I don't know how to write a decent introduction anymore. Tidbits about myself seem pointless when I have a blog on the same site. You'll have to satisfy yourself with this piece featuring Peter Molyneux on The Making of Dungeon Keeper and this GameSetWatch piece on Sid Meier's Key Design Lessons.

• Flick's Boxed, Crispy's Carpe Slimum and Awakening's Echelon have all been welcomed back to the featured list and more might be on the way. The later two have AI to counteract those too cowardly to enter servers.
• Oasiscircle's Forsight has been added to the guild. It's a turn-based strategy game sort of like Chess, but with original pieces and resource management. I have not played it yet, but its seems nifty. C_Dawg_S has been nice enough to host a server. Tech Tree readers might want to use it to practice because Oasiscircle is planning a tournament with prizes to take place a week or two from now. Players can enter here.
• The Efencea team is looking for people to help test the balance of an unreleased version of their base defense game. Some are needed to play, some will need to tweak the XML, and at least one tester will be needed to host the game.
  
  Moving on, the outdated version of Efencea has been removed from the guild and Efencea member Tayoko has created a website to promote his art.
• Foomer has written a postmortem for Solar Conquest. Along with the Game Developer/Gamasutra-inspired What Went Right and What Went Wrong sections are some tool links that even those of you who have never played the game might be interested in.
• Acebloke released two updates for Wargames this week. Fixes are available for multiple bugs, including the lag involving medal checking mentioned last week. Also included are new medals and interface improvements.
• Ganing has been putting his Efencea addiction to good use. His base defense game, Seika SE, saw an update and is getting another as I type. Along with new maps and a decrease in lag, players can expect new modes, medals, and a scoreboard... One of the modes could have more of an RPG slant. That sounds familiar. ;)
• Though the next beta has yet to see a release, Tsfreaks has been hard at work on his version of Cathedral. A lot of it seems to have been done on a player management system, but he seems to have also made a breakthrough with the AI design.
• Mecha Destroyer JD is looking to update Ultimate Strife. Medals are planned, but the most important changes will be based on feedback. Help the guy out by posting in that blog's comments or in his forum!
• Aaiko recently stated that all of Iccusion Entertainment's "casual" games will be getting interface and graphic updates. This means we'll be seeing another version of Gemble at some point.
• Currently more of an action demo than an RTS, Hobnob's Warspite has been suffering from lack of free time and motivation. On the bright side, Hobnob is thinking of creating a game which is roughly inspired by Railroad Tycoon. More details, and an opportunity to help name the project, can be found on his blog.
• BYOND Strategy Bishop IainPeregrine was recently interviewed by Fugsnarf as a BYOND Conqueror. Multiple people across BYOND are also taking part in IainPeregine's Get Something Done Challenge. One project that he might personally be completing is his strategy game, Castle Masters. At least, that's what the reply was when I offered suggestions after a test session. ;)

Another episode of The Dogface Show has begun. Check out the channel for recent videos of a casual tournament between some of the best Street Fighter players in the world.

I think Wrangle, Warp And Weep's difficulty level pales in comparison to Sinistar. At least WWW shows the credits with a mere click. ;)



Got news? How about why the heck I have a link to an old post on mCheckers 2 bookmarked? I can't remember where I got it, but Metamorphman did say that the new scores/medal system was motivating him to work.