These games are always difficult to get into, you need several iterations before you can grasp the main mechanism and you generally need several weeks before you can take notice of some of the more subtle details.
I for one love boardgames and everything associated with them but they require patience.

I'm thinking the judging will be by poll once again.

Can there be multiple judging categories / multiple polls?  I think it'd be fun to have something for funniest entry, best name, etc, as well as overall best.

That sounds like a fun idea

I can't believe neither you nor indiegames have linked to Armageddon Empires yet.  It's honestly one of the best strategy games I've played in years.

http://www.crypticcomet.com/

Oh Yes, I was thinking about that the other day, wasn't sure if it was okay to submit since it's not freeware. I wouldn't say best strategy game ever but a very interesting one that uses the concept of "collectible" card games (of course you don't have to collect), great for the original mechanism and the post apocalyptic setting.

Will Zool be included in it? :D

well the concept showed promises.

well from the point of view of the shark, shark eating people=good

Oh yes, this looks awesome, please finish it

Thanks for the tips This is mostly what I am doing already but I still need a lot of training before I can do something in 20-30 minutes.
BTW can you tell us about the gameplay? the screenshots look intriguing, is it like a card game ?

Indiegamer was a great ressource and very interesting for the business side, but recently things started becoming stupid, they ended up being populated mostly by portal drones and the portal/casual propaganda became the official line of thought, and the same group of casual creators (with good quality games I reckon)  giving each other pats on the back and endless autocongratulations everytime they released their zuma or MCF clone, and then they started giving each other badges to distinguish those whose words were more important than others (the cloners and those with connections for the most part), and then there was the appearance of a handful of divas, generally good devellopers or people with interesting conversation who, for some unknown reason, started develloping either a giant ego or some sort of bitterness over the current state of affairs and starting polluting most threads with their obsessive rants...

Indiegamer is still a very interesting place and worth lurking if yoou intend to enter the business, but the community isn't very interesting anymore.
 

That looks very interesting

What do you do with an agressive selfish artist who you know in real life and who doesn't satisfy your pixel needs?

This is your kobayashi maru.

Quick update, with the final workload weekend in sight, just need to add levels and a  maybe a few more characters. I finally reverted back to my original speed painting style for the graphics (see the first pic on page 1!), because the retro style would've been better with true pixel art I did not have time to do, and I was'nt satisfied with the overall feel when I tried it last sunday. I might even rethink my blood particles for some scratchy bloodspurts- speed painting is really...well speedy...

Wow, and how long does that speed painting take you for one pic?
Your art inspired me and I tried doing a character for my game with a similar painted style  but it took me wayy too long, and of course with much less class.

BTW I kind of liked the mix between retro style characters and speed-painted backgrounds.

I like to use the term "perfect" for little games that have limited ambitions but which deliver perfectly what they're supposed to.
It's to describe the level of completeness and self-sustainability

Oh man, how I would like to live the life of the enraged rocket house

Actually why not just use steam?
I'm sure they'd consider hosting you if your game is good enough quality (although I heard there were so many candidates it was difficult getting a response from them).
They have a great hardcore community and, from reading forum threads, this community seems to have responded favorably to games like peggles and other 2D games so far.

[Profundo rosso]

Yes, El Topo rocks. It's one of my 2 favorite movies.
Haven't seen Holy Mountain yet. Santa Sangre was rather boring.
My other favorite movie is Suspiria, the horror master piece by Dario Argento.
Might be the most beautifully shot movie ever.

If you like giallos you should also check Profundo rosso from Argento too, actually my favorite from this director, great ambiance and awesome cinematography (movies of the 70s have the best cinematography, if it was filmed today it would have been ruined with cheap effects and CGI)

very nice little game, I really like the way it is scaled and the reward system.
I wouldn't hesitate to say of this game that it is "perfect".
I'm still at 93% but getting closer, the coins are the most difficult though.

moon

Yeah holy mountain is less coherent and more difficult to watch than el topo which has an immediate aesthetic quality and an easier story.
When I saw el Topo, the story reminded me of hokuto no ken somehow.

Well there was a free version of version 5 available on the internets a couple of years ago, but I don't know if it's still available (I doubt it but it might be worth searching).
As for my version, I had to register a serial number online with my real name, so it wouldn't be a very god idea to distribute it