PAX 10
Wow. I just got back from the PAX 10 competition sponsored by Penny Arcade (penny-arcade.com). It's a competition for the top 10 games developed by independent game developers. I worked on Impulse with a group of students from RIT and my brother. It's a physics based game around movement. You use magnetism and impulse forces to get around the level. It was a 10 week project, so it's still missing some of the game elements to make it into a full game, but it's a great prototype.
We're now working on it to get it to a point where it will be able to be distributed.
For the game I worked on the particle effects to give the player a sense of what's happening and to make it look pretty. I'm looking to revamp the system now that I have time to design and structure it for more complex, yet pretty effects. I'm also working on a level editor to make level creation a whole lot less painful.