This contest entry to Tigsource's Procedural Generation indie game development contest won first place, and is a treat both visually, and in gameplay.
The game is a fast-paced platformer, where you have to save dogs from the hands of evil scientists. It takes place on three sidescrolling layers: the foreground, the middle, and the background. You can jump between the different layers, which all scroll to the left at different speeds - and you'll need to, in order to nab the puppies in distress and other powerups that will be very helpful.
Items you can pick up include ropes, parachutes, and medicine. The ropes and parachutes let you climb up and down the layers at greater heights. Without them, you can only jump up and climb ledges that are close to you, and fall down to ledges that aren't far down enough to kill you upon landing. The medicines allow you rescue injured beagles. Beagles that aren't hurt present their own drawback, however, they will wander around, towards or away enemies, requiring you to chase after them.
Yeah, there are enemies. As you complete each level, which will require successively greater numbers of rescued beagles (you lose a life if you miss a beagle and it scrolls off-screen), more and more enemy types will be thrown at you. There are evil scientists, who will hunt the dogs, there are zombie executives that hunt YOU, and more. They can be killed by throwing owls at them, which, again, you can pick up.
Mix all these elements together and you get a very delicate and frantic game. It's a balancing act between going after supplies, which you'll need, and the puppies, who need to be saved before they scroll off to the left or get nabbed. You'll have to keep an eye on your supplies, so you don't get stuck on a high ledge with no way of getting to the other layer, where a puppy is scrolling by.... And you'll need to watch out for the enemies, who you can't touch.
The contest for which this game was submitted focused on procedural generation. With this game, the shape of each scrolling layer is generated on the fly. It's no small feat that the developer got this balanced, such that players don't get stuck - very often. Sometimes you WILL get stuck, but that's because you weren't paying attention to your supplies and you ran out of rope.
The color scheme is also generated on the fly. Taking a cue from color palette generators, the different colors that make up the layers, the moon, and the trees are all algorithmically colored such that they're visually pleasing. This is a very good idea, and game designers should definitely learn to apply a little color theory to their own games.
So there you have it, a game made in just two weeks, and manages to be the best coffee-break game I've ever played. Oh, and there's an online high score table, too.