span.gametitle {text-align:center;font-size:x-small;font-style:italic;} 2010 IGF Main Competition and Student Nominees Aaaaa! A Slow Year Closure Cogs Enviro-Bear 2000 Heroes of Newerth Joe Danger Limbo Miegakure Monaco Owlboy Rocketbirds Shank Shatter Star Guard Super Meat Boy Today I Die Trauma Tuning Vessel Boryokudan Rue Continuity Devils Tuning Fork Dreamside Maroon Igneous Paper Cakes Puddle Puzzle Bloom Spectre [...]

In today’s interview, I talk to Krystian Majewski, the designer of Trauma. We both come from academic backgrounds, so we wax nerdy on topics like naturalistic gestural controls, smoothing an agency-dependent internal monologue, and even the relationship between point-and-click exploration and human visual cognition. Best of all, we manage it without invoking all that elitist jargon I just used to make it sound fancy. Click and read; he has good stuff to say.

Jordan Fehr is the sound designer for Super Meat Boy, though his scope is hardly limited to that bailiwick. He’s broadly informed, a little mischievous, and a colorful speaker. For today’s interview, he walked me through the current state of the commercial release of Super Meat Boy, the game’s challenge and accessibility goals, and even the controversial Super Guide. Read on for oldschool platforming wisdom.

Pixelsocks speaks to senior artist Corie Geerders and managing editor Mario Wynands abound their game Shatter. They discuss the process of reinventing the retro title Breakout, the state of independent publishing, and the creation of ninety minutes of music for an arcade-style game. They also discuss the new modes available in the Steam version of the game, which launched just after the GDC.

Not every company gets to return to the IGF, but Ratloop is back after last year’s Mightier. Actually it’s Ratloop Asia, and their new game Rocketbirds: Revolution bears nearly no resemblance to last year’s title. Fortunately, director/programmer/artist/renaissance man Tan Sian Yue was on hand to explain the ins and outs of the team’s latest project. He also covers the origins of the game and his company, why they used Flash for content delivery, and control loading.

We last caught designer Tyler Glaiel at PAX, where he showed a four month build of Closure along with artist Jon Schubbe. It’s a puzzle platformer of light and dark, where the parts of the world wink in and out of existence along with the light that illuminates them.

Tyler and Jon are the same compact speakers as they were at PAX, which allowed us to hit on diverse topics like the updated build, their new music designer, and their inspiration for polishing the game.