Italian indie team Mixed Bag's forma.8 looks to be an exciting exploration adventure with a style and feel of Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet mixed with PixelJunk Shooter. As described on the game's SlideDB profile, the story involves a "little exploration probe on a foreign planet, with a life or dead mission to accomplish."

The developers promise "an innovative control system implemented with touch screen in mind" for "iPad, iPhone and other mobile platforms." The old school action adventure forma.8 is tentatively scheduled for 2013.

Yes, time for another ludum dare 25 game; can't help it if this jam's theme of villainy was such a success and devs seemed to really enjoy it and manage to come up with hundreds of mostly great games. Pineapple Dreams is, quite obviously, one of the most interesting and enjoyable ones I've come across, while simultaneously being a rather refreshing take on the arena shmup sub-genre in that it doesn't really involve any shooting whatsoever. Does sport quite a bit of baseball bat swinging though. some successfully stylized graphics and quite a bit of jumping.

Josif Stalin and Karel Marx are a gay couple that somehow have a baby and need to protect it in Sos Sosowski's Christmas Shotgun Defense.

Players purchase stronger weapons to eradicate invading animals, tanks, and more. Even social workers seem hell-bent on taking away the baby from this gay power couple. Unnatural offspring aside, Christmas Shotgun Defense beckons your attention and tower defense skills.

[source: Indie Statik]

Mac and Windows users can finally enjoy Nifflas' latest exploration platformer, Knytt Underground, with a free demo and full game purchase for $14.99. PlayStation users gained access last week, but now the game is available to a much wider audience.

The story goes that "Mi Sprocket is a sprite who develops special powers as she embarks upon a quest to ring the six bells of fate; which if not rung every six hundred years will begin a chain reaction that will obliterate the world!"

Dig-Dug Dungeon sports one of those incredibly descriptive names that somehow manages to not also sound incredibly dull. Anyway, what I believe you'd rather know is that Dig-Dug Dungeon is a most interesting take on the Dungeon Keeper formula featuring the aesthetics of Dig-Dug and some brilliantly elegant controls and mechanics, that was created for the latest ludum dare. Just, please, do keep in mind that the game essentially only supports Chrome and Opera.

Well, the wait is more or less over and the playable beta of A Valley Without Wind 2 can finally be, err, played. On Steam no less and, should you hurry and grab it before January 5, for a mighty 60% off discount that will earn you access to the ongoing beta, a copy of AVWW2 on release and, kindly, the original AVWW. As for the game itself, it seems to be doing what any sequel that respects itself should do by keeping and polishing up the best bits of the original, revamping the graphics and, most importantly, adding a turn-based strategic level on top of the metroidvania arcade adventuring.

A Valley Without Wind 2 should run happily on most Windows and Mac PCs and is expected to launch its final version sometime next February.

Pfft. Tired of all the holiday cheer? Refuse to make merry any longer? Try this. Killer Escape is a point & click, browser-based title that will have you endeavoring to escape from the clutches of a crazy serial killer. It's dark, it's moody, it's wonderfully atmospheric and a lot less irreverent than most escape games.

Need to clean the candy canes out of your system? Play the game here.

An isometric puzzler that has been described by its creators as a 'fourth person exploratory experience about guidance, influence and subliminal control', Pavilion will have manipulating your environment and 'influencing' the protagonist's senses even as you attempt to drive him towards the truth. Not much else is known about the game. However, it certainly looks different compared to its original form.

Official website.

[The developers from our Top 10 Indie Games of 2012 (+2!) list have agreed to share their must-play games of 2012. Today's list features the picks of Jonas Kyratzes, Anna Anthropy, Vince Twelve, Jim Crawford, Justin Ma, and Matthew Davis.]

The Sea Will Claim Everything creator (pictured right) Jonas Kyratzes' picks:

Dys4ia by Anna Anthropy

"A painfully honest look at life in today's society from the perspective of someone demonized by that society so it can keep ignoring its actual problems. Classic game mechanics illustrate human life with elegant simplicity."

Frog Fractions by Twin Beard

"A game made with enthusiasm and carefully deployed insanity."

Built with BYOB by Sheldon Pacotti, Game Blocks was developed as a teaching aid for a course on narrative design and writing for video games. It has thus been designed with a focus on ease of use, but also as a tool to inspire confidence in up and starting game designers. Game Blocks, you see, is both simple to play with and excellently documented, while allowing "novice game designers to experiment with storytelling, animation, physics, interaction and standard game types like adventure games, platformers, and arcade shooters".

The tool and its source code are available as free downloads for Mac and Windows here.