The Secret World open beta coming before Christmas? Nuh-uh, says Funcom
When you're constantly buried in a world of multi-tendriled conspiracies, smooth-talking secret societies, and all of history's greatest boogiemen, I have to imagine that it's easy to let tidbits of a less apocalyptic nature slip out.
nature slip out. Such was thought to be the case when recent reportsof an alleged pre-Christmas Secret World open beta date surfaced. Funcom, however, has finally set the record straight.
"Open beta will not be initiated before Christmas, but will be a part of our strategy next year prior to our April 2012 launch," the Age of Conan and Anarchy Online developer wrote on its website.
A subscription rate - which the same video placed at "between $15 and $17" - was also shot down. For now, it's far from final.
"Funcom has not yet made any official announcements regarding the business model or price points for The Secret World," reads the post. "This is still being discussed and evaluated internally, and we will make an official announcement when this has been finalized."
So then, right hand, meet left. Or maybe - just maybe - this was all a clever ruse set in motion by some silently cackling Illuminati to keep its secret safe from the MMO-obsessed masses. No one is safe.
...Or maybe that first thing.
Dying Light DLC takes a jab at Destiny's Red Bull promotion
Bungie recently announced a new Destiny promotion in partnership with energy drink Red Bull.
Bungie recently announced a new Destiny promotion in partnership with energy drink Red Bull. Basically, if Americans and Canadians purchase and imbibe specially branded Destiny cans, they'll get XP boosts and access to otherwise inaccessible quests. As far as video game marketing campaigns go, it's a boardroom no-brainer: all gamers love energy drinks! They love XP! They love quests! Rah!
Destiny isn't on PC though, so we can't knock back energy drinks in the name of content. So it's lucky Techland has decided to run a similar promotion for Dying Light, which is on PC. As the image above demonstrates, if you take a photo of yourself drinking a glass of water and Tweet it to the official Dying Light Twitter account, you'll eventually get a code for a premium in-game weapon. Seems pretty generous: for most people in the Western world, water is an infinite resource. No sugar crashes either, which is a plus.
Men of War Assault Squad beta to continue if 20,000 join Steam group
Digital Mind Soft have provided gamers with a challenge: hit 20,000 members for the official Men of War: Assault Squad Steam group, and they will reactivate the open beta. Not only will they do that, but they'll let you play as the Soviets in it, too.
Get signing up already!
PC Gamer UK Podcast: Episode 85 - Horse Parking Simulator 2013
After a break, we're back.
After a break, we're back. Chris, Tom Senior and Marsh discuss Antichamber, DmC, The Witcher, Destiny, the inner workings of Valve and a game called Half-Life 2 that is pretty good apparently.
Also featuring an ass palace, places where one may or may not take a horse, the playground circular saw craze of the 1990s, a wonderous squirrel experience, and possibly the most inept attempt to begin a podcast since the last time we tried to begin a podcast.
We also talk about Rome II, Aliens: Colonial Marines, and the games of David Johnston.
You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, or download the MP3 directly. Follow PC Gamer UK on Twitterto be informed when we're putting the call out for questions. Alternatively, follow us as individuals:
Tom Senior - @pcgludo
Marsh - @marshdavies
Chris - @cthursten
Show notes Our review of Antichamber. Half-Life 2 is a good computer game! Who knew. No link here: just registering my surprise. Again. Our review of the petition-tastic DmC: Devil May Cry. Some picturesof Destiny, Bungie's game about a magic space ball or something. A blurry screenshotof whatever Respawn Entertainment are doing. Via Eurogamer: the PS4 will not block used games. MAXIMUM SQUIRRELS"Nine out of ten." - Martin 'Marsh' Davies Our Aliens: Colonial Marines review, Kotaku's reporton its troubled development, and a xenomorph with a tiny little invisible piano. Someone call a doctor. Chris has a case of not-really-thinking-this-through.
QuakeCon 2013 announced for August
Things guaranteed to happen each year: incrementally improved new versions of popular products, at least one earnestly predicted end of the world scenario, and QuakeCon, id Software's mega-LAN party/PC gaming celebration.
Things guaranteed to happen each year: incrementally improved new versions of popular products, at least one earnestly predicted end of the world scenario, and QuakeCon, id Software's mega-LAN party/PC gaming celebration. This year the BYOC event will be held August 1st - 4th at its regular stomping ground, the Hilton Anatole Hotel in Dallas, Texas.
Don't fancy lugging your rig across the country/world? Not to worry, Bethesda will also be showing off some of their upcoming titles for the first time in public. Chances are that means Elder Scrolls Online, but I've also got my fingers crossed for a possible Prey 2 revival.
As with previous years, attendance is free. The hotel is also offering a deal on rooms, details of which are available at the QuakeCon site.
Bat-ass: Infinite Crisis is a DC Comics MOBA from Turbine
Just about anything can be turned into a MOBA these days— gods , sequels , and even Gandalf .
. The spaghettified web of comic book worlds and their classic hero vs. villain pairings seems like a natural fit for the teamwork and ability synergy found in those games, and Turbine agrees, bridging characters from the DC comic books with MOBA mechanics in Infinite Crisis, which will be free to play later this year.
All it took, apparently, was a couple of rocks falling from the sky. The DC continuum is split into parallel worlds and universes, you see, and things go bonkers once the barriers between dimensions are torn asunder for do-gooders and evil-doers to freely hop over. From a practical viewpoint, that gives Turbine the go-ahead to continually fill Crisis with more of DC's character stable through updates.
Crisis will launch with 12 characters to choose from, all wielding the gadgets, energy beams, and fists that made them famous. Some of the launch lineup includes alternate versions of recognizable heroes and villains from nightmarish and steampunk worlds. Here's the roster: Nightmare Batman, Doomsday, Flash, Gaslight Batman, Gaslight Catwoman, Gaslight Joker, Green Lantern, Poison Ivy, Shazam, The Joker, Wonderwoman, and Zatana.
Infinite Crisis will release sometime this year. There's a debut trailer up as well as an official websitewhere you can fill out a couple fields for a chance to participate in the beta.
Shovel Knight free expansion 'Plague of Shadows' announced
Yacht Club Games is making good on the promise to deliver playable boss knights, and up first to the protagonist spot is Plague Knight.
Thanks to the magic of Kickstarter stretch goals, charming platformer Shovel Knightis getting a free expansion. This time, you're playing as a baddie.
Yacht Club Games is making good on the promise to deliver playable boss knights, and up first to the protagonist spot is Plague Knight. The alchemist will star in the Plague of Shadows update, in a quest to become the head of the Order of No Quarter.
Rather than a simple reskin, Plague of Shadows will add new story and systems. Plague Knight's skill set includes explosives, bomb jumps, and alchemy—with a new crafting system that will allow him to turn loot into equipment and power-ups.
Plague of Shadows will also bring new objectives and bosses, new routes through levels, and new 'Feats'.
The expansion is due out in Q2 2015, which is fancy talk for 'Spring-ish'.
EverQuest 2 now lets you buy level 85 heroes, runs free offer for the next two weeks
In many genres, the announcement of a purchasable option to skip the majority of content could be seen as a negative, but this is MMO country.
In many genres, the announcement of a purchasable option to skip the majority of content could be seen as a negative, but this is MMO country. In it, EverQuest 2 is one of the older residents, but that doesn't mean it can't occasionally surprise its younger peers. It's now offering "Heroic Characters", which, for a price, give players a direct shortcut to Level 85. Just think how many things you'll no longer have to kill for entirely arbitrary reasons.
According to EQ2's senior producer Holly Longdale, these new Heroic Characters were created in response to fan feedback. "Former players don't want to play catch-up to Level 95, existing players don't want to start over at Level 1 with their friends, and some players just want to get into high-end guilds and raids because that's what they love to do."
Personally, I can see the appeal. Certain MMOs heavily favour their endgame, and in such cases the journey to that point is often a thankless chore - one that can sour you against ever reaching the part you wanted to play in the first place.
Over the next two weeks, the game is holding its "Hero's Call", which lets new and existing players secure a free Level 85 character or character upgrade. That offer ends on October 15th.
Stronghold Crusader 2 will feature the Sultana, the game's first female opponent
Those eager to build and defend castles must be getting impatient.
Stronghold Crusader 2was meant to release on Tuesday but is now delayed until September 23. Never mind though, because when it does release it will feature the series' first female opponent in the form of the Sultana.
The developer diary below gives some insight into what you'll be contending with whenever the Sultana attacks your stronghold. Suffice to say, the Sultana isn't an especially brutal enemy, but one which “prefers deception and intelligent use of the land over brute force,” according to the Fireflyteam.
“The key to defeating the Sultana lies in the game's new unit balancing,” a spokesperson for the studio wrote. “Gone are the days where players could dominate every skirmish match by spamming Horse Archers or mobbing the opposing player with Assassins. The Sultana prefers specialised units, which must be used against her to win. Counter Horse Archers with charging Sassanid Knights, Sassanid Knights with Pikemen in a 'dug-in' defensive stance, Pikemen with fire from Oil Pot Throwers and so forth, depending on which units she opts for in a given match.
“Every unit has a counter, with the Sultana designed to train players in the art of unit selection. Defeat her and learn one of the most important lessons in Stronghold.”
Free Plague of Shadows expansion for Shovel Knight gets a trailer
Yacht Club Games has just put out a new trailer showing off the playable Plague Knight character for their successful retro platformer Shovel Knight .
. In the update, which is free, you’ll not only get to play as the Plague Knight, but also experience a new story, mechanics, and remixed game content.
According to the developer: “You play as Plague Knight, the villainous master of alchemy, in a quest all his own. Using his maniacal scientific mind, Plague Knight is seeking to concoct Serum Supernus, the Ultimate Potion. However, to retrieve these ingredients, he must extract them from his former allies… the villainous knights of the Order of No Quarter!"
The update will no doubt be welcomed by speedrunners, giving them a new character to route through Shovel Knight’s challenging world. There’s no release date yet, but Yacht Club Games says you can: “expect it very, very soon.”
Everquest 2 to banish naughty players to "prison server"
This server, Drunder, will receive no customer service support and, naturally, will be full of players who like to cheat, so it's unlikely to be a particularly pleasant place to play.
As spotted by Eurogamer, Daybreak (formerly Sony Online Entertainment) has announcedan imminent experiment in which Everquest 2 players who break the game rules will be banished to a "prison server" forever.
This server, Drunder, will receive no customer service support and, naturally, will be full of players who like to cheat, so it's unlikely to be a particularly pleasant place to play. However, players will be able to use the petition system to ask to join the server, though once an account goes to Drunder it can't return.
Apparently, the customer service staff have been asking for this kind for thing for years, but Daybreak stresses it's an experiment. They'll start to see results when they launch the server later this week. What do you think, good idea?
Stronghold Crusader 2 trailer has a vendetta against castles, shows off Skirmish mode
Stronghold Crusader 2 - Firefly Studios' Holy Land-set castle-building, castle-maintaining and castle-sploding RTS sequel - is due out this summer, and will hopefully arrive in a better state than the shambolic Stronghold 3.
Stronghold 3. This new trailer offers a flaming, besieged look at the game's Skirmish mode, which will let you play co-operatively or in rival teams online. Providing you can breach our defences, make sure you have a watch of it after the break.
The accompanyingreveals that Skirmish mode "includes eight AI characters and the ability to take your castle siege online, which extends to eight players and the option to play in teams or co-op."
The mode "will be included in the game at launch alongside two single player campaigns, one from each side of the conflict between the invading Crusader hordes and Arabic freedom fighters. While the single player campaigns are very much designed to teach players the basics before taking their fight online, the Crusader 1 style skirmish trails will also make a return. These trails contain some of the most difficult missions in the game, putting the skills of even the most hardened Stronghold Crusader veterans to the test."
Thanks, Blue's News.
Indie platformer Shovel Knight given jaunty new trailer, Winter release window
Have we mentioned Shovel Knight before now?
Sort of but not really, so here's a quick precis: it's an old-fashioned 8-bit-style platformer starring - as the name suggests - a shovel-wielding knight. Back in March/April, Yacht Club Games'spade-happy title raised all the money and then some on Kickstarter, and now the game is nearing its release. 'Winter' is the only cluewe have to go on right now, but this fab new trailer should help to ease the pain of uncertainty a bit.
As you can see, Shovel Knight's oddly-equipped hero certainly makes the most of his garden implement, using it to dig, pound, air-dash, deflect and more - I love to see a developer using an idea to its full potential. It looks like a modern-day DuckTales, but one I'd actually want to play - roll on 'sometime this Winter'.
Cheers, IndieGames.
Sony Online Entertainment announces EverQuest II: Chains of Eternity expansion
In a letter posted by Producer Holly Longdale, Sony Online Entertainment revealed the ninth (!) expansion for its MMO workhorse EverQuest II entitled Chains of Eternity.
posted by Producer Holly Longdale, Sony Online Entertainment revealed the ninth (!) expansion for its MMO workhorse EverQuest II entitled Chains of Eternity. No, the title's aptness didn't get past us - the announcement serves as a testament to the MMO's long-lasting existence.
In addition to standard perks such as an increased adventuring and tradeskill level caps, Eternity bestows a bountiful bevy of new items, quests, and prestige abilities set within Ethernere, the EverQuest II equivalent of the world beyond the mortal plane. Seems like a prime opportunity to submit my "Egon's Epee" sword with SOE's new Player Studio.
Chains of Eternity will be releasing this November.
Might and Magic Heroes VI swamped by bugs, crashes, missing content
Might and Magic Heroes VI is currently kind of incredibly broken, according to justifiably angry players on the official Ubisoft forum , the game's Steam forum , and the Heroes Community forum .
. The massive, massive list of problems includes launching issues, missing content, crashes, freezes and invalid keys - both the base game and its recent Shades of Darkness expansion appear to have collapsed like a DRM-riddled souffle. Ubisoft haven't been terribly helpful over the weekend, but theyto say that they are "working to correct" players who are still affected by the mess, pointing out that "none of your content is lost". So that's something.
The cause of the whole mess is not particularly clear, but it appears to be something to do with the recent Patch 2.1 and the equally recent Shades of Darkness expandalone - there's probably a prophecy somewhere warning humanity to keep those two things apart. If you're affected, have a browse of the increasingly angry, swelling forums for potential fixes, or hold out for Ubisoft to give the all-clear. Which will hopefully happen very soon.
Thanks to BluesNews.
Red Ash has failed to reach its Kickstarter target
Confirming what seemed inevitable last week , Red Ash has failed to reach its Kickstarter funding target.
, Red Ash has failed to reach its Kickstarter funding target. Developed by Comcept – the same team responsible for Mighty No. 9 – the Mega Man Legends-inspired 3D adventure will nonetheless go ahead, thanks to the eleventh hour support of Chinese publisher Fuze entertainment.
It's been a strange campaign for Red Ash. Last week, just as it was looking unlikely the game would be funded, Comcept announced Fuze's involvement, effectively confirming the development of the game's prequel content, dubbed The KalKanon Incident. This prompted Comcept to repurpose its Kickstarter campaign for stretch goals, and backers were advised to consider their pledges "a contribution to stretch goals from here on out."
The campaign also rustled feathers because Mighty No. 9 hasn't been released yet, and according to recent rumours, it won't until 2016.
Red Ash attracted only $519,999 of its $800,000 goal. Interestingly, the crowdfunding campaign for a " treasure-hunting animation" companion managed to reach and exceed its $150,000 target.
SOE announces Player Studio: create and sell in-game items for EverQuest, PlanetSide 2
Sony Online Entertainment has announced Player Studio , a program which will enable players of SOE games to download sample geometry for in-game items, design and create their own items, and submit them for consideration to be sold on the SOE Marketplace.
The program is currently US-only and isn't officially running yet, but players can already begin crafting in-game items from scratch for EverQuest and EverQuest II. Support for Free Realms and Vanguard is on the way, and John Smedley, President of Sony Online Entertainment, announced on twitterthat PlanetSide 2 will be joining the lineup post-launch. Smedley also statedthat SOE is working on opening the doors to European players, but that it's "very complicated due to tax and legal reasons."
Player Studio could be called SOE's answer to Steam Workshop, except that there's no mention of community voting. According to the press release, "Players will be encouraged to name and create a description for their item, explain how the item fits into the prospective game's ongoing narrative storyline, and submit it to SOE for review and possible inclusion in the SOE Marketplace." If SOE selects an item to be sold on the SOE Marketplace, it will share 40 percent of the item's net revenue with the creator.
More details will be revealed at SOE Live 2012, which runs October 18-21 in Las Vegas, NV.
Might and Magic Heroes VI: Shades of Darkness illuminated in launch trailer
Until we as a species decide whether Ubisoft's turn-based strategy RPG series features an 'and' or an ampersand, there will always be war - grim grammatical war of the highest order.
Until we as a species decide whether Ubisoft's turn-based strategy RPG series features an 'and' or an ampersand, there will always be war - grim grammatical war of the highest order. But at least we've benefited with six games and a gajillion expansions' worth of (mostly) fun Mighting and/& Magicking- and now there's even more to sink our teeth into. Shades of Darkness is a standalone expansion to Might and Magic Heroes VIthat features "15 new units and 20 hours of gameplay", in a story set 100 years after the events of the last game. It's also out now (tomorrow in the UK), in addition to a Complete Edition of Heroes VI bundling the whole lot.
Panthers, pummelling and quite a lot of purple awaits you in the following video. If you're wondering what we think of Might and Magic Heroes VI, well you only had to ask.
Mega Man-inspired Red Ash going ahead despite struggling Kickstarter
Comcept USA, the team behind Mighty No.
Mighty No. 9, launched a separate Kickstarter in early Julyfor Red Ash: The Indelible Legend, a game/anime combo pack intended as a sort of spiritual successor to Mega Man Legends. It started strongly, raising well over $200,000 of its $800,000 goal in very short order, but just as quickly petered out, and with three days left it's stuck a little shy of the $500,000 mark. Today, however, the studio announced that the project "is a go for full development," and will even be ported to consoles.
How did this rapid turnaround happen? Comcept has actually been negotiating with "hardware makers and development partners" for a while now, and has settled on a deal with Fuze Entertainment, "a Chinese digital entertainment company engaged in production of console hardware as well as sales of console games."
"We can officially confirm that 'The KalKanon Incident' will be developed to completion, with the initial goals for game content (8 hours), along with ports to BOTH PlayStation 4 and Xbox One!" Comcept revealed on Kickstater. "The rights to Red Ash will be retained by comcept. We're excited to find such a great partner in Fuze who believes in our vision in its pure form. In addition, comcept will retain rights to creative discretion and decisions in game development."
Thanks to this announcement, we will be re-purposing the KS for stretch goals to make the game even better. July 30, 2015
It seems unlikely that the Kickstarter campaign will succeed, but it will continue to forge ahead, as Comcept said backers should consider their pledges "a contribution to stretch goals from here on out." It didn't reveal what those stretch goals are, however, saying only, "We're very busy with many behind-the-scenes things over here, and we apologize if you feel left in the dark." Potentially complicating the situation even further is how Comcept described Fuze's role as "join[ing] your ranks as backers," and while that could be simply a poor choice of words, it also implies that the Kickstarter is a success.
And in some ways it is. The game is being made, and going by the bulk of the comments following the announcement, that's all that most people care about. It's also possible that the Kickstarter will achieve its goal, and that the money raised will go toward stretch goals, as promised. But changing gears like this midway through a funding campaign and asking backers to keep throwing money at it while offering no indication as to what will actually be done with the cash feels a bit uncomfortable, doesn't it? The Red Ash Kickstarterruns until 2:30 pm EDT on August 3.
SOEmote implants your facial expressions, movement, and voice onto your EQ2 avatar
The future is here and it's full of Ratonga.
The future is here and it's full of Ratonga. SOE is adding new facial recognition tech to EverQuest 2 that lets the game track your movement and facial expressions and replicate them on your avatar in real-time. Voice chat is also built into the feature so that your character will animate naturally while you talk.
We have a full demo video of the tech below, and the inside scoop on how it works and why the devs think MMO players will love it from EQ2's Director of Development David Georgeson and the CEO of the company that developed the technology, Robert Gehorsam.
PCG: Aside from it being cool future-sci-fi-world technology, why is it important to get this tech into MMOs??
Dave Georgeson: Any game that calls itself a roleplaying game absolutely needs this feature. For other games, it's just a really good idea that your players will want.
Pick a character. Pick a class. And then be that character instead of just being yourself. That's what a roleplaying game is supposed to be.
You're you for 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. When you play a MMORPG, you get to be someone else. Someone bigger than life that can be heroic or evil, passionate or savage, but someone that lets you stretch out beyond the normal RL envelope of life while simultaneously becoming legendary, fighting dragons and demons and saving the world. SOEmote lets you do that in a fashion that you've never experienced before.
PCG: Can you explain exactly what the software is tracking?
Robert Gehorsam: Within EverQuest 2, the Live Driver software essentially performs detailed measurements of the player's facial expression on every image captured from their webcam. Today's webcams typically operate at 30 frames per second. Our software tracks 64 points and makes around 100 expression measurements per frame, for over 5,000 measurements per second.
PCG: As a player, a lot of my time is spent looking at the back of my character's head, and other characters can be far away from me. How useful will this really be, especially in combat?
DG: When we first started creating this feature, our assumption was that you wouldn't really be able to see the facial distinctions at any distance, so we figured we would need to add a pop-up window so that a player could essentially create an in-game version of Skype with another player or create Brady Bunch-style windows for group interface.
But what we found after we got it into the game was surprising. Humans are very good at discerning even the tiniest differences in facial expression at much greater distances than you can imagine. Even when a face is tiny at distance, your eye is still noticing important elements, like an eyebrow being raised, a grinning mouth, or even eyes squinting in concern. The more we experimented, the more we realized we didn't need a close-up window at all.
But is SOEmote designed to be useful in combat? Not really. Combat already has a million things going on that you need to watch, and checking out the nuances on a fellow player's face while you're supposed to be keeping that player alive is not what we were shooting for here.
SOEmote's “purpose” is simply to let players communicate more effectively, to immerse into the world more deeply, and to allow roleplaying to return to our roleplaying games.
PCG: So it's being designed primarily as a roleplaying tool?
DG: SOEmote is, of course, a fantastic roleplaying tool. That method of gaming got pretty seriously beat down when we added VOIP to MMORPGs. Of course, it's far easier to voice chat than to type in a text pane, but that ease-of-use improvement had a high consequence. Once players revealed their real voices to each other, it suddenly started feeling awkward to pretend to be a big gruff troll or a high elf princess… and roleplay took a serious nosedive.
But now, with SOEmote, you can make your character's face come to life, and also filter your voice to sound like your actual character (thus restoring anonymity and enabling roleplay again). It's amazing how much life suddenly springs into your character when those two elements combine to make your character become believable.
Our objective with SOEmote was to enhance people's ability to immerse within the game. Yes, that definitely makes roleplaying a lot easier, but it's also great for anyone that just wants to hang out and talk to their friends. It really has to be experienced to fully understand the impact.
PCG: Will players be given the option to opt out or pause their input without unplugging their webcam?
DG: Absolutely. SOEmote is really easy to use. Plug in your webcam, open up the SOEmote panel, hit Calibrate, select a voice font, and ta da you're done.
Then when you're playing, and you want to stop the camera feed, you just hit a hotkey and the face data and voice stops immediately. At that point, your character's face returns to its normal neutral pose. Just use the hotkey again and you're back on SOEmote and transmitting.
It should be noted that your actual image never gets transmitted at all. All the webcam is doing is watching key spots on your face and transmitting that positional data to the game. Your facial images are never actually sent or stored anywhere.
RG: One advantage of the technology that powers SOEmote is that it provides anonymity to the players. Images are analyzed in real-time. The resulting data is only used to provide animation values and then it's discarded.
PCG: Aside from roleplaying, how else do you expect players to use this tech in-game?
DG: The feature wasn't designed to be used in any specific way. This is one of those emergent gameplay features. We're enabling it with some basic ideas of how it will be used, but with the intent to sit back and watch how players use it.
But what can we imagine? Externally to the game, Machinima is pretty obvious. We already have YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter support within the game. I can picture some pretty amusing stuff happening on that front. Player creativity is boundless and anything we can imagine here will be dwarfed by what the players actually do.
But within the game, whether or not you're interested in roleplaying, the ease of communication when using SOEmote is tremendous. Anything that breaks down communication barriers between players is fantastic for MMOs, and something that also bolsters immersion and roleplay in this manner is tremendous.
We did support a couple of specific behaviors. For example, we've set things up so that guild leaders can broadcast a live feed via a special guild window. Sort of like a live TV broadcast. The leader opens a window, the guild members choose whether to receive the window or not, and the leader can then broadcast via SOEmote to the entire guild at once. Neat, eh?
We're really just scratching the surface with this initial release of SOEmote. We're working with a fantastic partner, Image Metrics, that has been developing and using this technology for filmmaking now for many years. They are indisputably the best people in this space and they're continuing to develop new ways to use the webcam interface. Like hand tracking, or recording your own full-body emotes.
Immersion is a fantastic thing and we're pushing it hard here at SOE.
PCG: Has this technology been used in anything I might recognize?
RG: Prior to Live Driver—the technology used in EQ2—our professional facial animation technology, Faceware... was used in more than 40 AAA gaming titles, including Red Dead Redemption, GTA IV, Assassin's Creed, Max Payne and more.
PCG: I imagine there were some amusing bugs during testing.
DG: When we first implemented the SDK from Image Metrics, the software didn't clamp down the feeds if you turned your head too far left or right. It got into a very strange math state and your head suddenly started flipping out like a scene out of Lawnmower Man or Max Headroom. We had a lot of fun with it before finally fixing it.
Also, watching someone use SOEmote for the very first time is always hysterical. Once people get used to being anonymous in-game again, they start really stretching their faces and voices to push the limits of the feature, and that's funny stuff.
PCG: Have the devs found any particularly creative or surprising uses for the tech?
DG: One of our animators immediately set up all kinds of hotbar shortcuts for various character emotes and spent far too much time singing via SOEmote and being a tavern dancer. It was hysterical. You really don't need to see a Ratonga dancing to Britney Spears. (Okay, you do. But just once.)
PCG: So it can handle Britney Spears, but how subtle of changes in facial movement can the technology actually pick up on and display?
RG: It's not just a simple face tracker: [it can] track highly-accurate facial expressions in real-time, including subtle micro-expressions, which allows the player to see the intent behind the facial gesture. Not only does it capture broad movement like head pose, smiles, and blinks, but also the intent of more nuanced expressions: a sly smile vs. a snarl, surprise vs. an arched eyebrow. It also captures asymmetrical movements—something that's important in gameplay.
PCG: With tech like this and constant voice chat, do you see text chat eventually disappearing from MMOs?
DG: Absolutely not. Text chat is going to be around for a long time and I see no real reason for it to go away. Area chats, LFG channels, and brokering are all elements better suited to chat. Also, some people just like to carefully compose their thoughts before sending them and text is better suited for that.
What proportion of text chat will this replace? The players already use VOIP now. SOEmote will certainly encourage some new folks to start using VOIP so they can roleplay, but I don't expect the balance of conversation to change immediately. Stuff like this takes time to ripple through communities and they'll have to decide how they want to use it. But the potential is tremendous.
PCG: Do you think this tech could or should be used in all games, or is it peculiarly useful in EQ2 for some reason?
DG: My personal opinion? All games should have this. You've got to try this. Once you get used to other people's faces moving realistically and intuitively, characters in other games start to feel really plastic and mannequin-like.
Human communication is all about face and body language. You already know this because you currently use video feeds whenever possible to communicate over the net, either through YouTube, Skype or Facetime, rather than relying on just VOIP or text.
SOEmote allows you to have that level of communication within a virtual world. Now that this is possible, why would you want anything less?
Australian readers: Win a copy of Might & Magic: Heroes VI Complete Edition
To celebrate the imminent May 2 release of the Might & Magic Heroes VI Shades of Darkness expansion, we're giving away five copies of the Might & Magic Heroes VI Complete Edition to our Australian readers, as well as a M&MH t-shirt.
expansion, we're giving away five copies of the Might & Magic Heroes VI Complete Edition to our Australian readers, as well as a M&MH t-shirt. The Complete Edition includes the full game bundled with the two original Adventure Packs, as well as the Shades of Darkness standalone expansion. Check out our reviewof the original Might and Magic Heroes VI.
We've got five copies of the game, as well as five eminently attractive Might & Magic t-shirts. Each prize package is worth $79.95. All you need to do to enter is answer the below question in the comment section. Our favourite five answers will be contacted via private message when the winners are drawn next Tuesday, May 7.
The question: if you could introduce one new, original faction to the Might & Magic Heroes universe, what would it be?
Mighty No. 9 studio has launched another Mega Man-inspired Kickstarter
Mighty No.
Mighty No. 9may still be a couple of months away, but studio Comcept has already launched a Kickstarter to help fund another Mega Man-inspired title. This time the studio will draw from the legacy of Mega Man Legends, with Art Director Kazushi Ito and Director Masahiro Yasuma confirmed to be on board in addition to Keiji Inafune, who will lead the project. Dubbed Red Ash, the studio is after $800,000to create a prologue chapter, which will serve "as a foundation on which to build future content".
"The primary goal with Red Ash is to tell a story on a grand scale," the Kickstarter page reads. "All of the primary concepts are clearly visualized in the minds of the creative team, from the overall plot to historical background."
The prologue chapter is called the KalKanon Incident, and will serve as a "key jumping-on point for the universe". Comcept isn't sure how it will gather the funds for further content though.
"Whether it's through additional funding, revenue from "The KalKanon Incident" sales, or teaming up with a publisher, this is a story we are determined to tell, and we want all of our backers to be on the ground floor for the creation of this new game universe."
Red Ash isn't just a game, but rather two projects "based in separate, yet parallel worlds". Comcept is working on the game, while animation crew Studio 4C is working on an accompanying anime which has its own Kickstarter campaign.
At the time of printing Red Ash has already attracted $220,000 in funding, with nearly a month left to reach its $800,000 goal. Check out the pitch video below:
EverQuest 2 update 63 live today, adds dragon city, dragon-free evil swamp place
SOE's EverQuest 2 has had another major update today with the release of the Skyshrine content pack.
SOE's EverQuest 2 has had another major update today with the release of the Skyshrine content pack. Players who own Destiny of Velious will find the level cap bumped up to 92, new instances and raids, prestige abilities, and new tradeskill items and quests. These are tied to the two new zones that you can see in the trailer above. The first, the Withered Lands, reputedly includes over 100 quests for groups and solo players. This leads you through to Skyshrine itself, a dragon city under siege from "powerful forces."
If you also own the Age of Discovery expansion then you'll get a new theme for Dungeon Maker, Poet's Palace, as well as tradeskill apprentices and new creatures for Beastlords. The full list of additions is available on the Everquest 2 community news site.
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Our Verdict
Immersive, absorbing, annoying, and very long if youre after getting a tan from your monitor, get in there.
If you love Heroes of Might & Magic, you're probably aware that you're part of a small but passionate niche. The good news for you is that Black Hole are catering beautifully to you – as you'd expect, perhaps, from the level of interaction they had with the community during development.
The changes to the classic turn-based strategy game are pervasive. They've got rid of that peasant whose icon looked so bloody gormless you kind of wanted them to die, for starters. There are slightly fewer resources, making the map less fussy. And there's a new faction, in the form of the Eastern-flavoured water creatures of the Sanctuary.
Another new feature is the reputation system. Fight defensively with debuffs, show mercy and use diplomacy, and you'll progress down the path of Dragon Tears. Use offensive magic and kill where it's not needed and you're going down the path of Dragon's Blood. It affects the powers your character learns, so read ahead and stick to a choice, because you can't go both ways.
But underneath the new meat and skin blows the lungs of classic Heroes. The same turn-based balance of world-level resource generation and city building. All centred around manufacturing and tactically distributing creatures that you can then take into battle for an intricate and constantly changing game of angry chess.
Heroes VI is also an imposingly tough game. You'll find yourself picking off so many different bands of 'trivial' and 'low' threat enemies on the world map that you might get complacent. But Heroes doesn't tell, it shows – and it's teaching you how combinations of units interact. The second you meet your first equallypowered hero, prepare to be handed a plate piled high with your own arse.
There are no hints on strategy, just an ever-expanding palette of units per faction, upgrades with extra powers and hero abilities to consider. The difficulty and lack of guidance would be frustrating if the game itself wasn't so absorbing and well-built. The animations are fantastic – you've never seen Centaurs collapse until you've seen Heroes VI Centaurs collapse. Tellingly, I found myself replaying battles I'd won to see if I could have won them better.
The regular auto-saves mean you can rewind a fair distance, but there are so many times you'll want to try something again that a more comprehensive rewind system would have been welcome.
What there is, though, thankfully protects you from Ubisoft's always-connected DRM, which is imposed in shamefully full and distressing effect: I had a half-hour chunk of progress that would have been lost to the ether were it not for the autosave workaround.
The scale of the game is absolutely huge, a large game made larger by slow progress. The two tutorial maps took me an entire day to complete to my own satisfaction. With five fuller faction campaigns (that you can, unlike Heroes V, play in any order you like) and an epilogue map based on your Tears or Blood reputation, the singleplayer is massive, and it has a brilliant, over-earnest script with endearingly stilted acting, and there's a great soap opera feel to the story.
Multiplayer feels like there's room for expansion, though. Essentials such as hotseat are present, and there's a good range of maps for up to eight players on skirmish. Factions occasionally fight together in the campaigns, but if you want to forget the long game and play a simple duel with a friend, there are only two army configurations per faction.
Hopefully, the ability to mix decks and build your own armies from a stock of points will come with patches or expansions. What there is, in the meantime, is a formidable, engrossing timesink. A game that'll test and punish you before giving you a pat on the head and making you do it all over again
The Verdict
Might and Magic Heroes VI
Immersive, absorbing, annoying, and very long if youre after getting a tan from your monitor, get in there.
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Dead Island 2 has disappeared from Steam [Updated]
Deep Silver has issued the following statement regarding the removal of Dead Island 2 from Steam:
"Dead Island 2 is in development with Sumo Digital.
"Dead Island 2 is in development with Sumo Digital. Once we have new details to share, we will do so."
Better than nothing, I suppose. We'll keep you posted.
It has not been smooth sailing for Dead Island 2. In April of 2015 it was delayed significantly, which is not all that terribly unusual, but then publisher Deep Silver gave the boot to Yager Development, which most definitely was. Techland expressed interestin resuming the mantle, but that went nowhere; then, earlier this year, it came to light that Sumo Digital had taken upthe reins.
But now the saga has taken another twist, noticed earlier today by NeoGAF: The Dead Island 2 listing on Steam has disappeared, and SteamDBnow refers to it as simply “Unknown App 268150." Naturally, this has fueled speculation that the game has finally been canceled, although as several commenters have suggested, it could also indicate that a “re-reveal” is coming. The Steam page was based on Yager's ideas for the game, after all, and since “ conflicting visions” are what led to the split with Deep Silver in the first place, it's not unlikely that Sumo Digital's creation will differ dramatically from what we've previously seen.
I've reached out to the appropriate people to find out what's going on, and I'll let you know what they have to say about it. In the meantime, remember: We may not have the game, but we'll always have this spectacularly goofy trailer.
Watch EverQuest II's raptor mount get drawn from scratch in this sweet time-lapse video
World of Warcraft isn't the only MMO with kickin' raptor mounts: EverQuest has some of the fiercest looking dinos this side of the Cretaceous period for you to ride around on.
World of Warcraft isn't the only MMO with kickin' raptor mounts: EverQuest has some of the fiercest looking dinos this side of the Cretaceous period for you to ride around on. We've got an exclusive five-minute video that shows the game's latest raptor leaper mount being designed from start to finish in excruciating, beautiful detail. Feast your eyes as SOE production artist Nate Temple starts with a blank canvas, creates the concept, colors it, and turns it into an armored dinosaur of war. Between the mesmerizing freehand Photoshop sketching and Temple's narration of his thoughts behind each detail, you may never look at raptors the same way again.
Ubisoft launches big free to play push with browser-based takes on three classic series
Ubisoft are making a big push into free-to-play browser based games, and they're using some classic franchises to do it.
Ubisoft are making a big push into free-to-play browser based games, and they're using some classic franchises to do it. They're publishing THREE new games, and we've taken a look at all of them. Check out our previews of Silent Hunter Online, Anno Onlineand Heroes of Might and Magic Onlinefor the first details.
We sent Dan out to have a chat with Benedikt Grindel, director of live operations at the developer behind all three games, Blue Byte. Grindel suggests that the move is about using the power of a familiar brand to find fresh fans, and argues that the move online doesn't necessarily spell the end for these series' much loved offline iterations.
"We're really targeting new audiences," he says. "I happen to know that, in Germany, the Settlers has 80% brand recognition – but, another browser game may have none and still do well. A brand brings us an audience and the history – but you need a good game. If you deliver the quality that the gamer expects, they'll like it. That's our strategy."
Grindel singles out South America, and Brazil in particular as untapped regions with great potential. "We have a business model that works in those markets. Russia; you can go there, but we have a huge piracy rate. Now, with this business model, we're talking a new market. Then think about Asia. There's lots of room to explore – we just have to be better."
The success of Settlers Online has had a clear influence on Ubi's current thinking, but that doesn't necessarily mean that we'll be seeing browser based versions of all their major series, though Grindel reckons that's down to the business model rather than the limitations of browser browser technology.
"There have to be some changes when we adapt games to the business model – but the browser itself is just a platform," he explains. "Soon there will be no boundaries on the platform – but there may be some boundaries on the business model. I'm sure that people in the future will still go to a virtual store and play €50 for Assassins Creed V because 'Wow, I just want to have it'. Maybe we'll see microtransactions in every game."
The big question is whether these much loved series will find a new home online, and migrate permanently away from the big, expensive single releases we've been used to until now. Ubisoft's experimentation with always-online DRM has stung Anno and Settlers fans over the past year or so and a move to browsers seems like a natural migration. Grindel doesn't think that's the case, as long as those offline titles stay successful.
"Settlers 7 and Settlers Online don't have a big crossover – people play both at the same time and pay money for them. Settlers 7 had a good retention – a low piracy rate – and people play it intensely for one, two hours."
"And Anno 2070 was immensely successful," he says. "As long as that's the case, we'll keep doing them."
What do you think of Ubisoft's move towards free to play, browser based games?
Might and Magic Heroes 6 preview
The reshuffled name doesn't mean there's anything radical about the sixth entry in the veteran Heroes of Might and Magic series, but there doesn't need to be.
The reshuffled name doesn't mean there's anything radical about the sixth entry in the veteran Heroes of Might and Magic series, but there doesn't need to be. The Might and Magic hybrid of empire building, exploration and turn-based combat is as addictive as ever.
Might & Magic's heroes are pompous, whimsical sorts who you would never elect to run a country. Unconcerned with state matters, they ride forth with a posse of warriors to find gold and a fight. Your hero acts as your pawn of exploration on the gorgeous world map. Each turn he can ride a certain distance, picking up relics, investigating ruins and engaging enemies.
In battle, the hero stands at the back in silver armour probably worth more than his castle. In standard Heroes of Might and Magic fashion, war is waged in turns on a grid.
My first act as ruler is to start a fight and order a unit of crossbowmen to certain death. My close combat units stand stock still in horror as my mis-click sends my only ranged unit marching towards a slobbering Cerberus demon. The old Might and Magic games were blessed with evocative lo-fi graphics that looked as if they had been lifted from old medieval woodcuts. Now, beautifully rendered models exchange blows.
My crossbowman puts down his bow, draws a tiny knife and shanks the demon in the neck. The beast roars, biting his face off, while at the back, my hero waves his magic sword and casts “inspire” on the crossbowman. You can do it, lads!
This sort of rash leadership is recognised by a new 'blood and tears' reputation system. Some missions on the campaign map offer reckless resolutions, others sensible ones. Charging in to hit the problem with a hammer earns blood points. Negotiation and bargaining sends you down the grossly misnamed path of tears. Getting enough points in either path lets you choose a new class for your hero, opening up new abilities and changing his appearance. The same system applies to every faction's single player campaign. If you want to create a charitable necromancer, it can be done.
My hero continues cheerfully down the path of blood, but in a fit of kindness, I retreat my crossbowmen to a safer station, and they plod slowly to the back of the battle. For all the graphical polish, there's a total lack of urgency to Might & Magic's battles. Death gets meted out slowly and politely. It's more like cricket than war.
The sedate pace is part of Might & Magic's charm. The pleasure of a long campaign comes from gradually turning an army of peasants into a war machine, a homestead into a gleaming palace and a pompous twit of a knight into a hero with god-like power. It's doing it in the most mannered and traditional way possible, but Might & Magic Heroes VI looks set to deliver on all those counts
Homefront: The Revolution "expansion pass" includes three single-player DLC packs
The Red Dawn-esque shooter Homefront: The Revolution is now out, and so is the “expansion pass,” which publisher Deep Silver said will include three “currently planned” single-player campaign DLCs, as well as a pair of exclusive bonuses for use in the online co-op Resistance Mode.
The first two expansions, The Voice of Freedom and Aftermath, will add new districts and “several hours” of content on top of the roughly 30-hour base campaign. The third expansion, Beyond the Walls, will be much larger than the first two, and is slated to come out sometime in 2017.
As for the Resistance Mode perks, “Supply Line” will grant expansion pass owners a free Resistance Crate each week (assuming they log into Resistance Mode), and “The Right Kind of School” unlocks three new starting backgrounds—ATF Agent, G-Man, and US Marshall—for Resistance Mode characters. Deep Silver also said that a new set of Resistance Mode missions will be released in June at no charge, as will all future Resistance Mode missions.
I'm a little put off by the “currently planned” qualifier in the announcement, because I can't help thinking that “unless things go completely sideways, in which case all bets are off” is being left unsaid. I've reached out to Deep Silver for clarification on that point, and I'll let you know what they say.
The Homefront: The Revolution expansion pass is available now, in North America, for $25. Those of you in the rest of the world have to wait a couple more days for the fun to begin: Homefront: The Revolution, and the expansion pass, won't go live in other regions until May 20. Our review is up here, and we've also got the lowdown on what you need to know before you start playing.
EU giveaway: win a Might and Magic Heroes figure
A massive parcel arrived at PC game HQ recently.
A massive parcel arrived at PC game HQ recently. What could it contain? Why only a glorious angel man figure from Might and Magic Heroes VI! (It's the one on the left) This lovingly modelled figurine of the Archangel Micheal will make the perfect nerdy centrepiece for your mantle. You can see a little bit more about it on the Might and Magic Heroes VI website.
Would you like to win this magnificent statue readers? Check inside for details of how to win.
Here's a closer look, without Rich's incessant photobombing.
I've been enjoying the game design challenges in previous competitions, so here's another.
Design me a game about angels. It can be any genre or theme, so long as it involves angels in some way, however minor.
The funniest, cleverest, most creative or just which ever one I like most will receive this tiny winged man in the post. Winners will be chosen on friday, keep an eye on this week's winnersto see if you've won. This competition is open to European readers only I'm afraid.
Good luck everyone!
Homefront: The Revolution trailer introduces The Man With the Finger Gun
Homefront: The Revolution is just over a week away, and that means it's time to have a look at the official story trailer, which publisher Deep Silver says contains “the first details of Homefront: The Revolution's gripping story.”
But that's not quite right, is it?
But that's not quite right, is it? We've already had a pretty good look at how the US ended up in this sorry state, and it's not too hard to figure out where things go from there: Rise up, fight the power, Wolverines! , and all that sort of thing, delivered from the barrel of a gun into the faceless hordes of the Nork occupiers.
The details are what count, I suppose, and as far as that goes, you'll step into the fresh, unsoiled boots of Ethan Brady, a Resistance fighter working to rescue the one man who can inspire the people to fight back. “Homefront's dark and brutal story telling will leave you reeling,” Deep Silver says, and I find that legitimately interesting: Not because I expect it to happen, but because it might—it could —and that kind of surprise really is one of the best experiences videogames can offer.
And hey, if nothing else, maybe there will at least be some decent dude-shooting and a few unintentional laughs. Homefront 1, in other words.
Homefront: The Revolution comes out on May 20. Vive la hands-on preview right here.
Might and Magic Heroes 6 trailer contains spider lady and patricide
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This CGI trailer for Might and Magic Heroes 6, the full version of the teaser we brought you earlier, is really rather swish.
we brought you earlier, is really rather swish. The gravelly voiced protagonist explains that his father was murdered by his sister, which for some reason let loose a tide of green glowing undead things lead by a scary looking spider lady. Fortunately our hero is awesome at swords, so he cuts them into little skeleton bits.
Might and Magic Heroes 6 will be released on October 13th.
Homefront: The Revolution trailer introduces the Apex Corporation
The most obvious question about Homefront: The Revolution , at least within the context of its fiction, is how North Korea managed to successfully invade and occupy the United States of America—far and away the world's foremost military power.
, at least within the context of its fiction, is how North Korea managed to successfully invade and occupy the United States of America—far and away the world's foremost military power. A new promotional trailer for the villainous-behind-the-smile Apex Corporation helps shine a bit of light on that in a trailer that tells its history, and then leads to other, more interesting places.
“Uncover the truth,” the faux-break-in blurb at the end of the trailer says, under the header “Liberty 7,” and just above a link to tiny.cc/apexhistory. It's not quite as unexpected and mysterious as it first appears, because the link, with the full URL, is also included in the YouTube description. But the absence of actual intrigue notwithstanding, the site does provide some interesting tidbits of info from the end of the Korean war in 1953 to the game's alt-future in the year 2029.
Real-world historical events, like the Vietnam War and the Kennedy assassination, are interspersed with fictional elements—increasingly so, as the years progress—and it all has a subtle, fun, pro-DPRK vibe, backed up by images, videos, and audio clips. As supporting material goes, it's really well done, and while some holes remain to be filled, it does a reasonably good job of rationalizing the fiction of a North Korean takeover of the US—good enough to justify a videogame war, at least.
Homefront: The Revolution comes out on May 17.
Might & Magic Heroes VI trailer
Might and Magic Heroes VI is a turn based strategy set 400 years before the previous installment.
Might and Magic Heroes VI is a turn based strategy set 400 years before the previous installment. Ubisoft have winged a trailer at us - no word yet on what sort of DRM it'll have, though. Oh, don't worry about it. Have some dead kings, violins, and big mad burny-winged women crying golden tears to cheer you up. Screens are below too.
Screens, anyone?
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Mighty No. 9 video shows transformations, bosses and more
I remain skeptical of Comcept's second crowdfunding campaign , but I've finally found a video that makes me interested in Keiji Inafune's definitely-not-mega Mighty No.
, but I've finally found a video that makes me interested in Keiji Inafune's definitely-not-mega Mighty No. 9. Stick around for two minutes of dashing, shooting, boss battles, a few of hero Beck's transformations and more.
While we've seen a few videos of Mighty No. 9 in action before now, the above is our biggest and best look at the platformer so far. Just like the completely unrelated Mega Man, Beck is able to absorb the powers of defeated bosses and use them from then on. This footage shows a few of these transformations (sorta) in action, including his flame hat and water pack, ie the ability for Beck to carry a load of water around in a hump on his back, and to then turn that water into ice. I can imagine that would come in handy somewhere down the line.
We also see a glimpse of the game's supporting hero Call, who wears bright shocking pink armour and has a nifty jetpack. All in all, it's a good sign that Mighty No. 9 appears to be coming together, and I look forward to seeing a stage or a boss battle in greater depth.
The benefits of making your players suffer (and maybe throw up)
Bennett Foddy, creator of QWOP, GIRP, and CLOP among others, likes to play with his players, and he suggests that more of us should be doing the same.
At the top of his talk at IndieCade on Friday, he asserted, “I'm going to try to convince you to put more suffering in your games.”
Learn a lesson from the Olympics, he says - it's all about the suffering. It's all about the pathos of second place.
“Nobody cries when they come second in a video game,” he notes. “Nobody lays down and cries. Why not?”
In track and field video games, “The way that you run is to either hammer a button really fast, or waggle a joystick really fast,” he says. “There's no joy in that, the joy is in the panic - in your friends watching you injure yourself as you hit the button.”
“It's not just that games are easier - though they are,” he says. “To me it's that games these days are more comfortable. There's less discomfort. My worry is not that games are getting too easy, because easy games can be wonderful. My worry is that games are getting too comfortable.”
What's so good about suffering anyway? “When you're suffering in a game, it makes failure matter,” he says. Counter-Strike uses boredom. If you fail, you have to just watch everyone else play, but frustration is more widely used.
“It makes success matter if there's suffering in the game,” Foddy says. If you get to the end, you feel like this huge weight has been lifted. Thus, “this talk is a love letter to games that put you through Hell just for the sake of it,” he says, “because we enjoy the suffering itself.”
“Often when I start designing a game, I start by thinking about the aesthetics of the input,” he says. Would the interaction be fun if there were no game? “Most sports pass that test,” he says, noting that playing catch is fun even without rules.
One example is drumming your fingers on the keyboard - it's sort of inherently satisfying - and that became the inspiration for CLOP , which uses the H, J, K, and L keys.
“I'd like to have an anti-ergonomic game where it's physically challenging to play the game, and you could say to your friends 'I played for three hours, and I had to go to the hospital,'” he said.
Foddy has been researching pain, confusion, and nausea in games, to make games that give players those sorts of feelings.
Wolfenstein 3D makes people nauseous, but it doesn't make you feel good. “The reason I don't feel good about it is that it's not the point of the game,” he says. “I think you could make a game where nausea is the point of the game, and people would enjoy it.”
Motal Kombat gives you Fatalities, as an example of humiliation. “You might think that's for the pleasure of the winner, but I don't think that's right,” he says. “The computer does it as well. I'm supposed to be enjoying it as a player, even on the losing end.”
Ultimately it's all about playing with the player, as a developer. “The reason I'm cataloging these various dimensions of suffering, is why would frustration feel good? Why would confusion or humiliation be nice?” he posed. “I think one reason is it represents the developer playing with the player.”
The idea among many developers is that confusion is an engineering failure. This means developer is teaching you how to stay interested in the game, rather than playing with you. “To me that's a warped way to look at the interaction between the developer and the player.”
So in a single player game, the developer should be player 2. “Playing” is just an agreement that you won't kill each other - if you take it down to completely not hurting each other, it loses its teeth. “That's the flag football of video games,” says Foddy. “I think you should make the real football of videogames.”
If you do this, he says “you're playing with the player, rather than providing an environment for players to play with themselves.”
Don't worry too much about frustration, and playtesting. “Maybe you shouldn't care so much about what people will think,” he posed. “I wonder if Marcel Duchamp would've put a tutorial into his video games, if he made them? He wouldn't have focus tested his games.”
“Don’t water down your games. I think art should be difficult, I think it should be painful, it should be nauseating,” he says. “It should be more difficult, more nauseating than music or other art because it's more complex,” he concluded. “Don't make the easy listening of video games.”
Might and Magic Heroes VI trailer shows castle assault
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This teaser for Might and Magic Heroes VI shows an unseen enemy bursting through the gates of a heavily armoured castle to do battle with the silver-clad hero within.
This teaser for Might and Magic Heroes VI shows an unseen enemy bursting through the gates of a heavily armoured castle to do battle with the silver-clad hero within. What it doesn't show is the part just after, when all the baddies organise themselves into a grid and take it in turns to slowly attack the castle's defenders. The name has been re-jigged, but Heroes VI is set to provide a reassuringly familiar tale on the classic Heroes of Might and Magic formula when it's released on October 13. We can expect plenty more from Might and Magic Heroes VI at Gamescom next week.
Mighty No. 9 shows off in-game animations in new Kickstarter update
The latest Mighty No.
The latest Mighty No. 9 Kickstarter update has the mighty Beck running, climbing and dashing through in-game environments as it explains some of his unique powers, including the ability to absorb the "Xel" of weakened enemies and turn it into power-ups. The second crowdfunding campaign, meanwhile, has been changed up a bit, and now promises both English and Japanese voice acting for another $200,000.
All of Beck's basic movements are in display in the four brief clips of video included in the new, but it's "the Dash," described as "the heart of Mighty No. 9's gameplay," that's particularly interesting. It allows him to "absorb" weakened enemies, a risky maneuver but one that's necessary for his ability to transform. Transform into what, exactly, Comcept isn't ready to say just yet.
The update also looks at the "lights-on, lights-off mechanic," which some enemies will take advantage of to launch attacks in the dark, as well as the design process that led to the creation of the vaguely Big Daddy-like Mighty No. 2, one of the "Mighty No. Robots" who turned up on the front page of the initial Kickstarter campaign. Finally, it explains the rationale behind the decision to combine the English and Japanese voice acting stretch goals in the new crowdfunding campaigninto one big target.
"We were running on the idea that Japanese fans would be more motivated by Japanese voice acting, and English-speakers by an English one. We were surprised (pleasantly so!) by the Mighty Beckers that came out in droves to support the idea of Japanese voice work, asking us why they weren't included in the Stretch Goals to begin with," it says. "This led to our decision to combine both stretch goals into one, larger stretch goal, as you can see now on the Mighty No. 9 site. We understand that you still have concerns about this new process, and please know that this is an ongoing dialogue we want to maintain with the backers."
The new crowdfunding campaign hasn't exactly caught fire at this point, sitting at around $9300 nearly a full week after it began. Unlike Kickstarter, this effort doesn't appear to have a time limit, so it seems likely that it will sooner or later make its goal, but even if it does fall short, some voice acting may still make it into the game.
"If we were not to meet the stretch goal, we'd probably try to find some compromise using the funds we do receive. Maybe limited voice overs, or if we were close to the goal, Comcept would pitch in itself and deliver it anyway," Community Manager Dina Abou Karam explained in an email. "That's still a long way off so only time will tell."
Spiritual successor to Rare's Banjo-Kazooie smashes funding target
Seven veterans of Banjo-Kazooie studio Rare have taken to Kickstarter to resurrect the "buddy-duo platformer" with a new game called Yooka-Laylee.
to resurrect the "buddy-duo platformer" with a new game called Yooka-Laylee. And fans of the genre seem awfully excited: The campaign launched today and has raked in more than double of its £175,000/$265,000 goal in the first few hours.
The game is being developed by Playtonic Games, a small studio formed in 2014 that includes the lead programmer, designer, and artists from Banjo-Kazooie and other Rare games including Donkey Kong Country, Viva Pinata, and Perfect Dark Zero. Development has been underway for a few months now, but to complete the game the team will have to upgrade to an "'N64 size' roster" of about 15 people, and that's where the Kickstarter comes in to play.
"Until now our development has been self-funded, but Kickstarter presents us with the amazing opportunity to deliver Yooka-Laylee at the level of scope and scale that fans demand—and on their games platform of choice," Creative Lead Gavin Price said. "Our team has decades-worth of ideas that we hope we’ll now finally have the resources and freedom to bring to reality."
The similarities are obvious—Banjo-Kazooie was about a bear and a bird, Yooka-Laylee is about a chameleon and a bat—but that's what the team is shooting for. Steve Mayles, who created the original duo, "has captured the spirit of his past heroes while introducing the most inventive moves yet seen in any of our team's work," the Kickstarter states. "As is traditional in our team's games, each world will be jammed to the gills with oddball characters and hulking bosses, many who communicate via a collage of burp and fart noises."
The campaign, as mentioned, is only in its first day, and has already hit nearly half its stretch goals; with 46 days remaining, the final, £1 million/$1.5 million stretch goal—Wii U, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 versions, released simultaneously with the Windows, Mac, and Linux editions—appears well within reach. Either way, the plan is to have the game ready for release by October 2016.
At approximately 3:00 pm EDT on May 1, the Yooka-Laylee Kickstarter had surpassed £450,000/$680,000. Where it will be by the time you read this is anybody's guess, but I think it's safe to say that worried tales of Kickstarter exhaustion have been a wee bit overstated. The campaign runs until June 16.
After a legacy of fantasy novels and a successful ongoing HBO television series, Game of Thrones is coming
to Facebook. Bringing author George R. R. Martin's fantasy universe to the massive Facebook gaming space is partially a natural fit -- the world of faction loyalty, subversive social politics and shifting loyalties lends itself to social media. Yet it's a big challenge, too and one Boston-based startup is tasked with the job. Boston-based Disruptor Beam was recently founded with the goal of bringing story-driven worlds to the social games space.
Getting 'anti-social' on Facebook with Game of Thrones: Ascent
Boston-based Disruptor Beam was recently founded with the goal of bringing story-driven worlds to the social games space. It's the brainchild of serial entrepreneur Jon Radoff, who most recently founded GamerDNA, but started off in the online space with 1992's NovaLink, which distributed Legends of Future Past across the CompuServe network.
Now Radoff helms a company that's developed its own proprietary HTML5 engine oriented toward social gaming; Disruptor Beam is funded by early-stage venture capital and backers including Harmonix's founders. Narrative designer Jonathon Myers takes the lead on shaping the essential story environment foron Facebook, and works with a team of writers and designers reporting directly to Radoff and lead designer Tim Crosby.
Myers worked on Indiana Jones Adventure World and Owlchemy Labs' Jack Lumber before finding a home at Disruptor Beam, who was looking for someone with experience on a live story-driven game. Currently, Game of Thrones: Ascent has five contract writers who collaborate remotely on a daily basis, Myers explains, with planning and tracking quintessential to the process.
"Tim and I have together developed a pipeline for quest writing that includes spreadsheet tools for the writers that enable quick output and revision before a smooth export into the game," Myers explains of the process. "It's like a truncated RPG toolset with a focus on preparation for fast release to the build environment."
Myers says that when it comes to Game of Thrones: Ascent , the investment toward story in the social game is massive -- and in his opinion, remarkable for the Facebook space. Fans of Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series must maintain an incredible attention to detail to keep up with the author's detailed universe, and that requires a lot of work on the part of the narrative staff -- which includes former writers from BioWare's Star Wars: The Old Republic , former staff of 38 Studios and Zenimax, as well as one of the writers from Green Ronin's Game of Thrones pen and paper RPG.
"The first step was fully immersing myself in the material and taking notes on the primary experience so that moving on from it into the interactive would result in authenticity, which is a major design principle," he says. "The huge web of characters is a space in which you can get lost, and spending even a little time on the wiki will prove that. All characters are surrounded by family, friends and enemies who all want to tug at or push each other in the pursuit of power."
Characters in the series are frequently confronted with difficult moral and ethical decisions that define them as characters, he points out. "Once I realized that is what it's like for a character to live in Westeros and play the Game of Thrones, it was clear we needed to offer that exact experience as authentically as possible while also allowing players to experience the people, places and events of the Ice and Fire universe they love," says Myers. "The dense lore is the universe, and it's available as a space in which characters (playable and non-playable) can live."
When it comes to the Facebook space, the team hopes to leverage the series' existing environment of social conflict -- which Myers believes comes to bear especially in today's age of political conflict in the Western world, where many people turn to Facebook to state their positions. "Take away the cat videos, up the stakes to life or death, displace those interactions into a medieval setting and you've got the roots of Westeros," he says.
"In our game, we're offering a chance to step into a role and play out those alliances and social conflicts in a story and character-driven environment that is ready-made for it," he adds.
"We've claimed that we're actually an 'anti-social game', and players will be able to backstab each other to their heart's content," he adds. A goal for his team is to deliver on letting audiences experience the primary themes of "power and obligation."
There are some clear traits about the series that lend themselves to social games: Loyal readers and passionate fans getting to pick distinct families to represent within a complex ecosystem. Yet how will the team ensure the more subtle elements stay intact?
"Pledging fealty as a bannerman to a Great House is the core decision any player will first make in our game," Myers says. The world of the books employs a number of different narrative perspective, with events seen through the eyes of various individuals with different roles to play, different cultures and customs, and different concepts of stakes.
"In the same way, we're putting the player into a role and we give them a perspective on the world. That perspective is most defined by the Great House to which they are sworn," Myers says. "It determines the region in which the player exists. It determines how a player will experience narrative events."
Myers says it's important for the team of writers and designers to take these varying perspectives and allegiances into account. "We break down our writing plans with that in mind and at times different writers are tasked with handling particular perspectives," he says.
The series' underlying themes often heavily involve violence and sexuality, yet Facebook gaming is generally considered an all-ages space. Yet the team doesn't want to compromise: "We're not looking at this as something for all-ages," Myers says. "The Facebook population is diverse, and we want that diverse audience playing the game, but staying true to the source is of the utmost importance."
"We adhere to a notion that a graphic description is often not as powerful as the imagery created in the mind of the reader when left to wander," he continues. "We fully embrace the world and within a few minutes of play you're involved in the themes you mention. We don't shy away, but we do take extra steps to handle things with maturity. We vet it with peer reviews if something is risque. It's also important that we provide the option for players to avoid doing unsavory things as a character. Moral decisions provide different options and outcomes so the player can experience these situations in a way they feel most comfortable."
"Once the stage is set, and the player is cast in the role of noble, there's nowhere to go but up" Myers says. "If you were a newly minted noble under a great house, wouldn't you see it as the time to jockey for a higher position? But if others have the same idea as you, it can get ugly... So yes, there is an original story thread that that is consistent with the universe and actually works parallel to known canon events. I can't say much more than that at this point."
Myers admits that it was at first "terrifying" to deal with Game of Thrones' passionate fanbase and the intimidating volume of lore associated with the A Song of Ice and Fire universe. But with the full blessings of HBO and the author, the team began to gain the confidence to move forward and get creative.
"Having a very talented team that works together and has extensive knowledge of the universe helps. We all have a sense that we're onto something special and unique here. We're driven to take this opportunity and make something of it," says Myers. "We definitely feel the weight of responsibility to the fans, but we're all huge fans ourselves so this weight is more like an accepted challenge than a burden."
The team has a community manager dealing with the outward-facing efforts, and the narrative team will continue to work with that person going forward: "I really believe community management is a key to building a live social game as a service, in particular with narrative content," he says. "In past projects I found community was crucial to the assessment of releases in connection with the typical empirical data."
As a writer, Myers says one of the biggest challenges becomes wanting to do too much with too little time, given the project's rapid development schedule and having to delegate. "On the other hand, what's most gratifying is seeing content come in from our talented writers through a system and style that Tim and I developed from scratch while observing how RPG writing could be channeled into a social game," he says. "We're taking a lot of risks, and after many moments of doubt I now love to see all the content fill up the game as planned. Seeing a tester's reaction and receiving positive feedback about our authenticity is also a great thing."
It's hard to be open about the process of working with such an enormous licensor, and specifics are often kept private -- "I'll say that it's been wonderful," Myers says. CEO Radoff has liased with author Martin himself, and HBO is "likewise very supportive," in Myers' words, "releasing information about our game and art through their own channels."
"Working with a strong IP on a social game is great because you have a wide audience ready to inhabit a world they already know," he adds. "The basic worldbuilding is complete, if you just work with what's there."
Alongside these iOS behemoths are developer Eric Johnson and musician Scott Morgan, completing the impressive Hundreds team.
The game plays like a sort of updated take on the classic Jezzball , with the twist that you're looking to expand the balls to fill the space, rather than blocking them in.
Betting on style with Saltsman and Wohlwend's Hundreds
Sometimes a game can be sold on the mere mention of its creators alone. Hundreds , a new iOS puzzler released earlier this week, has Adam Saltsman( Canabalt ) and Greg Wohlwend( Puzzlejuice ) behind it.
, with the twist that you're looking to expand the balls to fill the space, rather than blocking them in. If a ball touches another ball or any other obstacle while you're expanding it, you're out.
It's a simple concept, and one that can be fully explained in not many words, allowing the Semi Secret team to keep the website and assets for the game relatively cleancut and uncomplicated.
In fact, when I began researching the game a couple of weeks back, it felt as though Semi Secret was purposely being secretive and teaser-ish in the build up to launch, thanks to this simplistic approach. As it turns out, I was reading the signs wrong.
"We have spent an incredible amount of time thinking about and working on how to tell people about Hundreds ," Wohlwend tells me. "I'm not sure we got it right. We do a lot of showing rather than telling and I hope that comes through as honest and confident rather than overly mysterious and weird."
"We went all over the map in search of a way to tell people about Hundreds ," he continues, "[about] how it's extremely accessible: two-year-olds can play it, and my grandma of 84 who got stuck in the Spelltower tutorial, played 16 levels unassisted before she had to go check on the cookies; how it's very minimal and austere in a peaceful kind of way; how it's mysterious--riddled with codes and strangeness that are only for the select few that wish to unravel things."
So there wasn't an element of at least partially marketing the game on the names of the people behind it? Do they not think people will hear the names Saltsman and Wohlwend and come running?
"I for one do not!" laughs Saltsman. "And I don't think we're relying on that alone, either - there is a launch trailer coming out alongside the game that shows a lot of gameplay, and we've been very actively working with a lot of press to synchronize reviews and stuff."
"Most of the last 4 months has been dedicated to figuring out how to communicate what we love about this game to our audience without having to rely solely on our names/past work. Not sure if it's succeeding yet or not!"
iOS connoisseurs will most likely be able to look at Hundreds and immediately say "That's a Wohlwend game." It has a striking visual style that fits among the designer's stylish past titles swimmingly.
"I think it's important to do good work, and for me it means loving the work I'm doing," he notes. "I hope that comes through with Hundreds , it's definitely the game I've imbued the most of my self into. Even the red RGB build is 222,0,0."
"Honestly, I don't really think I was cognizant of this before but now after thinking over it for a while, a lot of Hundreds is based off my first year in design school," he continues. "I used so much red/black/white in that first year because I was much more concerned with form and layout than messing with color. I didn't know enough yet to venture out into color."
Indeed, Wohlwend's very first abstract composition at design school was a red, black and white deconstruction of a John Heartfield poster, as he attempted to recreate the visual elements and composition of the piece using simple shapes.
"The style of Hundreds sits right there with all those perfectly crisp design principles," he says. Wohlwend was ruthless with how simple he wanted the Hundreds prototype to look, such that when it came to building the real thing, he could then potentially expand on the base style and rules a bit more fully.
Laughs Saltsman, "We're kind of betting everything on that [the visual style]. That's our whole thing, basically. We're very inspired by Sword & Sworcery - not Craig [Adams of Superbrothers]'s style, specifically, but the way it stood out."
With Hundreds out on the App Store, the pair can now look forward to what the rest of 2013 has to hold for them. Wohlwend currently has four iOS games on the go -- one of which includes Ridiculous Fishing , while the other three are secret projects. Once those are all done and dusted, he then plans to jump back over to his Mikengreg studio, and work on "A Dedicated Thing that we've been wanting to do for years."
As for Mr. Adam "Atomic" Saltsman, he plans to inject some added features into Hundreds , and fire it out onto Android. He's also working on a "big Canabalt ," before getting ready for some well-earned paternity leave in March.
Yooka-Laylee developers tease free DLC as next stretch goal
The Kickstarter for Yooka-Laylee , the spiritual successor to Banjo-Kazooie that was announced in April , is humming right along, having earned more than £1.5 million ($2.4 million) on a goal of £175,000 ($274,000).
, is humming right along, having earned more than £1.5 million ($2.4 million) on a goal of £175,000 ($274,000). But if that total can be pushed past the £2 million mark in the 35 days before the clock hits zero, Playtonic Games says the first DLC release will be free for all backers.
"The entire Playtonic team would like to offer its sincere thanks to everyone who has backed the Yooka-Laylee campaign so far. Our intention from the beginning was to use Kickstarter as a means to improve our game, and by helping us reach an incredible £1.5 million you’ve shaped it into one fine specimen," the developers wrote in today's. "Our next stretch goal, if reached, will be used only to further improve and polish Yooka-Laylee, and give something back for your amazing support. Namely, we’ll release our first post-release DLC pack free of charge for all backers."
Presumably to head off complaints about content being cut from the game and held back for release as DLC, the studio emphasized that work on the the additional material won't begin until after the game itself is in the hands of backers. "When—and only when—we’ve finished and shipped the full version of Yooka-Laylee, we’ll start work on additional content that will be distributed to backers free of charge for their platform of choice," it added. "And again, all additional funding will of course go towards improving and polishing the game."
The Yooka-Laylee Kickstarter runs until June 16.
As both compliments and criticisms of Valve's new Steam Greenlight indie game submission service come
pouring in from forums and social media all over the net, Valve is finally managing to dig itself out from underneath the ruckus, dust itself off and get to work making the system exactly what it needs to be. "The sheer volume of submissions was the biggest challenge, both from legitimate submissions as well as junk," says Valve's UI designer Alden Kroll, one of the people at the helm of the Greenlight initiative which launched last week .
Valve: Hold tight, we're not done with Greenlight yet
He adds, "As evidenced from the first major updates, pulling in those issues and making discoverability easier and more intuitive were the first things we wanted to address."
Greenlight has been available to utilize by indie developers for nearly a week now, and it has had a good portion of the games industry in a tizzy. On the whole, developers appear to be happy about the system, although search for Greenlight on Twitter and you'll no doubt get to witness a whole other side to the story.
Kroll says that we can expect many more changes to Greenlight over the coming weeks and months. "We always try to build quick iteration into our process for development of new features, and Greenlight will be no different," he explains to Gamasutra.
"We have a huge list of suggestions from customers and the lessons we've learned from shipping, so Greenlight will definitely continue to evolve over the next weeks and months as we tune the system and add valuable features."
While he told us that Valve isn't yet ready to discuss the actual process of moving a Greenlight game from the voting stages to actually being injected into the Steam store, he noted that it won't be long before we hear the first news of a successly Greenlighted title.
"We don't expect this to be a super long process," he noted, adding, "and we always try to make Steam launches non-stealthy."
Gamasutra asked Kroll exactly what developers can do if they don't already have a community or fanbase for their game. Is there any point in submitting to Greenlight if you've not already got a huge amount of legwork behind you?
"Steam Greenlight is as much about building community for your games as it is about getting your game on Steam," he answers.
"We're hoping this can be the foundation and/or amplification for bringing visibility to new development projects, and help developers build a fan base that continues wherever they sell their games."