Kachina is a whimsical physics toy that explores negative space by allowing players to manipulate a hole in the ground, swallowing up animals and spitting them back out elsewhere. For each object players swallow, the hole grows a little bit larger – evoking a sense of childlike wonder through order & scale. The action takes place on the stage of the American Southwest, exploring the relationship between modern American and indigenous Pueblo cultures through themes of erasure & discovery.

Ben Esposito most recently worked as a game designer with Giant Sparrow on the PlayStation Network game, The Unfinished Swan. Kachina actually came out of a “Molyjam” – a game jam themed around the Twitter account Peter Molydeux. Afterwards, Ben continued to tinker around with this toy-like experience, and as he fell deeper into the holes of Kachina, our interest in the project grew. We’re happy we can support Ben to go exploring his own first commercial indie game – we think his voice will be a unique addition!

Panoramical is a game we are funding for a variety of reasons.  We want the games we fund to push the boundaries of what is done in the medium, and Panoramical does just that.  We are happy to see the projects we fund be accessible; with Panoramical you only need to see it for a couple seconds and you’ll want to grab the controls, but you can also enjoy it by just sitting back and watching someone else explore.  Panoramical, with its collaboration with different artists and musicians, has the ability to cross-over into other active communities who don’t generally define themselves as gamers (even though they play with interactive experiences all the time).  Panoramical is also an experiment in discovering how to sell this kind of game, and we hope Fernando and David can help discover new ways that artists can distribute and become financially successful in this genre.  We are very excited to be funding our first game from Latin America, and hope that Panoramical can help spread interest in indie games throughout other parts of the world.

It looks stunning on a big screen, and if you haven’t been lucky enough to see it shown at IndieCade, GameCity (or a variety of other events and festivals) it will be showing at GDC 2013 at the Wild Rumpus + Venus Patrol party on Wednesday March 27th .

Congratulations to Fernando and David, and we can’t wait for the world to experience the game on their own systems when it launches later this year.

Today marks the release of Antichamber, a game that Alexander Bruce created and developed almost entirely by himself over the past few years. Alex stuck to his guns, never wavered in his vision, and always sought to make the game better. It’s pretty tough not to be inspired by his work, and perseverance. The end result is a really special game of the highest quality.

Anitchamber is a cerebral game, full of puzzles that will likely bend your solving-skills in a way you never anticipated. But it is also a game, playful in the exploration of the puzzles and the world they reside in. Take a gander at the launch trailer below, which will provide a quick example of what we mean.

Even though Indie Fund played only a tiny role in helping Alex achieve his goals, we’re super proud all the same.

Huge congratulations to Mr. Bruce on launching Antichamber on Steam. You can grab the game here, at 25% off for the first week.

[Update: ANTiCHAMBER recouped its Indie Fund investment less than an hour after launch.  Alex needed very little money from us, so that by itself doesn't say much, but the game did have an amazingly excellent launch day, both financially and critically. Congratulations again, Alex!]

Hi everyone!  Monaco is the first game we funded via Indie Fund.  It’s been a long time in development and has come a loooooong way since its first incarnation as a 12-week-IGF-winning-game-prototype.  As of today, Andy is taking pre-orders for Monaco here.

Best of luck, Andy!

More details, straight from the horse’s mouth:

• The game will cost $15 at launch, but is available for a pre-order discount of 10%. So pre-orders cost $13.50
• Pre-order 4-packs are available for $45
• The pre-order is for the PC/Mac version only, not XBLA. If you are looking forward to the XBLA version, save your money!
• The PC and XBLA versions will launch at the same time
• The Mac version will likely not be available at the same time as the PC version, but will probably come shortly thereafter, however Mac beta testers have been running the game successfully in bootcamp, etc
• The pre-order is being sold through the Humble Store, and comes with Steam keys
• The Pre-order does NOT include beta access
• Pre-orders also contain some awesome goodies:
• A DRM-free version of the 15-week prototype that won the 2010 IGF. I’ve renamed this version MONTE CARLO
• Two tracks from the Official Soundtrack, from the score composed by Grammy-nominated (Journey) composer, Austin Wintory
• Sheet music for the main theme. Austin is asking that musicians perform the piece and remix it in any way they please for a chance to be included on a special Monaco remix album