After four months of conspicuous silence, Japanese developers Nigoro, creators of 2D action-adventure title La-Mulana, have finally spoken out over the status of the game’s upcoming remake.

The good news? The PC remake has almost completed its development cycle, bringing genuine hope that it could well see the light of day in the near future. Nigoro will likely spend the coming weeks both adding an extra layer of polish to the current build and exploring how and when to distribute the game once it’s ready to launch.

The slightly more worrying news? The game’s WiiWare port is still nowhere to be seen. According to Nigoro’s latest official statement, Nicalis, who were originally tasked with the localisation process onto Nintendo’s home console outside Japan, have simply given no response to the former’s requests for progress updates on how the project is coming along, leaving Nigoro with “no idea” when, or even if, we can expect La-Mulana to be made available on the WiiWare service.

Attendees of the third annual No Quarters Exhibition, set to take place at the NYU Game Center on 18th May, can now rest assured that the indie games scene will be more than adequately represented.

Officially unveiling their new projects will be the following notable indie games designers, with their previous projects noted in parentheses:

. Zach Gage (Spelltower and Bitpilot)

. Jan Willem Nijman (Super Crate Box)

. Margaret Robertson (game designer at Hide & Seek)

. Noah Sasso (Miracle Adventures in 2113)

This news serves as an encouraging indication that the No Quarters Exhibition will continue to support the cultivation of independent gaming development talent, having seen the announcement of such prominent titles as Nidhogg, At A Distrance, Deep Sea and Hokra in previous years. Each of the newly-announced projects will be fully showcased and available for the public to try out over the course of the entire event, giving attendees ample opportunity to get a first-hand look at some of the most exciting concepts on the horizon today.

Anyone wishing to attend the No Quarters Exhibition must fill in a short online form before 7pm on 18th May to confirm their presence.

Amidst widespread industry speculation, most recently earlier this month, the biggest hint yet has been dropped that Valve’s Steam service is coming to Linux operating systems in the near future.

That’s what Michael Larabel of Phoronix assures us, in any case. Having been invited to Valve’s Bellevue, Washington office, Larabel bore witness to a pretty gosh-darn convincing indication that Left 4 Dead 2, one of Valve’s most iconic gaming franchises, will soon be commercially available to play on Linux clients. The evidence? He saw the game itself running on an Ubuntu 11.10 installation, of course.

While a sceptic may speculate that this could merely be footage of the game running through a third-party support program, such as Wine, Larabel is adamant that this isn’t the case at all. He notes with almost 100% conviction that this is bona fide proof of the game running natively, and with remarkable stability, through the Linux platform.

Larabel was also keen to accentuate the fact that Valve’s Gabe Newell was intent on spreading the scope of the planned jump to Linux far beyond the reaches of a few simple Source Engine ports. With a number of established games that currently form part of Steam’s exponentially expanding library fully functional on Linux via other digital distributors, not to mention several more titles arriving within the next few months, it seems as though the future business relationship between Valve and Linux will be one of mutual understanding and co-operation. Of course, it would be amiss of us not to mention that the majority of these Linux-friendly products happen to have been conceived and developed within the independent space forged out in the gaming market during the last few years, meaning that our beloved indie games could well act as the fulcrum forming the tipping balance between the accelerated growth of this new initiative.

Toxic Games have got in contact to tell us all about a few news things concerning their first person puzzler Q.U.B.E. – the soundtrack release, the 1.2 version and a Collector’s Edition release in Germany.

It’s been a while that we’ve heard anything Q.U.B.E. shaped, apart from our interview of course, but Toxic Games have made up for that by bringing three pieces of hefty news for us to tell you. First of all, they’ve announced that they will be releasing the Q.U.B.E. soundtrack on May 4th for $5.99/£4.99/€5.99 on iTunes, Amazon and Steam. This will contain over 30 tracks from the game (that’s quite a lot!) and some special tracks to go along with that too.

Secondly, they will be releasing a Collector’s Edition of the game in Germany, Austria and Switzerland in collaboration with Headup Games, which will come with some special extras including the soundtrack. A release date hasn’t been announced but it’s expected in Summer 2012.

Lastly, Q.U.B.E. has been updated to the 1.2 version which fixes many of the bugs in Sector 7 of the game and allows you to customize your keyboard layout. Oh ans they want you to see this:

More information on Q.U.B.E. can be found on the game’s official website.

TheChineseRoom’s poignant first-person adventure based on a Source engine mod, Dear Esther, has now been given a release through Desura. Having previously been released through Steam and in its raw, DRM-free state through TheChineseRoom’s official website, the game is now available for £6.99, putting it on par with the the standard price on Steam.

It’s fair to say that Dear Esther raised more than a few eyebrows upon its initial release back in February, with numerous commentators praising its unwavering focus on the art of dynamic, interactive storytelling, but with less enthusiastic voices lamenting its alleged lack of substantial gameplay mechanics. Whichever side of the fence analysts have tended to fall, it’s managed to establish itself as a defining focal point in the ongoing debate over what truly defines the gaming medium.

It’s brainstorming time over at the Indie Games Day website.  Do you have a great idea for a theme for the 7-Day Developer Challenge?  Tweet your ideas by using the hashtag #indiegamesday and stay tuned to the website for your chance to vote on the theme that you think will inspire the best free games.

Some of our long-term readers might remember our first look at Red Solstice, the team-based tactical shooter from Ironward, back in January. At the time, we noted that a Q1 2012 release date was being targeted by developers but, as the spectre of misfortune reared its head, the studio ran into several obtrusive financial issues.

Rather than settling for a half-baked release candidate, and certainly far from canning the project altogether, Ironward have taken to Indiegogo in an attempt to secure public funding to give the game the polish it needs to secure a satisfactory launch in the shortest possible space of time. The team requires $10,000, almost $2,000 of which had already been raised as of this writing, in order to reach its target, but it’s worth noting that donors will be fully reimbursed if this monetary goal isn’t reached before the May 28th deadline.

Critically acclaimed puzzle game from Zachtronics Industries (or Zach Barth for the more personal touch), SpaceChem, is now available to purchase on GOG and with the 63 Corvi DLC thrown in for the same price.

One of the best games of last year was most certainly SpaceChem from the wonderful Zachtronics Industries – who also created Infiniminer and thus birthed the idea of Minecraft. It’s a great game but it is also a tough one so you should have your brains ready for pounding – it is fun though, we promise. Though lines like this may make some people shy away: “combines the logic of computer programming with the scientific domain of chemistry, set in an original science fiction universe”.

If you are a bit of a connoisseur of the puzzle game and you haven’t given this one a bash, then we challenge you to get through it – yes “challenge”. If you buy it from GOG for the asking price then the good news is that you’ll get the 63 Corvi DLC for free along with it, just in case your brain hasn’t fully melted.

You should buy the game to support the developer if for nothing else, we spoke to Zach a few months ago and found him to be one of the most genuine people we’ve spoken to.

You can find out more information on Spacechem over on the game’s official website.

If you’ve ever felt that the shooter genre could be saved from stagnation by the insertion of miners, you’re on the same page as HeartBit and Benjamin Ficus, creators of Miner Warfare.

Originally released on the Xbox Live Indie Games channel, and now coming to the PC, the game is a laugh-a-minute 8-player multiplayer romp in which the objective is to accumulate as many diamonds and items of gold within a four-minute time limit. How’s that achieved, you ask? Well, by digging, digging and digging some more, squire.

Oh, and you can also shoot stuff. 28 different weapons are ripe for the picking in your quest to unleash untold fiery doom over ten unique mining landscapes, ranging from such modern day firearms as the humble rifle to a rift of futuristic, blaster-tastic explodey things. And I always thought miners reserved their latent violent tendencies for their beleaguered wives when they got home.

How much will this set you back? That’s a question that can be responded by another interrogative rebuttal: how long is a piece of string? That’s because Miner Warfare is available at a pay-what-you-like rate for as little as nothing at all. So, for the bargain hunters/cheapskates out there, the game can potentially be snagged for free, but don’t do that, lest you wish to make the developers weep.

The shroud on psychological horror adventure Home has been removed as Benjamin Rivers, the game’s creator, has now made the game available for pre-order.

Home, set for release on June 1st, will be available in its standard Windows form for $2, completely DRM-free to boot. Alternatively, those wishing to splash out a little extra dosh can order the splendid-looking Old-School Collector’s Edition, which comes with a town map, full access to the game’s mapping tools, a physical, retro-laden manual and even a gosh-darn floppy disk. Crikey.

For those who didn’t already know, Home‘s major selling point is its promise that the player has almost total control over the manner in which the story – a gritty murder mystery – unfolds. The game world is said to evolve and adapt according to one’s own personal perspective, meaning that, in theory at least, anyone who plays the game through to its conclusion will yield strikingly different consequences to their actions throughout the chilling narrative. Backing up the tense, harrowing atmosphere is a gut-wrenchingly unnerving soundtrack and myriad of nasty little sound effects to scare you silly.

To put down your pre-order, or to find out more about Home, check out its official website.