For those of you caught unawares, this weekend lots of gaming enthusiasts all over our blue and green planet took it upon themselves to create a ridiculous number of games - apparently it was called the Global Game Jam... or something. depict1 is such a game.

Created by Kyle Pulver (with Alec Holowka providing the ditties), depict1 is a platformer which will hurt your head lots, but probably also make you smile too. An unknown announcer barks orders at you, which you need to follow... maybe. The whole game is pretty much an incredible mind-bork. Put it this way - you're asked to 'Press Nothing to Start', then told the arrows keys will control your character, which a second later you'll realise is a complete fabrication.

In a word, wonderful. Just go play it, you'll see.

[Originally published on Mod DB, these interviews from Leo Jaitley of Dejobaan Games explores the neat nooks and crannies in indie gaming. This week the spotlight's on Dave Marsh, co-creator of Zero Gear and one of the three founding members of Nimblebit.]

In this latest episode of "Half a Million Seconds with an Indie Developer," we sit down (virtually) with Dave Marsh, one head in the three headed (sprinting) turtle that is NimbleBit. You might know Dave and the Bits from one of their plethora of iPhone games or from their soon-to-be-released PC title - Zero Gear.

Who are you?

DM: Hi, my name is David Marsh, and I am one of the three amigos that make up NimbleBit. I make many of the shiny and colorful stuff in our games, as well as pretty much anything else that needs to be done as long as it doesn't involve touching or writing code (which makes me stutter and drool).

The other two super-friends are my twin brother Ian Marsh, who is an iPhone developer whiz as well as doing a fair share of graphics artistry and Brian Cronin who is a beef jerky and mountain dew fueled engineering and programming evil genius.

[Originally published on XNPlay, Robert Fearon summarizes the top ten indie releases from last year in this special one-shot article, complete with links to their respective Xbox LIVE Marketplace pages.]

It's time to run through the XNPlay Best Indie Game releases of 2009. I'm much more at home and much happier celebrating the good things about the service than dwelling on the bad so rather than waste time on the old introductory text of death, let's just crack on and get down to business.

Download Echoes+ To Your Xbox 360
"Sure, on the surface we've got a twin stick shooter, a take on asteroids that's very much owes a debt to Geometry Wars and the glowing vector revival that followed in its wake but Echoes+ is its own game. Very much so. And it's what makes it so brilliant."

Let's take a look at the latest interviews with indie game developers on the web. Highlights include: more articles about Team Meat and Super Meat Boy, Terry Cavanagh speaks to the RPS crew, Dan Marshall on the future plans for Zombie Cow Studios, and a bit of update on the upcoming release of Cave Story Wii.

Rock, Paper, Shotgun: VVVVVV Interview
"It was time to talk to Mr Distractionware - Terry Cavanagh - about all things VVVVVV. Discover below why the Jet Set Willy comparisons aren't quite right, the thinking behind the pricing decision and lots more."

Kombo: Team Meat Answers Questions About Super Meat Boy
"The indie devs behind the Flash hit Meat Boy talk about Ninja-Jonathan Blow, playing with themselves, and Super Meat Boy."

Elder-Speek: Super Meat Boy (audio podcast)
"Edmund and Tommy of Team Meat join us this week to talk about their upcoming title Super Meat Boy. The official interview starts at 19:00. We chat about past projects, Super Meat Boy development, the sexiness of the ratings system, going from indie to developing for Nintendo and a lot more."

The Escapist: Indie Developer Showcase, Meat Boy
"We spoke with McMillen about the ongoing development of SMB, censorship, and the lessons he's learned as an indie developer."

The Escapist: Indie Developer Showcase, Mondo Agency
"The first thing you need to know about Cactus, aka Jonatan Söderström, is that he's more interested in novelty and quantity rather than quality. Cactus has released over three dozen games in the last few years, all freely available on his website."

The Escapist: Indie Developer Showcase, Flywrench
"If there's such thing as a 'typical' indie designer, it isn't Mark Essen, aka Messhof. For one, Essen makes individual games as much for art galleries and universities as he does for gamers at large. It all seems rather high brow until you actually get your hands on his work."

Joystiq: Tyrone Rodriguez on Cave Story, La-Mulana, and more
"Rodriguez spoke to us a bit about the progress of the (Cave Story) remake, as well as Nicalis' other projects, Nicklas 'Nifflas' Nygren's physics-based platformer NightSky and another WiiWare remake of a retro-style cave exploration platformer, La-Mulana."

Examiner: Q & A with The Odd Gentlemen on P.B. Winterbottom
"We asked Matt and Odd Gentlemen CEO, Producer and Janitor Paul Belleza to share their thoughts on Winterbottom, indie game development, and the creative process."

Bytejacker: Sean Murray of Hello Games talks Joe Danger
"Bytejacker was fortunate enough to get an interview with Managing Director Sean Murray to talk about Joe Danger's surprising inspirations, the distinction between simple and casual games, and the 'hidden subtlety' of uncomplicated control schemes."

Adventure Gamers: Dan Marshall, Zombie Cow Studios
"Dan Marshall took time out of his hectic lifestyle to talk to Adventure Gamers about Ben There, Dan That!, Time, Gentlemen, Please!, and forthcoming Revenge of the Balloon-Headed Mexican."

Crimzon Clover is truly a wet dream for shoot 'em up fans. Though labeled as a trial version, this vertical 2D shooter sports a generous three full levels to play, jaw-dropping graphics, a limited shop section for unlockables, and the obligatory yet awe-inspiring boss fights.

In addition to your primary weapon, you can hold down the second shot button to target enemy ships, then release the key to fire homing beams at them. Collecting stars increases your special gauge, and when you press the C key it will either activate the bomb or your ship's break mode, depending on how much of the bar has been filled.

Note that the continues that you purchase from the shop can only be used once. The download link is here. (Windows, 139MB)

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 38 Studios, Vicarious Visions 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:

38 Studios: User Interface Engineer
"Would you like to become part of the team that includes the creative visionaries behind Drizzt Do’Urden and Spawn? 38 Studios is currently seeking a User Interface Engineer to join our Engineering department. This is a full-time position with competitive salary, full benefits and 401(k), and the chance to be part of online gaming history!"

Bungie: Gameplay Design Lead
"Do you love the challenge of designing great gameplay? Do you have 10 ideas on how to make Halo’s player interface better? Do you hate that moment in a game when you realize that you’ve found the ultimate powerful weapon, making all others pointless? Are you an experienced game designer looking to work on AAA games with talented and passionate people in a team environment? If so we have the job for you! Bungie Studios is looking for a passionate, creative and hard-working Gameplay Design Lead for our next project."

Today's collection of independent game links include a write-up on indie game devs in the UK, a selection of the best indie Metroidvanias around, and a comprehensive look at this year's IGF finalists courtesy of Big Download. (image source)

DIYgamer: The Indie 10 - Best Metroidvanias
"A Metroidvania game is simply a game that consists of an non-linear map, where by the player must gather or accrue items in order to get beyond certain obstacles in the game. We've decided to put together this handy little list of our very favorite indie Metroidvanias."

Big Download: IGF 2010 Finalists - Visual Excellence
"With the IGF finalists announced, game makers only have a short while longer to find out the best of the best in indie games from last year. From the best overall game to the one with the most impressive art, there's several different categories for indie game designers to aspire to be the top of." Also: Design, Audio, Technical Excellence.

Guardian: How Indie Gaming is Reviving the Britsoft Spirit
"Britain used to produce some of the most entertaining and idiosyncratic videogames in the world. Then the eighties ended. But are the glory days returning?"

Bytejacker: The most amazing Captain Forever ship you will ever see
"Someone enjoyed Captain Forever far more than we (or any other mere mortal) dared to."

Daniel Silber's Blog: Lessons learned while submitting to IGF
"My game was not selected as a finalist in any of the categories, but I still seem to be learning from the experience. It has become clear that in order to be successful in IGF, the submission needs a level of polish much higher than I had anticipated."

The Spirit Engine 2 is going freeware
"We decided to take the significant move of making The Spirit Engine 2 freeware, like the first game. The (freeware) release will hopefully come in the next couple of months."

Boing Boing: What do Indie Gaming's All-Stars think of Apple's iPad?
"I called together a handful of the best and brightest developers pushing the medium forward across every new device to ask what's the iPad going to mean for the future."

Brendon Chung (of Gravity Bone fame) sent out a press release today announcing his new turn-based strategy game called Flotilla, set to be released soon for the PC and Xbox Live Indie Games service. In the video that's up on the official site, he demonstrates how a skirmish in space works (complete with full 3D movement) and previews some of the content that we can expect to see in adventure mode.

Flotilla isn't the first game by Brendon that is set in space (see Pilot Light), so expect to find yourself in some really wacky situations and unusual encounters while exploring the far reaches of the universe. There's splitscreen support for cooperative playthrough in adventure mode and versus skirmishes too.

Created for the Java4K 2010 Competition (for which all the submissions must be 4KB or less in size), VVVV is Markus' "re/demake" of Terry Cavanagh's recent indie hit VVVVVV. Your crew has been scattered, and it's your job to flip gravity, dodge spikes and rescue them all while dying a ridiculous amount of times.

If you thought the original platformer was difficult, just wait until you get a load of this! This remake is beautifully done - pressing M brings up the minimap, every gameplay mechanic from VVVVVV has been bundled in, and while each room doesn't have a name, this remake does have its own version of 'Doing Things The Hard Way'. Be afraid. Give it a go.

Let's take a look at the latest interviews with indie game developers on the web. Highlights include: interviews with this year's IGF finalists, Farbs spilling the beans on Captain Impostor, Terry Cavanagh lays out his plans for 2010, and Adam Saltsman (pictured) talking about Flash, flixel and prototyping.

Gamasutra: Road To The IGF - Team Meat's Super Meat Boy
"In this interview, McMillen and Refenes borderline incoherently discuss their development history, their relationship as a team, and their thoughts on the indie scene."

Gamasutra: Road To The IGF - Strange Loop's Vessel
"Although Strange Loop is new to the indie community, Krajewski doubts that he'll ever go back to the corporate scene -- he believes that 'the most important stuff' is coming out of indie video game development."

Gamasutra: Road To The IGF - Trauma's Krystian Majewski
"In the creation of intriguingly-navigated adventure title Trauma, Majewski analyzed the adventure game genre closely, paying attention to its trends over the years, finding out where they fall flat, and experimenting with new ideas."

A Hardy Developer's Journal: Krystian Majewski, Trauma
"Trauma creator Krystian Majewski agreed to have his mind picked for a bit, so that we could find out more about the history of the game."

Gamasutra: ThatGameCompany's Santiago, Hunicke Interview
"A wide-ranging interview with ThatGameCompany's Kellee Santiago alongside the studio's newest hire, Electronic Arts veteran Robin Hunicke (Boom Blox) on the indie space, the studio philosophy and more."

The Escapist: Indie Developer Showcase, Captain Forever
"Captain Forever took home the prize for Best Game at GDC China's Independent Games Festival, but Farbs is not resting on his laurels. He's already released a sequel called Captain Successor and is busy working on a third game in the series. The Escapist spoke with him about his journey so far as an indie developer."

The Escapist: Indie Developer Showcase, VVVVVV
"Terry Cavanagh (aka Distractionware) resides in Monaghan, Ireland, and makes games. Cavanagh has continued to develop as a designer, recently releasing a game which equally tests players' platforming and pronunciation skills, VVVVVV. The Escapist recently asked him a few questions about VVVVVV and indie game design in general."

Activetuts: Interview with Adam Saltsman
"Adam Saltsman (AdamAtomic) is a game developer and the creator of flixel, an opensource AS3 game library. He recently spent some time answering a few questions about how he began in Flash and the work he currently does."

A new version for Skipmore's Synopsis Quest was posted today, featuring a total of twenty-five side quests and puzzles to solve. The game now has a proper (if short) ending, and you can play the missions in any order you like. (earlier mention)

Sheep is an animal herding game that has been done many times before, but Ben's version is slightly better than most because it introduces just enough variety to keep the player going, then dumps them back to the main menu before things start to drag on. You play as a sheep dog who has to help his master with getting all of the sheeps to stay inside the green pen. As the game progresses, rams, wolves and rivers are introduced to further complicate the situation you are in.

There are twelve levels to play in total. Download it here. (Windows, 1.37MB)

Bullseye is a Unity-based 3D game created by Zero Point Software as a showcase piece for their upcoming first-person shooter release, Interstellar Marines. You play as a rookie marine who has to undergo a series of training modules, all designed to test his steady aim and gun handling skills. Points are given out based on how many targets you've managed to hit, and players are awarded anywhere between one to five badges depending on how well they do in every module.

This shooting gallery doesn't offer anything new that modern day shooters don't already have, but for demonstration purposes it couldn't have done the job any better.

Games from the recent TIGJam event held two weeks ago in Cambridge, UK are now available for download from this forum thread. A total of thirty-eight games were made just prior or during the game development meet, and veterans like Terry Cavanagh (VVVVVV), Markus Persson (Minecraft) and Stephen Lavelle (increpare) contributed with quick prototypes of their own.

I'm Not a Bad Person Really, I Just Have Low Self-Esteem (pictured) and This is How Bees Work are the highlights, but do give the rest of the games a go as well.

The Murigee competition is a 48 hour Flash game coding challenge organized by Babarageo, Ken'ichi Hoshino, and Shunsuke Miyahara (formerly the producer of Shockwave.co.jp), with the games usually hosted on Mogera after completion. A 'Chou Murigee' (Super Murigee) event will be held at the Asagaya Loft in Tokyo this 7th of February 2010, with notable attendees such as Yoshio Ishii (creator of Cursor*10 and Hoshi Saga series), dice (Kagi Nochi Tobira series), Polygon Gmen (Transmover) and Jinsei Owata (The Big Adventure of Owata's Life) already confirmed to be participating. There is no charge for game developers who are attending this open event, but the entrance fee is only 1500 yen (USD $17) for everyone else and you do get a free drink coupon with it.

Everything you need to know from the schedule to the guest list is here (non-Flash version). Marcus has kindly provided a map for the location, and you can also contact babara via email (babara [at] babarageo.com) for more information if needed. He speaks English as well, but try to keep your emails short and simple for him to reply to. (source: babara)

In addition to the recently released trailer, the Introversion guys have now announced that Darwinia+, the Xbox mash-up of classic Darwinia and its multiplayer companion Multiwinia, will be landing on the Xbox Live Arcade on February 10th priced at 1200 MS Points.

"It’s been a long battle with Microsoft and their particularly high standards; in the end we are really thankful for their advice and help in completing this long and challenging game project. We have come to think of Darwinia+ as the Director's Cut as it has surpassed our expectations of what we were originally looking to create and now looks and feels smoother than ever. As Darwinia+ is our first adventure onto a games console this also marks an extra special celebration for Introversion."

We'll let you know in due course if it's worth forking out for, especially if you already own the PC versions.

Today's collection of independent game links include more articles about Xbox Live Indie Games, a couple of post sale analyses, a playable build of Terry Cavanagh's first VVVVVV prototype, and results for Ascii Dreams' Roguelike of the Year polls. (image source)

GamerBytes: Xbox Live Indie Games Sales For 2009
"GamerBytes' editor Ryan Langley looks at sales for Xbox Live Indie Games in 2009, with real data on how the top games are performing."

xnPlay: The Best Xbox Indie Games Releases 2009
"To counter some of the negativity (towards the Xbox Live Indie Games service), it's time to run through XNPlay's Best Indie Game releases of 2009."

Destructoid: The best indie games of '09 (that I forgot to mention)
"With Indie Nation now all but defunct, I have to apologize: I haven't been pimping out great indie games as frequently as I used to. I'd like to take some time to point out a few indie games that I personally failed to call attention to during 2009."

distractionware: The first VVVVVV prototype
"Now that the game's out, I thought it might be fun to share the first prototype publicly."

Jamie Woodhouse: Post Sale Analysis for Qwak
"Wanna find out how many copies of Qwak were sold in just seven days? Check it out here."

Wolfire Games Blog: Organic Indie Preorder Pack Postmortem
"We promised that we would write a postmortem report on our recent 'Organic Indie Preorder Pack' promotion. Here it is!"

Temple of the Roguelike: Ascii Dreams Roguelike of the Year 2009 Winners
"The poll for the best roguelike of 2009 has finished at Ascii Dreams, and the undoubted winner is..."

Gesundheit!: New Screenshots
"I've been working hard on Gesundheit! lately, so I thought I'd better update. The first two screens are new."

Here's a nifty little trailer for Soul, Kydos Studio's latest Xbox Live Indie Games release. According to GamerBytes' Ryan Langley, the game is about bringing the soul of a dead man to heaven through a variety of mazes.

Soul is available to purchase for only 80 Microsoft Points, and there is a demo that you can try as well. Additional info about the game can be found here. (source: GamerBytes)

[Adventure Game Studio, a freeware game creation tool for bringing adventure games to life, plays host to a variety of brilliant graphical adventures each year, and the AGS Awards celebrates all the best releases. In this round-up piece, Igor Hardy of A Hardy Developer's Journal looks through some of the AGS gems of 2009 and shares some of his personal favourites.]

2009 was a year of great achievements for Adventure Game Studio. Two AGS-made titles appeared among IGF 2010 finalists (Boryokudan Rue and Ulitsa Dimitrova), several others were released commercially by both established and starting up indie studios (Blackwell Convergence, Time Gentlemen Please!, Dante's Divine Comedy, Downfall) and are considered to be among the most interesting adventure games of recent times.

And yet there is much more to 2009 than this short list of titles. As in previous years the most important AGS-centered events remain: all 12 MAGS monthly competitions and the yearly AGS Awards, for which the first round of voting has just ended. Nominated for the Best AGS Game of The Year are:

! - Ben Chandler
Shifters's Box - Outside In - Ben Chandler
The Marionette - Team Effigy
The McCarthy Chronicles: Episode 1 - Steven Poulton
Time Gentlemen, Please! - Zombie Cow Studios

You can check out the nominees for all other categories in the freshly established list at AmericanGirlScouts.org.

Concurrently, I've tried to select a small number of games that would the best representation of what excited the AGS community during the course of the year. I think I’ve managed to choose a group of titles that are particularly striking and creative. However, I want to be clear that the way the picks were taken was highly subjective - these are all games I can recommend based on my own experiences and I left out some promising titles I haven’t properly played yet.

The 2010 Independent Games Festival Mobile, an event that celebrates excellence in games for Apple's iPhone, other cellphone and smartphone operating systems (OS), Nintendo DS, Sony PlayStation Portable, and other handheld devices, has named the finalists for its third annual competition, with a host of outstanding portable titles showcased this year.

This year's IGF Mobile marks a record number of entries with 170 titles submitted for the competition, up nearly 65 percent from last year's total, which itself was double over the previous year. The finalists for IGF Mobile will compete for $5,000 in prizes, including specialized awards for art, design, audio, technical prowess, and iPhone game creation, as well as the IGF Mobile Best Game award.

Some of the notable titles nominated for this year's IGF Mobile Awards include iPhone games such as double nominee, Tiger Style's Spider: The Secret Of Bryce Manor, downloadable games for Nintendo's DSi including Powerhead Games' Glow Artisan, and promising titles from a host of worldwide indie developers, from England's Studio FungFung through Finland's Secret Exit and beyond.

This year, overall winners in each category will be announced on Feb. 8, 2010, with the category winners receiving $500 in prizes, a place as an overall IGF Mobile Best Game finalist, and the opportunity to showcase their mobile game at the IGF Pavilion during Game Developers Conference 2010 in San Francisco this March.

In addition, all finalists for 2010's IGF Mobile competition -- whether category winners or not -- will receive one All-Access pass to attend GDC 2010 and attend the multiple mobile-specific Summits there, including the GDC Mobile/Handheld Summit and the iPhone Games Summit. (The IGF Mobile judges have also named three games in each category as 'honorable mentions' which - while not quite making it to become a finalist this year - are commended as some of the most intriguing and high quality independent mobile games of the year.)

The full list of finalists and honorable mentions for the 2010 IGF Mobile competition are:

TowerClimb is a procedurally-generated 2D platformer created for Game Jolt's Rogue Contest, in which you play as a random explorer trying to reach the highest point of an endless tower. There is only one action button to use in addition to standard character movement controls, but when holding the X key down you can jump off platforms, scale walls and even climb ceilings.

Besides the items that you carry in your inventory, you can also trade orange berries with shady merchants for more equipment to use. Purple berries bestow the power to double jump, but try not to consume too much or you'll have a rather upset stomach to contend with. Download the game here. (Windows, 18.4MB)

Coptra is an arena shooter in which you have to destroy enemy vehicles and survive for as long as possible. The power-ups that you collect can stack up, hence if you collect two or more power-up items their attributes will combine into a super-weapon until the ammo count is exhausted.

Scanlines can be turned on or off using the N key, and you can quickly skip to the next round by pressing the enter key. Tips on increasing your survival chances are given at the end of each game, and support for standard dual analog and Xbox controllers are included as well. The high score table is located here. (Windows, 3.34MB)

Montreal’s Kokoromi collective is reminding possible entrants on the January 31st deadline for Gamma 4, with game makers challenged to make "innovative, experimental new games played with just one button" to be showcased at GDC 2010 in San Francisco.

As recently announced, Kokoromi is partnering with Think Services' Game Developers Conference to bring the fourth edition of its renowned Gamma game showcase to GDC 2010 next March.

Comparable to a longer-form, targeted version of the 'indie game jam' concept, previous years’ themes have included Gamma 01: Audio Feed (games driven by live audio), gamma 256 (games with extremely small pixel dimensions), and GAMMA 3D (games using red-blue stereoscopic 3D). Standout games like Passage, Paper Moon, and Super HYPERCUBE resulted.

This time around, the Gamma organizers have framed the competition as follows: "Gestural controls, multi-touch surfaces, musical instruments, voice recognition—even brain control. Games are moving beyond the iconic hand-held controller, and into the future. But is the secret to good games found in high-tech interface hardware? Kokoromi proposes that game developers can still find beauty in absolute simplicity."

A number of intriguing entries have already started development for Gamma 4, with IndieGames.com highlighting videos of contestants in a recent post, and a special messageboard at independent site TIGSource to showcase and discuss entries.

Monkey Kong is a tribute game based on the Game Boy version of Donkey Kong, created by Mike Meyer for the Mini Ludum Dare 15 competition. This version is all about collecting bananas, although after playing for a couple of minutes you'll realize that the structure of a level gets repeated with just the order of it randomized.

Still, it has a nifty backflip element that could be fun if the challenges had more variety and a timer or online high score feature was built in. (source: Rob Fearon)

Lethal Application is a 2D action game that introduces a unique gameplay system for moving your character around each stage. Instead of a jump button that most players are accustomed to, we have here a weapon so strong that its recoil effect can propel the protagonist in the opposite of her shot direction.

Using the weapon does deplete your energy resources, which fortunately can be replenished by collecting items marked 'E' scattered around the area. Press the Z key to shoot and the X key to activate your special move. You can swap special moves by pressing the C key but only after acquiring its corresponding power-ups.

The game was originally sold as a commercial doujin title, but was recently re-released as a free download on the developer's official site. There are ten stages to play in total, although this count doesn't include the boss battles that await the player after every one or two normal levels beaten. You might also need to have the Japanese language pack installed on your Windows operating system to be able to run this game. (Windows, 148MB)

gnop is a clever take on the arcade classic by Bit Battalion, with very minimal instructions given on how to play the game. This particular challenge doesn't really take longer than a couple of minutes to beat If you are good at deciphering cryptic clues and have a bit of skill to go along with it.

MyChess is a browser implementation of the classic board game, designed especially just for multiplayer sessions with other Kongregate members. To play you will need a Kongregate account, and once you've logged in you'll be presented with a chat room where other players can be invited for a game. You can watch live games, play competitive or friendly matches, set the rules, decide the amount of time allowed per player, and even choose a side before initiating a match.

If you enjoy a game of chess regularly then you'll like this version quite a bit. Otherwise, not so much.

Strangers (direct link to game file) is a short experimental game about the adventures of an astronaut and his faithful dog, who had just landed on an alien planet with no data whatsoever about its inhabitants. There's quite a bit of text to read here, although your mission pretty much reaches its climax in the space of five minutes or less. (Windows, 5.34MB)

Today's collection of independent game links include an update on Metanet Software's Robotology situation, articles about the Xbox Live Indie Games channel, an opinion piece about jRPGs, and a tribute video for one of Flashbang Studios' more popular game on Blurst. (image source)

metablog: Robotology - Abort, Retry, Ignore, Fail?
"We decided that instead of trying to press on with Robotology, it would be better for us and for the project if it was put on hold for the time being, allowing us to take a break from it by working on those small projects (one of which is prototyping Office Yeti). Exciting!"

DIYgamer: Taking Stock of the Xbox Live Indie... Apps
"The XBLIG channel was beginning to become a home for 'games' that weren't actually games at all. Now, stuff like massages, flashlights, screensavers, and 'girl guides' are becoming even more prominent than ever. I feel like it would be a good idea to take stock in the channel and lay out every single 'game' on the XBLIG service that is actually more of an application."

Boing Boing: What's Microsoft doing for Indie Games?
"It's been a year and a quarter since Microsoft first launched their initiative to 'democratize gaming', and nine months since they co-opted the 'Indie Game' brand for that initiative, and the report card on those efforts is looking a bit bleak."

Boing Boing: Guide to the 2010 Indie Games Student Showcase
"A breakdown of the ten student showcase finalists -- with links to downloads for nearly all the games to play yourself."

Necessary Games: Exit Fate, Why jRPGs Suck and Why You Should Play Them
"The indies gave us classics like the irreverent Three the Hard Way, artistic experiments like the non-violent Sunset over Imdahl, poignant parodies like Barkley's Shut Up and Jam. And thankfully, they gave us great homages like Exit Fate."

Oxeye Game Studio: The Harvest Legacy
"Almost 3 years have passed since I made the first Harvest prototype. This concept has in turn inspired other game developers to make their own implementations."

Super Fun Dungeon Run: Merry Gear Solid 2 Official Soundtrack
Now available for download.

Pitchfork: Let There Be Horns (video)
"Thom Glunt produced a music video that pays homage to Minotaur China Shop, and it is awesome."

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 BioWare Austin, Webkinz, 2K Marin and more.

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

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

Some of the notable jobs posted this week include:

2K Marin: Networking Programmer
"2K Games seeks the talents of a seasoned and passionate Networking Programmer who enjoys a collaborative and creative work environment and is looking to work with like minded professionals to create truly amazing experiences.Design, implement, and debug networking code for state of the art current and next gen titles."

Ganz/Webkinz: Flash Developers
"Now is your chance to join the Ganz team that has brought you such products as Webkinz and Webkinz Jr. You can be a part of developing new adventures!! Ganz is seeking talented and motivated people with a proven love of online entertainment for these positions."

I'm totally behind with this news, and for this I apologise profusely. Dock's classic puzzler Tumbledrop is now available for your iPod/Phone/Thing for the small sum of $1.99 (£1.19). It's a brand new version, with a bunch of new levels and islands, and lots of lovely medals to collect. If you liked the original Unity version (still available to play here) then this is a must-have.

[Just wanted to point this out to potential Indie Games Summit attendees, since Google giving away a _lot_ of Android phones to GDC 2010 attendees who sign up for specific Summits, and IGS is one of the eligible events.]

Game Developers Conference 2010 organizers have announced that they are working together with Google "to celebrate and inspire the mobile and independent game development communities" by offering free Nexus One and Verizon Droid by Motorola phones to select attendees.

The newly announced offer, part of Google's outreach into the mobile phone space as it expands use of its Android operating system, is open to qualifying developers who register to attend GDC 2010 by February 4th, 2010.

The Game Developers Conference, as the world’s largest professional-only game developer event, has been at the center of the industry’s discussions on these topics.

It serves as home to major Summits such as the GDC Mobile/Handheld Summit and the Independent Games Summit, as well as the IGF Mobile competition to award handheld game innovation.

In recent years, the smartphone has become one of the most widespread and widely-used game platforms, and has proven particularly suited to independent developers experimenting with new and unusual gameplay.

As an official statement on the tie-in notes: "This makes conference attendees great potential developers of new content for phones using the Android operating system." Alongside the announcement, Google's Eric Chu has posted about Android's GDC 2010 presence on the official Android Developers weblog.

"At the GDC, we are constantly looking for ways to help the game development community learn and thrive. The mobile and independent game spaces having been providing so many of those opportunities for years now," said Meggan Scavio, event director of the Game Developers Conference. "We are so appreciative that we can better reach those goals by actually putting a new opportunity – Android-powered devices – into the hands of our attendees."

Early Bird rates for GDC 2010 end February 4. For more information about the 2010 Game Developers Conference, including the eight summits and the Android phone promotion, please visit the official Game Developers Conference website.

Picture the scene - a mad scientist throws Dot Zo Games' Journey to the Center of the Earth and Terry Cavanagh's VVVVVV into his incredible game-splicing machine, and after it chugs away for a few hours suddenly the contraption grinds to a halt, the dust settles, and Flood the Chamber spews out of the other end. And they said he was crazy.

It's precision platforming time, folks, with a time limit no less. Your job is to help the prisoner escape the chamber, reaching the top of the screen before the advancing water level reaches our agile rogue. A warning: you will not complete this on your first attempt. Or your second. Or your... well, let's put it another way - if you manage to complete Flood the Chamber, you have some serious skills. Get to it.

GDC 2010 organizers have revealed an initial set of Independent Games Summit talks for the March event, including notable lectures by Ron Carmel (World Of Goo) and Randy Smith (Spider).

The summit, now in its fourth year and taking place on March 9th-10th during Game Developers Conference 2010 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, features lectures, postmortems and roundtables from some of the most notable independent game creators -- including many former and current Independent Games Festival finalists and winners.

Overall, the 2010 Independent Games Summit "seeks to highlight the brightest and the best of indie development, with discussions ranging from game design philosophy, distribution, business, marketing, and much more."

Advisors for the Summit include Independent Games Festival chairman Simon Carless and independent developers such as Flashbang Studios founder Matthew Wegner (Off-Road-Velociraptor Safari), as well as colleague Steve Swink (Shadow Physics).

With a final set of lectures to be announced soon, a number of major talks have been revealed on the Summit homepage. Highlights include the following:

- Indies and Publishers: Fixing a System That Never Worked
In IGS 2010's kickoff talk, 2D Boy co-founder Ron Carmel (World Of Goo) will discuss "the problems with the current model (a tenant farming ecosystem built upon a weak security model), contrast how Valve and Microsoft deal with developers, and propose that creating more transparency in the game industry will give rise to a healthy model for developers and publishers/distributors to work together."

- Increasing Our Reach: Designing To Grab and Retain Players
During his keynote talk, Looking Glass Studios veteran and Steven Spielberg collaborator Randy Smith (Thief) will talkk about the design concepts behind 'immediacy with depth', as applied to his recent iPhone hit Spider: The Secret Of Bryce Manor. He notes: "The indie games movement should be the wellspring of daring and innovative ideas, but we need a sizable and devoted audience to help us realize that potential. How do we reach more players? Is there something we’re doing wrong?", and vows to look at design solutions.

Fantastic stuff by Mr. Droqen in the form of Probability 0. A downward-scrolling platformer, this is definitely a case of practice makes perfect aka when you first play this game, you will die. LOTS.

Players first opt for either Talent (set amount of skill points to distribute) or Potential (no skill points to begin with, but points picked up from killing enemies), before setting off on their plunge into the unknown. Z jumps, X punches/throws ninja stars. Pressing space accesses the Upgrade Menu - and this is where it gets interesting. Skill points can be used to buy special abilities and upgrades for your stocky little guy, and each ability bought opens up more abilities available for purchase.

Each ability, of course, will make your descent easier. It's all very nicely done, and the skill tree really makes you sit and wonder if there is a perfect set or order to choose. Throw into this music which gets more aggravated as more enemies are close by, and flashing statistics all over the place which, in general, want to tell you how close you are to death, and you've got yourself quite the experience.

Give it a shot over at Gamejolt.

ro9 is a turn-based role-playing game in which you get to control the actions of nine different characters at the same time, using only one set of controls for all. The objective here is to get all of your heroes down to the ninth and last level of the dungeon to loot the treasure, although you can still win if some of them succumb to their injuries before reaching the goal.

There are three types of monsters in each level. Humanoids are easy to defeat, while animals or creatures take a couple more shots to kill. Bosses are the strongest, and will take quite a beating before they drop an ankh. Collecting an ankh resurrects all rogues that died on the same dungeon level.

The basic strategy here is to win enemy encounters and increase your level before proceeding down the stairs, indicated by the number of yellow squares inside the window of each hero. The red outline that surrounds each view shows the amount of damage a character has taken, and players are advised to look for a health potion if it starts to turn bright red. Download it here. (Windows, 1.41MB)

[Originally published on Mod DB, these interviews from Leo Jaitley of Dejobaan Games explores the neat nooks and crannies in indie gaming. First up is a chat with Cliff Harris, developer and founder of the UK-based one-man company Positech Games.]

This is the face of a British indie game developer. Examine it. Imagine your hands caressing his cheeks. Feel your fingers play over his ears. You are touching Cliff Harris of Positech Games. And this is the third in our series of spotlights on indie game developers. Our first spotlight was one on our own studio, Dejobaan Games. The second was on Alex Neuse of Gaijin Games.

Please introduce yourself! Who are you, and what's your background as a game developer?

CH: I'm Cliff Harris, an English geek who started programming age 11 (yes really), but had a detour as a rock star wannabe before ending up working at Elixir, and then at Lionhead before eventually going full time as bedroom coder, about 20 years after everyone else did it.

I've heard through the grapevine that you just bought a new mansion. Congratulations! Care to tell us about it?

CH: I have indeed moved out into 'the sticks' as we say over here. I used to live near Guildford, but I've moved to deepest Wiltshire into a very strange house built 20 years before Napoleon was born. It has a well in the cellar and we occasionally find pheasants and deer in the garden. It's about as English as it could possibly be. If you ignore the TV aerial it would actually look at home in a BBC costume drama. Plus it's not far from Salisbury plain where they train British tanks, so you see 'warning, tanks crossing' signs locally. It's cool.

They call you Cliffski - I thought you were English, not Polish! (Who came up with your nickname?)

CH: I worked for a guy who was called muffski, so they called me cliffski. I don't know why. I'm not polish. It was best not to ask questions back then.

Gratuitous Space Battles. A good name or a great name for a space game?

CH: An awesome name. Plus it doubles up as a great headline for reviews.

A trailer emerges for Mode 7 Games' tactical strike team-em-up! The release date for Frozen Synapse is still to be announced, but at least the above teaser gives us an idea of what's going on strategy-wise. You choose your moves, they choose their moves, you hit go, and bam, death most likely happens.

Reclamation is a browser-based remake of the classic arcade game Qix, in which players have to claim a certain percentage of each level as their own to progress. This is achieved by drawing a closed shape around enemies while trying to avoid a collision with any of them. The main difference that might catch a few veteran players off-guard is that enemies can destroy your ship even when it isn't drawing a line.

There are a couple of power-up items to collect, ranging from those that reward you with a boost ability, missiles, and even a shockwave weapon that eliminates just about all anthropods in close proximity. The game offers a total of forty-two levels to play, and many players should be able to complete them all in a sitting or two at most.

Today's collection of independent game links include a reminder about the Experimental Gameplay Workshop's submission date, an update on the Experimental Gameplay Project's monthly theme, Brandon Boyer's guide to the 2010 Indie Games Festival, and the revelation of a new unlockable character for Team Meat's Super Meat Boy. (image source)

Super Meat Boy: You Unlocked Flywrench
"Flywrench will be a playable character in Super Meat Boy. When you find the secret warp zone you get sucked into the low-fi world of Flywrench, where Meat Boy is infiltrated by the popular flapping protagonist."

Braid Blog: The Experimental Gameplay deadline is looming...
"If you are a designer of interesting/experimental/different games, and you'd like to present a game to a large audience that's excited by new and challenging work, you've got just about one week to send in your submission."

DIYgamer: 10 Great Indie Games You Didn't Play in 2009
"Many, many indie games get released each year. We have our superstar, sure-to-be-a-hit titles. We also have our games that should have been a hit, but, for whatever reason, just seemed to slip through the cracks of the gaming world. This list is largely based on my own opinion about games that should have been more appreciated but, ultimately, weren't."

Boing Boing: Guide to the 2010 Indie Games Festival
"A complete illustrated guide to all twenty of 2010's IGF finalists across all its categories, with a précis of each, links for more information, and, where available, a link to play all finalists that have already released their games."

Maximum PC: 22 Flash Games Worth Getting Addicted To
"You don't want to waste time browsing—you need the definitive go-to guide to the best of what's out there. For a hint of nostalgia, or to get your feet wet with casual gaming, spend some quality time with classics of the genre, collected in our list of all-time favorites."

Jamie Woodhouse: Pay What You Want Sale (for Qwak)
"Visit the Qwak site, select PC or Mac, name your own price, then proceed through to PayPal to purchase the game."

Experimental Gameplay Project: 2010 calls for 100 Things.
"100 Things is the name of the game this month, in honor of the original Indie Game Jam, which back in March of 2002 tasked developers with using 100,000 sprites on screen at the same time."

Experimental Gameplay Project: And the winner is...
"The results from the Art Theme competition are back, and while it was a grueling, grueling judging time, congratulations are in order for one Mr. Alexitrón for his lifetime platformer entry And Everything Started to Fall."

Charlie's Games: Making Bullet Candy
"I thought it was about time I got this Making Bullet Candy thing I've been wanting to do written up."

Paper Cakes is a clever puzzle platformer in which you play as a character who has a craving for cakes. The gimmick here is that each level is drawn on both sides of a paper, and to reach the cake you would have to fold the paper and form new platforms to walk on or make the geometrical-shaped creatures disappear.

To play this game you would need to download and install both Adobe AIR and the Bamboo Dock software. These apps can be uninstalled at any time with no hassle at all. Paper Cakes was developed by a team of students from the University of Southern California and the Utrecht School of the Arts in the Netherlands (more info here). There are forty levels to solve in total, split into four different worlds with a slightly different theme and a new gameplay mechanic introduced in each.

[From now until mid-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. Previously: Top 10 Shoot 'em Ups, Top 10 Puzzle Games, Top 10 Browser Platformers, Top 20 Freeware Platformers, Top 10 Browser Arcade Games, Top Freeware Arcade Games 2009]

The last of our 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 twenty of the best freeware experimental games released in 2009.

Call it art. Call it experimental. Call it meta, even. Love them or hate them, art games are here to stay. A word of warning though: some of these developers do take the idea of permanency to the extreme. The cost of defeat in any of these games might end up to be more than what you're willing to lose.

(You can also access the full 2009 Top Freeware Experimental Games 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 experimental games of the year:

The Independent Games Festival, the popular industry event highlighting and awarding the talents of independent game developers, has announced the winners of the 2010 IGF Student Showcase, which recognizes outstanding indie game development taking place on school and university campuses around the world.

This year's set of ten Student Showcase winners include titles such as Utrecht School of the Arts & USC's virtual paper-folding puzzle game Paper Cakes, DePaul University's first-person 'sound visualization' title Devil's Tuning Fork, and Chalmers University's ingenious card-shuffling platform game Continuity.

These ten games will go on to compete for the Best Student Game Prize, announced on stage at the Independent Games Festival Awards, held Thursday, March 11, 2010, in San Francisco at Game Developers Conference 2010.

The Student Showcase-winning games -- all of which will also be playable at the IGF Pavilion on the GDC 2010 show floor -- were chosen from a remarkable field of entries by an opt-in subset of the more than 150 notable game industry figures judging the IGF Main Competition.

The full list of this year's winners is as follows:

Multiple sites including GamePro are noting the official release date for The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom, which is set to be available for download from the Xbox Live Arcade service starting this February 17th, 2010. Published by 2K Play (a division of 2K Games), the former 2008 IGF Student Showcase winner is yours to have for only 800 MS Points come next month. No plans to release on other consoles or platforms though. (previous mention)

Carnage Street is a simple 2D shooter in which you play as a hero who has to protect his city from a zombie invasion. There are only two status indicators that you have to worry about, those being your life and the state of the city itself. The game ends if you are too injured to continue, or a hundred zombies or more made it through the city's one-man defense line.

The red gauge at the bottom of the screen shows your current level, which can be increased by dispatching more zombies. The higher the level, the more zombies will appear but you will score more as well, and more destructive weapons will appear for you to collect. (Windows, 4.05MB)

At first glance Time Still appears to have taken inspiration from cactus' upcoming Tuning - graphically, at least. Yet the ability to freeze time makes this a different kettle of fish altogether.

Over 24 levels the task is to collect these floating shiny things without getting squashed/shot/electrocuted etc. However, while there are a number of obstacles to dodge, these hinderances can also be used to your advantage via the Z key, freezing them all on the spot and possibly creating yourself an extra platform or two. It's pretty clever stuff, although it never really gets difficult and you should be able to blast through the whole game is a relatively short time.

Apparently some people are having graphical problems with the game - in this case, pressing 1 to disable some of the effects may help. Download or Quick Play from your browser at Gamejolt.

The first official trailer for Tyler Glaiel and Jon Schubbe's Closure is out, a puzzle platformer that is scheduled to be released for both Windows and Mac platforms sometime in 2011. An IndieCade Gameplay Innovation award winner and a PAX 10 showcase selection, Closure is also an IGF finalist in the Excellence in Audio, Technical and Nuovo Award categories this year.

[From now until mid-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. Previously: Top 10 Shoot 'em Ups, Top 10 Puzzle Games, Top 10 Browser Platformers, Top 20 Freeware Platformers, Top 10 Browser Arcade Games]

The sixth of our 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 twenty of the best freeware arcade games released in 2009.

A bear behind a wheel, a tiki totem on speed, and a planet-devouring worm. These are just some of the stranger protagonists that you'll find in our selection of the best downloadable arcade games from last year.

(You can also access the full 2009 Top Freeware Arcade Games 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 downloadable arcade games of the year:

Let's take a look at the latest interviews with indie game developers on the web. Highlights include: a podcast chat with Jeff Vogel of Spiderweb Software, an interview with the creator of Enviro-Bear 2000, and Dock replying to questions about his collaboration with Notch on Minecraft.

Gamasutra: Road To The IGF - Justin Smith's Enviro-Bear 2000
"Gamasutra is kicking of this year's Road to the IGF interview series by talking with Justin Smith, creator of the absurd and hilarious Enviro-Bear 2000, which is up for the Independent Games Festival 2010's alternative-focused Nuovo Award."

Gamasutra: Road To The IGF - Ratloop Asia's Rocketbirds: Revolution!
"Sian Yue Tan explains the origins of Rocketbirds: Revolution! and why his team chose the Flash format, as Teck Lee Tan offers comments on the state of the indie scene today."

A Hardy Developer's Journal: Interview with Erin Robinson
"Everyone knows robots are the coolest thing. In our latest interview we talk about them with Erin Robinson – the inventor of various types of Puzzle Bots and Nanobots."

Destructoid: Max & the Magic Marker's Mikkel Thorsted
"Mikkel Thorsted (game director and lead programmer of Max & the Magic Marker) spoke about the design process, how the team views the integral mechanics of the game, and revealed other little bits of insight about the game."

CraftHub: Interview with Dock, Minecraft Artist
"CraftHub.net interviews Dock about his artistic life, Minecraft, and what's ahead for 2010."

AGameAWeek.com: Jayenkai Interview
"Our hero this month is James Gamble (or Jayenkai to his many followers) who runs AGameAWeek.com – it won't come as a shock to anyone considering that URL, but his aim is to produce a game every week, but what does come as a surprise however is that he can still find time to eat, sleep and talk to people who are bugging him for an interview."

Joystiq: Two Brothers' on Climb to the Top of the Castle
"Tim, 23, and Orion Araya, 20, are the two brothers behind TwO Bros. Games, recent winners of the 2BeeGames Indie Game Competition for their submission Climb to the Top of the Castle. Like Auditorium and Storm before it, the siblings' game has earned a digital distribution publishing deal through Zoo Games."

Active Time Babble: Interview with Jeff Vogel (audio)
"Jeremy Parish talks to Spiderweb Software's Jeff Vogel about the finale of the long-running Avernum series."

Eurogamer: Narbacular Drop Interview
"Kim Swift sprang to fame as the project lead on Valve's wonderful first-person puzzler, Portal. We look back over the path that took her here, beginning with the game that inspired Portal, Narbacular Drop."

As mentioned yesterday, there is now a Unity browser-based demo of Press Play's Max and the Magic Marker over on the official site. It gives a brief idea of what you can expect. Make sure you have Unity installed first!

In our latest employment-specific round-up, we highlight some of the notable jobs posted in big sister site Gamasutra's industry-leading game jobs section this week, including positions from Relic Entertainment, Vicarious Visions and more.

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

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

Some of the notable jobs posted this week include:

Relic Entertainment: Senior Level Designer
"Relic Entertainment, award winning developers of Homeworld, Dawn of War and Company of Heroes, is looking for a Senior Level Designer with AAA console shooter experience for our highly anticipated action RPG for Xbox 360 and PS3... Space Marine."

Edge of Reality: Game Engineer
"Edge of Reality is a veteran cross platform console studio based in Austin, Texas. Most recently, we worked closely with BioWare to release Dragon Age PS3 & 360. We also work with The Sims Studio, a part of the EA Play label on various projects. We have been fortunate enough to be part of several hit titles. As a result of this success, the studio has a stable future. Edge of Reality is completely independent. As such, we are free to work with any publisher, on any platform."

Mr Igor 'hardydev' Hardy pointed me in the direction of this chilling AGS-developed adventure story, and if you're into your point-and-click games you'd be wise to check it out too. Episode 1 of The McCarthy Chronicles follows down-and-out detective Nick McCarthy (ancestor of a certain indie guitarist, perhaps?) as he becomes entangled in a dark tale involving death, demon creatures and all those other things that make for a scary setting.

Your job is to unravel the mystery behind the manor house and its occupants. The whole game feels wonderfully atmospheric, with a film-noir setting throughout, full voice-acting and some pretty chilling scenes and sounds. It's quite a thing that the simple tick-tocking of the grandfather clock in the main hall can put a person on edge.

Definitely worth a playthrough. Grab it over on The Thought Radar.

[From now until mid-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. Previously: Top 10 Shoot 'em Ups, Top 10 Puzzle Games, Top 10 Browser Platformers, Top 20 Freeware Platformers]

The fifth of our 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 Flash-based arcade games released in 2009.

A quick coffee break game to while away your lunch hour? Something addictive and fun to play for that slow Sunday afternoon? Play as a man who can't stop running, a pig that can fly, or a maniac on a mountain.. here's our pick for the top browser arcade games released in the last twelve months.

(You can also access the full 2009 Top Browser Arcade Games 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 browser arcade games of the year:

Vessel is the first project from Strange Loop Games, a Seattle-based studio founded by two Pandemic Studios Brisbane veterans, John Krajewski and Martin Farren. We recently had a chat with John to find out more about the IGF 2010 Technical Excellence award nominee, and he accomodated us with some very revealing answers on why this game should be on everyone's radars in the coming months.

Hi John, can you provide a little background on Strange Loop Games and your upcoming release, Vessel?

Strange Loop Games is what we're calling the new studio that I'm starting with my partner Martin Farren. The idea behind our studio is a game company that puts the power of modern hardware towards gameplay, not just graphics, and Vessel is our first game with that idea in mind. It's a 2d action/puzzle game set in a physically simulated universe, meaning everything is maximally interactive. One of the unique things we're doing is our fluid simulation, and the way we form characters out of this simulated fluid.

What is the story in Vessel about?

The game will be about a lot of things, but at the most surface level it's about an inventor named Arkwright who has created this new device, the mechanized-fluid automaton (known as Fluros for short) that has revolutionized the world by providing free labor. Those are the fluid creatures you see in the trailer. That's where the game starts, and through the course of the game two major things are happening - the Fluros are beginning to grow minds of their own, evolving and turning on their owners, and Arkwright is developing his next great invention, The Device. These plotlines intertwine and merge, as Arkwright uses the evolutions of the Fluros in development of his invention, leading up what will hopefully be a grand conclusion.

Along with the above trailer showing the game in its final state, developers Press Play have announced that their WiiWare title Max and the Magic Marker, tipped as a Crayon Physics take on the platforming genre, will be released via WiiWare on January 22nd.

In what appears to be a twist on the norm, however, the game will be released in Europe, Australia and New Zealand, with no word on a US release date as of yet. There will, however, be an online demo to try via the Max official site sometime tomorrow - we'll let you know when that appears so you can try it out yourself.

The game will set you back 1000 Wii Points.

Behold, another awesome entry into the TIGSource Assemblee competition! Mr. Kitty's Quest is the story of one cat's journey to the milk store to secure his owner a gallon of the good stuff. Along the way you shoot crabs, get attacked by strange wizardy people and visit exotic locations such as 'Dog City'.

This is a wonderful, if slightly short, exploration affair with a fair bit of RPG-mockery going on (e.g. just check out how much of that inventory space is actually used, or whether the inventory screen is even useful at all) and it's got a lovely charm to it, with Kitty bouncing along gunning down mushrooms and collecting coins whilst nearby characters spout silly dialogue. There are even a couple of boss battles to tend to.

Short but sweet. Give it a shot at Gamejolt.

Chances are that none of us will ever get to play this game, I think. Best to watch it here.

Shown above, a video trailer for Jph Wacheski's Gamma IV entry Impulse. There are also a couple of clips from other Gamma IV entries in the extended. Most of these games will be made available for download shortly after the event itself.

Dungeons of Fayte is yet another wonderful entry into the TIGSource Assemblee Competition, which Brent describes as 'a non-linear, replayable RPG/Sim' which is 'a mash-up between Zelda: Four Swords and Princess Maker'.

A 1-4 player monster-battler, there is an insane amount of content here, and with it a lot of replay value. Players spend time building up their stats by doing farm work/guard duty/visiting the pub, then set out on a quest at the end of each month to beat up green blobs and undead skeletons. I've not tried out the multiplayer element (players sharing a keyboard/controllers on a single computer) but as far as the single-player is concerned, definitely give it a go.

Credits for the sound/graphics can be found in the TIGforum thread, while the game can be downloaded from YoYo Games. If you don't want to install the YoYo Games plugin, just select 'Download this game now!' from the right sidebar.

The above trailer is in fact 'several years old' and features a game which has long since been abandoned. However, konjak has explained on his blog that he is considering releasing the unfinished Mina of the Pirates, apparently the longest game he has ever developed.

So you know what to do - go hit up his blog post and let him know that you would indeed like to see it released. It's amusing that he says of this trailer: 'It sure looks terrible these days'. Clearly his definition of 'terrible' is far from my own.

Nimblebit's kart racer Zero Gear has just been released via Steam, and to celebrate the game is free to play until the end of the week. All you need in a Steam account and you can check the full game out for the next 5 days.

Clocking in at $19.99, the game is also 25% off until the end of the week, so if you decide you like it, the discount may prove useful! If you need to read words about whether or not it's worth playing, there are such words on this very blog round abooout... here. Given, they are words regarding the beta build, but they should give a reasonable idea of what you're up against.

To play the game for free, it should have already appeared in your list of Steam games, so it's a simple case of installing it. Go see what you think.

[From now until mid-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. Previously: Top 10 Shoot 'em Ups, Top 10 Puzzle Games, Top 10 Browser Platformers]

The fourth of our 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 twenty of the best freeware platformers released in 2009.

2D platformers make up a large portion of freeware indie games, and if you're looking for the next Cave Story, Knytt or Spelunky, then there's no better place to start than here - our selection of the freshest platform games released in 2009 for your enjoyment.

(You can also access the full 2009 Top Freeware Platformers 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 downloadable platformers of the year:

Loren Schmidt (Sparky) is the developer of Star Guard, a retro-style 2D platformer that is also a finalist in the IGF's Excellence in Design category this year. He worked on Star Guard part-time over the course of sixteen months while still studying in Laney College, and the game was eventually released as a freeware download in October 2009.

Let's start with a bit of self-introduction, where you're from, and what you were doing before Star Guard.

I'm from the United States- I live in Oakland, California.

Before I started learning to program I wanted to find work doing visual art for games. I did art for a small space MMO once. At a certain point I started taking classes and playing around with the programming side of things, because there were things I couldn't make otherwise.

What was the inspiration for Star Guard?

I keep a log of game ideas, and every so often I get really excited about one of them. Other times I don't end up making the games at all.

What are some of the cooler ideas in your log that you do plan to make into games in the future?

One of my favorite ideas isn't really a game. I've always been interested in things like the game of Life, and I'd love to play with simple simulated creatures that evolve over time.

Just released via Xbox Live Indie Games, Pixel Boarder is a physics-based snowboard stunt-o-rama and it's a great deal of fun. Controlling your boarder's arms via the left and right analog stick, it's tricky to begin with, but once it finally clicks, you can pull off a whole hoard of crazy moves. The key is to, well, not land on your head. That results in an owie.

Features include a replay system, allowing you to watch all your best stunts (and bails) backwards and forwards, sped up and slow-mo; Customizable boarders, with a bunch of different heads, bodies and boards to crash into the slopes; 'State-of-the-art retro graphics', allowing a choice of 32, 16, 8 or 4 bit visuals. Chuck in there a whole chiptune soundtrack supplied by some clever music people over at the 8-Bit Collective and it's all looking very beefy in content.

Just be warned - this is incredibly difficult. The short tutorial levels definitely do enough to teach the basics, but from then on in, it's all about experimenting to find the best tricks and methods of landing. All in all, definitely worth checking out the demo on the Xbox Marketplace. Will set you back 240 MS Points ($3) for the full version.

Related: Pixel Boarder Trailer

There's this guy, and for my entire VVVVVV playthrough he's been grinning like a loon. No matter how difficult the puzzle, how awkward the timing or how precise a maneuver is needed, his face is constantly lit up, his smile infectious to a ridiculous degree.

I am, in fact, talking about myself, but then Veridian, VVVVVV's gravity-defying hero who clearly shares my sentiment, is arguably having just as much fun as myself, despite his blood not knowing where to rush to. Oh, and the constant multiple deaths.

While some may argue that 2009 didn't really deliver an outstanding indie title which showed the mainstream that independent developers mean business, this won't be a problem where 2010 is concerned - the year has merely begun, and already Terry Cavanagh has supplied the scene with the ammo it needs. VVVVVV is not simply immense fun - it's exciting, challenging, and downright glorious with a stunning soundtrack that will flip you on your head.

[Note: Since we linked to the game, it's been completely hammered by traffic. The guys have put a player limit on the server to keep the numbers down, so it's a little difficult to get into the game at the moment! I've removed the link to the game from this post, but you can still visit the TIG forum page and check out the details]

Been watching this one progress via the TIGSource forums and it's now definitely at the point where it's worth mentioning. Realm of the Mad God, created for the TIG Assemblee competition, is 'a massively co-op fantasy adventure' featuring a remarkably large world to roam and explore (inhabited by thousands of monsters), real-time battling, a full leveling up system, lots of different equipment and magic spells to experiment with and 5 different classes to choose from.

All this content, and it's still being built. Starting a game is as simple and entering your name and pressing go, at which point you'll be dumped into the world alongside every other connected player. You can choose to team up (text chat is available) or go it alone.

A major thing to note - death is permanent. Lose all your health and you'll have to start all over again, whether you were level 1 or level 100. In fact, in this respect it reminds me a lot of Farb's Captain Forever - you may be able to get to a respectable level, but make little slip and it's all gone.

Go give it a try, and make sure to follow the progress over on the TIG forums.

Created for the TIGSource Assemblee contest, DEBT is the story of Owen Sterling, a spaceman with a massive amount of cash to pay off. With debt collectors on the way, it's your job to help Owen grab as much loot as he can before they show up.

The first 30 seconds of each game involve flying to your destination, dodging asteroids along the way, then it's down to the main spectacle. There are three different worlds to explore with each offering a unique difficulty level, be it harder enemies or locked doors galore. Every gem, cash bundle or golden something-or-other you collect decreases your debt and you'll need to be quick on your feet if you want to clear the whole kaboodle.

Getting hit too many times will cause our debt-ridden hero to collapse and lose a minute of his precious time, and you'll need to make sure that you get back to the ship before time is up, or you'll be charged 'interest'. Online score boards show what kind of scores you're aiming for!

As this was created for the Assemblee competition, all the graphics and sound were created by a horde of other TIGers, credit to whom can be found on the download page.

TouchArcade have bagged themselves a hands-on with the iPhone version of IGF-nominated Cogs. Landing in the App Store sometime later this month, it appears the transition to iThing has worked pretty smoothly. Excellent stuff.

Related: Cogs PC Review

Following in the footsteps of 2D Boy and Paul Eres, Petri Purho is celebrating the one-year anniversary of Crayon Physics Deluxe's release by selling the game off for whatever price you choose.

Simply head on over to the CPD site, name your price, and away you go with all its wonderful physics-based crayon-ness. The sale lasts just a week (until 15th Jan) and we're bound to see some results popping up on his site shortly afterwards.

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 Bungie, Sledgehammer 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:

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."

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

According to IGN, a release date is coming very soon for Introversion's XBLA outing of the little Darwinians. Viruses beware!

[In this informational piece, indie game creator and Independent Games Festival judge Jens Bergensten (Harvest: Massive Encounter) discusses the process of judging the IGF to help entrants understand what their game goes through, with personal views from two other 2010 IGF judges.]

This year I had the great privilege to take part in Independent Games Festival as a judge, getting a chance to evaluate the best independent games that have been recently released or that are still in development. (The finalists for the Main Competition were recently announced.) This task has been really fun, even though it took a little more of my time than I had thought.

I wanted to share my experience from this because when we participated in IGF in 2008 and 2009, the process was somewhat of a black box. Your game was dropped into the box and wasn't seen again until three months later, when an e-mail with commiserations and a few judge comments told you relatively little about the process the titles went through.

Of course, this isn't that different to most competitions out there (even judge comments are rare in other contests), but we had no idea what had happened in that time. And we obviously wanted more information and idea of how this was decided, since IGF is among the most important events for small game start-ups like ours.

So I wrote this article with the permission of the IGF organizers, based on my experience of being on both "sides", without ever getting the luxury of a nomination.

Squid and Let Die is a fast-paced arcade game in which players have to collect all dots on screen to progress to the next level. Cannons will try to home in on your position and fire a shot at you, but you can dodge them with ease if you move quickly enough.

The key to advancing in this game is to trick those cannons into shooting, since the cannons are immobilized while their shots still remain on the grid. The controls will take some getting used to, but players with a fondness for classic gaming will certainly want to add Oddbob's latest to their collection. (Windows, 14.4MB)

Here's a sweet deal if you were interested in getting Wolfire Games' Overgrowth or Unknown Worlds' Natural Selection 2 (and had not pre-ordered them yet). Both development teams are currently offering a special preorder bundle called the Organic Indie Preorder Pack, which includes the two games mentioned above at 40% ($39.95 instead of the usual $70) off until Thursday next week.

Anyone who had preordered either game can get the other for free. For Overgrowth perorder owners who wants to redeem for their copy of NS2, click here. Natural Selection 2 customers can go here.

The website for the offer is here, and we've embedded the promotional video in the extended for your amusement too. Note that the offer is only for pre-ordering the two games (you will get access to the beta), as the release dates for both games have not been announced yet.

2009 was a busy time for Distractionware aka Terry Cavanagh. He released a string of brilliant freeware and flash releases including the likes of Don't Look Back, Pathways, Judith and Bullet Time, as well as powering out a bunch of smaller titles in a mere few days when he attended BIGJam 2009 in Berlin.

For the second half of the year, however, Terry has been working hard on a game which was originally meant to be a simple flash release but escalated into so much more. VVVVVV, finally getting a release on January 10th, will be Terry's first commercial game. (Photo Source: Mike Nowak)

Who are you and what do you do?

Hi, I'm Terry, and I make games!

What was it that made you decide to quit your day job and start making independent games full-time?

I went straight from college to working in a bank - the work was ok, but I wasn't really happy. I was constantly thinking about all these games I wanted to make, but I was never able to take my ideas anywhere because I never had the time. I'd been the same way in college, and way back in school when I was making little Qbasic games, and I just felt like I wasn't ever going to get anywhere if I didn't do something to make it happen. So I started carefully saving up, and making plans to give it a shot.

What eventually happened is that I got drunk at a staff night out and told everyone around me that I wanted to quit and spend all my time making games. Somebody told my boss, and the next day he called me in and asked about it. Even though I hadn't saved up nearly enough, I ended up impulsively giving him my notice.

Tim picked it. I bigged it up. Then it got nominated for an IGF award. Finally Strange Loop Games have released a trailer of Vessel so you guys can see why we're all a flutter. Apparently they "intend to ship on both PC and console" which is definitely good news!

I don't think we've posted about any tower defence games recently, so take this as long overdue. Defend Your Hono(u)r is such a game, and probably one of the more enjoyable games in the genre that I've played. Created by the guy behind the brilliant Upgrade Complete (who is apparently from the same place as me - clearly Manchester is full of win), it follows the story of one loser's dream to be somebody and claim some pride.

This, of course, involves finding the Golden Statue for the Walrus King via a series of tower defence levels, each a little more difficult than the next. Beginning with a single unit, your army grows over the course of the game, until there is chaos all over the screen. Lovely stuff.

Go get your TD hat on at Armor Games.

Hoshi Saga Ringo is a collection of twenty-five new puzzles designed by Yoshio Ishii, in which players must figure out the correct method to reveal a star that is hidden somewhere in every stage. The difficulty for each puzzle is indicated by the stars shown just below the preview image for each level, although most of them are actually pretty easy to solve compared to previous iterations in the series.

Today's collection of independent game links include a couple more favorites and picks from 2009, updates, price reductions, and a summary of one-switch games released in the last twenty-four months. (image source)

Nifflas' Games: Saira Price Reduction
"The price of Saira will be reduced to $12. It will be possible to buy two licenses for only $13.5 but this offer will end on January 20. Then the $12 for one license will be the only option."

Adrenaline Vault: Top Casual PC games of 2009
"This is the 10th anniversary for this awards article, making it the longest-running continuous casual games award series anywhere. Reflecting backward over the past decade, while the technical aspects—graphics and sound quality—of the releases have certainly improved since the beginning of this article series, the gameplay has been highly enjoyable from the very beginning."

Gamasutra: The 99 Best Free Games Of 2009
"Creative talents all over the world are out there spinning out downloadable, browser, Flash and Unity games that you can while away enjoyable hours on without having it cost you one red cent. The sheer number and quality of the games available for nothing is a simple testament to just how broad and active the development community outside the corporate AAA space really is at present."

Fire Hose Games: What We Played in 2009
"2009 was an awesome year for games, and we played a lot of them. Here's a recap of the great games we played this year. If you haven't tried them yet, now's your chance."

Way Too Casual: Bye Bye 2009 (audio)
"Way Too Casual is a podcast about Flash games, with bi-weekly episodes focusing on casual gaming news, events, reviews, and lots more. In the latest episode, Joe, John and Dora shares their picks and favorites from 2009."

Cryptic Sea: A New Zero 0.76
"A New Zero is a multiplayer vehicle simulation inspired by Red Baron, Tie Fighter, Mechwarrior 2, Joust, and some other stuff. It is currently in open beta."

OneSwitch.org.uk: All Blogged One Switch Games
One switch games blogged by OneSwitch.org.uk in 2009 (and 2008).

Quick as Thieves is a third-person action game in which you play as a thief out to steal an item called the 'MacGuffin' from a museum. Though driven by a single objective that has to be completed in under ten minutes, there is plenty of room in your sack for just about every item you can get your grubby hands on. Guards will try to stop you on sight, but the combat is a simple affair of tapping the button rapidly until you counter their collective attacks.

The game plays like a variation of the Katamari series, and the loot that you acquire actually serves the purpose of upgrading the thief's skill sets. There are a couple of easter eggs to be found (the gallery near the staircase is one), and if you happen to get lost inside the museum all you have to do is follow the red carpet to find your way to the treasure vault.

An Xbox360 controller is required to play the game, and visitors can only download from the Dare to be Digital site after creating a user account and logging in with it (or you can use this, username: indygamer, password: password). Note that the download server might be offline during peak hours. Quick as Thieves was one of the three games shortlisted for a BAFTA award earlier last year. (Windows, 281MB)

Sunshine is a project created by Kyle Gabler (one half of 2D Boy) for the Experimental Gameplay's art game theme, where players are tasked with guiding a plant towards the skies while growing flowers and avoiding rocks. Looping around people causes them to turn into flowers, which gives off more energy for your plant to grow taller. It is necessary to trap as many people as you can for combos, since doing that rewards more energy compared to going for one of them at a time. (Windows, 10.6MB)

The Independent Games Festival has announced the Main Competition finalists for the twelfth annual presentation of its prestigious awards, celebrating the most innovative creations to come out of the independent game development community this year.

Nearly $50,000 in prizes in various categories, including the $20,000 Seamus McNally Grand Prize will be awarded on stage at the Independent Games Festival Awards on March 11, 2010 during the 2010 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.

The record-setting 306 Main Competition entries represent a 35% increase over last year's record 226 entries, many of them striking new titles from leading indie developers.

This year's finalists are led by multiple nominations for several notable games, including three nominations for innovative light-centric puzzle platformer Closure, Krystian Majewski's gestural photographic adventure game Trauma, and Ratloop Asia's cinematic avian action title Rocketbirds: Revolution!.

There were two nominations each -- including a Grand Prize nomination -- for Pocketwatch Games' stylish co-op heist game Monaco, Hello Games' polished stunt motorbike title Joe Danger, and Team Meat's cartoon-gory 2D action title Super Meat Boy!.

To ensure the highest-quality judging for the IGF, more than 150 leading indie and mainstream game industry figures -- from 2D Boy's Ron Carmel through Spore's Soren Johnson to ThatGameCompany's Kellee Santiago and beyond -- were recruited to choose finalists via a carefully constructed empirical process.

The Festival is particularly keen to give constructive, written feedback to Main Competition entrants -- even if they did not place as a finalist. As a result, over 1500 written, anonymized judge comments will be passed along to entrants in the next few days, an important part of deriving value and takeaway from entering the IGF.

In addition, for the first year, the IGF's Nuovo Award, intended to "honor abstract, shortform, and unconventional game development which advances the medium and the way we think about games", was judged by a separate, smaller juried panel of notable game and art world figures. These spanned previous IGF Nuovo winner Jason Rohrer (Passage), Area/Code's Frank Lantz, N+ co-creator Mare Sheppard, EA division head and art-game creator Rod Humble, and more.

The jury for the $2,500 Nuovo Award, which allows more esoteric 'art games' to compete on their own terms alongside longer-form indie titles, has released a statement about the chosen Nuovo finalists, including several 'honorable mentions', on the official IGF website.

The finalists for the 2010 Independent Games Festival are:

Alongside the announcement of 2010 Independent Games Festival finalists, the IGF Nuovo Award jury has revealed its finalists for the $2,500 award, which is intended to "honor abstract, shortform, and unconventional game development which advances the medium and the way we think about games."

The 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, recommended 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 -- spanning previous IGF winner Rohrer, Area/Code's Frank Lantz, N+ co-creator Mare Sheppard, EA division head and art-game creator Rod Humble, and more, have decided the finalists (and will decide the winner) for the Nuovo Award in discussion-based, juried form -- mirroring similar, artistically important awards in other industries. All five Nuovo finalists will exhibit their games at GDC 2010 in San Francisco in the IGF Pavilion, and a Nuovo Award winner will be revealed at the IGF Awards Ceremony on the evening of March 11th, 2010.

The Nuovo Jury's finalist statement discussing and justifying their picks - also adding a number of 'honorable mentions' for games that were just outside the finalist selection, but had fascinating characteristics - reads as follows:

Adrenaline is a freeware multiplayer top-down shooter created with the Game Maker engine, featuring a wide variety of weapons to use, four different game modes and support for user-created maps in addition to the official maps that comes with the download. The latest version of the game (1.0.0, released on January 1st 2010) includes plenty of graphical settings that can be tweaked to accomodate slower computers, a single-player mode with bots, and even stat tracking for registered Reflect users.

Besides your standard ranged weapon, you can also swing a knife for melee attacks or throw grenades to hurt other players. The frequent disconnections and lags could disrupt your enjoyment of it, but if you are looking for a multiplayer deathmatch game that is free to play then Adrenaline might fit the bill nicely. (source, controls)

[From now until mid-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. Previously: Top 10 Shoot 'em Ups, Top 10 Puzzle Games]

The third of our 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 Flash-based platformers released in 2009.

It has been an incredible year for indie games, and more so for the platformer genre. We have no intentions of leaving Mac OSX and Linux users out in the cold, so here's ten games that will run on any modern-day internet browser to satiate your need for run 'n jump games.

(You can also access the full 2009 Top Browser Platformers 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 browser platformers of the year:

Created for the Game.Dev 'Coherence' competition, ArGeeBee is Rodain's attempt at splicing three different genres together. Supplied with three different little men, the green guy must use his match-3 skills to forge a path for the red who uses his vague RPG skills to kill baddies who are the same level as him, level up and defeat the boss. The blue can then use his platforming abilities to reach the goal.

It's definitely not as simple as that though - in fact, by merging those three genres, he's finished up with a puzzler. On each level, there is always a specific order in which the three heroes need to be moved and each must help the others out. It's also possible for each to not completely finish their mission fully, as long as there are enough lives available on that level.

It's pretty short with 5 tutorial levels + 15 main missions, but still definitely worth your time. Download from this forum thread.

Wonderfully experimental music maker, this. By creating note bars, gates and spawners, then fiddling around with a variety of sounds, noises and effects, Audia allows the user to create some incredibly brilliant sounding music pieces courtesy of bouncing bloom balls.

The controls are initially a little difficult to understand, but once you're going it's beautiful stuff. Holding down the middle mouse button creates a ball spawner, while holding the right mouse button creates bars which, when collided with, supply the music. Once you've got these basics down, there are a ton of special effects you can get on the go - changing the pitch, tone, volume etc of a note; placing 'gates' which allow for specific timing of notes; crazy movements for the note bar, like pulsing and spinning.

Awesome fun to play around with - you can even save your compositions for others to listen to. Go give your creative mind a workout at Gamejolt.

Dungeon of EEEvil is a low-res 2D action game in which you play as a knight trapped inside a prison, surrounded by the walking dead that will chase after you if you get close to them. By doing a bit of exploration you can find weapons to protect yourself with, but watch out for ambushes and traps that might be sprung on you unsuspectingly upon entering a new room.

There's a fair bit of backtracking involved, although the game doesn't actually take longer than an afternoon to play from start to finish. (Windows, 1.88MB)

Matt Scorah of the GameMaker Blog spent the last few weeks putting this video together, and I can confirm that it is awesome. All of the games featured were either made or completed in 2009, with every developer allowed to have a maximum of only two games in it.

Get the download links from the GameMaker Blog.

[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. Previously: Top 10 Shoot 'em Ups]

The second of our 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 puzzle games released in 2009.

Love a bit of puzzle-solving in your platformer or adventure game? We've got boxes in all shapes and sizes, shadows, silhouettes, and even the odd hacking game that you will offer you the sort of challenges crossword puzzles don't provide.

(You can also access the full 2009 Top Freeware Puzzle Games 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 puzzle games of the year: