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Capy porting Clash of Heroes to PSN and XBLA
If, for some reason, you didn't purchase and love Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes on DS -- or even if you did -- you'll have the opportunity to buy the puzzle RPG on two new systems this year, in glorious hand-drawn HD. Capybara Games has revealed a new PSN/XBLA version of Clash of Heroes, with totally redrawn graphics that eschew the 16-bit look of the DS original for more realistic proportions and a generally sharper look. In addition, new equippable artifacts are being added, and the existing ones tweaked, to improve balance in multiplayer. Even better, you'll now be able to go back and replay segments of the game after completing them. Capy expects to release Clash of Heroes in late summer. [Via GameSetWatch]
PSN leaderboards point to top game downloads for January
Gamasutra wasn't able to get its hands on year-to-date PSN sales data directly from Sony, but it has come up with some interesting conclusions based on an unscientific look at ... leaderboard stats. The site broke down January's new releases, as well as a few other games that sold well last month, and the big debut of the month appears to be Hustle Kings, which added over 39,000 players to its ranks. Assault Heroes only picked up 754 new players, but given that it's a game that actually came out in 2006 on the Xbox, that's not a big surprise. PSN also offered up its "10 for '10" sale in January, and Uno came away from that event with a whopping 87,000 new players on its leaderboards. Braid and Critter Crunch also did well, adding 20,000 and 17,000 new players to their leaderboards, respectively. Keep in mind that these numbers are far from official, and not complete anyway -- Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment, Thexder Neo and Matt Hazard were released on PSN last month, and none of those games are included in this analysis, due to unreliable or nonexistent leaderboards. But it is probably fair to say that PSN had a pretty good month in January, especially with the games featured in its "10 for '10" sale. More of that, please.
Critter Crunch gets 'less insane' in new patch
Sure, Critter Crunch is cute. But it is also barf-inducingly hard. Thankfully, a new patch (releasing today) will help make the more challenging stages "less insane." In addition, the patch adds support for in-game XMB music, so you can play while listening to your extensive Miley Cyrus collection. The full patch notes are below: Additions: XMB Audio support Language select available for all! Hey losers! You get a little XP even if you lose in multiplayer Tweaks: Player feedback regarding DIFFICULT LEVELS has been taken to heart. Tough levels got a little less insane! Coop networking tweaks to decrease pesky lag Multiplayer "Disconnects" are now awarded more accurately Catching a jewel while feeding glorious vomit to your son will no longer interrupt you Your rank will now be retrieved more reliably when playing Adventure Nasty bug fixes: No more annoying audio glitch No more Wins/Losses upload issues when the server is in "'maintenance" mode Player score for Challenge levels now correctly handled in ALL cases "Barf Success" icon now shows up correctly in ALL cases "King of the Jungle" Trophy now successfully unlocks correctly even with a score of 0
Critter Crunch and Burn Zombie Burn half-off today on Amazon [update]
You have officially run out of excuses for not purchasing Capybara's hyper-cute PSN puzzler, Critter Crunch. Amazon.com is currently selling game codes for half off the usual $7 price -- that's only $3.49! It's likely that the PlayStation Store will also price-match this deal when it updates later today. But do you want to risk missing out on one heck of a deal? We think not. Update: Burn Zombie Burn is also on sale for half off the usual $10 price. That's $5! [Via @superpac]
Developers on avoiding the 99 cent App Store price
I've become a big fan of game developer Capy (formerly Capybara) in the past few months -- their releases of Critter Crunch on iPhone [iTunes link] and Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes on the DS have won me over quickly. But I'm not sure I agree completely with their co-founder, Nathan Vella, about what he says in this Gamasutra interview. His opinion is that the push towards the 99 cent price on the App Store is "the single most frustrating and terrible thing about App Store pricing." He says the dollar price point is stifling, and he praises developers like Canabalt's Adam Saltsman for sticking with a higher price point even when their games are simple. I do agree with Vella on one thing: no developer should sell an app for less than it is worth, and dropping to 99 cents to increase sales doesn't work anyway. But certainly there's a place for 99 cent apps on the store, and I know personally that a 99 cent price point will open me up to try apps I'm not sure about, especially apps that I might be interested in but that don't offer a free trial. Clive Downie of ngmoco says as much later in the article: it's about the balance between providing choice for your customer and supporting yourself as a developer. In the end, Vella knows what he's doing: he doesn't say that 99 cents is always the wrong price, but that you should always stick to your guns and ask your customers to pay the right price. If a game is worth $4.99, or $6.99, or even $9.99, developers will find that customers who care about the quality are willing to pay for it. [via IGN]
Indie devs struggle to find the perfect iPhone price
The ease of getting your game onto the iPhone is something of a double-edged sword for indie devs. On the one hand, it's an amazing opportunity to get your pride and joy in front of millions. On the other, though, the amount of competition is pushing prices way lower than some devs are comfortable with. Or as Nathan Vella, co-founder of Toronto-based Critter Crunch/Clash of Heroes developer Capybara Games, so directly put it to Gamasutra "The push to 99 cents is the single most frustrating and terrible thing about App Store pricing." Read the full piece if you'd like a better understanding of why indies are pricing they way they do. Though we understand their frustration, we're surprised there's not more hand wringing about all those free games littering the App Store, since we know so many people who refuse to pay cash for any game on the mobile platform. Do you have any purchasing guidelines you try to stick by?
Critter Crunch dev praises Sony's support of indie games
"They support the living sh*t out of it, and they support it really well," Capybara's Nathan Vella told Gamasutra when talking about Sony's free PhyreEngine. "Any of the parts that are inside Phyre that we didn't know how to fix or we had an issue with, they would fix it for us in a day. Overall, I think Sony's doing a lot of right stuff for small independent developers." Vella's praise echoes similar sentiments from other PSN developers, like Shatter's Mario Wynands. In addition to free development tools, Vella noted other benefits by partnering with Sony. Critter Crunch was promoted heavily on the PlayStation Network via the PlayStation.Blog, Pulse and banners on the PlayStation Store. Most importantly, though, Sony "treated us like we weren't a small nobody developer from Toronto." In spite of Sony's best intentions, though, Vella notes that sales aren't quite where they should be on the PSN. "It's still a fraction of what XBLA is doing, and we know that," he admitted. "But that's okay for us because they let us do what we wanted to do." Apparently what they want to do now is work on a zombie game.
Indie devs incorporate 'Edge' into titles to lure out Tim Langdell
Indie developers are having a little fun at the expense of trademark troll Tim Langdell. As TouchArcade reports, several devs have created mock games to get under the skin of the abusive IP bugaboo, who pops up like a rabid prairie dog when a company uses the word "edge" in a video game. In response to Langdell's attack on Killer Edge Racing, several indie devs have jokingly renamed their games. Fez is now Fedge and Critter Crunch has vomited out Critter Credge. In their posts on the name changes, the developers use the word "edge" as many times as is edgeingly possible to edge in there with edginess. Inspired by Langdell, we are currently discussing with our attorneys if we can trademark the words "war," "warfare," ... oh wait, "Mario," yes! That's where the infringement bucks really are.
Trophies: Critter Crunch
0 Platinum 1 Gold 2 Silver 11 Bronze Difficulty: Difficult Online Trophies? Yes Time to Completion: 20 hours DLC Trophies? No View Trophy List Read More About the Game %Gallery-65580%
Critter Crunch consumer consumption saddening, demo releasing next week
Critter Crunch sales haven't been all sunshine and rainbow vomit for developer Capybara Games. The Examiner took note of a post on NeoGAF in which a representative for the developer said the team was "very sad" because the game is "not selling so hot." He went on to say that next week's demo will hopefully spur more folks to gobble down the adorably disturbing puzzler. The $7 price for entry easily makes Critter Crunch one of the best values on the PSN, so what went wrong? The entire situation reminds us of a panel we attended at the Game Developers Conference this year, where several developers of downloadable titles noted that sales for digitally distributed titles drop off dramatically during the holiday season. Braid's Jonathan Blow noted that "March or June or August" are the release windows that downloadable game developers should hope for. Honestly, if Capybara wants to push some sales, it'll send us a picture of its little guy crying (no, sobbing) and we'll use it in a post to break people's hearts and guilt them into buying the game. Update: It'll break your heart. [Via Destructoid]
PSN Thursday: Vomit up $7 for Critter Crunch, support the disgustingly adorable
There are many, many titles on the PSN that have amazing art atop a relatively simple gameplay concept. Capybara's Critter Crunch is no exception. However, we'd advocate it may deserve a purchase for its premise alone: Adorable fuzzball eats cutesy creatures and then vomits them up in a rainbow into another even-more-darling puff's mouth. How can you not support the mind that came up with that? Check out the full PSN update after the break. Choose your platform to view the corresponding release list: (Note: Continue past the break to view both release lists.) %Gallery-65580%
Critter Crunch trailer is nauseatingly cute
We speak a lot about the adorable properties of Capybara's roly-poly puzzle title, Critter Crunch, but we think they truly come out in the title's latest trailer, seen above. It's easy for developers to create fuzzy creatures that make our hearts go a-flutter -- it's considerably more difficult to make those creatures remain precisely that cute while they vomit into each other's mouths. In fact, it almost makes them cuter. We know it defies logic, but you're going to have to trust us on this one.
Sony characters get Critter Crunchified
The adorable art style of Capybara Games' PSN puzzle title Critter Crunch can't be contained within the boundaries of its own franchise. A recent post on the developers' blog shows off a number of doodles from the game's character artist, Nick "Qiqo" Stephan. These illustrations peer through temporal doorways into other worlds, where Biggs, the game's protagonist, was dressed in the skin of characters from other PlayStation titles. (Okay, it's less creepy than we just made it sound.) Check out all 15 of these concepts after the jump -- we guarantee that you've never such a lovable Kratos. (Sackboy, eat your heart out.)
Munch on these brand new Critter Crunch screens
Click for bigger cuteness Okay seriously, how can you not be completely in love with Critter Crunch? Just look at it -- look at it! The upcoming PlayStation Network game features some of the most adorable sprites around, all drawn and animated by one clearly god-like man. These new screens highlight some new features, like the Anvil and "Poison" Mushroom; co-op mode and powerups; cutscenes; the world map; and most importantly, barfing. As former Joystiq writer Jem Alexander would say, "it's a-MAY-zing!" %Gallery-65580%
Hands-on: Critter Crunch
You've got an iPhone, right? If so you may have stumbled across this game already on the App Store. Critter Crunch is a puzzle game by Canadian developer Capybara Games which is being ported to the PlayStation Network for release this summer. This is a lot more than a simple port, however, as the game will be completely reworked to take advantage of the PS3's high definition output and online features. Critter Crunch is a puzzle game in which you play as the adorable Biggs -- as seen winking in the logo above -- who is constantly being attacked by critters from above. His method of keeping the ever-encroaching hoard at bay is simple: feed them to each other. Small critters feed medium critters which feed large critters and, once full, they pop and take with them any similar colored critters that sit adjacent to them. It's kind of gruesome in an adorable sort of way. This basic mechanic has survived the transition onto the PS3, but it's brought friends. The PSN version will have many more levels, critters, modes and features. As those who have seen the trailer will no doubt be happy to hear, the PSN version will feature nature documentary style animated cutscenes, all completed (as the in-game animations are) by a single animator. %Gallery-65580%
Might and Magic Clash of Heroes coming to DS August 2009
Oh Might and Magic brand, how we've missed you! We really hoped that this wouldn't be the swan song for your venerable RPG series and Ubisoft didn't disappoint. The company has just announced Might and Magic Clash of Heroes, coming to DS this August.Now, we'll admit that we weren't necessarily hoping for a puzzle RPG developed by Capybara Games (you know, of Critter Crunch fame?). But at least there's two-player peer-versus-peer mode, so that's something, right?%Gallery-63309%
Critter Crunch coming to the PSN this summer
A new challenger approaches the PSN store. New developer Capy has announced that its iPhone game, Critter Crunch, will be remade for the PlayStation Network. The game features a "food chain" puzzle mechanic, "which is all about feeding critters into each other until they burst." The adorable art style will be remade in 1080p and the game will feature trophies as well as versus and co-op multiplayer -- both online and offline. Check out the video after the break to see the game in action, as well as more from the two critters you see above. Too cute.
