Machinarium Preview from Amanita Design on Vimeo.

This game looks great! For more info go to machinarium.com

Azgard Defense is a nice strategy game, unlike most TDs you can also make your own levels. This game has very well polished visuals which makes it stick out from most TD games, the game is very appealing. It also allows for 15 different towers including airships, gun placements, fire towers, and more. The demo of the game includes 12 different levels which contain about 20 waves each. Like most TDs the sounds can get a bit repetitive, but they change out each monster well enough that it doesn’t get too bad, and by default sounds are turned down. Overall the game is very well polished and I recommend it to any fan of Tower Defense strategy games.

Ploombloom is a fun little puzzle game, the overall objective is to save Onrniland from a evil bird who wishes to turn all the inhabitants into warriors. Like all puzzle games though, you are more focused on destroying the “jars” that pop up on the screen than the actual story. The artwork in this game is top quality and very appealing. This game is very comical actually, and very fun to play. Unlike most puzzle games you can replace any jar on the screen and it will switch with the one in your hand. Needless to say this game is perfect for anyone who likes puzzle games or games that you just need a mouse to play. If you’re like me, it’s a great game to lose hours on, I highly recommend it.

Aveyond 2 has been added to the Game Store. Our store now contains 18 Indie Games, go check em out now!

Plant This! is a great Tower Defense game. The humor in the game is openly shown because of it’s style, the game is very well polished in all areas. If you are a fan of Tower Defense games, you’ve probably already started downloading the demo, and you should. If you’re not a fan of TD games I’d still recommend downloading and trying it, although it may not be your cup of tea. Overall Plant This! is a fun game and is better than most TDs, I highly recommend it for fans of TD games.

GameDeveloperTools.com has officially launched!

“GDT was created to provide a one-stop resource of available tools for game developers everywhere. While there are many great resources currently available, few are regularly kept up to date, and nowhere can you browse every category in one place.

The website houses an ever-expanding database with links to over 1800 books, engines, libraries, and middleware products. Our goal is to be as comprehensive as possible, and in that vein I encourage visitors to contact us with submissions, corrections, suggestions, or questions.”

Source: TMichael-IndieGamerForums

Cliffski has recently started a discussion with pirates on why they steal games in general, as well as his games. He also has had quite a few responses from pirates, here’s some of his call for emails:

“Having read the Rock paper Shotgun coverage of this (different prices for games on PC vs Console) and the recent complaining about the price of braid, best characterised here… added to the torrent of blog comments I get from people annoyed at my attitude to piracy, I thought it was about time to do this:

I want to know why people pirate my games. I honestly do.

This is not some silly attempt to start a flamewar, it’s not at attempt to change anyones mind about anything. I don’t want to argue my side of it, and there is zero ulterior motive. I’m not looking to ‘catch’ anyone, or prove any points.

I know what I don’t know. And what I don’t know is WHY people pirate MY games. I might be able to get a general idea as to why people pirate stuff *in general* from reading warez forums, and every other story on digg, but I’m not interested in the general case. I want to improve my business, and ensure I stay afloat, and to do that, it would be mad to sit in the corner and ignore the opinions of that section of the public who pirate my games.

Is it 10%? is it 95%? I don’t know. Are they generally kids, or adults? I don’t know. And most vitally of all, WHY do they not buy them, but pirate them. This is what I want to be told. More information and insight is never a bad thing.

So this is a public, genuine, honest request for opinions. Preferably by email, or you can comment here, but wordpress isn’t known for handling that many comments well. You can email me at cliff AT positech dot co dot uk. It helps if you put ‘piracy’ at the email subject.

What I will NOT do:

I won’t publicise who emailed me, or even store the addresses, share them, tell anyone them, or make any use of them whatsoever. I’ll just read them, nothing else. It will be entirely off-the-record and effectively anonymous. I won’t hand any email addresses to the RIAA, MPAA, BSA or anyone at all under any circumstances ever.

What I WILL do:

I will read every single one, and keep an open mind. I will listen to what you have to say, and how I can use that to make games that sell more, sell more copies of what I have, convert more people to become buyers, and generally make everyone happy

I will post a summary of the emails I got, without identifying anyone.

I will give genuine thought to what I could or should change about my business, me, my games, everything, in order to address the issues raised.

Please email me, and please be honest. Don’t try and use any justifications you think may just be self-justifications that you know aren’t true. If you did it just because you knew you wouldn’t get caught, say so. if you did it because you think the games crap, say so. This is only helpful if everyone is 100% honest. It would be nice to know how you made the decision to pirate. Did you look at the price? did you consider buying it? under what circumstances would your choice have been different etc etc. Please make sure its about MY games. If you pirate photoshop because of X, that’s no help. if you hate the MPAA and RIAA, and you pirate music, but haven’t pirated my games, that’s no help.

if you are one of the thousands of people reading this who bought my games. THANKYOU. I really appreciate it. without you, I’d be working as a boat builder, an IT support engineer, an guitar teacher, or something else that I wasn’t very good at. Thankfully I get to do what I love, which is design games. My company would not exist without you, and the last 4 games would definitely never have got made (Democracy, Kudos, Rock legend, Democracy 2).

Final note:

Please don’t post any links, suggestions or hints as to WHERE to pirate my games in any comments. Despite being genuinely interested to hear from you, I do NOT think it’s acceptable, and for obvious reasons (not least rising fuel and food bills in the UK) I want people to BUY the games, not pirate them.”

Source: Cliffski’s Blog

As for the responses, he’s posted a topic here which has some of the comments from pirates. I don’t push piracy, nor do I agree with it, but I do agree that games that are $60 should never be. A game should be no more than $30 in my opinion, but that’s all I will say about this.

Aztaka is an Action/RPG side-scroller currently under development by Citérémis. So far it’s looks amazing, lets just hope it plays as good as it looks. Here’s the games description from there site.

“Based on Aztec lore, the game will take you on a fabulous journey through Tenochtitlan (Mexico), the heights of the Hualahci Mountains and the depths of the Malacatapec Volcano. As Huitzilo, descendant of the Sun God and with your friend Ayohpa, a magnificent spell caster, you will have to save your people from the wrath of the Aztec Gods.”

We will keep an eye on this one.