Alexander Bruce's Antichamber became an instant hit when it released, but like most independent developers, he struggled to get funding during the game's development. One way that he as able to gain some much-needed money was to place in contests that he entered, such as the IGF and Make Something Unreal.

In this interview, Bruce discusses entering and winning contests, the tangible and intangible rewards he got from competing and traveling around the world, and exactly why he thinks that getting too much money too soon would have resulted in a worse game in the end.

Experiment 12 is an exquisite corpse of a game from a veritable supergroup of indie developers. It consists of 12 sequential chapters, each a small game from a different developer, each made in 72 hours or less. While any one chapter can be played and probably appreciated on its own, none are really a complete experience except as a part of the larger work. It's remarkable how much each developer used the project to stretch outside of their own comfort zones, and how an engaging, creepy, and cohesive tale was born from their combined efforts. In story and gameplay, Experiment 12 is a success.

The third part of Anita Sarkessian's Kickstarter-funded Tropes vs. Women in Video Games series explores how modern indie and mobile games have perpetuated the "damsel in distress" trope in video games.

Wow. 1984 is a short, powerful, interactive interpretation of George Orwell's novel of the same name. Like in the book, there is really no winning, and choices are limited, but you can fight back against the oppression in your ineffective way. From a first-person view, you experience a series of scenes that really make you feel what it would be like to live in a thought-policed dystopia.

Firebelly Studio's lead developer Erik Umenhofer on Temporus

The hook: Flee, rebuild, maintain, travel time, get revenge.

Writer, editor, and burgeoning developer Leigh Alexander's newest entry, The Sex Chamber, is a Twine game that plays a bit like a cross between an adventure game and interactive fiction. The first three screens of The Sex Chamber parody Leigh's experience with adult games of yesteryear, asking random questions for the player to prove his or her adulthood.

D-Pad Studio took a break from its grind on Owlboy to create a spectacular, challenging arena shooter/Cabal-like called Savant: Ascent. For a mere $2, you'll be blasting all sorts of enemies with a simple mouse targeting system, collecting CD shards to unlock new songs and killer abilities, and dodging and jumping attacks from all sides. The game will seem impossible at first, but the pulsing soundtrack and steady character progression should keep you satisfied for a couple hours, the length of a summer blockbuster but with true non-stop action.

I like Chess, but it can be a really slow game. Players are susceptible to analysis paralysis, creating long wait times between moves. Sven Anders Robbestad solves that problem with his real-time strategy game CHESS (all caps to distinguish it from the boardgame, I suppose), which he made for the 7-day RTS / Mini Ludum Dare 44 competition.

"A surreal thriller in which the written word is your map, as well as your narrator," reads the description of the Simogo's upcoming mobile game DEVICE 6. The devs behind such gems as Year Walk, Bumpy Road, and Beat Sneak Bandit say their next experience is based around maps and text, with riddles, story and descriptive sound added to the mix. Also of note is the concept of "visions" which are "small windows in which you can peek into another reality" and can be manipulated to solve some of the DEVICE 6's puzzles.

Around the time Klei Entertainment's teams were finishing up work on the well-received Xbox Live Arcade stealth title Mark of the Ninja, Jamie Cheng had a kernel of an idea: To combine a tactics game with themes and mechanics of espionage. The concept that would become Incognita has existed for just about a year, birthed in a long pre-production as the team explored it through prototyping.

Though recently announced, Incognita has no confirmed launch date just yet, and its details are as stealthily concealed as its themes suggest. The game is in "something like" an alpha phase -- "everything is released in alpha now, so I don't know what we're calling things anymore," laughs designer Jason Dreger -- "certainly playable, lots of the mechanics are in and some are still being developed and not in yet."