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Steam Greenlight spans Grave to Ultima Online in latest batch
You never know quite what you're going to get when a new list of Steam Greenlight-approved games shows up. For example, the latest batch of 75 includes both Ultima Online and Dark Age of Camelot, two of the most classic Western MMORPGs, both of which are under the care Broadsword Games. Among the other 73 games given the A-OK for a Steam release are Arcadecraft, Firebase's 1980s-styled arcade management sim, and Grave, Broken Window Studios' survival horror that takes place in a Salvador Dali-inspired wasteland. The Greenlight approval caps off a good week for Broken Window Studios, who saw the game funded on Kickstarter with days to go, meaning it's trekking its way to Xbox One as well as Windows, Mac and Linux. For the full list of inductees, head over to Steam Greenlight. [Image: Broadsword Games]
Grave's dynamic horror landscape shifting on PC, Mac, Linux, Xbox One
Horror games tend to create chilling atmospheres, but the unsettling moments within them are often pre-meditated or scripted. The spooks in Broken Window Studios' Grave may be a bit more freeform than that - the Oculus Rift-compatible trek through an open-world desert environment on PC, Mac, Linux and Xbox One isn't entirely predictable. The layout of Grave's environment shifts with each passing night, making navigation less about checking off rooms on a map and more about exploring and staying prepared for the world's threats. Of course, the night's blanketing darkness hides Grave's danger, a threat that players can fend off with sources of light. Each progressively-generated sunset brings out a variety of enemies, which players can either stand bravely against during evening strolls, or use light-based weaponry to fend off while stowing away in shelters. Supplies are limited though, so shying from valuable exploration time will eventually backfire. Broken Window is currently seeking funding to make Grave possible, with $8,751 out of the requested $30,000 gathered at the time of this writing. Should the project clear its goal, the creatures in Grave's everchanging world will start stalking players in early 2015, with backers that chip in $60 or more getting access to a beta before then. If you're willing to wait until Grave is finished, contributing $15 gets you the story version, with $20 earning an endless "Survive The Night" mode. If you're still uncertain, an early PC demo of Grave is available on the project's Kickstarter page. [Image: Broken Window Studios]
Canabalt and Aquaria devs sign their names in 'Grave'
"So far, GRAVE doesn't really fit in any existing genre that I know of," writes Adam 'Atomic' Saltsman. "If you're fond of stretched metaphors, you might say that It's sort of like Farmville meets StarCraft, or maybe Super Crate Box meets Desktop Dungeons. Anyways, we're still exploring the possibilities, so I don't want to say too much. For now let's just call it 'an arcade game' and we'll get into more detail as we go!" Alright then: Grave is a new "arcade game" made notable, for the time being, by the pedigree behind it. Adam Saltsman, the Texas-based creator of Canabalt and the numerically/spherically infuriating Hundreds, is handling art and design ("mostly"), while the co-developer of the award-winning Aquaria, Alec Holowka, is heading up programming and sound (also "mostly"). Today marks the debut of the pair's upbeat Grave Tumblr, which will explore and divulge the game's construction little by little every Friday. Beyond music and art, Saltsman and Holowka will also be posting about the design problems they encounter. Designers and players might learn a thing or two, and (sorry sorry sorry) leave wise from their Grave.
The Perfect Ten: Guild Wars 2 gravestone epitaphs
The dead tell the best stories, they say. Outside of Divinity's Reach in Guild Wars 2 is a graveyard. It's the type of place that you run through quickly on your way to more lively settings, unless a zombie attack emerges. It was the type of place that I was running through quickly during the previous beta weekend when I realized that the gravestones could be examined -- and each and every one of them had an interesting epitaph to read. Some crazy ArenaNet writer sat down one afternoon and wrote out dozens and dozens of gravestone inscriptions on the off-chance that any of us would slow down enough to read them. It paid off in my case. This may be one of the most trivial Perfect Tens I've ever done, so forgive me with being absolutely fascinated by the epitaphs that came up during my explorations. With an absolute economy of words, each gravestone tells a complete story. Some are funny, some are dark, some play into the lore, and some actually managed to be quite moving. Here are my 10 most favorite that I found. Maybe they'll haunt you as they do me.
The Colosseum: a Grave matter
The Colosseum takes us inside the world of the Gladiator (Brutal, Vengeful, Merciless, and otherwise), to interview some of the top Arena fighters in the battlegroups. Our goal is to bring a better understanding of the strategy, makeup, and work that goes into dueling it out for fame, fortune, and Netherdrakes.I know that more than a few of us have no interest in hearing from another Death Knight. While the class dominated Season 5, and still seems strong in Season 6, we should remember that few successful Death Knights started the Arena with the opening of Wrath of the Lich King. It's with that thought in mind that I found what Gladiator Grave had to say interesting. He could have been focused on things like "Death Grip's awesome, and I use it against casters." Instead, Grave echoed many of the most important sentiments we here from many successful fighters. Synergy, coordination, and communication are the hallmarks that Grave recommends.Check out the full interview after the cut.
More deceased taking cellphones, PMPs to their graves
It's been happening for centuries in one form or another, but packing in a favorite diecast car or trophy just seems a bit different than sending your loved one six feet under with a BlackBerry 7290. According to the London-based The Future Laboratory think tank, the amount of people arranging to have their cellphones or portable media players buried with them is on the rise, with a family service counselor for Hollywood Forever funeral home and cemetery stating that "it seems that everyone under 40 who dies takes their cellphone with them." Truth be told, the psychology behind it isn't all that odd; after all, in today's world, mobile phones go a long way to connecting one person with other loved ones. Just make sure to not go down with a Vertu or the like -- wouldn't want to get unwillingly exhumed, now would we? [Image courtesy of cc275, via The Inquirer]
RFID-activated retrieval system brings urns up for viewing
This one's a bit morbid, but the technology behind it all is actually quite interesting. Japan's own Nichiryoku has evidently created a unique urn retrieval system that enables family members with deceased loved ones to return to a reverent storage facility, swipe an RFID card, and watch their late mother / father / etc. emerge from the underground for viewing. Aside from saving space and money, this also provides mourning kin with a sense of security, as we're told that the urns are kept where even minor acts of God won't disturb them. Check out a demonstrative video just after the break.[Via CScout]
Priests in Wrath: Analysis of Alpha talents
I would like to take a moment to talk about the leaked Priest spells and talents from the Wrath friends and family alpha. We have decided not to keep this information on the site for legal reasons, but there are many other places on the internet to find it, such as this wiki (which, by the way, seems to have been semi-locked to prevent recurrences of Tuesday night's rampant vandalization). Note that these are alpha leaks (for those not conversant with software testing, alpha comes before beta, and beta comes before release), and most of these talents and spells will change before Wrath goes live. Some of them will probably not be recognizably the same, or even there at all. Nevertheless, it's certainly something to talk about in a game that, in my opinion, has had far too little change over the past couple of years.
Around Azeroth: Sunfury Graveyard
Reader Sinkiller on Thunderhorn sends in this interesting shot taken in the graveyard by Sunfury Hold in Netherstorm. It's a grave, obviously, on which someone has left a bundle of flowers and... a picture of a scantily clad woman. Seems like an odd thing to leave at a grave, to me...Do you have a unique shot of Azeroth or Outland that you'd like to show off to the rest of the world? Tell us about it by e-mailing aroundazeroth@gmail.com! Or perhaps you'd just like to see more of your pics from Around Azeroth. %Gallery-1816%
