I'm going to assume you know Wolfire; they're a grand bunch of blokes who share interesting thoughts, occasionally drop games in our inbox, and make cute videos while occasionally dropping games in our inbox (no, I'm not biased, why would you say that?).

Now, the guys over in Overgrowth dev-land have struck a deal with the guys over in Natural Selection 2 dev-land, Unknown Worlds, to bring everyone a fantastic pre-order bundle, the Organic Indie Preorder Pack. Yes, that's what you think it is, both Natural Selection 2 (squeee), and Overgrowth (squeee) bundled together for one price. And we have been assured that at least the Overgrowth pre-order will work in Steam, for those who like to keep their games in one place – the NS2 is likely to do so also, but this is unconfirmed just yet.

But that's no matter, because you get two great indie games for one great price, and the money goes straight to them.

Go and grab it. Now! You even get early access!

Oh, what's that, you say? "But I've already pre-ordered Natural Selection 2/Overgrowth!" Well that's perfect for you, because you've just gotten Overgrowth/Natural Selection 2 absolutely free. Enjoy!

- Chippit

Until this handy little article on IndieGames came along, I never really understood the IGF. I mean, a whole lot of games go in, a few of them come out, everybody gets excited for a while and then trophies get handed out. But what makes a good IGF game and how do the judges make their decisions?

Well, this in-depth look from judges Jens Bergensten, Alex May and Michael Rose will tell you all you need to know about the mysterious inner workings of the judging process. It's a particularly interesting read if you're even remotely keen on the idea of submitting your own game to the IGF (and to be honest, it's always an entertaining thought).

Once that's whet your appetite, take a look at The Boing Boing Guide to the 2010 Indie Games Festival if you haven't already tripped over the million and one IGF finalist summaries that are knocking around the Internet (Dev.Mag will probably go hands-on for a few of the games too, kicking ass all the way). It's a great way to get you pumped for some really cool indie games ... even if half of them aren't available yet.

Play on!

-Nandrew

Sunshine. No, not that stuff that makes every Briton envious of us down in sunny SA. This Sunshine, the latest gamelet coming out of whatever home Kyle Gabler (one half of 2D Boy) currently calls his liar. It was entered – albeit slightly late – into Experimental Gameplay Project art game contest last month. And it's all about a plant.

Yeah, actually, that's all there is to it. Will Sunshine be Gabler's next amazing hit? Maybe not, but it's still worth a bit of your time. It's cute, it's lathered with Gabler's distinct style, and it's a 10mb download. Gabler's quite fond of submitting stuff to EG, and as many know, even World of Goo had a humble start on EGP. In fact, the current showcase has more than a few of his 7-day creations.

So give this one a shot, and decide for yourself if this is a humble start of its own.

- Chippit

So it's a brand new year, and I'm not going to ramble much about it since Nandrew seems to have done a great job pre-empting me on this matter. Needless to say, our holiday is over, and you can expect us to once again begin to update regularly; that's right, new articles and no more of this 'intermittent new updates' rubbish. The new year brings good things!

And one of those good things is the release of the shortlist for the 2010 IGF competition, which you can see over on their site. We're particularly happy to see McMillen's Super Meat Boy lined up for the grand prize, with another nomination for Excellence in Audio. Check out the list and make your predictions in the comments.

And have a happy (belated and clichéd) New Year.

- Chippit

Happy new year! I'm not toooo late, am I? I mean, there's this awful ringing in my head and I can't seem to find my clothes, but my computer is still in tip-top shape, and that's what really matters.

One of the first things that I was greeted with upon returning to the Internet this year was a Game.Dev forum thread mentioning the YoYo Games mobile competition. It's all about designing a game for a handheld device (a fairly broad category nowadays!), and I think that YoYo's premise is totally sweet: there's certain minimalist elements enforced (arrow keys + 1 button only, no extended libraries, other stuff) that should really tighten up entries across the board and force less experienced devs to start thinking about game systems on a slightly more micro scale. To be honest, I'm starting to get rather attached to the idea of minimalist design — some of the stuff I've read about makes a crazyton of sense.

So if you wanna enter, look here for the competition details. Hopeful winners can look for a US$1000 first prize, but games need to be in by March 30th.

Aaaand go!

-Nandrew