In our second vaguely off-topic post of the day, I wanted to make sure all of you had a chance to check out this blog on a game design class with a lot of interesting information about the art and science of game design. There seems to be a lot of helpful information there, especially some of the later classes, including several posts on game testing in different environments and under different play patterns.

While we mostly focus on free games that our readers can play, I thought it would be worthwhile to link to some resources for readers who may want to take the next step from consumer to creator. There are a lot of skills that come into play for indie game development, including game design, art, programming and marketing. The latter can be one of the most tricky, but if you shoot us an email at hello@playfreegamenow.com, we will absolutely review your game and include a link to what you’ve created.

Hope you enjoy the posts above! If you want more, you should definitely also check out some fascinating thoughts on Facebook games here.

If you are interested in a fun, relaxing and artistic game, try playing Obechi by K2xL. Obechi is a dead-simple flash puzzle game where the player attempts to collect a certain number of dots (which are abstract objects often flying around the board) using a certain number of rings. Precision is extremely important: depending on the level, it can be easy to get either too many or too few dots.

Capturing the dots with rings in Obechi

The difficulty is just about right for a new player: Obechi eases you into learning how to collect dots and form the right right sizes in a simple and relaxing environment (the music helps!) — yet the time-based scoring component allows veteran players to compete and sink more time into playing this fun free flash game.

Check out Obechi above — it’s produced by the guys at K2xL.