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WWE Immortals is free-to-play wrestling kombat for mobile
Have you ever found yourself playing NetherRealm's Injustice: Gods Among Us and thought, "You know, I like Superman and all, but what if he was actually John Cena?" Alternatively, perhaps you've looked at Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and wondered, "What if this guy were an actual, literal rock-man?" Well, you might want to check your brain for transmitting devices, because NetherRealm and Phosphor Games have made your thoughts reality with WWE Immortals, which is now available on iOS and Android devices. Revealed just last month, WWE Immortals transforms various WWE superstars into warriors, mages, ninjas, knights and monsters, then pits them in touch-based battles with each other. The game is free to play and features support cards to bolster your fighting rosters' power. There's also a story about a magical lamp and alternate dimensions, but really, this is a game about men and women who get paid to fake-punch each other being transformed into mythical warriors. Plot is not going to be its strong suit. [Image: Warner Bros. Interactive]
Nether adds crafting, creature mode, and tribes
The mean streets of Nether are easing up a bit on players, as Phosphor Games has patched in a slew of helpful systems for its February update. The trio of new features includes crafting, a creature mode, and tribes. Crafting encourages players to scavenge from their adventures and fashion gear and weapons to use and trade. If being a bad guy is your thing, then the new creature mode allows users to step into the twisted role of a nether to stalk victims. And tribes, Nether's version of guilds, are now in the game with bases, a skill tree, and special objectives to be patched in later in the month. Players who join a tribe from now through February 15th will earn special bonuses including currency and a free uniform. We've got a video showing some of the February update features after the jump, so get a move on, little doggy! [Source: Phosphor Games press release]
Nether's January update introduces dirt bikes and group options
The survival horror world of Nether continues to take form and shape as the devs are introducing the year's first update this week. The big addition that will come in this patch is the dirt bike, which gives players a faster means of navigating the post-apocalyptic landscape. Of course, when you do so you'll be making an awful racket and since the enemies are very sensitive to all sound, any riders will probably enjoy a few breezy minutes of transportation followed by a few painful minutes of being disembowled. The patch is also including group features such as group chat, invites, nametags, and locations on the map. There are also some new cosmetic items to check out (Russian hat, anyone?) and plenty of fixes for various bugs. We've got the video of the dirt bike in action after the break.
Pre-order Nether to bring friends into a post-apocalyptic world of survival and demonic monster-killing
Phosphor Games' online first-person urban survival game Nether is waiting to pounce just around the corner, and it's carrying a live-action trailer and pre-order bonuses. Phosphor Games announced Thursday that pre-orders for the game are now live, and those who plunk down money early will be able to enter the world of Nether early, on October 31. Said players will also be able to share the post-apocalypse monster-hunting fun, as they'll receive 72-hour guest keys so friends can join in at no charge. Phosphor Games Creative Director Chip Sineni said in a press release that community would be important going forward, hence the pre-order reward of allowing more people access to the game. "We want to develop a game that fans are enthusiastic to play, and there isn't a better way to give players the experience they crave than to get them involved in selecting which features are patched in next," Sineni said. So don't get all down and depressed because an event called "The Cull" killed off or transformed most of mankind into horrible monsters, like that's sad or something. After all, you could be shooting those monsters in the face by the end of the month.
See the dark side of survival in Nether's live-action trailer
Last month, we gave you a deeper look into the post-apocalyptic survival game Nether being developed by Phosphor Games. Today, the studio announced that pre-orders for the game will grant early access and allow players to try their hand at survival against the mutated monstrosities starting (fittingly) on October 31st, 2013. Additionally, pre-orders will net 72-hour game keys to share with friends, as well as other in-game perks. Creative Director Chip Sineni stated, "As an online multiplayer game, we feel strongly that the focus is on community collaboration so we want to reward the early players with solid pre-order incentives and really make them a part of the future of the rich, urban environment that is Nether." Along with the announcement, the studio released a new live-action trailer. If you want to get a feel for the game, check out the video after the cut. Then if you like what you see, join the community and help direct the development path of future content in Nether. [Source: Phosphor Games press release]
An early look at Phosphor's survival pseudo-MMO Nether
When I first learned I'd be jetting off to meet with Phosphor Games for a first look at its upcoming title Nether, I must admit I wasn't enthusiastic. I expected to see just another zombie-esque first-person shooter in a genre already overstuffed with shotguns and undead targets. But now that I've seen the demo in person, I might just have changed my mind. It's not really an MMO, not with 64 people on a map, but it's certainly skirting the boundaries; I'd consider it a happy marriage between Left 4 Dead and DayZ, so it's certainly the type of game fans of post-apocalyptic survival pseudo-MMOs will want to watch. The game's backstory features a near-future world, about a decade after a major mutation event called "the Cull" in the game's lore. Thanks to the Cull, the majority of the population transformed into zombies violent mutated humanoid creatures. I guess there's an attempt to avoid the classic zombie trope in Nether, but who's fooled, really?
Nether gives unique twist to post-apocalyptic survival
Stop us if you've heard this game before: It's some time after the apocalypse, and you're one of the final survivors scrounging about for parts and gear to carve out a niche of safety. While that might sound like every zombie survival game that's come out in the wake of DayZ, Nether is eschewing zombies for something more insidious -- and interesting. The titular creatures are mutants that hunt by sound and teleport around, requiring players to adopt new strategies as they try to make it. The newly announced Nether is a persistent MMOish (well, 64 players per server) game where players explore West Chicago in the hopes of finding that one weapon or crate of goods that's needed to survive another night. Or you could just go to Chicago right now in real life and do the same thing. Phosphor Games Creative Director Chip Sineni says his title won't be the same-old zombiethon: "Our focus is to veer away from some of the 'traditional' survival-horror offerings in order to provide something new for the genre, with a great urban setting, a different type of story and an experience that excites us as fans and will be something definitely fresh and new for gamers." Nether is in alpha testing with an eye on a fall 2013 release for the PC and is currently accepting beta signups. You can check out its reveal trailer after the jump!
Project Awakened on hold due to 'alternate funding options,' donors receiving refunds
Phosphor Games has cancelled its self-powered crowdfunding initiative for Project Awakened and will be issuing refunds to everyone that has contributed to the drive thus far, according to a missive of the game's official website. "At this time we need to put our funding endeavor on hold effective immediately. Everyone who pledged money will be receiving a full refund," the message reads. "There have been some alternative funding options that have recently been presented to us, so please continue to keep an eye out on our Facebook page for future updates." Phosphor turned to DIY crowdfunding after its initial efforts to raise capital on Kickstarter fell short of the company's goal.
Project Awakened's independent crowdfunding campaign in full swing
Project Awakened came up short on Kickstarter in March, raising $338,498 of a requested $500,000, but the team at Phosphor Games wasn't ready to give up on the game just yet. After a week-long survey that attracted 4,000 responses, Phosphor decided there was enough interest to launch an independent fundraising campaign, with a few new tweaks.Phosphor is using PayPal, one option that Kickstarter doesn't offer its projects, and its first goal is $250,000: the launch of multiplayer, mod-able Project Awakened: Danger Room in November. If Awakened doesn't hit that mark by May 5, all backers will receive a full refund.Donations range from $5 to $10,000, each with unique perks. In Kickstarter-inspired fashion, the Awakened campaign has stretch goals, including for the initial requested amount of $500,000, which sees Phosphor commit to a launch date of June 2014 for the expanded Project Awakened: Subject, rather than the standard window of "around" the end of 2014.So far Project Awakened has raised $44,696 from 764 backers, with 32 days to hit the first $250,000 goal. Check out the fundraising campaign on Phosphor's official site.
Project Awakened falls short of $500K Kickstarter goal
Project Awakened, the attempt to reinvigorate Phosphor Games' beleaguered superhero action game, fell short of its Kickstarter goal today, raising $338,498 of a requested $500,000. On Monday, with less than two days to raise more than $200,000, Phosphor Director Chip Sineni told us that if Awakened missed its Kickstarter goal, his team would continue to develop the game in its own time."If nothing else comes up for funding elsewhere – we will keep looking," Sineni said. "We would not be able to promise a 2014 beta, and it would likely take a long time to complete."At the one-day countdown, Phosphor put together a Heineken ad Hello Kitty piano recital video featuring the team drunkenly singing Tom Waits' "Innocent When You Dream." If that can't make a Kickstarter succeed, we just don't know what will.
Project Awakened Kickstarter makes final plea, deploys Tom Waits
This is it, the final day of the beleaguered Kickstarter for the make-your-own superhero game, Project Awakened. To celebrate, or commiserate depending on how things go, the team at Phoshpor Games has pulled out the big guns: A drunken rendition of Tom Waits' "Innocent When You Dream."As of this writing, there are 23 hours remaining with $180,000 left to go. As Phosphor director Chip Sineni told us, "If we don't make the $500K we have to keep making the game very slowly in our spare time, if nothing else comes up for funding elsewhere – we will keep looking." Presumably, they will also keep drinking and singing.
On the brink: What's next if Project Awakened can't save the world
Phosphor Games has less than 48 hours to raise more than $200,000 for Project Awakened on Kickstarter. If Phosphor doesn't hit that goal, the $270,000 people have already pledged will vanish, and Awakened's current development timeline will be stretched indefinitely.Still, Phosphor Director Chip Sineni is optimistic about Awakened's success."We are feeling stressed, but we still feel there is time for the community to help us make this happen," Sineni tells Joystiq. "We got the Unreal Engine 4 tech demo out, we announced Austin Wintory joining as the composer and a lot of Kickstarters have last-minute surges."A lot of Kickstarters fall short, too: Last year, 2,796 video game projects asked for funding, and 1,885 failed. Of course this means 911 gaming projects succeeded, and those projects earned $83 million overall. Sineni wants to see Awakened in that second group, but the entire process has been a fast-paced learning experience on the whims of crowd-sourced funding. Only (a short amount of) time will tell if Phosphor absorbed its lessons too late.
Project Awakened's Unreal Engine 4 tech demo is impressive, gross
We don't know if you guys are aware of this or not, but the human body is a disgusting thing. Even the really top notch, showroom-quality human bodies are essentially sacks of greasy tubes and cartilage. Here to remind us of that fact in stunning detail is Project Awakened's Unreal Engine 4 tech demo, which shows just how elaborate the game's character creation system could be.Now, we doubt Project Awakened will allow players to select from a multitude of different organs or anything, but the super powers shown off are quite impressive looking, if a bit disturbing at times -- we're looking at you, weird split-open-hand-bone-thing.Of course, Phosphor Games will only be able to turn this flashy demo into something tangible if its ongoing Kickstarter proves successful, but with only four days left on the clock, and around $300,000 in funding still needing to be raised, that looks increasingly unlikely.[Thanks, Ryan!]
Project Awakened brings super powers to Steam Greenlight
Project Awakened, the super-powered action game that Phosphor Games resurrected on Kickstarter, now has a Steam Greenlight page, hoping to eventually sneak onto that service. As Phosphor told us earlier this month, Awakened is a PC, next-gen game heavy on customization and kicking dystopic booty with a myriad of interchangeable powers.Get a glimpse of some early super-human combinations in the demo video below, and if you're intrigued, check out Awakened on Kickstarter and Greenlight.
Awakened returns with a new design strategy and funding goal: You
In November 2010, Phosphor Games was quietly shopping around a project called Awakened, a super-hero action title heavy on character customization and creative chaos. As part of its publisher pitch, Phosphor made a demo video for Awakened; it was rough and never meant for public consumption. It showed a city on the brink of man-made annihilation, tanks patrolling streets littered with blood, bodies and fire, and a cast of seemingly ordinary people with supernatural abilities: invisibility, force push, mind control, electric shock, on-demand armor, stealth, accuracy, a tornado.In January 2011, the video leaked."We didn't actually intend it to go out," Phosphor Games director Chip Sineni looks back on the day the video broke on YouTube. "We were kind of embarrassed because it was very rough and there was a lot of stuff that just wasn't ready to show to the public. We were really surprised by how many people were supportive of it."The video, rough as Sineni thought it was, resonated with the gaming audience in a big way. Publishers loved it, too – just not enough to pick up the project. Awakened fell to the back of Phosphor's priorities and out of the gaming industry's eye as the company focused on developing smaller, lucrative games, such as Horn and Dark Meadow for iOS. However, in the few years since Awakened burst into public consciousness, video game funding has evolved, and Phosphor may not need publisher approval to get the game off the ground. All it needs now is something it believes it has already proven – community interest – and somewhere to channel that support.Awakened has turned to Kickstarter.
Horn goes on a free quest on iOS today
A free version of Phosphor Games' pretty 3D action-adventure mobile game Horn is available on iOS today. Horn Free focuses on the "Prologue" section of Horn proper, allowing players to face an endless series of Titans in the new Quest mode and unlock new sets of customizable weapons and armor.The premium version of Horn pretty much gets all the new stuff found in Horn Free: Quest mode, available as under the Challenges section for instant boss fight gratification, and new loot. This latest update also optimizes both versions of Horn for play on iPad Minis and the new iPad. We've followed up for info on whether this new content is in the Android version.
PSA: Horn sounds the alarm on iOS today
The first Zynga Partners for Mobile game has launched on iOS today. Phosphor Games' action adventure game Horn is now available on the iTunes App store, a $6.99 universal download optimized for iPad 2 and 3, and iPhone 4S.Horn focuses on a young blacksmith's apprentice named Horn who wakes to find his world is overrun with monsters – it's loosely based on the 13th-century English tale of King Horn. Phosphor Games says Horn will launch on Tegra-powered Android devices "soon."%Gallery-162401%
Horn gets a trailer, coming later this month
We already knew that the developers behind the iOS horror game Dark Meadow were working on a new title called Horn, but now here's a trailer to watch. As you can tell, it looks pretty darn good. It's not quite as scary as the first game, though there are a few spooky elements, and the graphics look terrific. The game also looks like it will have a few more story and RPG elements to play with, so it should be fun. The trailer also mentions that we won't have long to wait: Horn is due out this month. That's good news for fans of the first game who are looking to see what Phosphor has been working on. As soon as we see Horn in the App Store, we'll let you know.
Horn blows in a trailer, will toot in August
Phosphor Games, developers of The Dark Meadow, will launch Horn this August. The iOS title looks like it'll have plenty of action to immerse one to the point they miss their bus or subway stop.
Dark Meadow devs' next title is Horn
Phosphor Games' Dark Meadow made a big splash when it arrived on iOS last year, offering up a unique (and somewhat scary) experience on Apple's platform, with some excellent graphics and storytelling for a mobile title. Now that studio is following up with a second game, called Horn, as profiled recently by IGN. The game looks intriguing -- it's a third-person fantasy action game, and while it looks a little bit like Infinity Blade (not a bad thing), the world is supposed to be a little more open, with lots of area to explore, and even some puzzles to solve as you move along. Phosphor's already got a nice reputation rolling with Dark Meadow, and Horn looks like it will be good, too. Horn will presumably also be part of Zynga's partners program, of which Phosphor was reported yesterday as a founding member. What that means is unclear just yet, but the program is designed to connect Zynga's audience and other titles together, so it's possible that Horn will be promoting Zynga's titles or vice versa. We'll have to see -- Horn is due out sometime later on this year.
