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[GameSetLinks is GameSetWatch's semi-regular link round-up post, culling from hundreds of weblogs and outlets to compile the most interesting longform writing, links, and criticism on the art and culture of video games.]

While we're way into a super hectic GDC week, and in fact, the GameSetLinks haven't got busted out for a long time, we still have a few in our back pocket for moments like this - and here's some fun results.

Among them: 1UP on fanfiction, a neat good interview with Wadjet Eye Games' Dave Gilbert, a Sonic retrospective of some classiness, a retrospective on David Cage's early piece of semi-insanity that is Omikron, and rather more besides.

Eff bee eye:

Fan's View: Inside the World of Fanfiction from 1UP.com
'Our first part in a series on game fan culture looks into the controversial art of weaving non-canonical tales.'

Retrospective: Omikron: The Nomad Soul Article | Retro | Eurogamer
'I will argue with you that Fahrenheit is one of the most exciting games I've ever played, even though it's broken in about 657 ways.'

1UP's Retro Gaming Blog : Report: "The Game Maker" Vol. 2: Sunsoft
Nice, the Game Center CX guys doing new retrospectives...

WoSblog: Weird or Standard? » Blog Archive » Games mags in a coma
Presumably to be sung to Morrissey/Smiths? But sad :(

Bestower of Blackwell, Repossesser of Emerald City – INTERVIEW with Dave Gilbert » A Hardy Developer's Journal
Great interview on the adventure game dev, who has transitioned from casual portal-supported to self-supported status in terms of distribution, interestingly...

1UP's Retro Gaming Blog : Lost Levels: Sonic and the Secret Games
Great retrospective from Frank.

Let's take a look at the latest interviews with indie game developers on the web. Highlights include: the continuation of Gamasutra's Road to the IGF series, DIYGamer's coverage on Student Showcase finalists, three more IGF award nominees featured on Rock, Paper, Shotgun, an interview with Hello Games about Joe Danger.

ZillionMonkey: Like a solitary spacecraft
"Japanese creators of shoot 'em ups - professionals and enthusiasts - are a well-respected bunch. This month we feature one of them: Kenta Cho. He is a freeware game maker with a day job, guest lecturer, arcade goer. He works alone."

Gamasutra: Road To The IGF - Limbo's Dino Patti
"In the latest Road to the IGF interview with 2010 Independent Games Festival finalists, Gamasutra speaks with Dino Patti, part of the team behind shadowy Excellence in Visual Art finalist Limbo."

Gamasutra: Road To The IGF - Closure's Tyler Glaiel And Jon Schubbe
"Tyler Glaiel and Jon Schubbe discuss their design and inspirations for Closure and the upcoming expanded version of the game's subtly sinister undertones."

Rock, Paper, Shotgun: IGF Factor 2010 - Closure
"I am working on Closure for another year. After Closure, I have some concepts for the next game. It's looking like it's going to be completely the opposite of Closure."

Rock, Paper, Shotgun: IGF Factor 2010 - Limbo
"Lead Designer Jeppe Carlsen explains what the team has been up to with Limbo and the studio."

Rock, Paper, Shotgun: IGF Factor 2010 - Trauma
"UK-based PC game site Rock, Paper, Shotgun speaks to Krystian Majewski, developer of Seumas McNally Grand Prize finalist Trauma."

DIYgamer: The Future of Gaming - Dreamside Maroon
"Three members of the Dreamside Maroon team from Digipen managed to wrangle their schedules to talk to DIYgamer. You can find the transcribed interview here."

DIYgamer: The Future of Gaming - Igneous
"Igneous follows a tiki totem as it rolls its way through the innards of an exploding volcano. Part racing game, part heart attack, this title is an impressive feat for student gaming."

This Is My Joystick: Hello Games - The Interview
"Following on from our feature on Hello Games, we were lucky enough to grab the four friends living their dream for an interview about the upcoming Joe Danger." Continue reading

[Continuing a series of interviews with the more esoteric end of development, critic and writer Phill Cameron talks to the fiendish mind of Vic Davis, also known as Cryptic Comet.]

Hell is an odd place to set a game, you'd think. EA are trying it with Dante's Inferno, but instead of gruesome gibs and visceral vistas, Vic Davis has pulled the player back from the action and placed them in the shoes of an Archfiend, providing them with a simple instruction; rule hell.

Except, of course, there are others with the same goal. Solium Infernum, his latest release, is a turn based strategy game that asks you to rule through manipulation of an intricate prestige system that requires you to fling insults across the abyss at one another, and attempt to ruffle enough feathers/scales/postulating protrusions that you can initiate a hostile take over of your fellow archfiends. And really, it's brilliant. So naturally, I had to have a chat with him about it.

Can you explain a little about who you are and what you do?

My name is Victor. Victor the game maker. I design and arrange turn based strategy games on the PC. Even in these dark times you will most likely need to read the manual before you attempt to play my games. They will require that you invest some effort in learning the mechanics and play patterns before you really appreciate them and there is a good chance that you will have cursed my name and my amateur User Interface before it is all over…although you will probably have said “Wow, that’s some nice art” before you do so.

You've worked almost solely in the turn-based-strategy world, at least as far as development goes. Do you think that there's space for expansion within it, or is the niche you're filling already full?

There is plenty of space to explore and the hissing sound of all the medium and big game companies leaving the punctured ship’s hull still hasn’t quite ended yet. I really like turn based games as a design medium because I think they offer a more contemplative experience. Whenever time is a resource I tend to feel harried and distracted. It also makes sense for me because it allows me to forgo the complex animation and visuals that real time and 3D demand. That type of production usually requires large teams and heavy duty programming that is way beyond what I can produce solo.

You used Adobe Director to write the game, which has drawn a few negative comments your way. Were there alternatives, or did you just use it out of familiarity and ease of use?

Yes, familiarity was the key reason. I knew that I couldn’t really afford the time and effort needed to learn a new development environment. I had been using Director for about 5 years doing US Civil War battle animations so I knew I could probably pull off the coding but that the AI was going to be difficult since I’d never done anything like that before. One nice thing that has come of using Director is that generally compatibility has been pretty good. I have read reports of some developers finding that new video drivers or versions of Windows have caused all types of problems with keeping games working that were published years ago. That’s important for me since I hope that my “retro” games have a long shelf life.

Was the choice of hell there to encourage a mood of deceit and connivance? Did the setting come before or after the concept of backstabbing politics?

The setting and theme always come first for me. I basically decide on the theme and then build the mechanics and game play around it. So once I knew that I wanted to make a strategy game set in hell, all the corresponding attributes were fleshed out as game mechanics…the deceit and backstabbing.

You've stated that there was inspiration from Paradise Lost previously. The art style, specifically the cantons and Places of Power, reminded me most of Hieronymus Bosch. Was that another inspiration? Was it that time period in general that provided the most ripe ideas concerning Hell?

Yes, I did a fair amount of research to try and draw from a bunch of different sources when I was building the mythos of the inferno that I wanted to present to the players. You will see influences from things like medieval vision literature to the work of artists like Giotto and especially Hieronymus Bosch. My wife is an art historian and she actually got her Masters in Medieval art so I had seen lot of Bosch before and even had a personal tour of the Prado in Madrid led by my wife when we were much younger….almost 25 years ago. But I still had all her books to refer to. When I worked with the artists to do the illustrations they were always very keen to pay a little homage to Bosch.

Following from that, while Hell is obviously timeless, there was a certain late medieval/early renaissance feel to it that in part stems from the high level of bureaucracy and in-fighting. Do you think it's important that something like Solium Infernum, which is already somewhat abstract, has touchstones in reality and period?

Yes, I was definitely thinking of a feudal system when I went about designing the Diplomacy system. Even more than the historical feudal systems of medieval Europe I was thinking about the fantasy structure of the Landsraad from Frank Herbert’s Dune. Vendetta was my reinterpretation of Dune’s Kanly. Of course I’m sure Herbert drew his inspiration from a huge amount of historical research and knowledge. I also had George R. R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones on my mind as well. The central idea in both universes is the pursuit of power through all means possible…brute force, deception and manipulation with the knowledge that you are playing for keeps…you either win or you die.

When I first started using the play by email system, I thought it crude and ponderous, but as our game progressed it became the perfect medium to build tension and formulate plans that I wouldn't think possible with the immediacy of a 'real time' system. Was this an intentional choice or something forced on you by the platform?

It’s a bit of both. I explored ways of automating the sending of the turns by using the computers default email program but I ran into a bunch of compatibility problems and exceptions. I do like how measured and paced the sending and receiving of turns is when using PBeM. The game that real got me hooked on PBeM was Dominions by Shrapnel and Illwinter. I will never forget the racing heart feeling that I would get when I had made a big gamble move and the email with the results appeared in my in box. I hope that Solium Infernum captures a little of that.

With both Armageddon Empires and Solium Infernum, you tend to offer the player a platform to work off rather than scripting a sequence of events. This obviously leads to an emergent narrative, but at the same time do you think that such a sandbox can be daunting to new players?

Yes, and if you add the complex rules into the mix then you have even more for the players to overcome. I think it is worth the investment though. Replayability is something that I really like my designs to offer and is a key sales pitch. I like to also keep the play time short and focused so that you can sit down and finish a sand box in a few hours.

While your games exist in a niche, they do tend to get a lot of press, at least in the indie-circuits, which encourages people who might not instantly get excited at the prospect of a turn-based-strategy game to go out and play it. Do you think it's important to cater to them, or would that dilute the experience for more 'hardcore' players?

I’m happy if it reaches a broader audience but I think that what happens is that those types of players get attracted to the idea of the theme but the actual mechanics and game play don’t really pull them any further. My goal is to make games that drive away 90% of the player base out there. That’s how I fill my niche. I’m not making super hard games where you die every 10 steps and have to figure out how to defeat the super boss at the end of the level by trial and error 150 times. It’s a different type of difficulty. And really once you invest a little effort in learning the systems and play patterns that I am offering, you usually come to the conclusion that the complexity is really not that overwhelming. It’s the combination of simple elements that yields fun complexity and decision making… basically chaos theory incarnate.

The $30 price point has been contentious for a fair amount of people. Do you think that's because it's reached a wider audience than you expected, and players who wouldn't normally be happy to pay that price for a niche game are paying attention to it?

I’m reminded of that scene from Spinal Tap where Ian the manager tells Bobby Fleckman: “You should have seen the cover that they wanted to do.” I actually thought hard about going with an even higher price point for Solium Infernum….in the $34.95 range. Seriously though, I think that a higher price might even be better but I have yet to test it out. I like the thought of winnowing out the people who are going to buy based on impulse and then not enjoy the game. My games are an acquired taste. It saves us both a lot of time, money and effort in the long run….and I can focus on my niche. I only want customers who feel they got some value for their purchase.

All that said, Solium Infernum is on the lower end of the price spectrum for niche strategy games (but is admittedly on the high end for and “indie buzz” game). But pricing in the games industry is undergoing a tremendous amount of turmoil. You have AAA games debuting at $60 and then a race to the bottom depending on the “success” of the game. You have a downloadable casual market that has just imploded in the Great Portal Wars deflation and you have services like Steam that offer huge volume moving sales while adding continually to already large catalogues. For a small developer or you might even say hobbyist like me that’s scary….how do I fit in? I basically just pick my price, stick my head in the sand and try and make games that justify the price to a small niche audience.

With Solium Infernum completed, what are you headed towards next?

I’m working on two things. First, a free mini expansion pack for Solium Infernum. Second, a new game design based on exploration and push your luck decision making tentatively called “Rogue Expedition.” It’s sort of a rogue-like board game with random maps, lite rpg character development and a cool theme that hasn’t been trodden very much. Right now I’m just designing, laying out the general game architecture and doing some quick prototyping of some of the systems. I have no idea at this point how long it will take to finish but I’m hoping no more than 18 months. Famous last words.

Thanks for your time.

[In the latest Road to the IGF interview with 2010 IGF finalists, we speak with Daniel Benmergui, creator of the "game poem" Today I Die, nominated for the Independent Game Festival 2010's alternative-focused Nuovo Award.]

Today I Die is different from any other finalist in this year's Independent Games Festival. Described by its creator, Daniel Benmergui, as a "game poem," the player manipulates the words of a literary poem in order to advance through the short, web-based game.

Metaphors are expressed through the game's interactivity, audio, and visuals. All of these, combined with what Benmergui categorizes as a "very bad poem," attempt to convey what he felt from the "personal situation" that inspired the work.

Here Benmergui explains how impacting a player emotionally is more important than having his work "classified as game or even a good game," and other aspects of Today I Die.

What kind of background do you have making games?

My true work as a game maker started two years ago, when I jumped into being a full-time indie.

What development tools did you use?

Right now, Flex. But my most valuable tool is all the experience I accumulated all these years as a programmer and manager.

How long has your team been working on Today I Die?

Five months of lots of back and forth, trying this and that and discarding a lot of work, which was pretty painful.

How did you come up with the concept for the game?

The idea of a poem with interactive words was born out of brainstormings with Tembac (www.tembac.com), who came up with the idea of playing with poem words. Some day I was feeling affected by a personal situation and was hit by the impression of a drowning girl swimming up, trying to reach the surface. The poem mechanic just fit into the game concept of struggling against a world view.

Even then, the game shapeshifted a lot during development.

Do you think this challenges the definition of a "game"? Is that something that crossed your mind? Does that even matter?

Today I Die feels like a game, although I know it lacks many of the features of a good "game" like a deeper exploration of the poem mechanic.

The most interesting conclusion of publishing Today I Die is that a lot of people felt the experience of playing it was important to them... which felt to me a lot more important than being classified as game or even a good game.

I believe wonderful experiences can be built without a "story" and conventional puzzles and challenges.

You describe it as a "game poem." There are words there that do reflect literary poetry, but how else do you think the game is poetry?

The game HAS a poem, but if you strip if from the game, it's a very bad poem. It's just a tool for the game, made of simple words to avoid confusion and use expressions that provide the right amount of room for interpretation.

Today I Die is short, it has challenges but it's not about them, it has words but it's not about words, it has audiovisuals but they are not its main strength. It's also a game, but not quite. With more or less success, the game tries to stand on that impression I wanted to capture.

Everything's open to interpretation, but what did you intend the player to get out of Today I Die?

I was hoping the player felt at least a fraction of what I felt while I came up with the game. Pretty blindly too, since I had no idea how to do that.

Were there any elements that you experimented with that just flat out didn't work with your vision?

Lots of them! If I added up everything I tried in the game without discarding anything, I would have four small games.

Have you played any of the other IGF finalists? Any games you particularly enjoyed?

I love Tuning... it feels to me like a distillation of the work of Cactus.

Terry Cavanagh (VVVVVV) didn't make it to the finalists this year, but his work is getting astonishingly better each year. He is going to do very important stuff.

I still have to play many other finalists, though. I'm curious about Trauma, and hoping to try Edmund's Super Meat Boy.

What do you think of the current state of the indie scene?

The indie scene is starting to grow and institutionalize itself... which means more money will be around for indies, but it will also crystallize what "indie" is supposed to mean, and there will be people with a lot of power over who succeeds and fails. Perhaps this will give birth to "superindies" someday.

But right now there's a lot of very good will going around, and I am very happy to be involved with such an encouraging example of constructive human relationships.

[Previous 'Road To The IGF' interview subjects have included Enviro-Bear 2000 developer Justin Smith, Rocketbirds: Revolution's co-creators Sian Yue Tan and Teck Lee Tan, Vessel co-creator John Krajewski, Trauma creator Krystian Majewski, Super Meat Boy co-creators Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes, and Sidhe's Mario Wynands, who worked on Shatter]

[From now until early January, sister site IndieGames.com: The Weblog will be highlighting the best independent and freeware games of 2009 by genre - here's the first, focusing on free shoot 'em ups.]

Kicking off the first of the in-depth 2009 Best Of Features here on the IndieGames.com blog (after the overall Top 10 we did for Gamasutra and the 10 Indie Games for '10 article), we're proud to present ten of the best freeware shoot 'em ups released in 2009.

Let's take a look at a couple of naughty and nice shoot 'em ups, featuring titles with names of insects, cephalopods, and even.. phalluses, in this quirky selection of the best shooters we've played this year.

(You can also access the full 2009 Top Freeware Shoot 'Em Ups chart -- with extra screenshots and information -- as part of the IndieGames.com Features section, which includes indie game charts from 2006 to 2008.)

Here's the top freeware shoot 'em ups of the year:

10. Atomic Super Boss (Jan Willem Nijman and Miroslav Malešević) [Flash, freeware]

Originally developed with the Game Maker engine, JW's Atomic Super Boss is a score-based vertical shooter that features only one enemy to shoot at for points. The fragile part of your ship is marked by a small white-coloured square, and you earn more points by sticking close to the boss while shooting at it. The ship also moves faster when no shots are fired.

There are three difficulty levels to choose from, and you can even submit your best scores online at the end of each game as well.

9. Death vs. Monstars (GameReclaim) [Flash, freeware]

You know how sometimes you just want to put down the clever puzzle game and grab a dose of mindless shooting fun? Death vs. Monstars could fill that void. It's a Geometry Wars style blaster containing such silly gimmicks as 'Berserk Mode' and 'Bullet Time' and it's great fun.

Enemies spawn all over the screen and it's your job to destroy them and grab the plunder. Money can then be used to upgrade your little floating skull, making the killing easier. Of course, with each level the difficulty gets ramped up, so making use of the provided Berserk Mode (crazy firing all over the screen to wipe out all enemies present) and Bullet Time (take a wild guess) is essential.

It's even got a Boss battle to deal with at the end which is pretty challenging. So if you're looking for a nice, brain-dead way to pass the time, help Death beat those crazy Monstars over at Game Reclaim.

8. Hell is Other People (George Buckenham) [Unity, freeware]

It has an awesome name. It is an awesome concept. Hell is Other People is an 'asynchronously multiplayer' according to creator George Buckenham. The path that each player takes is recorded and future players are then pitted against their recordings.

This means that no two games are the same. It also means you are technically playing against humans - albeit humans who aren't actually aiming at you. It's a beautiful idea which starts off pretty easy and soon develops into a full-on war. Try taking on 15 ghosts at the same time. Chaos.

7. Squid Yes, Not So Octopus 2: Squid Harder (Oddbob) [Windows, freeware]

Squid Yes, Not So Octopus 2: Squid Harder is an arena shooter created by Robert D. Fearon, featuring glowy graphics and eye candy that (at maximum setting) is guaranteed to push the limits of any computer setup you may have. A host of configuration options are included, allowing players to change screen size, toggle autofire, activate motion blur, or even enable the practice mode where novices could take the game for a spin without worrying about dodging bullets or colliding with enemies.

Joysticks and gamepads are automatically supported, although you could use the keyboard to play as well.

6. GearToyGear (Kenta Cho) [Windows, freeware]

GearToyGear is a 3D tunnel shooter which plays like Kenta Cho's Torus Trooper, although in this mission you are only able to control the speed and flight direction of the ship that you pilot. Shots are fired automatically, and if your initial ship stock isn't enough you can also earn extra lives by scoring more points in the game.

For Windows users, the installation of XNA Framework 3.1 is required to get GearToyGear working. Playing the game with an Xbox 360 controller is recommended.

5. Space Phallus (Charlie's Games) [Windows/Mac/Linux, freeware]

Space Phallus is a retro horizontal shooter with a naughty theme, created by the developer of Bullet Candy and Irukandji. Here you pilot the disembodied head of a dog, fighting against hordes of enemies in the shape of unmentionable body parts with only an assortment of three weapons at your disposal. Thankfully these weapons can blow away anything that stands in your path, just as long as you use them wisely and sparingly.

There are three stages to play in total. The game features an online high score table, a special guest appearance by General Custer himself, and is available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux operating systems.

4. White Butterfly (Sparky) [Windows, freeware]

White Butterfly is a vertical shooter created by Linley Henzell, developer of the excellent Dungeon Crawl and Garden of Coloured Lights. Players begin the game by choosing one of the four available ships to pilot, with a fifth one only unlocked after you've completed the final stage.

There are three long stages to play in total.

3. Bullet Time (Terry Cavanagh) [Flash, freeware]

Created in 48 hours for Mini Ludum Dare #9, Bullet Time is your standard retro shmup with the added bonus of a 'bullet time' effect thrown in. The goal of the game is to survive as long as you can. If things get too hectic, you can activate Bullet Time, which slows down enemy bullets long enough for you to navigate to safety.

It's a short but sweet experience. Everything from the action-packed playing area to the accompanying dance (by DestroySound and Kontinuum) beat make it all feel very hectic, and the rank-through-survival system works well.

2. Genetos (Tatsuya Koyama) [Windows, freeware]

Genetos is a vertical shooter that pays tribute to many classic and modern day shoot 'em ups, where the enemies and weapons evolve as you progress from one stage to another. The game offers plenty of configuration settings that cater to players of all skill levels, although some of the advanced features like invincibility and the boss rush mode are only available after you've beaten the entire game at least once.

The type of weapons that you unlock is determined by your style of play as well, and a history of your completed achievements are accessible via the history option at the main menu.

1. Captain Forever (Farbs) [Flash, freeware]

In Captain Forever, you're the captain of a ship named Nemesis, stranded in space without a single clue about your current whereabouts. Fortunately an info buoy is around to help, providing you with some information about the sector you are in and supplying repair modules to rebuild your ship.

By destroying enemy ships with your default laser weapon, you can cause them to drop ship parts that can be attached to your own ship. Additional ship plating, extra weapons and increased thruster power are just some of the benefits to be gained from salvaging intact modules.

Captain Forever is a series of episodes to be launched by Farbs in the coming months, with the first game available to play for free.

[Got feedback? Reasons to disagree? Post a response and we'll do a special 'best of reader comments' round-up at the end of our chart countdowns.]

Adrenaline is a freeware multiplayer top-down shooter created with the Game Maker engine, featuring a wide variety of weapons to use, four different game modes and support for user-created maps in addition to the official maps that comes with the download. The latest version of the game (1.0.0, released on January 1st 2010) includes plenty of graphical settings that can be tweaked to accomodate slower computers, a single-player mode with bots, and even stat tracking for registered Reflect users.

Besides your standard ranged weapon, you can also swing a knife for melee attacks or throw grenades to hurt other players. The frequent disconnections and lags could disrupt your enjoyment of it, but if you are looking for a multiplayer deathmatch game that is free to play then Adrenaline might fit the bill nicely. (source, controls) Continue reading

Today's collection of independent game links include the announcement of a new Game Maker competition, an awards show for the best free independently-developed games of the year, and a release date for Terry Cavanagh's much-anticipated VVVVVV. (image source)

Tale of Tales: My selection for the IGF
"When I had a look at each of the 301 entries in the festival, I couldn't resist the urge to compare them with our own. I have based my selection on the information available on the IGF website, the game developers' own websites, videos and screenshots."

Oxeye Game Studio: Harvest Holiday Bandwagon
"Harvest: Massive Encounter is currently 75% off on Steam. We've matched our own service with the Steam discount, so you Mac users won't feel left out. The 75% discount will be available until January 3rd." Osmos is also 80% off on Steam ($2 USD, usual price $10).

Game.Dev: Competition 24 - Coherence
"The Game.Dev group is currently running a 'Coherence' competition, requiring entrants to meld different genres into one game."

YoYo Games Glog: Competition 05 Announcement
"After a long wait it’s time to have a new competition. The theme for the first competition of 2010 will be 'Design A HandHeld Game'. We want you to design games using either Game Maker 7 or Game Maker 8 that would be suitable to run on a typical handheld device. First Prize is $1,000, 2nd $500, 3rd $250 to be paid by PayPal."

Devil's Tuning Fork: Visual Design Evolution (video)
"This is the documentation of the visual design evolution of Devil's Tuning Fork, a game created by the DePaul Game Elites team. The documentation was created and narrated by Kyle Sullivan, Visual Design Lead on DTF and a senior Animation major at DePaul."

Bytejacker: 2009 Free Indie of the Year Awards (video)
"We studied televised Video Game awards shows, and we think we've got the formula down. It's time to honor the best free, independently-developed games of the last year."

distractionware: Let’s Go Exploring
"VVVVVV will be available on Sunday the 10th of January, 2010. The game will be sold through its website thelettervsixtim.es for $15. There will be a demo!"

Game Tycoon: David Edery's IGF tips
A judge makes some useful comments for entrants. (source: GameSetWatch) Continue reading