And Yet It Moves takes a familiar gaming concept and gives it a twist--literally. This run-and-jump platformer allows you to twist and turn the world around you, dramatically changing the scenery. This ability to rotate the world is necessary, as you cannot climb, and your jumping ability is limited. But when you approach a boulder or tree branch you can't jump over, all you need to do is turn the background and walk over the (now horizontal) obstacle. The object is to navigate the landscape without falling into oblivion or getting smashed. Fortunately, since you're made of paper, you can 'die' as often as you want with very little setback. This 'immortality' kind of levels the playing field, since turning the world around you can take a bit to get the hang of. In a way, when you play this game you're a god: you're basically immortal, and the ability to flip the world on its axis seems pretty godlike to me.

Despite the strangeness of the world rotating behind you, the game follows the general laws of physics as we know them. While you are able to turn the background by 90 degrees in either direction, even spinning it completely around, directions remain constant. Your character keeps upright on the screen, up is always up, and down is always down. You never actually walk on the ceiling, you just turn the ceiling into the floor. Additionally, you retain your direction and velocity whenever you're on the move, even if you rotate the background mid-stride. If you're running to the right and you rotate the world 90 degrees clockwise, you don't just fall like a stone alongside the wall that a moment ago was the ground, your inertia gives you a little push forward before you begin your fall, allowing you to jump onto platforms and clear obstacles.

As I mentioned in my initial overview of IndieCade, one of the great things about indie developers is that they have the freedom to create games that are more than just 'games.' In the northeast corner of Bellevue's Open Satellite were two games (strategically placed next to each other?) which functioned as social commentary on the difficulties, frustrations and perils of parenthood: Gravitation and Fatherhood.

Gravitiation is the fourth game by indie developer Jason Rohrer. Having received notoriety for his previous game, Passage, his games are 8-bit art pieces meant to present a message rather than be played purley for entertainment. Gravitation is described as "a video game about mania, melancholia, and the creative process." In it, you play a man (presumably Rohrer, as your 'son' is supposed to be his son, Mez, and I don't think the message of the game is "you should try to kidnap the programmer's son") who must balance family life with work and creative projects.

I was able to check out so many innovative and interesting games at IndieCade this year, it's hard to know where to begin, so I'll just start with the game which most enchanted me: The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom. After our tour guide was done showing us around the game room floor, I made a bee-line back to P.B. Winterbottom and played the demo twice in a row. He told us he couldn't guarantee this game would become available to the public, but it was clearly a wink/wink  "I can't guarantee it." So while I can't tell you that this will be hitting a major gaming system, I'll be keeping a lookout for it, and I think you should too. I just hope I wasn't reading him wrong, because even though in the past I've been accused of overselling games I have a new infatuation with - and I may be guilty of that this time too - I loved this game! Haha, ok yeah that's an oversell, but this game is legitimately charming and fun to play, with a great unique graphics style and amusing rag-time inspired soundtrack to complete the silent film era feel.

I was recently able to attend the Bellevue, WA stop on IndieCade 2008's world tour. I didn't find out until 10:30 the night before that I'd be able to get in, so I went having almost no idea what to expect. PAX - the only other gaming convention I'd been to - was huge, loud, overwhelming and fun. IndieCade proved to be only one of those four - fortunately that one was "fun." In the Open Satellite conference room, a few dozen people gathered around computers playing games while developers presented their projects, gave interviews and answered questions. I got the chance to see and demo some really interesting, unique titles, and I'll be posting more about some of these games over the next couple weeks.

IndieCade went to China earlier this year, before coming to the states for stops in LA and Seattle before flying to England this weekend (a Latin America event is TBA). The IndieCade Showcase first appeared at 2007's E3 Expo, and is an international showcase designed to bring publicity and support to indie developers who might otherwise have difficulty getting their games into the public eye. As a new site we can really understand the need for exposure and how hard it can be to get your name out there. Indie developers often don't have an avenue for public exposure, and without distribution deals and connections, a great game can easily get lost in the shuffle and never make it into the hands of those who would love to play it. IndieCade tries to be an avenue to get the word out for these developers and their games. Think of it as the Sundance Film festival of gaming.

Independent game development teams are different from the big name developers in many ways. The obvious downside is lack of funding and resources, but the creative freedom these developers experience when not made to answer to big corporations allows them to make the amazing and unique titles which are the hallmark of the indie gaming world. When a programmer doesn't have to prove to (insert 'Large Gaming Company X' here)'s project managers that their idea will be 'the next big thing' and please the stockholders, they are free to create new and innovative without restriction. Some of the games I was able to check out will be showing up online or for one of the big name consoles, and some won't, but that was never the goal of many of these games.