As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. That probably resembles the mentality behind Indie Kombat, a competition in which two independent developers spend a month building competing games (putting in a maximum of one hour of work per day). The two competitors for Round 1 are Farbs, creator of Fishie Fishie, and Rob Fearon, creator of SY!NSO!. Possibly the coolest catch, though, is that the games have to be built from pre-existing game components – in this case, sprites from Fishie Fishie and SY!NSO!.

The competition began exactly one month ago today, meaning the games should be out now, right? Here’s the thing: according to Fearon, both games are finished, but because Farbs made his game in XNA for Xbox Live Indie Games, his game won’t be playable by the general public until it passes peer review. Therefore, he’s holding onto Fish Fish Bang Bang until Fish Squid Time Machine releases on XBLIG, at which point the earth will resume spinning and the voting process will begin. Phew!

To help tide you over, here’s the trailer for Fish Squid Time Machine Farbs posted today:

In case you didn’t notice from the trailer, Fish Squid Time Machine is the first video game to feature the tearing of actual reality. Those parts of the screen where Fishie Fishie gets stripped away, revealing SY!NSO! undernearth? Those are very real holes in the universe. OUR UNIVERSE. Combine that powerful example of Farbsian ingenuity with the up-to-52-players gimmick from Fishy Fishy Fifty, throw in a hilariously long opening sequence, Wilhelm screams, and a hidden Time Donkey easter egg, and you’ve got a game that looks (and sounds) as absurd and fun as it is.

And Robert Fearon: you should be worried.