I’m about a week late with the news on this one, butNifflashas released another game, titledSaira. Why should you care? Because Nifflas’ games — particularlyKnytt Stories— are among the most popular and well-received indie titles to date. If there were a “New Classics” department of indie gaming (and maybe there is), Nifflas would surely be one of its founding members.

Sairawas self-released on Nifflas’ website a few weeks ago: it’s a 2D puzzle-platformer that runs on Windows 2000 and later. Here’s a description, straight from the horse’s mouth: “Saira teleported herself to Mars, but when she reached the planet all other humans in the galaxy had mysteriously disappeared. Now, how does something like that happen?”

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The the full game costs $17, but here’s the kicker: an extra $2 buys you a free license of the game to share with a friend. If you find some like-minded broskis, you could save yourself some cash by splitting the costs. Or you could just give it to your best friend — ’tis the season after all.

Here’s the interesting bit, though:Sairastarted out asProject Qand was supposed to be published by Nicalis, who have been busy buying the rights to PC indie games and bringing them to WiiWare. The only problem is that, while Nicalis has announced several games, none of them have actually been published, and some of them (particularlyCave Story) are years overdue. I don’t want my doom and gloom to dampen your holiday cheer, butSairajumping ship doesn’t bode well for Nicalis. I wonder ifNight Sky,also ostensibly published by the company, will share a similar fate.

John and Molly sitting on the park bench

[Headline shamelessly lifted from a tangentially relatedTinyCartridge postaboutCave Story]

Close up shot of Marissa Marcel starring in Ambrosio

Kukrushka sitting in a meadow

Lightkeeper pointing his firearm overlapped against the lighthouse background

Overseer looking over the balcony in opening cutscene of Funeralopolis

Edited image of Super Imposter looking through window in No I’m not a Human demo cutscene with thin man and FEMA inside the house

Indie game collage of Blue Prince, KARMA, and The Midnight Walk

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