Everybody remember The Incredible Machine series? Way back in the early to mid 90s, a series of puzzle games was released that essentially let you build your own Rube Goldberg devices. You know, the ones that involve mallets hitting marbles that roll down ramps to wake up a chicken whose flapping wings hit a lever that drops a bag of flour on top of a scale that tips and turns the light switch off. That sort of thing. The team behind those classic games is working on Contraption Maker, a spiritual sequel to The Incredible Machine that promises to bring back the same free-form puzzle solving we fell for back in the good old days.

The team at Chucklefish is still toiling away on the Terraria-like sandbox game Starbound. Pre-orders opened up in mid-April and have been a rousing success, bringing in over $1.1 million from almost 50,000 future players. That's a lot of funding, especially for a small indie studio, and it bodes well for the future of Starbound.

At this point in time, what with all the Minecrafts and Terrarias loose in the world, the words "dynamic" and "sandbox" don't carry the same raw excitement they once did. It's neat putting blocks in places and building cute houses to live in, but how about some meat on those bones, right? Son of Nor, an action adventure game currently in development (and on Kickstarter) by stillalive studios, is shaping up to be a lot of meat.

Many of us here at Co-Optimus were very excited to play Monaco: What’s Yours is Mine this past weekend, writing about our plans to begin co-op games straight away. However, we quickly discovered that Monaco’s initial release was retracted off of XBLA rather quickly by developer, Pocketwatch Games. Many gamers are eager to begin playing as well, so here’s an update on the whole situation from last week.

Leviathan: Warships is a turn-based strategy game featuring big boats and cross-platform play. The game will allow up to four players to strategize together via PC, Mac, iOS and Android devices. Leviathan: Warships features a full cooperative campaign as well as five challenge missions. Customize a fleet of warships and join your friends on the high seas of battle. 

Starbound is an upcoming indie sandbox game designed to be something of a spiritual successor to Terraria. It's filled with all the exploration, building, crafting and character customization features you could ever want, but the real kicker is the addition of randomly generated planets you can inhabit! It's a good thing, too, as your home world was just destroyed by something evil, so you'll need all the space and resources you can get to construct a gigantic death laser of revenge.

While Sanctum developer Coffee Stain Studios is busy trumpeting Sanctum 2, the IndieFort Spring Bundle would like to remind us that the original game is still around and is still awesome. Featured as part of a five game package, Sanctum fuses first person shooting and tower defense into one seamless experience. And yes, the four player online co-op is as good as you want it to be.

One of the more classic forms of co-op games is the brawler/beat-em-up genre. From Streets of Rage to the up-and-coming Dragon's Crown, we all enjoy a solid co-op brawler from time to time. The developers at newly formed Dinosaur share that sentiment are currently developing their first game, MechKnight Chronicles. We only have a little information at this time about the game, but so far, it's looking very promising. Inspirations for the title read like a greatest hits of the brawler and they're currently working to ensure the game has 4-player online, local, and, ideally, LAN, co-op.

If you're one of the Mac owners out there who purchased Borderlands 2 from the Mac App Store, you've probably noticed a few key features have been, well, almost completely missing. Aspyr Media is here to save the day with a brand new patch that brings things (mostly) up to speed, including achievements, a handful of miscellaneous fixes, and access to leaderboards, all through the safe little garden that is the Mac App Store.

At PAX East 2013 last weekend, I had the opportunity to sit down and play a round of the competitive mode of Dungeon Defenders II (henceforth DD2). I also got to talk to Philip Asher (Marketing Director and Designer), a.k.a. pmasher. While the co-op mode of DD2 is still mostly under wraps, Philip was able to give me some details on it which I’ll gladly share with you guys. Let’s first talk a bit about the competitive mode that I played.

Arcen Games is on a roll. With A Valley Without Wind 2 hitting just a few months ago, the team has already shipped a new release. Shattered Haven is a top-down action adventure game stuffed with roguelike elements that just appeared on GOG.com. It even has a two player local co-op feature, just in case you want to sit down with a friend and outwit some zombies.

Duke Nukem will never die, and when it comes to his classic 3D outings, we're totally ok with that. Recently released on Steam, Duke Nukem 3D: Megaton Edition packs together the original Duke Nukem 3D along with the enhanced Duke Nukem 3D: Atomic Edition and three expansion packs: Life's a Beach, Duke it Out in D.C. and Duke: Nuclear Winter. It also boasts several servings of Steam features, including achievements and cloud support.

Dungeon Defenders has been a staple co-op game since 2011. Its blend of tower defense, action and RPG elements pairs nicely with multiple players hacking it out old school style. Recently, developer Trendy Entertainment announced details about the upcoming sequel, including cross-platform compatibility, a free-to-play pricing structure, and a brand new mode centered around team-based player combat.

Described as "Ratchet & Clank meets Zelda meets Uncharted", Oliver & Spike: Dimension Jumpers is an upcoming indie platform adventure game that has high aspirations. Some new details have recently been released about the game, emphasizing its unique story-driven content, dimension jumping abilities, and family-friendly gameplay.

As of this moment, Legend of Dungeon is available to purchase. The 2.5D sidescrolling roguelike takes a page from old school brawlers like Double Dragon and wraps everything in a moody, dynamically-lit RPG shell, complete with randomly generated content. The result is a challenging and great-looking game that throws everything at you from snakes to crawling things that latch onto your face.