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Closure free on PS Plus this week, Critter Crunch for $1.40
Closure, the black-and-white game in which objects only exist if a light is shining on them, gets its own spotlight this week. Starting tomorrow, the PSN game is free for PlayStation Plus members.Critter Crunch is pretty much the opposite of black and white, featuring prominent rainbow vomitus. Capy's PS3 puzzle game isn't free, but it is really cheap this week at $1.40. Other special offers include Alien Breed for $8, Derrick the Deathfin for $4, and 2c0% off of NHL 13.
Critter Crunch barfs up on Steam Sept. 11
Capybara Games' colorful puzzler Critter Crunch is gonna puke rainbow chunks September 11 all over Steam."The game will be available for both PC and Mac, support mouse/keyboard or controller and have all the great online modes – including the ability to play PC vs Mac and vice-versa," Capy founder Nathan Vella told us today. "All for the same $6.99. And barf. Rainbow barf."Critter Crunch began life many moons ago as a mobile game, then became a high-profile PSN game and struggled in the the sales department. Critter Crunch was also available as an iOS title for a brief time, but due to complications at a higher level, Vella can only say, "The publisher chose to remove it from the app store."
Capy posts ideas from its internal game jam, and they all sound pretty good
Given the talent of the folks at Capy Software (who've made the excellent Critter Crunch, Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes, and most of the programming behind Sword and Sworcery), you'd expect them to prototype an interesting game in less time than it takes some to develop a full game. You're partially right -- they made seven.All seven games from Capy's internal game jam are now listed over on the company blog, and to a title they all sound pretty good. The Final Act has the player acting on stage to win a battle, Ferret Wings features Captain Farris the Ferret fighting against Adolph Hamster, and Jetman Adventures (above) is described as "a kind of touch screen Panzer Dragoon/Defender hybrid with Fruit Ninja influence." Yes please!Unfortunately, these are just prototypes developed over the two-day period of a game jam, so they're all unfinished (one turn-based tactical game, for example, didn't get any further than having just one unit), and most likely unplayable by the public. But one of these might plant a seed for Capy's next title, and when that flower blossoms we'll be happy to stick our noses right in it.
PSN Tuesday: Critter Crunch free on PS+, Kane and Lynch 2 public demo
Adorably disturbing (rainbow vomit!) puzzler Critter Crunch is now free for PS+ users. Even if you don't have PS+, it's still worth grabbing this game at $6.99. Also, on the opposite end of the cuteness spectrum, the brutal Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days demo is now public. Check out the full update after the break. Choose your platform to view the corresponding release list: (Note: Continue past the break to view both release lists.)
TUAW's Daily App: Abundante!
Abundante! is an excellent little original puzzle title. The main mechanic reminds me of the great Critter Crunch, but it's not exactly the same. Instead of feeding animals that match up, you're lifting and placing gems of various colors; you line up a certain number of gems together, and they'll all fall down into your basket. What you get is a colorful and rewarding little puzzler with well-polished graphics and relaxing gameplay. There's quite a lot of that gameplay, too; there are over 100 story levels to play through and three different modes to check out. Abundante! started as a PC game, I believe (and you can also download it for Mac), but it's available on the App Store right now for US$2.99.
Assassin's Creed 2, Dragon Age: Origins win Canadian game awards
We like to playfully rip on Canada every now and then (America's hat!), but we must admit that The Great White North knows how to make some quality games, evidenced by the winners at the inaugural Canadian Videogame Awards ceremony. While Game of the Year went to Bioware's Dragon Age: Origins, Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed 2 made out with the most awards, winning Best Console Game, Best Visual Arts, and Best Game Design, and sharing the award for Best Technology with Radical Entertainment's Prototype. That's not to say all of the awards went to the triple-A titles, as Toronto's own darling, Capybara Games, received nods for two of its titles: Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes, which won Best Handheld Game, and Critter Crunch, which secured victory as the Best Downloadable Game. Maybe now that cute little guy will stop crying so much! [Thanks, Alan Strangis]
PSN leaderboards point to top game downloads for January
Gamasutra wasn't able to get its hands on year-to-date PSN sales data directly from Sony, but it has come up with some interesting conclusions based on an unscientific look at ... leaderboard stats. The site broke down January's new releases, as well as a few other games that sold well last month, and the big debut of the month appears to be Hustle Kings, which added over 39,000 players to its ranks. Assault Heroes only picked up 754 new players, but given that it's a game that actually came out in 2006 on the Xbox, that's not a big surprise. PSN also offered up its "10 for '10" sale in January, and Uno came away from that event with a whopping 87,000 new players on its leaderboards. Braid and Critter Crunch also did well, adding 20,000 and 17,000 new players to their leaderboards, respectively. Keep in mind that these numbers are far from official, and not complete anyway -- Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment, Thexder Neo and Matt Hazard were released on PSN last month, and none of those games are included in this analysis, due to unreliable or nonexistent leaderboards. But it is probably fair to say that PSN had a pretty good month in January, especially with the games featured in its "10 for '10" sale. More of that, please.
Critter Crunch gets 'less insane' in new patch
Sure, Critter Crunch is cute. But it is also barf-inducingly hard. Thankfully, a new patch (releasing today) will help make the more challenging stages "less insane." In addition, the patch adds support for in-game XMB music, so you can play while listening to your extensive Miley Cyrus collection. The full patch notes are below: Additions: XMB Audio support Language select available for all! Hey losers! You get a little XP even if you lose in multiplayer Tweaks: Player feedback regarding DIFFICULT LEVELS has been taken to heart. Tough levels got a little less insane! Coop networking tweaks to decrease pesky lag Multiplayer "Disconnects" are now awarded more accurately Catching a jewel while feeding glorious vomit to your son will no longer interrupt you Your rank will now be retrieved more reliably when playing Adventure Nasty bug fixes: No more annoying audio glitch No more Wins/Losses upload issues when the server is in "'maintenance" mode Player score for Challenge levels now correctly handled in ALL cases "Barf Success" icon now shows up correctly in ALL cases "King of the Jungle" Trophy now successfully unlocks correctly even with a score of 0
Critter Crunch and Burn Zombie Burn half-off today on Amazon [update]
You have officially run out of excuses for not purchasing Capybara's hyper-cute PSN puzzler, Critter Crunch. Amazon.com is currently selling game codes for half off the usual $7 price -- that's only $3.49! It's likely that the PlayStation Store will also price-match this deal when it updates later today. But do you want to risk missing out on one heck of a deal? We think not. Update: Burn Zombie Burn is also on sale for half off the usual $10 price. That's $5! [Via @superpac]
Critter Crunch dev working on 'Heartbeat' for WiiWare
Capybara Games, developer of PSN darling Critter Crunch, is working on Heartbeat for WiiWare. The title is the company's entry for the 2010 Independent Games Festival and is described as being about the "experience of growing sounds." Heartbeat's game description explains it has players starting with an "ambient whisper" and growing the "music" there, which we remember being the idea behind Electroplankton -- an idea that may or may not have manifested depending on how one feels. IGN describes the game as involving the use of the Wiimote to control a "heart-shaped cursor," which triggers sounds, activates objects and keeps the beat going. There's no word on a release date. We contacted Capybara for a video of Heartbeat, so we could wrap our eyes around the game's concept, but were told the game isn't "together" or "stylish" enough to show at the moment. The dev hopes to share something in a couple months.
Critter Crunch dev praises Sony's support of indie games
"They support the living sh*t out of it, and they support it really well," Capybara's Nathan Vella told Gamasutra when talking about Sony's free PhyreEngine. "Any of the parts that are inside Phyre that we didn't know how to fix or we had an issue with, they would fix it for us in a day. Overall, I think Sony's doing a lot of right stuff for small independent developers." Vella's praise echoes similar sentiments from other PSN developers, like Shatter's Mario Wynands. In addition to free development tools, Vella noted other benefits by partnering with Sony. Critter Crunch was promoted heavily on the PlayStation Network via the PlayStation.Blog, Pulse and banners on the PlayStation Store. Most importantly, though, Sony "treated us like we weren't a small nobody developer from Toronto." In spite of Sony's best intentions, though, Vella notes that sales aren't quite where they should be on the PSN. "It's still a fraction of what XBLA is doing, and we know that," he admitted. "But that's okay for us because they let us do what we wanted to do." Apparently what they want to do now is work on a zombie game.
App Store devs get "edge"-y as a reaction to trademark threats
App Store developers can be a rebellious kind -- we've already covered the story of a company shooting their price up to $40 just to show their customers how much they could be charging, and now, in response to an overly defensive trademark owner, developers on the store are putting the word "Edge" in their titles. Even high profile releases like the sequel to Eliss and the popular Canabalt are becoming Edgeliss and Canabedge. Critter Crunch becomes Critter Edge on their main page, and so on. The story starts with a guy named Tim Langdell, who started a company a while back named Edge Games. Since he founded that company, he has mercilessly gone after any other game company who dares to use the word "edge" in their title, claiming that he has the trademark to any and all "edge"-related gaming. He's gone after EA's Mirror's Edge and a few other titles, but the App Store has been a prime target, where he simply contacts Apple, claims the app is in violation of his trademarks, and gets apps pulled without a problem. The latest target is a title called Killer Edge Racing by a company named PuzzleKings, and reportedly Langdell has gone so far as to trademark that name, despite the fact that the game using it has been around for years. Hence the indie game developers' "edge-volution." They aren't actually renaming their games in the store, just showing off solidarity with other developers against what they see as Langdell's wrongdoing, and getting the word out about his actions against "edge" on the App Store.
Indie devs incorporate 'Edge' into titles to lure out Tim Langdell
Indie developers are having a little fun at the expense of trademark troll Tim Langdell. As TouchArcade reports, several devs have created mock games to get under the skin of the abusive IP bugaboo, who pops up like a rabid prairie dog when a company uses the word "edge" in a video game. In response to Langdell's attack on Killer Edge Racing, several indie devs have jokingly renamed their games. Fez is now Fedge and Critter Crunch has vomited out Critter Credge. In their posts on the name changes, the developers use the word "edge" as many times as is edgeingly possible to edge in there with edginess. Inspired by Langdell, we are currently discussing with our attorneys if we can trademark the words "war," "warfare," ... oh wait, "Mario," yes! That's where the infringement bucks really are.
Trophies: Critter Crunch
0 Platinum 1 Gold 2 Silver 11 Bronze Difficulty: Difficult Online Trophies? Yes Time to Completion: 20 hours DLC Trophies? No View Trophy List Read More About the Game %Gallery-65580%
Critter Crunch consumer consumption saddening, demo releasing next week
Critter Crunch sales haven't been all sunshine and rainbow vomit for developer Capybara Games. The Examiner took note of a post on NeoGAF in which a representative for the developer said the team was "very sad" because the game is "not selling so hot." He went on to say that next week's demo will hopefully spur more folks to gobble down the adorably disturbing puzzler. The $7 price for entry easily makes Critter Crunch one of the best values on the PSN, so what went wrong? The entire situation reminds us of a panel we attended at the Game Developers Conference this year, where several developers of downloadable titles noted that sales for digitally distributed titles drop off dramatically during the holiday season. Braid's Jonathan Blow noted that "March or June or August" are the release windows that downloadable game developers should hope for. Honestly, if Capybara wants to push some sales, it'll send us a picture of its little guy crying (no, sobbing) and we'll use it in a post to break people's hearts and guilt them into buying the game. Update: It'll break your heart. [Via Destructoid]
PSN Thursday: Vomit up $7 for Critter Crunch, support the disgustingly adorable
There are many, many titles on the PSN that have amazing art atop a relatively simple gameplay concept. Capybara's Critter Crunch is no exception. However, we'd advocate it may deserve a purchase for its premise alone: Adorable fuzzball eats cutesy creatures and then vomits them up in a rainbow into another even-more-darling puff's mouth. How can you not support the mind that came up with that? Check out the full PSN update after the break. Choose your platform to view the corresponding release list: (Note: Continue past the break to view both release lists.) %Gallery-65580%
Critter Crunch trailer is nauseatingly cute
We speak a lot about the adorable properties of Capybara's roly-poly puzzle title, Critter Crunch, but we think they truly come out in the title's latest trailer, seen above. It's easy for developers to create fuzzy creatures that make our hearts go a-flutter -- it's considerably more difficult to make those creatures remain precisely that cute while they vomit into each other's mouths. In fact, it almost makes them cuter. We know it defies logic, but you're going to have to trust us on this one.
Sony characters get Critter Crunchified
The adorable art style of Capybara Games' PSN puzzle title Critter Crunch can't be contained within the boundaries of its own franchise. A recent post on the developers' blog shows off a number of doodles from the game's character artist, Nick "Qiqo" Stephan. These illustrations peer through temporal doorways into other worlds, where Biggs, the game's protagonist, was dressed in the skin of characters from other PlayStation titles. (Okay, it's less creepy than we just made it sound.) Check out all 15 of these concepts after the jump -- we guarantee that you've never such a lovable Kratos. (Sackboy, eat your heart out.)
Munch on these brand new Critter Crunch screens
Click for bigger cuteness Okay seriously, how can you not be completely in love with Critter Crunch? Just look at it -- look at it! The upcoming PlayStation Network game features some of the most adorable sprites around, all drawn and animated by one clearly god-like man. These new screens highlight some new features, like the Anvil and "Poison" Mushroom; co-op mode and powerups; cutscenes; the world map; and most importantly, barfing. As former Joystiq writer Jem Alexander would say, "it's a-MAY-zing!" %Gallery-65580%
Hands-on: Critter Crunch
You've got an iPhone, right? If so you may have stumbled across this game already on the App Store. Critter Crunch is a puzzle game by Canadian developer Capybara Games which is being ported to the PlayStation Network for release this summer. This is a lot more than a simple port, however, as the game will be completely reworked to take advantage of the PS3's high definition output and online features. Critter Crunch is a puzzle game in which you play as the adorable Biggs -- as seen winking in the logo above -- who is constantly being attacked by critters from above. His method of keeping the ever-encroaching hoard at bay is simple: feed them to each other. Small critters feed medium critters which feed large critters and, once full, they pop and take with them any similar colored critters that sit adjacent to them. It's kind of gruesome in an adorable sort of way. This basic mechanic has survived the transition onto the PS3, but it's brought friends. The PSN version will have many more levels, critters, modes and features. As those who have seen the trailer will no doubt be happy to hear, the PSN version will feature nature documentary style animated cutscenes, all completed (as the in-game animations are) by a single animator. %Gallery-65580%
