Dino-Patti
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'Indie Speed Run' online game jam judged by Kellee Santiago, Ron Gilbert, Notch, et al
Indie Speed Run, despite the name, is surprisingly not what we call the Friday nights we spend practicing our no-death VVVVVV runs. It is, however, the name of a new online game jam, one which runs from now until January 6.The way it works is pretty straight-forward: Developers visit the official website and register as a participant. Once enrolled, each contender (and/or team of contenders) has 48 hours to create a game using two secret elements given only to them, and while those 48 hours must be consecutive, they can occur anytime between now and when the event ends in January.Once the event does end, every game created during its span will be made freely available on the official site. Meanwhile, a star-studded panel of judges (Kellee Santiago, Ron Gilbert, Notch, Dino Patti, Trent Oster, Jason Rohrer and Vander Caballero) will determine which team is most deserving of Indie Speed Run's $2,500 grand prize and will announce a winner February 5.
Limbo is in Mac App Store now, damned to Steam in January
Playdead promised you a Mac OS release of its charming (but grim!) indie platformer, Limbo, by "the end of the year," and while we're not quite ready to call it a Christmas miracle the Danish developer has delivered on its promise. Limbo is live in the Mac App Store today, with a $9.99 sticker price accompanying the 83 MB download. Waiting for the Steam release, so you can take advantage of the cross-platform SteamPlay feature? Playdead's Dino Patti tells Joystiq that Limbo will be available on Steam on January 13th, a little over three weeks from today. But if that's too long to wait and/or you don't want to drop cheddar on the Mac App Store release, we think we've got a solution: Patti gave us a handful of codes to share with you all, which we'll be dropping onto Facebook and Twitter sometime today.
Limbo celebrates one million in sales with Mac OS release by 'end of the year'
After a half-price XBLA sale sent the excellent indie Limbo to the top of the best-sellers list last week, developer Playdead has announced that it's sold one million copies of the punishing platformer across three platforms, including PSN and PC. To celebrate that milestone, Playdead is adding an additional platform to the mix: Mac OS. The Mac release is currently "in the works" and "will be released before the end of the year." Playdead CEO and co-founder Dino Patti told Joystiq that the Mac release will support SteamPlay, for those of you who've already purchased the PC release, and will also be released on the Mac App Store, if that's more your speed. The one million milestone also provided Playdead an opportunity to discuss its recent actions to ensure its own independence by "fully acquiring the company from early investors." Patti says, "We are grateful to everyone who supported us over the past few years, and look forward to forging new partnerships that will both let us reach new heights as a studio and give our director, Arnt Jensen, room to grow creatively."
Playdead boss says retail model is 'broken,' awaits digital revolution
Dino Patti, boss at Limbo developer Playdead, doesn't like retail. In fact, he's pretty anti-physical media in general. "Driving discs in a big van all over the world is really inefficient," he told Eurogamer in a recent interview. "I don't understand how anyone can make money out of this. Driving a truck to Japan just to get it delivered to people when they can get it from the net? Hopefully the new consoles will embrace the download space even more." Okay, we're picking up what he's throwing down, but what about flying discs all around the world? Surely that's cheaper and more efficient? Joking aside, Patti's also against having to install console games, which he considers strictly PC territory. "It should be more like plug and play. The first consoles were cartridges. When it takes one hour to install Gran Turismo 5? I don't know. Obviously it improves performance, but they should be able to build consoles with better performance from the disc drive." We like watching Solid Snake smoke cigarettes as much as the next blog, but we admit he has a point here. Of course, install times have come a long way since then, but we understand Patti's frustration. While we certainly wouldn't mind an all-digital future, we understand some people just like their physical media; a desire to hold the disc in their hand and smell a fresh instruction booklet. It's just how it is, even if it is a little bit weird.
Limbo creators working on new IP
We caught up with Limbo creators Playdead at the Indiecade festival in Culver City, California this weekend, and while CEO Dino Patti confirmed once again that the best-selling XBLA game is "exclusive for life" to Microsoft's platform, we may see the next Playdead title branching out. Patti says the company is working on "a new IP," and that Limbo fans will enjoy it. "I can't tell much, but I can tell you that if you liked Limbo, it'll definitely be for you," he said. "The gameplay style you'll really like. You'll feel it's the same team who made it, but everything will be changed." The team "used a lot of time and a lot of money" getting Limbo out, and going with Microsoft exclusively was a way to hedge their bets and "get the money back," Patti said. "And it came out fine, because we got our money back, which was really cool." But for this new IP, admittedly still a long ways off, Patti said that "we are open for everything. To be honest, we want as many people to play our games as possible. If we end up going exclusive, we may do it for various reasons, but we just want as many people to play the game as possible."
