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Video preview: Diving into deep sea terror with Amnesia dev's Soma
Spoiler warning: This post and the video above contain light story spoilers for Soma, including the appearance of one of the game's enemies. Soma, from Amnesia creator Frictional Games, takes place deep under the ocean. As it turns out, the oppressive, high-pressure atmosphere of the sea floor makes for a pretty spooky environment (who knew?). We got to spend some hands-on time with Soma at GDC last month, and we also got to pick the brain of Ian Thomas, programmer and narrative designer. Like Frictional's other games, Soma focuses primarily on psychological horror and environmental storytelling. We didn't learn too much about the story in our short play session, other than the main character is exploring a submerged scientific facility of some sort, and that he's trying to locate his colleagues. Strange, alien-looking cables and machinery seem to have penetrated the facility and, we learned through a series of flashbacks, something went wrong. Exactly what went wrong is at the heart of the mystery, though the occasional bursts of static imply an air of technological horror. See it for yourself in our video preview and interview. Soma is slated to arrive on PC and PS4 in 2015.
Skyforge shows off the Paladin class
After revealing the Cryomancer a few days ago, the Skyforge team is showing off the second class that was spotlighted during its GDC demo: the Paladin. In addition to the usual fighter abilities you'd find with a Paladin, Skyforge's holy warrior wields a powerful artifact that is used to both inspire allies and threaten enemies. "The Paladin is capable of performing devastating attacks and engage in prolonged battles with abilities such as the Righteous Blow, Seal of Light, Punishing Bolt and Celestial Shield," the forum announcement states. "The Paladin is one who not only inflicts damage on his enemies, but also protects his friends, making him an excellent brother in arms!" [Thanks to Dengar for the tip!]
'To Leave' flying to PlayStation, hopes to put Latin American games on the map
Mechanically, To Leave is a very simple game, requiring players to hop from one safe location to another, avoiding hazards along the way. What elevates it beyond those mechanics, at least in my very brief experience with it, is its bold art style and soundscape. A simple platformer becomes the story of a young man escaping from the misery of his life, desperately clinging to a door as it flies through a bizarre dream world. There's no telling if that will be enough to carry a full game, but it makes for a very good first impression (watch the trailer if you haven't already). For Estefano Palacios, To Leave is much more than the sum of its parts. Palacios is creative director of Ecuadorian studio Freaky Creations and, for him, To Leave is a shot at earning respect for Latin American games and developers. To Leave is headed to PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 4 as part of an incubation program that Sony instituted to court Latin American developers. Palacios believes – and Sony agrees, it would seem – that the region deserves more recognition. Speaking with Joystiq at GDC, Sony account manager Mike Foster, who is in charge of the incubation program, tells me it came to be in 2007. A member of Sony's developer support group, who happens to be Guatemalan, wanted to "explore the developer landscape in Latin America," says Foster, "because nobody really knows what's going on down there. It's quiet."
Why Goat Simulator is secretly a Hawk simulator
Getting the gist of Goat Simulator isn't that hard, even if the title conjures the image of cute, semi-evil livestock munching on a tranquil mountaintop. What we have here is a misappropriation of computational cycles – not to mention the Unreal engine – to render an obnoxious, destructive beast that lives to ruin a generic suburb. But there is a game in there, not just a joke. Developer Armin Ibrasagic of Coffee Stain Studios (Sanctum) explained his design inspiration to us during the Game Developers Conference, ahead of Goat Simulator's wide release through Steam on April 1. Based on our dumb video above, the argument goes something like this: 1) Goat Simulator depicts and encourages the ram-ifications of being near an insane goat. 2) Since all animals are goats – just watch the video – it follows that all animals are simulated here. 3) Hawks are animals. 4) Pro skater Tony Hawk is part of the Hawk family and is therefore an animal. 5) It follows that Goat Simulator is simulating Tony Hawk, "except instead of a skater you're a goat, and instead of doing tricks you make people angry."
Videoball, NBA Jam and the magic of on-screen sports
Videoball looks like something you might have played on an Atari 2600 you bought at a garage sale. Played on a single screen, two teams of two triangles fire bullets at a ball, attempting to knock it into their opponents' goal. At its most basic, that's it. It's dead simple, but its complexities start to emerge within a few minutes. Charged shots, defensive walls and deflections all add a layer of high-level nuance to Videoball that serious players are bound to appreciate. On the plus side, it's also a lot of fun. What's really surprising about Videoball, however, is its inspiration: Real-time strategy. Videoball designer Tim Rogers told us at GDC that the concept was born from the idea of reducing a game like StarCraft to a single button. Throw in scoring, thumping music and an announcer and you have something approaching NBA Jam levels of competitive camaraderie – and that was no accident. Videoball is expected to arrive this year on PC and Mac – and possibly other platforms – courtesy of Majesco's indie label, Midnight City.
This is how we TowerFall
When the Joystiq crew gets together in person, things get intense. We need somewhere to channel all of that pent-up editing rage and story-scheduling mania, and thankfully we've found our outlet: TowerFall: Ascension.
Cannibals and priest bikers in Sarah Northway's Rebuild: Gangs of Deadsville
Rebuild: Gangs of Deadsville isn't about the zombie apocalypse – it's about what happens after the zombie apocalypse. Society is in tatters, infrastructure is broken, politics are disbanded, religion is extreme, and, somehow, you are in charge. For now. You're the leader of a group of survivors attempting to rekindle normal life in a barricaded, devastated city. Humanity has split into 12 factions; they're not exactly warring with each other, but they don't all get along. There are hippie Luddites, priest bikers, anti-male feminists and a group of LAN partiers, to name a few. Every time you play, you get a random selection of a few factions, and in order to create a peaceful society, you must strike a balance among all of their opposing viewpoints. If you do a bad job, your factions can rise up and start a "true democracy," pushing you out of a decision-making position entirely. It is possible to build a city of peace, but it's difficult, creator Sarah Northway told Joystiq at GDC. "It depends on what the factions are," Northway said. "There is a cannibal faction, and if you ban cannibalism and say that's absolutely not going to happen, they'll get angry. And then there's other factions, that if you embrace cannibalism, they get angry .... They'll just come to you, month after month, and say, 'So, your'e still eating people, eh?'"
GDC breaks attendance record, returns March 2-6, 2015
Over 24,000 industry professionals attended the 2014 Game Developers Conference, organizer UBM Tech Game Network announced today. This year's event saw the unveiling of PlayStation's Project Morpheus, a hands-on tour of Valve's latest Steam controller, and a look back at the history of Shenmue and LucasFilm Games. The record-breaking attendance swarmed San Francisco's Moscone Convention Center, where game creators, press and publishers discussed the industry's inner workings and its future. Though not an officially tracked or verified or real statistic, local Starbucks stores also registered higher-than-normal accuracy with cup names, thanks to the hugeness and legibility of official GDC badges. The Game Developers Conference will return to the Moscone Center on March 2-6, 2015.
50 Unity games 'waiting in the wings' for Wii U, says Nintendo
Nintendo says there are 50 Unity games in development for the Wii U, in addition to the 17 already submitted for release on the eShop in the next two months. Nintendo distributes the Wii U-specific version of Unity free with every Wii U development kit, and by the sounds of it, that's enticed plenty of developers to both the platform and the engine. "Over the course of this show, we have 9 games on display," Nintendo of America Senior Manager of Marketing Damon Baker told Siliconera at GDC. "We have 17 that are currently in the pipeline, that have been submitted. So they will all be out within the next two months. And then, we have another 50 that are waiting in the wings, that are coming; so we've got a lot of Unity content on the way." For all the Unity support Nintendo's home console is getting, the engine remains absent from its portable system. Nintendo is "definitely looking at" the possibility of Unity coming to 3DS, especially now the engine's Wii U build is finalized and pumping out games. "Now, we can move on to other platforms and see how we can make those compatible," Baker said, "either with Unity or with additional middleware providers as well. So, 3DS is definitely an exciting platform for us, because we've got a huge install base, and we want to take advantage of that. We've got a lot of developers that want to take advantage of it. So, we're working towards that as well. But nothing to announce at this time."
'Metroidvania' should actually be 'Zeldavania'
Koji Igarashi, longtime producer of the Castlevania series, is generally the person most of us associate with establishing the exploration-driven formula of Konami's vampire-slaying franchise. The rhythm of the series – uncovering a vast world map as you slowly acquire new abilities to traverse it – has become so iconic that players created a word for its signature style: Metroidvania. The portmanteau reveals Castlevania's similarities to Metroid, Nintendo's beloved sci-fi series, though Igarashi said during a GDC panel that the inspiration for Castlevania's now traditional formula was from another Nintendo series: Zelda.
New Nexon CEO: Mobile games 'letting consumers down'
New Nexon boss Owen Mahoney had harsh words for mobile game makers at last week's Game Developers Conference. "A third of what we've done in the last few months is Flappy Bird clones. We're letting consumers down," Mahoney told Venture Beat. "I know that, because as a consumer, I really want to play a different kind of game than just a casual, short-format game. I want to play a more immersive experience." Mahoney believes that mobile devices and PCs will eventually converge, and he said that Nexon is focused on developing games -- and acquiring a North American IP -- with that in mind.
Fantasia: Music Evolved video preview
We haven't been shy about praising Harmonix's Disney Fantasia: Music Evolved thus far. Based on our experience with it at GDC 2014 last week, that's not likely to change anytime soon. We tried the latest version of Fantasia, running on Xbox One, and the Kinect-powered experience was delightful from top to bottom. Whether you're intuitively creating your own synthesizer solo in "Ziggy Stardust" or ringing bells hanging from the horns of a giant stag – no, really – the level of creativity and craftsmanship on display is always apparent. You can witness the magical madness yourself in our video preview. Disney Fantasia: Music Evolved is slated to arrive this year on Xbox 360 and Xbox One.
Harmonix's 'Fantasia' gets a multiplayer mode, new songs
Harmonix is letting us in on a few more details about its upcoming game Disney Fantasia: Music Evolved. During a demo last week at GDC the company showed us a new discovery realm of the game called "The Hollow," a new multiplayer mode and took the wraps off of six new tracks coming to the colorful music-conducting game. Similar to the underwater world we saw at E3, The Hollow is a part of the game meant for exploration rather than structured gameplay -- and the forest scene has a ton to explore. Much like the other discovery realms in the game, parts of world start to come into color the more songs you play, with a little taste of your completed songs incorporating itself into the world. Areas of The Hollow we saw had magical mushrooms that you could play (not that kind of magical shrooms; these), as well as fairies you can interact with and an elk with playable bells in its antlers. It all looks pretty amazing, and is something we could definitely see ourselves spending hours exploring.
Hotline Miami is bringing the heat to PS4 with Cross-Buy support
Publisher Devolver Digital revealed it's releasing the first Hotline Miami on PS4, and the good news is fans who bought the original game on PS3 and Vita won't have to pay to get the new version. Speaking to Destructoid at GDC, Devolver's Nigel Lowrie confirmed the 2D top-down murder-fest is retaining its Cross-Buy support on PS4. Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number is also in line for PS4, as well as Vita, Windows PC, Mac, and Linux. Wrong Number switches out the first game's 80s vibe for a darker 90s aesthetic, and while the sequel retains that ultra-violent core, Lowrie said Devolver plans to showcase more of what's new about it at next month's PAX East conference in Boston. "So far all [we've shown developer Dennaton] is doing is really more or less similar to Hotline Miami 1, what we've shown." Lowrie told Destructoid. "What we're gonna show at PAX East and in a trailer before PAX East is the new hotness, and really things are going to change up the game quite a bit." [Image: Devolver Digital]
Endless Legend enters Early Access next month
Endless Legend, the "civilization fantasy game" by Endless Space and Dungeon of the Endless developer Amplitude Studios, will enter Steam's Early Access program next month. The team told us at GDC that the plan is for the game to have its official launch by year's end. The fantasy 4X strategy game features Civilization series-style empire-building gameplay, mixed with zoomed-in tactical turn-based battlefield combat. There will be orcs. Like, all the orcs. [Image: Amplitude]
Zombies Monsters Robots revealed, spiritual successor to Mercenary Ops
Some games pit players against zombies. Some feature monsters. Still others go toe-to-metal-toe with robots. EnMasse Entertainment's Zombies Monsters Robots has all three. EnMasse announced the game at this year's GDC, revealing it to be a free-to-play third-person shooter and spiritual successor to iOS shooter Mercenary Ops. Unlike Mercenary Ops however, ZMR will be coming to PC, with early access starting in May. In ZMR, portals have opened into alternate dimensions, unleashing zombies, monsters and, yes, robots. Up to eight players band together to stop the advancing hordes across multiple game modes, including a campaign and wave-based survival. Alternatively, if you can't - or don't want to - beat 'em, join 'em by playing competitively; the game also features a 16-player head-to-head mode where teams are split into monsters vs. humans. Polygon reports that EnMasse plans to roll out extra content after the game is launched, including "Dino Island" DLC which features an map inhabited by dinosaurs with guns on their backs. Screenshots released for the game show off plenty of other baddies as well, so place your bets on which creature will be your undoing. Personally, we vote death by merman. [Image: EnMasse Entertainment]
Dungeon of the Endless adding four-player co-op, visual log
Dungeon of the Endless, the drunkenly conceived roguelike by Endless Space's Amplitude Studios, still has some features to add before its final release. The game has been available through Steam's Early Access program since December, but the studio still plans to add four-player co-op before the game's final release. The team also told us at GDC they expect to add a "visual log" of game events and characters that derives its inspiration from card collections. Think of a binder full of baseball, Marvel or football cards, but it's of the game. The Amplitude team had nothing to announce about the game coming to tablets, but it's painfully clear from the coy looks when we asked the question and the game's design that such a transition is highly plausible. The team has "honestly no idea" when the game will have its official launch. [Image: Amplitude]
Nintendo 'looking at' Unity support for 3DS
Developers working on Wii U projects have counted the Unity engine among their options since last year, but support for Unity is still absent from the 3DS. Considering more than 42 million 3DS units have been sold worldwide, in comparison to the 5.86 million Wii U shipped to retailers as of January, Unity's absence from the 3DS is puzzling. Siliconera asked Nintendo's Senior Manager of Marketing Damon Baker about Unity's absence from the 3DS during GDC, learning that the company is considering implementing support for the handheld as well. While Baker noted there was nothing to announce at this time concerning Unity support for the 3DS, he stated that Nintendo is "definitely looking at that." Baker explained that getting the Unity situation sorted out on the Wii U was Nintendo's priority, adding that it can now focus on expanding compatibility for other platforms, "either with Unity or with additional middleware providers as well." Unity support was added to Sony's Vita in January, so doing the same with the 3DS would feel like a logical move if Nintendo wants to stay competitive as a host of developer-friendly platforms. [Image: Nintendo]
Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath PS4 version a possibility, according to creator
Abe's Oddysee may not be the only game in Lorne Lanning's Oddworld series to be getting a makeover - Lanning told Eurogamer at this year's Game Developers Conference that he'd like to bring the 2005 Xbox title Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath to the PlayStation 4. Stranger's Wrath HD already exists on the PlayStation 3 and Vita, but Lanning said this version would be "a new SKU with some new dynamics." Of course, wanting something doesn't necessarily make it so. "We're still going over budgets and schedules and stuff like that," Lanning cautioned. This makes sense, considering Lanning also stated that the upcoming Oddworld: New 'N' Tasty would need to sell at least a quarter of a million units to fund more HD translations of the franchise. [Image: EA]
Play with the panels of a noir spy comic in Framed
Framed is a game for comic fans, noir aficionados, puzzle gurus and lovers of story. It's minimalistic; the characters are silhouettes with details in white, such as ties and flowers, and there's absolutely no text. Gameplay involves sliding frames of a comic around to create the best possible scenario for mysterious, trench-coated characters as they attempt to outrun and outsmart the police force in a big city. It's largely a puzzle game – move one panel to the wrong spot and the police officer in that frame will see your character running and shoot him in the face. Place a panel of a hallway in front of that, and your character runs up behind the cop, knocking him out with the briefcase he perpetually carries. The briefcase is a mystery. It changes hands between at least two characters, one man and one woman (both wearing trench coats), and it apparently holds something valuable. Framed comes from Australian studio Loveshack, and designer Joshua Boggs tells Joystiq that the game includes two main elements: puzzle and story.
