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The artists behind the SNES cart art in Gone Home
In your search for clues in Gone Home's big ol' house, you may have spotted a few forgotten games in the cupboard. The fictional SNES games of yesteryear were each concocted by established video game artists. Adventurous The Cat Returns, created by Double Fine artist Lee Perry, is the easiest cartridge to find, developer The Fullbright Company notes in a blog post. Perry's directive was to create "an overly 'cool' Bubsy-esque character" and we'd say he nailed it. Journey of Crystal, seen above, was clearly created by Supergiant Games art director Jenn Lee. This hypothetical JRPG sequel to Secret of Time Crystal is chock full of the fantastical, with a towering castle beckoning off in the distance. Check out the Fullbright post for the rest. Gone Home, currently available for PC, Mac and Linux on Steam, has you returning home after a year abroad, only to find no one there to greet you and a cryptic note on the door. You explore and examine the house interior to piece together the story of the people who live there.
Lili hops to iOS on September 21, supports new iPod Touch
Lili, the upcoming adventure game/RPG hybrid from BitMonster Games, will be launched on iOS devices on September 21 – the same day the iPhone 5 and new iPod Touch arrive. In addition to a launch date, BitMonster has also revealed Lili will support the new iPod Touch line.BitMonster Games is a studio composed of six industry veterans who left Epic Games to get into indie development. Lili is the studio's first game, built on Unreal Engine 3. Lee Perry, president of BitMonster, says the new hardware "allows us to bring a visual fidelity that is unmatched" to other games running Unreal Engine 3 on iOS. "We think Lili is a great first project, and we couldn't be prouder of what six guys in one room have been able to accomplish in only seven months," he said.
Gears of War 3 lead gameplay designer out at Epic, founds BitMonster Games
When Gears of War 3 senior gameplay designer Lee Perry isn't busy explaining that he's not an elderly rocksteady artist, he's apparently starting new game studios with buddies from Epic Games. His new studio, BitMonster Games, is comprised of several ex-Epic staffers, and the team is already hard at work on an iOS RPG/adventure game named "Lili." And yes, that means he's no longer working on Epic Games' ... games.Given the team's past experience, it's no surprise that BitMonster is licensing Unreal Engine 3 for Lili (and future products, presumably). The game's already got a (fairly impressive) trailer for the game put together, which we've dropped above.Perry and Epic can't help but exchange some mutual back pattery in the announcement, with Perry saying, "Epic has been extremely supportive of our new studio and in helping us build the game of our dreams." Epic is equally excited about the situation, saying, "Given this team's crazy mix of passion, talent and chemistry, and with the latest Unreal Engine tools in their hands, BitMonster has a winning recipe for success." It's unclear when Lili will arrive on the iOS App Store, but we'll let you know as soon as we know more.
Gears of War 3 maps will be brighter, thanks to Gears 2 data
Gears of War 3 senior gameplay designer, Lee Perry, has revealed a surprising trend in the gameplay habits of Gears-heads. He told OXM UK that the most-played Gears 2 maps have one thing in common: They're bright. "You can almost rank how much [maps are] played by how bright they are," Perry told OXM. "The darker, dreary, more depressing maps tend to be on the bottom." Hmm, maybe if they weren't so dreary or depressing? Perry said this knowledge has served Epic well in developing next April's holiday's Gears 3. The third installment sports a new lighting model, which has helped in the creation of brighter maps. "Even the maps that are 'dark,' they're 'movie dark,'" he explained. "It just means they're more blue than dark." You know, blue can still be pretty darned dreary and depressing -- just saying! Additionally, comments from lead multiplayer level designer Jim Brown suggest Gears 3 might rethink how it presents downloadable maps to users. The Gears of War 2 Flashback map pack, bundled with all new copies of that game at launch, was downloaded by less than 30 percent of the people who played the game -- a figure that puzzles Brown. "It was free, in the box, they just never bothered to do it," he said. "Is it a matter of accessibility? Is it people don't like typing in a 16-digit code? What's the reason?" We'll posit that it was actually because most people never took the manual out of the case.
Gears of War 3 multiplayer preview: In the Trenches
While you will have to wait an extra five months to get the full version of Gears of War 3 at retail, Epic Games is offering up a concession in the form of a free multiplayer public beta. You'll be able to check out the new multiplayer well before the game ships, although Epic has not released the exact date yet. And the extra development time will allow the developer to take full advantage of feedback from players and implement that information into the final version of the game. "A big part of what we're trying to do is embrace the different play styles that people have, so this public beta is going to be a very big chance for us to throw it out in the wild and see how well we've met the needs of what players want in order to use different tactics," said Lee Perry, senior gameplay designer, Epic Games. Epic held an open house, showing off its newly expanded digs in Cary, North Carolina and offering a first taste and hands-on gameplay with a trio of multiplayer maps – Checkout, Trenches and Overpass. Each map showcases a different aspect of gameplay strategy: Checkout is set inside a large market; Trenches is a map focused on trench warfare that has a large hill at its central point that leads to a very powerful sniper position; Overpass is a section of street with buildings on one side and a bus stop on the other with a large overpass dividing the two sides of the road. %Gallery-104482%
