Indie Jeff's Weekly Picks: August 1-5

This week in indie gaming brought with it another round of insightful interviews, including chats with Nathan Fouts (Mommy's Best Games) and Alex Holowka (Infinite Ammo) about their upcoming games--Serious Sam Double D and Marian, respectively. To put it another way, fans of Explosionade and Aquaria can get an interesting peek into how the talented developers each work their magic. Interabang Entertainment rounds things out with some words about developing Super Comboman at the first Indie Open House.

If you're looking for some indie-retro-chic to horse around with this weekend--and like free stuff--I'd recommend checking out the 2D deathmatch title, Gibbage. Gibbage was the first title created by Size Five Games ("Ben There, Dan That!" and "Time Gentlemen, Please!"), and is free to download from the developer's website this weekend. Yep, they're the same guys that used to call themselves Zombie Cow Studios.

Without further ado, here are a few of the best indie stories of the week:
• Interview with Mommy's Best Games' (Explosionade) president Nathan Fouts on the making of Serious Sam Double D for XBLA and PC

• Alex Holowka of Infinite Ammo (Aquaria) talks about pulling the strings of development for his next game, called Marian

• Interabang's Justin Woodward and Evan Washington discuss developing the upcoming Super Comboman, fundraising, and participating in the IGN-sponsored Indie Open House residency program

My favorite bit of media this week is a trailer for an upcoming mobile game by Halfbrick Studios (Fruit Ninja Kinect), named, quite awesomely: "Machine Gun Jetpack." The entire game--which stars Halfbrick's recurring hero, Barry Steakfries--can be played with one finger. The fun part is how Halfbrick's going to make players use that single digit in a variety of ways.