The King, the Queen and the Jester by Jeferson R. Silva
A very stylish RPG that is best summarised as a combination of the author’s inspiration, Eye of the Beholder, with a hint of Tower of the Sorcerer. As a prisoner in the dank, dirty and generally not very pleasant underground dungeons you must escape and find out what the devil is going on. Fantastic in more ways than one, this Assemblee version is “only” a 2-level demo with a good couple of hours of playability. 90%

The Little King That Could by Linus
Your King needs YOU! Build an empire that can withstand the attacks of the evil Drows, Greenskins and other assorted nasties that want to wipe you off the face of the procedurally-generated earth. It’s not finished to the point of having an objective but is still a nice sandboxy Civilization / Roguelike combo. A rough idea of the mechanics and controls can be found here. Worthy of being developed further. 78%

The Lonely Tower by Tempel
Plot: a boy invites a friend over to his place to play a holy awesome new game. What will transpire? In a world where most games are driven by their story, this is a story that’s driven by a game. Intelligent design and dialogue make it a short but uniquely entertaining diversion. The only real complaint is that it’s too short and sweet for its own good. 75%

The Sunset Strider by Crimsontide
This one appears to be a Fez-like 2.5D platformer. A quite nice one, at that. Only complication is that it requires a decent joypad to play, and unfortunately my crappy gamepad couldn’t control the camera (which left me with no way to explore the world properly). Good 3D-ified use of graphics, though it could use some sound and music. Possibly brilliant and clearly well done but needs keyboard controls badly. 71%

• Space Smuggler
• SpriteGears
• Super Treasure Ball Gasm
• The Birth of Selthar
• The Girl and the Shadow
• The Journey

For such a massive batch as this I’ll see you after the jump! Oh, and another new icon at this late stage in proceedings (which I should’ve possibly added earlier) – this one indicates a Java file which you may or may not be able to play on all of Windows, Linux and Mac. Have fun!

Space Smuggler by AttributeClash
You’ve been rumbled! After barely surviving a meteor shower that weakened the hull of your strangely cubic spaceship, the law (and a supporting cast of space aliens) are out to get you. Survive five waves of attackers to win, but aim carefully: your blaster can destroy the structure of your ship and if that happens… well, depressurisation sucks. A tricky game to win but good attention to detail. 70%

SpriteGears by Santiago ‘Slashie’ Zapata
An interesting attempt to mix PixelShips with a turn-based strategy game. Pick a squadron of SpriteGears to explore the galaxy and expand your collection by fighting and capturing other Sprites. Each has its own attack pattern, strength and shield power. Alas that the game is noticeably unfinished and unpolished. However, make no mistake. Should development continue, this is a possible star in the making… 64%

Super Treasure Ball Gasm by jamatthews
Roll your super treasure ball around the screen collecting coins and avoiding devious traps. Reminds me a bit of Oxyd. Nothing spectacularly original but it’s still a pleasant and relaxing bit of entertainment – it has plenty of levels, a competitive 2-player mode and some unlockable content to keep you busy with. Even has a nice credits sequence! Good game, this. 82%

The Birth of Selthar by ZepGrem, JonRambo & Kyliroth
Yippity yay hiii-oh, it’s console RPG time! Pretty standard fare as you adventure through some ancient caverns seeking fame, treasure and a place that sells a decent cup of tea. Has a nifty trick up its sleeve, though. You can learn new attacks and power up your character in specific ways based on the monsters you fight. Feels rather unbalanced and lacks finesse, but still enjoyable and a jolly good effort. 76%

The Girl and the Shadow by Aik
What’s that you say? You want something to ponder the meaning of life with? Something a bit surreal? Aha, well, here’s just the thing for you! Help a girl and her donkey (!) to get rid of a shadow that’s taken to lurking inside her cave. Gain the help of three costume spirits and you should be able to drive it away. The bugs in the game almost add to the dreamlike feel. A five minute distraction; nothing more. 59%

The Journey by Georg ‘Endurion’ Rottensteiner
Too long have we been waiting in this competition for an entrant that makes good use of ninjas, but now The Journey is here to quench our hunger for throwing-star-wielding protagonists! Unforgiving collisions and some challenging boss fights make for a platformer that’ll need ninja-like reflexes to beat. And then there’s the whole rotating the world thing. Excellently put together and lots of gameplay. 84%

Space Penguin by harima555
Your cute ‘n’ cuddly space penguin has run out of food on his home planet, so he jets off in search of supplies on another world. The only slight complication is that he only has 5 minutes to do his job. Watch out for the penguin-hating locals! Use your dual-purpose laser pistol to both defend yourself and vacuum up those juicy bits of fruit. Pleasant enough; above average quality but a bit short. 73%

Space Short Bus by Bob le Moche
What we have here is a mix of Space Taxi and Gravitar including some nifty tactical ship upgrades. Navigate a series of landscapes to take the students of the future safely to school by braving inclement weather and avoiding the hostile turrets that try to stop you. Why are the turrets attacking you on an everyday school run? We’ll never know, but it’s all good. An enjoyable game let down a little by rockabilly ship rotation. 77%

SonnenmördeR by Jph Wacheski
Need more shmup action? Fear not! Accomplished indie Jph Wacheski has made a quite lovely entry with ZGameEditor. It shows off a variety of neato graphical effects (dynamically coloured 1-bit sprites, shaders and more). So much fun in just 59KB! This almost reminds me of a slightly less trippy and more Galaga-ish version of Spheres of Chaos. Horribly addictive – don’t miss it! 90%

Space Garden Punchonaut by Gyorgy Straub
What would you get if you combined Tetris, Columns, Puyo Puyo and… erm… any action platform game? That’s exactly right: you’d get this! Help your failed astronaut to punch marauding space vegetables into lines of 3 or more so that they’ll disappear. A unique way of playing a tried and tested classic formula. Kudos to the designer chappy for thinking it up. A little rough but nevertheless fun to play. 81%

(yes, the Shine screenshot is from the TIGSource listing page… I couldn’t make one better )

Seasons of Change by Perrin
For the love of Ra… 74MB download?! This’d better be good! Unfortunately I wouldn’t say it’s entirely worth it, though the sentiment and idea behind it isn’t bad.  Visit three visions to prepare for a final sequence in this sombre platformer. The mini-stories are okay but the irksome jumping and buggy event handling make it less rewarding than it should be. 52%

s h i n e by Kazerad
Holy crap! Dark, creepy, atmospheric scary stuff here. Survival horror isn’t something that anyone else has attempted during the competition and Kazerad has managed to craft something palpably unsettling. A massive list of assets, all used in interesting and fairly unique ways, coupled with enemies that’ll freak you out… can you find the ending? Several rough edges but still very impressive. 83%

Shmuparadox by Flyweight
Can’t beat a bit of old-fashioned arcade shoot ‘em up goodness. This one takes Braid’s time-reversing mechanic and allows you to be in two or even more places at once, as well as cheating death should you meet a grisly end at the hands of the evil invading space aliens. A pleasant way to while away a few minutes, and comes with a selection of game modes and boss fights. 77%

Snaptrix by William Broom
Are you thinking Wetrix? ‘Cos I am. One minor detail: there isn’t any water, and instead you’re just trying to fit as many layers of blocks together without (a) going outside the black border and (b) leaving blocks hanging with nothing underneath them. Tricky controls don’t make this easy, and the lack of freedom in rotating pieces left me feeling frustrated rather than entertained. 54%

Ranger by menki
Jump into the boots of a ranger and do rangerly things like plant trees, harvest the fruit they grow and, erm, use them to kill nasty monsters. Defend the forest! ‘Cos you’re a ranger, and that’s what rangers do! Feels like a quirky combination of Rogue and Harvest Moon. Curiously enough, it seems to work. Playable but unfinished; could easily grow into something big, har har! 75%

ro9 by Crackerblocks
Controlling one character at a time is just so 80s. Fortunately Crackerblocks is here to break the mould and give you the chance of controlling 9 (!!) adventurers simultaneously! Quite simply you job is to get as many of them “ascended” as possible, remembering that each move you make is mirrored across all nine of your heroes. A simple idea implemented really well, making brilliant use of Oryx’s first-person graphics. 84%

Roguelet by Hyperlogic
Sadly, without a Mac, I was unable to play this one. Shame – it looks interesting…

Running Pandja by prof
What is this, Bleeding Obvious Name Day or something? Now, this may come as a shock, so best sit down before I tell you that this game involves a panda… that can run. Just think of it as really short version of Knytt. Explaining more about it would ruin the 2 minutes of gameplay. Barring some kooky dialogue (English or Gibberish? You decide) there’s not much to see here. Way too short… but does have an editor. 41%

I would’ve given more notice, but because of the silly terms of service of my ex-host, I wanted to move away as quickly as possible to avoid them removing the site rather than me doing it in my own time. Apparently, hosting any file bigger than 1MB was against their terms… *gasp!* So although the likelihood of them cancelling my account was small (since I’d been running with them smoothly enough for a couple of months), they were still within their rights to do so. I really didn’t want to take any chances.

Obviously I can’t predict the future and it’s still early days with this new host but, well, let’s keep our fingers crossed, eh?

UPDATE: Turns out the Millenipede Leaderboard had been broken since the first host move. Wow. I suck! Seems like it has some scores on it nowadays that are slightly unrealistic! I must get around to revamping it some day…

Other Observations by PDF
Roguelike lovers rejoice – here’s the one entry you should play if nothing else in the competition has caught your eye! This is a smoothly executed adventure that aims to simplify the experience by streamlining your inventory management; everything you pick up is automatically equipped. Head into the dungeon as one of 7 classes as you hunt for The Betrayer, a deadly and terrible evil. A nifty effort. 79%

Puzzle Slash by Matt Pearce
Ooooh! A match-three puzzler with a twist. Use your swapping skills to line up symbols while also walking your character forwards into combat range of the monsters in a second, smaller, viewscreen. The symbols you match will determine the effect, a bit like Puzzle Quest. Includes three themes of levels to progress onwards through. Great potential but feels rough around the edges. Worth keeping half an eye on. 70%

Quest! by Galaxy613
A delightfully psuedo-Gameboy romp that sees you wandering around a blocky series of landscapes in an attempt to recover an item stolen by a fearsome dragon. Has a rather fab lo-fi look to it and achieving victory is easily possible in your coffee break, though I’d have to exclaim a dubious “meh” against the slightly rough collision detection and backgrounds which make it tricky to see where the path ahead lies… 76%

Rakshasas by AttributeClash
This is surely a game to test your ambidextro… ambi… er, ability to use both hands equally. As a thief who infiltrates the mage clan’s vault, you are discovered and forced to take command of two glowy balls of doom to defend yourself. One is controlled with the cursor keys and the other with WASD. Screams to be played with a friend; you’d need to be some sort of crazy person to get far playing this alone… 68%

Mushroomer by Jotapeh
Seeing the phrase “Just like a real video game!” immediately made me smile, but sadly the rest of the game couldn’t quite pull off enough to keep that smile on my face. A run and jump platformer made vaguely interesting with slidey controls and ninja rope goodness. Escape the cave before you lose all your lives or a ten minute timer expires. Competently done (nice backdrop!) and points for the rope, but a tad plain. 63%

Mushroom Stew by iarwain
Wahey, more mushrooms! You can never have enough mushrooms, folks. In this case you have to blast through a story of confusion and deception to find out why your mushroom buddies are suddenly trying to kill you. Use your crouching and time-bending skills to reach the end. Technically very good with several tricks used to enliven the graphics – sharp gameplay too, if a tad repetitive. Even has a level editor! 77%

Oh Crackers, Not Again! by The Greenest Banana
In a spicy, tangy twist to normality, here you have to protect a helpless little girl as she tries to get back home following a path which is infested with monsters. You take the part of her faithful and happily indestructible hound who can jump on enemies’ heads to stop them from being such a nuisance. A charming Flash effort but quite challenging even on the easiest difficulty. Needs more levels but still a great effort. 78%

One Pack by MrRoboman
Being a toned ace space pilot is all very well but it’s oh-so-easy to pile on the pounds in your retirement. Such is the problem Ace Fatman now faces in his quest for… okay, I have no idea what his quest is, since this game is one for the “unfinished” pile. But it’s enough to raise a guffaw at the creative use of assets. Multi-purpose flab, anyone? Throw a can or three of polish at this and it could have an entertaining future! 52%

discussion forum

GoonSwarm were founded by members of the Something Awful community and achieved notoriety for being one of the least restrictive groups to inhabit the outer reaches of space, operating under the philosophy that anyone, regardless of skill, should be able to get a taste of what life can be like in 0.0 territory. Their sudden departure from the region leaves a massive vacuum that may well trigger a widescale conflict for control of valuable resources.

No official explanation has yet been given for why the alliance has broken up in this way, but whatever the reason, it’s definitely a pivotal moment in EVE’s history.