The card tables have been set up and we're peeling the plastic wrap off the goodies -- yes, the first ever AGS Bake Sale is underway! This indie extravaganza features a bundle of 14 brand new games cooked up for the sole purpose of raising money for the Child's Play Charity. Indie gaming has never tasted so good.

All of the games in the AGS Bake Sale are made with Adventure Game Studio -- the same engine behind retro-styled adventures like Gemini Rue and the Blackwell mysteries -- but the genres are all over the map! Here's a sampling:

• 9 Months In: a traditional adventure game about a pregnant woman in prison trying to clear her name before her child is born.
• Indiana Rodent and the Raiders of the Lost Cheese: the biggest, most ambitious platform game ever made with AGS (quite an accomplishment considering the engine wasn't created with Mario-style platforming in mind!)
• Escape The Barn: a classic "escape the room" puzzle game, suitable for all ages.
• RAM Ghost: an adorable virtual house simulator in the style of Little Computer People. Adopt an abandoned, unloved bit of code floating in the endless sea of information and tend to it in the hopes that it will one day grow up to be a proper program.
• Abner The Amazing: a fantasy adventure in which a boastful knight and his sidekick must find out who stole all the colors and left the world a grainy black and white.
• Zombie Attack: a top-down retro arcade shooter that has you battling waves of monsters, accumulating power-ups, gathering weapons, and unlocking new characters -- all in a desperate attempt to stop the forces of evil from taking over the earth.

You can see the full list of bundled games on the AGS Bake Sale website: http://www.agsbakesale.com (note: all games are PC only)

The Bake Sale bundle has "pay what you want" pricing, with one small caveat: a minimum of $1.50 is required to cover payment processing. Beyond this, any money donated goes straight to Child's Play to give sick kids a bit of gaming cheer. The developers themselves aren't making a cent -- they've pitched in their time, their talents, and their bandwidth to raise some money for a really good cause.

More info about the AGS Bake Sale and the people involved can be found on the AGS Blog: http://ags-ssh.blogspot.com