Parenting is a tough racket--or so I've heard--filled with trials and tribulations; joy and sorrow. Though I've yet to father any rug-rats of my own, indie developer Kyle Pulver (operating under his new studio banner, KPULV) has created a game with which I've been able to practice my parenting skills, just so I'm prepared for the aftermath of procreation. Offspring Fling is its name, and it's taught me that protecting one's children is a parent's most important duty, even if that means regularly chucking the little tykes hither and thither.

Read more: Baby-chucking goodness »

Just when I thought the last nugget of creativity had been squeezed out of the tower defense genre, a developer like 3 Sprockets comes along to prove me wrong. The developer released Cubemen a few weeks ago, which is a tower-defense game that eschews your standard immobile turrets for perfectly ambulatory men made of cubes. Aside from the ever-changing real-time-strategy dynamic this adds to the tested formula, the inclusion of head-to-head competitive gameplay modes make for some action-packed battles against other humans or computer AI.

Read more: Cubic warfare »

A game doesn't need to feature a tapestry of complex choices and moral dilemmas or a suite of intricate mechanics to be fun. One of the many examples of this notion is the retro-inspired Zytron II by indie developer Trinosis. It's a scrolling shoot-'em-up inspired by classics like R-Type and Armalyte, with a giant helping of Geometry Wars thrown in for good measure.

Read more: Vast stretches of deadly neon »

Once in a great while, something comes along with gameplay that's so utterly elegant and accessible, it's particularly gob-smacking that it hadn't been tried before. Waveform, an upcoming action title from Eden Industries is just such a game.

The unique concept of Waveform is a simple one. In side-scrolling fashion, an orb traverses a beam of light through space. Rather than controlling the orb directly, the player manages the light-wave pathway that dictates the orb's course. Merely by clicking the left mouse button and moving the mouse up and down, or left and right, the player is able to control the amplitude and wavelength of the beam, respectively.

Read more: Luminous journeys through space »

It's been quite a while since I encountered a game that evokes as many contradictory feelings as did New Life Interactive's recently-released shooter based on cellular automata. Cell HD: emergence puts players in the role of a microscopic bit of nanotechnology that's been injected into a young girl wracked by a mysterious illness. Both the tools at the player's disposal and the game's variety of different "enemies" are rolled out in deliberate fashion until everything's in play; however, despite this progressive "learn-as-you-go" approach to how things unfolds, Cell HD: emergence's intentional vagueness walks a very thin line between welcome gameplay conundrums and outright frustration.

Read more: Waging war in a world of cellular automata »

Dear Esther is a curious and compelling experiment in interactive art. Its humble first iteration began as a fan-made mod for Half-Life 2, but indie developers Dan Pinchbeck and Robert Briscoe later obtained a Source engine license from Valve, permitting them to remake the game and publish it as a standalone title. That new version of Dear Esther hit Steam last week on Valentine's Day, featuring an expanded story, and some spectacular presentation.

Read more: Poetic wandering »

I've got a soft-spot for puzzle-platformers, especially when they dare to bring new gameplay mechanics to the table. Ever since I first got a glimpse of indie developer Strange Loop Games' upcoming title called Vessel, I've been pretty excited by its Steampunk aesthetics. Underneath that excitement was a cautious optimism about how successful the developer would be in designing puzzles around the game's extremely-cool liquid-physics systems.

Read more: Going with the flow »

I'll admit to being confused and curious when I first heard about Beatbuddy a few months ago. Developed by German indie developer Threaks, the game is being billed as an music-driven action adventure, and has recently been highlighted as an honorable mention at this year's IGF. I recently reached out to Threaks, who graciously furnished me with the pre-alpha IGF build so I could see what Beatbuddy is really all about.

Read more: A unique way to interact with music »

A few months ago, when I first heard about indie developer Carbon Games' upcoming action-RTS title, AirMech, I was immediately instilled with cautious optimism. One reason for my excitement is that several members of Carbon's team worked at Titan Studios on the downloadable PSN title, Fat Princess, but most of my enthusiasm stemmed from the new, yet familiar, type of gameplay experience that AirMech is aiming to provide. I recently had a chance to spend some time playing the latest alpha build of AirMech, and though it's still very much being actively developed, I'm pleased to report that it's already wicked fun.

Read more: Reinventing the RTS »

Engaging first-person puzzle games are still a fairly rare breed of game. When they're well made, they teach players how to use a blend of both new and familiar gameplay conceits, often teaching us a new types of puzzle logic. Q.U.B.E., a new title by indie developer Toxic Games, falls right into that wheelhouse, using a combination of crisp, clean visuals and some fun (and at times, dastardly) gameplay mechanics.

Read more: Cubic conundrums

Effectively conveying horror through the medium of video games is a pretty tricky task. Most games rely much too heavily on cat-scares, or copious amounts of blood and gore; tactics which are akin to building a cake entirely out of frosting. Games like Home by Benjamin Rivers, on the other hand, take a much more psychologically-driven approach where dramatic tension, disturbing mysteries, and the player's own imagination are leveraged to create atmosphere more so than typically cheap scares.

Read more: Home alone »

Though the core pillars of the tower defense genre have been around since the early '80s, the genre finally came into its own around 2007, beginning with indie Flash titles like Desktop Tower Defense and Flash Element Tower Defense, and eventually spawning some great titles such as PopCap's Plants vs. Zombies.

Indie developer Dan Walters of MCRO Games recently released his take on tower defense called Terrorhedron, an incredibly well-crafted experience that infuses innovative elements like programmable turrets and online co-op, all in fully 3D environments.

Read more: Tiny, multi-colored evil »

Indie developer Tyrone Henrie of pixelMEGA Games has been hard at work developing his debut title Catapult for Hire for some time now. Recently, he was kind enough to share a PC preview build of the game with me, and I'm happy to report that the game is coming along quite well. Aside from it's numerous, clever implementations of the art of catapultry, Catapult for Hire is a game that hearkens back to the vibrant art and childlike discovery reminiscent of the 64-bit era.

Read more: A smorgasbord of ordinance »

Prolific indie game designer Stephen Lavelle recently released his first commercial title in PC, Mac, iPhone, and iPad flavors--and it's pretty darned brilliant. Called English Country Tune and developed under Lavelle's Increpare Games banner, it's an abstract 3D puzzle game that begins by tasking the player to figure out how to nudge spherical "larvae" into transparent cubes. But that's just the beginning.

Watch: The puzzling trailer »

I'm sure everyone is busy with their favorite AAA fall game release(s) at the moment, but if you can carve out a quick respite from your epic questing or ho-slaying activities, there's a particular indie game called Nitronic Rush that I recommend downloading immediately. Developer Team Nitronic (of the DigiPen Institute of Technology), has crafted what it calls a "survival driving" from the ground up. It's gorgeous, fast, features some very fun innovations, and is very hard to put down.

Read more: One helluva Rush »