In a candid piece, which describes 2008 as "a truly terrible year", Delay opens up about a succession of mistakes the company have made, a crisis of confidence in Introversion's place in the market and frustration at the under-performance of their Multiwinia title.

Like the earlier stuff outlining how to get a game up on Xbox Live, it's a fascinating insight into the highs, lows and challenges facing a development studio, providing a transparency and connection between the company and the audience that you just don't see in this business.

And for that, we're thankful.

2008 in hindsight [Introversion]

The grim, bare-bones PC hit is a perfect fit for the handheld, so the team are justifiably confident of finding somebody. But on the off chance they hit a snag, publishers of the world, know this: this game is a perfect fit for the handheld. Especially if it's released at a budget price and has a decent range of multiplayer options.

If everything goes according to plan - the plan being that Introversion find a publisher for a game that's obviously near-finished - Defcon DS should be out Q3 2009.

And it is fascinating. Provided you find this kind of backroom stuff interesting, anyway. Available for perusal are bug reports, milestone reports and, most interesting of all, a log of some of the project emails between Introversion and Microsoft, including how the developer reacted to the ESRB leaking the game announcement and how Introversion flirted with the idea of releasing two Darwinia titles for Xbox Live Arcade before Microsoft said "no, thanks".

Darwinia + [Introversion, via Offworld]

By desktop, we don't mean your desktop PC. We mean - courtesy of the wonders of the webcam/custom specs - running literally on your desk. This is naught but a concept at the moment, just the result of Introversion's Leander Hambley messing around. And could well go nowhere. But now that he mentions it, it's one hell of an idea.

Seriousness and Silliness [Introversion, via Offworld]

Multiwinia Video Shows King of the Hill

It's unclear what the fate of the game, currently in pre-production, will be; said Introversion's Chris Delay:

Ultimately we don’t know for certain if Chronometer will be going into full production – the conditions would have to be right for Introversion and for Channel 4, although they’ve been fantastic to work with during pre-production. We’re pretty much finished with this phase of Chronometer for now, and we’ll keep you updated about this interesting sixth game project as decisions are made.

The team is currently preparing for the launch of Multiwinia (shown), a multiplayer version of strategy title Darwinia, for PC.

Chronometer [Introversion blog]

RPS Exclusive: Multiwinia Hands-on [RPS]

Sometimes it's better to give than to annihilate entire nations with thermonuclear bombs. That's the philosophy behind this lovely mod of the PC strategy game DEFCON: Everybody Dies, the WarGames-like Introversion title in which the goal is to destroy your opponent while suffering fewer losses.

From mod author hellcatv, comes this very uplifting description.

Your mission is one of the most important mission that has taken place every year for hundreds of years. This mission requires you to do the impossible: DELIVER PRESENTS TO ALL THE BOYS AND GIRLS ALL OVER THE WORLD. You must position your distribution system before Christmas Eve. It's Christmas, and everybody wins. But maybe - just maybe - you can show your generosity the most.

Fun! If all that global destruction is getting you down, why not give the mod a shot and try distributing presents for massive giftage? Michael McWhertor

Christmas: In this game everybody wins. But maybe... [via Siliconera]

Introversion — the British game devs who created Darwinia and Uplink — talked to Firing Squad about their upcoming strategy game about thermonuclear war, Defcon. We particularly liked this bit about the game's Office Mode. We need more games you can play in an office.

We're very excited by Office Mode. The basic idea is that a group of work-mates can start the game up in the morning in Office Mode, playing over their local area network. The game takes place entirely in real-time (you can quite easily end the world with nuclear conflict in 8 hours) and each player controls one territory, e.g. North America or Russia. You can hit the Panic key (press escape twice) which immediately removes the game from the screen and places a discreet icon in your system tray. That icon changes when important things happen - for example if you detect some nuclear launches the icon will flash as a Nuke for a few seconds. Because everything is taking place in real-time you've got at least 30 minutes before those nukes land, so you've got plenty of time to respond without interfering with your real work too much.

A quick personal anecdote about Boss keys after the jump.

When I was 12, subversively playing the Leisure Suit Larry games, I kept my finger hovering millimeters above the "Boss" key. The theory was that to offset the chances of my mother discovering my soft-core adventure porn obsession — looming behind me in that stance of matriarchal contempt that quickly follows those moments when your mother accidentally discovers she gave birth to a leering pervert — I would quickly press it in an emergency.

Unfortunately, at the time I didn't realize that the laughable abstraction of Leisure Suit Larry genitalia (a flesh colored horizontal exclamation point next to a cherry red capital I surrounded in parentheses with a plump w dangling below) would have conjured up no pornographic associations in her mind. On the other hand, her suspicion was immediately aroused when she found her son feverishly scrutinizing a pareto chart of Wall Street Stocks when she came into the room, calling for a much closer inspection. FLORIAN ECKHARDT

Defcon Interview [Firing Squad]