The next entry up is a game designed by Andrew Paradise with art and characters by Georg Pedersen. The authors are from Massachusetts (US). Fluke Ball is a turn-based strategy game in which players take turns throwing common office objects toward a microwave and the strange phenomenon that surrounds it. The game includes a creative interpretation of the "ball physics" theme.

The next entry up is from Gareth Thomas ("Gaz") of the UK. Gaz may be new to the competitions but his games are familiar here at JIG: Avalanche having received a review from us, and Square Divide making an appearance in a Link Dump Friday. Particle Blaster is an arcade style geometric shape shooter that implements the "ball physics" theme within the gameplay.

The next entry up is from Wildsnake Software of Russia. Although new to the CGDC, you may remember reading about another Wildsnake Software game here in a recent review of Shuffle. Chap Hai - Way of the Dragon is an action strategy game of skill in which "ball physics" plays an important role in gameplay also similar to pool.

The next entry to the 4th Casual Gameplay Design Competition is from Dom Camus of the UK. You may remember Dom from our 3rd competition with his entry, The Turtles of Time. This time Dom delivers a pinball game with a twist in Ballrooms, an entry that incorporates the "ball physics" theme in a straightforward implementation. Please leave your kind and considerate feedback for Dom in the comments.

Next up is an entry from Carl Foust of Indiana (US). You may remember Carl's highly imaginative entry from CGDC #3, the Super Earth Defense Game! Balancing Act takes the theme of "ball physics" and translates that directly into gameplay in which you must keep balls (and other objects) in a state of balance. Please leave your kind and considerate feedback for Carl in the comments.

The next entry to the 4th Casual Gameplay Design Competition is from Aaron Cox and Graham Jans of British Columbia (Canada). Ballonius is an action arcade-style game of collecting energy while avoiding bubbles with elastic "ball physics" properties. Please post your kind and constructive comments for Aaron and Graham about their game.

The next entry to the 4th Casual Gameplay Design Competition is a game from Tom Methven of the UK, participating in a CGDC for the first time. Sky Blocs is a block tumbling, chain reaction puzzle game that includes an implementation of "ball physics" within elements of the gameplay. Please leave your kind and constructive feedback for Sky Blocs in the comments.

The next entry up is from Sean Hawkes of Louisiana (US). You may remember Sean from our first competition as he was responsible for 3 of the entries: the prize-winning Clack, Weight and Houses. Contour is an action puzzler in an isometric pseudo-3D perspective that integrates "ball physics" within the gameplay. Please give Sean your kind and constructive feedback on his game in the comments.

The next entry to the 4th Casual Gameplay Design Competition is a game from Eduardo Omine of Brazil, another newcomer to our CGDC festivities. Rmvblls is a goal-based action game in which the objective is to remove the required number of balls from play. The "ball physics" theme is present here in a straightforward implementation. Please provide Eduardo your kind and constructive feedback on his game in the comments.

The next entry to the 4th Casual Gameplay Deisgn Competition is from Zach Archer and Miles Johnson from Oregon (US), both new to the JIG competitions. Space Kitteh is a platform game of planetary jumping and saving kittens that implements the "ball physics" theme in an outer space adventure.

The next entry to our 4th Casual Gameplay Design Competition is from Phillip Reagan of Texas (US). You may remember Phillip as he is a prize winner from our very first competition with his game, Thief. Osmosis is a unique game that relies on gestural input to control sheep that roll and react to various "ball physics" properties. Please leave your feedback and constructive criticism for Phillip in the comments.

The next entry into our 4th Casual Gameplay Design Competition is from Monsterkodi of Germany. You may be familiar with one of Monsterkodi's games previously mentioned here, Kiki the Nano Bot, so please give him a warm JIG welcome. Koogel is a unique game that leverages the "ball physics" theme visually as well as integrates it within the gameplay.

The next entry comes from Ali Maunder of VarStudios in the UK. You may know Ali from his games previously reviewed here, Neon and Abstract Sea. Kaichou is an 'experimental' shooter created expressly for this "ball physics" competition. Please offer up some feedback and constructive criticism for Ali in the comments.

The next entry comes from The Netherlands and a team of two game developers: Robert Berrier and Roland Ariens. Angular Momentum is an action puzzle game in which momentum plays an important role in the gameplay, as does the "ball physics" theme. Please give Robert and Roland a warm welcome by posting your feedback and kind constructive criticism in the comments.

Another long time JIG visitor participating in his first Casual Gameplay Design Competition, Bart Koning from New Zealand reels in the next entry for you. Stranded is an action game of catching fish by tossing stones into the water and knocking them out. While the "ball physics" may not be all that obvious, I'm sure it's in there somewhere (the stones must be ball-shaped.)

The next entry up for your review is a game by Dan Black of Ohio (US), also new to our competitions. There seems to be a lot of new people participating this time, and we are very excited. So please join us in giving Dan a warm welcome. The Perfect Shot uses "ball physics" and some gestural input as the basis for its gameplay. And as always, provide Dan with some awesome constructive criticism and praise in the comments.

The next entry into our 4th Casual Gameplay Design Competition is from Rob Gray of the UK, and this is his first CGDC so please give him a warm JIG welcome. Save the Planet is a projectile shooting game in which the "ball physics" theme has been implemented as gravitational force applied to spherical bodies in orbit around a planet. It's a simple idea with mesmerizing effects.

The next entry is from Mateusz Skutnik of Poland. If you enjoy point-and-click Flash games, then you are most likely familiar with Mateusz' work, as he is the creator of the popular Submachine series, as well as the Covert Front and Daymare Town games. Mateusz also creates many other types of Flash games, and his competition entry, Mr. MothBall, is a platform game that includes "ball physics" within the player character.

The next entry up is from Rob Allen of the UK. You may know Rob's work from the incredible Hapland series, or from the banner game that graces the top of the JIG homepage. He was also part of our very first competition with his entry, Keys. In Day of the Bobteds, Rob delivers an action puzzle game based on bobteds and... "ball physics". Go figure.

The next game up is an entry from Ben Gillbanks (UK), and we wish Ben a warm JIG welcome as this is his first competition with us. Roll takes "ball physics" seriously in an action puzzler that injects a variety of surfaces and contraptions into the gameplay. That's all I'm going to say, the rest is up to you to discover and discuss in the comments.

The next game up is an entry from Bart Bonte (Belgium). Factory Balls presents a twist on what you might think of when considering the phrase "ball physics." It's a clever play on words and, well, the rest is up to you to discover. Not only is Bart familiar with our competitions, this is his 4th CGDC as well!

We have a lot of entries to share with you, and we're going to start rolling them out as we have done before, one every few hours, so that each game has a chance to receive attention and feedback from the JIG community. It will take us about a week to publish them all, so please be patient with us.

This is it! We are down to the last few hours before deadline for our 4th Casual Gameplay Design Competition. Entries have been pouring in all weekend and today, and we have already surpassed all previous competitions in terms of number of entries received, so we are very pleased!

Stuck at work on the weekend? Tired of spending your Saturday/Sunday doing homework? Or are you one of the lucky folk who have two days of (relatively) work-free bliss? In any case, we've got a boatload of distractions for you. No matter if you're hopping the company firewall to grab a few games or just relaxing at home, consider this your excuse for not doing anything especially productive.

October is almost here, and you know what that means! It's time to celebrate Apple Day! Yes, the holiday everyone looks forward to all year long is finally near. Now you can eat as many apples as you like without worrying about people teasing you. And if you live in Japan you're doubly lucky, as Health and Sports Day is also in October, making sure you'll be in top condition to burn off that apple fat at the end of the month.

We are down to the final 5 days before the deadline for our Casual Gameplay Design Competition #4, and we're getting very excited to see and play all the games to have incorporated the "ball physics" theme! All entries must be in by October 1st, 2007 at 11:59PM. That is this coming Monday night. Please see the competition announcement page for full details on entering.

DJ Sultan is in the house! His just-released Yoshitoshi Montreal collection is one of the most amazingly uplifting, feel-good mixes of songs I've heard in quite a long time. So good that it warrants interrupting the flow of game reviews to share with you the wonderful positive energy it contains. If you enjoy good dance music, you won't be disappointed by this absolutely spirit-lifting mix!

Everybody panic! There are less than 100 days left to complete your Christmas shopping! You'd better start now! Begin by purchasing a silly clown outfit by the end of October. After that, be sure to grab a large bird to cook by the middle of November. After that, the rest should be a breeze. But before you spend hundreds of dollars on Halloween candy, be sure to check out this sugar-coated Link Dump Friday!

John Cooney recently put together a site that aims to help developers, particularly those using Flash, protect their intellectual property. His site, FlashRights.com, provides information and links that explain copyright, licensing issues, and ways to protect your Flash game and your rights as a developer. While it may not cover every issue surrounding intellectual property rights, it is a good place to start understanding the basic concepts, terms, and issues facing Flash game developers today.

We are just two weeks away from the deadline for Casual Gameplay Design Competition #4, and I have to say we're getting pretty excited about what is shaping up to be our biggest competition ever. With over $6000 in cash and prizes to give away, we're also looking forward to reward the best game designs that incorporate the "ball physics" theme.

Fret Nice is a unique platformer game for Windows with one of the strangest control mechanisms we've ever seen. Instead of using the keyboard, you use the guitar controller from Guitar Hero. The game is breaking boundaries across the globe, and game designer Lars Doucet sat down with the creator to get the inside scoop on the making of the musical platformer.

A smattering of games for the weekend, begging you to answer just one question: exactly how much is a 'smattering' anyway? Serve yourself up a helping of Sauerbraten if you're in the mood to shoot some baddies, and puzzle fans can delight in not one but two games to send their neurons in a tizzy. Always careful to cater to my adventure gaming bretheren, you'll also find a fun little adventure title full of pirates!

Finally, after months of no rain, early this morning I heard the sweet sound of magic sky-water falling from above. This magical collection of Link Dump Friday games encouraged the clouds to release their water. As you work your way down the list, keep an eye out for strange events such as birds falling from the sky, strangers on the street offering you large sums of money, or finding a really good coupon in the newspaper.

Just a quick reminder that there is still plenty of time to come up with an idea and to get your game design underway for Casual Gameplay Design Competition #4. The theme is ball physics and up for grabs are cash and prizes worth over $6000. The deadline is October 1st. Please see the competition announcement page for full details on entering.

I have this lamp in my room with a lampshade from which I hang all sorts of stuff. The top and bottom of this lamp is littered with clothespins to hold things in place. Yes, it's all a huge fire hazard waiting to happen, and a lot of random, all in one place; but it also reminds me of LINK DUMP FRIDAY!!!

Manuel Fallmann of Mindistortion had to move his site's domain recently. Previously at Mindistortion.net, the site, his animations and his games can now be found at Mindistortion.tv. If you have linked to any of Manuel's animations or games before, please make sure you update those links to point to the new site. Manuel thanks you for it. :)

Just a quick reminder that there is still plenty of time to come up with an idea and to get your game design underway for Casual Gameplay Design Competition #4. The theme is ball physics and up for grabs are cash and prizes worth over $6000. The deadline is October 1st. Please see the competition announcement page for full details on entering.

From Kyle Gabler comes an experimental massively multiplayer online word association "game". To play, all you have to do is read the word (or words) on top, then type in the first thing that pops in your head. Human Brain Cloud collects these associations and dumps them into a database viewed with an interactive squishy set of blobs. It's a fascinating experiment that just so happens to be an addictive game to boot.

Hello. You've reached Friday. I'm not around to take your call at the moment, so please leave your message after the beep and I'll call you back. While you're waiting, try one of these scrumptious links offered for your approval, which can mean only one thing: IT'S LINK DUMP FRIDAY!!!

The bird that flies away with your newspaper in the first Haluz chapter is back and gets caught up in the electricity to your house causing the lights to go out. And it's your job to make things right again. Travel through stunning scenery and solve puzzles in this charming and delightful new graphical adventure.

We are just two weeks into the development period for Casual Gameplay Design Competition #4, and I am pleased to report that we have even more prizes to give away(!) Sierra Online, lead sponsor of the competition and publisher of the amazing new casual game, Switchball, will be awarding a free copy of the game to all 5 prize winners!

It's another edition of Weekend Download! Join us as we pose the important questions in life: What would happen if you could rewind time with the touch of a spacebar? Who owns Majesty Manor? What would happen if the rolling rocks from Indiana Jones got a mind of their own? And just what does Linus Bruckman see when his eyes are closed?

I'm not much for long introductions. It's the end of the week and that means good times and the weekend just around the corner. And because it's the end of the week, that also means: It's LINK DUMP FRIDAY!!!

Just a quick reminder that we are just 1 week into the design and development period for Casual Gameplay Design Competition #4, and there is still plenty of time to come up with an idea and to get your game design underway that incorporates the theme: ball physics. Up for grabs are cash and prizes worth over $6000, and the deadline is October 1st.

Oh dear, where did the summer go to? Everyone's heading back to school, and I didn't get half the things I wanted to do done! Maybe some delicious Link Dump Friday would cheer everyone up!

Together with Sierra Online, we are pleased to announce our 4th Casual Gameplay Design Competition at Jayisgames.com! Up for grabs are more prizes than ever before: over $6000 in cash and prizes, including Adobe CS3 Professional licenses and a Nintendo Wii! Our thanks to Sierra Online, Free World Group, Armor Games, Arcade Town, Adobe and Nitrome for helping us bring to you our biggest competition yet! Update: Entries are all in!!!

It is difficult enough to design a game that is fun to play; harder still to design one that keeps a player coming back to it again and again. It seems that so many games today are one-off, disposable experiences offering little reason for a replay. When we chose the word "replay" for the theme of this competition, we were looking forward to seeing games with excellent replay value...

We have been working hard these last several weeks to bring you even more opportunities to show off your game design talent and to win fabulous prizes. And before we release the results of the 3rd Casual Gameplay Design Competition, we would like to take this opportunity to announce some exciting news.

The parade of frogs plays trumpets to confetti as the apple moon flies in at 5:67pm. A stitch in time won't save the fairies because no elephant turns on a dime. We are going to the newspapers! We are going to the newspapers! Chocolate! Chocolate! Fax the memo to us! It's LINK DUMP FRIDAY!!!

Now that we have seen all the entries for the 3rd Casual Gameplay Design Competition, it is almost time for the voting to begin for the coveted Audience prize.

Whew! What a crazy week this has been, and another one just now starting... where did the weekend go? With the deadline for our 3rd game design competition now officially here, all the development and preparation for it seems to have been time well spent. Thanks to the participation and cooperation of some of the best Flash game design talent from around the world, we are now looking at nearly 20 sparkling new creative game designs to share with you. And we can't wait to begin to roll out the entries.

When you run, what do you think of? What questions do you ruminate? What perplexing puzzles do you ponder? Do you wonder why people park in a driveway and drive in a parkway? Do you wonder if it really is that important for all the matches in a matchbox to face the same way? I got up this morning and started running and thought, how awesome it would be if today was...LINK DUMP FRIDAY!!!

What does a muscular bunny rabbit, a pegasus roller coaster, and a bouncy rubber ball have in common? They all enjoy the musky aroma and cherry/strawberry fusion flavor of JIG Cola! That, and they happen to star in games featured on this week's Weekend Download. While you recover from your 7/7/07 party bonanza, let these games soothe your soul and tickle your brain into casual gaming submission.

Which is better: Hard candy or chocolate? Bare feet or soft socks? A beautiful flower or a stunning sunset? A delicious cake or scrumptious pie? Soaring through the mountains or chilling on the beach? An earth-shattering solo or a unified band? Well at least some questions in life are easy... like how about another LINK DUMP FRIDAY!!!

Mat from Nitrome sent word of a YouTube video they put together to show Hot Air 2 in action, including a Balloon Maker with which you can customize your own balloon to use in the game! The release is coming very soon now, so here's a little movie to whet your appetite.

There are three words in the English language that end with the letters "gry." They are "hungry," "angry," and I forget the last one, but worrying about that isn't really going to help you through any of the games in this week's Link Dump Friday!

Game-Pure has released an update to their Oshidama series, this one is a collection of levels for the month of July. There are 6 fresh new levels to play and you can compare your relative success with them against others who have tried. As with the June collection, mousing-over each screenshot in the level select menu shows how many have tried the level ("challenger") and of those, how many were able to clear it.

Do any of these games grab you by the fingers and yank you to a world of casual gaming fantasy? Or are they all yawn-worthy duds? Let us know which link dump games you feel are worthy of a full fledged review!

We have gone and done it again! After rounding up support from Adobe, Arcade Town, and Nitrome, we are pleased to announce our 3rd Flash Game Design Competition at Jayisgames.com, and you are invited to participate! Up for grabs is over $3000 in cash and prizes, including Adobe CS3 Professional licenses! We look forward to seeing more creative and original entries as we have seen with our past competitions. Update: Entries are all in!!!

A simple man once said, "I will not let words get in the way of my message." He then proceeded to smash a grapefruit on his head, prance around wearing socks too small for his hands, and draft a declaration of independence for the ocean and all the little fishies. So as to follow the words of this great man, here is your link dump!

Two updates to the orb-nudging arcade game Oshidama have been released. Oshidama Plus adds a wonderful Time Attack mode that lets you race against yourself for a better score, while Oshidama Monthly goes episodic with regular releases of extremely challenging puzzle-type levels. More Oshidama is always a good thing.

By now everyone should have received the latest stylesheet featuring the pixelrific goodness of Nitrome. The banner and supporting graphics were all created by the very talented Mat Annal, and we couldn't be happier with the way everything turned out. Thanks Mat!!

They start with nothing, and in just three days time, a completed game sits before them. The second Toronto Indie Game Development Jam (TO Jam) was held earlier this month from May 4-6. Over 60 intrepid participants dove into the creative corners of their minds and pulled out unique games the world has never seen (and in some wacky cases, should never see).

The weekend is upon us and that means another Weekend Download for your perusal. Featuring a mixture of freeware and demos, we have scoured the Web to cherry pick the finest download games that have recently become available.

Earlier this year we ran a series of poker night tournaments in which players would compete for a chance at the final table. We gave away lots of prizes including t-shirts and free downloadable games. But that's not all. As promised, today is the drawing for a brand new Nintendo DS Lite among all the weekly champions of tournaments.

For this Link Dump, I beg your indulgence for a simple quiz: I fly out of London's Heathrow airport travelling at 800mph departing at 7am (GMT), and at that exact same moment a friend leaves New York's JFK but they are on a slower flight travelling only 400 mph. At what time will the planes cross (and for a bonus point, over which ocean)?

A sweet mango smoothie. Turning the pages of a favorite book. Dashing bare feet on the hot summer ground. The cool side of the pillow. The stretch after a nap. Smooth wrapping paper. A single piece of chocolate. A touch of fur. Starlit breezes. Sitting on the edge of a pool. The last drop of ice cream. Enjoy!

It's the weekend, Mothers Day even, and everyone here at Casual Gameplay has taken the weekend off to spend with our families. But we also realize you may be looking for something new to play, and so we'll leave you with a few choice selections of the latest casual games making the rounds on the download circuit. Be sure to let us know which of them deserves a full review.

It's Friday, and that means we pile on the links to games we think you might enjoy, but without giving them a full review. If the response to a game contained in here is exceptionally good, you just might see it featured in an upcoming review. So please share with us what you think about these choice selections from your suggestions and beyond.

Once again we've scoured the internet from top to bottom (you wouldn't believe the things we've seen...) to find the best casual games you can "download" onto your "computing machine" and play with an input device such as a "lettered slab with keys" and/or a "mouse".

I've been getting thousands of emails from loyal JIG-goers asking me, "why the lengthy, random Link Dump Friday introductions?" Well actually, most of the emails are proposals and rich Nigerians offering cheap meds from Canada, but that's beside the point. Anyway, due to the imaginary backlash, I will now vow to keep things short, concise, and free of redundancy.

Busy! Busy busy! Get it done now! Why have I dilly dallied so much with these intros? Time is money! Less talk, more action! Places to go! Places to be! Why say "hello" when I can just say "hi"? Schedule! Plan! Don't write, just type! Don't type, just text! Mail is too slow! Use e-mail!

Just a quick update to give a big warm shout-out to Matt Hammill, designer of the recently reviewed Gesundheit game, for the outstanding job he did on the new banners and graphics for the site! Cheers, Matt!

Friday, Friday, Friday. It's generally acknowledged to be the best day of the week other than Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Most people know that Friday gets its name from the fact that Medieval England forbade the consumption of boiled or roasted foods on this day (a tradition still followed in parts of Rutlandshire). But did you know that in Norway, there are TWO Fridays every week and no Mondays?

After a long hiatus and due to popular request, comment preview has returned to help in your quest to create nicely formatted comments and walkthroughs. Just click the "Preview" button below the text input field in the comment form to see a preview of how your comment will appear when posted, spoiler tags and all!

Now that I have your attention, I'd like to mention a couple of things we've been working on to make your experience here just a little bit better. Hopefully you have noticed that the site tags have been optimized and are now working better than ever. We've also been venturing deep into the archives to give all those long lost games and reviews the tags they deserve, so the tag listings should be looking more complete than ever as well. And yet we still have about 400 more games to tag(!)

I have grown tired of your silly games and forgotten names. You have tried to outsmart me, thinking that you were the master of baking blueberry muffins and delectable pancakes. But wait, there's more! These games follow the awesome theme of music, well at least until I got tired. Hopefully you will have forgotten what I said by the time you—oh look at that, a pirate cactus (yarr)!

But what about dessert? Well, we're glad you asked. We'd like to present you with a glorious menu of special Friday gaming dishes ready for sampling. Enjoy, and remember to select your favorite dish of the bunch! Bon Appetite!

We are very pleased to announce that JIG has made it onto the tangible printed page of WIRED magazine in the April issue (shown). You can find us mentioned in the Playlist feature, an article that lists 10 things the WIRED folks think are cool (or "wired") for the month.

This week's Link Dump Friday is brought to you by the letters H, R, Z, and by the number 642. Look for references to those letters in each game featured below. Then multiply by the square root of pie (cherry). Once you find the solution, let us know by sending smoke signals from your backyard. We'll arrive shortly with a bouquet of beautiful flowers commemorating your efforts.

It's the weekend. You can also download games. But you cannot download the weekend itself. Weekend Download contains less than 8% of the recommended daily allowance of niacin. Weekend Download knows what you did last summer. Do not taunt Weekend Download.

With voting now over, it is my pleasure to announce the recipient of the Audience Prize for the CasualGameplay Design Competition #2: Sprout!! With 41.6% of the popular vote, Jeff Nusz' Sprout proves beyond a doubt to be the favorite among the JIG community as well.

When we first announced the competition and its "GROW" theme in January, the response was warm and welcoming. There seemed to be a popular expectation that the competition would yield games similar to the Grow series from On of Eyezmaze. Instead, we received more than a dozen different "GROW" interpretations, each one creative and original in its own way, and not a single Grow clone. And still the games exceeded our expectations.

How many integers does it take to change a lightbulb? The answer is an integer. For an explanation of this, and for more insight into other unexplained phenomena, be sure to check out this week's Link Dump Friday.

There are a lot of awards being handed out this week, in addition to tomorrow's announcement of the results from our 2nd Flash game design competition(!) The Game Developers Conference is in full swing out in San Francisco this week and the results of the Independent Games Festival (IGF) and Game Developers Choice Awards have been announced, and there are a couple of familiar faces that we need to give a nod to.

Total from voting... $428.40Outstanding!! The JIG community comes together and donates over four-hundred dollars to the designers of the games from our latest competition! You folks are the best! Thanks go out to everyone that voted.

It's Saturday and that means another JIG Poker Night event is coming your way! We'll be taking just a short break from the competition action this afternoon and setting up the poker tables in our own Triplejack poker lounge, as we do every week. The tournaments will get underway this evening beginning at 12 Noon EST (GMT-5). Be sure to join us for some fun and good times, and you just might win yourself a prize or two!

What do you get when you combine an owl, three quarts of mango juice, a teaspoon of sugar, eight pounds of pounds and stir it all with a wooden spoon made out of love? A brand new Link Dump Friday, of course.

It's Saturday and that means another JIG Poker Night event coming your way! We'll be setting up the poker tables in our own Triplejack poker lounge, as we do every week, and the tournaments will get underway this evening beginning at 9PM EST (GMT-5). Be sure to join us for some fun and good times, and you just might win yourself a prize or two. And do we ever have some nice prizes to give away this week!

It's announcements time! A lot is going on in our casual gaming world and the creative talent behind the games we love is really blossoming. Is it the crisp February air? The freshness of a new year? Either way, here's an update on a few recent events you should know about. Consider yourself... informed!

More than just a doughnut, the cruller is a symbol of mankind's struggle to evolve. Often topped with sugar or icing, crullers represent the twisted yet delicious journey that life as an upright mammal can be. We have to pay taxes, we have to stand in line at the DMV, sometimes we even have to watch American Idol. But at the end of the day, nothing says "good job existing" like a delicious cruller in hand. Let's join hands and thank the games in this week's Weekend Download for being just as delicious.

We've got spirit, yes we do! We've got spirit, how about you?! Oh, plus we've got a new Link Dump, which in many ways is better than that sports-related spirit stuff. Can you sprinkle spirit on your breakfast bagel? I think not. Link Dump Friday, on the other hand...

After receiving over 60 entries to the voice-over competition for Exmortis 3, and after much deliberation over the short list of 10 that was subsequently made, Ben has finally come to a decision on who the lucky person will be...

If you're seeing this, then the DNS has propagated in your area and you are now reaching the new JIG server. We're running upgraded versions of several Web server applications, and so besides being a bit faster, there may also be a few hiccups along the way until we get things optimized. For example, some of the most recent comments posted since the switch over might have been lost if they were posted to the old server. Our apologies for any inconvenience.

Look ma, a new feature on Casual Gameplay! Gather the children, call the neighbors, wave to the government satellites spying on your home. It's time to settle down for a few downloadable games. Each weekend we'll show off a few of the latest must-try games from the internets, only the best of the best (of the best).

It's Saturday and that means another JIG Poker Night event coming your way! We'll be setting up the poker tables in our own Triplejack poker lounge, as we do every week, and the tournaments will get underway this evening beginning at 6PM EST (GMT-5). Be sure to join us for some fun and good times, and you just might win yourself a prize or two. And do we ever have some nice prizes to give away this week!

Just a quick update to announce that we have rolled out a new feature that will help with loading game review pages that contain hundreds of comments. We now present each page with the 100 most recent comments only. If you prefer to view older comments, just click the "Older" link located at the top or bottom of the comment listing.

It's another Link Dump Friday! Give these tasty morsels a try and tell us which of these games deserves a JIG review, and why didn't Susie tie her shoe? Feel free to answer these questions in the comments below!

It's here! Finally the next chapter in the captivating virtual island village sim is available to download. The follow-up to the monumentally successful Virtual Villagers game keeps the same formula as the original but adds all new puzzles, events, collectibles and more. Download it today and then join our active community sharing hints and tips for getting the most out of every puzzle.

Whether you're so ensconced in a relationship that your friends refer to you by a portmanteau nickname like "Bennifer" or clocking up so many years of singledom that you have to check to see whether there's anything in your pants, anywhere you surf on the net today is going to have hearts, lollies, cherubs and teddy bears all over it. We here at JIG are more than happy to add to your misery with a roundup of romance, dating and candy-related games.