[Rounding up the year's top iPhone and iPad titles, sister site FingerGaming's editor Danny Cowan highlights the year's best games -- spanning fiendish puzzlers through game company simulations and beyond.]

2010 saw the iOS marketplace grow exponentially. The platform's brief history is already filled with meteoric success stories and massive reorganizations as publishers adapt to rapidly shifting customer tastes.

Prominent App Store publisher Ngmoco, for instance, completely abandoned its previous publishing model in favor of free-to-play, microtransaction-supported releases.

In another example, Capcom, creator of hundreds of classic arcade and console games, currently finds its greatest success on iOS platforms not with one of its many established franchises, but with the casual-friendly Smurfs' Village.

Regardless of what the current trend may be, however, quality games determine a platform's true success and legacy. Here are some of the best iOS games released in 2010, with the first link to the iPhone version (also runnable on iPad), and additional info if a native iPad version exists:

5. Hook Worlds (Rocketcat Games - iPhone)

The App Store popularized the "autoscrolling platformer" -- run-and-jump titles that work particularly well on iOS devices, thanks to their basic objectives and simple controls. Some of the genre's best-known works to date include Adam Saltsman's Canabalt, Adult Swim's Robot Unicorn Attack, and Mikengreg's Solipskier.

Hook Worlds stands out from the pack with its unique grapple-based gameplay mechanics. Using carefully timed swings from a grappling hook, players must traverse each obstacle-filled level as fast as possible, and escape before a pursuing monster catches up to the player's defenseless explorer character.

The grappling mechanic is challenging to master, and gameplay becomes stressful as players attempt to recover from missteps. Stringing together a series of well-timed swings is extremely satisfying, however, and Hook Worlds remains compelling long after other titles in the genre have lost their initial charm.

Two titles in Rocketcat's Hook series were released this year. The newer Hook Worlds offers greater gameplay variety, while Super QuickHook is a more challenging experience overall. Both games rank among the App Store's best.

4. Zen Bound 2 (Secret Exit - iPhone/iPad universal app)

Few games are as adept at setting a mood as Zen Bound 2. Originally released as an iPad exclusive upon the device's launch earlier this year, Secret Exit's meditative rope-wrapping puzzler soon received a universal update, adding support for the iPhone and iPod Touch. An adaptation for PC and Mac platforms was released recently via Steam.

Zen Bound 2 is equally engrossing on any platform. In the game, players methodically wrap a wooden figure in a single unbroken strand of rope. Rope-covered portions are colored in paint; the object is to paint a given percentage of each object using as little rope as possible.

The easy-to-grasp objectives, down-tempo music, and lack of a time limit work in concert to create a genuinely relaxing experience. Zen Bound 2 succeeds not only as a game, but also as a great stress reliever.

3. Osmos (Hemisphere Games - iPhone & iPad apps.)

It's rare that an iOS port of a console or PC game can emerge as the definitive edition. Osmos manages this difficult feat in a way that seems almost effortless in its elegance.

Premiering for PC platforms last year, Hemisphere Games' Osmos puts players in control of a small speck of matter that is able to grow larger by absorbing fellow motes that are smaller in size. The concept is well realized, and gameplay manages to stay interesting throughout thanks to the constant introduction of new variations on the formula.

Osmos is a standout on any platform, but its gameplay is at its best on iOS devices. The controls work even better with a touch screen than they do with a mouse; the addition of a tactile element makes Osmos complete.

2. Espgaluda II (Cave, compatible with most iPhones.)

While other publishers struggle to adapt their most popular franchises to the iOS platform -- often ruining beloved classics with the scourge that is the virtual d-pad -- shoot-'em-up developer Cave managed to capture a winning formula with its very first App Store release, and has released hit after hit in the months since.

Espgaluda II is a pitch-perfect recreation of the company's acclaimed 2005 vertically scrolling arcade shoot-'em-up. The release would stand out as a worthwhile play on any platform, but it truly shines on the iPhone and the iPad. An effective touch-and-drag control scheme works flawlessly in the context of Espgaluda II's gameplay, providing enough precision to make the experience fun for both shoot-'em-up novices and hardcore fans alike.

Moreover, Espgaluda II represents an exceptional value for shoot-'em-up fans in North America. The original arcade circuit board costs thousands of dollars. The Japan-only Xbox 360 port retails for around $80. The iPhone version of Espgaluda II -- which includes a new platform-exclusive gameplay mode in addition to the full original game -- is available from the App Store for $8.99.

Cave's recent releases Dodonpachi Resurrection and Mushihimesama Bug Panic are equally impressive, and are superb examples of the platform's capacity for core gaming.

1. Game Dev Story (Kairosoft, iPhone)

When talking about Kairosoft's Game Dev Story, it's difficult to describe its gameplay in anything other than the context of your own personal experiences.

- "Well, I made a cowboy racing game for the Sega Genesis, but it had a lot of bugs, so sales tanked in its second month of release."
- "I poured so much money and time into my NES golf RPG, and the reviewers totally trashed it! What the hell!"
- "I made a bunch of cash-in sumo wrestling games, which were a big fad at the time. The reviewers hated them. They had no polish. We didn't even hire a sound guy for them. They sold millions."

Game Dev Story's foundation is built on player anecdotes. The gameplay may be standard stuff -- it ultimately boils down to keeping a series of numbers and sliders in check -- but Game Dev Story's lighthearted (and at times scarily accurate) take on game development make it a compelling play even long after your virtual company has established itself as a dominant force in the industry.

Better still, Game Dev Story is a special treat for those who have witnessed decades of industry growth. You'll want to buy a soon-to-be lucrative publisher's license when "Senga" launches its 16-bit "Exodus" console, and you'll have the good sense to avoid investing too heavily in Intendro's headache-inducing Virtual Kid.

On the other hand, there's a lot of fun to be had in attempting to change history. If you want to single-handedly make NEC's PCFX the world's most popular console, you have a tough road ahead of you, but by god, you can try.

Honorable Mentions

- Carcassonne [iPhone/iPad universal app] (Not satisfied with merely producing a great adaptation of the classic board game, TheCodingMonkeys adds a new Solitaire mode and online competitive gameplay.)

- Chaos Rings [iPhone] (Square Enix successfully mimics the depth and spectacle of console RPGs with this graphically rich release.)

- Galaxy on Fire 2 [iPhone/iPad universal app] (Fishlabs' space combat/exploration/trading sim features more depth than one would expect from any App Store release, with potentially dozens of hours of gameplay.)

- Infinity Blade [iPhone/iPad universal app] (Its gameplay may be a little shallow, but Chair Entertainment's satisfying swordplay and impressive Unreal Engine-powered graphics are not to be ignored.)

- Kometen [iPhone/iPad universal app] (Blueberry Garden creator Erik Svedang's interstellar adventure is bolstered by vivid artwork and soothing gameplay.)

- Plants vs. Zombies [iPhone, iPad version available] (PopCap's hit "flower defense" game is a perfect match for touch screens.)

- Real Racing 2 [iPhone] (Firemint continues to set new standards for iOS racing sims with the addition of licensed vehicles and new online multiplayer modes.)

- Spirits [iPhone, iPad version available] (A character-based puzzler in the tradition of Lemmings, Spaces of Play's Spirits is clever, challenging, and beautiful.)

- Street Fighter IV [iPhone] (Even though the lack of physical buttons drains a lot of the fun, Capcom's efforts to port its one-on-one fighter franchise to iOS are admirable, and the result is surprisingly playable.)

- Sword & Poker 2 [iPhone] (Like RPGs? Don't hate poker? You'll enjoy Gaia's Sword & Poker series, and probably more than you'd think you would.)

- UFO On Tape [iPhone/iPad universal app] (Challenging players to capture video of a skittish UFO, developer Revolutionary Concepts introduces a unique gameplay mechanic that's a natural fit for mobile platforms.)

[Previously in our end-of-year round-up: Top 5 Facebook Social Games, Top 5 Unexpected Gaming Events, Top 5 Cult Games,Top 5 Handheld Games, Top 5 PC Games, Top 10 Indie Games, Top 5 Developers, Top 5 Trends, Top 5 Major Industry Events, Top 5 Surprises, Top 5 Disappointments, Top 5 Controversies, Most Anticipated Games Of 2011 and Top 10 Games of the Year.]

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Organizers of the 2011 Independent Games Festival are pleased to announce the jury panel that will determine the finalists and winner of its Seumas McNally Grand Prize, the top category which seeks to highlight the the top innovation, quality, impressiveness, and enjoyability of all games entered in this year's Festival.

Prior finalists and winners of the IGF Seumas McNally Grand Prize, named in honor of the late creator of 2000's IGF award-winning Tread Marks, have included Kloonigames' hand-drawn puzzler Crayon Physics Deluxe, Erik Svedang's charmingly surrealist adventure Blueberry Garden, and Pocketwatch Games' abstracted multiplayer heist game Monaco.

This year, the jury will receive recommendations from the wider body of over 150 IGF Main Competition judges (itself including notable former IGF winners, finalists and indie game notables including Alex May, Kellee Santiago, Jarrad 'Farbs' Woods, Brandon McCartin, and Miguel Sternberg) as they consider the merits of each of the five finalists and eventual award winner.

The jury, made up of representatives from all the Festival's specific category jurists, consists of the following:

- Danny Baranowsky (Founder of dB soundworks and musician behind games like Canabalt & 2010 Excellence in Audio finalist Super Meat Boy.)
- Raigan Burns (Co-creator of Metanet's IGF award-winning N.)
- Ron Carmel (Co-creator of 2D Boy's IGF award-winning World of Goo.)
- Dylan Cuthbert (co-founder and designer at Q-Games, creators of the PixelJunk series of games.)
- Jakub Dvorsky (founder, Amanita Design, creators of multiple IGF award winning games like Samorost & Machinarium.)
- Phil Fish (chief creative officer at Polytron Corporation, creators of the IGF award winning Fez.)
- Kyle Gabler (co-founder of 2D Boy, creators of IGF award winner World of Goo; co-founder of upstart indie dev Tomorrow Corporation.)
- Kyle Gray (designer of Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure, co-founder Tomorrow Corporation and Experimental Gameplay Project.)
- Robin Hunicke (designer and producer on games including MySims & Boom Blox, currently working on Journey at thatgamecompany.)
- Frank Lantz (co-founder of crossmedia game company Area/Code, responsible for games like Drop7, Parking Wars and Spore Islands, and Director of the NYU Game Center.)
- Edmund McMillen (co-creator of IGF finalists Super Meat Boy, Coil.)
- Andy Nealen (Assistant professor of computer science at Rutgers University & core team member of Hemisphere Games, creators of the IGF award-winning Osmos.)
- Paolo Pedercini (game developer at Molleindustria [Every Day The Same Dream], artist and educator at the School of Art at Carnegie Mellon University.)
- Kris Piotrowski (co-founder & creative director at Capy, creators of games including Critter Crunch, Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes.)
- Petri Purho (designer of the IGF award winning Crayon Physics Deluxe
- Tommy Refenes (Team Meat engineer behind 2010 IGF Finalist Super Meat Boy.)
- Margaret Robertson (former editor of Edge Magazine and consultant, now designer and development director at Hide&Seek)
- Adam Saltsman (co-founder of Semi Secret Software, creators of Wurdle, Gravity Hook HD & Canabalt.)
- Andy Schatz (founder of Pocketwatch Games, creators of the IGF nominated Wildlife Tycoon: Venture Africa and the IGF award winning Monaco.)
- Mare Sheppard (co-founder of Metanet Software, creators of N.)
- Randy Smith (co-owner and designer at Tiger Style, creators of Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor, former designer on the Thief series.)
- Steve Swink (co-founder, Enemy Airship, creators of the upcoming Shadow Physics.)
- Nathan Vella (co-founder & president of Capy, creators of Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes and IGF award winners Critter Crunch & Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP.)
- Matthew Wegner (co-founder & CEO of Flashbang Studios, creators of Off-Road Velociraptor Safari, Minotaur China Shop & Time Donkey.)

The announcement is the final in a series revealing specific juries for each IGF Award, following the debut of the Nuovo Award jury, the Excellence in Audio jury, the Technical Excellence jury, the Visual Art jury, first newly integrated Mobile Game jury, and, most recently, the Excellence in Design jury, made up of independent game designers like Robin Hunicke, Gary Penn, George Fan and Kris Piotrowski.

All entries in the 2011 Independent Games Festival are currently browsable at the IGF's official site, where you can also find more complete biographical information on each of the juries.

All five Grand Prize finalists will be announced -- along with a jury statement detailing the thought process behind selecting its lineup -- on January 3rd, 2011. All finalists will be playable at the IGF Pavilion on the show floor during Game Developers Conference 2011, with the winner announced on the evening of March 2, 2011, at the IGF Awards, during the Game Developers Conference 2011.

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

[Continuing his regular GameSetWatch column, psychologist and gamer Jamie Madigan looks at the psychological biases and quirks that may rear their head during those interminable Game of the Year debates.]

Ah, late December. The time when the gaming press gets its members together and tries to convince each other that one awesome game is more awesome than other awesome games –also known as the Game of the Year Awards.

When I worked as part of the creative team on GameSpy.com we would lock ourselves in a conference room and argue literally for hours about the minutia surrounding every big title released that year in order to generate our awards. I’m also listening attentively to the GotY content over on GiantBomb.com, which is dedicating a full week of multi-hour podcasts to the raw debates that generated its lists.

These podcasts are interesting to me because I keep seeing well established psychological phenomenon coming up, but almost as interesting is when a psychological quirk doesn’t manifest itself because the guys seem to be aware of its danger to the process and have taken steps to avoid it. So in this post I present my list of 2010's Top 5 Biases That Affect 2010 Game of the Year Discussions. Sponsored by Crest Whitening Tooth Strips (not really):

5. The Recency/Primacy Effect

The recency effect describes how it’s often easier for us to recall more information (and more salient information) about things that have happened more recently or items towards the end of a list. Similarly, the primacy effect means the same thing for items at the beginning of a list or that happened towards the beginning of an established time frame. Between the two of these effects, stuff in the middle tends to get forgotten or muddled.

The impact on GotY lists should be apparent: If you’re studying a list of games released in the last year, it’s going to be easier to recall stuff about the first and last few games. We’re also more likely to recall details about games we played more recently (like Call of Duty: Black Ops) or earlier in the year (like Bayonetta). Details and memories of games released toward the middle of the year (like Splinter Cell: Conviction) might not come to mind as easily.

4. Confirmation Bias

This is a big one for GotY discussions. Confirmation bias is our tendency to ignore or downplay information that dis-confirms our preconceived decisions or opinions and to pay more attention to and emphasize information that confirms them.

If you go into a discussion of the Best Downloadable Game of 2010 thinking that Monday Night Combat should win, you’re less likely to think about its flaws (e.g., limited maps, repetitive comments from the announcer) and more likely to remember its strengths (e.g., class balance, fun character design) relative to someone who didn’t hold the same assumption. What’s more, you’ll probably say that the pros are more important to weighting your decision than the cons.

Good ways to combat this are to get in the mindset of allowing people to challenge your assumptions and engaging in debate. It can also be helpful to list out the pros/cons (with help from others) so that you see them laid out and from a different perspective.

3. Over-Emphasizing Salient Features

I wrote at length about this concept earlier, but here’s the quick version: When puny humans are asked to justify a decision, we tend to focus on the most salient or plausible explanations and then give them too much weight.

To repeat my example from the previous article: if asked to explain why you favor Red Dead Redemption for the Best Action Game of the 2010, you may think about what should be included in the checklist for evaluating an action game, come up with “the weapons,” and then feel compelled to award or take away credit for how the game’s weapons feel and work.

The problem is, the most salient and plausible factors may not be the ones that are really responsible for how much you enjoy the game. The weapons in Red Dead Redemption are, in my opinion, largely unremarkable –the game’s appeal lies almost entirely in other areas and any weight given to how cool the weapons are is inappropriate at best.

I keep seeing this come up in GotY discussions because professional game enthusiasts tend to hate using vague, worn out descriptors like “fun” or “awesome” or “polished” even though those words may be perfectly appropriate if a bit mundane. But these Internet auteurs are determined to have something more descriptive to say, so they cast about for something else and end up falling for the trap described above.

2. Social Proof and Groupthink

This one is kind of a twofer since social proof and groupthink are separate but related. Again, I’ve written about social proof before, and the idea is that we will sometimes accept proclamations that are clearly at odds with our own senses just because we often have a desire to conform to the group’s standards.

Soloman Asch showed this in a classic study where he got people to say that a long line was shorter than a short line simply by having someone planted in the group who would immediately pipe up and say so.

The effect is even stronger with a group of strangers and statements with a less clearly defined correct answer, such as politics or game of the year awards. Which is why someone may not speak up when others in the group immediately jump on World of Warcraft: Cataclysm as the Best Role-Playing Game of the year, even though by most reasonable definitions -- being an expansion pack -- it’s not a standalone game.

The flipside is groupthink, which is when members of a cohesive, established group will ignore information, abstain from critical debate and accept otherwise questionable decisions in order to minimize conflict and maintain warm fuzzies. So again, Cataclysm might win, because so-and-so can be such a pedantic jackass about it and nobody wants to harsh the vibe or destroy the atmosphere of friendly discussion.

One way I keep seeing these two biases being disarmed from the start is by joking among the debaters about how they hate each other and how they anticipate rancorous arguments. This sets the stage that it’s okay - expected, even - to question each others’ decisions and engage in critical analysis.

1. The Distinction Bias

Many Game Of The Year debates in categories like “Best [Genre] Game” come down to two similar contenders, resulting in protracted discussions where the merits of each candidate are obsessively scrutinized. This is a recipe for what’s known as the distinction bias. The idea comes from a theory that people engage in two modes of evaluation when pondering the merits of an experience: joint evaluation and single evaluation mode. The former is done when comparing multiple things at once and the latter when evaluating something individually.

The distinction bias describes how when operating in joint evaluation mode we tend to over-emphasize and over weight otherwise slight differences between the subjects. If debating Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit and Gran Turismo 5 for Driving Game of the Year, we may make a bigger deal about Hot Pursuit’s lower frame rate than we would have if we were evaluating the game by itself. As a result, when operating in this comparison mode we tend to think worse of the loser than we would have if we had evaluated it without resorting to direct comparisons.

This is perhaps acceptable in GotY debates when we HAVE to pick a winner –it’s often the fine details that act as tie breakers. But the trouble may come when you have a mix of different types of games where two of them are similar.

If you aim to trim the initial list to a set of three finalists, a tempting place to start is by comparing the most similar games (c.f., elimination by alternatives). Because of the distinction bias, the loser in that comparison may end up being evaluated worse than before and may end up getting cut from the list even though it was better than the non-similar games.

So there you have it. Five psychological phenomena that drive game of the year debates. Go listen to your favorite GotY podcast and see if you can catch them in action. If you do, post about it in the comments section!

[Jamie Madigan examines the overlap of psychology and video games at PsychologyOfGames.com and for GamePro magazine. He can be reached at jamie@psychologyofgames.com.]

Posted by Jamie Madigan at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

If you've already decided that you must watch a playthrough of Super Mario 64 but don't want to spend the last day of 2010 chained to your computer for hours, her is an astounding, tool-assisted "0 Star" speedrun of the N64 game that will rush you through to the end in five minutes and five seconds, or 18274 frames (minus the intro and end animations).

The speedrun takes advantage of game-breaking glitches and BLJ (backwards long jumping) tricks to save frames, like this pause technique:

"Normally, you can only press the A button fifteen times per second because the game runs at thirty frames per second. If you had thirty continuous A frames, you'd just be holding A down, not tapping it. However, if you pause while pressing the A' button, you are given an opportunity on the next frame to release the A button.

You can follow that by repressing it when it's not paused (therefore letting you BLJ the equivalent of thirty times per second). This is useful when you need more speed to travel a long distance. It isn't as helpful as it seems as it takes three extra frames to do a Pause BLJ. In order to save time you need the extra speed to save at least 3 frames."

"While Mario is recovering after a forward movement (dive, long jump, etc.), you can hold the A button prior to landing, and on the frame you land, press the B button with the analog stick at ^54 or less (on the TAS Input Plugin), you will do a jump kick. The trick is that it maintains all of the same speed from before the landing.

You can also apply this when moving backwards (such as after a BLJ), by holding A before you are in the running animation, and then pressing B. This causes Mario to do a jump kick and retain the same speed. This is useful for crossing long gaps and covering large distances."

Posted by Eric Caoili at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

[Every week, IndieGames.com: The Weblog co-editor Tim W. will be summing up some of the top free-to-download and commercial indie games from the last seven days on his sister 'state of indie' weblog.]

This week on 'Best Of Indie Games', we take a look at some of the top independent PC Flash/downloadable titles released over this last week.

The delights in this edition include a reworked Ludum Dare competition entry for mobile devices, a side-scrolling runner which originated from a Sony ad, a simple but cute puzzler about a boy who had fallen off the moon, and a co-op twin-stick shooter for up to four players on the same couch.

Here's the highlights from the last seven days:

Game Pick: 'Lame Castle' (Be-Rad Entertainment, browser)
"Lame Castle is a side-scrolling runner about kicking chickens, jumping over rocks and popping bouncy castles. Along the way there are plenty of opportunities to grab bonus points. It starts off a little slow, but once the chicken-kicking, treasure-smashing and barn-running are all in full flow, it's pretty satisfying stuff."

Game Pick: 'Fallen From the Moon' (Gamystar, browser)
"Fallen From the Moon is a simple but cute puzzler about a boy who has fallen off the Moon, and now must past a series of obstacles to get back home again. Over a number of screens, you are tasked with clicking objects in order to clear pathways."

Game Pick: 'Score Rush' (Xona Games, commercial indie)
"Score Rush is a 1-4 player co-op twin-stick shooter, with plenty of bullets and flashy colours. It doesn't do anything particularly new or clever, but there's no denying that it's an absolute blast, especially if you can get three friends round to play."

Game Pick: 'Mind Wall' (Seth Robinson, commercial indie)
"Originally released as a Ludum Dare competition entry for Windows and Mac, Mind Wall is a 3D puzzler in which you have to create holes of the correct sizes on walls for the yellow blocks to pass through. The advancing yellow block cannot be turned or rotated to fit into the opening, and players are only allowed to remove a small square piece from every wall."

Game Pick: 'Starfare' (Freemotion Studios, freeware)
"Starfare is a space RTS with lots of pew-pewing and resource gathering. After Earth runs out of resources and everyone goes a little crazy on each other, the nations take to space and start grabbing everything they can up there instead."

Posted by timw at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Developer Semi Secret announced that the Indie iPhone Holiday Sale, the recent Christmas promotion discounting a six independent and celebrated iOS titles to $0.99 each, has so far raised over $25,000 for the Child's Play charity -- the sale lasts for a couple more days, too, so you can still buy Canabalt, Ellis, Drop7, Solipskier, Spider, and Osmos real cheap!!

To celebrate this milestone, Semi Secret has made Canabalt's source open and available, allowing curious developers to download and tinker with the game's code, graphics, sound effects, music, and Flixel for iOS. The code is taken from the game's latest version, which includes optimizations for 60 FPS performance on iPad/iPhone 4 and proper retina support.

The studio's Adam "Atomic" Saltsman posted the following with the announcement:

"Canabalt has been a crazy ride for us. It's helped keep the lights on and pay for our health insurance, and allowed us to take the kind of risks that indie devs love to take. But, in the spirit of the Humble Indie Bundle, the holidays, and a (likely) bout of temporary insanity, it's time to open our trenchcoat and show everybody what we've got going on under there!

DISCLAIMER: We wanted to offer our condolences to everyone who downloads this and goes poking around in there. This was a rushed Flash game, ported, in a rush, to the iPhone, before iPads or iPhone4s even existed. We try very hard to stay up to date and do good work, but we're just two dudes -- it's possible if not likely that some of the way we do things is not ideal or optimal."

Posted by Eric Caoili at 4:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

[In this round-up of the year's top Facebook titles, sister site Worlds in Motion's editor Eric Caoili examines the social games that've broken away from the practice of relying on virality tricks to attract users, instead focusing on depth and engaging gameplay.]

For the social game leaders who've built their empires on social network Facebook's platform and the backs of its users (which accounts for pretty much all of them, although iOS is an increasing force here!), 2010 was just as much a tumultuous year as it was a prosperous one.

The giants in the industry, like Zynga and Disney/Playdom, grew not only their total audience sizes but also their headcounts and coffers, opening and acquiring a myriad of studios around the world -- expansions funded by the hundreds of millions of dollars raised from investors wanting a piece of this flourishing market.

It wasn't an easy year for the titles that relied heavily on viral channels for their inflated user base numbers, though.

Facebook sent a message to developers with changes it implemented in March: the social network would not stand for spam-like tactics that many games relied on to attract and retain players.

After Facebook limited the application "notification spam" that aggravated its users but benefited social games looking for fast/cheap growth, many of the site's most popular games lost millions of users.

Zynga's FarmVille, the biggest Facebook app for most of the year, dropped from its peak of 84 million monthly active users to now 57 million, according to AppData.

Since then, more developers have espoused the idea that their titles need to focus on compelling gameplay and metrics-based design, rather than virality tricks, to succeed. It's an approach that many social gamers, especially those new to gaming and now looking for more depth in Facebook's offerings, surely appreciate.

Here are our picks for the top five social network games featured on Facebook and exemplifying that trend:

5. Millionaire City by Digital Chocolate

If 2009 was the year of countless farming and mafia game clones, 2010 was teeming with empire-building simulators inspired by Sim City and Civilization. For developers looking to create social games with more complexity and a satisfying sense of progression, there are few better titles to imitate than these two classics, which have enslaved players for decades.

Digital Chocolate, a strong proponent of the idea that social games shouldn't be shallow, created one of the most popular sims with Millionaire City, which is more about snatching up and managing real estate than carefully planning the layout of a city. The game offers missions, achievements, the ability to visit friends' towns, and other features designed to grab and keep players' attentions quick.

The developer has naturally followed up Millionaire City's success (nearly 13 million monthly active users) with recent releases like Vegas City and Hollywood City.

4. Zuma Blitz by PopCap Games

Just as puzzler fans were finally pulling themselves away from Bejeweled Blitz, PopCap brought another of its addictive PC/console/mobile titles to Facebook. Similar to Mitchell's Puzz Loop/Magnetica series, Zuma has players frantically aiming with their mouse and firing colored balls at a chain of incoming spheres, matching three similarly colored orbs to explode a segment of the stream.

Zuma Blitz condenses the concept into a polished one-minute experience (power-ups can extend your play-time much longer) and adds an XP/leveling feature that unlocks new power-ups, a satisfying "Hot Frog" mode that sends sphere-clearing fireballs across the screen, and of course social features like weekly tournaments, leaderboards, and medals/achievements you can show off to friends.

3. Ravenwood Fair by LOLapps

Built under the creative direction of industry notables Brenda Brathwaite (Wizardry) and John Romero (Doom, Quake), Ravenwood Fair has a completely different atmosphere from the sims you typically find on Facebook: Players create and maintain a fairground, entertain woodland creatures with different attractions, and explore and complete quests inside a sinister, magical forest.

Ravenwood Fair's offbeat premise and dichotomy between cute critters and menacing woods not only transforms the game into something more than a FrontierVille clone; it also afforded LOLapps the opportunity to add more character and flavor to NPC interactions than one typically expects from social games, and to present the world with a distinct visual style that's both adorable and ominous.

2. It Girl by CrowdStar

Created by the largest independent game developer on Facebook, CrowdStar's It Girl melds MMO and RPG mechanics with shopping, fashion, cliques, and parties. Players shop for/collect as many outfits and accessories as they can find, then compete against each other in "Showdowns", quick battles that take into account clique size, confidence, and wardrobes.

Obviously targeting younger women (and designed by a mostly female team), It Girl goes beyond the "pink games" approach many developers take to appeal to girls with simple games about ponies and dolls, and provides a rich experience with elements reminiscent of "hardcore" MMORPGs: player-versus-player combat, countless fetch quests, and, yes, lots of rare gear to collect.

1. FrontierVille by Zynga

During a post-virality period when many believed a studio producing another major hit -- one that could quickly take in tens of millions of monthly players and rise to Facebook fame -- was highly unlikely, Zynga released just that with FrontierVille, an engrossing Old West pioneer sim that now has over 30.5 million users on the social network (not quite CityVille numbers but still impressive).

Veteran strategy game designer Brian Reynolds (Civilization II, Rise Of Nations) and his team at Zynga East took the habit-forming FarmVille formula and its farming/livestock mechanics, and expanded on it with varmints to clobber, quests/goals to complete, virtual partners to marry, families to raise, neighbors to visit and invite, badges to earn, and more in FrontierVille.

Honorable Mentions

City of Wonder by Disney/Playdom
Mighty Pirates by CrowdStar
Social City by Disney/Playdom
FIFA Superstars by Electronic Arts/Playfish
CityVille by Zynga

[Previously in our end-of-year round-up: Top 5 Unexpected Gaming Events, Top 5 Cult Games,Top 5 Handheld Games, Top 5 PC Games, Top 10 Indie Games, Top 5 Developers, Top 5 Trends, Top 5 Major Industry Events, Top 5 Surprises, Top 5 Disappointments, Top 5 Controversies, Most Anticipated Games Of 2011 and Top 10 Games of the Year.]

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you're in or near New York City and looking for something to do tomorrow night (it's not like there's anything big planned for New Year's Eve there), indie games arcade Babycastles is holding one last event: a "Live Action Multi-New Year Espionage & Dancing Game" called Secret Animal Plan.

The game was designed by Diner Dash designer Nicholas Fortugno in collaboration with Babycastles' Kunal Gupta and Showpaper's Joseph Ahearn. The event will run from 10PM to 6AM, allowing attendees to hop in the game anytime and possibly win copies of We Love Katamari signed by Keita Takahashi.

Secret Animal Plan's ;premise:

"The game involves tribes of Alligators, Snakes, Zebras, Foxes, & Black Labradors, closely guarding a secret nefarious or benevolent plan for the year of 2011. To play the game, the player can visit a Game Master, who divinates an animal identity & secret plan for the player in exchange for his or her (anonymous) personal secret plan for 2011.

The game play involves a mix of predator-prey relationships, espionage, animal role playing, and themed cooperative dance-offs in collaboration with bands & djs performing that night (including GDFX, who composes indie game soundtracks especially for Mark Essen)."

Posted by Eric Caoili at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Zeboyd Games, developer of much recommended parody RPG Breath of Death VII: The Beginning (which ended up selling over 40,000 copies), announced the release of another retro-styled title, Cthulhu Saves the World, to Xbox Live Indie Games today. The studio calls it "an epic 6-10 hour journey of redemption, romance, and insanity".

In Cthulhu Saves the World, players take on the role of H. P. Lovecraft's tentacled creature: "Cthuhu was all set to plunge the world into insanity and destruction when his powers were sealed by a mysterious sorcerer. The only way for him to break the curse is to become a true hero. Save the world to destroy it!"

The 16-bit-esque turn-based RPG features 720p visuals, comic book-style cutscenes an insanity system that lets you "inflict insanity on your opponents for fun and profit", three difficulty levels,  seven playable creatures (over 20 "multi-character unite techniques), three bonus modes, and more.

Cthulhu Saves the World is one of more than a dozen games featured in the Indie Games Winter Uprising, a promotion for quality Xbox Live Indie Games that recently received a spotlightfrom Xbox Dashboard!

Posted by Eric Caoili at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

[This week, our partnership with game criticism site Critical Distance brings us a fresh roundup of holiday links compiled by Ben Abraham, spanning Shigeru Miyamoto through hating Steam during the holidays.]

It’s the holiday season, and as such, I have a healthy dose of links for us to gorge on! No context for these ones, author and titles only – consider it an end-of-year clearing house post.

We’ll be back full force in early January. Thanks to everyone for reading, and thanks to all the great bloggers and writers out there for providing us with such great material to link to. Here's what we've dug out for this week:

- Rob Zacny for his personal blog – ‘Playing Optimally’.

- The Escapist’s Extra Credits – ‘Narrative Mechanics’.

- Evan Jones at Gamasutra blogs – ‘Breaking Down (the Idea of) the Locked Door’

- Gus Mastrapa at Joystick Division – ‘Gamers are Sheep’.

- Jeff Jackson at GameLanguage – ‘Will Defending the Homefront Mean Being Anti-Asian?’

- Nick Dinicola at PopMatters – ‘Gaming and Politics’.

- Troy Goodfellow at Flash of Steel – ‘The Chinese National Character’.

- Steven O’Dell at Raptured Reality – ‘Talking About Minecraft #2: Narrative Implications’.

- The Game Prodigy blogger – ‘Meet Facebook Games’ Ancestor: Coin-op arcades’.

- Zach Alexander at Hailing From The Edge – ‘In Defence of Trolling’.

- Angelo at Bergsonian Critique – ‘On Calling, or Attempting to Understand Fear in Japanese Horror Games’.

- Eric Swain at The Game Critique – ‘Indie Game Spotlight: One Chance’.

- Dutch language game blog ‘Bashers.nl’ – ‘War has never seemed this real’.

- Daniel Primed with Three – ‘God of War III – Kratos: Villain, Anti-Hero or Indifferent’, ‘God of War III – Graphical Attrition’ and ‘Diner Dash and Interactive Capitalism’.

- Ben Abraham (hey, that’s me) on BenAbraham.net – ‘Rhetorical Questions’.

- Adrian Forest at Three Parts Theory – ‘Rhetorical Answers’.

- David Carlton at Malvasia Bianca – ‘Ben’s Rhetorical Questions’.

- Nick Paumgarten at The New Yorker – ‘Master of Play’.

- John Brownlee at GearFuse – ‘Unevenly Distributed: Minecraft (or I have no mouth and I must build)’.

- Michael Abbott at The Brainy Gamer – ‘The Action is in the Margins’.

- Peter Shafer at Ruminatron5000 – ‘Is it wrong to hate Shadow of the Colosus’?

- Benjamin Garratt at The Last Metaphor – ‘Compressed Space in Red Dead Redemption’.

- Ferguson at Interactive Illuminatus – ‘Schell School’.

- Ruffin at Curmudgeon Gamer – ‘Merry Xmas to me: How I learned to hate Steam’.

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Originally released in 1997 for the Sega Saturn, Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers is the sequel to Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner (also never released in the West) and a dark RPG that Hardcore Gaming 101 describes as "like .hack but without all of the extraneous nonsense".

I've mostly heard great things about its mix of occult and hacker themes, but apparently Sony turned Atlus down when the developer/publisher sought to localize Soul Hackers' PS1 re-release years ago. Fan translation group Devil Hackers, which also released the Persona 2: Innocent Sin English patch, is working to fix that!

The team started working on the Soul Hackers PS1 translation last year and have just released a trailer showing off its progress. It hasn't announced an expected released date, but one of its members shared some info about what he's working on while making sure to trash TOSE's work on the port:

"... I’ve written the more-or-less finalized variable width font (VWF) code for Soul Hackers, which means what you see can be almost considered final quality, at least visually speaking. I’ve been working on this code for a while, like since September, but I’ve been busy with University, other real life stuff, and translation-related side projects.

For this particular hack I cheated a bit by writing 98% of the code in C instead of the usual 100% assembly; it was because SH uses a weird manner for printing text to screen which is caused by the fact that TOSE (a company well know for crappy portings, like all those rehashes of FF4-5-6) didn’t bother to actually reprogram the low level stuff and half assed some sort of emulation for several visual aspects of the game.

TOSE is not new to this kind of bullshit, so I had to equip myself with powerful means to tackle their idiocy efficiently: a high level language was the perfect solution. It’s not perfect yet (you can see weird glitches happening sometimes), but it’s decent enough for a teaser trailer."

Posted by Eric Caoili at 2:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Organizers of the 2011 Independent Games Festival are pleased to announce the jury panel that will determine the finalists and winner of its Excellence in Design award, a category which seeks to highlight the innovation and quality of the underlying blueprint of each entered game -- component parts like its mechanic design, level design, and difficulty balancing.

Prior finalists and winners of the IGF Excellence in Design Award have included 2D Boy's cartoon construction puzzler World of Goo, KranX's music construction puzzler Musaic Box, and Pocketwatch Games' abstracted multiplayer heist game Monaco.

This year, the jury will receive recommendations from the wider body of over 150 IGF Main Competition judges (itself including notable former IGF winners, finalists and indie game notables including Justin Smith, Ben Ruiz, Eric Zimmerman and Wiley Wiggins) as they consider the merits of each of the five finalists and eventual award winner.

The jury consists of the following:

- Dylan Cuthbert (co-founder and designer at Q-Games, creators of the PixelJunk series of games.)
- George Fan (designer of games including Plants Vs. Zombies and the IGF award winning Insaniquarium.)
- Kyle Gray (designer of Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure, co-founder Tomorrow Corporation and Experimental Gameplay Project.)
- Robin Hunicke (designer and producer on games including MySims & Boom Blox, currently working on Journey at thatgamecompany.)
- Gary Penn (creative head at Denki, designer on games including Grand Theft Auto, Crackdown, Quarrel & Denki Blocks.)
- Kris Piotrowski (co-founder & creative director at Capy, creators of games including Critter Crunch, Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes.)
- Petri Purho (designer of the IGF award winning Crayon Physics Deluxe.)
- Margaret Robertson (former editor of Edge Magazine and consultant, now designer and development director at Hide&Seek)
- Adam Saltsman (co-founder of Semi Secret Software, creators of Wurdle, Gravity Hook HD & Canabalt.)
- Andy Schatz (founder of Pocketwatch Games, creators of the IGF nominated Wildlife Tycoon: Venture Africa and the IGF award winning Monaco.)
- Mare Sheppard (co-founder of Metanet Software, creators of N.)
- Randy Smith (co-owner and designer at Tiger Style, creators of Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor, former designer on the Thief series.)

The announcement is the sixth in a series revealing specific juries for each IGF Award, following the debut of the Nuovo Award jury, the Excellence in Audio jury, the Technical Excellence jury, the Visual Art jury, and, most recently, the first newly integrated Mobile Game jury, made up of independent mobile game designers like Adam Saltsman, Eddy Boxerman, Phil Hassey and Olivier Lejade.

All entries in the 2011 Independent Games Festival are currently browsable at the IGF's official site, where you can also find more complete biographical information on the Excellence In Design jury.

All five finalists will be announced -- along with a jury statement detailing the thought process behind selecting its lineup -- on January 3rd, 2011. All finalists will be playable at the IGF Pavilion on the show floor during Game Developers Conference 2011, with the winner announced on the evening of March 2, 2011, at the IGF Awards, during the Game Developers Conference 2011.

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Picnic Films, which produces short documentaries and educational/corporate films, recently posted this video that takes viewers to NaturalMotion's Oxford office and introduces them to how knowledge and manipulation of physics, gravity, and momentum play into video game development.

NaturalMotion's Euphoria software for animating 3D characters is used in a number of popular titles, like Grand Theft Auto IV and Red Dead Redemption, and you can see it in action here to show how physics plays into Back Breaker -- there's a fun bit that shows what playing football on the moon might look like, too.

According to Picnic Films, NaturalMotion's CEO Torsten Reil agreed to take part in this film because he was "fed up with young graduates applying to his company for jobs with the wrong qualifications" and wanted to stress that programmers "need a degree in maths or physics" to work in the gaming industry.

Or, as mentioned earlier, $0.99 should be enough to get you started.

Posted by Eric Caoili at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

If you've not purchased Game Dev Story for your favorite iOS/Android device since we last features the Kairosoft management sim, here's your chance to download the game for super cheap, as it's on sale for $0.99 at the App Store and $1.20 on Android Market (75% off) -- that deal ends today, though, so pick it up soon if you want so save a few bucks.

In Game Dev Story, players run a development studio, hiring/training/firing staff, shipping games for different platforms and genres (players get to title them), see how their releases are reviewed and how many copies sell, and more. It's an addictive title that almost anyone interested in game history or the game industry can appreciate.

Our sister site Gamasutra ranked the game as not only one of its top 5 cult games for 2010, buts its top iOS game for the year! You can check out a clip of Game Dev Story after the break:

[Via IndieGames.com]

Posted by Eric Caoili at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

[Originally run over on our sister site IndieGames.com, our very own Michael Rose casts his eye across the feast of independent games coming at you in 2011, and picks some personal favorites to watch out for in the New Year and beyond.]

Have you heard the news? Apparently there's a new year coming soon, and it's going to look a bit like the one we have now, except slightly upgraded by one measure.

These developers, huh - releasing things that aren't fully complete, and then expecting us to pay for the latest version even though it's barely different to the one we already have!

Anyway, there are quite a few indie games coming out for this new update, so I've had a crack at choosing just ten of them. These are the indie games I'm the most excited about, and you should be too.

Note that if any of the games on my 'Coming in 2010' list were pushed back to 2011, I've not featured them again here - that includes Fez, Vessel, Gemini Rue, Tuning and Saturated Dreamers. Which is kinda embarrassing, when you consider that was half of my list.

Note that while I've chosen just ten, I'm also very much aware that there are plenty of other great indie games launching in 2011. Feel free to berate me in the comments for not having the same list as you - it's how the internet works, don't you know!

Retro City Rampage (Vblank Entertainment)

So excited for this - Retro City Rampage is a parody open-world Grand Theft Auto style drive and shoot 'em up. You take control of The Player, causing havoc around town by running over as many people as you can and starting huge shootouts with the police.

This is very much a gamer's game, with so many harks back to games of old. The game throws you all over the place, and never stays in a single gaming genre for too long - one minute you'll be stealthy dodging through mazes of cops, then next you'll be in a side-scrolling perspective. The whole time, there are score chains racking up as the most wonderful tunes play. Retro City Rampage is coming to Xbox Live Arcade and WiiWare in 2011.

Monaco (Pocketwatch Games)

When a game manages to win the Independent Games Festival Grand Prize after around one month of development, you know it must be something special. Monaco puts you and up to three friends in the boots of master thieves, as you attempt to pull off the greatest heists around the city of Monaco.

Each character class has different skills, from unlocking doors quickly to messing around with security systems, hence you and your friends will need to work as a team to infiltrate various banks, mansions and even a yacht, and successfully take home the most expensive prizes. We talked to developer Andy Schatz on the IndieGames podcast recently, so if you want all the best details about the game, make sure you give that a listen.

Spy Party (Chris Hecker)

Spy Party, or 'try your best to act like an AI character', is a 2-player espionage experience that will mess with your mind. One player takes the role of the spy, while the other is a sniper. The spy must complete some tasks around a bustling crowd, while the sniper must work out who the player is and shoot them before they manage to fulfil these tasks.

Might sound like the sniper has an easy job, but honestly it's far from it. There are so many characters walking around that it can be incredibly difficult to work out where your target is. The idea is to watch for any 'tells' - e.g. a character moving strangely, or interacting with scenery in a way which they shouldn't. The spy, on the other hand, must plan their route effectively so that they don't look out of place. Very clever, and bound to cause many late night spy sessions. The graphics are currently place-holder, for those wondering.

The Witness (Jonathan Blow)

So, what do we know about The Witness? We know it is an exploration-puzzle set on a mysterious island, and that it looks rather like it takes inspiration from the Myst series, but perhaps not too much. We know that some people have already given it a play, although it may not have been that obvious as to what they were playing.

Jon Blow has began to open up a little on his development blog about the game, but it's still very much shrouded in mystery. As the next game after Braid, it's quite the 'difficult second album' scenario, and hopefully The Witness will deliver. You can follow the game's progress over on the blog.

Dust: An Elysian Tail (Humble Hearts)

Winner of the Dream.Build.Play competition back in 2009, Dust: An Elysian Tail is headed to Xbox Live Arcade in 2011. Watch the above teaser, and tell me you're not excited. Go on, I dare you. It looks utterly stunning, and is bound to be one of the big XBLA hitters next year.

It's a side-scrolling battler/RPG, following the protagonist Dust who will looking to rediscover his past. Everything you see is hand-animated and painted - in fact, there is also a feature film in production called Elysian Tail that will follow the same style. There's been no news on the official site since July, but a release date of 'late 2011' is still on the cards, so let's just hope it isn't delayed.

Dustforce (Hitbox)

A second dust-down for 2011, Dustforce is a platformer with a unique twist - armed with a broom, your character can stick to walls and ceilings by cleaning up dust, like some kind of sanitary Super Meat Boy. It looks stupidly slick in action too, with gorgeous visuals and the kind of soundtrack I can really get into.

The feel of the controls is going to be what makes or breaks this game, with tight jumps to make and plenty of spikes to leap over. The final product will also come with a full level editor for designing your own dirty runs. The official site for the game still shows absolutely nothing at all, which is just not acceptable - I want information now, dammit!

Capsized (Alientrap Software)

Coming next year for Xbox 360 and PC, Capsized has been in development for many a moon. It's a 2D platformer set on a strange planet, with plenty of aliens and a very cool jetpack. You've crash-landed in this very green world, and must find all your fellow landees and bring them to safety.

A grappling mechanic is what makes this game really interesting. It can be used to swing across pits and baddies, but also attached to rocks and obstacles, allowing you to drag them out of the way. Online multiplayer is also planned, with up to four players battling is out against each other in what will hopefully be a grand scale Liero-style shooter.

Frozen Synapse (Mode 7 Games)

You may well have played a fair bit of the Frozen Synapse beta already, available for those who pre-order the game. Two players take control of a squad of soldiers in turn-based action that can be played in 10 minutes, or over the course of 10 months if you choose, thanks to a clever saving system.

In addition to the current multiplayer set-up, there is also a single player campaign in the works for brushing up on your strategic skills so that your friends will never stand a chance. Check out our preview from early in the year for all the info that you need.

Skulls of the Shogun (Haunted Temple Studios)

Imagine Advance Wars with free movement rather than a grid, and crazy undead demons instead of tanks, and you've got a simple idea of how Skulls of the Shogun plays and looks. Two teams attempt to overthrow each other by cleverly taking up positions, laying into each other's skeleton armies, and then picking up the leftover skulls.

Skulls are what make this game so interesting - allow one of your party to eat three skulls, and they'll burst into black flames and become so much more powerful. The art style is particularly lovely, and gives the action so much personality. The game is aimed for a 2011 release on both PC and Xbox 360. Check out our preview for a more in-depth look.

Subversion (Introversion Software)

Started back in 2006 by the British guys behind Darwinia, DEFCON and Uplink, Subversion is heavy on the procedurally generated content, and puts you in the shoes of a master criminal as you attempt to break into banks, vaults and other such high security areas.

You have a team of operatives who can sabotage security systems, hack terminals, trick employees and blow stuff up. The idea is to get in and get out without the victims knowing you were even there, but a Plan B is always a good idea too. Make sure you watch the above demonstration video for more details.

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Independent developer StarQuail (a name I love, probably because it reminds me of Quailman) has announced the launch of Astroman, its 2D platformer for Xbox Live Indie Games. When we last mentioned this title, one of our readers described it as "Super Metroid meets Star Control, with the aesthetics of a modern Math Blasters" after seeing the trailer, which sounds like an amazing premise.

Here's StarQuail's set up for Astroman:

"The greatest of space cliches has befallen our unfortunate hero--crash landed on an unknown planet, his space ship in pieces, and nothing but his space suit and a gun that doesn't seem to have enough ammo in it.

Luckily, he can find suit upgrades scattered around enormous levels to make finding the ship pieces easier, ship pieces will expand the range of his ship to search other worlds for more parts and upgrades, and it turns out that the worlds in this system have plenty of extra ammunition lying around, because he'll need all the ammunition he can find in order to zorch the many varieties of hostile alien life he'll encounter along the way."

Posted by Eric Caoili at 2:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

[In a light-hearted post-Christmas countdown, big sister site Gamasutra's editor-at-large Chris Morris examines the unexpected moments of 2010 in gaming, from Justice Kagan on Mortal Kombat to Panasonic's Jungle.]

Talk about a topsy-turvy year. The video game industry has weathered its share of good and bad in 2010, but what made things really interesting were the completely unexpected moments – things we could never have predicted, no matter how many clues we were given.

From THQ’s decision to launch an experimental pricing strategy that could lob $20 off the price of games if it’s successful, to the return of a circus-like E3 environment (topped by Activision’s Lollapalooza-like concert), there were plenty of shocking moments in 2010.

We’ve tried to narrow things down to the five biggest surprises – but we suspect you’ve got a few ideas that didn’t occur to us. Sound off in the comments below.

5. Justice Kagan Shocks The Court

The November U.S. Supreme Court hearing centering on whether the sale of violent video games to children should be regulated was serious business. A ruling in the wrong direction could have significant financial and creative effects on game publishers and developers.

The scariest part for gamers, though, was that none of the Justices seemed to fit the gamer demographic – and many seemed to think that Postal 2 was representative of the entire industry.

But when Justice Elena Kagan shifted her questioning away from that title and onto the stalwart fighting game Mortal Kombat, it was California’s attorney whose mouth was agape.

“You think Mortal Kombat is prohibited by this statute?,” she asked out of the blue.

“I believe it’s a candidate Your Honor, but I haven't played the game and been exposed to it sufficiently to judge for myself,” Morazzini replied after a short pause.

“It's a candidate,” she quickly followed up, “meaning, yes, a reasonable jury could find that Mortal Kombat, which is an iconic game, which I am sure half of the clerks who work for us spend considerable amounts of time in their adolescence playing…”

4. Nintendo’s Weird Timing

For months, Nintendo carefully built up the hype for the DSi XL. It was a product that faced a bit of an uphill battle to begin with, as it was yet another tweak of the aging DS line.

But the company hoped the update would goose consumer demand and the larger screen would make the handheld device more appealing to a wider audience.

Then, one week before the product launched in the US, Nintendo pulled the rug out from under it – announcing it was working on a 3D handheld gaming system that didn’t require users to wear special glasses, which would be out in less than a year. The announcement, in short, sent the message to U.S. buyers of the $190 Nintendo DSi XL that they were buying technology that would quickly be outdated.

Looming press leaks in Japan (and Nintendo’s desire to control the news) were the likely reason for the ill-timed announcement, but it still had people scratching their heads.

3. The Return Of An Old Friend

Long-suffering fans of the Duke Nukem franchise were just about at the end of the grieving process for Duke Nukem Forever when Gearbox Software shocked the world at Penny Arcade Expo this year.

Assumed dead after the rapid and ugly demise of 3D Realms, the game had been secretly purchased by Gearbox and will be out in 2011. Fans rejoiced, and doubters looked at the playable footage in amazement.

The general consensus among those who played was that the game was actually a hell of a lot of fun, as Randy Pitchford told us "...where we’re at now is a drama free world, where everyone is focused on making it work". We’ll find out in the coming months.

2. Hollywood Turns To The Classics

Movies and TV shows based on video games are nothing new. Tomb Raider, Resident Evil and Prince of Persia have all had their time on the big and small screen. But 2010 was the year the lunatics seemingly took over the asylum.

First, in July, came word that Universal Studios had won a bidding war – a bidding war, mind you! – for the film rights to the Asteroids video game. Disney writer Matthew Lopez (Bedtime Stories, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice) will pen the script, while Lorenzo di Bonaventura (Transformers, GI Joe, Doom) is producing.

Then, as if things couldn’t get stranger, at E3 super-producer Avi Arad (former CEO of Marvel Studios and now executive adviser for Namco Bandai) announced plans to bring Pac-Man back to TV – and in 3D, no less.

The plot centered on ghosts trying to overtake Pac-Man's world. It's up to Pac-Man, who's a high school student, to save the world. In this mission, he'll be assisted by his Pac-friends and four friendly ghosts -- Pinky, Inky, Blinky and Clyde (who were the little guy's archenemies in the original arcade game).

"We feel we have a unique opportunity to have an action adventure, human interest story," Arad told me for a Variety story. "As a filmmaker, it's a unique opportunity to get to know the characters you play. … We don't know what happened to Pac-Man's parents. He's the only yellow one in Pac-Land; what does that mean? Is it a social statement? We'll find out."

1. It’s A Jungle Out There

Apple is a growing force in the handheld market. Nintendo has been seeing its DS sales diminish rapidly. And Sony’s PSP is almost an afterthought. The competition is tougher than it has ever been.

So what better time for a company that knows virtually nothing about the modern gaming space -- Panasonic -- to jump in, right?

In October, the company unveiled 'The Jungle' – a handheld device that it said would make MMOs portable. Problem was: The design was horrible and the idea was dim-witted. And reactions from gamers, analysts and most gaming insiders ranged from skeptical and indifferent at best to howls of hysterical laughter at worst.

Panasonic remains resolute, though. The company began public testing of the device late last month, insisting: "We know other companies out there have traditional hand-held gaming covered... We’re doing something very different." We'll... see how they do?

[Previously in our end-of-year round-up: Top 10 Games of the Year, Top 5 Downloadable Games, Top 5 Cult Games, Top 5 Handheld Games, Top 5 PC Games, Top 10 Indie Games, Top 5 Developers, Top 5 Trends, Top 5 Major Industry Events, Top 5 Surprises, Top 5 Disappointments, Top 5 Controversies, and Most Anticipated Games Of 2011.]

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last week, Metafilter featured an informative and intriguing post on The Digital Village's Starship Titanic, a 1988 adventure game designed by Douglas Adams and based on the doomed craft briefly alluded to in the third Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy book, Life, the Universe and Everything.

The post is already an excellent resource for anyone wanting to play the abandonware game or check out the stuff that that was included with original copies (a fictional newspaper, bot profiles, and more), but it gets even more fascinating when Yoz Grahame, one of the developers who worked on Startship Titanic, stops by.

He shares some fun trivia about Adams and the game's development, as well as insight on a Starship Titanic promotional site that featured a cute easter egg that's since taken a life of its own:

"When we created the initial fake-brochure site, we thought it'd be a fantastic laugh if the fictional shipbuilders had their own intranet. If you filled in the form on the brochure site (specifying your name, email address and favourite species of frog), we followed the occasional mail about the game.

Then, one day, folks got a mail from the intranet admin, 'Chris Stevedave', giving folks the link to the intranet and the current password, which was hurriedly followed by a second mail apologising for the accidental mail leakage and urging customers not to click the link, then a third email noting that Chris Stevedave had been demoted to Bilge Emptier Third-Class.

It worked fantastically (so fantastically that some people really did send the emails back, reassuring us that they hadn't looked at the site); everyone poured into the Starlight Lines intranet.

Grahame says the intranet area was originally just a read-only Senior Management forum that offers visitors a peek at "some of the key backstory characters getting on each others' nerves", but he ended up spending half a day hacking a basic writeable forum for lower-level employees, or players, and forgot about it shortly afterward.

When he remembered to check the employee forum six months after the site launched, he found that there were already ten thousand posts on the forum:

Because it was buried one password and six clicks into the site, only a few dedicated people found it, and found each other. And once they were there, they started roleplaying Starlight Lines, and didn't stop evolving a long and bizarre narrative for the next thirteen years. When TDV died I moved the forum to my own hosting; every so often one of the players will poke me because something's broken, and I'll eventually fix it and they can carry on with their adventures.

It's been thirteen years of hosting an accidental community. It's somewhat like ignoring the vegetable drawer of your fridge for a year, then opening it to find a bunch of very grateful sentient tomatoes busily working on their third opera. It's one of the most remarkable things I've seen on the internet and I'm honoured to have inadvertently helped create it, not least because it got me a few fun speaking gigs."

[Via Waxy.org]

Posted by Eric Caoili at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

While there's not a lot of information on this project yet, indie developer "Tennis" has been working off and on for at least a year to build this Gunboy sidescrolling platformer, which features some great artwork (love the background/environment in this clip!) and music. I'm not sure what the bouncing watermelons are about other than easy points, but those are neat, too.

The real interesting part about this project and gameplay video, though, is the hero's switching between different "outfits"/powers, similar to Mega Man. The blue/water outfit seems to be the protagonist's default state, the orange/fire costume shoots exploding balls, and the green/earth one spits out temporary platforms that also crash down on enemies below.

Tennis hasn't revealed what platform Gunboy is for -- or much else about the project, really -- but I suspect it's for PC. Hopefully we'll hear more about his progress on the game soon!

Posted by Eric Caoili at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

[Big sister site Gamasutra's look back on 2010 continues with our staff's list of the top 10 games of the year, from a small PC gem to a great big Western and beyond -- plus personal choices from each of our writers.]

We've been on a major retrospective trip here at Gamasutra, but ultimately it's the games that define a year, right? Together, the Gamasutra staff discussed the games that made the greatest impressions on us, and decided on a list we feel represents the greatest 2010 has to offer -- the games that will remain in our memories as having defined the year for technical sophistication, storytelling, innovation, and pure intangible experience value.

Of course, each of us have titles we individually love, too, and as a "top 10" only allows us to collectively agree on 10 games, each of us herein individually gives special recognition to games we felt strongly about this year.

In an exciting year for major new releases, the staff of Gamasutra is excited to present to you our top 10 games of 2010.

10. Civilization V (Firaxis/2K Games, PC)

It's somewhat ironic that Take-Two developer Firaxis delivered such a thorough re-freshening of the classic Civilization franchise by employing a decades-old strategy game concept: the hex map.

Civilization V is the first time that the franchise has used a hex map, but the changes and improvements to the series went far beyond that fundamental shift. As a whole, Firaxis managed to accomplish a supremely difficult task, which is streamlining a complex strategy game to make it more accessible without dumbing it down.

It launched with some issues, but like past Civilization games, there will be ongoing updates and improvements to the complex system. Despite any issues, even on release day, Civilization V was still was fun enough to play for hours straight. To call this game a timesink is a disservice; Civilization V solidifies the continuing relevance of the revered series, and is one of the best arguments for the importance of the overall turn-based strategy genre that you can find.

9. Mass Effect 2 (BioWare/EA, Xbox 360/PS3/PC)

For a developer with such deep roots in classic PC-based role-playing games like Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights, BioWare has shown over the past several years increasing understanding of what kind of gameplay works for console players, at the same time bringing over the rich storytelling that classic BioWare PC games were known for.

That said, the PC version of Mass Effect 2 was enjoyable in its own right. A sprawling universe, unexpected, clever story developments and a memorable ending (much more so than the original Mass Effect) means this RPG finds fans on both sides of the PC-console divide.

There are some legitimate complaints about the game: the battle system, while improved, could still do with more interesting inter-character combo attacks, the side roads of a branching storyline ultimately merge back into a largely linear interstate, and, well, there was the planet scanning (which wasn't quite as tedious with a mouse as opposed to a controller).

But even with those issues, Mass Effect 2 is overall an experience infused with memorable characters, planets and events that feel distinctly "Mass Effect," a notable achievement in such a crowded genre.

8. Minecraft (Notch, PC)

The basic human instinct to practice survival through play is woven into the DNA of all video games, but in Minecraft, the indie title that dominated PC gaming in 2010, it's hewn into the very rocks that make up its randomly-generated world. You are deposited into a field, your only task to create shelter for yourself from the beasts that rise at sunset. It's survival horror in its purest form, no need for cinematic shocks to punctuate the creeping sense of dread as you race to fashion tools from gathered wood and set about digging a hole in which to cower.

Survive the first night and the game that dawns on the second day is entirely different to the one you played on the first. Minecraft's brilliance is to be found in the way in which goals, almost all self-made, unfurl in new directions with the passing of time. Want to construct a working computer? Sure. Create a scale replica of the Taj Mahal? No problems. How about turn the world into a giant Monopoly set? Pass go. By giving the player exactly the tools they need to express themselves, Minecraft is perhaps the closest we have to a true God game.

And outside of its confines, it's one of the most interesting commercial stories of the year, turning its one man creator, Notch, into a multi-millionaire before it's even into Beta. As a result, here is a little game that in its purity of vision has irrevocably changed the very landscape of gaming, even as we have irrevocably changed its own landscape in kind.

7. Fallout: New Vegas (Obsidian/Bethesda, Xbox 360/PS3/PC)

Much coverage of the long-awaited Fallout 3 follow-up revolved around the bugs and imperfections present in the title, but players were in for something incredible if they could be patient (or lucky). It seemed hard to top the vision of the U.S. capital nearly melted to ash, but the portrayal of a former hub of American decadence at distance of the zone is in many ways more fascinating in its nuance.

The distinct influence of Rome's tragic story of out-of-control power on the gameworld is well-thought, and appropriate, and the game offers enough freedom that the player can choose to make it either a celebration or a condemnation of all kinds of excess. And as the game starts to draw a story of factions warring for control, the loyalty system in which the player participates provokes lots of thought on the nature of power in a world with laws upended.

So maybe it needed a little more time, but in a year of big blockbusters, a project with a little subtlety, a richly-realized world and a thoughtful, multilayered story came much appreciated.

6. Rock Band 3 (Harmonix/MTV Games, PS3, Xbox 360, Wii)

The latest entry in the Rock Band series may not pack the explosive commercial punch that the franchise did just a few short years ago -- let alone the insane hype of the Beatles edition -- but it does refine and expand the concept in important and compelling ways.

Of course, the most obvious addition is the "pro mode" songs and instruments. Designed to let players transition from mimicry to true performance, they're an interesting and rare example of video games, outside of the serious games sphere, teaching real-world skills.

But just as important in many ways is the complete and total refinement of interface and copious customizability of play modes. Rock Band 3 has evolved into the ultimate party game not just because everyone loves to play, but because Harmonix puts real thought into making it simple and accessible -- and the studio is at the forefront of U.I. design in the industry.

5. StarCraft II (Blizzard Entertainment/Activision Blizzard, PC)

If you want huge innovation in a real-time strategy game, don't look to StarCraft II.

But if you want fast-paced multiplayer gameplay that has over a decade of polish under its belt (plus continuing balancing) and a single-player story that delivers the flawlessly-delivered, borderline sci-fi camp-ness and action that StarCraft fans expect, then here's your game. Innovation was never Blizzard's goal with StarCraft II -- the goal was peerless execution.

Just the fact that the incredibly-polished StarCraft II delivered on such inordinately high expectations is enough for it to make the top of this list. Successfully take on the enormously difficult task of integrating the game with a totally new Battle.net, sell a million copies on opening day and bring back old StarCraft fans while creating new ones... then you have one of the standout games of 2010.

4. Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Nintendo, Wii)

It'd be easy to assume Nintendo was just cashing in on the success of the original Super Mario Galaxy with this sequel, the first direct, same-console follow-up to a major Mario game since the original NES (Yoshi's Island is way too different to count, nitpickers). And at first glance, the game does seem like nothing more than an expansion pack containing additional levels for the widely hailed original.

But oh, what levels. Galaxy 2 highlights the franchise penchant for inventive design by spreading the by-now-familiar collectible stars across many more areas than previous 3D Mario adventures, each making inventive use of the game's gravity-warping physics and tight controls. The result is shorter, more distinct levels that feel more focused on a single theme, yet without losing the sprawling sense of open exploration that has been a series hallmark since Super Mario 64. And then, just when you think the game is wrapping up, new star and time trial challenges encourage even more exploration of these dozens of exquisite, self-contained universes.

The clever reintroduction of a rideable Yoshi, new suits and items and some of the toughest challenges this side of Super Mario World's Special World further prove that this title was more than a quick cash-in. Usually we'd be ready for Nintendo to take its time and prepare something truly new for the next Mario adventure, but as it stands we wouldn't be at all unhappy if the company announces Super Mario Galaxy 3 for a quick release.

3. Bayonetta (PlatinumGames/Sega, Xbox 360/PS3)

Platinum's Bayonetta seems as if it's trying hard not to be liked: Hyper-stylized to the point of garishness, it features a disproportionate heroine who uses her hair as a weapon -- and as clothing, meaning she frequently ends up naked. What is this, a deliberate kiss-off to healthy female role models? Plus, the game's garish and implausible, bursting with filigree, butterflies and senseless conglomerations of religious iconography, begging to be deemed poster child for the whole "Japanese games alienate Westerners" thing.

And yet, somehow it all works as absurdist fiction. Bayonetta is like a slick, glorious pulp movie, its excesses as celebratory as a Tarantino film. It wages such a calculated, eloquent war on taste that it creates its own style, riotously pleasing to play. It doesn't hurt that the combat feels brilliantly-executed, fluid and hooky as choreography, and that the action sequences are in large part tautly plotted and exhilarating, with storyline and interface that stay wisely out of the player's way.

The game is a spiritual sibling to the Devil May Cry series in more ways than one, but Devil May Cry took a long time before it hesitantly stopped pretending it wasn't ridiculous. Bayonetta is proud of what it does and it does it all-out, with delightful distinctiveness and aplomb.

2. Super Meat Boy (Team Meat, XBLA, PC, Mac)

Edmund McMillan and Tommy Refenes at Team Meat never expected Super Meat Boy to be quite the XBLA hit that it has, but perhaps they should have. This tough-as-nails platformer is so chock full of content that it'd be a bargain even at boxed retail price, with alternate versions of each level, retro throwback mini-stages accessible through warp zones, and unlockable characters and modes.

The thing SMB (not an accidental acronym, I'm sure) gets most right is the control, which in spite of using the 360 analog stick, manages to feel precise and sticky, even in a 2D environment. This means that no matter how difficult the game may be, you always know it's your fault when you die, which can minimize frustration (well, a bit at least).

The game also features characters from other classic indie games, such as Braid, Alien Hominid, and Spelunky, making for a package that is so precise, so clever, and so robust that it's no wonder folks are raving about it. McMillan's irreverent sense of humor doesn't hurt either, extending even to the point of baiting PETA into making a parody of his game, which he then turned around and parodied himself.

1. Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar San Diego/Rockstar Games, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3)

You're half-dead, under heavy fire from the Mexican army and running out of ammunition. In desperation you call your horse, who gallops over the ridge with the sun rising at its back through the sage. You swing onto the saddle and ride like hell until you reach the next safe town.

That scenarios like this are so common in Red Dead Redemption speaks volumes to the reverence with which Rockstar treated the Western genre, effectively ending the game developer legend that "cowboy games don't sell." RDR presented a compelling open world that players hadn't really been exposed to in games before (at least not this effectively), and the result was a slew of accolades and massive sales.

The game does a fantastic job of making the player feel like they're making significant choices, forming relationships (especially with horses), and discovering locations on their own, when in fact their options are rather limited - that kind of trickery is to be praised, since the intent is to entertain the player.

And let's not forget the excellent downloadable content, including the popular Undead Nightmare, which adds zombies (overplayed though they may be) and a firefight mode to the game's already excellent multiplayer mode.

In all, Red Dead Redemption makes our list because it inspires imagination and engagement in players, giving the game a sense of agency and purpose, which is what many (if not all) games aspire to.

Staff Picks

Leigh Alexander, News Director, Gamasutra:

Halo: Reach (Bungie, Xbox 360) Thanks to a graceful visual palette and an actually-sincere attention to storytelling, it's the first title in the franchise I didn't roll my eyes at.

BioShock 2 (2K, Xbox 360/PS3, PC) The original was a tough act to follow, but the sequel was wildly underrated -- with smart thematic continuance, gorgeous setpieces and more compelling characters, it did a couple of things better than its predecessor.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (MercurySteam, Xbox 360/PS3) Unfortunate that pacing issues and slow entry turned many away from what, by its resolution, was might be the first real story in the dated Castlevania franchise. And baffling that somewhat-earned gameplay comparisons to God of War, arguably the leading melee combat title, worked as negatives?

Brandon Sheffield, Editor-in-Chief, Game Developer Magazine:

Deadly Premonition (Access Games, Xbox 360/PS3) Great story and dialog, bizarre design choices and 80s pop culture history abound in 2010's top cult game, and my personal game of the year.

Super Street Fighter IV (Capcom, Xbox 360/PS3) Street Fighter IV revitalized the fighting genre, and SSFIV is really just more of the same - but more of the same greatness still makes a list, for me!

Kinectimals (Frontier Developments, Xbox 360 Kinect) This is one of the best-written and best-designed games for kids I've seen in ages, allowing a child to be taken on a personal adventure with a personal pet. Great youth-orientation.

Simon Carless, Global Brand Director, UBM TechWeb Game Network:

Pinball FX 2 (Zen Studios, XBLA) A pinball simulation on a computer may not be the most 'video game'-like experience, but Zen's expertise in designing tables and the well-crafted, modular nature of buying/importing new content shines through. Add to that best-in-class social integration with regard to individual/friend high scores, plus perfect simulation and compelling gameplay, and you get easily one of the most fun games of the year.

Joe Danger (Hello Games, PSN) Joe Danger is a lot of fun, but it's the polished, careful, almost reverent attitude to making 'an arcade game' that really impressed. When the independent games scene is increasingly about deep thoughts and artistic statements, it's great to see a title that's just intended to be a lot of fun -- and, more to the point, delivers.

Chime (Zoe Mode, Xbox Live Arcade/PC) Despite some deliberately warring game mechanics -- which may even spice up the tension in the title -- Chime feels like a serene, wondrous audio-visual feast. It particularly helped that the soundtrack was bang on my tastes, spanning Lemon Jelly and Orbital notables, but the biggest shame was the lack of DLC.

Christian Nutt, Features Director, Gamasutra:

Heavy Rain (Quantic Dream, PS3) It drew a lot of attention for delivering storytelling outside of the norm for games -- and this is good. Heavy Rain was gripping and emotionally affecting, and most importantly tied gameplay and story together instrinsically.

Nier (Square Enix, Xbox 360/PS3) Nier also told a very affecting story and did it while playing with Japanese RPG and action game tropes, coming from left field to be Square Enix's best game of the year (in a year with two mainline Final Fantasy releases.)

Kirby's Epic Yarn (Nintendo, Wii) It may have been Entertainment Weekly's Worst Game of the Year but was also as charming as the series has ever been, and an exemplar of inventively tying aesthetics to gameplay.

Kris Graft, Senior News Editor, Gamasutra

No More Heroes 2 (Grasshopper Manufacture, Wii) More than a streamlined sequel, No More Heroes 2 adds more assassins with more character to the No More Heroes formula. And the anime-loving, murderous protagonist Travis Touchdown shows a slight hint of inner conflict about his profession... but not so much as to spoil the fun.

Amnesia: The Dark Descent (Frictional Games, PC) One of the scariest games in recent memory, Amnesia immerses players in an eerie, atmospheric castle inhabited by seemingly omnipresent, evil creatures. The tension can bear down so hard that you might need to step back, collect your sanity, and remind yourself that this is only a game.

Call of Duty: Black Ops (Treyarch, Xbox 360/PS3/PC/Wii) You can knock Call of Duty: Black Ops' fist-bumping machismo, but the game knows what it is: an unapologetic, violent shoot-fest. An intriguing mind-bending story that plays with history and over-the-top multiplayer (that adds killer packs of dogs!) means Black Ops will keep players busy till the next Call of Duty entry. Oh, and it generated $1 billion in sales, too.

Simon Parkin, European Editor, Gamasutra:

Just Cause 2 (Avalanche Studios, Xbox 360/PS3/PC) One of the first games to elevate explosions into an in-game currency from mere window dressing, Just Cause 2's National Geographic photo-spread of a world is one of the year's most enjoyable to visit both as a tourist and as a terrorist.

Dragon Quest IX (Square Enix, NDS) Yuji Horii's latest may enjoy contemporary flair by way of its multiplayer component, but the fairytale aesthetic is as traditional as it ever was, and repairing this world, one quest at a time, is one of the year's most engaging and affecting journeys.

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (Criterion Games, Xbox 360, PS3, PC) Criterion trimmed away the fat of its previous title, Burnout Paradise and returned to the schizophrenic Need for Speed series' first principle of cops vs. robbers for this startling re-imagination. But it's in the introduction of Autolog, an always-on competitive social network overlay, that this release becomes a game-changer, evolving the humble leaderboard to an obsessive, prodding competitive pursuit.

Kyle Orland, Contributing News Editor, Gamasutra:

Monday Night Combat (Uber Entertainment, XBLA, PC) The best of squad-based combat meets the best of tower-defense in an eminently approachable yet surprisingly deep multiplayer experience.

Dance Central (Harmonix, Xbox 360 Kinect) The best game for showing off the potential of the Kinect is the one that doesn't use your real-world movements to control an on-screen avatar. Instead, it takes the heart-pumping action of Dance Dance Revolution into the real world without such a maddening focus on rhythmic precision to create the world's most accessible rhythm game.

Limbo (Playdead, XBLA) Short, yes, but the combination of foreboding, minimalist aesthetics, clever, outside-the-box puzzles and amusingly gruesome death animations made sure I couldn't put down the controller until the very end.

Tom Curtis, Editorial and Production Intern, Gamasutra and Game Developer Magazine:

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game (Ubisoft Montreal, XBLA/PSN) As a modern throwback to traditional arcade brawlers, Scott Pilgrim shines through its unwavering celebration of both its source material and classic gaming culture.

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (Ubisoft Montreal, Xbox 360/PS3) While best known for introducing multiplayer to the franchise, Brotherhood also offers the series' most robust single player campaign yet, with a slew of optional objectives, missions, and subsystems that make the game's historical setting a joy to inhabit.

Puzzle Agent (Telltale, Wii Ware/iOS, PC) Telltale's Puzzle Agent stands apart from other brain-teasing titles like Professor Layton by offering puzzles that blend seamlessly into the game's overall narrative, and its charming art, writing, and voice work add levity to the game's spooky plot.

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We're a couple days late on this, but Hothead Games (DeathSpank, Swarm) recently uploaded a Christmas-themed entry for its video diary series. Apparently they went into crunch mode to release another one of these so soon after its last video diary, so we'd feel remiss if we didn't feature it.

It's also a pretty funny and almost heartwarming clip -- though vulgar at times -- re-creating Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas with an updated rhyme that tells the tale of how the forum troll tried to spoil gamers' holidays by sabotaging the Hothead development team.

While we're talking about Hothead, the Vancouver-baed indie studio recently released the DeathSpank's soundtrack for free! You can grab it as a direct download or via BitTorrent here.

Posted by Eric Caoili at 2:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Organizers of the 2011 Independent Games Festival are pleased to announce the jury panel that will determine the finalists and winner of its Best Mobile Game award, a category which seeks to highlight the innovation and quality of games for the new wave of mobile devices like the iPhone, iPad, PSP, DS, and Android.

Prior finalists and winners of the IGF Best Mobile Game Award -- previously celebrated in the IGF Mobile sister competition but now part of the IGF Main Competition itself -- include Capy's original puzzler Critter Crunch, Hassey Enterprises' abstract strategy game Galcon, and Tiger Style's insect-snaring adventure Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor.

This year, the jury will receive recommendations from the wider body of over 150 IGF Main Competition judges (itself including notable former IGF winners, finalists and indie game notables including Damien Di Fede, Amanda Williams, Thomas Bedenk and Scott Anderson) as they consider the merits of each of the five finalists and eventual award winner.

The jury consists of the following:

- Colin Anderson (co-founder of Denki, creators of Quarrel, Denki Blocks, Juggle.)
- Eddy Boxerman (founder of Hemisphere Games, creators of the IGF award winning Osmos.)
- Kevin Cancienne (game designer & developer at Area/Code, creators of Drop7.)
- Ramiro Corbetta (game designer at Powerhead Games, creators of the IGF award winning Glow Artisan.)
- Omar Cornut (programmer at Q-Games, co-designer and programmer on Mekensleep's Soul Bubbles.)
- Phil Hassey (creator of the IGF award winning Galcon)
- David Kalina (Former AI programmer behind Splinter Cell, Deus Ex: Invisible War & Thief: Deadly Shadows; owner & engineer of Tiger Style, behind IGF award winning Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor.)
- Olivier Lejade (founder of Mekensleep, creative director of Soul Bubbles.)
- Adam Saltsman (co-founder of Semi Secret Software, creators of Wurdle, Gravity Hook HD & Canabalt.)
- Nathan Vella (co-founder & president of Capy, creators of Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes and IGF award winners Critter Crunch & Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP.)

"The past few years have seen radical shifts in the mobile gaming landscape, to the point where handheld games are not only able to contend with the best on more traditional platforms, but serve as one of the major paths to indie success," said festival chairman Brandon Boyer.

"The debut of the Best Mobile Game category with in the IGF's Main Competition is a direct reflection of that shift, and we all look forward to seeing which finalists are leading the way to that game-anywhere future."

The announcement is the fifth in a series revealing specific juries for each IGF Award, following the debut of the Nuovo Award jury, the Excellence in Audio jury, the Technical Excellence jury and, most recently, the Visual Art jury, made up of independent artists like Craig Adams, Phil Fish, Jakub Dvorsky, Patrick Smith and Paul Robertson.

All entries in the 2011 Independent Games Festival are currently browsable at the IGF's official site, where you can also find more complete biographical information on the Best Mobile Game jury.

All five Mobile finalists will be announced -- along with a jury statement detailing the thought process behind selecting its lineup -- in early January 2011. All finalists will be playable at the IGF Pavilion on the show floor during Game Developers Conference 2011, with the winner announced on the evening of March 2, 2011, at the IGF Awards, during the Game Developers Conference 2011.

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Italian indie Molleindustria, developer of thought-provoking games like Oiligarchy and Every Day The Same Dream, has released Leaky World, an interactive interpretation of Wikileaks spokesman and editor-in-chief Julian Assange's "Conspiracy as Governance" essay.

Molleindustria describes Assange's essay as one that "effectively and concisely describes the drama of transnational power in the information age", though the developer makes sure to point out that it believes the document has several flaws.

Developed in ten days, Leaky World has players connecting cities/nodes on a world map to grow "the global network connecting members of the ruling class" and "to establish complete hegemony before the resistance reaches a critical point."

As the nodes receive more connections, they're more likely to leak information. Once those nodes reach that point, a real world headline about appears at the top of the game, allowing players to pause Leaky World and read the news article.

This project is the first release out of Wikileaks Stories, an initiative inviting independent game designers to "use their artform in the service of freedom and democracy, transforming the information revealed by Wikileaks into computer games."

You can play Leaky World and read Assange's "Conspiracy as Governance" essay on Molleindustria's site.

[Via Infinite Lives]

Posted by Eric Caoili at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The Copenhagen Game Collective's 2011 IGF Nuovo finalist game Brutally Unfair Tactics Totally OK Now, or B.U.T.T.O.N., is now available on Xbox Live Indie Games for you to download and play with up to seven friends.

The one-button party game is split into rounds, during which players must set their controllers down and take six steps back. They're then instructed to complete a physical task (e.g. "Lie on the floor) followed by a micro-challenge (e.g. "Any player whose button is pressed loses").

IGF's Nuovo Jury explained B.U.T.T.O.N.'s nomination:

"B.U.T.T.O.N.'s raucous approach to essentially controller-less play (bar its titular set of buttons) was praised for going 'programmatically in the opposite direction' of the wider industry's take on motion controls like Kinect, Move and the Wii, which 'aspire to control and discipline your movement,' and was called 'one of the few titles here that potentially introduce a new kind of gameplay instead of adding a new twist to existing forms.'"

You can buy B.U.T.T.O.N. for just 80 MS Points or try out a free demo on Xbox Live Indie Games right now. It will release for PC soon.

Posted by Eric Caoili at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

[Continuing big sister site Gamasutra's 2010 roundup, here's GSW co-editor Eric Caoili's top 5 handheld game selections, including monumental releases like Dragon Quest IX and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker.]

Though analysts and mobile gaming advocates will have you believe that everyone's abandoning the Nintendo DS and PSP, that gossip thankfully did little to distract handheld studios from continuing to craft compelling games in 2010.

During a year when many seemed content to spend their portable gaming time with ill-tempered birds and other iOS apps designed for quick entertainment, masterful developers like Kojima Productions and Level-5 forged experiences that immersed players, pulling them in with rich stories, rewarding mechanics, and clever surprises.

Along with its usual collection of quirky titles, the Nintendo DS was impossible to ignore in 2010 for fans of Japanese RPGs, what with a year full of titles like Infinite Space, Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light, Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, Etrian Odyssey III, Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey, and many others.

And PSP owners enjoyed a wealth of top-notch handheld adaptations for home console franchises (e.g. God Of War: Ghost Of Sparta), not to mention an assembly of strange but endearing niche releases like Patchwork Heroes, Invizimals, and Z.H.P. Unlosing Ranger vs. Darkdeath Evilman.

Here are our picks for the top five handheld games of this year (stay tuned for a separate summary of 2010's best mobile titles):

5. WarioWare D.I.Y. (Intelligent Systems) [Nintendo DS]

Years ago, Game Boy creator Gunpei Yokoi dropped some knowledge on a young Yoshio Sakamoto, explaining to the future Metroid director and WarioWare producer, "If you can make pixel art, you can make a game."

This sixth release in Nintendo's madcap microgame series recalls those wise words and keeps the WarioWare formula fresh by offering approachable tools for players to develop and share miniature games with their own pixel art, music, and offbeat ideas.

WarioWare D.I.Y.'s simplicity and whimsy encourages players to create all kinds of microgames -- condensed remakes of classic titles like Karateka, commentaries on real-life topics like emigrating to the U.S., and video game snapshots that capture a part of players' lives in an interactive experience.

4. Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 Portable (Atlus) [PSP]

Atlus likely could have appeased fans with a straight port of 2007's Persona 3, the PS2 RPG praised for its Social Links (NPC friendships that advance character stories and unlock Personas) and dark themes, but the developer packed in more than enough new content to attract both first-time and veteran players to this PSP version.

Along with its new difficulty options, battle system changes inspired by Persona 4, full party control, streamlined overworld interface, and other additions, Persona 3 Portable introduces a female protagonist that brings with her new Social Links, music, and more.

Even in its second re-release (2008's Persona 3 FES being the first), the RPG's dungeon crawling, Social Links, and coming-of-age tale are just as enthralling, and the ability to play it on the go and experience the story from a new perspective make this an essential title for any fan of offbeat RPGs.

3. 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors (Chunsoft) [Nintendo DS]

Chunsoft, whose catalog of celebrated "sound novels" includes 428, Machi, and other titles ignored by U.S. publishers, somehow managed to bring 999 to the States via Aksys and release one of 2010's most underappreciated gems on any console last month.

In this anxiety-filled M-rated DS game, players find themselves kidnapped and trapped on a sinking ocean liner, forced to work with eight other similarly unfortunate characters to survive deadly puzzles set by a mysterious villain named Zero. Each participant of the "Nonary Game" has a bomb attached to them that will blow up if any of Zero's rules are disobeyed.

999's Choose Your Own Adventure-style story progression might seem simple at first, but players soon discover their decisions determine whether they (and their companions) live or die. It's a gripping adventure that gamers will need to play several times over to learn the relationships between all the characters and unravel the mystery of Zero's Nonary Game.

2. Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (Kojima Productions) [PSP]

Undoubtedly one of the finest titles shipped for PSP, Peace Walker delivers a beautifully illustrated story (stylish animated cutscenes by noted artist Ashley Wood) and tense stealth-action gameplay that have no trouble comparing against the series' best home console releases.

Its bite-sized missions are already a joy to sneak through by themselves, but the ability to capture and recruit hundreds of enemies, assimilating them into Naked Snake's own armies to unlock new weapons and equipment among other benefits, adds an addictive, almost Pokemon-esque side-objective to the assignments.

The ad-hoc multiplayer integration, which allows gamers to run through the main campaign and extra missions with up to three friends, merits praise for not only allowing two players to sneak around in the same cardboard box but for also offering new co-op strategies and previously inaccessible areas to explore. It has co-op Monster Hunter missions, too!

1. Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies (Level-5) [Nintendo DS]

It is so easy for even a "casual" gamer to find they've lost over a hundred hours to Dragon Quest IX. Between the game's job/class system, alchemy recipes, treasure map dungeons, and many quests (a good portion downloadable), it's not unusual for players to sink 200+ hours when delving into the RPG's post-game content.

Dragon Quest IX's world is one many won't mind investing so much time in, as it's filled with peculiar characters, adorable enemies (Teeny Sanguini!), and bittersweet encounters. The beautifully written story campaign presents a diverse set of adventures that has gamers searching for a pet lizard, acting as an undercover private school detective, and just helping every troubled soul they can find.

And one of the game's neatest social features, in addition to the local co-op multiplayer supported by the main campaign, is the "Tag Mode" ability for passively trading randomly generated treasure maps with other nearby Dragon Quest IX owners -- something players might not get to try out too often but is absolutely delightful at gamer gatherings.

Dragon Quest IX does so many things right, one easily forgets that its turn-based combat system is essentially the same basic setup from the original Dragon Warrior from 20+ years ago.

Honorable Mentions:

God Of War: Ghost Of Sparta (Ready at Dawn Studios, SCE Santa Monica Studio)
Picross 3D (HAL Laboratory)
Patchwork Heroes (Acquire)
Shantae: Risky's Revenge (WayForward Technologies)
Valkyria Chronicles II (Sega)
Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City (Atlus)
Cave Story DSiWare (Studio Pixel, Nicalis)
Glow Artisan (Powerhead Games)
Ys: The Oath In Felghana (Nihon Falcom Corporation)
Super Scribblenauts (5th Cell)

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

['Game Mag Weaseling' is a weekly column by Kevin Gifford which documents the history of video game magazines, from their birth in the early '80s to the current day.]

Merry Christmas to everyone! I don't have much to say this week -- I am at the ol' family home at the moment, and I want to save my remarks on the game-mag business in 2010 for next week's column. (The short version: Not stupendous, but a great distance healthier than I had imagined 12 months ago.)

For today, then, why not enjoy a game that (in my opinion, anyway) is one of the best cover-disk giveaways of all time? Xmas Lemmings 1991 made its debut on one of the disks mounted on Issue 30 (Jan 1992) of Amiga Format, the most dominant "general-purpose" Commodore Amiga mag (as opposed to games-only publications like Amiga Power and The One) in the UK for most of its existence. It covered games, productivity applications, and the user scene all in one book, and at its peak was a pretty enormous mag that had major clout across the entire European computer business. That, no doubt, is one reason the editors were able to nab this exclusive four-level mini-game set in a wintry Lemmings universe.

Like a lot of Future Publishing mags, Amiga Format lasted far longer than an outsider would expect -- the final issue was published in May 2000, a full six years after Commodore International declared bankruptcy. (The last Amiga mag to get distributed to newsstands was Amiga Active, which toiled on in the UK until November 2001.)

[Kevin Gifford used to breed ferrets, but now he's busy running Magweasel, a really cool weblog about games and Japan and "the industry" and things. In his spare time he does writing and translation for lots of publishers and game companies.]

Posted by Kevin Gifford at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

[Every week, we sum up sister iPhone and iPad site FingerGaming's top news and reviews for Apple's nascent portable game platforms, as written by editor in chief Danny Cowan and authors Tucker Dean, Jason Johnson, and Ryan Hibbeler.]

This week, FingerGaming covers World of Goo, Hook Worlds, Real Racing 2, and The 7th Guest, among other notable debuts.

Also within are the lists for top-grossing, most-downloaded free and paid Apps from Apple's store, along with a review for Mushihimesama Bug Panic.

Here are the top stories from the last few pre-holiday season days:

- Review: Mushihimesama Bug Panic
"Cave have a knack for crafting exhilarating shooters, and exterminating throngs of hovering jellyfish, towering sand worms, and twittering ladybugs while twisting through waves of fatal purple orbs in Bug Panic definitely fits the bill."

- New Retro Revivals: The 7th Guest, Riven, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, and More
"Today's deluge of new releases continues with Midway's one-on-one fighter Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 and the classic point-and-click adventure games Riven and The 7th Guest."

- Top-Grossing Game Apps: Infinity Blade Heads Cross-Platform Charts
"Epic Games' Infinity Blade leads as the App Store's highest-grossing iPhone game in its second week of release, leading over strong chart performers like Rovio's Angry Birds and Capcom's Smurfs' Village."

- Real Racing 2, N.O.V.A. 2, Lara Croft Headline Thursday Release Lineup
"This week brings the release of awaited sequels in Gameloft's N.O.V.A. and Firemint's Real Racing franchises, along with the iPhone debuts of Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light and Hook Worlds."

- New on iPad: World of Goo, Tales of Monkey Island, Yoot Tower
"This week, the iPad hosts a port of 2D Boy's acclaimed physics puzzler World of Goo and the first episode of Telltale's Tales of Monkey Island."

- Top iPhone Game Apps: Infinity Blade, Bloons TD 4 See Big Sales
"Digital Goldfish earns sixth place in today's chart with its recently released tower defense game Bloons TD 4, as Miniclip's Gravity Guy takes tenth place in its debut week."

- New Release Catch-Up: Jenga, Illusia, WINtA, Puzzle Quest 2
"Several interesting new releases -- including Gamevil's action-RPG Illusia and ngmoco's music puzzler WINtA -- slipped through the cracks last week, overshadowed by major debuts like Infinity Blade and Dead Rising Mobile."

- DotEmu Launches Jaleco Arcade Series with Avenging Spirit
"DotEmu, the emulation specialists behind the iOS editions of R-Type and Golvellius, have announced an ambitious plan to bring 17 classic Jaleco arcade games to the App Store, beginning with 1991's Avenging Spirit."

Posted by Simon Carless at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)