The Independent Gaming Source recently finished the submission period for their Procedural Generation Competition. Contestants had about a month to begin and complete a game that created content on the fly, allowing players a different experience each time they played the game. Voting should start soon, but before then, I thought I’d highlight a few of the submissions (all free downloads or web games, of course). Click through to see a list of games I think you should check out, as well as a list of the awesomest game titles.

Games to check out, in alphabetical order:

• “Everyone Loves Active 2”:

  an “arena shooter” in the style of Every Extend or Everyday Shooter, with a cool “curved shot” mechanic and gorgeous painted-by-your-actions graphics.

• “KrebsWelte”:

  a game where you jump around and blow holes in the procedurally-generated levels to find the exit. And buy guns and allies. Oh, and it’s by cactus, easily the most efficient game developer ever made by science.

• “MMORPG Tycoon”:

  Does what it says on the tin. A decently complex simulation of MMORPG design, with cool neon graphics. A bit intimidating.

• “Mujakwi” (or “Space Game: Mujakwi”):

  Explore the universe. Shoot stuff. Collect valuable owls. Explode. I like how it lets you preview the size, difficulty, and lucre levels of planets you generate.

• “Night Raveler and the Heartbroken Uruguayans”:

  a cute web game where you’re the relationship fairy… as in, the one who ends relationships. Don’t worry, though! It’s all for the sake of love.

• “Rescue: The Beagles”:

  a tiny-pixeled minimalist game where the player manages resources like owls and parachutes to rescue puppies.

• “Self Destruct”:

  one of those damn “bullet hell” shoot-em-ups I lamented in my last episode. But the art is cool, and it was fun for the seventeen seconds I managed to survive.

• “sin(Surfing)”:

  a geeky oscilloscope-surfing game that plays like Tony Hawk crossed with Excite Bike. Great chiptune music and cool graphics.

• “Space Cat on Mutant Planet”:

  a procedurally-generated exploration game! I’m quite partial to exploration games, where you’re looking around a world for stuff. This one feels unfinished, but there’s definite potential. And explosions.

And now, the best titles of the competition:

• “Faith, to a certain Degree”
• “King of Public Transit”
• “Night Raveler and the Heartbroken Uruguayans”
• “The Germinator”
• “Because it’s fun, Fay”
• “Elephantastic”