If you're in the mood for some straight-from-the-oven casual gaming and a little constructive criticism, the excellent blog Jay Is Games has just closed its 2007 Casual Game Design Competition and will start posting entries (all written in Flash) over the next few hours. The theme this year is 'Ball Physics' so we can probably expect our fair share of Marble Madness clones.
However, the winner of last year's competition - which had the theme 'replay' - was a totally offbeat experience. Entitled, Gimme Friction Baby it took the basic concept of Puzzle Bobble and stripped it down, turning it into a weird strategy think-piece where part of the fun was figuring out what the heck you're were supposed to do. Well worth checking out.
But first, watch for the 2007 entries, give them a go and leave a comment. This is grassroots game design as it happens.
