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Four in February challenges you to finish the fight
The shortest, yet greatest month of the year is upon us, February. If you followed along with us last year, you know what that means: Four in February is back! The month-long initiative starts tomorrow, challenging you (yes, you) to pick four games to finish in one month. The rules: There are no rules. Seriously, there are no rules. You can pick new games, old games or even titles that you stopped playing that one time during finals week in college because your academic life depended on it (it's cool, we've all been there). The only requirement is that you pick four games. Start at the beginning of a game, or start where your old save file left off, it doesn't matter! We can't drive over to your house to force you to start a game over; we don't know where you live, after all. By joining in the fun on Four in February's Facebook page or using the cute little hashtag #4iF on Twitter, you can update us on your progress, like that friend that uploads their daily jogging times to your news feed, except way more fun. Joystiq may be closing its doors, but we refuse to shut our consoles down. Join us in finishing the fight against our backlogs. Head past the break to see Four in February father Mike Suszek's lineup, then share yours in the comments!
Humble Bundle discounts Thomas Was Alone, Surgeon Simulator
Humble Bundle rolled out a new collection of games this week for PC and Android for a pay-what-you-want price, including Thomas Was Alone, Bridge Constructor Playground, Cubemen and Cubemen 2. Those that pay more than the average bid (currently $6.12) receive Small World 2 as well as the first three episodes of the Blackwell adventure games. Players will also get Small World 2's Royal Bonus DLC, which was previously only available to the game's Kickstarter backers. By paying at least $11, players will also score copies of Surgeon Simulator and Anomaly Defenders. The Humble Bundle PC and Android 11 collection will add more games next Tuesday, September 30 and ends on Tuesday, October 7 at 2:00 p.m. EST (11:00 a.m. PST). Proceeds from the bundle support the Electronic Frontier Foundation as well as the Child's Play charity. Humble Bundle noted that over $46 million has been pledged to charities to date. [Image: Humble Bundle]
First three Blackwell games get adventurous on iOS
The first three entries in the Blackwell series of point-and-click adventure games are now available for iOS. Blackwell: Legacy, which originally launched in December 2006 for PC, costs $1.99 for iPhone and iPad owners. The next two games in the series, Blackwell: Unbound and Blackwell: Convergence, cost $2.99 each. Developed by Wadjet Eye Games, the Blackwell series stars Rosa Blackwell and her ghostly friend Joey Mallone, who helps Rosa assist other ghosts in moving on to the afterlife. The adventure series was confirmed for iOS in December following the developer's first successful attempt at porting one of its point-and-click games based on the Adventure Game Studio engine to iOS, Gemini Rue. The final chapter in the five-game series, Blackwell: Epiphany, launched on PC in April. The series will arrive on Android, Mac and Linux "very soon." [Image: Wadjet Eye Games]
Blackwell Epiphany adventure clicks for closure on PC
The final chapter in Wadjet Eye Games' Blackwell point-and-click adventure series, Blackwell Epiphany, launched this week on PC. Available now through Steam, GOG.com and the developer's site, the fifth installment in the series costs $14.99. Blackwell Epiphany closes out the series, which began in December 2006 with Blackwell Legacy, with a lengthy adventure that stars Rosa Blackwell and her ghostly companion Joey Mallone. Players switch between the two characters (much like Gemini Rue, another excellent point-and-clicker courtesy of Wadjet Eye Games) to face off against a "malevolent force that literally tears souls apart." Wadjet Eye Games announced plans in December to bring the series along with the rest of its catalog to iOS, with the first three Blackwell games scheduled to arrive on the App Store in June. It will also port the series to Android, Mac and Linux. Those looking to try out the game can download the demo directly from Wadjet Eye Games, which is also offering a bundle of the first four Blackwell games on its store for $14.99 and via Steam for $19.99. [Image: Wadjet Eye Games]
Pre-order Blackwell Epiphany for April 24, become a medium
Pre-orders are now available for Blackwell Epiphany, the finale of Wadjet Eye Games' adventure-driven Blackwell series due out on April 24. Aside from a DRM-free download of Blackwell Epiphany, pre-ordering will grant buyers a redeemable Steam key, access to exclusive videos featuring the game's voice actors and series creator Dave Gilbert, an invitation to a private livestreaming of Epiphany's launch party, and the game's soundtrack. If you're a bit behind or haven't started the Blackwell series in the first place, the story follows Rosa Blackwell as she copes with the recent death of her aunt, which grants her an odd form of inheritance. After her aunt's death, a ghostly figure straight out of the '30s, Joey Mallone, appears to her and explains that he's been accompanying members of the Blackwell family for a few generations now. With the passing of Rosa's aunt, she's next in line to inherit a ghostly sidekick. Naturally, the duo go on to solve mysteries together, using Rosa's abilities as a medium to communicate with the dead to piece together narratives. Their search for answers and efforts to help the deceased find peace have extended through four previous games, but Epiphany's press release teases that their work bears a "price," which Rosa and Joey will presumably discover in the finale. Blackwell's preceding episodes can be bought from GOG's Blackwell Bundle for $14.99, or purchased directly from Wadjet Eye Games for $4.99-$9.99 apiece. The developer also plans to port the Blackwell series over to iOS, but the adventure has yet to appear on the App Store. [Image: WadjetEye Games]
Blackwell adventure game series coming to iOS
Wadjet Eye Games is planning to port its PC games to iOS. The news comes from a post by developer Janet Gilbert on the Adventure Game Studio forums, later confirmed by the indie developer to Joystiq. Gilbert's post sought help from a "skilled AGS scripter" to bring the developer's entire back catalog to iOS by "altering the AGS source of our games to make them run nicely on iPhone." Wadjet Eye Games told Joystiq that while it doesn't own the rights to Emerald City Confidential, any of its other games could be ported to iOS, "starting with the Blackwell series." The developer's first attempt at adapting an adventure game to the platform using AGS was with Gemini Rue, which we found to be particularly enjoyable on iPhone.
Indie dev gives game away, hackers steal 30,000 Steam keys overnight
Husband and wife duo Wadjet Eye Games started a giveaway yesterday, offering up Steam codes for Blackwell Deception to celebrate Halloween. The indie developer opted to cancel the adventure game giveaway today after discovering that 30,000 Steam keys were stolen by hackers. The problem was even bigger at first as founder Dave Gilbert discovered that, after issuing a press release to the media about the giveaway earlier this week, the generated keys unlocked Wadjet Eye Games' entire catalog. After sorting that issue out, Gilbert discovered that buyers were "ordering multiple copies of the game – hundreds at a time. And collecting Steam keys for reselling later," he told Red Door Blue Key. Gilbert asked his sales provider, BMT, to create an IP-detecting Steam code generator page, though it didn't stop resellers from masking their IPs to continue their thieving efforts. After removing the link to the Steam key generator, Gilbert returned today to find that because the generator itself still existed, some 30,000 keys had been stolen. He announced via Twitter that Steam has disabled the keys generated after midnight and that, per his request, no bans will be issued to those that redeemed the Steam codes. Blackwell Deception is the fourth game in the Blackwell adventure series, and was first made available on Steam in January 2012. The game can be purchased for $10, though Wadjet Eye Games is also offering a four-game bundle of the series to date for $20.
Point and click on these GoG adventure game discounts
Okay let's see, I've got a map of the basement, two spools of thread, a key with a skull on it and four packs of gummi fruit snacks in the inventory. Something in here has to let me turn on the computer so I can write an article about GoG's 50 percent off sale on adventure games. Maybe the fruit snacks?"You can't use that here."Damn it, like there's ever a time when you can't eat fruit snacks. There's got to be something in this room that I haven't clicked on yet; I can't get the codec to decipher the diary unless I write a post about how Resonance, Botanicula, Machinarium, The Whispered World and the Blackwell Bundle are all on sale for the next three days or so. Maybe I can click on the power outlet?Bzzzzt ... thud.
