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Capybara, Metanet helping to develop Sound Shapes
This morning, while thoroughly enjoying a preview of Queasy Games' next project, Sound Shapes for the PlayStation Vita, I had a chance to chat with project leads Jonathan Mak and Shaw-Han Liem. Given Mak's past with game development (Everyday Shooter), I wondered how much his team had grown since its first Sony game -- and accidentally stumbled on a really exciting detail about the forthcoming music/platformer. "It started with us two, then there were four of us, then there were six, then there were eight," Liem told me. "We have some people helping, on contract," said Mak. "Capybara Games is helping us, Metanet is helping us. We're all friends in Toronto." It seems that, beyond the small group of people employed under the "Queasy Games" umbrella, folks from acclaimed indie dev houses Capybara Games (Critter Crunch) and Metanet (N+) are putting work into Sound Shapes. Mak further noted, "A lof of these levels are actually Capy," referencing the levels I played in the preview build on-hand. He also explained to me that the folks at Queasy iterate on the levels before they make it into the game. Which isn't to say that the only folks working on Sound Shapes are Queasy Games and the aforementioned duo of dev houses. "All the indie game companies in Toronto hang out together and help each other out," Liem explained. "For us, I think a lot of the stuff that we're doing is new to us, or stuff that we're doing for the first time. So to be able to draw upon the people who've gone through it before is really great."%Gallery-125607%
Sword and Sworcery EP down to $1 today, pay what you want for the soundtrack
If you've yet to pick up Superbrothers' strange and magical iOS title, Sword and Sworcery EP, you'll want to correct that humiliating omission before day's end. For today only, the game's been marked down to $0.99 on iPhone and $1.99 on iPad, and its soundtrack is temporarily pay-what-you-want.
EA staffer says goodbye with Swords & Sworcery-esque creation
EA Tiburon just lost software engineer Ben Burbank. And while the Madden franchise will charge on without him, Burbank made a special creation to remember the people he worked with while at EA. Titled "So Long, Old Friends," the interactive goodbye letter remembers the individuals and teams that shaped his time at the publisher -- from the team behind NFL Head Coach to the folks who work on the annual Madden installment. Visually inspired by Capybara's Superbrothers: Swords & Sworcery EP, the game was built entirely in Flixel, Adam "Atomic" Saltsman's open-source coding engine. And like S:S&SEP, Burbank's creation is more of an "experience" than a "game" (in the strictest sense). It's also rather touching, which is why we can't suggest enough that you spend the five minutes required to check it out.
Superbrothers Sword & Sworcery EP journeys to iPhone this week
Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP, the artsy, jokey, pretty adventure game from Capy, musician Jim Guthrie, and artist Superbrothers, is launching a two-pronged assault on iPhone this week. The iPad version of the game will receive a free update "shortly before Thursday, April 21st 2011" that makes it a Universal app compatible with iPhones and iPod Touches. At the same time, Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP Micro will be added to the App Store. It's "the same exact videogame," but in a version compatible only with iPhone-size devices (3G and newer, but not "super smooth on 3G.") "The S:S&S EP project began life on the smaller touchtronic machines," the announcement notes, "so many of the key art & design decisions were made with this very particular form factor in mind." The iPhone version is "definitely 'the way it was meant to be' - it's an entire little world you can slip into your pocket at any time."
Clash of Heroes HD trailer teaches the tactics of puzzle-fighting
Missed out on Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes when it originally launched in 2009? You don't have to go into the HD remake, due out next week, completely uninformed -- check out the video after the jump to learn the basic mechanics of the game's rows-and-columns combat.
Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP comes to iPad on Thursday
Developer Capy has been quite adamant that Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP would launch during the "vernal equinox" -- and now the developer has finally deciphered that gibberish, revealing a March 24 launch date. We're pretty sure "vernal" isn't a word, guys! This Thursday, pokers and prodders looking for something new to play on their iPads should be able to download the self-professed "crude videogame haiku about life, love & death." As previously reported, the soundtrack will launch two weeks after the iPad game and two weeks prior to the iPhone/iPod Touch version, which has a tentative April launch window right now. And if you're still feeling a bit lost, why not check out our thumbs-on preview of the game from back in early March?
Capy's 'Zombie Tactics' on hold, studio too busy
Capy President Nathan Vella told us at PAX East that the prematurely exposed Zombie Tactics is "on hold." "It's not on hold because it sucks," Vella explained. "It's on hold because we have other stuff first." Capy is currently prepping for the iOS launches of Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP and the release of Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes HD on XBLA and PSN in mid-April. The studio is also working on other "unannounced projects." Vella believes the prototype for Zombie Tactics, which he told us has hints of Valkyria Chronicles gameplay peppered in, is great. However, he feels the zombie genre is just a tad saturated at the moment. %Gallery-76627%
Sword and Sworcery launch plans detailed
Capy's iOS title Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP has maintained its approximate iPad release date of "vernal equinox" (March 21) and now we have further audio and iPhone launch details. Capy's Nathan Vella told us at PAX East that two weeks after the iPad launch that the company will release a vinyl LP of the game's music (at Bandcamp). Don't worry if the words "vinyl LP" don't mean a thing to you, the music will also be available at iTunes. The iPhone version will launch "a month" after the iPad version (or two weeks after the LP, depending on how you want to tell time). The only difference between the iPad and iPhone versions will be the resolution and a couple dollars in price.
Here's a big list of developers and publishers working on NGP projects
Beyond the handful of games revealed onstage during last night's big Sony event, an enormous list of developers and publishers currently working on games for this holiday's "next generation portable" device has surfaced. Game Informer posted up the entire list broken down by region, which features big names like Activision, Ubisoft, 2K Games, Square Enix, and Capcom. Perhaps more notable than the big name publishers is the group of listed developers, including Rockstar Games, Capybara Games, From Software, and Grasshopper Manufacture. As GI points out, both Electronic Arts and THQ (and their respective development studios) aren't currently listed as working on games for NGP, though we imagine that will change as the year goes on (we already know that EA has had exposure to the in-development system).
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]
Capy porting Clash of Heroes to PSN and XBLA
If, for some reason, you didn't purchase and love Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes on DS -- or even if you did -- you'll have the opportunity to buy the puzzle RPG on two new systems this year, in glorious hand-drawn HD. Capybara Games has revealed a new PSN/XBLA version of Clash of Heroes, with totally redrawn graphics that eschew the 16-bit look of the DS original for more realistic proportions and a generally sharper look. In addition, new equippable artifacts are being added, and the existing ones tweaked, to improve balance in multiplayer. Even better, you'll now be able to go back and replay segments of the game after completing them. Capy expects to release Clash of Heroes in late summer. [Via GameSetWatch]
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]
Indie devs struggle to find the perfect iPhone price
The ease of getting your game onto the iPhone is something of a double-edged sword for indie devs. On the one hand, it's an amazing opportunity to get your pride and joy in front of millions. On the other, though, the amount of competition is pushing prices way lower than some devs are comfortable with. Or as Nathan Vella, co-founder of Toronto-based Critter Crunch/Clash of Heroes developer Capybara Games, so directly put it to Gamasutra "The push to 99 cents is the single most frustrating and terrible thing about App Store pricing." Read the full piece if you'd like a better understanding of why indies are pricing they way they do. Though we understand their frustration, we're surprised there's not more hand wringing about all those free games littering the App Store, since we know so many people who refuse to pay cash for any game on the mobile platform. Do you have any purchasing guidelines you try to stick by?
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.
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 dev working on new zombie game
The Ontario Media Development Corporation has accidentally exposed Zombie Tactics, a new game by Critter Crunch developer Capybara Games. We contacted the developer, who told us that Zombie Tactics is merely the "working title" at the moment. Capy President Nathan Vella tells Joystiq that it's likely way too early to talk about the game, but mentions, "In short, it's a tactics-heavy strategy-meets-survival game that revolves around an ever-growing -- and/or shrinking -- group of characters as they try to escape the city. Right now we haven't even committed to actually making the game – just iterating on a functional prototype to see if the idea has legs. If it does, awesome!" As for platforms, Vella continued, "We're developing the prototype on consoles, but it's so early on, it's impossible to tell if it will even make it to a platform. As a studio, we're huge fans of PSN, XBLA, iPhone, DS... so really we feel like our concepts could end up one of many places. Ideally though, we'd like to see it as a downloadable game, but it's important to reiterate that, as it stands right now, the game is ridiculously early in the prototyping phase, so Capy isn't sure where, when or even if this will have a platform." Asked whether the company will still develop for PSN following Critter Crunch's launch, Vella told us Capy still has more in the pipe for PSN. The company would also like to bring Critter Crunch to other platforms, mentioning PC and noting that fans have asked for a PSP Minis version. Anything that stops Biggs from crying is good in our book. Update: Capy sent over some "very early art" of the game. [Via Gamerbytes] %Gallery-76627%
