Originally conceived as a Ludum Dare game, Pony Island has you trapped within a machine that's trying to bend you to its will. You'll need cleverness, fast hooves, and more than a little ingenuity to break free from this cunning, weird indie game that's full of surprises.

Of all the mysterious things that could suddenly appear in your apartment and be the cause of worry, a potted plant isn't that high up on the list. But that's because you've never seen a plant like this before in this Twine-based text adventure with multiple endings.

After a space anomaly you, Captain Welmu for the Spacefleet, end up on the far side of the galaxy all alone with only your A.I unit to keep you company. On your way to returning home you run into a weak signal for help coming from a planet called Hox. Decided to appease your curiosity you go down to see if you can help, only, of course, to end up getting into your own predicament in this free online demo for a larger planned point-and-click adventure.

Mateusz Skutnik brings the story that began over ten years ago to a close in this tenth installment of his wildly popular point-and-click adventure series. But though the end may be in your grasp, getting there will be anything but easy.

When life starts feeling a little bland perhaps it's time to go and look for some color to put the jazz back into your step, while at the same time letting you SEE where you can step in this clever free indie puzzle platformer.

Have you ever met a bear-person questing for color crystals to stabilize the whole of space and time? No? Then the odds are very good that bear-person is you! This indie puzzle platformer is available in your browser, or as a Pay What You Want (including free) indie download!

City of Immigrants is the fourth in the series of Mission US educational point-and-click adventure game titles focusing on American History, created by Electric Funstuff under the auspices of New York PBS Station Channel 13. The year is 1907. You are Lena Brodsky, a 14-year-old Jewish Immigrant from Russia, making her way in the city of New York in the land of opportunity, America. The exploration and newness of Lena's immigrant experience is a natural fit for a video game framework, and it makes for another wonderful installment of the series.

Time is not on your hand as you are literally in the last few minutes you'll ever have. Being the last surviving scout only you have the vital strategies your side needs. Only you're dying and rather quickly at that. As time passes in this scifi puzzle, the screen becomes more glitchy and jaded making it harder to pass on.

You are assigned to investigate why an AI facility has gone dark in this sci-fi text adventure. After an incident you are separated from your team mate. You are only able to communicate through text as you help her reunite with you. Use the computer to hack the facility as you try to figure out what went wrong.

Finding yourself dead is a real downer. But when a mysterious voice informs you you can receive life once again as long as you do what he says will you think twice about your actions? Find out in this creepy free indie puzzle platformer, also available as a download!

One morning, Spider the Fox woke up to discover that the giant tree in the middle of the floating island in which she and her family live had dropped a seed! A seed that could be used to grow a brand new sky-island! Now Spider's leaving the nest and setting out on a journey to collect the things she'll need to make her very own home in the sky. Run, jump, and plant dozens of vines, explore the world, and help Spider find her way in the wide, whimsical blue yonder!

In this interactive short by Loved creator Alexander Ocias, wander down a misty shoreline, and get an ending that depends on the things you interact with, and how. Short and simple but beautifully atmospheric and thoughtful, it's a neat little piece of art to play any day.

There's a frail and senile old man, they say, who lives alone on the edge of town and pays for his groceries with gold dubloons... the perfect mark for a trio of goons in this short but supremely creepy freeware indie point-and-click adventure based on the original tale by Lovecraft.

Proton Studios serves up a simple but addictive mash-up of shooter and incremental idle game, as you take up your pistol and purchase automated, upgradeable weaponry to shoot your way through stationary red cubes in levels packed with achievements, power-ups and more. Also free for iOS and Android, as well as Steam!

As a curious blind kitten in search of your friend, you must travel across town and use your senses and sound to reveal obstacles and make your way around, in this simple but gorgeous little experimental platformer made in just 72 hours.

Can you imagine what your life would have been like if your Uncle was Doc Brown? All the crazy adventures you would have gone on? Well our protagonist in free indie point-and-click adventure Once Upon A Timeline can as his aunt is working on a time machine. He soon finds out it's not all fun and games, though there is a great deal less worrying about destroying the timeline. He and his Aunt are pretty lax about that.

Also free in HD download for PC and Mac, Mateusz Skutnik takes us on another lovely rustic stroll in this hidden-object game where ten little gnomes are cunningly hidden throughout the calm black-and white streets, with no timer to get in the way.

After losing his Wife to illness the Huntsman's daughter has gone off into the forbidden woods filled with tricksters as well as The Hollow Queen. Now the Huntsman must venture in himself and face the unknown to find what took his daughter in this free indie visual novel.

In this second half of the popular creepy indie point-and-click adventure series, Selina finds herself in a nightmare as she tries to work through what happened to her in the previous game. Can she overcome her fear and anger so she can release herself from this terrible dream?

Selina has taken the plunge. She's moved from her home and into a unknown city to further her art degree by studying under the famous Albert S. Seligmann. The only problem is Professor Seligmann is a pretentious jerk and Selina must give it her all to prove she is worthy of his teachings. Help Selina find the knowledge and education to better her artwork and attempt to gain Professor Seligmann's approval. But the longer Selina tries to more she begins to doubt the ability of this high and mighty Artmaster in this free indie adventure.

How far down can you make it in this fantasy rogue like dungeon crawler from Slashwear Interactive? Also available as a download and for Android with iOS on the way, pick your familiar and your class and fight your way through different realms to be the true hero.

The kingdom is in peril, and undead armies are rising all across the land! You are Lethal, the king's champion, and you and your band of trusty adventurers must put a stop to the skeleton legions! This browser-based RPG is a miniaturized prelude to the full Lethal RPG: War PC/mobile game, but it's still stuffed to the gills with enemies to fight, pets to collect, bosses to take down, and sidequests to venture on. Venture through the forest, desert, and mountains to take on lizardmen, bandits, evil mushroom-wielding sorcerers, and more!

This multiplayer update of the classic "Mafia/Werewolf" party game has you playing as a cute pilgrim with a specific set of abilities and goals. Each night a new batch of your neighbors are murdered, and each day you've got to find the person responsible and put them on trial. Just be sure to not get bumped off yourself!

Available as a paid browser game, a download, or in your pocket for your mobile device, this meaty, smart text adventure takes you through thirty years of your own life as a fledgling roboticist, where your every decision can drastically change the world around you. Both philosophical and funny when it needs to be, Choice of Robots offers a massive amount of replay value, and a whole lot of food for thought.

Murder is great, I think we can all agree, but what about endless, procedurally generated murder presented in the form of logic puzzles? Explore and interrogate witnesses, keeping your own notes and maps, and figure out who to accuse as well as their weapons and motives in this simple but smart game made in just nine days.

Sharpen thy blade and gird up thy loins for there is a dungeon to be mastered! Strategically plan your way through the floors to reach the top and stop the unspeakable evil that awaits. Though just a demo, this dungeon crawler packs in hours of fun.

A twine interactive fiction game where you play as someone living with depression, developed by Zoe Quinn, Patrick Lindsey and Isaac Schankler, Depression Quest hopes to offer empathy and sympathy for what can be a very painful condition. Some awkward prose is balanced by its ambitiousness in subject matter, and makes a convincing case for how games can help us all understand each other better.

You Were Made For Loneliness, a Twine narrative adventure by the Tsukareta author collective, weaves a tale of memory, the post-apocalypse, regret, murder, and in its own skewed way, love. It's a disjointed presentation, heavy on experimentation, but those who love exploring and piecing together a narrative from many component parts will find it a very intriguing experiation.

Here it is, dear JayIsGames community, fan fiction made by the creator for you. As resoundingly requested, Mateusz Skutnik's remarkably immersive artwork, full of atmosphere and imagination, rendered into an escape-the-room game that's accessible to all. Take your time in the strange-yet-beautifully surreal scene; you may be out before you're ready to go but it's no less enjoyable while it lasts.

Dive through earth and air in The Sun and Moon, a challenging platformer with an original concept and a beautiful, simplistic aesthetic. Fight conflicting gravities to collect all three Shinies and reach the exit in each level!

Featuring randomly-generated levels and a gorgeous, eerie sound design, this game is not for the faint of heart. Travel through each dark dungeon, collecting notes and artifacts by flickering candlelight, with hordes of undead tormentors ready to leap at you from the darkness.

You find yourself all alone in this supremely disturbing horror story... just you, the dust motes, the sunlight... and the knives on the table. Follow the notes to search for clues to find out what's happened, but be warned, you might not want to know.

A Cheyenne Odyssey is the second in the series of Mission US educational point-and-click adventure game titles focusing on American History, created by Electric Funstuff under the auspices of New York PBS Station Channel 13. The year is 1866. You are Little Fox, a twelve-year old member of the Northern Cheyenne tribe. Over the next ten years, your traditional way of life will see many changes. But as the world changes, so does the Cheyenne. And so must you. Another excellent installment of the Mission US series, if hampered by a few too many talking-head conversations.

Lynnea Glasser (formerly Dally) returns to the interactive fiction scene with Coloratura. Play as a displaced alien who only seeks to get away from the blind, apathetic humans and return to their place of bliss. Without the ability to directly manipulate objects, you can 'color' the humans moods to create situations beneficial to your goal. Whether dealing with them violently or more peacefully, you will get back to your resting place. Whatever it takes.

So you've become a fish. You have no idea how it happened, but you've found yourself under the sea with a few extra fins and scales than usually. You are now known as Dudefish, and you have to find out who did this to you and how you can get your legs back in a silly and lovable maritime point-and-click adventure.

Olav and the Lute, a music-based puzzle adventure game by Shelly Alon, and Johann and Daniel Von Appen has you exploring a post-apocalyptic fantasy world, wielding the power of a magical stringed instrument. Gameplay will be familiar to players of LucasArts' Loom, but Olav and the Lute is an engagingly unique ride, despite its short length.

Craving your long forgotten days with your nose in your arithmetic book? Well, crave no further as Harrison Mansolf has created a delightfully weird action adventure game to take you back. Play as a lonely janitor who uses his quick-slinging math skills to get to the bottom of the disastrous happenings of his workplace building. It'll help you love math all over again!

Prepare to enter a zen-like trance as you play LYNE. In this minimalist puzzle game, you must connect all similar shapes without crossing your path. What starts out simple quickly becomes complex as you bust your brain to solve as many puzzles as you can.

If two apples and five pears cost 37 cents and five apples and three pears cost 45 cents, how come math problems are so boring? A Game of Numbers is a puzzle game that challenges the stereotype of boring math problems, by giving you a maze of numbers and operations to solve. Even if you're not a numbers buff, there's still a lot of fun to be had finding the right path to the exit, while keeping your numbers in check.

You wake up on a desert island with no recollection of what happened, nothing but a few shoddy tools to your name, and you're thinking what we'd probably all be thinking in a situation like that: TREASURE! It's going to take a whole lot of fortitude to make it, but with a bit of ingenuity and plenty of raw natural resources just laying around you'll be throwing together everything but coconut radios before you know it.

Treasure of the Abandoned City is an action adventure game from Alec Stamos with artwork by Todd Luke. It continues the Tales of the Renegade Sector episodes with a loot hunt through space, sending you on a quest to find Laserbeard's treasure hidden somewhere on the dusty dry planet of Seltan. Fortunately, you get to punch and shoot a bunch of bad guys along the way!

A girl, a guy, and an after-school get together that could turn into something more. Sounds familiar, right? Wrong! Made in just two days, this short and silly but also surprisingly earnest little visual novel dating sim is weird in all the best possible ways.

Slayin isn't a game, it's a time machine rocketing from an 8-bit past. Pixel Licker's deliciously compulsive mashup of old school action RPG and contemporary endless runner-style progression is so infused with retro spirit that you might forget you're playing it on a device that lacks buttons.

Barbarium, created by Hypnohustler, is a retro action platformer set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. With your sword and lasergun combo (really, the best combo there is) you set off to rescue babes, drink beer and restore a little order to this crazy world.

Broom attack! Also, you might be trapped in a dream. Or some other sort of subconscious realm. It's tough to tell, but judging from the strange sights and the cryptic "as legend has foretold" messages from sages and statues, there's definitely something odd going on here. Anodyne from Sean Hogan and Jonathan Kittaka is an adventure through a melancholy world that plays out like a classic 16-bit RPG. It borrows some of the best micro-concepts from games like The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, Yume Nikki, and even Earthbound, creating a world that's as innocent as it is moving and as dangerous as it is surreal.

Quick, the patient needs a heart transplant, and a doctor! Too bad all they have is you in this hysterical, gory, and very challenging simulation where you control each finger of your hand individually as you attempt to perform life-saving surgery... without dropping a bonesaw into his chest cavity!

So, you were cursed by a witch to be a human magnet, and all for collecting cans. Figure out how to use your newfound powers to save your sister in the action adventure game Cantrip. In this twisted take on the Hansel and Gretel tale, wend your way through the scrapyard, fight off guard dogs and more as you cleverly use your magnet powers to find the witch and get your sister back.

Choose your hero and embark upon a dungeon crawl in Dungelot. In this roguelike you'll face a myriad of monsters as you fight your way deeper into the dungeon. Collect items to increase your stats as you find the key needed to exit each level. How deep can you delve?

Available in action-RPG or classic turn-based flavour, this moody roguelike from Aaron Steed and music maestro Nathan Gallardo is deliberately mysterious. Descend into a dungeon searching for an amulet with your undead minion, figuring everything from the backstory to the deeper gameplay mechanics as you go. Oh, and tearing off the faces of your enemies and wearing them for bonuses and enchantments. Hooray!

Ozzle wants to deceive you. Ozzle is bright and colorful, its fonts look like balloons, two big googley eyes watch you while you play, there's pink everywhere. But it's a puzzle game that will make you think and plan and execute only to realize you made a boneheaded move and could have done things much better. So, you try again, knowing you're smart enough to slide some bubbles around to match a stupid little pattern. All of this happens on the first or second set of puzzles, meaning they're easy. Easy! How on Earth are you going to make it through 60 of these things? By summoning the spirit of the relentless bear (that solves puzzles), that's how!

Super Hexagon, the latest release from VVVVVV creator Terry Cavanagh, is the kind of game that makes you hate games. It will make you feel like an inept player who couldn't play an arcade game even if you were in Russia (where arcade game plays you, we hear). You might even get mad at Terry, who crafted this fast, stylish game seemingly just to show you how often you can fail. But after you lose ten times in as many seconds, you'll suddenly realize that Super Hexagon has you by the collar, has already taken your lunch money, and if you want it back, you're going to have to keep playing. Strangely enough, that's a challenge you'll be thrilled to undertake!

Flight to Freedom is the second in the series of Mission US educational point-and-click adventure game titles focusing on American History, created by Electric Funstuff under the auspices of New York PBS Station Channel 13. The year is 1848. The tenuous balance that had been struck concerning the issue of slavery wavers in the face of a nation expanding by conquest and treaty. Living in these tumultuous times is Lucy, a 14 year old slave of Kentucky's King Plantation. Lucy must balance her wishes for freedom with the risk of recapture, but an incident on the farm will force the issue sooner than she'd ever thought. What can a slave do? An intelligent and thought-provoking game that should appeal to both its student audience, and anyone with a passing interest in history.

The end of the world is nigh, and it wants your brains! In this quirky, darkly humorous mobile edition of the zombie simulation based on the classic game Oregon Trail, saddle up with fellow survivors and strike out across the country with the promise of safety hanging in the distance. Manage your supplies, trade with people you meet along the way, deal with boss battles, and above all else hope Lady Luck decides to smile on you. That is, if you don't want to come down with dysentery while someone else has a broken leg and the others have all been bitten by zombies.

In order to play all of the latest surreal puzzle game from prolific purveyor of awesome, Eyezmaze, you'll need to donate at least a dollar, but you can still play the first portion for free. Discover the strange and strangely adorable secrets of a mysterious black box by clicking on it and trying to figure out what you need to do and when in order to proceed. It's weird, it's cute, and like all of Eyzemaze's games, definitely one of a kind.

Are they conveyor belts? Are they fallen trees? To be completely honest, we can't figure out what those strange laser-emitting bricks in increpare's aptly-named Puzzles are supposed to be. All we know is that they cause trouble if you touch them, but yet that danger might be the key to solving the eight enigmas in this game.

Red Riding Hood was once a normal girl baking sweets, skipping through enchanted forests, wanting to visit her grandma without any ulterior motives. Little did she know that she was about to be thrust into a nightmare when her poor Granny was taken by some rude wolf. Now it's up to you, as Red, to brave 96 levels of puzzles to save Granny and show that wolf it's never good to mess with a girl who can master gravity.

Jasper Byrne ventures into the realm of psychological horror in his surreal and disturbing commercial adventure debut. You are the last man alive, it seems, after a horrific virus sweeps through the world and transforms every other human being into a shambling monstrosity. You don't want to die alone, so you venture out of your apartment each night for supplies and to look for other survivors, but are you prepared for what else you might find when you're forced to confront yourself? When the world around you collapses, how long will you last before you begin to unravel and you can't trust yourself either?

The Kingdom of Fredicus is a place that loves its heroes. Unfortunately, Reemus, exterminator extraordinaire and overshadowed brother to the local dragon slayer, is having trouble convincing that populace that he deserves a little undying adulation. Sure, later in life he'll have Several Journeys to prove his bravery against invading death slugs. Right now, though, it's early in his adventure gaming career, and even after his first minimal-property-damaging bug slaying, he's have trouble getting people listen to the glorifying ballads written by his faithful bear companion, Liam. So a-questing he goes, in search of glory, gratitude, and, most importantly, a soft bed. It's The Ballads of Reemus: When the Bed Bites, the first premium downloadable adventure game in the popular series, produced by the newly minted Click Shake Games! And while the anticipation may have driven us all a little buggy, it was totally worth it.

It's rough getting thrown in the Pit. Mainly because everyone there has the Plague, and nobody ever comes out... at least, not until you. Instead of dying, you, a mild castle librarian, unlock a hidden power within yourself that lets you and your friends battle monsters on another plane... and grants you the chance to save the world. A fantastic and engaging indie game from Level Up Labs that blends strategy, tower defense, fantasy, comedy, and even RPG elements for one wildly addictive game.

The time has come for adventure!... well, a little one, anyway! This simplified roguelike from Ido Yeheili offers three different heroes ready to delve into a dangerous dungeon in search of an evil Minotaur what needs slayin'. While definitely not quite as complex as other titles in the genre, Cardinal Quest offers an ease of use and engaging gameplay that's hard to beat and harder to put down.

A ghost, a wolf, a dark and isolated castle, and possibly even a werewolf? Looks like you've got your hands full in the latest hidden object hybrid from Elephant Games, Grim Tales: The Legacy. A sequel to Grim Tales: The Bride, the story and setting are connected between the two games, only this time around, you're stalking through a castle while a peculiar wolf hunts you from the shadows.

Pity the poor dude who is in charge of Middleshire, one of the areas of the kingdom we first saw in Royal Envoy. First, he's late to the meeting with the king, then all he can report is bad, bad news about the region. The King is not happy about any of this, so he once again appoints someone (as in you, the player) to go and get this poor place redeveloped so that the folks will be happy in Royal Envoy 2, the latest time management amusement from Playrix Entertainment.

Swift Stitch, from Sophie Houlden, author of some fan-favorite browser games like Linear RPG and BOXGAME, is a one button (almost) arcade game that's all about speed, direction, and crashing into walls because you got confused as to which way your ship was going to go when you pressed the "switch" button. Smart decisions and quick reflexes get you through this game, and if the 20 odd levels in the free browser demo get you excited, there's more than twice that content awaiting you in the full version!

Just over two years ago from this day, a relatively unknown indie programmer called Notch posted about a work-in-progress version of a sandbox building game on the TIGSource forums. It was called Minecraft, and at the time, people thought it was really very cool. Fast forward to the present and Minecraft has sold over four million copies, been through extended alpha and beta phases, spawned the Mojang indie studio, and gained so much popularity, the launch of its official version took place at a Las Vegas convention dubbed MineCon. That's an impressive feat for any game, let alone one started by a single person. But now, Minecraft is officially out. No more beta, no more alpha, it's here. Time to lose yourself in a voxel world all over again!

A remarkable sequel to one of the most engaging match-3 games ever, 4 Elements. Once again the elements are out of whack in the Magic Kingdom and it's up to you to make things right before all life ceases to exist. Prepare for tons of elemental delights!

This is one of the best, most elaborate adventure hybrids to come out this year. With the emphasis squarely on the point-and-click adventuring, Sacra Terra: Angelic Night is a mind-blowing throwback to the days of yore in adventure gaming with its engrossing story, stunning visuals, and, most importantly, depth of gameplay. Alawar has created a world which is fascinating to explore and difficult to leave, and the combination of beautiful, otherworldly scenes juxtaposed with the grim, haunting asylum proper makes the entire experience surreal.

Robots, man. They're the worst. Always pulling you out of your workplace and forcing you to battle them in a series of psychedelic levels, blowing you up, killing your cows. It's ridiculous. Luckily, we have Deepak, representing the everyman in the daily struggle against robo-baddies. Deepak Fights Robots, from Run-Man: Race Around the World creator Tom Sennett, is loaded with mind-bending levels, quick arcade action, more colors than a rainbow drowning in a crayon factory.

You like Dino Run SE, right? And Nanotube? Well, imagine a game that's nothing like either of those games but co-created by the makers of each. Imagining that? Now stop and check out Super Space Rubbish, a game that satisfies the wildest fantasies you've had since starting this review, and does so with a fantastic retro style. Super Space Rubbish looks a lot like the classic Asteroids game on the surface, but really it's a mining/upgrading sort of experience where you customize your ship using materials extracted from asteroids smashed with your turret.

Flaws, the interactive work of fiction from author Jon Ingold, is a difficult game to categorize as well as a different game to review. For starters, it isn't really a game in the traditional sense, more like a choose your own adventure produced for modern, Kindle-enabled devices. Then there's the nature of the story, where discussing even a few of the details can spoil whole bits of the experience. Suffice it to say, Flaws is an intriguing interactive fiction "game" about finding treasure and fame, the Andromeda galaxy, a mysterious diadem, and a possible assassination.

The 2010 Interactive Fiction Competition is here! Yes, the competition that brought us such interactive fiction classics as Violet, Lost Pig, Floatpoint, and Slouching Towards Bedlam is back with 26 new games, 23 of which can be played in the comfort of your browser. Voting will end November 15, 2010, so get your votes in now if you want to help choose the next winner!

Play Knight or Princess in this third installment of the Knightfall series. Destroy groups of like colored blocks to help our heroes slay monsters, collect keys, and get safely to the exit. Survive long enough and you may find out what happened to your stolen loot, and what's behind this mysterious "Taxman".

Poker. You're either hopelessly addicted to it, or you can't tell a flush from a straight. The word itself conjures up high-stakes games in Vegas, dusty saloon matches between cowboys, and crummy online games played with real money. Fortunately for us, Youda Games has brought back its casual poker-meets-simulation game in the delightfully accessible Governor of Poker 2. No matter if poker scares you or excites you, this game's got something great in store for you.

Return to the underworld of Avernum one last time in the conclusion to Spiderweb Software's iconic RPG series. When a blight brings famine down upon the people of Avernum during a war, four soldiers are called to become heroes from unlikely beginnings. Create your party and set out into a dark world full of adventure, betrayal, and, most importantly, hidden treasure!

A Stitch in Time is not a traditional sequel, for it doesn't exactly pick up where the original left off. Instead, it starts a new story with a new protagonist that overlaps with the continuation of the previous story. You play Nigel Trelawney, just arrived at the town of Ravenhallow to settle his late, estranged father's estate. You quickly discover that this is no simple matter, as Ravenhallow has been overtaken by a sort of parochial Fascisti that, among other injustices, is making it really bothersome to move freely about town. The demo covers the introduction and first act of the full game, which is quite a bit of adventure game to sample.

Make It Good is a dark, noir-esque detective mystery from Fail-Safe author Jon Ingold. You are cast in the role of a down-on-his-luck detective struggling to solve a murder case or risk losing his job. Moving about a complete, living world, you'll turn over every potted plant, scrutinize every room, and question every character as you attempt to stitch together shards of information to discover just what happened.

Free Realms is one of the most-accessible MMOs ever made, targeted at everyone from young children to adults. It's free to play and features a unique mini-game progression system, aimed at tearing down the usual tediousness of modern MMOs.

Slouching Towards Bedlam is a work of interactive fiction created by Daniel Ravipinto and Star Foster. Set in the Bedlam Hospital insane asylum in a steampunk-style 1885 London, you begin in an office with a brass-laden phonograph playing a demented soliloquy. It's a subtly disturbing game that draws you into a rich, elusive world of intrigue and allows you to react to the story however you see fit, carving out five unique endings based upon your interpretation of the plot.

Fail-Safe is a work of interactive fiction created by Jon Ingold. It could be one of the strangest text-based games you've ever seen (in a simple, subdued kind of way), as Ingold removes all meta-commands from the parser, forbidding you do to things like saving your progress. But there's a good reason for this. Fail-Safe immerses you so deeply in the world that even the conventions of playing a game would snap you out of it. And when you start playing, you'll see why that's a crucial part of the experience.

Help guide Spewer, an adorable pink blob, through a series of diabolical tests put forth by a watchful scientist in this physics-based platformer. It's a journey of adventure, excitement, and child-like wonder. Also, vomit.

Fans of Samantha Swift's previous caper have cause to rejoice. Samantha Swift and the Golden Touch, the newest hidden object adventure in the franchise, offers a compelling combination of well-integrated mini-games and adventure-style item puzzles that do an excellent job of keeping the game feeling fresh throughout.

Violet is a richly engaging one-room puzzle game from the annual Interactive Fiction Competition (2008). The problem? You're a graduate student working on your dissertation, but you haven't gotten any writing done in months. Your girlfriend Violet has put her life on hold, waiting for you to finish, and she's getting fed up. If you don't get a thousand words written today, your relationship is over and she flies home to Australia.

Now it's time to break the rules. A little. This edition of Weekend Download highlights winners of the 2008 Unity Awards, games created using the Unity plug-in that are playable right in your browser window. Technically they're browser games, but since you have to download and install something, they're downloads, too.

An ingenious piece of alternative history interactive fiction created by Adam Cadre. In Varicella, you have the pleasure of abandoning your usual scruples to play one of the most delightfully nasty antiheroes that I've come across: the eponymous Primo Varicella, Palace Minister at the Palazzo del Piemonte, and a tremendous opportunity awaits you. Can you seize the day (and the throne)?

Ah, human drama. The trials and tribulations of star-crossed lovers, the agonizing decisions made on the battlefield, the ...supreme annoyance of having some rotten kid try to steal your favorite toy? And so unfolds the very entertaining yet surprisingly complex scenario of baby vs. baby in this unique one-room themed piece of interactive fiction.

Play Texas Hold 'Em against skillful computer opponents in Governor of Poker. Build your reputation and wealth in a dusty western town by winning at poker and buying up property. You start out in a small Texas town with some money in your pocket and ambition to climb up in the world. As you win at poker, you are able to buy property and increase your reputation. The higher your reputation, the more poker games you get invited to, and so on, until you own the whole town. You can even make headlines in the town's newspaper!