Attention Hog [Chris Basmajian via Water Cooler Games]

You can skip up to five levels if you find you're just not getting the hang of one. It stores your IP address and lets you continue.

Orbitrunner [Gamezhero.com]

Amy's life just got a tiny bit worse with the release of Escape From Rehab — a frankly rather shoddy flash game that sees the beehived nightingale swearing her way across a side scrolling beat 'em up.

The game is a promo for the upcoming flick Disaster Movie from the (ahem) visionary comedy geniuses behind Scary Movie, Date Movie and Meet The Spartans. Humor-wise, it is definitely up to their usual high standards.

Our Amy has to negotiate wave after wave of characters from other blockbusters (Hulk, Batman, etc) dispatching them with syringe and crack pipe power-ups or smart bombing them with a swipe of her impressive hairdo.

It's just this side of unplayable, but at least Amy can say she finally broke America. Kind of.

Escape From Rehab [via Casualgaming.biz]

My favorite part of "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure" came when they figured out the paradoxes of time travel and, simply by saying "Must remember to bring a trash can!" one appears in Ted's hands and he stuffs it over a bad guy's head.

Not that you can do any of that in "Chronotron," but the idea is the same, think in the present, giving orders to yourself in the past. Sort of. In Chronotron, the idea is to Clone multiple versions of yourself, using a time machine, to get through a puzzle level. The catch — all past versions will spawn and recreate your actions, so you need to think in chronological order for each step of the puzzle, and leave enough time for your final self to get through the gates and ride the risers to your objective.

It's a hell of a fun flash game — my co-worker showed it to me yesterday, so I can vouch for its productivity killing effect.

Chronotron [Addicting Games]

Bowja the Ninja 2: In Bigman's Compound [Pencilkids via Rock, Paper, Shotgun]

It touches on all manner of interesting topics, such as character design challenges ("We go to the bar.") and plans for the future ("...the next version will also allow people to create and submit levels.") that Puzzle Farter fans will find rewarding. If not, maybe you'll just give the game another go or for the very first time.

Inside ‘Puzzle Farter’ [The-InBetween]

There will be a total of three hundred and fifty levels exclusive to each platform: two hundred single player, one hundred "co-op" and fifty "versus." Players will be able to download new levels from the N server as well as show off their design prowess with a level editor. In a rare treat on the DS, player designed levels will be able to be shared with friends free from the ties of the cumbersome Nintendo friend code system. Levels will also be able to be previewed before download so you know what you're getting yourself into. Due to space limitations, the DS version will only be able to hold up to eight downloaded levels at a time, but the PSP version will be able to hold as many as your memory stick will allow. There are plenty of unlockables available to access during the game as well such as game skins, level packs, new gold goals and special music tracks. Speaking of music, all the soundtrack for the game has been created by "chip tune" artists using old consoles to orchestrate the tunes.

One of the more interesting and fun multiplayer modes is a new "tag" mode. Two players chase each other about various levels, one trying to tag the other. Being tagged makes you "it" and you lose a few points in the process. Running into obstacles also knocks points off and the game ends when one player loses all their life points. I tried this mode out with fellow journalist Travis Moses from Gamepro and it was a blast. Being an N expert, he trounced me roundly, but no hard feelings, Travis. Just pray I don't see you on the streets...

Look for N+ to stealth it's way to your DS and/or PSP on August 12th.

Puzzle Farter [via del.icio.us]

The $1,000 winning design "Escape Your Boyfriend's Room" by Jorge Goyco is an interesting point and click game that manages to get both the warning signs of an abusive relationship across as well as how you can get yourself out of the relationship. I loved the look of the game and its approach to the subject matter really impressed me.

The first runner up $100 prize was handed out to "A Walk in the Park by Jared Sain." I loved the look of the game. My only suggestion is that maybe the game could do a better job of explaining how to get out of an abusive relationship. The final $100 runner-up was "Decisions, Decisions by Mark Kakareka"

Judges for the contest were my brother, Drew Crecente; Simon Carless, director of the Independent Games Festival; Stephen Totilo, of MTV and huge brain fame, Georgia Tech prof Ian Bogost and Dr. Elizabeth Richeson, a psychologist, Texas Psychological Association Board member, and my mom.

The winning entries were quite innovative, but more importantly I think this particular contest reiterates the mantra that video games can deal with important and delicate issues appropriately.

My understanding is that Drew plans to run the contest again next year. I hope it has just as many good entries. Hit up the site to check out the winners.

Jennifer Ann's Group

While I have enough work to kill an ox this weekend, I took some time last night to play with this delightfully silly side-scrolling WoW sendup. Here's one introduction to a quest: "Now that you've begun to get the hang of that most fundamental of skills - killing shit - and started to properly become a bit more class conscious, we can tackle a slightly more disturbing problem." Karl Marx even makes an appearance (never mind the Mario appearance pictured above). It's worth checking out if you've got some extra time to waste this holiday (in the US) weekend.

WTF?! [via Grand Text Auto]

Wild Tangent's CEO, Alex St. John, made some 'brazen' claims at the ION keynote — one of the boldest being that console gaming is dead and the PC is looking towards a renaissance. It should be noted that St. John has blabbered about this before, so he's just retreading previous ground:

Beginning one of several brazen claims in his keynote, St. John spoke of the death of video game consoles: “Nobody needs a console when a game's value and DRM is defined by community or an input device. Consoles just serve to keep you from playing a game you didn't pay for.”

He asked, “What's Sony and Microsoft's motivation to make another console? It's been so rocky, and it's not about the pretty graphics anymore.” According to St. John, spectacular graphics have become a commodity, and not the platform for games to differentiate themselves. “The Wii is the exception that proves the rule — it's not about the graphics, it's about the input device.

He went on to talk about advertising models and targeting the right audience — but his statements on the console vs. PC pack the most punch.

WildTangent's St. John Declares Consoles Dead, Claims PC Renaissance [Gamasutra]

I don't have time to waste this weekend, sadly, but if you do, there's a challenging little puzzler called Putty Puzzler, found over on the interestingly named 'Coke and Code.' It's putty. It's a puzzle. It's kinda hard. I spent a little bit of time with it and was pleasantly challenged — I'll come back for more after I've got a little time to waste.

Putty Puzzler [Coke and Code via Rock, Paper, Shotgun]

Meet In ver.0 [Eyezmaze]

Well, it is a joke. And I don't want to say too much about it, because dissecting a joke always makes it unfunny. Part of it is this really silly idea, and part of it is this statement about how games are too hard and complicated. It's also a subtle reference to how some games are kind of patronizing toward the player, like too easy.

But I never set out to make it this way, it kind of turned into this with time. It started out as an attempt to make a game that spoiled the whole experience for you before you played it. Funnily enough, people really don't read instructions...

It's a nice little interview that touches on a lot of stuff (and no whining about the state of game blogs!).

Kian Bashiri (You Have To Burn The Rope) [IndieGames]

Compulse [jmtb02 Studios]

Well, now it's online under creative commons license, which means you can do as you please with it. There are three tracks: "Cave," "Lethal Intro" and "Busta Buss." If anyone cuts a ringtone from any of these, let me know.

(Also, this is not the Flash Game Cookie Break. There will be a regular one of those later on.)

You Have to Burn the Rope - Behind the Music[Reachground]

Top of the heap was The Last Canopy, a shump which makes up for sketchy art direction with addictive play and the ability to absorb an enemies attack.

HIt the jump for the full list of winners and make sure to visit Jay Is to check out the games.

And the Winner Is... [JayIsGames]

Winners
* First Place
($3,500 + Adobe Flash CS3):
o The Last Canopy by Easy Only! Games
* Second Place
($1,750 + Adobe Flash CS3):
o Super Energy Apocalypse by Lars A. Doucet
* Third Place
($1,000 + Adobe Flash CS3):
o Gride by ooPixel (Jussi Kari, Marko Taali)
* Best Use of Theme
($1,000):
o Pieces by SoybeanSoft
* Viral Award (most game views)
($1,000):
o Gride by ooPixel (Jussi Kari, Marko Taali)
* Audience Prize
($500):
o The Last Canopy by Easy Only! Games

The new deadline for the Flash game design contest, which challenges designers to create a game about teen dating violence prevention without violent content or a violent theme, is May 15.

First prize is $1,000 and judges, besides myself, include Simon Carless, director of the Independent Games Festival; Stephen Totilo, of MTV and huge brain fame, Dr. Ian Bogost, Ph.D., co-founder, Persuasive Games, and Dr. Elizabeth Richeson, a psychologist, Texas Psychological Association Board member, and my mom.

2008 Game Contest [Life. Love.]

Magic Pen [Fizzlebot via Jay Is Games]

You're still proud of yourself for figuring it out.

Someone stick a walkthrough on Gamefaqs, please. I'm busy posting.

You Have to Burn the Rope

For those of us who don't know how to program, the monthlong UGOPlayer.com Online Game Fest is another useful site for goofing off at work.

Entries will be evaluated by a panel of experts, which will select 10 finalists. All entries will be available at the UGOPlayer.com site during the April 8 to May 5 contest period.

As for the development gig offer, a company release hedges by saying it's "a chance to become a game developer." Obviously they can't go guaranteeing jobs sight unseen. But I'm thinking that if you take time write an awesome side-scroller in your spare time without asking for an hour of OT, or any promise of compensation, you'll be very desirable to the video game industry and find work soon enough. If you're not already working for teh man.

There are tons of indie flash games out there— my faves are Boomstick and Chaos Theory. (Admittedly, that last one is more than a year old, but it's still a great time killer) UGOPlayer.com is smartly corralling writers together, and likely appealing to the egos of those with a following, and then getting the best submissions under their brand. Still, even if your coding skillz stopped at hypercard stacks, the site might be worth a look for latest-and-greatest games once the contest is about a week in.

Side note: You think this one could crack the top 10?

UGOPlayer.com's Online Game Fest [UGOPlayer.com]

Unlike previous competitions, all the games are available for perusal right now, and they're not doing individual blog entries to introduce the titles. Still, there's a nice spread and variety, so if you've got some time to waste, wander over and check them out.

Casual Gameplay Design Competition #5 [Jay is Games]

The games are part of a $100 million investment by MTV Networks. MTV plans to spend $500 million on creating games for its websites through 2009 as well.

The whole thing is tied to the advertising packed into sites like MTV, Nick and Nick Jr. according to the article. Other games will allow player to try before they buy or include micro-transactions to make money.

Nickelodeon's Game Plan: 600 Casual Games Being Developed; 185 Games Planned For Nick.com Alone [Yahoo]

Questionaut [BBC via Rock, Paper, Shotgun]

My brother just launched a Flash game design contest that I'll be one of the judges for. The object of the Life Love Game Design Challenge is for people to create a Flash game about teen dating violence prevention and to do so without violent content or a violent theme.

Quite a brain teaser, but having played innovative Flash games for years now, I'm pretty sure the design community is up to the challenge.

First prize is $1,000 and judges, besides myself, include Simon Carless, director of the Independent Games Festival; Stephen Totilo, of MTV and huge brain fame, and Dr. Elizabeth Richeson, a psychologist, Texas Psychological Association Board member, and my mom.

When my brother first contacted me about this, he said he wasn't sure that it was a good idea, he didn't know if a Flash game could deal with so serious an issue, but I pointed out that people like Ian Bogost do that for a living.

Life Love Game Design Challenge

Untangle [Nonoba]

Let's say you want to make a game today. Where would you start? Assuming you want to share the game with your friends, the consoles and handhelds are virtually off-limits due to their strict distribution rules. Microsoft's XNA Creators Club for the Xbox 360 is about as flexible as you get, and even after buying into the service, you can only share your games with other members of the club. The PC and cell phone aren't a bad way to go, but conquering the installation process on systems with such varied hardware is hard, even for a professional. Your best bet is probably the web, which leaves Adobe's Flash, which is installed on 95 percent of today's PCs. But even Flash is fairly complex, and the development environment is expensive. Really, it's very difficult for a novice to strike out on his own.

I suspect in future years, we'll be seeing a lot more attempts to let everyone get in on game design, beyond RPG Maker.

What If Everyone Could Make Videogames? [The Escapist]

The Drudge Report this morning, too busy apparently reporting on the bird flu fears of India and Hackabee's cash flow problems to do any digging, threw up a headline this morning on their site decrying the Presidential Paintball flash game we posted yesterday.

The headline: Online shooting game lets kids target presidential candidates... doesn't really paint a accurate picture of the cartoony paintball game most likely created more for readers of the Drudge Report than for the Dora set.

The link jumps you to The Smoking Gun's write up of the miniclip flash game which describes it as a highly trafficked game that "allows kids to train a rifle scope on six presidential aspirants and squeeze off a hail of shots." I guess it's important to say it's a game for kids, because, you know, adults don't play political flash games. I guess kids are the ones playing the game being created for the New York Times too.

The Drudge Report

It's about time someone's come up with a video game that lets the presidential hopefuls face off in a forum befitting their partisan manner: Paintball. Presidential Paintball pits your candidate of choice against the other presidential hopefuls in a rolling paintball match that takes place in and around the White House. While the game is fairly easy to beat, I never get tired of watching a huge-headed Clinton or Romney roll across the floor. Oddly enough, when I got to McCain, he kept standing up and shooting at the floor by his feet. Statement or coding mistake?

Fancy Pants Adventure World 2 [Armor Games]

Cursor*10 [nekogames via The-In Between]

Gaming brainiac, and one-time Kotaku Editor fill-in, Ian Bogost points out that Scholastic, now in deep withdrawls from the Harry Potter series, has been casting about looking for new was to make billions of dollars. Their latest idea? A series called The 39 Clues which will feature ten books and be written by different authors including Gordon Korman and Rock Riordan.

The series seems to hint at the fact that it will include mention of video games and in fact have flash-based video game tie-ins.

An online game will allow readers to search for the 39 clues themselves, while solving puzzles and playing mini-games that will be refreshed daily. Mr. Levithan said the site would include blogs written from the points of view of characters, and maps, treasure hunts and videos, many with historical and geographical content.

Each book will come with six collectors' cards that can be used to find further clues in the online game. Players can also win cash and other prizes.

The publisher hopes that reluctant readers will be drawn to the books by the game. "Reading the books will make you better at the games, so that is the incentive," said Suzanne Murphy, publisher of Scholastic's trade division.

More interesting, though, is Scholastic's seeming disapproval of an author (and maybe a developer) retaining the rights to their hard work:

The series is also Scholastic's attempt to create a branded franchise for which it owns all the rights. Ms. Rowling retained the rights to the Harry Potter series, which meant that she could pursue separate deals for film and other licensed products, effectively cutting out Scholastic.

Damn Rowling and her clingy desire to own the product of the life time of work, damn her to hell.

Scholastic Defiles Self, World with Game-Book Tie-ins [Watercooler Games]

Chain Factor

NetDevil, the guys behind Auto Assault and currently working on LEGO Universe MMO, announced today that they are working on a remake of LEGO Racers, based on the toy of the same name. The web-based flash game is being developed under a new Web Games division at the company and will be rolled out with several other casual web-based games in 2008.

"NetDevil has proven a valuable partner that truly understands what the LEGO play experience is all about," said Kelly J. McKiernan, Internet Content Manager on LEGO Racers. "The company's high-quality work on the LEGO Universe MMO made them an easy choice for LEGO Racers, and we look forward to continuing our relationship with them to give fans of LEGO a whole new way to interact with some of our most popular franchises."

LEGO Racers will have kids trying to beat out other LEGO Racers to become the best LEGO racer and will allow players to own up to five cards from ten teams, each with unique attributes. Players can modify and upgrade their car with parts and the racers will be shown live online. The game will also support offline racing.

"Having a dedicated focus on casual game content is something that we've thought about for a long time and we see it as a natural extension of our team's experience and capabilities," said Scott Brown, President of NetDevil. "We see casual game content as a key growth driver moving forward, and feel we are in a great position to bring some the world's most recognized brands and entertainment properties to new audiences."

It's cool to see a Colorado developer growing so quickly. Now we just need to get a couple of studios from EA, Ubi and Activision. Then I'll launch my plans to have E3 moved here. :)

VG Cats Still Alive [VG Cats - Thanks Alex!]