Best Of Indie Games: The Game Development Shuffle

[IndieGames.com: The Weblog co-editor Tim W. rounds up some of the week's top free and commercial indie games from his sister 'state of indie' weblog.] This week on 'Best Of Indie Games', we take a look at some of the top independent PC Flash/downloadable titles released over this last week. The goodies in this edition include a game development company simulator, a puzzle platformer in the style of the old Prince of Persia games, a collection of minigames that tests your quick reflexes and puzzle-solving skills, plus a platformer in which you have to build the platforms by yourself. Here's the highlights from the last seven days: Game Pick: 'Game Dev Story' (Kairosoft, commercial indie - demo available) "In Game Dev Story you play as an owner of a startup company, just about to get your feet wet in the risky business of game development. The adventure begins with your secretary advising you to add a couple of designers, artists and coders to the payroll, then assigning them to a game project where the genre, budget and targeted platform will all be decided by you." Game Pick: 'Boondog' (Matthew Hart and Miroslav Malesevic, browser) "Boondog is a platforming puzzler in which you press switches and push objects to reach the portal at the end. Control-wise, it plays a little like Flashback or Prince of Persia, in that it leans more towards a puzzle game with ledges to grab and edges to step right up to." Game Pick: 'Chase Goose 2' (Hideous, browser) "Chase Goose 2 is a Canabalt-style side-scrolling runner in which you control a goose that is running and flapping away from a giant snake monster. Tap left and right one after the other to run, then hit whatever key is displayed at each ledge. It's a simple idea, but plenty of fun and very difficult to master - your fingers will be all over your keyboard." Game Pick: 'Bustabrain' (Tom Vencel, browser) "Bustabrain throws a collection of puzzles and minigames at you, with the objective being to finish them all off in as few clicks as possible. You've got rebuses, simple clicking games, match removal, memory games, the works. It's nothing amazing, but if you've got a bit of time to kill, it does a good job of filling the void." Game Pick: 'Leap 4 Blue' (Noel Berry, browser) "Leap 4 Blue is a platformer in which you place the platforms yourself. The objective is to stand on the blue block in each level, but you'll need to position a series of platforms to help you reach the goal. It's really simple yet addictive stuff - I just lost a good portion of an hour to it, and I'm sure you will too."