Last week the Cologne Commons 2010 was held, and I guess the conference and festival can be name a big success. I received only positive feedback so far. We are collecting pictures and references at the Cologne Commons site.

[in]anace, the “Godfather of Netaudio-DJing”, played at the second day of the festival. He recorded the live-set as well and put it up in the internet. Expect high-energy netaudio beats and electronic listening pleasure, with that very special [in]anance flavour. His music and DJ-sets are always a little bit of “physical”. This mix should not be missed. Grab or listen to it at the website of [in]anace.

Terry Cavanagh, you probably know him from the game VVVVVV released a casual flashgame: memrrtiks, suashem. The visuals are distracting like the title “memrrtiks, suashem”. The shooter is like every shooter about shooting at things, but the visual outcome, combined with the filtered soundeffects make the game a unique experience. Many would throw it in the box, labeled “art games“.

The game originated as a project of the TIGJam UK. Terry wrote in his blog, that he will release some of the productions one by one. Just if he finished each work.

And here is a little video footage from memrrtiks, suashem, but it can’t replace a play of the game. (via)

This video shows incredible 190 indie-games, that are currenty in development. Compiled and collected by Pixel Prospector. At the site are also much more infos about each single game.

“Beet Fleet” is the name of a work, that was made Filip Kostovic as a result of the Bachelor course of studies Game Design 2010 at the HdK Zürich. The sort of game uses two turntables as input devices, that controlles the action on the z- and x-axis. The visuals are abstract and strong, with parallels to Tron or Rez. The longer I think about this, the more it seems, that Beat Fleet is a consistent extension of the basic idea of Rez, taking real “analog” hardware controller into account. Will DJs keep on playing games in the future at work? Also check out the other works, they all look interesting. (via)

A great animation-short, that sets the planet Mars into the right angle. The sound-effects of that one are really intese. Made by Joe Bichard and Jack Cunningham. (via)

Manufactoria is a strange puzzle game, that is not that easy to access and understand. But somehow this makes the charm of this game, since robots (gone mad) are the topic of the game. The puzzles to solve are testing machines for the robots. Robots (in the real world) are a very unique topic of it’s own, that is not easy to access. That’s why I think, that the un-accessibilty of this game just perfectly match the mood. Rounded by the surreal Brasil-like soundtrack, I’ll bet, that Manufactoria will play into the heart of robotists in records time.

If you are into robot-games, please also check out Light-Bot and Little Wheel.

Enough Plumbers is obviously inspired by Super Mario and retro-games in general. But it features also innovative and experimental game-elements. Every time the Plumber collects a coin, he will ge cloned. In the end many, many Plumbers try to reach the flag to end the level. The player controls all player-sprites at once.

The game was build by Glen Forrester and Arthur Lee. And while outside heavy rain is going to start, I better have another play with Enough Plumbers…