I’m aware that this was announced in the midst of the festivities last week, but better late than never, eh?  Race Away’s 2010 first-person puzzle platformer, Bounce! for PC is now being given away completely free… forever. Being previously purchasable, the developer stated last Tuesday that through selling the title they ’still broke even which is all we ever really wanted for the project.’ So, for those whose who originally missed it, now is an excellent time to check the game out.

After the impressive success of Recettear and Chantelise, it was clear that indie localization team Carpe Fulgur were on to a good thing. Now, they’ve unveiled their third translated Japanese indie title – Fortune Summoners: Secret of The Elemental Stone, due for release on January 17th for $25. A steep price, even compared to their previous two releases – it’s going to be a hard sell.

Got a few minutes to spare right now? Well, you’d best not jump into this game then as it’s more likely to absorb an hour or more of your time. Now if you’ve got that, Sideroller promises to be a great action platformer that is not only very challenging, but oddly grisly at times.

Here’s a post-holiday Christmas present for you all, Terry Cavanagh’s fantastic retro-styled platformer is set to arrive on Nintendo’s 3DS handheld in just a few days time. No longer will Captan Viridian be stuck on your PCs screen, immobile.

This year has been great for indie games, but it wasn’t without it’s disappointments. Nintendo’s handling of indie developers and their Wiiware store in general being two very low points. The remake of Nigoro‘s PC freeware classic puzzle/adventure/metroidvania La-Mulana was completed and promptly made it’s way onto the Japanese Wiiware store, but half a year later and the US and EU releases are still caught up in red tape. All hope is not lost, though. In this apologetic blog update, Nigoro tell us that the Wii version is due soon, but also something much more interesting: It’s coming back home.

Originally developed back in 2008, Verge was Kyle Pulver’s entry into the excellently creative H.P. Lovecraft Commonplace Book competition, where a range of indie developers based short games around single-line concepts left by the now-topical horror writer.  It’s been a long time coming, but the game has now been refined, updated and ported to flash so that everyone can experience this clever little bit of platform puzzling.

It’s been a long time coming, but Oxeye Game Studio have finally released their bouncing blue robot baby into the wild. Cobalt is an interesting-looking platform shooter with singleplayer, co-op and competitive modes, published under the banner of developer-turned-indie-publisher Mojang. They’re using the same business model as Minecraft, and even have the same pricing structure; 10 euros gets you (currently windows-only) alpha access now and to all future updates, until the game hits beta and rises to 15 euros. It’s planned to be a full 20 once it goes gold. Launch trailer and some gameplay footage after the break.

Sometimes I forget about the lovely platforming treat that is Dustforce, and it is at those times that I feel truly lost in this world. We’ve been waiting around a long time for the game, and (according to developer Hitbox) it looks like the wait is coming to an end finally with a Steam launch set for January.

Well, that’s what they’re hoping for, at least. In an interview with Edge Magazine (a favorite of mine, but hardly indie – they should talk to us more often!), Mojang managing director Carl Manneh let this slip, regarding Cobalt:

“We haven’t told anyone [about the release date] yet because we’re aiming for Friday, but we don’t know if we can make it,” he said. “But I think we can.”

So, not set in stone yet, but it looks like we’ll be getting our hands on the first public alpha release of Oxeye’s interesting physics-driven sci-fi platform shooter sooner rather than later. More thoughts and a gameplay trailer after the break:

Most regulars at DIY should know by now that I’m a sucker for a good ol’ fashion platformer. They’re my achilles heel when it comes to video games and, more often than not, I’ll write about it and play it no matter how it looks because, well, I can usually find some sort of enjoyment out of them. In any case, today’s game instantly shot to the top of my “do want” list, but I don’t think it’ll just be relegated to me this time.