We Want YOU is a 'satirical, procedurally-generated war platformer' which simultaneously tells you 'War is Fun!' while throwing in news now and again of how many people have died and why you really shouldn't be enjoying yourself.

After being air-lifted in, it's your job to drop through the various areas, killing any threats and staying alive. There are some nice weapons to collect by pressing up to enter camps, and these can be fired using the X button and switched using A. If you get stuck you can plant C4 using C to destroy a block, while Z will make the little guy jump 'like a prissy little girl'.

There's not much to it other than that, but there are lots of nice touches. For example, the title screen and the end of game screen look nearly identical, apart from the fact that in the end of game screen you are, well, dead. Of course, as the game suggests, this isn't about who wins or loses - it's about being a hero, soldier!

Go give it a download.

Ulitsa Dimitrova tells the story of a seven-year old boy named Pjotre who lives in St. Petersburg, running around the streets and doing things that young children of his age are taught not to do.

There is no inventory to manage nor an objective to achieve, but the game does end if you let it idle for a couple of seconds. (Windows, 21.9MB)

Today's collection of independent game links include a couple of promotional items for Tale of Tales' releases, an article about making games easier for your players, and a game that was partly inspired by Jason Rohrer's Passage.

MoonPod Games: Pirate Princess
Our friends over at Moonpod (Mr. Robot, Starscape) seems to have a new word game out.

The Bottom Feeder: Make Your Game Easy.
"I'm a hardcore nerd of the old school, and I'm not truly satisfied unless a game is really difficult. Other people do not, in fact, want this."

The Poppenkast Forum: Things I Never Did
"It's an attempt to convey my feelings and fears about aging. It's inspired in a lot of ways by Passage, I'll admit, but I think I covered the topic from a different angle. It'll last about 2 minutes."

Tale of Tales: The TEF Fan Art Calendar for 2010 is here
"The Endless Forest deviantART fan club (lead by Jen Stuber) has made a Calendar filled with beautiful artwork from players who love the game. All cash raised goes directly to help to fund the future of The Endless Forest." Also notable: The Endless Forest 3.30 released with new feature 'De Drinkplaats'.

A Hardy Developer's Journal: Design Taught in Pitfalls No. 2 - Taking The Plunge
"There are probably a million things running through my head when I sit down to create those first few resources for a game. However, before we jump in and work on that really cool thing, it's best to have a quick analysis of what is the most important thing to focus on first."

Conspiracy Entertainment: Doctor Fizzwizzle's Animal Rescue Wii
2007 IGF finalist Fizzball has been converted to the Wii by a third party developer, Replay Games.

The Path - .pl Collector's Edition
"This PC version of The Path (playable in Polish or English) was produced by Topware Poland with extras provided personally by Tale of Tales."

Pumpkin Patch is an arena shooter in which you have to protect fellow pumpkins in your patch from being stolen by ghosts or eaten by creatures. You earn an extra pumpkin for every twenty thousand points scored, and a special bonus is awarded for having a dozen pumpkins in your patch at the end of a round.

The game features only four different types of enemies and protecting the patch for thirty days can wear you out after a while, but Pumpkin Patch will fit the bill nicely if you're looking for a slightly mindless arcade game that doesn't require much of a strategy to play.

Nezumi man (Rat man) is a 2D platformer created in the same style as early Megaman games, where you are in control of a rodent who has to defeat the evil Dr. Gyoniku and his henchmen. Ratman can jump, shoot, slide, and earn special abilities by beating the boss characters in each of the eight levels included.

A hidden bonus chapter can also be unlocked once you've completed the entire game, although it doesn't really take more than two hours to achieve that feat if you're already accustomed to playing difficult platformers by now. The save feature will come in handy if you need a short break or two between sessions as well. You can resize the application window by using the configuration file included in the game folder. Direct download link here or here. (Windows, 18.1MB)

Anna Anthropy (other aliases dessgeega and Auntie Pixelante) is the developer that gifted us punishing games such as Mighty Jill Off, When Pigs Fly, and Calamity Annie.

In this chat I asked her about current projects in development, the IGF, and also some random stuff that only three people in the world care about. Read on to find out what dirty secrets she kept locked away in the dark corners of her mind...

Hi Anna, what are you working on right now? Is your next project a Game Maker production or browser-based?

at the moment i'm working on a browser game, though it's unlikely to be the only thing to come from me in the near future. it's a game about a diver exploring the bottom of the ocean.

Any similarities to namako team's dive?

i love dive. and standard bits. it's a shame that the games press unanimously decided passage was the only game in that bunch worth talking about.

Can you tell us a bit about your recent presentations/showcases, and if they are available online to watch?

shootin' starcade appeared at the indie games arcade at eurogamer's convention. it's actually a collection of six smaller games i made beforehand which i wanted to introduce to a larger audience. it's free to download on my website, along with the other games i've designed for conventions.

i appeared on a panel in new york with cactus and messhof, courtesy nyu's game design program. there's an audio-only version of it online, which is a shame, because cactus and messhof did video introductions.

Today's collection of independent game links include the unveiling of a new Game Maker logo, Flashbang's announcement of their new commercial undertaking, and Robert Fearon going on about how good VVVVVV is (which we agree wholeheartedly).

Onwards:

YoYo Games Glog: New Game Maker Logo
"It took a bit of time before we settled on a final choice but we wanted a logo that was modern, clean and that reflected the fun and excitement that we feel is there for people who make as well as play games."

Max and the Magic Marker: The Germans and Aussies are tough
"I thought it would be fun to tell you a bit about our experiences with the age rating bodies. Apparently the Germans and Australians are a lot tougher than us 'normal' Europeans. At least that’s what PEGI must think."

Blurst Blog: New Off-Road Velociraptor Safari Production Begins
"We have now entered full production on a new version of Off-Road Velociraptor Safari, which we're internally calling Raptor Safari 64. We don't have an exact development schedule yet, but it'll be much longer than any of our Blurst projects." (GameSetWatch write-up)

Mersey Remakes: Games You Should Play - VVVVVV
"VVVVVV is a game you should play and you should play it because it's amazingly well put together, it's 30 years of platforming history with one foot in the past and one foot firmly in the now and it deserves your love. Go give it some."

xnPlay: Squid Yes, Not So Octopus - Sales
"You want to get your game out to as many people as you can. Sometimes this might involve offering review copies, sometimes you might want to, y' know, offer them out on a promotion. Thing is – if you run a promotion with the current 50 tokens system, you're cutting into review copies, if you offer a review copy, you’re cutting into potential promotions."

Variety: Machinima.com sets up its own gaming awards show
Machinima.com recently announced a video game awards show called the Inside Gaming Awards (based on the site's existing weekly program), with Auditorium, Groov, I MAED A GAM3 W1TH ZOMBIES 1N IT!!!1, Osmos and Zeno Clash nominated for the Best Indie Game category.

The Hand Eye Society: The World Premiere of Something Cool
"Pekko Koskinen and Shawn McGrath secretly collaborated on an unannounced project, Dyad, making this social the world premiere of their new game. Jon Mak (Everyday Shooter guy) may present old, abandoned prototypes of games he and Shawhan worked on."

The Company of Myself is a platformer which implements the game mechanic seen in the likes of Chronotron and Time Donkey. Our storyteller Jack must reach the door on each level by using past copies of himself as platforms (and later on, vice-versa).

Some of the puzzles are pretty fantastic and require a great deal of concentration and logic to figure them out. There are lever-pulling puzzles which appear to be inspired by Braid, force-fields which only your copies can walk through and many gaps to fall down. Towards the end of the game a few of the puzzles which involve precision timing are a little frustrating, but there's nothing too hair-wrenching.

The story is also nicely thought out and again appears to take a little inspiration from Jon Blow's masterpiece. All in all, a lovely afternoon distraction. Give it a go over at Newgrounds. Thanks to Chetyre and Ethan for the tip!

Tim recently linked to the news that Nimblebit's upcoming karting game Zero Gear has now entered the beta stages and is available for signups. If you haven't already got in on the action, you can visit the Zero Gear site to signup. Over 50,000 people have applied, so you're sure to get a decent sized game going.

My number one concern was how badly lag was going to affect the action - warping karts and weapons all over the track could spell disaster. Of the races I participated in, I experienced only a few individuals who were doing the lag-warp, and my own driving was pleasantly lag-free. Put a tick in that box.

The driving itself works exactly how you'd expect and if you've played karting games of old (see: Mario Kart) you'll know what you'll be dealing with. Floating boxes on the tracks can be picked up and contain weapons and upgrades to help boost you forward and take out the opposition. There's also a boost bar which fills up as you pass checkpoints on the track.

[Just a reminder that Tuesday is the last day to enter IGF Mobile for this year, for those with indie handheld (iPhone, Android, DSi/PSP Minis, etc) games who might want to be considered.]

Following record entries for IGF's Main and Student competition, IGF Mobile organizers are reminding of a December 1st deadline for the third annual festival honoring handheld indie games.

This year's competition -- the sister event to the main Independent Games Festival -- will again feature independently-developed handheld games for all mobile devices including Apple's iPhone, other cellphone and smartphone OSes, Nintendo DS, Sony PSP, and other handheld devices.

Now in its third year, IGF Mobile (part of Think Services, as is this website) has blossomed into a major showcase of the handheld form. Apple's App Store created a special Store section just to highlight the IGF-nominated iPhone games from 2009's IGF Mobile competition, which included acclaimed titles such as Fieldrunners, Real Racing, Zen Bound and Galcon. In addition, last year's IGF Mobile 'Next Great Mobile Game' winner Reflection has been signed by Konami for Nintendo DSi.

Let's take a look at the latest interviews with indie game developers on the web. Highlights include: an interview with the development team for Devil's Tuning Fork, Frictional Games answering questions about their upcoming horror adventure game Amnesia, and Puzzle Bots designer Erin Robinson talking about her love for the adventure game genre.

Uncommon Assembly: The Mesmerizing World of Devil's Tuning Fork
DePaul Game Elites members speaking to UA about the process of creating their unusual 3D exploration game.

Adventure Gamers: Erin Robinson Interview - Puzzle Bots
"Erin spoke with AG about her path to success and what we can expect from her in future."

Linux Gaming News: Interview With Frictional Games - Amnesia
"Amnesia is more about the exploration and horror than Penumbra, and we have definitely concentrated on a game where the atmosphere is dense and trying to create an intriguing story. Much of the game is about finding out who you are and piece everything together to get the answers you seek."

Punch-Drunk in the Age of Information: Revisiting an Interview with Edmund McMillen
"McMillen makes games that deal with such occult themes as death and discovery. Now in his 30's with about ten years of experience under his belt, Edmund's work does not seem to have lost its edge one bit. We talked to him about what it means to be artistically independent."

In our latest employment-specific 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, 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 this week include:

Rockstar North: Physics Programmer
"Rockstar North is seeking an experienced highly talented physics programmer to help breathe life, realism and fun into our next-generation games. This is an exciting opportunity to develop cutting-edge physics and collision systems and use them in creative and novel ways, working together with other departments to solve physics, animation and AI problems."

Digital Extremes: Level Designer
"Digital Extremes is always on the lookout for top-notch talent to join our team in London, Ontario, Canada. With a tight-knit team, a passion for best practices and an environment that fosters creativity not to mention fantastic perks - Digital Extremes is a great place to challenge and enhance your creative abilities. All you need to do is apply!"

In Magic Planet Snack you are a wizard who turned himself into a worm by accident, and has to travel through the cosmos to devour wizards on other worlds for points. Gathering orbs will power up your hyper gauge, and once that is full all edible objects on screen are transformed into confectionery for your worm to chew on. This effect only lasts for a couple of seconds, but it should be enough time to score some bonuses that will edge you closer to a bonus life. Things like trolls, lava and satellites should be avoided.

Only the cursor keys are needed to play, and there is a proper ending that you can reach by consuming the rival wizards in all five (or seven) worlds. (Windows, 8.76MB)

A real bargain for Mac users. MacUpdate Promo is offering up a total of eleven games by Rake in Grass for only $30 (normal price $145), a package that includes last week's free Giveaway of the Day promo Archibald's Adventures and the action horror game Larva Mortus. Just buying Jets'n'Guns Gold would usually cost you $29.95, so customers are basically getting ten games for free in this package (although admittedly one or two of them do come rather close to being turkeys).

PayPal payments are accepted too, but if you're thinking about getting the bundle you'd better hurry as the offer ends tomorrow. (source)

MacUpdate Promo - Buy Rake in Grass Games for $29.99 (79% off)

Hopefully you are more than aware that the beta for Terry's gravity-bending VVVVVV is now available to those who show their support and donate to his cause. If not, details are here and here. Whether you decide to throw some moolah his way, there's no two ways about it - VVVVVV is a vvvvvvanderful thing.

While I'm going to hold off on writing a full review until the main release, it really must be said that every time I see this game, it gets better and better. The beta features the majority of the game with nearly all the worlds and a fantastic 'overworld' to link them all together. The overworld map looks and feels very Metroid-like, apart from one big point - since your character doesn't gather special abilities or anything that can be used to overcome special obstacles, each world can be tackled in any order you'd like.

Each world, too, has its own special mechanics that sets it apart from the others, although I won't go into detail and throw spoilers everywhere. Long story short, it helps keep the formula fresh and it's genuinely exciting to see what the next area will throw at you. Of course, to find all the worlds you'll need to go exploring, which is again incredibly good fun.

Not hard to guess the theme for today. An opinion piece about which games are indie and which games aren't, first look at a boss design for Super Meat Boy (plus previews), Time Fcuk postmortem, and some links which have nothing to do with our good friend Edmund.

Here goes:

DIYgamer: 3 Indie Games That Aren't All That Indie
"I'm in no way bashing or disrespecting these games. While I have yet to play Axel and Pixel, I can honestly say I loved both Braid and Castle Crashers. So please keep this in mind..."

GamesRadar: Super Meat Boy - first look
"Titles that absolutely describe their game are a dying breed. What is there that 'Super Meat Boy' doesn't tell you? He's made of meat, he's super, and he's a he. What else do you want?"

Bytejacker Episode 064: Side of Beef - Super Meat Boy Hands-On
"We had the chance to play an early build of Super Meat Boy. How is it? Fcuking delicious. We've got all the juicy details, lightly seasoned and pan-seared. Meat analogies."

Game Jolt: Meat Boy Mini
"Meat Boy Mini is a fangame of Edmund Mcmillen and Jon McEntee's game Meat Boy, in lo res graphics (almost all the graphics are in 2x2 pixels)."

GameSetWatch: Team Meat Shares Super Meat Boy Boss, Danny B Music
"Developer Team Meat fashioned a boss that preys on that weakness to moving blades: Lil Slugger, a chainsaw mech with legs, controlled by Meat Boy's arch-enemy Dr. Fetus. The studio also debuted an equally devious music track to accompany the Forest boss, composed by Danny Baranowsky (Canabalt)."

Nintendo Life: First Impressions - Super Meat Boy
"No platformer fan in general should miss this unique title when it hits the Steam and WiiWare services next year."

Edmund's Dev Blog: Time Fcuk (update/postmortum)
"So its been almost 2 months since Time Fcuk was released and since then its been played over 3.5 million times 1million of those being from newgrounds.com. There have also been a startlingly huge amount of levels submitted closing in on 7k."

Tower Defense Wiki
In Japanese only, but they did a great job of linking to most of the noteworthy tower defense games out there.

xii games: Oh, so THAT's what Linus Bruckman Saw
"I wanted to give people who didn't complete the game the chance to see the ending, and I think after three years it's ok to do that."

A one-day offer only, Hemisphere Games' Osmos is available to purchase from Steam for USD $2 (usually $10). The Metacritic score is good (81%), there are 11 Steam achievements to unlock, and the game even comes with a recommendation from Braid designer Jon Blow. If you're unsure about whether Osmos is for you, there's a demo that you can download from the official site.

Today's collection of independent game links include an article that highlights the differences between working on an independent project and doing mainstream game development, the announcement of a new Casual Gameplay competition theme that will delight IF authors, and Flixel game templates for a couple of classic shooters served by Canabalt creator Adam Saltsman.

Here goes:

Hardy Dev: Visually Directing the Player
"In some of the play-tests I've had, I would run into a recurrent problem about the player's visual direction. I want the player to go a certain way, open a certain door, or go down a certain ramp, but what's the obvious direction for me is not the obvious direction for the player."

GameCareerGuide: Differences Between Indie/Student Development and Professional Game Development
"Many talented students and hobbyists become professional game developers only to be surprised that the job wasn't exactly what they thought it was. These are examples of the kind of culture shock that new entrants to the games industry can experience." (source: Dev.Mag)

Indiebird: Marketing is more important than quality
"The sad truth is that for most games spending one hour on implementing more features or polishing the game quickly becomes sub-optimal when compared to spending an hour on talking about your game."

JayIsGames: Casual Gameplay Design Competition no. 7
IF authors invited to craft one-room games incorporating the theme 'escape'.

British Indie: Get in the game – over
Some advice on preparing for a pitch or presentation.

Eversion HD - official game website
"For the real fans of Eversion, a high-definition version of the game (640x480 only though) is now available." Works on Windows and Wine.

AdamAtomic's Flx-Invaders at master - GitHub
Simple Flixel games inspired by the classic arcade shooters. (FlxTeroids)

Escapist Games (AtomHex) announced the release of Claymation shoot'em-up Platypus to Xbox Live Indie Games. Some of you might recognize this from its original edition for PC by Cletus Clay developer Anthony Flack (later ported to iPhone and PSP, with GameSetWatch's impressions on the latter here).

The XLIG release retains the horizontal-scrolling shooter's plasticine graphics but also adds "enhanced high-definition widescreen graphics, improved audio", and full localizations for French, Italian, German, and Spanish. Like Platypus PSP, this release has multiplayer support and was actually "built from the ground up as a co-op game".

I remember that Flack had serious complaints with the PSP version (e.g. janky bonus scoring, his name missing from the credits), primarily due to that porting team, MumboJumbo LA, having only six weeks to complete the adaptation with four people. It sounds like Escapist Games took those issues into consideration and had more time to work on this release.

[Incidentally, this post is a GameSetWatch crosspost, but we'd love IndieGames.com to run more Xbox Live Indie Games coverage. If anyone plays a lot of XBLIG titles and could do round-ups regularly, contact us.]

Saintrooper is a challenging exploration platform game that takes place mostly under water, where your character has to swim up for air often or collect oxygen tanks to prevent from losing valuable hearts. The game ends if you run out of lives, but players can always continue playing from the last level attempted by using the stage select option shown after the control selection menu.

One key feature of the game is that you have the ability to grab on to walls and climb upwards by jumping off a vertical surface. You can shoot in four different directions, and acquiring the special power-up item will temporary increase your firepower and oxygen reserves. By firing downwards during a freefall, it is even possible to reduce the falling speed and soften the impact of your landing.

There is an exit to be found somewhere in each level, but to get there you would first have to find a set of keys and unlock the doors that prevent you from reaching them easily. Leaving treasures uncollected might not be a good idea either, since extra lives are given out generously whenever you've scored a certain amount of points during your rescue mission.

Download link can be found at the bottom of the game info page. (Vector link, direct download, download mirror)

I've been using Nicovideo Redirector to watch interesting indie and other gameplay videos on the Japanese Nicovideo site for a while now, but here's a method that works even better.

Just copy the id of a video you would like to watch (e.g. sm8849393 from the URL http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm8849393), then add it to the end of this url: http://www.nicozon.net/player.html?video_id= (e.g. http://www.nicozon.net/player.html?video_id=sm8849393) - in this case a Japanese speedrun of the game Dungeon.

You can then watch the Nicovideo clip in full screen mode without having the need to register or login. Another (non-indie) Ridge Racer Vs. GTA IV game-related example here (thanks to Kenta Cho for this one): http://www.nicozon.net/player.html?video_id=sm8727625

Trailers for upcoming indie games in the extended.

The Amanita Design team had posted up five tracks that were excluded from the official soundtrack for Machinarium, originally available to buy separately or as a free download if you purchase the full game. This new set of songs also include The Robot Band Tune, a short musical interlude played by the group of musically-inclined robots huddled just outside the bar. Get the EP here.

Pylo Noveau is a solid platformer made with the Game Maker engine, featuring four lengthy levels to play in the first demo build released. The developer has promised four times the content in the final version, but don't let the incomplete tag discourage you from giving this game a try.

You play as Pylo, a dragon with fire-breathing ability that can be further upgraded whenever you collect a red gem. Any jewels you collect also allows you to use special powers that can either reveal secrets in a stage, heal Pylo, or even hurt enemies in a myriad of ways.

The biggest letdown of this project is the use of sound effects from other commercial releases, although if you can let that slide then there's some fun to be had here by fans of platform games.

In Deflectorpool you control a paddle used to bounce balls coming from the top of the screen. Scoring is done by collecting balls of the same color with the round attachment connected to the bat. You can switch colors by holding down the left mouse button and touching any ball of a different color to convert.

The more balls you string up before changing colors, the more points you gain from a higher combo count. Some water will be drained whenever you complete a combo, which is something players have to be good at if they want to prevent the green liquid from overflowing and ending the game.

Game Giveaway of the Day is offering Archibald's Adventures as a free download for the next twenty hours or so. This puzzle platformer by Rake in Grass (of Jets'n'Guns fame) is probably the closest thing we have to a new Professor Fizzwizzle game. An 8MB download, 80% rating, and boasting over 160 levels to play, I cannot recommend this game enough so go get it before the giveaway expires.

There is no uninstaller since it basically unzips all game files into a folder, so if you want to remove the game just delete the entire folder instead. You need to install Archibald's Adventures today to activate the full version on your computer.

In Captain Forever, you're the captain of a ship named Nemesis, stranded in space without a single clue about your current whereabouts. Fortunately an info buoy is around to help, providing you with some information about the sector you are in and supplying repair modules to rebuild your ship.

By destroying enemy ships with your default laser weapon, you can cause them to drop ship parts that can be attached to your own ship. Additional ship plating, extra weapons and increased thruster power are just some of the benefits to be gained from salvaging intact modules.

Captain Forever is a series of episodes to be launched by Farbs in the coming months, with the first game now available to play for free. Supporters who donate $20 for the project not only get to play the sequel Captain Successor right away, but will also have access to all future episodes in the series.

In our latest employment-specific 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 Relic Entertainment, Zoe Mode 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:

Relic Entertainment: Senior Director Of Development
"The Senior Director of Development executes the developmental strategy of the studio in accordance with the GM and THQ’s strategic and tactical objectives. Responsible for ensuring project development achieves operating objectives and financial goals; ensuring development efficiency and product timeliness, and otherwise ensuring consistency and process improvements across projects."

2K Games: Channel Marketing Manager
"2K Games develops and publishes top-line PC, console, and handheld entertainment software, with a strong concentration in three distinct categories: sports, high profile licenses and specialty product. Some of the hit titles in 2K's lineup include the critically-praised Bioshock, Sid Meier’s Civilization IV, and The Darkness. 2K Games is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc."

The annual Experimental Gameplay Workshop is now open for submissions. Selected developers will be invited to give a short presentation on their respective games, prototypes and ideas to an audience during GDC this coming March 2010.

To submit for the workshop, just fill up a short submission form as per guidelines on the EGW site, then send it to workshop2010 [a] number-none.com before January 26, 2010. (source)

The Experimental Gameplay web site
Experimental Gameplay Workshop 2009

The four titles selected for the best independent game category in Spike TV's Video Game Awards were announced yesterday, with the winner set to be revealed live on Spike TV this December 12th, 2009.

Twisted Pixel Games 'Splosion Man, thatgamecompany's Flower, Hemisphere Games' Osmos and RedLynx's Trials HD make up the honoured quartet this year. Voting is already open, and fans can cast their votes anytime between now until December 11th. Games nominated in this category last year were World of Goo, PixelJunk Eden, Braid and Audiosurf, with 2D Boy eventually taking home the award.

[Thought this was worth reprinting from big sister site Gamasutra, since it talks to what indies are doing well that bigger games sometimes cannot. Go read Hecker's original speech first, if you haven't.]

If the video game medium is to reach higher levels of cultural relevance and reach, the mainstream industry must not abdicate responsibility to the indies, warns Chris Hecker, himself an independent developer.

Responding to a question following his Montreal International Game Summit keynote address, which largely mirrored his keynote delivered last week at the IGDA Leadership Forum in San Francisco, the Spore veteran and current SpyParty indie developer Hecker acknowledged that some of today's most interesting and meaningful game work is being done in the indie sphere.

But he noted that the notion of indie gaming inherently limits the broader impact such games can have. Rather, if games are to become a medium that is more widely accepted as capable of artistry and meaning, progress must come across the entire spectrum of games, from large-scale projects down to one-man endeavors.

Of course, the larger the team, the more risk-averse those funding the team are likely to be, which makes the job for those developers all the harder.

"I don't think it can all come from indies," he said. "It has to happen in the mainstream game industry as well. It's harder there, and it'll be smaller incremental baby steps."

But the rewards for such projects in games that sell millions upon millions of units could be monumental: "A couple different decisions in [developing] the No Russian level could have had more impact on humanity than Braid will ever have in its lifetime," Hecker said, referring to a much-discussed (and oft-spoiled) mission from Infinity Ward's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

Following record Main Competition entries, organizers of the 2010 Independent Games Festival have revealed 193 Student Showcase entries, a record 33% more entries than last year.

After this year's 12th Annual IGF Main Competition -- just one of the three IGF competitions taking place this year -- amassed 306 game entries, information on the almost 200 Student Showcase entries is now available on the official IGF website.

Previous notable IGF Student Showcase honorees have included DigiPen's Narbacular Drop (evolved into Valve's acclaimed Portal), USC's The Misadventures Of P.B. Winterbottom (now signed by 2K Games for XBLA), Hogeschool van de Kunsten's The Blob (made into a console title by THQ as De Blob), and early USC/ThatGameCompany (Flower) title Cloud.

This year's IGF Student Showcase entries will be judged by an opt-in subset of the more than 160 notable game industry judges, before the student-specific finalists are announced in mid-January 2010.

Ten Student Showcase winners will be given all-access GDC 2010 tickets to show their games at the show, as well as $500 towards travel costs. The overall Best Student Game will be awarded $2500 at the IGF ceremony during Game Developers Conference 2010 -- run by Think Services, as is this weblog -- in San Francisco next March.

Finally, IGF 2010 organizers are reminding that entries to the IGF Mobile competition -- encompassing iPhone, mobile phone, PSP, DS, Android and other handheld games -- are due by December 1st, 2009.

rComplex is a short demo created by two people in under eight days as a proof of concept, plays quite similarly to Canabalt, and features a strong narrative that tells the story while you attempt to outrun a giant squid-like creature. The objective of the game is basically to survive for as long as you can while trying to escape from a high-rise building.

Running is automatic and done at a steady pace, but the distance between you and the monster is reduced whenever you stumble over another piece of furniture or obstacle. You can also keep the creature away from you by shooting at it, although ammunition is limited to just twelve bullets only. The music tends to drown out the protagonist's voice often, and there are no checkpoints implemented, but you should be able to reach the end of the level after a couple of tries. (Windows, 47.2MB)

In Focus you find yourself trapped in a cave full of traps and robots that fire missiles at you on sight. You will learn a skill called 'focus mode' early in the game, which can be used to teleport yourself anywhere inside a blue circle. Some momentum is applied as well, but the longer you hold the focus button the smaller the circle becomes, hence your teleport range will shrink until it is no longer possible to perform the feat. The focus field also causes everything inside the circle to move in slow motion, and focus power is regained by not using it for a couple of seconds.

Players who complete the game will receive a rank and a medal to honour their achievement, although some might find the game a bit too challenging because of random elements such as the behavior of falling debris and homing missiles. (Windows, 17.5MB)

Today's pic is the cover image for Bit Blot's Aquaria two-disc soundtrack, drawn by Katie de Sousa (artist for Infinite Ammo's upcoming project Marian). Danny Baranowsky posted his remixed track from the album on the OCR site as a free MP3 download too.

On with the links:

Nifflas' Saira Release date set
A new commercial game from the creator of the Knytt series will be released on December 12th, 2009. Saira is for Windows only, and will cost around $15.

Canabalt Portable
A free offline version of Canabalt to download and play. Windows build only.

Unity3D Intro Tutorial
It does go on a bit, but Alec did a great job of showing how easy it is to start using the Unity3D game engine here.

Aquaria - Original Soundtrack
The soundtrack to Bit Blot's debut commercial release is now available for purchase.

JNK x 15 - 15 Fantastic Tip Top JNK Games
Fifteen of the best weekly games created by James, all collected into a handy zip file.

Braid is now available on the PlayStation Network
Probably not out in some territories yet, but if you're waiting for the PSN version then keep an eye on this one. And the new video walkthrough is a great watch if you haven't seen it.

The premise of ClickPLAY 2 is that a play button is hidden somewhere in every level, and you must figure out the correct method to make it appear so that you can click on it and progress to the next puzzle. It shouldn't be too difficult to complete all twenty-four stages in the game, although some arcade sections requiring quick reflexes could prove to be a bit of a challenge to beat.

A video walkthrough is accessible from the main menu if you are seeking for hints on how to solve a couple of the trickier puzzles.

Devil's Tuning Fork is an exploration game viewed from a first-person perspective, where you play as a child trapped in an alternate reality after catching a strange illness and falling into a coma. The unknown world is a dark one and has no illumination, but a tuning fork that you find at the start of your adventure can be used to feel your way around the maze of rooms and platforms.

Locked doors can either be opened by collecting all toys inside a room, or by ringing a bell or a gong using a sound wave projected from your fork. Progress is saved automatically at checkpoint locations scattered throughout the maze, although if you quit the game and return to it later you will find that your previous save is no longer accessible. Some of the challenges are repetitive as well, especially when you are waiting for a moving platform to reach you for the umpteenth time, or trying to stand on the right spot to bounce a wave off a mirror and hit a gong. (Windows, 42.8MB)

Dungeon is a short 2D platformer created for the 14th Mini Ludum Dare competition, where you are thrown into a dungeon with minimal instructions on how to play the game displayed at the top of the screen. Each area presents a different challenge for players to overcome, and a small piece of the story is revealed the further you venture into the castle. Some obstacles are certainly designed to be harder to beat than the others, so you might need a small amount of perseverance and patience before finally making it through.

The game was developed with Multimedia Fusion. You can also switch to full screen mode by clicking on the square button located at the top right part of the window. (Windows, 3.41MB)

Dungeon Version 2.0

pixelProject is a short 2D platformer consisting of four levels to play in the public beta release. Created with Game Maker, the story is about a hero who has to collect coins for points and reach the end of a stage without losing all of his hearts. You can smash or push certain crates by running towards them, which will sometimes reveal paths to secret locations that harbour more coins to retrieve. (Windows, 3.17MB)

In Featherweight you play as Thadd, a scout for a rebel group fighting against robots who are out to capture all humanoids. Discovering that a fellow spy has been caught by the machines, he embarks on a mission to rescue her even with the knowledge that chances of succeeding is slim.

The interface is easy to use and puzzles aren't too difficult to solve, although there is a bit of reliance on challenges that require figuring out combinations for locks and doors throughout the adventure. Expect to do a bit of pixel hunting as well, but the game is short and the amount of frustration from retrying has been kept to a minimum. (Windows, 15.1MB)

Great coverage for indie games in the New York Times last Friday, about how indie game developers are making waves in the scene and drawing attention from the mainstream (although most of the quotes are from the perspective of Passage creator Jason Rohrer). The article offers a great insight on why games like Flower, Braid, and Blueberry Garden became successful ventures for their developers in a market that is largely driven by the need for more big budget realistic shooters.

Can D.I.Y. Supplant the First-Person Shooter? (NYTimes.com)

Let's take a look at the latest interviews with indie game developers on the web. Highlights include: Adam Saltsman revealing inside information about Canabalt, Hello Games' Sean Murray chatting about Joe Danger, Floex talks Machinarium, and Q Games' creators discussing the future direction of the PixelJunk series. (fanart source)

Interview with Adam Saltsman of Semi Secret Software (Touch! Tap! Slide!)
Get the scoop on Adam Atomic's best Canabalt run here.

Interview: EA, Criterion Vet Murray Forms Indie Hello Games, Talks Joe Danger (Gamasutra)
Sean Murray talks about their upcoming highly-anticipated bike racing game, something we've previewed quite a number of times on the site already.

Interview: Floex And The Music Of Machinarium (Gamasutra)
A fun interview with the music composer for Machinarium. The latter half of the article should be read while listening to the soundtrack.

Golgoth Studio Revamps Toki with Torque (GarageGames)
Introducing Golgoth Studios and their gorgeous Toki remake to the world.

Interview: Golgoth On Resurrecting Toki For Digital Download (GameSetWatch)
Similar set of questions posed, but you do get to learn more about the production of the remake.

Profile of a Game Developer: Conor O'Kane (GarageGames)
The developer of Harpooned speaks his mind on a variety of topics relating to game development.

An Interview With PixelJunk's Dylan Cuthbert (Gamasutra)
A rather dated interview about the PixelJunk series, recently reposted on Chris Bateman's blog.

Playstation Chat Special Interview: PixelJunk (Game Game POW)
A podcast chat with Duncan Flett of Q-Games, the other creator of the PixelJunk series. Find out how the company name was chosen, among other things. Audio format only.

Interview: Prometheus designer chats about latest UDK-based game (BigDownload)
Interesting read about the process of converting a UT3 mod into a stand alone game. (The Ball, Psyonix, Epic Games interview)

Chatting with Steven Peeler (Iron Tower Studio)
Vince D. Weller (Age of Decadence) interviewing a fellow developer Steven Peeler (Depths of Peril) about Soldak Entertainment's releases.

Borut Pfeifer: The Plush Apocalypse (A Hardy Developer's Journal)
Who is Borut Pfeifer? Perhaps this GameSetWatch article will shed some light on the matter...

Inteview: Meet Team Meat (Edge Magazine)
Had to post this last because even at full resolution the words are still difficult to make out. (part 2, part 3)

On this week's edition we've got a trailer for the airship battle game Guns of Icarus (GSW write-up), a video for Wolfire Games' Overgrowth, a preview of Frictional Games' Amnesia, and more...

Debuted last week at Canadian Zine fair Canzine, the Torontron is an arcade cabinet that was retrofitted to play six games created by independent developers from Toronto. Local indie games advocacy group The Hand Eye Society constructed the master work and showed it off at the event's Artcade portion, hosting a Q&A on how to go make your own similar machine.

The Torontron's six installed games includes Miguel Sternberg's Night of the Cephalopods, Jph Wacheski's lockOn 2, Rosemary Moscoe's Albacross, Jim McGinley's Mondrian Provoked, BananasInPajammers' Monster Puncher, and Team Entelechynt's Heavy Weather.

As Mathew Kumar noted in his round-up of the indie titles, all of the games have simple, accessible controls, as the arcade cabinet only has a joystick and two buttons. The easy controls also helped portray Toronto's indie development scene as accessible to those who tried out the machine.

The Hand Society plans to bring the Torontron to game developer/enthusiast event Gamercamp on November 21st. The group is also taking suggestions for possible places to setup the arcade cabinet and make the indie titles available to play for free.

Shining Blood is a mech combat game with five stages to play in the main campaign and a versus mode that is limited to duels with the computer AI only. There are up to six robots and tanks that you can choose from, either as your main vehicle or as support to help you out in the heat of a battle. The objective of the game is basically to clear the entire area of enemies before proceeding to the exit area that will appear somewhere on the map. New weapons can also be unlocked by trading in the red ores you've collected during your skirmish.

You will need to have the XNA Framework and .NET Framework 2.0 installed to play Shining Blood. A trial version is also available from the Xbox LIVE marketplace. The game shouldn't be too hard to beat if you choose your frames and weapons wisely for the challenges ahead. (Windows, 82.2MB)

A very promising stunt snowboarder is coming to the Xbox Live Indie Games service soon in the form of Pixel Boarder. It's a dual-stick affair, with the left analog stick controlling the boarder's right hand side and the right stick extending and contracting his left.

Features you can expect include a full replay system with the ability to speed up and slow down every pixelated, bone-crunching wipeout; Graphics which can be set to 32, 16, 8 or 4 bit mode; And a 'huge selection of heads and bodies' for creating your very own snowboarding maniac. Throw in a selection of chiptune tracks from a variety of musicians at 8-Bit Collective and you're onto a winner!

In Fairune you play as a warrior princess who is on a quest to rescue the four elemental fairies and defeat the Dark Lord that threatens her peaceful kingdom. To recover health, just stand still for a couple of seconds and your life gauge will refill automatically. Pressing the space key displays your inventory.

Expect to finish the quest in roughly half an hour or so, although the time taken to search for false walls might bump that figure up a bit.

Today's pic is the poster for Locomalito's upcoming horizontal shooter, Hydorah. Here's hoping it lives up to all expectations.

On with the links:

Top 10 Break Out Indie Games of 2010
"Indie Games don't get a lot of media attention." Yep. Great site too.

2Bee Games Second Indie Game Competition Finalists
Here are your finalists from the 2Bee Games' latest indie game competition. Unfortunately to download any of the games you will have to sign up. (GamerBytes write-up)

And the winner is...
JayisGames' Casual Gameplay Design Competition winner announced. No prize for guessing which entry was selected as the big winner.

The Making of the Dance of the Seven Veils
A look at the production process for the dance scene in Tale of Tales' Fatale. (Emily Short's analysis)

It’s a fact, the next theme is: ART GAME
The much-maligned subject was chosen as the theme for this month's experimental gameplay friendly competition. Made anything noteworthy yet?

Indiecade 2009
Daniel Benmergui's write-up of the Indiecade event in LA. And photos.

Eurogamer Expo: A brief summary
I'm still envious of Michael for being the only editor able to attend this shindig.

Walker & Silhouette
Pacian's new IF game is headed your way soon.

Armalyte PC - Later levels revealed
A couple of new Giger-ish screenshots from the officially-sanctioned remake of Armalyte.

Screwball
Connotations aside, X-0ut (Prototype, Gravitron series) has indicated that his new marble game will be out sometime next month.

Flipt: coming soon
Dev.Mag with a preview video of a new iPhone game from InstantAction, out in two weeks.

Muse Games: Guns Of Icarus
An amazing airship battle game set around a steampunk theme. Made with Unity, and playable in any browser of your choice. You really should give this a try.

Fetus is a puzzle platformer in which you play as a blue character lost in a strange world, seeking to exact revenge on the party responsible for trapping him there in the first place. There is no screen scrolling and your character cannot jump, but Ted still manages to construct one or two surprises to catch the player off-guard.

The game is rather short in length and can be completed in under half an hour or less, assuming that none of the puzzles are giving you any trouble. Made for GameJolt's Minimal Competition. (GMC forum thread)

20 Heroes is a puzzle platformer with a unique twist, where players are assigned twenty characters to control separately, in a group, or all at the same time. Puzzles in every area are designed around this theme, and the creativity of the designer really shows after the fifth stage or so.

You can press the down arrow key to activate a character, who will then follow your orders until they succumb to a trap or a fatal injury caused by an enemy. The space key is used to select a menu option, and you can move heroes around the map or make them jump by using the cursor keys. Pressing G allows players to restart the game. Some enemies can be stomped on, while others can only be defeated in numbers or by using a certain strategy.

Note that the game isn't really designed to be played by audiences outside of Japan, as the quiz section in stage twelve is delivered in Japanese and near impossible to beat unless you are fluent in the language. (quiz cheat sheet)

[Just a quick reminder from our GDC colleagues about the call for submissions for the 2010 Summits, including indie, social/online, iPhone Summits - with a bonus Independent Games Festival heads-up in there also for students/mobile developers.]

Game Developers Conference 2010 organizers are reminding potential Summit speakers that they have until Friday, Nov. 13th to submit lectures, with IGF Student and Mobile deadlines also impending.

Held on the first two days of GDC 2010 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco -- next March 9th and 10th -- this year’s GDC Summit line-up includes two new events in the form of the Social & Online Games Summit and iPhone Games Summit.

These summits, alongside the GDC Mobile/Handheld, Independent Games, and Serious Games Summits, which are all accepting submissions through the end of Friday, November 13th.

(Other summits also held at GDC 2010 but not currently calling for submissions include one or two-day events on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the IGDA Education Summit, although the Game Localization Summit has an informal call for lectures ending on November 15th.)

In addition, Independent Games Festival 2010 organizers are reminding that, following record IGF Main Competition entries, games are due for submission in the free to enter Student Showcase category by Sunday November 15th, 2009. Separately of this, entries to the IGF Mobile competition -- encompassing iPhone, mobile phone, PSP, DS, Android and other handheld games -- are due by Tuesday, December 1st, 2009.

More information and registration specifics on the 2010 Game Developers Conference can be found at the official GDC 2010 website.

Merubyiusu is a 2D horizontal shooter that features four different weapons to use, three distinct stages and an obligatory boss encounter waiting at the end of each area. The game isn't too difficult to beat, and players can also resume playing from the last level attempted by using the continue option.

You might need to turn the volume down a bit though, as the sound effects and music are rather loud and still needs tweaking in this prototype build.

Here's a new indie games bundle from Direct2Drive, featuring seven games in total (two previous IGF Grand Prize winners) being offered for just $25. The pack contains Aquaria, Crayon Physics Deluxe, And Yet It Moves, Aaaaa!, I-Fluid, Project Aftermath and Acceleration of Suguri, which will normally cost $95 before the discount.

The offer ends in one week, so if there's an indie game in the bundle that's missing from your collection then this is a good time to get them cheap (even Aquaria costs $20 at the usual price).

Pic on the left is taken from a new poster by Gary J Lucken (Army of Trolls), depicting Salford University and its surroundings. Here's another one with animation.

On with the links:

Why can't they play? Barrie Ellis
Developers really should consider making their games a lot more accessible. Simple things like an option to remap controls, subtitles, and a difficulty setting can only benefit more gamers.

Aztez Project - Call To Arms
Ben Ruiz of Flashbang Studios is seeking for a programmer familiar with Unity to help him develop a beat-em-up project.

3 Ways to Minimize Commercial Indie Game Piracy
Some suggestions on how to reduce the piracy rate of indie games.

Free Indie of the Week Master List
Links to every single game featured on Bytejacker's Free Indie of the Week. I love this show.

Is Modding Useful?
Rodain Joubert and co. do a great job of updating the South African development community about indie games on the Dev.Mag front page.

The origins of Minecraft
An interesting behind-the-scenes look at the events that lead to the birth of Minecraft.

36 of the best iPhone Games
I don't own an iPhone, but if I did I would probably get half the games on this list for my library.

In Defense of Price
An article about iPhone App pricing.

EG Expo 2009: Indie Games Arcade
Another write-up about the recent Indie Games Arcade showcase on the Eurogamer site.

Big Fish - Little Pond
Russell Carroll probably knows about the casual game market better than anyone else, being the Game Director of Reflexive Entertainment.

Transdimensional Hellspider
I'm a big fan of Linley's works, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that I'm eagerly anticipating his latest.

Official Zero Gear Trailer and Beta Signups
Nimblebit's offering beta keys for their upcoming 3D multiplayer racing game, so do grab one for yourself before they're all gone.

The Marionette is a full-length 2D adventure game viewed from a first-person perspective, where you play as a sculptor named Martin who is in the middle of completing his latest work when a mysterious package arrives in his mailbox. He loses consciousness just moments after opening the plain-looking envelope, and wakes up much later only to find himself standing outside an unfamiliar house.

Unperturbed by the strange turn of events, he heads into the house to seek for answers that will explain how and why he was brought to the spooky estate in the first place. (download page)

Proun is a 3D racing game from Joost, one of the co-founders of Ronimo Games (The Blob, Swords & Soldiers). Currently in production and scheduled to be released as freeware sometime before early 2010.

Created by the developer of The Power, In a Dungeon is a short overhead platformer where every room contains a challenge that you have to beat in order to escape from the maze. The map on the floor of your starting location indicates areas with uncollected yellow crystals, and the only way out of your current predicament is to collect all twenty-one crystals from the individual rooms in the labyrinth. (GMC forum thread)

Philip Bak is looking to take the 2D blaster and inject some story and 'a lot of heart' into it - enter Bezier. Set in a giant super computer, Philip's been working hard to give the game that special something. States his website:

"Powered by the BezierSynth, a bespoke 2D graphics engine which utilizes genetic algorithms to create a look based on evolving curves. This allows the visual look to change based on the character's actions, story parameters and spectral analysis of the 45 minute score."

The trailer looks rather ace! Bezier is coming soon to a PC near you.

Umbrella Adventure - The Castle of Cake is a monotone-coloured platformer created by the developer of the popular Game Maker RPG, Ark 22. The story is about a gopher who was rudely awakened by the smell of sulphur to find his stash of a hundred cakes stolen in the middle of a rainy night. Curious about the disappearance, he sets out on a quest to find his cakes, even if it means travelling all over the land to retrieve every single one of them.

There's an umbrella outside the house that you can use for a number of purposes, although you're restricted to utilizing it mainly for whacking enemies and blocking their attacks until new tricks are discovered. The game does take a while to beat, but a helpful save system is included so that players can keep track of their progress and resume the adventure later on.

In Super Sloth Bomber, you are a sloth piloting an airship that can drop bombs at enemies on the ground to knock them out. Bombolia is under attack, and the king has sent you on a quest to drive back the invaders with your ship's ordnances. To progress you would have to clear an area of all enemies before time runs out, or defeat a boss if you are in the final area of a major location.

Players have a small supply of explosives to use per bombing run, although you can increase this limit and purchase other useful upgrades from the shop with the coins you've collected during your adventures.

Ask anyone who visited the Indie Game Arcade at the Eurogamer Expo last week which games caught their eye the most, and more likely than not they'll mention Hello Games' Joe Danger. The game has been receiving a lot of attention on both indie gaming blogs and mainstream news sites alike, and with good reason.

At first glance, Joe Danger appears to be a more casual take on RedLynx's Trials series. Motorbiking along a single plane in a fixed straight line, players launch themselves off jumps, duck under obstacles and pull off outrageous stunts along the way. The controls are incredibly simple - you've got an accelerate trigger, brake, boost, duck and tricks button. Each level is no more than a minute or two long, but it's what you do during the run that counts.

After getting the basics down, realisation begins to sink in that there is a lot more to it if you're going to grab those high scores and bonuses. Where Trials is all about trying to get to the end of the course with bones still intact, Hello Games have taken a less frustrating approach to the idea, basing gameplay on bonuses and combo-scoring rather than tricky obstacles. It's easy as anything to reach the end of a track, but getting that gold trophy is going to take some Dangerous skills.

Swimming Under Clouds by Yacine Salmi and Orioto (preview)

Tale of Tales had compiled a list of videos submitted by entrants for the IGF 2010 competition which you can watch here and here. Lewie Procter of SavyGamer is also in the process of compiling links to IGF entries with playable builds online to download or play, although you might have to wait a bit for the rest of the alphabetical links to appear on his site.

More notable videos (IGF and non-IGF) can be watched in the extended.

In our latest employment-specific 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 5th Cell, Insomniac and more.

Each position posted by employers will appear on the main Gamasutra job board, including positions from Sega of America, 2K Marin 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:

Rainbow Studios: Senior Producer
"Rainbow Studios, a subsidiary of THQ, is one of the largest video game developers in the Southwest and develops premier original and licensed titles for current and next generation console systems. Rainbow’s video game history includes the critically acclaimed Motocross Madness PC series, the award-winning ATV Offroad Fury, top-selling Splashdown, the highly praised MX franchise, the blockbuster Disney-Pixar Cars titles, and the critically acclaimed Wii title Deadly Creatures, along with the soon-to-be-released MX vs. ATV Reflex."

Relic Entertainment: Environment Artist
"Your friends will call in the middle of the night, cursing you. When you see them, they’ll wear sunglasses to conceal their bloodshot eyes, and they’ll be alone, because their romantic interests left them without even texting goodbye. They won’t be able to stop playing. It’s a terrible fate, but I’m afraid it’s what we want. And we need your help."

The Death of Games are a team of five from DigiPen, and Kabloom is a project they developed over eight months. It's a short game in which an elephant living on a floating set of islands attempts to breathe life into her dying habitat by planting trees and nurturing them to health.

A very sandbox experience, players can suck in water and seeds (amongst other things) with their trunk, then spit them back out. You'll also need to stomp the ground, readying it for planting. Each tree successfully grown will spout fruit, and once all 6 fruit are collected, the game pans out to display your creation. There is no way to die - it's simply a slow and calm playtoy.

A word of warning: the download is 80MB in size, so this isn't one to play at work! Grab it from the DigiPen site. The trailer is below the cut.

Big (epic?) news today. Epic Games has just launched a free edition of its Unreal Engine 3, one of the best (if not the best) game engine around to use when developing 3D games. Called the Unreal Development Kit (UDK), the toolset is also distributed with support resources and technical documentation which are all available to download from the official site.

No charge will be imposed for noncommercial and educational use of UDK, although you will still need to obtain an official licensing agreement (Epic receives twenty-five percent of revenue after the first $5,000 is made) to develop a commercial product using UE3.

The UDK site is already hosting two standalone games that runs on the new UDK framework, meaning that you won't need to have Unreal Tournament 3 installed to play them. The Ball deserves a bit of a special mention though, because it was originally developed as a mod for UT3 (hence the need for the full game to play it), but has since then been turned into a standalone version using UDK to showcase the versatility of the engine.

Epic Offers Free UE3 For Non-Commercial Use (Gamasutra)
UDK Version 1.0 - beta release mirrors (Epic Games Forums)

In Gravmari you control the Playertoid, a sphere that has to absorb asteroids and small planets to grow and fuel itself. There are only grey space rocks to collect at first, but soon you'll be able to absorb moons and orbiting planets after playing for a couple of minutes. The Playertoid can also eject mass at the press of a button to propel itself in the direction of your choosing.

Windows only.

Olu is a rail shooter game inspired by Q Entertainment's Rez, where players use a reticule to target enemies and destroy them for points. At the end of each area is a red cube that you must shoot in order to progress to the next section.

Both the Xbox 360 controller and keyboard controls are supported, although you will need the latest version of DirectX 9.0c, .NET Framework 2.0 and XNA Framework 2.0 to get the game working on your PC.

A traffic management game? What tomfoolery is this! Carcophony is indeed such a thing, but while I've not exactly loved such titles in the past (see Armor Games I Love Traffic, which was incredibly boring), Green Light Projects' take on the idea quickly warmed to me.

Everything about this game makes me think of a horrible commute to work. The plodding music, the constant traffic jams, the slow-going - yet watching from above, it makes for quite a hectic experience. It all starts off slow and steady, and easy to keep organised. Traffic lights need to be switched to let cars through, and at the end of each wave an ambulance comes powering through and needs to make it from one side of the screen to the other before time runs out. If you have a queue, he's going to find that difficult!

As time goes by, more and more cars fill the screen, and if a jam gets too big, you've had it. There's also a multiplayer mode in which you handle traffic jams versus another player - makes for a lot of shouting and cursing. Right now Carcophony is priced at 400 MS Points ($5) which is possibly a little too much to ask for an arcade traffic sim, but there is of course a demo you can check out that should give you more to go on.

COBEX – Cruising on Broadway Extra is TCK's remake of the ZX Spectrum game Cruising on Broadway, created with the permission and feedback from the original author of the software. The game involves colouring grids in each stage by moving over them while trying to avoid colliding with enemy ships called chasers.

You can press the space key to break lines and prevent chasers from following your ship, and there is also a combo system that rewards players with bonus points for continuously changing the colour of lines. Windows only.

A couple of months ago you may have noticed an indie game doing the rounds called 'Lose/Lose'. In said game, players took part in a space invaders clone with a twist - each alien represented a file on their computer, and destroying a baddie would actually delete the file.

The idea that Zach Gage was exploring was the player's assumption that they are MEANT to destroy things. The game never technically asks you to shoot at anything, and Zach asks 'Is the player supposed to be an aggressor? Or merely an observer, traversing through a dangerous land?'

Whatever the case, the Anti-Virus 'Security Experts' definitely didn't see what Zach was supposedly getting at, and yesterday Symantec Software sent out a 'Security Response' video (above) warning Mac users of 'a new threat cleverly disguised as a classic video game'. In a Symantec blog post, Ben Nahorney states:

"There’s nothing stopping someone with more malicious intentions from modifying it slightly and then passing it on to unsuspecting users, causing significant damage to a computer. As a result, we’re detecting this threat as OSX.Loosemaque."

It's either good or bad timing (depending on how you look at it!) for Zach, as he just recently entered the game into the IGF contest. So what do we think of this 'security threat'? Can what is meant to be an artistic game be considered a virus? Zach clearly states both on his site and in the game that files WILL be deleted if you play the game, but at the same time you can definitely see it from Symantec's point of view.

In Pyroblossom you play as an ace pilot named Red Rage, who undertakes mercenary missions to satiate his captain's greed for money. Bullets come thick and fast, but you do have a special psycho mode in your arsenal that can be used to turn your heli invincible for a couple of seconds. Additional copters can also be purchased at the end of each level, while weapon upgrades are granted automatically after you've destroyed enough enemy planes and increased your ship's level counter.

There are a total of six stages to blast through. (Newgrounds mirror)

Trawling my way through the list of IGF entries for this year (seriously, there's a lot!) I came across Mon & Bot, a "physics based ambient platformer game" from South Korean developer Imwill. The above gameplay footage shows the work in progress. Apparently a beta will be available next week. That'll be nice!

Gratuitous Space Battles, the epic space battle sim from Cliff Harris aka Positech Games, has now been released. The game has been in beta for a few months, with pre-orderers gaining access to it, but now the full version is available for purchase.

Available through the Positech site, the game weighs in at $26.44 (£16.09) and features a full campaign mode, online multiplayer with online scoreboards and free-play modes. There's also a demo available for anyone who hasn't given it a go yet.

Coming this December, The Black Forest has an interesting setup. A series of 4 'episodes', one part will be released each week and feature completely different gameplay mechanics compared to the rest. Players will simply be given a small ghost-like character, which controls to use, and left to discover what game design is on offer.

Each episode of the project will not aim to be a full game, but rather "an effort to create emotional experiences that are more personal and different from the ones traditional game design has to offer".

The Black Heart is a versus fighting game which took Argentine developer Andrés Borghi seven years to create using Elecbyte's M.U.G.E.N. engine. There are six playable characters to choose from, each with their own set of special moves that can be executed using simple key press combinations. In addition to the basic attacks, players can also charge up their energy gauge and perform a powerful fatal move to finish a duel in style.

The game also features a couple of gameplay modes separate from the main story campaign, with support for hotseat multiplayer also included.

Flipper has come a long way since we first featured it back in April - now at completion and even sporting a publisher! Still headed for the Nintendo DSi, Flipper is the story of one boy's quest to be reunited with his goldfish. Available sometime very soon!

If you have yet to play Squid Yes! Not So Octopus or its sequel Squid Harder, then you are clearly immune to games with silly names. If a game has a ridiculous name then I, for one, feel compelled to play it. Sometimes I regret this decision, and other times, like in the case of SYNSO, I am very glad I did.

An arena shooter, your job is pelt your squidy friend around the screen and survive for as long as possible, blowing the bad guys away in a constant stream of incredible flashing colours and bright lights in the process. SYNSO360 is a buffed-up port of the original game for the Xbox Live Indie Games service. It's no secret that Rob is a huge fan of making his games highly accessible for anyone to play, and this is reflected in all the different options you can mess around with - auto-fire, one-switch mode etc.

Costing but a mere 80 MS Points ($1), if you're a fan of the SYNSO series or just like arena shooters in general, this is essential Xbox-ware. There is of course a timed trial version available for those who'd like to make sure it's an experience they'd appreciate first.

I briefly mentioned Stephen Lavelle's Happening Game in my Indie Game Arcade Roundup, but it more than deserves its own post. The game itself is downloadable from Stephen's site but honestly, if you're going to download it, you're going to have to imagine you're at the Eurogamer Expo and there are tons of other people who have given it a go besides you.

Happening Game makes no sense as a home-played experience, but in an exhibition environment as last week, it's just fantastic. Playable only with 2 people (attempting to start 1-player will result in the game telling you to find someone to play with), it's more of an experiment than anything. Each pair of players are given a keycode, then given tasks depending on how well they know each other. As tasks are completed, more really ridiculous tasks are provided until they get so horrendous that you feel too embarrassed to continue.

It's based on the idea of Happenings (art performances in which active participation from the audience is a must), hence the name. Initially I gave it a go with Terry Cavanagh and we chose the 'strangers' option from the menu. The first few tasks were simple 'Shake Hands' and 'Introduce Yourselves' commands. The game then asked us to meet back at that spot in an hour's time. Then we were asked to introduce two other people to the game. Finally it began to ask us to do things with each other than strangers just would not do, so we stopped there.

I also gave it a playthrough on the 'Friends' mode with someone I'd come along with, and we were given different tasks which were more to do with interacting. I didn't give the 'Family' or 'Lovers' modes a try, but according to those who did, I really didn't want to, as they ended rather vulgarly.

It was the idea, however, that I really liked. The thought that many others will have walked by, started a game, and then either passed it off as a silly concept and moved on, or maybe stuck around and really tried to get as far as possible. Now there's a set of results I wouldn't mind having a gander at.

[Again, photo courtesy of Rob Fearon - my photos coming as soon as I get my camera back!]

The organizers of the 12th Annual Independent Games Festival -- the longest-running and largest festival relating to independent games worldwide -- are proud to announce record entry numbers for IGF 2010's Main Competition, for which entries closed last night.

This year's Main Competition -- just one of the three IGF competitions taking place this year -- amassed 306 game entries, many of them new titles from leading indie developers.

Information, screenshots and videos on each of the IGF Main Competition entries are now available on IGF.com. This total entry tally comprises 35% more games than last year's record 226 Main Competition entries, itself a 30% increase on the previous year -- showing the continuing popularity of independent games and the IGF.

This year's IGF entries will be checked and distributed to the more than 150 notable industry judges for evaluation, before finalists are announced in January 2010 and winners awarded at the IGF ceremony during Game Developers Conference 2010 in San Francisco next March.

IGF 2010 organizers are reminding that games are due for submission in the free to enter Student Showcase category by November 15th, 2009, and entries to the IGF Mobile competition -- encompassing iPhone, mobile phone, PSP, DS, Android and other handheld games -- are due by December 1st, 2009.

JetTrek is a two-button game in which you can only move upwards and downwards with your jetpack, shooting at enemies for points while trying to keep your heart count above zero. New obstacles are introduced after you've scored a certain amount of points, and you can replenish health by destroying asteroids and collecting the hearts stored inside. (source)

MonsterTime is a Halloween-themed BurgerTime remake in which players have to build monsters by walking over their body parts repeatedly until every piece reaches the bottom of the screen. Modern horror movie monsters are on your tail, but you can use acid to burn them away or stun them for a couple of seconds with your tasers.

There are only ten levels to play, and the game loops back to stage one once you've completed all of them.

The Eurogamer Expo visited Leeds and London last week, featuring all the big AAA titles that gamers will be playing over the Christmas period and beyond. The part of the expo I was most interested in, however, was the Indie Game Arcade setup, showing off some of the big indie titles in development (or recently released) by a range of different indie developers.

You can find a roundup of all my thoughts on the games and the arcade itself just below the cut. For some of the titles which just blew me away, I'll be making separate posts regarding those too to give you all a more indepth analysis.

Annoyingly, in a moment of distraction I put my camera down and failed to pick it back up again. Fortunately, it turns out gamers are the nicest kind of people and it was handed in to the Eurogamer guys, who are posting it back to me. Hence, I'll be putting up pictures and videos from the expo later in the week, but for now Rob Fearon has given me permission to use his own photos - you can find his whole collection here.

Full versions of The Graveyard (both Windows and Mac OS X builds) are available as free downloads for today only, so if you've played the demo earlier and liked it, then you might want to get a copy before the offer expires.

In other news, Wolfire is discounting Lugaru down to $4.95 on Direct2Drive and Mac Game Store (normally $19.95) until the 4th of November. The D2D version also comes with a HD texture pack that makes the game look slightly better on PCs with high resolution settings.

Related:
Are indie games too cheap? (Tale of Tales)

A mysterious chemical-related accident has turned most of the city into brain-eating zombies, so now it's time to jump in your machine-gun wielding vehicle, mow them all down and try to save the surviving city dwellers before it's too late.

Zombie Driver is a top-down driving affair which promises to feature a main story, plenty of side quests, combo killing and all in a neat, arcade-style package. Coming later this month for PC.

I'm not usually into this style of point-and-click adventure, but this gameplay video just blew me away. The dynamic level layouts look gorgeous and the way it all flows together is spot on. It all just feels so full of atmosphere and depth.

The story of TRAUMA revolves around a young woman who has recently been in a car accident, and while in hospital begins to have dreams regarding her past and her identity. Players are urged to explore her dreams, now and again using mouse-drawn gestures to move around and achieve goals. Look out for this towards the end of the year.

Rocketbirds: Revolution! is an action platformer that resembles a modern day Flashback sequel, featuring great graphics, fluid animation, and high production values rarely seen in a Flash game. You play as Hardboiled, a veteran soldier on a mission to free the city of Albatropolis from the grip of an evil empire. The demo is basically a tutorial that teaches you how the controls work, spread over three different locations with individual rooms to pass through.

I've embedded a trailer in the extended. The full game costs US$9.95, and after purchasing it from Ratloop (of Mightier fame) via PayPal you'd only need to sign in with your user account information to play the entire thing.

Guerrilla Bob is a top-down shooter coming soon for your i-Poddery gizmos, featuring dual-stick controls, lovely-looking comic visuals and lots of shooting. The press release blurb says: "This is the odyssey of a brave soldier, who decided to take matters in his own hands. They call him Bob, and this is his game!". Quite! I guess not to be confused with another Bob and his game.