By Kieron Gillen on October 10th, 2009.
Mr McRussell pointed Prop Hunt at me yesterday, and thinks it’s in agreeably spirit of the mother game. I have to concur. One team spawns as a variety of bits of scenery. The other spawn as pyros. The latter hunt the former. Hilarity ensues. I found the Steam Thread including a list of handy servers playing it courtesy of Shacknews. And you’ll find videos of barrels running desperately around below…
Read the rest of this entry »
By Jim Rossignol on October 10th, 2009.
The time when I get really envious of game developers is usually when they get down to the full sweep of world building. In this latest video Bioware talk about the making of the city-planet of Coruscant in The Old Republic, and explain how they’ve had to build a planet entirely without terrain – a purely urban setting, miles deep – while also getting across a spectrum of political power and corruption via the gradation of environments through layers of the capital of the Republic. Ooh, there’s also some boasting! This is an unprecedented city environment, they claim, with the kind of infrastructure that would be required for a sort of endless Manhattan, which dwarfs any city environments in other games. From the shiny surface mega-structures of the senate and the spaceport, down to the endless dereliction of the lower levels. It’s a kind of architectural encyclopedia of Star Warsian styles all on its own. And what is going on with Robert Chestney’s t-shirt? Ah, the many mysteries of Star Wars…
Read the rest of this entry »
By Kieron Gillen on October 10th, 2009.
Sipping morning tea, I find myself looking at the newly announced game due in 2010 (via Steam) from Alientrap Software, who you may know as the developer of the free open-source shooter Nexuiz. In first few seconds I’m thinking “Metroid” or “Turrican”, and kinda shrugging. A few later, I think “Exile“. And then I notice its name. It’s totally someone trying to do a modern take on the ancient Physics-lead exploration game Exile. From ambition alone, I suspect this bears close watching. I suspect many of American readers won’t be aware of Exile. It’s… well, in Edge’s retro reviews, writing about old games as if Edge would have if they were around then (with the benefit of hindsight) they gave their precious ten to three only: Elite, Super Mario Bros and Exile. That’s the sort of company it keeps. Footage follows.
Read the rest of this entry »
By John Walker on October 9th, 2009.
I would like to take this opportunity to talk to you about Miami Shark. Miami Shark is a game in which you play a shark. Who pulls planes into the sea. Thank you for your time, and have a good day.
By Alec Meer on October 9th, 2009.
Our inbox runneth over with much-appreciated links to this free, indie BBC Micro-esque platformer. A game of minimal controls and beyond minimal graphics, it pulls off the remarkable feat of evoking a grim invasion – you as one of a Spaceman army invading a Wizard’s fortress, occasionally encountering doomed comrades, but always pushing on, against the endless tide of bright red monsters. Ah, even names like ‘spaceman’ and ‘wizard’ are so warmingly reminiscent of an age when a character required only a title, not a complicated backstory, love interest, long-lost son, eight different kinds of amnesia and the forename Jack. But that’s not the whole of Star Guard’s cleverness.
Read the rest of this entry »
By John Walker on October 9th, 2009.
In their attempt to write a developer diary for Torchlight, Runic games managed this:
“Dear Diary, I think I will make a kick-ass game. Yes! That’s all for now. Lootfully yours, Runic Games.”
Fortunately they instead chose to elaborate further in video form, and you can see it below.
By Alec Meer on October 9th, 2009.
This probably-genuine video of a poor, dead thing caught my eye today. Reportedly, it’s footage of a recently-cancelled videogame based on DC Superhero The Flash. His powers: he can run fast and has tiny wings on his ears. Which, I would have thought, can complicate coming up with interesting new story ideas for him, but does make him ideally suited to a videogame. Especially that current superhero videogame vogue: the open-world city. The idea of traversing blocks in a split-second, or using momentum to create extreme Parkour, is enormously tantalising. Here’s what we could have been in for…
Read the rest of this entry »
By Kieron Gillen on October 9th, 2009.
The Gamasutra postmortem on previous RPS-fave Zeno Clash caught my eye. They’re almost always a good read, but from a game coming from a very different place than most of the industry (both literally and figuratively), there’s much to learn. Choice details include how it emerged from a previous failed project – the Lithtech-2 based Zenozoik – and how the experience of that made them focus as tightly as they did: “Many years after this failed attempt we gathered around our original concept and re-thought the game in a manner that would focus on few but solid elements, those that we would be able to produce as a small team”. With a team of seven, you have to or risk disaster. Lots more in the full piece.
By Kieron Gillen on October 9th, 2009.
I was thinking about blogging about this weekend in City of Heroes being one of those double-XP-and-reactivate-all-old-accounts weekends that MMOs like to throw… but the news breaking on another interesting initiative pushed possible into definite. You’re aware that the Cities games have a level designer function, allowing players to design their own arcs? Well, since this is flexible and accessible enough, Paragon have started a Guest Writer program where they bring published authors to do a mission. The first four – from Bill Willingham (FABLES), Rooster Teeth (RED vs. BLUE) and Scott Kurtz (PvP) – debut on Tuesday, and you’ll find the details below…
Read the rest of this entry »
By Kieron Gillen on October 9th, 2009.
The best thing about racing games is the Vrooming. Now that’s sorted out: There’s a Race On demo available. What is it? More than 600Mb yet less than 700Mb. More specifically, it includes the Racing Event (A weekend of training, qualifying and the all important racing) and Time Attack (Where the nature of temporal existence is undermined by a big old vroom-car). It’s the latest game by SimBin, and it looks like…
Read the rest of this entry »
By Jim Rossignol on October 9th, 2009.
This is intriguing. We just received a link to a new site, AAN World News, which seems to blend actual headlines with news from the world of Arma II. Today it’s sporting the Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize stuff alongside headlines about the US invading Arma II’s fictional “green sea” nation of Chernarussia. Presumably this is a prelude to actually revealing some stuff about previously confirmed expansion Operation Arrowhead? Or is it the work of a crazed Arma II fan?
