No doubt the cousin of Professor Science, the Jetpack Brontosaurus has been eagerly awaiting to explore the stars with his trusty thruster. The much anticipated browser game of his adventures has finally entered alpha, allowing anyone to step into his over-sized dinosaur boots. Featuring a few missions, there's not much to it at the moment, but it is an alpha. Check it out at the official Flashbang Studios site. You'll need the Unity Player installed on your browser to play, and remember to fill out the feedback form!

[Via IndieGames]

The term "casual" has been coined to define a genre of game that so-called "non-gamers" can play. These games typically have a number of elements in common:

1. Simple rules -- the object of the game should be clear, with an easily-understood control scheme
2. Minimal time investment -- levels should be short enough to be completed in one sitting, say, between 3 - 5 minutes
3. Minimal system requirements -- the game shouldn't require the latest video card or esoteric browser plug-ins

If we examine one of the reigning kings of the casual game genre, PopCap Games' Bejeweled, we find all three of these elements. It's easy to understand, progress can be made quickly (even though there is no goal other than the accrual of points), and it's Flash-based, which most web browsers already support out of the gate. So on the surface, it's fairly easy to determine, at a glance, if a game fits within the casual template. However, while games like Bejeweled still abound, the genre as a whole has begun to mutate, requiring a redefinition of the label. We'll explore how and why after the jump.

While we here at Big Download do love a good shoot-'em-up, the genre does not exactly innovate in any amazingly great fashion. Most gameplay improvements are iterations of previous games, whether the improvement is moving in a new dimension or the addition of bombs. Which is why, naturally, Evolution Shmup took us completely by surprise.

Featuring gameplay systems that are randomly generated, Evolution Shmup is a social gaming experiment to create a shmup through darwinistic gameplay innovations. The engine randomly creates the parameters of a gametype and then allows the player to attempt to play it. After playing several gametypes, the engine starts to randomly mash-up the elements of the games played the longest by the players, creating a strange sort of natural selection aspect. It's more interesting as an experiment than a game, as some of the gametypes are literally unplayable, but it's still worth a try.

[Via IndieGames]

So you like to play games but just don't feel the need to start up a separate application on your PC. Well you use a web browser, right? According to a new San Fransisco-based company called GameLayers, you can play a MMO genre game while surfing the net at the same time.

That game is called PMOG.com and you can start playing with your Firefox web browser (Internet Explorer is not supported, oddly enough) and a Firefox extension that serves as the PMOG client. The more you surf the web with the client the more point you collect that you can use for game items. You can set traps or rewards for other players of the game in other web sites. The game itself has a kind of Steampunk theme to it which at least makes it different than the typical fantasy style titles. PMOG has been in closed beta for a number of weeks but today it has officially launched. Our big question; how does GameLayers plan to gain revenue from this model?

A few weeks ago Turbine launched the official web site for their upcoming MMO expansion pack Lord of the Rings Online: The Mines of Moria with one of three planned browser based mini-games. Now the second mini-game has launched on the site and it's a comedic Flash game called Swig and Toss.

The title pretty much describes the game itself. Its designed around a virtual pub where you "drink" from the game's ale and then bet that you can hit a distant target with one of your axes. The problem? Drinking causes your aim (i.e. your mouse cursor) to get blurry and go off target. Winning the game will unlock more content (videos, screenshots and special in-game items) for the Mines of Moria web site giving players of Turbine's MMO more info into the expansion's features. The expansion itself is due for release later this fall.

Atari/Infogrames is betting the house, the car and the condo on the beach that people will flock to their upcoming revival of the Alone in the Dark survival horror game series. They are putting out all the stops to market the game including a recent redesign of the game's official web site, www.centraldark.com, turning it into a mini-game in itself.

Exploring the map and locations of the game's version of Central Park in New York City you can collect various items such as a pistol, a screwdriver and more. Putting them into your inventory while exploring the web site unlocks special movie download showing off the terrific graphics created by Alone in the Dark's developers Eden Studios. New screenshots and info from the game are there as well. Again, the publisher is suffering financially so it needs Alone in the Dark to be a huge hit. Will the interactivity of the game's web site help with that mission? We will find out for sure when the game is released in late June.

A couple months back, the Discovery Channel spent an entire hour of its 5 part documentary "Rise of the Video Game" analyzing the relationship between the United States military and the video games industry. It's been a long and profitable tradition, with military simulations making up a big chunk of video game sales, and with recruitment games like America's Army proving to be very effective for the military.

Australian military officials must have been inspired by that example, because their online recruitment initiative DefenceJobs has launched a website full of military-themed Flash games. The games are designed to pitch a 12-month, post-secondary-school stint in the army as a viable choice to teens. So, far, over 300,000 users have signed up at the site.

The games aren't nearly as complex as America's Army, but they're still fun, and there are several of them. Some of them even have multi-player options. The blending of military and gaming culture is a complex subject, and a lot can be said both in criticism and acceptance of the trend, so mull over that if you like. Or, if you're more the shooting type than the thinking type, just play the damn games.

[Via Joystiq]

If you're a PC gamer then you've probably been subject to the news that both Mass Effect and Spore are going to require an online activation and subsequent re-activations every ten days. This piece of news has caused quite a bit of internet buzz over the discussion of whether or not these games should even have anti-piracy protection or not. Some say yes, some say no and others are somewhere in-between.

The guys over at Opposable Thumbs have created one of their "The Showdown" articles wherein two of their writers flip a coin to decide which side of the argument they'll represent.

Develop's interview with the folks at GarageGames and InstantAction first discussed how the platform was more oriented to appeal to hardcore gamers. Now, in the second part of the interview, they have revealed that they believe that online development is the future for games.

"It's about taking a more web development type mentality to game development, which is about getting it out there," said Yang. "The biggest successes on the web - Yahoo, Google - all started with something really simple and expanded it over time, they let their users tell them what was and wasn't working."

This is really just an expansion of what freeware developers have been doing for years. Regardless, I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, and the much more community-oriented, feedback-accepting InstantAction is rapidly grabbing my interest and holding it.

Develop recently snagged an interview with the guys over at GarageGames about their new "InstantAction" platform. Among the nuggets of interesting information came out something sweet. Something hardcore.

"If you look at web games, they're pretty much all casual games with a wide audience - which is good - but this kind of middle-aged woman demographic. There are a bunch of teenage virtual worlds too, like RuneScape and Habbo Hotel, but nobody is really going after core gamers on the web yet," said CEO Josh Williams. Looks like the hardcore demographics is still going strong. For the full story, check out Develop's excellent interview.

Talk about appearing charmingly cute while being horrifically bleak. Dino Run, a little browser game by the incomparable PixelJam, is a cute pixelated retro sidescroller that happens to be about a little dino outrunning the coming armageddon.

Your goal is to reach the end of each area while consuming eggs and little critters on your way to gain points. There's multiple areas, secrets to uncover, and it's all rendered in beautifully animated pixel art. It's excellent in a retro-awesome-sort-of-way and definitely worth checking out.

[Via IndieGames]

Tribes is a masterpiece of multiplayer gaming, introducing a lot of the concepts (such as vehicles and massive maps) that we take for granted today. Knowing how much we online gamers love Tribes, GarageGames has been hard at work to slake our thirst for a new Tribes game.

Fallen Empire: Legions, its spiritual sequel on the InstantAction platform, is that game. It's also accepting beta testers for the next wave of invites. If you send a blank email to FELopenbeta@garagegames.com from the same email address that is bonded to your InstantAction account, there's a good chance you'll get into the beta when they send out the invites.

[Via ShackNews]

The GROW series of Flash games has got to be one of the most addictive, time-wasting series ever. Besides being terribly cute, they're also a testament to the creativity of one person, known only as 'On'. A new game from On is always an event to celebrate, and no less with his newest creation, Meet In.

This one's a little different than the other games on the Eyezmaze site. It's a single-player, cooperative (if you can get your mind around that one) escape-the-maze game. You have four screens, each of which has a character in it, stuck in a different part of the maze. By working together, all four can escape. It's fun, it's free, go check it out!

[Via Rock, Paper, Shotgun]

A new study by Carmen Russoniello of East Carolina University, which will be debuting at the Games for Health Conference in Baltimore, looks at how casual games impact the moods and stress levels of people playing them. The study looks at players playing one of three games: Bookworm Adventures, Peggle, and Bejeweled 2 (all by PopCap, who commissioned the study).

The most interesting part is that each game affected the players in a different way. Bookworm made people much more relaxed, Peggle reduced mental tension, and Bejeweled increased "mental vigor" the most. They all, however, caused at least short-term relaxation and stress reduction. The study did not, however, measure long-term effects of playing these games.

[Via Newsweek]

GarageGames continues to expand on their recently launched web browser based game network InstantAction.com and tonight the game developer/publisher will launch an all new game for the service, Rokkitball. This new multiplayer oriented game had us at its description of "football with rocket launchers and magno-beams". We are so there for that kind of game.

Do you want more info? Sure, why not. The game itself was developed internally at GarageGames and features support for up to eight human players (bot players will fill the blanks if a match is lacking in humans). GarageGames hopes that Rokkitball will combine the fast pace of a shooter with the strategy that's needed in a team sport game. The developer also plans to add content to the game in the months ahead including adding more stadiums and more support for team customization features. The released screenshots for the game show a visual look that recalls the movie Rollerball (the first one, not the awful remake). If you want to check out Rokkitball, you can sign up to play the game with the open beta of InstantAction.com at its web site.