The Non-Adventure Adventure Game

Dutch game designer Kenney Vleugels realizes how prosaic life can be sometimes. Not that a flash game about watching a DVD turns that into an epic happening. But it is more interactive than reading someone tweet about it. More »

2009 Life. Love. Game Design Challenge Winners Unveiled

Is it possible to educate about teen dating violence through a violence-free video game? More »

Saturday Timewaster: And We Really Mean It

Some wit cooked up a HD-version of Tetris - I can't even begin to count the grid here - which makes dying or clearing lines an agonizingly long process. More »

Sunday Timewaster: Shopping Cart Hero

Unlockables give this jump-physics Flash game some pretty strong replay value. I spent at least 30 minutes tricking out my cart and practicing midair handstands. More »

Suicide is Painless, Even Fun

Here's Karoshi Suicide Salaryman, a frighteningly addictive puzzler in which the object is to kill yourself. Of course, only that part of the game's concept is backward, the actual means to kill yourself are obscured or protected from you, as you are a danger to yourself and others (and you have access to firearms). I made it to level 7 (it counts down from 49) in about 20 minutes. For a flash game, that's a pretty good gameplay experience. The game remembers your progress if you want to come back to it later, so don't delete your cookies. I really dig the soundtrack, but there's no explanation of why you're so desperate to end your own life. My guess is the global financial meltdown armageddon panic has something to do with it. More »

Saturday Timewaster: Fantastic Contraption

Reader Alex B. sent in this — Fantastic Contraption — a physics flash game where you string together wheels and joints in order to carry an object toward a goal on the screen. It's nice nonviolent trial-and-error fun, indulging both the competitive urge to be as efficient as possible, and the creative impulse to be as outlandish as you can get away with. More »

Sunday Timewaster: Marshmallow

This wonderfully adorable (and kind of weird) game is pretty straight forward — guide the marshmallow around a variety of objects just waiting to take a bite out of your head and send you hurtling towards the ground so you can land with a 'splat.' It's cute. It's not terribly taxing. The soundtrack is ... well, something (soothing? Weird? Vaguely Katamari-esque? All of the above?), but the game is really cute and a nice way to waste a couple of minutes or more .... More »

Saturday Timewaster: Hoshi Saga 3

Hoshi Saga 3 is a fun little puzzle game — the object is to discover the star(s) in each level through experimentation. The mechanics of each level are different, and while some are familiar, some will require a little more fiddling to get the right answer. Some levels are quite easy, though others may have you scratching your head — overall, a nice, relaxing little collection to spend some time with. More »

Sunday Timewaster: Bounce Shot

IndieGames succinctly describes this as 'a cross between Breakout and Space Invaders,' which is pretty accurate — but it's a fun game with a retro feel. I was in the mood for some candy-colored, easy to pick up fun this weekend, and this definitely hit the spot. Boss battles every 10 levels, power ups, and trying not to get hit with your own bullets (so watch out for that trigger finger) — add in some cute alien enemies, and you've got the recipe for how I wasted a good chunk of my Sunday morning. More »

Saturday Timewaster: Aether

We're having a slow weekend here at Kotaku: Owen is off, and I'm holed up in bed trying to stave off the flu; Aether made a nice respite from my headache and general feelings of 'blah.' It's a weird little game — a little abstract and fuzzy around the edges, you control a little guy and his pet who can fly through the air with the greatest of ease, using said pet's tongue as a grappling hook/trapeze .... I actually quite enjoyed zipping through space from planet to planet, trying to solve puzzles and bring the color back to unhappy people (the core of an unhappy planet seen above). It's not the most intuitive game ever — it did take me some time to figure out how to successfully get off the ground and into the atmosphere - and I broke out the mouse because the trackpad wasn't cutting it. Still, it's pretty and soothing (and short) — good for a bit of time on a Saturday afternoon. More »