Today's collection of independent game links include the announcement of a new Game Maker competition, an awards show for the best free independently-developed games of the year, and a release date for Terry Cavanagh's much-anticipated VVVVVV. (image source)

Tale of Tales: My selection for the IGF
"When I had a look at each of the 301 entries in the festival, I couldn't resist the urge to compare them with our own. I have based my selection on the information available on the IGF website, the game developers' own websites, videos and screenshots."

Oxeye Game Studio: Harvest Holiday Bandwagon
"Harvest: Massive Encounter is currently 75% off on Steam. We've matched our own service with the Steam discount, so you Mac users won't feel left out. The 75% discount will be available until January 3rd." Osmos is also 80% off on Steam ($2 USD, usual price $10).

Game.Dev: Competition 24 - Coherence
"The Game.Dev group is currently running a 'Coherence' competition, requiring entrants to meld different genres into one game."

YoYo Games Glog: Competition 05 Announcement
"After a long wait it’s time to have a new competition. The theme for the first competition of 2010 will be 'Design A HandHeld Game'. We want you to design games using either Game Maker 7 or Game Maker 8 that would be suitable to run on a typical handheld device. First Prize is $1,000, 2nd $500, 3rd $250 to be paid by PayPal."

Devil's Tuning Fork: Visual Design Evolution (video)
"This is the documentation of the visual design evolution of Devil's Tuning Fork, a game created by the DePaul Game Elites team. The documentation was created and narrated by Kyle Sullivan, Visual Design Lead on DTF and a senior Animation major at DePaul."

Bytejacker: 2009 Free Indie of the Year Awards (video)
"We studied televised Video Game awards shows, and we think we've got the formula down. It's time to honor the best free, independently-developed games of the last year."

distractionware: Let’s Go Exploring
"VVVVVV will be available on Sunday the 10th of January, 2010. The game will be sold through its website thelettervsixtim.es for $15. There will be a demo!"

Game Tycoon: David Edery's IGF tips
A judge makes some useful comments for entrants. (source: GameSetWatch)

[From now until early January, IndieGames.com: The Weblog will be counting down the best independent and freeware games of 2009, with descriptions, screenshots, and links of the best games in each major category.]

Kicking off the first of the in-depth 2009 Best Of Features here on the IndieGames.com blog (after the overall Top 10 we did for Gamasutra and the 10 Indie Games for '10 article), we're proud to present ten of the best freeware shoot 'em ups released in 2009.

Let's take a look at a couple of naughty and nice shoot 'em ups, featuring titles with names of insects, cephalopods, and even.. phalluses, in this quirky selection of the best shooters we've played this year.

(You can also access the full 2009 Top Freeware Shoot 'Em Ups chart -- with extra screenshots and information -- as part of the IndieGames.com Features section, which includes indie game charts from 2006 to 2008.)

Here are the top freeware shoot 'em ups of the year:

[Veteran indie game creator Edmund McMillen, known for his work on 2005 IGF Grand Prize winner Gish, Time Fcuk, and Super Meat Boy for WiiWare, shares his opinions and manifesto on making indie games, with 24 clear do-s and don't-s to make your art thrive.]

One of the most common questions I'm asked in interviews is, "Do you have any advice for independent game developers who are new to the scene, or tips for developers in general?" Well, I actually answered it this time: I came up with this list of indie do-s and don't-s.

Now, I'm going to make clear that I'm not perfect and I'm sure as the years go by this list will change. But from where I stand right now, having made independent art/games for a living for the past 10 years, the advice below is crucial to all indie game designers, and all artists for that matter.

Also note that when I refer to a "designer" or "artist," I include programmers. All aspects of art have a fine balance of the technical and creative; just because programming is viewed as a technical field does not mean it is void of creativity. The creative is visible in the work as a whole rather than in the specifics. Light and shadow are vital technical aspects of illustration, but without creativity the piece is nothing more then a photocopy of the subject, void of any personal touch or presence.

This is a list for the creative designer who strives to be independent. This isn't advice on how to monetize your Flash game or survive financially by copying existing trends and juicing the public for their cash. This is a list for artists who are driven by the desire for creative freedom and/or to "just make some cool shit people will love."

Anyway, here's the list. Take what works for you and leave what doesn't:

1. Be honest.
When I say "be honest" I mean to speak from your heart. Don't be manipulative or condescending in your work; treat the player how you'd wanted to be treated. Honesty is extremely valuable when making art.

Step aside Avatar, there's a new 3D game in town, and he's indie! OK, so Matt Simmonds' Depth doesn't work with those new fangled 3D glasses, but it does use the old school red/cyan type.

It's a vertical shmup which apparently uses the 3D effect as 'an integral part of the gameplay'. If you've got a pair of those glasses handy, even the above trailer is in 3D! You can follow development of the game on his blog.

(And for those into chiptunes and the demo-scene, you might know Matt as 4Mat [interview], the 'inventor' of tracker-based chiptunes on the Amiga by looping short samples to create tones, and a seminal chiptune music maker in his own right.)

That's it, 2009 is soon to be the past and 2010 will be king. We've seen some incredible indie releases this year (just check out our Top 10 Indie Games of 2009 for a glimpse) but 2010 isn't worried - in fact, he's pretty sure he can match that and then some.

So which games should you be keeping a close eye on over the coming 365 days? Would a carefully selected list of the best upcoming titles be useful? Of course it would! After the cut is such a list (please note, in no particular order!) full to the brim with excellent indie gaming goodness which you should be foaming at the mouth for. If you thought this year was fantastic, you may need to hold onto something - here comes 2010.

Fez (Polytron Corporation)
What is it that excites everyone so damn much about Fez? It is THAT trailer released earlier in the year? Is it the dimension-flipping gameplay? Is it the incredible 8-bit polish? Come on, you know the answer to that - it's a little from columns A, B and C. This is the game every indie enthusiast is longing for.

With every new screenshot featuring Gomez the little fez-wearing guy in it, the excitement builds. If we're honest, part of the excitement surrounding Fez is the fact that we know barely anything about it! Beyond 'a 2D man on a voyage through a mysterious 3D world', it's all being kept heavily under wraps. Not for much longer however, as Gomez will be flipping onto an Xbox Live Arcade near you early next year.

It's been a pretty darn interesting year for the Xbox Live Indie Games service. Back in July Xbox Live Community Games took its new 'Indie Games' title, and a whole new pricing and rating system was banged into place. Since then, a number of indie developers working on XBLIG titles have reported seeing rises in sales and the whole service has definitely picked up a bit more steam.

Of course, with the new rating system in place - in which Xbox gamers can rate any game out of 5 stars - it means we now have a pretty picture of which games are actually higher quality right now (as opposed to the Top 20 most-downloaded, which often has much stranger stuff in it.).

With that said, here's the top 20 best rated games on Xbox Live Indie Games in the US and UK. Please note that the list is changing daily, with some titles moving into the top 20 one week and then disappearing again the next, but since it's ranked from lifetime ratings, it's a decent indication of what's quality out there.

[EDIT: It's just been brought to our attention that these charts are region-specific, so we've added a US chart in addition to the original UK chart posted!]

U.S. Top 20

(1) I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES!!!1
(2) Inside Lacrosse's CL2010
(3) Arkedo Series - 03 PIXEL!
(4) Miner Dig Deep
(5) Beat Hazard
(6) ezmuze+ Hamst3r edition
(7) ZP2K9
(8) Groov
(9) Kodu Game Lab
(10) Arkedo Series - 01 JUMP!
(11) CarneyVale Showtime
(12) Platypus
(13) The Impossible Game
(14) Solar
(15) Avatar Wave: Snowball Fight
(16) Square Off
(17) Gerbil Physics
(18) Johnny Platform Saves Xmas!
(19) Avatar Drop
(20) Twin Blades

UK Top 20

(1) I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES!!!1 - Indie Games Review
(2) Miner Dig Deep
(3) Arkedo Series - 03 PIXEL!
(4) Avatar Wave: Snowball Fight
(5) SFG Soccer
(6) ezmuse + Hamst3r edition
(7) Platypus - Indie Games Review
(8) Beat Hazard
(9) Johnny Platform Saves Christmas - Indie Games Review
(10) ZP2K9
(11) Arkedo Series - 01 JUMP!
(12) Kodu Game Lab
(13) Leave Home
(14) Avatar Drop
(15) The Impossible Game
(16) Johnny Platform's Biscuit Romp
(17) CarneyVale Showtime
(18) Junkyard Battle
(19) Inside Lacrosse's CL2010
(20) Gerbil Physics

Today's collection of independent game links include more top ten lists, a MMF competition sponsored by Clickteam, MDickie's games going free, and Knytt merchandises. Thanks to Paul Eres for contributing a couple of these. (image source)

DIYgamer: Top 10 Indie Games of the Decade
"With a new decade just around the corner, I thought it would be fun to revisit some of my indie favorites throughout this decade, one for each year starting with the year 2000."

Boing Boing: the 10 most-anticipated games coming in the new year
"Ten of the games that you'll likely be hearing much more about in the months ahead, as their gestation periods finally end."

GameBuilder: The 20 Event Competition 2010
"Clickteam and GameBuilder are bringing you an amazing competition, with the best and most prizes we've ever had before. We have 10 prizes that will be awarded to the top 10 placing games."

MDickie.com: The Great Game Giveaway
"It's sad to give away the games I worked so hard on, and to concede that they no longer have so much market value. That said, the compilation CD will still be available to purchase (at an insignificant price) for those who wish to own the full body of work at its best and in a convenient format."

GameSetWatch: Nifflas Selling Knytt, Knytt Stories Shirts
"Developer Nicklas "Nifflas" Nygren (NightSky) is selling two shirts with fantastic black and white artwork drawn by Sara Sandberg and depicting scenes from beloved indie platformers Knytt/Knytt Stories."

Game Maker Gazette: Top 10 GM Games of '09
I don't really agree with the list that much, but it still has the oddest selection of Game Maker projects that most people have not played before, hence it's worth a look.

Gamezebo: Best of 2009
"From January to December, Gamezebo writers played, reviewed, analyzed and picked apart hundreds of games, so it takes something pretty special to stand out from the crowd. The following list contains our picks for the most memorable games of 2009."

I usually steer clear of Mario remakes and the like, but this is way too clever an idea to pass up on. Initially playing out like a normal game of Mario, you'll soon come to a wall of blocks which seems impassable. But never fear - pressing space will switch to 'Tetris Mode', and you'll then be able to make a route for Mario to climb over using Tetris blocks.

I've seen developers try to meld the two classics together before, but never this well. Tuper Tario Tros. may be experimental, but it just works so beautifully. You also have 2 different scores which are added together at the end - your Mario score, and your Tetris score. Yes, you can indeed build 'Tetrises'.

Just make sure you make it all the way to the end of the level - the final part is pretty clever. Newgrounds ahoy!

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, Terminal Reality 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:

Robot Entertainment: Game Developer
"Robot Entertainment is a world-class independent game development studio owned and operated by many of the founders of Ensemble Studios. With a team that has proven experience and expertise in creating games that appeal to massive audiences, Robot Entertainment is focused on titles that set new standards for their respective genres as well as groundbreaking original IPs."

Terminal Reality: AI Programmer
"Terminal Reality Inc, is an independent Dallas-area developer devoted to developing top-quality games and technology. Since opening its doors in 1994 Terminal Reality has developed & shipped over 28 game titles including the recently released Ghostbusters: The Video Game on XBox 360, PS3 and PC. Terminal Reality is looking for a programmer who will be able to develop state of the art AI systems. This is your chance to be a part of a talented team working on an exciting AAA Natal Title!"

A collaboration between a few top indie developers, including Matthew Wegner of Flashbang Studios and Tommy 'Super Meat Boy' Refenes, the first episode of TIGRadio launches tonight at 6PM PST (2AM GMT).

Aimed mainly at providing independent developers with interesting ideas, tips and stories, the guys are also hoping to throw enough non-developer-related stuff in to please everyone. The hour long show will be broadcast via UStream (much like Flashbang's Friday Webcam Chats), so you'll be able to listen/watch on the TIGRadio site.

If you can't make it to a computer screen at that time, have no fear! All past shows will be recorded and archived so you can go back and check them out whenever you'd like. That time once again (just in case you missed it!) - Sunday, December 27th @ 6PM PST.

Merry Gear Solid 2: Ghost of Christmas Past is a fan-made tribute to a popular series of stealth espionage games, created by a developer who has a clear understanding and respect for canon material. Many of the tools used on the field have been renamed and redesigned with the Christmas theme in mind, but the way these equipment are handled will feel very similar to their original counterparts.

Arthur has written the storyline to be as convoluted as possible, and cutscenes do go on quite a bit, although the only real issue with the game is that about a quarter of it involves backtracking through rooms you've visited earlier in the mission. (Windows, 77.9MB)

Today's collection of independent game links include the release of Spelunky version 1.1, DIYGamer's top indie game picks for 2009, and Big Download's indie game recommendations for the holiday season.

Spelunky World: Version 1.1, Source Code Released
"This release has a lot of bug-fixes in it. It also adds some extended stat-tracking. Things are going very well with Xbox 360 development - I'm really enjoying working on this platform and I'm excited about what you guys will think."

DIYgamer: Best of 2009 - Editors' Top Picks
"As the year winds down and news comes to a crawl as people head off for the holidays, we’d like to share what we found to be the best, most innovative, most interesting and all around entertaining indie games that came out this year."

Big Download: 15 Indie Games for the 2009 Holidays
"We have 15 indie games that we think you or someone you love will absolutely adore this holiday season, and most of them run around or under a $20 price tag."

Big Download: Best Indie Games of 2009
"If you're looking for some excellent indie games to get yourself started on the treasure trove that was 2009, look no further than these games right here."

Gnome's Lair: A Featherweight Postmortem
"Some time ago I released a short game called Featherweight. The effort I put into the graphics, story and interface went above anything I'd ever tried to put into a game before – and yet... I can't help but feeling that through all of this I lost sight of the main purpose of a game."

La-Mulana: Implementation of Hints
"La-Mulana was praised by many players, but on the other hand, there was voice that it was quite vicious. One of the reasons, I believe, is that there weren't enough explanations."

Play This Thing: Platonic Archetypes of Dice
"This is a game with meaning attached, but if you like rolling dice you'll have fun. Therein lies the message, but I'm getting ahead of myself."

Slot Machine RPG is a turn-based game with role-playing elements, created using resources from TIGSource's Assemblee competition. You play as an explorer who is searching for the Crystal of Ix, but at every turn of the corner a trap or an enemy encounter could be waiting for you to step into the room. Health lost during skirmishes can be replenished by eating mushrooms with the action key, and you have three slots in which to store spells that could be used on your enemies as well.

The game is currently still in development, but a demo build of it (featuring five levels) is available to play at Vacuum Flowers.

Let's take a look at the latest interviews with indie game developers on the web. Highlights include: a podcast chat with the developers of Super Meat Boy, interviews with the creators of Fatale and The Graveyard, plus Charlie Knight talks Space Phallus and Irukandji. (image source)

Level 42: The Talk Is Cheap
"This week, Michael, Erika and Nick are joined by Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes, the creators of Meat Boy and the soon to be released Super Meat Boy." Audio only.

Bitmob: Interview with Cave Developer Peter Lu
"Cave is a simple 2D game where you play as both a boy and a girl and explore a dark cave. Although the game is short, it packs in a lot of questions and is easily one of the most intriguing games I've played in quite a long time. I decided to ask some of those questions to Peter Lu, the developer of Cave."

DIYgamer: The Man Behind the Gnome... Emberwind Erik Möller Interview
"Erik Möller was nice enough to sit down and go over some of the questions that we had about Emberwind, like why the game's not available on Steam and whether or not we’ll ever see an XBLIG/WiiWare version."

EmpireStateGamer.com: ESG Interviews Charlie's Games
"ESG had the pleasure speaking to one of our favorite indie game developers Charlie Knight of Charlie’s Games. Throughout the interview we will learn about the history of Charlie's Games and see what lies ahead in the future."

A single level demo for Locomalito's new project Hydorah is now out and available for download. Note that the game isn't designed for novices, since there is no checkpoint system, difficulty setting or an option to continue included in this preview build. Windows only.

The Adventures of Felix Fox: Tale of the Night is an action game recently released via Xbox Live Indie Games. Players take control of Felix, a fox who lives in the seemingly peaceful forests of Evergreen. However, venturing around reveals that this isn't the case at all, with other animals ready to pounce... and take a beating from Felix's superior fighting skills!

It's a good old button-basher, with Felix using a combination of buttons to lay down some punches, kicks and special moves. He also has some serious skills, like wall kicking to reach higher areas. The main campaign is what you'd expect - judo-chopping your way through hordes of baddies - and there's even a mode to allow your friends to spawn as the bad guys and attempt to stop your progress!

And that's only half of the game. There's also the battle mode, which allows up to 4 player (or 8 player online!) romps against each other over a range of arenas, with all the mode types a fighter would usually feature. Battle Royale or Team Play anyone?

At 240 MS Points ($3), this is XBLIGaming that you must at least try. Grab it from the Xbox Live Marketplace, or try the demo first.

Santa Fu is a holiday-themed remake of Kung Fu Master, where players take on the role of St. Nick who is on a quest to spread festive joy by beating up elves, reindeers and gingerbread men. There are five levels to play and two hidden characters to unlock, although both of them have the same set of moves as Santa Claus and differ only in appearances.

The responsiveness of the controls can be a bit dodgy at times, but to counter this problem the developers have also made the game available as a free download from their site.

Genetos is a vertical shooter that pays tribute to many classic and modern day shoot 'em ups, where the enemies and weapons evolve as you progress from one stage to another. The game offers plenty of configuration settings that cater to players of all skill levels, although some of the advanced features like invincibility and the boss rush mode are only available after you've beaten the entire game at least once.

The type of weapons that you unlock is determined by your style of play as well, and a history of your completed achievements are accessible via the history option at the main menu. (Windows, 26.9MB)

Transdimensional Hellspider is an procedurally-generated arena shooter in which the evolution of every new boss is based on how the previous one is defeated. There are six ships to choose from for the mission, with their only differences being the special weapon that can only be fired after a short charging period. Players are also awarded a weapon upgrade for every three bosses defeated.

It is recommended that the at least one of the spider's parts is destroyed first before you target their core, since the next boss will be much stronger if you go in for the kill quickly. (Windows, 2.88MB)

Running until January 3rd, there is a MASSIVE sale on Steam, with games ranging from 10% off to a ridiculous 80% off. Of course, the part of the store we're interested in is the Indie section, and it does not disappoint! There are some incredible deals in there to grab. I've picked out a bunch which I believe are essential purchases (unless you already own them, of course!) and they go as follows:

Defense Grid: The Awakening $2.49
Braid $2.49
Trine $7.99
Audiosurf $2.50
Eufloria $9.99
Crayon Physics Deluxe $9.99
Time Gentlemen, Please! $2.49
Osmos $4.99
Cogs $4.99
AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! $7.49

These are my must-have picks - check out the Steam store for even more amazing indie deals.

In addition to the Steam sale, here's a bunch of other deals worth sticking your nose in:

And Yet It Moves 50% off
Immortal Defense Pay-Whatever-You-Want Sale
Tale of Tales sale
Irukandji and Bullet Candy Perfect for $1
Aquaria 50% off
Grappling Hook 25% off (with coupon code BMWS000H3)

Go forth and spend your Christmas monies!

While this isn't strictly indie gaming news, it is independent music inspired by classic game music, it's firmly embedded in the spirit of gaming and it's for charity, so I'm going to go ahead and plug it anyway.

Oh yeah, it's bloody brilliant too. 8-Bit Christmas is an album of chiptunes based on the classic Christmas songs you've come to know and love (read: hate). Produced, arranged, recorded, and mixed by Shane Barber aka Rush Coil, it's glorious stuff which is definitely worth checking out.

The whole album can be listened to via the 8-bit Christmas site for free. However, if you're feeling charitable, a downloadable version can be purchased for $4, or a CD version for $10. All net proceeds are donated to the Child's Play charity, which 'presents hospitalized children around the globe with games and toys during the holiday season'.

It's no secret that both myself and Tim have a thing for Markus Persson's Minecraft - in fact we gave it an honourable mention in our Top 10 Indie Games of the Year. So it's pretty exciting to hear that Hayden Scott-Baron aka Dock, artist on Lost Winds for the Wii and developer of the awesome Tumbledrop, is the new artist for Minecraft.

Judging by the concept sketch featured on Markus' blog, it looks like Dock is planning on putting a playful spin on the original, more blocky graphical style. It will definitely be interesting to see where he takes it. Of course while many will be happy with the change, there will be others who grew quite fond of the original, more retro-style looks, so Markus makes the point that those who purchase the game while it's still in the alpha stages will be able to revert back to the classic model and skin.

Blasting Agent is an action-oriented 2D platformer with gun upgrades, collectible treasures and awesome boss battles, featuring chunky pixel art contributed by one Robert Lupinek (The Cleaner). You play as a blaster-toting secret agent on a mission to save the world from being taken over by a terrorist group, which means infiltrating their secret base with guns ablazing and your adrenaline level on an all-time high.

Health can be replenished by collecting the hearts that enemies leave behind, and if you're diligent enough you might even find a special item that increases the agent's hit point counter. There are only three levels to play, but you can unlock special bonuses and secret items by completing them with the maximum score possible.

And Everything Started To Fall is a short 2D platformer about life experiences. There are no instructions provided in-game, so players are advised to learn the controls from the forum thread description before they start playing.

The game also comes with a creator's statement inside the included text file. (Windows, 2.88MB)

Voting for mod/indie game of the year has begun over at ModDB. Their Mod of the Year awards celebrate the best game mods and indie titles of the year, and past winners have usually gone on to receive critical acclaim and commercial success.

Each of the 6,100 mods and 740 indie games released this year on the ModDB site now have a ruddy big VOTE FOR MOD buttons on their individual pages, so now it's your job to choose your favourites and push their buttons. Voting ends on Feb 20th, so you've got a while to make your selections.

ModDB will also be doing 'a year in review' between now and then, discussing all the best of the past year's releases. For more details on the competition, get on down to the ModDB site.

Today's collection of independent game links include the announcement of PAX East's Boston Indie Showcase (a chance for Boston developers to showcase their work), more indie game recommendations, and the release of a new sculpting tool from sfxr creator Tomas Pettersson.

PAX East 2010: The Boston Indie Showcase
"The Boston Indie Showcase at PAX East will offer top Boston developers the opportunity to exhibit their best work to the gaming community on the exhibition floor – for free." You can only enter if you're from the local Boston area though.

sugarfreegamer.com: Ten Indie Games you SHOULD play
"I've come up with a list of the ten independant gems I've excavated and I'd like to polish them up and put them on a velveteen pedestal for all to see."

Play This Thing: The Year of the Indie - My Top 5 of '09
"What a year to be indie. We've had tons of amazing games come out within the past 365 days; I'm sure we all have our favorites. Here's my top five."

indievision: Making of 'Gratuitous Space Battles'
"GSB was self-funded, and was a full time job, so with one eye on the budget I was very tempted to use stock spaceship models. I bought the licence to use a number of 3D models and did some test renders and playtesting, but they just didn’t look the part."

BigDownload: Mac Monday - Osmos, Guns of Icarus
"The indie games sector remains healthier than ever, and it's with pleasure that we use Mac Mondays to focus on games that might otherwise slip mainstream notice."

DrPetter's homepage: Sculptris alpha release
"An early test release of my new sculpt application. Its main feature is dynamic mesh tesselation that will provide additional detail where necessary, without the user needing to worry about it."

In Molleindustria's Every Day the Same Dream, you play as a white-collar worker who goes through the same routine of driving to the office daily, but deep down inside his soul he harbours a yearning to take the path less travelled. This is where the story begins, as players try to figure out ways to break away from the monotony of adulthood life.

Made in under a week for the Experimental Gameplay's art game theme, Every Day the Same Dream is a short game that can be completed in under fifteen minutes or less.

[We're trying to do something different with the Nuovo Award at the Independent Games Festival this year, and here's info on the jury which is even now discussing what's new and different among IGF entrants.]

Organizers of the 2010 Independent Games Festival have revealed jurors for the $2,500 Nuovo Award, which is intended to honor abstract, shortform, and unconventional game development which "advances the medium and the way we think about games."

The IGF's Nuovo Award, which was won (when called the Innovation/Nuovo Award) by Jason Rohrer's acclaimed abstract multiplayer title Between in 2009, allows more esoteric 'art games' to compete on their own terms alongside longer-form indie titles.

For the 2010 Independent Games Festival, the IGF Main Competition judges, numbering over 160 in total, will recommend games entered into the IGF Main Competition this year to be considered for this award.

But a separate panel of notable game and art world figures will decide the finalists and winner for the Nuovo Award in juried form, mirroring similar, artistically important awards in other industries.

Organizers have now announced the full jury for the award, which will be given out during the Independent Games Festival Awards on the evening of Thursday, March 11th, 2010 during Game Developers Conference 2010.

It consists of the following notable individuals:

[Continuing big sister site Gamasutra's 2009 retrospective, Tim W. and Mike Rose of IndieGames.com examine this year's top 10 independent games from their unique micro-indie perspective. Previously on Gama: Top 5 Biz Trends, Top 5 iPhone Games, Top 5 Controversies, Top 5 PC Games, Top 5 Handheld Games Of 2009, Top 5 Console Downloadable Games, Top 5 Major Industry Events and Top 5 Developers.]

It's been an incredible year for fans of indie games. The 2010 Independent Games Festival recorded a 35 percent increase in submissions, indie games have gained more prominence and recognition in the mainstream industry, and quite a few of them even turned out to be decent commercial successes for their developers.

To celebrate the achievements of these up-and-coming game designers, we thought it'd be great idea to list out a couple of our favourite independent video games from the past twelve months.

Bear in mind that for every game mentioned here, there are twenty more that are dear to us which got left out, so we'd like to apologize in advance if your picks didn't make an appearance in this article.

Here are our picks for the top ten independent games of this year:

Online Games' Basketball is a shoot the hoops game in which players have to get the ball through the basket as many times as they can in under two minutes. The further the ball is from the basket, the more points you score when you successfully make the shot. A multiplier bonus is also awarded if you manage to put the ball through the basket without it touching the metal hoop.

Players can create profiles, join groups, and compete for a place at the top of the high score table with colleagues or friends. (source: ortoslon)

Here's some festive platforming fun to get you all in the spirit. Johnny Platform Saves Christmas is the sequel to Craig Forrester's Johnny Platform's Biscuit Romp and is packed full of retro-style platforming with a Christmasy theme.

On each of the game's 100 levels, your job is to collect the coffee, destroy the robots and get to the exit. Easy to beginning with, it gradually becomes the platformer from your nightmares, in which precision jumps and timing are the difference between saving Christmas and becoming Christmas dinner. Johnny receives an extra life for each 16 cups of coffee he drinks, and a checkpoint is saved every 5 levels.

It's great fun, although a few levels here and there break the barrier between challenging and frustrating (I'm looking at you, level 23!). Well worth investing your hard-earning MS Points on. Grab it from the Xbox Live Marketplace for 240 MS Points ($3).

Today's collection of independent game links include Edmund's 2009 Flash game picks, Jens Bergensten's IGF 2010 picks, Planet Freeplay's Underrated Indie Games series, and screenshots from Jason Rohrer's upcoming DS game. (image source)

Edmund's Dev Blog: Top 10 Flash games of 2009
"This years Flash gaming summit nominations are up. I highly recommend you fill this list with Flash games that are good, so here's a list of my favorite Flash games of 2009."

Oxeye Game Studio: My IGF Picks
"I have had the privilege to take part of the Independent Games Festival as a judge this year, so I thought that I should post my picks for IGF."

A Hardy Developer's Journal: Design Taught in Pitfalls No. 3 - The Long Haul
"The honeymoon is over, the initial glory of your incredible idea has worn off and you're left looking at your ‘to do’ list which seems to have no end. There are a few things that you can try, however, and they might just help."

Erik Svedäng: Finally! Blueberry Garden 1.1
"At last I have finished the first patch of the game. If you still feel a bit reluctant to buy the game, there's a demo version you can try first (Steam not required)."

ScrewAttack.com: Indie Vault
"Mark Carr's Independent Games Video Series is a series dedicated to indie games and developers. The latest video promoted on ScrewAttack is about Sonny 2. There are also videos on Arkedo Series 01: Jump! and I Made A Game with Zombies In It."

Planet Freeplay: Underrated Indie Games
"A Youtube gallery consisting of videos of obscure indie games that haven't had much coverage in the indie gaming community - indie games that haven't really been brought to light over the years, which I think are worth playing."

Diamond Trust of London
Screenshots of Jason Rohrer's two-player strategy game about diamond trading in Angola, on the eve of the passage of the Kimberly Process. To be published by Majesco for the Nintendo DS platform in 2010.

! is a game about !, Robot, and his assignment to finding the missing town monument. Count Can't has stolen it for his own nefarious schemes, and the mayor wants you to get it back before his afternoon golf session is over.

Like Ben's other releases, this adventure game is short in length and can be completed in under twenty minutes. (Windows, 9.67MB)

We The Giants is a 2D platformer which took Peter Groeneweg five days to put together, though most players will probably spend less than ten minutes to reach the end of the game. It is recommended that you stick around for the credits, as anyone who completes the short adventure will receive a small (if unsubstantial) reward for their efforts.

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 Guerrilla Games, Tencent 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:

Guerrilla Games: Senior Environment Artist
"Saving the environment is easy - just hit CTRL-S. Making the environment convincing and awe-inspiring at the same time is a far more interesting challenge. As a Senior Environment Artist at Guerrilla, you'll work with the Level Designers to create cutting edge architectural designs, themes and compositions. You'll become part of a highly talented team, acting as a mentor, problem solver and source of inspiration for the people around you."

High Moon/Activision: Senior Sound Designer
"High Moon Studios is looking for a talented Senior Sound Designer to design and implement audio assets for a high-profile, action-packed title for PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. The individual will frequently collaborate with the audio team, game designers and producers to push the bar for creating a sonically rich, high-quality game. The ideal candidate must be passionate about making great games, be a strong problem-solver and an effective communicator."

Dracula Cha Cha is a one-switch game created by Lobo for the year-end festive season, in which you play a cheery vampire who goes on a quest to collect presents and gifts. You have sixty seconds to grab everything and reach the finish flag, and if that's not enough you can also earn extra seconds by picking up mystery gift boxes or scoring combos.

There's only one level to play in this holiday release build, although the developer has hinted that he will consider adding more content if the feedback for Dracula Cha Cha is good. (Windows, 3.33MB)

Earth is a Space Invaders-type shooter with a message, made for the Experimental Gameplay's art game theme. Besides playing the game in the conventional way, the developer has included optional methods to complete your mission as well.

This experimental project isn't going to appeal to everyone, but Earth does fits the bill perfectly as an installation in a Space Invaders-themed art exhibition. (source)

Shown above is the trailer for Intuition Games' upcoming Unity game, Megabank Executive Humiliation Challenge (MEHC for short). From the video description:

"As a producer for the Japanese game show Megabank Executive Humiliation Challenge (MEHC), the nation is counting on you to keep them entertained by humiliating the best of the best in Western banking executives. Balance money-making obstacles and hire better executives to make the most profit you can in one season. Don't let your nation down!"

Also, click through for videos which include a gameplay clip for Infinite Ammo's new iPhone release, a commercial for Pixeljam's Mountain Maniac, and a trailer for Fractal, the new game from Cipher Prime (Auditorium):

It's about time we featured a Christmasy indie game on the blog! And my, what a game it is. Don't try to contemplate what is going on here - just smile and look forward to its wonder. Dracula has some serious moves. (Source and Lobo's site)

A physics-based puzzle game about dominoes, you say? A beta demo available now, featuring 8 levels? A full version coming soon with a level editor for making your own domino runs? Well, don't mind if I do!

Been meaning to post about this for a couple of days now. Following in the footsteps of the likes of Steam, Direct2Drive, Impulse et al, the ModDB team recently released details on their own digital distribution service, codenamed Desura.

While they claim that the platform is 'far from complete', they also go out of their way to make sure everyone knows that this isn't just another 'shop with little to no interaction between the community and the content available'. What they hope will set Desura apart from the competition is the strong links between the games and the community.

It appears much of the inspiration for Desura comes from ModDB itself, with a good portion of the platform being dedicated to user-created mods and community features, including user reviews and uploaded screenshots. The service will also be very developer focused, with tools and functionality provided to game devs.

So what does this mean for the indie gaming world? Seeing as this is a new distribution service based on community, we can safely assume that indie developers are going to get a look in - in fact, there's a link at the bottom of the introduction article for those devs who want to get a piece of the action. Looks like a number already have, including the Wolfire team.

Right now it's in private beta and only available by invitation - you'll want to head here if you're looking to get yourself invited.

Today's collection of independent game links include a couple of holiday bargains, indie game recommendations for the long vacation, and an inside look at Flashbang Studios' new commercial project.

The Boing Boing 20, pt. 2: the best indie and iPhone games of 2009
"The best web, PC, Mac, and iPhone games -- freeware, commercial, and uniquely otherwise -- that sprang from the best of the indie community this year."

Amanita Design: Amanita Design Christmas Pack
"Our Christmas Sale starts Dec 17th and ends Dec 25th, in that period you can buy the bundle with Machinarium and Samorost2 only for $10 which is 60% discount from it's regular price ($25)."

Gamasutra: IP Enforcement For Independent Developers
"Attorney Mona Ibrahim explains what indie game developers should know about protecting their game's intellectual property, both during the course of development and after it's released."

Flashbang Studios: Raptor Safari 64 First Look
"Most of our energy is being spent on the next version of the game, Raptor Safari 64. This new version will ultimately be a thing of perfect HD beauty. Right now we're planning a late 2010 release."

DIYgamer: Give the Gift of Indie Games This Year
"With Christmas just about on top of us, there's probably still a lot of shopping to do in between now and then and, while you may be struggling with some of your game-loving friends, we've got your back as we introduce you to our favorite picks for this year's Christmas."

Jim McGinley's Blog: Machinarium makes claymation look efficient
"Jakub casually mentioned the game's revolutionary design: 'You can only interact with items you can reach'. Simple. Elegant. Wish I had thought of it."

Vertigo Games: Liquisity 2 - Let’s Kickstart This Project
"Liquisity was released as a freeware game back in 2005, where you guided a ball to the goal in the deep ocean depths. It was a small little game that was quite popular, and was one I always wanted to go back to and make a sequel."

You'll need to keep your wits about you if you're going to achieve a decent score in Tetraform, a tactical defence game from the brilliant minds of Tyler Glaiel and Greg Wohlwend. It's your job to protect 'that geometric thing in the middle' by selecting enemy ships and crashing them into each other, while building up your planet with powerups.

It all starts off nice and simple, with only a few different types of baddie attempting to plant themselves firmly in your atmosphere, allowing you to experiment with crashing certain types of craft into others. Soon, however, all hell breaks loose and you'll need to plan which ships to attract together quickly before they get too close!

Other defences are supplied, including huge spike rods for taking down pesky ships which just won't die, and a nuke for clearing the screen. All in all some good, hectic fun. Play it over at Newgrounds.

[We're just in the process of announcing lots more GDC 2010 sessions, and there's an IGS keynote announcement in here. Eagle-eyed folks will also note more Indie Games Summit lectures revealed, including talks on Osmos, Scrap Metal, ThatGameCompany's process, Fantastic Contraption, Wolfire and more.]

Organizers of next March's Game Developers Conference 2010 in San Francisco have revealed keynotes and first sessions for Summits, with notables including Facebook's Gareth Davis (Social & Online Games Summit) and Spider's Randy Smith (Independent Games Summit).

Taking place March 9-10th, the GDC Summits highlight the leading edge of game development in emerging and notable areas including; iPhone Games, Social & Online Games, Game Localization, Mobile/Handheld Games, Independent Games, Artificial Intelligence and Serious Games.

Of the major Summits, Facebook's platform manager Gareth Davis will deliver a keynote at the newly formed Social & Online Games Summit titled 'How Friends Change Everything'. It will discuss Facebook's massive disruption in who plays games, as well as how games are best discovered, distributed, designed and monetized on the service.

In addition, Randy Smith, owner and game designer at Tiger Style will keynote the Independent Games Summit. Tiger Style is the developer of the critically and commercially successful iPhone game, Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor, named by Apple as their top-rated game of 2009. Smith, who is also a veteran of Thief creator Looking Glass, will deliver a broad keynote address, 'Increasing Our Reach: Designing to Grab and Retain Players.'

Alongside these notable announcements, all of GDC's market-leading Summits have announced initial lectures, with a large number of new speakers and topics now confirmed for the event.

Other notable featured talks at the one and two-day Summit events include:

It was a special edition of the IndieGames crossword this time around - an IGF special, to be exact - so I decided to give you a little more time than usual to get it all filled in. If you still haven't got around to it, don't spoil it just yet - head back and give it a go.

The solution is below the cut, along with links to each of the featured games' IGF entries. If there are some titles you don't recognise, go and check them out! There's plenty of awesomeness to be found.

Before I begin listing some of my personal favorites from this year's IGF competition, I should point out that the first round judging period is already over and my opinions stated here won't be an influence to any of the other IGF judges. I don't know which games made it into the finals. This article isn't supposed to be a prediction of any sort, and maybe none of them will make it as finalists either.

I do a bit of judging work for the IGF, and every year I try to play as many games as I possibly can from both main and student IGF competitions (as long as Windows builds were made available). Besides Brian Crecente, I don't know if anyone had posted about their personal IGF favorites, so I'm doing a list of ten games from the competition that I kind of like more than the rest. If any of these games make it to the finals, you too will get to play them at GDC next March.

I might write about the student entries, but I'm not really sure about that yet. And yes, a lot of good games were left out of this list. Which IGF entries this year were you most looking forward to?

Here's something that I found while randomly searching for indie games on the 'net - a gameplay demonstration of Kairos' new vertical shooter, Graze. Doesn't really feel like two years has passed since we last played Varia, the other shmup that he made using the Game Maker engine.

And while we're on the topic of shmups, I should also point out that Linley Henzell (creator of Dungeon Crawl) is working on an arena shooter called Transdimensional Hellspider. The download link for the demo is only accessible to forum members though.

Duum Mashine is a fast-paced arcade shooter created by David Scatliffe, where you are in control of a solar-powered laser weapon drawn by a child for his school assignment. Every time you activate the lasers a gauge at the top of the screen will deplete quickly, but you can recharge the batteries by collecting energy from direct sunlight exposure.

The game also features an online high score submission feature. (Windows, 5.30MB)

I played Andy Schatz's latest project Monaco recently (as part of my IGF judging duties), and found that it was a surprisingly fun top-down co-operative game - a complete departure from anything that Pocketwatch Games (known for their Venture Tycoon series) had produced in the past.

Since a trailer for Monaco was released just today, we thought it'd be a good idea to contact Andy and find out more about this new 'venture' of his.

Hi Andy, can you give us a bit of background about Pocketwatch Games? And are you still actively working on Dinosauria?

I started Pocketwatch Games at the end of 2004 and have had two major releases since then, Wildlife Tycoon: Venture Africa and Venture Arctic. After Venture Arctic I started working on Venture Dinosauria, and I'm currently taking a break from that game to work on a game of a totally different nature called Monaco, which is a 4 player co-op stealth game where each player has a specific role in an operation. I taught myself C# (not that that's particularly hard), and XNA, and the thing was fun after a week of work.

I said to myself, well, if this is fun, maybe I can put out a quick Xbox Live Community Game in 3 weeks or so, so I kept working on it. After two weeks, I started to see that this game was far more fun than Venture Africa, Arctic, or Dinosauria had ever been, so I kept working on it. It's now been 7 and a half weeks and the thing is really far along... I'm considering at this point what I would have to do to try to get the game into the XBLA or Playstation network catalogs. Obviously a lot more would have to be done to go those routes, but the game has huge amounts of potential, so I'm dreaming big.

Can you tell us more about Monaco then?

Monaco is basically a top-down stealth/thief game. You can choose between 4 different characters, like the Prowler, who stays hidden when standing still or the Cleaner, who can knock out guards from behind with Chloroform. Each mission requires you to get some goal item and find your escape route as fast as you can without dying. You can get trophies for collecting as much loot as possible and compete with your friends to get perfect runs and fast times.

Let's Go Find El Dorado is a physics-based remake of Oregon Trail which plays a bit like Excite Bike, created by Justin Smith (Enviro-Bear 2000) as an entry for the 16th Ludum Dare competition. The rules of the game is similar to the original, though many of the resource management elements were either simplified or removed completely for this arcade-oriented version.

Your objective here is to guide the family wagon to the city of El Dorado safely, and to achieve this goal you will have to navigate treacherous mountain range, cross polluted rivers, and brave the dangers of visiting native tribe camps that might assist or impede your journey to the promised land. (Windows, 1.39MB)

His game was branded by Symantec as a security threat. In Lose/Lose (quoting Mike), 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. We've already discussed this issue in length, so now it's time to find out what the developer has to say about his game.

Hi Zach, before we begin, can you introduce yourself to our readers and also fill us in on your game development background?

My game development background is really limited. I spent some time when I was in middle-school making tiny games that never really got released dreaming of being a game developer. After that I spent some time taking computer science courses in high-school but ended up going to college and getting a degree in fine arts. It wasn't until the end of my time there that I came back to programming, and started to bring it into some of my projects for my thesis show.

After college I took a year off before going to Parsons: The New School for my MFA and around then I started getting really into developing with OpenFrameworks and the iPhone SDK and kind of fell back into game-making as a way to explore interaction and then eventually as a way to push some of my other more art angled pieces.

Basically I've been doing this game making thing for a few months. I made an iPhone game called Unify, and after going to IndieCade right after Lose/Lose came out and I met a lot of really talented game developers and realized maybe I'm a game developer now.

Why did you make Lose/Lose in the first place? And what was the real reason or motivation behind the idea?

The very first motivation behind the idea was that I wanted to make a game that made me feel an emotion that I'd never felt from a videogame before. I've been really interested in the past with projects like Eddo Stern's Tekken Torture Tournament and how they take aspects of games (things like pain) and make them real. Making that kind of aspect of a game real is very strange.

I always felt like Eddos project was really amazing from a human interaction standpoint. But it felt kind of like cheating because he was rigging up a physical thing to create physical pain, so I came up with this idea of trying to create tangible pain while staying in the virtual space entirely, which is what Lose/Lose attempts to do by deleting your files if you chose to be violent in it. It seemed interesting enough for me to create the project.

Set up in the skies of his previous endeavour Broken Brothers, Michael Todd's Gamma IV entry Silent Skies has quite the atmosphere. But he won't tell me how it works with one button! The cad! I'm going to pretend not to care, but secretly wait until the Indie Game Summit to find out.

Jetpack Basketball is a hotseat game for one or two players, where the challenge is to place the ball into the basket eleven times to win the match. Your opponent will attempt to do the same, and though you can't steal a ball directly, players can hover near the basket at the right moment to grab the ball before it enters the basket.

There is also a button that you can press to make more balls appear in the court. Terrific fun for a Sunday afternoon when you have some relatives over. (Windows, 10.2MB)

Today's collection of independent game links include a write-up by IndieGames editor Mike Rose about marketing your indie games properly, two articles about iPhone development and pricing, plus an insight about using Kickstarter to fund the development of your indie game. (image source)

Gamasutra: Michael Rose's Blog - The Idiot's Guide to Marketing Your Indie Game
"The misconception that gaming sites won't want to cover your game because it's 'not important enough' is slowly being lifted, and independent developers in general are beginning to realize that PR is actually a huge factor in selling your product. This, however, doesn't mean that developers are marketing their games correctly. In this guide, I'll be explaining exactly what it is you, the budding games developer, should be providing me, the eager games journalist, with."

Gamasutra: Pondering Indie Spirit, Derek Yu Speaks
"I'm in the process of doing graphics (for the XBLA version of Spelunky). I'm going for much more of a painterly look. Kind of like the work that I did for Aquaria. It's going to be kind of cartoony and comical, but... In terms of 2D games, I'm still a big fan of the painted look." Check out the comments too.

Kotaku: The Swapper, My Favorite Indie Fest Entry So Far
"I have for a number of years now been fortunate enough to help judge entries for the annual Independent Games Festival, and each year I come across at least one game that I fall deeply in love with. This year that game is The Swapper."

Gamasutra: Everything You Need To Know About iPhone Development
"This article covers the overall process of developing an iPhone game from start to App Store and beyond. The goal is to separate facts from myths and give developers an accurate idea of what to expect."

Gamasutra: Adam Saltsman's Blog - The 0.99 Problem
"I work at an iPhone game studio that I founded with my friend Eric last year. We've made just two iPhone games, both have been financially successful, and both were self-published without a marketing budget. Both games made the EDGE Magazine top 50 iPhone games list, and both games are original IP. I am going to explain why we don't sell our games for a dollar in the hopes that it might add something interesting to the iPhone game pricing debate."

Gamasutra: Borut Pfeifer's Blog - Kickstarting a Serious Game
"I thought I would get the perspectives of more indie developers who've used Kickstarter or patron-based funding successfully. Daniel Benmergui uses donations to help support the development of his games, such as Today I Die and I Wish I Were the Moon. Vince Twelve put his retro-style adventure game Resonance up on Kickstarter to pay the $95 IGF entry fee, and then proceeded to raise over $2,000."

Vroom! Beep Beep! etc. Big Pixel Racing is headed to Armor Games very soon, so check out the above trailer for a pre-taste. It has ranking tables, upgrade shops, customizable doo-dahs, the works.

Saira is a non-linear 2D puzzle platformer in which levels are separated into worlds that you can travel to at any time, although every journey uses up your ship's energy and the batteries must be charged first before you can embark on another trip. The objective of the game is basically to search for parts that could be used to build a teleporation device, so that you can reunite Saira and her friend Bobo who is on a distant planet somewhere in the galaxy.

Most of the puzzles that you encounter are stored within computers, consoles or terminals, and solving a riddle usually opens up an entirely new area that players can explore further. Your PDA's camera feature will come in handy for taking snapshots of puzzle hints in every world, but storage is limited and no new pictures will be added when the memory banks are full.

The game features multiple endings, and the one that is shown to the player is decided by the quality of the parts that you use for your teleportation device. Depending on the outcome that you are aiming for, it could take up to an entire day or two to find all parts and gain access to all of the ending sequences included.

There are six worlds to explore in the demo, while the full version (costing $17) offers a total of fourteen planets to visit. (Windows, 240MB)

Loving the style of this latest WIP from David Scatliffe. Balancing energy consumption from the sun and unleashing this all over your enemies appears to be what's on the cards. Let's hope it's simple yet fun!

Game Developers Conference 2010 organizers have announced its first set of Main Conference lectures for the March 9th-13th event, with Uncharted 2, Braid and Brutal Legend-specific talks already confirmed.

An initial set of talks for the Audio, Business, Design, Production, Art, and Programming tracks for next March's event -- as well as some Indie Games Summit-specific sessions -- are now viewable in GDC 2010's schedule-building app or via the official Game Developers Conference website.

Organizers of the industry-leading San Francisco-based event (part of Think Services, as is this website) will be highlighting track-specific talks gradually over the next few weeks, but some of the notable lectures already posted include:

- Among Friends - An Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Post-Mortem (Production Track)
In this postmortem, Naughty Dog co-lead game designer Richard Lemarchand examines what went right and wrong in the creation of the critically acclaimed PS3 title, "...in expanding our gameplay through the use of new traversal, combat and AI technologies, introducing characters that shed new light on our hero Nathan Drake, and tackling our first foray into multiplayer in four years."

- Rock Show VFX - The Effects That Bring Brutal Legend to Life (Art Track)
Two of Double Fine's key employees -- lead platform programmer Peter Demoreuille and technical/VFX artist Drew Skillman -- will discuss the making of the visual effects for action-adventure Brutal Legend, covering "the design and most commonly relied upon features of our particle rendering, simulation, effects timeline and climate packages."

In this twenty-minute Spike TV special, Geoff Keighley and the GameTrailers crew pay Osmos developer Eddy Boxerman a visit, then drops by the studios of RedLynx (Trials HD), Twisted Pixel ('Splosion Man) and thatgamecompany to interview the people behind the production of your favorite indie games. Great stuff, watch the entire thing in HD here.

Kenny Lee is a modest man. Together with his brother Teddy Lee, they've made a flash game that quickly gained fame and notoriety for its subject matter, although most do not know that since releasing their masterpiece the two are working on new projects under the moniker Cellar Door Games as well.

We caught up with the developer of Don't Shit Your Pants Kenny Lee (his pants are still on) for a chat about answering the call of nature in the most imaginative way possible.

Hi Ken, before we begin, can you introduce yourself to our readers who are not familiar with your game development background?

There's really not much to say about my background. I haven't actually been making games for a long time. Although I've been dabbling in it for a while, it was only recently that I took things seriously and made things publicly available. DSYP (Don't Shit Your Pants) was actually the first game I made that was put on the Internet.

How big is your development team, and who worked on what?

At the time, it was only the two of us, but after the incredible feedback we received on the game, several people were interested in working with us and we grew from there. For DSYP specifically, we had one other individual work on the design and sound, while I was responsible for the programming and art.

Is your team working on anything at the moment?

We actually made our first iPhone game, Tribal Tallies, two weeks ago that is a more commercial endeavour, which unfortunately means no potty jokes. Ever since DSYP, we formed a larger group and started Cellar Door Games. Decade Studios is still active, but for the foreseeable future we're working under that name. I don't know if that complicates things.

Are there any plans for a sequel to DSYP?

In my mind, DSYP was a one shot thing. It was like a funny joke that really doesn't work as well the second time. We've got a lot of people asking us to make Don't Piss Your Pants, but it probably would have been better if that was our first game, and Don't Shit Your Pants was our second.

You can't really follow up number 2 with number 1, if you know what I mean. However we have had some ideas that sound pretty good. We're also thinking of bringing it to the iPhone, if anyone would care for that kind of thing, since the fun is over in 15 minutes or less.

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 2K Marin, Koei Canada 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:

2K Marin: Multiplayer Systems Designer
"2K Marin is looking for a dedicated, passionate and personable Multiplayer Systems Designer to join us on an exciting unannounced project. As a Multiplayer Systems Designer, you'll be in charge of taking high level goals and translating them into game systems and moment-to-moment experiences."

Guerrilla Games: Lighting Artist
"Ready to set Guerrilla alight with your awesome lighting skills? As a member of the lighting team, you will collaborate with level designers and environment artists to literally light the way for gamers, so they can enjoy our games to their fullest. You will work with our cutting-edge deferred rendering engine, adding lighting to levels and cut scenes using both real-time and pre-rendered solutions. You will take concepts created by our visual design team and turn them into reality within our levels, working closely with the art director to ensure that our vision is achieved."

There's a preview of hermitgames' upcoming horizontal shooter over at XNPlay, and Bob's posted a couple of pictures to view as well. Leave Home should be available on the XBLIG service sometime this month.

The elephant is back for another twisted yet beautiful gaming experience in the form of Obey the Game. This time around he's participating in a Wario Ware style minigame-a-thon, but with a catch - if the game tells you to DISOBEY the objective, it's opposites time!

This sounds easy enough, but just wait until the levels begin to speed up. There aren't that many different tasks to undertake, but the fact that there are actually two different ways to win each one makes for some frantic play.

There are other game modes to have a crack at too, although they don't really seem to be as much fun as the main mode - in fact, in the HidenRide mode I managed to achieve a score of 33 without even moving. Still, definitely worth giving a shot, if only to see the little guy again. Play over at Armor Games.

Via RockPaperShotgun, a trailer for Ludosity's upcoming puzzler Bob Came in Pieces was recently released. The game is due to land on 21st December and is really rather good fun. I've been meaning to write about it, so now is as good a time as any!

There are some very clever ideas to be found here. The idea is to fly your little ship around collecting coins and pickups, then reaching the portal at the end. What makes the game so interesting is the ship workshop - at points in each level, you can enter the workshop and edit your ship by sticking parts all over it. Need to press a button through a tight gap? Grab those pipes, nail them all to the side of your ship in a straight line, and fit them through the gap. Of course, this is completely unbalance the whole ship, so you'll need to put some rubbish on the other side of your ship too to level it out.

There are other gizmos to attach too, like the traction beam for grabbing objects, which make for some great puzzles. The level design is great for the most part too, while the art style is very fitting for the game's concept and atmosphere. I think for this kind of game, my number one concern is always how the control of the ship feels, and fortunately Ludosity have created a really fluid movement that feels great - I always felt in control.

So it's a 2D puzzle game revolving around building and rebuilding your little ship to get through every situation. No word on price yet, but you can be assured that this is one to look forward to.

Walker and Silhouette is a short interactive fiction game about a pair of detectives named Nate and Ivy, working together to solve a case for the Oldchester Criminal Investigation Department. The interface is an easy one to use, all a user has to do is to click on a highlighted keyword to investigate further or progress the story forward. Occasionally certain words like leave, think and help have to be typed in, but these situations rarely occur and wouldn't cause too much of an inconvenience to any player.

The writing on display is good, the storyline is intriguing, and there are some clever puzzles designed just for the single keyword system. A windows executable is included with the Windows version, while Linux and Mac users can play the game by using a TADS interpreter to run the TADS 3 game file. (Mac/Win/Linux, 1.60MB)

Today's collection of independent game links include the release of a new game from Gregory Weir (I Fell in Love With The Majesty of Colors), a look at the development process of Dejobaan Games' Aaaaa!, and some news about the status of D-pad Studio's Owlboy.

Ludus Novus: Backup Released
"Heavily inspired by Gun Mute, Backup is a (potentially) violent piece of interactive fiction with multiple endings set in a science fiction world of robots, plasma swords, and intergalactic finance."

pixelate: The Black Forest
"The Black Forest is a series of tiny, experimental games to be released online this December. The first episode is now playable, and the other three episodes will be released this month, one on every Sunday."

Mod DB: Half a Million Seconds with an Indie Developer, Dejobaan Games
"My name is Ichiro Lambe, and I'm the President of Dejobaan Games, LLC. I'm going to tell you a bit about the life of our studio during the development of our 13th title, AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! - A Reckless Disregard for Gravity (Aaaaa! for short)."

YoYo Games Glog: Mac Version of Game Maker Delayed Indefinitely
"Sorry to bring bad news, but our Mac Developer has resigned with immediate effect. There are still too many bugs, so until we know how and when we can complete the project, we’ve taken the painful decision to temporarily suspend our plans to produce a Mac version of Game Maker."

Kokoromi Collective: Clarified Gamma 4 Rules
"Clarified Gamma 4 rules and a FAQ, now live."

OneSwitch.org.uk: One Switch Help
"The Gamma 4 competition seeks to encourage unique one-button game experiences. This has the potential to be a fantastic thing for those who normally use a single button, or accessibility switch, to play games. For curious coders and game designers interested this far..."

Gamasutra: One Button Games
"In this article, one button is the limitation on interaction. By the end of this, it should be apparent just how many applications there are for such a basic interaction."

D-pad Studio: IGF and a few other things
"Naturally, I really want to see Owlboy completed. Without a programmer present, this game isn't going anywhere though. I've finally found someone that might help out but who knows how long it will take before some actual work can be done."

[We're announcing entrants for IGF Mobile today, and not only are there a record amount, there's a bunch of really interesting titles for iPhone and other handhelds in there - go check them out.]

IGF Mobile organizers have revealed record entries for the third annual handheld indie game contest, with 172 games entered in total, a 65% increase on last year's competition.

This follows a similarly all-time high number of submissions for IGF's Main and Student competitions, and means over 650 entries in total for the leading independent game competition.

This year's competition -- the sister event to the main Independent Games Festival -- is showcasing 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.

The full list of 172 entries for 2010's IGF Mobile, including a number of interesting and previously unannounced titles, is now available to view on the competition's official website.

Previous successes for IGF games include Apple's App Store creating 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.

IGF Mobile finalists will be announced on January 22nd, 2010, and will each receive one All-Access pass to attend the 2010 Game Developers Conference. Finalists will compete for $5,000 in prizes, including notable awards for design, art, and technology innovation in mobile game development.

This year, winners in each category (with the exception of 'Best Game') will be announced before the show, on February 8th, 2010. Each category winner will receive $500 in spending money to come to the 2010 Game Developers Conference in March 2010 and showcase their mobile game, alongside their GDC pass.

The five category winners will exhibit their games in a special area of the main IGF Pavilion, the winners will then compete for the coveted IGF Mobile Best Game award, worth $2,500. The prize is presented on stage during the main Independent Games Festival Awards, preceding the Game Developers Choice Awards ceremony on March 11th, 2010.

For a complete list of IGF Mobile 2010 specifics and to check out this year's entrants, please visit IGFMobile.com.

Chiptune lovers and composers, here's something for you. SiON140 and MMLTalks are two software synthesizers which use the Music Macro Language (MML) to represent musical notes and synthesizing information, both already having a decent library of user contributions that could be listened to or shared with others.

Between the two, MMLTalks has more features while SiON140 was especially designed so that short MML compositions be shared via Twitter. Under the SiON140 interface, there's a small play button at the start of each comment that you can click on to play any user submission instantly. For MMLTalks, all you have to do is click on the song name and the tune will play automatically. The only thing you need to run either application is Flash Player 10, although composing something that's as masterful as some of the song contributions will require spending time studying the SiOPM MML reference. More information here and here.

As Russ Morris' Starlings draws closer to a release, he's thrown out the above trailer to give the intrigued a better idea of what it's about. In development for Mac OS X, it's like thatgamecompany's Flower, but with less flora and more feathers.

"The high-concept of Starlings is a game that attempts to create an emotional connection between the player and game through dynamic audio and visuals. Beginning with one starling, the player must explore an expansive rural environment in order to recruit more birds to their flock. As the flock size increases, so do the accompanying musical score. More instruments are introduced to an initial basic melody, directly relating to the current size of the flock."

Coming 2010!

What's this, another bullet-ridden shmup? Look more closely, my friends, and you'll notice that those abilities up the right-hand side aren't for use by the lone hero ship - you're looking at the boss' weapons.

You've guessed it - Boss Rush puts you in control of a variety of killing machines as they attempt to stop the 'good guy' in its tracks. There are 'a respectable number of levels to play through', although what intrigues me is the Versus mode in which you can grab a friend and deal out the punishment to them, big boss style.

Coming very soon, so I'm told! Check out the Boss Rush site for more details.

There will be a 2009 IGF exhibition at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) in Melbourne starting this Tuesday, 8th December 2009, featuring a selection of finalists from the most recent Independent Games Festival competition. The games that can be played for free at the exhibition include:

Blueberry Garden (Erik Svedäng)
Machinarium (Amanita Design)
Brainpipe (Digital Eel)
Musaic Box (KranX Productions)
Cortex Command (Data Realms)
Osmos (Hemisphere Games)
Pixeljunk Eden (Q-Games)
The Graveyard (Tale of Tales)
Night Sky (Nicalis)
Eufloria (Alex May and Rudolf Kremers)

A fantastic line-up, with a playable build of Nicalis' Night Sky being a surprise inclusion somewhat (since the game hasn't been released yet). The exhibition is open from 10am to 6pm, admission is free, and will run until the 14th of February 2010. Watch the exhibition trailer here.

Best of the Independent Games Festival 2009 (ACMI)

Irukandji is a score-based vertical shooter that currently contains only one level to play, although by beating the game for the first time you do get another ship that can be used for your subsequent attempts at unlocking more achievements. There are multipliers and power-up items to collect, and you can also destroy enemies with your special missile weapon by holding down the C key.

Players can only unlock two ships in the demo. The full version features six different ships, a full set of achievements, online high score tables, and will cost a dollar to purchase. (Mac/Windows, 11.7MB)

I'm sure we've not mentioned Super Meat Boy in the last 48 hours, so here's another look (courtesy of IGN) at Team Meat's upcoming action platformer for the WiiWare and Windows. Nintendo World Report has an article about the PC version of Super Meat Boy up on their site, although it doesn't really reveal anything that's not already mentioned in the video shown above.

Also, click through for videos spanning Cletus Clay to Infinite Ammo profile through the new episode of Bytejacker:

EON looks to be in the vein of Cypher Prime's Auditorium, but in space. Manipulating particles to move away from their source and fill other empty sources (planets?) using a lot of force bending and redirection. Apparently the game is complete, and now Intuition are looking for sponsorship, so you can assume it will be available soon. Should be fun!

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 Crystal Dynamics, Firaxis Games 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:

Crystal Dynamics: Lead Designer
"Crystal Dynamics is looking for a talented, innovative lead designer on future AAA title development for Xbox 360 and PS3. We're looking for a candidate who is driven, passionate about making games, willing to take risks, confident that the risk is worth taking and has a solid design background to make it happen. The candidate we're looking for will have current multiplayer, systems and technical experience and excels in highly collaborative, team environments."

THQ/Kaos Studios: Environment Art Supervisor
"We are seeking an experienced Environment Art Supervisor with the skills and passion to drive the designing, organization, modeling, texturing, dressing and lighting of realistically-grounded game worlds. Candidates should have a very strong sense of visual design and an amazing attention to detail. Candidates should be able to build and light environments from scratch by relying on a combination of photo-reference and concept art."

Picked this one up from TIGSource and it's ruddy brilliant. Created by a team from DigiPen and entered into both the main IGF competition and the student contest, Igneous is the story of one tiki totem's frantic rush through an erupting volcano and it's quite literally a face-melter.

Be warned before you try this - if you don't have at least a fairly decent computer, you're not coming in. The game requirements specify 'High end NVidia Graphics Card (9600) or high end ATI Graphics Card and Intel Core 2 Duo Processor'. If you've got the goods, however, you should definitely give this a go. Each of the 3 levels consists of rolling at high speeds away from the deadly lava flow, which is constantly throwing balls of molten death and destruction in your direction, destroying platforms and pathways. Think fast or you'll end up in the drink.

It's a pretty short experience with around 15 minutes of play, but there is also Impossible mode which does what it says on the tin. Honestly, you won't have felt a rush like this is a good long while and that final level is incredibly epic. Make sure you give this a download.

Endless Frog Kids is a puzzle game centered around the mating habits of our green amphibian friends, mixed together with a cautionary tale that is told using charts and graphs. You need to have a Java-enabled browser and also an open mind to play, as the game might possibly offend some players with its innuendos and sexual undertones.

The current build features ten levels to solve in total.

In Mountain Maniac you control a man with a hammer whose single aim is to destroy the town at the foot of a mountain for points. He does this by smashing boulders with his instrument of doom, sending them down the mountain Pachinko-style while crushing everything that stands in its way. Occasionally the police force or a yeti might try and stop him, but you can use the mallet to protect yourself by swinging it at them as well.

There is a certain percentage of town destruction that you must achieve to pass each level, and failure to do so equates to a loss of a precious life. An online high score submission feature is included as well, although players must first register for an Adult Swim account before they can post their best achievements up on the site.

While the next Gamma showcase was only announced a couple of days ago, cactus has already got his entry in. It's like some kind of one-buttoned acid beat trip - maybe the key is to hit your button in time with the beat? Unfortunately he can't share it for now... well, unless you feel like donating to him - then you'll receive it straight away.

Polytron have released a free EP of Fez music tracks for your downloading consumption. The EP features three demos, simply called One, Two and Three. If you liked the tune in the most recent trailer, this'll probably be up your alley too.

It's available via BitTorrent, but there are also 250 CDR copies available for purchase for anyone who loves the music a bit too much.

Dreamside Maroon is an exploration game that puts you in control of the scarf-wearing Aster who is on a journey to reach the moon. He does this by guiding the growing tendril of a vine with his lantern, occasionally lighting up lanterns to attract fireflies and eventually collecting them for a temporary increase in speed. Touching islands could also cause them to expand further, although only some platforms will respond to your interaction this way.

You can access a configuration menu by pressing the escape key. Be prepared to set aside an hour or two if you decide to play, since the game doesn't come with an option to resume your progress should you quit halfway through. Download it here. (Windows, 62.2MB)

Let's take a look at the latest interviews with indie game developers on the web. Highlights include: Mark Morris talks about past and present Introversion projects, a chat with Machinarium creator Jakub Dvorský, and a recorded conversation with David Hellman about Braid-related subjects. (image source)

Gamezebo: Erin Robinson talks Puzzle Bots
"Erin chats with Gamezebo about her upcoming project Puzzle Bots, and what life is like as a full-time indie developer."

Bytejacker: Erin Robinson Interview
"An interview with Erin on making her first commercial title, how best to handle hint systems in adventure games, and whether or not she is a liar."

Alternative Magazine Online: In Conversation With Jakub Dvorský
"Featuring exclusive artwork and insight into the creation of Machinarium, Alternative Magazine Online is proud to present an interview with the man behind it all, Jakub Dvorský."

indievision: Mark Morris of Introversion
"I think marketing for the indie has now got more sophisticated than it used to be as you can't just rest on your heels and send out a few press releases. They need to be working on all these areas: talking to magazines, talking to websites, checking Google analytics, make sure the company is selling from own site, make sure that Steam is in place; managing campaigns..."

A number of sites have started up indie gaming advent calendars to count down to Christmas, so I thought I'd do a little round-up so you can follow them yourselves. Of course, if there are any you know of which I have missed, give me a shout!

IndieXmas
Mr. Indie Santa Juuso (if that IS his real name) is counting down to Christmas by focusing on a newly released indie title every day, with videos and links to each.

RockPaperShotgun
Those RPS guys have got their own 'Advent Game-O-Calendar 2009' going, and while you can assume it won't be completely indie filled, you can also assume there will be at least some indie-filling (especially since the first two doors have revealed discussion on Zeno Clash and Canabalt).

Javadvent
Kirk Israel of KirkJerk.com is creating a whole advent calendar full of tiny, Christmas-related Java games/toys. Lots of lovely things are bound to appear over the coming month.

A collaboration between Superbrothers, Jim Gutherie and the guys at Capybara Games, Sword & Sworcery EP is their upcoming iPoddery project. What is Sword & Sworcery EP, you ask? Why, an excellent question. Sword & Sworcery EP is:

"a brave experiment in I/O cinema. a crude videogame haiku about life, love & death. a choice cut of myth & dreams."

Just like that. Check out the official site for all the details.

The Experimental Chick is a mission-based arena shooter in which you have to destroy surrounding red blocks and break out of the laboratory that you've been held captive in. Men in biohazard suits will appear out of these walls and try to prevent your escape, but you have a gun that can be used knock them unconscious and destroy any of the robotic contraptions that they've deployed to stop you.

Two different gameplay modes are included, although most players won't likely bother playing survival mode for too long after completing the main campaign. (Windows, 4.41MB)

Look out Canabalt, you've got a contender for 'Most Awesome One-Button Game of the Year'. Created for the Gamejolt Minimal Contest, Saut is a dark platformer in which you need to tactically time your jumps so as not to end up down one of the many pits - using only one button, of course. Oh, and it's amazing fun.

Graphically it reminded me a lot of Boss Baddie's Lunnye Devitsy - there's a lovely atmosphere about it all, especially helped along by the great soundtrack. My advice would be to only watch the first 30 seconds of the above video to get a feel for what Saut is about, then give it a try. Ortoslon created the above playthrough, and he is stupidly good at it.

Downloadable from Gamejolt, where you can also 'Quick Play' the game too straight from the browser.

NeonPlat is an arcade platformer where points are scored by using balls to bowl enemies off the screen. Platdude can double or triple jump in the air (with the right power-ups), climb ladders, paint over floors for points and slip below platforms, but he can never carry more than one ball at a time.

An online high score table is accessible from the main menu inside the game. Direct download link here. (Windows, 1.97MB)

ACE Team's first-person melee fighting game Zeno Clash is on sale for only $5 over at Steam today (original price $15). Previously-released free DLCs like the Zeno Clash model pack for Garry's Mod and three new levels for the challenge towers (called 'The Pit') are also included in this bundle.

The offer ends this Thursday, so if you haven't bought the game yet then here's a great opportunity to do so at an incredibly discounted price.

Related:
ACE Team Interview - Not so far away after all (ZillionMonkey)

Jan Willem Nijman's 4 Hour RPG (or 4hrpg) which began life as an entry into The Poppenkast's Four Hour competition is slowly but surely expanding into a full RPG experience. It has now entered open beta and anyone who signs up at the official forums can download the latest build.

9 months in the making - and counting! - it's grown quite a lot since Tim first spotted it. Definitely worth giving a download, especially for all you stat-grinders out there.

I've been getting to grips with Mole Control, a mole-related take on Minesweeper due for release in January 2010. Set in a small town which has found itself riddled with the pesky critters, it's your job to suck them all out of the ground using tactics from your favourite Microsoft classic.

I'm a closet Minesweeper...er, so while I'm clearly going to get a kick out of this kind of game, it also makes me more critical of the little things. Mole Control doesn't stray from the tried and tested formula too much, but still adds its own 'little things' here and there to make it feel a lot more than just a clone.

Case in point - the action takes place on various plots of land which consists of both grassy areas which can be dug up, and paved areas which cannot. Moles (aka mines) need to be discovered using numbered spaces, but only the area surrounding your buggy can be played with - you'll need to drive (or fly) around the levels to find every mole. And while the story is a little throw-away, you'll find that each level has a theme - so for example, the children's park has seesaws and the like scattered around.

Kokoromi Collective today announced the theme of the next Gamma showcase to be on display at GDC 2010 in San Francisco. Titled 'One-Button Games', Kokoromi are now calling for budding developers to have a crack at creating a short gaming experience suitable for display on a show floor, which uses only one button.

Selected games will be shown at a party after the end of the Independent Game Summit in March 2010, and then given a dedicated booth on the GDC Expo floor. Winners will also receive a free, all-access pass to the GDC event. All rather nice!

If you're planning on entering, make sure you check out the official announcement - there are a bunch of rules you'll need to stick to. It's going to be really interesting to see what kind of stuff comes out of this - as we've seen in the past, being limited to a single button does not have to limit gameplay at all.

Details on how to submit your work will be released in January.

Continuity is a puzzle platformer in which you have to arrange pieces of a level while playing to reach the key that will unlock the exit door. You can switch between sliding tiles and moving your character around at any time (by pressing the space key), although players won't be allowed to pass from one card to another if the corridors going out of each don't match.

There are roughly thirty levels to figure out in total.

Today's collection of independent game links include a list of common problems that most horror games exhibit (prepared by the developer of the Penumbra series), an article about everyone's indie hero cactus, and the announcement of a freeware game by Mark Pay (The Spirit Engine) due to be released this Christmas. (image source: Daphny)

Frictional Games: Why Horror Games Suck
"To be fair I do not think that all horror games suck, but there are some common problems that pretty much all the games have. These issues hold horror games back from using the medium's full potential."

Boing Boing: an intro to the indie game mind warps of Jonatan Söderström
"With just a handful of years under his game development belt, 24 year old Jonatan Söderström -- better known by his handle Cactus -- has already become something of a cult legend in indie circles, particularly for his relentless, near-manic prolificness."

Cliffski's Blog: Expansion pack underway
"The way I see it, expansion packs are about giving people options. Why release a game at a high price that puts some people off when you can release the core game at a lower price and let people choose if they want to have extra content?"

I am an Aspiring Game Designer: Sonar
"Sonar is about the visualization of sound to create a unique and engaging experience. Eric Spoerner and Waylon Fong made Sonar as a student project at USC Interactive Media in 2006 using Torque2D, and recently entered it into the Indie Game Challenge."

zolyx.co.uk: Frustrated? Yes, yes I am
"It's time for a rant about the continued lack of a solid release date for Wii Cave Story. And other related stuff, like Saira, Nifflas' promising new game."

Capt. Forever strategy and tactics
Having trouble getting into Captain Forever? This strategy guide might help.

The Spirit Engine 2: 8 months later...
"TSE-2 is now down to $10 in price. I have a little tactics game which I was working on earlier in the year, and I'm fixing it up for a freeware release with a limited skirmish mode for Christmas."