Longtime game developer and general roustabout Greg Costikyan sent a jolt through the industry when he announced Manifesto Games, a company dedicated to rewarding original, independent game ideas and getting around the narrow retail channels that keep them from gamers. After a months-long gestation process, the company is now well on its way with a beta web site highlighting and selling some of the brightest independent games on the market.

The site is still a little rough around the edges, but in return for registering and helping to troubleshoot, Manifesto is offering a free download of Plasmaworm, a game they appropriately describe as "Snake on acid." Here's wishing them the best in their mission to stir things up.

While there are indie game projects -- like that Indy point-and-clicker I wrote about earlier -- the industry continues on a path towards longer development time and larger budgets making indie gaming, as we've come to know it, largely inviable.

Luke O'Brien takes a look at the problem for Slate and ponders why, when some of the industry's earliest blockbusters were the product of independent development (think Ultima, Doom, Dune II), independent development is the rare exception to the rule. While mainstream publishers rely on sequels and updates, certain factions (like Costikyan's Manifesto Games) are trying to bypass the system by selling their games online.

One notable omission: episodic gaming. With companies like Telltale Games and Valve actively using technology to deliver their games directly to gamers and disrupt the publisher paradigm, O'Brien's piece didn't consider the effects of these (admittedly larger) independent developers. Can independent developers use technology to assume control from the major publishers, much like the early movie industry did?

[Thanks, Andrew]

The results of the 2006 Independent Games Festival are in, and it's hats off to Darwinia. Scooping the Seumas McNally Grand Prize as well as the awards for Innovation in Visual Art and Technical Excellence, this leaves British-based Introversion's next game with a tough act to follow.

Other winners at the festival were:
Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space (Innovation in Audio)
Braid (Innovation in Game Design)
Dad 'n Me (Best Web Browser Game)
Dodge That Anvil! (Adult Swim Award)
Dofus (Audience Award)

The IGF also featured a modding competition for the first time, with four winners: Dystopia for Half-Life 2; Last Man Standing Co-op for Doom 3; Rose of Eternity - Chapter 1 - The Coming for Neverwinter Nights and Path of Vengeance for UT2004.

Gamespy has taken a detailed look at every one of the Independent Games Festival finalists, in advance of GDC next week where the awards ceremony will take place. If you've the time to go through the list in its entirety, you might be surprised at the range of games that have been under your nose all along.

Gamasutra and GameDev.net have also been running interviews with some of the creators of these games, allowing interested players or designers to get a feel for the process of independent design and find out more about the games themselves. The latest Gamasutra interview is with Ominous Development (behind game Strange Attractors); GameDev.net posted six new interviews yesterday.

The Independent Games Festival finalists encompass a wide range of genres, ranging from MMO Dofus to simulation Wildlife Tycoon and perennial favourite Darwinia. Their fate is now in your hands--demos of all the finalists are available for download, and you can vote in the Audience's Award for your chosen game.

According to Gamasutra, this is the first time many of these games have been available for download. These demo offerings provide a good way to experience the range of creativity on offer, and at a killer price.