Sony spruces up Home with indie games label

PlayStation Home, PlayStation 3's online space that allows users to mingle, chat, and play together, is to receive a batch of new social games over the next few months thanks to a partnership with independent outfit Codename.

There'll be a puzzling edifice erected in the main plaza, a multiplayer version of Cogs, which can currently be found on PC and iPhone.

Dueling Gentlemen is from the studio behind stylish Xbox 360 and PC exclusive The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom; Minor Battle by Peanut Gallery won an IndieCade 2010 Audience Award, and in its original form required players to move around four different TV screens in order to keep up with their in-game characters.

Codename's own contribution is titled Super Awesome Mountain RPG. Players move custom figurines up a "fantastical mountain" in what is described as a blend of tabletop board games and fantasy role-playing games.

Let's hope that means a cross between the cute monster-hunting of the Zelda series and the simplicity of Snakes & Ladders.

The allusion to traditional tabletop gaming comes at just the right time - the launch of Apple's iPad has seen a bevy of tabletoppers digitized, from parlor games such as chess, backgammon and poker to modern strategy like Small World, Blokus and Catan.