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The Stomping Land is switching to Unreal Engine 4
Dino-delay or evolutionary upgrade? The situation might be both for The Stomping Land, which has been on the down low while its developer works to bring it to a new game engine after the old engine lost studio support. "It has been quiet in The Stomping Land community but that is certainly not the case behind the scenes!" Developer Alex "Jig" Fundora told Kotaku. "The game is being moved to Unreal Engine 4 to take advantage of technical and creative opportunities, and while the game was so early in development, I didn't want to keep working for years with a game engine (UDK) that had officially lost support by Epic. The move has put a bit of more work on my plate, but the already discovered opportunities using UE4 are exciting, and I'm confident fans will be satisfied with the long-run decision." The dinosaur-themed survival sandbox went into early access this past May 30th.
The Sun At Night reaches Steam on August 1
Following a lengthy stay in the proving grounds of Steam Greenlight, Minicore Studios' alternate history platformer The Sun At Night will debut on Steam proper come August 1. To celebrate this release, Minicore plans to offer The Sun At Night at a 15 percent discount for its first week of availability. Normally priced at $15, those who purchase the game immediately after it appears will only spend $12.75. Before you budget the necessary funds, however, keep in mind our middling-at-best review, which claims The Sun At Night features both "bland gameplay" and an "awkward, convoluted story." Those waiting for news on The Sky Below, the second part of Minicore's Laika trilogy, will be saddened to hear that development on that episode is now on hiatus. "[T]he team has decided to see how Steam sales of The Sun at Night go before committing further resources to that project," reads the studio's official statement. [Image: Minicore Studios]
The Sun at Night, Bulb Boy among 75 games accepted by Steam Greenlight
The latest group of games, 75 in total, have been granted distribution on Steam thanks to the approval of the Greenlight community. Included in the newly-picked games is The Sun at Night, Minicore Studios' run-and-gun game that stars Russian space dog Laika. The game first launched in February and is the first of three parts in the series. The second chapter, The Sky Below, is slated to arrive in October and will incorporate feedback from The Sun at Night into it. Also approved for Steam is Ojtam Games' horror adventure game Bulb Boy. Inspired by Amanita Design's Machinarium and Sierra's 1991 adventure game Gobliiins, Bulb Boy stars a lightbulb-like boy that wakes from a nightmare to find his "Grandparaffin" and "Mothdog" missing. The game is currently raising funds to wrap its development via Kickstarter, seeking $40,000 by July 27, of which it's earned just over $7,500 as of this writing. [Image: Minicore Studios]
Cyberpunk Half-Life 2 mod, NeoTokyo, now available on Steam for free
Five years after it debuted as a fan-crafted Half-Life 2 modification, and following a lengthy Greenlight campaign, NeoTokyo has arrived on Steam as a standalone release. Best described as an amalgamation of Counter-Strike's creeping, deliberate gunplay and sci-fi influences that fall somewhere between Neuromancer and Ghost In The Shell, NeoTokyo has earned a devoted following over the past half-decade. That should only increase, as the standalone Steam release bears a $0 price tag, and does not require players own Half-Life 2 or any other game containing the Source engine. Full technical specs and game details on NeoTokyo can now be found on the game's Steam page. [Image: Studio Radi-8]
Steam Greenlights 75 more games: Futuridium, Lost Orbit
Yep, 75 more games are on the path to Steam. We won't list them all, but a few notable stand-outs include Futuridium EP, Ensign-1, Pale Blue, Lost Orbit, The Masterplan and, of course, VoidSpace – The Dogecoin MMORPG. A few other games have interesting-sounding names, such as Exploding Robots, Gender Bender DNA Twister Extreme, My Ex-Boyfriend the Space Tyrant, Neocolonialism, and Zoo Rampage. Steam is on track to see more than 2,000 game launches in 2014 – already this year, more games have launched on Steam than in all of 2013. And now we can add 75 more to that total.
Skara: The Blade Remains looks to fund a 2014 release
Skara: The Blade Remains is building momentum to fully fund the title for a 2014 launch. The crossbreed of RPG and MOBA is now on Kickstarter, looking to raise $35,000 by July 4. The game is already mostly done and will hit Steam Early Access next month, but 8-Bit Studios' CEO says that this will ensure an even better end product. "We already have a game to offer, but our vision for Skara: The Blade Remains is so much bigger. That's why we are doing a Kickstarter that will offer our backers great rewards if they join us for the wild ride that is game development," said Pablo Rodriguez. We've got the new trailer for Skara after the break in case you're looking for some persuasion before dropping money on the game.
Ascent adds in a colonization city-building sim
The galaxy is now open to colonization in Ascent: The Space Game -- and there's plenty of room for everyone. Developer James Hicks has added in a colonization system to the sandbox MMO, allowing players to engage in a city-building sim among the billions of star systems. Colonization is intended to be the endgame for industrial players, with a great amount of complexity and no upper limit on the number of buildings or colonists. Every planet can be colonized, although ones with hostile environments will require more work and protective domes. To build up their colonies, players will need to recruit colonists, bring them to the planet, and task them with farming and mining the new world. "My intent from here is to expand on the city building aspects -- giving the population more complex needs and desires, making the recruitment aspect deeper and more meaningful, and adding new production types, new structures for interacting with other players like starport facilities and stock markets, and expand on the 'out of ship' play," Hicks wrote.
The Stomping Land's dinosaur survival MMO is coming to Steam this month
The Stomping Land, a survival MMO with a generous heaping of dinosaurs, is set to arrive on Steam Early Access on May 23rd for backers and May 30th for everyone else. The cost will be $24.99 for non-backers. The MMO was successfully funded through Kickstarter last year and is being developed by Alex Fundora. The Stomping Land challenges players to survive as a human in harsh environments that include rather ravenous dinos. Hunger and thirst are issues that must be dealt with, and these are made all the more challenging by a lack of internal inventory (everything must be carried in hand or stored on the map). The game encourages players to form tribes for survival and allows them to capture, tame, and even ride dinosaurs. The Early Access version will launch with one island, and you can check out the trailer for the release after the break.
DayZ's Dean Hall says Steam removes the need for publishers
Steam's ubiquitous nature as a digital distribution platform has really changed the landscape of PC gaming. It's changed it so much that according to DayZ creator Dean Hall, companies don't really need to worry about a publisher any longer. Hall went on the record recently saying that the Early Access service offered via Steam essentially lets players take over the role of publisher, paying to finish development and providing marketing via word-of-mouth. The strategy has obviously worked quite well for DayZ, which has sold an impressive number of copies even in its very early and unfinished state. Hall also pontificates that it remains up to publishers to see where they fit into the new paradigm, since Early Access gives smaller studios an option that they wouldn't have otherwise.
Get Even, Dead Synchronicity among 75 games Greenlit for Steam
Steam's Greenlight community gave 75 more games the thumbs-up for distribution on the PC platform this week, adding a few familiar titles to the mix. Among the games that can begin start selling on Steam is Get Even, a first-person shooter from Polish developer The Farm 51. Unlike other first-person games, players jump into the memories of Get Even's main characters to make decisions that impact their personality traits as the game's story progresses. The developer spoke at length in March on films and games that explore players' perceptions of reality, which the Painkiller: Hell and Damnation developer set as a goal. Other games greenlit for distribution include pretend dogfighter Cult of the Wind, dystopian 2D point-and-click adventure game Dead Synchronicity: Tomorrow comes Today and Pivvot, which brings minimalistic arcade-style action to Steam. Pivvot achieved over 2.65 million downloads on iOS and Android and comes from Whitaker Trebella, a Chicago-based developer that shifted from music composition to programming in 2010; though he still crafted tunes for more recent games like Nimble Quest and Super Stickman Golf 2. [Image: The Farm 51]
Ascent: The Space Game on building a better sci-fi sandbox
You'd be forgiven for not having heard of Ascent: The Space Game before. EVE Online is the sci-fi sandbox dominating headlines, and Star Citizen and other upcoming games are breathing down its neck. Is there room in the genre for, well, an indie space MMO that isn't all about cutthroat politics or hardcore ganking? James Hicks, the founder and CEO of Fluffy Kitten Studios and the man behind Ascent, says yes. He took the time this week to answer our questions about his already-playable-but-still-in-development game in deep detail, focusing on the game's complexity, player feedback, business model, mechanics, and how Ascent can truly expand the genre.
Pier Solar HD, Proven Lands among 75 greenlit games for Steam
Valve accepted 75 more games for distribution on Steam after approval from its community on Steam Greenlight, among which is Pier Solar and the Great Architects HD, Watermelon's remake of the Megadrive RPG. Pier Solar HD, which earned over $230,000 on Kickstarter in December 2012, is joined by a recent crowdfund hopeful, sci-fi sandbox roguelike Proven Lands. In fact, a number of this week's new Steam recruits were once success stories on Kickstarter. Dolphin exam cheating simulator Classroom Aquatic earned over $31,000 earlier this month, Trichotomy's Dog Sled Saga found modest success in May 2013, roguelike Dungeonmans earned over $43,000 in August and MURA Interactive's twin-stick shooter Dubwars received over $34,000 in July. Additionally, Will O'Neill's game about love and depression, Actual Sunlight, was among the group of games added to Steam this week. [Image: Watermelon]
Ether One looks like a peaceful romp through dementia patients' minds
Ether One seems like a nice, calm exploration game – until it doesn't. Most of the gameplay takes place in the memories of dementia patients, where skilled Restorers repair broken images and minds. Restoration is a standard task in this technologically advanced world, but it retains the potential to go horribly wrong. And as the launch trailer shows, things do go wrong. Really wrong. Ether One is a first-person exploration and adventure game that recalls BioShock or Portal in its mechanics and unmistakable "something is not right here" tone. It was Greenlit in June and is due out for PC on March 25 from UK studio White Paper Games. [Images: White Paper Games]
Perpetuum is dropping its sub fee on April 2nd
As Perpetuum approaches a rebranding of sorts with a new player experience and a new early access status on Steam after a successful Greenlight, the dev team at Avatar Creations has one more thing it'd like to announce: a payment model change. Starting April 2nd, Perpetuum will be dropping its subscription payment model to move forward with a single-purchase buy-to-play model priced at 28.99 USD/EUR. There will also be in-game item purchases that will include "previously unavailable services and cosmetic upgrades." As a special bonus for anyone who has ever paid for at least three months of the game's subscription, the game will be completely free. Be sure to check out the most recent blog post for more details on this new payment model and changes coming to the game with this Steam launch on April 2nd. [Thanks to Fredrik and Zoltan for the tips!]
Sci-fi sandbox Proven Lands goes roguelike on Greenlight with demo
Berlin-based indie developer Thesetales launched a Kickstarter project and Steam Greenlight page for its roguelike game Proven Lands this week. The third-person sci-fi game is available to check out in its pre-alpha state in a proof of concept PC demo. Proven Lands features an optional five-episode main story arc in which players control Teruo Nakamura, named after a real-life soldier of the Japanese Imperial Army "who did not surrender until 1974." The game also includes an AI-driven story engine that generates a "one-off adventure" based on randomly-generated elements. Thesetales cites Don't Starve and Starbound among its inspirations, which is readily apparent in the hunt-and-gather style gameplay shown in its Kickstarter pitch video. A recent update on the project's crowdfunding page notes plans for multiplayer modes in some capacity as well. Thesetales is seeking £299,000 ($497,177) by April 12 to bring Proven Lands to PC in the first quarter of 2015, followed by Mac and iOS in the second quarter, then Linux and Android at a later date. Those that pledge roughly $15/£9/11 euros will receive a digital copy of the game when it launches. [Image: Thesetales]
Former PS All-Stars devs form Dead Alien Cult, introduce Viking Ghost
Indie developer Dead Alien Cult introduced its first game on Steam's Greenlight service this week, Viking Ghost. The developer comprises four people, two of which are former PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale developers: Andrew Marquis and John Lawrence. Viking Ghost is listed as an "Arcade Action Adventure-Dual Stick Shooter-Dungeon Crawler-Rogue-Like-Lite" game with weapons, abilities and an experience point-based upgrade system. The developer cites the Zelda series, The Binding of Isaac and Spelunky among its inspirations for the game, which has eight locations and procedurally-generated levels that liven up every playthrough. Marquis and Lawrence's former developer Superbot parted ways with Sony in February 2013 before downsizing in April. [Image: Dead Alien Cult]
Ether One cures mental illness with telekinetic projection on March 25
Ether One takes place in the middle of the 20th century, when an advancement in telekinetic technology cures certain cases of mental illness and memory loss. Specific people, called Restorers, are able to enter a person's memories and restructure broken images. Traversing a person's memories can be tense and frantic, and it involves a point-and-shoot camera, apparently. It's a first-person exploration game with layers: It's an exploration of the fragile human mind, an exploration of a new world, and an exploration of complicated puzzles. The mechanics themselves are up to the player. Ether One can be completed as an exploration game alone, or as an adventure in deciphering riddles "to restore life-changing events of the patient's history in order to help the validation of their life." Talk about responsibility. Ether One was Greenlit last year and is due out for PC on March 25 from UK indie studio White Paper Games. The teaser trailer shows off what looks to be a sterile, industrial-style dentist chair being lowered into a mechanized containment sphere. The screenshots, however, display markedly different settings: a rustic seaside village and a large water facility. Ether One's website reads, "Welcome to Pinwheel." We're not sure why, but that seems ominous. [Images: White Paper Games]
Co-op choose-your-own-adventure game The Yawhg hits Steam
The Yawhg tells a randomized story every time you (and your friends) sit down to play, a story that begins with the evil Yawhg coming to ransack your town and ends in more than 50 different ways for each character. It's a choose-your-own-adventure game steeped in humor, magic and horrible things, from indie team Emily Carroll and Damian Sommer. The game supports up to four players locally and has full controller support on Steam. The Yawhg made it through Greenlight and launched today on Steam for PC, for $8 with a 20 percent off sale. The discount ends on March 6. Carroll and Sommer launched the game last year independently, and it's still available to purchase through their site. Carroll, a comic artist, ended up working with Sommer, a game developer, during the TIFF Nexus Comics vs. Games showcase. Apparently it was a match made in dark fantasy heaven.
Gloria Victis gets the greenlight on Steam
We all know a green light means go, and the community has told Black Eye Games to keep right on going developing Gloria Victis; the independent project has been officially Greenlit on Steam. Not only did the community vote in support of the project, it did so overwhelmingly, taking the medieval game to rank #1 in under two days. The devs noted that the next step is to complete the necessary digital paperwork and work toward an early-access launch. However, since they'd like Gloria Victis to be in a more playable state before early access, players shouldn't expect to see it on Steam for a few months yet. For those who have supported the game through donations, an option to tie accounts to Steam will be available at a later date. [Thanks to Alleomurand for the tip!]
Gloria Victis needs your Steam votes
After its first day on Steam Greenlight, Gloria Victis is already in the top 100 and is hoping for an even better showing. Black Eye Games is heavily promoting the indie medieval MMO as it goes through the Greenlight gauntlet with the eventual goal of being offered through Steam's digital platform. Steam users can choose whether or not to vote for Gloria Victis to be greenlit. Currently the game is in pre-alpha testing with regular patches and expects to lift its NDA in the next few weeks. Gloria Victis features sandbox crafting, plenty of PvP, non-targeted combat, a feudal social system, and a harsh world. Its storyline is being written by The Witcher's Jacek Komuda and Maciej Jurewicz.
