Guitar Hero is a rhythm game played using a guitar peripheral.  Whereas the design of the main game is fairly traditional (press the buttons at the right times in sync with the music), Harmonix also experimented with a freestyle play mode.

They described the ways they tried to make it easy for novices to play good-sounding music, and explained why they cut this mode from the final product (though it may come back in a future game).

Downbeat is a "casual" rhythm game.  Nick discussed the design rationale behind the current version of Downbeat, and the many prototypes that led to their current version; Peter demonstrated the prototypes by playing them.

In the Dallas Game Jam, game developers in the Dallas area occasionally get together to make a game in a short period of time.  Squirrel showed the results of a few Jams and discussed tactics for Jam organizers who want to make their event maximally effective.

In the Mobile Game Mosh, a group of students got together to build some games for mobile devices.  Katie showed some of the games and talked about the participants and the logistics of the event.
 

In Cloud, the player controls a child in his/her dream to fly freely through the world, play and paint the sky with different types of clouds, and eventually use weather and nature to save the world.  Cloud experiments with creating a richer emotional experience for the player, focusing on “relaxation, creativity, goodness, nature & zen.”

Braid is a platformer/puzzle game about manipulating the flow of time. The player journeys through a series of worlds; in each world, time behaves differently. The game takes an unconventional stance about what is fun to play, and what the player should spend his time doing.

The presentation focused on how Braid has changed since its initial showing last year, and on the ending to the game, which uses gameplay to tell a story, rather than cut-scenes or text.

This game is like a music album, but instead of a collection of songs, it's a collection of shooters. Each shooter is different but retains a similar personality, much like how songs of a music album are different but still part of a whole. The shooters are tied together loosely with one song/shooter ending and the next one starting with no extra content such as a narrative or cut scene.

In Ocular Ink, the player casts spells using a gestural interface.  The game analyzes the gestures to extract analog properties that are used to control the strength and directionality of the spells.

Jugglin', by Jim McGinley, is unlike most juggling games in that it eliminates the need for the player to aim and catch balls.  Balls follow a number of predefined trajectories and are automatically caught when your hand is in the right area.  Thus the game becomes much more about rhythm, timing, and the execution of tricks.  A pattern-recognizer looks for new tricks and lets the player name them.