Porting your game to multiple platforms makes much financial sense, allowing you to hit as many different markets and players as possible. One platform you might not have considered is MS-DOS.

Yes, you read that right: MS-DOS, the operating system that dominated the PC market in the 80s and early 90s.

It might sound crazy to consider DOS as a viable platform for a port -- and that's because, well, it is crazy. But that hasn't stopped developer Bryan Lunduke from porting his game Linux Tycoon to the age-old system.

Linux Tycoon is a Linux Distro Building game. You create a build full of software packages, fix as many bugs as possible, then ship it out to the online world to battle against the various other Linux offerings out there.

Purchase a copy of Linux Tycoon and you'll not only get copies for Windows, Mac and Linux -- you'll also now receive the newly-released DOS version.

With Bientot l'ete, enigmatic development duo Tale of Tales has a third IGF nominee. This year, its game about beachcombing, romantic reflection and a cigarette-kissed conversation with a mysterious lost love has gained a nomination in the Nuovo category.

The game can be played on one's own, but with another player on the other side of the chess board, the conversation interplay can feel surprisingly intimate, even as it enforces Bientot l'ete's musing on unwinnable interaction and the circular logic of love.

Continuing our Road to the IGF series of interviews with nominees, we talk about the pair's literary inspirations for the unusual work, and how they aimed to communicate the inherent raw ambivalence of relationships.

What is your background in making games?

We were trained in sculpture and graphic design and worked as web designers and net.artists from 1995 to 2002, first apart and then together. When we got bored with the web, we turned to videogames as a medium for our art.

Since then we have released six games (The Endless Forest, The Graveyard, The Path, Fatale, Vanitas and Bientot l'ete), three of which were finalists in the IGF.

As part of our Road to the IGF series, Gamasutra is speaking to each of the finalists in the 2013 Independent Games Festival to find out the story behind the games.

Today we speak to Matt Hammill and Jamie Tucker of Asteroid Base, the team behind Love in a Dangerous Spacetime, which is nominated for the Excellence in Visual Art thanks to its unique 2D viewpoint that is, in reality, taking advantage of 3D polygons.

2013 IGF student finalist Pulse paints a canvas not with color but with sound. It is a first person survival game where echoes trigger the now-blind player's memory, along with clarity provided from the noises and reactions of fuzzy creature-companions.

Team Pixel Pi initially created Pulse last year as a playable Windows and Mac prototype. The team has recently launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund a more realized version of the game.

Here, Vancouver Film School Game Design student and programmer/designer for Pulse Maxwell Hannaman discusses his team's research and inspiration behind creating a game starring a blind character. He also explores how blindness as a mechanic was both constraining and creatively freeing.

Following the release of the highly divisive A Valley Without Wind, Arcen Games was, for its first time ever, in the awkward position of having to explain unpopular design and aesthetic choices. Its response was equally novel, as it went on and released its very first sequel: A Valley Without Wind 2. A sequel that was actually gifted to everyone who had bought the original game and tried to address all complaints without alienating its core fans. A risky sequel.

Here's Arcen Games discussing it:

Arcen Games haven't been known for their sequels, but rather for their constant updates on existing games. Why A Valley Without Wind 2 then?

I have actually stated in the past that I never wanted to do a sequel to anything, that I believe post-release updates and expansions are the way to go, but here we are. Never say never! The reasoning behind Valley 2 was that there were a lot of huge changes we wanted to make to the game to really get it improved the way we wanted, but there were plenty of people who really liked the first game as it already was. To make those sort of changes to the first game would basically be to erase it. So we decided to make a sequel and give it away bundled with the first game for free, and vice-versa. That way people could experience the first game, which is pretty cool in its own right, as well as the much-improved sequel, without having to choose.

Anna Anthropy has always aimed to challenge the status quo with her games, but Dys4ia, a collection of mini-games that tell the story of undergoing the hormone therapy process as a trans woman, feels more intimate than much of her previous work.

Not only does it aim to communicate the sense of vulnerability in one's own body and the life challenges that seem to go hand in hand with the process, but it also illustrates some of the systemic prejudices and social behavior of others that create additional challenges. In that regard it's Anthropy's personal story, but it also has something to teach others.

The game's been nominated both for the Excellence in Narrative and Nuovo categories at this year's Independent game festival. Continuing our Road to the IGF series of interviews with nominees, we catch up with Anthropy about Dys4ia.

What's your background in making games?

I started making games because i was sick of playing straight dudes' fantasies about killing / fucking aliens and rescuing / fucking / killing women. When i started making videogames, they were really alienating to me - there was no Twine, there were very few other queer people making games. I figured if I wanted to see more queer games, I would have to make them myself.

The developers behind the ultra stylish and clever The Cat that Got the Milk and The Button Affair freeware games are ready to chase the modern dream. Moonlighters from UK studio Blitz Games, Oliver Clarke, Helana Santos, Chris Randle, and Jon Mann are curious if fans who enjoy their games will support their interpretations of art in games as larger, paid projects.

They're going after their dreams, and that desire has led to how the team wishes to define itself, being known from this day forward as Modern Dream, Oliver Clarke shares with IndieGames.

While Clarke isn't quite ready to talk about his team's next dream, presumably the upcoming game using depth sensing technology listed on his LinkedIn page, he spills the beans on how the two wildly popular freeware titles were created, lessons learned from them, the team's plan to tackle paid games, and the options all developers can implement to make their games more accessible.

As part of our Road to the IGF series, Gamasutra is speaking to each of the finalists in the 2013 Independent Games Festival to find out the story behind the games.

Today we speak to DrinkBox studios, the team behind action platformer Guacamelee!, which is nominated for the Excellence in Visual Art award this year.

What is your team's game development background, if any?

Graham Smith, Producer: DrinkBox has been around for almost 5 years now and has slowly grown up to 14 people working on multiple projects. Guacamelee! is our third internal game as a studio. The previous two games were Tales from Space: About a Blob on PS3 (PSN), and Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack on PS Vita and Steam. We have also contributed to a number of other games being developed by other studios. Putting team members on to external projects has helped us to self-fund our own internal projects.

What game development tools are you using?

GS: We primarily use our own internally developed editor and engine for our games. The editor gives the ability to rig characters and audio, create levels, and test the levels on the fly. In addition to this, we use Adobe Flash for Animations, 3DS Max and Photoshop to create visuals for the game environments, FMOD for Audio, and Box2D for Physics.

As part of our Road to the IGF series, Gamasutra is speaking to each of the finalists in the 2013 Independent Games Festival to find out the story behind the games.

Today we speak to "Droqen," creator of Starseed Pilgrim, which is nominated for the Design award.

What is your team's game development background, if any?

Maybe I'll start out by telling you a bit about the team? Feels like a weird word to use for us four.

As part of our Road to the IGF series, Gamasutra is speaking to each of the finalists in the 2013 Independent Games Festival to find out the story behind the games.

Today we speak to Terry Cavanagh, whose Super Hexagon is nominated for the Excellence in Design award this year.

What is your team's game development background, if any?

Well, the team is just me (made the game), Chipzel (wrote the music) and Jenn (did the voice acting). Jenn's a videogame journalist, Chipzel is a musician, and I make games. We don't work together usually, we're not a company.

What game development tools are you using?

At the moment, C++ and a library called openFrameworks. I also use Flash.