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'Tunic' is more than just a 'Zelda' clone with a cute fox
Tunic looks like a game that's taken a lot of inspiration from SNES era Zelda titles — and when Xbox's E3 2018 showcase is an awful lot of games with guns, zombies or unexplained apocalyptic surroundings, it was a welcome panacea. Meet the tiny fox embarking on an adorable, mysterious adventure.
‘Night in the Woods’ makes the leap to Nintendo Switch February 1st
Quirky adventure game Night in the Woods is a finalist for three awards in the upcoming Independent Games Festival: the Seumas McNally grand prize, visual art and narrative categories. Now it's coming to Nintendo's Switch console this February 1st, a year after its initial release on Mac, Windows, Linux and PlayStation 4. The title is slated for a mobile release this year, as well.
The best PlayStation 4 games
There's a big reason why the PlayStation 4 is the best-selling console: It has a smattering of games that you can't play anywhere else. Think: blockbusters like Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, Horizon: Zero Dawn and Bloodborne. But even if Indiana Jones simulators and massive open worlds where you hunt down robo-dinosaurs aren't your thing, there are still plenty of exclusives to pick from. Whether it's the best baseball video game franchise, a choose-your-own-adventure horror or an engrossing social simulator/JRPG hybrid, there's a lot to play on Sony's latest console. And then there are games from massive third-party publishers like Activision and Ubisoft, along with quirky indie offerings to round out the selection.
The best game consoles and accessories for your dorm room
Not all of your college fun will involve keggers or games of ultimate frisbee. As the weather gets colder, you might have difficulty tearing yourself out of your dorm, in which case your entertainment options are limited: Host an in-room dance party, Netflix and chill or settle in for a little gaming. In addition to our favorite consoles (no, we couldn't choose just one), we've selected a handful of accessories and must-have titles for our back-to-school guide. Enjoy, and may you do a better job making friends with rival fanboys in real life than you do online.
'Night in the Woods' brings cynical cats to PS4, PC in January
Adorable independent adventure game Night in the Woods has been in development for just shy of three years, following a wildly successful Kickstarter campaign in October 2013 that asked for $50,000 and ended up earning $209,000. In an update to that very same Kickstarter page on Wednesday, developers Alec Holowka, Scott Benson and Bethany Hockenberry announced that Night in the Woods will land on PC, Mac, Linux and PlayStation 4 on January 10th, 2017.
Game development is better with friends at Finji
Canabalt creator Adam Saltsman founded Finji, a collaborative development studio, in March. Finji offers publishing and other services to developers, and it runs on revenue share for each project – for Saltsman's new apocalyptic survival game, Overland, this means each of the four development team members will split revenue from the game "basically forever" once it's released. Finji works with other developers on their own games, such as Infinite Fall's Night in the Woods, and Fernando Ramallo and David Kanaga's Panoramical, which is also backed by Polytron Partners. So far, the collaboration is going better than he'd hoped, Saltsman says. Developers use a combination of text messages, Skype and Google apps to get their work done, and they're figuring out the kinks among everyone's schedules. Most of the team is local to Austin, Texas, but they do have to deal with some time zone confusion and melding different work habits.
Overland: A lonely game filled with monsters
Overland is not a zombie game. It's a turn-based survival story set in an apocalyptic wasteland filled with monsters, and it plays out as if action figures from Half-Life 2 and Stephen King's The Stand were on a road trip across a chess board, creator Adam Saltsman says. It is a horror game, in a sense. "It is intended to be scary or unsettling or lonely, but I don't think it will be compared to Resident Evil or Amnesia," Saltsman tells Joystiq. "The thing I'm most interested in right now is, what if the people in a roguelike-type scenario weren't heroes and could not become heroes ... how do they manage? I like that feeling of vulnerability more than the feeling of 'horror' exactly. As a team we're definitely investigating things that are lonely and vulnerable and beautiful more than 'scary' so far, I think."
Canabalt dev forms indie studio Finji, taking semi-publishing role
Canabalt creator Adam Saltsman and wife Rebekah Saltsman have created a studio focused on making "new kinds of games with ethical business models" that they call "Finji." Finji will offer both development and publishing services as they collaborate with other game creators. Their first commercial project is Capsule, which is available now from the Humble Store. When the Saltsmans aren't developing, they'll be working with creators like Scott Benson and Alec Holowka on their upcoming game, Night In The Woods. Finji will be there, as Adam Saltsman wrote on the studio's Tumblr page, to "help pick up some of the admin and production work." Finji will also help distribute the game on desktop and mobile platforms. Finji is self-funded; no Kickstarter campaigns or big-name investors. Adam Saltsman wrote that this means the studio can operate as its creators see fit, and judging by some of his statements, the business will run with an air of respect. "People that choose to support our work by purchasing our games are not a resource to be mined," Saltsman wrote. "Our goal is to make the best games we can and price them in such a way that our audience can afford to buy them and we can afford to continue making games." [Image: Finji]
