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Pantheon slows development, cites lack of funding
After Brad McQuaid's Pantheon Kickstarter campaign fell short of its $800,000 goal in February, Visionary Realms said that development would continue. But today we've gotten word that it will slow until further funding is secured. "The downside now is that our initial resources have depleted," a post on the official site states. "Which regrettably means that development is going to slow down until finances can be secured. It's not something we want to do by any means, but as we cannot guarantee paychecks to the team, they each need to be able to spend time on other things to pay the bills." The post goes on to say that all donations at this point will be used for website maintenance and not development until a large enough investment is made to get studio space. Check out the official announcement on Pantheon's main site for more info.
PAX East 2014: State of Decay eyes multiplayer, stays offline
The ground is fairly littered with zombie games of some sort these days. That isn't meant as a mark against Undead Labs' State of Decay, but it does raise questions of focus. How do you make a zombie game more unique? According to the studio's Jeff Strain at this year's PAX East, you focus upon building at the community level rather than individual survival. While games like DayZ focus on the personal, State of Decay is much more focused on the idea of putting society as a whole back together and trying to accumulate resources and structures for survivors as a whole. Of course, most of our readers are more interested in what comes next, specifically Class4. That's the proposed sequel to State of Decay, previously codenamed Class3; it's meant to be a full MMO according to previous statements, a game in which you can worry about rebuilding not just a local community but the world as a whole. And Undead Labs certainly isn't hurting for talent that's familiar with online games, especially with the acquisition of ArenaNet co-founder Patrick Wyatt in January. So what's happening?
PAX East 2014: The Repopulation's Josh Hall on the future of the game
If you're looking for Kickstarter success stories, The Repopulation definitely qualifies. While the game hasn't yet been released, it's managed to run not one but two successful campaigns looking to fans for funding, and it's managed its development carefully to keep itself on track for release. The game feels like a well-managed professional affair. And it's been a bit more quiet, but that comes down largely to the focus on getting the game out of its current alpha state and into its first beta. At this year's PAX East, I sat down to talk with Josh Hall, one of the core team members on the project, about where the game is in development and what it's heading for in the next few months. While the final alpha stage has taken slightly longer than originally planned, the team is on track for launching the first beta phase at some point over the summer, and it's eyeing further release plans.
PAX East 2014: Landmark's current tools and future crafts
We've all seen what gamers are capable of making in Minecraft. A quick search online turns up replicas of everything imaginable, sublime works of art, even inexplicable cat fountains. According to Dave Georgeson, this is exactly what led to the creation of Landmark, and by his own admission the development team owes Notch a Christmas card solely because of that. Without that limitation, Landmark wouldn't be what it is now, nor would it be developing into what it will eventually be. At this year's PAX East, Georgeson explained to me that as much fun as Minecraft is, it lacks something crucial: a way for players to see all of these creations. Landmark, by contrast, is designed from the ground up not just to allow that sort of interaction but to actively encourage it. And that's only the beginning; the game's current status as a sort of super-Minecraft is the simplest core expression of the game's promise. By the time it's done, the whole point is to make a game that can be anything, a game for all seasons and tastes.
World of Tanks shows off new game modes for 2014
World of Tanks continues rolling along and updating, and it has some big features on deck for 2014. The latest video development diary shows off some of the new game modes which will be coming to the game in the near future, starting with Fortifications. The Fortification system allows clans to build structures and collect bonuses while at the same time defending their fortifications against other clans. The result is a complex interplay of new elements like pillboxes and aerial strikes that give both sides the tools to take fortified structures or defend them as needed. That's not the least of the additions being made, however, as Historical Battles are also incoming. While this game mode has been in discussion for a long time, due to massive differences in tank capabilities, it's been tricky to create battles with an equal chance of victory for both sides. The solution is asymmetrical team composition, a rebalancing of stats for this specific game mode, and respawning lighter support tanks. Take a look at the video past the cut for a more in-depth examination of these changes. [Source: Wargaming.net press release]
Trove offers a peek at March improvements
If you want to invest yourself in voxel-based crafting and destruction, you're not starved for options. Trove might not be the highest-profile option within that field, but the game is still in heavy development and updating regularly. An official update shares what the team has been working on in March for anyone who hasn't been kicking around in the game itself, starting with laser mining. Yes, you're not hacking away with a pick any more; you're burning things out with laser beams. March also saw the inclusion of ultimate abilities for the Knight and Gunslinger and the rollout of Personal and Adventure worlds. Players can also forge their own dungeons and wear gear free of the threat of decay. For April, the development team will be hard at work with a forging system to upgrade equipment as well as the inclusion of the Fae Trickster. Isn't it nice to have options?
Trials of Ascension details dynamic spawning feature
Trials of Ascension started its life with an unsuccessful Kickstarter campaign in November of last year that grew into a determination to rise up and continue making the player-driven sandbox MMO. Now the team is back this week to update us on the progress of several features including Dynamic spawning. Dymanic spawning allows the dev team and GMs to pick points for the world to change with spawn markers. This change could include everything from animal migration to creeping flora, and the dev blog states that all testing has blown the team away so far. Be sure to check out the full dev diary for more on the world map, an innovative inventory system, housing, and more. [Thanks to Cik for the tip!]
Amazon Fire TV games work with other Bluetooth controllers
Amazon just revealed its $99 Fire TV game and video streaming device today, and unveiled a $40 Bluetooth game pad to go along with it. As it turns out, developers appear to have the option to make their Amazon Fire TV games compatible with other controllers. "I don't have the full data set, if any is the right term. Generally speaking, it's a Bluetooth controller," Mike Frazzini, VP of Amazon Games told Engadget today when asked about the Fire TV's controller support. "And the same thing vice-versa. Third-party controllers can work on Fire TV as well." According to a mandatory configuration file for all Amazon Fire TV game developers listed on Amazon's site, developers must note if the app "supports a game controller, either the Amazon Fire game controller or a Bluetooth game controller from another manufacturer." While Amazon doesn't confirm official Fire TV support with the game pads, other Bluetooth controllers like Nintendo's Wii Remote and Sony's DualShock 4 could feasibly work with some games if developers so choose. Likewise, while the Amazon Fire TV supports up to seven Bluetooth game controllers simultaneously, software development kit documentation notes that "only four of those controllers are assigned to player numbers." This seemingly caps local multiplayer gaming on Amazon Fire TV at four players at a given moment, which may not be an issue since gaming is more or less a "bonus" for the streaming device.
Star Citizen updates backers on progress in March
Eagerly anticipating Star Citizen? Then you'll be happy to see that the latest development update from the team is now live, focusing on the many projects in development for the game. At the top of the list, of course, is the much-anticipated dogfighting module, which has dominated the attention of all departments. The update goes to great lengths to try and show off just what has been the result of the extra time and effort sunk into the module as a whole. The dogfighting HUD has been revised to ensure that a great deal of information is accessible without cluttering the display. There's also been a push to improve the visuals on the ships, making them look more realistic and detailed when in motion. And that's not getting into the other work being done in fields like personal weaponry... but you don't have to take our word for it. Take a look at the March progress update and see for yourself.
The Soapbox: Let me tell you how little I want to raid
Over the past several years, Blizzard has been very attentive when it comes to making it easier for players to raid. Raid sizes have gone down, then they've moved over to a flex structure. The raid finder was added to the game. Mechanics were toned down, while getting drops has been made even easier. With the next expansion, you won't even need to toy around in difficult instances to get ready for raiding; you can just jump in pretty much from the point you hit the level cap. All of this in response to a lot of people saying that they don't want to raid -- all of this so thoroughly missing the point of that statement. This is one of those hurdles a lot of designers can't seem to conceptually get over. World of Warcraft's design team has had years of people saying this, and every response from the team has been missing the point so completely that it's almost absurd. I don't want to raid, at all, ever. End of discussion.
WildStar hosts a PvP AMA
Are you ready to fight for your faction in WildStar? Are you eager to feel blood and gore and guts and veins in your teeth? Then you're probably all eager to jump into the game's PvP. We've hosted some previews, but you probably still have questions, and that's why the PvP design team took to Reddit to host a PvP AMA. While the team couldn't answer every question posed by players, you can go on over and find out a lot more about how facing off against your opposite numbers will feel. Some of it is probably expected, like the fact that there will be no cross-factional communication during battlegrounds. Other pieces of information are a bit more interesting. For instance, the developers haven't placed much emphasis on open-world PvP for launch, mostly because they want to see what areas are the most densely populated in terms of PvE content, which will give a good idea of what can be made more interesting with PvP. Take a look at the full AMA for more details on how you can smash faces against your enemies when the game goes live in a couple of months.
Apple engineer explains where the iPhone came from
Offering a rare interview in the run-up to another legal fray between Samsung and Apple, the senior engineer behind the iPhone has explained where it all started, part of Apple's plan to communicate how groundbreaking the original iPhone was. Talking to the WSJ, Greg Christie explained how the secret project, Purple, brought the iPhone to life. At some point, the former Apple boss told him straight: the team had two weeks, or he would assign the project elsewhere. "Steve had pretty much had it... He wanted bigger ideas and bigger concepts." In the end, the "shockingly small" team had outlined a touchscreen phone with swipe-to-unlock, no physical keyboard and all the music-playing features of the company's iPod series. They ran early software tests on a plastic touchscreen, hooked up to a dated desktop Mac [seen above] -- an effort to emulate a low-powered mobile processor.
EA CEO: Publisher may skip a year between future UFC games
Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson recently contemplated a bi-annual release schedule for future MMA games that follow EA Sports UFC, which is slated to launch on Xbox One and PS4 this year. In an interview with CNN's Fortune Tech, Wilson described the frequency of some games and the "appetite" players have for them, noting that the UFC brand "feels like it's in that every-other-year mix" without committing to that release schedule as a guaranteed development plan. "We get a new GTA game every four or five years, but there is an immense appetite. What we're looking at right now is how long is it going to take us to build a truly innovative game in that genre, and when do we think gamers are going to be ready for that next one," Wilson said. EA announced the acquisition of the UFC license at E3 2012 following the demise of THQ, which published three UFC games. THQ's crack at the series began with annual releases in UFC 2009: Undisputed and UFC Undisputed 2010 prior to a two-year absence in the series. THQ's final game, UFC Undisputed 3, reportedly failed to "break even" at two million units sold as of June 2012. "Do I think that UFC would be an every year game? I don't know," Wilson said. "It feels like it's in that every-other-year mix, but in all honesty we haven't made that decision yet. That really comes down to how long it's going to take to make a great game and when do we think the audience is ready." EA Canada's Fight Night team is behind EA Sports UFC's development, led by creative director and Fight Night Round 4 and Fight Night Champion gameplay designer Brian Hayes. Wilson previously noted that the Fight Night series is "on hold" while the developer works on EA Sports UFC. [Image: EA Sports]
Double Fine to publish indie games, starting with Escape Goat 2
Double Fine may be known for creating games like Psychonauts, Brutal Legend and Broken Age, but it's expanding its efforts to add indie game publishing to its repertoire. Its first act as an indie publisher is to provide "promotional assistance and distribution" for MagicalTimeBean's Escape Goat 2, COO Justin Bailey told Game Informer. "Our goal is to help indies build their own community and empower them with the knowledge and tools they need to succeed on their own," Bailey said, adding that multiple indie developers have approached Double Fine to ask for publishing assistance. "They all had a unique request and that's where we started to see there was a real need for the knowledge we've gained over the last 14 years on how to prototype, fund, develop and publish our own games." Double Fine's publishing ambitions boil down to the efforts of two individuals: Bailey and senior publishing manager Greg Rice, who will offer advice for crowdfunding hopefuls as well as development feedback, platform porting advice and promotional assistance. "We're open to working with each developer and figuring out how we can help make them successful," Bailey added. Double Fine recently teamed up with MagicalTimeBean to create a quirky promotional video for Escape Goat 2. The game launched yesterday on PC, Mac and Linux via Steam, GOG and the Humble Store for $10. [Image: MagicalTimeBean]
NFL Players Association contest rewards mobile dev with license this season
In the world of professional sports licensing, one of the more widely maligned situations is the exclusive NFL license held by Electronic Arts for home console games. That's just one aspect of sports licensing, as organizations that stand as players unions are also able to license out the images and likenesses of athletes within the union, and that's what the NFL Player's Association (NFLPA) is doing in a new contest. From March 20 through April 20, NFL Players Inc, the licensing and marketing branch of the NFLPA, is accepting entries from both independent developers and established studios to determine the "next big thing in mobile gaming." The pro football players union will select three finalists, each given the opportunity to pitch their game idea to the NFL Players Inc (NFLPI) executive board. The winner will be granted the NFLPA license for the 2014-2015 NFL season for use on mobile devices, though the announcement does not indicate that the license is on an exclusive basis. The license covers NFLPI trademarks and the "names, likenesses, uniform numbers, photographs, voices, replica signatures, and biographical information of active NFL players." Of course, without the separate NFL license, developers won't be able to include team names and logos in their games. Additionally, NFL Players Inc will put forth $10,000 to market the winning entry via its "Activate" promotion platform, which streamlines the endorsement process for athletes on social media. Those interested in entering the contest can fill out the submission form (PDF) on the NFLPA's website. [Image: NFL Players Association]
City of Titans to make use of Unreal 4
When a Kickstarted game clears its goals, you kind of expect to see more results from the team. But City of Titans has been quiet except for concept art. Why is that? Why haven't we seen more development shots? What's the Missing Worlds Media team doing? As it turns out, it's because the graphics of the game are going to get even better than what we've seen before -- the game is moving over in development to the Unreal 4 engine. The team has been under NDA regarding the engine, but development has been moving assets over from Unreal 3 to the current version. Unreal 4 will allow the team to put in animated costume parts, capes, hair, fluid, and so forth with greater ease and more flexibility. Missing Worlds Media promises that there will be more updates next week from the technology team, hopefully showing off more of what the game's new underlying graphics core is capable of. [Thanks to Byron and Celestial Lord for the tip!]
Crytek unveils $10 per month CryEngine developer subscription plan
Crytek may be known for its Crysis and Far Cry series, but the developer also makes a pretty penny by licensing out its proprietary tech for game development, CryEngine. Crytek will now offer a subscription-based model for the latest version of its engine, charging $9.90 USD/euros per month for each CryEngine licensee. The "Engine as a Service" plan starts in May and won't affect the free, non-commercial software development kit offered by Crytek. Epic Games announced its own subscription model for Unreal Engine 4 yesterday, a plan that amounts to $19 per month plus 5 percent of gross revenue from any commercial product developed with the engine. While Crytek will unveil more details about its subscription plan in the future, its announcement noted that the Engine as a Service version of CryEngine will be "royalty-free." The latest version of CryEngine features Linux support as well as "Physically Based Shading," a Geometry Cache feature to calculate cache-based animations for elements like cloth and fluid dynamics and an image-based lighting system. An alternative to these subscriptions for some independent developers are middleware development tools like GameMaker: Studio and MonoGame. Sony announced PS4 exporting solutions for those pieces of development software yesterday in addition to PS3, Vita and upcoming PS4 solutions for Unity users. [Image: Crytek]
GDC 2014: Ubisoft shows off its Divison-powering Snowdrop engine
Ubisoft Massive showed off a three-minute trailer focused on its Snowdrop game engine at this week's GDC event in San Francisco. The first title powered by the new tech is UM's MMO shooter The Division, which also features heavily in the clip's behind-the-scenes footage. "Working with the engine is kind of like solving a puzzle," explains environment artist Jill Jarlestam. "The elements are already there so it's just a matter of how you combine them together." You can watch the full video by clicking past the cut.
Sony eases PS4 indie development with new publishing tools
As if Sony's support of independent developers hasn't been apparent enough, the console manufacturer will make it easier for indies to bring their games to Sony's platforms. The company announced partnerships today to offer PS4 exporting tools for game development software GameMaker: Studio and MonoGame for free to licensed Sony Computer Entertainment developers. Sony also made "fully-integrated solutions" for PS3 and Vita available for Unity users, with an early access PS4 version arriving on Unity in April. Lastly, the company opted to offer its Authoring Tools Framework as a free, open source download available on GitHub. SCE uses the framework to help craft games like The Last of Us and Beyond: Two Souls. Created by Yo Yo Games, GameMaker was used to create games such as Hyper Light Drifter, Risk of Rain and Nuclear Throne. Conversely, MonoGame is the backbone of games like TowerFall: Ascension, Mercenary Kings and Transistor. One GameMaker-developed game is Savant Ascent, which Yo Yo Games named as its favorite game of 2013 for the development platform. The stylistic shooter was announced for PS4 this morning following its debut on PC, Mac, iOS and Android in December. [Image: Matt Makes Games]
Disney Interactive lays off 700, plans to scale back annual game output [Update]
Disney laid off one-quarter of its global staff in its video games and Internet division, Disney Interactive, The New York Times reported Thursday. The 26 percent decrease in staff amounts to roughly 700 job losses and also points to a change in strategy for the company, which is expected to scale back annual game output "by as much as 50 percent," the report reads. While profits for Disney Interactive rose in Q1 2014 thanks to the success of Disney Infinity, as it reported a 38 percent increase in revenue year-over-year for that period, it also reported losses in Q3 2013 and Q2 2013 to the tune of $58 million and $54 million, respectively. The layoffs also affect the Internet side of the company's interactive division, which will shutter BabyZone.com and Spoonful.com and move towards sponsorship-based advertising for Disney.com as a result. Prospective layoffs for Disney Interactive were numbered in the hundreds according to reports from one month ago. We've reached out to Disney to determine whether today's layoffs are the same ones in question, and will update as we learn more. Update: Disney Interactive responded to Joystiq with the following statement: "Disney Interactive has consolidated several lines of business as part of an effort to focus the division on a streamlined suite of high quality digital products. As a result of this restructuring, we have undergone a reduction in workforce. These actions were difficult but necessary given our long-term strategy focused on sustainable profitability and innovation." [Image: Disney Interactive]
