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Metareview: Murdered: Soul Suspect
Murdered: Soul Suspect is proof of the old adage, "you can't keep a good cop down, even when you put roughly half a dozen slugs in his chest, because that dude will turn into a ghost that smokes ghost cigarettes." We ... may have embellished that a little bit. While flawed in execution, our review found the game to be enjoyable nonetheless, with a compelling yarn to pull players along and an interesting fiction built into the town of Salem. There's more eyewitnesses ready to testify about this phantasmal tale, however, so let's see what they have to say.
Murdered: Soul Suspect dev lays off 14 in studio restructuring
Airtight Games, developer of Murdered: Soul Suspect and Quantum Conundrum, suffered layoffs this week. The studio let go of 14 employees, confirmed by IGN as part of a "necessary restructuring" for the developer. Airtight's restructuring was deemed "part of the normal ebb and flow of game production" and that the studio's current projects are still on schedule. The developer announced a June 3 release date for Murdered: Soul Suspect roughly one month ago. Square Enix said the "core team is continuing to work towards shipping in June." One previous employee of Airtight Games, the studio's creative director and Portal Co-Creator Kim Swift, joined Amazon Game Studios yesterday along with Far Cry 2 Lead Designer Clint Hocking. [Image: Airtight Games]
Quantum Conundrum's latest trailer blows the doors off time, our minds
Quantum Conundrum's more than just fluffy pillows and super heavy stuff. It's also all about ripping apart space and time itself at your whim, with the helpful aid of a glove-enabled "shift device," as demonstrated in the trailer above.
Airtight adds iOS AirPlay to Google TV
Google TV users can now access to Airtight, an app that allows AirPlay streaming. That means iOS device owners can stream video and photos to Google TV over the Wi-Fi, with some limitations. As the Mac Observer points out, the US$0.99 app doesn't allow mirroring or the streaming of any content with DRM, which means movies and TV shows purchased from the iTunes Store are out. It also doesn't support music streaming at this time, which could be a deterrent for some. The developers said they are checking into the possibility of streaming music and admit in the version notes that there's a lot of work yet to come. But the reviews thus far say that the app is stable and works well. If you give it a try, let us know how it goes.
Airtight brings Apple's Airplay to your Google TV, makes Cupertino and Mountain View play nice
We've seen Airplay work its way into Android phones thanks to apps before, but what if you want to reverse the equation? What if you want to stream not from, but to a dessert-flavored player. Well, it's little more than a proof of concept at the moment, but Airtight does just that -- turns your Google TV into an Airplay-compatible receiver. You'll obviously have to be running the latest OS update to enable Market access, and the you'll pay $0.99 for the privilege of tinkering with the still rather rough app. For the moment there is no support for streaming music (only videos), anything with DRM is won't play and mirroring is but a dream. But, it works, and that's all that matters... right? Hit up the source link for more details and to purchase it now.
Airtight Games' Kim Swift discusses Portal comparisons and the democratic origin of Quantum Conundrum
"All I care about is, 'Is the game fun? Are players gonna pick it up and have a good time?' That, first and foremost, is my job," ex-Valve developer (Portal, Left 4 Dead) and current Airtight Games creative lead Kim Swift declared to me in a pre-NY Comic Con interview last week. She was referring to her current project, Quantum Conundrum, and its similarity to her past work on Portal. I was wondering if she worried that her first big game might color perceptions about her latest, similarly-sized game -- is it just more of the same? "Making first-person puzzle games is what I like to do," Swift said. "And there aren't a whole lot of games ... there's Portal, and that's about it. So, to me, this is the kind of game that I want to play myself." She told me that the idea for QC had come about before arriving at Airtight, and when the opportunity came to head up a team as creative lead, she jumped at the chance. But she also didn't want to be a totalitarian monster. "Once I had gotten my team together, I didn't just wanna say, 'Hey, we're making this game, dammit! It's gonna be the way I say it's gonna be!'" Swift explained. Rather, the team members created individual "one-sheets" which would then be voted on by the whole group. As it turns out, Quantum Conundrum won out. "It just happens that this one came out on top just because it was really easy to implement right away and test," she added. The game's room-based puzzles and play on dimensional mechanics make it "modular" -- as in, individual components can be easily swapped out for others and quickly tested. This kind of development structure allows for quick iteration, a value prized among game developers. It also makes things like DLC all the more possible, which already makes sense for a game like Quantum Conundrum. Whether gamers will be demanding more after the game ships "early" next year remains to be seen, but what I saw had a lot of promise. %Gallery-131812%
Kim Swift fills us in on Airtight Games' silent 2010
After Airtight Games' last project, Dark Void, failed to succeed with critics and at retail, the studio crept back into relative quiet for the majority of 2010. Aside from a job listing popping up late in the year for "several AAA titles," and the high-profile hire of Portal lead Kim Swift just before Dark Void's launch, the studio kept mum all the way until this past summer. Just before PAX, however, Japanese publisher Square Enix teased a big reveal for Swift's promised game. Days later, Quantum Conundrum was announced -- another first-person puzzler -- leaving us to wonder what else the studio might be working on. "There are currently two projects at Airtight: ours, and another unannounced project," Swift told me during a pre-New York Comic Con preview for Square's titles. "I can't speak to what the game is," she added (unsurprisingly). The Airtight Games site offers only a bit more assistance in divining the studio's other project, calling it, "another ambitious AAA title in a genre that is both unique and refreshingly unexplored," and teasing the image above. Swift did tell me that 16 folks at Airtight out of approximately 50 are currently head-down on Quantum Conundrum, leaving a sizable team for other things. And those 35 or so people have had plenty of time to get started, if development of the studio's other, "mid-sized" project is any indication. "We've technically been working on [Quantum Conundrum] for a year, but we didn't really go into production until maybe like, six, seven months ago. Not long," Swift explained with a laugh. "You'd be surprised at how many things 16 folks can make." AG's official site also promises "more news and announcements in the near future," so perhaps the studio is ready to fully awake from its year-long silence.
Let's play the blame game: Inafune on what went wrong with Capcom's original IP push
In the latter half of 2009 and early 2010, Capcom released two major retail games in collaboration with prominent Western devs: Crimson Skies dev Airtight Games created Dark Void, and gun-for-hire Grin rebooted Bionic Commando. Those two games, however, were prominent sales flops. One even contributed to the eventual closure of Swedish dev Grin. For its part, Capcom promptly returned to its tried and true franchises, with a lineup today featuring many more sequels than back in 2009. At the time, Mega Man co-creator Keiji Inafune was overseeing production on Capcom's retail titles, and when I spoke with him this past week at the Tokyo Game Show, I wanted to know what went wrong. Beyond sales, neither game was particularly loved by critics, especially Dark Void. "[It's] very, very simple: The publisher was Japanese and the developer was foreign. Even inside Japan, when you work in two different companies, they always blame each other for any small mistakes, so that's pretty much what happened in those two games -- blaming each other," Inafune explained. He went on to compare those development experiences with that of Dead Rising -- a game that has since become a major franchise for Capcom, not to mention a commercial success.
Airtight Games working on multiplatform Unreal-based game, plus others
Dark Void and Crimson Skies developer Airtight Games is nose down on "several new AAA titles for a variety of markets," and a job listing on Gamasutra indicates that at least one is headed for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC. The developer is seeking "an experienced Senior Environment Artist" for work on the unannounced title, with an "excellent understanding of art production for next-gen games" and is "highly skilled in Maya and/or XSI, Photoshop, Mudbox, and the Unreal 3 Engine." Otherwise, the listing provides little in the way of hints as to what the unannounced game could be. With ex-Portal lead Kim Swift on board, though, we're expecting greatness. But no pressure!
Portal lead Kim Swift heads to Airtight Games for 'new, unnamed project'
Best known for her work on Joystiq's 2007 Game of the Year, Portal, Valve's Kim Swift is reportedly leaving her current position for Dark Void developer Airtight Games. According to Develop, she'll be heading up a team of developers working on a "new, unnamed project" for the US-based company. Airtight prez Jim Deal says that he's "thrilled to work with Kim," and that "her addition to the team represents a strategic move ... into new and broader gaming markets." Swift's team will be tasked with creating "games aimed at a more diverse audience" -- a challenge Swift appears ready to handle. "I've learned so much and had some amazing experiences at Valve, but when I heard I had the opportunity to work on innovative titles with my friends over at Airtight, I couldn't pass it up." And now we wait (and hope) for the puzzle-based air combat game that's sure to come of this partnership.
Dark Void pre-order bonus: A gold jetpack!
Did you know that at this very minute, millions of people worldwide are sitting on a fortune in gold? It's true! And you could be one of them! Capcom wants to help increase your gold treasures by one full jetpack, offering the item as a pre-order bonus with Dark Void when it lands on GameStop shelves early next year. Rather than be way boring and send out a press release (though Capcom did that too), we've got the full faux commercial you see above, hilariously detailing the bonus; though a bit of gameplay of the jetpack can be found on the promo's website."My life used to be miserable and meaningless, but thanks to GOLD4JETPACK.com, I don't cry myself to sleep anymore!" Thanks GOLD4JETPACK.com!%Gallery-24248%
New Dark Void videos are jet-packed with action
Recently, MonsterVine.com posted four gameplay videos of Airtight Games' Dark Void and, truth be told, we think it's high time that jet-propelled transportation became the norm.You can view all four aerial combat videos after the fold. The footage is full of nifty 180-degree turns, mounting sequences that add a welcome bit of variety, and plenty of technological evil to destroy. That said, we would really like to see an expanded color palette, because as much as we like gray and blue, visual variety is always a good thing.[Via Capcom Blog]
Crimson Skies return uncertain, Dark Void for now [update]
Update: Just for clarification, this is in no way a confirmation that a sequel to Crimson Skies is being entertained by Airtight or any other developer at this point, as much as we may wish it to be so. Jose Perez has not actually commented on any sort of timeframe for a potential sequel and has only said that Airtight is open to the idea of revisiting the franchise. Airtight is currently developing Dark Void, which may or may not be preventing the studio from working on a new Crimson Skies, or any other title for that matter. What follows is pure speculation.
Crimson Skies may fly high again
In the April issue of OXM the Rumor Mole speculates about a sequel to semi-breakout hit Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge. The rumor fueling evidence on a sequel comes straight from developer Airtight Games' website. Their website lists numerous ex-Crimson Skies employees under their company bios section and also shows off prototype images/videos that include objects eerily familiar to the Crimson Skies world. Need more proof? Under Airtight's current projects section they say that they are "working with one of the industry's leading publishers on a major unannounced title". Suspicious we say. Suspicious.True or not, there is definitely a possibility that a Crimson Skies sequel in the works. But even if the game is in development we aren't expecting to see this game releasing anytime soon. So, anyone up for a little high flying sequel?[Via GameFaqs, Thanks SeNiLe911]
