BLiX

BLiX was the first opus created independently by Eric Zimmerman (with Peter Lee), founder of gameLab, co-author of Rules of Play (now the most important game design textbook), and game designer extraordinaire. It was a finalist at the Independent Game Festival in 2000, and features excellent minimalist techno from the redoubtable Michael Sweet of Audiobrain.

BLiX is the sort of game you wouldn't be surprised to find in a 1980s arcade, or on an early-90s Gameboy. It's a moving puzzle game; in particular, on each level you have a number of moving sprites that you have to direct into cups placed on the screen. You do so by placing right angles on the screen, which direct a sprite that enters them to bounce off in the dirction of the facing side. But the grid is designed in such a way that, at any particular location, only one right angle is valid--so you both have to be aware of the constraints of the grid and plan for how to place right angles to achieve the objectives you desire.

It's a level-based game, with more than 100 levels; Flash doesn't allow saved games, so instead, after each 5 levels, you're given a code you can re-enter later to return to the same place (shades of NES).

Often, the simplest constructs make for the most compelling games.