Welcome to the prelude to the second edition of the Bitmob Game Club.

For those who don't know, some time last month, J. Cosmo Cohen created an inspired little column called The Bitmob Game Club.

Why is it so great you say? Well, I'll tell you.

The Game Club is, in some ways, the culmination of the entire Bitmob experience. It's all about taking members of the community, getting them together, and having them collaboratively create interesting content.

To state it in specifics, the Bitmob Game Club is about generating buzz around new writers, little known games, and, most importantly, Bitmob's community-centric concept. It's meant to be a concerted exercise in getting the community involved in reviewing games "professionally" as a group effort. (Much like an established magazine or website.)

If you've read the first edition of the Game Club, which covered Pixel's Cave Story, you know what this is all about (older readers can continue, however, with assurance, and see what's changed since); but for those of you who haven't, here's how it is:

Last time, we left the game choice open to community suggestions, and the whole thing's genesis was a bit informal. This led to everyone choosing their own game instead of racking up a tally for any one game. More succinctly, every game had exactly one vote: a vote from the person who suggested it. This time, J. Cosmo Cohen and I have winnowed the selections down to three.

Also, the prior Game Club had five contributors whereas this one will have only four. It sounds small, but this decision was made because the entries tended to run a little long, and, while five voices worked on 1up FM (this column's inspiration), oration doesn't need to be copy edited. Five writers is just too much work for me and Cosmo.

Finally, and this went on behind the scenes, there were no clear rules for deadlines. In this edition of the Game Club, I'm going to lay everything out very clearly. If you can't abide, do not apply.

So here are the guidelines if you'd like to be involved.

This post is going up today, Tuesday, October 6th. On Sunday, October 11th, the participators and the game will be be announced. One week hence, the next Sunday, the first Bitmob Game Club entry will be posted. Drafts will be due on the Friday before to allow time for copy-editing. Every game, regardless of overall length and number of divisions, will be subject to this schedule for the duration of the edition.

If you sign up and are selected, you are signing onto this schedule without exception. Drafts for assigned sections will be due, from the preceding Sunday, on Friday without exception.

If you sign up, and you do miss an entry for whatever reason, any entries sent after Friday will be excluded. That said, you won't be pulled off of the Game Club review.

However, if you miss two, whether or not in a row, you will be taken out of the Game Club, and, hopefully, a suitable replacement will be found.

As a last thought, you may be wondering why I'm posting this. Apparently I don't know what I'm in for, but according to Cosmo, collating these entries is a ton of work. So we've decided to split the workload; Cosmo will be handling the next one, myself the one after. And so forth.

Anyway enough about rules. If you want to vote, just comment on which game you'd like to see reviewed. If you'd like to review, comment on which game you'd like, and throw in your hat in the same comment.

I will literally be doing it the old fashioned way. I will write your names on slips of paper and pick them out of a hat (or some other suitable vessel).

I know these are a lot of strictures, but that's for a reason. Hopefully only earnest writers will apply.

Anyway, here are the three picks, with useful Youtube videos as a guide:

1. Sonny, a turn based strategy-RPG that is based around stat-building with a zombie storyline.

Trailer.

2. Iji, an action-platformer with RPG elements that has a sci-fi alien invasion plot.

Trailer.

3. Scary Girl, a beautiful platformer-adventure game about a girl.

Trailer.

All three games have received various accolades, and please don't choose Scary Girl just because it looks the best.

But! Choose as you like!

~James D.