I recently had the pleasure of spending a good hour with Colin Northway playing a multiplayer session of Monaco, which is nominated for multiple awards at this year’s Independent Games Festival. Monaco is a co-op stealth game being developed by Andy Schatz of Pocketwatch Games.

For me, this game captures the essence of what is fun about the stealth genre and wraps it in a dynamic visual presentation that feels fresh, and beautifully mesmerizing. Sound design is also superb and creates a remarkably rich ambiance.   Another thing that struck me in Monaco’s design is that it’s very simple, bare bones even, and each element in the game expands it in a new direction, contributing something meaningful to the player experience. Nothing is superfluous or wasteful. Stealing is about to become cool again, get excited, kleptomaniacs!

There’s also an interview with Andy up on GameDev.net if you want to learn more about this game.

Jon Erik Ariza over at GameObserver has taken a close look at some of the themes and subtext in World of Goo, chapter by chapter.

We Are World of Goo – the game “touches on beauty, our past, the cost of progress, and our place in the world” – interesting read!