“Ruler, Noble, Artisan, Drudge,

Wealth and poverty distract”

Moreover, the first person to send Mousechief the full original poem that the developer is satirizing will earn the prize. Besides the working title, the only other thing revealed about the upcoming video game is that it will be rated “TEEN” according to the T.I.G.R.S. rating system.

If you want to keep up with this contest from Mousechief, I suggest following them at their official website.

Read our Cogs interview and then throw your hat in the ring for a chance to win a copy of the game.

My official “THREAD CLOSED” message might be delayed as I have to watch France vs. Uruguay in the World Cup.

But the official closing time is still 12pm Pacific today!

The contest is for original, non-commissioned work, and the winner is determined by the site’s online community and industry experts. In the last contest, more than 120 games were entered, and Climb to the Top of the Castle rose from the ranks to win the publishing deal and $10,000. This contest bumps the prize up to $100,000, so expect competition to be fiercer this time around.

The competition begins May 1. In the meantime, the community is getting a face lift, so expect more information when the new site is finished.

[via 2Bee Games]

Notice anything new to the site? No? Well move those little balls embedded in your skull just a little ways north of this post and you should see a shiny new link on our site labeled: Forums. That’s right. Your favorite place to read about and discuss indie games has removed the middle man standing between you and the developers/other commenters.

Go on. Create an account and get to discussin’!

What? Is that not enough for you? You want more than complete and direct access to discussing your favorite indie games with the developers themselves? Fine… how about a kick ass contest where you could win a bunch of kick ass indie games complimented by a grand prize of a free Xbox 360 Arcade? If that sounds like a kick ass contest then continue reading below for the exact rules:

So first things first let’s get to the prizes. Here is, EXACTLY, what we are giving away to our lucky contest winners:

- 10 copies of Emberwind for the PC or Mac, courtesy of TimeTrap.
- 10 copies of Shattered Horizon via Steam for the PC, courtesy of Futuremark Games Studio.
- 10 copies of AaAaAA!!! – A Reckless Disregard for Gravity via Steam for PC, courtesy of Dejobaan Games.
- 10 copies of Machinarium for PC or Linux, courtesy of Amanita Design.
- Additional indie games that have yet to be announced.
- 1 Xbox 360 Arcade version complete with as many XBLIG/XBLA codes we can muster from some of our developer friends. (Provided we don’t have any developer friends, we’ll just send you a 1600 point card.)

Sound good? As stated above we have tons of prizes we are just dying to give away (with more planned to be announced later).

So, now I bet you’re wondering just how you can get in on this fine little contest we have running here. If you’re thinking you can just leave a comment here and you’ll be automatically entered you are WRONG. WRONG, WRONG, WRONG, WRONG. Do not bother commenting here unless you just have a specific question about the contest. You will not be included into the contest if you do that and will only infuriate me because I know… I know… you did not read this entire post.

Here’s how to enter:

1. Create a FREE account in our brand new forums located here. (Or just click the link at the top)
2. Proceed to talk and discuss all the merry little things you would on any given forum, preferably about indie games considering that’s our specialty. First one to enter the forum? Never fear, moderators are standing by to discuss everything with you so you don’t feel alone.
3. Upon hitting the 5 post mark you will be automatically entered into our random drawing for super-awesome prizes.
4. For every 5 posts there after you’ll earn an additional entry into the contest up to 20 entries (i.e. 100 posts).

Simple enough, but before you rush off to the forums, we do have a few… stipulations. Rules as you may term them.

Rules for entering contest:

- NO SPAM! So you think you’re clever huh and that you can just easily spam a hundred posts in 5 minutes? Think again. Spam and you’ll be instantly banned from the contest and the forum. We want meaningful posts that contribute to a conversation.
- Multiple accounts are a complete no-no. We have IP and email checkers running. We’ll know if you have more than a single account that’s attempting to enter the contest.
- This contest is open to U.S. and Canadian residents only. Sorry European/Asian/Oceanic folks, there are too many legal hurdles to cross when holding a multi-national competition. Feel free to join in on the conversation though!

The contest starts immediately and will end on March 31th at 11:59pm PST. (No this is not an April Fool’s joke!)

All winners will be contacted via the email provided when registering for an account. Winners have 24 hours to reply to the “Congratulations” email before another winner will be chosen instead.

Good luck!

You still have exactly ONE more week to get your submissions in for our Aztaka contest, partnered with Citeremis. It will close at midnight on February 19, 2010. Read the official rules and steps to take, and you could bring home a copy of the game.

Read ahead and get crackin’!

After two weeks of voting, the results of TIGSource’s competition are in, and we now have a winner for each phase of the two-part competition.

In the first phase, artists created sound and art elements for the developers to use in the second half of the competition. Oryx’s Lo-Fi Fantasy Tileset won that phase because it was used in more games than any other art element.

The second phase’s winner was decided by voters on TIGForums. Ivan’s Bitworld received the most votes, followed by Dungeons of Fayte and Realm of the Mad God. I talked about the first and third place winners before, but I haven’t spent any time in Fayte’s dungeons yet. I guess that’ll be next on my list.

There rest of the top 10 is here, and the whole list of which game got what votes is here.

[via TIGSource]

Check out the full details here, and get your submissions in! The end of the month is approaching rapidly, and we wouldn’t want you to miss out on this awesome game.

Need more reason to enter? Read the review and ask yourself if you like prizes.

DIYgamer.com has teamed up with Citérémis to bring you an entertaining new contest. Up for grabs are 1 of 10 copies of the game, courtesy of Citérémis. If you missed it, check out our review. You can find the full contest info below.

The DIYgamer Aztaka Divinity Contest

Describe your Aztec divinity, win a copy of Aztaka!

Hi, we’re Citérémis, the guys behind Aztaka, an Aztec-inspired action-RPG side-scroller. Our game got reviewed by the good folks at DIYGamer, and to celebrate this, we’re having a contest and giving free copies of the game to DIYGamer readers!

Our protagonist, the Aztec Huitzilo, is caught in a battle pitting humanity and its gods. We all know what being a lowly human feels like, but what about being an Aztec god? Tell us what you would be like if you were an Aztec divinity, and win a copy of Aztaka!

To enter, you must send in a description of your Aztec god character. How do you do that? It’s simple:

•Pick your Divinity’s Name; what your worshippers need to call out to you. Bonus points if you make it sound Aztec. Or stick ‘tl’ at the end; whatever works.

•Pick a Divine Symbol: your worshipers need tattoos to look cool. It can be an animal, a thing, a special design, anything. It would be cooler if you picked some kind of mesoamerican big-ass predator, but that’s just us!

Bonus points if you send in a picture (you need one if you opt for a special design).

•A Short Description of what your divinity stands for, what it influences in the daily life of the Aztec, or what its worshipers need to do everyday to make it happy.

And here’s the bloody twist – the Aztec performed human sacrifices on top of their pyramids. Oh yes they did.

•Describe Who or What Must be Sacrificed to your god, and what good comes out of it for the people. The sacrifice must have a good outcome. The Aztec go through a lot of trouble for the ceremony (dressing up, sharpening their blades, gathering the children, chanting songs nobody remembers, and then there’s the clean-up afterward too…). So they deserve something back from you!

Following the dual-color format of DIYGamer reviews, you must write the sacrifice bit in red, and the beneficial consequence in blue. You can send multiple entries if you feel creative (or have multiple God complexes), more chances for you to win!

So to recap:

1. Name and symbol of your divinity.
2. Description of that your god stands for.
3. Who or what gets sacrificed.
4. What is granted to the people in return.

Send in your submission to DIYGamer (peter.eykemans@diygamer.com). The best written and/or funniest entries, as judged by DIYgamer and Citérémis, will be posted for all to read here and on Aztaka’s forums, and the winners will get a free copy of Aztaka.

Good luck to everyone who participates!

The contest is currently open through the end of January, so get working!

Now it’s the designers and programmers get to go to work. They have about a month to turn the assets created in the first part of the competition into a playable game. Though the participants can make some slight changes to the assets, such as converting the file type or playing with transparency, they mostly have to work with nothing more than their coding skills and the content at hand.

After the competition ends on Jan. 10, 2010, TIGForums members will vote on the best games, and the programmers will vote on which artists and musicians they found most useful during the competition. Winners will get the customary prize for winning a competition on a forum: Internet bragging rights.

Read the full rules for part two here, and look at the art assets created in the first part here.

Personally, I hope someone creates something out of these art elements:

[via TIGSource]

Well, they made their decision, picking TwO Bros. Games’ Climb to the Top of the Castle for the top award, $10,000 and a publishing contract with Zoo Games, Inc.

The game is a cruel platformer that recalls the days when games were games and player characters died early and often. It’s a tough game with gorgeous, hand-drawn graphics. You’ll die a lot, but you can’t blame any death on the controls, because they’re pretty tight. Instead, blame the developers: One hit from any hostile automatron or especially sharp piece of environment will end your life, so be careful while trying to reach the top of the castle.

Congratulations are also in order for Dig Your Own Grave Games, who took home the community favorite award and $5,000 for Vector Conflict: The Siege. Find game demos and more information for the winners and finalists and at 2Bee Games.

[via 2Bee Games]