I don't think I've seen such a fitting name for a game in a while. Chaos Invaders is an utterly mental take on the classic shooter, in which dead enemies can be used as weapons.

Shoot an invader down and catch them on your ship, then launch them back at the remaining baddies. The boss battles look like stupidly good fun - you can chip pieces off a huge mothership, collect them all in a big pile then fire them back and cause havoc. The game will land on the webs for free any day now, so we'll make sure to keep you posted.

I've been holding off on posting about Pirates of New Horizons for a little while, as I wanted to see more details emerge first. It's a 3D action adventure game set in a world of floating islands and pirate ships with wings.

You take control of Annha, a young pirate with a thirst for treasure. After being attacked by alien pirates (let's assume Annha is a 'good' pirate, then), she must find a way to repair her ship and escape an island, while searching for treasure and gems at the same time. There are puzzles to overcome and combat to be unleashed, with special items to use, side-quests to partake in, and some pretty lovely sights to see.

The final version will probably cost monies, but a free browser-based version will be available sometime in the next month, that will contain a heavy amount of content. So that should be something to look forward to! Check the official site for more info.

In The Hive you play as Alex Rig, a reporter who was investigating a missing persons case when he discovers a heavily-fortified research facility while snooping around for clues. Similar to Iji, Prince of Persia and Flashback, Alex will be doing a lot of climbing up platforms and crawling through air vents to find ammunition or health-replenishing items that he can keep in his inventory for later use.

The taser he carries is effective enough against guards at close range, but only rifles and shotguns can protect him from being overwhelmed by chasing mutants that are more resilient to bullet damage. Both the protagonist's health and his weapons can be upgraded in small increments, provided that you manage to locate the special items required to level up their stats.

The controls might feel clunky and unresponsive at first, but if you give the game a chance to impress it could even suprise you with its high production values in just about every other area. This 2D platformer was created by Vanni del Moral as his entry for submission to the YoYo Games' 'Discovery' competition. Download The Hive here. (Windows, 4.78MB)

New World is a turn-based strategy game that is best described as a mix of Colonization and Desktop Dungeons, created by Christopher for submission to YoYo Games' discovery-themed competition. The Challenge mode provides a different objective to achieve for every section of the world map, while the freeplay mode allows you to customize the rulesets and resources before starting a new game session.

Parts of the map are revealed when your ship moves into an unexplored section of the land, but food is consumed as well every time you decide to set sail. Food is represented by the bread icons (or wheat when rations are low), and currency is depicted by gold, silver and copper pieces.

Morale (shown as red plus signs) will start to fall if there is no food left or when your ship takes damage in combat, but you can restore half a morale point for each square explored on the map. There is limited storage space on your ship for treasure and loot, although the carrying capacity can be increased by engaging in naval battles with the pirates and earning experience points from your victories. Sailing to the left side of the map takes you to Europe, presenting players with the opportunity to restock food supplies or sell any surplus occupying the ship's cargo hold.

There are still some balancing issues and bug fixes that need to be sorted out, but a post-competition version of New World could turn out to be a really good game if all of the existing problems are addressed by the developer. (Windows, 7.68MB)

MusicMineSweeper is a variation of the classic Windows puzzle game that plays exactly the same way as the original, but with this version you have the extra feature of accompanying music is generated by the random placement of the mines on screen.

Each game starts out with a very basic melody that is repeated in the background, but for every flag that you place on the board a new ring or chime will play when the moving bar slides across a column or row of tiles.

Unlike Hojamaka Games' Mamono Sweeper or ha55ii's Mine Tower, this SOWN 2010 selection offers nothing new in terms of gameplay, but the musical element will appeal to players who just want another excuse to pick up Minesweeper again. The latest version of MusicMineSweeper can be downloaded from this page. (Windows, 7.15MB)

It's the start of a brand new month, and once again the EGP team has revealed a new theme for their monthly (sometimes bi-monthly) game development challenge. For the month of September they're asking for prototypes and game projects to incorporate the 'Neverending' theme, and by the end of the month a handful of the best submissions will be selected for a Babycastles arcade showcase event to be held in Times Square, NYC later this year.

On a related note, forty games were also submitted for the last game development challenge (themed 'Zero Button'), and you can find links and summaries for all of those entries right here.

Here's a trailer for Andrew Brophy's latest project, Girl: Episode One. The story follows Annie, who finds her parents murdered and sets out for revenge.

The trailer is a mix of awesome and odd - it doesn't seem to show off the fighting action all that well, and instead displays Annie punching air or standing around. Still, the boss battles look like fun, and there's some lovely animation on show.

More details on the game can be found here.

Langman is a platforming version of Hangman, with added platforminess. On each level the hero needs to reach the blocks marked with letters, before attempting to uncover the phrase at the top.

On the first few levels you'll already be at the letters, so it's a simple case of working out what the phrase is. Press space while standing on a block to select that letter, but watch out - if you choose an incorrect letter, the block will fall and you'll need to jump quickly to survive. Dropping off the screen counts as a guess used. Run out of guesses to lose.

On later levels, you'll need to use some of your spare guesses to move blocks around and create a path to the letters. It's pretty good fun, although the movement could use a little work - it's all too easy to mistime a jump and slip off the edge. Play here.

Rick Rocket has valiantly saved the planet from an alien invasion, but in vanquishing the encroaching horde's space battalion our hero has unwittingly disrupted the space-time continuum. In Retro/Grade you are tasked with reenacting Rocket's deep space exploits, only in reverse, in order to undo the damage to the cosmos and restore balance to the universe.

Retro/Grade is a rhythm action game built around the visual cues of a horizontal space shooter, and involves lining up your ship with the bullets it has fired as time flows in reverse. In allowing players to use either the SIXAXIS or guitar peripheral, the title adds a dose of versatility to piloting your vessel. 24 Caret Games' debut title is headed to the Playstation Network, and PAX Prime attendees will be among the first to give it a test drive, care of indie game designer Matt Gilgenbach.

Swing by PAX booth 3008 and keep an eye out for the miner's cap. Those with the top five scores using the guitar peripheral and Dualshock 3 wireless controller will be mentioned in the game's credits.

How did you first get in contact with Retro/Grade’s composer Skyler McGlothlin?

Matt Gilgenbach, 24 Caret Games: I’ve been a huge fan of Nautilus, his electronic music project, for many years. A couple years ago he was selling CDs through his website and we started a correspondence. It turns out it has always been his dream to do videogame music, and so when 24 Caret Games got started, we began talking about what kind of tracks would work really well with this gameplay.

Was it difficult finding music that could function well within the framework of the reverse-time mechanic?

That was one of the big questions starting out. "How will his music fit within the context of a music game?" One big problem with a lot of music games is you encounter tracks on the medium difficulty setting that turn out to be a lot harder than others on difficult. We’ve successfully imposed limits on the tempo and beats in each track such that it will provide a nice difficulty curve as you progress.

How did the reverse time mechanic of Retro/Grade emerge?

The origin of Retro/Grade came from the debug mode of a demo I was putting together. It was a rail shooter, where you could back up to repeat sections, making it easier to design. My design partner said it would be neat if we had that as part of the game. That was around when the downturn hit and developers started reducing their publishing slate, which made us decide to take a step back and think about what we could publish ourselves. We wanted something doable that would also stand out in the marketplace. I was drawn to this idea of playing a shooter in reverse, with lots of effects and implosions. It gives the game a visual flair that I feel is lacking in a lot of rhythm titles.

At what point in the process did you decide to use the guitar peripheral?

That was actually an idea that came to me pretty early on. I realized we would probably have to time the game to music for it to work in reverse, so that you can push the absorb button at the right time when shots are re-entering your ship. To position your ship arbitrarily would be kind of difficult, so I thought we could constrain it to lanes. That worked really well and made it possible to keep the positioning to five lanes for use with guitar peripherals. We’re now working on making the guitar and SIXAXIS equally fun ways to control the game. It became clear showing the game off at IGF that there are people who want to use the guitar and people who are more comfortable with the gamepad.

The guitar ties in the musical properties of the rhythm action genre. How have you gone about making it fun to play with the SIXAXIS?

There are actually two ways of playing the game with the gamepad. You can play it so that the buttons are an analog to the functions of the guitar, where you can jump to any lane. My personal preference is more of a shooter scheme, where you move your ship up and down and can fire. A lot of thought and consideration has been given to how long it will take someone to move from one lane to another if they’re using the guitar versus the gamepad.

Now that the game is headed to Playstation Network, has that determined specific design decisions?

We're taking advantage of the graphical performance that the Playstation 3 provides. The game runs at full 1080p, 60 fps, with anti-aliasing.

As an independent developer capable of setting your own schedule, do you ever encounter difficulties imposing deadlines?

From a motivational standpoint, it can be difficult to work on something that is entirely self-financed and published. You are afforded freedoms that you wouldn’t have while working on a triple-A title. Retro/Grade will be released “when it’s done,” and I’ve never had that liberty on any of the retail titles I’ve worked on, which all had a drop-dead date. There was always a point where contractually we had to finish. That cut-off point has a detrimental effect on the quality of the project, but on the flip-side, here it’s difficult to call anything “done” or “good enough.” The greatest difficulty we’re encountering is calling things finished, which is an invitation for Duke Nukem Forever syndrome.

What would you say was the biggest factor in convincing you to move from triple-A game development to creating your own indie game studio?

I’m still not entirely convinced it was the right move to make! To some extent it was about following my dreams and being able to work on the kinds of games that I wanted to work on. There are a lot of great games out there, but I can’t really identify a developer that I would feel really passionate about joining. As an independent publisher, working on the game that I want to make inspires me. It makes the work a lot more fun and more fulfilling.

Images courtesy of 24 Caret Games. To find out more about Retro/Grade, visit the 24 Caret Games website. Photo by Jeriaska.

Team Meat announced today that Super Meat Boy will be released via Xbox Live on October 20th as part of 'The Game Feast', which is a bit like Summer of Arcade, except, well, not in the summer. I know, less than two months away! I'm excited too.

Quick summary for the three people who have never heard of the game - you control Meat Boy on his quest to save Bandage Girl. It's a 2D platformer which involves lots of precision jumping, quick reactions and a whole lot of meaty blood splattering. It's all immensely good fun, and something you should definitely look forward to.

This picture was posted earlier today, with the promise that release dates for Steam/WiiWare will follow soon, plus how much the game will cost. I will of course update this post with all the details as they appear today.

We've featured a number of paint and modelling apps before (Sculptris, Cube Kingdom, Q-Block, Taro Paint), so here are three more to add to that list of useful free apps for quick art purposes.

Melly's ASCIIPaint (sample art featured above) is a Flixel-based paint program that allows users to draw ASCII characters on a plain black canvas, then saved as either a .TXT or .PNG file to be shared with others.

Adam 'Atomic' Saltsman's TrashPaint has been out for some time now, and this 5kb art application has proven to be effective for doing really quick sketches with basic brush strokes (sample art in the extended).

Last but not least is increpare's Monopoint, a monochromatic paint application from the creator of Opera Omnia and Ra Ra Racer. The dithering tool in this app is pretty fun to play around with, and you can even use hotkeys to switch between brush types and sizes quickly. Some art samples can be found here.

Quick links: ASCIIPaint, TrashPaint, Monopoint

Adam 'Atomic' Saltsman's TrashPaint

increpare's Monopoint

Cloud Control is a slow-paced puzzle game set in the sky. Players control a fluffy cloud which needs to touch all the other rainclouds to complete each level.

Unfortunately, there are also lots of nasty thunderclouds about, and touching one of those or leaving the side of the screen results in death. It starts off a little tame, but after six or seven levels begins to pick up speed, as you'll need to start surveying the scene before you move. Depending on the tight squeezes you'll need to fit through, planning the shape of your cloud is essential.

It's available to play at Newgrounds. Here is some recommended listening material for accompaniment.

Howard Glitch isn't your average indie game, ohhh no. This browser game doesn't use Flash, or Unity, or any of your other fancy gaming engines - this game uses Youtube to play.

OK, so it's not the first game to use Youtube videos as a means of play, but it's definitely one of the most interesting I've seen. You're trapped in a doomed spaceship, and need to work out how to escape. Your remote pilot has fallen asleep, and now you're trapped on the shuttle which has no controls on board. The scene pans out in video form, until you need to make a decision - then you're given options to click. It all gets pretty weird, and you'll need fast reactions at certain points.

See what you make of it - go here to start.

With the release of Treasure Treasure: Fortress Forage: Extra Edition for XBLIG just around the corner, Craig Forrester has decided to post up a couple of preview screenshots and a trailer for this upcoming two-player co-op puzzle platformer. The game essentially features the same map found in the original Windows version (with souped-up HD graphics), and will cost 80 MSP ($1) to purchase on the Xbox Live Indie Games service.

As sister site Gamasutra reaches the milestone of one million unique monthly readers and nearly 450,000 registered users, the leading video game art and business site is announcing notable new contributors including Simon Parkin, Chris Morris and Kyle Orland.

Cementing its position as the largest, most-trafficked website in the game development and business space, internal Omniture traffic numbers for July 2010 revealed over 3.3 million page views from more than 1 million unique readers for Gamasutra.com alone -- with hundreds of thousands of others reading related sites such as GameCareerGuide.com and IndieGames.com.

In addition, following the departure of editor at large Chris Remo to become Community Manager at Irrational Games (BioShock Infinite), the site has added multiple new contributors to bolster its cutting-edge coverage of all facets of the video game business.

Joining existing core staff -- including news director Leigh Alexander, senior news editor Kris Graft and features director Christian Nutt -- will be Simon Parkin as the site's European editor, providing UK-timed news and original reporting for the site.

Based in the UK, Parkin is a veteran journalist and video game producer who has contributed to -- or is currently writing extensively for -- outlets including Edge magazine and Eurogamer. He was nominated for Best Writer in both the 2009 and 2010 British Game Media Awards.

Also joining Gamasutra as an editor at large, and contributing multiple weekly interviews, trend and analysis pieces is Chris Morris. Chris has covered consumer technology and the video game industry since 1996, including CNNMoney's well-known 'Game Over' commentary column. He also currently writes for Variety, Official Xbox Magazine, CNBC.com, Yahoo! Games and more.

Finally, being added to other Gamasutra contributors such as Colette Bennett, Tom Curtis and Game Developer magazine EIC Brandon Sheffield is Kyle Orland, who joins Gamasutra as a contributing news editor. Orland is a veteran freelancer who has previously written for outlets including Electronic Gaming Monthly, National Public Radio, GameSpot, Joystiq, and The Escapist.

These new journalists are significantly additive to Gamasutra's extensive developer-written content, with featured columnists including Ian Bogost and Ernest Adams, and regular high-profile technical, design articles and postmortems from leading companies in the space, from Naughty Dog through CCP to 2K Games and beyond.

The Gamasutra blogs section, which any readers are welcome to submit to, also includes user-created posts from professionals and Expert Bloggers such as Adam Saltsman (Canabalt), Scott MacMillan (All Heroes Die), Arinn Dembo (Sword Of The Stars II) and Andy Satterthwaite (Shatter).

In addition, Gamasutra continues to receive highlights and crossposted content from Gamasutra sister submarket site editors such as Eric Caoili (running online game business-centric site WorldsInMotion.biz, plus alt.game weblog GameSetWatch), Christian Nutt (for game education-related site GameCareerGuide.com), Danny Cowan (for iPhone/iPad game-specific site FingerGaming), Ryan Langley (for console digital download site GamerBytes), and Tim W. and Mike Rose (for independent game site IndieGames.com).

"These impressive new statistics show that Gamasutra continues to be the most-read outlet for game industry news and inspiration", said Simon Carless, global brand director of the UBM TechWeb Game Network. "We're also delighted to welcome our new contributors, as we continue to provide the highest quality writing about the art and business of games -- from both journalists and game creators -- to a worldwide audience."

Seasons with Thomas is a nifty little Flash game from the creator of Windosill, featuring a white creature who rides a unicycle towards the direction of your mouse cursor. You can only move towards the right side of the screen at first, following the footsteps left behind by the skiers to proceed to the next area.

Each new location that you arrive at contains at least one interactive element for the player to toy around with. It doesn't really matter if you figure out what to do with all of the objects that you discover, and the game never restricts the player from moving forward and finding new content to be amused with.

There are twelve rooms to explore before the world loops back to the frozen pond. (source: Games You Should Play)

Destroy the Brain is exactly the type of game you want to wake up to on a Monday morning - a quick and clever arena-style shooter that sees you removing parts from the spinning mass in an attempt to get as close as possible to the brain and destroy it.

The game was created by a group of students at the Anglia Ruskin University, during a 24-hour gamejam. Guns fire back at you, but you can't die - hence, they're meant as more of a hinderance to stop you from accomplishing your goal. The idea is to blow up the brain in the centre as fast as possible. I managed an almighty 82 seconds, which I'm sure some of you lot will utterly thrash.

Go give it a play, it's a lot more tactical than it sounds.

Orfeo: a Game in Music (made with Construct) is an experimental game that deals with conveying emotions using a simulated musical instrument. You can exude a feeling of happiness, anger, fearfulness or sadness just by playing the four strings on a lyre in a certain manner, usually by strumming it louder, softer, or at different speeds.

It is imperative that the tutorial section is played first, so that you can master the different ways of making sweet music and hitting the right notes to complete the story mode challenges. This Sense of Wonder Night 2010 selection features only four levels to play. (Windows, 12.4MB)

Today's collection of independent game links includes more indie game previews, a couple of development updates, and the usual interviews with developers from around the 'net. (image source)

Norwegian Game Awards 2010: Winners
"The 2010 edition of Norwegian Game Awards is over. The winners were announced at the Grande Finale on the 27th of August and are presented here."

Indie Superstar: Good to the Last Drop
"This final installment of our 2010 Water Cooler series introduces Felix Bohatsch of Broken Rules, Matt Gilgenbach of 24 Caret Games, and Phil Hassey of Galcon fame."

Temple of the Roguelike: The Serial Killer Roguelike Hoax
"There are lots of other real projects which yell for attention and feedback for years, yet never receive the kind of input it wasted. If the guy making PrivateerASCII retooled it as FireflyRL he’d make a killing."

Frictional Games: Amnesia: The Dark Descent Gone Gold
"We at Frictional Games are happy to announce that Amnesia: The Dark Descent has gone gold. We are extremely pleased with our creation and cannot wait to unleash our bundle of madness on the 8th of September."

Spyeart: Go Go Dream Samurai
"Go Go Dream Samurai is my newest game. It's built on the concept of Silent Skies, a game I built for GAMMA IV in December of '09."

GamerBytes: Xbox Indies - Gravitron 360
"Way back in 2008 Dark Castle Software released Gravitron 2 on Steam, a space shooter in the vein of Lunar Lander and Asteroids. Now it's become available for Xbox Live Indies games -- intact, and super cheap. For 80MSP it's a bargain and plays pretty well with an Xbox 360 controller."

The Reticule: Rein - An Interview with Darius Poyer
"I have talked about Rein before, the short adventure game created by Darius Poyer. It first appeared on the Adventure Game Studio forums and was recently featured on the cover discs of PC Gamer and PC Zone. I took the chance to ask Darius a few questions about Rein and his plans to continue the story."

Pachinko Pictures: Indie Gains
"Freeplay is a games festival that has been running for around five years now. The event provides a great environment for the local development community to come together and talk about their current projects, and in the process raise the level of awareness about current game development activity here in Australia."

Super Meat Boy: Content Complete
"As of this week, Super Meat Boy is now content complete. We will also finally announce our official release date and price in a few days."

The Creature is a side-scrolling platform adventure game that will be released for free download on the 30th September. There really is nothing more I can add to the above trailer. I love the game already. (Source)