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Treasurenauts plans 3DS eShop excavation for December
Renegade Kid's Jools Watsham says the studio's latest project, 3DS platformer Treasurenauts, has been rated by the ESRB and is slated to launch on the 3DS eShop in December. If you're near LA and want an early taste, Treasurenauts will be playable in the Nintendo booth during Indiecade next month. Treasurenauts combines platforming with a greed-fueled health system: The more gems you have, the more health you have; get hit and lose some loot. The game features local multiplayer bolstered by Download Play and numerous playable characters. No price has been announced.
Oculus Rift VR Jam finalists announced - here there be dragons
Oculus and IndieCade have announced the VR Jam 2013 finalists. If you've got an Oculus Rift and the compatible hardware, 14 of the 20 finalists are available to download and check out for yourself. Reinforcing the common knowledge that dragons are awesome and everyone wants to be a dragon, there's not one, but two dragon simulators on the list: Dragon by James Scott, and Epic Dragon by Aurelian Kerbeci. The winning team will be announced September 19, at which point they'll receive the $10,000 grand prize and a trip to Oculus HQ. The winning team will also receive a trip to the IndieCade Festival, which runs October 3 - 6, where they'll have a showcase exhibition of their game. Check out the full list of finalists after the break.
IndieCade finalists: Gone Home, Super Time Force, Reus, 33 more
The IndieCade 2013 jury sifted through 850 game submissions and found 36 gems to be featured and playable during the festival the weekend of October 5 in Culver City, California. This year's games include Gone Home, Gunpoint, Kentucky Route Zero, Nidhogg, Porpentine's Twine Compilation, Reus, Rogue Legacy, Save the Date, Spin the Bottle, Starseed Pilgrim, Super Time Force, That Dragon Cancer, Towerfall and Upgrade Soul. Along with these special selections, IndieCade will have 120 more games playable in the PlayStation, Nintendo, Ouya, Oculus Rift and IndieCade tents, plus a lineup of Digital Selects: 7 Grand Steps, BUDLR, Dominique Pamplemousse, Gravity Ghost, Potatoman Seeks the Troof, Scale, Soundself, Tenya Wanya Teens and more, including a mystery game to be announced during the show. Entry to IndieCade starts at $20 with a Festival Day pass, and runs to $450 for an All Access badge, which includes the professional conference track, the Creators' Lounge, the Garden Party and all festival activities.
Oculus and IndieCade announce month-long 'VR Jam'
With Oculus Rift mods already infiltrating popular games, Oculus VR and IndieCade are teaming up to promote a special game jam in August. The VR Jam will pit independent developers against one another in a contest to create the best games designed explicitly for the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset. The jam will be separated into two categories. The first is the "Selected Developers" competition, which will consist of 10 "hand-picked" independent developers. The "Open Call" competition is open to all comers. "Over $50,000 in prizes" is up for grabs, with the winning developers in each category taking home $10,000 each. The winners will also have their work showcased at this year's IndieCade festival, taking place October 3-6 in Los Angeles. VR Jam begins on August 2 and ends on August 25, with milestones expected from developers on August 9 and 16. Those interested in competing can sign up on the VR Jam website.
IndieCade teams with Oculus Rift for 'VR Jam,' a game dev competition culminating this October
The Oculus Rift sure is super, super neat, but outside of mods to existing games, it's still a bit light in the custom-made software department. And that's exactly why Oculus is ponying up $50K in prizes and teaming up with IndieCade this October for a game jam competition specifically meant to bolster that software support. One lucky dev / team will snag the grand prize of $10K and a chance to debut their game at this October's IndieCade Festival in Los Angeles -- they'll also head out to Orange County to meet with the team at Oculus, including wunderkind Palmer Luckey. Should you wish to get in on the VR-centric action, you've got the following three weeks to get things going (starting August 2nd and ending on August 25th). And if you don't have one of Oculus' Rift dev kits just yet, you'll have access to playtesting at various "playtest hubs" set up worldwide (NYC and LA locations are the only two confirmed thus far, with "more locations to be announced soon"). For the full stipulations on the contest, head below.
IndieCade at E3: That Dragon, Cancer
That Dragon, Cancer is a poetic, emotionally intense story of love in the face of death, blended beautifully into a point-and-click adventure game. It tells a true tale, unfortunately, of developer Ryan Green's family life – his 4-year-old son, Joel, has cancer, and he's currently fighting his eighth tumor. Joel has survived two years of treatments, surpassing doctors' initial estimates, and Green has transformed his pain into a beautiful, introspective game. That Dragon, Cancer doesn't naturally fit into the standard idea of E3, but it isn't out of place in the PC circle of IndieCade's exhibit space. It tells a traumatic story, but in the end it's a simple, gorgeous game. Green explains his intent with That Dragon, Cancer, and I take a deep breath and dive into a part of it. That Dragon, Cancer is a living game, in every sense of the word – it's still being written, by real events, every day. See the Green family's efforts and development process on the game's website. IndieCade is always a refreshing experience at E3, and this year in particular was full of surprises. Check out the other games I highlighted this week right here.
IndieCade at E3: 7 Grand Steps
A group of alligators are stalking one area of the PC roundtable at IndieCade's E3 expo. They're tiny and plastic, and they're all over the laptop for 7 Grand Steps: What Ancients Begat, the first chapter in a new series from longtime indie developer Keith Nemitz, known as Mousechief. I stopped by Mousechief's table to talk about 7 Grand Steps, a board-game-inspired tale of ancient family drama and not getting eaten by alligators (you hope). Seven Grand Steps launched on Steam for PC and Mac on June 7, and it's already on track to bring in $100,000. So that's cool. Watch as Nemitz and I discuss the mechanics of a Sopranos story swathed in ancient garb, and the benefits of choosing to be evil. Later today I'll share the last eye-catching game I found at IndieCade's booth, caught on video – just as it captured my heart.
IndieCade at E3: Dominique Pamplemousse in 'It's All Over Once The Fat Lady Sings!'
IndieCade took over a corner of the E3 show floor this year, complete with giant orange inflatable chairs and almost 40 games on various platforms. Out of all this beautiful madness, I spotted three games that went above and beyond the standard indie call – they were weird, they were different, and they were awesome. First up is Dominique Pamplemousse in "It's All Over Once The Fat Lady Sings!", a musical point-and-click investigation game from Deirdra Kiai, who is the sole developer, voice actor, singer and composer. If that sounds like a lot of work, it's because it is – but Kiai pulls it off seamlessly. Dominique Pamplemousse is available now for PC, Mac and iPad for $5, and there's a free demo on Kiai's site. It's a quirky romp through a musical, claymation landscape, and it's tons of fun. I feature two more games at IndieCade's E3 exhibit, both with videos coming up later today.
Here's what's going to be at E3's IndieCade
IndieCade organizers announced this year's lineup of PC, mobile, and PS Vita games that will be featured at the committee's upcoming E3 showcase event. IndieCade's E3 booth will spotlight indie-produced PC efforts like Mousechief's 7 Grand Steps, Robot Loves Kitty's Legend of Dungeon, and Muse Games' Guns of Icarus Online. PS Vita offerings include Honeyslug's Hohokum and a previously unannounced port of thatgamecompany's Flower. Many featured games will also appear at the main IndieCade festival event in October. A full rundown of IndieCade's E3 lineup is after the break below.
Flower lands on Vita, viewable at E3's Indiecade exhibit
Flower is coming to Vita after four years as a PS3 exclusive, according to the list of Indiecade games coming to E3. Flower used tilt controls on the PS3, and the Vita version will take advantage of the system's touchscreen and motion-sensing abilities. "Using simple touch or motion controls, the player guides the lead petal and accumulates a swarm of flower petals as he moves at his own pace within the environment, causing the on-screen world to change," the Flower Vita description reads. Flower was designed by Jenova Chen and thatgamecompany, which went on to develop Journey. Indiecade's lineup of E3 games lists two Vita titles, IGF finalist Hohokum from Honeyslug and Flower Vita. Indiecade consistently brings a solid batch of underground games to E3, and this year it features 37 PC, Vita, mobile, console, card and Sifteo Cubes games, including 7 Grand Steps, Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime, Legend of Dungeon, Guns of Icarus Online, Tower of Guns and Towerfall.
IndieCade in New York City this weekend
IndieCade comes to Queens this weekend, February 15 - 17. It's the first time the independent games festival, which will feature over 25 games, has come to the east coast. Organizers are also promoting that visitors will have a chance to check out the Oculus Rift.Special guests planned to attend are Kris Piotrowski (Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP) and Doug Wilson (Johann Sebastian Joust). The festival will take place at Museum of the Moving Image, with a wide range of ticket prices based on what you're planning to check out. Find all the pricing details below.
IndieCade 2012 winners get their crowns, IndieCade East in 2013
This year's great indie battle has come to an end with the victors crowned. The 2012 IndieCade winners were selected by a band of merry developers, including Kellee Santiago, co-founder of Journey studio thatgamecompany, Braid developer Jonathan Blow, and J. Stewart Burns, producer and writer for The Simpsons and Futurama.Winners include Molleindustria's Unmanned, which took home the Grand Jury Award, Jason Roberts' Gorogoa for visuals, RSBLSB's Dyad for audio and Amanita Design's Botanicula for story / world design. Davey Wreden's The Stanley Parable snagged the special recognition award, the audience choice went to Ramiro Corbetta's Hokra, and developers' choice to wallFour's Renga.IndieCade is looking to expand its reach, launching the first annual IndieCade East on Saturday and Sunday, February 16 - 17, 2013, in New York City's Museum of the Moving Image. IndieCade East will feature some of the IndieCade 2012 finalists, winners and official selections, and will host a game jam hosted by PlayStation Mobile.Check out the complete list of IndieCade winners below.
IndieCade 2012 lineup: Papo & Yo, Hawken, Cards Against Humanity
IndieCade 2012 runs October 4 - 7 in Los Angeles with a host of today's most brilliant independent games and gimmicks. IndieCade selects a slew of intriguing indies each year, and it just revealed this year's list, which includes some higher-profile titles such as Dys4ia, Hotline Miami, Papo & Yo, Hawken, Puzzlejuice and Super Hexagon, alongside under-the-radar rarities and even physical-world games, such as Cards Against Humanity and Field Frogger.Official Selections will be viewable and playable at IndieCade, along with the Nominees, which are up for awards at the Red Carpet ceremony on October 4.Below find a complete list of the IndieCade 2012 Official Selections, supplementing our earlier lineup of the Nominees.
Daily iPad App: Splice is a different puzzle game
Splice is an experimental puzzle game for iPad, put together by a developer called Cipher Prime. It was originally released on Steam and has received several awards. After being selected for PAX 10 and Indiecade 2012, Splice has made the jump over to iPad. Splice is intriguing in that it's not easy to get into, as it's a puzzle game that plays hide-and-seek with its mechanics. But it definitely creates a striking mood, and it wordlessly communicates its principles quite well. The basic idea is that you've got to line up what appear to be biological cells in a certain order, usually in a symmetrical pattern, by splitting and then recombining them (hence the title) a certain number of times. Like most great game ideas, this sounds more complicated to do than it is. In the end, you've just got to look closely for a pattern, and then figure out where the cells need to go. There are some great touches in the atmosphere of the game, too. For example, when you mess up and need to redo your splices, you just touch a timeline on the side of the screen, and the game artfully rewinds to the last cut you made. TUAW got a chance to talk with Cipher Prime at PAX last week, and founder Dain Saint said that the game was originally developed in Unity. Bringing it to the iPad didn't take long at all, but the optimization process took about a month. The company is now working on a sequel to a previous title, Auditorium, after having raised the funds for it via a Kickstarter earlier this year. But Saint also told us that before it makes Auditorium 2, the goal is to make a much smaller title, hopefully with a development time of just about a month, to "work through our production pipeline." After that, it'll be on to the bigger title, but Saint isn't sure whether either game will make it to the iPad just yet. With a team of just five people, there's obviously not a lot of time for extra tasks. At any rate, it's good to see Splice on the iOS platform, and hopefully its success will bring Cipher Prime and other indie developers back in the future. The game's artistic and experimental, so it might not be for everyone (especially with the current $3.99 price, despite the game being even more expensive on Steam). But if you're looking for a really gorgeous puzzle game with some out-there mechanics, Splice is a very interesting experience to try.
IndieCade 2012 finalists line up for judgement, awards on Oct. 4
IndieCade 2012 kicks off on October 4 in downtown Culver City, California, celebrating indie games and developers for four days across multiple venues. The Red Carpet Awards, held on the evening of October 4 and hosted by Felicia Day, honors the coolest, most intriguing games in the indie scene, and often serve as an indicator of future breakout hits: Past winners include Fez, Limbo, Braid, Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery EP and Johann Sebastian Joust.IndieCade has announced the 36 finalists for the 2012 Red Carpet Awards, including Analogue: A Hate Story, Bontanicula, Dyad, Guacamelee, The Stanley Parable, Splice and more. Whether you want to see who's up for the big prizes, or just want a guide of prominent indie games to check out, find the complete list of IndieCade 2012 finalists below.
IndieCade at E3: Sizing up Scale
I also ran around the IndieCade tour at E3, and while our own Jess Conditt took a lot of creepy pleasure in the grim philosophical horror title A Mother's Inferno, my tastes ran more simple and colorful: The best game I saw in that section of E3 this year was called Scale.Scale, developed by Steve Swink (who teaches interactive design in Phoenix, but might be better known as Kyle Pulver's roommate?) is similar to Portal, which is a quality ascribed to a lot of great indie games these days. That's not surprising, given that Portal was also an indie student project, before it got processed through Valve's chaotic engine of creativity. Scale is similar to Portal in that it too has a gun that doesn't kill, but is instead used to manipulate a colorfully-rendered 3D world.Portal, it could be said, played around with the functions of space, creating portals to bypass and bend it. Scale, on the other hand, is all about that stuff in between space. Namely: mass.
IndieCade at E3: Hokra, a minimalist sports game with huge appeal, equal barriers
Of all the games littering the IndieCade floor at E3, just one of them truly belonged there in a way that the others just couldn't touch: Ramiro Corbetta's Hokra. It wasn't necessarily flashier, prettier or more famous than any of the other titles, but it was a game made for public exhibitions – literally."Hokra was originally created with the public space in mind, but it was also developed to be the kind of game that I'd like to play with my friends," Corbetta told Joystiq.Hokra premiered on May 12, 2011 at the NYU Game Center's No Quarter exhibition, and Corbetta developed it with that venue specifically in mind."I developed Hokra to be a multiplayer game, and to be honest when I was first developing it I wasn't thinking about how to sell it," he said. "I was only thinking about how to make the best possible game, and since it was going to be displayed in a gallery space, I knew there would always be multiple people around to play it."Hokra is a simplistic, competitive digital sports game for four local players, and only four local players. Not online, not three, two or one, but four physical people ideally using Xbox 360 controllers, always. This design choice stems from Hokra's gallery goal, but also from Corbetta's passion for local multiplayer titles.
IndieCade at E3: A Mother's Inferno
A Mother's Inferno begins on a train, travels through the juiciest bowels of Hell, and ends up somewhere in between, covered in neon blood and reeking of vomit and mental decay.It's a short journey, if that helps.A Mother's Inferno, a PC/Mac title at E3's IndieCade from Denmark's National Academy of Digital Interactive Entertainment, examines the five stages of loss as represented by train compartments filled with all manner of angry, illusive and violent demons.It's first-person, told from the perspective of a mother whose son is suddenly and violently possessed, thrown around their train compartment, and stolen into the leftover nightmarish world. As a red-stained landscape looms outside the train's windows, the mother attempts to reclaim her son, battling evil spirits with just a shard of glass and, we assume, her love.
Take a tour with us through IndieCade at E3
We're not very good at lying, so when we say "A Mother's Inferno was an absolutely terrifying indie game," we mean we played it alone, at night, on a big-screen TV, and we just about peed our pants no less than seven times. Seriously, we haven't slept soundly in weeks. Not all of the games at IndieCade's E3 exhibition were psychedelic horror fests; some of them were eccentric, rich platformers, such as Arcen Games' A Valley Without Wind. And a few were downright happy, such as Steve Swink's Scale. Check out a few of our stand-out IndieCade titles in a guided tour right up there.
Felicia Day to host the 2012 IndieCade Red Carpet Awards Ceremony
Felicia Day has been enlisted by the folks at Creative Media Collaborative to host the 2012 IndieCade Red Carpet Awards Ceremony, where exemplary and innovating flooring/carpeting solutions are honored for their excellence in ... hold on a second, we may not have this entirely right.Ah! Yes, video games, of course. The IndieCade Red Carpet Awards Ceremony honors noteworthy achievements in the field of indie gaming over the course of the previous year – past winners include Fez and Limbo, for example. This year's ceremony takes place on October 4, kicks off the 2012 IndieCade Conference and Festival proper, and will of course be hosted by Felicia Day.Best known for creating The Guild and co-starring in Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, Day is just about as endeared to the global gaming/nerd community as a person can get. She was even on an episode of House once.
