Long time DC forum readers who enjoy casual 2d style indie adventure games are in for a real treat this week.  First came news that one of the favorite games we've discussed, Samarost 2, can now be had along with the brand new game Machinariumfrom the same developer, for $10.

And now comes news that the author one of the other clear favorite example of this genre (Knytt and Within a Dark Forest), has released a brand new indie game called "Saira".  (It's $17 for the full version -- a bit steep for this type of game but you can get an additional license for a friend for $2 so that makes a nice purchase for teams of dc people).

Saira teleported herself to Mars, but when she reached the planet all other humans in the galaxy had mysteriously disappeared. Now, how does something like that happen?
Saira is a two dimensional puzzle platformer for Windows 2000 or later.

http://nifflas.ni2.s...x.php?page=1001Saira

Amanita Design, the guys behind the recently released Machinarium, is offering a superb deal on its blog. Starting today and up to Christmas Day, you can get Machinarium, Samorost2 and the soundtracks for both games, all coupled with high-res game covers, for a mere 10 bucks. No DRM and multiplatform versions (thanks to the "magic" of Flash).

http://machinarium.n...rost2-for-10-60-off/

Very nice item on a cool site i hadn't heard about before (TinyHacker.com), about our Coding Snacks section:

The Coding Snacks forum within the DonationCoder.com site is a breeding ground of new ideas for tiny, open source apps. Read through some of the previous entries and post one of your ideas you’d like to see implemented.

http://tinyhacker.co...visit-donationcoder/

Tiny Hacker is related to the "How-To Geek" site, a very cool place.

The NANY Challenge is an annual Challenge at DonationCoder where coders of all levels are challenged to pledge a New Application for the New Year and release it on January 1, 2010.

The NANY 2010 Challenge is generating a lot of interest again this year: so far we've had:

• 27 Pledges from our brave coders
• 16 Teasers to whet our appetites
• 6 Entries for us to try from the NANY Board

There's still time to join the NANY celebration! The idea is simple, and everyone is welcome to participate regardless of their skill level.  There are no winners, but everyone gets a prize -- a very handsome DonationCoder mug commemorating the event. If you know any coders, please give them a nudge and ask them to come by and give us a little bit of their time.  We know sometimes it's hard for coders to come up with good ideas, so we started a special thread just for people to post project ideas for others to consider working on; don't be shy posting your ideas.  And if you're a programmer, why not stop by the Pledge thread now and pledge to release something new by January 1 2010.  Help us make it something special -- we promise to make it fun!

Twigatelle Update
Here's the next update on Twiggles progress with his NANY 2010 entry: Twigatelle. Thanks to Head in the Clouds for allowing us this view into the whole NANY process!


Teasers / Entry Focus
Leap of Faith 0.01.2009.12.10
This is a Platformer game where the goal is to climb to the top of the screen and reach the exit.

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BlitzType 0.9
BlitzType is utility that helps to reduce repetitive typing, speed up typing and increase productivity in work that involves typing, writing and coding, etc. It does so by autocompleting frequently typed words and phrases or expand abbreviations into complete form for the user. BlitzType learns and saves repeated phrases as the user types. When the user is about to type a same phrase again, he/she can rely on BlitzType to autocomplete the phrase or expand the abbreviation for him/her.

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Multiboot ISO Maker Alpha 7
Multiboot ISO Maker is an unrestrained graphical front end for mkisofs for Windows and a multiboot ISO creator. It supports all mkisofs options and it is aimed at people who know what mkisofs is and what is not. It is unrestrained because it supports all mkisofs options without any limits and you are not restrained to the bundled version of mkisofs. Multiboot ISO Maker works by placing all mkisofs options in a check list. You can activate and deactivate any mkisofs option by clicking on the item in the list.

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Countdown 0.0.25
Simple, unobtrusive countdown app which counts down to a user-selectable date.  Resizable and movable, so it can sit anywhere on your desktop.  Countdown options range from DD:HH:MM:SS to just DD, and everything in-between.
Created because I love counting down to dates and times, and I'd like to have a small app sitting on my desktop doing exactly that.
Plus, it has cool red led graphics!

New article in InfoWorld comparing latest virtual machine tools (vmware7,etc):

• "VMware Workstation 7 gives loyal customers more of what they love: better snapshot support"
• "Parallels Desktop 4 for Windows and Linux delivers a solid, all-around virtualization experience... exceptionally easy to use."
• "With support for up to 32 virtual CPUs per VM, VirtualBox is now the class leader in terms of raw virtualization muscle."

http://infoworld.com...-and-linux-heats-500

This looks like a fun thing:

Assemblee is a two-part game-making competition!  Each part has its own rules.

1. In the first part, artists and musicians will have a month to create as many art and music assets as they wish.  These assets will be voted on at the end of the month based on the quantity, quality, and variety of the assets provided.

2. In the second part, designers and programmers will have a month to take the assets created in part one and make games with them (assets used need not be limited to one person or team).  The programmers cannot make any changes to the assets unless it's done during runtime.  The best game will be voted on in the normal fashion.

3. Finally, the teams that created games for the second part will each vote on which artists and musicians they felt were the most useful in making their game.

4. The art and music that was created for the competition will be released to the public under certain provisions (non-commercial, credit given, etc.).

http://forums.tigsou...dex.php?topic=9600.0

NOTE: They are aready up to part 2!
End Date: Sunday, January 10th (Around Midnight)