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Opening the valve: Steam Curators rule the front page
Ask a hundred independent developers what impacts their sales most and you'll likely get a hundred different answers, but among the more popular ones will be the topic of discoverability, the ways in which prospective buyers are able to find lesser-known video games. Platforms like the App Store and Steam see a lot of foot-traffic in their featured sections, and even brief visibility for independent developers can make for a massive difference in their bottom line. As more games have made their way to Steam via regular release, Greenlight and Early Access, it's become vastly more difficult for a new game to be discovered. Enter Steam Curators, Valve's means of placing the weight of game recommendations on those outside its walls. The service launched this week and allows any person or brand (such as your friends here at Joystiq) to compile lists of games their followers should play, shifting the scope of the store's front page to include recommended games and a section for popular curators. Given Steam's incredible popularity and its status as a "must-have" piece of PC gaming software, Steam Curators is a major step for the service, and developers hope that it might heavily influence independent game sales.
PAX Prime 2014: Upsilon Circuit debuts to the public
I'll echo what Eliot wrote back at PAX East earlier this year: Upsilon Circuit is almost certainly one of the strangest and most intriguing video game concepts I've ever seen. Part Diablo clone, part Smash TV, part Hunger Games, and part Max Headroom, it's a virtual game show there eight contestants fight to stay alive while the larger player audience helps or hurts the contestants as they wish. This is all overseen by a Ronald Reagan-ish game show host who will snark and deadpan the proceedings. The Robot Loves Kitty dev team said at this year's PAX Prime that the genesis for Upsilon Circuit came from seeing the surge of popularity for folks who watched other people livestream games. Why not take that voyeurism and make it more interactive? Thus, Upsilon Circuit was born.
You only get one chance to play Upsilon Circuit
Upsilon Circuit is an upcoming PC game from Legend of Dungeon developers Robot Loves Kitty, but you might never get the chance to play it. In fact, only eight people will ever be playing the game simultaneously, and once one of those players dies, that's the end for them; in Upsilon Circuit, you only have one life. Ever. Think of it like Twitch Plays Pokemon meets Diablo 3, as televised by The Running Man, playing a game of 1 vs 100. Yeah.
PAX East 2014: Upsilon Circuit is an MMO like no other
A lot of what I see in the MMO industry is fairly predictable. That's not an insult; it's just that most of the new games you see are either a result of elegant mechanics solving a problem that's always been there or a new take on an old system, and that's OK. There's nothing wrong with taking old favorites and refining them. But then I see something like Upsilon Circuit and I wind up being completely blown away because the very idea is a fundamental rewriting of how we understand MMOs. Upsilon Circuit is a new game currently in very early development from indie studio Robot Loves Kitty (of Legend of Dungeon fame), and when I say early, I do mean early. The animations are rough, the build is very much in a proof-of-concept stage rather than a fully playable state, and none of that matters. The game is the love child of Twitch Plays Pokémon, the Hunger Games, and Diablo III, a game that not only encourages streaming but demands it while interacting with the audience
See hot indie game action (and cake) in the Supershow Collective marathon
The Supershow Collective marathon begins tonight at 7PM ET and runs through the weekend, with live streams of some hot Steam, Greenlight and other indie games, plus developer interviews, special guests and giveaways. The whole spiel is organized by indie developer Robot Loves Kitty and indie PC site Greenlit Gaming. The marathon starts with the Indie Showcase from Greenlit Gaming, which will feature more than 24 hours of continuous Steam gaming and developer interviews, including bits of Kingdom Rush, Contrast, Teslagrad, Race the Sun, ANNE, Risk of Rain, Mousecraft, Tower of Guns, Drunken Robot Pornography, Monster Loves You, Dungeon of the Endless, Broforce, The Novelist and Torchlight 2. Picking up where the Indie Showcase leaves off, the Indie Dev Showcase from Robot Loves Kitty begins at 7PM ET on Saturday, featuring streams and interviews of Hot Tin Roof, 6180 the Moon, Dyscourse, Continue?9876543210, Reus, Cloudbuilt, Droquen, Crypt of the Necrodancer, Life goes On and more. The Indie Dev Showcase ends with cake at 7PM on Sunday (cake not provided). Watch (and eat) it all right here.
Legend of Dungeon expands the legend to Steam
Legend of Dungeon, the roguelike dungeon crawler beat-em-up that fuses old-school pixel art with modern, dynamic lighting, is now available on PC, Mac, and Linux via Steam for $9.99. You may remember Legend of Dungeon developers Robot Loves Kitty as the husband-and-wife team who lived in a self-built treehouse in the mountains of Vermont during the game's production. Legend of Dungeon tells a simple story: while hanging out in a tavern, you hear of a legendary treasure hidden away at the bottom of the basement, 26 floors down. As RPG heroes are prone to do, you steal everything and hurry off, seeking the treasure. You can embark on this suicide mission solo, or bring along up to three friends with local co-op. This is Robot Loves Kitty's first Steam release, and to celebrate, they've shared a new, live-action trailer that warns players to "expect anything, die anyway." Sorry, 80s and 90s kids: looks like knowledge isn't power.
Legend of Dungeon pre-orders get another life on Steam, beta access
Legend of Dungeon, the pretty multiplayer roguelike from indie duo Robot Loves Kitty, is available now for pre-order on Steam for $10, including instant beta access. Legend of Dungeon launches on September 13 for PC, Mac and Linux, following a successful campaign on Steam Greenlight – not to mention an IGF nomination for technical excellence, an over-funded Kickstarter campaign and living in a tree for a while. The developers lived in a tree, that is. Pre-order Legend of Dungeon on the Robot Loves Kitty site or through Steam for that instant beta access. The game features single-player and local multiplayer modes, full controller support, along with RPG, beat-em-up and roguelike elements, all set to a dynamic soundtrack.
Greenlight Supershow live-streams 13 hours of indie hopefuls June 29
The Greenlight Supershow will capture the hottest games on Steam Greenlight for a 13-hour live-stream event on Twitch, starting at 10:30AM on Saturday, June 29. The Supershow showcases more than 25 games, each vying for a spot on Steam via Greenlight, and will include Q&As, giveaways, and sneak peeks at new things. Portions will be co-hosted by YouTubers Jesse Cox (OMGFcata) and Ryan Letourneau (Northernlion), as well as other indie-loving web personalities. The Greenlight Supershow will feature Ray's the Dead, BroForce, Girls Like Robots, Escape Goat, Black Annex, Delver's Drop, Paranautical Activity, McDroid, Dino Run SE, 8BitMMO and Tower of Guns, among others. Check out the entire schedule – including breaks with games that have already been Greenlit – right here. The whole shebang is organized by Alix Stolzer of development duo Robot Loves Kitty, who says the event comes complete with Valve's support. Stolzer's multiplayer roguelike, Legend of Dungeon, was Greenlit in April, and she wants more indies to find the same success on Steam. This weekend, consider ditching those Saturday morning cartoons and checking out the Greenlight Supershow all day long.
Legend of Dungeon devs' secret to saving money: Live in a tree
As a husband and wife development team, Alix Stolzer and Calvin Goble worked out a system that saw them through the first few years of crafting games: Calvin made their first two titles, Tiny Plumbers and IGF nominee Neverdaunt: 8Bit, while Alix worked a 9-5 job and provided input in her spare time. The situation was satisfactory, but eventually, Alix wanted more."While money was coming in from our games, it really wasn't enough to pay the bills," Alix told me. "We decided we'd rather reduce living costs and rough it, instead of one of us working a 'real' job. The opportunity came quickly."A friend offered them the opportunity to be his "mountain neighbor" in Vermont – meaning they would live in a mountainside forest, in a home they'd craft themselves out of trees and tarp. There, they could survive on $150 a month, plus food. Alix and Calvin seized the moment."We sold our house and used as little money as possible to build a small house-tent thing eight feet off the ground, on a platform our friend had made out of four trees," Alix said. "We spent maybe $1,000 on it, really using thrifty things like greenhouse plastic, and making our own solar panels, etc. It's an awesome adventure, but the downside is it slows down game development."The mountain, miraculously, hosted a strong cellular internet signal, and on sunny days Alix and Calvin were able to charge their laptops, one at a time, using the homemade solar panels. Cafes and the college campus in town, a half hour walk away, provided power and internet on cloudy days. Everything – food, heat, power, water – took extra time in the mountain home, Alix said, including video game programming and design.But the tree house didn't stop their game development. As the studio Robot Loves Kitty, Calvin (the Robot) and Alix (Kitty) brought their latest game, Legend of Dungeon, to PAX East, using not a lot of money and earning wild success.
Kickstarter overachiever Legend of Dungeon out now for PC, Mac, Linux
Don't expect to survive in Legend of Dungeon – at least, that's what the creepy announcer in the above video warns. From developer Robot Loves Kitty, Legend of Dungeon is a roguelike action RPG beat-em-up with dynamic lighting and soundtrack systems, featuring more than 240 responsive music tracks. Legend of Dungeon is available now for PC, Mac and Linux in "nearly beta," for $10.The game features a single-player mode and up to four-player local co-op, an online leaderboard and absolutely no DRM. It's up for a bid on Steam via Greenlight.Robot Loves Kitty was nominated for an IGF 2011 award in Technical Excellence for Neverdaunt:8bit, alongside nominees Minecraft and Amnesia: The Dark Descent. The team also won a coveted Ouya dev kit and saw success with Legend of Dungeon on Kickstarter, raising $33,000 of a $5,000 goal in December.Robot Loves Kitty will be sequestered in booth 191 at PAX East from March 22 - 24, with a playable demo of Legend of Dungeon.
