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Guns of Icarus Online overhauls progression and matching
The latest patch for Guns of Icarus Online is going to make it a great deal easier for characters to get better. The game's progression system has been completely overhauled, with level now tied to experience earned via matches rather than to achievements. This is accompanied by a reorganization of stats and traits and a bump in the level cap to 45, which will also bump existing characters and give them more levels to play around with. Said patch also improves the game's matchmaking system, which helps get players into the action more quickly while also providing a more balanced system for everyone. A new tutorial to introduce new players to the game and a spectator system that makes it easier to watch games unfold have also been added, giving players new and old alike plenty to enjoy. Check out the full patch notes or just steal a glance at the video showing off these new features past the break.
Guns of Icarus dev blog talks player feedback, Hurricane Sandy
Launching an online multiplayer game is challenging in the best of conditions. Try launching one in the midst of a natural disaster, though. That's what Guns of Icarus developer Muse faced in October of 2012 as Hurricane Sandy battered the northeastern United States and left New Yorkers -- including Muse staffers -- without power and internet for weeks. Muse CEO Howard Tsao tells the full story in the fourth part of his Guns of Icarus post-mortem, which Gamasutra published this morning.
Here's part three of that Guns of Icarus post-mortem
Did you miss part one of Muse CEO Howard Tsao's ongoing post-mortem for Guns of Icarus? How about part two? All caught up now? Good, because Gamasutra has published part three. In the latest installment, Tsao shares lessons learned from two successful Kickstarters. "We realized that Kickstarter was amazing, and it would fundamentally change the relationship between developers and fans/players, but we couldn't have predicted how soon and how spectacularly," he writes.
Guns of Icarus postmortem on post-publisher challenges
If you're a Guns of Icarus fan, an indie fan, or just a gamer interested in the creative process, you should take a few minutes to read the ongoing dev diary from Muse CEO Howard Tsao and co-authors Eric Chung and Tim Doolen at Gamasutra. Part two was published this morning, and it tackles the dev team's development struggles in the aftermath of part one's publisher debacle. "Designs on paper are rarely any good until they're tested in some form," Tsao says. "Ultimately, everything begins with low fidelity (cards, dice, paper, and role play) prototypes but sometimes jumping straight into digital prototypes is required. At the time, it was important to move fast and find results quickly and in this it case meant one person going from ideation, designing interaction flow, to digital prototype. A combination of flexible responsibility, knowledge, and Unity's low barrier to entry made it possible."
The Daily Grind: Did you reconnect with any games thanks to PAX East?
Now that PAX East is winding down, it seems as good a time as any to take stock of the news coming from this year's convention. On a personal level, I was excited to hear about the (eventual) MMOification of one of my favorite games. I also enjoyed catching up with Guns of Icarus, an indie title already holding its own and with its eyes on a larger persistent world prize. What about you, Massively readers? Did you glean any useful nuggets from PAX East or perhaps rediscover a game you'd not thought about in a while? Massively's on the ground in Boston during the weekend of April 11th to 13th, bringing you all the best news from PAX East 2014. Whether you're dying to know more about WildStar, Landmark, or any MMO in between, we aim to have it covered!
PAX East 2014: Guns of Icarus Online's expanding environment
PAX East taught me that I am apparently not the right person to pilot a ship in Guns of Icarus Online. In my defense, I was trying to do what my ship was designed to do. The co-op mode on display is all about delivering supplies to a final point on a map, and I was flying the fast scoutship. So I figured, why bother slowing down? Why not just jink left and right and avoid anything in my way? As it turns out, the reasons to not do that are quite simple: The boss encounter at the cargo dropoff requires two people, and you need to actually retain control of the point rather than just wing to it at full speed. So I may have sent my ship crashing to the ground in a tumble of burning wood and broken steel. (By "may have" I of course mean "I definitely did this.") This isn't a failing on the part of the game, just a failing on my part for trying to bull-rush through something. But it's still fun; the game gives players a variety of things to do while they're busy crewing the various stations across the ship. And it's just one place the developers are going with the game.
Pick up MMOs on the cheap in Steam's holiday sale
It's that time of year again, folks -- the time when grandfather Valve slides down the chimney and offers you a huge pile of reasonably priced games. Yes, Steam's holiday sale is now in full effect, bringing with it some nice deals on a few MMO titles. Here's what we've found so far: Guns of Icarus Online - $3.74 (75% off - flash sale!) The Secret World - $14.99 (50% off) The Secret World: Massive Edition - $29.99 (50% off) Darkfall Unholy Wars - $13.58 (66% off) Defiance- $4.99 (50% off) Final Fantasy XI: Ultimate Collection Seekers Edition - $15.99 (60% off) EVE Online - $4.98 (75% off) Keep in mind that sales change daily and that some games above do require subscription fees. The Steam holiday sales ends January 2nd, 2014.
PAX Prime 2013: Guns of Icarus Online's new Adventure mode, features, and PS4 version
Guns of Icarus' Online's concept of crewing airships in a steampunk future might be a little strange at first, but it's something that Muse Games is really passionate about. I linked up with founder Howard Tsao yesterday at PAX Prime to talk about the game's upcoming Adventure Mode, which will add new context to battles over the unfriendly skies. The new online mode won't replace Guns of Icarus' current lobby-based multiplayer mode, but it will add new content, including missions and factions to provide a backdrop for actions in the game's steampunk world.
Guns of Icarus Online coming to PlayStation 4
Muse Games is bringing Guns of Icarus Online to the PlayStation 4. Muse's Howard Tsao penned the announcement post on the official PlayStation blog earlier this week, and it's worth a read since it details the game's long and often arduous three-year journey from napkin sketch to PC release. There's no official date attached to the the game's PS4 debut yet, but you can keep your eyes peeled via the game's website. You can also see what we thought of Muse's dieselpunk airship extravaganza when we checked it out late last year.
Guns of Icarus adds new ship, upgrades chat and more
Now might be a good time to check in with Guns of Icarus Online if you're fond of steampunk airships or blowing them out of the sky. Muse Games' buy-to-play title recently updated to version 1.3 of its client, which adds a new ship type, a new gun, and plenty of upgrades to the game. The new ship is called the Mobula, and Muse says that it's ideal for both standoffs and pursuit. "Of course, this comes at a price," the company's press release says. "Its slow turning speed makes it vulnerable to flanking maneuvers, and its repair points are tucked away inside the hull." Also new this patch is the ability to form parties, assemble crews prior to entering a match, and a "bigger, better, faster, stronger" chat system. Various other systems have been tweaked, and we highly recommend visiting the official website to find out how.
Green Man Gaming has six games on sale every six hours for six days
Green Man Gaming is tempting the dark side of discounts with its 666 sale, which offers six deals every six hours for six days straight. The 666 sale sports Killing Floor, Star Trek, Guns of Icarus Online, Lucius, Resident Evil 6 and Borderlands 2 (plus the season pass), each for 50 percent to 80 percent off. The 666 sale includes a bonus offer: a coupon for an extra 10 percent off any game in the sale. Find that code on the right side of the screen, directly above the six games currently on sale. Being bad never felt so cheap.
Crowdfund Bookie, May 19 - 25: ANNE, Jagged Alliance, Ghost of a Tale
The Crowdfund Bookie crunches data from select successful Kickstarter and Indiegogo campaigns that ended during the week and produces pretty charts for you to look at. This week in crowdfunding, the Kickstarter campaigns for ANNE, Jagged Alliance: Flashback, Magnetic by Nature, Theme Park Studio, an adventure mode for Guns of Icarus Online, Dog Sled Saga as well as the Indiegogo campaign for Ghost of a Tale came to a close. Jagged Alliance: Flashback earned the most money this week ($368,614), and had the most backers of the group, with 7,167 people funding the project. Theme Park Studio boasted the highest average pledge per person, with each funder averaging a $53.81. Take a gander at the results and our fancy charts after the break.
First Guns of Icarus Online adventure mode Kickstarter goal funded
Muse Games has issued a press release celebrating the successful Kickstarter campaign for Guns of Icarus Online's new adventure mode. The update will add "large-scale PvE combat, player and ship progression, and much more" to the co-op airship title. Muse is breaking down its ambitious plans into a series of funding pillars, the first of which is the AI director that will enable co-op and solo PvE missions to go along with the game's existing PvP. Next up is a world map with towns, trade routes, player factions, and a "fully dynamic resource economy." After that, Muse will focus on a set of world-building tools. Guns of Icarus Online is a steampunk-flavored airship combat game with a buy-to-play business model. You can learn more about the adventure mode goals at the project's Kickstarter page and more about the current live game via Massively's hands-on. [Source: Muse press release]
Guns of Icarus looking to kickstart persistent world expansion
If you're a fan of Guns of Icarus Online -- and you should be -- you'll probably want to know about Muse's new Kickstarter project. The steampunk multiplayer airship battler has been playable for quite a while now, but the dev team has long sought to fill out the game and the world by adding something called Adventure Mode. Adventure Mode will basically expand the lobby-based live game to a persistent world complete with towns, trading, and player factions. Enter Kickstarter, which Muse is currently leveraging to the tune of a $100,000 goal. As the project page notes, Muse is "one of the only studios to successfully complete a Kickstarter campaign and deliver on our promise with a shipped game that's currently being played by people all over the world." [Thanks Angela!]
Indie Royale Mash Bundle: Guns of Icarus Online, Strong Bad, more
Indie Royale's Mash Bundle is a hot, steaming pile of gaming goodness, including Guns of Icarus Online, Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People (yes, that Strong Bad), Kung Fu Strike: The Warrior's Rise, KRUNCH and Delve Deeper. Buy the bundle – by paying more than the minimum, as always – and also get DLC for Delve Deeper, and the KRUNCH wallpaper and original soundtrack. Pay more than $8 and grab the Parallel Processing album from Danimal Cannon and Zef.All games except for KRUNCH are available on Steam, and KRUNCH, Guns of Icarus Online and Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People support Mac as well as PC.
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Guns of Icarus Online
Indie developers are the starving artists of the video-game world, often brilliant and innovative, but also misunderstood, underfunded and more prone to writing free-form poetry on their LiveJournals. We believe they deserve a wider audience with the Joystiq Indie Pitch: This week, Howard Tsao, founder of Muse Games, talks semi-MMO, steampunk, co-op airship battles with Guns of Icarus Online. What's your game called and what's it about?Our game is called Guns of Icarus Online. It's a multiplayer airship-to-airship combat game where you battle it out in the skies on customizable ships with your friends and against other players, all set in a steampunk- and dieselpunk-inspired post-apocalyptic wasteland. Imagine if World War I never really ended; that's where we're at.How does Guns of Icarus Online continue the narrative and gameplay of Guns of Icarus?In the original game Guns of Icarus, you take on the role of Gabriel, who is basically an early pioneer of airship flight centuries after the Great War has laid waste to civilization. He builds his own airship out of scavenged parts and goes traveling across this hardscrabble post-apocalyptic landscape, visiting scattered settlements and fighting off sky pirates the whole way. Even though he doesn't survive the voyage, his doomed flight is an inspiration to the people he encounters, a brush of contact with the wider world and a sign of hope that things can get better.Guns of Icarus Online takes place almost 100 years later, when Gabriel has become a legendary, almost mythic figure. With the rapid development of airship flight in the intervening years, the once-isolated towns have come into much closer contact, bringing both trade and warfare. It's a time of unprecedented prosperity, but also renewed conflict. In Guns of Icarus Online you are one of this new class of aeronauts, young men and women who have left their hometowns behind and signed up to serve aboard one of these airships in search of glory and adventure, seeking your fortune in the skies.%Gallery-178189%
2012: The year of the MMO Kickstarter
Kickstarter is perhaps the biggest story in the world of gaming since the birth of the home video console or the integration of online components into consumer entertainment. No new product, innovation, or invention has carried with it such immense potential for shifting the way the industry plans, builds, and delivers its products. And with projects covering everything from hardware to companion apps, it's almost impossible now to imagine a gaming world without Kickstarter, even though it was our reality just a few short months ago. The legacy of Kickstarter is one that we're witnessing in real-time. Most of the major successful projects are slated for late 2013/early 2014 releases, giving us plenty of time to speculate on what may or may not go wrong with the crowd-funding model and the products it bears. Over the next year, games will either make it to market or they won't. Developers will squander their budgets or release on time. It's all up in the air. With that in mind, we thought now would be a good time to look back on some of the biggest MMO Kickstarter projects of 2012. The fate of some of these titles is inexorably tied to the fate of Kickstarter as a viable game-creating platform -- and maybe even crowd-sourcing as a whole.
MMO Burnout: Quality time with Guns of Icarus Online
Pardon me for being a fanboy, but I need to get this out of the way up front: Guns of Icarus Online is funking awesome. If you're OK with the fact that I couldn't make it past the 24th word of a 1000-word impressions piece without sharing that little nugget, keep reading and I'll tell you why this indie gem is in fact funking awesome... and why you should give it a whirl.%Gallery-173501%
Guns of Icarus Online launches its airships along with a trailer
Players looking forward to aerial combat aboard steampunk-inspired airships can now lift off and begin the battle. Guns of Icarus Online, a stand-alone Steam-based sequel to browser title Guns of Icarus, has officially launched. The game mixes team-based strategy and first-person shooter action, and with a crew compliment of up to four players, each airship is equipped to meet any challenge in the post-apocalyptic sky. Howard Tsao, owner of Muse Games, emphasized that the launch is only the beginning. He stated, "We have a great many promises yet to fulfill over the coming months as we continue to add content and improve player experience. The game is fun, making it even more fun will be our priority from this point forward and everything from new ships, weapons, costumes, maps, game modes, and PvE content is coming." Check out some images of the newly-launched game in the gallery below, and catch a glimpse of the action in the trailer after the break. [Source: Muse Games press release]%Gallery-169650%
Guns of Icarus Online soars to October 29 launch, pre-order now
Guns of Icarus Online, also known as That Video Game Where You Shoot Things From A Steampunk Dirigible, launches on October 29 and is available now for pre-order on Steam, for PC and Mac.Guns of Icarus Online is on sale during the pre-order frenzy, selling at 25 percent off for the standard edition, at $15. The Collectors Edition is 24 percent off, for $25, and includes the Captain's Costume Pack and the soundtrack. A Collectors Edition four-pack is also 24 percent off, for $35. Since Guns of Icarus Online is a team-based multiplayer game (on steampunk dirigibles, did we mention?), the four-pack is good for bullying friends into playing with you.All pre-orders provide instant access to the beta. Get flying, folks.%Gallery-166178%
