Wow, it finally turned up. Nifty is a Java OpenGL based GUI system that allows really cool and stylised game GUIs to be created. It's gone through many iterations and now starts to look like something very very cool. Particularly interesting to me is how wonderfully well it integrates with Slick ;)

Anywas, Nifty GUI reached version 1.0 - check out the demo

Continuing on the thrust themed games check at this little beauty. Juck Fu! is about as simple as thrust game can get, keep the ship away from the walls collect the coloured blocks before they turn black and become deadly obstacles. Surprsingly addictive. Comes with highscore capability and quality programmer art! (thanks to whoever randomly sent me this one)

License: Freeware
Developer: Sebastian Trost
Status: Playable

Hanging around on the Slick forums is news about a wonderful looking space game in development, Rocket Pod. This early video shows combat, resource gather and general navigation. It all looks very polished and I can't wait to play.

License: Unknown
Developer: ThatOtherGuy
Status: Work In Progress

This class remake of Highnoon is a real blast produced by Istarion Games. Dodge the bullet and take out the bad guys all in the name of the Law! The version recently released includes keyboard controls and some compatibility fixes.

License: Freeware
Developer: Istarion Games
Status: Complete

Abraão Isvi is working on a cool looking platformer in Java. Toupety appears to be the name of a small green blob whose explores caverns with a trust ray gun. Check out the Toupety site for videos and screenshots.

License: Unknown
Developer: Abraão Isvi
Status: Work in Progress

Looking at the initial screen shots you might think this is another tetris clone, however with Incredibuilder (webstart) Jerome Blouin seems to be attempting to deliver something different. Your job is to assemble the tetris like pieces into a pattern shown to the left of the screen. You can do this by pushing the falling pieces around or by cutting up the fallen pieces, costing you money. It's still a work in progress but the current playable version is pretty interesting to try.

License: Unknown
Developer: Jerome Blouin
Status: Work In Progress

Five students from Sweden are working on a multiplayer tetris game. However, unlike your multiple arena/well based multiplayer tetris this one is co-operative and all in one play area. Everyone appears on the same screen moving their own piece around trying to slow into the over all shape. Seems to work pretty well across the net, server set up and join are really simple. It's surprisingly fun and well worth trying out (via Webstart)

License: Unknown
Developer: Group 23
Status: Playable

KappaOne is working on a new stylish vertical shooter. The interesting thing about this one is that the graphics are drawn with the SVG tool Inkscape giving it a cool vector look but still keeping pretty. As I understand it the SVG is rendered to images which are used as sprites. I hope, as a pure geek, that eventually it renders using the original SVG.

License: Unknown
Developer: Kappa One
Status: Work In Progress