Dwarf Fortress' creator on how he's 42% towards simulating existence

A Dwarf Fortress, via Jeremy Nissen.

On the first day of GDC 2016, the creator of Dwarf Fortressstood at the front of a packed audience and explained how to procedurally generate the beginning of the world. And not just the land and trees and rivers and mountains of the world, which Dwarf Fortress has randomly generated for many years. The mythology of the world: the creation myth told in whispers and rhymes over the centuries, which determines the form of civilizations, the land and the magic in the world.

The work-in-progress creation generator is just another step towards version 1.0 of Dwarf Fortress for Tarn Adams, who has been designing and programming the game since 2006. The most recent release, .42.06, is very deliberately named, as I found out when I spoke to Adams for an hour a few days after his talk. The version number represents 42% completion towards a list of roughly 2,600 planned features or tasks for the final version. As he chips away at those tasks, Adams brings Dwarf Fortress ever closer to, essentially, simulating existence. Or, as Adams told me in our interview, the "narratively interesting" parts of existence.

Adams is fascinating to talk to because he's still so in love with Dwarf Fortress after working on it for a decade. It's just what he does. This was his first time at GDC, talking to other developers and seeing the games industry from the inside. Over the course of an hour, we spoke in-depth about how he makes Dwarf Fortress, how he earns a living wage thanks to Patreon, the upcoming creation myth generator, and why cats can get drunk in your fortress.

PC Gamer: We can start with just some more about GDC. I’m curious what it’s been like for you as your first event, coming here. There are obviously a lot of designers who were inspired by procedural generation that’s really become more common with roguelikes coming back into the mainstream the past few years, and a lot of stuff inspired by Dwarf Fortress.

Tarn Adams: Yeah, it was interesting because we have our talk on Monday afternoon, and I usually don’t look like my picture—like my Wikipedia picture has this giant beard, right? So, yeah, I shouldn’t have shaved my dwarf beard, so no one recognized me, kinda, during the first half of the day, and then after I gave my talk the room was packed, and now it’s like every 20 minutes or something I have a nice conversation with someone. It’s cool.

Do you get to have John Carmack moments where a bunch of people flock to you and say, ‘Share your wisdom with me?’

No, it’s not quite like that, but if someone notices that we’re sitting and talking for 15 minutes or something then we’ll get, like, two or three more people or something like that.

Have you been picking up anything that you’ve found interesting or informative for your own games, or has it been more sharing your knowledge?

It’s been a lot of that, but I listen to people talk about their [games], because that’s part of the thing when you inspire people, is that doesn’t mean that they’re necessarily just gonna talk about your game. That it inspired them means that they’re doing something that they really want to talk about, and so most of the time I’ll just listen, and there’s a lot of cool games coming, right? We talked to the guys at Somasim [making Project Highrise], which is, like, this skyscraper thing. It’s kind of like SimTower but with all the zoning laws and stuff. It sounds really cool, right? They brought architects in...

Take the joy of building something and then just pile logistics shit on top of it.

Yeah. So it’s just, you know, talking about people that really want to do detailed simulations, but they have this completely different interest from me, but we speak the same language, more or less, so we can help each other out. And then it’s just interesting hearing their, like, business experiences or whatever, because I don’t have any experience with that.

It's funny to listen to all those strange stories about how mobile development works and AAA development because I’d never met AAA developers before. They're all over the place, right, and they’re like, ‘This is how you manage a 150-person team,’ or whatever. I understand AAA a little better and how things go the way they go, and how everyone’s working hard and it still sometimes doesn’t work. It’s really interesting.

Tarn Adams, right, speaking with Kitfox Games developer Tanya Short at GDC 2016

What has it felt like being at this event for the first time? You’ve been making games for a long time, but this is your first time here on the business side.

Yeah, or at all, right? I hardly have ever been to events at all. I just went to a PAX a couple years ago. That was the first event I’d ever been to. And I’ve been doing my website publicly for 15, 16 years, and, you know, it just never entered into my mind that you would go out, or that there’d been a reason to do it, because we didn’t feel like we needed business connections or anything like that. That’s what I just thought it was about, that kind of networking. I usually, or at least I was a long time ago, was bringing a kind of cynical perspective [to it]: looking at the industry and viewing myself as sort of outside of it or something like that. But it’s a much more continuous and smeared-out and interesting thing than that, right?

Do you think the change from being very much by yourself, insular for a long time is more: the industry has changed from what you reacted to negatively 15 years ago, or is it more just your awareness?

Well, since I [didn't see] with my own two eyes what it was like four or five years ago I can’t really speak to that, but certainly it seems like there’s a lot going on. The independent games have been booming for a while but it’s ongoing, right? It’s continuing to grow. I mean, they’re growing so much everyone’s worried about how they’re gonna make it, right?

I was looking at the industry and viewing myself as sort of outside of it.

There’s too many now.

Yeah. I mean, you can’t say there’s, like, an apocalypse of independent games or whatever when the problem is there are too many. It’s like that saying about the restaurant being full and that’s why no one goes there, right? There’s just a lot of interesting things going on.

I don’t know if we’ve really become more tangled with it or anything. I mean, we’re just hanging out here and we’re not making any deals or anything or actually networking in any kind of way, but it’s not bad to just kind of be a part of it even if it’s just sort of, like, flush against it without actually becoming enmeshed.

So Dwarf Fortress isn’t becoming a PlayStation 4 exclusive in the next year? You’re not gonna be programming on a yacht a year from now.

Yeah, no no no [laughs].

So how has the Patreon stuff gone? Has it been less than a year? I know before the way you survived was people would donate for the game.

Just about a year now. In April, at the end of April, it’ll be a year. It’s basically the same thing.

Now there’s kind of this service that has grown up around giving people that kind of model. Has that increased awareness for the game?

Oh, it’s increased our income by two times, so it’s great. I mean, it’s amazing when you actually have professional people design a front end for you. As everyone knows, then suddenly people will click the big orange button, right, and we used to have a drop-down menu where you had to pick your currency and stuff, because we were just like, ‘Well, they need to get us this information somehow,’ and that was all we cared about, right, because we didn’t think about anything. And yeah, it’s just a little more difficult, and just even a few steps is enough to drive everyone away.

One step is enough to drive people away.

Yeah. So the big orange button approach changed everything about how we operate now. We still have PayPal, so it’s actually whatever number you see on the Patreon you can add 50% to that and it becomes, like, livable all of a sudden, which is something we didn’t think we’d really ever get to. Maybe it took ten years but, you know, it’s good to be there now. I mean, it’s not necessarily a 100% stable situation, because you never know what’s gonna happen online, but I like it. It’s working well. It’s great.

If you weren’t making a livable amount of money on Dwarf Fortress before, were you doing odd jobs on the side to make some catch?

Well, ‘livable’ is such a...

It can mean a lot of things.

Yeah. I mean, I was full time, but I was full time on Dwarf Fortress since 2007. If the laptop broke during a given six-month stretch that would’ve been it for the whole full-time thing and we were just lucky about when our computers broke. I had my bank account skim zero a couple times. I never did the whole, like, mortgage... I don’t own anything to mortgage, first of all, [we haven't gone into debt], but we were at nothing several times.

Was that scary?

I don’t know. I developed a weird attitude about it. When people threaten you with nuclear war when you’re growing up you sorta don’t care at all. Or at least that’s me.

The stakes are slightly different.

Yeah. It didn’t bug me, I guess, but it’s how our Patreon account came about. The numbers dropped below 3,000 for the first time one of these months, and we were like, ‘Maybe we should start thinking about, an expanded strategy or something.’ And then our whole expanded strategy was like, ‘Oh, we’ll make a Patreon account.’

We just sort of have a pathology about not thinking about money carefully or something, but it’s worked so far. And now it’s great because we think about it even less.

That’s the perfect scenario, right.

Yeah. I mean, it’s the whole thing. And I think that’s why a lot of people appreciate, even if they don’t play the game, I think some of our fans among game developers are just like, ‘You have this setup where you can actually work on what you want to work on and not really have to think about any of the sort of day-to-day stuff that makes game development so stressful.’

Finally, a naval combat sim that gets sailing ships right

Even in early alpha, Game-Labs' Naval Action is a fascinating simulation of combat in the Age of Sail .

. But I was curious why director Maxim Zasov was so drawn to the topic that he made it one of the first games he developed at his studio.

For Zasov, it's not just about tall ships' beauty and power, though, as he points out, "Age of Sail [warships] were the spaceships of that time …Wellington had 175 cannons at Waterloo, mostly 6-9 lbs. Just one first-rate ship of the line had 120-140 guns, most of which were 18 pounders or above."

No, Zasov is also fascinated by the way sailing ships were intertwined with the culture of the Enlightenment.

"If you go to Westminster Abbey—right near the monuments to 23 Monarchs, Newton, Shakespeare, and Darwin—there is a memorial to lowly Captain James Montagu, who died at [the] glorious first of June naval battle," he said. "In Paris under the dome of Pantheon, where you find tombs of Voltaire, Rousseau, Hugo, and Dumas, there is a monument to a lost crew of a warship sank in the same battle. Trafalgar Square and many other places are examples of the fact that [the] Age of Sail was the [part of the] fabric of society."

The old tall-ships still have the power to captivate. They were a huge part of Empire: Total War's appeal, and they stole the show in Assassin's Creed 3and became the basis for Black Flagand Rogue. But they also got a very Pirates of the Caribbean-treatment in those games, which shied away from the complexities of wind and sail. So Zasov decided to give tall ships the sim they deserved.

"It is easy to stand on the shoulders of giants, but in our case most of the mechanics we did are innovations—they were never done this way before," he says. "Correct tacking, boxhauling, tracking shots, yard control: we made all those mechanics realistic, but fun and useful in combat. We invented them."

Following seas

It's not an idle boast. Even in an early state, Naval Action's simple PvE and PvP battles already confirm that it's one of the first games that manages to do justice to both the violence and the grace of sail-powered combat.

Naval Action beautifully captures the relationship between the wind and a ship's sails, but also the finicky, sometimes counterintuitive handling of sailing ships and how difficult it can be to precisely control them. That's especially true if you turn off the "autoskipper" and start controlling your sails yourself. You can play your ship as a simple WASD-controlled vehicle if you like (though it will still falter as you turn into the wind) but you also have the option of setting the exact angles and position of your yards.

Managing sails adds a lot to the mental workload of captaining a ship, but Naval Action also gives you a lot of incentives to handle them yourself.

"You turn better," Zasov explains. "[The] autoskipper optimizes for speed. To get extra from your vessel you need to use yards: just like with [a] car—to push for more, use manual shift and use the handbrake at the right moments."

Your crew can be used to make repairs in battle.

There are even some high-level maneuvers that a skilled captain can execute, Zasov says. For instance, if you know what you're doing, you can steer into the wind, put your yards perpendicular to the direction of the wind, and use it to sail backwards, which can let you squeeze off another broadside against an enemy that was hoping you would overshoot. I know you can do this because I've sailed my ship backwards in Naval Action… just never on purpose.

Combat is as vivid as the sailing is authentic: during a heated battle, ships will effectively vanish behind fogbanks of gunsmoke. Sails get cut to ribbons, hulls get pocked and holed by hits, often affecting a ship's performance. You can send crew to make repairs in battle, but at the expense of doing other things, like adjusting sails and reloading guns at full-speed.

Targeting is where Naval Action is at its most unforgiving. Your smoothbore cannons are reasonably accurate, but they're definitely not precision weapons, and you have to guess at ranges. While your guns zero-in on a point on the horizon as you take time to aim, setting the correct angle is maddening guesswork. Shoot too high and your shots sail harmlessly past your target. Shoot low and they splash down in the water short of the hull. And unless you're just keeping perfect distance from your target (which is dangerous, since it requires carefully-timed turns to throw-off an opponent's broadside), the information from your last shot will be useless by the time the guns are reloaded. It's no wonder that Nelson's navy succeeded by trying to close to point-blank range with their enemies and blasting the hell out of them.

Ships become shrouded by cannon fire.
Open water

As a purely naval-combat game, Naval Action already has a lot going for it. But then, Naval Action aims to be a lot more than just "World of Sailing Ships." Game-Labs is building Naval Action as an open-world sailing game.

"In the open world design, we wanted to convey the feeling of danger and vast distance," Zasov says. "We wanted the player to experience what a real captain would feel in the Age of Sail. The search, the chase, the combat would feel much closer than in all other games made to date. Seas are vast, often empty and full of pitfalls: shallows, storms, pirates, and player enemies."

What is most important we were able to replicate the feeling of getting lost at sea.

What Zasov describes sounds a bit like an sail-powered Silent Hunter, except that you can be both predator and prey. Normal trade lanes will be full of traffic and military vessels, while sailing outside of them can mean days and days without a single ship sighting. On the other hand, a single unidentified ship on the horizon near hostile waters can start a long chase. The goal is to bring to life the rhythms of a warship.

A lovely day shown off in a screen from Naval Action's blog.

"We are already proud of our open world for several reasons. What is most important we were able to replicate the feeling of getting lost at sea. This is something special that have been lost from games for quite a while," Zasov says.

Naval Action sales are on a temporary hiatus. The early purchasers have formed a small testing community and sales are closed until the game is developed further and the servers prepared to handle greater load. Zasov estimates Naval Action is a month to three months away from an Early Access release. The final version, with a living PvP open-world, is a bit further off, he admits. Given Zasov's ambitions for open-world PvP on the high seas, the wait could be a lengthy but worthwhile one.

Tomas Tales: The Tastiest Tomato You’ll Never Eat

While a great many of you might enjoy that delicious tomato base on your pizza, there is one tomato out there you’d never want to eat.

While a great many of you might enjoy that delicious tomato base on your pizza, there is one tomato out there you’d never want to eat. He’s cute, he’s downright cheeky, and his name is Tomas, who you might remember from Taco Friends-a tasty educational game for kids by Hybrid Image.

In Tomas Tales , you get the chance to dress up everybody’s favorite tomato in a variety of dazzling costumes of yourchoice, including but not limited to: Pirates, chickens, butterfly wings, and of course, sombreros. In addition to extra costumes, there are also bunch of colorful and exciting new environments to unlock, which you can do by collecting the magical stars scattered around each page. Moving Tomas is easy- simply swipe the screen, and join him in his adventures to the beach, the classroom, the pools, and beyond. Use the camera to help Tomas take some delightful selfies in all his outfits, and use your creativity and expertise in fashion to come up with the coolest attire from the 60,000 possible combinations.

So although we’ve just recently celebrated the La Tomatinafestival in Spain, to raise cultural awareness for the existence of cute tomatoes, be sure to check out Tomas Tales on the App storeor the Google Play storetoday for $1.99. For more on Tomas Tales, follow Taco Friends on Twitterand like them on Facebook.

Angry Birds house Rovio acquires Shattered Horizon dev Futuremark Games

Average Giants Episode 18 pt 1 – 4PM

IGM Presents… The Average Giants!

IGM Presents… The Average Giants! A weekly webseries where we play indie games while chatting with their developers. Come watch (and “follow”) the show live on our hitboxchannel every Monday night at 9:00pm EDT.

Or you can just sit back and watch all our live streams right here on our new IGM Livepage.

Original Air Date: July 14, 2014

How cats get drunk in Dwarf Fortress, and why its creators haven't figured out time travel (yet)

I recently had the rare opportunity to interview Tarn Adams , the designer and programmer of Dwarf Fortress.

, the designer and programmer of Dwarf Fortress. For those who aren't familiar, Dwarf Fortress is an incredibly complex simulation, and in a wide-ranging interview Adams talked about his quest to eventually simulate much of existence in Dwarf Fortress, right down to the density of cactus. During our talk, a couple fun anecdotes stood out—like the fact that Dwarf Fortress's planned feature list (which sits at about 2,600 items) once included time travel.

"You eventually decide, ‘Well, you know, not gonna be able to do time travel,’ or something," Adams said. "Even though there are time-travel fantasy stories. It’s just a hard problem. Even if we thought of some silly way to kind of do it, it’s gone."

"It's just a hard problem" is probably the understatement of the year. Adams gave me another great story: an explanation of why cats started getting drunk and puking in the latest version of Dwarf Fortress.

"I added taverns to fortress mode, so the dwarves will go to a proper establishment, get mugs, and make orders, and they’ll drink in the mug," Adams said. "And, you know, things happen, mugs get spilled, there’s some alcohol on the ground.

"Now, the cats would walk into the taverns, right, and because of the old blood footprint code from, like, eight years ago or something, they would get alcohol on their feet. It was originally so people could pad blood around, but now any liquid, right, so they get alcohol on their feet. And then I wanted to add cleaning stuff so when people were bathing, or I even made eyelids work for no reason, because I do random things sometimes. So cats will lick and clean themselves, and on a lark, when I made them clean themselves I’m like, ‘Well, it’s a cat. When you do lick cleaning, you actually ingest the thing that you’re cleaning off, right? They make hairballs, so they must swallow something, right?' And so the cats, when they cleaned the alcohol off their feet, they all got drunk. Because they were drinking.

But the numbers were off on that. I had never thought about, you know, activating inebriation syndromes back when I was adding the cleaning stuff. I was just like, ‘Well, they ingest it and they get a full dose,’ but a full dose is a whole mug of alcohol for a cat-sized creature, and it does all the blood alcohol size-based calculations, so the cats would get sick and vomit all over the tavern."

Dwarf Fortress: just like real life.

Check out my interview with Tarn Adams about Dwarf Fortress, his views on the games industry, and his upcoming myth generation system, right here.

The new version of Dwarf Fortress adds temples, libraries, and inebriation

I love that a game like Dwarf Fortress can exist, even though it's a virtual certainty that I will never play it with anything even remotely resembling competence.

can exist, even though it's a virtual certainty that I will never play it with anything even remotely resembling competence. Its sprawling scope and obsessive focus on detail is overwhelming; as Shaun noted in his report about the Dwarf Fortress Patreonthat launched in the spring, many aspire, but few succeed. But those of you who do will be happy (I hope) to hear that a new version of the game that's been in development through 2015 is now live.

The first paragraph of the update announcement should give you a feel for what awaits. "The flow of fortress life is quite a bit different now—specific breaks and parties have been replaced by taverns and performances and needs and inebriation. You can designate a tavern, temple or library from a meeting area zone, bedroom or dining room using the new Assign Location option. The location list ('l') will let you know what sort of furniture and items you need, and you can set tavern keepers, scribes and other occupations there as well. You'll need to set up a drink stockpile and a chest for goblets in taverns for drink service to work properly, but dwarves can still drink without a tavern as before. You can assign multiple rooms/zones to a single location."

Oh, but there's a lot more than just that. There are now three different types of writing material—papyrus, paper, and parchment—each created through a different process, that can that be made into scrolls or quires; quires that contain writing can be bound into books, and Dwarves can read books in the library and use them to pass along their values. On the other side of the culture coin, it's now possible for Dwarves to get drunk, act crazy, pass out, and even die from alcohol poisoning, although given what I know about Dwarves I can't even begin to guess how much booze it would take to actually kill one.

The new release of Dwarf Fortress—version 0.42.01, if you're keeping track—also makes numerous bug fixes and tweaks, as you'd expect. Details and a download link are up at bay12games.com.

Bioshock Infinite delay could open the door for Grand Theft Auto V this year

Cipher Prime’s Auditorium Duet Conquered Kickstarter, Now On Its Way to You

Cipher Prime, the development studio behind Auditorium , Pulse , and the award-winning Splice , is bringing a new Auditorium experience to players with Auditorium Duet .

. The game combines the original premise of a single player using draggable on-screen tools to direct the flow of colored streams to specified targets to create music, now with multiplayer cooperation. With the popularity and success of its predecessors, let’s hope Duet is worth the wait. The Kickstartercampaign was funded in March of 2012, and from the looks of it, production is coming along nicely:

Official screenshot from Duet .

Duet was recently submitted by Cipher Prime to IndieCade and Boston Fig, and it will be available to view (and play!) during the Media Indie Exchangeat SIGGRAPH in Vancouver. They hope to release Duet as a playable Alpha on Steam Early Access, though no date for release has been confirmed as of yet. Cipher Prime updates their Kickstarter pagewith impressive regularity, so hopefully we’ll hear more about it, soon – the most we have right now is, “…as soon as we can.”

Players will be able to interact with the game in single-player mode, with multiplayer as an option. It is not yet known whether it is local co-op only, or if online multiplayer is in the works.

For more information about Cipher Prime and Duet , have a gander at their website, or follow them on Twitter.

Are you looking forward to Auditorium Duet ? Let us know in the comments section!

Someone has made Space Invaders in Dwarf Fortress

I'm gonna be honest: I've got no idea how BaronW built Space Invaders inside Dwarf Fortress , but the important thing is that they did.

, but the important thing is that they did. As the video above demonstrates, the user has managed to get a fairly rudimentary version of the classic shooter working inside the notoriously complicated ASCII roguelike. From what I can gather, this wasn't achieved with mods: it wields the systems inside the game. Which is pretty mindblowing.

The map, which can be viewed in its entirety hereand downloaded here, took "85,000 mechanisms" and requires "over 100,000 power at full drain," according to BaronW. "The main screen is 32x32, that makes it a 1 kilopixel display," he adds.

If you've got a vague understanding of how Dwarf Fortress works, it might be worth perusing this flowchart, which presumably shows how BaronW got the whole thing to work. The same user has also built a "mighty dwarven" calculator in the game as well.

Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE review

Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE review In the strange world of Atlus’ Wii-exclusive RPG every stage is… well, a stage. Its heroes are artists, actors and singers. And humans have within them the power of Performa – magical energy that those capable of harnessing it can use for good or evil. On the evil side of the equation are the Mirages, malevolent spirits hell-bent on harvesting Performa by abducting

Free For A Day — ‘Baby Monkey’ And Other Kihon News

Posted by Sarah Bishop
Kihon Games is on a roll today.

Kihon Games is on a roll today. Recently, their first title, Baby Monkey (Going Backwards on a Pig) hit one million downloads. That’s a pretty significant milestone in my opinion. The people down at AppODay happen to agree with me, and thus Baby Monkey (Going Backwards on a Pig) has been made free for the day! If you haven’t already downloaded it, you can check it out on AppODay’s websitetoday or check out its iTunes page.

But that’s not all this studio has been up to. Kihon Games is not one to lie down after one successful game. They have two other games that they are under development. Dojo Danger, as previously announced by the studio, is a “top down physics game combining artistic and gameplay elements of pinball, billiards, and a touch of Angry Birds .” Soundspretty good to me. We don’t have a release date for it yet, but we have a hopeful one for SketchPhrase , the second of their dynamic duo. It’s due to hit the iTunes App Store in July of this year. It has a FaceBook page, so you can stalk follow its progress until then!

If you’d like to see more of what Kihon is up to, you can go check out the studio’s official site.

A newbie plays Dwarf Fortress

It's a double dose of A Newbie Plays Dwarf Fortress!

It's a double dose of A Newbie Plays Dwarf Fortress! These final two (for now) episodes were recorded in late December, and today they're finally online (long story). We'll be back with more Dwarf Fortress someday, but in these episodes, you can enjoy Wes and Will finishing off their fortress's water reservoir, and listen as they reflect on everything they learned with a special guest.

Welcome to Illralam, a land of optimistic dwarves and bloodthirsty elves. It's the world of PC Gamer's Dwarf Fortress LP "A newbie plays Dwarf Fortress." Wes, the newbie, teams up with Dwarf Fortress veteran and PCG video producer Will to learn the ropes of the dwarven life simulator.

Want to know more about Dwarf Fortress? In early July 2014, Dwarf Fortress received its first major update in two years.We wrote about why now is the time to get into the game with our guide Into the deep. Now you can learn along with us.

Check back for new episodes every Tuesday/Thursday. And enjoy!

Ashes of the Singularity video and screens feature thousands of bots

We recommend By Zergnet

Cardboard VR Project – The Inexpensive Alternative For Virtual Reality

When people discuss cutting edge technology, and interactive software, the discussion will inevitably touch the realm of Virtual Reality.

When people discuss cutting edge technology, and interactive software, the discussion will inevitably touch the realm of Virtual Reality. VR software and gaming has come a long way, but could remain difficult to reach because of it’s price point, estimated between $200 to $400 for consumers. But now there’s an alternative that is inexpensive, and is made out of cardboard, a few spare pieces, and a smart phone.

Cardboard was developed by David Coz and Damien Henry at the Google Cultural Institute in Paris, who decided to experiment with smartphones in order to create a Virtual Reality experience. This resulted in the design of a physical, cardboard-based enclosure that turns a phone into a basic headset. Along with this, the Google experimenters provided an open software toolkit that makes writing software for the device painless and inexpensive.

Cardboard is made up of a few different materials, including:

Cardboard in a certain design Lenses Magnets Velcro Rubber band NFC tag (optional)

Anyone interested in building their own enclosure can visit Cardboard ‘s website, which includes a list of necessary tools and directions, as well as a list of phones that are fully and partially compatible with the enclosure. At the very least, the phone must be running Android 4.1, and would further benefit if it supports NFC. The site also includes a number of experimental VR appsthat are ready for download. As a matter of fact, the folks at Soda Drinker Pro are working on a mobile version of the popular game (trailer shown above), complete with Cardboard integration.

So let’s be honest, who’s going to start building one of these?

You can now support the creators of Dwarf Fortress on Patreon

Dwarf Fortress is like the Ulysees of video games.

of video games. Many have high hopes of learning it one day, but few succeed because it's so damned overwhelming. So spare a thought for Bay 12 Games, the brother duo of Tarn and Zach Adams. They've been slaving away at Dwarf Fortress since 2002, yet the game is still freefor anyone willing to take the plunge.

Whether you enjoy the game or not, it's hard to argue against Dwarf Fortress's merits. Luckily enough Bay 12 Games has just opened up a Patreon account, meaning you can donate to the brothers in order to support ongoing development for the game.

"Bay 12 Games has been our full-time job since 2007, and we've only been able to do it because of the generous support of our fans," the brothers write on their Patreon page. "Making games means a lot to us -- Tarn gave up his job as a math professor to devote all of his energy to Dwarf Fortress, and contributions from our players are now our sole source of income."

So head over and take a look, or else, here's Wes Fenlon's brave journey as a beginner in Dwarf Fortress.

The Kingsport Cases procedurally generates horror mysteries, demo on the way

The Kingsport Cases' drab port town manor may not dazzle, but a fascinating story machine churns beneath its pixels.

The Kingsport Cases' drab port town manor may not dazzle, but a fascinating story machine churns beneath its pixels. It starts like many mysteries—you're a detective who arrives at a late-night party—but the layout of the manor, who you'll meet, their motivations, and the mystery itself are, according to developer Machines in Motion, proceduarlly generated for each new game. The novel idea is headed to Kickstarter on May 1, with a demo to follow shortly after, according to PC Gamer's e-mail correspondence with programmer and producer Andrew Stanek.

The developer blogfeatures human-generated posts with surface-level explanations of how character, plot, and world generation work. "When a character—personality and all—is included in the story, they are given a role within the story," reads the latest post on character generation.

"Perhaps they're the journalist looking for scoop on the recent crime, or maybe they're the murderer come back to cover their tracks. Combining together their personality and role, the story tool creates an ambition for that character. What do they want? How far are they willing to go to get what they want? NPCs are given stake and drive (something all good characters have), and a personality which reflects what those goals are. And when all NPCs have ambitions, some intertwining and some clashing, an intricate story—and mystery—is born."

The goal is to create a horror game that's "all about, well, horror," weaving a story about the player's interactions which can be played again and again, always different. Such ambitious claims are hard to accept at face value, so I'm glad Machines in Motion is planning to release an alpha demo. We should be playing it "within the first week of the Kickstarter," according to Stanek.

You can read more about The Kingsport Cases' world and story generation, with its "thousands of nodal instances," on the official websiteand its Steam Greenlight concept page.

Casual Gaming Meets RPG in Spellfall!

We’re all very well aware of the ‘tile-swapping’ puzzle genre – the most friendly of casual puzzle gaming, specially amongst mobile gamers.

We’re all very well aware of the ‘tile-swapping’ puzzle genre – the most friendly of casual puzzle gaming, specially amongst mobile gamers. So how does someone add a level of depth to this mundane genre, and make it appealing to say, an RPG audience? Backflip Studioshas answered that question with their game Spellfall.

Spellfall is simple; you play as a nameless hero who casts magical spells to defeat evil monsters. But in order to cast these spells, you must match three symbols on a puzzle board. These symbols consist of a leaf, a water drop, and a flame – all representing different elemental spells that can be cast. The more you are able to connect in a row, the stronger and more fierce the spell will be. So though it is an RPG, it still maintains a very casual game premise.

As you progress and defeat stronger, badder enemies, you’ll be rewarded and able to upgrade your gear and equip new weapons that give different attributes and abilities. You’ll also be able to customize your appearance and armor.

The art of Spellfall is cartoony but features style and detail similar to World of Warcraft with a fantasy-oriented soundtrack, as to be expected. Spellfall is a safe-but-intelligent approach at combining the simple with the somewhat complex – allowing a little depth to what might otherwise be a pretty flat casual game.

Spellfall was released free today on iTunes (you can visit the download page here), and is expected to be on Android very soon. Be sure to stay up to date on everything Backflip Studios does by following them on Twitterand liking them on Facebook!

Also, don’t forget to follow Indie Game Magazine on Twitterto stay in the know on all things indie game related!

A newbie plays Dwarf Fortress: Ep. 9

In this episode of PC Gamer's Dwarf Fortress LP, Wes panics as his dwarves recover from a violent elf assault. Also, the dwarves hide in trees, for some reason.

In early July 2014, Dwarf Fortress received its first major update in two years.We wrote about why now is the time to get into the game with our guide Into the deep. Now we're learning how to play.

Check back every Tuesday and Thursday for new episodes of A Newbie plays Dwarf Fortress.

Murdered: Soul Suspect announced again with new announcement trailer

Square Enix has just released an announcement trailer for its upcoming post-death detective game Murdered: Soul Suspect .

. Murdered was already announced back in February, but I suppose we should avoid getting hung up on semantics.

After being thrown out of window and and shot several times, detective Ronan O'Connor finds that he has ceased to be; he is an ex-detective. Trapped in the limbo afterlife world of Dusk, O'Connor has to solve his own murder to move on.

The game is set in Salem, Massachusetts, which is being regrettably billed as the “#1 most haunted place.” Poor Salem. You execute a couple dozen witches and nobody lets you live it down for three hundred years.

The trailer hints that O'Connor won't find himself alone in Dusk, as his first transition to ghostliness shows spectral spirits in the background, along with a old-fashioned, ghostly car. According to the website, you'll also battle demonic spirits who will try to stop you from solving your murder.

Murder's release date and development studio are so far unannounced, but we'll let you know if there's an announcement after this announcement.

Ichi’ Review — Puzzles Probably Can’t Get Much Better Than This

‘Ichi’ Review — Puzzles Probably Can’t Get Much Better Than This
Although mobile games have become a huge business, it’s not every day that one receives the same treatment as its bigger ‘hardcore’ brothers.

Although mobile games have become a huge business, it’s not every day that one receives the same treatment as its bigger ‘hardcore’ brothers. Mobile versions of multi-platform games are normally stripped down and released six months following a successful console launch. But there are some rare exceptions that we hold dear. Ichi is marked for not only a near-simultaneous launch and identical experience of its PC and Mac versions, but also, and more importantly, for a slick idea that will captivate any indie videogame geek.

Ichi (which, in case you’re wondering, is the Japanese word for “one”) is as simple as the number one, and as elegant as Japanese gets: solving a brain-twisting puzzle with one single button. And that’s exactly the only thing you will be doing in the game. Your task is short and clear: drive a ball over a piece of graph paper to collect all the golden rings. There is no story, setting, or character to speak of. All you have is a piece graph paper with sketch drawings that feel reminiscent of brainstorming ideas and unleashing imagination. Which is what you will have to do quite a bit. You will be staring into the paper, imagining how that yellow spot will fly, and trying to figure out what you could do to take it to where it needs to go.

As aforementioned, only one single button (tapping in the case of your touchscreen devices) is used to play the game, which will fail to overwhelm even the first-time gamers. A select number of objects in a level will be at your disposal to control. Tapping the screen will cause all of these objects to react according to their own behavior. One of the earliest and most basic controls involves spinning right isosceles triangles clockwise, which will alter the ball’s travel path depending the impact surface. Additional objects and features come at a slow pace, which gives you time to learn and master the techniques. The game is saved from turning repetitive thanks to immense possibilities and great level design.

Ichi manages to maintain a great balance of fun and challenges. While fun and rather easy to learn, a certain amount of precision and strategy is required. Certain levels are challenging in terms of execution, but once you succeed and accomplish your goal, it’s satisfying. Even getting stuck is never a frustration, thanks to hassle-free restarting, and the ability to skip two levels and come back later. (A $0.99 in-app purchase that unlocks all the levels is available on iOS, but absent from Android.) It’s possible to go the long and safe way, but the game rewards you with ranks for getting all the rings with the least number of taps. It’s not a particularly neuron-wrecking experience, but doesn’t think lowly of its players’ intelligence either.

As mentioned, Ichi keeps it minimal with graph paper and sketch drawing. Being a puzzle game that requires you to stare the same spot and think with a clear mind, the game could have been excellently supplemented by ambient or more minimal background music. Unfortunately, the only music to be found was an upbeat and cheerful track that turns especially repetitive when you get stuck long on a level.

While the main content of the game is rather short at only 54 levels (with four additional slots reserved for “coming soon”), you can have plenty of more fun with its community. The system of user-created levels is well-managed and populated with quality and quantity (there were over 1000 at the time of writing) with searching made easy thanks to sorting preferences. Naturally, a level editor tool is available for you to join the fun with the rest of the world. Its interface is well-designed with great user-friendliness and useful testing tool. While the small size and the space requirement for certain objects do limit your inspiration to a degree, it’s definitely a plus for the game.

Describing Ichi in one word is a difficult task, considering the feats it has achieved. For one, it lets everyone enjoy its fun, and on the other hand, rewards the more advanced crowd with strategic puzzle and precise execution.  It’s a cocktail mixed with a satisfactory amount of simplicity and complexity, accessibility and challenges, fast-paced action and thoughtful zen. Whoever you are, teens or adults, casual gamer or indie geeks, you are bound to have a good time with Ichi .

[review pros=”Accessible one-button gameplay, enjoyable challenging puzzles, user-friendly level creator tool and great community” cons=”Music not supplementary for zen thinking, some limits in the editor tool” score=85]

For more information, visit the game’s official website. Ichi can b e purchased on iOS App Storeand Android Google Playfor $0.99. A near identical version is also available on PC and Mac.

Release This: L.A. Noire, The Witcher 2 Arrive in U.S. and UK

Telltale's Minecraft Story Mode inspired by The Goonies and Ghostbusters

Of all the worlds for story masters Telltale Games to tackle, Minecraft is definitely the most interesting due to it's complete, well, lack of a plot. Minecraft: Story Mode had a proper reveal at Minecon this weekend in London and as well as a new trailer Telltale has revealed a stellar voice cast. US comedian Patton Oswalt - who played Remy in Ratatouille - stars as leading man Jesse (that's him in

Apple has ‘ROID’ Rage

If you’ve browsed through the App Store, you may have noticed that there are plenty of apps geared towards mature patrons, such as apps that about sex positions, or apps involving zit-popping.

If you’ve browsed through the App Store, you may have noticed that there are plenty of apps geared towards mature patrons, such as apps that about sex positions, or apps involving zit-popping. The crazy thing? They sell really, really well. They even reach the Top Ten every now and again. So you’d think that a game about destroying hemorrhoids would be perfectly fine. Apple disagrees.

The story starts with a small studio called Chunky Apps . Two people came up with the funny idea of making a game similar to Asteroids, but with, well, hemorrhoids. It was a silly concept that they thought would be an amazing idea. And so, like most Indie game developers, they set out to turn their dream into a reality.
It took them a great deal of time and energy, but eventually this game became a reality. They called it ROIDS , and it was released on the iPhone . You’d think this would be a happy ending, right? Well, you’d be wrong. When ROIDS first hit the App Store, it didn’t sell well. Even when it was at $0.99, the game hardly sold at all. Giving up wasn’t an option for Chunky Apps . They weren’t about to just give up on the project they worked so hard to make. How could they generate interest in this game that nobody’s bought? Firstly, they decided to make it free. People who had already paid for ROIDS would get a bonus in-game worth more than the $0.99 they paid for it. They also added some additional convenient features, such as being able to freely skip the opening cutscene.

Was that enough to salvage ROIDS ? Sadly, no. Not only did Apple take a very long time to reply to Chunky Apps ‘ request for a review, but when Apple got back to them, they were told that not only was their update denied- ROIDS was going to be removed from the App Store!

Put yourself in Chunky ‘s shoes. You just made a game, crafted it with love and devotion. You made it free so that people couldexperience it. Apple had no problems with putting it on the App Store before the update. There are other apps out there on the same level of appropriateness as ROIDS and they have no problem with them. To make matters worse, Apple’s policy of accepting games and handling appeals is non-existent, so a successful appeal isn’t likely to happen in the near future.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I totally agree that Apple should have every right to pull content that it feels will hurt its brand. That’s Apple’s right, since it is their store afterall. With that said, shouldn’t there be more concrete guidelines about what is and what is not acceptable for their store? It would prevent blunders like this from happening in the future and it would make it easier for game developers to make content that would fit those guidelines. Further, shouldn’t the sex apps and zit popping apps also be reviewed for removal, if this one was? Ultimately, it seems to me that there’s  double-standard going on here.

I’ll admit, I would likely never play this game, since it doesn’t seem to be my type of tea and I’d rather not battle hemorrhoids, but shouldn’t there be some standard by which the App Store judges all games? Further, ROIDS was played and reviewed by several other developers who felt it was well-polished and fun. Isn’t that what Apple should be promoting in their App Store?

Readers, I’m interested in hearing your opinions on this matter, so be sure to leave a comment in the section below! Also, please visit Chunky App ‘s website, which has the full blog post regarding their issue with Apple, and be sure to Like them on Facebook!

Portal 2 ARG Introduces New Themed Content In Indie Game Updates

Highlight of the Week: Very awkward water cooler moment

LA Noire's straight-faced dick-in-a-hat Cole Phelps might be good at cross-examining witnesses and interrogating suspects and he's certainly never short of a thing or two to say about naked dead women. But if it's not business, what does a man like Cole Phelps talk about? Is he as adept in the art of conversation as he is in solving crime? Let's take a look at how Cole Phelps handles a conversationally opportunistic moment at the office water cooler: Well. That was... awkward. July 8, 2011 HOTW: Inappropriate step-aerobics Some people have terrible bed-side manner How? How did he do that? HOTW: Unusual locker room behaviour Seriously woman, what if someone were to walk in?

Fierce play at Kong Off 3 fails to unseat Donkey Kong champ

"If anyone beats my world record, I'll leave it alone.

"If anyone beats my world record, I'll leave it alone. But if Vincent beats it, I'm gonna be on the machine every day until I get it back!" - Hank Chien, Donkey Kong world record holder

The Kong Off 3 competition took place last month at the 1UP barcadein Denver, Colorado, and today Vice's Motherboard blog published a brief videodocumenting the event and the story of two heated competitors: Hank Chien and Vincent Lemay.

Hank Chien is a 39-year-old plastic surgeon who also happens to hold the Donkey Kong high score: 1,138,600 at the time of this writing, though that number changes semi-frequently as Kong players are constantly competing to claim the top spot on the leaderboard.

Lemay, by contrast, is a 22-year-old self-described "meathead" from Quebec who currently holds the third-place spot on the global Donkey Kong leaderboard with a score of 1,135,900.

"I don't really care about winning," Lemay told Motherboard before the competition. "The only reason I'm here is to beat [Hank Chien]."

Motherboard's video is worth watching, though not for the competition itself: nobody managed to beat Chien's high score during Kong Off 3, and Chien himself took third place with a score of 1,056,900.

It's everything that happens around the competition that makes it worth caring about. The fact that such events still occur for a 30-year-old game is cause for celebration -- Chien states in the video that what excites him about Donkey Kong is less the game itself than the community that's grown up around it.

Lemay himself is actually quite a few years younger than Donkey Kong , which launched in 1981. The semi- secret historyof its development coincides with the earliest days of gaming, but events like the Kong Off competition suggest that games are capable of fostering meaningful relationships long after their launch window has come and gone.

Critical Reception: EA Canada's Fight Night Champion

Halo 5 map DLC and online co-op will be free

343 Industries studio head Josh Holmes has revealed that he misspoke regarding the nature of Halo 5 online . Campaign co-op will require an Xbox Live Gold subscription after all. Original story: Halo 5: Guardians will feature free DLC and free online co-op, according to the latest issue of Game Informer. Speaking to the magazine, developer 343 Industries and Microsoft revealed that more than 15 maps

Nova Blitz is Swift and Devastating

Since it was established in 2014, the members of Dragon Foundry have been working “to build a trading card game that’s a digital game first and foremost.” Now, the small team is preparing to launch the fruit of that labor, a real-time digital trading card game called Nova Blitz .

. Now in Alpha, the game has been fully approved on Steam Greenlight.

Nova Blitz takes place throughout a huge galaxy, where arenas are found on different worlds. Warriors called Novas compete with one another in these arenas, utilizing the five aspects of energy – Arcane, Tech, Divine, Nature, and Chaos. These Novas fight one another to become rich, famous, and eligible for a shot at the Nova Blitz Championship title, where the last Nova standing wins everything.

The player’s goal is relatively simple: Reduce the opponent’s health to zero. Battles are short, consisting of an Action phase followed by a Combat phase, using any of the cards in the player’s deck. The deck builder permits up to 20 decks per collection, mixed and matched as much as desired. All battles take place in real time, between players on the internet.

Nova Blitz is now in Alpha and moving towards Beta, which is expected to be completed before the end of 2015. The full release is scheduled for June 2016. Interested would-be Novas are invited to download and try the Alpha build on Windowsor Mac, with Linux support coming down the road. The Alpha download is free, and includes a full set of all 200 cards. To help them with final costs, Dragon Foundry has launched a Kickstarter, seeking to raise $40,000 USD; as of this writing they are more than halfway to their goal. Those interested in taking a journey to the far reaches of a fantastic galaxy can keep up with all the latest updates on the Nova Blitz Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube channel.

Saling The World: Monster Hunter 3G, Final Fantasy XIII-2 Head Japan's Sales Charts

Every Star Wars 8 set photo we could find

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Creature Comforts: Large ‘Gua-Le-Ni’ Update Coming

Quirky mobile dice puzzler Gua-Le-Ni will soon be enhanced by a vast new update, developers Double Jungle have announced.

Heading up the list of fresh features is the all-new Poetry Mode, a subtle derivation of the game’s standard offering. Conversely to the regular Gua-Le-Ni focus on rapid-fire block shifting, Poetry Mode places a heavier emphasis on the importance of player memory and creativity in a slower, more relaxing environment. This new gameplay variant will come alongside the implementation of new animal parts, along with a handful of all-new human body parts. Now we’re talking.

Player accessibility is also the name of the game for Double Jungle, with the update bringing in a flurry of new tutorial modes and feedback sentences. Of course, players can still expect to see a fair supply of bug fixes and interface modifications, all of which have been introduced for the purpose of ironing out some of the foibles noted by avid Gua-Le-Ni enthusiasts since its original release.

Gua-Le-Ni , an action-puzzler in which players attempt to combine blocks depicting unique ‘sections’ of an animal’s physical makeup, is available exclusively on iPad for $0.99/£0.69. To purchase the game, head over to the App Store, whilst further information on the game can be found on its official site.

Angry Birds Franchise Tops 500M Downloads In Total

RadioRadar+ Podcast 42: Predicting the future of Nintendo NX

The Big Topic: NX and the future of Nintendo games Further Discussion: Games you hate and can’t stop playing What we’re into: Revisiting Metal Gear Solid 5 and Star Trek Beyond The Nintendo NX has been revealed… maybe . The GamesRadar+ crew discusses the recently leaked details of Nintendo's upcoming console, its allegedly strange console-slash-portable hybrid design, and its potential impact on the

Battlefield: Hardline 'Robbery' DLC available this week for Premium members

If you happen to be a Premium member of Battlefield: Hardline , then you may be pleased to know that the 'Robbery' DLC pack will be available later this week – September 16 to be exact.

, then you may be pleased to know that the 'Robbery' DLC pack will be available later this week – September 16 to be exact. EA made the announcement at the weekend, along with the news that non-Premium members will gain access on September 30.

Andy provided a full rundown of the DLCwhen it was announced last month, but the gist of it is this: there are four new maps (see some footage of Precinct 7 below), a new 5v5 'Squad Heist' mode, four new weapons, two new gadgets, two new factional vehicles as well as a bunch of new cosmetic stuff. The nitty-gritty is on the Battlefield website.

UK Chart: Tomb Raider holds off God of War Ascension

Tomb Raider retained the top spot on the UK all formats all prices chart for the week ended March 16. The game held off a trio of new releases in the form of God of War: Ascension StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm and Sniper 2: Ghost Warrior , while SimCity rounded off the top five. God of War: Ascension failed to emulate the opening week success of God of War 3 , which sold more than double as many

...

Jump to Section: Best Price Comments “Why?” asks a young woman in Jesse Custer’s congregation on the fateful day he promised to make God almighty appear at church. She wants to know why bad things happen to good people. Everyone in all of Annville, Texas is there to watch Jesse deliver on his word, from magnetic, terrifying meat man Odin Quincannon to the dueling high school mascots that have appeared

Jump to Section:Best Price

Comments
Our Verdict
No flashy new features or buzzwords, just magnificent racing stemming from a refinement of Grid 1s greatness.

need to know

Price: £30 / $50
Release: Out now
Publisher: Codemasters/Bandai Namco
Developer: Codemasters
Website: Official site
Multiplayer: 2-player local, 12-player online

By Phil Iwaniuk.

Ordinarily it's hard to feel sympathy for games marketing folks. They use portmanteaus like RealFeel or TrueDrive when they mean handling, and talk about that sweet spot between arcade and simulation like it's a slider on the dev's toolset that no-one thought to include before. But you have to feel for whoever was in charge of penning Grid Autosport's back-of-box brags; it's a fantastic game, but its strengths lie in perfectly nailed fundamentals rather than new features. Er, the racing feels really, really real? No dice. Back to the drawing board, marketing person.

Of course, I feel for them particularly because now I have to explain its mercurial qualities too. Grid Autosport succeeds because it doesn't over-stretch itself. There's no expanded management element here, nor any new curios like Grid 2's dynamically changing track layouts. Instead, Codemasters focuses on improving the series' already impressive AI, delivering a firm and fun handling model and setting it to task in five key disciplines: Touring Cars, Endurance, Open Wheel, Tuner and Street. Compete for teams in these disciplines to fulfil sponsor objectives and earn XP, then unlock more events in faster cars. Simplicity itself.

Perhaps the best thing Grid Autosport does is place you more often than not in the middle of the pack. There probably is some rubber-banding at work (a term our friend in games marketing no doubt hates, and would rather see replaced by PackSense or some such), but it's much subtler than any of Autosport's contemporaries. You're used to having slightly better acceleration than the AI in racing games (spoilers: that's why you always win) but here, you don't. You have better brakes . That means in order to take a place, you need to line up an opponent, anticipate his braking point, then either brake slightly later or pick a wider line and brake earlier, hoping to carry more speed out of the apex. In either event, they usually repass you. Suddenly, 5th place becomes a towering achievement. Trying to fulfil a sponsor objective that demands you drive a clean race and still bag the podium necessary to win the championship becomes the single hardest and most rewarding thing you've recently done in a racing game. It's excellent.

It's great to see Touring events return to the series. They're elbows-out affairs that the AI seems to enjoy as much as you. Where most racers give you a procession of Sunday drivers obsessed with each other's rear bumpers, Grid Autosport provides a ferocious rabble, always just one braking zone away from a five-car pile-up. Opponent behaviour is impressive across all race types, but it's most keenly witnessed in this weapons-free discipline.

They, like you, have other considerations during Open Wheel and Endurance events. Lightweight formula vehicles are remarkably allergic to high-speed impacts as it turns out, so AI aggression is muted here for obvious reasons. Conversely, Endurance cars can take more of a battering, but everyone's trying to keep their tyres fresh in these night-time runs and so drive much more conservatively (it's a lot more fun than it sounds, this).

Tuner and Street event types are a bit less engaging, if only because they revert back into what Grid Autosport's largely departing from—that homogenised muscle car bombast we all got bored of five Need For Speeds ago. Plaudits are due for the edge-of-your-seat drift handling, but broadly it's these tuners and street circuits that made Grid 2 feel a bit of a sell-out. Well, that and the cut-scenes of social media numbers skyrocketing after your every victory.

Handling isn't a revelation—Autosport neither attempts nor succeeds in beating artisanal projects like Assetto Corsa or Project CARS at their own game—but it is a further improvement on an hugely gratifying drive. It's less twitchy than Grid 2, with a forgiving slip angle that lets you wrestle a drifting car back from the edge of disaster (handy if you're out of Flashbacks and can no longer screw with the space-time continuum) and gives great feedback that lets you feel where the car's weight it at all times.

You're getting the picture by now: Autosport is the best bits of Grid 1 & 2, distilled into a focussed and finely tuned racer capable of delivering joy on the track. There isn't much going on off it, and though the EGO engine looks prettier than ever there's no hiding the crows' feet and frown lines that come with its advancing age of—er, about six years. The more easily distracted, impulsive racing games fan in you will occasionally lament the game's familiarity; the growing sense that you're playing Race Driver Grid: Remastered, and it's unfair to shout that voice down completely. But in the heat of the moment in any of the game's disciplines, these misgivings melt away and only the exhilaration of scraping past a Ravenwest on the final corner remains.

The Verdict

Grid Autosport

No flashy new features or buzzwords, just magnificent racing stemming from a refinement of Grid 1s greatness.

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Rod Fergusson heading up new Bay Area 2K Games studio

BioShock Infinite "closer" and Gears of War series producer Rod Fergusson is heading up a new 2K Games studio in the San Francisco Bay Area. Fergusson tweeted the news earlier today: It’s official: I’m launching a new studio for 2K in the Bay Area with an exciting new project! Details soon! September 26, 2013 Fergusson left Irrational Games in April, after spending about half a year helping Ken Levine

BioWare's Mass Effect 2 Heading To PlayStation 3

GRID Autosport adding Oculus Rift support in next update

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Grid Autosport gets free, optional HD texture pack on PC; other DLC plans revealed

Grid Autosport is all about performance; about power under the hood, junk under the trunk, and other things that racing enthusiasts probably say.

Grid Autosport is all about performance; about power under the hood, junk under the trunk, and other things that racing enthusiasts probably say. In that sense, it's not dissimilar to PC ownership—something that can equally descend into stand-offish posturing over specifications and build quality. Codemasters recognise this, and have responded with free PC-only launch-day DLC: an HD texture pack that will separate the computers in pole position from those in need of a pit stop.

"If you play on PC you'll have access to the first piece of additional content the moment GRID Autosport launches; an HD texture pack that will increase the visual fidelity of the liveries and car exteriors," wrote community manager Ben Walke. "We wanted to make the pack optional as the 4K textures included will be a small hit on your performance, so instead of bumping up the minimum specs for everyone we thought we'd leave the decision in your own hands."

In addition, Walke outlined Autosport's future content plan. DLC will come in two categories: car packs and mini expansion. Car packs are exactly what they sound like, "new cars for the game". Mini expansions, meanwhile, will be based around a specific theme, and will "each include a selection of new locations, some will include new cars and in some cases new game modes entirely."

Grid Autosport is due out later today in the US, and on Friday in Europe.

Top iPhone Game Apps: Angry Birds, Words With Friends Head Platform Sales

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Omnibus pits an unstoppable bus against very brittle buildings

Omnibus is just about as weird as it looks.

is just about as weird as it looks. I got a chance to play it today on the show floor of PAX South, and was happy to see that there was more to it than just the strange exterior. While it may look like just another wacky sandbox game, the missions and objectives in each level turn the topsy-turvy bus crashing controls into a difficult to master game mechanic. I spoke with Developer Amir Badri about why his game is so damn strange and fun, which you can watch in the interview above.

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PS1-alike OmniBus careering onto Steam in Spring

Phil wrote a bit about OmniBus last year, rightfully describing it as "cool" and even creating a new tag in honour of it.

in honour of it. A lot has happened since Phil wrote his story. Studio Buddy Cops has continued to develop it off the back of a Kickstartercampaign, and respected indie publisher Devolver Digital has decided to publish it. Described as "a crazy Playstation 1 style physics game about the unstoppable force of nature that is OMNIBUS!", the game is set to release in spring (or autumn if you're in Australia).

The game looks like fun, and will presumably involve more than just ramming buses into the side of buildings (perhaps the free demoholds the answer). Even if the game doesn't involve more than ramming buses into the side of buildings, that seems okay to me.

But if the game ends up being garbage, at least we'll have the above trailer, an alternative history where OmniBus is a long-awaited 3DO title in development hell. After many years in development, it finally gets a release date, and people on Twitter are happy about it. Seriously, just watch the trailer. You can pre-order it on Steam.

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Need for Speed: Most Wanted trailer shows a race and a chase in Fairport City

Criterion's reboot of 2005's Need for Speed: Most Wanted will mesh players together with an upgraded version of Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit's Autolog system.

Criterion's reboot of 2005's Need for Speed: Most Wanted will mesh players together with an upgraded version of Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit's Autolog system. It tracks your every start finish time and then lets your friends know whenever you beat their time, but also acts as a fluid matchmaking system that'll let you start events on the fly in Most Wanted's open world city. The latest footage over on Evil Avatarshows such a session in action, with video of a race and a hairy escape. It feels, if anything, a lot like Burnout: Paradise, which is no bad thing, but will it have the original Most Wanted's level of car customisation? And will we get to play as the cops?

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New Need for Speed to use Frostbite 2

The newly announced instalment in EA's racing franchise - Need for Speed: The Run - will use Frostbite 2 as its base.

Frostbite 2 has rocketed to fame after its graphical horsepower and capabilities were shown off in footage from Battlefield 3, which it also powers.

The Run is being developed by Black Box, and continues the cops vs racers war in a similar fashion to Criterion's Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit from last year. However, this time around the central focus is that of 'The Run'; an illegal cross-country race from San Francisco all the way to New York City. Players will have to "weave through dense urban centers, rocket down icy mountain passes and navigate narrow canyons at breakneck speeds", whilst keeping an eye out for law enforcement.

Need for Speed: The Run is expected November 15 in the US and November 18 in the UK.

[via Big Download]

After nearly five years of development and plenty of major changes along the way, it's safe to say that

Polytron's Fez has quite a storied history. It all began with a very small team -- just one designer and one programmer -- but eventually became one of the most anticipated indie games of all time. Just ahead of the game's debut in April, programmer Renaud Bedard offered a behind the scenes look at Fez 's creation in a technical postmortem at GDC 2012 , where he showcased the techniques he used and the lessons he learned while creating the mind-bending platformer.

Video: Cubes all the way down: Fez

[Note: To access chapter selection, click the fullscreen button or check out the video on the GDC Vault website]





Now, that session is available (above) as a free video, courtesy of the GDC Vault. It's a detailed, comprehensive talk that examines not only the programming techniques that powered Fez , but also the dynamic between Bedard and designer Phil Fish.

During development, Fish dictated the game's design, while Bedard implemented his ideas. Of course, that's not to say Bedard was just taking orders. As the game's programmer, he had to decide what was worth implementing and what didn't make sense. Fez might have been borne of Fish's imagination, but Bedard had to call some of the shots to make sure the game actually came together.

"As a programmer you know what's possible," he said. "At one point, Phil said, 'I think it'd be really cool if [the character] was built in animated trixels,' and I had to be the one to say, 'I just don't think that's worth the time.'

"You can always say no [to a designer], but you can't just say, 'No, I don't feel like doing this.' It's a discussion, and in this case, Fez is Phil's game... But at the same time he had to recognize my limits so we could make the game together."

For Bedard's full breakdown of how Fez actually came to be, simply click the Play button above to start the video.
About the GDC VaultIn addition to all of this free content, the GDC Vault also offers more than 300 additional lecture videos and hundreds of slide collectionsfrom GDC 2012 for GDC Vault subscribers. GDC 2012 All Access pass holders already have full access to GDC Vault, and interested parties can apply for the individual subscription Beta via a GDC Vault inquiry form.

Group subscriptions are also available: game-related schools and development studios who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company. More information on this option is available via an online demonstration, and interested parties can send an email to Gillian Crowley. In addition, current subscribers with access issues can contact GDC Vault admins.

Be sure to keep an eye on GDC Vault for even more free content, as GDC organizers will also archive videos, audio, and slides from upcoming 2012 events like GDC Europe, GDC Online, and GDC China. To stay abreast of all the latest updates to GDC Vault, be sure to check out the news feed on the official GDC website, or subscribe to updates via Twitter, Facebook, or RSS. GDC and the GDC Vault are owned and operated by Gamasutra parent company UBM Technology.

Portal 2 Authoring Tools Beta Released

New Need for Speed: Shift 2 details, screens and trailer

A whole stash of NFS: Shift 2 details have been released concerning auto-log, helmet cams and, of course, cars.

A whole stash of NFS: Shift 2 details have been released concerning auto-log, helmet cams and, of course, cars. Read on for the latest news, along with a new trailer and plenty of screenshots.

Developer Slightly Mad Studios has revealed to Joystiqthat the Autolog system that was first seen in NFS: Hot Pursuit is now 'Need for Speed DNA'. The system will appear in Shift 2 in a more-or-less identical design, but will sport extra features that will not only provide track times for unique events, but also segregate data based on quick race tracks, race types and automotive disciplines. This essentially means that Autolog will be more than just a system that throws down your friend's times regardless of how, or when, they set them during their career.

Slightly Mad also revealed that a rewards scheme would be introduced, with players of Hot Pursuit being awarded the Pagani Cinque Roadster racer and Lamborghini Reventon police car in Shift 2 when they log in.

Over at IGN, the guys have been looking at the game's helmet-cam, which puts players right in the head of the racer. More than just in in-car camera, the helmet cam will move with the head of the driver, being drawn from side to side as the car takes corners and the driver is hit by G's. As the car comes up to higher speeds, the edges of the screen will become blurred to simulate the tunnel-vision effect that drivers suffer when racing.

Here's the new trailer, highlighting some of the features:

More The Walking Dead games on the way from Telltale, Activision

Valve Software Confirms Dota 2

Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition now releasing April 27

Ori and the Blind Forest is a sumptuous Metroidvania about a cute sprite that dies repeatedly in tough platforming sequences, and Tyler Wilde was rather fond of it when he reviewed the original version a year ago .

. It's since been updated in a Definitive Edition that released on Xbox One last month, but last-minute delayspushed the PC version back to an unspecified date.

That date has now been specified. Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition will hit PC on April 27, which as calendar fans will know is next Wednesday. This new version will cost $19.99, or $4.99 if you own the original Ori, and adds new areas, a new Easy difficulty, warp points and more.

What should the PlayStation 4 be called?

In three days time we'll almost assuredly get some concrete details about the PlayStation 4. Perhaps what it looks like. Maybe how its controller(s?) work . How about launch games ? Oh, and what is this thing actually going to be called ? Will it be dubbed PlayStation 4? Or might Sony do a bit of rebranding and go with PlayStation Orbis or Thebes, two of its rumored handles? Perhaps something entirely

Blizzard opposes Valve Dota name registration

Age of Mythology: Extended Edition launches today on Steam

It's been just over two months since Age of Mythology: Extended Edition was cheekily announced by an alpaca hand puppet during an Age of Empires 2: HD Edition developer live stream.

during an Age of Empires 2: HD Edition developer live stream. Yes, this is how classic games are brought back into the world. AoM: EE goes live on Steamtoday and brings with it the original's Titan expansion campaign, as well as a host of other tweaks and upgradesunder the hood.

Originally released in 2002 by Microsoft Studios, the real-time strategy game is set against a backdrop of ancient civilizations and the various gods and monsters that populate their worlds. The remake includes HD support and improved visuals as well as integration with Steamworks and Twitch TV, according to the developer.

As we can see above in a massive live stream Q&A videopublished by Microsoft this week, AoM: EE is set to debut an upgraded observer mode for spectating games, a feature the developer hopes will propel a competitive scene around the game.

"Observer mode for the base game was a little bare-bones," says Age of Empires community coordinator Kieffer Bryant in the video below. "Really wasn't much to it other than you could see all the different players and see the map. So we've added a lot of data to observer mode that we hope the competitive community get's excited about."

For more on how the classic strategy experience translates to 2014, keep an eye out for our upcoming review. Also check out this videofor more gameplay footage from the developer.

EA: next-gen consoles unlikely to be backwards compatible

Electronic Arts chief financial officer Blake Jorgensen used a Q&A session at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference in San Francisco yesterday to discuss the publisher’s plans for next-generation consoles. According to Gamasutra ’s coverage of the event, the executive hinted at a Christmas launch for what the company’s calling "gen-four" consoles from Microsoft and Sony. He also broached

Awesomenauts and Frobisher Says highlight this week's Best of Indie Games

Jump to Section:Best Price

Comments
Our Verdict
Kalimba is a beautiful, cheerful platformer that finds a neat middle ground between reflex-oriented running and taxing puzzle solving.

NEED TO KNOW

What is it? Pleasant puzzle platformer, but not too puzzle-y.
Influenced by Outland, Kirby
Reviewed on Intel Core i7-4800MQ, 8GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce GTX 870M / 3GB GDDR
Alternatively Ibb and Obb
Copy protection Steam
Expect to pay $10 / £7
Release Out now
Developer Press Play
Publisher Microsoft Studios
Multiplayer 2 player coop
Link Official site

Somewhere in the world there’s a person capable of completing Mega Man X and Mega Man X2 concurrently, using the same controller, in less than three hours. I’m not kidding: the footage is here, and it’s very tedious to watch. Kalimba takes the concept and makes it fun, cheerful, and only occasionally tedious.

Kalimba’s premise is simple. You’re in charge of two small totems tasked with fending off some vague impending doom. A towering, all-important totem has been destroyed by an evil force, and it needs to be rebuilt with pieces found at the end of each level. Master a level and you’re rewarded with a special, ornate totem—basically a badge of honour—whereas poor performance gives you an ugly old log. Either way, you pass the level and move to the next, but it’s hard to resist the pull of creating the prettiest painted figure possible by nailing a perfect run.

The levels are straightforward enough at first: direct your two characters all the way to the end of the level and don’t fall into any of the evil black sludge. Problem is, in early levels both totems have their own route and obstacles, and if one dies the other does too. It feels like playing two breezy platformers at once, and it’s pleasantly daunting to vouch for two characters.

Early levels, like the above, are challenging yet relaxing. Don't be fooled.

And that’s a great idea for a 2D platformer—who needs more?—except there’s a lot more to Kalimba. Danish studio Press Play goes to great lengths to dig up every conundrum possible in the scenario: sometimes your totems will collaborate, at other times they’ll tag team in mini-escort missions, while at other times you’ll wish one of them would stop being so needy and die.

In most cases it’s impossible to move one totem without also moving the other, but you can switch between the totems and use the environment to manipulate their position in relation to each other. Sometimes you’ll need one purple totem to chaperone a blue totem through purple goop, and vice versa. New challenges and approaches are served up at a steady clip, and it’s a cleverly paced platformer in the way it immediately capitalises on the player’s mastery of a new technique, layering on ideas until the game no longer resembles a typical left-to-right platformer.

With Teeth

It’s a game with a lot of ideas, but it’s not overly cerebral. Kalimba finds a nice balance between static problem solving and fast-paced, reflex-oriented running. The graphics—crisp, colourful, triangular mosaics—are delightfully readable, and while environments tend to feel a bit repetitive, the levels are defined by their unique obstacles, not by whether they’re set in a cave or a forest. You’ll launch your totems from cannons, guide them through hordes of gliding baddies, and invert gravity. Kalimba sometimes feels like a rhythm game because when it’s played well, it’s a zen-like, trance-inducing experience.

Due warning though: as with most modern platformers, Kalimba isn’t reluctant to drop its cheerful veneer at times. It has a reasonable difficulty curve, but there are occasions towards the end where the game’s puzzle and twitch persuasions clash in some infuriating ways. Later levels feature a totem capable of both gliding and acting as a suspended platform for its buddy, and coordinating these abilities, while keeping each totem safe from black sludge and floating masks, feels like untying a knot pulled tight in your brain. These end stages of Kalimba are punishing, so make a precautionary dentist booking if you plan on giving it a go, and especially if you want all the collectibles. Picking them up isn’t the problem, but keeping them is, as every death docks them from your total.

But don’t be intimidated: the skillsets needed are well-established when the challenges come thick and fast, and checkpoints are charitably dotted throughout each level. It’s not an easy game, but nor does it deserve a place among the likes of Super Meat Boy, N+, or Volgarr The Viking.

Looks pleasant, but this is among the most infuriating moments in the game.

Kalimba’s cooperative mode is one of its strongest offerings, and by necessity it boasts its own level set independent of the core single player experience. These focus more on collaborative puzzle solving rather than high speed maneuvers, and as far as couch platformers go it’s among the best I’ve played recently for PC.

There are frustrations, though. Kalimba’s challenge levels—accessed by barely hidden portals throughout the levels—are weirdly unsatisfying. They task you with acquiring a certain number of icons before reaching the end, but these icons respawn and the levels are rarely actually challenging. In an otherwise lean, focused game, they feel unnecessary and boring. Meanwhile, the boss battles aren’t especially taxing, but they feel like obligations rather than neat twists on the game’s formula.

But as someone who’s a bit fed up with puzzle platformers (give me more lightning speed, reflex-oriented games like Ori or Super Meat Boy) I was surprised by Kalimba. Platformers have always been good at making me feel hopeless one moment and adept the next, and the genre has lately been fond of openly subverting its own rules to these ends. Kalimba does both, but its sun faded colours and personable demeanour make even the toughest losses feel oddly graceful.

The Verdict

Kalimba

Kalimba is a beautiful, cheerful platformer that finds a neat middle ground between reflex-oriented running and taxing puzzle solving.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Shaun is PC Gamer’s Australian Editor. He loves masochistic platformers but lacks the skill and grace to complete them. He has four broken keyboards hidden under his desk, filed between an emergency six-pack of Reschs and five years worth of XXL promotional t-shirts. He stares out the window a lot.

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Top-Grossing iOS Games: Poker by Zynga reclaims top chart spot

Casey Hudson joins Microsoft Studios as creative director

Long-time BioWare veteran Casey Hudson, best known as the project director on the Mass Effect trilogy, has become creative director at Microsoft Studios.

trilogy, has become creative director at Microsoft Studios. His primary focus at Microsoft will be on the HoloLens, an augmented reality headset announced earlier this yearthat will work with a special platform included in Windows 10, called Windows Holographic.

"I am extremely passionate about the potential of this kind of technology, as anyone who’s talked with me over the last couple of years can attest," Hudson told Xbox Wire. "I feel that the work being done at Microsoft on mixed reality and holographic computing will have a tremendous impact on how all of us interact with technology in the coming years."

Hudson will also be working on new Xbox games, and "involved in driving a creative focus for Xbox and Windows gaming." But he said the opportunity to work on HoloLens is what has him particularly excited.

"I was fortunate to try an early prototype of HoloLens before it was announced, and I was blown away by the technology and what it was already capable of," he said, describing experiences like walking on Mars while drinking coffee in an office setting or skyping with a friend who could draw on his walls. "These first experiences cemented my belief that holographic computing was where I needed to be. There’s no end to the potential of this technology, and I look forward to being able to influence the full-spectrum experience on HoloLens, from hardware to OS, to applications and games."

Find out what we thought of the HoloLens in our hands-on sessionfrom January.

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