Jamie had posted up a full playthrough video of the Shank demo shown at PAX2009, catering to fans who could not attend the convention and watch a live preview of it on the show floor.

Steve Swink and Scott Anderson demonstrating their upcoming 3D platformer Shadow Physics at the Sense of Wonder Night 2009 event in Tokyo.

[We're delighted to announce that Independent Games Festival sister event IGF Mobile -- which got special attention from Apple last year for its iPhone honorees, plus a lot of buzz -- is back again for 2010. Here's the info for handheld devs who want to enter.]

The Independent Games Festival (IGF) Mobile, the premiere venue that celebrates creativity and innovation on handheld platforms, has opened submissions for its third annual festival.

The overall IGF Mobile winner will be awarded at the IGF Awards Ceremony, which precedes the Game Developers Choice Awards on March 11th, 2010. Both the IGF Awards Ceremony and the Game Developers Choice Awards are part of the 2010 Game Developers Conference, which takes place in San Francisco's Moscone Center in March.

This year's competition -- the sister event to the main Independent Games Festival -- will again feature independently-developed handheld games for all mobile devices including Apple's iPhone, other cellphone and smartphone OSes, Nintendo DS, Sony PSP, and other handheld devices.

IGF Mobile submissions are now being accepted at the competition's official website through December 1, 2009; finalists will be announced in January 2010, and will each receive one pass to attend the 2010 Game Developers Conference.

I've been playing around with Positech Games' Gratuitous Space Battles for a few weeks now. Those in the know will be aware that pre-ordering the space war game will allow you access to the beta which is constantly updated by Cliff Harris (the one-man taskforce behind Positech).

Initially the beta was a tad buggy and I opted to wait until a more stable build was released before sharing my thoughts. I'll keep this brief, as this is just a beta version and could potentially be far from what it is now come release date.

Gratuitous Space Battles runs with a concept rarely utilized. Players are given the plans of a battlefield along with the positions of the enemy fleet. It's your job to place your own ships down at the opposite end of the arena in a formation you believe will be effective in wiping out the opposition. There are three main types of ship - Cruisers (the big beefy guys with huge lazers but slow movement), Fighters (tiny, swift and hard to hit) and Frigates (somewhere in between the prior two).

Hope you guys have your wallets at the ready, because there's a deluge of great indie games to purchase in the next couple of weeks. Machinarium (new cutscene featured above) should be out sometime in mid-October, which is about the same time that Dyson gets released. You can pre-order Machinarium now from the official site to receive a $3 discount off the full price of $20, or wait until it comes out on Impulse, Steam, Direct2Drive and GamersGate before snagging a copy for yourself.

The Direct2Drive 5th Anniversary Sale for indie games starts in less than ten hours as well, and that is one event you definitely don't want to miss out on.

Related:
5 Questions: Jakub Dvorský (indie.retro.cool.games)
Machinarium Artwork and Sketches (Pixels at an Exhibition)
PAX '09: Machinarium Is Really Good (insert credit)
20% Off Select Indie Games at Impulse (LewieP, SavyGamer)

In our latest employment-tastic round-up, we highlight some of the notable jobs posted in big sister site Gamasutra's industry-leading game jobs section this week, including positions from THQ, Neversoft and more.

Each position posted by employers will appear on the main Gamasutra job board, and appear in the site's daily and weekly newsletters, reaching our readers directly.

It will also be cross-posted for free across its network of submarket sites, which includes content sites focused on online worlds, cellphone games, 'serious games', independent games and more.

Some of the notable jobs posted this week include:

Playdom: QA Automation Lead
"Do you possess exceptional knowledge and passion for games in all genres. Are you frequently recognized for exceptional delivery on short production schedules, creativity, innovation, project management, and brilliant documentation? Are you anything BUT ordinary? If this sounds like we are describing you, we just may be able to make some of your dreams come true. Keep reading and let us know…"

Neversoft: Audio Programmer
"Neversoft Entertainment is looking for an Audio Programmer whose focus will be the research, development and maintenance of cross-platform audio systems and tools for the next generation of games consoles. This is an ideal opportunity for someone with a solid audio software background and a strong desire to apply this knowledge to the games industry."

Dave Gilbert (creator of the Blackwell series) is giving away free digital copies of Wadjet Eye Games' first commercial release, The Shivah, just for this weekend only. The game received plenty of press when it was first released back in 2006, and still remains one of the must-play AGS games in the past decade or so.

This release features full voice acting, original soundtrack compositions, and three different endings to discover. To get the game for free, just head on over to the purchase page, click on the "Buy This Game" button, enter "FreeShivah" for the Coupon Code field and press recalculate (you can't get it for free on CD, digital download only). Fill up some information about yourself and include a working email address so that the download link for the full game can be sent to your inbox. Once you're done with that, select "Secure Online Credit Card" for the Method of payment, click on the Next button, and check your mail for the link to the full version of The Shivah.

If you did not receive any mail from Plimus, you might want to have a look inside your spam folder instead - the email should arrive seconds after you've submitted your order and personal information on the purchase page.

I've just spent the last few hours playing Bad Rats: The Rats' Revenge, a physics-puzzler from INVENT4 Entertainment released in the summer. While initially a little put off by the general look and feel on offer, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Bad Rats turns out to be pretty good fun.

It's like a really silly and needlessly graphic version of The Incredible Machine games. On each level there is a ball, a cat, and some kind of weapon which will inevitably bring about the feline's demise. Placing a combination of objects and rats with different abilities, the task is to bounce the ball against the bringer-of-said-cat's-fate. All objects and rats are placed in 'Pause Mode', and the action pans out in 'Play Mode'.

Graphically it's not exactly a looker, but if you can see past the ugliness there's plenty of sandbox fun to be had. Each level can be completed numerous different ways, from the simple to the ridiculously complex, and the cat will explode in various satisfying ways when you succeed.

The game is available via Steam for $5 and there's also a demo to take for a spin.

The ten finalists for next week's Indiecade in Culver City, California have been revealed. The chosen ones are as follows:

Closure, Tyler Glaiel & Jon Schubbe
The Maw, Twisted Pixel Games
Minor Battle, Andre Clark
Modal Kombat, David Hindman
Ruben & Lullaby, Erik Loyer
Shadow Physics, Steve Swink & Scott Anderson
Sowlar, Odd Man In
The Deep Sleep Initiative, ARx
You Get Me, Blast Theory
Zeno Clash, ACE Team Software

Details on the event have been rather scarce, but Brandon Boyer has been doing a fantastic job of covering everything you need to know about Indiecade over at Offworld. His three-parter is definitely worth checking out.

The full list of all 30 Indiecade finalists is below the cut (as provided by Edmund McMillen).

Gridrunner Revolution is the new one, Gridrunner ++ is an earlier game by Jeff Minter, indie game developer since 1978. Having not played the ++ one, I tried out the demos of both. They're both worth a try.

Perhaps due to all the complaints against Space Giraffe, Minter tried to make this new game easier to just pick up and learn to play, while still maintaining the little important intricacies which make him such a good game designer. I think he succeeded pretty well. But see for yourself; the video explains it better than I could in words.