The Soul of Dracula is a 2D platformer inspired by the Castlevania series, featuring appearances from mainstays such as Death and the Count himself in the role of level bosses. You play as a vampire hunter who must venture into the Dark Prince's castle and defeat him using only your whip and the familiar array of ranged weapons at your disposal.

Though many of the enemies had appeared in monsieur Belmont's adventures before, the developer of this tribute project had included a couple of twists and surprises that will please even the most hardcore of Castlevania fans out there. Download the game here. (Windows, 1.84MB)

Here's the video recording of Chris Hecker's rant during GDC 2010, though it starts off with Heather Chaplin's Duct Tape award acceptance speech (for having the best rant last year). Titled "Please Finish Your Game", Chris voices his opinions and concerns about game jams, competitions, game development time, and rushing to meet release schedules. If you missed our link to Tommy Refenes' iPhone rant from a day or two ago, we've embedded it after the cut for your viewing pleasure as well.

Here's why. First off, it may be a take on the Breakout genre, but it's a fantastic one at that. While stopping the ball leaving the playing area is the priority, the paddle can also blow out and suck in to change the direction the ball is headed. This will also cause certain elements of the level (including some blocks) to move towards or away from the paddle. Any block which strikes the paddle will disable it for a few seconds, which is clearly not a good thing.

Also a change from the original Breakout scheme - you can fire out multiple balls at the same time. It's absolute chaos when you do, but who doesn't love chaos, right?

Every block destroyed releases crystals, which can be collected via the paddle. Collect enough crystals and you can unleash a beautifully overpowered barrage of light across the level, with time slowdown allowing you to concentrate on the carnage. Mainly for looking pretty at first, this power becomes extremely useful later on when the levels get much more difficult, with blocks falling down towards you from the get-go.

Marsh is another vertical-scrolling shooter created by the developer of EX -extra-, featuring three ships with different weapon configurations to choose from and five levels to play in total. In addition to your primary and secondary weapons, there is also a special attack that can be deployed at any time, provided that you have at least one bomb counter in the blue bar at the bottom of the window.

The type of bomb launched is dependent on your current energy gauge, which can be increased by destroying enemy ships over time. A destructive laser beam is fired if the energy indicator is maxed out, else your ship will drop a carpet bomb that destroys all other harmful projectiles on screen for a couple of seconds. The game can be downloaded here. (Windows, 22.6MB)

Creator Soulframe plans to release the sequel Rainblood 2 - City of Flame with an English translation available. The above trailer features scenes and combat demonstrations from the game. Make sure you give the video a little time to load.

(English translation of the YouKu page)

Hippolyta is a game of quick reactions and Greek Mythology. Having escaped from her confinement, Hippolyta must jump, duck and dodge her way around various obstacles to her freedom.

It's pretty challenging stuff, with a single error putting you back to the start of the level. In later levels you'll have to figure out which way to dodge, plus there's a number of different elements which can put you off completely. There are several different game modes, including local multiplayer for 2 people.

Hippolyta won't be for everybody due to its masochistic nature, but some are bound to get a kick out of it. Newgrounds ahoy. (FYI: There is minor pixel nudity)

Here's a trailer for the upcoming AGS adventure game Winter's Shadow, a collaborative project between Ben Chandler and Steven Poulton (The McCarthy Chronicles). There's definitely more than one room to explore this time. The game is set to be released sometime this summer 2010.

Over the course of the past couple of weeks we had written about a number of game submissions that weren't selected for the Gamma IV showcase at GDC. Barrie Ellis of One Switch Gaming has a comprehensive list of playable Gamma IV submissions posted in the Switch Gaming forums, and we'd suggest taking a look at that as well.

Here's a list of our five favorite Gamma IV submissions from those that were already released:

Fish Face (Beau Blyth) [Windows, freeware]

Fish Face (video shown above, courtesy of ortoslon) is a one-button arcade game with three levels to play, each taking roughly five to ten minutes to complete. Here you play as a fish that uses its buoyancy to move in and out of the water, avoiding walls or enemies that will hurt our aquatic friend on impact.

Red loops can be collected for points, while the blue ones act as checkpoint locations that you can return to when your fish crashes into a solid object.

Following pictures from the Indie Games Summit and from the IGF Awards Ceremony, here's a selection of pictures from the IGF Pavilion on the GDC 2010 show floor, which was open from Thursday, March 11th through Saturday, March 13th to all event attendees.

Also in this set of pictures are several from 'The Nuovo Sessions', a special GDC Main Conference event featuring mini-talks from finalists and honorable mentions for the IGF Nuovo Award for this year, alongside like-minded individuals. The indie-centric Gamma IV showcase and GDC show floor Pavilion are also showcased in pictorial form.

Tikei no Kami is a puzzle game in the style of Psygnosis' Lemmings, where players have to guide an eggplant-headed character towards the exit in each level while avoiding any traps or obstacles that might be in his path. To achieve this you would have to drill your way through floors and walls, then build the necessary bridges or place spring contraptions to assist our hero reach higher platforms.

Hold the left mouse button to drill or place an object from your item stash. Right-click to switch between your tools. You can alternate between windowed and full screen mode by pressing the left Alt and Enter key at the same time.

To use the scroll option when viewing levels, just hold the left mouse button for a couple of seconds when the cursor is over the up or down arrow indicator. Download the game here. (Windows, 13.3MB)

Second, following pictures from the Indie Games Summit, here's a look at pictures from the the 12th Annual Independent Games Festival Awards, where Pocketwatch Games' stylish co-op caper Monaco was the big winner of the night, nabbing the Seumas McNally Grand Prize for Best Independent Game in front of a crowd of over 3,000 GDC attendees.

On the final day of the Game Developers Conference, music composer Vincent Diamante and SCEA sound designer Steve Johnson presented an audio session on the sound and music of Thatgamecompany's Flower. We've uploaded our recording of the full presentation to Vimeo, which can be seen in eight parts.

Early on, the speakers transition from a conventional slide presentation to powering up a Playstation 3 console and demonstrating each level's interrelatedness of visuals, gameplay and audio in real time.

To capture the sound of wind passing through grass, Johson detailed numerous methods, from referencing sound libraries to inviting TGC co-founder Kellee Santiago to brush a microphone through potted wheatgrass.

Diamante conceived of the music score as a microcosm of artistic eras: moving from Classical to Romantic, then modern music to modern videogame music. Beethoven and Hitoshi Sakimoto were mentioned as informing the design of the interactive audio.

The composer (pictured left) while not photographing the Game Developers Conference for Gamasutra, spent some quality time with PixelJunk Eden's art and music designer Baiyon. As hinted here, greenery has played an important role in both game composers' Playstation Network download titles.

Firstly, here's a look at the scene around the Independent Games Summit, which took place on the Tuesday and Wednesday of the five-day event, and included lectures from notables like 2D Boy's Ron Carmel, Tuning's Jonatan "cactus" Söderström, and Thatgamecompany's Robin Hunicke and Kellee Santiago.

Whereas the original used a keyboard-based control layout, this collab version is fully mouse controlled. The task is to connect stars together, creating constellations while dodging enemies. Shooting for a star all the way across the level rather than one nearby will rack up more points, and all your trails act as barriers to destroy the various baddie shooty things.

There's a bunch of power-ups worth grabbing too, and high score boards for those who like being the best. Reach for the stars! (I apologize profusely)