Tom Sennett (RunMan and Deepak Fights Robots) has paired with Salil Malkan to create the local crowd-player Row Row Row Remote, which runs on a computer and can use dozens of phones or tablets. Though the game may look simplistic (Wii Sports didn't "look" all that impressive compared to the tech it modeled), Sennett and Malkan aim to inspire and empower developers, while exponentially increasing the amount of players involved in a local multiplayer experience and creating "new, awesome games from the ground up" instead of "shoehorning new, awesome technology into old, stagnant forms."

Row Row Row Remote asks players to use their smartphones or tablets as paddles. Each group needs to coordinate its motions to move effectively through the course. The game only uses the devices' touch and gyroscope functions, but Sennett tells IndieGames this is just the beginning.

In this second of a two-part series, IndieGames explores with several developers what first-person shooter (FPS) mechanics should make a comeback and which are overdone and need to suffer a metaphorical head-shot.

Joining the discussion again are Alan Wilson of Tripwire Interactive (Killing Floor, Red Orchestra), Kedhrin Gonzalez of Illfonic (Nexuiz), Alex Austin of Cryptic Sea (A New Zero), Michiel Beenen of Interwave (Nuclear Dawn), Oscar Jilsén of Coffee Stain Studios (Sanctum), and Mladen Bošnjak of Misfit Village (SickBrick).

Here, developers recall some fantastic older games such as Rainbow Six: Vegas, Redneck Rampage, Duke Nukem, Quake 3, System Shock, and Terra Nova as refreshing sources for future FPS titles.

Developers also rehash mechanics that desperately need to be retired, as found in titles such as Call of Duty and its Modern Warfare entries, Battlefield 3, and Halo.

Velocity is a vertical (top-down) shmup Mini that surprisingly doesn't rely on bullet patterns or a lot of other genre staples to provide intense moments worthy of its $4.99 price tag (or free for PlayStation Plus users this month). Instead, players must use a limited amount of lives and telepods to make it to the end of 50 twitch-challenging, strategizing levels.

There's plenty to shoot, even if there aren't many enemy variations. While the normal stage walls don't damage your ship (gasp!), the vertical scrolling will. To avoid death, players must use teleports and telepods. While you can infinitely teleport, as long as you move your cursor to an open area, you often have limited telepods you can drop. These are extremely useful when the stage forks and you need to return to explore another area.

You will often find survivors on every path. Color-coded security locks are equally scattered and must be shot sequentially and sometimes bombed from one of four directions to deactivate their deadly fields. Fortunately, each stage has a large map that shows any encountered security locks and telepod locations. You can also see any isolated areas that may contain a hidden collectible.

iOS and Android hit Hard Lines developer Nicoll Hunt takes on the beat 'em up genre with FIST OF AWESOME, coming to iOS this winter. The game involves a lumber jack caught up in a needlessly complex interstellar plot to take over Earth, altering history with remote controlled animals (hence the contraption on the bear's head). Hunt says the game takes place over a number of time periods and features original 2D art and animation. Pinapple Smash Crew audio composer Brendan Ratliff is working on the OST, as well.

For the launch of the PC version of Serious Sam 3: Before First Encounter in 2011, publisher Devolver Digital took an unusual approach. The company hired three indies to create three smaller games that would release before the full Serious Sam game, to essentially build hype for the series. One of those games is Serious Sam Double D, from Weapon of Choice and Shoot 1up creator Nathan Fouts, and his team at Mommy's Best Games.

SSDD was released for Steam in late 2011, but now Devolver has commissioned an Xbox Live Arcade version from Fouts and company, called Serious Sam Double D: XXL (as though the game needed a longer acronym), ahead of Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 launches of Serious Sam 3: BFE.

The updated version of Fouts' game will feature additional levels, two-player co-op, and additional weapons for the game's "gunstacker" mechanic, which allows players to stack up their guns and use them all simultaneously. We spoke with Fouts to find out why the company took the "reverse path" from PC to console.

With over 1,400 entries highlighting its ten-year anniversary, the winner really seems to be Ludum Dare: its event, its organizers, its jammers, and those who played and rated its games. And yet, after 3 weeks of judging, the community has chosen its winners.

The crowns go to Inside My Radio by Turbo Dindon and Fracuum by Tyler Glaiel, for winning the top jam and top overall game spots, respectively. IndieGames lists here the top 10 overall games, the top 10 jam games, and the top games by category of both.

Top 10 Overall:
Fracuum - Tyler Glaiel
Memento XII - deep night
Super Strict Farmer - Benjamin
Soul Searchin' - Maxim Schoemaker
Lonely Hated Rock - Xion
This Precious Land - Ishisoft
Planet 161 - saint11
Astro Break - hulahulahest
Recluse - chambers
Pocket Planet - Molten Mustafa

"The world is often more in control than we are," says Ian Dallas, creative director of The Unfinished Swan -- a former IGF Student Showcase winner and now due to be published by Sony for PlayStation Network this year.

This lesson is one that fairytales teach children, he says, and so his game explores the unsettling spaces in children's picture books. Led by a soothing narrator and chasing a swan -- "our rabbit surrogate" in this Alice in Wonderland-inspired adventure -- the player enters a world completely washed in white.

"Initially it was just a mechanic," says Dallas. "It didn't really feel like a game."

The game, developed by small independent Santa Monica-based Giant Sparrow, is set from the first-person perspective. The world appears to be a blank slate until players start to toss and splatter balls of paint on the environment. When splattered paint hits objects -- a staircase, a frog, a bench, a hallway -- those objects are revealed to the player to evoke a strong sense of exploration and discovery.

In the first of a two-part piece, IndieGames shares the opinions of 7 first-person shooter (FPS) developers, who discuss where the genre should innovate.

The origins of FPS games have been traced to the 1970s, with titles such as Maze War and Spasim. However, modern FPS titles are often compared to the id Software titles of the 90s, such as Catacomb 3-D, Doom, and Wolfenstein 3D, or more recent titles. These titles were often made with teams of sizes similar to "indie" teams today; you could count them with your fingers.

The genre has since spread out mechanically (even being mixed with other genres) and financially (over $50 million budgets). Yet, maybe the genre just needs more attention from teams similarly sized to those who brought it to life.

Coincidentally, the first ever 7DFPS (seven-day first-person shooter) challenge seems to have aligned with this cause, taking place from June 9-June 15. Inspired by the 7-Day Roguelike Challenge (7DRL), organizer Jan Willem Nijman of Vlambeer hopes "the pressure and timeframe will make people come up with new, original ideas. 7DFPS could do more for creativity in shooters than the past 7 years combined."

This collection of seven independent developers speaks on innovation from many FPS perspectives -- those who have squeezed characters into narrow dungeon mazes, set them loose in wide open arenas, and placed them in tower-defense and RTS settings, too.