One of IGF 2012’s most visually inventive games, Derrick the Deathfin has just officially been given an October 9th release date for its PlayStation Network debut, which will also mark the debut London-based indies Different Tuna.

The group is a collaboration between Different Cloth, the studio responsible for lilt-line — the tilt-rhythm iPhone game that did dubstep way ahead of that genre’s infiltration of games-at-large (later brought to WiiWare by Bit.Trip creators Gaijin), and Cletus Clay creators Tuna, who most recently had a hand at bringing Omni System’s gorgeously serene RTS Eufloria to iPhone and iPad.

The studio also enlisted the help of London artist Ronzo to create the world of Deathfin, the underwater platformer created entirely of papercraft sea-life, which you can see much more of via Different Tuna’s site, or create yourself with printable instructions at Sony’s PlayStation Blog.

Honestly quite old, but dug up again as Spelunky creator Derek Yu adds paintings of that game to his DeviantArt account, the illustration above is a tribute to a legendary anonymous Dwarf Fortress recounting called The Hamlet of Tyranny.

Yu summarizes the encounter thus: “Daneken, the captain of the guard, makes his final stand against the fire demon Ashmalice. He wields the sword called Endless Death of Tears and prepares to plunge it into the demon’s heart, avenging his fallen comrades.”

I bring it up again not just because it’s completely stunning, but because every time I think about the still basically impenetrable Dwarf Fortress, I remember the tweet above, which I still firmly believe with all my guts, and which — now that Spelunky‘s been released — I want to give all my money to support a Kickstarter for.

In addition to a slew of goods related to their own game, Bastion creators Supergiant are offering this commemorative print of the Humble Indie Bundle V, aka That One You Definitely Got because it included Bastion, Limbo, Amnesia, Psychonauts and Sworcery, featuring the characters of all of the above assembled together by illustrator and Supergiant art director Jen Zee.

Supergiant are still offering the same illustration in a free set of PC wallpapers, as well, should your desktop need some similar sprucing. [via Capy]

There is probably no better start to the day than to hear that publisher D3 has heard our cries, and just confirmed that Earth Defense Force 3 — the PlayStation Vita enhanced-remake of the Xbox 360 game Earth Defense Force 2017 — will be making its way to North America as EDF 2017 Portable.

The announcement was made via the company’s EDF-related Facebook page, and also via the truncated ‘@EarthDefenseFce‘ twitter account that I had no idea existed until just now. For more on why this should get you excited, check back to this write up from just before Tokyo Game Show.

Another quick & masterful Shadow of the Colossus sketch from Rachel Morris, who, in addition to everything else, is one of the key character designers behind Thunderbeam, the upcoming iPad adventure game from Austin indie upstart Karakasa Games.

A sketchy portrait of Shadow of the Colossus‘s Wander & Agro from Rachel Morris, the New York based artist behind the NYU Game Center lecture series posters, each of which is more or less a masterpiece, and most of which you can buy as prints via her Society6 shop.

Morris is also currently working with the previously mentioned Kevin Cancienne on some manner of low-poly 3D game which you can get a tiny peek at here.

Already a good year into production (playing through its initial demo was one of the highlight of last year’s IGF), Darwinia and Defcon creators Introversion have just opened a pre-order campaign giving the public immediate access to the alpha version of their latest game, Prison Architect.

Described as a mix between Theme Hospital, Dungeon Keeper & Dwarf Fortress, Prison Architect (as you will have guessed from its name) is a sim/sandbox that gives you total control over building and maintaining a maximum security prison, with a set of story-mode challenge levels to guide you through the world of daily lock-up routine.

Interestingly, the devs have structured the pre-ordering system quasi-Kickstarter/crowd-sourcing style, giving higher donations the ability to have their own names & caricatures used as in-game prisoners, up to and including being one of the games five wardens for top price. And, awesomely, they’ve highlighted as a bonus that you’ll get to experience the thrill of all the early-alpha game-breaking bugs, including the naked shower-room dining you can see in the video at top.

Visit the Prison Architect site to get in on the PC/Mac/Linux builds now, and browse all other available bonus levels before they sell out. [via Introversion]

One last event recommendation for the day: New Yorkers will get the chance to see Bennett Foddy — creator of QWOP, CLOP, GIRP, PoleRiders, bioethics professor & real actual ex-member of Cut Copy — speak this Friday, September 28th, at the NYU Game Center as part of their regular lecture series.

Foddy will be speaking on “high-level creative procedures for ideation, his iterative design process, and rules of thumb for solid creative process”, says the center, and will have a selection of his games available for public play following the talk, which will begin at 7PM. You can RSVP for the event here, and you definitely actually should, because Foddy’s as super keen a thinker and speaker as he is a game creator.

Not to get too event-heavy with the day, but there are a few more events worth not-missing this weekend, starting with Arse Elektronika, now in its sixth year and coming to San Francisco Thursday, September 27th, through Sunday, September 30th.

The conference, organized by Johannes Grenzfurthner & Günther Friesinger of Austrian art/game team monochrom (more on them back here), along with curator and Kokoromi member Heather Kelley, is centered on the interplay between “sex, technology, games, and culture”, and will include lectures, workshops, and the Prixxx Arse Elektronika 2012 Awards, “an unobjectionable award for sex machines, orgasmotrons and teledildonics”.

Most notably, this year’s conference will see talks and game demonstrations from familiar faces including Heather Kelley — who created the “intuitive and stylish vibrator interface” OhMiBod Remote for iPhone with Kokoromi’s Damien Di Fede & Tiger Style’s Amanda Williams, as well as Molleindustria‘s Paolo Pedercini, Santa Ragione‘s Pietro Righi Riva (whose Awkward Sex Game is pictured at top, and who now has the amazing honor of owning AwkwardSex.com) and a whole boatload more who you can see here.

The full schedule and lineup is available at the Arse Elektronika website.

Unshakably intrigued by the latest sneak peek at Kevin ‘potatojin‘ Cancienne’s P1VP2, a game he’s due to reveal in New York City Thursday evening, at a free Babycastles & The Game Innovation Lab-hosted lecture event where he’ll also discuss “his work, why he thinks it might be time for a 3D revolution in the indie scene, and the benefits of being a mediocre programmer.”

Cancienne — a newly-minted indie formerly of area/code, where he co-designed the super brilliant & essential iOS puzzler Drop7 — has been quiet on what exactly the game will entail, only hinting that its first playtest is “meant mostly to be played over an evening in a party setting.”

Any New York-natives attending the event & willing to bring back first-hand accounts would be eternally appreciated!