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Humble Flash Bundle features Aaaaa! creator Dejobaan
AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! ...is what you might say upon learning that you can purchase the majority of Dejobaan Games' PC catalog for $8 as part of today's Humble Flash Sale. Pay any amount for the package and you'll get Dejobaan's skydiving sim Aaaaa! - A Reckless Disregard for Gravity and Katamari-like The Wonderful End of the World. Beat the average purchase price (currently $4.95) and you'll also get Aaaaa!'s Brutal Concussion DLC, sequel Aaaaa! for the Awesome, and Monster Loves You! Buyers who pay $8 or more will additionally receive a copy of Dejobaan's latest game, Drunken Robot Pornography. The bundle will only be available through tomorrow, so jump on it fast if you want a safe outlet for your screamy skydiving fantasies. [Image: Dejobaan Games]
Thoughtful Bundle: Fieldrunners, Reckless Disregard for Gravity and more
Indie Royale's Thoughtful Bundle is live, and features five different PC and Mac games for a pay-the-minimum price, which is currently $5.46. Included in the bundle are Snapshot by Retro Affect, Cognition Episode 2: The Wise Monkey by Phoenix Online Studios, AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! - A Reckless Disregard for Gravity by Dejobaan Games, Subatomic Studios' Fieldrunners and Snuggle Truck from Owlchemy Labs. Buyers that fork over at least $8 will also receive Night Animals, a chiptune album by Bright Primate.The Thoughtful Bundle will be available on Indie Royale's site until Saturday, March 23.
AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! for iOS on sale for a buck
Dejobaan's AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! (Force = Mass x Acceleration) is dropping its price to $0.99.The universal iOS app, regularly priced at $2.99, is tossing its regular price "in honor of the 25th anniversary of the first successful base jump from the Eiffel Tower by a Ukrainian woman's alto choir." We'd fact check that but, frankly, our intern took the day off and it's taken us all day to figure out the k-cup machine.The Dejobaan crew will be at PAX this weekend as part of the Indie Megabooth. The team will show off new games Drop That Beat Like an Ugly Baby, Drunken Robot Pornography and Monster Loves You!
'Aaaaa!!!' plummets onto iOS 'February 30'
Dejobaan's AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! for the Awesome drops into the iOS App Store next week as AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! (Force = Mass x Acceleration). The game will launch on March 1 as a $2.99 universal app. Meaning, you pay once and play it on your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad.Having had some hands-on time with the mobile version recently, the iPad experience can be particularly intense. The tilt controls are super intuitive -- since you're falling and trying to avoid buildings -- and I found myself tilting my head to avoid scraping against buildings. The size of the screen and focus on the experience started making everything else around me fade away.For a less intense, but still enjoyable game, the iPhone version feels like guiding an object through space instead of yourself.%Gallery-148245%
'Aaaaa!!! for the Awesome' dropped on PC, Mac
Dejobaan Games and Owlchemy Labs have launched a "semi-sequel" to AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!!-- A Reckless Disregard for Gravity, entitled AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! for the Awesome -- or just "Awesome" for short. With the original game's code rebuilt from the ground up, the follow-up adds a "new lighting system and fancy shader effects," along with 43 new levels and the 82 levels from the original game. It's available on Steam for $9.99. Officially, the game has only been announced for PC and Mac, but since Dejobaan teamed up with Owlchemy Labs on the project, the studio that created Snuggle Truck, an iOS version might drop in at some point.
Aaaaa! devs holding art contest for 'semi-sequel'
Dejobaan Games is creating a follow-up to its brilliantly titled BASE jumping simulator, AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!!-- A Reckless Disregard for Gravity, and it needs your help to make it perfect. The studio is holding a contest for fans to create billboards out of public images and clever catchphrases, and submit them before this Friday, September 30. The winner will not only win a copy of the heretofore unannounced "semi-sequel," their billboard will actually appear in the game. You can find out more details about the contest on Dejobaan's site. Frankly, we'd be more interested in a contest to come up with a name for the sequel -- we'd probably go with AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA TwoOoooOo: Gesundheit!
OnLive now working over Wi-Fi, announces 'Indie Fest'
OnLive has begun rolling out support for Wi-Fi connections to its cloud gaming service. So sure is the company that it can offer lag free streaming of game content that it is bringing Wi-Fi support to subscribers before it planned to. Support is still in beta, but most OnLive members are supposed to see the fuctionality available sometime this month. OnLive users with questions can get answers from this FAQ. Additionally, the company has announced an initiative to support indie games on the service, offering its developer tools and SDK to independent game companies to sell their titles to subscribers. This coming weekend, OnLive is holding an "Indie Fest," offering discounts of up to 75% on great indie games like World of Goo, Trine, and AaaaaAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! We would like to know how offering indie games for cheap means you're supporting the developers, but it's cool -- we don't understand how the whole streaming things works so well either.
OnLive: The first few weeks
Much like reviewing an MMO, I didn't really feel comfortable "reviewing" OnLive and I don't know that I ever will. I can (and will) make a handful of declarative statements about my feelings on the service as it stands right now, but, like an MMO, sweeping changes could occur tomorrow that obliviate all previous statements. That said, as of right now, OnLive works. In my experience with the service -- on both coasts and three major US cities -- it was quick, responsive, and relatively free of bugs (though I did encounter a couple). And demos are available for almost every game, so I put at least a bit of time in with nearly every title currently playable. Dirt 2 with DirectX 11 running on my 10-month-old (Apple!) laptop? Speeds along without a hitch. Unreal Tournament 3? No issues (well, other than not finding anyone to play against outside of bots). I was also able to hook up a wired Xbox 360 controller without any additional installation and it worked flawlessly -- the Xbox guide button even brought up the OnLive guide and auto-paused games (madness!). And though I probably wouldn't suggest OnLIve for hardcore, twitch gamers -- and neither would the company itself -- I would absolutely recommend it to everyone else.%Gallery-48489%
OnLive giving 30% discount on all games and rentals for the Fourth
We're just as easily drawn into the shame spiral that is buying games we don't have any time to play as the next guy -- especially when a tremendous sale is involved -- so when we offer up news that every game available through OnLive is currently 30 percent off, we have to be a little wary. Sure, it's great for those among us with "self restraint" (or whatever) who'll simply purchase one or two titles and not go totally bananas, but what of us folks with ... control issues? Well, yeah, we suppose there's always the rental options being equivalently discounted. Thankfully, the sale only lasts through Monday (at 11:59PM ET), otherwise we might end up with another two or three copies of AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! -- A Reckless Disregard for Gravity ... which is only $7, by the way. Dammit!
Sign up for Dejobaan Fan Club, receive free game
Indie studio Dejobaan Games, best known for AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! -- A Reckless Disregard for Gravity, is giving out a free game when folks sign up for its "Free, Sexy Dejobaan Fan Club." The studio tells us that the fan club, for which over 1,000 have registered since PAX East, will also grant participants access to future alphas and betas. Because, if you're a true fan, you'll help with the bug testing process for free and love the studio anyway. In addition to the free game, those who sign up will also receive a song by studio founder Ichiro Lambe. Although the studio hasn't announced its next "real" game yet, it is currently "very strongly prototyping" the Musorqua project.
Dejobaan looking to branch out to other platforms, strongly prototyping Musorqua
AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! -- A Reckless Disregard for Gravity developer Dejobaan Games is looking to take a "derivative of Aaaaa" to other platforms. Studio founder Ichiro Lambe told us at DICE, "Over the course of 2010, we want to investigate branching out both to mobile, we're talking about iPhone and Android, and also Wii and Xbox development." One of those titles taking the multiplatform walkabout would likely be Musorqua, which Lambe describes as a game the studio is "very strongly prototyping." He explained, "If that works, that's the direction we're going to take if people are excited, if the press is excited about it, if it excites us. If not, we're going to tweak that a bit." He also said that they'll "definitely" be showing it off at PAX East next month.
Independent Games Festival 2010 finalists announced
The contenders for the 12th Annual Independent Games Festival awards have been announced today -- you can find the full list of finalists after the jump. In addition to the Seamus McNally Grand Prize (nominees for which include Joe Danger and Super Meat Boy), there are specialized categories recognizing excellence in art, design, audio, and technical achievement. There's also the Nuovo Award, which honors "abstract, shortform, and unconventional game development." Previous winners of the Nuovo include N+ co-creator Mare Sheppard and Passage developer Jason Rohrer. We find ourselves particularly invested in this year's awards show, as -- deep breath now -- AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! -- A Reckless Disregard For Gravity was nominated for Excellence in Design. We've got, like, a million jokes we still want to make about that game title, but we're running out of opportunities to do so.
AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! coming to Steam on Sept. 3
AAAaaAaaaAAaaAAAAaaaAA!! No, that's not the name of the game -- don't you remember the spelling lesson we gave you when the title was first announced? That's just an excited exclamation we howled upon seeing this terrific piece of news: Dejobaan's BASE jumping simulator/recipient of Joystiq's Title of the Year 2009 award, AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! -- A Reckless Disregard for Gravity is coming to SteaaaAAAaaAaam on September 3. If you're hoping to get the jump (nailed it!) on the game's release, you can pre-order the title now and get 10 percent off the game's $14.99 price tag. In addition, pre-orders will receive Dejobaan's earlier title, The Wonderful End of the World, for free. It looks like a fairly competent Katamari Damacy clone -- though its moniker could definitely use some work. Seriously, it doesn't even have any seemingly random capitalization or exclamation points. Boo-riiing.
Title of the Year: Dejobaan's AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!!
Now, for the sake of clarity, we should explain what we mean when we say "title of the year". Dejobaan's upcoming BASE jumping simulator, which resembles a mash-up of Mirror's Edge and Pilotwings (check out a gameplay demo after the jump), doesn't really look like GOTY material (or GOTW material, for that matter). However, the game's moniker is pure brilliance: AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! -- A Reckless Disregard for Gravity. The game's designers suggest that the press truncate the title to a mere Aaaaa! but we won't be doing that. AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! is set to drop (har) in Q3 2009 on PCs. We probably won't pick it up (our preferred sports rarely get more extreme than ping pong) but we'll defend that title to our graves. Get it straight people -- it's one big "A", four little "a"s, two big "A"s, three little "a"s, three big "A"s, two little "a"s, four big "A"s, one little "a", five big "A"s and three exclamation points. It's not that hard to remember.
