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Opening the valve: Steam Curators rule the front page
Ask a hundred independent developers what impacts their sales most and you'll likely get a hundred different answers, but among the more popular ones will be the topic of discoverability, the ways in which prospective buyers are able to find lesser-known video games. Platforms like the App Store and Steam see a lot of foot-traffic in their featured sections, and even brief visibility for independent developers can make for a massive difference in their bottom line. As more games have made their way to Steam via regular release, Greenlight and Early Access, it's become vastly more difficult for a new game to be discovered. Enter Steam Curators, Valve's means of placing the weight of game recommendations on those outside its walls. The service launched this week and allows any person or brand (such as your friends here at Joystiq) to compile lists of games their followers should play, shifting the scope of the store's front page to include recommended games and a section for popular curators. Given Steam's incredible popularity and its status as a "must-have" piece of PC gaming software, Steam Curators is a major step for the service, and developers hope that it might heavily influence independent game sales.
The floating, fragile indie bubble
Days after Braid hit Xbox Live Arcade in 2008, we posted a story titled "Why should we care about Braid?" We liked the game and felt the need to explain: It was a simple platformer made by a handful of people, it was pretty and it had solid controls. This wasn't a review of Braid. It was a defense of the emerging indie industry, and an analysis of why a truly good, independent game deserved adulation, because some of our readers were uneasy accepting them as legitimate products. Now, we're writing about Sony dedicating a large chunk of its E3 2013 press conference – the one just prior to the launch of the PS4 – to indie developers. We're writing about Indie Megabooth being the largest display at PAX. We're writing about Vlambeer, Klei, Hello Games, Dennaton, Fullbright, Polytron, Chris Hecker and Team Meat without having to remind readers who they are or why they matter. We're writing about Flappy Bird. We're not just writing about the existence of Flappy Bird – a free, tap-to-fly, pixelated mobile game from a young developer in Vietnam – we're writing about Flappy Bird spawning game jams and knock-offs from Fall Out Boy. "The biggest change now is that it is so much easier to make games and it is so much easier to find an audience for games," Braid creator Jonathan Blow tells me. "This means a lot more people can build games and make a living off it, which is nice. However, it also means there is not so much of a crucible against which people refine their skills, so if one really wants to become a top game developer, a lot of motivation is required above and beyond that which gets one to 'baseline success.'"
Retro City Rampage DX crashes onto 3DS this week
Retro City Rampage DX, the 3DS port of Brian Provinciano's indie crime sandbox game, is coming to the North American eShop on February 6; it'll be on Europe's eShop on February 20. Retro City Rampage DX will be priced at $10. Retro City Rampage DX includes some major tweaks to missions, weapons, vehicles, challenges, tutorials, checkpoints – just about every other aspect of the game has been modified toward providing a better overall experience. Retro City Rampage DX also features a slightly zoomed-in viewpoint on the 3DS, along with the most updated version of the game found on PC. Retro City Rampage has sold more than 250,000 copies across all platforms, Provinciano revealed in the 3DS release announcement. When including its time as a free PlayStation Plus game, Retro City Rampage has been downloaded more than 500,000 times. In our review, we said Retro City Rampage is "worth playing for its simple, accessible gameplay and charming, lovingly crafted world." [Image: Vblank Entertainment]
Retro City Rampage 3DS won't support stereoscopic 3D
The 3DS port of Retro City Rampage will not include 3D visuals, developer Vblank Entertainment has announced. It's the game's top-down perspective that makes the feat such a significant technical burden. "With sidescrollers, developers can simply separate the background and foreground layers and distance them apart," the Vblank post reads. "However, with a top down perspective using cube-like objects such as buildings and vehicles, it would require the graphics to all be recreated as 3D objects, a new rendering engine, a camera system that players would be happy with, and further optimizations. For a new game it would be more feasible, but for an existing one, it simply would've taken too long." Retro City Rampage for 3DS, which includes the most recent version of the game with enhanced graphics, was announced yesterday. The 3DS port will be playable at Nintendo's PAX Prime booth next weekend.
Indie developers cautiously optimistic about self-publishing on Xbox One
Microsoft's reversal of its publishing philosophy for the Xbox One has obvious and wide-reaching implications for the indie development community. While the original plan mandated that developers release games through a third-party publisher or broker a deal with Microsoft itself, indies will now be able to self-publish. Furthermore, retail Xbox One SKUs will function as development units, which historically are more expensive and more difficult to acquire than off-the-shelf models. "Ideally, this news could have been broadcast more proudly and loudly months ago, giving indies more time to prepare strategies for upcoming games," Minicore Studios founder and CEO John Warren told us, "but I suppose they don't owe anyone that courtesy. We know now, so now we can prepare for life with a Microsoft console, which is something I wouldn't have said yesterday." Warren and his team at Minicore are in the process of Kickstarting PC, Mac and Xbox 360 versions of their latest project, Laika Believes: The Sun at Night. "I think releasing on Xbox One without a publisher is a big step forward, of course, but the fact that (eventually) I'll be able to use my retail console as our dev kit is huge," he added. "My secondary (maybe flailing and futile) hope is that the fees for publishing won't be insane. It's one thing to only have to shell out $600 for a dev kit, but quite another if we have to spend another $10k on publishing fees. My hope is they'll be content with 30 percent of revenue and be done with it." Cautious optimism was a consistent theme among most of the indie developers we reached out to, though some had greater reservations over Microsoft's inner machinations than others.
Retro City Rampage 'Retro+' graphics crash onto PS3, PS Vita
Those purty Retro+ graphics added last month to the PC version of Retro City Rampage have made their way to Theftropolis on the PS3 and PS Vita. The latest version is available on PSN now, bringing the PS3 and PS Vita versions of Retro City Rampage up to par with the PC version. Retro+ ups the overall visual fidelity of Retro City Rampage by doubling on-screen color count and turning on dynamic soft shadows. Purists can take it the other way with "Rom City Rampage," a true 8-bit version of Retro City Rampage scaled down to mirror how the game would run on NES hardware. The final piece of this update increases the length of Retro City Rampage's trial version for all. Coincidentally, Retro City Rampage is on sale for $5 right now across PC, PS Vita and PS3. The PS3 and PS Vita versions are cross-buy enabled.%Gallery-194079%
Retro City Rampage adds mod support, 'Retro+' enhanced graphics
A new update for Retro City Rampage on PC adds mod support, allowing players to experience a small slice of creator Brian Provinciano's life by creating their own vehicles, characters, fonts and color palettes in the game. The update also includes an optional Retro+ mode, upping the visual fidelity with dynamic soft shadows and doubling the number of colors displayed on-screen at once. The Steam version of Retro City Rampage updates automatically; for GOG and DRM-free owners, they'll need to log into their respective download pages and grab the 1.11 update manually. If you have yet to pick up this love letter to video games, Steam has dropped the price to $3.74 until 10am PT today.%Gallery-192390%
Watch Brian Provinciano's Retro City Rampage talk from GDC
One of our favorite talks from GDC was Brian Provinciano's session, in which the indie developer discussed bringing his game, Retro City Rampage, to just about every platform known to man. It's a valuable talk for many reasons, giving a clear picture of what it's like working with The Big Three™ and the types of hurdles a determined indie developer will inevitably hit. Provinciano's determination to port Grand Theft Auto 3 to NES hardware escalated into a love letter to video games and pop culture. While Provinciano hasn't announced his next project yet, he says we should expect more humorous open-world games.
Expect more humorous open-world games from Brian Provinciano
"I'm definitely going to be doing more open-world comedy stuff in the future, but it might not be my next game," Retro City Rampage creator Brian Provinciano told Joystiq following a GDC panel where he broke down sales of his game across the various platforms. "I have about four open-world game ideas in my head that I'm passionate about, but I'm also very concerned about jumping into another big project. So I'm sorting out my ideas right now and figuring out if there's a smaller game idea or something different I could do in the middle, just as a palate cleanser. When I do my next big ambitious game, again it'll probably be open-world."While Provinciano is keen on making more games, he wants to "let the dust settle" on Retro City Rampage before diving into his next game. We probably won't see his next project in 2013, unless it's a smaller-scale game. "I would love to ship another game this year, but the only way for that to happen is if I get a small idea and everything just falls into place."Art was one thing Provinciano had strong opinions about regarding his next project. He doesn't want to become "typecast" as the pixel-art guy – and he wants future games to place a bigger emphasis on art and audio."I had an amazing time working with the artist and the audio person on Retro City Rampage, and I really love art and audio so I want to put more of an emphasis on those in the next games – higher production value. As much as I love doing art – so I found this artist that was doing amazing art and it was way better than me, I would still do some of the art because I love doing it and it's fun, but now I'm thinking differently. I would rather have amazing art way beyond my capabilities and have it all done by other people than have some half-assed art I did myself, just for the sake of saying 'I did it myself.' So one of the big goals in my next games is to have really high-quality art and – as much as I do love pixel stuff, and I may do revisit that in different degrees at some point – again, I want to do different art styles, to show to the world that I'm not just a pixel-art guy."Provinciano said that PlayStation 4 is on the table as a potential platform for upcoming games. At a previous panel, Provinciano confirmed he would also work with PS Vita in the future.
Where Retro City Rampage made its money
During his GDC panel, "One Man, 17 SKUs: Shipping on Every Platform at Once," Retro City Rampage creator Brian Provinciano provided a clear breakdown of the game's fiscal performance across various platforms.PSN was where Provinciano saw most of his profit come in: over $600,000 earned across over 35,000 units sold on PSN. These numbers do not account for PlayStation Plus downloads and the period of time during which RCR was offered for free with membership.The PC platform yielded the second-highest revenue for Retro City Rampage, earning over $400,000 from over 40,000 copies sold – the majority sold on Steam. Xbox Live Arcade came third with around $200,000 earned across 15,000 units sold, and WiiWare earned under $10,000 with fewer than 2,000 units sold. After the panel, Provinciano told me sales currently sit around 97,000 total, and that he anticipates total sales will exceed 100,000 next week.Provinciano said he spent the most development time on the Xbox Live Arcade port, on a platform he called the most expensive. "Knowing what I know now, I would've skipped it," he said. Though he considered the WiiWare version a $20,000 gift to fans, the XBLA port ended up costing more.Update: Brian got in touch to tell us some of the numbers in his panel were a bit off thanks to an Excel issue. "Looks like Excel didn't line up the bars up correctly." The WiiWare version sold under 2,000 units, he tells us. "It's also sold significantly more than 35K on PSN, 40K on PC and 15K units on each of the other platforms."
WiiWare version of Retro City Rampage is a '$20,000 gift' to fans
Developer Brian Provinciano doesn't expect to make any money from the launch of Retro City Rampage on Nintendo's WiiWare – in fact, he stands to lose $20,000 in development costs alone, with little chance of seeing a return."Between the office rent, hardware, insurance, game ratings and other costs, had I not done the WiiWare version, I could've saved around $20,000 – not even including my salary in porting it," Provinciano tells Nintendo Life. "And as it stands, virtually no games hit the threshold these days, so it's only being released as fan service. A $20,000 gift to the fans."The loss comes down to a few odd requirements Nintendo places on WiiWare launches: The developer must have a designated office space, even for a one-man operation, and he gets paid only if the game sells a certain number of copies. Unless that sales threshold is hit, "you don't get paid a cent," as Provinciano puts it. These regulations have been tweaked for future platforms, he says, and Nintendo deserves kudos for listening to its content creators."They listen to feedback and take action to improve things if there's a better way. In both cases, the original policies had the best intentions, but turned out to be a bit problematic."Regardless, Provinciano launched Retro City Rampage on WiiWare on February 28 because he wanted to keep his promise that the game would come to a Nintendo console: "I'm happy to see it finally out, and the many happy players. That said, I encourage everyone to buy it! I'm crossing my fingers that it will hit the threshold at least in one region."Retro City Rampage is holding its own on Vita, PS3, Steam and XBLA, in that order.
How to turn Retro City Rampage into a working 8-bit game
When Retro City Rampage comes to WiiWare tomorrow it'll include an 8-bit version of the game called ROM City Rampage. Provinciano was developing what's now become ROM City Rampage almost a decade ago for the NES, but abandoned it to focus on Retro City Rampage because of the hardware limitations - a wise choice. After releasing the open-world crime game last year, he decided to come back to his 8-bit aspirations and crunch the modern Retro City Rampage into a truly retro game.In this video, Provinciano explains the difficulties he had in creating ROM City Rampage. Even if you're not hugely interested in how games are or were developed it's a good watch, and not too inside baseball; Provinciano neatly explains some of the data-saving processes he had to employ, such as sprite mirroring and combining duplicate tiles of pixels.ROM City Rampage will be included as a playable prototype in the WiiWare release, and come as a free update tomorrow to the PC version, which you can pick on Steam at half-off for one more day.
Retro City Rampage sold 'much more' on PSN than Steam, XBLA
Retro City Rampage has been around the block a few times, establishing a steady launch stream across PC and consoles since October. Now that the game has had time to settle on XBLA, PS3, Vita and Steam, developer Brian Provinciano has a clear, surprising favorite: Vita."Indies should definitely jump onto the PS Vita," he tweets. "RCR's sold much more on PSN than XBLA and more on PS Vita than even PS3."Retro City Rampage was part of the PS Plus Instant Game Collection, but Provinciano's praise doesn't include those numbers. PSN sales, both in units and revenue, eclipsed XBLA and even Steam on their own, and any PS Plus action is an extra bonus."Steam's done far better than XBLA too, but PSN has still done the best," Provinciano says.While Vita is the "easiest console platform to develop for," XBLA clearly falls behind in Provinciano's estimation. Getting on XBLA required two rounds of pitching, paperwork and negotiation, each time taking more than six months. "It's absurd. They don't make it easy," Provinciano says.He continues, "It cost more to do the XBLA version than all other SKUs combined. Made more on all other platforms. XBLA: 'a learning experience.'"Provinciano has an idea why Retro City Rampage is doing so well on Vita: "Sony promoted the game incredibly well and Vita players are hungry for games! Make them more!" Provinciano will cover his multi-platform development process and resultant sales at GDC 2013, with a talk titled, "One Man, 17 SKUs: Shipping on Every Platform at Once."
Retro City Rampage hits WiiWare Feb. 28, bonus content on the way
Retro City Rampage's long, pixelated journey to WiiWare finally comes to an end next week. The campy parody crime game will land on WiiWare on February 28 for $10. The Wii release will also feature the bonus "ROM City Rampage," which will allow players to "experience what Retro City Rampage could've been like if it were actually released in the '80s, as a 100% NES hardware-accurate ROM." ROM City Rampage will be accessible via the in-game arcade.PC players will also get to experience the bonus mode thanks to a free update scheduled to release alongside the WiiWare version. Creator Brian Provinciano also reminds Wii U owners that they will be able buy and play the game using the Wii menu.Finally, the Steam version of Retro City Rampage is on sale this week for $7.50, half the usual price. The sale ends on February 28.
Retro City Rampage wrecks Europe and Asia on Jan. 16
On January 16, wannabe gangsters across the pond in Europe and Asia will get a chance to check out the excellent Retro City Rampage on both the PS Vita and PS3. Developer Brian Provinciano hasn't used the extra month lightly, either – the extra time has allowed him to add extra polish to the game, he tells Joystiq.If you don't have a PC, PS3 or PS Vita, the WiiWare version of Retro City Rampage is slated to launch sometime this month, though Provinciano is unable to say exactly when at the moment. The Xbox Live Arcade version has been available since last week.
Retro City Rampage review: Love letter
It would be impossible to sit down and write out everything you love about everything. It'd be a pursuit of madness. Why would you do it? Just to have some kind of time capsule for all of your cherished memories? But what if you did it within the confines of a video game? It would be an even madder pursuit, for sure, but that's exactly what Retro City Rampage is. It's a love letter to all of developer Brian Provinciano's favorite things within the borders of an 8-bit open-world crime game – a game, I might add, that is so beautiful in its simplicity and hilarious in its execution that it has become one of my favorite games of all time. %Gallery-148026%
Retro City Rampage playable at Comic-Con, even without a pass
If you don't mind hanging out in a Hard Rock establishment, you have an opportunity to play a bunch of unreleased games, including Retro City Rampage. In case it weren't abundantly clear from our past coverage of RCR, we're big proponents of not just the game itself, but of the developer's dogged entrepreneurial spirit, so we wanted to make sure you knew about two chances this weekend to play it at Microsoft's Hard Rock-based Comic Con Xbox lounge. Extra convenient? No SDCC pass is required to attend. In between snacking on sliders and getting your 8-bit open-world on, you may also want to check out some of the other games available to play -- everything from Orcs Must Die to Batman: Arkham City, we're told. And before you head over, why not take a look through a brand new set of Comic-Con screens for RCR, just below? Details for the weekend can be found after the break.%Gallery-128947%
E3 2011 reader meetup: Retro City Rampage
Between now and next Friday, when we'll be holding our semi-annual E3 reader meetup, Joystiq will be putting the spotlight on each of the games folks will be able to go hands-on with. First up is VBlank Entertainment's long in-development XBLA/WiiWare title, Retro City Rampage. Born out of VBlank Entertainment founder Brian Provinciano's urge to craft an 8-bit demake of Grand Theft Auto 3, Retro City Rampage was originally known as "Grand Theftendo." The ambitious project eventually took on a life of its own, evolving into a full-blown WiiWare title, and finally blooming to XBLA. As huge fans of 8-bit games and, uh, games in general, RCR hits all the right notes with us. The concept is essentially an elaborate homage to the history of video gaming, mixing all of the game mechanics that come along with that -- a pastiche of gaming history's tropes, memorable moments, and go-to themes, if you will (peep our reference-filled preview for a taste). We'll have the game (and its developer!) on-hand at next Friday's E3 reader meetup for you to check out, but in the meantime VBlank's sent over some new screens of RCR's Chinatown area, as well as revealing a new character: "The Great Gamedini." Mr. Gamedini is described as a magician whose wish will be your command ... should you be able to find the right codes. As VBlank tells it, "his dog ate his codebook." Blasted dogs! Take a peek at both the new area and new character in our exclusive gallery below.%Gallery-125316%
Come hang out with Joystiq (and play a bunch of great games!) at our E3 2011 reader meetup
We love you, Los Angeles, you know that. Sure, it's been awhile since we last hung out, but we wanna make that up to you. And not just any boring old dinner-and-a-movie kinda thing either, a full blown party! Next Friday, June 10, Joystiq will take over the La Cita bar in downtown LA between 5:30 and 9:00PM PST for a game-filled, giveaway-packed reader meetup. As our staff will be all up in your city for the duration of next week, we took the liberty of renting out a bar for a few hours so you -- our best friends -- could hang out, talk about the week's big news, play a bunch of great games, and take all the game swag that's been piling up in our domiciles. Chris Hecker will be swinging through with SpyParty, as will Andy Schatz with Monaco, to name just a few of the games/game devs at the event. And how about a chance to play Harmonix' next project before anyone else? 'Cause that'll totally be there too. Unfortunately, for our friends under 21, the event space is restricted to those of us with legal access to alcohol. We're really sorry and we still love you! It was, as they say, out of our hands. An extra big thank you to all of our participants! SpyParty, Chris Hecker (@SpyParty) Nidhogg, Mark Essen (@Messhof) Unannounced Project, Ska Studios (@SkaStudios) Monaco, Pocketwatch Games (@MonacoIsMine) Retro City Rampage, Brian Provinciano (@RetroCR) Q.U.B.E., Toxic Games (@qubegame) Unannounced Project, Harmonix (@Harmonix) Still with us? Head past the break for details, and make sure to RSVP on our Facebook event page so we know how many of you to expect!
Retro City Rampage hits XBLA in summer 2011, WiiWare version delayed
If you were looking forward to buying Brian Provinciano's Retro City Rampage on WiiWare, we have some bad news: it's been delayed significantly. The WiiWare version of the satirical 8-bit sandbox game was originally targeted for the end of this year, but now won't arrive until fall 2011. But you'll be able to play it before then. Like Super Meat Boy before it, the announced WiiWare release of Retro City Rampage will be preceded by an XBLA version, which comes out in the summer. "In order to continue making these games and not have to start flipping burgers after Retro City Rampage is done," Provinciano told Destructoid, "it needed to be multi-platform." Provinciano is using the extra time to put additional content, including playable characters and missions, into both versions of the game.
