[Continuing 2012's "Road to the IGF" interview series, Gamasutra speaks with the creators of Nuovo award nominee Proteus about their fascinating, music and exploration-driven game.]

There's something uniquely elegant about Proteus, a peaceful, open wildland that has its own primal beauty, despite -- or maybe even because of -- its pixel-chunky aesthetic.

The game, developed by UK-based Ed Key and David Kanaga, is a finalist in the Nuovo category, and also received honorable mentions in the Excellence in Audio as well as the Seumas McNally Grand Prize categories.

It's more than just a land to explore; its true charm reveals itself slowly and gently through reactive audio that, in the developers' words, "allows the player to explore the environment as music."

Kanaga and Key talk to Gamasutra about Proteus, and how their somewhat uncommon combination of backgrounds, goals and innovative way of viewing games helped create this uniquely mesmerizing game.

What background do you have making games?

Ed: When I was young I made BASIC games on the Spectrum and Amiga. I spent about 8 years in the game industry after graduating, working on things like Battalion Wars, but Proteus will be my first indie release.

David: Well, playspaces in general more than "game" games: writing pieces of music based on interactions-- response structures, etc. Forms for improvisation. Teaching. Throwing parties with strange moods.

What development tools did you use?

Ed: It's written in C# and uses Tao Framework, OpenGL, SDL and Lua for scripting. It's also using a big chunk of framework code written by my friend Alex May. I use various free paint programs and Sketchup for the occasional bit of 3D modeling.

David: All the music is done in Ableton.

How long has your team been working on the game?

Ed: I had to check back over old emails and was a bit surprised that it's been three and a half years since the early glimmers of the project. It only really kicked off in its current form when I got in touch with David about two years ago. It's been a very long fermentation process, which might show through in the game.

As their final class project, a group of Full Sail students has released Noxious, a free third-person shooter that pays tribute to Visceral Games' survival horror series Dead Space.

Developed in five months, Noxious is a brief experience (the video above shows a full playthrough), but is an impressive achievement nonetheless. The game sees players engaging in combat with waves of violent creatures while attempting to escape a locked down research facility.

Noxious is available as a free download at Indie DB and Desura.

If you're anything like me, you've probably spent some time bemoaning how 'mouse-friendly' hacking simulators have been of late. Luckily for us, there's a new game in town and it's almost surprisingly good. A 'terminal-based hacking game' with multiplayer options, HackNet follows the story of a recently expired Hacker by the name of Bit. It can be a little hard to get into at first as the tutorial isn't the easiest to understand but it's definitely worth the trouble. The atmosphere in HackNet is definitely spot-on. If you're someone who has even dabbled with command-line programming, you're going to find something to like her. As for everyone else, well, the game's worth the initial confusion.

Currently, it appears as though the download is awaiting approval but you should still totally bookmark this page and check it out a few days later.

In the latest postings over the last seven days, Gamasutra's jobs board plays host to roles in every major discipline, including opportunities at Visceral Games, 2K Marin, Sony Computer Entertainment America, and others.

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 Gamasutra's network of submarket sites, which includes content sites focused on independent games and more.

Some of the notable jobs posted this week include:

Sony Computer Entertainment America LLC: Senior Online Programmer:
"Be a part of the most exciting and innovating computer entertainment in North America. Sony Computer Entertainment America LLC (SCEA) markets the PlayStation family of products and develops, publishes, markets, and distributes software for the PS one console, the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3 computer entertainment systems and the PlayStation Portable (PSP)."

2K Marin: FX Artist - XCOM:
"2K Games develops and publishes top-line PC, console, and handheld entertainment software with a strong concentration in three distinct categories: sports, high profile licenses and specialty product. Some of the hit titles in 2K's lineup include the critically-praised Bioshock, Sid Meier's Civilization IV, and The Darkness.

At 2K Games our goal is simple: Make games that are the best in the genre and have fun doing it. 2K Games is proudly developing a series of critically acclaimed games. Owned by Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO), 2K Games is a successful, stable company that produces high-quality titles every year."

The browser-based, puzzle platforming Shift series has garnered millions of plays over at Armor Games. The game's iterations shifted successfully onto iOS devices in 2009 and 2010 and later to PlayStation Network in 2011.

After many digital leaps, Fishing Cactus feels ready to take the Shift series to retail. Shifting World is set to release on April 24 in North America at $29.99, thanks to the help of indie-friendly Aksys Games, who've also published Gaijin Games' Bit.Trip Saga for 3DS.

In this interview, lead game designer Guillaume Bouckaert speaks about Shifting World's transition from 2D to 3D and its sizable expansion. Bouckaert discusses how much could be ported from Shift's previous iterations to the 3DS version. He also hints about adding eShop content, though that content may end up being sold through the recently announced Nintendo Network.

The world's been playing Shift for a few years now. How much different is Shifting World compared to its last iteration, Shift Extended (PSP)?

A lot! From a technical and graphical point of view, we went from a 2D game to a full 3D game (without touching the 2D platform gameplay). We also added many new mechanics to the original game, some linked to the "shifting" ability, which is at the core of the Shift series, as most players know, and some new ones, entirely different, that ups to the puzzling elements of the game.

The levels of the game were also hugely expanded. We went from small levels limited to the size of the screen to huge labyrinth-like mazes. There is now scrolling, and that's a big improvement.

We also took a creative approach to the story of the game. While the original was a story about an experimental lab putting test subjects through vicious tests, we went in another direction entirely with Shifting World. We ended up creating a series of characters that really add their charm to the game and will tell the players a totally different story!

Kyttaro Games, an indie developer & publisher, have just announced their plans to begin a regular Pay What You Want indie game bundle of their very own, the Bundle In A Box. Here's the pitch:

It's going to be a regular bundle of games, containing "a thematically coherent selection of games and one game developed especially for it." There's no date set yet, but they tease that it will be "available very soon; maybe even sooner than you'd ever expect".

The bundles are being compiled by games blogger and Kyttaro member Konstantinos Dimopoulos of Gnome's Lair, so you know who to complain at if the games are rubbish, and who to thank if they're brilliant.

No more details as of yet, but you can get updates on the Kyttaro Blog and the Bundle In A Box twitter feed.

After spending ten months in development, Nine Dots Studio has released the side-scrolling action-RPG Brand, its debut effort for the Xbox Live Indie Games platform.

In Brand, players are tasked with a simple objective: refining and upgrading a sword until it's "fit for a king." Players have multiple upgrade paths to take, and are able to choose among many different combinations of powers and abilities along the way.

Each sword upgrade requires fetching certain items or completing a specific task, however, and there are multiple non-linear areas for players to explore in their questing. The gameplay seems fun from what I've played so far (I'm especially fond of the move that lets you dash through enemies), and the customizable weapon mechanic is quite appealing.

Brand is priced at 80 Microsoft points ($1), but will increase in price to 240 Microsoft points on March 3rd. A PC version is currently in development.

Peculiar Games lives up to its name with Microchip Monsters, an Android-exclusive title that the developer describes as a mixture of Peggle and "freaky-futuristic pinball."

Microchip Monsters has a striking minimalist visual style -- creator Patrick Casey cites inspiration from Nintendo's Bit Generations series for the Game Boy Advance. Gameplay involves bouncing a ball around a series of procedurally generated levels, with the goal being to set bombs and blow up wandering enemies.

Casey notes that the game's XM-format chiptune soundtrack (featuring the track "Electric Memories" by tracker artist Mr.Lou) is made possible thanks to his own custom-made port of libmodplug -- pretty hardcore stuff! Microchip Monsters is priced at 99 cents. A free ad-supported version is also available.

Da New Guys is an upcoming point & click adventure centered around Da New Guys, a crew of wrestlers who can only be described as 'true underdogs'. In spite of this, however, one of their members managed to snag the much-coveted belt only to be kidnapped shortly after that. Can you guess where this is going? Yup. There will be a full-fledged rescue attempt, crazy fans, car chases and no small amount of people in genuinely peculiar costumes.

According to the website, Da New Guys will be priced at $9.99. Wadjet Eye Games is currently taking pre-orders for both the standard edition and the limited edition. Check out more information here.

Nitrome's latest browser game, Rainbogeddon, is a single or local co-op experience that essentially crosses Pac-Man with Bomberman. The basic goal is to survive long enough to collect all of the pills (little white squares) on the level. Players have a lot of self-explanatory power-ups, which can be upgraded by collecting them in multiplicity, to aid the journey.

I found the tail power-up particularly interesting. Your rear will be safe from enemies as long as you are wearing it, as enemies can't pass through it. You can also make a piece of your tail fall off (gross?) on the stage to strategically block others.

Like Bomberman, you have bombs, and they can pin you in a small space and kill you. (Insert instant rage here.) While these bombs clear out huge spaces, there is a bullet power-up that allows for more precise enemy and wall destruction.

Some stages can become very long if you start out trigger-bomb-happy. As you blow up a lot of the walls, they will reveal more pills which you are then obligated to collect.

Along with the frustratingly fun mixture of gameplay, Nitrome's signature vibrant color palette and cute sprites are present in Rainbogeddon. It's all waiting for you here.