Protests rage amongst disenfranchised invaders in Los Angeles community Culver City, home of yearly games festival Indiecade, which, as a reminder, begins its latest iteration tomorrow and runs through the weekend, and — not coincidentally — originally commissioned the pieces from sculptor Jason Torchinsky in 2011. [THE CENTER FOR LAND USE INTERPRETATION, via nullscapes]

In a late-night quiet push, Sony has just set its stateside PlayStation Mobile store live, giving Vita owners (as well as compatible mobile devices) a new catalog with a handful of games and music apps, most notably Vlambeer’s Super Crate Box, by far now the most essential version of the game (thumbs up for both mobility & real buttons).

To find the game, click the new third option on the Vita PSN Store’s top bar (next to ‘Game’ & ‘Video’), where you can also find games from PomPom, FuturLab, and Tikipod.

This seems as good a place as any to note that the new Super Crate Box Special album by Spelunky composer Phlogiston, which I previewed yesterday, is now also fortuitously available via bandcamp, which you can stream via the player above to get you in the mood.

Swedish designer & developer Adam Henriksson — last seen providing video documentation of the debut of Mega-GIRP — has just uploaded a beautifully shot longer look at the 48-hour game he helped create at the 2012 Nordic Game Jam with Thomas Perl, Johann Sebastian Joust creator Doug Wilson, and Proteus musician David Kanaga.

Originally known as Awkward Tarzan Grinding Game, before I had the dubious distinction of suggesting it should be renamed Edgar Rice Frotteur (to put it in line with Joust, obviously), the game was played — as so many of Wilson’s creations are — with the help of a slew of PlayStation Move controllers, all precariously hung with long rope from the ceiling.

The rules stipulated that all players must be hanging on to two like-colored “vines” at any given moment, and the object was to corner other players into tangled positions where it was impossible for them to do just that. Any player holding the button of just one of their colored “vine” had their health quickly drained until they managed to grab another, and any player not holding any vine at all was disqualified.

So far as I know, the game hasn’t been installed at any location since, though Wilson’s expressed interest in waterproofing the controllers and making it a swimming pool installation: any interested parties should probably contact him toot sweet to make that happen (& invite Adam and his camera along). [via Adam Henriksson]

Supermono Studios — the studio behind the Rexbox-illustrated task-manager iPhone app Epic Win & PSP/mobile dogfighter Minisquadron — have very quietly teased the first details of their latest game, Rescue Rush, an arcade maze game that uses real-world GPS data to generate levels based on your current location.

At least, that’s as best as I can tell: the game, another experiment in free-to-play following their super stylized racer Forever Drive, most interestingly appears to have been designed to take map data and transform it with a fresh coat of cutely angular illustration, where most GPS games have traditionally simply overlaid sprites and effects on top of a given device’s standard display. See, for example, the real map of downtown Reykjavík above, compared to the in-game representation at top.

Supermono also appear to be attempting to solve other GPS game problems, chiefly, that humans more or less are stuck in the same geographical location most always, by unlocking portals which allow the player to “jump to different continents… freeing animals that are native to different parts of the Earth” & “visit a number of instantly recognisable international landmarks from the Taj Mahal to the Empire State Building”.

A video & more details are promised soon, for now visit their forum thread to see more mockup screenshots. [via Supermono]

Babycastles affiliate Colin ‘scallopedlion‘ Snyder’s just launched a new Kickstarter campaign to complete ‘What’s in a Game?’, a video mini-series investigating “the complex evolution of videogames over time” that’s already proving to be worth a deeper look.

The series, originally meant to be a companion to another publication that subsequently fell through, will consist of 11 episodes looking at aspects of game culture including why we play, games as social activity, competition and women in games, and narratives & rituals of players, and will include appearances by a number of familiar faces including Double Fine’s Tim Schafer & Johann Sebastian Joust creator Doug Wilson, both of whom you can see in the trailer above.

Of particular note are a few of the limited rewards which are being snapped up quite quickly: the iPad version of Matt Parker’s body-posing party game Recurse, and the still-unreleased Miracle Adventures in 2113, the faux-Famicom-sequel shooting game above, from Noah Sasso, creator of competitive sports-brawler BaraBariBall.

All backers will also receive early beta access to Gameifesto, an indie-focused match-making site meant to better enable artists, coders & musicians to find and collaborate with each other on new games.

Find more info on the series & see Snyder’s full presentation via its Kickstarter page.

Broadening its scope to offer third-party utilities, Steam has just added its first wave of releases to the new ‘software’ section of the site, most notably including the latest version of YoYo Games’ GameMaker suite that allows developers to add their work to a special Steam Workshop section specifically highlighting GameMaker-made games.

Interestingly, the Steam release of GameMaker also comes with its own list of achievements earned by creating games with the package, including the compiler error medals pictured above, which seems to be a dubious honor indeed.

More information on the output capabilities of the various available GameMaker packages can be found at its new Steam page, or via the official GameMaker website.

If you’re one of the few remaining that still hasn’t made it out to one of the self-funded nationwide-tour screenings or otherwise picked up the film in its multitude of formats, Blinkworks’ Fez, Super Meat Boy & Braid-focused documentary ‘Indie Game: The Movie‘ has just been added to the instant-streaming section of Netflix & is viewable on any one of your compatible devices.

If you find yourself digging the film or aren’t Netflixable, it’s still available as a direct download from Blinkworks’ site, as an interactive app on Steam, or for purchase or rent on iTunes, and Jim Guthrie’s fantastic soundtrack (streaming above) is still available as a download or vinyl LP, optionally packaged with a Cory Schmitz-designed T-shirt, via Guthrie’s bandcamp.

The movie’s still on international tour, as well — check Blinkworks’ screenings section to see if it’s on its way near you.

Speaking of Ted Martens, the Hexels creator has just announced that he’s partnering with Gun Godz & Super Crate Box artist Paul Veer, and illustrators Corey Lewis & Ashley Davis (see especially her ongoing No Marios site) to create the SEGAZINE, an art zine dedicated to the “games, characters and consoles” of the company.

The group have opened submissions to any interested artists, and are accepting “drawings, 3D renders, photos, written stories, comics & poetry” through November 1st, at which point they’ll curate the best for inclusion in the printed zine and feature the rest on the zine’s tumblr, where you can find more information about the submission process.

Following her similar Shadow of the Colossus piece, Berlin-based designer Natalie ‘coffeemakescreative‘ Hanke pays tribute to Terry Cavanagh’s Super Hexagon with this illustration created in Hexels, a new pixel-plus type art tool soon to be released by Ken Kopecky & Ted Martens. Best viewed in super massive full-res to truly appreciate its RGB CRT-ish subtlety.

The Polytron Portable Pro gets its first hardware upgrade since its original inception, following Fez designer Phil Fish’s discovery of Teenage Engineering’s super sexy OP-1 synthesizer (with one more bonus concept model below the fold).

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