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Robotoki closes shop, Human Element on 'hiatus'
Robert Bowling's Robotoki has closed up shop, Joystiq has confirmed. "This week we have ceased operations at Robotoki and the development of Human Element is on hiatus," Bowling told us in a statement. "We were actively negotiating a new publishing deal for the premium version of Human Element but unfortunately I was unable to continue to self-fund development until a deal was finalized." Bowling opened up the studio in 2012, after being the creative strategist and hype man for Call of Duty at Infinity Ward. The latest update on Human Element came two months ago when it was announced the class-based, apocalyptic zombie survival game would no longer be free to play when it launched on PC in November 2015. Update: Robotoki have posted a farewell blog post and video.
Human Element set for Nov. 2015, Ouya prequel canceled
Human Element, the first-personal survival game from Robert Bowling's studio, Robotoki, will launch in November 2015 on PC, Bowling confirmed on Twitter. He added that the Ouya-bound prequel to the game was canceled "early on" as the developer shifted its focus to the CryEngine-based PS4 and Xbox One versions of the open-world game, which don't currently have a release date. Bowling left Call of Duty developer Infinity Ward in April 2012 to open Robotoki and announced Human Element in June 2012. The Ouya prequel was revealed soon after in July, at which point Bowling donated $10,000 to the microconsole manufacturer. The Human Element prequel was also slated to be the first console exclusive game for Ouya. [Image: Robotoki]
Former Call of Duty strategist Robert Bowling foils late-night Robotoki robbery
Former Call of Duty series Creative Strategist Robert Bowling played a heroic role in an attempted robbery last night at the Robotoki offices, scaring off a pair of burglars during a late-night shift. An on-site security video captures the dramatic encounter in its entirety. In a matter of seconds, the office's front doors were smashed in, and the burglars entered. Upon seeing Bowling leap toward them, the robbers then beat a hasty retreat. "Unfortunately for them, I work late," Bowling quipped. The robbery marks the second time police have visited the Robotoki offices in the last year, as LAPD officers stormed the building in 2013 after a designer accidentally tripped its silent alarm system. Bowling, again the sole employee remaining in the building at the time, was taken into temporary custody while officers engaged in a brief standoff with a window-facing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 statue. While Bowling can apparently get away with these kind of superheroics unscathed, foiling robberies on your own is inadvisable, even if you've played thousands of hours of Call of Duty and have devised a series of burglar-snaring traps, à la Home Alone. Sometimes, though, the element of surprise is enough to save the day.
Robotoki's platformer starring a narcoleptic child, The Adventures of Dash
Robotoki is keeping busy: It's working on a zombie survival romp called Human Element, a prequel to that game for the Ouya, and now has a Kickstarter for a cute 2D platformer, The Adventures of Dash. The Kickstarter has 30 days to raise $400,000. If it reaches its goal, Robotoki wants to launch the game in seven months, in November of this year.Led by former Infinity Ward man Robert Bowling, Robotoki's The Adventures of Dash is a side-scrolling puzzle platformer – for PC, Mac, Linux, Ouya, iOS, Android and consoles – starring Dash, a 9-year-old boy with narcolepsy.Dash falls asleep anywhere and for any reason, including at school, in his lunch, while on a walk and in all manner of slightly dangerous situations. When he dreams, the art style of the game changes along with the gameplay. The Adventures of Dash pulls art from a range of 2D artists and throws it all into one game under a semi-seamless plot device.Robotoki hopes to launch Dash on PC, Mac, Linux and Ouya in November, and will then work on building touchscreen controls for mobile. Profit from these initial sales will fund console development, though if the Kickstarter raises more than $400,000, the extra cash will be used to develop and ship console versions day-and-date with the first group.%Gallery-180410%
Robert Bowling producing Breach and Clear, coming to iOS
Robert Bowling is the former "creative strategist" at Infinity Ward, the developer studio that original created the enormously popular Call of Duty series over on the major consoles. A little while ago, he left that company (after some turmoil between the founders and publisher Activision) to start up his own endeavor, called Robotoki, which is working on a game set to arrive on mobile platforms like iOS called Human Element. But apparently that's not all Bowling's up to: He's also working with a publisher named Gun on an upcoming iOS game called Breach and Clear. We don't know a lot about this one yet, but it does look very impressive: It's a tactical, Special Operations shooter that's set to be free to play and feature a lot of customization and even real world gear. The game is set up a series of scenarios, where you'll be able to pick a loadout and team, and then go in and tactically take an opposing team of terrorists down. Sounds fun. Bowling is apparently producing this one, though it doesn't seem to be associated with his Robotoki studio. At any rate, we shouldn't have long to wait for this one: Breach and Clear is due out sometime later on this spring. As soon as we get to see some gameplay (or an exact release date), we'll let you know.
Robert Bowling on backing Ouya, the episodic nature of Human Element
Now that former Infinity Ward creative strategist Robert Bowling is free from the corporate machine, he's jumping into the independent innovation scene full-force. Bowling recently donated $10,000 to the Ouya and announced a prequel to his studio's first game, Human Element, as the console's first confirmed, exclusive title."Could I have made this decision a year ago working on Call of Duty? Possibly not," Bowling tells Venture Beat. "But this is what being independent, being small, and being nimble is all about. We're able to make commitments like these and take bigger risks. And what I like about Ouya and what encouraged me to commit to it was the fact that Ouya is different."Bowling formed Robotoki as an answer to the mainstream, public studios, and Human Element will be able to play with more formats in more creative ways than, say, popular military shooters generally do."What's important, what we're showing with Ouya, what we're doing on mobile, and what we're planning for 2015 is an experience that will adapt and change based on the device you're engaging with," Bowling says. "So what we're doing on mobile is very different from what we're planning on doing with the at-home experience in 2015, and it will be very different from the episodic content that we're bringing exclusively to Ouya."The at-home iteration of Human Element will be a first-person survival title with heavy RPG elements. On a tablet, Human Element will focus more on strategy and resource management, sharing supplies and stats with the home game but playing as an independent experience. Human Element is episodic, and Robotoki would like to launch an installment every six months leading up to the full game's 2015 release window, but "right now, things are very early."Bowling draws influence for Human Element from Cormac McCarthy's The Road, a cancelled BBC series called Survivors and a novel that Bowling himself started writing, The Parents' Guide to a Zombie Apocalypse. "It's rather heavy," Bowling says. That must be the hardcover version.
OUYA console's first exclusive game is 'Human Element' prequel from former Call of Duty maker
After all the excitement from the Yves Behar-designed OUYA console's massive Kickstarter campaign fades away, like every other console it will be judged on the quality of its games we finally have the name of one. Robotoki president Robert Bowling -- best known as @fourzerotwo on Twitter and formerly as a producer from Infinity Ward for the Call of Duty series -- has announced plans to bring an "episodic prequel" to the company's first game Human Element exclusively to OUYA. While not much is known about Human Element yet other than that it's a survival game set in a zombie apocalypse scheduled for release in 2015, although Bowling is promising OUYA backers will get exclusive access to updates during development. He can also be counted among that group, cheerfully noting in a video along with the announcement that he's contributed $10,000 to the cause. That's one project on the list -- any bets on which developer will be next to hitch their game to the bandwagon?
Ouya's first exclusive game: a prequel to Robert Bowling's 'Human Element'
Of the many things we've heard about Ouya, we've yet to hear any developers straight up announce games for the Android-based, $99 console. Robert Bowling's Robotoki just became the first studio to do so, taking to Ouya's Kickstarter page to announce a prequel to his planned 2015 game, Human Element."Robotoki is the first studio to commit to building a game exclusively for Ouya: an episodic prequel that will set the stage for this eventual release of Human Element in 2015," Ouya CEO Julie Uhrman explains in the update. Human Element is a survival game set in – what else? – the zombie apocalypse. It's the first game from Robert Bowling's Robotoki studio, and the first project Bowling's worked on since exiting Call of Duty: Modern Warfare developer Infinity Ward earlier this year. It's unclear how this prequel will differ from the final game in terms of gameplay, but then we hardly know anything about Human Element just yet.Beyond the game announcement, Bowling shows his commitment to Ouya financially as well, saying in a video on the Kickstarter page that he personally donated $10,000 to the project. Which we guess sorta means that Activision inadvertently donated $10,000 to the project. Which is kinda weird.
How Bowling's 'Human Element' brings real places into the zombie world
Human Element, the first game from Robert Bowling's Robotoki, will use Google Maps and Foursquare overlays to add a real-life tie in to its iPad iteration, which will in turn feed back into the "main" game. Bowling gave the example of hunting for medical supplies."You don't want to risk going out to forage in the game world, or maybe you did and can't find anything," he told GamesIndustry.biz, "but you know that there's a pharmacy four miles down the road in the real world. So you go out and you're out and about in the real world. You open up Human Element on your iPad. We're overlaying the world of Human Element onto the Googlemaps API, FourSquare business API, we're taking your real world and merging it with your game world." Bowling claimed this would be possible anywhere GPS data was available.Bowling also suggested that connected experiences like the iPad game would begin to tell the Human Element story before the 2015 release date of the console game. "The 2015 deadline is the at-home, console experience. That experience, from a story standpoint, takes place 30 years after the event, after the apocalypse," he explained. "We can engage you in that universe a week, a month, a year after that event. Maybe through mobile, maybe through titles on the arcade, maybe through PSN, handheld titles. We can start telling that story leading up to that big event in 2015 where we tie them all together."
Human Element is Robotoki's first game, slated for 2015
Robert Bowling's new outfit Robotoki has revealed its first project and ... it's a zombie game. Human Element revolves around survivors in the zombie apocalypse. Players must choose from three different classes (Action, Intelligence and Stealth) and three different identity profiles: Survive Alone, Survive with a Partner and Survive with a Young Child."Their greatest strength is the fear that [zombies] instill in us, the survivors, that unreasonable fear. Unreasonable fear that leads us to do unreasonable things to survive," Bowling told Game Informer. "How you choose to start in the world will determine how you can engage and impacts the scenarios you will be presented with on a physical and morality level."Don't expect to play Human Element anytime soon, though. Human Element is slated to launch in 2015 for next-generation consoles, mobile, tablets and PC. Game Informer's July issue has a four-page spread on Bowling and Human Element.
Ex-IGNer Tina Palacios replacing Bowling as Infinity Ward community manager
When Call of Duty's main public face, Robert Bowling, left his longtime spot as creative strategist at Infinity Ward earlier this year, he left a tank-sized hole in the studio. Though she's small in stature, ex-IGN/1UP community manager Tina Palacios aims to fill that spot in the coming days, IGN reports.Palacios is taking up the job of "senior community manager" at Infinity Ward – the studio that created the Modern Warfare series, but is most recently known for a nasty legal battle involving its former creative leads."I can't say what my official duties are yet," Palacios told us. "But I definitely want to bridge the gap between devs and fans – making sure their voices are heard." There'll be some adjustment of course, she admitted. "The amount of comments I'll receive will probably be much larger than I've experienced at IGN or 1UP, but I'll still do my best." We imagine it won't be too long before we hear more from her. Say, oh, seven to eight months from now? Just a guess.
Call of Duty's Robert Bowling opens game studio for next gen, Robotoki
This is an unexpected respawn. Robert "FourZeroTwo" Bowling, creative strategist and hype man for Call of Duty at Infinity Ward, who abruptly quit a month ago, is running the show at his own game development studio called Robotoki.Bowling tells Game Informer that Robotoki is focused on being a "developer development studio that just happens to make games." What? He continues, "We are focused on our team first and everything else second, because I believe as an industry, we have a lot to learn on how to treat talent. While we continue to out stride film and music entertainment in other areas, we are falling severely behind in how to properly inspire and support our creative talent."What about making money?Bowling said Robotoki is self-funded, working only with partners who support that model, where creative vision holders have complete control over the work. The company's first project will be revealed later this year and is targeted for next generation console, PC and mobile devices. Oh, Bowling is also hiring.
Call of Duty creative strategist Robert 'FourZeroTwo' Bowling departs Infinity Ward [update: Activision responds]
Longtime hype man for the Call of Duty franchise, Robert Bowling, has resigned from Infinity Ward and Activision today. Robert "FourZeroTwo" Bowling, who served as creative strategist for Call of Duty and lead at Infinity Ward, just announced his resignation via Twitter. He has yet to announce where he is going next.Bowling stayed on at Infinity Ward following the mass exodus of staff who would go on to form Respawn Entertainment in 2010.Update: Here's Activision's official comment on the news: "We sincerely thank Robert for his many years of service. He's been a trusted and valued member of the Infinity Ward team. We wish him all the best on his decision to pursue future opportunities."
Infinity Ward's Robert Bowling 'happy' with MW3 holiday sales, sees the game as closure to Soap story
Robert Bowling, Infinity Ward's creative strategist and face of the Call of Duty series, is excellent at his job, in that he knows how not to answer questions directly. It's a skill set shared by all variety of politicians, and not one prized among journalists. Why bother explaining this? Because when I asked Bowling about holiday sales of his studio's latest game, Modern Warfare 3, I wasn't surprised when he gave the company line ("I don't have any numbers I can share with you"), though he did allow, "I'm happy." Presumably we'll find out just how happy Bowling is when last month's NPDs arrive in a couple weeks. Rather than push the unspeakable, I turned my attention to more open topics, such as Modern Warfare 3's finale wrapping up the story of series leads John "Soap" MacTavish and Captain John Price. "Our goal with Modern Warfare 3 was definitely to get some closure on the story that we started with Call of Duty 4, and I think we've achieved that," Bowling said. While he wouldn't put a definitive end to their inclusion in the series, he did admit that MW3's campaign was intended as closure on the duo's story. That said, Bowling doesn't want to say "never" to the concept of either character reappearing in future CoD entries. "I never like to speak in definites when it comes to story design, because you never wanna not have an opening or an out," he told me. And hey, if Danny Trejo can appear as a DLC character, anything could happen, right?
Five Modern Warfare 3 DLC drops planned for next three months, 20 total over next nine months
On January 24, this year's Call of Duty DLC season kicks off on Xbox Live with other platforms to follow. Elite subscribers on Xbox 360 will have first access the new content as part of their paid membership. Infinity Ward's Robert Bowling confirmed with Joystiq the content schedule for Modern Warfare 3 and it's unsurprisingly extensive. Following the first multiplayer maps later this month ("Liberation" and "Piazza"), the plan is to offer five total DLC packages over the course of the next three months. Within the next nine months, up to September, there should be a total of 20 pieces of downloadable content available to players. A "Content Collection" in March will bundle the previously released DLC on Xbox Live for non-Elite users. "The first pack is traditional multiplayer maps, but we want to do Spec Ops missions, missions, Spec-Ops Survival, new game types, new game modes, and really look at adding things that we've never done before," Bowling said. He said that the focus across all three studios involved -- Infinity Ward, Sledgehammer Games and Raven Software -- has been to experiment with the formula this time around, to offer players content other than map pack dumps. "We said just do what you think is gonna be good. Do what's fun and, as long is fits in the Modern Warfare universe, try it! Experiment with it, and we'll take the best of the best and start polishing it up and releasing it. So that's really where our focus has been," Bowling concluded.
First Modern Warfare 3 DLC drops January 24 on Xbox [update: first screen]
Speaking on the Call of Duty Elite program, "Roll Call," Infinity Ward community guru Robert Bowling revealed that the first batch of Modern Warfare 3 DLC will be available next month. Specifically, Bowling announced that the "full season of content for Modern Warfare 3 kicks off for Elite subscribers January 24th on Xbox Live." As usual, expect the DLC to remain exclusive to Xbox for some time before launching on PS3 and PC. Bowling didn't drop details on what the first batch of content would contain, though he did hint MW3 DLC would cover a wide spectrum, including Spec Ops and "a variety of things that players have never seen before." All of this is made possible by the massive development team, featuring Infinity Ward, Sledgehammer and Raven Software. Oh, and if you're having trouble finding this particular video on Call of Duty Elite, it might be because it's in the Elite TV section, which is reserved for premium (read: "paid") members. Update: Bowling has tweeted an image from the upcoming DLC, a map known simply as "Park." It's worth mentioning that Park was mentioned in a rumored leak late last month. Other maps mentioned included Overwatch, Cement, Italy and (ahem) Morningwood.
Modern Warfare 3 adds Community Playlists, title update
Modern Warfare 3 players are in for a few treats today. First off, Activision's blockbuster has been updated with multiplayer playlist tweaks and an entirely new mode. Dubbed "Drop Zone," the latter tasks players with capturing and holding a ... drop zone. The team with the most players in the zone will receive a care package every fifteen seconds. The twist: Earning care packages is the only way to achieve pointstreaks. Drop Zone marks the first entry in the new Community Playlists section, which will play host to "popular or unique private match modes" created by users themselves. The second playlist change is the addition of Hardcore Headquarters Ricochet to the Hardcore playlist. Furthermore, all Hardcore modes will now feature ricochet, meaning that all friendly fire will be reflected back to the attacker. In other words: Shooting a teammate is basically shooting yourself. Finally, Infinity Ward community guru Robert Bowling has tweeted that a title update will be available today to address "Host Disadvantage" / "Lag Compensation."
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 bans affect 1,600+ users
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 isn't a safe place for anyone on the business end of a sniper shot or cheats. MW3 community czar Robert Bowling recently announced on Twitter that Activision issued over 1,600 bans and reiterated "any attempt to cheat, hack, or glitch in [Modern Warfare 3] will not be tolerated." "Reporting [cheaters] in-game through [Modern Warfare 3] goes directly to our security team, who issues the bans directly after verifying," Bowling noted. "Every ban unique to the level of douchiness of the offense. The greater the douche, the greater the length. PermaDouche possible." We appreciate the effort Activision apparently goes through to keep each ban fresh and clean. Last week, Battlefield 3 went through a similar cleansing.
Modern Warfare 3 'Hardened' Edition contents solidified
In case this week's report regarding the contents of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3's "Hardened" Edition weren't proof enough for you, Infinity Ward creative strategist Robert Bowling confirmed them during this afternoon's Call of Duty XP opening keynote in Los Angeles. As previously noted, the bundle will contain a one-year CoD Elite membership ($50 value), various in-game content bonuses, and it comes in a fancy metal case. Its cost, however, is still unknown, but previous CoD "Hardened" versions have launched at $79.99. We'll keep an eye on retailer sites for the edition, which is said to be popping up for pre-order any minute.
Modern Warfare 3 multiplayer preview: Killer streaks
Call of Duty XP is currently underway in Los Angeles, CA. Last night, before the big event kicked off, Activision treated the press to a reveal of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3's multiplayer component. We'll jump you right to the bottom line: The core gameplay itself is a whole lot like the rest of the Call of Duty series, in that you grab a couple of weapons, sprint around a map, and try to shoot the bad guys as much as you can. Where Modern Warfare 3's multiplayer differentiates itself, however, is outside of the actual game. In fact, says Infinity Ward's Community Manager-turned Creative Strategist Robert Bowling, the real steps forward in MW3 aren't in the game -- they're in the platform. "We designed it specifically to be that kind of experience," he says. "To basically go from designing a game to designing a platform that allows the widest audience possible to have fun any way they want to have fun. That was a major goal of Modern Warfare 3." There are indeed multiple examples of that in the build playable at CoD XP this weekend. Infinity Ward has tweaked the metagame quite a bit, and made it possible to play the new sequel while chasing more than just a great K/D ratio.
