There is also a WiiWare version of the game, which has just been submitted to Nintendo for approval and is expected to hit shortly before the PC retail release, along with a downloadable version for PC gamers who could do without the box. We congratulate Kyle and Ron and wish them the best of luck with what looks to be an extremely unique game!

Pretty big news… [2D Boy Blog]

Plain Sight is a multiplayer action title for PC and Xbox 360. Players control cute little robot skeletons that fly around a stylized environment and hit each other with swords to amass points. To 'bank' your points, you must blow yourself up - taking out as many of your rivals as possible.

Yes, it is essentially a game about suicide bombing robots. But it's ok - they are cute! And the background looks a bit like Tron, which can't be bad.

[Plain Sight]

In the game you play as Frank, a hapless alien armed with only a Plasma Leash. Fortunately he has the frighteningly large and easily frightened blob-like pet Maw. Frank can use his leash to guide Maw around to eat thing and clear paths, but despite being nearly all teeth, Maw is an easily frightened creature. So Frank has to spend a lot of time bulking up Maw and dealing with obstacles that the creature won't face.

The game has a lot going for it. First there's the amazing personality built into the game. The Maw and its lead creature are sure to win over the hearts of gamers as they play through it. The game itself is a nice combination of unique mechanic and fun puzzles. To take on many challenged gamers have to move Frank around which, in turn thanks to the leash, gets Maw to move around. But the fact that you don't have total control over Maw and can merely suggest where it should go, adds a whole other level of challenge to the game.

While seems big enough to take on everything in the game if it wanted to, the fact that everything even slightly close to his size, makes the game much more challenging. Often Frank will have to find ways around scary creatures to move Maw along through the game. Frank can use his leash on other creatures, he can also use it to occasionally grab some items for puzzle solving.

Maw grows as you feed it, it also takes on the powers of the things it eats. So when he sups on a fire creature he temporarily gains the ability to shoot out flames.

The Maw seems to have that pleasing mix of fun graphics, engaging character art and interesting game mechanic that virtually insures success. The game is due to hit the Xbox Live Arcade next year.

The Maw

However, a Microsoft representative was quick to respond to Weller's concern that the company has a quality control problem, highlighting a few key ways that it plans to ensure its users get the best experience.

"First, there will be free trials of every community game available on Xbox LIVE as well as a detailed description, because it is really important to us that consumers know what they are paying for," said the rep in a statement. "Second, we will have a thriving Xbox LIVE Community Games storefront for the top-rated games, highest sellers and most downloaded titles of the moment."

Current CTO for Microsoft's interactive entertainment biz Chris Satchell also discussed the storefront with us during our recent interview with him. But with large volumes of content, it all comes down to the search interface:

"Consumers will be able to visit Xbox.com to view all of the games available on the service, easily search and sort titles by user-ratings, content and genre, rate games and even download them directly to their Xbox 360," the rep told us.

When we talked to Satchell, he mentioned the potential for real viral appeal that he felt Community Games had, and the focus on the web as central hub for these titles makes sense when you think of people IMing or emailing links to each other, or posting them on their blogs. The rep also said that this web-central methodology will help users separate the wheat from the chaff.

"You’ll even be able copy a game’s direct Xbox.com URL and post it on your Facebook page, or send in e-mail to all of your friends," said the statement. "If you want to search through hundreds of games, you can, but we’ll also be providing easy ways to find the freshest, most fun content on the console.”

Now, just about anyone can be a game developer — and get paid for it, too. At its Gamefest 2008 event today, Microsoft announced that community games made using its XNA tools will be downloadable via either PC or Xbox 360, and that the creators will get 70 percent of the revenues, as we reported earlier today.

We spoke to game developers' group general manager Chris Satchell about the new community initiative. "We realized there was so much creativity out there in the community," he said. "So many people had great ideas, so we needed to give them a toolset to express themselves… and then we had to give them that worldwide stage where they could show it. And then the final step is, why not let them benefit from it?"

Microsoft saw, Satchell said, that incredible innovation came from viral communities of indie game designers across the web, and hoped to capture some of that community for its users. Satchell hopes that community games will become viral in the same way:

"You'll be able to take the url from the Community Games page and forward to a friend… for the same viral effect you get on the internet and in general, as with movies and music, but with gaming through the service," he said.

So, like YouTube, only where people can be paid for the creations they upload? "Well, I think YouTube... and other film services are all very viral, and sometimes you do searches, but often it’s your friend just sends you a link. Also, what we realize is a lot of people just want to sit down at their computer, and browse and see what's cool and new."

You'll be able to browse community games by genre, and creators can price their work at 200, 400 or 800 Microsoft Points. Additionally, there'll be a front-of-store section that will feature popular or promoted titles, though being front and center comes at a cost — Microsoft will take a marketing fee of anywhere from 10-30 percent for the duration that a title is so visible, but the creator's take goes back up to 70 percent once it's out of the highlight section.

Community games will have a separate storefront from Xbox Live Arcade, but will still be available to the audience of 12 million Xbox Live users. "That's tens of thousands creating games for millions to download," Satchell said. "In some ways, a good way to think about it is using a baseball analogy. Think about the community games... it's really like the minor leagues. Cool new talent, new ideas... and Xbox Live Arcade is the major leagues."

In baseball, often a star minor leaguer catches the eye of a big-league team, and gets plucked out of the minors to bat for the majors. Does Satchell see the potential for standout innovation in community games to catch the eye of big publishers?

"I think that will absolutely happen," he said. "We sort of do that with Dream-Build-Play… but I think that other publishers will obviously be looking. Games that come up will be brilliant... but maybe not fully fleshed out yet, needing more hours of content and more features, but [publishers will say], 'why don’t we go and work with this person or indie studio and help blow it out to a major release,' and so I absolutely think that will happen."

The community games storefront will launch this holiday season, Satchell says, though an official date has yet to be announced. A thriving homebrew scene on a thriving console can only be a good thing for the industry, as high risk and rising budgets limit innovation somewhat among the major publishers, and we look to talented indies for brand-new aesthetics and game mechanics. Bored with this year's E3 slate? Go make your own.

Microsoft Transforms Community Game Developers Into Entrepreneurs

Xbox 360 creates marketplace for user-generated content with Xbox LIVE Community Games.

SEATTLE — July 22, 2008 — During the keynote address today at the Gamefest 2008 Microsoft Game Technology Conference, Microsoft Corp. revealed that it will allow anyone to turn the hobby of game-making into a full-fledged career. Through what is now officially called “Xbox LIVE Community Games,” Microsoft makes its marketplace of millions available to members of the XNA Creators Club to create, sell and share in the profits generated by their unique creations.

Microsoft has already opened up game development to the masses by offering the easy-to-use, affordable XNA Game Studio toolset. With this newly announced business model, Microsoft will have truly democratized game distribution by enabling XNA Creators Club members to participate in the multibillion-dollar-a-year console gaming industry.

Newly appointed to his role as Chief Technology Officer of Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment Business Group Chris Satchell said the business model was designed to create the best possible experience for both consumers and developers. Community games that have been submitted by XNA Creators Club Premium members and have successfully passed a rigorous peer-review system will be added to the Xbox LIVE Marketplace catalog for sale to consumers. Creators will be able to choose from three suggested preset retail price points varying from 200 to 800 Microsoft Points to sell their creations and will receive up to 70 percent of the total revenue generated by their game.

“Not only are we democratizing game development with Xbox LIVE Community Games later this year, but we’re creating an opportunity for aspiring developers to start their careers on the world stage,” Satchell said. “It is really a win for both developers and consumers because this will no doubt act as an incentive for game creators to continue to develop the best, most innovative games for Xbox 360.”

A host of new and creative ideas are already appearing on the Xbox LIVE Community Games beta. When the service launches for consumers this fall, community-created games on Xbox LIVE are expected to double the size of the Xbox 360 video game library, offering some of the most inventive, quirky and unexpected games ever seen on consoles. By the end of 2008, Xbox 360 owners are expected to have access to the largest, most creatively diverse game library across all next-generation platforms, with more than 1,000 titles spanning Community Games, Xbox LIVE Arcade and retail blockbuster titles.

When the bold new Xbox experience, a re-launch of the largest online social network on TV that is fun and approachable, is released late this fall, the Community Games storefront will be an easy-to-use addition to the existing marketplace on Xbox LIVE. The new Community Games channel is currently scheduled to launch in the United States, Canada and select European markets later this year. Other regions will be added over the course of 2009 and beyond. Consumers will also be able to view and rate community games on Xbox.com, watch trailers, and even play a trial of each game before buying it.

“Since first launching XNA Game Studio in 2006, we have been working hard on improving the toolset and building resources for the community, and the response has been amazing. To date, we’ve had more than 1 million downloads of XNA Game Studio and adoption in more than 700 universities,” said Boyd Multerer, general manager of XNA. “For some perspective, the incredible creative community we’ve unleashed worldwide is more than 25 times the number of professional developers in the industry.”

Microsoft also is giving aspiring developers a hand with the second annual Dream-Build-Play game development contest based on XNA Game Studio projects. The competition will yield prizes in excess of $70,000 and an opportunity for one of the winners to sign an Xbox LIVE Arcade publishing contract. Three of last year’s top performers and winners, “The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai,” “Blazing Birds” and “Yo Ho Kablammo!” from the United States, Canada, Sweden and United Kingdom, respectively, are all slated for release on Xbox LIVE Arcade in the near future. For more details and Dream-Build-Play Official Rules, see http://www.dreambuildplay.com/main/Rules.aspx. For more information on XNA Game Studio, head over to http://creators.xna.com.

Submissions to the contest are due by this November with finalists expected to be announced in January.

In addition to the $20,000 Seumas McNally Grand Prize and the awards the festival already gives out for audio, art direction, design and technology, this time around the IGF will also be presenting a new Innovation Award. The award is "intended to honor abstract, shortform, and unconventional game development."

As always, I expect to see a slew of interesting titles as I help judge the competition. Previous years have seen such greats as Everyday Shooter, Audiosurf and World of Goo.

IGF

Apparently, one of the things that happens is that your ideas seem to influence future commercial titles, as Majesco today announced Marker Man Adventures, developed by Glyphic Entertainment and slated for Nintendo DS come the holidays. It's based, said Majesco, on drawing and physics challenges to help stick figure Marker Man find his lost pal, Doodle Dog.

In Marker Man Adventures, players use the stylus and touch screen to "draw geometric shapes-including lines, circles, boxes, triangles and pivot points-to create simple machines that help Marker Man advance through levels from point A to point B." Though Purho's game had no pivot points, and Majesco's version is adding power-ups, hidden areas and "unique surprises" (surprises, yes!), the basic concept sounds enough like Crayon Physics to make me a bit optimistic at the degree to which indie invention often appears to infuse the commercial market.

Gamasutra's Brandon Boyer has a less-obvious but more likely suggestion regarding Marker Man Adventures' inspiration - PC downloadable Marker World, maybe? Full announcement follows the jump.

MAJESCO ENTERTAINMENT ANNOUNCES
'MARKER MAN ADVENTURES' FOR NINTENDO DS™

Help Marker Man Find His Lost Doodle Dog This Holiday

EDISON, N.J., July 2nd, 2008 - Majesco Entertainment Company (NASDAQ: COOL), an innovative provider of video games for the mass market, today announced Marker Man Adventures for Nintendo DS™. Developed by Glyphic Entertainment, this unique game based on drawing and physics challenges players to maneuver the charming stick figure, Marker Man, through 150 scrolling world puzzles in his attempt to find his best friend, Doodle Dog.

Players use the Touch Screen and stylus to draw geometric shapes-including lines, circles, boxes, triangles and pivot points-to create simple machines that help Marker Man advance through levels from point A to point B. Gamers use logic and can collect power-ups to help solve intricate themed puzzles set in underwater, outer space and ice environments, among others. Three difficulty modes and hidden areas within each level present unique surprises throughout Marker Man's quest to reunite with Doodle Dog.

Marker Man Adventures for Nintendo DS™ is expected to release this holiday. For additional information about Majesco's exciting line of products, please visit www.majescoentertainment.com.

About Majesco Entertainment Company
Majesco Entertainment Company is a provider of video games for the mass market. Building on 20 years of operating history, the company is focused on developing and publishing a wide range of casual and family oriented video games on leading console and portable systems. Product highlights include Nancy Drew™, Cooking Mama™ and Cake Mania® 2 for Nintendo DS™ and Cooking Mama: Cook Off for Wii™. The company's shares are traded on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol: COOL. Majesco is headquartered in Edison, NJ and has an international office in Bristol, UK. More information about Majesco can be found online at www.majescoentertainment.com.

Ten titles will be selected for consideration, with the finalists' list to be revealed on September 16th. According to Wired, the committee has warned potential applicants against showing up with more of the same - they want technological and storytelling innovation that directly impacts gameplay. In with the new, then!

Should be interesting to see what turns up - by the by, Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi is one of the people on the selection committee, aptly.

Tokyo Game Show Throws Party for Innovative Games [Wired via GameSetWatch]

It sounds a little bit like Monopoly, but with farms, as the game's primary object is to raise your net worth by building farms and planting crops on the board, collecting tolls from players who land there, and battling for control of the amber waves of grain with other farmers through slot machine minigames. There also looks to be a supernatural element to it too, though, with spirits and creatures afoot.

The cards, featuring items and seeds and stuff like that, are used to plant crops or add stat boosts during combat. You build your deck up by completing maps. The cool bit is that there's also a story behind the gameplay, with its own single-player mode, featuring the siblings William and Ruby and some strange dreams they start having when their mother falls ill. Dreams about cornfields, maybe?

No ship dates yet - Chudecke says on the game's official site that he's hoping for a year-end release, but that Farmlands will drop "when it's done." Full announcement and screens after the jump.

Caffeinated Games is Proud to Announce Farmlands(TM)

A Next Generation Board and Collectible Card Game.

Randle, WA – June 18th, 2008. Announcing Farmlands the first title by Caffeinated Games. Farmlands is a Board and Collectible Card Game currently slated for the PC.

In Farmlands you build farms, plant crops, and battle for control of land. The goal of farmlands is straight forward....Increase your net worth to meet the goal of the map or have the largest net worth when time runs out. Players move around the outside of the board building farms and planting crops. If a player lands on your farm they will have to pay a toll equal to the value of the farm and its connected crops. It gets interesting when you start connect multiple farms together to combine their values. To prevent other players from connecting farms a player can initiate a battle by placing one of their crops on an opponents square. The outcome of battles between players are determined by slot machine mini games.

The collectible aspect of the game comes in with the pack of cards you are drawing your items and seeds from. During your turn you will draw items or seeds from your pack to use in the game. Seeds are used to plant crops or boost your attack in combat. Items are used to modify the behavior of things in the game. At the end of any map in single or multi player the player will receive additional items or seeds which they can use to customize their pack.

For more information about Farmlands(TM) as well as screen shots, renders and wallpapers please check out www.farmlandsgame.com.

Caffeinated Games is an independent game company and social network focused on the creation of original AAA games. It is founded by the former Lead Tools Engineer of Zipper Interactive (SOCOM fame) Greg Chudecke who prior to Zipper worked on Backyard Skateboarding (Atari) and Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Black Label Games). For more information check out www.caffeinatedgames.com.

The news magazine never expected to be the subject of one of these games, however. Dazzling tale of Web 2.0 subversion and revenge follows the jump:

As it turns out, one designer, Mark "Messhof" Essen, didn't take too kindly to having his game, You Found The Grappling Hook, "freeloaded" without a link back to his site. So in a clever act of subversion, Messhof went ahead and swapped the game BusinessWeek was linking with a brand-new one, You Found The Grappling Hook (Pro).

As it turns out, the "Pro" version of the game is a thorough send-up of BusinessWeek itself, featuring the magazine's writers and stories; BusinessWeek's Helen Walters called it "intricate and frankly hilarious."

By the way, in an ironic twist, the BusinessWeek editors learned of their come-uppance from a Digg link to a Facebook page.

So, no hard feelings, but Walters said she's learned a little something from the experience:

Then there's the other classic Web 2.0/social networking lesson: fixing your mistakes. The name of the Facebook group says that we "freeloaded" the designer's work. Hand on heart, that wasn't our intention, but it does make me realize that we didn't include specific links to the sites of the designers we featured. And we should have done, so we're going to go back and add them.

We launched this Arcade to celebrate indie creativity, and one of those we set out to celebrate has lightly bitten us on the hand. Sir, despite our bleeding fingers, we salute you.

Subversion alert: BW Arcade in a state of (r)evolution [BusinessWeek]

It appears - from both Capcom's evidence and speaking to developers off the record - that there are significant process issues to getting games released worldwide, or even getting games released in the U.S., with slow response times and confused procedure at times.

Opinion: PlayStation Network & Downloadable Games - The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly [GameSetWatch]

If you haven't checked out any of Nifflas' games, I highly recommend them — they're characterized by simple gameplay, sprawling nonlinear worlds, cute creatures and neat ambient music and sound (which he often designs himself, to boot). You'll have to hit the forums for Knytt Nano, but the other titles are available for free download from Nifflas' site. [Thanks Anonymous, who tipped me off via Sexy Videogameland!]

Top of the heap was The Last Canopy, a shump which makes up for sketchy art direction with addictive play and the ability to absorb an enemies attack.

HIt the jump for the full list of winners and make sure to visit Jay Is to check out the games.

And the Winner Is... [JayIsGames]

Winners
* First Place
($3,500 + Adobe Flash CS3):
o The Last Canopy by Easy Only! Games
* Second Place
($1,750 + Adobe Flash CS3):
o Super Energy Apocalypse by Lars A. Doucet
* Third Place
($1,000 + Adobe Flash CS3):
o Gride by ooPixel (Jussi Kari, Marko Taali)
* Best Use of Theme
($1,000):
o Pieces by SoybeanSoft
* Viral Award (most game views)
($1,000):
o Gride by ooPixel (Jussi Kari, Marko Taali)
* Audience Prize
($500):
o The Last Canopy by Easy Only! Games

I'm unusual because I'm genuinely interested in the business side of being an indie gamer. I love the whole entrepreneur thing, the setting the right price, getting expenses down and sales up, etc. My fave TV show is Dragon's Den for fucks sake. The vast majority of indie devs are programmers, and the C++ DNA seems to interfere with the DNA that makes people enjoy marketing or business. Most indies who make no money do very little marketing or promotion, because it terrifies them ... Marketing is a big deal. I know that Introversion put a lot of effort into marketing, and you can see the results there too. If you really are the typical shy semi-autistic sunlight-hating game coder, you need to get an outgoing biz/marketing guy to work with.

It's an interesting (and sensible) look at indie development; it's refreshing to read people being bluntly honest and not going off about the moral superiority of those who develop games for purely altruistic reasons.

Deserved Kudos: Positech's Cliff Harris Interview [Rock, Paper, Shotgun]

And I'm still trying to grasp some of the criticisms of Portal. The storyline, with its innovative delivery and interesting topic-letting what is essentially a character piece for GLaDOS take center stage-is reduced to "not philosphy-ish." The game is criticized for trying to sell copies-this is basically turning what should be praise (the game tries to appeal to people) into an empty, backhanded insult. How does the commercialization compromise Portal as a game? Detail that, instead of appealing to elitism.

... What [Passage] reminded me most of is a tricolour Mondrian: an exercise in laying bare the simplest semiotic structures of the journey through life. As a result, it can never tell us anything we don't already know: just like a Mondrian, it's a cold aesthetic exercise in the proportional relationships of reduced entities. There is no confusion, no chaos, ultimately little value as a critical text.

And to be honest, if you're looking for some deep meaning, you're missing the point of the work. Far be it from me to say you can't find such things in a game like portal. I am simply saying that's not it's purpose, and to look for deeper meaning is almost a pointless exercise. People can find deeper meaning in anything they want, even the intangible or completely non-existent. Existential is a made up word that usually acts as a sign that someone has gone beyond the original point, is currently B.S.ing, and you can stop listening to them. My pants are existential. If you ask me to defend that, I will gladly do so, from the top of my head, because I took a high school literature class, and no one could tell when I was lying, being honest, or just B.S.ing.

I don't agree with Montfort's original assertion, but the discussion in the comments below is pretty interesting — I'm not sure why we feel compelled to poke sticks at titles that may (gasp!) make money, and apparently a lot of other people don't, either. But this is why game criticism can be a good thing — it gets people thinking and discussing in a way that your average review won't.

PvP: Portal versus Passage [Grand Text Auto]

Microsoft just responded to our request for comment with this statement:

Xbox LIVE Arcade has long been known as the premier destination for digitally distributed original and classic games - making it a very appealing platform for game developers. We don't disclose details on our business contracts, but what we can tell you is that we work closely with all of our partners to provide the Xbox 360 community with the best entertainment possible while making publishing a title on XBLA an attractive prospect.

While not really a confirmation nor a denial, it does sound as if they are reacting to what our multiple indie developer sources told us was fact. We will be meeting with some of the XBLA indie development folks with Microsoft later today and will make sure to follow up with them about this issue.

Stay tuned.

Microsoft Cuts Indie Royalties in Half [Kotaku]

It's about time someone's come up with a video game that lets the presidential hopefuls face off in a forum befitting their partisan manner: Paintball. Presidential Paintball pits your candidate of choice against the other presidential hopefuls in a rolling paintball match that takes place in and around the White House. While the game is fairly easy to beat, I never get tired of watching a huge-headed Clinton or Romney roll across the floor. Oddly enough, when I got to McCain, he kept standing up and shooting at the floor by his feet. Statement or coding mistake?

This year's event, still labeled a showcase for independent developers, will take place on March 6 at Stubb's Bar-B-Q and will feature a day of gaming and a night of "Texas hospitality."

"South by Southwest is known as a mecca for indie film makers and musicians and there are a ton of game makers in Austin, so it seems like a natural fit," said founder Mike Wilson.

Gamecock decided to move their Expo For Interactive Entertainment, Independent and Original from Los Angeles' E3 to Austin because Wilson said they feel like SXSW is a better fit for their event.

Wilson said there will be eight games on hand, including titles from Wideload, Red Fly Studio, Spark Unlimited, Replay Studios, Firefly Studios and TimeGate, as well as a few surprises.

"While we have enjoyed providing an entertaining respite for the industry during the painful California-based trade shows of years past, it has always been our dream to show people how we really do it down in Texas," he said. "We want this E.I.E.I.O. to be part video game expo, part backyard carnival, part indie revival. And, as E.I.E.I.O. leads right into SXSW — the annual mecca for independent artists from all walks of life — we are heading-up the charge to get the best and most original games here."

So far, the publisher, a rebirth of 90s' publisher Gathering of Developers, has brought two games to market, Auran's poorly received Fury and Nintendo DS thriller Dementium, which arrived to above average but mixed reviews.

"IGN gave (Dementium: The Ward) shooter of the year for the DS, we were happy with it, it didn't review as well as it could of because of one flaw," Wilson said. "We want to work with (developer Renegade Kid) again), that game we're very proud of."

The company will hit its stride this year, Wilson said, with the release of a slew of games including Mushroom Men, Hail to the Chimp and Xbox Live game Pirates Versus Ninjas Dodgeball. Wilson said that the publisher may also be looking to the Playstation Network and WiiWare as potential future platforms.

"This is kind of a make it or break it year for us," he said.

The Independent Games Festival today announced the dozen finalists for the Student Showcase. The 12 finalists will all receive a $500 travel stipend to help them get to GDC 2008 in San Francisco and the winner of the IGF Best Student Game Award will receive a $2,500 cash prize.

All of the games will also be shown off at the IGF Pavillion during the show. Here's the list:

Crayon Physics Deluxe, by Helsinki Polytechnic Stadia, Finland
Empyreal Nocturne, by DigiPen Institute of Technology
Gesundheit!, by Sheridan Institute
Galaxy Scraper, by Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
Mayhem Intergalactic, by The Australian National University
Poesysteme, by ENJMIN, France
Polarity, by Carnegie Mellon University
Ruckblende, by Uni Duisburg-Essen, Germany
Synaesthete, by DigiPen Institute of Technology
The Misadventures Of P.B. Winterbottom, by University of Southern California- School of Cinematic Arts- Interactive Media Program
Flipside (Half-Life 2 Modification), by National Academy of Digital, Interactive Entertainment, Denmark
Foamzilla (Unreal Tournament 2004 Modification), by Vancouver Film School

Among the short-list is a Half-Life 2 mod called Flipside which has me very intriguied. I haven't had a chance to play it yet... mostly because I'm sitting in a van writing this on an energy-efficient, but graphicically-crap laptop. But I plan to check it out in the new year just as soon as I get back home. You should do the same, same with the rest of these finalists. Remember, these are the sorts of games that can sing on the Playstation Network or Xbox Live Arcade.

10th ANNUAL INDEPENDENT GAMES FESTIVAL REVEALS STUDENT SHOWCASE FINALISTS

Best Student Game Award to be Announced at GDC 2008

The 2008 Independent Games Festival (IGF) has announced the twelve finalists in the Student Showcase for its 10th annual set of awards. Chosen from a record 125 entries by a jury of experts from leading game design programs at universities across the world, these games will go on to compete for an overall Best Student Game prize, to be awarded at the IGF Awards Ceremony on February 20, 2008.

Some of the finalists this year include USC Interactive Media Program's quirky The Misadventures of PT Winterbottom, Sheridan Institute's stylish booger-busting Gesundheit, and The National Academy of Digital Interactive Entertainment's dual-perspective Half-Life 2 modification Flipside.

All IGF finalist games will be exhibited at the IGF Pavilion, Feb. 20-22, 2008 at this year's Game Developers Conference (GDC) Expo. GDC, CMP Technology's annual conference dedicated to the art, science and business of games, takes place February 18-22, at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco. Each finalist in the IGF Student Showcase will receive a $500 travel stipend to help aid expenses for the trip to GDC 2008. The winner of the IGF Best Student Game Award will receive a $2,500 cash prize during the ceremony.

The Student Showcase games and game mods that will be considered for the 2008 Best Student Game Award are all highlighted on the IGF website, www.igf.com. The list of finalists is as follows:

Crayon Physics Deluxe, by Helsinki Polytechnic Stadia, Finland
Empyreal Nocturne, by DigiPen Institute of Technology
Gesundheit!, by Sheridan Institute
Galaxy Scraper, by Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
Mayhem Intergalactic, by The Australian National University
Poesysteme, by ENJMIN, France
Polarity, by Carnegie Mellon University
Ruckblende, by Uni Duisburg-Essen, Germany
Synaesthete, by DigiPen Institute of Technology
The Misadventures Of P.B. Winterbottom, by University of Southern California- School of Cinematic Arts- Interactive Media Program
Flipside (Half-Life 2 Modification), by National Academy of Digital, Interactive Entertainment, Denmark
Foamzilla (Unreal Tournament 2004 Modification), by Vancouver Film School

The IGF was established in 1998 by the CMP Game Group to encourage innovation in game development and to recognize the best independent game developers, in the way that the Sundance Film Festival honors the independent film community. This year, the contest is supported by sponsors including Platinum Sponsor Gleemax.com, Silver Sponsors Sony and Microsoft, and Platinum Student Showcase Sponsor DigiPen Institute Of Technology, as well as IGF Mobile Platinum/Founding Sponsor Nvidia.

GDC 2008 will continue its support of independent gaming with the return of the Independent Games Summit February 18-19. The IGF Pavilion, where GDC attendees can experience the finalist games in the IGF Main, Student, and Mobile Competitions, is open on the GDC show floor February 20-22. For more information on the Independent Games Festival and to register for GDC, please visit www.gdconf.com.

The 2008 Independent Games Festival finalists for the main competition have been named and it doesn't look like a single one of the games I helped judge in the initial round made it to round two. Fortunately, now I, along with all of the other judges, get to play the finalists, something I'm quite looking forward to. Hit the jump for the breakdown of finalists.

Seumas McNally Grand Prize:
* Audiosurf
* Crayon Physics Deluxe
* Hammerfall
* Noitu Love 2: Devolution
* World of Goo

Best Web Browser Game:
* Globulos.com
* Iron Dukes
* Tri-Achnid

Design Innovation Award:
* Battleships Forever
* Fez
* Fret Nice
* Snapshot Adventures: Secret Of Bird Island
* World Of Goo

Excellence in Visual Art:
* Clean Asia!
* Fez
* Hammerfall
* Synaesthete
* The Path

Excellence in Audio:
* Cinnamon Beats
* Fret Nice
* Audiosurf
* Clean Asia!
* OokiBloks

Technical Excellence:
* World of Goo
* Goo!
* Audiosurf
* Axiom: Overdrive
* Gumboy Tournament

Sounds like I have some fun judging in store for me over the coming weeks.

IGF Finalists

However, this time two under-publicized independent games for the benefit of the Kotaku audience are squished together in one post (so they appear before my time as Guest Editor is up). They're dissimilarly wonderful, so check them out:

Firstly, Wadjet Eye Games recently released Blackwell Unbound, a classic point and click-style adventure game in the LucasArts/Sierra style (pictured) in which "...embittered medium Lauren Blackwell and her spirit guide Joey Mallone" solve mysterious New York crimes. It's the follow-up to the critically acclaimed Blackwell Legacy, and it's the kind of game that deserves a second look. So do so.

Secondly, a chap from New Zealand called Joseph White has been doing quirky, individualistic puzzle-ish games for a few years now, and his most recent effort is called Chocolate Castle. As is explained, it's "...a tricky sliding block puzzle game. The object of each puzzle is to arrange blocks of chocolate into large connected regions so that they can then be consumed by a team of hungry animals." The art style is adorable and the gameplay twistedly interesting - thumbs up.

And that ends my look at indie games. Don't forget - if you like stuff like this, go check out the usual suspects when it comes to major indie game blogs - particularly TIGSource, Indygamer, and GameTunnel - you won't be disappointed.

Blackwell Unbound [Wadjet Eye Games]
Chocolate Castle [Lexaloffle]

Created by the small Canadian-based studio, the puzzle-based 2D platform game was recently reviewed on indie site GameTunnel, who explain handily of the gameplay: "Your goal is simply to guide the kindly professor and inventor through levels from one teleporter to another teleporter. Along the way you'll need to ensure that the Professor can cross all manner of gaps and blockades and dangerous bat-bots that bar his passage."

So it's logic puzzles in a cute family-friendly manner? Yep, and you just don't see this kind of thing from the mainstream any more - also worth noting there's a prequel and the Katamari vs. Breakout fun of Fizzball also in the company's line-up - neet.

Professor Fizzwizzle and the Molten Mystery [Grubby Games]

He makes odd retro-looking freeware shoot-em-ups and action titles, such as the well-reviewed 'Clean Asia', many available for download on the Cactus Software website, and Tim at Indygamer has interviewed him on his new projects.

He's pretty much the definition of bedroom programmer, though: "'I'd very much like to create a game for XBLA, WiiWare or PSN. Dunno how I'd go about getting there, though. I don't even own a nextgen console." There needs to be more of a talent pickup program to console for some of these talented but tiny developers, already.

Cactus Interview [Independent Gaming]

Andy Schatz's one-man band effort, a sequel to the similarly interesting Wildlife Tycoon: Venture Africa, acts as a sort of Al Gore-ish god game, in which "...the player controls the forces of earth, sun, wind, and water to bring summer and winter to polar bears, orcas, and more." You need to manipulate nature, and the modeling of ecosystems has brought a unique angle to the regular 'tycoon'-style game.

Most of all, you can "...experiment with how animal relationships change when the weather is unseasonably warm or when a species is knocked out of the food chain... strategies for success revolve around understanding the authentic animal behaviors and the challenges of ecosystem stewardship." So, Douglas Adams' 'Last Chance To See' meets Black & White, then? Fascinating.

Venture Arctic: Official Website [Pocketwatch Games]

Well, I'm afraid that was my doing, and as Chairman of the Independent Games Festival, I get to see a whole heck of a lot of interesting indie games. So I'm picking one per day that deserves a wider audience on Kotaku and 'a little respect', as Erasure and Rodney Dangerfield both noted.

Firstly, let's focus on Caravel's turn-based PC dungeon crawler, the Deadly Rooms Of Death series. It's like almost nothing else out there - we profiled it on GameSetWatch earlier this year, calling it "the most inventive pure puzzle-solving computer game ever written". The latest iteration, The City Beneath, came out earlier this year. If you like thinking and computer games (see: Portal), you will like D.R.O.D. - go check it.

D.R.O.D. homepage [Caravel Games]

I'm a huge fan of Everyday Shooter, but if you read Kotaku you probably already know that. I first played it last year while judging for the Independent Games Festival and was blown away. I've since played through the entire game on my PS3 debug and remain blown away, mostly because the Sony folks were smart enough not to touch the game in any real way when it made the jump from PC to PS3.

I happened to run into Jonathan Mak, the creator of the game, on a Tokyo train bound for TGS last month. We got into a long discussion about his game, his surprise success and how he finds inspiration. He's a pretty interesting guy and the first developer I've met who's really struck me as an "artist."

Today he posted a slew of pictures and comments on the official Playstation blog to illustrate his life as a "one-man developing crew." I think they only highlights my first impressions of him.

Personality Profile: Everyday Shooter Creator, Jonathan Mak [PS Blog]

More than 173 games are competing in next year's Independent Games Festival, the 10th annual, and the full list just hit the web. GDC 08 will see $50,000 in prizes handed out to indie game developers, many of whom will end up landing publishing deals. It's all very exciting.

Once again, I am among the growing list of IGF judges this year, meaning I get to play a bunch of exciting new games and then give my impressions to both the festival organizers and the developers. Hit up the link to see the full list, or the jump to see the list of the game's I've been asked to take an early look at.

Independent Games Festival

My Assigned Games

Invader
GYM!
Supernova Shootout
Discs of Mayhem
Artisan
Venture Arctic
Regnum Online
Polychromatic Funk Monkey
Gate

Each of the games need to be scored based on innovation in design, excellence in audio, excellence in visual art, technical excellence and an overall rating.

Once the votes are tallied, the finalists are selected the judges play all of the finalists and vote for the winner.

We recommend IndieGame's Top 50 Game Guide, which includes plenty of free downloads to heal your currently blockbuster-violated pocketbook.

Want Games? An In-Depth Indie Game Guide [via gamasutra]

Apparently Park City, Utah may be progressive enough to hold an indie film festival, but they're not quite forward-thinking enough to hold an indie game festival. I personally think that's crap, an excuse made up by the organizers to some how mitigate their responsibility for last year's fiasco, but if it means they're going to start showing a little backbone than I suppose letting them save face is fine.

The Guerrilla Gamemaker folks announced that this year's festival will instead be held in Los Angeles during the "spring/summer".

With the growth of independent games, and the issues facing the medium, Slamdance has decided to separate the Games Festival from the Film Festival, while still focusing on bringing independent artists together.

No mention is made in the press release of the competitions decision last year to first nominate and then kick Super Columbine Massacre RPG from the show. I think the venue isn't the only thing that needs to be changed before indie game makers start to take this competition seriously again.

News: Slamdance Games leaves Park City, UT [Arthouse Games]

IAC and GarageGames announce InstantAction.com, the first browser-based Action Game Network

New York - September 18, 2007 - IAC (Nasdaq: IACI) and GarageGames today announced the creation of InstantAction.com, the first Web-based videogame network. Using GarageGames' industry-leading game development tools, InstantAction.com will provide compelling original action games through a standard Web browser. IAC has acquired a majority of GarageGames' equity, and GarageGames' management team will continue to lead the business as it builds out the InstantAction network.

InstantAction will also launch a Game Development Fund aimed at fostering a new generation of game development for the internet. Introducing new technology which allows graphically rich, networked games to run in popular web browsers with no download installation, InstantAction.com will enable easy access to singleplayer and multiplayer games with core-oriented mechanics and high-end visuals.

"We've been looking at the video game sector for years and it wasn't until we found GarageGames and their idea for InstantAction.com that we believed IAC could participate in a true internet innovation in online gaming," said Barry Diller, CEO of IAC.

GarageGames' CEO and CTO Josh Williams appointed Andy Yang of IAC to spearhead the InstantAction network earlier this year. GarageGames was founded in 1999 and created the Torque Game Engine, the leading platform for independent game development. GarageGames also created Marble Blast Ultra and its industry veteran founders led the development of the popular team-based action game Tribes.

"Working with IAC, we are now able to truly fulfill our vision to enable developers both large and small to deliver innovative ideas on an exciting new accessible platform for gamers," says Williams. "The InstantAction Fund will invest in talented teams who want to bring high-quality action gaming to everyone in the world through the internet."

The InstantAction.com site is now live and accepting registrations for early access to its private beta and is expected to launch to the public in early 2008. Its initial portfolio of original core-oriented games from high-profile studios and newly discovered game development talent will be announced in the coming weeks.

Don't forget. We meet again to discuss assignment two of Mr. Robot. This time around you're supposed to play through the Cryo level and return once more to the holo deck. This section should take about two hours, it seems. Much better than the 11 or so it took to complete that first section.

Feel free to make any suggestions about formatting for Game Club here. Our next meeting isn't till Thursday night so we have time. Also, if you missed the first meeting, you can still jump into the discussion over in the transcript we posted from the event.

Mr. Robot Discussion

Alright, you got me, I've been dragging my feet. This is sort of how I made my way through college: waiting till the last minute to actually finish what I started. But hey, I graduated, so happy ending right?

Since this is such a new idea, at least for Kotaku, I've decided the best thing to do is to follow in the ageless tradition of video games and hold a Game Club beta to work out the kinks. Really that just gives me an excuse to make a whole bunch of mistakes and then say it was a "work in progress."

As a reminder, the idea behind the Game Club is to try and elevate video games by expecting more from them. To do this we are going to select a game, likely monthly, and play through it as a group, meeting weekly to discuss what we've learned from the game.

To quote me, because I'm too lazy to resynthesize this:

My hope is that it will get me and you and all gamers who participate to look beyond the graphics, the gameplay, the routine and perhaps think about games the way people think about a good book or a good movie. I want to do this because I think game developers deserve more than to hear that their game was kick-ass and has amazing graphics and is really super fun to play.

To start with, I've decided to test out the club using a shorter, PC indie title. Don't worry Beyond Good and Evil will be the first game of the Club once we run through this beta. For the beta, I'd like us to all play Moonpod's Mr. Robot.

I've checked out a bit of the game and spoken with the developers, who tell me it's about an eight hour game. They were kind enough to offer us a Game Club discount, which makes it a bit easier for everyone to join in. To be clear, Kotaku is getting nothing out of this deal other than the satisfaction of playing a game with an international group of our closest friends.

If you're going to play along, I'd suggest waiting for me to post the discount code, and please no playing ahead. As with a book club, a big chunk of the fun in the Game Club is the sense of mutual discovery and a shared experience.

Check back tomorrow for the rules of Game Club and a break down of how we're going to get this thing going. And remember, it's a work in progress.

Kotaku's Game Club [Kotaku]

Online games portals have seen the number of game submissions double over the past few years, and with the strong casual focus on Xbox Live Arcade and the ever-growing mobile gaming market, the growth of casual gaming shows no signs of slowing.

"The casual games industry has been a sleeping giant, but now it's becoming part of every household and a favorite pastime for both young and old, individuals and families," said Jessica Tams, managing director of the CGA. "We are witnessing a resurgence of something very basic: fun. Gamers have gravitated to casual games because they offer a different and engaging side of gaming that is fun, inexpensive, and mentally stimulating."

Casual Gaming Still Dominated By Woman Says Report [Gamasutra]

"Our goal is to foster a community of animators by providing them the power to generate animations without having to worry about supporting a toolset. Since we were already developing the rig for our core technology team, we decided to release it to the public under the GNU GPL," said Shayne Herrera, Art Development Director for Cryptic Studios. "We feel that the development and gaming communities will benefit greatly from a professional tool like the Cryptic AR."

CRYPTIC STUDIOS RELEASES CRYPTIC ANIMATION RIG

Free Cryptic Animation Rig Now Available Under the GNU General Public License

LOS GATOS, CA - May 11, 2007 - Cryptic Studios, Inc., an independent developer of massively multiplayer online games, announced today its proprietary Cryptic Animation Rig (Cryptic AR) is now available free for download under the GNU General Public License.

"Our goal is to foster a community of animators by providing them the power to generate animations without having to worry about supporting a toolset. Since we were already developing the rig for our core technology team, we decided to release it to the public under the GNU GPL," said Shayne Herrera, Art Development Director for Cryptic Studios. "We feel that the development and gaming communities will benefit greatly from a professional tool like the Cryptic AR."

Cryptic AR allows animators of all experience levels to familiarize themselves with the same tools used in a professional development environment. Unlike other free animation rigs, Cryptic AR is not an approximation of production tools, but the very tools currently being used to produce next-gen game visuals at Cryptic Studios.

"We decided to add the ability to switch and create character skins called 'IDs,' or 'identities,'" said Sean Burgoon, animator and creator of the Cryptic AR. "Cryptic AR version 1.0 ships with three IDs and we plan to release more on a regular basis. We are encouraging user-submitted IDs through the animation community we are creating on our web site."

The Cryptic AR web site will also have forums to serve as the community home for aspiring AR animators. The forums will act as a place to inspire continued creativity in users and support animation needs.

Cryptic AR version 1.0 is now available for download at www.crypticar.com.

GameZebo has news that web game, and personal flash heart-throb, Samorost 2 was just named the best webby online game of the year.

As I've mentioned before this game is as beautiful as it is intriguing. Basically you have to click around the screen to figure out how to move from one level to the next. Its a lot of fun to play and even more fun to watch. Brian Crecente

Samorost 2: Best Webby Online Game of the Year [Gamezebo]

I've been frontal lobe deep in the wonderful assortment of indie games that make up this year's list of Independent Games Festival finalists these past weeks as I help pick the winners for the awards and it has been mostly a joy.

One game in particular, last night, was such a pleasure to play that I felt compelled to share it with Kotaku. Samorost 2 is one of three finalists for Best Web Browser game and it is just spectacular from visual and audio design to the mechanics of the game.

You need to hop on over to the site right now and play through the first, free, level of the game. If you like it, you really should buy the thing to dig into the whole game as well. Brian Crecente

Samorost 2

Over the weekend we posted the full list for the 2007 Independent Games Festival finalists.

But if you're really interested in finding out more about these interesting and innovative games, you have to hit up the official site where details about the games are available. The site also has links to download the ones that are downloadable and even a number of interviews with the games' creators.

I was lucky enough to be asked to help judge this year's entries and was very impressed with the games I got to check out. You owe it to yourself to try some of these indie titles. Brian Crecente

Finalists and Winners [IGF]

The XNA Creators Club went live today, allowing subscribers access to thousands of game assets, support and the ability to actually play the games you create using Game Studio Express on your Xbox 360.

The development software is free, but an annual subscription is $99, while a four-month subscription will cost you $49.

"The XNA Creators Club is really the first of its kind — an opportunity to join a community of other developers who are empowered to bring their game ideas to life on a next-generation console system," said Chris Satchell, general manager of the Game Developer Group at Microsoft. "When it comes to encouraging development on XNA Game Studio Express and through the XNA Creators Club, the limits are truly endless. What users will see today is just the beginning of the plans we have to revolutionize game development one creative game idea at a time."

I think the XNA Creator's Club could be the most significant development in console gaming this generation, though a lot of the potential will depend on how Microsoft handles the rights and distribution of games developed using their tools.

Your World. Your Game.

With today's release of Microsoft(R) XNA(TM) Game Studio Express and the launch of the XNA Creators Club, this phrase has never been more true. Based on the easy-to-use Visual C#(R) 2005 Express Edition and Microsoft .NET
Compact Framework, XNA Game Studio Express opens up the world of game development to the masses and is now available for free to anyone with a Windows(R) XP-based PC at http://www.msdn.com/XNA . With the release of XNA Game Studio Express, Microsoft Corp. unveiled the XNA Creators Club, opening up video game development to untapped creative minds, enabling anyone to affordably build and play amazing game ideas on Xbox 360 systems for the first time ever.
The XNA Creators Club is available on Xbox Live(R) Marketplace for $49 (U.S.) for a four-month subscription, or $99 (U.S.) for an annual subscription. Both subscriptions provide aspiring game developers with access to thousands of game assets from Microsoft and key supporters such as Turbo Squid Inc., as well as white papers, specialized starter kits, samples and technical product support to help turn Your World, Your Game into a reality.
"The XNA Creators Club is really the first of its kind — an opportunity to join a community of other developers who are empowered to bring their game ideas to life on a next-generation console system," said Chris Satchell,
general manager of the Game Developer Group at Microsoft. "When it comes to encouraging development on XNA Game Studio Express and through the XNA Creators Club, the limits are truly endless. What users will see today is just the beginning of the plans we have to revolutionize game development one creative game idea at a time."
In addition, to celebrate the worldwide launch of XNA Game Studio Express, the "Dream-Build-Play" contest will be open to XNA Game Studio Express customers on Windows as well as those on Xbox 360 through the XNA Creators Club membership. The contest offers the opportunity for the community to showcase its innovation and talent to the world, culminating in the incredible chance for the winner's game to be published on Xbox Live Arcade, the premier source for downloadable independent, retro and original games. The "Dream-Build-Play" contest will be launched in January. Additional contest details will be available at http://www.dreambuildplay.com .
"Xbox Live Arcade has opened up a wealth of new publishing opportunities for established and independent developers alike, so it made perfect sense to also extend this privilege to hobbyists and amateur programmers," said Greg Canessa, group manager of Xbox Live Arcade at Microsoft. "We have a tremendous
opportunity to shine the spotlight on up-and-coming talent through the 'Dream-Build-Play' contest, and we can't wait to share their creativity with our gaming community around the world."
To coincide with the release of XNA Game Studio Express, XNA supporter GarageGames has launched an open beta for its Torque X platform, including Torque Game Builder. Based on the XNA Framework, the easy-to-use Torque X tools bring drag-and-drop game development to Windows and Xbox 360. Final availability of the Torque X platform is scheduled for early 2007.