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How to make a game in an hour, no experience required
For many, game development seems like an unreachable dream. We envision a world where we can come up with an idea, hunch over a laptop, bang out some code and – voila – video game. Tom Francis, creator of Joystiq favorite Gunpoint, is putting together a very handy Game Maker tutorial and, while it won't make things quite as easy as they are in your dreams, you'll have a working prototype in about an hour. The tutorial is published as a series of videos on YouTube (here's the playlist) and all it requires is a free download of Game Maker, which you may recognize as the engine that powers games like Spelunky, Hotline Miami, Risk of Rain, Gods Will Be Watching, Nidhogg and many, many more. You can download the free version of Game Maker Studio right here. Even better, the tutorials require no programming or game creation experience whatsoever. If you can follow instructions, you can follow these tutorials. After the first two lessons, clocking in at a total of 50 minutes or so, you'll have a character that moves with the WASD keys and shoots in the direction of your mouse pointer. As noted by Francis himself: If you can shoot, it is officially a video game (also it's pretty easy to program). Don't take my word for it though. Just check out the trailer for my upcoming indie-developed blockbuster, World of Shoo(ting). If you want to do more than just shoot, of course, you'll have to watch the rest of the tutorial series.
Creative assassination in turn-based stealth game, Ronin
Ronin, a bloody action and stealth platformer from Tomasz Waclawek, is on its way to Steam for PC this year, courtesy of Devolver Digital. It's turn-based, fast-paced and deliciously violent, starring a "vengeful heroine determined to strike down five prominent figures of a powerful corporation." There's a free, early-build demo available here. Ronin has been lurking in the shadows of independent development lore since August 2014: Waclawek introduced it as "a Gunpoint ripoff" on Reddit, but Gunpoint developer Tom Francis kindly disagreed, calling Ronin "really fucking cool." Francis even uploaded a Let's Play of Ronin. "It's clearly not a Gunpoint ripoff, because the core mechanics are so different," Francis said. "A lot of what it does copy is superficial, and that stuff doesn't matter. But the jump is pretty central, and if that was directly taken from Gunpoint, I'm delighted. I wouldn't want anyone to reuse Gunpoint's artwork or music, but the ideas in it are absolutely there for the taking. Every non-standard thing about it, from the jumping controls to the saving system, I did because I wanted more games to be that way." [Image: Tomasz Waclawek]
Humble Indie Bundle returns with Gunpoint, Gone Home
Humble Bundle breaks away from its recent mobile focus with a new Humble Indie Bundle, offering up downloadable PC versions of SteamWorld Dig, Gunpoint, and Gone Home for a buyer-chosen price. Pay any amount for Humble Indie Bundle 12 and you'll get stealth-puzzler Gunpoint, hack-and-slash dungeon crawler Hammerwatch, and mining-themed sidescroller SteamWorld Dig. Beat the average purchase price (currently $7.38) and you'll also get Fullbright's atmospheric exploration game Gone Home, monochrome shoot-'em-up Luftrausers, and immigration inspector sim Papers, Please. Humble Indie Bundle 12 also offers an Early Access key for Prison Architect with purchases totaling $10 or more. Bundle proceeds benefit the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Child's Play Charity. [Video: Humble Bundle]
Gunpoint dev seeks artist, composer for follow-up Heat Signature
Indie developer Tom Francis outlines his upcoming PC stealth game Heat Signature in the newly launched gameplay video above in the hopes of assembling a team to finish the project. Announced earlier this year, Heat Signature challenges players to infiltrate randomly generated space vessels while subverting heat-detecting security measures. In its current state, the game now features multiple playable classes and assigns players a randomly generated list of objectives during each session. As was the case with his previous game Gunpoint, Francis is opting to hire collaborators after Heat Signature's prototyping phase instead of setting up a dedicated studio. Artists and composers interested in a paid position on Heat Signature's development team can apply at Francis' website. [Video: Tom Francis]
Humble Bundle offers Summer Games Done Quick bundle
Summer Games Done Quick has just granted everyone a free pass to watch a week's worth of speedruns in the name of charity, but if livestreamed gaming isn't your thing, you can still support the cause. Donations made by Games Done Quick viewers will benefit Doctors Without Borders, but this time, the livestreaming effort has brought along a teammate: the fine folks at Humble Bundle. Until the charitable event's June 28 conclusion, The Summer Games Done Quick Bundle offers 10 games for $25, with 100 percent of its proceeds going to Doctors Without Borders. The bundle includes Gunpoint, Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs and Guacamelee! Gold Edition, among others. In the case of Guacamelee, only 25,000 copies are available for the sale, so anyone interested in brawling through an adventure as a luchador (and sometimes a rooster) should make a swift purchase. For PC users, each game can be claimed via Steam key or as a DRM-free download. Mac and Linux users should look closely at each game's dropdown menu before buying in however, since not all of them are available without DRM on all platforms, or even available on Mac and Linux in the first place. [Image: Humble Bundle]
Best of the Rest: Xav's picks of 2013
Team Joystiq is barging into 2014 with a celebration of last year's best games. Keep reading throughout the week to see our assembly of ingenious indies and triple-A triumphs. Splinter Cell: Blacklist Splinter Cell: Blacklist was my Game of the Year for 2013. It's hard to name another game that offers so many different experiences in one box as Blacklist, and even more arduous to name those that have hit the nail so squarely on the head as Ubisoft Toronto (and others) did with Sam Fisher's latest escapade. For franchise fanatics – of which I am one – Blacklist delivered an explosive concoction of everything: the exemplary action of Conviction, the tense stealth of Chaos Theory, and the sublime multiplayer of Pandora Tomorrow. Though its action-movie storytelling can't compete with the likes of other narrative successes launched this year, Blacklist continually entertains throughout its campaign. Its co-op modes are outstanding and its competitive multiplayer is frantic. It's gorgeous, addictive, and, for all these reasons and more, it's my favorite game of the year.
Gunpoint half-price until Thursday, adds Trading Cards
Gunpoint snuck in a sale this week and is half off now through Thursday at 7PM ET, making each version just $5, $10 or $15 via Steam or directly from Suspicious Developments. During the sale, $5 is for the base game with the level editor, $10 gets the Special Edition with the soundtrack and in-game developer commentary, and $15 is for the Exclusive Edition, which adds a 40-minute making-of video, playable prototype levels, four exclusive songs and early access to future Suspicious Developments games. Players who previously bought a lower-tier version of the game and wish to upgrade now have the option to pay the difference and get that next edition. The content is now, essentially, DLC. Gunpoint also added Steam Trading Cards. "I still have basically no idea how these really work, but I was surprised by how much I ended up wanting all the little reward things our artist John Roberts created," Designer Tom Francis tells Joystiq. "The ability to emote Conway face-palming somewhere on my Steam profile just seems really important somehow." Mac and Linux versions of Gunpoint and incoming, Francis says. Get the declassified details of Gunpoint's sale in Francis' video, or head straight to Suspicious Developments.
Game Music Bundle 5: Monaco, FTL, Fez, Gunpoint, more
If you recently binged on EA's Humble Origin Bundle of AAA games, Game Music Bundle 5 might help you recall the finer moments of some recent indie highlights. Game Music Bundle 5's pay-what-you-want pricing strategy is comparable to that of the Humble Bundles, but proceeds exclusively help musicians this time around. Any donation below $10 nets you the soundtracks for Monaco: What's Yours Is Mine, FTL: Faster Than Light, FEZ, Gunpoint, World of Goo, and Leisure Suit Larry: Reloaded. Upping the ante to $10 or more grants the previously mentioned soundtracks plus additional music from FEZ, Monaco, Frog Fractions, Little Inferno, Super Panda Adventures, Marbel Time, Hero of Many, Me and My Dinosaur 2, Drox and Anodyne. Holy music, right? Beyond the offered albums, prizes are available to reward the highest donations. The eight most generous contributors will receive a Steam key for Monaco and a promotional poster for the game. The top five will earn the Monaco key as well as a copy of the Leisure Suit Larry score signed by composers Austin Wintory and Al Lowe. Lastly, the king of donations will win the previous prizes as well as a FEZ shirt signed by Disasterpeace, composer of FEZ's soundtrack.
Gunpoint review: Indie film noir espionage
Gunpoint is the perfect game at the perfect time. At the same moment the industry is heavily promoting console innovation with aurally destructive stage demos, this indie game from reporter Tom Francis and a ragtag crew of volunteers offers a simplistic and quiet respite: an outstanding puzzle game with sharp writing, beautiful music and clever mechanics. As freelance spy-type Richard Conway, players work to investigate a murder – in which he is inadvertently involved – using handy spy skills like long distance leaping and scaling walls. Gunpoint oozes creativity, leveraging a simple primary mechanic that is paramount to both completing missions and taking out adversaries. Called "Crosslink," it allows players to view how electricity flows throughout buildings and rewire circuits to Conway's advantage. You can, for example, disconnect the link from a light switch and connect it to a door, making it easy to swing it into an unsuspecting guard's face as he walks by. Endgame puzzles require you to juggle a number of different Crosslink set-ups, triggering an object in one area to give Conway an opening to progress somewhere else. What makes the simple system work is that there are very few limitations – so long as you link the correct colored circuits. Conway's goals change between missions. One may find him breaking into a building to extract information from secure computer terminals. Another sees him stealing a piece of top secret equipment. Ultimately the goal is an excuse, there only to offer a different way to use Conway's skills and provide a new challenge.%Gallery-134433%
Gunpoint success allows dev to become independent, Mac and Linux ports on the way
Writer and developer Tom Francis originally planned his game, Gunpoint, as a showcase piece to earn him a job at a game development studio, but after seeing the success of the title so far he says he doesn't need to join another studio. As you can see above, Francis hit his initial goal for the game from preorders alone, and sales have only gone up since then, to the point where Francis now says designing the game was "so commercially successful that I'll never need" to work for someone else. Since the only real monetary cost of the project was a $30 purchase of Game Maker 8 a few years ago, Francis says Gunpoint "recouped its development costs" in just one minute and four seconds. That's after three years of work, of course, but the point remains that Gunpoint was very successful indeed. The next priority, says Francis, will be to port Gunpoint to the newer Game Maker Studio, where it can then be released for Windows, Mac, and Linux. He's looking to hire someone for this task, so he can get moving on actual updates and another project eventually. It sounds like a tough job, essentially taking over the core game's development for other platforms. "But as the graphs above should suggest," says Francis, "I can pay."
PSA: Gunpoint infiltrates Steam today, discounted until June 10
Games journalist Tom Francis has finally launched his side project Gunpoint. Steam is celebrating launch by knocking off a buck from the asking price until June 10, bringing Gunpoint down to $9; the special edition containing the soundtrack and in-game commentary is 25 percent off, down to $15. Francis, meanwhile, is celebrating with an AMA on Reddit today. Within, he's confirmed first-day sales are quite encouraging - an hour ago, he claimed it was the number one game on Steam's sales charts. Gunpoint is a Deus Ex-inspired spy game where players must rewire security systems using the Crosslink device - for example, it can be used to turn a light switch into a trap door controller. In Gunpoint, the goal is for players to infiltrate buildings and steal valuable data because spies.
Gunpoint aims for a June 3 launch day, sales abound
Before reading the release date for Gunpoint, the 2D stealth puzzle game from Suspicious Developments, take your finger off the trigger. Gunpoint launches on June 3 – that's next Monday – and it's available for pre-order now via Steam and Humble Store, each for 10 percent off or $9. The Special and Exclusive editions are also up for pre-order. The Special Edition is on sale for $15 and includes a DRM-free key for the game, a Steam code, the soundtrack and developer commentary. The Exclusive Edition is $30 via Humble and $27 on Steam, and it includes all of the aforementioned goodies, along with a 40-minute making-of video, a pack of prototype levels, four exclusive songs and access to future "secret betas" of Suspicious Developments games. The standard and Special editions are on sale via Humble for two weeks, while the steam sales are for one week. Keep in mind, all Humble purchases come with a Steam key and the developer gets a larger piece of the pie through that channel. Decide where you want to pull the trigger on Gunpoint – but seriously, keep your finger off that trigger while you're still on the fence. And probably after. And stop playing with guns while you're on a fence.
Gunpoint gears up for Steam
Gunpoint, a 2D collusion of quiet intrusion, espionage and elusion, will be available for PC through Steam once it's complete. The game stands out for its romantic combination of spy and electrician, letting you divert power in devious ways between switches and several objects in the environment.Lead designer Tom Francis has posted a new video (above) demonstrating Gunpoint's gadgets, some of which allow you to reprogram gun triggers, survive tremendous falls and scale steep surfaces.Note on something that should have been mentioned earlier: Clicking play on the video above has likely electrocuted a stranger somewhere in the world.
Student faces 15 years in prison over RuneScape robbery at gunpoint
What would you do if someone put a gun to your head and demanded that you hand over all your RuneScape gold? Fordham University students David Emani and Jonathan Dokler found out first hand when they were robbed of 4.7 billion RuneScape coins at gunpoint. Fellow student Humza Bajwa first attempted to buy the coins from the pair with an envelope full of counterfeit money. When confronted about the fake cash, Bajwa then put an air pistol that resembled a real firearm to Emani's head and ordered him to phone Dokler and tell him to transfer the coins. Though the gun wasn't a real firearm and only virtual property was stolen, Bajwa was later arrested by local police and charged with second-degree robbery and grand larceny. RuneScape developer Jagex doesn't condone the sale of coins for cash, but sales aren't illegal and the stolen coins could fetch around $3,300 US on the black market. In January, the Dutch Supreme Court ruled that a similar theft of virtual property in RuneScape at knifepoint did constitute theft as the items required an investment of time and energy to acquire. If convicted, Bajwa faces a potential prison sentence of up to 15 years for his crimes.
Gunpoint walkthrough video is eight minutes in Heaven
Following our previous look at indie gem Gunpoint, there is no excuse for not having this game on your radar. Quick, check your radar. It's there, right? That's what we thought. Here, we've got an eight minute video chronicling a majority of game features. And lots of jumping through windows. %Gallery-134433%
Secret agent indie Gunpoint makes being an electrician cool
From plumbers and farmers to ... Noids, video games have a long tradition of elevating blue collar jobs to rockstar status. Now, after eying these new Gunpoint screens, it looks like we'll be adding "electrician" to that list when Tom Francis' secret agent game arrives this Christmas. As you can see in the prototype video after the break, Gunpoint casts the player as a secret agent breaking into high-security facilities. Though he's good with his fists and has one hell of a vertical, the agent's most notable tool is the Crosslink, which lets him rewire buildings. So, for instance, a guard attempting to use a light switch inadvertently opens a crucial door for our hero, or maybe even electrifies a buddy. We're not making it sound particularly thrilling, we know. But check out the demo video and the game's brand new look in the gallery below. We're sure you'll get a ... charge out of them. Because electricity. %Gallery-134433%
Man arrested at gunpoint for using MP3 player
Next time you're reaching down for that iPod or Zune (or anything else for that matter), take care that you don't alarm the authorities with any suspicious movements -- or you could end up like the UK's Darren Nixon. Apparently, the mild-mannered mechanic was on his way home from work when the Bobbies surrounded him and drew their guns, believing that the MP3 player in his pocket was a firearm. According to the Daily Mail, Mr. Nixon was tracked on CCTV, arrested at gunpoint, swabbed for DNA, fingerprinted, and thrown in a cell -- all for listening to a bootleg of Chinese Democracy on a 4GB Philips GoGear. Said Darren, "I was really shocked when I saw the guns. They were pointing them right at me. It was a pretty scary experience. I had no idea what was going on." After the team of Mentat cops realized their mistake, they couldn't even offer an apology, said Nixon, "They just dropped me off at home and said a quick 'sorry for any inconvenience', and that was all I got from them, which I thought was pretty out of order." Once again, a hot serving of sweet justice.[Via CrunchGear]
