Jeez, jump and run-lovers have a really good reason to cheer up: Frogatto is a free platformer with astounding fresh and detailed pixelart, solid gameplay, that is available for all operating systems! That are good news, especially for Mac OS X and Linux-users, because there is a decent lack of free indiegames with that flavour. The sourcecode of the game is open-source (the code, not the artworks!), only iPod/iPhone users have to pay five dollar for the game. The developers also accept donations. I would say: just have a download! It is absolutely worth it!

Uh, I’ve didn’t know until now, that the genre of “surgeon / health games” wasn’t invented by Nintendo. Derek digged some footage of Intellivisions game “Microsurgeon“, dated back to 1982! The aim of the game is to “cure the patient” with some kind of micro-robot inserted in the body. Ok, it is 1982, so do not expect realistic graphics. In fact, we have the opposite here: the graphics are so colorful and hardly remembers on the human body, but more on abstract paintings…

Junkboy (Pixelation profile) released a couple of “Demake Mockups” on the Pixelation-forums. The works are imaginary clashes of various games, characters and styles, like Super Mario Cart meets 16-bit eagle-eye perspective or Mirrors Edge in Contra aestetics (and so on). Impressive works, that really itches the love for pixel-art! (via)

Via the excellent score-driven music-site “The Sixty One” I discovered a great band today and almost instantly became fan. It is Muchuu from “Hereford” in UK. Both brother and sister, they began to make music with simple drums and things they found in their garage.

“The name ‘Muchuu’ – pronounced “Moo-chew” – comes from Milky’s love of all things Japanese. It means to be in an ecstatic delirious trance or dream.”

Very well.. count me in then! Fun is here to stay.

Visit this article, to learn about good old “Color-Cycling”, that old Amiga-users used to enjoy. Some details of this example:

Those of you familiar with color cycling may notice something a little “different” about the palette animation in this engine. Many years ago I had an idea to improve color cycling by “fading” colors into each other as they shifted, to produce many “in between” frames, while preserving the overall “speed” of the cycling effect. This creates a much smoother apparance, and gives the illusion of more colors in the scene. I call this technique BlendShift Cycling. Someone may have invented this before me, but I’ve certainly never seen it used.

Source-Code of the example is provided. The works there are also about “achieving more with less”.

Special Problems produced this video for the Song “Mmmhmm” from Flying Lotus. It is a pure pleasure to watch into this visual richness. There is also some “fake game” content included. From time to time I have to think on outstanding Björk videos, when it comes to style. But somehow it is different, because it less about concept and more about eyecandy, that simply wishes the visual brain cells a veeeeery good day. (via)

Google want to engage non-professional users to build own Android-Apps with their newest tool “App Inventor“. With a simple drag and drop interface people can build applications, somehow in realtime using building-blocks. According to Create or die this tool was tested on schoolkids and nurse trainees during development, who were able to successfully build simple, functional applications. In fact, development freedom will be limited, but famous “my cat and I apps” should now flood the Android-world in no time.