Final Ninja is a very nice freeware platformer by Nitrome. If you have the time give it a try.

The organizers of the Independent Games Festival have announced the nine winners of the Austin GDC IGF Showcase, picking the very best examples of ‘local flavor’ in terms of indie games from Austin and the Southern U.S. to be exhibited at the Austin Game Developers Conference from September 15th to 17th.

Some of the top local titles span the gamut from one-man teams through tightly focused console indies, including Texas-honed games such as physics-heavy iPhone puzzler Enigmo, CosMind’s evocative art-game Glum Buster, Red Fly Studios’ Wii/DS quirky Mushroom Men duo, knockabout Guildhall @ SMU student title ToyBox Heroes, and user-generated game website Mockingbird.

The Showcase winners receive complimentary passes and get to showcase their titles in a special IGF Pavilion at the Austin event, which this year features learning tracks including Online, Audio, Writing, Worlds In Motion and Game Career Seminar, and is hosting a local Independent Games Festival Showcase for the first time.

Read the full story at: indiegames.com

DxIce™ - Game Engine targets commercial game development with focus on independent games and tools developers. DxIce is especially designed to be used for rapid development of multimedia and games with focus on 2D / 2.5D / Iso Metric graphics, Music and Video.

digiapp.com

This is a nice little turn-based RPG with a hint of strategy with nicely modeled characters and environments. The art and script are sharp. This is not normally the kind of game I play, but I really enjoyed this game. The effects are great and once you learn how to play there is lots of fun to be had. So if like turn-based RPGs give it a try I think you will like it.

Don’t ask me why I posted this…it’s just so bad it’s good.

Japanese culture will be the end of us all.

The latest release of Caligari’s Truespace 3D modeling software has been released for free. However this seems to be legit and to get a full-fledged 3d modeling app for free is worth the ~130MB download.

www.caligari.com

According to Gamasutra: “Talking to Gamasutra during GameFest in Seattle, Microsoft’s Kevin Unangst has been discussing the Games For Windows Live marketplace service for DLC later this year, revealing that full game downloads - potentially making the PC-based service into a Steam competitor - are also “definitely on the roadmap”.

Gamasutra discussed the new GameFest announcement with Unangst, that Microsoft is removing all subscription fees from Games for Windows Live multiplayer services, and that the related Marketplace application will debut for the service this Fall.

We specifically asked whether the Marketplace service on PC would be similar to Xbox Live Marketplace. The executive explained:

“Although [the two services are] going to be connected… there’s this common underpinning. Same friends list, same Gamertag, same currency. On the Xbox they’re going to continue to do things that make sense for the console… on the PC side, what we’re looking at that specifically delivers value to Windows games or Windows gamers.

It may… In fact, I’m not even going to say “may”. It definitely is not always the same things that we’re going to do. So those services are all in different directions, you’ll have different types of content that we offer. It will offer DLC [downloadable content], PDLC [paid downloadable content], it will offer demos and trailers and the things you’d expect from a marketplace.”

Moving on, Gamasutra asked Unangst whether Microsoft has discussed or is anticipating full game downloads through Games For Windows Live - as other Windows-based services such as Valve’s Steam do - and Unangst commented:

“It’s certainly on the roadmap. Not a focus for us with this Fall release. This Fall release is focused around how you add on game content or how you provide content that surrounds the game - trailers, demos, other things that you could do.

Certainly you will see full game downloads at some point. Nothing we’re talking about for this fall…. All of the infrastructure certainly is there. Marketplace is a great first step. Once you’ve got that in place, there’s no reason that we couldn’t add that functionality at some point.

What we’re not talking about is any specific plans or timing for that. But the fact that I can get a demo or trailer or add-on content or new levels, the plumbing’s clearly in place.”

Gamasutra will debut the full interview with Unangst on the website in the near future.”

Source: Gamasutra

it seems ridiculous to me, MS will always try to get their hands in other pies. I don’t think this one will be a big jump for them either, Steam will continue to be the number 1 digital distributer on pc.