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We’re fans of the Steam platform here on Tap. Yesterday saw the launch of its new system for submitting and discovering indie games: Greenlight. Being a fan of both indies, and of Steam itself, I figured I’d check it out. Here, generally, is how it works: developers submit a game to Greenlight, including sample screenshots, promo videos, and whatever else they have handy. Then the community votes on which games they’d like to see end up on Steam.

So far, great idea, but there are a few problems that I can see…

Sometimes here on Tap we occasionally link to Kickstarter or other crowdfunding projects. We don’t always cover them all (I haven’t even covered the ones I’ve funded!) because there’s so many, but today I am linking to one in particular. Why? Because I tried the demo on iPad at GDC, it’s clever, it’s clay, and I’d like to see it happen!

The wheels of justice continue to turn (sort of) this week, with the conclusion of two big wrangles that games industry watchers have been, ah, watching.

The biggest news is the settlement between goliath publisher Activision/Blizzard and former Infinity Ward heads Jason West and Vince Zampella, both of whom were abruptly fired in March of 2010. West and Zampella sued, claiming A/B owed them monstrous royalties for Modern Warfare 2. Activision/Blizzard countersued, claiming that West and Zampella were stupid-heads, and the whole sordid affair dragged on for a while.

Hi Tappers! My convention schedule this year is about to continue… with a trip this week to Columbus, Ohio, for the Origins Game Fair. This has always been one of my favorite events: large enough to attract a good variety of gamers, but small enough that it still sort of feels like coming back home.

Unless you’ve been living in a closet lately, you’ve probably noticed a lot of excitement focused on Kickstarter. Kickstarter, the crowd-funding resource, is being used to fund all kinds of cool games for development. Often, these are games of the quirky variety that might be considered too unusual for a regular publisher to take a risk on. Today we’re drawing your attentions toward a promising Kickstarter done by some friends of Tap: Map Monsters.

The formerly iPad-exclusive Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP is now available (and on sale) for PC on Steam.  So you should definitely go get it if you don’t have an iPad.  If you do have an iPad, you better have played this already!  Because it’s amazing.

Sword & Sworcery is an indie action/adventure game with a really incredible soundtrack, and is frankly not quite entirely unlike anything you’ve ever played probably.  It was also one of my games of the year.

So what are you waiting for?  GO NOW.

The presence of Dungeons & Dragons was felt throughout the long, broad halls of Boston’s PAX East convention this past weekend. Wizards of the Coast brought with them this year the traditional tabletop offerings, running tables of D&D Essentials and the new Lords of Waterdeep board game in the convention’s table gaming room. But Dungeons & Dragons also means video games these days. In addition to checking out some new content premiering for the existing Dungeons & Dragons Online, I also got a first look at the newest D&D MMO, which is simply called Neverwinter. My thoughts on the latter lead off a series about the things I saw this past weekend at PAX. Join me past the jump.

I normally don’t post breathless and shocking announcements, but it’s just been brought to my attention that there’s been a huge upset in the world of gaming. Specifically, SWERY65, director of Deadly Premonition, has had his blog taken over by an alternate-dimension doppelganger with a terrifying mustache. And I gotta say, the game that development genius ZVVORY666 is working on now looks incredible.

The Wipeout series has always been dripping with cool. Studio Liverpool’s clinical vision of the future has consistently been supported by industry leading electronic soundtracks and audio design, with it’s original logo’s and and aesthetic created by The Designers Republic setting the tone of the series from 1995 to the present day. It’s the videogame equivalent of a chic underground nightclub, and it’s a vibe that has always resonated with me. This is one of my favourite gaming franchises of all time and is probably the closest thing Sony have to a “system seller” to me. Hence my purchase of a Vita along with Wipeout 2048 last month.

Musical indie Cipher Prime has returned to its roots with a sequel to the firm’s mesmerizing debut, Auditorium. I adored – and still adore – that brilliant, beautiful puzzler. Fractal, Cipher Prime’s sophomore achievement, I could have done without. Still, they’ve made a name (and a living) for themselves in a hard, harsh world… and now they’re Schaferizing, using Kickstarter to help fund Auditorium Duet, a multiplayer sequel to the original.

Do I want it to be multiplayer? No, I hate other people. And Auditorium’s beauty has always been a very single-person thing to me. But still, I wish the best for Cipher Prime, and if you have some change in your couch cushions, you should do the same.

The 3DS is doomed. Nobody wants dedicated portable games consoles anymore. iOS is taking over. Nintendo going third party confirmed. Pack it up guys, it’s over. Well no, actually. Turns out the 3DS is pretty popular. So popular infact that the system has just pushed past the five million mark in Japan alone, a feat managed in just 51 weeks and faster than the Gameboy Advance, Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii. For comparison’s sake, the …

I don’t think there could be a better email in the world on a rather grey Tuesday, than an invitation to take part in the Guild Wars 2 Beta.  Though I can tell you very little (other than it begins this weekend and I’ve already packed off my entire family) rest assured I will be providing some in-depth coverage come Monday the 20th, so be sure to check back here. If you have any suggestions on what …

Super Mario Bros. Crossover is a pretty basic idea: a fan-made Flash game where you play Mario’s levels with other characters. Each character retains the abilities from his or her original game, and power-ups do different things than they would normally!

So a lot of people like Tim Schafer. 19,689 people to be precise, at the time I’m writing this. Perhaps yesterday you heard about this? In case you didn’t I’ll summarize: the folks at Double Fine productions don’t believe it’s possible to receive publisher funding for a “classic adventure game”-type game in 2012. Not going to happen. So instead, they reached out to so called “people” to fund their adventure dreams. $400,000 worth of funding, to be specific. Kotaku figured it wouldn’t take a week. Turns out it didn’t take a day.

Check out Double Fine’s “Kickstarter” page for all the details. Tim’s amusing plea video follows the break.

Right this very second, people are making games. The ripple started in New Zealand, then Australia, then began moving slowly west. By this evening my time, the indie-game development plague will hit the Americas.