop a cluster immediately.

Name: Super HYPERCUBE
Developer: Renaud Bédard
Category: Puzzle
Type: Freeware
SIze: 2MB
Direct download link: Click here (.NET Framework 3.5 required)

In this round-up, we highlight some of the notable jobs posted in sister site Gamasutra's industry-leading game jobs section, including positions from RealNetworks, TimeGate Studios, Factor 5, and more.

Each job posted will appear on the main Gamasutra job board, and appear in the site's daily and weekly newsletters, reaching our readers directly.

It will also be cross-posted for free across its network of submarket sites, which includes content sites focused on online worlds, downloadable console games, cellphone games, independent games, 'serious games', and more.

Some of the notable jobs posted in each market area this week include:

Host Anthony Carboni reveals your pick for free indie game of the week, and politely asks his dinner guests to talk a little about their upcoming projects. (YouTube video)

Power Up: Adventure Games Roundtable (Bytejacker)

Night of the Cephalopods is a short action game created for the Artsy Games Incubator project, where players assume control over a man who is hounded by Lovecraftian creatures of the octopi type. Contact with these horrors causes your character to lose a little of his sanity, although mental health can be automatically restored by standing still in one spot for a few seconds.

Use the cursor keys to move, and press the space key to fire your shotgun or reload it. The game ends when our hero loses his mind completely, or when you manage to somehow survive until the break of dawn. (gameplay video)

Name: Night of the Cephalopods
Developer: Miguel Sternberg
Category: Action
Type: Freeware
Size: 10MB
Direct download link: Click here

A platformer in the style of And Yet It Moves, created by the guys who made Harvest: Massive Encounter.

Agatha Ragata (Oxeye Game Studio)

Loftus and the Sky Cap comes as a surprising departure from Ivan's previous works, who happens to be best known for a series of comics and adventure games based on Sydney Claywood and his friends. The story is about an apprentice named Inessa who discovers that her teacher has disappeared without a single trace, so she sets off on an epic journey in hopes of finding the current whereabouts of the great inventor and her adopted father Loftus. (walkthrough)

Name: Loftus and the Sky Cap
Developer: Ivan Dixon
Category: Adventure
Type: Freeware
Size: 20MB
Direct download link: Click here

Links to some of the recent interviews with prolific or high-profile indie game developers of today:

Destructoid Interview: Edmund McMillen (text)
Not a week goes by without the mention of Edmund McMillen in the news. (IGN Independent's Day article)

Destructoid Interview: Nathan Fouts (text)
The experienced XNA developer talks to Brad Nicholson about his upcoming 2D side-scrolling Contra-style action game, Weapon of Choice.

PlayHard: Interview with Edmundo Bordeu (text)
Catching up with the Art Director for the upcoming Source-powered game Zeno Clash.

Gaming World: hima Interview (text)
The developer of Hello Panda reveals everything.

Independence night: Dong Interview (text)
A very short article on one of the SOWN finalists, in both English and Japanese.

Interview: Paul Preece and David Scott (text)
More of an announcement for Casual Collective, rather than an actual interview about Desktop Tower Defense.

Gamerbytes is currently running a couple of articles centered around on the upcoming launch of NXE (New Xbox Experience) and the Xbox Live Community Games feature, with more reviews of Community Club-related stuff to be posted very soon. A new site called XNPlay was also launched by the crew at Retro Remakes recently, with the purpose of supplying news and reviews of all CC games to be released in the coming months.

5 Things You Didn't Know About Community Games
How To Play Community Games When They're Not In Your Region
XNA Community Games - What You'll Be Playing On Day 1, Part 1
XNA Community Games - What You'll Be Playing On Day 1, Part 2

Results for the 14th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition are out, with Violet, Nightfall and Everybody Dies grabbing top honors this year. All competition entries (and their respective interpreters) are available to download separately, or as a single 65 MB zip file from the IF Comp site. (source: Grand Text Auto)

Results of the 14th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition (IF Comp)

Stack'Em is a remake of Columns originally developed by Arnauld Chevallier for the Intellivision, but then ported to a more accessible JavaScript code base four years after its initial release. Use the cursor keys to move, and press the control or shift key to shift blocks upwards or downwards.

The game comes with three difficulty settings with different starting levels, playable online or can be downloaded for offline play, and will work on most versions of Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera and even Google's new internet browser Chrome.

Name: Stack'Em
Developer: Knox
Category: Puzzle
Type: Browser
Direct download link: Click here

Three familiar AGS adventure game developers chat with Anthony Carboni about their indie game picks: Dreamagination's Dirty Split (possibly the best freeware adventure game release this year), Francisco Gonzalez's The Chef, and Garden of Coloured Lights.

Here's hoping that Linley will get around to finishing White Butterfly someday. (YouTube video)

Free Indie Rapid Fire 11/17/2008

[This weekend, we've been updating the IGF website after the submission deadline, and while in there, I also had a chance to properly update the Independent Games Summit website. Since this is the first time the history of the Summit has been laid out, figured I'd crosspost over here.]

The Independent Games Summit, which first took place in 2007, is a forum to discuss the state of independent games at the Game Developers Conference, the largest game creation conference in the world.

It takes place alongside the pioneering Independent Games Festival at GDC, which is in its eleventh year of awarding and showcasing the best independent video games, with previous winners including Everyday Shooter, World Of Goo, Braid, Gish, Darwinia, Audiosurf, and many more.

The Summit, which will take place for the third time on March 23rd and 24th, 2009 in San Francisco, California, features lectures, postmortems and roundtables from some of the most notable independent game creators, including many former and current Independent Games Festival finalists and winners.

The latest information on the 2009 Independent Games Summit, including line-up, pass price, and recent additions is available at the official 2009 Indie Games Summit page on the GDC website. Some of the confirmed speakers for 2009's third ever IGS include Stardock's Brad Wardell (Galactic Civilizations II), 2D Boy's Ron Carmel and Kyle Gabler (World Of Goo), Jonatan 'Cactus' Soderstrom (Clean Asia, Psychosomnium), and more.

This article, part of the IGF website, exists in order to document current and previous iterations of the Independent Games Summit, linking to videos and write-ups of previous years' lectures and panels for posterity.

It has been announced recently that Anthony Flack is hard at work on his upcoming action-platformer Cletus Clay, which has been in development for several years now. Much like Platypus, all objects, backgrounds and sprites are made out of clay and animated using traditional stop-frame techniques (e.g. The Neverhood).

No mentions of any release dates yet.

Cletus Clay blog live on TunaSnax
message from Anthony Flack
The Making of Platypus (Squashy Software)

Tracism is essentially a remake of Pac-Man with a couple of new features such as multiplayer, chat and a waiting lobby. In it, players race to change the color of dots around a maze to their own, all the while attempting to hinder others from doing the same.

Press the space key to drop a bomb, which can be used to destroy other ships, take out ghosts and turn the color of dots in the vicinity to match yours. You can carry up to a maximum of three bombs at any time. Each match lasts for exactly one minute. (source: Andrew, Ben Ross)

Name: Tracism
Developer: i'minlikewithyou
Category: Action
Type: Browser

Blockles is a multiplayer Tetris game originally launched on the social networking site i'minlikewithyou way back in 2007, and similar to TetriNET this version allows the use of items to change the course of the game both marginally and drastically.

Item effects include the basic adding or subtracting of lines, scramble or swap screens with another player, and even clear the entire well with the use of a numeral key. All players have a digit next to their user name, hence to use an item on yourself or other participants you would only need to press the key which corresponds to the number they have been assigned with.

Blocks in blue typically signifies beneficial effects, while orange blocks are usually reserved for the purpose of messing up your opponent's tactics and strategies.

Name: Blockles
Developer: i'minlikewithyou
Category: Puzzle, Multiplayer
Type: Browser

DUOtrix is a color matching puzzle game set to be released at the same time as when Xbox Live users receive the NXE dashboard update this coming 19th of November, but according to Bob (of Retro Remakes) anyone who signed up for the New Xbox Experience Preview Program can access Binary Zoo's sequel to DUOtris starting today.

The game will retail at 400 Microsoft Points when launched. A Windows version might be released sometime next year.

Life of D. Duck 2 is a full-length AGS adventure game which has taken nearly three years to develop, featuring a wacky cast of characters to interact with, numerous screens to explore, multiple GUIs, and more than twenty chiptunes for your listening pleasure. The unusual art style and meticulously-animated sprites are the contribution of Bjørnar B, an artist who happens to have an unhealthy obsession with drawing popular Disney characters.

As different as the game looks when compared to other AGS releases, there are only two notable drawbacks to be found here. The graphics will put off many people from even downloading it in the first place, especially when taking the large file size into consideration. The odd font choice can be difficult to read at times, while text descriptions and conversations are riddled with many spelling and grammatical mistakes. But these so-called problems are actually intentional design decisions, evidently demonstrated by the colorful inventory items in your possession, the well-written text manual, a complete walkthrough with zero typos, and the inclusion of a reverse text feature in the options menu. Use the F1 or F5 function key to access this menu or view game statistics.

The full walkthrough can be found in the extras folder, should you require hints on how to solve a particular puzzle.

Name: Life of D. Duck II
Developers: Audun R, Bjornar B
Category: Adventure
Type: Freeware
Size: 70MB

Download page (MediaFire mirror)
unzip instructions

A ZX Spectrum-style remake of Volition's Red Faction, Rock Boshers is a late Bootleg Demakes entry created by Dugan (Laser Bunny) using Mark Overmars' Game Maker engine. The story is about a gentleman who was lured to work at a distant red planet in our solar system with promises of untold riches, only to end up being enslaved by the evil empire which offered the jobs in the first place. With the help of other miners caught in the same fate, he sets out to overthrow his captors and free the others from a life of servitude and injustice.

Hold the space key to skip the loading screen quickly, and press any of the number keys to select a menu option. The F4 function key can be used to switch between full screen and windowed mode. Move the main character with the cursor keys, and hold the C key to shoot. Keyboard layouts and alternate button configurations can be found in the story mode controls page, accessed by pressing 4 when the main menu is shown.

Impressive as it is, the game does have a couple of major flaws. Pressing the escape key quits the entire application automatically, and progress made in story mode is lost when this happens. The only method to save your game is by pressing the P key to bring up a pause menu, press 0 to return to the main menu, then press 5 to select the load, save and reply option. Now press 2 and confirm your choice with 1 to create a RBsave.sav file in the game directory. To restore a game, you would have to load a save from the same menu, then press any of the alphabetical keys to start playing a level which had been completed previously.

The scaling fix version is extremely buggy, has graphical glitches, and will crash the moment you acquire an item. Fortunately the download link provided below works perfectly well even though full screen mode has blurry graphics.

Name: Rock Boshers
Developer: Dugan
Category: Action
Type: Freeware
Size: 5MB
Direct download link: Click here (right-click to save)

[Just a final reminder for the IGF student and mobile competitions for 2009, which are finishing up this weekend and Monday respectively - good luck to all the entrants, both competitions have had some standouts in previous years.]

Organizers of the 2009 Independent Games Festival are giving a final call for entries for this year's Student Showcase competition (due November 15th), and IGF Mobile competition (due November 17th), following the closing of entries for the main IGF competition earlier this month.

After a record turn-out for the IGF Main Competition, with entrants to be revealed soon, the ever-popular, free Student Showcase competition has an imminent deadline, with game students battling to be one of the ten games available in playable form on the 2009 Game Developers Conference show floor.

The Student Showcase honorees, which have previously included Portal predecessor Narbacular Drop and Dyadin, an early game by the team behind Flow, are given $500 and complementary passes to attend GDC 2009, which includes the third annual Independent Games Summit. They will also compete for a $2,500 Best Student Game award.

In addition, the IGF Mobile entry deadline is on November 17th, with $30,000 in total for those indie creators making games for iPhone, cellphone, and other handheld devices.

IGF Mobile categories include game design, art, technical and audio awards, a Best Game award, and -- new for this year -- a $10,000 'Best iPhone Game' prize. In addition, entry into IGF Mobile is free this year, meaning it's easy for 'bedroom programmers' and upwardly mobile indies alike to enter the competition.

The finalists will be invited to showcase their games on the expo floor at GDC, and winners of the category will be revealed onstage at the special standalone IGF Mobile awards ceremony at GDC 2009, and also highlighted at the flagship Independent Games Festival Awards event at the show.

More information on entering the competitions are available at the official Independent Games Festival homepage and the official IGF Mobile homepage, respectively.

GameCake is a new file hosting site which allows direct linking to uploaded files (with no word verification process), a service very similar to Will Host For Food. The download speed is blazing fast as well, considering that all files are hosted on Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service). Registered users can upload multiple screenshots to individual information pages, manage uploaded files, and even rate games created by other users.

There is a 35 MB file size limit in effect, although exceptions can be made for special cases. External download links are supported, and one can expect to see user comments and reviews added to GameCake very soon. Remember to zip your files first before submitting (only .zip, .rar, .tgz, and .gz files are accepted).

No more excuses for not having multiple mirrors for your games. Do consider these two alternatives instead of sticking to FileFront (consistent file download errors), RapidShare (word verification hassles), MegaUpload (certain countries are restricted from downloading), MediaFire and Host-A (no direct linking).

GameCake - Host Indie Games, Download Them, Have Fun (GameCake)
GameCake.net : An easy way to upload your game, or find others (Gaming World Forums)

Robo-Evolution is a short action game created by the developer of the Moai series, where players undertake the task of building a robot by rolling up items and spare parts scattered on the ground. The attributes of your robot are determined by the objects it acquires, with some items adding bulk and changing the appearance of the robot as well. Certain boxes can only be opened once you've upgraded your robot by some measure.

Both power and speed collectibles contribute to your jump height, which has to be of a certain preset value before the robot can leap over the wall. The evolution chart is shown at the bottom right of the screen at all times.

Name: Robo-Evolution
Developer: SKT
Category: Action
Type: Browser

In this round-up, we highlight some of the notable jobs posted in Gamasutra and its subsites' industry-leading game jobs section, including positions from EA Tiburon, Insomniac Games, Nokia, Sony Online Entertainment, and more.

Each job posted will appear on the main Gamasutra job board, and appear in the site's daily and weekly newsletters, reaching our readers directly.

It will also be cross-posted for free across its network of submarket sites, which includes content sites focused on online worlds, cellphone games, 'serious games', independent games and more.

Some of the notable jobs posted in each market area this week include:

Xoldiers is a new collaborative project by cactus and Terry Cavanagh (Self Destruct), where players assume control over a squadron of soldiers on a mission to destroy as many enemy installations as they can. Use the Z key to shoot, hold the X key to take cover, press the C key to lob a grenade. Bonus points are awarded for efficiency and combo length.

An automatic online high score submission feature is included.

Name: Xoldiers
Developers: cactus, Terry Cavanagh
Category: Action
Type: Freeware
Size: 2MB
Direct download link: Click here

Bit Blot's debut release is now available on the Mac, courtesy of Ambrosia Software. Customers who purchase the Mac release (dubbed version 1.1.0) will find a new world map system with progress recording, wide screen support, an auto updater, user-created markers, location names, changes to the cooking system, a built-in help feature, additional graphics and easier puzzles. The Windows version will be updated with the new changes at a later date. (source)

Aquaria: Mac version (Ambrosia Software)

World of Goo, Pixeljunk Eden, Braid and Audiosurf have all been nominated for a Video Game Award (VGA) in the Best Independent Game category, with the results to be announced on Spike TV this coming December 14th.

Fans can head on over to this page and click on the "My Vote" button to cast their votes.

In other news, Amanita Design's Questionaut was also nominated for a British Academy Award (BAFTA) in the Children's Interactive category. (source)

Video Game Awards: Best Independent Game (Spike)

Fans of Fantastic Contraption, Phun, or just about any physics-based sandbox game may want to sneak a peek at Grubby Games' IncrediBots. The latest beta build offers eight tutorial levels, nine challenges with multiple difficulty settings, and a sandbox mode which can be used to create robots of any size, shape and function to share with other users.

A simple registration process is required to save robots and replays created in sandbox mode, although this step is hassle-free and doesn't involve replying to email validation requests. (manual)

Name: IncrediBots
Developer: Grubby Games
Category: Physics, Sandbox
Type: Browser

The Maze of Madness is a browser-based exploration adventure game coded by the developer of Galcon in under forty-eight hours, featuring content created exclusively by registered Galcon forum members. The game itself can be played by casual and random visitors without any restrictions, although a simple registration process is required to before new locations, actions and items can be added to the database. A pixel art editor has been included to facilitate the creation of images for locations and items as well.

The interface can be slightly clunky at times, copy and paste functions are either minimal or non-existent, and images cannot be imported from a local source but these minor issues barely overshadow the fact that there is a lot of fun to be had from this easy-to-use application.

Name: The Maze of Madness
Developer: Phil Hassey
Category: Adventure
Type: Browser

Warning: contains strong language.

Little Sh*t Planet is a new episodic Flash game created by the developer of Rom Check Fail, where the story of the copyright-infringing protagonist is told through a series of blog postings and small games which players can interact with. Hints on completing your assigned objectives might be peppered around the stage, told through cutscenes and perhaps even explained ambiguously in written text as well.

The first chapter involves riding up a huge half-pipe to reach the cockpit of the ship you're in with the use of only one button, but more content and a continuation of the tale can be expected from Farbs in the coming days. (screenshots)

Name: Little Sh*t Planet
Developer: Farbs
Category: Action
Type: Browser

Kloonigames' award-winning 2D physics puzzle game is now available for pre-orders. Customers who purchase it early gets a five-dollar discount and will receive the early beta build once it is released. Like 2D Boy's World of Goo, the full version of Crayon Physics Deluxe will have no DRM whatsoever. (source)

Crayon Physics Deluxe web site

This week on Free Indie Rapid Fire: Andreas Zecher's Mr. Bounce, Alex May and Rudolf Kremers' Dyson, Edmund McMillen's Grey Matter and Bernie's Treasure Hunter Man. (YouTube video)

Next week on Bytejacker: Erin Robinson, Dave Gilbert and Grundislav.

Free Indie Rapid Fire 11/10/2008

[Here's the first speaker announcements for the 2009 Independent Games Summit, which should be pretty darn interesting, as you'll see from both who we've invited so far and who else is coming down the pipe - stay tuned.]

The organizers of the 2009 Independent Games Summit have announced initial speakers for the March 2009 GDC-included conference, including notables from 2D Boy (World Of Goo), Stardock (Sins Of A Solar Empire), and more.

Initial confirmed speakers for the event, which is taking place on March 23rd and 24th, 2009 as part of the 2009 Game Developers Conference, include 2D Boy co-founder Ron Carmel, talking on 'Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Going Indie But Were Afraid to Ask'. As is explained in the lecture description:

"When Ron Carmel and his business partner Kyle Gabler formed 2D Boy and started making the IGF award-winning World Of Goo, they knew a bit about game design and programming, but hardly anything about the business aspect of making a game... Having published on Wii/WiiWare and PC both physically and digitally in multiple territories, Carmel explains how they managed it, with plenty of real-world numbers plugged in."

In addition, Stardock's Brad Wardell, the founder of an independent game developer and publisher involved in such titles as Galactic Civilizations II, Sins of a Solar Empire, Demigod and Elemental, is presenting a lecture named 'Stardock On The PC Hardcore Scene As Indie', described as follows:

"Through its choice of game projects combined with its digital distribution platform, Impulse, Stardock has been able to tap into the "core" PC game player, a group that has been often ignored in recent years, with the ability to create games they want and deliver those games to them. Wardell will discuss the strategy Stardock uses to design such games, as well as how they deliver these games to the target audience through both retail and digital channels."

Other notable lectures confirmed at this early stage include:

- Acclaimed indie creator Jonatan 'Cactus' Soderstrom (Clean Asia, Psychosomnium) is renowned for the wide-ranging, eclectic multitude of freeware games that he creates. In an IGS lecture, "he'll discuss fast prototyping and how he creates standout, beautiful games in as little as four hours."

- Infinite Ammo's Alec Holowka (IGF Grand Prize-winning Aquaria, Paper Moon) and Pillowfort Games' Tommy Refenes (Goo!, Grey Matter) talking on 'How to Finish a Game Project You... Hate?', specifically "finding and maintaining motivation on an indie game project, long after it feels natural to do so."

- IGF Chairman and Gamasutra/Game Developer publisher Simon Carless on 'Independent Games & Sales: Stats 101', talking on "how you can make a living from PC web, casual, and downloadable indie titles, iPhone games, XBLA, WiiWare, and PlayStation Network titles, to name but a few."

The Independent Games Summit takes place alongside the yearly Independent Games Festival at GDC 2009, with IGF finalists invited to attend IGS for free, and other interested parties able to attend via a GDC Summits Pass. More information on the full line-up for the Summit will be available at the official Independent Games Summit webpage in the near future.

In Factory Balls 2, the objective of the game is to change the shape and color of your balls and match a picture pasted on the side of an open box, simply by using the ball with a set of tools provided in each of the thirty levels included.

This sequel to an entry from Jay is Games' Ball Physics Competition (with the original submission having nothing to do with physics whatsoever) now comes with unlimited retries and an extended collection of tools to use, though the latter half of the game is still extremely repetitive due to lackluster puzzles and lengthy steps required to solve the last couple of stages. (Newgrounds mirror, walkthrough)

Name: Factory Balls 2
Developer: Bart Bonte
Category: Puzzle
Type: Browser

A hands on video explaining some of the game modes found in Smiles, Mike Kasprzak's new App Store release.

A compilation of clips from a hundred games, all made using either TGF or MMF.

forum thread
50 MMF Games in 10 Minutes (IndieGames.com)
100 Game Maker Games In 10 Minutes
100 Games in 10 Minutes (RPG Creations)

Links to some of the recent interviews with prolific or high-profile indie game developers of today:

Destructoid: Ron Carmel and Kyle Gabler (text)
The brains behind 2D Boy's debut release interviewed by Anthony Burch.

RPS Interview: Love (text)
Eskil Steenberg speaks to Jim Rossignol about his upcoming city-building MMOFPS Love.

Casual Review: Rake in Grass Interview (text)
Pavel Tovarys quizzed on a wide variety of subjects. (developer blog)

brunokruse: Interview with Matt Thorson (text)
Matt Thorson (An Untitled Story) answering questions about inspirations, collaborations and upcoming releases.

from left to right: Mega Panda, Conflux, Lil Sprout (Lexaloffle Games)

Mega Panda: "A puzzle game in the same as Chocolate Castle and Zen Puzzle Garden. Comes with a set of hand-designed puzzles and an editor. The player can scoop up and merge a few pandas to produce a single, larger panda. The goal is to do this until there is only one, very big 'mega-panda' remaining."

Conflux: "An ecological action game. The player takes control of a powerful peacock-like creature whose task is to manage an ecosystem of increasing complexity. Every now and then a new species is added to the mix, and it's up to you to maintain the balance."

Lil Sprout: "Lil Sprout is based on a Ludum Dare 48h entry made a couple of years ago, called Super Sprout. The new game is about growing impressive plants out of your head."

Games in Development (Lexaloffle Games)

WiiWare World had posted up an interview with Tyrone Rodriguez of Nicalis, in which they talk mainly about the upcoming WiiWare version of Cave Story. Some excerpts:

Will Cave Story retail at a cheaper price point than the average 1000 Wii point game?

I can't promise anything, but we're trying to bring it in under 1,000 points. ($10 USD)

Has Pixel ever considered creating a Cave Story sequel? If so would he want to spend five years in developing it this time?

He's probably sick of me asking about a Cave Story sequel. For me, I just want to know what happened before or after the events of Cave Story. I wouldn't get too excited about the idea of a sequel, he's pretty content with what's going on with Cave Story on WiiWare. It's like a new game to him. I can't speak for Pixel, but I think if he were to do a sequel, he might be able to do it in much less time than five years. In that amount of time he made three versions of the game. He admitted to me that he feels like a much better designer now.

Do Nicalis have any current plans for other WiiWare games? Do you want to develop any original IP or find more highly esteemed freeware to port?

We do have plans for more WiiWare games. We haven't announced our next title, but you should hear about it sometime next year. Nicklas Nygren (known as Nifflas to his fans) is leading the design for this one. (source: clysm)

Nicalis Interview: Cave Story (WiiWare World)
Cave Story Art Comparison: Mimiga Village Tiles

In this new round-up we'll be posting weekly, we are highlighting some of the notable jobs posted on Gamasutra and its sister sites' industry-leading game jobs section, including positions from Sony Santa Monica, Big Huge Games, Volition, and many more.

Each job posted will appear on the main Gamasutra job board, and appear in the site's daily and weekly newsletters, reaching our readers directly.

It will also be cross-posted for free across its network of submarket sites, which includes content sites focused on online worlds, cellphone/iPhone games, 'serious games', independent games and more.

Some of the notable jobs posted in each market area this week include:

click on screenshot for gallery

QWOP's Olympic Adventure is a new ragdoll-based Flash game by Benzido, developer of Too Many Ninjas and Top Spinner. In it, you play an athlete named Qwop who is participating in a hundred metres sprint event at the Olympic Games. Using only the Q, W, O and P keys, players must attempt to finish the event or at least get as far as they can without falling over.

A help screen can be accessed by clicking on the question mark at the top left corner of the game window. You can also restart immediately by pressing the R key at any time. (source: Retro Remakes)

Name: QWOP
Developer: Benzido
Category: Action
Type: Browser

YouTube video

Karatekamania is a music rhythm game created by the developers of Mogura 2 (article), where players are rated based on the timing and accuracy of their key presses while a song is being played in the background. Inspired by Nintendo's Rhythm Tengoku, this fan made version features slightly updated graphics, customizable settings, and even comes with an editor to facilitate the sharing of user creations.

Use the enter key, left or right mouse button to control the actions of the martial arts practitioner. Tap the space key to punch at a thrown object. Hold the same button to assume a stance, then press the up arrow key to execute a roundhouse kick. Mouse and gamepad controls are also supported.

The current build (1st style 1.7a) contains only four default levels and two songs, although new stages created by other contributors can be downloaded from Krobon Station's message board. Simply click on a link to any zip file, unzip it into the music folder and the song should be available to play from the song selection menu. (screenshot gallery)

Name: Karateka Mania
Developer: Krobon Station
Category: Arcade
Type: Freeware
Size: 10MB
Download page: Click here

Edmund McMillen's CD compilation of his works in the past ten years is now available for purchase at ten dollars. There are roughly seventeen games on it (some unreleased), fifteen comics, four sketch books, a couple of animated movies and some extras to round up the package. (full CD contents list, trailer)

The Unfinished Swan

Nearly all presentations by the eleven finalists who attended the Sense of Wonder Night event at Tokyo Game Show 2008 have been uploaded to YouTube. Links to videos in high quality are posted below, in the order of presentation:

Camera (Yareyare, Japan)
Depict (Jesus Cuahtemoc, Moreno Ramos, Mexico)
The Unfinished Swan (Ian Dallas, USC, United States)
WorldIcelansista (Ambition, Japan)
Twin Tower (OMEGA, Japan)
PixelJunk Eden (Q-Games, Japan)
Gomibako, unavailable (Trash Box/ PlayStation C.A.M.P!, Japan)
Moon Stories (Daniel Benmergui, Argentina)
The Misadventures Of P.B. Winterbottom (The Odd Gentlemen, United States)
Genocide Automation (Naoya Sasaki, Japan)
Nanosmiles (Yu Iwai, Japan)
Review by the screening committee

TGS: Sense Of Wonder Night Showcases Indie Innovation (GameSetWatch)

The Tales of Bingwood is a 2D adventure game which tells the story of an unlikely hero named Tom, who must embark on a quest to save a kidnapped princess and restore peace to the kingdom. There are plenty of humorous observations and conversations to be had, puzzles are relatively easy to solve, and the game also comes with full voice acting.

Note that the trial version does not allow progress to be saved.

Name: The Tales of Bingwood
Developer: BugFactory
Category: Adventure
Type: Demo
Size: 20MB

Lots of indie-related news coming out of Steam lately. In addition to Mount & Blade, MoonPod's Mr. Robot and Starscape made available on Steam's digital delivery service, Audiosurf's price has been also reduced to $2.49 (originally $9.99) to coincide with the release of a new client update. Note that the offer is valid for one week only. (source: Big Download)

In Zilch, two players attempt to score a set number of points before their opponent does, simply by deciding on when to roll the dices and when to bank in the points they've acquired up to that roll. Like Yahtzee, certain dice combinations awards more points, but the bank option is only available when you've scored a total of three hundred points from all your rolls. You also lose your turn and all accumulated points for that round if you fail to score anything after your first roll in each turn.

With the tutorial enabled, players would require only a couple of turns to grasp the basic rules of the game. (mirror)

Name: Zilch
Developer: Gaby Vanhegan
Category: Strategy (Dice)
Type: Browser

99 Bricks is a physics-based variation of Tetris created by WeirdBeard Games, where the objective is to build the highest tower possible out of ninety-nine tetromino shapes. Use the cursor keys to rotate and place blocks, or press the C key to discard a brick currently in play. Hold the Z key to zoom out and get a complete view of the tower, and press the P key to pause the game at any time.

Only registered Kongregate members are allowed to access and submit their scores to the online high score table.

Name: 99 Bricks
Developer: WeirdBeard Games
Category: Puzzle
Type: Browser

Dyson is a real-time strategy game which involves commanding an army of seedlings with the aim of colonizing an entire asteroid belt, one asteroid at a time. Structures and buildings commonly found in RTS games have been replaced with two types of trees, although there is a limit to how many trees you can have on each asteroid. The Dyson tree allows you to grow new seedlings, while defensive trees produce exploding pods that automatically home in on invading seedlings sent by your adversaries. Both trees cost fifteen seedlings per unit to generate, so an asteroid with less than fifteen seedlings occupying it will not be able to grow any new trees.

Left click and drag from one asteroid to another to send all available seedlings to their new destination. Right click repeatedly on an asteroid to add individual seedlings to a new invasion party, then left click on a nearby asteroid to send this party to forage or invade.

Other than the inclusion of defensive pods, version 1.08 also introduces a sphere of influence limiting the distance in which a group of seedlings can be sent to. The three-page tutorial is a new addition as well, and does a decent job of briefing players on how the game works. Dyson requires the installation of .NET 2.0 Framework to run.

Name: Dyson
Developer: Alex May, Rudolf Kremers
Category: Strategy
Type: Freeware
Size: 20MB
Platforms: Windows, Linux

The irRegularGame of Life is a puzzle game based on Conway's fascinating Game of Life theory, where cells in a grid stay alive, die or multiply from one generation to another based four simple mathematical rules.

This concept is applied here as a series of puzzles, in which players would have to figure out the correct placements of starter cells on the grid so that the goal for a specific level is achieved. A sandbox mode is included to allow for easy sharing of user creations, and there is even an option to change the colour of cells if grey isn't your thing. (mirror)

Name: The irRegularGame of Life
Developer: irRegularGames
Category: Puzzle
Type: Browser

Lynchmob HD is an action game created by JW in under three hours, where players score points by moving the yellow target over enemies to wipe them out, or by collecting power-ups to send a strong blast in the direction which the reticle is pointing at.

Use the W, A, S and D keys to move. Press the F4 function key to switch between full screen and windowed mode. (Poppenkast thread)

Name: Lynchmob HD
Developer: Jan Willem Nijman
Category: Action
Type: Freeware
Size: 1MB
Direct download link: Click here

Warning: contains strong language and graphic scenes.

Zompocalypse is a 2D action game created by the developer of My First Skydiving Academy, featuring voice acting by Mark Johns (Space Barnacle, Standard Bits). In it, you assume control of a cop named Chuck McPain who has to take out zombies hungry for human flesh.

Use the W, A, S, D, or cursor keys to move, and tap the Z key repeatedly to shoot. Press the X key to reload your gun whenever you run out of ammunition. Earn experience points to increase your level and unlock a new weapon.

Name: Zompocalypse
Developer: Toadtrip Studio
Category: Action
Type: Browser

This Centipede remake was recently updated to version 1.2.0, featuring a host of new additions such as power-ups, statistics tracking, an online high score table, new music and improved visuals. Millenipede is available in both Windows and Mac flavours. (source: Retro Remakes, original article)

online high score table

Mac users out there can now sample what they've been missing out on for the past couple of weeks, as the Mac version of 2D Boy's debut release has been made available for download at the official site. The Mac demo for World of Goo can be acquired from this page.

Mac version now available (2D Boy forums)

Estamos Pensando (Portuguese for We Are Thinking) is essentially an art game which takes about ten or fifteen minutes to play from start to end. Reading too much about Daniel's project might ruin the enjoyment it offers from experiencing the game firsthand, so no spoilers will be revealed by elaborating on it further in this text. (source: Maggie Greene, Kotaku)

Innoquous is a short 2D platformer which incorporates a gravity switching gimmick to disorient players and hinder them from reaching the exit in each level with ease. Use the arrow keys to move or jump, and press the space key to start a new game. The F4 function key can be used to switch between full screen and windowed mode. There are ten stages to clear in this game.

Name: Innoquous
Developer: NAL
Category: Platformer
Type: Freeware
Size: 2MB

YoYo Games download instructions
direct download mirror (IndieGames.com)

10800 Zombies is a 2D action game which tells the tale of a random hero who must venture from one room to another, all the while blasting hordes after hordes of zombies that stand in his way.

Though fun to play, the game does have a couple of odd design decisions. For starters, you lose health at a very rapid rate when coming in contact with any zombies. Players can end up without a loaded weapon if they're not mindful of where they drop their guns. Graphical glitches still exists in this version, and a couple of sounds effects are taken from other games as well.

Since the original window resolution is a miniscule 320 by 240 pixels, playing in full screen mode also results in blurry graphics. (Poppenkast thread, GMC discussion)

Name: 10800 Zombies
Developer: Jan Willem Nijman
Category: Action
Type: Freeware
Size: 2MB