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Dimension-hopping platformer Fractured Soul out now on PC
Endgame Studios' dual-world platformer Fractured Soul has made the jump from the 3DS eShop to Windows, Mac, and Linux platforms, and is now available for purchase from GOG.com, Desura, and the developer's website. Fractured Soul divides its gameplay across two screens representing alternate dimensions. While its Mega Man-like platforming mechanics are straightforward, players must frequently shift between screens in order to solve puzzles and defeat certain enemy types, adding complexity to the formula. The PC version introduces a new "Easy" mode not present in the original 3DS release, along with upgraded graphics and an in-game timer for speedrunners. Fractured Soul is available for $8.99 during its debut week. Endgame Studios continues to seek a Steam release via Greenlight. [Image: Endgame Studios]
Fractured Soul now on Steam Greenlight
Fractured Soul, the delightfully difficult 3DS action game, will soon be available on single screens. Developer Endgame Studios has submitted a PC, Mac, and Linux version to Steam Greenlight, with additions like an optional easy mode, more advanced timers for speedrunning, and video export.Lacking two discrete screens, Fractured Soul's Steam version uses an unusually skewed splitscreen. It's an interesting effect visible in the above trailer.
Portabliss: Fractured Soul (3DS eShop)
This is Portabliss, a column about downloadable games that can be played on the go. If the cancellation of the retail DS and 3DS versions marked the end of Fractured Soul, it would have been a tragedy. That would have been the case five years ago. Instead, Endgame Studios just got to self-publish it on the eShop for a lower price than it would have commanded at retail. And that's why 2012 is pretty cool.%Gallery-165064%
Fractured Soul comes to eShop September 13
Developer Endgame Studios has informed Joystiq that its eShop action game Fractured Soul will be released in North America on September 13, at an $11.99 price point. Fractured Soul is a sci-fi action game that has players jumping back and forth between two slightly different parallel worlds, one on each screen of the 3DS. This mechanic is used as the basis for insane challenges. For more information, check out our preview from earlier this year.The $12 price is "less than half of the retail price" decided upon when Fractured Soul was still a packaged release, Endgame managing director Grant Davies told me. The price, which is higher than many eShop releases, is such "for us not to end up completely broke."Davies is happy about Nintendo's new program of rolling out digital versions of retail games simultaneously. "The more quality products you can find in the eShop the better," he said. "Gamers need to be confident that when they go to the eShop, they're getting a quality offering. That's one of the problems that something like the App Store has." With things like New Super Mario Bros. 2 on the service, people will be "more willing to engage with eShop and check out what's on there."
Getting the best of both worlds in Fractured Soul
Fractured Soul's release status may be in question, with Endgame Studios tentatively planning to put it on the 3DS eShop in two parts, but it's worth hoping the game finds its way to players. The side-scroller takes one clever DS-friendly mechanic -- parallel worlds, one on each screen, that the player can jump between at any time -- and then cranks that to every possible extreme, to challenge and/or punish the player.The main gimmick is easy enough to understand, and the first few levels ease you into it nicely. Two side-scrolling environments exist in parallel, one on each screen, but they're slightly different from one another. There might be a bridge on the top screen where there's a gap on the bottom screen, or a wall in place on one screen that isn't on the other.%Gallery-152022%
Fractured Soul dev looking to Nintendo eShop
Back in 2011, we featured an interesting DS platformer called Fractured Soul, which was being published by the tiny Graffiti Entertainment. Then ... we didn't hear anything, and the game later showed up in remade polygonal form on 3DS as Fractured Soul 3D, with a new publisher, Ignition. That was last year.So what happened? Why are there two versions with two publishers? And ... what's happening now? I asked Grant Davies, co-founder of developer Endgame Studios, what the deal is with the dual versions of the dual-world, dual-screen action game.First, the DS game. "We sold the distribution rights for that to N3V Games," Davies said. "Basically, what happened was, toward the end of the project when they were looking to place it with distributors, the DS market kind of fell down at that point -- the 3DS was coming out. They had a bit of trouble placing it with distributors." N3V signed up with publisher Graffiti, and the game just hasn't made it to retail. N3V owns the rights, so the fate of Fractured Soul DS is now in their hands -- Endgame can't seek a new publisher or take its game back.Instead, Endgame remade it with new graphics for 3DS. And ... that publishing deal also fell through. "With the 3DS, we got involved with a publisher on that one [Ignition]," Davies said, "and they got to the point where they could no longer honor their contractual obligations to us."This time, however, Endgame still has the rights. "Now it's no publisher," Davies said, "and we have the rights, and we have a completed game, so that's why we're kind of thinking maybe eShop is the way forward." Endgame is now looking at self-publishing digitally, perhaps breaking the finished retail-sized game into two downloads for 3DS. Fracturing it, if you will.
Fractured Soul finds an American publisher
Last year, we reported that Endgame Studios was looking for a publisher for its DS title Fractured Soul, a side-scrolling action game in which your character can freely jump between two different worlds, one on each screen. Today, Graffiti Entertainment, the small publisher behind Black Sigil and Mazes of Fate, announced that it will publish Fractured Soul in North America, presumably as a personal favor to us. It plans to release the game in Q4 of this year, which is a bit late for a DS game, but infinitely preferable to never. [Thanks, Spart!]
Please publish Fractured Soul on DS
This message is for the many Joystiq readers who are also in charge of business development at game publishing companies -- or for those few impulsive, wealthy Joystiq readers eager to start a new business venture at the drop of a hat. You see, there's this DS game Fractured Soul. It takes the "two worlds on two screens" concept (as seen in titles like Reflection and Chronos Twins) and makes a fast-paced arcade experience out of it, with the player shifting back and forth at high speed in both platforming and shmup levels. Unfortunately, we can't play it, because developer Endgame Studios needs a publisher. N3V Games has already signed on for Australia, so that leaves ... everywhere else in the world. That's where you come in. Watch the trailer after the break and give it some thought.
