gamecock
Latest
Scares and heartwarming fan letters at the Dementium launch party
Gamecock held the launch party for their first title, Renegade Kid's Dementium: The Ward last night in Austin, Texas, and we (knew some people who) were on the scene to report on the creepy goings-on. Did any gruesome monster attacks take place? You'll have to wait until the end of this sentence to find out (they didn't)!Apparently people are so eager for a DS horror game that they've been writing in to Gamecock to share their excitement. According to chief executive Mike Wilson, an industry veteran since Doom days, the amount of mail received is unusual for an unreleased game-- which bodes well for consumer interest.The party continued with a short film and a performance by The Unbearables, and nobody fell into the hellish depths of madness or anything. Check out the Joystiq link for video and a gallery! And hit the Unbearables link above for some free music!
Dementium: The Launch (filed from Austin, TX)
While we were putting the finishing touches on our Portal Halloween costumes, friend of the site – and games business journalist – N. Evan Van Zelfden made his way to Gamecock's Halloween-themed Dementium launch and filed this report: An art-house theater in Austin, Texas was the location of last night's launch party for Dementium: The Ward, a survival horror game for Nintendo's DS which goes on sale today. Made by three guys in a garage – each had over a decade of development experience – Renegade Kid signed with Gamecock in May of this year, and the game was gold by the end of October. "The game technically releases tomorrow," Gamecock's Jason Livergood told the audience of developers, adding that this hadn't kept some retailers from releasing it a few days early. Not only have people started buying the game, they've started writing the publisher.%Gallery-9531%
DS Fanswag: Check into The Ward
We've been talking about it forever, and now you've got a chance to win it -- a copy of Dementium: The Ward, valued at $29.99, will land in the lap of one lucky reader. Want it? All you have to do is leave a comment on this post talking about the scariest moment you've ever had playing a horror game. Did someone happen to slip up behind you while you were sneaking past Bad Things? We want to hear about it. Never been scared? Flex your anti-horror muscles all you want. Just leave a comment -- and remember, you can only enter once per day -- between now and Sunday, November 4, because at 11:59 EST, we'll be closing down the contest. Monday, November 5, we'll toss everyone into the random drawing and choose one winner, who'll receive a spankin' new copy of the game. There are, of course, a few caveats. Winners must be both U.S. citizens and over the age of 18. You can check out the full official rules here.
Mushroom Men site leaps into action
The trailer above might not be full of the gameplay footage we normally look for in our trailers, but the concept art for this game looks absolutely amazing. The atmosphere it sets is so rich and real, we feel as if we can reach through our monitor and touch these little men made of mushrooms. And if, like us, you find the above trailer to only leave you wanting more, the official site for the game also has some info on the game world itself and some concept art for three different character classes.
Fan-made Dementium trailer creeps us out
There's not much to say about this trailer, except that it's full of understated brilliance. Dementium: The Ward videos have all (successfully) tried to scare the crap out of us, but somehow this one is the most disturbing. At the very least, it's certainly the most comical. Interestingly enough, this video is fan-made. Gamecock fanatic Regie Miller sent his videos to Destructoid and told them, "Whether it was Gamecock's plucky chutzpah or the Je ne sais quoi charm of a man in a rooster mask I'll never know, but one way or another this starry-eyed idea machine found its way into my heart and there it stayed and laid eggs." Oh ... okay, then.It's unclear as to whether Gamecock bought the rights to Miller's trailer, but it certainly looks that way. Since we couldn't find it at the official Dementium and Gamecock websites, however, we can't be sure.
Insecticide continues to be dizzying
We'd love to say it's because the game looks great (it does!) Unfortunately, the cause for our dizziness is the continued use of the "flying DS" style of trailer, in which all efforts to look at the action on the screen are rebuffed by the constant movement of the DS.The effect is only mildly annoying, and it can't prevent all viewing of new Insecticide footage. The trailer focuses on one of the game's action stages, with Chrys Liszt chasing after a suspect through a circuitous level full of precision jumps and rail-thin platforms.Insecticide is due out January 8th, and we're giving it some serious thought.[Via press release]
Joystiq interview: Dementium's Renegade Kid
You may not recognize the name Renegade Kid, but chances are you're familiar with some of the more than twenty titles this tiny three-person development team in Austin has jointly had a hand in creating, including games such as XS Games' The Red Star, Aspyr's Stubbs the Zombie, and Namco's Sigma Star Saga. Now working as an independent developer under the Gamecock umbrella, Renegade Kid will soon launch its first title this Halloween with Dementium: The Ward, a first-person survival horror game for the Nintendo DS.We recently had a chance to gab some time with two members of Renegade Kid, co-owner and creative director Jools Watsham and fellow co-owner and art director Gregg Hargrove, and we spoke to them about what it's like to work under their Gamecock overlords (did I say overlords? I meant protectors), as well as as just how crazy they must be to attempt a game as ambitious as Dementium on the DS as their freshman effort. Read on.%Gallery-3636%
Gamepro gets freaked out ten times by Dementium
Genuine horror is a bold objective for a handheld game. It's very hard to create an atmosphere when your material is contained entirely in two tiny screens (and proportionately tiny speakers.) In fact, we'd say that it's even harder to make a handheld horror game than it is to make a good FPS on the DS. Renegade Kid seems to be pulling off both tasks with Dementium, however.This fun, spooky feature from Gamepro outlines some of the scary junk that will jump out at you during the game. It's all screaming this and blood-covered that. We suppose that if you're avoiding spoilers, you may want to skip it, but we think that even if you know something is coming, there's still a good chance it'll give you the jibblies when it does bust through the window.
Dementium 'Rx' video censored and uncensored version
IGN has been running a series of "Director's Diary" regarding the DS' survival-horror game Dementium: The Ward. We're still confused by what's really going on in the series, but the main point is the latest entry is about the video "Rx," a promo for Dementium that allegedly got into trouble with the ESRB. There's a series of email exchanges between the mysterious "Director X" and Mike Wilson of Dementium's publisher Gamecock. Beyond the ESRB issues, apparently Nintendo sent over an email asking, "Well....This one's a little over the top. Can you take out the loss of bodily functions (bladder, bowel and stomach); or, remove the Nintendo DS hardware?"The edited version can be found above. The link for the unedited version can be found after the break along with the rest of the promo videos in the series, which mix in-game footage with live-action. Oh, and before the freakin' Spielbergs get all uppity, the reason it looks "cheap" is because it was apparently done on "3k for 11 movies in 8 weeks or whatever the hell it is" according to "Director X." Beyond these marketing videos, we're keeping an eye on Dementium which releases Halloween because it could do well based on our time with it.
Latest Dementium trailer is kind of disgusting (in a good way)
We're dying to give Dementium: The Ward a proper playthrough. We want to feel the jagged edges of the game cart in our hand and slowly, lovingly place it into the slot of our DS Lite. We want to brave the dark and vanquish the evil within. We want to feel alive.You can check out the NSFW version (see: uncensored) of the trailer here.
Fresh hot craziness in latest Dementium trailer
Mixing in gameplay segments with live-action footage (you know, like they've already been doing), this latest trailer for Dementium: The Ward is a tad bit unsettling. There's lots of blood and creepy women covered in it, shouting and popping up in random places frame after frame. The gameplay, though, looks as good as ever. Seriously, this is one of our most-anticipated titles for the DS to date.How awesome is that whole wheelchair sequence?%Gallery-4929%See also: PAX07 hands-on: Dementium: The Ward
Friday Video: Putting your game face on
We just can't resist these Dementium trailers. They're fresh and different, which definitely grabs our attention, but they seem to demonstrate a great spirit as well -- a blend of comedy, "mature" content, and gameplay that we wish showed up in more trailers and commercials.Though we'll say one thing: if blood ever splashed up from our DS while we were playing a game, we think we'd be asking for a refund. After we stopped uncontrollably freaking out, anyway.
Dementium, with tongue firmly in cheek
If we weren't already interested in Dementium: The Ward, we certainly would be after this latest trailer. What it lacks in gameplay footage, it makes up in humor, and poking fun at ambulance-chasing lawyers never gets old ... particularly when they happen to sport an amusing moniker (like this fellow),The trailer itself is amusingly bad, like watching a low-budget film that is fully self aware and uses its cheapness to its advantage. We particularly liked the obnoxious, excessive gore, especially when "blood" looks as though it's being sprayed from a squeezy bottle of Hershey's syrup. Well played, Renegade Kid and Gamecock. Well played indeed. See it for yourself after the break, but beware -- mixed in among the funny, there are some squicky moments.%Gallery-4929%
The latest from Mushroom Men
Gamecock's Mushroom Men isn't due until next fall, but it's coming along swimmingly. In the video that pops up after the break, we get a mix of developer commentary and early game footage, and both elements give us hope for this intriguing title. The environments, while still a little rough, show a great deal of promise, and both the world and the mechanics seem interesting. One of the best parts? The DS game won't be the exact same story, but rather a prequel, which will offer gamers who want to pick up both a richer, more interesting experience. On the one hand, we chafe at the idea of feeling like we have to buy both, but on the other, it's nice to know that there are two possible experiences out there from which we can choose. Freedom of choice is a beautiful thing -- and we expect the game will be, as well.
PAX 07 hands-on: Insecticide
I didn't get as much time with Crackpot's Insecticide as I liked, but I got to mess around in both an action stage and the detective mode, at least superficially enough to know how they worked. I can tell you right away that all three Psychonauts owners, as well as LucasArts adventure fans, are going to want this.The action mode looks and feels just like Psychonauts, with the exception of touch-screen integration, of course, and your character's use of a projectile weapon rather than melee. It's pretty much a standard 3D platformer. The graphics have taken a significant hit compared to the concept art, obviously, but the style of the game (like its neighbor at the Gamecock booth, Dementium) helps cover. The touch-screen control scheme was a little hard to manage, seeming to involve more limbs than a non-arthropod like myself had available. However, I quickly found that I could lock-on to targets with a button, and could therefore avoid the stylus altogether. I fell through platforms a couple of times, but that was actually a pretty common problem for some of the really early versions of games I played at PAX.
PAX 07 hands-on: Dementium: The Ward
Tiny DS demo stations around Gamecock's Fury booth had demos of Dementium: The Ward available, and I made it a point to try Renegade Kid's horror FPS. The graphics may be simple in terms of polygons, but the game does its best to set a mood, which can be difficult on a handheld!I was immediately impressed with the framerate. I'm not a frame-counting expert, but the game ran perfectly steadily at what looked like 60 FPS. The simple geometry of the game's environments and enemies is masked by the lighting effects (you can really only see about five feet in front of you without a flashlight) and a dirtying effect around the periphery of the screen, which is normally black but turns red when you take a hit. These work similarly to the noise and fog effects in Silent Hill to create a mood while hiding technical limitations. Taking inspiration from Silent Hill is generally smart, and this isn't the only example of such influence.
Friday Video: Bloodletting and cockroaches
While everyone else in the room was bemoaning the presence of cockroaches in this chilling new trailer for Dementium: The Ward, this blogger was simply stunned by the music. The last thing we expected to hear was Concrete Blonde's "Bloodletting" from the album of the same name, and yet it was strangely fitting despite the lack of singer Johnette Napolitano's amazing vocals. It's quite a slick little trailer; while light on the gameplay footage (which is okay! we've seen it), the video is heavy on mood, and we think it will definitely get you excited about spending time in The Ward.And we ain't lying when we tell you that it's a pretty creepy trailer -- definitely a step up on the perversity scale for DS games. See for yourself after the break.
Insecticide site gets overhaul
After the game was announced, we were excited to see what Insecticide was bringing to the DS table. We imagined a feast chock full of delicious foods, allowing us to gorge ourselves until our heart's content. Well, until that time when the game releases, we'll just have to settle for some screenshots from the game's website. Check them out in the gallery below.
Fury unleashes Oct. 9, issues million dollar beta challenge
PvP MMO Fury will be be prepared to "unleash the fury" on October 9 (Oct. 12 in Europe). We did get a little hands-on time with the game at E3 and the beta has been going on since early last month. But before you go waiting until Oct. 9 to get your PvP MMO on, there's a little contest that'll happen in the Open Beta planned for next month.Auran Games, Gamecock and Codemasters Online are planning to do the "FURY Challenge," which will have one million dollars in prizes. The challenge will kick off Sept. 14 and be held over three consecutive weekends. First weekend is practice and the next two has the competition. There will be various ladders so even casual players stand some small chance. Customers who pre-order the game at GameStop are invited to the closed beta currently going on, so that's an option if you think you'll need a little more practice.%Gallery-4405%
Dementium: The Ward gets psycho on your DS this Halloween
Survival horror FPS, Dementium: The Ward, received an official release date today of ... (cue up haunting music) Halloween. That's Oct. 31 in case you just can't be bothered to remember. The Gamecock published Dementium is a little independent title by Renegade Kid which impressed us at E3 because of its intuitive design and solid feel. Granted, it's on the Nintendo DS, so we don't have many survival horror FPS' to compare it to, but it was fun and almost made us miss our next appointment.Dementium: The Ward is a mature rated game and uses the leeway that rating gives it. We're definitely looking forward to more DS titles from Renegade Kid. They seem to know what they're doing, getting Dementium together in about a year from scratch. With any luck, gamers will find Dementium and we can see more solid off-the-beaten-path DS titles from the company.[Via Press Release]%Gallery-3636%
