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Arcade management sim Arcadecraft to find new quarters on PC
Flashing lights, bleeps and bloops, and the miasma of teenagers with nothing better to do. For many of us, this is the essence of the 1980s that indie game Arcadecraft captures, and if you're PC owner who likes the sound of an arcade creation and management sim - think Theme Hospital but with dingy arcades - developer Firebase has good news for you. After shifting 65,000 copies on Xbox Live Indie Games, Arcadecraft now has a PC port that's "almost done" and will be available to Windows 7 users soon. It's now on the Humble Store for pre-order, and Firebase has a Steam Greenlight page up too. The PC port features the same arcade-building play of the XBLIG original, but with some visual touch-ups like higher resolution textures and new character models and animations. [Image: Firebase Industries]
Take control of an 80s arcade with Arcadecraft, out now on XBLIG
Arcadecraft, the 80s arcade management sim from Firebase Industries, is available now on Xbox Live Indie Games for 240 MS Points ($3). In Arcadecraft, players must dig themselves out of debt with the latest craze in entrepreneurship, starting an arcade. As owner and manager, players purchase arcade machines, position them around the space, name their arcade, paint the walls, change the floors, and add graphics and neon wherever they deem necessary.Arcadecraft has almost 80 arcade machines of different design, each with adjustable difficulty and price settings, and some games will jam, break down and need servicing as customers use and abuse them.Firebase Industries, the team behind Orbitron: Revolution, has Arcadecraft on Steam Greenlight and is working on a touch-based Windows 8 version.
Manage an 80s arcade in Arcadecraft, coming to PC and Xbox Live
Orbitron Revolution developer Firebase Industries today unveiled Arcadecraft, an upcoming arcade management sim for PC and Xbox Live (though the developer hasn't clarified if it's coming to Arcade or Indie Games). As the above trailer shows, finally we'll all be able to realize our universal life goal: owning a dingy backstreet arcade.Arcadecraft, Firebase tells us, chronicles the rollercoaster that was the 1980s arcade industry; the golden age of the early 80s, the mid-decade crash, and the return to glory towards the 90s. While Firebase hopes to include around 100 fictional machines in Arcadecraft, it's the real ups and downs of the 80s that impact how arcades evolve. As time goes on, black and white games progress into color, Laserdisc arrives along with two-player machines, and then there's the sacred invention of the 'continue.'Similar to the 'Theme' games of the 90s, subtleties like the pricing and difficulty of machines can affect customer loyalty. There are peripheral influences too, like a home version reducing a machine's popularity, or a classic game riding a nostalgic second wave. Meanwhile, as the above trailer shows, arcades can be customized with pillars, graphics, and neon - lots of neon - while Xbox Live players get to see Avatars gracing their establishments.While there's no word on a release date, Firebase reckons Arcadecraft should be completed around October. In the meantime, you can find some screenshots after the break.
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Orbitron: Revolution
Indie developers are the starving artists of the video-game world, often brilliant and innovative, but also misunderstood, underfunded and more prone to writing free-form poetry on their LiveJournals. We at Joystiq believe no one deserves to starve, and many indie developers are entitled to a fridge full of tasty, fulfilling media coverage, right here. This week, Matthew Leigh of Canada's Firebase Industries details the details behind Orbitron: Revolution, a gorgeous space shmup for XBLIG and PC. What's your game called and what's it about?Orbitron: Revolution. Originally it was called Orbital, but looking online it seemed as though 10 other games were called that. Orbitron was settled on because it sounded like something you would find in a smoky 1980s arcade. Then two days before the Dream Build Play 2011 competition we thought we would add a second title and for about three minutes it was going to be called Orbitron: Combat Revolved.The game has the player in the role of a defense fighter, fending off an invasion of angry robots who are bent on destroying the Orbitron Power Station. Guardian Mode is really the core of the game and is a bit of a action/shmup/tower-defense mashup. You have to stop evil laser-drilling robots from attacking and destroying the four sector ports located around the ring. When three of the four ports are destroyed the ring explodes!Orbitron: Revolution was a semi-finalist in the Dream Build Play 2011 competition -- how encouraging was that for Firebase Industries?The first trailer we did as a requirement to get into Dream Build Play 2011 really exploded on Youtube. We got 25,000 views or something in only a couple days which is rare for an XBLIG title. So after that we were feeling pretty good about that game and where it could go. Getting the semi-finalist spot was fantastic as well and I hope it helped get the awareness of the game up!
