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Games of Glory talks about its persistent MOBA universe
Games of Glory's biggest selling point is the fact that it will be a MOBA with a persistent universe -- and if you're wondering how that might work, you're not alone. Lightbulb Crew has put together a video to explain the persistent elements and how they will come together to create a singular experience. The studio promises that players' actions will have a lasting impact on the game and influence its future development. The idea is that players wins or losses will change their faction's standing and their own character's notoriety. As time goes on, the studio will add new factions, clones, weapons, or game modes influenced by those ratings. Games of Glory is currently in a playable alpha state and is attempting to raise $100,000 through Kickstarter. You can check out Lightbulb Crew's explanation of Games of Glory's persistent universe after the break.
Stained developer no longer issuing Steam keys to bundle buyers
If you're waiting to receive a Steam key for the Greenlight-approved PC side-scroller Stained, you can stop waiting. Developer RealAxis announced that it no longer plans to issue promised Steam keys for players who purchased the game as part of a bundle. When Stained was featured in Indie Royale's Debut 3 bundle last year, RealAxis pledged to supply buyers with a Steam key after the game earned community approval via Steam Greenlight. Indie Royale's Debut bundles are assembled to promote Greenlight hopefuls, and its organizers note that "Developers have almost always provided Steam keys for Indie Royale games that have subsequently been greenlit and then appeared on Steam." RealAxis blames its decision on declining sales, and claims that it only earned around $3,000 in revenue between Indie Royale's bundle and purchases via Steam. "The game is not selling at all and there is no hope," a RealAxis representative explained. "I think we are already doomed so we are abandoning the process of distributing the keys. We will continue to do what is required to make the living and provide support to game related questions twice a week. If you really love this game you should consider buying it on steam else I think you already had your share of enjoyment when you purchased the game via IR-Bundle for 50 cent. [sic]" [Image: RealAxis]
The Sun at Night, Bulb Boy among 75 games accepted by Steam Greenlight
The latest group of games, 75 in total, have been granted distribution on Steam thanks to the approval of the Greenlight community. Included in the newly-picked games is The Sun at Night, Minicore Studios' run-and-gun game that stars Russian space dog Laika. The game first launched in February and is the first of three parts in the series. The second chapter, The Sky Below, is slated to arrive in October and will incorporate feedback from The Sun at Night into it. Also approved for Steam is Ojtam Games' horror adventure game Bulb Boy. Inspired by Amanita Design's Machinarium and Sierra's 1991 adventure game Gobliiins, Bulb Boy stars a lightbulb-like boy that wakes from a nightmare to find his "Grandparaffin" and "Mothdog" missing. The game is currently raising funds to wrap its development via Kickstarter, seeking $40,000 by July 27, of which it's earned just over $7,500 as of this writing. [Image: Minicore Studios]
Dino-survival: Hands-on with The Stomping Land's early access alpha
Yesterday, I examined up-and-coming dinosaur-survival MMO Beasts of Prey. Today, let's look at another game in the same niche genre: The Stomping Land. The Stomping Land isn't technically billing itself as an MMO, but it boasts a semi-permanent world. But my experience in it was nothing like the trailers shown back in May. The current game is totally different. In fact, it seems to have regressed. There's no customization, there are no berries, and no one I talked to knew how to name a tribe. It feels like a semi-permanent shooter, similar to other survival games except without a lot of the building. You either make a teepee or you don't. You make a bow or you don't. You have a dinosaur mount or... you don't. The biggest servers I saw had 24 people, meaning I was able to avoid other players very often, but the game was more fun when I encountered people -- at least people who didn't one-shot me and waltz away.
Dino-survival: Hands-on with Beasts of Prey's early access alpha
When I first dived into the horror-survival genre, I knew there would be zombies, but I never expected dinosaurs. You don't get much bigger than a T-Rex stomping around your neighborhood (though I am still waiting for an underwater survival game that randomly has blue whales unintentionally ruining your kelp fort as they hunt for krill). When dinosaurs started to replace zombies, I knew that my inner child would drag me in, even if I once again had to pay for alpha. It's this very idea of "paid alpha" that inspired me to tackle not one but two titles from the newly spawned dino-survival based genre. Apologists will say that it's just alpha, but the reality is that you get only one launch, and to me, launch is you start letting people buy your game and don't hold them under an NDA. With this in mind, I decided to try my hand at both Beasts of Prey and The Stomping Land to see which, if either, feels the most deserving of my time (and money). Today, I'll start with BoP.
Aura Kingdom lands on Steam
Aura Kingdom has been playable for some time now, but if you're one of those digital platform snobs who refuses to play anything that's not offered, you've previously been out of luck. This has all changed this week, as Aura Kingdom passed the Steam Greenlight process and has become available through the platform. Aeria Games CEO Pascal Zuta hopes that this will give the anime MMO a good boost: "Having a game launch on Steam is a sign of trust in the quality of the game and the service we provide. We are very excited to now be able to offer Aura Kingdom to a wider audience through the Steam platform." [Source: Aeria Games press release]
UemeU goes deeper than the typical sandbox
How about a good palindrome to round out your Friday experience? What, you want a sandbox on top of that? Fine; here's UemeU and stop bothering me. Omnigon Games recently announced that alpha-dwelling UemeU is now on Steam Greenlight and can be downloaded for free on the official website. The project draws upon popular sandbox games such as Little Big Planet and Minecraft to give players the ability to create their own worlds and stories. The main claim to fame here is an impressive depth that goes beyond the simpler tools that its competition provides. You can check out one of the avatar videos for UemeU after the break to get an idea for the potential that this title holds.
Steam Greenlights 75 more games: Futuridium, Lost Orbit
Yep, 75 more games are on the path to Steam. We won't list them all, but a few notable stand-outs include Futuridium EP, Ensign-1, Pale Blue, Lost Orbit, The Masterplan and, of course, VoidSpace – The Dogecoin MMORPG. A few other games have interesting-sounding names, such as Exploding Robots, Gender Bender DNA Twister Extreme, My Ex-Boyfriend the Space Tyrant, Neocolonialism, and Zoo Rampage. Steam is on track to see more than 2,000 game launches in 2014 – already this year, more games have launched on Steam than in all of 2013. And now we can add 75 more to that total.
Untold Universe heads to Steam Greenlight
French indie studio Fenris Lair Studio has announced the Steam Greenlight campaign for its upcoming MMO, Untold Universe. Untold Universe is described as a cube-based sandbox MMO that lets players "shape and colonize a huge and uncharted universe." While the game is still in its alpha stage, Fenris Lair Studio is looking for more player feedback to help mold the MMO's direction. Planned features include the ability to build and trade designs, an infinite universe to explore, jobs created by player-run corporations, and more. You can check out early alpha footage from the game just after the cut. [Source: Fenris Lair Studio press release]
Roundabout, Fist of Awesome head up latest Steam Greenlight additions
A batch of 75 new games are due to hit Steam soon after earning community approval via Steam Greenlight, including highlights like No Goblin's limo-spinning action game Roundabout and lumberjack-versus-bear brawler Fist of Awesome. Other standout additions include Indie Games Uprising 3 puzzle-platformer Entropy, IndieCade 2012 finalist Hidden in Plain Sight, and mobile-ported hits Bloons TD 5 and Momonga Pinball Adventures. This week's nominees also feature a handful of retail PC games that were never previously available on Steam, including Iceberg Interactive's first-person firefighting sim Real Heroes: Firefighter, Plug In Interactive's motorbike racer SBK 12 Generations, and Mastiff's on-rails shooter Heavy Fire: Afghanistan. [Image: No Goblin]
Fist of Awesome punches bears on PC and Mac
The game best described as a "bear fighter," Fist of Awesome, is now available on PC and Mac. The game is currently discounted on the Humble Store to $3.99 (originally $7.99). Fist of Awesome is a beat-em-up in which players assume the role of a time-traveling lumberjack that must "punch bears to save humanity." Developer I Fight Bears is seeking community approval via Greenlight to bring the game to Steam. It launched on Ouya, iOS and Android in October following a successful Kickstarter campaign that raised £11,808 ($19,919) in December 2012. The UK-based developer was founded by Nicoll Hunt, a former Realtime Worlds (Crackdown) developer that also worked on Hard Lines for iOS. [Image: I Fight Bears]
Steam saw more games in first half of 2014 than all of 2013
Not even halfway through 2014, Valve has already seen more games released on its Steam service than in all of 2013. Gamasutra reports that if the trend continues, we'll see more than 2,000 games released on Steam in 2014, compared to just more than 600 in 2013. While that sounds great for gamers, more isn't necessarily better. Just because a game makes it through Steam's Greenlight or Early Access programs does not make it a trustworthy, worthwhile purchase, as was demonstrated when Earth: 2066 was pulled from Steam for dishonest advertising. Tom Ohle, director at Evolve PR, and founder of indie publisher Nkidu Games, told Gamasutra that Steam was "approaching iOS App Store-like saturation," making it harder for some games and publishers to break out and catch a Steam user's eye. The gates may be more open than ever, but that also means more people are going to try and squeeze their way through. [Image: Gamasutra]
Greenlit Steam game Towns halts development
Development of the in-progress city management game Towns has halted and will not resume due to declining sales, developer Florian Frankenberger revealed this week. Towns was among the first games to hit Steam as part of Valve's community-driven Greenlight program. The game launched in November of 2012 for Windows, Mac, and Linux, and players who paid $14.99 for an early version were promised frequent updates as Towns expanded to fill its intended scope. "After getting used to the source code and publishing the first new version of the game, we talked about the agreed payment and it turns out that the [sales] are getting down rapidly," Frankenberger explained. "So we are now selling less than a third of the [expected] copies a month, [losing] about 33% of [sales] per month. To be completely honest, I can't work for that little amount. I have to pay for the rent and food and this doesn't really suffice for any of it." Frankenberger continued: "I'm sorry that we had to pull the plug right here, but I sincerely hope you can understand why we had to make that decision right now." Frankenberger discussed the possibility of continuing development in a sequel game, and notes that players who paid for the original Towns will be compensated in some way upon the sequel's launch. [Image: SMP]
Eldevin gets thumbs-up from Steam
It's a big week for Eldevin, as the indie MMO got greenlit on Steam this past week. Hunted Cow thanked the community for voting on the title and said that it's working on getting the downladable version of the game prepped for Steam: "We've got some work to do to get it ready for release on Steam (implement Steam achievements and integrate it with Steam accounts etc.) but we'll keep you updated on the progress." Eldevin won Massively's Frindie Award for Best Browser Game in 2013.
Steam Greenlight spans Grave to Ultima Online in latest batch
You never know quite what you're going to get when a new list of Steam Greenlight-approved games shows up. For example, the latest batch of 75 includes both Ultima Online and Dark Age of Camelot, two of the most classic Western MMORPGs, both of which are under the care Broadsword Games. Among the other 73 games given the A-OK for a Steam release are Arcadecraft, Firebase's 1980s-styled arcade management sim, and Grave, Broken Window Studios' survival horror that takes place in a Salvador Dali-inspired wasteland. The Greenlight approval caps off a good week for Broken Window Studios, who saw the game funded on Kickstarter with days to go, meaning it's trekking its way to Xbox One as well as Windows, Mac and Linux. For the full list of inductees, head over to Steam Greenlight. [Image: Broadsword Games]
Get Even, Dead Synchronicity among 75 games Greenlit for Steam
Steam's Greenlight community gave 75 more games the thumbs-up for distribution on the PC platform this week, adding a few familiar titles to the mix. Among the games that can begin start selling on Steam is Get Even, a first-person shooter from Polish developer The Farm 51. Unlike other first-person games, players jump into the memories of Get Even's main characters to make decisions that impact their personality traits as the game's story progresses. The developer spoke at length in March on films and games that explore players' perceptions of reality, which the Painkiller: Hell and Damnation developer set as a goal. Other games greenlit for distribution include pretend dogfighter Cult of the Wind, dystopian 2D point-and-click adventure game Dead Synchronicity: Tomorrow comes Today and Pivvot, which brings minimalistic arcade-style action to Steam. Pivvot achieved over 2.65 million downloads on iOS and Android and comes from Whitaker Trebella, a Chicago-based developer that shifted from music composition to programming in 2010; though he still crafted tunes for more recent games like Nimble Quest and Super Stickman Golf 2. [Image: The Farm 51]
Ultima Online, Dark Age of Camelot embark on Steam Greenlight campaign
Since its acquisition of Ultima Online and Dark Age of Camelot in February, Broadsword Online Games has not been content to let the titles sit around merely getting older. Earlier this month, the team hosted a large state-of-the-game chat about the future of UO's design, and now the developers have posted their latest ambitions: a spot on Steam bathed in green light for the venerable old MMORPGs. "We are in the process of getting UO on Steam but need your help. Please go here and vote for UO! Thank you for all your support!" wrote UO Producer Bonnie Armstrong on the official site today. DAOC's Steam Greenlight campaign is likewise now live. You heard the lady. Chop, chop.
Stick out your arms and fly in pretend dogfighter Cult of the Wind
Sometimes you see a game and you immediately wonder why no-one had come up with it sooner. Cult of the Wind from Alex Allen's North of Earth is one of those games. Simply put in the words of the developer, it's "a game about people who pretend to be airplanes." If you've never turned your arms into wings and pew-pew-pewed your friends in an epic dogfight, chances are you were doing childhood/adulthood wrong. That's the spirit that Cult of the Wind wants its players to channel, complete with "imaginary weapons, pretend explosions, and airplane noises made with their mouths." North of Earth has some experience with completely bonkers multiplayer games, having already brought Godzilla-style deathmatches to Steam in Omegalodon. For Cult of the Wind, the studio promises a level editor, character customization and plenty of different weapons and abilities, albeit make-believe ones. Cult of the Wind is currently on Steam Greenlight, and North of Earth expects to deliver it on PC and Mac in "mid-2014." Responding to queries, the studio said it's planning on an "early access beta," and when the game does take to the skies North of Earth estimates a regular price of $15, reduced to $10 on launch day. [Image: North of Earth]
Pier Solar HD, Proven Lands among 75 greenlit games for Steam
Valve accepted 75 more games for distribution on Steam after approval from its community on Steam Greenlight, among which is Pier Solar and the Great Architects HD, Watermelon's remake of the Megadrive RPG. Pier Solar HD, which earned over $230,000 on Kickstarter in December 2012, is joined by a recent crowdfund hopeful, sci-fi sandbox roguelike Proven Lands. In fact, a number of this week's new Steam recruits were once success stories on Kickstarter. Dolphin exam cheating simulator Classroom Aquatic earned over $31,000 earlier this month, Trichotomy's Dog Sled Saga found modest success in May 2013, roguelike Dungeonmans earned over $43,000 in August and MURA Interactive's twin-stick shooter Dubwars received over $34,000 in July. Additionally, Will O'Neill's game about love and depression, Actual Sunlight, was among the group of games added to Steam this week. [Image: Watermelon]
Ether One looks like a peaceful romp through dementia patients' minds
Ether One seems like a nice, calm exploration game – until it doesn't. Most of the gameplay takes place in the memories of dementia patients, where skilled Restorers repair broken images and minds. Restoration is a standard task in this technologically advanced world, but it retains the potential to go horribly wrong. And as the launch trailer shows, things do go wrong. Really wrong. Ether One is a first-person exploration and adventure game that recalls BioShock or Portal in its mechanics and unmistakable "something is not right here" tone. It was Greenlit in June and is due out for PC on March 25 from UK studio White Paper Games. [Images: White Paper Games]
