Dream.Build.Play’s big $40,000 grand prize announcement is approaching this weekend. There were twenty semi-finalists listed, and we’ve already looked at several of them. Today’s installment circles around puzzle games. There aren’t many sole puzzle games, but many games mix and match genres these days, anyway!

The puzzle theme, however, is prevalent in these three titles today. Bionic Thumbs’ Plugemons, Different Pixel’s Vizati, and Collective Mass’s Alien Jelly all play different tricks with the brain while keeping the eyes and hands busy.

Plugemons comes from Spanish developers Bionic Thumbs. It looks at first glance to be something so charming and cute that I feel like I would see it on iOS before XBLIG. And yet, the platforming along with the puzzles probably is better suited to a controller thanks to XNA dev tools.

Plugemons has 60 levels through 6 different zones, which involve some alien destroying, secret discovering, and puzzle solving. There’s a healthy amount of cooperating with other plugemons, too. Watch out for the humorous parodies in the Plugemons trailer below.

USA Alien Jelly is a 3D puzzle game.

From Portugal comes Different Pixel’s Vizati: a color matching game with mechanics quite different than the usual drop from above or shoot from below games. The player rotates the stage to make the colored pieces touch and match.

The following video has been around for a while, but this is the one the developers uploaded. Vizati has since been released on iOS, Windows Phone 7, and Xbox 360.

USA-grown Collective Mass (stylish website!) brings a 3D puzzle game entitled Alien Jelly. A DBP 2010 entrant, the title has apparently received enough polish to make it to the semi-finalist round this year. It’s great to see that someone’s dream to build a playable game doesn’t get squashed the first time around.

Alien Jelly is 3D not only in its graphics but also in its puzzle metrics. Players will rotate the world to get their stranded Alien Jellies to their rescue ship, so they can get back to lunch. Other mechanics include pushing crates, evading and destroying robots, and dodging “huge spiky things” while figuring out how to get home. I find the alien jellies to be somewhat disturbing (as brains in cubes), but perhaps that is part of their appeal.

These games are all vying for the $40,000 grand prize to be announced this weekend. Check out our previews of the other Dream.Build.Play semi-finalists in the meantime.

Summer has arrived. To help players keep their financial cool, indie developers are banding together to create some great game bundles! This is the second bundle announced this week. The games end up costing less than $1 each, which is pretty damn amazing.

There are six titles in the bundle:

• Citeremis’s Aztaka (RPG platformer reviewed here)
• Ovolo Games’ City Rain (Tetris + Sim City game reviewed here)
• Pieces Interactive’s Puzzlegeddon (puzzle brawler)
• Ludosity Interactive’s Bob Came in Pieces (puzzle game reviewed here)
• Different Pixel’s Vizati (puzzler)
• Pixel Pickle’s Lylian Paranoid Friendship (action/adventure game featured here)

Without further ado, here’s a comprehensive trailer of the games for sale.

David Amador, from Different Pixel stated, ”We’re making this effort to raise the money to finance our next project ideas–which could lead to even bigger ‘bundle pack’ deals.”

Interested gamers can order the six pack on the official Indie Games Pack website for $10, and the order page gives gamers the chance to share the news on Facebook for a $5 discount. Positech and other indies offered a great indie bundle earlier this week, which is still available.

We mentioned this briefly in our last post about Vizati’s release on the iPhone and iPod Touch, but today the developers have come out and acknowledged that an iPad-specific version of Vizati is now complete and will be available on the iPad app store soon.

For those not in the “know” Vizati is a unique puzzle story game that has you twisted and turned a block to get all the correct colors to match up. It’s quirky and fun. Check out the video below for the iPad gameplay.

Video

Well this is certainly interesting. I’m honestly not sure how we missed this bit of news earler this month, but the quirky PC puzzle game Vizati is now available for any device that currently runs iOS, although it’s designed specifically for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

The game’s puzzles are very unique and involve giving you a number of “moves” in witch to get all the colored blocks to disappear by matching them up. This means you’ll have to strategically shift blocks and rotate the entire puzzle in various ways. It’s really fun and can be quite the brainteaser.

Now that the game is available via iOS I’m surprised it hasn’t gotten more popular as the game seems tailor made for that kind of touch experience. Well, for those interested, the iOS version has been out for a few weeks now and a free “demo” version should be available later today. Enjoy!

[Buy/Try, Different Pixel]

Trailer

Different Pixel has offered up a playable demo for its puzzle title Vizati, available for download now via ModDB (85 MB).

The brain-tester of a game has you rotating a magical cube to group stones together by color in a limited number of rotations. Both Story Mode and the faster, rawer Arcade mode are available to try, with the full title aavilable now on Impulse for $8.95.

From the description and features list:

Vizati is a puzzle game that will put your mind to the test. You have to rotate a magical cube to connect (group) the little vizati stones by color and figure out the best way to do it with a limited number of rotations/moves. You can play the Story Mode and follow the story between Julie and Peter who discovered the Vizati cube, or play the Arcade Mode, which is a rawer, faster and even more teasing mode.

Key Features:

Use gravity to make the stones connect by rotating and flipping the Vizati cube

• 50 Story Levels
• Rich art style hand drawn in HD (720p)
• Beautiful music
• Arcade mode with special Vizati stones
• 2 distinct Arcade modes

Support for Xbox360 controller

Stardock’s Digital Distributon hub Impulse has been adding independent titles out the woodwork over the past week or so, and as such I thought it’d be thoughtful to share what titles now are available in a new area, gaining the extra exposure and new audience from the partnership. Here are the recently added games to the service and their descriptions:

Zombie Shooter – Sigma
“Where is the line between life and death? How far can human science go trying to understand this? Take part in the great battle to rescue humanity and find out what’s happening! The human race is in danger again. This time scientists could not cope with the imminent threat and became monsters themselves. Crowds of zombie people filled the secret research base and the dreadful contagion is about to spread earth wide. Use this last chance to save humanity from total annihilation!”

Guns of Icarus – Muse Games
“In an apocalyptic steampunk future, you are a privateer ferrying goods across treacherous airspace. Protect your airship and yourself from an onslaught of pirates, and safely reach your destination to reap the rewards. Guns of Icarus combines aspects of first-person shooters with time management in a richly detailed steampunk setting. The effect is a thrilling, frenetic aerial showdown that quickly takes hold and doesn’t let go.”

Fishdom: Spooky Splash – Playrix Entertainment
“Build up your spooky Fishdom! Earn cash as you complete addictive tile-swapping levels and spend it to fix up your spooktacular tank. Create the eerie atmosphere of an underwater haunted house with witches, vampires and ghosts in your aquarium. Have fun taking care of quirky tropical fishies and adding boo-tiful accessories to the virtual aquarium of your dreams! Win trophies as you polish your aquarium design skills in this brrrilliant match-3 sequel to Fishdom™! Get splashed with Fishdom fun!”

Vizati – Different Pixel
“Vizati is a puzzle game that will put your mind to the test. You have to rotate a magical cube to connect (group) the little vizati stones by color and figure out the best way to do it with a limited number of rotations/moves. You can play the Story Mode and follow the story between Julie and Peter who discovered the Vizati cube, or play the Arcade Mode, which is a rawer, faster and even more teasing mode.”

Mad Skills Motocross – Turborilla AB
“A motocross game that focuses on pure, simple fun. Race like a mad man. Do backflips over spectacular jumps. Land perfectly, full throttle, hit the Nitro-button and off you go. You will collect achievement-like stars for tricks. You will get power-ups that might seem silly and useless at first. But these power-ups will be very useful once it ‘clicks’ for you and you figure out when and how to use them. Unlike most other sidescrolling motocross games, Mad Skills Motocross is not about puzzles and obstacles. It is about racing. Pure and simple. Getting to the finish line in the shortest time possible is the primary goal, while pulling off backflips, frontflips, wheelies and more is the secondary goal.”

Qwak – Jamie Woodhouse (50% Off!)
“Qwak is a 2D platform/puzzle game where the object of the game is to guide a green duck through eighty levels. Fruit and gems can be collected for points, and enemies are eliminated with projectile egg weapons. Progress through the game is earned by collecting gold and silver keys. There are a variety of power-ups also available, including ‘chocolate egg’ weapons and extra shots. In addition to the normal-style levels, the challenge levels require the player to complete levels and collect all fruit within twenty seconds. Can you complete all eighty levels?”

Toki Tori – Two Tribes
“The gameplay in Toki Tori is a blend of two genres. While it looks like a platform game, it’s a puzzle game at heart. To progress through the game, the player must find each egg in a level using a set number of tools. Players will have to look and plan ahead carefully while using items such as the Telewarp, Freeze-o-Matic and InstantRockTM. Additional tools are gradually introduced as the player progresses through the games 80+ levels covering four unique worlds.”

Grappling Hook – Christian Teister
“Grappling Hook is an innovative first-person action puzzle / platform game. You use the Grappling Hook as a mighty high-tech tool to overcome various challenging obstacles by performing incredible moves and fast combinations of daring tricks. The dynamic and surprising levels open opportunities to use the Grappling Hook in unique ways never seen before in a game. Making your way through the levels requires both skill and creativity, while the increasing difficulty pushes you to become a real master of the Grappling Hook. All this comes together to create an intense, challenging, and rewarding gameplay experience.”