Brandon-Boyer
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Devolver Digital on mixing indie movies and games for charity
If its recent Humble Bundle proves anything, it's that Devolver isn't settling for a footprint in one entertainment medium. With its games and a series of indie films on offer in the latest bundle, Devolver mixed its two passions in the pay-what-you-want, charity-driven Humble Bundle series. Devolver's Nigel Lowrie says the company is attempting to do for film what it has done in the indie game publishing space. "We're mostly known for games but Mike Wilson, one of the partners here, is also very much into independent film and trying to replicate a lot of what we do for games on the film side, and so we have Devolver Films now," Lowrie tells Joystiq. "The Humble people have been really cool and they let us experiment. So the idea was, 'Lets try out games and films together and see if that works,' and it lined up with some charities we wanted to help." The Devolver Double Debut Bundle supports The Film Collaborative, a non-profit "committed to distribution education and facilitation of independent film" and the GoFundMe campaign for the cancer treatment of Independent Games Festival chairman Brandon Boyer.
Devolver Humble Bundle has games, films; supports Brandon Boyer
The Devolver Digital Double Debut bundle offers a mix of screen-based activities – five games and five movies – now through March 16. It's hosted by Humble Bundle, so some items are available for whatever price you want, and others unlock if you pay more than a certain amount, this time $10. Available for any price are the games Duke Nukem 3D: Megaton Edition and Shadow Warrior Classic Redux, plus the movies Austin High, The Poisoning and One Couch at a Time. Pay more than $10 to also snag the games Defense Technica, Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure and Cosmic DJ, and the films MARS and Good Game. This bundle marks the debuts of Cosmic DJ and Good Game. Cosmic DJ is a music-creation game designed for everyone to pick up and play, regardless of musical competence, and it's available now DRM-free on PC and Mac. Purchase will include a Steam key once the game launches there. Good Game is an independent documentary from Nine Hour Films that chronicles a year on the premiere pro gaming team, Evil Geniuses. Payments are distributed among Humble, the developers and charity, and this time the charity hits close to home for many developers. Proceeds from the bundle can go to the Brandon Boyer Cancer Treatment Relief gofundme campaign – Boyer is chairman of the Independent Games Festival and founder of game culture site Venus Patrol. Great games and a great cause, at whatever price you wish. [Image: Brandon Boyer]
IGF 2014 axes Technical Excellence category, ups finalists minimum to six
Independent Games Festival Chairman Brandon Boyer revealed new policies for IGF 2014 after the festival opened to submissions last week. The removal of the Technical Excellence category stands as this year's most significant change. Boyer says the decision stems from the "rise of widespread, affordable middleware [that] has, if not leveled the playing field, then at least given many equal footing from which to begin." Additionally, the previous minimum number of five finalists in a category has been bumped up to six. The Student Showcase and Nuovo Award (which rewards innovation) will remain at eight finalists, however, and honorable mentions will still be named for each award. Last year's decision to restrict IGF finalists from re-submitting the same project to future festivals also remains in place. Boyer asks that any questions concerning these changes be directed to "chairman [at] igf [dot] com." Submissions for IGF 2014 will be accepted until October 19 for the Main Competition and until October 31 for the Student Competition.
Indie game site Venus Patrol takes off
Venus Patrol, the long-in-progress independent game news site by IGF chair Brandon Boyer, is now live, with a lovely design by Cory Schmitz (who most recently did art direction work for Sound Shapes, and designed our "Setup" shirt).The site takes an interesting approach to fundraising and comment moderation: if you want to comment, you have to pay $3 a month (or $25 a year) for a subscription. In addition to membership to the comment club, you also get lots of exclusive content from Vlambeer, Adam Atomic, Baiyon, Keita Takahashi and more, some of which was previously available as Kickstarter rewards.Boyer describes Venus Patrol as "a website in search of beautiful things from the world of videogames." In addition to new content, it also hosts the archives from Boyer's previous site, Boing Boing's Offworld.
Kickstart Boyer's 'Venus Patrol,' get new games from Superbrothers, Vlambeer, Adam Atomic, and more
IGF chair and former Offworld editor Brandon Boyer wants to start a new website called Venus Patrol. To raise capital for this effort, he's instituted a Kickstarter campaign -- one with bonuses that rival the Humble Indie Bundle. Even if you never read another website in your life, you'll probably want to throw some money over. Everyone who donates gets an exclusive wallpaper by Katamari Damacy/Noby Noby Boy creator Keita Takahashi and a set of Minecraft character skins by Pen Ward of Adventure Time. Pay more than $25 and you get exclusive new games from Adam Atomic (famous for Canabalt), Vlambeer (known for Super Crate Box), and Superbrothers (as in Sword & Sworcery EP). You also get the first release of Johann Sebastian Joust, a PlayStation Move-enabled PC game in which players annoy each other in slow motion, in an attempt to goad each other into moving their controllers. $75 gets you that stuff, plus a record of Sworcery remixes and hidden tracks by Scientific American, a copy of Mathew Kumar's exp. -3, a deck of "Monster Mii" trading cards designed by comic artist James Kochalka, and a patch of a Venus Patrol emblem. $200 throws a set of five "Great Showdowns" prints by Double Fine's Scott C. onto the pile ($300 gets you ten, plus everything else above). After the break, Boyer explains the concept of the website.
IGF chair continues campaign against game cloning
Independent Games Festival chairman Brandon Boyer is quite unhappy with Gamenaut's iOS title Ninja Fishing, a game that's more than "inspired" by indie studio Vlambeer's Flash game Radical Fishing. Vlambeer was secretly in the process of porting the game to iOS when the studio was blindsided by the clone. "I have a chart I'm almost done with. This is not inspiration," Boyer told us at GDC Europe today when he brought up the dilemma. "The things [Radical Fishing] doesn't have is ... Fruit Ninja. Radical Fishing didn't have Fruit Ninja. [Ninja Fishing] has everything else, except they added Fruit Ninja to one of the parts." Boyer continued, "The progress, the structure, the power-ups. The mechanics, the three-part design. It's just Radical Fishing. I think most people in the indie circle haven't played Ninja Fishing, which is good, but I think because of that they don't quite understand how blatant it was. Once you lay it out side by side [a project that Boyer will publish soon on an excel sheet he showed us], it's like 'Oh yeah, they just 100 percent ripped that off.'" When asked what the difference is between "inspiration" and theft, Boyer said, "It's like the thing about pornography, you know it when you see it." If this type of blatant cloning sounds familiar, it's because it is. In February, the story of The Blocks Cometh theft made the rounds. Indies being ripped off by indies isn't the only type of iOS cloning going on, either. It can also happen with major publishers, as was the case with Capcom's MaXplosion, a blatant clone of Twisted Pixel's high-profile 'Splosion Man. [Image credit: Official GDC]
Nidhogg, Hazard, and more nominated for IGF Nuovo Award
The Independent Games Festival has announced the nominees for the 2011 Nuovo Award, a special category within the IGF for "abstract, short-form, and unconventional game development." In other words, weird art games! "I think what we've decided now is that even more light needs to be shed on this particular sub-section of the ever-growing sub-section that indie games already occupy in the wider gaming sphere," IGF chair Brandon Boyer told Joystiq, "the bit where developers are truly pushing at the edges and limits of what games can and probably should grow to encompass, whether that's videogames that move off the screen and into the playspace of the participants themselves, or games that tackle documentary, more personal and otherwise autobiographical subjects, or games that simply tonally run counterintuitive to the kinds of emotions games usually elicit." The eight nominees include the following: Monobanda's Bohm, a game in which you control the life of a tree. A House in California by Cardboard Computer, a "surreal" adventure game about four characters exploring a house. Nidhogg, Messhof's two-player, side-scrolling versus fencing game. Dinner Date by Stout Games, in which you listen in on Julian Luxemburg's thoughts as you follow him through the agonizing wait for his date to show. Loop Raccord by UFO on Tape creator Nicolai Troshinsky, a game based on video editing -- you have to create "continuous movement" by stringing together clips from archive.org. The Cat and the Coup by Peter Brinson and Kurosh VaiaNejad, a "documentary game" from the perspective of former Iranian Prime Minister Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh's ... cat. Copenhagen Game Collective's Brutally Unfair Tactics Totally OK Now, a one-button game for up to eight players, with rules that players must enforce themselves (or choose not to). Hazard: The Journey of Life by Demruth, an abstract first-person puzzle game in which the world is constantly changing.
