Handy, even if one of those is a very odd mix of genres, but we thought we'd be seeing less UMDs, not more. No pricing yet, so try not to get too excited about the big big savings.

PSP PSN downloadable games get UMD collections [Siliconera]

Into the Pixel is a juried art exhibition that selects sixteen works of video game art to be displayed both digitally and in actual exhibits, like the one currently at E3. The exhibit is an opportunity for video and computer game artists to showcase their work and receive critical feedback from both digital and fine art experts; it also showcases the actual visual art of games in creative and unique ways. The pieces range from playful to serious, and utilize a variety of visual styles to convey their subjects. Now in its fifth year, the selected entries are usually quite impressive, and this year was no exception.

The exhibition hall was quiet compared to the chaos both above and below it — a few people wandered through, but it was otherwise silent. The exhibition included some of the winners from the 2007 competition (including my personal favorite, "Defeated Dragon" by Daniel Dociu (Guild Wars)), and it was nice to see the art in large format. Four of the sixteen entries were takes on Guild Wars (I was particularly fond of the one entitled "Four Knights" by Richard Anderson); also covered were games like flOw, Fallout 3, and Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, and untitled DS game (seen at the top; "Puzzle World Twilight" by Jay Epperson).

The exhibition will be headed to E for All in October, but you can all see the winning entries over at the Into the Pixel website, which also includes archives of art and commentary from previous years. A few selections from the silent gallery hall are below.

I think it's just too easy for us. And, also, if I just want to make violent games or fun games... It's not to say that fun games are bad, but I could just go to work for Blizzard, or go to work for Maxis. And they make fun games, they make creative games. I could get a lot higher pay, and a much more stable job. Why not?

Why would I start a company just to make the same kind of game which I can get a much better life in another company? You know, the reason we started this company is because nobody is making this kind of game, and to expand that emotional spectrum of video games — having more people be able to enjoy video games. The only way to do it is to just do it yourself.

The interview touches on a lot of issues — from Sony to Passage to Spore — and worth a read through.

Finding A New Way: Jenova Chen And Thatgamecompany [Gamasutra]

Kellee Santiago (fl0w), Jon Mak (Everyday Shooter) and Pekko Koskinen (LudoCraft) told us of their obsessions during our first session of GDC's Independent Games Summit. And these simple ideas that make their minds spin forced us rethink games a bit as well.

Kellee Santiago
Her obsessions: Intrinsic Rewards and Linear Gameplay

Kellee Santiago has been scratching her head over this idea of intrinsic rewards in games—rewards born from the game's construct itself. She illustrates the idea through Steven Spieldberg's "Director's Chair," a game in which players learn how to make a movie, make it and are "rewarded" with a movie. This game, from 1996 I believe, has been rocking her world a bit.

She then questioned the intersection between these intrinsic rewards and linear gameplay: are longer games better? Santiago points out that our current review system values length, not necessarily quality—which is ironically flawed since none of us have all that much time to begin with. She concludes, how many awards it has and how long it takes are not indicative of a game's quality.

Jon Mak
His obsession: Input/Output Theory

Mak explains that video games are a balance between inputs (users hitting buttons) and outputs (pretty graphics and sound). But he argues that the output—the superficial—may actually be the more important part of gaming.

He loads a small tech demo he designed of a red ball that can jump up and down. It's pretty boring, he explains. But when doing nothing to the controls and merely adding more eye-catching animations (the ball squeezes and squishes like a cartoon as it hops), he thinks that the "game" gets far more interesting. And the thing is, he's freaking right. In shameful predictability, I want to play Red Ball Jumps Up And Down: The Game. Where do I enter my credit card info?

He wonders if the next logical step is designing a game in which the player pushes the same button over and over, making new, interesting things happen on the screen. Then he wonders jokingly if this game has been made already: Guitar Hero.

Pekko Koskinen
Obsession: How can games play in any medium, and what does this mean?

Koskinen took a turn for the theoretical, immediately boiling down "video games" to the idea of just "games." He argues that games transcend their medium (you can play chess on a computer screen, with physical pieces or in your head) while other forms are "rooted in their media" (a painting is no longer a painting without paint).

Ed note: I think that, maybe, Koskinen is comparing unlike categories. For instance, if we say a movie is not a movie without film, it's a bit unfair to compare that to a game. "Games" makes a huge category probably better compared to something broad like "story," in which case we see this same media transcendence.

Koskinen continues that games boil down to a series of fictional player behaviors, ultimately meaning that the game exists in the player. Koskinen is fascinated with developers not necessary designing games, but designing "lenses" for these player/games to view the world. "Game design" then becomes something broader, like personality design or even life design. The game can then just be a lens on top of ""how we walk to the bus stop," for instance.

Mak responds that maybe this is where his own arguments on input/output theory fall short because, as he so simply puts it, "The game is playing you."

And if you got this far, I hope you feel compelled to discuss some of these ideas on the comments. Our brains are too tired.

Yes, flOw's coming to the PSP. No, it's not coming in January. In case you hadn't put that one together yourself. Instead, Sony have announced today that the game's due on March 6, and will be available for download through the PC/PSP PlayStation Store. Developers SuperVillian say they've been able to "reconstruct and faithfully preserve the unique experience of flOw on Sony's premier handheld device", but whether that means this is a direct port of the PS3 version or something new, I don't know, since they both look the same to me.

Coming to PSP: Go with the flOw [PlayStation Blog]

flOw for PSP already has ratings of E from the ESRB and 3+ from PEGI, but the title hasn't been officially announced yet. We've contacted SCEA for more information and will update when we have more.

flOw [PlayStation.com via thatgamecompany forums and NeoGAF]

While some of the inclusions will be contested—Warhawk gets props for dumping single player?—and some are certainly recycled—Ultima Online "innovated" with its graphical overhaul years ago—the argument could be made that at least these efforts were successful. Others, like Portal just being Portal, will probably find few detractors.

They might not have been my choices, but I suppose I'll have to back that up with my own list.

TOP 10 GAME DESIGN INNOVATIONS 2007 [Next-Gen.biz]

The whole thing promises to grounded in emotion, giving players "possible interactions for playing as the wind." Don't worry, I'm sure she'll be talking about the game's weapon set at a future date and how online deathmatch works not long after that.

MIGS: First Details On flOwer [Gamasutra]

1. Sit your ass on the couch.
2. Load up your PS3.
3. Download Calling All Cars or Everyday Shooter for just $5, or 50% off
4. Download flOw or PixelJunk Racers for just $5, or 30% off
5. Play games, laugh at freezing masses, scratch testicles at will—should you have them. The deal is going on now through Nov 29th.

PlayStation Store Update [via vh1]

Rock Band's first batch of promised downloadable content has been added, bringing music from Metallica, Queens of the Stone Age, The Police, T. Rex, The Runaways, Foreigner, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Wolfmother and The Knack. Single songs are $1.99, with three song packs priced at $5.49.

An expansion pack for flOw adds a new campaign, new creature, a screen capturing feature and support for the DualShock 3 controller for $2.99. Need For Speed ProStreet also gets the expansion treatment, adding five exclusive cars and four career race days, if you subtract $9.99 from your bank account.

Downloadable games Everyday Shooter, PixelJunk Racers, Calling All Cars and flOw get a temporary price cut, each now available for $4.99 until 11/29.

Videos for Ratchet & Clank Future, Battlefield: Bad Company, Snakeball and the Blu-ray release of Superbad make for unplayable fare, with new Devil May Cry 4 wallpapers rounding it all out.

Normally an $8 buy-in, the ThatGameCompany aquatic adventure can be yours for a mere $5 until May 23rd. You could do worse things with a fiver, but this SIXAXIS-controlled former Flash game has been called a "glorified screensaver" by jaded types, so it's not for everyone.

Thanks for the pointer, Tim. Michael McWhertor

While profits have been on the decline for the games division since 2003, with a heavy loss suffered due to the PLAYSTATION 3 launch, Sony denies the cuts are directly connected. They point to "general changes in the games industry, such as the move to online distribution."

See, you try to do some good by downloading flOw and people lose their jobs. You can't win! Michael McWhertor

Sony Games Unit Weighs Job Cuts In Global Revamp [Wall Street Journal]

The following Friday (March 30) will see Super Rub-A-Dub hit for an unspecified price with flOw hitting one week later (April 6). No price has been set for flOw either. Go! Sudoku (April 13) and Go! Puzzle (April 20) hit the following two Fridays.

See, that wasn't so tough! Grab a lollipop on the way out. Michael McWhertor

In it, Santiago talks about the group's other PLAYSTATION 3 plans, multiplayer potential for flOw, why they missed previous release dates, and, most importantly, why there's that big "O" in the middle of the word. A good read for those of us looking for something to do between PS3 releases. Back to twiddling my thumbs! Michael McWhertor

TEHSCLUSIVE: An Interview with Kellee Santiago on flOw (PS3)! [IGN]

Good news, to be sure, but it comes just a day after potential hits Virtua Fighter 5 for the PS3, Crackdown for the Xbox 360 and Sonic and the Secret Rings for the Wii. That's an expensive week for multiplatform gamers.

More detail is available at the official flOw site. Michael McWhertor

Feel the flOw [Gaming-Age]

Sony just sent out this trippy new video showing off their upcoming transcendent bit of relax gaming, flOw. I can't wait to get liquored-up and play this. Brian Crecente

JayisGames is a terrific little family friendly casual games website that always has really great content and interesting interviews. It's a great place to stop by and find out about a new game to while away those pesky work hours.

Site writer, John Bardinelli, recently got a chance to interview Austin Wintory, the musical composer of one of last year's most amazing casual games, flOw. In one portion of the interview, Wintory discusses his approach to flOw's music in the Flash version of the game as compared to the upcoming PS3 version.

Well, the Flash version is essentially at this point a playable demo of the PS3 version, giving you a snippet of the first part of the game. So I approached the first campaign almost identically, looking to be faithful to my own work, but make it better and cleaner. For the subsequent campaigns it was totally unexplored territory. There's even one campaign with a very strong jazz influence, put through the filter of the FlOw aesthetic.

That jazz campaign sounds pretty cool, although I hope it's more Dave Brubeck and less Kenny G. I cross my fingers in anticipation. Flynn De Marco

Interview with flOw composer Austin Wintory

flOw in Feb [IGN]

Today was supposed to be the day that PS3 downloadable title flOw was to hit the PlayStation Store. Supposed to be. The title has apparently been kicked back to the New Year. flOw was originally a Flash-based web game and is still available at the creator's website for download. So wait. Does that mean we can open up the PS3's browser and play the PC version while we wait for the PS3 one? Brian Ashcraft

flOw Pushed Back [Eurogamer]

Jenova Chen, developer behind the PC flash-based game flOw, just inked a deal a three game deal with Sony Computer Entertainment. Chen, who originally created flOw for a thesis at the University of Souther California, will move into Sony's Santa Monica headquarters. SUSC Dean Elizabeth M. Daley calls it "a watershed moment in the history of the school." We call it pretty cool. flOw will be available in the PLAYSTATION 3 online store for purchase from December 19th and currently playable for free in its PC incarnation at Chen's website. Brian Ashcraft

flOw Developer Gets Sony Contract [Games Industry Biz]

Some wily NeoGAF forumers somehow managed to get their hands on screenshots and info of games coming to the PS3's online service, inadvertently leaked before they were set to be revealed at the San Francisco Press Day on Thursday. The games include:

• Blast Factor
• Flow
• Go! Sudoku
• Lemmings 2
• Swizzleblocks

Blast Factor, Flow and Lemmings 2 look particularly snazzy. Florian Eckhardt

Games being shown at Gamer's Day event [NeoGAF.com]

Just what the hell is flOw? It was first mentioned back at E3, but there was very little released. I found the game's listing hanging out in the official Sony Playstation 3 page. This is the only thing the fact sheet says about it: A new style of entertainment provided by the download capability of Playstation 3. Dive into the blue with the 6-way motion sensor controller. Everything else, including the friggin genre, is listed as to be announced. At least they included some very Electroplankton-esque screen shots. Hit the jump to oggle. My money is on this being Sony's Geometry Wars. Brian Crecente

The Littlest Developers [Something Awful]