Your regular shmup usually involves one heroic ship going it alone against a horde of baddies, winning against the odds. The Competitor turns all that around, giving you the chance to be the horde against the one.

The rogue ship approaching from the bottom of the screen is constantly firing upwards and it's your job to tactically (and constantly) place down your squadron to stop him in his tracks. The control mechanic works a lot like the recent Pixus puzzler, with a click+sweep motion from the mouse bringing your men into battle. Your ships are being destroyed all the time, so the need to keep replacing them is crucial to success.

It all works really well, even allowing for simple tactics such as putting defensive ships closer to the bottom and more powerful attackers at the top. One problem which arises is with the upgraded ships - after a few levels, there really is no need to use the smaller ships anymore, as they get battered way too easily, so all the upgraded models ultimately replace the starting vessels rather than compliment them.

No matter, though, as this is good blasting fun. Play it at Armor Games.

Puppygames have just released the above gameplay video, showcasing their in-development title Revenge of the Titans at an early stage.

A mixture of real-time strategy and tower defence, the team have the core gameplay mechanics down and are now working on bringing the graphics up to speed. Towers cannot be directly upgraded, but instead smaller buildings are built surrounding them which power them up in different ways.

"Place gun turrets near the path of the invading Titans, and upgrade the turrets by placing ancillary buildings nearby to improve their abilities, such as batteries for more ammunition, scanners for greater range, and cooling towers for faster fire rate. At the same time you have to manage collecting funds from your factories, and quickly zap powerups that beam in now and again!"

There are a lot more details over on the Puppyblog which go into greater specifics. All in all it's looking like a mighty fine RTS romp! Nothing on a release date as of yet, but of course we will keep you posted.

In our latest employment-tastic round-up, we highlight some of the notable jobs posted in big sister site Gamasutra's industry-leading game jobs section this week, including positions from 2K Boston, Sony Santa Monica, 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 our main market area this week include:

Isabelle Poppy And Bling - art game, or just plain weird? There are three different minigames which revolve around music and some very strange characters.

The whole game is controlled via the mouse and lasts around 5 minutes. I'm not really sure which section was the strangest, but the above screenshot provides a bit of a taster. If you're partial to the occasional twisted gaming experience, this will be right up your alley.

Kongregate is where you'll find it.

Time for some good old Thursday night puzzlin' in the form of Pixus. The idea is to draw lines of paint across the screen which float upwards, destroying similarly coloured blocks until the level is cleared. Some blocks are concealed behind other colours, so you'll need to eliminate them in order.

There's a short tutorial to explain better exactly what is going on. The game feels like it has a great concept behind it, but it maybe could have been pulled off a little better, as the slow pace does seem to hold back an idea which could be potentially brilliant fun. It's definitely still worth a try though, especially as there is a nifty level editor to have a play with too.

Give it a whirl at Pixusgame.com.

Roll Roll Pirate is incredibly fiddly, not at all original... and yet so addictive. Roll Pirate's treasure has been scattered across the land, so it's your job to roll him around and claim it all back again.

The control scheme feels pretty odd at first. Pressing up and down will roll him as you'd expect, but moving left and right is a different matter - not only does he get moving, but he brings the screen with him in a sickening rotating motion that can be hard to judge at times. And yet you'll point out of all the game's flaws to yourself... then you'll carry on playing. It's just one of those games.

Roll Roll Pirate is over on CandyStand.

The Beggar has been thrown out of the castle and now it's your job to help him beg his way back in.

Our smelly hero can beg (via the spacebar or down button) in the hope that passers by will dig deep and help him out. This money can then be used to buy food or saved up to buy a pass back into the castle. Make sure you don't go begging near the police, though, or you'll find yourself being dragged away!

There are 4 different endings to find, with gold to collect and people to befriend. Play it over on Brodie Games. A link to download the game can also be found there. (Thanks to Daniel Cook for the tip!)

The Indie Games Arcade is set to return for another showing this year at Eurogamer Expo 2009, with the works of developers like Anthony Flack, Robert D. Fearon, Hayden Scott-Baron, Rudolf Kremers and Alex May already confirmed to be playable during the event. The arcade will be present at both the Leeds (27th - 28th Oct, Saviles Hall) and London (30th - 31st Oct, Billingsgate) legs of the show, while tickets which costs £6 per day can be purchased from the Eurogamer Expo site.

Last year's show was received very well by public, so one can certainly expect this year's edition to be substantially bigger and better with more backing provided from the organizers.

Indie Games Arcade for EG Expo 09
Cletus Clay Leads Eurogamer Expo Indie Arcade

When Pigs Fly tells the story of a pig who conveniently grows wings after falling down a hole and finding itself trapped inside a dark cave. Unfortunately the pair of wings are preventing a quick escape from the same entry point, so the only thing left to do is to explore the caverns and seek another way out.

Progress is automatically saved whenever the player arrives at a new screen, so you can always close a browser window and still continue the game from where you left off at a later time.

James Whitehead, creator of Satan Sam, and Alex Sumersai-Rai together make up indie development team Boss Baddie! and their latest release 'Lunnye Devitsy' is now available for purchase from their site.

James explains:

"Lunnye is a mystery/puzzle platformer. You play as a little alien that falls off the moon and you have to make your way back. But it's a lot tougher than it sounds, take it from me, I'm the one who made it!"

Created as a celebration of the 40th anniversary of the moon landings, the game is available for $3.20. The video above shows each of Boss Baddie's releases, with Lunnye Devitsy going first. I'll hopefully get around to giving it the once through sometime soon and portray my thoughts to you, dear readers.

It's also worth noting that James is giving his first game, Satan Sam, a 'major upgrade' and releasing a new, free version of it sometime this year. You can still download and play the original version from here.

A few months ago, the guys at Flashbang Studios posted a couple of videos online featuring prototypes they were working on. Eventually they settled on Crane Wars as their WIP, but now they've announced that one of the other prototypes 'Time Donkey' will be their next release.

It appears that the concept is a 3D take on Cursor*10 involving... well, donkeys. Or should that be one donkey replicated many, many times... The guys reckon that this new game will be 'something more refined than anything you’ve seen from us before', so you can bet it will be one to watch out for!

Check out the Blurst blog now for a lengthy article from Ben Ruiz discussing their artistic influences.

Fig. 8 is an upcoming game from Intuition Games where, to quote one of the creators Greg Wohlwend, 'you control a bicycle through technical diagram suburbia'.

Definitely looks like one to watch out. There's not many more details at the moment, but check here for screenshots. (Source)

The official site for Hammerfight (previously known as Hammerfall) was revealed by Fun-Motion today, with plenty of new media posted in preparation for an upcoming release of the full game. A 20 MB demo is also available for download, although the default language is Russian and there is no translated version of it for others to try out yet.

Direct2Drive is currently having a Braid sale for $5 less than its original price. You can purchase the Windows version of Braid (DRM-free) for only $10, but do it soon if you have not acquired the game from elsewhere as the discounted offer expires by the end of this Sunday.

Seven is a short physics-based puzzler created by the developers of the popular adventure game Makibishi Comic, in which your quest is to restore balance to a strange planet by travelling to each of the seven stages and retrieving the stars found within.

Players can access the helpful hint feature by pressing the H key at any time, or restart a level by using the R key after an unsuccessful attempt at solving a puzzle. You are allowed to play the stages in any order you like, although one of the puzzles can only be solved with the use of a particular item from another level. (source)

Disk Field is a short puzzler based on manipulating vector fields to push a spinning disk through each level. It starts off nice and simple but eventually gets pretty challenging.

There's really not that much to it, yet it's still strangely compelling. The arrow keys spin the vector arrows - although sometimes not every arrow can be manipulated. A few levels towards the end require concentration of the highest levels. Fortunately, the retro-style music is there to keep you sane!

It's over on Newgrounds.

The official site for the upcoming WiiWare release of La-Mulana is now up, with the American release date stated as Winter 2009. Nigoro had also posted up ten screenshots and a new trailer to coincide with Nicalis' announcement of the collaborative project.

Rag Doll Software (developer of Ragdoll Masters) has just released Rubber Ninjas for Windows operating systems, originally only available for Mac OS X users. The full game costs $19.95, and features about fifty single-player levels in total. A demo is also obtainable from the official site, showcasing three stages from the first campaign and a limited two-player mode with only the default fighter skin available for selection.

In our latest employment-tastic round-up, we highlight some of the notable jobs posted in big sister site Gamasutra's industry-leading game jobs section this week, including positions from Volition, Namco 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:

You can now apply to become a beta tester for the TaleWorlds' Mount & Blade: Warband (the upcoming expansion pack with multiplayer features) by going to the sign-up page and filling up a short application form. Preferences will be given to those who provide valid serial keys, and also to applicants whose location are close to the multiplayer servers' locations.

M&B Warband Beta Testing Invitation
Mount & Blade: Warband GDC presentation

Vertigo Games (Sandbox of God) is giving away their bomb-defusing puzzle game Shellblast on Game Giveaway of the Day for the next twenty hours. The $4.95-priced game is currently being updated for a release on Xbox Live Indie Games soon (under the new name Shellblast HD), so it's a perfect opportunity to try the game out regardless of whether you own an Xbox 360 console or not. (source)

Nathan Carter has one more big job to finish before he can take an early retirement, but his final con doesn't go exactly as planned. A Night To Remember sees Nathan plunged into a story he'd much rather not be part of.

It's your typical adventure game with an interesting and sinister tale that will take around half an hour to complete. Clicking on certain objects can be a little fiddly at times and none of the puzzles are too taxing, but it's definitely worth some of your time.

Grab a copy from here.

[The Game Developer magazine folks have debuted the free digital version of their Career Guide for 2009/2010, which you'll find in physical form at a bunch of public and trade game shows - and online right now! Lots of good indie-focused content this year, too... and it's even got a piece by Tim W. in it!]

For the second year running, Game Developer’s annual Game Career Guide, a special edition magazine devoted to helping aspiring video game creators and guided by the editors of the industry-leading Game Developer magazine, is being given away for free.

The special magazine - part of Think Services, as is this website - is now available as a digital version, with both web-readable and PDF downloadable versions to choose from.

The 2009 issue builds on the success of last year’s edition, which had over 30,000 physical copies distributed worldwide at major video game public and trade shows, and gathered 383,000 online page views from over 34,000 people -- plus thousands of downloads.

The Game Career Guide issue includes a version of Game Developer's famed salary report for entry-level jobs in video game development.

It also includes numerous articles with tips on both breaking in and sustaining a long-term career in the industry - with former or current staffers from LucasArts, Activision, Electronic Arts, Double Fine Productions, and Neversoft Entertainment all contributing.

Also included in the 2009 edition is a postmortem of notable student game Akrasia, lessons from the Artsy Games Incubator, and a look at low-cost game engines for do-it-yourself independent and graduate creators.

As reported on Neogaf and a couple of other sites now, the latest issue of Nintendo Power brings news that the MSX-style platformer is headed for the WiiWare very soon. Nigoro themselves posted up a countdown timer on their site just yesterday, so this piece of information is pretty much confirmed and we will hear more about the changes that the new port will bring in three days' time.

The Neogaf poster also comments that La-Mulana's graphics have been updated to 16-bit, and the original MSX roms would probably be replaced with classic Nintendo titles instead. (old gameplay videos)

[UPDATE: Nicalis had posted up a press release on their blog today, confirming the collaboration between them and the Nigoro team on an upcoming WiiWare game, scheduled for release in Winter 2009.]

Elbert Perez has released a free-to-download PC version of his upcoming Xbox Live Community Games title 'Gum Drop Celestial Frontier'. Don't let the long and rather odd name put you off - there's some good stuff to play here.

While your ship doesn't have any lasers to take on the incoming enemies, it does have the SMASH ball, which can be swung around your ship and, well, smashed into your opponents. There's also a few other different moves which can be pulled off, and many powerups to try out. The game itself feels nicely polished and well worth a look-in.

Presumably Elbert is hoping this PC release will convince people to buy the game from XBLGC later this month. Until then, give this free version a try.

Before I begin, I must make the point that I have not played either of the original titles in the Blackwell series. You know how it is - there's a list of games in your head that you keep telling yourself you should get around to playing, but in the end you just completely forget and it falls to the back of your mind.

Hence I am yet to try out both The Blackwell Legacy and Blackwell Unbound. Instead I have begun my delving into the miniseries with The Blackwell Convergence, the latest addition to the series. While it's an incredibly short and sometimes simple experience, this story-orientated adventure is a very grown-up take on the genre and is sure to please any Blackwell fan.

The action follows Rosangela Blackwell, a spirit medium, and her ghostly guide Joey Mallone as they attempt to locate wandering souls and help them find peace. Players take control of both Rosa and Joey, each with their unique abilities, in an attempt to piece together exactly what happened to each ghost they find and set about easing them into the light.

Hemisphere Games' Osmos, winner of the 'D2D Vision Award' at this year's IGF, is to be released through Steam and Direct2Drive next month.

Recently selected as one of the PAX 10 finalists, Osmos features 'elegant, physics-based gameplay, dreamlike visuals, and a minimalist, electronic soundtrack'. The game beat off the likes of Cortex Command and Dyson to pick up the IGF award and cash prize, so we can expect the final product to be something special.

Expect to see it pop up sometime soon on both Steam and Direct2Drive. The game will also be available for purchase through the official site.

Time Lapse of Post I.T. Shooter Development

Rudolf Kremers and Alex May's IGF Finalist Dyson has been pushed back from its July release to sometime in the Fall.

Up until recently, the official Steam page for Dyson showed a 31st July release date, but a few days ago Alex posted on the Dyson blog explaining that the game will now see the light of day later this year 'due to a number of factors':

"We are trying very very hard though to make this game as good as it can be. Hopefully it is understood that the expanded scope, and subsequent delay, comes out of a desire to give you something that is really worthwhile."

He also promises that details on the project will flow a bit more freely in the next few months, so we can all get a bit more excited about its release. Steam now states October 2009 as the date to look forward to.

Check out the official Dyson site for more details.

Two more indie games going on sale this week. The price for Broken Rules' puzzle platformer And Yet It Moves has been reduced to $5 on Direct2Drive, while Mount & Blade can now be purchased for only $15 at Direct2Drive, GamersGate, Impulse and Steam. Both offers are set to expire at the end of this week.

If you've missed the 75% discount sale back in January and March, then this is probably a good time as any to get in on some sandbox sword-fighting action with TaleWorlds' debut commercial release.

Demos for And Yet it Moves and Mount & Blade are available from their respective sites.

Wonder Bounce is Darthlupi's first foray into the world of Flash game development, where you play an apprentice named Ishmoo whose soul was separated from his body in an accident. Lost souls will try and possess the lifeless body of our protagonist, but you can keep them at bay by using the ancient art of Wonder Bounce learnt from the scroll that placed him in this situation in the first place.

There are only five levels to play in total. (source: David Scatliffe, forum thread)

Created in a week by a group of students at the Dutch Game Garden GameJam, Kamal is an Ancient Egyptian platformer in which players must move both the hero and the world to progress.

Kamal can only get so far past an obstacle before he needs help. Mid-jump, it is possible to pause the action, shift the entire world slightly, then press play again, allowing him to make death-defying jumps and wall-jump crazy paths. The video starts off a bit ropey, but it's worth holding on until near the end where the real genius begins.

Kamal will be available for download 'very soon'.

Nominated for Excellence in Audio at this year's IGF awards, Retro/Grade is a rhythm-based shmup with a twist - the entire game is played in reverse.

Players must listen to the music tracks, set themselves up in the appropriate spots and fire in time with the beat so that each of the lasers which their ship fired comes back into their cannons. It's also essential not to touch any of the enemies bullets as this would create a paradox.

Crazy stuff, which definitely has potential to be something great. Let's hope 24 Caret Games pull it off. If you can't wait to see what the final version plays like, there's a demo version of an early build for the PC for download here.

According to Jonas, Phenomenon 32 is 'a 2D exploration/platforming game with some RPG elements'. After a 'Reality Bomb' destroys the Earth in an alternate 1950's, a small number of humans living on the Moon begin to run out of resources.

The solution involves going back to Earth to hunt for anything useful to take back, but by now the world as they knew it has completely changed. Reality has shifted and the hero must be on his guard as he searches the land.

I love the concept and I also love the Metroid-style look to this game. Promising 'Non-linear progression' and music 'that will that will chill you to your bones', this is definitely one to watch out for. More details over on Jonas' site.

Tom Fulp of Newgrounds sends this beautiful mixture of exploration and collect-a-thon our way, and who are we to argue? William and Sly is the story of one fox's journey around a vast landscape and it's wonderfully charming and peaceful.

The playing field is absolutely huge and takes a good amount of time to just run across. There's also tons of hidden pathways under the ground too, so expect to run for quite a while. There are mushrooms to collect, runestones to activate, Darklings to destroy and treasure chests to open.

I'd suggest you make sure to activate the first runestone on your travels before you continue - that way you can pick up the map from William which makes the game much easier. Give it some of your time (possibly a good hour) over at Newgrounds.

Something of a mix between Passage and Polkadot, Tanaka's Friendly Adventure is a charming little exploration game that involves gathering a group of friends to attend the titular character's birthday party celebration. There's no time limit to rush you into doing anything, and the adventure can be replayed as many times as you want. You can also visit your friends in a special section accessible via the main menu.

The final build for Gary Gasko's Retro Remakes 2008 Competition entry was released today, a remake loosely based on the arcade classic Spartan X (known as Kung-Fu Master in the States). This updated version of Kung Fu 2 comes with nine playable stages, unlockable secret characters, and an online high score submission feature. (source: Retro Remakes)

Note: Played through the entire game in single player mode for this review. The co-op mode was untested.

On paper, the concept behind Trine sounds like a real winner. Switching between characters with different abilities in order to defeat enemies and get the better of platforming-based puzzles sounds just like my cup of tea.

Yet while Trine is incredibly polished and play flows along smoothly, Frozenbyte also miss the mark in many areas, leaving a feeling of unbalance and wasted opportunity. It had the potential to be fantastic, but have no fear - it's still damn good fun.

The concept goes something like this: A wizard, a thief and a warrior are stuck together by forces unknown, and set out on a quest to find means of separating themselves. Oh, and there's an army of the undead on the loose too.

We've previewed gameplay footage for Max and the Magic Marker at IndieGames before, but now Press Play have released the first official trailer for their upcoming Wiiware title and I couldn't resist posting it up here. It reminded me just how fantastic is looks.

Platforming + Crayon Physics = Sold. Check out the official site for more.

In this round-up, we highlight some of the notable jobs posted in big sister site Gamasutra's industry-leading game jobs section this week, including positions from 2K Boston, Radical Entertainment 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:

Floater is a score-based arcade game created by This is Pop, where the objective is to prod a body down the river with a stick as quickly as you can before time runs out. Since you have no direct control over the corpse, points are scored by inflicting injuries such as burns, bruises, and animal bites on it.

An extra ten or twenty seconds is added to the countdown timer whenever the body passes a checkpoint.

Penny Arcade has announced the ten finalists selected for their Independent Games Showcase competition, where all winners will be invited to display their efforts at the upcoming Penny Arcade Expo on September 4th, 2009. The best entries were chosen from over 150 games submitted to only the second PAX 10 competition, which is close to double the original eighty received for the same event last year.

As listed on Gamasutra, the PAX 10 selection are as follows:

CarneyVale: Showtime (Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Games Lab)
Closure (Tyler Glaiel, Jon Schubbe)
Fieldrunners (Subatomic Studios)
Liight (Studio Walljump)
Machinarium (Amanita Design)
Osmos (Hemisphere Games)
Puzzle Bloom (Team Shotgun)
Tag: The Power of Paint (Tag Team)
Trino (Trinoteam)
What is Bothering Carl? (Story Fort)

The PAX 10

[Update: Wadjet Eye Games have delayed the release by a couple of days for 'one more round of testing'. It will now be released on July 22nd]

Wadjet Eye Games' The Blackwell Convergence is set to be released in a few days time, so you've got the chance to check out the above gameplay footage of the upcoming adventure title.

We'll have an exclusive review up in the next couple of days, so if you're not sure whether to send that $14.99 Wadjet-wards, be sure to check back on what we think.

Check out the Wadjet Eye site for more details.

The Indie Game Challenge is a game development competition that presents indie game designers a chance to get their games published and win up to $100,000 in two separate categories. The competition is sponsored by GameStop, The Guildhall at SMU and AIAS (The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences).

To enter, participants would need to register themselves for the competition at www.indiegamechallenge.com, then PayPal the registration fee of $100 on the contest website. There is a discount of $25 off the application fee for members of the GameStop Edge Card program, and the fee is waived for residents of certain states as well. After registering, you would then need to submit your game (ten copies) and pitch videos (less than sixty seconds long, two copies) on physical discs to the organizers before October 1st, 2009.

A short judging period is set to commence after the final submission date, and the judging panel will select twelve finalists to be announced sometime around January 15th, 2010. The judges (consisting of AIAS members, Guildhall representatives and GameStop executives) will decide on the finalists based on three different criterias: originality, creativity and playability.

All finalists will be invited to attend the awards ceremony on the 19th of February 2010, to be held at AIAS' D.I.C.E. Summit in Las Vegas. Each team member (up to five members in a team) is set to receive a $500 travel stipend for the trip, and the finalists will also be given the opportunity to present their games to interested publishers during the event for possible publishing contract consideration.

Three Skill Awards winners (technical, art and gameplay categories, $2,500 cash prize each) are to be chosen on the night as well, and the team with the best Pitch video is to receive a "People's Choice" prize worth $10,000. A tuition scholarship at The Guildhall is also on offer among the prizes.

Note that the competition is open to U.S. residents only. Additional information and competition rules are all obtainable from the official Indie Game Challenge website.

GameStop, AIAS, Guildhall Announce Indie Game Challenge (Gamasutra)

Heed is a short adventure game created by Ben Chandler (Annie Android, Shifter's Box) using the reliable AGS engine, where you assume control over an unnamed protagonist who is searching for the purpose of his existence. There's not a lot of puzzles in this release, and none of them are particularly difficult, although the game has been structured in such a way that you would only find the interesting ones in the second half of your adventure. (forum thread)

To commemorate the launch of The Penumbra Collection for Mac and Linux, Frictional Games has decided to put the entire package on sale for a mere $5 (regular price $20) this weekend only. The offer will last for three days, starting from the 17th of July (Friday) and ends on Sunday, the 19th of July. You can purchase it at the sale price direct from Frictional Games or any of the other three participating stores.

The Penumbra Collection contains the original Penumbra: Overture, Penumbra: Black Plague and the expansion, Penumbra Requiem. Download links for demos are available from the official site for the Penumbra series.

[UPDATE: The Penumbra Collection for Windows will be on sale this weekend for only $5 on GamersGate as well. Thanks, Joshua!]

Re-release of the Penumbra Series for Mac and Linux (USD 5 launch offer)

There's a new trailer out for Fuelcell's Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet that showcases a lot of gameplay elements, areas and alien species, all meticulously designed by French artist and animator Michel Gagné. I was rather surprised to find that the new clip isn't posted all over the internet already, since everyone went nuts over the game when the first preview video came out two years ago.

Coming soon to an Xbox 360 near you.

Something rather enticing about big monster trucks, placard-holding girls cheering you on, and half-naked luchadores holding possibly beer or uzis in their hands.

Monstertrucker might just end up being a plain old, physics-based driving simulation game with explosions, but then that would still be pretty awesome if the game is ever released.

I think Shotgun Ninja took cactus about six hours to make, and Death Party seems very playable in its current state, so with a bit more development work it could probably be released sometime soon. Although in his case you can never really predict anything but the unexpected from him.

I've been playing quite a bit of Banov's upcoming RPG Dubloon lately, which might still be in production for a while although the demo does showcase a number of playable areas already. Basically a party system is already implemented, there are special abilities that can be used to solve puzzles, and you will also come across a town that offers shelter for the night and a marketplace with exotic items to buy. The demo will end shortly after you've managed to acquire your own ship and set sail for the next location.

You can use the F4 function key to switch between full screen and windowed mode. Hold the right mouse button to double your walk speed, and toggle the music on or off by pressing the M key. (direct download link, forum thread)

Just thought I'd point out that a demo for Lazy 8 Studio's puzzler Cogs has been out for a while now, and the game is also on sale at 50% off ($4.95) on Direct2Drive until this Sunday. Both the demo and D2D version are DRM-free.

The demo allows you to sample the first eight levels (from a total of fifty), but you can also replay the same number of levels (with small variations) in the Time and Move Challenge modes.

Review: Cogs (IndieGames)

[While submissions have just opened for the main IGF, we're also trying out an IGF China event, with an entrance deadline in September. This should be an interesting experiment, to say the least - all Asia-Pacific based developers should check out the IGF China site for more info.]

Think Services, organizer of the Game Developers Conference events, has announced the first annual Independent Games Festival China. The event is to be held in conjunction with the 2009 Game Developers Conference China, which returns to the Shanghai International Convention Center, October 11-13 of this year.

After 11 years of the main Independent Games Festival competition being held at GDC in San Francisco, the Independent Games Festival will present itself to Shanghai, China for the first time in 2009, in a competition specifically designed to encourage innovation and showcase standout games from smaller companies in the Asia-Pacific region.

[UPDATE: Official Microsoft response in the extended news story.]

Over at Jason Hill's latest Screen Play column at the WA Today website, he brings word from local Australian independent developers trying to get their games on Xbox Live Arcade, who claim that they are having difficulties getting accepted for the main XBLA service.

It was only a month ago that Microsoft announced they were changing the name of Xbox Live Community Games to Indie Games instead, and some people commented that this could potentially be Microsoft's way of separating independent titles from the more mainstream XBLA downloads.

Jason Hill writes:

"Screen Play has been told there are now just 35 "slots" a year for independent games on Xbox Live Arcade, but local developers estimate there would be hundreds of titles in development around the world, so many frustrated independent studios will be unable to release their games on the popular service."

To be clear, Xbox Live Indie Games (formerly Community Games) will continue to be extremely accessible to amateur developers. but it does make you wonder what plans Microsoft have for the coming months. Will the name change spell a further separation of 'DIY' Xbox Live Indie Games releases from more carefully selected 'main' Xbox Live Arcade titles, or is this just down-on-their-luck indie developers having a good old moan?

Wadjet Eye have released the above trailer for their upcoming adventure game Puzzle Bots. Creator Erin Robinson twittered that it has 'a soon-ish release date!' so I guess that means we can expect it sometime... soon?

Check out the game's official site for screenshots and more details.

QQUAK is a low-resolution remake of id's Quake 2 by Jan Willem Nijman, featuring three playable maps to choose from, four different weapons to use, and a limitless number of enemies for you to shoot at. Health and ammunition can be replenished by collecting power-up items, and your score is submitted automatically after the end of each game.

This is just plain awesome. Created for the Experimental Gameplay Project, the theme was 'Unexperimental Shooter'. I'm not 100% exactly what that is meant to entail, but Petri (of Crayon Physics fame, of course) has made something fantastic.

Post I.T. Shooter has a stop-motion thing going on involving post-it notes and it works so well. Players move their ship using the arrow keys and press space to fire at the randomly-generated alien invaders. There's not much to it gameplay-wise, but who cares when it's that incredibly amazing to look at!

Download it from Petri's blog.

Another physics-based tumbler by the guy who brought us Crush the Castle. Demolition City is all about blowing stuff up. You can't say no to that.

On each of the 20 levels, the idea is to place dynamite on the structure and them press the BOOM button and watch it fall. The rubble must fall below the displayed line and not collide with any of the surrounding buildings.

Short but good fun. Play at Armor Games.

Justin Smith's hilarious Enviro-Bear 2000, originally created for TIGSource's Cockpit Compo, is now available for your iPhone at a mere 99cents.

The official Enviro-Bear 2000 site states that the game features 'Bears! Fish! Badgers! The eternal cycle of Nature!' and I'm not going to disagree. According to Brandon Boyer at Offworld, the iPhone controls for the game make it slightly easier than the PC counterpart, which makes it an even more worthwhile purchase.

If you've got an iPhone, grab a copy from the App Store. If you don't, you can always go and play the PC version for free.

The Great Herring Chase is a collaborative effort between Greg Wohlwend and Jiggmin, in which you play a detective who is trying to track down the head of a criminal organization. This will require catching his henchmen and interrogating them one at a time, so that they would cough up information that will lead you to the next suspect.

At the start of each scene both you and the informant will be in two separate vehicles. You won't be able to do any driving, but you can direct the cab driver to drive faster or make simple turns by typing in the commands as shown at the bottom part of the screen. (source)

Bunny Blaster is a short arcade game created by the developer of On a Rainy Day, where the objective is to breed a thousand bunnies to win, simply by shooting at them using any or all of the four weapons at your disposal. There is no lose condition, and you can take as long as you want to complete your task. Windows only.

A quick warning: Dungeons and Dungeons is rather NSFW. It is, however, quite amusing - or maybe I'm just incredibly immature.

Funded by Adult Swim, D&D is a Castlevania parody involving S&M. Yes, you read it right. Guide Sadie and her little... 'friend' Max through 6 dungeons filled with explicitly dressed enemies and extremely crude weapons. It's not just the naughty factor that makes this fun though - it's an enjoyable platformer in its own right that's actually pretty challenging in areas.

Play it over on Newgrounds.

In this round-up, we highlight some of the notable jobs posted in big sister site Gamasutra's industry-leading game jobs section this week, including positions from Rockstar, Junction Point Studios, 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:

Octopounce was originally created for artxgame to be played by willing crowds at the Game Over/Continue? show at the Giant Robot gallery some time ago, but has only just become available for download now. It's a multiplayer experience for up to four players and it's recommended that you grab at least one friend before sitting down with it.

The object of Octopounce is to use your fellow octopodes to bounce high and grab as many fish as possible. There isn't really any scoring system however, and the game never ends, so it's more of a fun little mess-around which feels slightly Mario-like in its execution. The inclusion of a text ticker scrolling along the bottom handing out comments on your game is a nice touch too.

Don't worry if you don't have three friends to share the experience with you - the remaining squids will drift off to sleep and float around the level while you play. Download it from Auntie Pixelante's site.

Honestly, I have no idea what is going on in sqr. Andy Wolff has created an incredibly erratic and confused shmup which is simple yet quite beautiful looking.

Made completely out of squares, your ship will automatically fire randomly around the screen at the incoming enemies. Hold Z and a concentrated laser will plow through the small blue square following your ship, destroying anyone in that direction. A huge explosion can also be charging using X. (Note that pressing R will restart the game after death)

Part of its charm is the way in which the enemies appear to approach in such an indecisive manner, yet now and again they'll form pathways for your ship to drive through, then suddenly turn nasty and surround your ship. It's a bit like watching one of those simple artificial life simulators.

Try it out on Andy's blog (Source: Mouse No!)

KOI2 is a score-based arcade game created by the developers of Kissma, where players are required to tap the forehead of their partner as many times as they can before time runs out. A rather bland concept if not for the power-ups, of which there are plenty of it. By collecting a special item you are temporarily bestowed with a random ability to use and a costume change to match the theme as well.

The final score is displayed at the end of each round, which you can then submit to the high score table. Note that the same name cannot appear on the table twice, even when you have acquired a better score than the one already recorded.

[Time to announce the Independent Games Festival again for 2010. Here's the major submission dates -- and if you click on the new IGF 'signature image' (Blueberry Garden creator Erik Svedang) in this post, you'll even get a 'variant version'.]

Think Services, organizer of the industry-leading Game Developers Conference (GDC) events, is pleased to announce that submissions are now open for the 2010 Independent Games Festival. Entries to the 12th annual festival are due in both Main and Student Showcase categories by November 2009, with Main Competition finalists to be announced January 4, 2010.

Games selected as finalists will be available in playable form on the GDC show floor and will compete for nearly $50,000 in prizes, including awards for Excellence in Design, Art, the Audience Award and the coveted $20,000 Seumas McNally Grand Prize. Winners will be announced on stage at the prestigious Independent Games Festival Awards on Thursday, March 11, 2010, at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.

The Independent Games Festival Awards are held alongside the Game Developers Choice Awards and both award shows are part of the 2010 Game Developers Conference. GDC 2010 also includes the 2010 Independent Games Summit, which is entering its fourth year and offers two days of inspiration and practical lectures and rants from the top minds in the independent games world.

Space Rot is an arcade shooter created by Jinxtengu (Pasta Master), featuring Tempest-like controls and the sort of fancy graphical tricks that would make Jeff Minter proud. There are power-up items to collect, but their effects are randomized and the chances of getting a destructive weapon or a gun with a low rate of fire are just about equal here.

The scoring process is also never explained anywhere, although in general a higher score is acquired by shooting down more enemies and dodging anything that looks dangerous for as long as you can. In spite of all its flaws the game is still pretty fun to play, even when the lack of a high score table will deter most from spending too much time on it.

The Experimental Gameplay Project (a site that hosts short experimental games and monthly competitions) is up and running again. Though they've lost quite a few games during the downtime, the place now definitely looks a lot cleaner, leaner and ready for some serious game making business.

Kyle Gabler and Kyle Gray (founders of the site) will be adding more developers to their ranks in the coming weeks, but you can already download a few of their creations and expect to find Petri Purho and co. contributing with their own submissions soon. Maybe even a prototype for 2D Boy's next game?

Experimental Gameplay Project

Brainpipe, Winner of Excellence in Audio at this year's IGF awards, is now available on Steam with money off for a limited time.

The Steam blurb states:

"BRAINPIPE is a unique gaming experience. The ultimate objective is to transcend humanity. You do this by navigating the tunnels of your mind, exercising your hand-eye coordination while relishing in the funkadelic sights and sounds of your inner self. Collect the illuminated glyphs while avoiding the nasty obstacles. They may look all nice and shiny, even warm and inviting, but each brush with them brings you one step closer to eternal darkness!"

It's $11.99 (£8.79) for now and will eventually be $14.99 (£10.99). I've never given it a try if I'm honest, but Tim says he really liked it, although it's a rather 'acquired taste'. He talked about it back in December, where he also links to a demo for those who want to give it a chance.

Fragger is like a simple, more mindless version of Crush the Castle but just as much fun. Players choose the power and trajectory of a grenade and aim to blow up all the gormless-looking fellows dotted around each level.

The number of grenades at your disposal is limited, however, so working efficiently is essential. Strangely, the levels stay pretty simple for the first half of the game. For the last 15 levels, different puzzles come into play with certain obstacles needing a bit of destruction before advancement is available.

Play Fragger and have a blast.

I've seen this game mentioned on a couple of sites now, but was apprehensive about trying the demo out because it appears to be a matching game with physics applied to it (still is). Today it was brought to my attention that 2D Engine's Chains is being sold on Steam for only $2.49 (50% off the original price of $4.99), and that was enough to prompt me to take a look at the bargain-priced title.

The demo carries five playable levels out of the twenty included in the full release, and though it might sound like too little content for a taster, the first few stages will still take at least a good fifteen minutes to beat on your first try. You can choose between three difficulty settings, and there is an option to continue playing even after you've completed a level objective.

Each stage presents a unique challenge, but the one thing that remains consistent is that you'll be asked to remove as many coloured bubbles as you can until a task is completed or time runs out. Some will demand quick reflexes, others will test your puzzle-solving skills, and one particular level in the demo even calls for the player to perform simple mathematical calculations as well.

Whether the game is a definite purchase or not depends on your interest for physics-based puzzlers, but the trial version is certainly worth a try for the half-hour entertainment that it offers. (source: Rock, Paper, Shotgun)

Funded by Adult Swim, HRmageddon is a great office-based strategy game. Two players take it in turns to spread around the office, claiming cubicles as their own and destroying the opposition via staples to the eyes, server crashes and sexual harrassment.

There are four different classes to choose from and each has his or her own special abilities, fueled by coffee which is collected every turn. The object is to take more cubicles than your opponent or wipe their whole team out.

You can choose to play against either the computer or against a friend/randomer over the internet. Give it a play at Adult Swim.

Learn the true meaning of Free Will through the most realistic Game Boy adventure you've ever seen!

It's a joke, folks, so don't get too stressed at it's seemingly strange design choices. As for whether it's funny or not... well, let's just say this isn't your normal idea of free will.

It's over at Kongregate. (source: Mouse No!)

Chris Crawford and Jason Rohrer were the two subjects recently featured on Durch die Nacht mit (Into the Night with), a German/French co-produced documentary series focusing on two different personalities in each episode (celebrities or otherwise) who meet for the first time for the camera crew to capture on video.

The hour-long episode is available to watch here until July 9th, although visitors outside of Europe won't be able to access the clip. However, thanks to folks like Bruno from CoreGaming, you may be able to find the entire show via other means.

Amanita Design has started taking pre-orders for their upcoming 2D adventure game Machinarium, and customers who purchase it early will get a three dollar discount off the regular price of $20. Buying the game before it is launched also entitles you to a pre-order pack that comes with songs from the Machinarium soundtrack, among other things.

Machinarium is scheduled for a release this October 2009, and will be available for both Windows and Mac OS X operating systems. (source)

Amanita Design blog

Bulletsss is a puzzle platformer that requires a fair amount of quick reflexes and serious thought from the player in equal parts, as the challenges and obstacles in the game can be rather difficult to complete even at the normal difficulty setting. Graphically it looks a lot more refined than the prequel BulletZORZ, but gameplay-wise the only major additions are the coloured lines that prevents either you or your bullets from passing through, and the ability to propel yourself in the opposite direction when shooting a bullet or wall at point blank range.

The main objective of Bulletsss is basically to collect all yellow gems in each area, then proceed to the goal flag to complete the level. Bullets move at a slow speed in this game, and you can use them as platforms to reach areas which are normally inaccessible with your basic jump skill. Projectiles will only hurt you if you touch them at the rounded end, and this includes bullets shot from your own gun as well.

Red lines kill on contact, while blue lines prevent a bullet from passing through. All sixteen levels included in the game can be played in any order, plus you can test your skills even further by playing the game at the hard difficulty setting with limited bullets to use in every stage.

Graduate Games' physics-based puzzle game, The Magic Toy Chest, can be downloaded for free today. The puzzler plays like a mix of The Incredible Machine and Crayon Physics, offers sixteen toys to use (each with a different weight and function), and comes with a comprehensive level editor that allows users to design and share their creations with their friends and family.

One thing I've noticed about the game is that the loading time between levels can take up to a few seconds. To avoid any wait when restarting a puzzle to perfect your solution, just press the Q key and everything will be placed back in their original positions instantly.

You don't need to key in any detail about yourself or acquire a credit card to download the full game. Simply type in any information for the required fields (at least five digits for daytime phone number), select PayPal as your payment method, and input BLKW000TH for the coupon code to get a full discount. A download link will then be supplied to you on the next page. Quick, easy and hassle-free.

For the Windows operating system only, and the offer expires at the end of July 5th, 2009. (today)

Holdover is a puzzle platformer in the style of the old Metroid series, where you are in control of a girl named Marie who had just woken up from a deep slumber inside an abandoned research complex. A holographic image of Marie's father informs her that she was involved in an accident many years ago, and had to be kept inside a medical treatment capsule for some time so that her organs could be regenerated by scientific means. After listening to her father's advice, she sets out to explore the complex and recover her motor skills which were impaired by her long sleep in the life chamber.

The research facility is a labyrinth of corridors, platforms and underwater sections, presumably caused by flooding in the lower levels of the building. Since you can't swim nor jump very high at the start of the game, the time in which you spent underwater will be limited to how long you can hold your breath. This is indicated by the bubble shown at the top left part of the screen, and Marie will drown when this counter reaches zero. Collecting enough blue hearts, and the ability to hold her breath underwater will improve.

Players can save their progress at any time by using the quick save slot, while maps and hints in Japanese can be accessed by clicking on the capture button at the official site. To download the game, just click on the blue button at the upper right part of the web page and a link to the zip file will appear. Take note that Holdover does have some blood and nudity in it. (unpack using 7-Zip)

Spotted this via the Twitter of Ian Marsh (Nimblebit) - an arcade-style plane shooter called Aera coming soon for your iThing.

A few things make this look incredibly awesome: (1) You can record your flights and replay them; (2) There's a 'Second Chance' feature which is basically the PoP/Braid-like 'reverse time when you die' mechanic; (3) It appears to have some nice multiplayer features going on.

No release date or price is set yet, but this is definitely shaping up to be a solid title for the App Store.

Note: Video contains flashing images which may cause photosensitive epileptic seizures.

This Something Awful GameDev Challenge IV competition entry isn't packing a lot of gameplay (only one level, tries to copy cactus a bit too much, ripped sprites etc.) but you can't beat an intro like that when it comes to cooking up a background story for your game under pressure.

Video quality is very poor and the text is hardly readable, although it doesn't matter anyway as the epilepsy-inducing Game Maker release is already available for download and play. (music by AA.Kurtz, screenshots)

Vanguard Princess is a freeware versus fighting game created with Enterbrain's 2D Fighter Maker engine, featuring the sort of quality normally reserved for full-price commercial releases. There are ten playable characters to choose from, an assortment of special moves distinct to each combatant, excellent sprite work, creative costume designs, and even a multiplayer mode that is unfortunately limited to just two people playing on the same computer with no online capabilities. Depending on your interest in the genre you could still squeeze out an hour's play or two from it, although the end sequence for every character is practically the same.

The game will only work on Windows operating systems which can read names of files and folders in Japanese, or those that already have the Japanese language pack already installed (XP instructions, or use AppLocale). You can switch between full screen and windowed mode by using the left Alt and Enter key, while the button configuration option is accessible via the menu bar. (source: Canned Dogs)

Author's web site
Vector information page
direct download link
moves list
AppLocale instructions (by TC-man)
Vanguard Princess wiki

In this round-up, we highlight some of the notable jobs posted in big sister site Gamasutra's industry-leading game jobs section this week, including positions from Blizzard, Microsoft Game Studios 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:

Aubergine Sky is a short puzzle game which is controlled entirely using the mouse, with no keyboard input required from the player. The story follows a man who is taking a quiet stroll on the outskirts of his town, lost in his thoughts and deeply troubled by some personal worries. Your task is to figure out a solution to the puzzle in each location, and to execute the action correctly in order to progress.

There are only a handful of screens to visit, and you won't be needing more than a couple of minutes to complete the entire game. (mirrors: Kongregate, Newgrounds)

Of course, it was already obvious that the Xbox 360 was going to be at least one platform of choice for Polytron's upcoming title Fez due to the ickle A buttons displayed on past screenshots.

Now Phil Fish has announced that their incredible-looking platformer will be coming to an Xbox near you early next year. I don't know about you, but I think I'll be using permanent marker to scribble the word BUSY across the entirety of early 2010 on my calendar. Check here if you can't remember why this is seriously one to watch out for.

Trine, a mix of 'Prince of Persia with Flashback', is now available to download through Steam for $29.99 (£19.99).

I'll be perfectly honest, I only noticed Trine a month ago, but the most recent trailer (shown after the cut) and a play through the demo was enough to get me interested.

Here's the blurb:

Trine is a fantasy action game where the player can create and use physics-based objects to beat hazardous puzzles and threatening enemies. Set in a world of great castles and strange machinery, three heroes are bound to a mysterious device called the Trine in a quest to save the kingdom from evil…

Switching between these three heroes is essential to completing each puzzles and destroying enemies. The demo is definitely worth a play, showing off the first level. As usual I will be reporting back sometime next week with my opinion. For now check out the official Trine site for more details.

Push is a twisted platformer all about moving the level around to reach the goal. The WASD keys move the little expressionless guy around, while clicking the mouse button will push all the surrounding blocks away from the centre of your click, allowing him to progress past originally solid walls.

Great concept, yet painfully difficult to master. Push the blocks in the wrong way and your guy will go splat. I was terrible at it. See how you fare at BonusLevel.

[We're starting to announce the content for the first-ever Indie Games Summit @ GDC Austin, and though this is only about a third of the total lectures, you can see it should be a hopefully interesting gathering of the minds. Full info below...]

Organizers of this September's Independent Games Summit at GDC Austin have announced first speakers, with the indies behind titles like Bit.Trip Beat, Age Of Booty, Fantastic Contraption, and DeathSpank speaking on a multitude of notable topics.

Initial information about the September 15th-16th Summit, a separate part of the wider, 'connected game'-focused Austin-based event, is available on the GDC Austin website. Other Summits taking place at GDC Austin this year include a brand-new iPhone Games Summit and the notable, long-running Writing and Audio Summits..

Details on the Independent Games Summit at GDC Austin include specifics on the first five lectures and panels for the first-ever Austin edition of the popular main GDC event, and the highlights include:

- In 'The Bit.Trip Series: Holistic Indie Console Game Design', Gaijin Games' Alex Neuse will speak on "how the small team created the retro-infused [game] series, giving tips on standing out on WiiWare and how to intelligently mine classic gaming for a unique look."

- Speaking in 'Business Managing Your Indie Developer Through The Downturn', Jennifer Bullard of local Texas independent developer Certain Affinity, which has done contract work for big AAA console titles (Left 4 Dead, Call Of Duty: World At War) and developed significant original IP (downloadable title Age Of Booty) will discuss running your indie as a business, and how a small company intelligently juggles work for hire and original IP.

- In a lecture called 'Postmortem: The Design & Business Behind Fantastic Contraption', Colin Northway will explain how the Flash-based physics sandbox webgame -- which has been played by millions of people, and brought in six-figure profits for its single developer -- was designed, monetized and marketed itself, based on an initially free title with paid upgrades.

- Wolfire COO John Graham (co-creator of the upcoming Overgrowth) will discuss 'Effective Marketing For Indie Game Developers', explaining how you use your own website, social networking channels, independent editorial content, and even pre-release versions of your tools to build a robust community around your game before it even ships.

- Finally, in 'The Indie Business Rant', notables including Hothead's Joel DeYoung (DeathSpank, Penny Arcade Adventures), Klei's Jamie Cheng (Shank), and IGS advisory board members Matthew Wegner (Blurst.com, Crane Wars) and Adam Saltsman (Fathom) will "each give short 5-10 minute presentations on aspects of indie business that irk, disgust, or nauseate them, hopefully also including some panaceas for the indie business pain that sickens them."

More information on 2009's Independent Games Summit at Austin GDC, including registration details and other specifics, is available at the official IGS @ Austin GDC website.

Adventure games are a lost art these days. Not to sound like an old man, but they just don't make them like they used to. I can't say I particularly enjoyed the more recent outings of a certain dog and rabbit (or any of Telltale's recent works to be perfectly honest) and nothing else has really caught my attention.

Time Gentlemen, Please!, the sequel to Ben There, Dan That, is not only the best adventure game I've played in a very long time - it is one of the best adventure games I've played. Ever.

And it's $5.

In general, I don't usually laugh out loud at games. It's not a rule of mine - I just find the majority of gaming humour will at most achieve a grin from me. When I say that Zombie Cow Studios caused me to chuckle on numerous occasions, I must point out the bias; Time Gentlemen, Please! is written in a very British manner and, since my heritage aligns, I in turn adored the humour. It is incredibly British, with a mix of witty banter, silly animations and hilarious facial expressions.

But seriously, have you seen the plot? After accidently wiping out the whole human race, hero Ben and his sidekick Dan go back in time to stop coathangers being invented and, in turn, allow Hitler to take over the world with his army of Nazi dinosaurs. Clearly the game is aimed at an adult audience and contains multiple swears, literal toilet humour and general rudeness.