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PSA: Street Fighter 4: Arcade Edition, Charlie Murder free for Gold members now
Xbox Live Gold members with Xbox 360s can now grab Charlie Murder and Super Street Fighter 4: Arcade Edition at no additional cost until August. For those who get lost in the various iterations of Street Fighter 4, Super Arcade would be the edition before this year's Ultra, which is available now as DLC and next month at retail. Probably worth mentioning in the same breath is that Xbox One owners with Gold can also pick up Max: Curse of the Brotherhood and twin-stick shooter Halo: Spartan Assault right now too.
Games with Gold doles out Xbox One freebies in June
Microsoft's Games with Gold program will give away five games to Xbox Live Gold members in June, including its first free offerings for the Xbox One. Xbox One subscribers will receive free copies of Press Play's 2.5D platformer Max: The Curse of Brotherhood and 343 Industries and Vanguard Entertainment's twin-stick shooter Halo: Spartan Assault in June, marking the one-year anniversary of the Games with Gold program. Xbox 360 owners, meanwhile, can expect to see Ska Studios' co-op XBLA brawler Charlie Murder, From Software's Dark Souls, and Capcom's Street Fighter 4: Arcade Edition throughout the month. Availability dates for next month's featured games have not been announced. [Image: Microsoft]
Developets: A tribute to the four-legged friends of indie developers
Chris Chung with the family cat, Nippy At the start of the 2013 7DFPS Game Jam, Chris Chung was given the challenge of creating a unique first person shooter within seven days. No other rules, requirements, or qualifications; just complete creative control over a project and a week's worth of time in which to complete it. This task in mind, Chung began brainstorming ideas, trying to come up with something that could be both unique and feasibly accomplished. He remembers the idea forming in his mind during a long car ride on the first day of the jam. "I was thinking of what kind of interesting first-person game I could make that I hadn't seen before, and 'cats' was the first thing I thought of."
Best of the Rest: Jess' picks of 2013
Team Joystiq is barging into 2014 with a celebration of last year's best games. Keep reading throughout the week to see our assembly of ingenious indies and triple-A triumphs. Skulls of the Shogun I have a pre-existing penchant for human skulls as decoration, so maybe that's why Skulls of the Shogun still resonates so deeply with me, despite it launching way back at the beginning of the year – before GDC, before E3, before Gamescom, before the reveals and launches of two next-gen consoles, before the holiday madness. Through all of that, Skulls of the Shogun remains a purely joyful, fun strategy game, complete with morbid humor, accessible mechanics and a lovely Saturday-morning cartoon style. Developer 17-Bit has a precise hand, and the team's attention to detail and flow makes Skulls of the Shogun sing across platforms: Xbox 360, Windows 8, Windows Phone, Steam and iOS. Skulls of the Shogun started the year off in the right way for me, so it's fitting to give it another nod at the end of 2013. Cheers, skull-chewers.
Charlie Murder soundtrack, vinyl spins out for a buyer-picked price
Charlie Murder's soundtrack is one of the best parts of the game, which admittedly has a lot of good parts overall. The soundtrack is a punk rock homage performed by Ska Studios' James Silva and Michelle Juett Silva (and friends), and it's available to download for "anything you want," from $0 to whatever your wallet can handle. There's also a classy, three-track vinyl edition available for $10 or more, featuring the songs "Mnemomic Atomic," "I Vote 4 Chaos" and a cover from Ska's previous game, I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES 1NIT!!!1, "For Yr Pain." Purchasing the vinyl automatically nets you a download of the full Charlie Murder album, so you may want to consider the two-for-one.
Charlie Murder review: Search and destroy
Damn it, Charlie Murder. You're a fiend. You're a hardcore, chaotic mess of heathenry and horror. You're worse than a pre-epiphany Grinch, bloodier than Bunker Hill, messier than an unsupervised 2-year-old eating spaghetti and chocolate ice cream, and more outrageous than Lady Gaga at a PETA banquet. And this is why I love you.%Gallery-191157%
Xbox Summer of Arcade 2013 full schedule, pricing revealed
This year's Summer of Arcade event kicks off on Xbox Live August 7 with Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, the Starbreeze-developed Xbox Live Arcade game where players must simultaneously control a pair of brothers stuck in the wilderness. Brothers will launch at 1,200 MS Points ($15). James Silva's Charlie Murder, a 2D beat-em-up starring a punk band for 800 MS Points ($10), will launch the following week, on August 14, Major Nelson reports. On August 21, VectorCell will push out its remake of classic adventure game Flashback for 800 MS Points ($10), and rounding out this year's festivities is TMNT: Out of the Shadows on August 28 for 1,200 MS Points ($15).
Microsoft announces Summer of Arcade lineup, beginning August 7
Microsoft announced this year's Summer of Arcade lineup for the Xbox 360, set to launch in August. Featured Xbox Live Arcade games include Activision's brawler TMNT: Out of the Shadows, an Ubisoft-published remake of Delphine Software's side-scrolling thriller Flashback, 505 Games' character-driven adventure game Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, and Ska Studios' punk-themed multiplayer beat-'em-up Charlie Murder. Specific release dates have not been announced. The Summer of Arcade campaign will kick off on August 7.
Vampire Smile coming to PC officially from Microsoft and Ska Studios
Ska Studios' XBLA bloodbath The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile is coming to PC with help from Microsoft, creator James Silva announced on his dev (and cat) blog. Vampire Smile is currently on PC – but it's via an unofficial crack that made headlines this morning, partially because the hacker labeled his version a "restoration of justice." Silva says he and the other half of Ska Studios, Michelle Juett Silva, approached Microsoft last week about developing an extended, PC version of Vampire Smile, far before the unofficial version was an issue. "Porting Vampire Smile to PC as an enhanced Director's Cut has been something I've been wanting to do since launch (I was calling it Georgelucasing until Michelle made me stop)," James writes. "Nothing's set in stone, but we got the go ahead to make a pre-announcement: We'll be working with Microsoft to bring our stuff to PC." Ska Studios can't officially condone the cracked PC version of Vampire Smile, but James doesn't hold the creator in complete disregard: "I really am honestly flattered that he took the time and effort to reverse engineer Vampire Smile for PC. I heart your enthusiasm, Barabus! (Just stop calling it justice, please!)" And since Ska can't stop making news today, it went all out: Charlie Murder, its next brawler coming to XBLA, is slated for a launch this summer. We think it's a ton of chaotic fun – check out the launch trailer below.
Microsoft's message to indies with Xbox One: 'It was sort of weird'
Microsoft's reveal of its next-gen console, the Xbox One, was high on broad entertainment apps such as Skype, interactive programming, media management and Kinect-powered features. Games saw a smaller showing, with two new announcements and a trailer for Call of Duty: Ghosts. Indie games got an even smaller nod – that is, none at all. E3 is right around the corner, with the Microsoft conference on June 10. Maybe that's where all of the Xbox One games are hiding, along with the console's indie plan. We asked a handful of indie developers what Microsoft's presentation today said to them specifically, and what they want to see at E3. Below we have responses from Rami Ismail of Ridiculous Fishing fame, Octodad's Philip Tibitoski, DLC Quest's Ben Kane, Charlie Murder's James Silva, Retro City Rampage's Brian Provinciano and Fez's Phil Fish.
Charlie Murder preview: Anarchy in the XBLA
For the second year in a row, I spent far too much time playing Charlie Murder at PAX East. As part of the Indie Megabooth, Ska Studios' exhibit belonged to a larger group, one of dozens of in-development, independent games, and this year it was directly across from Supergiant's high-profile premiere, Transistor. Still, Charlie Murder stood out. Its gritty punk rock style caught my eye – again – and the co-op, beat-em-up gameplay was so gripping that it almost made me late for a following appointment.Charlie Murder is a punk game from conception to execution, with a soundtrack composed and performed by James and Michelle Silva, the duo of Ska Studios. No, it's not a ska soundtrack.Charlie Murder is a side-scrolling beat-em-up with heavy RPG elements, including character customization, loot and unique ability upgrades. It stars five playable characters, each with disparate strengths and powers, and all of them making up the in-game band Charlie Murder.%Gallery-183786%
Charlie Murder wants you to give punk a chance, download a song
Charlie Murder is gearing up to trash XBLA sometime in the future, and Ska Studios is hard at work beating out all of the bugs in that version. James Silva and Michelle Juett Silva, the Ska Studios dream dishwashing team, are the voices, art, design, programming and music behind Charlie Murder – get a glimpse of their renaissance ways in the above video.Charlie Murder is a four-player, punk-themed, RPG brawler featuring tattoos, magic, dual-nail-gun-wielding, battles of the bands, clothes shopping, friendship and other things you never knew you wanted within one game.To tide us over until Charlie Murder launches, Ska offers us a song from the game's soundtrack, available for download right here. Fictionally, the band is Charlie Murder, but in reality it's the soothing sounds of James and Michelle themselves.
Ska Studios' Charlie Murder media blitz, Twisted Pixel buy-out prank
Ska Studios' next title is a gory RPG-dungeon-crawler punk-fest called Charlie Murder, and we have the first trailer available for the pleasure of your eyeballs and earballs above. Charlie Murder has a brand new website that developer Ska Studio promises to update with bios, wallpapers and music in the near future; for now it features a hefty batch of shiny screens.In related Ska news, the studio's April Fools' joke materialized in a post about it being bought out by Twisted Pixel for a jet ski, in order to offset the number of fancy dinners Twisted Pixel ends up buying Ska at PAX.In related related ska news, this.
Charlie Murder 'sells out' to Xbox Live Arcade in 2012
Charlie Murder's punk-rock adventure will now debut on Xbox Live Arcade in 2012, Ska Studios has revealed to Joystiq exclusively. Originally announced as an Xbox Live Indie Game, the beat-em-up was taken out of the indie lineup without reason following an appearance at PAX East 2010. As suspected, Charlie Murder will be pushed into the spotlight with a full XBLA release, alongside the previously scheduled end of the world in 2012. While Ska Studios jokingly claimed development of the title had been put on hold while the game's stars could enter a rehab facility, developer James Silva revealed Charlie is getting a "complete overhaul" from its original vision. "We're going back to development for awhile so we can build tons of new content for Charlie Murder, to give gamers an XBLA-caliber, mayhem-infused, punk rock experience," Silva told Joystiq, while presumably ignoring "rules" and "not caring what you think." Like Duke Nukem and Alan Wake before it, Charlie Murder joins the club of delayed games named after their protagonists. At least Ska Studios is hard at work on another project in the meantime. %Gallery-83449%
Charlie Murder now coming to an unannounced platform
Originally announced for a March 2010 release on the Xbox Live Indie Games platform, Charlie Murder, Ska Studios upcoming beat-em-up, is no longer confirmed for release through the Indie Games service. Developer James Silva told Joystiq, "As of now, Charlie Murder is not on any announced platform." According to a Ska Studios representative, the platform details and release date for the upcoming title have not been cemented. During our PAX East demo of Charlie Murder, Silva confirmed the final game code would run on the XNA 4.0 engine, which works across Xbox 360, Windows-based PCs and the Windows Phone 7 Series mobile platform. While it's still possible Charlie will make his way to the Indie Games platform, Ska Studios is keeping a tight lid on the punk rocker's future since first revealing him to the world this past January.
Dishwasher dev announces Charlie Murder for Xbox Live Indie Games, coming 'March 2010'
Between Ska Studios' The Dishwasher last year, this year's I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MBIES 1N IT!!!1, and the recent announcement of Charlie Murder for Xbox Live Indie Games, the nascent developer has certainly been establishing a name for itself. The game's Facebook page offers us a first look at the characters and a bit of the gameplay (which seems to be an arcade beat-em' up with punk rockers/zombies), as well as a glimpse into the fictional band's history. The game's announcement tells us that Charlie Murder follows the eponymous punk rock band on a side-scrolling journey to find the lead singer's girlfriend, Skelekitten, murdering everything in its path along the way. Ska Studios will be heading to PAX East and we've been told there's a "good chance" the game will be there, though a release window of "March 2010" means we might even be playing from the comfort of our couches before that. %Gallery-83449%
