Via the ever wonderful TIGSource comes news of a couple of new projects from Alan Gordon; the man behind Zi. Vertical is currently unfinished, but is still oddly mesmerising – so far, the only aim is to climb as high as possible in a tower using a grappling hook.

More interesting, and making more of an splash, is RRRRRPG, which is, for all intents and purposes, like Final Fantasy but without the flashy graphics, music, plot, or characterisation.

As TIGSource note, it’s like “the purest distillation of the JRPG” - all that remains is the fighting and levelling, though you do get to choose between three classes of triangles to make up your party, and there is the ability to upgrade your equipment. Gordon summarises the game’s aim as simply to “kill some shapes, then defeat the Circle God. That's it.” At under 500K, it’s pretty much begging to be ported to mobile phones.

“Frankly,” Gordon writes on his blog. “I have no idea how this manages to be fun, but it does!” Just watch out for those spinning grey pentagons.

[edited by alistairw]