Pocketwatch Games' stylish co-op caper, Monaco, was the big winner at the Twelfth Annual Independent Games Festival Awards, which was hosted by the Game Developers Conference 2010 at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco.

Monaco received the top award at the ceremony, earning the $20,000 Seumas McNally Grand Prize for Best Independent Game, as well as the award for Excellence in Design.

Other IGF award recipients for 2010, as judged by over 170 industry veterans, independent developers and indie-friendly journalists, also include PlayDead's starkly beautiful silhouetted platformer, Limbo, which won the awards for Excellence in Visual Art and Technical Excellence. Closure Team's puzzle platformer, Closure, earned the award for Excellence in Audio.

Noted independent developer Cactus received the inaugural Nuovo Award for his abstract visual puzzle game, Tuning. The Nuovo Award honors "abstract, shortform, and unconventional game development which advances the medium and the way we think about games."

The Nuovo Award was judged by a separate, smaller juried panel of notable game and art world figures, including previous IGF Innovation/Nuovo Award winner Jason Rohrer (Passage), Area/Code's Frank Lantz, N+ co-creator Mare Sheppard, EA division head and art-game creator Rod Humble, and more.

The IGF was established in 1998 by UBM TechWeb Game Network to encourage innovation in game development and to recognize the best independent game developers, in the same way that the Sundance Film Festival honors the independent film community. The IGF offer finalists both global exposure and over $50,000 in cash prizes to each year's winners.

Previous breakout IGF award-winners include titles such as Braid, Audiosurf, Castle Crashers, and World of Goo, and this year's awards saw 301 Main Competition entries from all over the world, coupled with the record-breaking number of IGF Student Showcase entries and IGF Mobile entries, for a total of nearly 650 entries. S2 Games' Heroes Of Newerth won the Audience Award, after receiving the largest share of thousands of public votes cast at IGF.com in recent weeks.

To ensure the highest-quality judging for the IGF, more than 170 leading indie and mainstream game industry figures -- from 2D Boy's Ron Carmel through Spore's Soren Johnson to ThatGameCompany's Kellee Santiago and beyond -- were recruited to choose finalists via a carefully constructed empirical process.

Finally, the award for the Best Student Game went to Ragtime Games' shifting-tile puzzle platformer Continuity, IGF Mobile Best Game was awarded to Tiger Style's Spider: The Secret Of Bryce Manor, and download partner Direct2Drive's $10,000 D2D Vision Award was won by Press Play's Max & The Magic Marker.

"This year sees an impressive array of visually arresting, emotionally challenging and fun games," said Simon Carless, IGF chairman. "And after extensive, in-depth playthroughs from a panel of influential games industry figures, the cream of the crop were chosen to receive honors at the IGF. We're extremely proud of the record number of amazing entries this year, and very grateful for the independent teams who put their hearts and souls into creating captivating, addictive and original gameplay experiences."

The IGF awarded the following games in each category of the main competition — each received a cash prize of $2,500 as well as sponsor-related prizes, apart from the Grand Prize of $20,000 and D2D Vision's $10,000 award.

Seumas McNally Grand Prize:
Monaco, by Pocketwatch Games

IGF Nuovo Award:
Tuning, by Cactus

Excellence in Visual Art:
Limbo, by PlayDead

Excellence in Audio:
Closure, by Closure Team

Technical Excellence:
Limbo, by PlayDead

Excellence in Design:
Monaco, by Pocketwatch Games

Student Showcase Award:
Continuity, by Ragtime Games

IGF Mobile Best Game:
Spider: The Secret Of Bryce Manor, by Tiger Style

Audience Award:
Heroes Of Newerth, by S2 Games

D2D Vision Award:
Max & The Magic Marker, by Press Play

For more information about the IGF, the finalists and the winners, please visit the official Independent Games Festival website.

Naughty Dog's critically-acclaimed Uncharted 2: Among Thieves was the big winner at the 10th annual Game Developers Choice Awards, presented at a ceremony this evening at UBM TechWeb Game Network's 2010 Game Developers Conference (GDC), receiving a total of five awards, including Best Writing and the coveted Game of the Year award.

Another major honoree, 5th Cell received the award for Best Handheld Game and the Innovation Award, for its creativity-fueled portable game, Scribblenauts. Zynga, creators of the wildly addictive and popular Facebook game, Farmville, received the honor for Best New Social/Online Game, marking the first winner for this inaugural category.

Other winners include Rocksteady Studios' dark and gritty adventure, Batman: Arkham Asylum, which won for Best Game Design. The Best Debut Game went to Runic Games' Torchlight. The Best Downloadable Game award went to thatgamecompany's Flower, marking the second such award for the developer, following their win in 2008 with fl0w.

The Game Developers Choice Awards, which honor the very best games of the year, created for developers and voted on by developers. The finalists were chosen via a combination of open game industry nominations and the votes of the leading creators in the Choice Awards Advisory Committee.

Starting this year, winners were selected by the Game Developers Choice Awards-specific International Choice Awards Network (ICAN), which is a new invitation-only group comprised of 500 leading game creators from all parts of the video game industry.

This year, John Carmack, the technological patriarch and co-founder of id Software was presented with the Lifetime Achievement award for more than two decades of groundbreaking technical contributions, and his role pioneering and popularizing the first-person shooter genre with the groundbreaking Doom and Quake series.

The Game Developers Choice Awards also honored Jerry Holkins, Mike Krahulik and Robert Khoo, the crew behind the popular webcomic Penny Arcade, with the Ambassador Award.

The trio, who have also created and spearheaded the Child's Play Charity and the Penny Arcade Expo, were awarded the honor for their work creating their genuine, gamer-friendly empire by skewering video game culture and developers while building up a following, events and an industry-leading video game charity that help epitomize the positive elements of 'gamer spirit.'

Finally, Gabe Newell was given the Pioneer Award for his work in co-creating PC key digital download service Steam, and helping to make possible some of the most important video games of recent years -- from the Half-Life series through Portal to Team Fortress and beyond.

The recipients of the 10th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards are:

Game of the Year
Uncharted 2 (Naughty Dog)

Best Game Design:
Batman: Arkham Asylum (Rocksteady Studios)

Best Writing:
Uncharted 2 (Naughty Dog)

Best Debut Game:
Torchlight (Runic Games)

Best Technology:
Uncharted 2 (Naughty Dog)

Best Handheld Game:
Scribblenauts (5th Cell)

Best Visual Arts:
Uncharted 2 (Naughty Dog)

Innovation Award:
Scribblenauts (5th Cell)

Best Audio:
Uncharted 2 (Naughty Dog)

Best Downloadable Game:
Flower (thatgamecompany)

Recipients for the evening's special awards were:

Lifetime Achievement Award
John Carmack

Pioneer Award
Gabe Newell

Ambassador Award
Penny Arcade (Jerry Holkins, Mike Krahulik, Robert Khoo)

"This year has seen some incredible titles across platforms and genres -- big-budget blockbusters like Uncharted 2 and Batman: Arkham Asylum and addictive online games like Farmville all made for an amazing year in games," says Meggan Scavio, event director of the Game Developers Conference.

"The winners at the Game Developers Choice Awards have exhibited that they can create compelling experiences that set the bar even higher for other developers to follow. We'd like to thank all the winners and the nominees for their countless hours furthering the art of game creation, and crafting some awesome experiences for gamers the world over."

For more information about the awards and all the recipients, please visit the official Game Developers Choice Awards website.

Futurestates is a collection of digital shorts from up-and-coming filmmakers sharing a "vision of American society in the not-too-distant future". In this episode, "Play", director David Kaplan and game designer Eric Zimmerman (Gamelab) imagine how we might play -- or try to escape -- video games years from now:

"Play imagines a not-too-distant future where video games have become indistinguishable from reality. These fully immersive games are nested inside each other like Russian dolls — each new game emerging from another and connecting backwards with increasing complexity.

One moment, a player is a Japanese schoolgirl embroiled in a pillow fight with her girlfriends — and the next moment, the player has suddenly morphed into a scandalized state senator defending himself against a throng of angry reporters.

Synthetic experience competes with real experience as dream, fantasy, and memory begin to collapse into each other. Identities become elastic as the players consecutively inhabit completely different genders, ages, and ethnicities."

The film and its games hope to provoke questions from gamers like "Who are the players?", "What is the purpose of these games?", "What is the point of winning?", and "Where is it all leading?". It's an episode that looks to use video games as a metaphor for the human search for meaning and identity.

You can watch more digital shorts from Futurestates: Season 1 here.

[Via fort90]

Looking for a fun and immersive way to teach his 8th grade students about space, science instructor Chad Shumaker brought Activision's 1984 sim Space Shuttle: A Journey into Space to his classroom. He wanted to do more than just have kids play the game, though, so he decided to build on the experience by housing the 27-year-old game in a cabinet.

He teamed up with a fellow teacher/woodworker at the school and constructed a 3' x 5' x 4.5' wooden cabinet cabinet, spending around $250 on the project. Students sit on a chair with a joystick attached to an arm, as they navigate their ship. A strip of LED lights and a battery operated fluorescent light positioned over the console provide limited lighting inside the simulator.

For added realism, he has students wear headsets while piloting the game, and he guides them through with instructions delivered from a walkie-talking outside the cabinet. The rest of the cabinet consists of a 19-inch Zenith Space Command Television sitting on top a cabinet.

All that work has paid off, as his students have really taken to the setup. "The space shuttle simulator is amazing," says eighth-grader Dylan Sterling Sterling. "Even though the graphics weren’t very good, it still seemed very realistic thanks to Mr. Shoe talking to you from outside. The whole setup is great. I hope we keep toying with it for the rest of the year."

Shumaker says he plans to eventually use the simulator with Absolute Software's Tomcat: The F-14 Fighter Simulator.

[Via Dr. Kwack. The Times-Reporter]

[In a GameSetWatch-exclusive set of blog posts for the week of GDC 2010, Magical Wasteland blogger and Game Developer magazine columnist Matthew Burns continues his journey through the show. Previously: Part 1 and Part 2.]

People are getting used to the fragmented chatter, refining their personal stories and business pitches down to the fewest succinct words, skipping past pleasantries and context-setting. Some stand in line listlessly, murmuring about being hung over and needing sleep, only to spring into manic animation when they see someone they know or want to speak to in the crowd.

In the morning I have a series of long, wide-ranging and interesting one-on-one conversations. Nels Anderson of Hothead Games discusses team structure, management and technology. Kevin Gadd of Arena.net chats about Asian MMOs versus Western ones, and we segue from there into an appreciation for the unusual development of the American-made Square game Secret of Evermore, bringing it right back around to his current project Guild Wars 2 by mentioning Jeremy Soule, the composer of both. Robert Alvarez of Joymax tells me about the ins and outs of free to play communities.

The fact that tens of thousands of game developers have descended on downtown San Francisco is not lost on its local residents. As I’m walking on Market Street a woman notices my badge and approaches me. “You make games?” she says. I nod, leery that I may be getting a sales pitch.

But she just wants to talk. “What kind of games you make?” I used to make big budget, complex games, but I left recently to make smaller, simpler ones– “So I like the smaller simpler games,” she says, “And y’all should make more of those. I can’t play that crazy new stuff you guys put out with all the nonsense in it. I want more games like Mario Brothers. You know what I mean?” I tell her I totally know what she means, and she laughs and shoos me on.

Later in the day I meet with some developers from Japan. How is business?, I ask. In so many words, they say business is pretty goddamn terrible, and their stoic, resigned gloom is a sobering counterpoint to the exuberance on display elsewhere at the show.

Japan’s domestic market is shrinking along with its population and the Western market largely continues to elude while rivals with vastly lower operating costs pop up all over Asia. I express worry about the companies with their newly concatenated names: Namco Bandai, Tecmo Koei. Are they really going to be okay like this? Are they going to stay relevant? They shrug opaquely: we don’t know.

The theme of decline feels reinforced later when I stop by the former “Sony Metreon,” now just the Metreon. This claustrophobic shopping mall feels like a tombstone of sorts to Sony’s global, industry-crossing mindset in the 1990s when its influence was at its zenith. Back then the PlayStation was the unquestioned top video game platform and brand, Sony Pictures was going to integrate, somehow, with their electronics, and everything seemed set for the grand networked entertainment convergence to be a heavily Sony-centric affair.

Today, however, the Metreon consists of unhappy corridors that lead nowhere, full of metal caging where stores ought to be (among the recently absent: the long-suffering Sony Style boutique). Its ignominious capstone is the defunct “Walk of Game,” a self-conscious but un-ironic aping of Hollywood’s Walk of Fame minus the outdoors and any semblance of import.

There, one can walk on top of metal plates that read “Halo,” or “Lara Croft,” or, in a particularly poorly lit cranny near an electrical closet, “Shigeru Miyamoto,” all of them with a URL in the corner– walkofgame.com– that when entered into a browser unceremoniously redirects the user to a generic page about the shops and restaurants of the Metreon by the international property management firm that now owns and runs it. No information on what these “stars” are, or mean, or why they pointlessly dot the floor inside this nondescript urban shopping center is given.

As the evening begins I wind up in a hotel bar with about a dozen Infinity Ward employees, representing their studio in force with their logo jackets and t-shirts. My curiosity gets the better of my restraint and I say, “So, how’s work?” Fine, they answer, smiling– really just fine.

One of the group there is Mohammad Alavi, a longtime employee and the designer of Modern Warfare 2’s infamous “No Russian” level; I ask about his goal in creating that mission. He gives me an answer and then tells me not to publish it. Too bad. It was a good one.

No one answered my call last month to create a Doki Doki Panic ROM hack with sprites based on Adventure Time with Finn and Jake, but someone did get around to creating a free Flash game based on the upcoming Cartoon Network animated series.

Righteous Quest is a simple 2 platformer in which you hop over spikes, dispatch ninjas, and collect gems and other items scattered across three themed stages. There are also a few areas that take advantage of Jake's special powers (he's a shape-shifting dog), prompting him to stretch his legs and grow super tall to climb over obstacles.

You can play Righteous Quest for free at Cartoon Network's site. Don't forget that the show makes its premiere on the channel on April 5th!

Out to prove that her talents extend well beyond cooking and gardening, Mama is taking on arts and crafts with a new game headed to Nintendo DS this fall. Majesco's Crafting Mama will have the minigame matron jumping into 40 different crafts projects as she puts away her wooden spoon and spade for scissors and a bottle of glue.

Mama will help players sew, mold, glue, cut, and paint a wide range of crafts: patchwork quilts, earrings, candles, birdhouses, and even mini-Mama dolls. Players can use their creations within the game, too, dressing up mama in a handmade apron or flying a folded paper airplane. Crafting Mama will also feature multiplayer support to allow gamers to make crafts together.

"Crafting is a natural extension of our most successful franchise," says Majesco CEO Jesse Sutton. "Much like last spring's Gardening Mama, Crafting Mama combines the award-winning Mama formula of addictive stylus-based activities with a popular pastime that has been underserved in videogames. We're looking forward to sharing Mama's newest hobby with her vast and diverse group of fans this holiday season."

[Via Joystiq]

If you've ever wanted to have your own SA-77 Silpheed fighter after seeing the prototype craft on its Sega CD game cover -- or on its much more awesome Mega CD box -- Japanese kit maker PLUM (Pretty Lovely Unique Mechanism) will soon sell the detailed model you waited so many years for.

This 1/100th scale ship looks like the first release in PLUM's new SFG (Shooting Fighter Game) series. The company intends to release it in Japan this May at a suggested price of ¥5,460 (around $60); hopefully the SA-77 will also appear on import hobby shops! You can see several shots of the elegant Silpheed ship after the break.

suraj.sun writes "Microsoft has shown off XNA games running on Windows Phone; full 3D is a go. From Engadget: 'Microsoft just showed us a pair of 3D games running on its ASUS Windows Phone prototype and built with its brand new XNA Game Studio 4.0 9. The two titles are The Harvest, a good looking touch-controlled dungeon crawler with destructible environments, being developed by Luma Arcade; and Battle Punks. Microsoft spoke to the ease of its Direct3D development platform, which was built by the same folks responsible for the first-gen Xbox. What we saw of The Harvest was built in "two or three weeks," mostly from scratch, and folks who've already built games for XNA in VisualStudio shouldn't have much trouble with a port from the sound of things: "very, very easy," said Microsoft. Right now developers can do their testing in Windows, but there should be a Windows Phone 7 Series emulator out for devs eventually."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

[In honor of the Neo Geo console's recent 20 year birthday, the GSW column regulars The Raroos dug back into the archives of their print zine to present us with Missus Raroo's classic article from 2005 about why she loves SNK's peerless Samurai Shodown II. Not only does her write-up give love to a great fighter, but it also sheds light on the artistry and details that help make it such a timeless game. Plus, her illustrations are really cute!]

A Disclaimer From a Non-Gamer

I am, self-admittedly, every fighting-enthusiast’s worst nightmare. I am a button-masher. I know enough to realize that various direction and button combinations are supposed to result in special attacks, but I never manage to get the combinations quite right when I attempt them on purpose. I either don’t have enough fine motor coordination, or I just have really bad timing. Whatever the case may be, when I try to fight with some intentional strategy, I always die the fastest. Thus, it’s not like I button-mash out of stubbornness, it’s a matter of survival.

Given this background knowledge of my fighting-game skills, or lack thereof, you may be wondering what I could possibly add to a discussion about fighters. Your concerns are definitely valid, because I have not played very many fighters and even the ones I’ve played, I’ve barely clocked in more than a few rounds. I have, however, seen my fair share of fighters come and go, thanks to my time spent with Mister Raroo.

And, after years of exposure to myriad fighting games, there is one fighting game that stood out from them all. I couldn’t remember the name of the game, but I did remember how there were a bunch of cute barnyard animals in the background in one fighting scene. I was also able to recall there being characters with animal tagalongs, including one with a bird and one with a dog. This was enough information for the Raroo to identify the game immediately as: Samurai Shodown II, known in Japan as Shin Samurai Spirits.

If you want a “real” review that comments on attack combos and the like, then don’t bother reading any farther. If you want to know the place that Samurai Shodown II holds in relation to the other titles in the Samurai Shodown series, I couldn’t tell you. There are plenty of fan sites out there that can provide you that information in lengthy FAQs—I found quite a few when doing a little background research for this article.

What I didn’t really find, though, were write-ups that mentioned all of the reasons why I happen to love Samurai Shodown II, and so at least I don’t feel like I’m replicating what’s been written a million times before. So, without further ado I present…Falling in Love with Samurai Shodown II For All the Right Reasons.

For Its Japanese Flavor

As soon as you power up Samurai Shodown II, you are immediately treated to cherry blossom petals falling over the the Gairyu Isle background, complete with a path of red Torii gates leading to Mount Fuji, one of the most recognizable settings in Japan. Next, you are presented with a flurry of the game’s characters flashing against a scrolling Japanese art screen, the same pattern that also serves as the background during player selection. Finally, the title screen comes on, accompanied by characteristically Japanese music complete with the sounds of shakuhachi, shamisen, and taiko drums. Thus, even before you even get to play the game, you are immersed in the wonderful Japanese ambience that permeates all of Samurai Shodown II.

The playing options in the game allow you to select the regions of Japan, Spain, or USA. If you select Japan, the gushing blood during battles is colored in red, but if you select Spain or US, the blood color is palette-swapped and appears green instead.

Also, if you select Spain, the game text changes to Spanish, and if you select USA, the text changes to English, or as some like to say Engrish, due to the improper, but oh so satisfying, translations (For example, you’ve got to appreciate Kyoshiro gloating with a comment like “Fight like dance, and win. That’s the soul of Kabuki.”). Luckily, regardless of region, none of the character voices or audio narration is dubbed or changed from the original Japanese. Even though I can’t understand the Japanese comments throughout the game, the dramatic, guttural voices add such great feeling that would be completely ruined by English dubbing.

To complement the Japanese sounds, the visual references throughout the game pay homage to some great popular culture and history. The most obvious character connection is Hanzo, based on the historical ninja master Hattori Hanzo. In the game, Hanzo plays on a war torn battlefield that includes such wonderful details as a sideways leaning cement lantern and a broken Japanese-style battle flag.

Although less obvious to me, I found out through research that Ukyo is based on the swordsman Sasaki Kojiro Genryu, Nicotine was most likely made after the Buddhist monk Takuan, and Haohmaru after the samurai Miyamoto Musashi. In the game, Haohmaru also happens to love the Japanese alcoholic beverage sake. He drinks sake to taunt his opponent, and he even uses a sake bottle as a weapon at times.

Japanese Kabuki theater is weaved in with Kyoshiro and the Japanese card game Hanafuda with Genjuro. The samurai servant Jubei snacks on rice balls to taunt his opponent while competing in a beautiful snow-covered bamboo forest that leads to a home built with traditional Japanese architecture. Two of the bamboo stalks stand out in foreground and can be cut by players in the heat of battle, a simple yet satisfying instance of interactive backgrounds.

Finally, I love the presence of Kuroko, the judge who dutifully referees every battle. Supposedly Kuroko dresses in the tradition of a Kabuki stagehand, while using the red and white flags to referee as in a kendo match. Of course, Kuroko also throws confetti, and I suppose that is neither customary in Kabuki nor kendo.

For Its Humblest Heroes

Throughout my life, I’ve always been a champion of the underdog. I’ve always rooted for the underdog, and I’ve always been the underdog, you know, the kid who tried her hardest, but still spent a lot of time cheering from the bench. So, what can I say, I love the humblest heroes of Samurai Shodown II the most! First, take Earthquake. This is one obese man who is not afraid to flaunt it. He bares his belly in all of its glory, wearing nothing but a flimsy vest, and when he wins a battle he’s not too shy to take a gigantic bite of chicken leg.

Next, consider the attractiveness of Gen-An the green monster. Gen-An is a worthy adversary with his sharp Freddy Kreuger-style claws, but in the end, he’s a guy who scratches his butt when he wins a battle. That leads us to the small but ever mighty Nicotine. You find out when he battles that halitosis is no longer something to be embarrassed by. A puff of his bad breath can send his opponent down for the count. Even in victory, though, Nicotine doesn’t get away with gloating. Sometimes he’ll laugh so hard that his back will give out, revealing that even after taking down his rival, he is still vulnerable to old age.

Throughout the game, you will find other small details that reveal the humanity characters have through their weaknesses. Sieger, for example, has the most ridiculously large fist cover for a weapon. It’s a weapon that has got to give poor Sieger some confidence since, after all, he has all the pressure in the world to fight before the king. Taking up half the screen, the fist is so large that you might hardly notice how it compensates for Sieger’s puny legs and pointy-toed boots.

Sieger’s masked weakness is further revealed when he loses a battle. The king has to stand up in disgust to shame him, and at times you will find Sieger falling down and grabbing his shoulder. To me, it’s the classic “pretending to be hurt” scam that people play all of the time when they fail at something. I can just hear him blaming the shoulder, “Darn you, shoulder! If it weren’t for you, I could have won the honor of the king!”

Finally, perhaps the most sympathetic hero of all is Ukyo, our very own tuberculosis case. The poor guy perseveres even while coughing up blood. His taunt is to kneel down and cough, and when winning a battle he sometimes collapses all of the way to the ground while his girlfriend finally emerges from behind the torii gate post to help him. If that isn’t a departure from the regular victory dance, I don’t know what is.

For Its Fan Clubs

While the heroes of Samurai Shodown II may be unconventionally humble, they don’t often lack the support of fans rooting in the background. Some levels in the game are set in locations without the presence of spectators, like Charlotte’s empty palace or Nicotine’s foggy temple grounds. Nevertheless, there are definitely some memorable fan clubs worth noting.

First, there are the standard fan clubs. When Ukyo wins a battle, for example, he is sometimes showered by a pack of adoring women dressed in kimonos. Nothing out of the ordinary there. Then, there’s the kabuki star Kyoshiro who is constantly being rooted for by members of his cast. There are about a dozen men in the background who wave their arms around with fans or with instruments in hand. Again, no big surprise.

Next, you have what I like to think of as wannabe fans. These are fans who look a lot like the fighter. Now, they might just be relatives, but even so, it’s funny because they are just choosing to root for whoever shares their resemblance. I guess it’s not so different from what happens all of the time in real life, but I still find it amusing for some reason. In this category, there is Gen-An who is being supported by two fellow green monsters on either side of a giant and ominous-looking cauldron.

The goblin on the right is busy stirring the pot and the goblin on the left is too busy waving his giant spoon above his head to help with the stirring. The established work ethic of the goblins carries over to the end of the battle. The goblin on the left gets so emotionally caught up in the action that if Gen-An loses, he falls down. Meanwhile, the goblin on the right is the responsible one who keeps his spoon in the pot, but gets a stern look on his face, probably upset not only that Gen-An lost, but that he’s the only one doing any work.

Another character with a wannabe fan club is Earthquake. If you play Earthquake’s level, you can’t help but notice that all of the guys in the background are bare-chested and big-bellied just like Earthquake. In particular, there is one look-alike fan who is busy chowing down chicken, one of Earthquake’s favorite snacks, and there is another guy standing with very proud posture in the back. This guy in the back cracks me up the most, because he spends the whole time continuously spinning a chain much like the one that Earthquake uses as a weapon. You can’t help but guess that this guy adores Earthquake and wants to be just like him!

This leaves me with the most bizarre fan club of all and that is the fan club for Galford. Galford is a ninja with a husky who fights at a shipyard in San Francisco! There is no indication of what he could possibly have in common with a bunch of muscle-toned men who work with fish on a dock, and yet this is exactly the colorful bunch that Galford finds rooting for him.

Among the crowd, there is a guy choking and head butting another man, an old man teetering with a cane, a guy just rubbing his belly, and one reclining with his arm behind his head, his legs crossed, and his fist up to cheer. There is also one man distracted by a cute dog, another one cheering with his butt sticking out, and yet another sitting so excited that he has to tap his feet and cup his mouth to cheer all the louder. It is totally bizarre, and I love it!

Throughout this section, I didn’t mention Nakoruru’s fan club, but that is because I pay special tribute to them below. Read on.

For Its Animals

I mentioned earlier that my lasting memories of Samurai Shodown II were of the animals. The “barnyard” scene that was seared into my memory is the level for Nakoruru, who also happens to be the character with the bird sidekick, a hawk named Mamaha that can be used in attacks. While Mamaha may be the main animal star people associate with Nakoruru, I love all of the animals that adorn the background of her level, which turns out to be more of a forest/straw-thatched roof cottage scene than a barnyard scene.

To the best of my visual discernment, I have been able to spot the following animals: numerous deer populating the forest on the right side of the screen, a big standing brown bear carrying Nakoruru’s sister Rimururu on its shoulder, a white parrot sitting atop the head of a black cow, kittens cleaning each other under the watchful gaze of three huskies, a group of red chickens to the left of a posing white rabbit and a hopping white rabbit, a couple of bounding foxes, a trio of yellow birds building a nest in a barrel, a white horse chilling behind a low fence, a couple of monkeys roughhousing on a shelf and a couple more clapping wildly on the cottage awning, beavers surfacing by logs in the river, and even what appears to be a hamster running in a wheel inside the building!

Although the level of nature-loving Nakoruru takes the cake when it comes to animals, there are others thrown in throughout the game. Akin to Nakoruru’s hawk, Galford has a husky dog Poppy to aid in attacks. Before battle, Galford calls out, “Let’s go and defend the justice, Poppy,” and throughout the fight, Poppy doesn’t disappoint with his intimidating fighting stance and snarling expression. Sound effects of his growls and barks liven the scene, and at the end of fights you might spot the animation of Poppy’s eye twinkling, Poppy licking Galford’s face, or even the guest appearance of Poppy’s three adorable puppies: Poppa, Puppa, and Pippa.

To top it off, Galford’s level includes the treat of a naughty gray cat trying to paw its way into a blue bag that probably contains fish, a brown bulldog-looking pup that is continuously being scratched under the chin, and arguably the star of the background: a prize-winning shark that hangs in humiliation, twirling around with a hook through its nose so that its neck is left arching back and its mouth hanging wide open to reveal a big red tongue.

Cham Cham also has an animal companion in her monkey Paku Paku. Paku Paku doesn’t get involved in attacks, but it does liven up the action with silly antics such as making “ooh ooh ooh” noises, beating its chest, or jumping on Cham Cham’s head after a battle, which by the way, leaves Cham Cham looking none too pleased. In the background of Cham Cham’s level, Paku Paku has a fan club consisting of a monkey that cheers with a stick in hand and a mommy monkey that appears to have kid monkeys flanking her sides. Cham Cham’s level also features a silly alligator that laughs, some dead fish hanging from a pole, and a good showing of flamingoes that I guess aren’t too intimidated by the alligator to stick around.

Although much more minor in detail, Genjuro’s beautiful level with the flowing waves of grain is made even more picturesque with geese flying by in the sky and Gairyu Isle is livened up by the circling of a seagull up high. Similarly, the black crows in Hanzo’s battleground level add to the feeling of desolation, and the black feathers that fall across the screen in close-up view when some crows are forced from a falling gravestone are a great touch. In my everyday life, I love animals for enriching my days, and similarly, the animals of Samurai Shodown II breathe special life into the gaming experience. For them alone, I will forever love Samurai Shodown II.

[Missus Raroo doesn't consider herself to be a "real" gamer, but between listening to her husband excitedly talk about games on a regular basis and trying her hand at a select few titles herself, she knows a thing or two about video games. She served as the co-editor-in-chief of the Game Time With Mister Raroo print zine and was called the "heart and soul" of the publication by readers. She lives in El Cajon, CA with her husband, son, daughter, and pets. You may reach Missus Raroo at koopaboo@yahoo.com.]

After months of teasing the game (and a slight delay in development due to a computer meltdown), indie developer Anna "Auntie Pixelante" Anthropy has released Redder, her biggest project yet in terms of scale and time. The Mighty Jill Off/When Pigs Fly designer notes, "It's the biggest game world I've ever built."

In the 2D platformer, you control an astronaut who has crash landed on Mars and needs to gather a batch of crystals to get her ship back in working order. To do that, you need to explore the planet's ruins, avoid enemies, and solve a number of increasingly difficult switch puzzles to reach the crystals.

Redder's controls are simple -- walk with the left and right arrow keys, and jump with the up/shift/z/space key -- keeping most of the focus on timing the astronaut's hops. The planet's lower gravity allows you to jump higher and float in their longer than you typically would in most other platformers, but if you've played Anthropy's other games, you should be used to this by now.

You can play the Flash game for free right now on Newgrounds!

adeelarshad82 writes "After eight years of development, remote gaming service OnLive is scheduled to roll out on June 17 for Windows and Mac. The company also announced its service pricing: users will need to pay $14.95 per month, which will allow them access to the service. However, the company did not disclose the price to rent or purchase games. 'It is partnering in this launch with publishers including Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, 2K Games, THQ and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. The games will also include new releases like Mass Effect 2, Borderlands, Assassin’s Creed II, as well as a bunch of other titles. Perlman anticipates anywhere from a dozen to 25 titles to be available at launch time, and more after that, depending on how negotiations with other publishers proceed.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Released last week on Xbox Live Indie Games by developer MagicalTimeBean, Soulcaster combines three great ideas, hoping to catch your interest with at least one of them: 8-bit graphics, Gauntlet-style top-down dungeon crawling, and tower defense mechanics.

As you explore dungeons, discover treasure, and encounter a variety of enemies, your wizard deploys a collection of archers, warriors, and alchemists (each with their own strengths and weaknesses) to dispatch enemies. As you progress, you can upgrade those units and purchase equipment.

You can purchase Soulcaster for just 240 MS Points, and there's also free demo available should you need more convincing.

[Via GamerBytes]

[In a GameSetWatch-exclusive set of blog posts for the week of GDC 2010, Magical Wasteland blogger and Game Developer magazine columnist Matthew Burns continues his journey through the show. Previously: Part 1.]

It’s the first real day of GDC. The surging crowds are at first seemingly counterintuitive to the oft-repeated phrase that the industry is a small place. Just how tiny it is, though, becomes fully apparent as I stand in a hallway seeing person after person I recognize, by name or by face.

The moment I enter Moscone South I spot a former co-worker, and have a catch-up conversation with her before I can even get my badge. The newly-built studio she’s joined is “interesting,” she says, and briefly describes some of the disconcerting politics already going on there.

I’m on a press pass this year, which is turning out to be an “interesting” for me, too. I had always thought certain people became suspiciously friendly towards me when I started working for Bungie three years ago, but that’s nothing compared to being in the system as a game journalist.

Even without any prior credentials to this particular vocation I’m bombarded with e-mails and calls asking for my time– often starting with off-putting affectations of casual camaraderie. On some level I understood that this is how things work, and that I should not be surprised, but I can’t help but feel drained by all the noise.

In the face of a thousand false friends, what is one to do? Getting fifty e-mails and ten voice mail messages about startups that are going to “revolutionize the social gaming space” makes me second-guess myself, and wonder if maybe there isn’t something to this stuff after all, and that maybe I’d better write something about it lest I miss out on the next big thing (whatever that actually turns out to be).

This press mentality distorts my perception, too, such that the weight of all the clamoring results in an impulse in the opposite direction, the desire to fly in the face of the “public relations” people and pick something obscure and contrary to write about, just to prove that I am in control of myself.

The crowd at the Independent Games Summit yields about a dozen people I have known before only online in the space of twenty minutes. We all understand there is no time for any sort of deep conversation, so we are content to say hello face-to-face for the first time and move on for now, promising each other we will see each other later in the week. Everyone pours coffee into their bodies, still in the mode to gear up for what promises to be a long, interesting and mindbending day.

I soon meet Ben Abraham, game writer and academic. He is brand new to GDC and this country in general, but the first words out of my mouth are about our shared game of Neptune’s Pride, a web-based light strategy title created by an ex-Irrational developer, that has been eating away at our time for the past week. Laptops side by side, we compare tactical notes before we think better of ourselves and go on to discuss more serious matters: the conference here, the writing-about-games scene (such as there is one), life in Australia as opposed to here.

Then, out of the corner of my eye, I catch the nametag of Chris McCarthy, one of the people who I have been working with on my independent game project as he randomly walks past us. I shout his name, and he immediately joins a rapidly growing lunch outing agglomeration– from four to six to ten people– in search of a good place to eat.

The train gets moving only to break up after it becomes clear there is no actual destination in mind; the two splinter groups end up in the same food court of the same mall anyway, and a large table is shared by all. Chris ends up talking to Ben about Australia’s Classification Board, and I’m drawn into a conversation with two soon-to-graduate game programmers, Kyle Murphy and John Holland, and another artist, Chris Matuszek, about Torque, Unity, and the video game program at Champlain College.

As we walk back to the conference the streets are packed with people shouting passionately about ambient occlusion, how to compete with Zynga, or the game company t-shirts they possess. I head to the W Hotel, where I’m to meet with some old friends in the game audio business (Tom Hays and Julia Bianco, of Technicolor Interactive Services).

The lobby bar is packed even at this time of day and we’re lucky to find a seat; during our conversation one of our group excuses himself to take a call and comes back fifteen minutes later to announce he’s just made a sale. We reminisce about old times, compare studio buildout notes, and exchange current information.

A few hours later, I’m on my way to meet with Jenova Chen, and Ben, who I run into again, joins us. We discuss game business (the Infinity Ward news, the development scene in Shanghai), before moving on to other, more important topics. Jenova must be off to make an appearance elsewhere, and on the way back from our meeting place I explain to Ben why I think Flower is so important.

It’s starting to become party time, and while there are many tantalizing gatherings that have been heard of and spoken of in hushed tones, there are markedly fewer with actual concrete locations and invitations. We are on our way to one when students we met the previous day spot us, and like a Katamari ball we absorb them, the whole thing rolling along Mission Street towards the closest open bar.

I manage to find yet another former co-worker, who hands me a business card so thick it could be a coaster, and who keeps talking about how he needs to get back to his room so he can actually write the slides for his presentation later this week. It is the deepest part of the crunch cycle at his workplace right now, and he has had no time, he says.

He also describes how he was explicitly instructed by his management not to talk about certain recent industry events about which everybody is talking; I make up for this by ranting at him on the subject while he nods and quietly drinks his Scotch and beer.

The night finally ends two or three establishments and last calls later. Ben Abraham, who had earlier said he was going to bed, is found chatting with Clint Hocking past midnight, and I spend a good fifteen minutes reeling at the size of Ubisoft Montreal, which one of the guys has pegged at almost 2,500 people. Much is said– some of it to be forgotten– and we head back to our respective hotels to collapse for a few brief hours. “That,” says newly-elected IGDA board member Darius Kazemi, “Was the first day.”

[In the latest of an occasional series of demoscene-related posts on GameSetWatch, AteBit's Paul 'EvilPaul' Grenfell presents a multi-part retrospective on 2009's best demos - continuing with the best 'wild demos' - some of the more out-there efforts from the scene last year. Previously: best demos, best 64kb/4kb intros, and best oldschool demos.]

After a bit of a break, I'm back with more of my favourite demoscene productions from 2009. This time I'm looking into the Wild category. Wild is a bit of an odd category whose definition often depends on the demo party you're attending.

At most parties, though, Wild means anything that doesn't fit into any of other competition or category. This usually includes demos on really obscure or home-made hardware as well as live-action, animated or CG short films. I'm also going to extend this definition to include some tiny intros that were too small to fit into the 4k chart.

1st: Puls by Rrrola

64k demos too big? Can't wait for the next great 4k intro to download? Then try this 256 byte demo from Rrrola. Yup, that's right, this effect was created with just two hundred and fifty six bytes of hand-crafted assembly code. And if that blows your mind, ">check out what other amazing things 256byte demo authors have been up to over the years.

2nd: Untraceable by TBC

Next we take a bit of a leap to 1024 bytes with this 1k fractal exploration from TBC.

3rd: Demovibes 9 mixed by Willbe

I love the Demovibes compilations, expertly compiled and mixed by Willbe, and this edition is no exception. Perfect background music for democoding.

4th: I Felt the Earth Breathing by Quite

"Procedural Graphics" is a fairly recent demoscene category. Authors must write an executable that produces just a single image. So why not just write a program that decompress a jpeg? Because most competitions put a limit of 4096 bytes on the size of the executable. This example from Quite shows just what can be achieved.

5th: Shader Toy by RGBA

IQ of the group RGBA is not just responsible for great demos like the stunning 4k Elevated. He's also maintains a website (www.iquilezles.org) that is an authority of many aspects of democoding. And on top of all that, last year he released Shader Toy - an online tool to lets you edit and preview GLSL shader programs in any WebGL-enabled browser.

6th: Turbulence by LFT

Back after his success with Craft in 2008, Linus "lft" Akesson returns with another home-made demo platform.

7th: Julie by Nuance

Necessity is the mother of invention, they say, and if you can't afford the tech that Hollywood uses to make "bullet-time" effects then you'd better figure out a cheap way to do it yourself. The result is this short film, mixing live and computer generated footage and released by Nuance at Breakpoint 2009. You can also check out the story behind this demo as a PDF document.

8th: The Death Grind by A Halalkoszor

Another short film, though this time it's entirely computer animated.

9th: Subtle Confusion by Pistoke

More computer animation in this humorous piece from Pistoke.

10th: Pixel by Pixel by Outbreak & Darklite

And finally, want to tile your bathroom with a mosaic but can't decide on a pattern? How about starting a topic on the demoscene site Pouet asking for suggestions, picking the best, then filming yourself in time-lapse as you apply the winning image to your walls.

Toronto indie studio Capybara Games announced an HD port of its acclaimed Nintendo DS puzzle/SRPG hybrid Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes for Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network, releasing later this year.

This downloadable edition will feature a number of changes and additions, such as replacing the game's super-deformed 16-bit style sprites and scenes with hand-drawn artwork, throwing in new idle animations for heroes and combat units, and other visual improvements.

Also, seeing as the dual screened version only supports two-player local multiplayer, Capy is taking advantage of the ports online battles by adding four-player versus and co-operative modes, as well as new multiplayer-specific artifacts.

The single-player experience will see enjoy new tweaks, too; you can now revisit previous chapters to complete outstanding side-quests or find secrets they might have missed. You can see several more screenshots from the Clash Of Heroes HD port, courtesy of IGN, after the break:

Hopefully I'm not ruining the event by calling too much attention to it, but if you're looking for some entertainment after tomorrow night's Independent Games Festival awards show, Canabalt creator Adam Atomic and Flashbang's Ben Ruiz are organizing a post-IGF tradition, the Indie Art Jam, that might interest devs:

"Every year after the IGF Awards go down, the indies stumble into the filthy bowels of the Denny's that is sort of across the street from Moscone, and draw naked pictures of each other and eat disgusting food. Last year we pretty much filled the entire Denny's, they had no idea what hit 'em.

So this year, once you escape from the awards hall, grab your trophy (as if you'd ever let it go anyways) and your sketchbook, and join us at the Dirty D for an evening of stomach aches and artistic license!"

If you've no idea where this particular Denny's is, you can jump to this Indie Art Jam 2010 page for a useful map.

An anonymous reader writes "Philippe Dauman, Viacom CEO and President, announced today that Harmonix is currently working on the next Rock Band game, Rock Band 3, due for release Holiday 2010. 'The company is pursuing the game in spite of an industry-weakening decline in the once-booming genre of peripheral-equipped music games. Although the franchise has generated over $1 billion to date, the category in general saw sales contract by as much as half throughout 2009. MTV Games parent Viacom also saw Rock Band declines drag on its balance sheet in its last fiscal quarter, and expressed a need to refocus away from pricey peripherals in favor of software. It also said that due to royalties it would need to be more "selective" about track listings, and that it needs more support from the music industry in that department.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

[GameSetLinks is GameSetWatch's semi-regular link round-up post, culling from hundreds of weblogs and outlets to compile the most interesting longform writing, links, and criticism on the art and culture of video games.]

While we're way into a super hectic GDC week, and in fact, the GameSetLinks haven't got busted out for a long time, we still have a few in our back pocket for moments like this - and here's some fun results.

Among them: 1UP on fanfiction, a neat good interview with Wadjet Eye Games' Dave Gilbert, a Sonic retrospective of some classiness, a retrospective on David Cage's early piece of semi-insanity that is Omikron, and rather more besides.

Eff bee eye:

Fan's View: Inside the World of Fanfiction from 1UP.com
'Our first part in a series on game fan culture looks into the controversial art of weaving non-canonical tales.'

Retrospective: Omikron: The Nomad Soul Article | Retro | Eurogamer
'I will argue with you that Fahrenheit is one of the most exciting games I've ever played, even though it's broken in about 657 ways.'

1UP's Retro Gaming Blog : Report: "The Game Maker" Vol. 2: Sunsoft
Nice, the Game Center CX guys doing new retrospectives...

WoSblog: Weird or Standard? » Blog Archive » Games mags in a coma
Presumably to be sung to Morrissey/Smiths? But sad :(

Bestower of Blackwell, Repossesser of Emerald City – INTERVIEW with Dave Gilbert » A Hardy Developer's Journal
Great interview on the adventure game dev, who has transitioned from casual portal-supported to self-supported status in terms of distribution, interestingly...

1UP's Retro Gaming Blog : Lost Levels: Sonic and the Secret Games
Great retrospective from Frank.

eldavojohn writes "A new report from Games Industry indicates that MMO gamers in the United States paid $3.8 billion to play last year, with an analysis of five European countries bringing the total close to $4.5 billion USD. In America, the report estimated that payments for boxed content and client downloads amounted to a measly $400 million, while the subscriptions came to $2.38 billion. Hopefully that will fund some developer budgets for bigger and better MMOs yet to come. The study also found that roughly a quarter of the US population plays some form of MMO. Surely MMOs are shaping up to be a juicy industry, and a market that can satisfy people of all walks of life."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.