elcome to day four of Indie Week here at Game Informer Online. Nearing the end of our coverage, we move forward with previews of six more of the year’s hottest indie games.

Looking for a recap? Monday we took a look at what it means to be an independent game developer by recruiting the help of industry insiders Simon Carless and Ron Carmel. On Tuesday we dived into our coverage with previews of the first five games (in alphabetical order) nominated at the 2009 Independent Game Festival. Nominees included Between, Blueberry Garden, Brainpipe, CarneyVale Showtime and Cletus Clay. Yesterday unfolded in a similar fashion as we introduced you to fellow IGF contenders Coil, Cortex Command, Dyson, Feist and The Graveyard.

Today we up the number of previews to six as we near the end of Indie Week. Read on for a peek at Incredibots, Machinarium, The Maw, Mightier, Musaic Box and Night Game. Make sure to hit the screenshots tab above to check out more images from the six nominees.

IGF Nominations: Technical Excellence
Developers: Grubby Games
Platform: Flash
Availability: Available Now
Cost: Free to Play/ Premium Content
Website

Incredibots is the epitome of the phrase “looks can be deceiving.” What first appears to be a simple flash game is in fact a tool that allows players to create their own custom robots, vehicles, machines and more. As some of the most dedicated Incredibots users have proved – if you can dream it, Incredibots allows you to build it. 

Incredibots offers multiple ways for you to play. If you are up for simply tinkering and seeing what you can create, the sandbox area is for you. However, if you instead seek a challenge you can take on tasks with preset parameters to see how you fair. 

The first challenge I took on was extremely simple in nature. I needed to dump a square box into a pit by creating a vehicle of my choosing – a car, dump truck, forklift or even a catapult would do. Everything in Incredibots is physics based. Relying on physics allows the users to create any number solutions to a particular challenge. The mindset is that if it would theoretically work in reality, it will in Incredibots.

I approached the first challenge by drawing a square box to act as the body of my vehicle. Next, I used a pair of circles for the wheels, attaching them to the body with two rotating joints to allow them to move. I then enabled the motor on each joint so I would be able to control the movement. From there a few rectangles and fixed joints created the forklift arm, which was attached with another rotating joint anchored to the body of the car. A motor was attached at that joint as well so it could be controlled independently. After a bit of engineering the vehicle was ready to complete its task. Simple enough right?

But keep in mind this was the challenge, and as such was intended to introduce the basics. From then on more options became available including different shapes, sliding joints, density adjustments, tuning motor speed and strength and so on. Additionally, every item and tweak costs credits to use, which are scored through successfully solving problems and completing challenges.

As you progress further in the game the tasks get more complex. Eventually you will be running through obstacle courses, jumping hurdles and even going “fishing.”

When you finish a challenge or a creation in the sandbox you can save your work as a video and submit your score to a worldwide leaderboard. Additionally you can link to your robot or embed a movie on your personal website.

Oddly enough, Incredibots isn’t only about creating vehicles or robots. You can also illustrate and animate characters using the same technology. When you are finished you can add text bubbles, animate specific body parts and even pan in or out as you record a “home movie.”

If you grew up playing with Legos, Erector Sets or Capsula toys, Incredibots may prove to be right up your alley.

IGF Nominations: Excellence in Visual Art
IGF Awards: Excellence in Visual Art
Developer: Amanita Design 
Platform: Windows PC and Mac
Availability: Fall of 2009
Cost: TBA
Website

Machinarium proves that you don’t need a multi-million dollar budget to boast stellar visuals, and as such is very deserving of the award it took home from the 2009 Independent Games Festival. 

Machinarium is an honest-to-goodness adventure game not tarnished by action or other unnecessary gameplay mechanics. In the game you play as a little robot down on his luck. Dropped at the city outskirts along with the trash, he must now work his way back inside the urban hub to confront those who have his girlfriend.

“We wanted to create a 2D adventure title with a strong hand-made feeling, simple but captivating story and fresh logical but sometimes strange puzzles,” explained Jakub Dvorský of Amanita designs. “All the graphic assets are hand-drawn by pencil on paper, music recorded with a lot of real musical instruments and sounds recorded especially for each action without using any existing sound libraries.”

The game unfolds through a basic point-and-click mechanic, allowing you to interact with and combine objects to meet your particular objective. The robot you control is able to shrink or expand in size as needed, making him the perfect stature to solve puzzles or reach objects. He also stores items by eating them, leaving them inside until they are later needed.

To aid with navigation the cursor changes to a pair of legs to indicate a possible path, and a pointing finger represents objects you can interact with. These are virtually the only mechanics needed in the game in order to solve the puzzles you are presented with. Nothing is communicated to the player except through thought bubbles, but the designers did a fantastic job of conveying ideas and goals through gestures.

The art and music is where this game truly excels. The hand drawn art is elaborate despite its intentionally drab colors and sketchy strokes, creating an urban decay environment somewhat fitting for the little protagonist. The music is also very notable, comprised of piano, guitar and strange robotic vocals.

The team at Amanita Designs is currently working on finishing Machinarium, which will release this fall via their own personal website, Steam, Direct2Drive and retail in some regions. They also expressed that ideally they would like to see Machinarium on XBLA. When asked, Dvorský confirmed that have no intentions of moving onto mainstream games, as the absolute creative freedom of being indie is too much to give up