Canabalt is a simple one-button action game where you are in control of a well-dressed man who can't stop running, leaping from the top of one building to another as the city is being attacked by giant robots and futuristic-looking ships.

You can control the height of your jumps by holding down the button for a longer or shorter period. Running into obstacles will slow you down, and they could be dangerous to crash into if you need all the speed you can get to clear a long gap between buildings.

Canabalt was created by Adam Saltsman for Experimental Gameplay Project's August theme, 'Bare Minimum'. Music was written by Daniel Baranowsky. (source, screenshots, 3x mega version for 1080p and high resolution displays)

Here's something a little different from my normal posts, but bear with me for a second. Pretweeting is a bit like buying and selling shares but in Twitter form (hence if you don't use Twitter, you might as well stop reading now).

Every word has a value depending on how often it is being mentioned on Twitter at that moment. So the idea is to buy up lots of words which aren't being talked about right now but you believe will soon be popular - that is, pretweet them. For example, if you know a big event is coming up, you might want to grab the name of it so that you can sell it on the day.

There are other factors that come into play. There is a maximum number of words that you can own at one time, and certain words take up more 'slots' than other words. For example, 'lol', 'the' and 'RT' are all understandably worth more than lots of other words since they are said so often.

Sounds pretty complicated, but there are some nice features to help you out when deciding which words to choose. Entering a word into the search box will bring up a graph showing how popular your chosen word has been over the last week. If you see there is a pattern in its popularity, you can use that to your advantage. There's also a word list to show the top most popular words at that moment.

If you do a lot of Twittering, it's worth checking this out - it's actually a good bit of fun. Plus there are prizes for the winners each few days! Sign up over at Pretweeting.com.

Positech Games, Cliff Harris' UK-based one-man games company, have opened their upcoming title Gratuitous Space Battles for pre-order.

The game is now available for pre-order at a price of £19.95 (£13.18) + VAT. While there is no release date set for the game, all pre-orders will receive a beta version of the title which, while not the final product, apparently has a good portion of the finished release in there. Here's the blurb from the GSB site for those who don't know what it is:

"It's a strategy / management / simulation game that does away with all the base building and delays and gets straight to the meat and potatoes of science-fiction games: The big space battles fought by huge spaceships with tons of laser beams and things going 'zap!', 'ka-boom!' and 'ka-pow!'.

In GSB you put your ships together from modular components, arrange them into fleets, give your ships orders of engagement and then hope they emerge victorious from battle (or at least blow to bits in aesthetically pleasing ways)."

Check here for one of the latest gameplay trailers for the game.

Depending on how good you are at overcoming difficult challenges, Beacon can be a rather lengthy platformer that will take some time to beat. Shadows are lurking in every corner waiting for our protagonist to make a wrong move, but as luck would have it a beacon of light appears out of nowhere to help him illuminate the way forward.

The beacon will occasionally take a branching path that is out of your reach, and you would have to rely on the light from blue and red crystals just as often to progress. This Ludum Dare competition entry is for Windows only. (updated version with save feature)

In Tower Climber, a princess has been turned into stone and held captive at the top of a tall tower. And as the hero of the kingdom, it is up to you to save the day by collecting all one hundred gems inside the tower and casting a spell to turn the fair maiden back to her beautiful self again.

This one-button arcade game doesn't get difficult until after the thirtieth floor, when a row of spikes will appear to hurry you on your ascent towards the prize. Monsters have the same petrifying spell that was afflicts the princess, so you'd do well to avoid them or get yourself frozen for a couple of precious seconds.

Labyrinth Hero is a bite-sized roguelike game where each floor consists of only two enemies, a treasure chest, a switch and a hidden staircase. You can play with either the keyboard or mouse, but your hero will only travel at half speed because every living creature on the floor will have their turn just after you've made your move. Once you've dispatched both enemies, the movement speed will then be restored back to normal.

Your maximum hit point is increased by one whenever you put down an enemy. If you lose at any stage you can begin from the first floor with your previous hit point stats, simply by selecting yes to the question asked after you've clicked on the play option. There are only ten floors to explore, and the quest is completed once you've discovered the magical crystal ball somewhere in the final level.

Synopsis Quest is a collection of puzzle and arcade-based side quests, where the hero can be trying to save a princess in one minute and attempting to loot treasure from the enemy's lair in the next. You are free to play the missions in any order, although nothing new is unlocked even after you've beaten all seven of them.

A shmup WIP by Andy Wolff. Loving the blur effect coupled with a feeling of serious speed.

In Little Space Duo, you play as a young girl named Lucy who was captured by an alien cargo ship after being wrongly mistaken for an Earth specimen. She befriends a small robot on the ship (which she nicknamed Sunny), and the both of them set out to fix things and find a way to send Lucy back to where she came from.

Players have to switch between both characters frequently throughout the game in order to solve some of the more difficult puzzles. Cargo robots that patrol the corridors must be avoided, else you risk being transported back to the start of the level and having all of your good work up to that point undone.

Save points can be found in certain areas as well, and they come in very handy whenever you feel the need to experiment with a couple of possible solutions for any puzzle segments.

There are five levels to play in this beta demo version. (source)

Guardian Rock is a great new browser game title that makes full use of [EDIT: Zelda things excised!] sliding block puzzle fun. Stefan Ahlin (or Torpedolab, as he calls himself) has, however, taken the idea a lot further and there are some truly difficult solutions to be found here.

The idea is to slide the 'Guardian Rock' around the levels and crush all the explorers. Problem is, once old G Rock starts moving, he can't stop until he's crashed into something solid. He's then got to reach the goal once all the little men have been walloped! It's a hard life, this 'protecting the ancient temple' thing.

Give it a blast over on Torpedolab. Oh, and while you're over there, give Super Briefcase a quick go, too. I meant to give it a mention a while back but it slipped my mind. (Thanks to Alex Shen for the recommendation!)

Just a small note that the entry deadline for submissions to the Indie Game Challenge has been extended from October 1 to October 31 2009, according to the official site for the competition. GameStop, The Guildhall at SMU and The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences (AIAS) are offering over $200,000 in prizes to the winners, so the extra month is definitely a bonus for any developers who are looking to prepare a more complete build of their entry before submitting it for the contest.

We've done a basic summary of the rules and regulations back in June, and it has to be mentioned as a reminder that the competition is only open to U.S. residents only. Do observe that physical copies of your game and pitch videos have to be mailed to the organizers before the new deadline date in order to qualify as well.

A warning in advance - nothing about this adventure game experience makes any sense whatsoever, including the ridiculous name. But my, what an experience it is. Playing as a walking, talking frying pan, you're sent back post-death to live your life properly.

The problem is, it's not exactly clear what you're meant to be going back in time to do. Cue randomly trying different things, finding the best outcomes and crashing your car repeatedly to restart time again in a very Groundhog Day-esque style.

The game is quite heavy in dialogue, but fortunately it's pretty hilarious in most parts (although maybe a little tasteless in others). Please be warned, rude conversations are plentiful and there's a few naughty pictures too. I'm sure that will just make you want to play it more rather than deter, right?

Grab it from the GZ Storm site. (Source: Tee Eye Gee)

Aha, my colleagues at GDC Austin 2009 have just tipped me the wink that they (part of Think Services, as is IndieGames.com) are doing a special discount for latecomers who _just_ want to attend the various Summits on September 15th-16th in beautiful Austin, Texas.

Simultaneously, we've actually completed the line-up for the Indie Game Summit at GDC Austin with a neat latecomer - 2D Boy's Ron Carmel is speaking on 'Beyond the Finish Line of Shipping an Indie Game', discussing "World of Goo's post-release surprises, how they were dealt with, and how they could be better addressed in the future."

The full IGS @ Austin line-up also includes a whole heap of neat local, national, and international indies, including some of the guys behind Bit.Trip Beat, Aquaria, And Yet It Moves, Fantastic Contraption, Age Of Booty, 'Splosion Man, and many more.

Slick Entertainment, one of the collaborators on the wonderful N+, have announced that their second title Scrap Metal will be coming to Xbox Live Arcade sometime next year.

Scrap Metal is an old-school top-down racer mixed with updated physics and HD graphics. There are two ways to win a race - either power your way across the finish line first, or turn every other car into scrap metal. What makes me especially excited about this is the online multiplayer - you can imagine this is a game that would benefit very much from a good online tussle.

For all the Scrap Metal info you'll need, point your mouse at Slick Entertainment's site.

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 Rockstar North, Grasshopper Manufacture 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 this week include:

Jeremy Spillmann is a game design graduate of the Zürich School of the Arts, and August Wind is his Bachelor project. Described as a 'free-roaming shooter', a prototype is available for download.

What struck me first was the incredible art style - it's a joy to watch in motion. I also loved the idea that Jeremy put forward as his concept - 'a shmup that lets you decide how to spend your valuable time each day to be successful'.

The story goes as follows: a badger named Andreas travels to Eelhaven VII, dreaming of a life of fame and recognition. Teaming up with Penelope, 'a seasoned but luckless eelminer', they participate in the eelmining competition in which pilots 'harvest valuable metal from the old world below the thick skylayer off the backs of majestic cloudeel'.

Crazy stuff. It's still in prototype form, so the missions and general storyline are missing as of yet - however there's still a rather large area to explore and a good number of activities to participate in. Grab it from the August Wind site.

Waker is a puzzle platformer in which the player has to build their own platforms to reach the goal. To create a new path, you must first reach a magical orb and grab it with the action button. You can then control how the platform is to be drawn by moving the creature around the screen.

There are three worlds to explore in total, each with their own subset of levels. An abstract version of the same game called Woosh was also released together with Waker, and you can find some of the other Summer 2009 Gambit Prototypes from this page.

Pierre: Insanity Inspired tells the story of a cat with an eye for art, who has to run around circular platforms and acquire items to finish his masterpiece. Items can only be collected when they align with the right symbols on the platform, indicated by a bright glow around it. You lose health whenever you grab an item while standing over the wrong sector, or when you touch a spiky ball by accident.

Items and spiky balls can be pushed away with the press of the down arrow key or D button. There are six levels to play in total.

It was announced on The Odd Gentlemen site today that former 2008 IGF Student Showcase finalist 'The Misadventures Of P.B. Winterbottom' will be released on the Xbox Live Arcade service early next year, courtesy of a publishing deal signed with 2K Play (a division of 2K Games). Visitors to the upcoming 2009 Penny Arcade Expo can also play the XBLA version for the first time at 2K's exhibition booth this September 4th to 6th.

2K Games Picks Up Indie Games P.B. Winterbottom, Axel & Pixel For XBLA (Gamasutra)

Finalists for the Sense of Wonder Night 2009 event (to be held at the Tokyo Game Show venue) have been revealed, with all ten participants required to present and demonstrate their games to attending visitors this coming September 25th, 2009.

Ball Carry, by Takuya Ono
ecolpit, by misi (trailer only)
Hazard - The Journey of Life, by Alexander Bruce (trailer only)
His and Her Disconnected Conversations, by Himo (playable build available)
Incompatible BLOCK, by Jun Fujiki (creator of Echochrome, playable build available)
para rail, by Kuniaki Watanabe and Onitama
Shadow Physics, by Enemy Airship (trailer only)
Swarm Racer 3000, by Joseph White (trailer only)
Transcend, by Zach Aikman (follow-up to IGF Student Showcase winner Synaesthete)
You Only Live Once, by Marcus Richert (playable build available)

TGS Announces Second 'Sense Of Wonder Night' Indie Mini-Fest (GameSetWatch)

The latest trailer for Grapple Buggy, an Xbox Live game from Mommy's Best Games due for release in 2010 (via XNPlay)

Since I (Simon) am helping to judge this Independent Games Festival add-on event, just a note for anyone in the Asia-Pacific region (including Japan, China, Asia in general and even Australia/New Zealand).

We've just posted new information, including judge specifics, on the first Independent Games Festival China event, taking place in Shanghai this October alongside the second GDC China event.

The deadline for IGF China is September 7th, and the smaller satellite event is free to enter, with winners being displayed at the October GDC China event. (There will also be a small Independent Games Summit with a mix of Western and Chinese speakers at the October 11th-13th event.)

Here's the English-language page and Chinese-language page on IGF China if you'd like to learn more.

Paul Taylor of Mode 7 Games has posted an epic 4 page article explaining the ins and outs of generating excitement for your indie gaming projects.

Beginning with the basics ("Obscurity is literally the worst thing that can possibly happen to you and your game") he plows his way through the art of getting your game out there in the public eye, in handy stage form. It's pretty much all covered here - writing the press release, getting mentions on gaming sites and blogs, release hype, pre-orders - the works. It's then all followed up with a great bunch of links to people and places where developers can find even more help.

Definitely worth a read through for any budding developer, and for anyone else it's a great insight into 'the inner workings' of creating games. Check it out on Gamasutra.

The most excellent Time Gentlemen, Please!, Zombie Cow's hilarious adventure starring two friends powering their way through time in an attempt to stop Hitler and his army of Nazi dinosaurs, is now available to purchase via Steam.

It's bundled along with the prequel Ben There, Dan That for a tidy $4.99 (£2.99). I enjoyed it rather a lot (and so did many others) so if you haven't grabbed a copy yet, at least give the demo a gander.

Also on the Ben and Dan series front, due to the huge success of Time Gentlemen, Please!, the guys have decided to continue the adventures, opting for the latest craze in adventure gaming at the moment - episodic releases.

Dan Marshall of Zombie Cow Studios explained:

“We’re looking at doing shorter, cheaper, standalone jabs of entertainment – possibly just an hour or so’s gameplay to slot into that gap you’ve got on a weekday evening, the same sort of length as an episode of something on TV.

We’ve come up with an amazing opener – something that’s a bit of a refreshing departure from the other games, but still slots in nicely with the idea of Dan and Ben being old-school adventurers, always getting themselves into scrapes. The really exciting thing for me about doing shorter games is that we can do much more interesting things in terms of puzzles, settings, complexity and mechanics."

Check out the TGP Steam Store page for more info on purchasing the series to date.

Mine Tower is a vertically scrolling version of the classic Minesweeper. Created by ha55ii over on the Dan-Ball site, it makes for a fast-paced and urgent take on the original.

It's pretty much the exact same set-up we're all used to, except that all the tiles are constantly moving downward. There is one strange design choice however - when you hit a mine, rather than the game ending instantly, it waits until the detonated mine reaches the bottom of the screen before displaying GAME OVER. Other than that, it's pretty decent fun. Minesweeper used to be the only game my brick of a phone could handle, so maybe I enjoyed this more than others will.

Either way, check it out over on Dan-Ball. (Thanks to... 'Someone' for recommending!)

If you own an Xbox 360, please do yourself a favour. Go switch it on, maneuver your way to the Indie Games section and use 80 of your Microsoft Points - that's a mere dollar - to grab a copy of Jamezila's I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES 1N IT!!!1 It's the Best Selling and Top Rated title in the entire XBLIG catalogue for a reason, you know.

OK, so it has a stupid name and that might be putting you off, but you seriously shouldn't let it. What's on offer here is a mindless, top-down shooter which is way too much fun for its own good. The premise is simple: Zombies are advancing - take them down. There are special weapon pickups to help knock em down faster and other performance enhancing grabbables, but all in all there is one key idea - just keep shooting.

Coming soon, according to Rob Fearon. Rejoice, ye Xbox gamers!

I didn't check out Droplitz when it first appeared in June, hence I didn't post about it. Right now there's 80% off Blitz Games' casual puzzler until August 28th, so I couldn't resist.

Glad I didn't resist too, as it's seriously addictive fun. First impressions weren't great - it just looked like your standard 'create a path to the bottom' game (think Downfall) and it felt incredibly difficult to gather a decent score. However, after half an hour it all finally clicked - my head was around it and I was away, churning up the points. The frantic pacing keeps you on your toes and the gorgeous visuals explode at every path created and combo reached.

There are a few different modes and backdrops to play around with, but in general there's only really one style of gameplay so I predict it will get boring eventually. However, I've been playing for a good 3 hours now and I'll still loving it (maybe a little too much).

Definitely worth grabbing while it's on sale for such a ridiculous price. More info over on the Droplitz Steam Store page.

Not sure how I managed to miss this when it was released a couple of weeks ago - Askiisoft's Tower of Heaven is a wonderful platformer which will have you tearing large chunks of hair - nay, SKIN - from your cranium.

Your task is to ascend said tower, but a mysterious power which resides at the top is doing everything it can to make sure you don't succeed. The introduction of the 'Book of Laws' early on ramps the difficulty up tenfold. Oh, and there's a time limit too.

Special mention should go to Flashy Goodness, whose provided soundtrack is simply amazing. It really gels well with the general feel of the entire experience.

Prepare to shout OH COME ON many, many times. Grab it from Askiisoft.

In our latest employment-docious 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 Telltale Games, LucasArts 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 this week include:

Throwing this quick one out there to compliment the wonderful Sunday I'm sure you're having. It's called Rationalization and in Mike Treanor's words:

"I created the game in response to recent events in my life and to help me think through some philosophical ideas of Ayn Rand"

I got a kick out of it and hopefully you will too. Play it here.

Be My Bird is an experimental game which delves into the realms of neural networks via a flower-gathering bird. It is possible to teach the bird how to gather the flowers and bring them back to his nest, so that eventually he does it all on his own.

The plus and minus buttons below the action are the key. Clicking - will indicate to our feathery pal that what he is doing is wrong, while clicking + will tell him yes, that's right! Hence, when he is empty-handed, clicking the plus as he moves towards the flowers and the minus as he moves away from them is the general idea. Inversely, once he has collected a flower, giving him positive feedback as he moves towards the nest will help him understand what the goal is.

Eventually no clicking will be necessary and he'll flutter around grabbing the flowers by himself. It's best to begin with the 'Cakewalk' mode to get a general feel for how it all works. For those interested in how it all works, the neural networking paths are on display to the right of the action.

Note that the game doesn't seem to work too well with smaller resolutions (the plus and minus buttons can get cut off at the bottom) and you may need to put your browser into fullscreen mode (F11 for Firefox users) to be able to play properly. BeMyBird.com to give it a go!

Scrapp is Andrew Brophy's entry into the GameCOG Explosions competition and it's a rather colourful shmup to say the least. Destroy the constant stream of enemies with your rainbow lasers and rack up a high score.

The art style here is simply gorgeous, from the blurred surroundings whilst firing to the enternal scrolling words in the background. Easiest mode is by far the most fun, allowing you to unleash hell via brightly-coloured swirling patterns of death.

Definite eye candy and a nice little shooter to boot. Download it from Andrew's Overblog.

Broken Brothers is Michael Todd's entry for the latest Experimental Gameplay Project. It's an RTS title with the tagline 'Gather, Survive, Expand, Unlock'. Very challenging gameplay ahoy!

Beginning with 'Malakai', who is basically your Headquarters, the idea is to gather 'hope' via Harvester units, then use this hope to build attacking units like tanks and bombers. Once your army is prepared, it's time to explore the world, destroying the constant threat from evil bug creature thingies and finding your brothers.

Michael decided to go for the 'bare minimum' concerning the graphical style, as the game needed to be fully completed within 7 days, but he's managed to create a world which is sparse yet striking. The constant flow of enemies is incredibly difficult to hold back and it's definitely a good idea to venture out early and get a foot in the door before they begin to attack.

Get more info from the EGP site, then download it from Michael's Spyeart webby.

Issue #6 of Indie Game Magazine is out and available for purchase. The PDF version costs $5.74 and you can also get it mailed straight to your door on that 'paper' stuff for a little bit extra.

Games featuring in issue 6 include Faerie Solitaire (which I admitted to having a thing for a while back), Blueberry Garden and Light of Altair. There's also a feature in which the IGM guys have a crack at ranking the most recent indie games "purely by their demo".

Head on over to the IGM site for all the info.

Some good news for Mac users - Tanaka's Friendly Adventure (an exploration game by Bento Smile) is now playable on Kongregate. There's no need to download anything, and your progress is automatically saved after each adventure.

Pandora's Gearbox (Indiebird's clever physics-based puzzler) can now be played on Intel-based Mac systems, so you might want to check that out as well. You can find gameplay videos for both games after the cut.

Boom is a low-res remake of id Software's breakout FPS, rendered in 3D using the Game Boy's limited four colour palette for all in-game graphics. Everything is controlled using the keyboard, and you can switch between windowed and full screen mode by pressing the F4 function key.

The difficulty setting adjusts the damage you take for every hit and modifies the aggresiveness of the enemies as well. There are only two levels to play in total.

Fig. 8 is a short arcade game by Intuition Games in which you control a bike, scoring points and navigating around drawings of technical diagrams on white space. The front wheel of the bicycle draws a red line, while the back wheel creates a blue one. The score multiplier increases whenever you keep these two lines aligned. There are some other ways to score points as well (grazing a technical diagram, for example).

You can draw a circle around checkpoint markers to save, and if you crash your bike into a diagram you will automatically resume the game from the last checkpoint location circled.

Maya Kai is a freeware horizontal shooter that features two playable characters and four levels to beat. Both characters have their own set of special abilities, ranging from the usual clear screen spell to the special bullet deflection power. Using any of these skills will cost you purple gems, deducted from your gem count shown at the top left corner of the screen. Gems are collected automatically if you refrain from shooting for a fraction of a second.

The game offers unlimited continues and a configurable difficulty setting as well, in addition to a couple of other tweaks which you can find inside the options menu. (Vector download link)

A trailer for Broken Rules' upcoming WiiWare version of And Yet It Moves. (interview)

Here are preview clips and gameplay videos from a couple of upcoming projects (and a recently released game). First up is No Quarter: Hitler Must Die!, Cryptic Sea's game compilation project.

The team is seeking beta testers for the game, so if you're interested in joining you can contact them via this page.

A preview clip of two levels from lexaloffle's Swarm Racer 3000, which originally started out life as a Ludum Dare competition entry.

The Assembly '09 organizers had begun posting up clips from this year's sessions for the public to download. Recordings of talks by Erik Svedäng (Blueberry Garden), Eskil Steenberg (Love) and many more are now available from the media section of the Assembly site.

Erik's presentation is titled "881_The_Creation_of_Blueberry_Garden", while Eskil's speech is named "879_Developing-the-technology-behind-Love". Both of these are in English.

The trailer for Briefcase Romanin, Clever Hans Productions' Dream Build Play competition entry.

Pizza Morgana is an episodic adventure series which sees a young girl accidently thrown into a world of monsters, vampires, faeries, and daemons - who all work as pizza deliverers! The first episode 'Monsters and Manipulations in The Magical Forest' was released today and is available for $8.95 (or $34.95 to secure yourself the whole series as they are released).

The areas are beautifully drawn with cel-shaded characters inhabiting them. The game appears to be quite child-orientated at first, but it actually turns out to be very well rounded and made me smile numerous times. The voice-acting is especially wonderful - Corbomite actually got a few Hollywood actors in to bring the characters to life and it has paid off superbly for them - vampire Abbie Positive and The Watcher in particular are really brought to life.

It's a relatively short ordeal, clocking in at around 60-90 minutes and the puzzles are far from taxing, but it's still good fun. If you're an adventure game nut, you may well enjoy this a lot. Check out more details at the Pizza Morgana site.

At first glance, Osmos looks like another one of those 'organism vs organism' eat-em-ups. Dodge anything bigger than you, consume everything smaller, grow in size, repeat. It's a tried and tested formula of late - yet a formula which is in need of some serious alterations to keep it fresh.

Hemisphere Games have attempted to take this idea to a new level, and as a result Osmos is not just the pinnacle of organism simulation play - it's also a fantastic action game and a damn good puzzler to boot.

The basics first: You follow a tiny living cell which must navigate an equally miniscule world by sacrificing itself bit by bit in an attempt to propel its matter around. Other such beings are dotted around the level and colliding with anything smaller than yourself will absorb them into your cell, resulting in your blob growing in size. Finding the balance between sacrifice vs absorption is essential and perfecting this will eventually see you through.

You are Maximillian Q. Worthington in Jabberwock's Window Hater, a man who has a deep hatred for windows. One day a mysterious parcel appears at his doorstep, and he is absolutely delighted to find a jetpack and a flamethrower inside it. Without hesitation he straps on the jetpack and sets off into the sky to break as many windows as he can in the eight levels included with this build.

The objective of the game is to break all windows in each area before time runs out, simply by heating them up with your flamethrower until they shatter into hundreds of tiny glass fragments. A window cools down very quickly as well, so you might want to keep your weapon pointed at one until it breaks just to make sure that they don't bother you ever again.

Helicopters will attempt to poison you, shoot you down or reduce the temperature of any heated window with streams of water in the latter stages. There isn't a way to take them out with your flamethrower, but you can still dodge their missiles and projectiles if you know how to handle the jetpack well enough. (download link)

Paul Pridham's Saucelifter (a loose remake of Choplifter on the iPhone) is available as a free download for the rest of the day, which is normally priced at 99 cents (as indicated by Joe Larson of ASCIIpOrtal fame in the video shown above). Best to grab it quickly before the offer expires.

The developer is currently hard at work porting Sword of Fargoal for the iPhone, so keep an eye out for that as well.

There's been some interesting reactions to the recent changes Xbox Live Community Games (now Xbox Live Indie Games) has undergone, mainly revolving around the new pricing system. Games available through the scheme will now set you back either 400 Microsoft Points ($5/£3.40), 240 MSP ($3/£2.04) or 80 MSP ($1/£0.68).

Two of the other main, big changes that caught my eye were the ability for users to rate every game out of five (hopefully kicking some of those lesser titles down a notch) and the distribution of tokens which allow developers to give copies of their game away for reviewing purposes.

With this is mind, we're hoping to review indie games available through the Xbox Live Indie Games channel much more. If you are an Xbox Live Indie Games developer and would like us to check your game out, please fire an email off to me at michaelrose@indiegames.com and I'll make sure I find the time to sit down and give your title a run-through.

Of course, if there are any PSN or Wii-Ware developers out there looking for coverage, we'd be more than happy to help you guys out too!

[EDITOR'S NOTE: Don't forget that sister 'console digital download' site GamerBytes, run by Ryan Langley, also covers console downloadable games of all shapes and sizes, including Xbox Live Indie Games. So there's crossover coverage possibilities here - Ryan is at ryan@gamerbytes.com if you want to tell him about your project or send him codes.]

There is now a new area on the official La-Mulana WiiWare site created to cater to Western audiences, hosting all of the media already shown to the public so far.

You'll find little that you haven't seen on the Japanese version of the site, but all that is set to change when they reveal more juicy information about the game (e.g. Boss Rush DLC, new Hell Temple) in the coming weeks leading up to its release date of Nov. 2009. (source)

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 ArenaNet, BioWare Austin 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:

Nicemetal is a tower defense game with an interesting gimmick, created by babarageo for distribution at Comiket 76. There are a number of unmanned defensive structures in each map, and you have to send out soldiers to operate them for a short amount of time before they'd return back to base.

Only one level is included in this online trial version of Nicemetal. You can start playing the map by selecting the second option shown at the main menu. (trailer)

Back in April, developer Farbs decided the best way to quit his job at 2K Australia was to do so through the medium of game. What he created for his employees was both awesome and epilepsy-inducing at the same time.

William David, a developer for Ubisoft, decided the best way for him to quit would be through the same medium, but in a rather different style. The combination of style, music and message make this an entertaining experience and by the time I had walked my way through it, I myself was willing William on to do great things. His plans are to continue work as an independent developer.

Walk through his short story at Newgrounds.

Similar to Ramza3D's Cube Kingdom, Q-Block is a Flash-based application that can be used to create and share 3D models made out of coloured square blocks. Wallpapers and icons are easily generated at the press of a button, and models can be shared using permalinks or through your own Twitter account as well.

The drawing tool is extremely simple to use, yet offers enough diversity for pixel art veterans to quickly design something in just a couple of minutes. You can even draw a model layer by layer with the handy canvas feature, which comes with editing options like copy, paste, and an extrude button to automatically apply one layout to every other layer of the block.

Frontier Aja's Koumajou Densetsu - Scarlet Symphony is a doujin game that is set to be released at Comiket 76, a fan work that features plenty of cameos from the Touhou universe mixed with map designs and enemies from various Castlevania releases. Most of Reimu's (the main character) weapons are talisman-based, and she can summon Marisa for a special attack as well.

A demo for the Comiket release is available, although only stage three is playable and it won't work on Windows operating systems that do not have the Japanese language pack already installed. (screenshots)

[Wanted to mention this event again, since it was so good last year - the deadline is this Sunday, and I've already heard from some unexpected/interesting indies who are going to submit to both SoWN and IGF this year, neatness.]

The organizers of the 2009 Tokyo Game Show are reminding that indie game submissions into the second Sense Of Wonder Night, an event showcasing innovative independent games, are due by this Sunday, August 16th.

The inaugural Sense Of Wonder Night, created by industry association CEDEC, TGS organizers Nikkei BP and the Kiyoshi Shin-headed IGDA Japan chapter, took place last October during Tokyo Game Show 2008.

IndieGames sister site GameSetWatch has a comprehensive write-up of the initial event, which was inspired by the GDC's Experimental Gameplay Workshop in format, and had each set of creators showing and explaining their games for 10 minutes, with Japanese-English and English-Japanese translation.

Cube Colossus is a lovingly polished shmup created by Fandrey and Azrael (who have recently formed a dev team together called Lucidrine). It tells the story of a girl's search for her twin sister, battling her way through hordes of killer Cubes.

Developed over the course of 8 months, it's a great piece of work. The ship is controlled via the mouse, with aiming automatically positioned (although small adjustments can be made using the WASD keys). It has all the makings of a classic space shooter - dozens of levels, tons of upgrades and a silly little story to go with it. If only the dialogue wasn't so broken, this would be a nigh on perfect shooter in my opinion.

Give it a go at Newgrounds, but just be aware - it could well eat a couple of hours of your life. I know it gobbled mine down.

[Just wanted to remind that early reg for the Indie Games Summit @ GDC Austin ends today, August 13th, and we have almost the whole line-up now listed, including some neat new lectures.]

Organizers of this September's Independent Games Summit at GDC Austin have announced more speakers for the September 15th-16th Summit, a separate part of the wider, 'connected game'-focused Austin-based event, and for which information is available on the GDC Austin website.

Some of the newly announced lectures at the event, for which early registration ends today, August 13th, include:

- In 'And Yet It Moves: From Student Prototype To Published Indie Game', Felix Bohatsch of Broken Rules explains the creation of the former IGF Student Showcase finalist, currently available on PC download services like Steam and Greenhouse, and coming soon to WiiWare -- talking about the possibilities a small team has to reach a mass audience through digital distribution.

- Presenting a lecture called 'The Blurst of Times: How to Make a (Shader-Heavy, Physics-Based, 3D) Game in 8 Weeks', Matthew Wegner and Steve Swink of Flashbang Studio discuss how it's possible to make complex 3D web games like Minotaur China Shop and Off-Road Velociraptor Challenge in an 8-week production cycle - essentially "AAA game development in microcosm", with prototyping, betas, and a specific, rapidly executed schedule.

Multitask is a test of just how well your brain can cope with multiple dilemmas dotted around the screen. Starting with a single task, more jobs are added one by one until you become completely overwhelmed.

It's a really simple idea and surprising fun to play. I personally could keep it together for the first three challenges, but the fourth is incredibly difficult to work with. All I could manage was a measly 89 points. Give your brain a jolt and see how far you can get.

A few indie and casual gaming deals available for your monetary consumption this week. First up we've got fantasy side-scroller Trine which has a meaty 25% off for the next week, making the price a bit easier on the eyes. If you haven't picked up a copy of this yet, now might be the right time - check out our review for some help deciding.

Also this week Playfirst have had a number of their casual titles added to Steam, all with 10% off for one week only. If you've been planning on delving into a casual gaming experience or two, now would be as good a time as any. I can vouch that Emerald City Confidential is a great amount of fun, but alas the other titles have escaped my attention.

Here's a new development video for what The Behemoth are still calling 'Game3', showcasing what is for the time being known as 'Soul Mode'. Dan Paladin and Emil Ayoubkhan walk us through what exactly is going on here.

A part-time hobby project that has been in development for two months, Autumn Dynasty is a multiplayer strategy game designed with distribution on the Xbox 360, Games for Windows - Live and multi-touch table systems in mind. Troop commands are issued using simple brushstrokes, which means that players can rely less on traditional AI pathfinding methods and waypoints to move their units around a map.

There is a thread on the XNA forums about Autumn Dynasty, although little else is known about the game other than that it was created by a group of Singaporean students from NAFA.

Silent Conversation sees Gregory Weir building worlds around a variety of texts and poetry - and by that I mean quite literally constructing whole levels using the words themselves.

Making your way along sentence-platforms, the entire story builds itself around you. It's a little difficult to explain - you'd be better just experiencing it yourself. 'The Nameless City' works particularly well, gradually building the atmosphere - it's actually pretty surprising how well Greg manages to set the scene with mere letters as decoration.

There are also 'powerful' words which will attack you, and Greg's understanding of where emphasis should be placed is v.interesting. You can tell that he cares for these pieces of work and this whole experience is his way of sharing his passion.

Speed-run modes are also available for those who are less into reading and more into running. Go get immersed over at Armor Games.

A collaborative effort between Terry Cavanagh, Hayden Scott-Baron and Alex May, the aim of Bullfist is to acquire as many points as you can in under one minute. This means guiding a herd of bulls, gathering their wounded mates, and destroying everything in their path before time runs out.

Some objects can only be destroyed when the herd is of a certain size. The special bullrage mode is activated when you've gathered six bulls in your stampede party, and you can extend the sequence by gathering more bulls before it ends.

A Kongregate account is required to submit scores online.

Edmund McMillen has announced on his blog that upcoming twisted title Time F**k (or Time Kufc, or Time Fkuc, or... ah, take your pick) will be released on September 1st.

Oh, and he also released the above trailer for it. Isn't he nice.

GearToyGear is a 3D tunnel shooter which plays like Kenta Cho's Torus Trooper, although in this mission you are only able to control the speed and flight direction of the ship that you pilot. Shots are fired automatically, and if your initial ship stock isn't enough you can also earn extra lives by scoring more points in the game.

The ship's current speed is indicated by the multiplier shown at the top right corner of the screen. The faster you go, the more points you score. Try not to crash into an obstacle or fly into the path of a laser beam while moving at breakneck speed.

For Windows users, the installation of XNA Framework 3.1 is required to get GearToyGear working. Playing the game with an Xbox 360 controller is recommended. (source: Retro Remakes, screenshots)

The objective in Ninjufo is to pilot a UFO craft around a maze and collect fifty crates with top secret information contained inside them. Shurikens can be used to destroy enemy ships, although this has to be done without them spotting you first as their shots are near impossible to dodge.

Some money is deducted from your haul whenever your ship is destroyed, but the penalty is hardly a concern unless you are planning to submit a good score online.

Play it on Newgrounds or Armorgames.

Jirosum is a 2D horizontal shooter themed around the use of mathematics to inflict damage on enemies, created by Logan Ames as his entry for TIGSource's Adult/Educational Competition. How it works is that you can absorb enemies with different numeric values up to a set limit, then fire a projectile that deducts the health of every enemy it touches until the number depletes to zero. You might want to be careful not to accumulate too many points, as any leftover value will turn into negative energy and starts to chase after you.

The fox's ability to absorb numbers increments by five for every five hundred points acquired. The game ends roughly after you've improved your special move twice, and there are no boss fights in this competition release build to speak of. Instead of some reward or an animated cutscene, the game just unceremoniously dumps you back to the desktop without so much as a congratulatory message to indicate that you've mastered the ways of the calculus.

Back Door Man is the NSFW tale of a male escort recalling his crazy night of work. Working your way through each of his three 'jobs', there are multiple outcomes to find for each which determine what kind of ending you will eventually receive.

Created for the TIGSource Adult/Education Compo, the bulk of the game involves making conversation with people, with your answers affecting how they respond to you. It will only take you around 5-10 minutes to reach the conclusion, but you'll want to play through it multiple times in the hope of receiving the 'good' ending.

Be aware that there is swearing and nudity (as if you hadn't already guessed). Grab it off the TIGSource forums. (direct download link)

Why is a short arcade game created by Mike Inel, where the objective is to change the color of circles from black to white by moving the cursor over them. There are ten different endings to discover, and you can even use your mouse to interact with some of the cutscenes.

The game is available for Windows users only.

Mr Jones' Dream tells the story of a businessman who had just lost his job, at home one evening trying to get a good night's sleep. The game starts off with dear old Jones already lost inside his own dream, a little confused yet lucid enough to do a bit of exploration after receiving instructions from an indiscernible object.

None of the puzzles are particularly difficult, save for one that requires figuring out a four-digit sequence correctly to unlock a door. Mr Jones' Dream was created with Game Maker for TIGSource's Adult/Educational Competition.

This is the Only Level is a short puzzle platformer that can be completed in roughly ten minutes or so. The objective here is to guide a blue elephant towards the exit pipe safely, but in order to achieve that you would first have to unlock the door which blocks your path to freedom.

Players are allowed to retry a level as many times as they want. If you happen to get stuck, just press the panic button to reset everything back to their original positions for another go.

If you are heavily into card games like the popular Magic: The Gathering series, then be prepared to kiss your free time goodbye. Elements is a strategy-based fantasy card game that features both single-player and online multiplayer modes, deck building options, and no micropayments needed for acquiring new cards (not yet, anyway).

There are twelve elements to specialize in, and you can customize your deck even further after winning matches and spinning for rare cards. The objective of the game is basically to reduce your opponent's hit points to zero and win the duel before he does the same to you. An elemental master can also lose the duel if he or she runs out of cards to play.

The tutorial does a great job of easing new players in quickly. You begin each round by placing pillars to generate quantums, which are then used to cast spells or summon creatures to do your bidding. A white bar will appear under the quantum cost of a card if you have enough quantums of the right colour to put the card into play.

Players who are familiar with M:TG will notice that enemies do not block any damage inflicted on their elemental masters at all. Some gameplay balance issues still exist, but if you can look past that then Elements is pretty much the best free fantasy card game out there. (basic game rules, Elements Wiki)

In a recent interview with Jason Rohrer posted over at Press Pause Reflect, the developer of 2009 IGF Innovation Award winner Between has revealed that his next project will be a new game for the Nintendo DS (not pictured). Set to be published by Majesco sometime in 2010, he describes the project as "a two-player strategy game about diamond trading in Angola, on the eve of the passage of the Kimberley Process".

Should be interesting to see how his idea translates to a handheld gaming device, as Jason already has some experience in this area from porting Passage and releasing Primrose for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Majesco To Publish Passage Developer's DS Game (GameSetWatch)

Seems Steam has answered the indie games D2D package with a package deal of its own (two, in fact): Audiosurf, Blueberry Garden, Braid, Crayon Physics Deluxe, Darwinia, Everyday Shooter, Gish, Mr. Robot, The Path, World of Goo, all in one package for $30. And a subset of five of those for $20. Ends Monday.

GamerBytes had begun posting about noteworthy Dream Build Play '09 entries, with today's mention going to Guru Guru - a physics-based platformer currently being developed by Gasp Games.

Very little information is known about it at this stage, but trust Ryan to keep you updated with any news regarding the game when they surface.

Dream-Build-Play '09 Showcase - Guru Guru (GamerBytes)

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 CCP China, Toys For Bob 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:

Along with the above trailer, Hemisphere Games today announced that their IGF-award winning Osmos will cost you $10.

Coming on August 18th, there are also some very interesting deals going for those who pre-order the title. Steam will be doing their customary discount for those who pre-order (expect 10-20% off), but Direct2Drive's deal is the one to check out - everyone who pre-orders the game through their site 'will receive a coupon to gift Osmos to a friend for $1'. That's two copies for $11! Pretty fantastic deal, if you ask me.

Pre-order the game via D2D right now - expect it to appear on Steam sometime very soon. IGN also have an interview with Hemisphere Games regarding their game.

Boxgame is a puzzle platformer in which gravity is ruled by big, transparent boxes in the centre of each level. Jumping off a ledge will result in some crazy re-orientation, after which you most likely won't be standing on the same plane anymore.

Which, of course, leads to lots of lovely puzzles. Sophie has clearly put a ton of thought into some of the solutions (especially towards the end) and, while it never gets incredibly taxing, you'll definitely need to use your brain! She also promises new levels soon to add to the fourteen already there, so it will worth going back to again once she adds the new content.

Play it on her site.

Entered into this year's Dream-Build-Play competition, Max Blastronaut is a space-based action blaster from Coin App.

Why should you be excited? How about 4 player co-op fun, 24 different planets to explore and the ability to grab an enemy and swing them round and round by their legs? Expect to see this on the Xbox at some point in the near future - maybe even as an Xbox Live Arcade title if the Coin App guys' entry comes up trumps.

Check out more details on the recently-launched Max Blastronaut site (Source: Blurst Blog)

Skull Daddy is a physics-based puzzler that is currently only available as a demo, bundled with ten short levels and a limited number of tools to choose from. In each stage you are assigned a limited number of basic building blocks to construct platforms with, so that the titular character can roll his way towards the exit safely.

Instructions are relayed to the player via sign posts that can be read or ignored at their own discretion, and you can retry a level as many times as you like until a working solution is found.

According to the latest post on PomPom Games' site, the PC versions of Astro Tripper, Mutant Storm Reloaded and Mutant Storm Empire are done and awaiting a final test phase before release.

This was cited as the reason for the delay as well, because testing these games on all sorts of different PC configurations can be pretty expensive - hence they've suggested the idea of putting out pre-release builds on their site to purchase at only $5 (cost inclusive of final version and future updates), so that interested buyers can help them test the full games out.

All they're asking is for some feedback on whether to proceed with the plan or not, and if things work out those of us who do not own a console should be able to get our hands on PC ports of their recent games very, very soon.

PC Version News and Stuff (PomPom Games)

We've been recommending these five games for quite some time, and now there's a chance to purchase them all from Direct2Drive at a very special price of $17.75. It would normally cost you close to $80 for Defense Grid, Democracy 2, The Path, Zeno Clash and Cogs, but with the collection you are getting five fantastic indie game releases for the price of one (or two, in some cases). Don't miss out on this time-limited offer, as the discount is only valid until August 9th.

Direct2Drive: Buy Best of Indie Bundle Download

Jakub sent word of a new Machinarium trailer posted on their site today. The game is scheduled for a release this coming October, and the $3 discount plus bonus pack still stands if you pre-order it anytime before that date.

Amanita Design Blog

An IGF finalist waaaay back in 2004, Dungeon Scroll, in which you fight your way through dungeons full of evil creatures by blasting them with 'magic words', has been given the iPhone treatment and is now available to buy for $0.99.

Rats, skeletons and dragons are dispatched by making words out of the available letters. There are also special powers which help shift the battle in your favour. The original PC version is also still available from the Robinson Technologies site.

Sticky Situation is a shooter with an interesting concept. Both yourself and the enemy are constantly firing sticky darts at each other, and when enough darts have secured themselves firmly to a ship, the weight will become too much and said ship will fall to its doom.

Your own vessel feels really odd to control, as it rotates slightly as it moves, meaning it's rather difficult to shoot in a straight line. Not that you would want to - you'd end up with a face full of darts from the ship you're trying to sink! The tactic here is to keep moving to take the enemies from an angle. It's still extremely difficult though, so it's worth remembering that you can tap the shift button every second to knock a single dart off your ship (you can actually hold shift, but it slows you down and is generally not worth it at all).

All in all, it feels like there is an interesting concept here which could possibly be expanded on. Download it from Anthony L. Romano's Thunderware blog.

Turba, a match-3 game which uses your music collection, is now available to play as part of a public beta. The Turba team are looking for feedback on their creation, which they are hoping to release sometime soon.

Blocks appear with the beat of which ever song you choose, and more points are giving out if blocks are destroyed with the beat too. Some kind of 'the beat giveth, and the beat taketh away', you could say. It's decent fun - I mean, who doesn't like playing games which involve their own music selections - but suffers from the same problems as its musical gaming counterparts - the beat isn't picked up well in many songs, sometimes completely out of sync.

There are a few other issues too, but remember this is a beta and not the finished product. It's still well worth the play if you're looking to fill some time. The beta will be available for around one week and can be found on the Turba blog.

The Heist 2 is an overhead car chase game in which you play the crook, pulling one successful robbery after another as you try to amass enough money for your retirement plans. Before the start of each heist, you would need to kit out your escape vehicle and occupy it with some henchmen to carry out the dirty deeds.

At the scene of the crime, cops will attempt to stop you from fleeing the premises. There shouldn't be any problems reaching the getaway vehicle for a quick escape if you've hired enough manpower and equipped them with the right tools for the job. Then it's all about driving away as quickly as you can, dodging incoming traffic and ramming police cars to the side so that you can put some distance between you and your pursuers. (game guide)

Jeff Ward over on sister site Gamasutra has posted an article questioning whether there is a living to be made from developing independent games.

Jeff, a game designer himself who is currently working on a title for release on Xbox Live Indie Games, notes recent rants from indie developers regarding their monies:

"We've been seeing recently a number of small game companies really hitting a wall when it comes to funding. Introversion had a post on their blog about their money problems, and Mommy's Best Games, though still pushing ahead, made it clear that the numbers on Weapon of Choice were not good."

The different distribution methods are also explored, from iPhone projects to PC releases, with lots of daunting sales figures. Jeff comes to the conclusion that it is extremely difficult to sustain yourself money-wise by simply developing indie games full-time, or even with 'alternative money sources'.

Read the full article over on Gama.

[Now that the Independent Games Festival has a proper update blog on its front page [RSS feed!], myself and the other organizers will be updating monthly with relevant info on previous winners, events, judges, etc - here's the first of those.]

In the run-up to this year's Independent Games Festival deadlines this November, we thought it might be a good idea to update periodically with the latest news on submissions, previous winners, judging, relevant events, and so on.

IGF Success Stories

Firstly, I just wanted to highlight some notable successes from previous Independent Games Festival winners, showing the power of indie games in today's market. For starters, The Behemoth's 2007 double IGF award winner Castle Crashers for Xbox Live Arcade recently reached 1 million individual leaderboard entries, making it one of the most-played XBLA titles of all time - congratulations to them.

The teaser site for Jonathan Blow's new project went live today. Titled "The Witness", he describes it as "an exploration-puzzle game on an uninhabited island", and is planning to have it ready for release on multiple platforms sometime in 2011. (source)

Ben Foddy's upcoming iPhone port of Little Master Cricket received the trailer treatment recently - new features such as improved controls and global high score support were shown briefly in the fifty-second video clip. Originally released as a Flash game on his site, the well-received time waster will soon be available for purchase from the AppStore in the coming weeks.

The good news is that with the release of Evacuation and Little Master Cricket for the iPhone and iPod Touch, the port of QWOP can't be too far behind...

Knightfall 2 is a tile-matching puzzler with a nifty gimmick - instead of controlling the protagonist directly, you would have to rotate the board and remove the blocks underneath our hero to move him around. This applies to objects and enemies in the play area as well, as everything is affected by gravity and will move to fill any gaps created when you take away blocks from the board.

There is usually a door which you have to reach to complete a level, although you would have to unlock it first by collecting a key placed at a random location on the board. Enemies will try and prevent you from completing your objective, but your drill will make short work of them if you attack the bad guys from above. The other thing you should be worried about is your action points, as they drain quickly whenever you remove blocks from the play area.

The length of the story mode should satisfy most players, although it should be noted that there is no way to continue playing with your existing save after beating the final boss.

2Bee Games, owned by Zoo Games Inc, have announced that submissions for their second Indie Game Competition are now open. Prizes this time around include $10,000 for the winning title + a possible publishing deal, and $5,000 for the 'Community Favourite'.

It's pretty much the same as last time around, with submissions running from now until September 15th, finalists being announced in October, then knockout stages to find the eventual winner on November 3rd.

Those who recall the first contest may remember the hoo-hah involving the rules which put many people off - however they still had a good number of entries, with the wonderful Auditorium taking the top prize.

A Cold Heart is a short underwater-themed shooter where you play a cold-hearted mermaid, out to take the lives of ten different sea creatures by singing for them with your beautiful voice. You start out with three hearts that represent your well-being, although you there are ample chances to replenish them after every boss fight.

The ending is very anti-climatic, so don't expect too much out of the game if you don't want to end up being extremely disappointed by it.

There were mixed reactions when I posted about Boss Baddie!'s latest release recently, so I decided to grab a copy and form an opinion on whether it's worth the $3.20 asking price. Lunnye Devitsy is a puzzle platformer concerning a small alien who has fallen off the moon and is now trying to make his way back up there.

What you get for your hard-earned cash is a reasonably-sized world to explore, a nice variation of puzzles to solve and a game crammed full of atmosphere. This is an experience all about exploration and if that's your kind of thing, Lunnye Devitsy is bound to please immensely.

The world is comprised of several different areas which all flow smoothly into one another. You know when you've just stumbled into a neighbouring domain, as the music changes to suit the mood and the lighting evolves to set the scene. The musical score is definitely worth a mention - most of the tracks fit the bill solidly, and there's some really soothing stuff here to find.

Tasty Static is a brilliant remake of Bluemoon Interactive's Skyroads. Players career along what start off as simple pathways, eventually taking on much more difficult obstacles and challenges.

The presentation is spot-on, and while it can be incredibly frustrating, there's a ton of fun to be had. Jumps must be timed perfectly, speed must be altered to land exactly where you need to be and the perfect path must be found. Each level is small in length, so you never get into that annoying situation where you can make it a good way through a long level but keep bailing on a tricky part right at the end.

Available for Windows, OS X and Linux. There's even a level editor for the Windows Edition too! Definitely worth a download, grab it from the official Tasty Static site.

Messhof's latest project doesn't have a name yet, but the Youtube vid is entitled '34t', so let's go with that for now.

It's a racing/destruction game which appears to have very messhof-like qualities, including striking visuals and seisure-inducing screen-flashes. Yey!

FallOver is Hempuli's physics-based platformer that feels broken at first, but then becomes rather fun after spending a couple of minutes coming to gripes with an unbalanced protagonist and the floaty control scheme. You play as a gentleman who has to collect coins and reach the white flag safely, as he is prone to fall over with the slightest touch of any bump on the landscape. Players can stand up to three times if they happen to trip, and a quick restart button is included in case you use up all of your retries.

There are nine levels to beat in total. (screenshots)

Remember the recent Free Will - The Game? Raitendo just released what he says is the predecessor to that - and if you played Free Will, you'll be able to guess the general gist of what's going on here.

You Only Live Once is a literal title, so it's worth making sure you, well, don't die. Because there won't be another chance if you do. It's a very silly take on Mario (again, like Free Will) that will probably last you around 2 minutes. It's worth noting that you can jump on the heads of the baddies rather than dodge them - at first it appears that you can't due to the spiked helmets.

Once you are dead, though, clicking Continue several times will progress the story post-kicking-the-bucket. Some people will find this funny, others will find it pointless. See what you think.

You'd think Nifflas was working on enough already! With the announcement of La Mulana earlier in the week, and of course Cave Story and Night Game still in the works, Nifflas and his team have revealed yet another WIP to IGN - mysteriously named Project Q.

IGN also has an interview with the guys regarding the game. (via TIGSource)

[Update: Hothead Games have confirmed to IGN that Braid will indeed have a release via the PSN, but did not give details on when it will be released.]

Jonathan Blow mentioned the possibility of a PSN release of Braid a while back, but said it could only happen after the Xbox Live exclusivity period was over. Now an entry on the German USK ratings board website has reared its head which appears to confirm the existence of a PS3 version of the award-winning platformer.

Naming the publisher as Hothead Games, the one year anniversary for Braid is coming up soon, so it wouldn't be at all surprising. Hopefully Jonathan will bring light to the situation soon, but it's looking hopeful for PS3 owners.