This past week, the winners of Microsoft's Dream.Build.Play competition were announced, with the $40,000 grand prize going to a puzzle-platformer called Blocks That Matter by Guillaume Martin. Inspired by Tetris and Minecraft, Blocks That Matter is about a robot called Tetrobot, created by "fictional" inventors "Alexey and Markus"--get it? After the developers are kidnapped, it's up to the intrepid robot to save its masters. Navigating the game's puzzling levels requires the use of Tetrobot's special ability to absorb blocks made of different materials and use them to produce tetragrams.

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This week, I'd like to call your attention to an exceptionally cool, free mod for Half-Life 2 called The Stanley Parable (see top image), developed by Davey Wreden. You may have already even seen a Shacker or two recommend the game in Chatty, or seen some buzz about it elsewhere on the Internet. If not, consider this your call to action. It's a relatively short adventure that will likely take you less than an hour to fully experience. If you really want get the most out of the experience, expect to play The Stanley Parable multiple times.

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