Dream Game: Sleep Is Death

Jason Rohrer, the indie auteur behind the moving Passage, is back. If you're one of those delightful people who reach immediately for the P word whenever a game requires you to have a bit of a think, you'll be glad to hear that Sleep Is Death is, despite the arch name, something very different from his usual mediations on existence. Hell, any and everyone should be over the ruddy moon about the concept behind it. After seeing how it works, I'm about as excited as I've ever been about an upcoming videogame.

Sleep Is Death is very much game rather than message, and a theoretically endless one too. It's a free-form point and click adventure. It's a co-op roleplaying game. It's 8-bit D&D. It's an ad-hoc modding tool. It's the world's smallest MMO. It's... well, it's far better he explains it to you himself, via what's probably the best not-actually-a-demo demo I've ever seen. Go, look at it right away. It's released in April, and it'll cost $14, or $9 if you preorder. Oh, and that price buys two copies - you cannot play this without a second player. Which is why it's incredible, basically. If this doesn't go absolutely huge upon release, the Earth deserves to perish in fire and pain.