I’m a sucker for city building games. All types whether they be simulation, strategy, war-strategy or even puzzle games. The idea of managing the livability of someplace really gets me. So when developer Cole Powered wrote me earlier this morning about their new game MegaCity, I jumped right on board.

Colibri Games’ The Tiny Bang Story is a whopping 75% off as today’s Steam Daily Deal, and if your PC or Mac is lacking the title you probably should swipe it up right now (or at least before tomorrow at approximately 10 AM PT). If the game was discounted this low during the holiday sale I completely missed the boat, as this is the first time I can recall the well received adventure, puzzle, and hidden object hybrid being available for less than lunch.

Game Oven Studios have revealed their hands-on iPad/iPad 2 cooperative puzzler Fingle, just nominated for the IGF 2012 Nuovo Award, is now available on the App Store. Even better, it’s being offered at $0.99 for a limited time.

The Indie Fund’s first foray, Q.U.B.E., has been available for purchase for a couple of weeks now from several online outlets. Dominic gave us a quick preview at the time of release but recently – and to coincide with its 6th Jan appearance on Steam – I’ve given myself enough time to play it through for review.

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.

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.

The Indie Fund finally bears fruit, and the art-style looks almost festive on this one; A sea of white with primary-colored highlights awaits in Q.U.B.E. (Quick Understanding of Block Extrusion), a first-person puzzle game clearly inspired by Portal, but thankfully doing enough different to stand proudly by itself. A full review will have to wait until I’ve dug a little deeper and shaken the cobwebs out of my brain, but here’s some thoughts on the first couple of levels, along with a trailer after the break.

Technology and charm are not two things that naturally go hand-in-hand. This year has seen massive studios create technologically stunning new ways to render brown dirt roads and shattered concrete – there’s just no room for whimsy in triple-A development, it seems. That’s where the indie scene comes in. Frozenbyte’s Trine 2 is a great big cozy comfort-blanket of a game, but is charisma all this fairy-tale storybook has to offer? It takes more than graphics to make a complex platform-puzzle game sing, after all. Wrap up warm, grab yourself some hot cocoa and read on for our verdict.

The crazy deal season that started in November shows no sign of slowing – it’s Indie Royale time again, and this pack is one of the best yet, weighing in at six games of generally excellent quality. Pay what you want (starting at a slowly rising minimum) for the fantastic Blackwell trilogy (remastered, apparently), The Oil Blue, Eets and Dino D-Day for Windows (and Mac/Linux where appropriate). Gameplay trailers and some thoughts after the break.