Dungeons-of-Dredmor
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Clockwork Empires goes Steam Early Access in August
Clockwork Empires, an upcoming steampunk bureaucracy simulator from Dungeons of Dredmor developer Gaslamp Games, will make its Steam Early Access debut on August 15. Previously described here as "a less militant Age of Empires as written by H.P. Lovecraft," Clockwork Empires asks players to rule over a growing group of colonists in a world as rife with overly complicated brass machinery as it is with squamous, unknowable horrors that exist only in shadow. Developer Gaslamp Games claims each citizen will have his or her own motivations, personalities and potentially dangerous secrets that will only complicate the task of ruling your superficially sleepy hamlet. When Clockwork Empires makes its Early Access debut on August 15 it will feature a $30 price tag. If you'd rather not wait for Valve's digital distribution service, you can grab the latest build of Clockwork Empires by visiting the game's website. [Image: Gaslamp Games]
Humble Roguelike Weekly Sale offers six ways to die for $6
The Humble Weekly Sale is feeling lethal and unforgiving, offering six roguelikes for the tempting price of "basically nothing." Yes, these products will kill you, over and over and over again – but they're on sale. You can't beat that. Three of the games are available for any price you want: Paranautical Activity (Early Access game), Dungeons of Dredmor Complete and Hack, Slash Loot. The remaining three games are thrown in if you pay $6 or more: The Binding of Isaac plus Wrath of the Lamb DLC, Teleglitch: Die More Edition Guns and Tunes, and Sword of the Stars: The Pit Gold Edition. This bundle seems to be priced according to "complexity of name." Don't worry though – they will all kill you. At a discount.
Clockwork Empires mates world-building, steampunk, Elder Gods
Clockwork Empires, the next game from Dungeons of Dredmor developer Gaslamp Games, appears to be a typical, steampunk-themed bureaucracy simulator, with one major twist: Instead of ordinary catastrophes like floods or fires, your biggest concern are attacks by squamous, unknowable Elder Gods. If it helps, imagine a less militant Age of Empires as written by H.P. Lovecraft. The cities you create, while arguably typical, always hold an air of malice, even before your citizens burst into flame or are driven mad by obscene geometries. "Build mighty colonies populated by foppish aristocrats, ambitious middle-class artisans and clerks, and the toiling lower-classes who labor in your magnificent factories, scientific laboratories, lavishly decorated houses, farms, cathedrals, pubs and more," reads the game's official description. "But be careful - every character in your society has its own personality, motivation, and (sometimes deadly) secrets." That would be concerning if it weren't for the game's extradimensional horrors. If your society declines or succeeds in certain ways, you may earn a visit from one of Cthulhu's poker buddies. Fortunately, how your society evolves is entirely up to you. "Ultimately the creation and outcome of this incredibly nuanced world is dictated by the player, but as developers we've steered clear of directing the actual outcome of each society players will create," stated Gaslamp Games CTO Nicholas Vining. "The outcomes can vary so greatly it was important to design the game to be as shareable as possible. From building to strategizing, exploring and the emergent player-to-player shared content, no two games will be alike. That's the gruesome and wonderful nature of Clockwork Empires." Clockwork Empires will debut on the PC, Mac and Linux platforms at some point during 2014.
Canadian Indie Bundle on Steam: Superbrothers, Shanks and more
Our brothers and sisters in The Great White North are getting some time in the spotlight today with a new bundle on Steam. The Canadian Indie Bundle packages together games from Klei Entertainment, Capybara Games, Gaslamp Games and more for $14.99.Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery EP, Shank and Shank 2 highlight this Canadian Indie Bundle, joined by Space Pirates and Zombies, Waveform, Hoard, Dungeons of Dredmor and Capsized. Many of the games in the bundle offer SteamPlay between Windows and Mac OSX.
Steam Summer Sale, Day 7: Super Meat Boy, LA Noire, Total War, Indie Bundle 7 and more
We're gonna let the "Ouch, my wallet!" jokes simmer for a couple days (or until we can think of a good one, whichever comes first) and instead we'll just give you all the straight poop on today's Steam Summer Sale offerings.Amongst today's Most Discounted Things™ is the Carpe Fulgur series, which includes Chantelise - A Tale of Two Sisters, Fortune Summoners and Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale. Today's offering also boasts a heavily discounted Total War mega pack, Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion and Super Meat Boy. In addition, there's a new Indie Bundle that features Q.U.B.E. and Dungeons of Dredmor, among other titles.Oh! Here's one: What's the difference between a second mortgage and the Steam Summer Sale? With a second mortgage, at least you get to keep the house!... No? Okay, maybe next time.
The Daily Grind: Do you need to be the hero?
"In the Elder Scrolls games," Matt Firor says, trying to make the case for solo story in The Elder Scrolls Online, "You're always the hero, whether you want to [be] or not, in some cases." That declaration was news to me; I've been playing cutpurses and scapegraces in the Elder Scrolls series since Daggerfall. In fact, I think the best part of sandbox RPGs (online or not) is that I don't have to be the hero -- I can ignore the main quest line and play my own way or even just lend some firepower to the actual hero NPC, as in Oblivion, which Firor seems to have forgotten. What about you? Is ZeniMax going the wrong route by insisting that everyone be the hero in his own little sliver of the world? Do you need to be the hero in an MMO? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
A Diversity of Roguelikes
This is a weekly column focusing on "Western" role-playing games: their stories, their histories, their mechanics, their insanity, and their inanity. Once upon a time, the "Roguelike" genre was a semi-hidden cache of secrets in gaming. Games like Rogue and NetHack were passed around from floppy to floppy, not sold in stores, not discussed in magazines, and certainly not treated as part of the same tradition as an Ultima or even a Gold Box game. Maybe it's because the genre name is just so stupid. We don't call first-person shooters "Doomlikes" or puzzle games "Tetrislikes." Unfortunately, I don't have a better term for it. Perhaps over the course of describing them in a column we can think of something. Here are the consistent attributes of the genres: it involves a series of randomly generated levels, starting hard and getting progressively more difficult. They're usually stripped-down role-playing games, where you roll a quick character, pick a class, buy a couple items, and then get killed permanently by a slime and have do it again. They're also designed for short play sessions.
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Dungeons of Dredmor
Indie developers are the starving artists of the video-game world, often brilliant and innovative, but also misunderstood, underfunded and more prone to writing free-form poetry on their LiveJournals. We at Joystiq believe no one deserves to starve, and many indie developers are entitled to a fridge full of tasty, fulfilling media coverage, right here. This week, the gang from Gaslamp Games explain the hilariously time-consuming adventure of indie development with Dungeons of Dredmor. What's your game called and what's it about? David Baumgart: Our game is called Dungeons of Dredmor. It's a humorous, graphical, roguelike-inspired dungeon crawling RPG. The setup is the archetypal hero descending into the dungeon to defeat an evil dark lord -- that's Lord Dredmor -- by fighting, casting spells, collecting loot and experience, and generally being bothersome. This is no sure process, for the dungeon is filled with traps, monsters, and bottles of acid. Everyone will die at some point. If a player has selected the traditional permadeath option, then upon death the player's character is dead forever and the player must start again with a new hero at the beginning of the game. It's more fun that way.
