Double Fine’s Amnesia Fortnight has become a fairly well known event by the developer. For two weeks every year, everyone at the company stops what they’re working on, and get together in small teams to create prototypes for new game ideas. And since 2009, all the games the studio have released have been born from these creative weeks. The likes of Costume Quest and Stacking came out of this elaborate brainstorm. This year they’re doing it differently. “We’re letting the world in on it,” explained studio head Tim Schafer to me this evening, in an interview to appear later tonight. Via Humble Bundle, we get to vote on the 23 pitches to pick the four that will be created as prototypes. And then the whole process of developing will be live-streamed, with the finished projects available to everyone who paid.

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When the Doublefine Adventure Kickstarter was in full flow, Castle Shotgun was filled with bemused exclamations. “Where do people find these funds when men such as we can barely afford caviar sculptures?” Jim cried in obvious distress. “Tim Schafer is undoubtedly wearing a money-beard”, Alec grumbled, envious. “We shall never see the like of this again,” came John’s conclusive statement. Then he hiccuped but it sounded a bit like he was saying ‘never’ again quite dramatically. Shortly afterwards, we saw the likes of it again and now Star Citizen has raised more crowdfunded cash than any other game (almost $6 million) and it’s not quite over yet. To celebrate, here’s a nifty video showing what happens to concept art if it eats its greens.

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A subject I’m hearing about increasingly frequently is people not playing games to deal with real life issues, but rather developing games to deal with them. And it’s always a fascinating process. A really superb story on NBC today highlights a project by Lars Doucet, who’s making a game that tries to capture the experience of living with Tourette’s Syndrome.

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The Indie Royale returns with The Stuffing Bundle, which makes me think of stockings brimming with gifts rather than breadcrumbs and sage shoved inside a carcass cavity. My headline-dominating opinion is that the three released chapters of The Dream Machine are the stand-out content and on this very site you can read what John and I said about the game in the dwindling days of 2011. The remainder of the stocking is filled with Children of the Nile, Anomaly: Warzone Earth, Puzzle Agent 2 and Adventure Apes and the Mayan Mystery. As I write this, minimum price is £2.99.

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It’s been over a year since I last unleashed my law-commanding fist of righteousness. This is intolerable. So thankfully the list of rules that games developers and publishers are FORCED BY INTERNATIONAL LAW to follow have been further extended. Six new rules are added to the lexicon. Failure to obey them results in instant withering looks and sighing disappointment from their mums.>

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Space-bot shooter Strike Suit Zero will be ready for release on January 24th after a stirring Kickstarter campaign ended with $174,804 in the kitty. I’ve never understood why people keep their money in cats, although I’d gladly secure my lifesavings in the tiny keg around a St Bernard’s neck. They’d fit too, seeing as I currently keep the entire sum in my trouser pocket, and a dog wouldn’t scarper with the stash as soon as my back was turned. The funding has also ensured the completion of the XedMod, “a lightweight and unified version of Xed, the development toolset used to create the game”, which will be shared with the community. An old but spacey trailer follows.

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Ether is an independently developed first-person puzzler with a psychological mystery at its core. We saw the first video footage of its Cornish delights back in July and should be able to uncover more details soon. The plot involves mental illness and ‘ethereal projection’, an ability whereby men and women known as restorers can enter their clients’ minds and attempt to repair them. The game will be in two parts, with the first due early next year. There’s no combat, but expect both environmental and cryptic puzzles. A new video provides snippets of story and a brief tour of the game’s take on what appears to be an English coastal village.

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Macabre survival nightmare, Don’t Starve, is available to play in beta form via Steam, in addition to the Chrome variant. Updates appear to be scheduled regularly, with the next due in a week, and I’ve been dabbling in preparation for a closer look at some point in the near future. There are no instructions provided, which is fitting because when lost in a weird world, a gentleman scientist does not receive an instruction manual. Instead, he must craft tools to exploit his environment and build fires to ward off the inky sea of night, and the horrors that scratch and squeal within the darkness.

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This is the very first time that you have been here before. The whales are watching you. They know what you did. What did you do? Ask the whales but they won’t tell you because they are silent. Mysteriously> silent. You probably killed someone and it might have been an accident but there’s almost definitely blood on your hands or lipstick on your collar, or a ghost in your shoe. The hills have the answers but they’re as quiet as the whales. Only the wind has a voice and it whispers so quietly that all you can make out is a name. Esteban. Download Dear Esteban to learn the truth about your past and that girl with the eighties hair. It’s free.

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Update: Huzzah! The issue is all fixed, and the beta now loads.

It’s been a mere nine months since The Banner Saga was a twinkle in the internet’s eye. But now the teeny team of former BioWare artists have put their tactical RPG into open beta. After a successful Kickstarter campaign, providing a big funding boost, those who backed have been in the beta for a while. But as of today, the rest of the world is invited to form an orderly queue. And pay. There’s a new trailer to celebrate, below, but there are also some technical issues getting the beta working at the moment.

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