Just a friendly reminder to all you student developers/teams that you have until tonight, at 11:59 Pacific Time, to submit your game for consideration in the IGF 2012 Student Competition. Notable past showcase winners of the contest include Octodad, Continuity, and Devil’s Tuning Fork among others. Earlier this month, the main competition revealed 568 entires, a number that totally shatters the previous record. I suspect/hope we’ll see something similar on the student side as well.

Tribute Games has announced a PC release for their Breakout-style RPG Wizorb. The game will be distributed solely via GamersGate (at least starting out) when it launches on Monday, November 7.

The upcoming version will support gamepad, keyboard, and mouse inputs, with the developer mentioning mouse controls makes for gameplay that relies more on reflexes and make it “a tad easier” and ”more natural than an analog stick for controlling the paddle.”

Bit of a theme in Developer Links today. Lots to take in, oh students of the gamedev craft. Plenty of announcements to follow along with too.

Go read.

Let’s talk some Indie Royale in a sec, but before that why don’t you pick up their launch bundle while it’s still available. You have less than six hours at the time of writing to make your purchase, as the four-game offer ends today at 11 AM Pacific.

The non-fixed price is hovering at $5.18 at the moment, a fantastic tag indeed for a quad-ling of awesome indie titles; and if you demand perks on top of getting games on the super cheap, you’re in luck! You greedy son of a bitch, you.

Edmund McMillen has announced his excellent roguelike The Binding of Isaac will receive a large update later today on Steam. (Expect it no later than Noon Pacific he says.)

The patch will be free to all owners of the title, and brings a significant amount of new content to the title including a brand new chapter–unlocked after killing mom 10 times–an additional “FINAL” ending, and an unlockable character.

Radian Games brings news of Inferno+, an upgraded version of the XBLIG twin-stick gem targeted for PC and Mac “soon.”

How soon? Unfortunately that’s not clear at the moment, but one might guess in the next month or so given the clues. Whenever it does arrive, it’ll be a single player affair boasting additions and improvements from the vanilla 360 version.

So this is interesting. Exit Strategy Studios has released a smaller PC/Mac puzzle game set in the universe of their upcoming space pirate Pirates of New Horizons. It’s called Planet Buster, it’s an unconventional match-3, and it’s pay what you want. Though there’s more to it than that.

PoNH: Planet Buster’s release is all in effort to fund the 3D platformer of the same name that originally wooed myself, and the rest of the DIY staff over a year ago. 100% of what’s earned from sales will go right into PoNH’s development. Leave it to indie gaming minds. Where creativity is the norm, especially when it comes to finding innovative methods to fund your game.

Interviews, reviews, discoveries, and more on today’s Indie Links. Music and culture included, as if there was ever any doubt.

Void Gaze, A Text Adventure By The Man Known As Nullsleep (Game, Set, Watch)
“Most know Jeremiah Johnson by his stage name, Nullsleep, and his work in the field of chiptunes. But some many be surprised to discover that his penchant for coldly calculated deconstruction, coupled with a burning passion for mass-destruction, is not purely contained to the aural spectrum.”

Round-Up: Indie Video Game OSTs on BandCamp (Indiegames.com)
“After putting up a post about Jasper Byrne’s Soul Brother OST (Go buy it and go support the making of a brilliant game and the brilliance of an existing game!), I immediately found myself being reminded that there were plenty of other soundtracks floating out there too. Some of these gems have received extensive coverage both here and elsewhere while others have received significantly less attention. Obviously, the latter needed to be corrected.”

A Brief Look At Berlin’s Caffeine Filled Indie Game Jam (Game, Set, Watch)
“Not only do game jams happen all over the place, their specific locations vary greatly as well. Take the Berlin Indie Game Jam for example. The four day long event, which consists of three hour long development contests and talks from esteemed colleagues, all happens at café in the Mitte district.”

Impressions: Ruins (Rock, Paper, Shotgun)
“Cardboard Computer, the indie developer behind A House In California, has created Ruins, a short, desolate game in which you play a dog. Chasing some rabbits. But there’s a little more to it than that.”

Interview: Molleindustria On Phone Story’s ‘Objectionable’ Message (Gamasutra)
“Gamasutra talks to Molleindustria about Phone Story, the hardware industry critique that’s been pulled from the App Store — and about the culture of complacency that surrounds mobile game development.”

Wroom (PixelProspector)
“Wroom is some sort of racing platformer mix with physics for up to 4 players.”

Eufloria (PS3) review (Shacknews)
“Eufloria is a game about spreading the beauty of nature in a real-time strategy (RTS) setting. It found success as a PC title and is now attempting to translate that same appeal to PSN. For the most part, Eufloria remains an enjoyable experience, though there are some aspects of the game that come across awkwardly in its new console iteration.”

Interview: Jeff Rosen of the Humble Indie Bundles (Destructoid)
“It surprised me when I realized the first Humble Indie Bundle was only released in May 2010, just under 18 months ago; it seemed to be part of indie gaming’s rapid ascent in popularity over the last few years. The first Bundle was a collection of some of the best indie titles around — World of Goo, Penumbra: Overture, Aquaria, Gish, and Lugaru (eventually Samorost 2 was added as well) — and gamers were encouraged to pay what they wanted, with some of the proceeds going to the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Child’s Play, in addition to the developers themselves.”

Knights of the Chalice (TIGSource)
“Knights of the Chalice, by Heroic Fantasy Games… that almost says it all, really. Released in 2009, this tactical RPG won a cult following for its close adherence to Dungeons & Dragons rules (the game uses the d20 Open Gaming License), the strength of its artificial intelligence, and its high level of difficulty. Despite its rough presentation (which is rather charming, actually), the game’s interface is actually quite easy to use, putting the burden of success squarely on the player’s heavily-armored shoulders.”

The Last and Final Word: Noonat (Quote Unquote)
“After some convincing from his friends, Noonat quit his job to join GameClay. Now he faces another challenge: how do you keep the fun in and the grind out of game development when you can’t choose your own hours.”

[Earlier this month, DIYGamer met with Shawn McGrath of ][ Games prior to the start of IndieCade to get an exclusive hands-on session with the PS3-bound Dyad--currently targeted for a release next Spring on the Playstation Network. Ken Ellis shares the experience of his lengthy playthrough of the game off of the notes I was able to jot down from Shawn, and his own thoughts. Filmmaker Kevin Harland was in tow as well to capture footage, and edit together a comprehensively concise gameplay video of the title's latest (and word is near-final) build.]

One time I saw a unicorn stab a clown on a rainbow while he was juggling jelly beans. Shawn Mcgrath’s tube shooter Dyad made that seem like a scene from Eraserhead. It’s that vibrant!

The tube shooter genre is an interesting beast to begin with, and Dyad takes it to vast new heights. Moving through each level as fast as possible is the basis of the game. How to do so changes each and every time you play, however, and new techniques learned are built upon in each subsequent level. At first you simply latch onto enemies up ahead and launch yourself off of (while still avoiding) them to progress. Eventually you learn that combo-ing off multiple enemies of the same color will increase your speed, and give you a boost to your Lance ability that makes you invincible against all enemies. Later enemies even create zip-lines behind them when latched onto that can increase your speed by riding. Don’t rely on the ability to practice each level to get better at it either. All levels are progressively generated, so each and every single time you play a level, it will be different.

Music is seemingly the key element of Dyad. While it is not a rhythm game, music is infused into every aspect of the game. Each level has its own song, and each enemy creates a unique note when it is latched onto. Lances used speed up the overall tempo of the music . Even the menu’s themselves are musically interactive! Menu screen music can be adjusted to play backwards, as well as, with or without bass and rhythm. An audiofile gamer would be out of their mind not to try out this game.

Do not think for a moment that this game is easy or a short play. Once you complete a level, an optional harder version is unlocked in which you can challenge yourself with tougher completion times and higher objectives to earn. This is also the point in the game where you can start to earn your trophies–and yes you WILL earn them. This game was not made with the lazy trophy earner in mind. Most are earned by beating a very hard time trial. What time trial? Why Shawn’s own personal best time.

He told us, with a devilish grin, that since the game is on the PS3 and will have online capabilities, whenever someone beats his time that NEW time might become the time to meet or beat. I personally think this would be a great idea. Dyad is already set up to create great meta-gaming in competition for the fan base, so adding this little bit of ownership and inter-player challenging could be something to take it all to the next level. Especially with the random nature of the game, personal times are going to be completely based on the player’s skill, instead of memorization.

The demo session ended up going a solid hour, as I made my way through most of the levels available on the standard difficulty in the near- finished build. Erik, who watched the session in full, had to be convinced he hadn’t taken LSD that night. We put together a video to summarize the whole experience of confusion, discovery, and even anxiousness brought about by the sights and sounds. Also included is Shawn, the combo-king, pushing the game to its extreme with a ridiculous combo string:

Indie Links are here once again bringing interviews, previews, and other news around the net relating to indies both familiar and strange.

Be Heartening: A Bastion Interview (Rock, Paper, Shotgun)
“Artful dungeon-crawler Bastion charmed us with its strange world, solid combat mechanics, and elegant narration. John loved it. It even inspired Alec to a big old cleverthink. I decided to have a chat with Greg Kasavin, creative director and writer on the project, to find out a bit more about how Bastion came to be, and what the future holds.”

Recall (PixelProspector)
“Recall is an upcoming first person puzzler with a time-rewinding feature. The video gets pretty interesting at around 2:00 min when the character encounters a tower of blocks.”

The Indie Pitch: City Tuesday (Joystiq)
“This week, Chris Zukowski asks the tough questions about free will, terrorism and beards with his artistically charged indie (which was featured in the Xbox Live Indie Games Summer Uprising), City Tuesday.”

Interview: How GAMBIT’s A Closed World Tackles Sexuality, Identity (Gamasutra)
“One common criticism of video games — often levied by those most passionate about them — is that the range of experiences they represent is too narrow. These players are tired of games that all seem to tell the story of the archetypal, male bald space marine, and are looking for more diversity on the frontiers of gender, race and sexual identity.”

Q&A: David Lloyd & Larry Oji of OverClocked ReMix (IndieGames.com)
“During last month’s Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle, David Lloyd and Larry Oji took part in two panels: on the subjects of videogame music influencing mainstream culture and the operation of their online game arrangement community OverClocked ReMix. For more than ten years OCR has been posting submissions and organizing free compilations of game remixes. We caught up with the founder and head submissions evaluator to hear how more recently the website has become involved in publishing indie game soundtracks.”

Fez delayed (again) to early 2012 (Joystiq)
“Fish just tweeted, buried in between parentheses of what we can only assume to be shame, that the game’s been delayed yet again. It won’t be out until at least 2012.”

Interview: The Shifting Saga Of Sound Shapes (Gamasutra)
“It took four years for Everyday Shooter developer Jon Mak to get his next game, Sound Shapes up and running — but it’s shaping up to be one of the PlayStation Vita’s most anticipated titles, and he discusses it inside.”

Max and the Magic Marker dated for PS3 (Shacknews)
“The upgraded Gold Edition of Max and the Magic Marker will hit the PlayStation Network on September 28 in Europe, and October 18 in North America. Developer Press Play announced the release date plans today, following the recent announcement of the port.”

New Patches for King Arthur’s Gold (IndieDB)
“We’re releasing quick patches every day now because we’re ironing everything out before the next major builds that will bring some awesome new stuff like a bomb workshop and coins!”

And A Bunch Of Other Random Indie Bits (Rock, Paper, Shotgun)