To take part of the competition, submit your freeware game to The Daily Click on or before Sunday the 22nd of October. To accommodate time zones, this is being calculated as 6am on 23rd October UTC and make it clear that the game is being submitted as part of this competition within the game description.

First place prize is a special tag at The Daily Click, DC Points, listing as a GOTM winner and fully bragging rights.

Other valid entrants will get some DC points and a tag to show that they participated.

Theme and judging

The theme for competition is 'Replayable Halloween boss battle'. Replayable means "suitable for or worth playing more than once". How you try to achieve this is up to you.

Judge(s) will provide a review of each game and rank them. The rankings will take into account gameplay, creativity and use of the theme. The game which the judge(s) give the highest collective ranking will be the winner. If you wish for your game to be unranked, say so in your submission.

You can re-use art assets and engines from previous games, but make it clear where you do so in your game submission. A more transformative use is likely to be ranked higher in terms of creativity than a simple re-hash of a previous boss battle, but creativity is only one of the ranking criteria.

If you wish to make your case for why you think your game should be ranked highly against the various criteria then you are free to make your case within your submission or in a DC Mail to Joshtek. This will be taken into consideration and where relevant will be discussed in the results post.

Standard rules

Within the game itself, please state that the game was made for this competition and list who the author(s) are.

Games should be made using Clickteam software (e.g. Fusion 2.5).

If you wish to request a deadline extension for extenuating circumstances then please let us know as soon as possible. Late submissions can be refused or could be ranked lower due to their lateness.

...AND IN OTHER NEWS

The much anticipated Knight's Quest RPG Beta Build 1 has been released by BigAl0104

Comments from the Author:

"This is Beta Build 1 of the game. More beta builds to come in the future. In a far away land, there exists a kingdom called Damonia. In it, lives a king known an King Dederic, and his beautiful daughter, Princess Amelia. She is desperate into wanting to marry a special someone, so when the news broke on the other side of the land, an evil wizard named Karlov hears about the princess wanting to get married. Karlov plans to capture the princess, and bring her back to his lair so he ends up marrying her. It is now up to Knight Richard to travel across the land to Karlov's lair, and rescue the princess. Throughout the game, you will fight all kinds of monsters in a turn based RPG battle system. Defeat enemies, level up your stats, buy items and equipment, everything you need to progress further to reach Karlov's lair."

Click here to download the game and read its comments.

And for those who want to create something that is not Halloweeny, we have the Old School Fusion 2.5 Game Jam hosted by Martin Frank. The competition opens today and submissions are due in 1 week.

I came back from a short holiday in Manchester and ended up with a mini backlog of games. Okay, so on with the show...

The first game we have is the action game Death Deliverancy 2 from Martin Frank.

Comments from the Author:
"'Death Deliverancy 2' is an intense 2D action game where you take on the role of "Death Giver", a fearless warrior who was recently captured, you (DeathGiver) is trying to escape. Armed with an arsenal of deadly weapons, you must fight your way through hordes of enemies. shoot down helicopters. and escape using your skills and quick reflexes to survive. The game is made in Clickteam Fusion 2.5, providing smooth and responsive gameplay. With its fast-paced action and thrilling storyline, "Death Deliverance" is sure to keep you on the edge of your seat. Are you ready to take on the challenge and deliver death to your enemies for the 2nd time?"

Click here to download the game and read its comments.

Secondly we have the interactive fiction game Signal Lost: Connected Edition by Ghost Data Media

Comments from the Author:
"A visual novel about a couple trying to find their way out of a forest and finding themselves along the way... Signal Lost was a Game Jam game made November 8th to November 11th. It's now been substantially updated and published officially as a Ghost Data Media game! Signal Lost Connected Edition adds LOTS of changes to a game that was originally completed in just 3 days."

Click here to download the game and read its comments.

Thirdly, we have 8 more games game on Kliktopia, including the abandoned sequel to Peetoo the Happy Dinosaur (which was cancelled in favour of Peetoo's Revenge). The original Peetoo was one of the first Click platform games I remember downloading from the Internet, so it has a special place in my hart.

In project news, Death Deliverancy 3 has been announced by Martin Frank, an update to Knight's Quest RPG  has been posted by BigAl0104, andd an update to Crazy Towers 2 has been posted by Jack or John.

And last, but not least, I wan to give a heads up that we'll be running a spooky competition / game jam next month. I hope to be able to post more details on Sunday 1st October.

We asked people what art style they prefer for indie games and the results are in:

Perhaps unsurprisingly, more than half of TDC's users voted for Pixel Art. A third voted for either abstract or cartoonish, which got joint second. Still, some people preferred Hand-Painted and Realistic which shows that there is an audience for everything!

In other news, I asked on the Kliktopia Discord what poll to go with next and Wacku suggested we ask what Click tool people started with, some I'm going with that. This poll was run back in 2018 so I'll compare the results with the historic one to see how things have shifted.

Feel free to share in your comments your story of how you started Clicking!

One of my projects is Kliktopia and it has now added 50 more games to its archive of old Click games, bringing it to 3,330 entries. Thanks to everyone who has contributed!

This includes various games including Egg Bomb: Eggstreme by RapidFlash, Jack Puzzlemonster by Vertigo Productions, The Colors II by Peblo, Only In Your Memories by Phizzy, Tuki Tuki Island by Pembleton Games, and a lot by Lorand Emmanuel (Capitaine Caverne). Let us know in the comments what your favourite is from this batch!

In other news, a number of commercial Click games have been pulibhsed recently:

• Validus mortis has come out on PC via Steam. To quote the author LordHannu: "Validus Mortis is a 2D platformer in fantasy style. To stop the evil wizards of taking control of the land. explore the stage with your hero knight and find items to progress forward. Slay monsters and gain experience and new spells."
• Endless Memories has which was previously available on available on itch.io has now been released on released on Xbox. According to publishers Clickteam: "Enter the world of dreams in this action-adventure that mixes handcrafted non-linear worlds with ARPG elements. Join Rem on his journey through the dream world, inside the Laboratory of Dreams. Battle your way through an interconnected world where all minds are connected. Master many types of weapons and magic spells, solve the mysteries of the dreamers, and try to escape the Laboratory of Dreams."

After Chris Street (Circy) posted in this style as part of his triumphant return I thought I'd give it my spin.

New to TDC, Dannimáx has posted their first game to our site! With a fun visual style, accessible gameplay, some nice soothing music, and more coins than you can shake a stick at, COINS features well... a lot of coins. Collect 'em all while avoiding the hazardous hazards.

Comments from the Author:
"Traverse through 30 levels of increasing difficulty; make sure to collect all coins on the way! You will encounter red bouncing balls, purple rotating balls, cannons, keys, and spikes, all trying to stop you from getting your precious coins. This is my very first game, I had a lot of fun making it, I would love to make more games in the near future so if you like this one stay tuned for more"

Click here to download the game and read its comments.

Big Fusion 3 news... or at least the promise of it!

Yves Lamoureux of Clickteam recently posted on the Clickteam forum that:
"F3 blog should restart very soon, fingers crossed, another dev has been hired earlier this year and this has speeded it up significantly. The schedule is currently being updated and the blog should restart when it's done."

The Fusion 3 development blog was something which ran from from 2016 to 2018 and introduced people to the original incarnation of F3.

While that iteration never came to pass and many of its proposed changes might not make it into F3, a number of the features explored in those blogs did end up in Clickteam Fusion 2.5 or 2.5+. For example, the proposed Child Events feature ended up becoming F2.5+ Sub-Events and I have been making good use as part of my upcoming puzzle game. I look forward to hearing all about the new F3.

Established klikker Peeblo has submitted a new game to TDC! Lovingly created as a birthday gift for his friend, Kona's Konquest features your protagonist Kenzie as she attempts to flee an alien base after being abducted.

Comments from the Author:
"Oh no, Kenzie has been abducted by aliens! Luckily she has her trusty gun® to help her kill the aliens, will she survive this nightmare alien base?... Maybe she can, but what about you?"

Click here to download the game and read its comments.

Plenty of games in the works, and they all happen to be sequels, successors and spiritual spin-offs.

Out now: BigAlGames Slots Collection

Remember BigAl0104's 20 Crappy Games from January this year? Well, one element of that was his slot machines.

BigAl has now spun this off and zuped it up into its own Clickteam Fusion 2.5 game which is far from crappy: BigAlGames Slots Collection. This is for entertainment only and does not involve real money.

Out soon: Validus mortis

LordHannu has provided us with a number of games including medieval platformer Ignis mortis back in April 2016.

Hannu's latest creation Validus mortis is a successor of sorts, and it will be released on Steam soon.

Under development: Gemfinity and The Lost Eggs: Worlds

A game I'm working on is puzzle survival game called Gemfinity: Can't Stop the Blocks - check out its project page.

Meanwhile, Martin Frank has a project page for The Lost Eggs: Worlds which is an ultimate sequel to The Lost Eggs due out in Winter 2023.

We have two new games from some familiar names made in Clickteam Fusion 2.5.

Flug The Slug 2020 by Aliashoj

Remember the platform game Flug the Slug from 2004? Well, I do. And now it has a remake of sorts in the form of Flug the Slug 2020, which was finalised in 2022 and released in 2023 - a game for the ages. This game has a lot of nice touches, a fun retro feel and some funky sound effects.

Color Tiles by MinkoedZamorVedro

A puzzle game where your goal is to make the pattern form a gradient. No messing about having to slide tiles aroumd, you can just swap them by clicking on the two tiles you want to swap. There are also some non-moving anchor tiles to help you out. This is a very accesible game that is easy to jump right into. For replay value there is  timer so you can try to beat your personal best.

• Clickteam are currently selling Clickteam Fusion 2.5 Standard for $24.99 USD on itch.io until July 13th 2023. It costs more for additional exporters, etc.
• The Click-made platformer Endless Memories is now available for purchase on Nintendo Switch.
• An official Five Nights at Freddy's movie trailer is out.
• 8 games have been added to Kliktopia, bringing the archive to 3,280 games. This includes a new entry on The Daily Click: The Misadventures of Michael by Vect0r.
• Martin Frank has created project page fo The Lost Eggs: Worlds, the "ultimate sequel to The Lost Eggs featuring multiple worlds, challenges and fun mysteries".
• Rocketron has updated their project page for Killing Machine: Movement to fix old sceenshot links so you can track the development of this ambitious now-released game.
• vSv has updated their project page for Zi: The three of hearts which looks amazing!