Well, well, well, the PGC, also known as the Procedural Generation Competition. is finally in its final stage. With a whopping 60 submissions, boy are there some gems among the submissions. TIGSource should really do these kind of contests more often. The only downside is the deadline--seems like many projects could have done a lot better with more time.

For me, one of the themes of this competition seems to be the unplayability of games, whether due to some stupid .NET compatibility or others...and judging by reader feedbacks in the competition forum, I'm not the only one.

I've listed some games below that I've been keeping my eyes on throughout the competition. Note I've played/tried all of the submissions (other than the ones I can't get to run, of course, thanks to crappy computers in China), and the ones below have made a pretty big impression on me.
* Note that a lot of the screenshots are shamelessly stolen from author's sites or the competition page, since with my current available technology, I'm not able to make any of my own.

dropTD by Nurykabe [ Downalod ]
- A really cool tower defense game where you first drag a file (anything on your desktop, porn included) into the game window to generate a "map", when the game starts, you need to drag n drop files into the game window to generate differently "towers." The graphic is very simple, but the colors are nice, and the gameplay is pretty straightforward.

The fun part is experimenting with different kinds of files and see which gives the best tower, which is quite a refreshing experience, when was the last time a game interacted with anything else on your computer other than maybe install a virus somewhere?

Very fun game and one that I've been keeping my eyes on since the beginning, although once you stumble upon a file that gives the best tower (one block tower), the fun sort of ends :(

 

 

Dyson by Alex May, Rudolf Kremers, and Brian Grainger [ Downalod ]
- In my opinion, one of the best entries. The art and design is fantastic, gives you the feeling of one of those abstract paintings with colors that go really well together.

The game itself might take a bit of time to learn. Basically, you are trying to colonize planets with seeds. The seeds (they look like birds) will grow into trees and produce more seeds, which in turn can be sent to more planets, colonize, rinse and repeat. Each planet has different attributes, and you're playing against computer players. Kind of like Galcon, but a bit more slow paced. I liked Galcon better for its multiplayer options, now if the creators adds online support to Dyson...*drools*

 

 

Minus by Melly [ Downalod ]
- Talk about total makeovers. This was another one of those game which I've been following since the beginning. In the beginning the game was called Shine, which looked really cool with a little shining dot in a maze-looking place. Later, the author said something along the lines of "can't finish it in time so I'm gonna make a completely new game har har har!" So Cloud was born, but after someone mentioned how the game reminded them of an online comic that goes by the name of Minus, the game was immediately renamed to Minus.

The game itself is actually quite fun, original no, but fun. It plays like Icy Tower, except here you're jumping from cloud to cloud, the higher you jump, the more enemies and less clouds. The music is also very soothing. A good game to waste a few minutes between coffee breaks.

 

 

Rescue: The Beagles by nenad [ Download ]
- Another one of my favorite entries. In the game, you're this cute little guy who can climb or drop from platforms, collect items like ropes and parachutes (which help you climb and drop, duh) as you try to "collect" the little puppies before the bad guys do.

It's very entertaining, the graphics are very pixely and cartoony, making this the perfect mini game that would come with some bigger game. The online scoring only adds to the replay value. A fun little coffee break game.

 

 

And now some game I would really like to play but CAN'T...

Biocosm by toastie [ Download ] - One of the game I paid the most attention to since the beginning due to its artwork...too bad I can't make much out of its gameplay from the videos posted, and I can't run the game (well, I can start the game, but it sort of crash/freeze after that).
sin(Surfing) by twohalf and Sifu Peng [ Download ] - Looked like the perfect time-waster, except I can't *@#$ run it.
The Adventures of Charles Dumbbell by Snake [ Download ] - An awesome looking game with an awesome concept from an awesome pixel artist, except at the moment the crappy computer I'm using thinks the executable is a virus and won't run it...

 

 

And now, possibly the best thing that resulted from this competition...

Ciellus by Terry Cavanagh and Annabelle Kennedy
- Probably the best entry that didn't count...originally a PGC entry, with superb artwork and later pixel art from Annabelle, this looked like the surefire winner. Unfortunately, seems like the little game got so good that the guys behind it decided to make it a full-fledged game, and pulled it out of the competition. The game, aside from the few artworks shown, seems to be a platformer, the pixel art reminds me of Cave Story, but I can't say much more since not much was revealed.

So instead of quitting the competition completely, the author gave as Self Destruct instead, a survival shooter where you have to survive 200 something waves of enemies, very fast-paced with retro 2D graphics, fun for a while till you get motion sickness from all the moving objects on screen, haha.