Link Dump Friday is here again, to put a song in your heart, a twinkle in your eye, and a new batch of games in your hot little hands. Featuring precious cargo, 3D platforming, rodents, and more, it's the Link Dump-iest day of the week, and all for you!

The JayIsGames staff along with FlashGameLicense have finally gone mad and decided to start a podcast! We call it Way Too Casual because, well, that's what we are. The bi-weekly episodes will focus on casual gaming news, events, reviews and lots more. We have some great surprises planned for future episodes. It's a great way to keep up on the biggest browser game releases and current events in the world of casual gaming. All while you go on your morning jog!

So you think you're a casual game aficionado with a passion for the indie game development community, and you would love to add your insights and perspectives to the ever-growing chorus of voices here at JIG but don't know how. Am I right? We have freelance writing opportunities available, inquire within.

We're pleased to announce a very special Casual Gameplay Design Competition, one focused entirely on interactive fiction! For CGDC #7, we're calling on IF authors to craft one-room games incorporating the theme "escape". It's text-only this time around, so you can spend your time polishing puzzles instead of pixels. Full details are below, so fire up your Z-code compiler and get to writing!

This intro paragraph was written under duress. I, a lonely garden gnome, am being held inside the house against my gnome will. I am being forced to eat vegetables, exercise regularly, and weave baskets as a hobby. If you read this, please send help. And cookies.

Alternate title for this edition of Weekend Download: The Balloon Bros. Return of the Attack of the Wrath of the Download: Episode 2 Part 4 - Tetripongfetusausable's Revenge.

This week on Link Dump Friday! Games to brighten up your day, whether the weather's got you down, you're not feeling well, or you feel fine and dandy but you just really like games. We have tiny dragons, big dragons, and physics puzzles, oh my! So what are you waiting for? Click on over to us and turn that frown upside down!

Don't miss our CGDC #7 announcement coming November 16th!

Our 6th competition today comes to a close and we are here to honor all of the games that were entered, as well as award a few prizes, too. The "explore" theme proved a formidable challenge, while one entry captivated and moved the indie games community with its tiny worlds of pixel art.

Puzzle games YAY. I like puzzle games because they are puzzles. I also like them because you can play them really fast. I also like them because you do not have to play them a long time. I like puzzle games on the iPod Touch because I can play them laying down on my couch. I also like apple pie ice cream.

Who needs bajillions of colors, seriously? The games below illustrate that all you need for a visual presentation are a few well-placed shades of gray (or orange and black, for the last one) and you've got yourself a visual style!

It's Link Dump Friday, where all your dreams of lethal numbers, physics gun-play, and bow-n-arrow toting cavemen come true! Wow, your dreams are weird! Lucky for you, we like that in a gamer!

Don't miss our CGDC #7 announcement coming November 16th!

With just one week left to the competition, we just want to remind everyone who hasn't already played and voted on the game entries, please do so soon. We will announce the results next Monday (November 9th)!

True to its mobile gaming promises, this week's Mobile Monday is filled with pick up and play, put down and go away titles ideally suited for gaming on the go. The only exception is Catan, a game you honestly won't be able to put down and walk away from for a while.

Lots of movies, books, TV shows and games try to scare people around Halloween. Instead of shocking you with things that jump out and go "BWAGGA BWAGGA!!!!", let's get a little more disturbing with a few adventure games that will make you question your sanity. Without further stalling for time and taking up valuable page space... Let's. Get. Scary.

It's almost Halloween, and to celebrate, this week on Link Dump Friday we've got a compilation of seasonal games to get you in the spirit! Creepy point-and-clicks, fast-paced candy lobbing, and more! It's like a goodie bag for your computer, without all that pesky door-to-door, pretending-to-be-polite to people stuff!

CGDC7 announcement coming November 16th!

It's RPG madness on Mobile Monday! Ok, by "madness" I mean two role playing games. That's kinda mad, though, isn't it? It's like wow, geez, why not just throw a bajillion RPGs at us.

Digging games and shooting games go together like eggs and peanut butter. I'll let you sit and ponder that one for a while, then feel free to come back and play the harmonious selection of games below!

Ready for your weekly dose of link dumpy goodness? This week, a rag-tag group of games, so mismatched they're just a pointy hairdo and a plucky heroine away from being a JRPG. Featuring a point-and-click journey into twu wuv, a shooter where the past is your worst enemy, and more, this week's Link Dump Friday is more fun than you can shake a stick at. Although if you're the kind of jerk who goes around shaking sticks at things, you probably won't like it anyway!

What if this space was left intentionally blank?

Casual Gameplay Design Competition #6 games are now ready to play!! All entries are available to play immediately on the competition page. There is a place to enter comments for each game, so please use each respective thread to leave your kind feedback and constructive criticisms for the game authors. The competition period will span 3 weeks, and we will announce the winners of the competition at that time.

Oh, oh this is just... it's great! I mean, it's just astounding! Such a collection of awesome games! I mean, I just... I'm enthralled here! I can't believe they can actually co-exist in one article! Isn't there some rule against that in, I dunno, physics or something? Too much awesome in one space can't be good for... uh... something in the universe. Right?

A handful of tiny, quirky, off-beat kinda games to enjoy this weekend. Want to step on spikes, die, then come back to life? Gotcha covered. Want to blow things up then run for your life? Check. Want to toss your hat? We're so into that, too.

This week on Link Dump Friday... excitement! Danger! Riches beyond your wildest dreams!!... well, all right. So maybe it's just another hand-picked batch of the most delicious, freshly baked Link Dump-y games from around the net. Maybe there really aren't any riches to be had. But if you don't play, how will you ever find out?

Bit of an old-school throwback on this edition of Mobile Monday, showcasing the classic Wolfenstein franchise working in a new genre that's based on that genre the way it was back when Wolfenstein wasn't so classic. Did that make sense? Sure it did! Now go play Wolfenstein RPG!

It's a platforming fest on this edition of Weekend Download! We've traveled to the far away land of Platformia to find awesome run-and-jump-and-shoot games for you to play. Our expedition resulted in a backpack full of treasures, the best of which are below!

Greetings from the world of tomorrow! This week, Link Dump Friday takes a totally legitimate and not at all fabricated look at your future, intrepid reader! It is a future of rampaging mechs, massive explosions, kidnapping goo monsters... holy cow, the future is terrifying! You go ahead and enjoy your deadly future filled with monstrosities, friend. We, uh, we think we'll stay here.

Recognize any of the titles in this week's article? Two of the games below are follow-ups to existing iPhone releases, starting their own little series on the mobile platform. And the other two games? Well, one has bombs, the other numbers. That's neat in its own way, right?

Why do bees have sticky hair? Because they use honey combs. Why do Weekend Downloads have a bunch of games? Because spending your weekend reading about and subsequently sorting pieces of lint isn't nearly as fun.

Just a quick competition update to announce that due to some technical issues with getting the new competition page ready, we are extending the deadline by 2 weeks. We don't want to delay getting the entries up once the deadline has passed, and so we are extending the deadline to give us a little more time to prepare for it.

Let Jay is Games help you prepare for the upcoming trick-or-treating by presenting you with a fine selection of ideas for costumes based on a slew of oddball games! Because at Link Dump Friday, it's all about you. And maybe you could be a naked guy on a cycle, or a wizard, or, ohhh! A penguin! How avant garde of you!

I'm very proud to report no hobbits or halflings were harmed in the creation of this Mobile Monday. Technically, the two terms refer to the same thing, but one comes without the nutty aftertaste of lawyers. Also: no game in this week's article features halflings or hobbits.

Three truly heavy-hitting games on this edition of Weekend Download, two of them weighing in as unofficial sequels to commercially released games. Don't let that keep you from trying Journey to the Center of the Earth, however, as it packs even more punch than the name brands!

Today, on a bonus Link Dump Friday... spot-the-difference! A delicious, ripened cluster of difference games for the discerning soul who loves nothing better than to scour the surface of two seemingly identical pictures to advance the story and get the highest score! Just don't sit too close to the screen for this one. Nose smudges are hard to get off of monitors.

There's something for everyone in this week's Link Dump Friday! Assuming, of course, you're the sort of everyone who enjoys warping letters, doing unspeakable things to wildlife, and lasers. Well, who doesn't?... you say you don't? Well, then how about a swig of some magic star juice or a stay in a suspicious hotel? Perfect for what ails you!

Another quick reminder that there are now just 2 weeks left to finish up a browser game that incorporates the theme "EXPLORE". Please see the official competition announcement for details.

Unify went up the hill to fetch a pail of water. Then Harbor Master saw it and was all "Nuh-UH" and pushed it back down. Covered in dirt but not dismayed, Unify called his pal Mr.AahH who suggested they go to the water fountain instead. They did, and they saw Squareball on the way there, and everybody lived happily ever after.

When wacky games and serious, heartfelt games coexist, one never knows what could happen. This edition of Weekend Download pairs the decidedly quiet, thoughtful non-game Do You Remember My Lullaby? with two loud, zany platform action games. Why? Because we can!

Four of out five people agree, Link Dump Friday is the link dumpiest of the Friday link dumps! An additional six out of five recommend Link Dump Friday for all your link dump-y needs! (And for your weekly dose of made up statistics!) This week: Scuba diving teddy bears, dragon riders, robots, and much, much more! Well, if "much, much more" can mean "an additional two games".

Just about every imaginable genre of video game has appeared on the iTunes App Store, from first person shooters to hidden object games and beyond. The kind of game I feel performs best on the system, though, are simple puzzle games, the kind you can pick up, play for a few minutes, then try it again later in the day. Want examples? I hereby order you to scroll down a bit!

This edition of Weekend Download happens to be Weekend Download number 101! That means we've featured roughly 400 games since February 2007! Exclamation mark! To celebrate, today's article features five free games, enough to keep you busy for hours on end. It also features an extra amount of love, but if you've been following WD since the beginning, you knew that already, didn't you? AWWWW!!!!

This special edition Link Dump Friday is dedicated to bite-sized games. Contained herein are a few odd games that go outside the box and bring us gameplay elements we've never seen before, or are presented in ways that stun us... but they're unfortunately too short to justify a full article for.

Come on down to Crazy Jay's Link Dump Friday! We've got so many games we're positing them for free! And why? Because we're craaaaaaaaaaazy! We got your haunted hotels, we got your vicious diseases, we got your boss battles and much, much more! So come on down to Crazy Jay's Casual Gameplay this Friday and let us hook you up with the gaming experience of... well... someone's dreams! Have we mentioned we're craaaaaazy? Because that's really important!

Just a quick reminder that there are 4 weeks left to design and develop a browser game that incorporates the theme "EXPLORE". And we are pleased to announce that we have just added more prizes, too!

Massive puzzle game overload! Gah, it hurts us, precious! From the unique and original Ynth to the physics-oriented Enigmo 2, there's something for every brainy gamer to enjoy. Unless you're really bitter and grumpy, in which case, I suggest eating an ice cream sandwich. No one can be grumpy while eating an ice cream sandwich.

It's a weekend of Ludum Dare! The solo game development competition sends people on a quest to create a game from scratch in 48 hours based on a theme. The results are always interesting, though don't expect a long and polished product from two days of work. The theme for the most recent Ludum Dare competition was "caverns".

This week on Link Dump Friday! The weird, the deep, and the deeply weird; games that either make you think or make you blink. Featuring aliens, flaming heads, and time traveling donkeys. Just another day at the office here at Jay is Games!

An old Flash favorite hangs in balance while a few word games keep your iPhone fingers busy this week, along with most excellent Skabooki, a game that's eaten many hours of my life away with its simple but elegant construction. That darn voodoo doll is just so cute!

Remakes, revivals, and retro-styled games are the stars of this edition of Weekend Download. We've got that tasty old school gameplay philosophy, primitive pixel graphics, and a penchant for minimalism all wrapped into one.

This week on Link Dump Friday! A star studded lineup of thrills, chills, explosions, erasers, hamburgers, and more! It's more exciting than an afternoon at the theater, and without all the guilt from the four pound bag of theater-sized M&Ms you just ate. No, we're not judging. We've been there, too.

This week on You Are Games, we share the entries from the Artists Ahoy! Challenge. Your mission is to browse through the gallery, comment on the complimentary wine, sniff in hoity-toity disapproval, discuss the matter with your handbag poodle, and do other art gallery related things. Thank you to everyone who participated in the contest. Picking a winner was a tough decision!

Wooty tooty flip bam booty! We're returning back to basics with a competition in which the emphasis is simply on casual gameplay design. All you have to do is design a game that incorporates our theme, EXPLORE, and you may use any browser-based technology platform you are comfortable with! Please read the official competition announcement for all the details.

Aaaaand we're back! This edition of Mobile Monday teaches us that spiders eat bugs and spin webs, bell-bottoms are necessary to "ride grooves", and it's perfectly acceptable to swing around the city with an infinite supply of rope. Tell your parents, they'll be proud!

Aah, I love the smell of flat, shapeless pixels in the morning! And four-color screenshots in the afternoon. And any combination of the above at any time of the day.

We've got work to do this week, dear reader! There's monsters in the garden, turtles that need launching, and things that need to be set on fire! No, there's no time for games in this week's Link Dump Friday! They may look like games, but they're backbreaking labor! Just get to work, post-haste! If you're quick about it, there's an extra penny farthing in it for you, there's a good chap. Pip pip, and so forth.

Just like milk, cereal and toast make for a delicious breakfast, a math-based shooter, a retro platformer and an emo arcade game make for a scrumptious Weekend Download. Seriously, try it with butter or ghee!

Peanut butter and bananas! Cheese and crackers! You and Jay is Games! These are just a few of our favourite combinations. This week on Link Dump Friday, we explore some lesser known classic combinations you may not be familiar with, but will still find just as delicious. What's classic about a ninja and a UFO, you ask? EVERYTHING.

There's one more step before we announce the theme of Casual Gameplay Design Competition 6, and that's to make it all pretty. Your job this week on You Are Games is to make artwork for CGDC6. The graphics we select will be used as the official logo for the competition and also win money. See the full entry for details.

So many games, so few breaks during the day to find an excuse to play them! The iTunes App Store is heating up with some of the best game offerings its ever had. First I Dig It stole my heart, now Space Invaders and Dungeon Scroll threaten to do the same!

Normally, I'm not much of a shmup fan. Three of the four games featured below, however, happen to be shooters. And I happen to have enjoyed them. Which is neat! Sure, they're decidedly less "serious" than most games in the genre, but still, you shoot stuff, so that counts, right?

A quick update to highlight a few things we have been working on to improve your experience here at JIG (just in case you're a new visitor or one that doesn't poke around the site very much)...

This week on Link Dump Friday... story time! That's right, boys and girls, grab your teddy bears, your footed jammies, and your offerings of pizza and chips. Today we explore the rich ancestry of great King Casual Gameplay, with such fine traditions as the side-scroller, the platformer, and the art of goofing off on Fridays. Hurray!

You say you'd like to vote one more time for your favorite Casual Gameplay Design Competition theme? Your wish is our command. We've compiled the top 12 vote-getters from last week's poll into one little bitty poll. This is for all the marbles. Vote for your favorite theme of the next Casual Gameplay Design Competition.

We have three very strong iPhone games to showcase this week, and as you can see, I sort of went overboard describing one. :-) Some developers have really settled into this interesting new gaming platform, and each game below flaunts that in its own unique way.

It's TOJam time! The Toronto Independent Game Jam #4 was held May 1-3, with participating teams producing 37 games! Below are just a few of our favorites. Be sure to check out the TOJam 2009 games page for other unique titles.

This week on Link Dump Friday, we give thanks. Thanks to aliens for always trying to steal our cows. Thanks to robots who help us succumb to the beat. Thanks to bunnies with eerily photogenic smiles. And thanks, most of all, to the men, women, and alien hive-minds of the casual gameplay industry for bringing us games and not enslaving our race.

The suggestions have been made. The big list has been compiled. Let's keep this ball rollin'. Your job this week on You Are Games is to vote for the theme of the next Casual Gameplay Design Competition. Choose up to 10 of your favorite choices from the master list. Thanks to everyone who made suggestions last week!

OMG IT'S SPACE ACE! We've come a long way from starry-eyed kids standing in a sticky-floored mall arcade drooling over the beautiful images on the screen. And you could "play" the game! With just a quarter! Now a pile of those quarters will buy you the game outright, a portable version you can have and hold and cuddle all the day and night long. Sticky, candy-covered floor optional.

Games exist to expand your mind, train your reflexes, broaden your appreciation of all things— naaah! I'm kidding, who cares about all that stuff, amirite? Really, most of the games we play exist just so we can have fun. And that's exactly what we have on this edition of Weekend Download: three tiny, simple games to deliver a bit of mindless fun.

Frogs! Peg-Beasts! Angry spirits! Mutated scientists! What do they have in common? They're all super adorable! Trust us, they are. That's why you don't want to miss this week's Link Dump Friday, home of the weird, the adorable, and the adorably weird. Just like nature intended.

Simple Puzzle. Grow. Replay. Ball Physics. Upgrade. We've had some good themes over the years for the Casual Gameplay Design Competitions. Your job on You Are Games this week is to answer a question: What should the theme of the next Flash game design competition be?

Some classic games from several platforms have made their way to the iPhone, making pull-out-of-your-pocket-and-play much easier than before (laptops aren't so pocket friendly). Vector Park has finally dabbled in the iTunes App Store, and a familiar Facebook game also makes its iPhone debut. OH! And there's Worms!

We are pleased to announce another winner of the Reviewers, Assemble! contest: Mike! Go here to read the winning review of Lights, one of our favorite room escape games this year. Congratulations Mike, and thank you to everybody who participated!

Ohhhhh, sometimes I can't get enough of that old school retro-styled CRT TV in the living room playing games when I'm supposed to be learning my multiplication tables goodness! An incredibly low-res Quake-inspired game is a heavy dose of nostalgia, but pile on top of that a short Lucas Arts-style adventure game and an unofficial sequel to a near-forgotten NES title, stick a Post-It note on the front, and you've got a recipe for a relaxed weekend.

This week on Link Dump Friday: "They want me to do WHAT?" Be awesome in a helicopter, blast water at helpless roly-poly critters, defend a forest using heavy artillery, and more! It doesn't have to make sense to be fun! In fact, we highly recommend a daily dose of the nonsensical, the ridiculous, or the just plain weird.

The iTunes App Store just turned one year old, bringing over 13,000 games to mobile players who like to keep their fingers busy smudging their handheld devices. Of course, not all of those games are worth your time and money, which is why Mobile Monday highlights the best of the best each week. We'll play the duds, you just go and have fun!

The Experimental Gameplay Project has returned! Originally started by Kyle Gabler and Kyle Gray, the site encourages rapid prototyping of new gameplay concepts in a short period of time. World of Goo began as an experimental game called Tower of Goo, so you can see how much creative potential an idea like this has.

This week, Link Dump Friday encourages you to forget the past, don't worry about the future, and live in the moment! Incidentally, this moment contains evil militant teddy bears, how not to behave as royalty, a lesson in pityin' foos, and more. In fact, the only thing better than this moment will be next week's moment! But for now, let's just cherish the time we have together and... wait, you're playing games, aren't you?! Are you even listening? *sigh*

This week on You Are Games, you get to review the games. Send us a review of one of the following games: Upgrade Complete, Minecraft, or Lights. We'll choose our three favorites and feature them on the site! Check out the rules and guidelines in the full article, and remember to have fun. Reviewers, Assemble!

With the goal of gleaning helpful information and insight into the state of the thriving Flash game market from the perspective of developers and publishers, Mochi Media is requesting your participation in a Flash Games Market Survey.

Paper, aliens, and scary things that jump out at you and go "BOO!! WAAA HAHAAA!" dominate this edition of Mobile Monday. Come to think of it, that sounds like the last family reunion I went to. Including games: Mystique. Chapter 1: Foetus, Paper Toss, and Evacuation.

Our goal is to bring you only the games that are worth playing, meaning most of these titles are left in the forgotten realm of Didn't Quite Make It land. This is especially true with downloadable games, as it's a bit more of a commitment to buy a game than just click on a link and play. Some games look good, play well, and are entertaining enough to be featured, but for one reason or another they just didn't make the cut. Here are a few games that are, by all rights, excellent titles to play, but for one reason or another didn't quite get their own review.

Painfully difficult retro gaming time!!! Three platform games on this edition of Weekend Download, each one doing its part to remind you just how bad you are at playing games. Until you play the same part a dozen times, then you're awesomely talented!

This week on Link Dump Friday, toast, bouncing balls, pixels, jigsaws, and herds of kittens combine to form... uh... something... really awesome! We got yer puzzles, we got yer platforms, we even got yer action adventure! Don't we take good care of you? Now... what did you get us?

A big bunch o' arcade games have been assembled for this week's Mobile Monday. It was actually really easy to gather them, too. All I had to do was put out a bit of arcade bait and they came a-runnin'...

It's the weekend!!! That means you have a little extra time on your hands. That means I get to take away some of that time with a handful of free games. That means you get to have fun on your weekend. Don't forget to mow the lawn, though.

This week in Link Dump Friday: the arcade! Bastion of fun and hope for young and old alike in an urban wasteland? Or secret lair of an ancient race of mole people from deep within the earth's crust? Unless you tune in this week for plants, turrets, swords, and more, you may never know. And Jay will get all the high scores to himself. We can't have that, now, can we?

An iPod full of diverse games on this week's Mobile Monday. My personal favorite happens to be TonePad. Mostly because I like messing around with sound without, you know, actually accomplishing anything or learning real musical skills.

This week, we'll take a look at the finalists in the 2BeeGames Indie Game Competition. Out of the six, we have previously featured two: Auditorium and Bumps, and the other is technically not a download Buccaneer Battle. Here is a quick rundown of the remaining three amazingly deserving titles. You like to vote, right? After playing these games, go vote for your favorite!

Catapults, coins, carts, and a bus game that doesn't have anything that begins with the letter c! You might say these things have nothing in common. I say, there's no time for your sass! Link Dump Friday is happening right now!

While I'm a big fan of retro games, developers have yet to convince me that a touch screen is an adequate replacement for a physical controller. With a touch screen you get no tactile feedback, and I feel that ruins many iPhone games. This week we have several titles whose controls are better without d-pads and buttons. And believe me, that's a tough fact for me to admit!

All three games featured this week seem to be a bit on the chilling creepy eerie ominous side of things. Nothing like hordes of zombies leaping from behind locked doors, more like quiet, haunting environments that are suspiciously empty but filled with cautious intrigue...

This week on Link Dump Friday, we're going to flex the awesomest muscle of them all. The BRAIN. All the cool kids are doing it!

Big game developers continue to flock to the iTunes App Store to offer portable versions of some of their best-known games. Electronic Arts is no stranger to any gaming platform, and some very recognizable titles can now have a home on your system. The prices aren't always as friendly as they could be, but sometimes it's worth a little extra cash to get the glitz and glamor a large studio can provide.

We've just finished a complete walkthrough for Braid! Be warned: This guide contains spoilers so use it as a last resort.

This edition of Weekend Download makes me hungry. Hungry for TOAST! It also, by extension, makes me want to ride on the back of a sheep, but that's a completely different thing, innit?

This week's Link Dump Friday appeals to your warm, fuzzy, nurturing side. Also the side of you that really just likes explosions and claps like a seal whenever something goes BOOM. You'd be surprised how similar they are!

Musical games dominate this edition of Mobile Monday, with two of our four features emphasizing rhythm and reflexes over any other gameplay mechanic. Also weighing in is the hefty game Zenonia, an RPG that claims a full 40 hours of 16-bit-style role playing!