Here are a bunch of photos taken at messhof’s Light Industry premiere. Looks like a good turn out! But then again, they all look like they might be related to messhof. Hmmm… Still, I wish I could have attended!

New details about Microsoft’s Xbox LIVE Community Games service were released this week. Community Games allows members of the XNA Creators Club ($99/year) to sell games on XBLA after going through a peer review system. Here are some of the important details: - No free games! Developers using the service must charge 200 to 800 points for their games ($2.50 to $10). - How much you charge is partially determined by your games’s file size! “Creators can chose to sell their 50 MB games for 200 Microsoft Points, or sell their larger 150 MB games for either 400 or 800 Microsoft Points.” - Creators will receive 70% of the revenue as a baseline, although Microsoft may choose to “invest” in certain games and deduct 10-30% revenue during that time, in exchange for special promotion of the game on the console and on Xbox.com. “Certified” XBLA developers are now (as far as we know) receiving 35-45% revenue as a baseline, by comparison. - Each game that gets sold will have a “free timed trial” built in by the system (i.e. the developer doesn’t have to rig the trial him or herself). - The service is in beta right now, with about 60 active games (including a “musical game for babies?!”). It’s going to launch in the U.S., Canada, and parts of Europe in early 2009. So they’re opening up the platform like Apple did with the iPod/iPhone, except that the community decides which games will sell and which games won’t. Other than the questionable file size/price thing, that sounds pretty reasonable to me! There’s a walkthrough of the service from February on Gamasutra. (Thanks, arrogancy!)

39d was released today, bringing with it a host of nice, shiny improvements. There’s also a really good three-part interview with Tarn up on kwanzoo (part 3 goes up tomorrow). The interviewer is Matt Boyd of Three Panel Soul. Matt: I don’t want to tell you how to do your job, but it seems like a friendlier interface might help you by getting a lot more people into the game. It’s pretty daunting. Tarn: Oh sure, it’s just something I’m going to have to slowly do myself, and I have many dev items along those lines. It’s just not something that I currently think is a good idea to do in a moddable fashion. One thing I was a bit saddened to hear was that Tarn’s making less from donations now than he was before (EDIT: Tarn meant before, when he was a mathematician). But hell, I want the guy to live comfortably, given how much enjoyment he’s brought me and the internets over the years. If you’re a fan, consider giving a little to toast the new release. And I don’t know how well-known this is, but as a reward for donating you can get some awesome presents: either a short story that’s illustrated with a single line of ASCII art, or a crayon drawing. And for those of you that are tired of hearing about DF, well, tough plump helmets! But seriously, I imagine this will be the last release for this particular arc. See ya!

There’s a new Shift game out! In Shift the primary mechanic is being able to switch from black to white, turning platforms and walls into walkable space and so forth. Conceptually, the game bears more than a passing resemblance to Portal and Negative Space/Yin Yang, but… maybe we shouldn’t even go there! It’s a fun, mind-bending game that stands on its own merit. Whereas in the previous games you progressed linearly from room-to-room, Shift 3 lets you go back and forth. And your actions in some rooms will affect other rooms. This game also delves into the story a bit more, provided that you take the time to read the clues! (Source: Alex Meerkat, via Razor, Placenta, Shopping Cart TIGdb: Entry for Shift 3

Jim McGinley, author of the amazing Mario Inna Space, informs us that the 3rd Annual Toronto Game Jam ended last month and was a resounding success. The theme this year was “cheese,” and entrants were asked to develop a game in 3 days that incorporated cheese, a goat on a pole, and the sound of the TTC subway door closing. 34 games came out of the jam, and it’s pretty impressive (and unique) stuff. Here are the ones that Jim recommends to TIGSource readers: a game about bouncing (First Place, depicted above) – an atmospheric abstract game where you have to “grab” bumpers and dodge missiles. Faint smells of Everyday Shooter and fl0w reminisce… and no, that sentence doesn’t mean anything, but it sounds like it does! Debugger (Second Place) – a game where you smash bugs by hitting keys on your keyboard. Each key corresponds to an area on the screen. Cheese is War (Third Place) – a multiplayer-on-one-keyboard game where the goal is to topple a tower of cheese onto your opponent. flowers of error – a drag n’ drop “anti-shooter” by Jonathan Mak and Pekko Koskinen. Super Cheese Repulser – a one or two player game where the gold is to get a piece of cheese to a mousetrap using a “repulser.” Office Smash – smash up your office using physics! Goats Amoré – in Jim’s contribution to the competition, you play a cheese that has to earn the respect of other cheese in order to find a goat. Um. Some of the games require XNA Framework, and Office Smash requires Unity. But if you wish to live vicariously, there are videos of each game accompanying the downloads. Thanks, Jim! TIGdb: TOJam Games (still being added)

Colin Northway’s Fantastic Contraption is a super-nifty Flash-based physics toy that follows in the steps of games like Armadillo Run and Crayon Physics. The goal in FC is to get a red polygon into a goal area by attaching to it various wheels and rods. It’s an elegant concept, it’s executed very well, and it’s tons o’ fun! Some of the later levels are just devious, too… A paltry $10 lets you create your own levels and share them with other registered players. (Thanks, reetva!) P.S. Does anyone else see something a little, ah, Freudian about that screenshot up there? TIGdb: Entry for Fantastic Contraption

Well, someone’s finally gone and put a game in a favicon. Mathieu ‘p01’ Henri’s DEFENDER of the favicon is a simple remake of Eugene Jarvis’s classic shoot ‘em up. It’s 16×16, making it even smaller than the 18×18 games at guimp. It’s also in a friggin’ favicon. The game works in Opera and Firefox, although Firefox 3 causes the game to hiccup. It doesn’t work at all in any version of Internet Explorer. Mathieu is also responsible for the 4k Javascript FPS 3D TOMB II. (Source: LaughingCrow, via Lithium Leaf) TIGdb: Entries for DEFENDER of the favicon, 3D TOMB II

Nepia World’s Wire Robo came out in 2002 but it’s a premise that’s as ancient as time immemorial: a giant mecha with a grappling hook head is controlled by a sleeping little girl and must save the universe. Being flung into the far reaches of space, your mech can’t move about directly – instead you have to use your head (heh) to grapple asteroids and enemies, using your angular momentum to propel you through the void (“Z” key). The goal of each stage is to destroy the… I don’t know what you’d call them, space platforms? The platforms are immobile, but are surrounded by orbiting satellites which will fire on you if you get close. And if you grapple the platform itself, it can unleash more powerful attacks. To destroy them, use the arrow keys to change your direction – this will shoot a green blast from your hands that will zero in on your target. Very, very awesome concept. TIGdb: Entry for Wire Robo (Thanks, gsilverfish! I think you’re the one that submitted this to the database.)

Okay, Destructivator, by Pug Fugly Games, is just badass. The premise is simple enough – clear each of the 20 levels of enemies to win. But the game is just so freakin’ fast-paced that is feels like you’re on something. In most games, when the developers want to show that you have “heightened senses,” they slow down the enemies and your character moves at a normal pace. In this game you just have to keep up with yourself. Fortunately, you’re armed with a gun that fires appropriately rapidly (although not when you’re in mid-air). I love the way the bullets zip across the screen. Tough game. Fast game. Good game. Goodnight! TIGdb: Entry for Destructivator (Source: Tim, via the IndieGames.com blog)

Do my eyes deceive me, or is that Romeo on a mobile phone? Could Juliet and the Pie Devil be nearby? Could this mean the long-awaited Multimedia Fusion 2 Java runtime, which François announced at last year’s Click Convention, is finally nearing release? Daddy, why is there hair growing where there wasn’t hair before? Whoa, hold on there, young buckaroo (Kyle Pulver)... Yes, before there was RomeoPie Software, there was Romeo and the Pie Devil, a simple platform game that came with the original Klik n’ Play. Ostensibly the brainchild of Clickteam Overlords François and Yves, this game stole the hearts of many a Klik’er, what with its charming graphics and… Pie Devil. Seriously, we love Romeo and the Pie Devil. Now The Daily Click (the premiere Click website) is purporting that the images and video of this game was brought to them by a “source who claims is on the inside” (cybernetic ninja spyssasin). Is it real? No one knows for sure, but you can check out another image here, and there’s also some in-game footage in the latest Klikcast (at around 6:40 minutes left). But now that I think about it, there’s no way François and Yves would allow such a thing to be leaked, unless… Unless they wanted it to be leaked! Good Pie Devil, they’ve been orchestrating this entire thing from the very beginning! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO…!

thatgamecompany’s fl0wer was shown at E3 this week. The game, which is slated for a “soon” PS3 release, has you guiding flower petals over lush landscapes by controlling the wind. The game purportedly uses a similar dynamic difficulty adjustment (“DDA”) system to fl0w. You can see more screens here (Kotaku), and there are two gameplay videos after the jump. It looks (and sounds) lovely. TIGdb: Entry for fl0wer (Source: Tim, via the IndieGames.com blog)

For those that really can’t get past the ASCII in Dwarf Fortress but really love graphics and want to try the new release... just thought I’d point out that Ian McConville (Three Panel Soul) has released a pretty sexy character tileset. For information on installing the tileset, or making your own, head over to the official unofficial DF Wiki. Here’s a bigger version of the screencaps on the left. (Thanks, hroon!) And definitely keep your eye on the development log, because it looks like there could be a new release tomorrow (and possibly more soon after). The next version will address a few bugs, including a pathfinding issue that caused jobs to be randomly cancelled.

messhof’s latest game, Cowboyana, debuted last night at Light Industry in Brooklyn, New York. The game, which is set in the Old Pixelly West, is strictly a two-player same-computer kinda affair, so if you want to enjoy it you’d best find a friend to play with. Or perhaps an enemy? In Cowboyana you’ll be both – as the game moves from scene to scene, you’ll alternately find yourself fighting alongside your pal and trying to shoot him. Other times you’ll work together to pour whiskey shots. The game goes on indefinitely, but what happens in one scene can determine how later scenes play out. Get shot, and you may even end up as a horse! As the game muses: Hard to talk, drunk Hard to walk Hard to kill your buddy Cowboyana oozes all kinds of Old West style and grit – I daresay more than any other cowboy game I’ve ever played. It also seems particularly well-tuned for same-room multiplay, although I’ll have to get my buddies over here before I can test that theory. In the meantime, you can read auntie pixelante’s thoughts on the game. She was at Light Industry last night playing it the way it was meant to be played! TIGdb: Entry for Cowboyana

To help inaugurate their new company, called Zombie Cow Studios, Dan Marshall and Ben Ward have released Ben There, Dan That!, a freebie adventure game starring none other than… them. It will sit side-by-side with Gibbage, their popular multiplayer deathmatch game (which is now half-price at £3/$6). Ben There, Dan That! is funny, self-referential, and dutifully pays homage to all the Lucasarts classics (while poking a bit of fun at them). Definitely worth a look if you like old-school adventure games. Or humor. Or things of that sort. By the way, whether or not they were a product of laziness, I absolutely love the walking animations. (Thanks, seregrail7!) TIGdb: Entry for Ben There, Dan That!

Deaths is a simple platformer where the last 50 deaths from all of its players are loaded into the game. Your own corpses, and the corpses of people you will never meet, are strewn about its six short levels and can be stepped on and used as platforms. The game, which is labeled as “demo,” is a successful proof of concept, and here’s hoping that its creator, Jesse “2dcube” Venbrux, decides to expand on it. Jesse, who’s also responsible for Execution and the Karoshi series of games, obviously has a fixation on death (in video games). Well, I should mention Frozzd and Mubbly Tower, too, lest you think that’s is all he thinks about. But in any case, I’m really glad people are spending time exploring the concept and our perceptions of it. Morbidity FTW! (Source: Tim, via the Indiegames.com blog) TIGdb: Entry for Deaths

Yes! New Dwarf Fortress release. Actually, two releases – the second version (39b) patches up a lot of bugs that were found by players in 39a, including a nasty (and kind of hilarious) bug that caused dwarfs to sleep indefinitely. The biggest changes to the game are in World Generation. Heroes will duel with heroes, civilizations will wage bloody wars against one another, and megabeasts like titans and dragons will roam the earth, hunting and being hunted… all in savage detail that is readily available to you in Legends mode (see the screenshot above). Jeez. Thousands of yarns spun before the game even starts! Not only that, but you can create your own worlds using an in-game editor. Boy, the mind reels at the idea of a fantasy world whose in-game history is enriched by the depth of these “real-life” adventures. It’s nuts. I love it. Be sure to read Tarn’s development journal for more insight into the new features. TIGdb: Entry for Dwarf Fortress

The Poppenkast have finished their second competition, called “3 Hours to Fame,” and put up a single download that includes all the entries. There are 15 games by 14 developers. I probably don’t mention the Poppenkast enough. A collective of 33 developers; mostly experimental, mostly using Game Maker. Their ranks include the likes of cactus, messhof, darthlupi, and Radnom, to name a few. In my mind the group embodies a movement in game development and design that is typified by quick development, heavy abstraction of graphics and mechanics, and a focus on the sensory, rather than the narrative. If I can get artsy-fartsy for a moment, they really remind me a lot of the Impressionists, both in spirit, style, and the way they are perceived by the gaming public – you either love them or you love to hate them (or you haven’t heard of them… yet). The criticisms are the same, too. Of Claude Monet’s Impression, Sunrise (now widely considered a masterpiece), early critics derided it as sloppy and unfinished, “barely a sketch.” Sound familiar? History obviously vindicated the Impressionists, and their fresh vision and spontaneous style became more or less universally accepted as invaluable to art as a whole. I think the same will be said of these lads, too. And anyone who ever made a game with this kind of spirit (B-Games included). But the context, of course, will be games, and not fine arts. (Another parallel: it’s interesting to note that the Impressionists took advantage of a new invention in the art world – pre-mixed paint that came in lead tubes. This technique was introduced in the mid-19th century and allowed them to “work more spontaneously, both indoors and outdoors.” Are Game Maker and similar programs the 21st century equivalents?)

Penny Arcade has announced the 10 games to be showcased at this year’s PAX (August 29th). The games selected (out of 80 total submissions) are: The Amazing Brain Train, Audiosurf, Chronotron, Impulse, The Maw, Polarity, Project Aftermath, Schizoid, Strange Attractors 2, and Sushi Bar Samurai. These games will be showcased at the expo and one of them will walk away with an “Audience Choice Award.” Details and links at the PAX 10 website. In sadder news, The Slamdance Games Festival has been cancelled “for the foreseeable future.” Slamdance cites a lack of venue as the reason for the cancellation. Things went badly for the festival last year when its organizers decided to remove the controversial Super Columbine Massacre RPG! from competition, prompting many other developers to drop out in protest. (Source: Jonathan Blow)

fruit mystery is… fruit mystery is…... ... fruit mystery is. (Source: auntie pixelante)

Wanderlust: Rebirth was conceived on August 1st, 2006, the mutt offspring of a half-dozen radically different games ranging from fantasy games like Zelda: Four Swords and Diablo to more modern games like Rainbow Six: Vegas and Project Gotham Racing. Natural Selection would never have let something this mutated take a step past the womb… But now, nearly two years later, with the release of the 2 chapter Beta release, Wanderlust: Rebirth is a creature of beauty. The two lead developers, Matthew Griffin and Jason Gordy, along with the 4 other members who make up “Team Wanderlust,” have carefully pruned and manicured their dream co-op RPG into a fantastic creature torn straight from the old quarter-guzzling arcades of youth. I won’t lie – W:R can be a frustrating game from a single-player point of view. It’s not impossible to play alone, however you’ll struggle to find comfort in that fact the tenth time you get killed by a gang of gladiators. But then again, W:R was meant to be a shared experience, and with four different character classes to pick from team-work makes for a much more enjoyable experience than one might encounter alone. W:R begins with the player(s) arriving at an invitational arena tournament in the city of Westhaven, and it is here that they will first taste combat against such enemies as wolves, gladiators, and eventually even go toe to toe with a bear. Combat begins as just a typical hack ‘n slash, but as the player advances in the game, they can unlock new attacks and spells. Another interesting aspect of W:R’s combat system is the “Tide of Battle,” which changes as players hit or get hit more in battle, giving damage and health bonuses and penalties based on how well a certain character is doing. If a character does well enough and the Tide of Battle is on their side for long enough, they can charge up a Soul Charge, which can then be released to perform a special ability, such as increasing teammates’ chances to do a Critical Hit or resurrecting dead players. The Tide of Battle affects all participants, including the game’s AI, and an AI that is doing very poorly may even try to flee from the players’ characters. Upon being declared the champion of the tournament, the player is approached by a messenger of the king and invited to a celebration at the castle and… this is the end of chapter 1. At the end of each chapter, all participating players are graded according to what “awards” (achievements such as high-hit combos or dealing massive damage) they received throughout the chapter, how many times they died, and other items such as side quests performed and finding hidden coins throughout the chapter. This scoring determines how many Character Points (CP) the player receives. These CPs can then be used to upgrade the stats of the character or to develop new skills and attacks, making the character more powerful. Another item to note is that a “100%” can be earned on each chapter, not only for playing it with 1-2 players, but again for playing it with a party of 3 or 4 players, so you can “max” out each chapter with up to 2 gold stars. So, since this is only an “open Beta” release, what is already available, and what can players look forward to in the final release? Well, as of right now, players can only play through the first 2 of 14 proposed chapters, but you can play any of the four classes. These classes include the Fighter, the Alchemist, the Healer, and the Elementalist. While the Fighter class is more of a simple hack-and-slash, the Alchemist throws “potions” which work as grenades, damaging, stunning or otherwise affecting enemies. The Healer… as her name implies, has the ability to heal, yet can also strike down her foes with holy spells. Whether it be simply healing her party members, buffing theirs stats with enchantments, or summoning a guardian angel to fight by their side, this is one character not to be overlooked. Last but not least, the Elementalist is the mage-character: by chaining together runes from a circular menu, the Elementalist can summon spells ranging from ally creatures to flaming meteors from above. Each party member has a different role, and as a result the make-up of a team determines their fighting style in the campaign. In reference to the 2 chapters available at the moment, the promised size of the entire W:R world is amazing, and the world map shows just how many opportunities are possible for exploration and quests when the final version comes out. According to Jason Gordy, the first two chapters playable right now cover only about 2% of the total explorable space. W:R isn’t totally about co-operating however, and there is currently a simple PvP system present in the game under the title of “Champion Training.” Here, you can fight against other player in a number of arenas, rather than fighting alongside them as in Story Mode. Players can use any character or class they want, and once in combat, they will have all of their character’s possible abilities/attacks/spells unlocked, whether they have unlocked them in Story Mode or not. While this PvP mode is still rather young in development, the team plans to implement a more-involved mode in future releases. Every aspect of the game shines. Most prominently of course is the art of the game, such the colorful and incredibly detailed pixel-art done by Gordy and which is reminiscent of old SNES or Gameboy RPGs. It really brings a sort of nostalgia to see such dedicatedly designed pixel-art. Also, not to be overlooked, the amazing hand-drawn portraits and cut scenes done by artist Aaron Connell add great atmosphere by providing detailed vistas of the world of Wanderlust. Another facet of the artistic polish this game has received is in the sound aspect. While not over powering, the audio of W:R has been worked into a powerful ambiance. The music, provided by Skyler Stone, provides a nice slice of the culture and mood of W:R, and the wonderful sound effects by Cole Medeiros really make combat come to life, as each slash of the sword and each cast of a spell sounding natural and clear. Again, it all brings a sense of the games of old. Also notable about Team Wanderlust is perhaps its most unusual member. As a hacker of W:R who continually riled up fellow game players, Charles Daffern soon drew the attention of Griffin and Gordy who quickly brought him into the team to act as “security tester,” promising to make this game perhaps the most hack-resistant GameMaker project to date. Even the matchmaking system employed by the game works well. Griffin and Gordy have chosen to utilize Reflect Games’ “Reflect Account System” to provide an easy way for players to group up online. Once in game, player communication is easy and very well done, with player chat appearing similarly to how it does when talking to an NPC; with a speech-box appearing next to the speaking character’s portrait. W:R is also full of cute humor and subtle (and not so subtle – yes, this means you Jar-Jar!) homages to popular culture and earlier games. Players of the developers’ earlier title – Wanderlust: The Online Adventure (which had an epic following over at GMC, with a thread of 147 pages) – will also find many references in Wanderlust: Rebirth. With its fantasy setting and co-op slashing, W:R’s origins can easily be drawn to games like Zelda and Diablo, but where do games like Rainbow Six: Vegas and PGRacing come in? Well, Rainbow Six: Vegas’s heavy co-op gameplay inspired a similar stress on teamwork in W:R, and Project Gotham’s influence comes from its “Kudos” system, which rewards players for good driving, regardless of how they place in the race. In W:R, exp is gained mainly through teamwork, rather than per kill. Griffin and Gordy mixed and matched these different traits and ideas to create what they hope will be a “focused co-op experience.” “We’re making the co-op RPG that we want to play,” says Griffin. “Turns out, other people want to play it too.” Download / Game’s Site / Developers’ Blog