Clack is a unique and original puzzle game created by Sean from Louisiana, USA.

At first glance the game appears to be a layout from a schematic diagram, which might easily scare you away if you're the non-technical type. And it will likely have you scratching your head wondering just what to do with it even if you are an electrical engineer. However, those adventurous souls that persevere, by poking around the surface to learn what is hiding underneath, will be nicely rewarded by what they find.

Contrary to its first impression appearance, Clack is a simple game of chain reactions, similar to a domino effect or a rudimentary Rube Goldberg machine made up of only similar parts. I'm not quite sure how to describe it best since it is a marvelously unusual design.

Mousing over the surface of the play field reveals small circular 'orbits' within which each of the mallets will rotate (when the game is put into motion.) Clicking on a mallet will change its length as well as its resulting orbit. Mallets that share a common axis with other mallets move as a unit, and yet their length may be changed independently.

The ultimate objective is to set each of the mallets in the correct starting position such that, when the 'start' button is pressed, all 20 targets will be visited.

To start the game in motion, press the orange triangle found in the lower left corner of the play field; the stop button is the orange square. You may only change the settings of the puzzle when the game is stopped.

Analysis: As I mentioned above, the first time I launched Clack I was deeply puzzled. There was certainly nothing obvious about it. And yet after a bit of poking and prodding I managed to make a few clacking noises, ...and a beep(!) I was instantly hooked. From there the game pulled me in and wouldn't let go until I had lit up all 20 targets.

This engaging and compelling puzzle game fits perfectly with what I had in mind for this competition. It was the kind of puzzle where you are given no instructions and have no idea what to do at first. And even after you do figure out what is required of you, there still remains the mystery of how.

Besides being a truly delightful game to discover its behavior and intricacies, the game is beautiful and it looks like a work of art to me. So unassuming, plain and simple on the surface, and then so intricately detailed once you examine it up close. Absolutely wonderful, from start to finish, and brilliant. Click (Clack).

Congratulations, Sean on an excellent, creative and original puzzle game. I do hope that you plan to expand this design into a larger, multi-level game (with a level editor, too!) =D

Clack combines several key elements of captivating casual game design: a simple, attractive layout, easy to understand gameplay, and an absolutely riveting concept. From your first glance at the game your mind is hungry to understand what's going on. Once you figure it out, it's a joy to uncover the solution, yet that's only the beginning of the fun. My personal favorite aspect of the game is the great 'clack' noise the paddles make when they collide. It's the little things that count! A big congratulations to Sean for creating a fantastic game.

My favorite thing about Clack is how little information you're given about the puzzle itself. You're just dropped into a strange interface and must discover for yourself not just the puzzle's rules, but even the object of the puzzle itself. The design is elegant and simple, and I agree with John about the sound: the game's titular sound is essential to drawing you in and keeping you hooked.

Maybe Clack should have been called Click; the split second when the initially confusing interface clicks in your mind is very satisfying. The deceptively simple concept reveals an increasingly complex and mesmerizing series of interactions through lovely animation and striking color. Congratulations Sean!

Judging this competition has truly been a bittersweet experience for all of us here at JIG Casual Gameplay. Sweet because we have been graced with so many wonderfully creative and original puzzle games to play. Every last one of them deserves the usual treatment we like to give around here, so look forward to seeing each game highlighted and reviewed in the days and weeks ahead. That these amazing interactive experiences have been created in Flash for immediate delivery anywhere in the world through the window of a browser is remarkable. The calibre of games submitted is a testament to the achievements that become possible with an accessible and easy to use development platform, as well as to the near ubiquitous penetration of the Flash Player itself.

But having to narrow this playing field to just three (3) winning entries is an unenviable position to be in. The competition was very close. Sometimes too close to call and another scan through each game was required to validate or reevaluate the scores that were tallied. Four (4) reviewers total—John, Drew, Noah and myself—scored each game in detail according to a set of rubrics established for the theme of this competition. And the summary of that data lead directly to these three choices:

• First Place: Clack
• Runners up: Thief and Cyberpunk
• Honorable mention: Gateway

Congratulations to all of the winners, and to everyone that submitted an entry. A warm and gracious thanks for helping to make this first ever Casual Gameplay design competition such a memorable one and a success.

Please show your support for all of these talented game designers by casting your votes, and dollars, towards the Audience Prize, to be announced when voting ends early Saturday morning, September 2, 2006. Please refer to the Audience Prize page for links to vote for each of the games.

Thanks also go out to Adobe for generously providing the Flash 8 licenses for the competition, and to Graeme for helping to procure a black Nintendo DS.

Prizes will be awarded as follows: The author of the first prize winning entry may choose either a Flash 8 Professional license or the black Nintendo DS. The remaining prizes will be offered to the authors of the runners up entries, using a drawing, if necessary, to settle a tie.

As you may have already guessed, scoring this competition is proving very difficult due to the quantity of quality titles submitted. Although I had hoped to have winners announced on Monday, we are taking an extra day (or two) to make sure that all entries into the competition have been thoroughly played, examined and scored fairly.

When we announced the competition earlier this month, we promised that there were additional prizes to be announced, and we were not kidding. In addition to the two (2) Flash 8 Professional licenses and the black Nintendo DS up for grabs, everyone who entered the competition will be receiving an exclusive, limited-edition JIG Casual Gameplay Competition T-Shirt! =)

But wait, that's not all.

Today we are proud to announce the Audience Prize, to be awarded to the game designer of the competition entry that receives the most votes by the JIG community.

This award will be a cash prize of at least $192.05 USD(!)

I say "at least" because we want to give everyone the opportunity to contribute to the prize, if you so choose, by donating $1.00 USD when making your vote. (Sorry, only those making a donation will be allowed to vote. Offer void where prohibited.)

No one is obligated to vote, and all we are asking for is a single dollar from each of you. All proceeds* will go directly into the Audience Prize money that I am personally starting off at $100. Of course you may donate more than a dollar when you vote, though your vote will still count as only one (1) no matter how much you contribute. We will be monitoring the incoming donations to keep this blog entry updated with the current total for a full disclosure. (*Your donation less any fees PayPal deducts prior to our receiving it. PayPal takes $0.33 cents on a one-dollar donation.) Deadline to vote is this Friday, September 1, 2006 at 11:59 PM (GMT-4:00).

To vote, simply use the PayPal ("Vote") link next to the game icon you wish to vote for. Thank you kindly for your patience, and for your anticipated contributions of support for this very talented group of Flash game developers. =)

Come on. It's only a buck!

The following is a list of entries received for our first game design competition (in no particular order). Click the game icon to play the game.

	"Puzzle 1" ...by Tonypa
	"Puzzle 2" ...by Tonypa
	"Sigil of Binding" ...by John-Paul Walton
	"Submachine Zero" ...by Mateusz Skutnik
	"Gear Puzzle" ...by David Durham
	"Free the Bird" ...by Bart Bonte
	"The Alchemist’s Apprentice" ...by Lars A. Doucet
	"Jewel Drop" ...by Nick Redmond
	"Quadra Pair 42" ...by JR
	"Liquid Colors" ...by DDams
	"Keys" ...by Rob Allen
	"Thief" ...by Phillip Reagan
	"Cyberpunk" ...by Rey Gazu
	"Instruments" ...by Elizabeth Reynolds
	"Clack" ...by Sean
	"Gateway" ...by Anders Gustafsson
	"Wired" ...by Vlad Kvitnevski
	"Colour Connect" ...by Matthew Dirks
	"Houses" ...by Sean
	"Weight" ...by Sean
	"Personal Universe" ...by Damir

The next batch of entries submitted to our competition are now up and available to play! Click.

Thank you kindly for leaving your comments and constructive criticisms for each of the puzzles. As before, please leave your comments on this entry to only the 13 entries in this batch. I'll list them here to make it easier for you...

• "Quadra Pair 42" ...by JR
• "Liquid Colors" ...by DDams
• "Keys" ...by Rob Allen
• "Thief" ...by Phillip Reagan
• "Cyberpunk" ...by Rey Gazu
• "Instruments" ...by Elizabeth Reynolds
• "Clack" ...by Sean
• "Gateway" ...by Anders Gustafsson
• "Wired" ...by Vlad Kvitnevski
• "Colour Connect" ...by Matthew Dirks
• "Houses" ...by Sean
• "Weight" ...by Sean
• "Personal Universe" ...by Damir

And that concludes the entries for this competition. =)

The first batch of eight (8) entries submitted to the competition are now up and available to play! Click.

Here is a listing of what puzzles are included in this batch:

• "Puzzle 1" ...by Tonypa
• "Puzzle 2" ...by Tonypa
• "Sigil of Binding" ...by John-Paul Walton
• "Submachine Zero" ...by Mateusz Skutnik
• "Gear Puzzle" by David Durham
• "Free the Bird" ...by Bart Bonte
• "The Alchemist’s Apprentice" ...by Lars A. Doucet
• "Jewel Drop" ...by Nick Redmond

I think I have all the bugs worked out of the UI. I've rushed to get this up, though, so please be kind with your bug reports. =)

It will be a while yet before any results are announced. There are quite a few to get through, and we want to be sure that each and every puzzle is thoroughly examined. I will be watching the comments to see what people think of each of them, and possibly taking that into consideration.

Please leave your comments for these 8 only here. Thank you!

Our first ever game design competition deadline is upon us, just a little less than 12 hours away, and already I am inundated with unbelievably good, fantastic puzzle designs to sort through and choose from. Picking the best of them will certainly not be easy. I am working feverishly hard to make sure that you are able to play each and every one of the finalists, and depending upon the quantity of any last minute submissions received, I will (hopefully) have something up and playable for you over the weekend. So be sure to check back if you are as excited as I am about it! =D

Liquid Webtoy is a Java-based (Processing, to be exact) application very similar to the World of Sand games we're all so fond of. Rather than playing with solid elements, however, this game is focused on two things: liquid and color. Fill the screen with water, slosh it around with your mouse and add different shades to the mix. It can be as relaxing or chaotic as you like and is a great time-waster.

Your cursor acts like a small bubble of air that will move through the water and push it around. You also have over half a dozen different elements to play around with, all of which use the physical properties of water to achieve different effects:

• Water - As simple as it comes, spray water on the screen and watch it slosh around.
• Paint - Mix your own color and meld it with the on-screen liquid.
• Cloud - Gloopy clouds float to the top of the screen and fall when they get too dense.
• Magma - The mostly-stationary magma turns water to steam (which acts like Cloud) when it comes in contact. Use it to create some interesting feedback loops.
• Wall - Create sections to perform different water experiments on.
• Bomb - Need I say more?
• Duck - Rubber ducky, you're the one. Floats on top of the water and resists even the hottest magma (try that in your bathtub!)
• BH (Black Hole) - Suck up all the matter surrounding your cursor. Way too fun.

Analysis: Webtoys really don't have a purpose, they're just fun to play around with. This one is no different and incorporates some visually fetching color mixing elements that make it interesting. If you're looking for accurate physics and intricate interactions with the elements, Liquid Webtoy won't satisfy your hunger. But it will give you a soothing visual playground where you can spin your thoughts, paint them different colors, then suck everything up with a Black Hole.

Play.

Mark Arenz has been designing games over at Ridiculopathy for years now and he has amassed an impressive selection with creative and original gameplay. He has recently released a sequel of sorts to a unique game concept he created about a year ago, and this one succeeds in improving the idea and taking it to the next level.

Swinger 2: Rock & Roll Apocalypse is an action game of skill that offers a delightful and gratifying game play experience. It begins with a humorous and frivolous introduction sequence that sets the tone and mood for a ridiculous galactic adventure.

Use the arrow keys to swing the... um, er, thing around each of the nodes to turn them all grey; the [right] arrow swings clockwise, [left] counter-clockwise. Press [space] to jump. You can also press [ctrl] to skip nodes or pick-ups, and to control movement when jumping in combination with the arrow keys.

Some nodes will require multiple visits and their color indicates that. For example, blue nodes turn grey when visited, green turn blue, red to green, and so forth. Visit all nodes on each level to activate the exit, which appears like a small target somewhere in the level.

Overall, loads of humor, loads of fun, and highly recommended. Click.

Be sure to read what we had to say about other Ridiculopathy games: Happy Flower Music Time, Legend of the Pointy Stick, Carnyville, and the original Swinger.

You know that dream, the one where you're walking down the streets of London listening to the frantic sounds of Gogol Bordello, when homicidal cartoons start spilling out of the scenery?

Me neither, but thanks to Toon Crisis I know how to handle myself in just such a situation. Just make a gun with your thumb and forefinger and start blasting the little baddies!

From Killer Viral comes this excellent rail shooter, an advergame for the Sony mp3 Walkman Flash—but don't let that turn you off. Each shooting stage is wonderfully integrated with video footage of London streets, with the above mentioned Gogol Bordello providing suitably manic background music. The enemy cartoons in question are also well integrated with the background scenery, moving behind and over background objects and in and out of doors and windows as they try to take you out.

The requisite elements for a great shooter are all here: good enemy variety, weapon power-ups, and a powerful boss at the end of each stage. The game was easy and fast; I managed to finish it in my first sitting, probably within 15 minutes or so, but there is a continue option built-in if you just can't hack it. You even get a downloadable prize for finishing.

I played the game on a P4 2.4 GHz desktop system with 512 MB of RAM, and a Mobile P4 1.6 GHz laptop with 256 MB of RAM. The game ran as smooth as silk on the desktop system with the exception of some very minor frame rate issues at the final boss battle. The game had minor frame rate issues from time to time on the laptop, though nothing that really affected gameplay. Your mileage may vary, so happy shooting.

Enjoy Toon Crisis. Special thanks to Chris, Jared and Mark for the submission.

Skatefall is John Freeborn's tribute to one of the earliest platformers, the Atari 2600's Pitfall! With a bodacious new skateboard, online scoreboard, bonus items and powerups, 2D platforming has a new name: Skatefall Harry.

Tap the [right] or [left] arrow to move in either direction, and keep pressing the button to gain and keep up your speed. Press the [spacebar] to jump.

As a homage, Skatefall is extremely effective and faithful; the graphics and sound are perfect and the difficulty, while formidable, is appropriate. To be honest, I haven't been able to make it to very many of its 255 levels yet, so I can't say if vines and alligators make an appearance, but here's hoping they do. Enjoy!

Cheers to Drew and Andrew for suggesting this one! =)

I have a very simple little game for you today, and it's a Java applet from Japan. Three Degrees is a variation on the classic 'click groups' puzzle game, Same Game.

The game is played by clicking on groups of the same color to eliminate them from play. Of course, the larger the group the more points awarded. But doing so also clears valuable space to fit more blocks, a new batch of which will fall into play with about every fourth click. Only by clearing very large groups (16+ blocks) can you earn a free click.

There is no "beating" this game that I could tell, the game ends when the play field fills up completely with blocks. There is a nice indicator on the bottom center of the game window that will always tell you how many blocks are in the color group under the mouse cursor. Use it to find the largest of groups available. Three Degrees is a very simple game to pick-up and play, a nice variation on a classic, and one that you will likely find yourself playing again and again. Click.

Virtual Villagers is a downloadable real-time simulation game for Windows (for Mac version, see below) developed by Last Day of Work, the creators of Fish Tycoon and a number of other casual sim games. Take charge of a village of crash survivors and help them carve out a living on a jungle island. Teach them to farm, help them research scientific advancements and expand their population. It's a remarkably addictive game that's easy to play but impossible to stay away from!

You begin with a small handful of untrained villagers. Teach them to perform various tasks such as farming, building, researching, breeding and healing. An extremely helpful tutorial guides you through the game's basics, but everything operates on a simple drag-and-drop mechanic. Want to train a scientist? Drop a villager on the research table. Need to pick berries for food? Drag someone over the berry bush. Villagers may not take to a task immediately, so sometimes you'll have to be persistent.

Once you get everything started, it's time to leave your people alone. Virtual Villagers plays out in real-time so even when the game isn't running the villagers are working hard. Each time you play you'll see the fruits of their labor and can give them new directions or just check up on their progress. You can also adjust the speed to anticipate any gaps in your playing time or to get things moving a little more quickly. Virtual Villagers is just as much about waiting as it is playing.

The strategy in Virtual Villagers comes from how many villagers you assign to each task and how you choose to upgrade your abilities. You accumulate Tech points by getting people to do scientific research. Use these points to upgrade your population's building skills, farming abilities, etc. With each new level opens more possibilities of exploration and survival. The trick is managing which abilities get upgraded first and how you use those new skills to better your village.

Your main goal is to build a thriving population, but there are also various mysteries to solve along the way. Some are fairly obvious, such as the large boulder sitting on the north end of the village, but others you must seek to discover. In all there are 16 puzzles waiting to be unearthed. As you accumulate tech points and upgrade your abilities you can explore each new mystery and see what surprises await you.

Analysis: I've had a blast playing Virtual Villagers. It's a great blend of casual gaming and strategy, which, honestly, is a tough balance to strike. Throughout the day I wonder what my villagers are up to. Are they still farming like I taught them? Any new babies in town? It's always great to come home and check up on my new family. It's great to see the little surprises, such as random events or the occasional new discovery.

Each time I fired up Virtual Villagers I only played it for ten or fifteen minutes. Really, that's all that's required. It's no different than playing a game of Solitaire just to pass the time, only now I actually accomplish something in the long run. Enticing players to return is one of the toughest jobs a casual game designer has, and Virtual Villagers does it extremely well.

If the game suffers from any drawbacks it's that sometimes there just isn't much to do, especially later in the game. In the beginning you must coddle your village and make sure everyone is working hard to keep the population alive. But as you gain villagers and start farming, it's safe to leave your people alone for days at a time. The occasional random event must be dealt with, but otherwise everything runs smoothly. Of course, if the game required your constant attention it wouldn't be casual, would it?

Virtual Villagers is a great simulation game that doesn't require a lot of time but gives you the satisfaction of an intricate game. You'll have a lot of fun managing your population, teaching them new abilities and exploring the island. You'll know how addicted you are when you wake up in the morning and your first thought is "I wonder how my village is doing?"

Download the Demo (PC/Windows) from ArcadeTown.
Order the full version.

Mac version (for OS X 10.2 or later)

Cheers to Urizzato and Brieya for suggesting this one! =)

[Jay adds: We are beginning a relationship with a new sponsor that will allow us to make a commission from the games that are purchased through some of our reviews. You are, of course, not obligated to purchase anything. If you are interested in trying the demo or if you later decide to purchase the game, please consider using the links above to do so. This will help us to continue improving the site and to keep advertising to a minimum. We will indicate where we are making a commission so you can make an informed decision about it, and we will continue to review only games that we recommend to play.]

Kodama, or Tama for short, is a quirky little ball-toss game that had me quickly hooked, and it wouldn't let me go until I had conquered its final challenge... with extreme prejudice.

The gameplay is simple: you toss a little metal coin into a red or blue scoring area, while avoiding the black areas that will cost you one of your four lives. The screen is divided into two fields: a green field from where you grab the coin and toss, and the little maze-like area that you need to toss the coin into.

The first two levels are so simple that you literally can't fail, but after that the difficulty ramps up. It's usually fairly easy (with a couple devious exceptions) to get the coin into the 100-point red zones, but the 500-point blue zones are arranged to maximize your risk of failure.

I played this game for hours upon hours over a couple of days before finally beating level 20, which is the final level. I was obsessed with completing it from almost the first moment I played.

The graphics are simple to the point of being crude, but that doesn't affect gameplay at all. Games like this live or die on the strength of their physics, and the physics in this game seem spot-on. The coin does pretty much exactly what you expect it to do every time. Once you've played for a while, you'll know if the toss is good or not the moment you release it.

There are only four sound effects in the game: two scoring sounds, a sound for failure (think "You've all overbid!" on The Price is Right), and the soft clink of metal on metal as the coin bounces on the walls. There's a subtle effect here too: the ricochet sound's pitch and volume change based on the speed of the coin... a nice, realistic touch.

My only small frustration with the game is the finite number of chances you get to win. You may find yourself (like me) playing through many times because of stupid mistakes or bad mouse movements. I would have appreciated either a certain number of chances per level, or perhaps even ramping up the difficulty all around and giving you infinite tries to finish.

Enjoy Kodama.

PS: I strongly recommend checking out other games from the same site, which as far as I can tell is simply titled Game (going up several levels to the ultimate root site leads you to Cool & Warm, a Japanese "Game and Design Company"). The games run the gamut from strange to inspired to inscrutable. They're all original, all well-produced, and all fun.

Ray-Hound is a new downloadable game for Windows from Hikoza Ohkubo over at Hikware software. Like his previous game, Warning Forever, Ray-Hound is a simple, well executed shmup with a creative twist that sets it apart from other indie or commercial releases. Of course, also like Warning Forever, Ray-Hound is a tiny download and absolutely free.

Instead of blasting away at the turrets that make up each stage, in Ray-Hound you turn their own attacks against them. Move your ship with the mouse and capture lasers by clicking the left button; any lasers caught in the field that surrounds your ship will begin to orbit and follow you. Release the left mouse button to fling them back at the turrets. You can also perform a boost by moving the mouse rapidly in any direction. Boost into lasers to reflect them off the front of your ship. With a little practice boosting becomes extremely useful, particularly against small groups of turrets. Right click to pause the game and adjust the boost sensitivity, and press F11 to toggle full screen mode.

When the timer in the upper right corner of the screen reaches zero, your game is over. Clearing each stage of turrets (see the bottom left corner to keep track of how many remain) will add to your time, but taking a hit from a laser will subtract 10 seconds.

Ray-Hound's fluid graphics and action are fairly intuitive, although its not until after the first dozen levels that the game really picks up and becomes gloriously hectic. With no audio, no high score ranking and only two of the four main menu options available, it is clear that Ray-Hound is not complete. Still, this early build is rock solid and a great time, particular for jaded old shooter fans dying for something fresh. Enjoy!

Cheers to Lavkian for being on the mark with suggesting this one as the review was being written. =)