indie gaming
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Indie game studio Possibility Space shuts down, CEO blames leaks to reporter
Possibility Space, an independent game studio with employees distributed across the globe, was abruptly shut down today.
Google Stadia is getting 10 new indie games
Google's Stadia cloud gaming service is adding ten new indie games in the coming months including 'The Darkside Detective: A Fumble in the Dark' and 'Figment 2: Creed Valley.'
Nintendo will show 20 minutes of indie Switch games tomorrow
You shouldn't expect any Zelda or Mario news in the Indie World Showcase.
‘John Wick Hex’ is strategic, ultra-violent bliss
"John, is a man of focus. Commitment. Sheer will." In the movies, John Wick is portrayed as a force or nature. A terrifying assassin with unrivalled stamina and frightening proficiency with every known firearm. He has brains to match the brawn, too: his vast experience working for the fictional Tarasov family has turned him into a brilliant tactician that's aware of every sight line and incoming threat. Watching the bombastic set pieces, I often found myself wondering: how does Wick avoid being mobbed by 10 people at once? He can't dodge 10 bullets simultaneously, surely? That question is answered by John Wick Hex, the latest game from Thomas Was Alone, Volume and Subsurface Circular developer Bithell Games. The top-down strategy title turns the films into a hyper-violent fusion of chess and Dungeons & Dungeons. Every level is filled with nodes -- denoted by white dots -- enemies and environmental cover. Your mission is to reach the end point and dispatch any lurking mini boss without being turned into a bullet-riddled pinata.
'Return of the Obra Dinn' comes to consoles on October 18th
Roughly twelve months ago, Return of the Obra Dinn stunned Mac and PC players with its time-travelling detective work. We shouldn't have been surprised -- the monochromatic adventure was developed by Lucas Pope, the creative mind behind the award-winning Papers, Please. If you're a console player that's yet to explore the 19th-century ship, good news: the game is coming to PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch on October 18th. As far as we know, the console and PC versions are identical. (Fingers crossed you can still change the filter to emulate your favorite retro hardware!)
Xbox Game Pass gets its own streaming show to highlight indie games
Following up on Sony's first State of Play stream, Microsoft has added a new video presentation that's focused on indie game developers. The first ID@Xbox Game Pass is also timely, coming just after we learned about Apple Arcade, which will launch this fall offering its own subscription setup full of offbeat games. For Microsoft, it announced that Oxenfree developer Night School Studio will make its next game, Afterparty, available to Game Pass subscribers at launch. We've been waiting for this game's trip through hell/bar crawl experience since 2017, and it's due out later this year. Plus, the Xbox team is bringing it to PAX East along with Void Bastards, Operencia: The Stolen Sun, Supermarket Shriek and The Good Life.
PBS mini-documentary explores indie game creation, shows what they do that majors can't (video)
The indie game world has undergone a metamorphosis over the past few years, transforming from an often overlooked niche into as much a staple of the game industry as once-every-year blockbusters like the Call of Duty series. It's that fast-rising side of gaming that PBS' Off Book has explored in a succinct documentary. As both developers and game journalists explain, the small and more flexible nature of indie teams lets them delve into game concepts, art and sound that major developers typically avoid -- you probably wouldn't get Bastion, Fez or Super Meat Boy out of a company focused mostly on hitting its quarterly revenue targets. Crowdfunding and internet distribution methods like Steam and Xbox Live Arcade have similarly removed many of the barriers that either kept these games from commercial success or forced uncomfortable deals with large publishers in the past. Accordingly, the indie sphere that PBS sees in 2012 is less about trying to become the next Activision or EA and more about experimentation and personal expression. If you've ever wanted an elegant summary of what makes Spelunky feel so special, the whole Off Book episode awaits after the break.
15 indie developers re-imagine Pong for iOS, hope to win Atari contract
As far as video games go, it doesn't get much simpler than Pong -- two paddles, one ball, no complications. A classic, to be sure, but definitely not the flashiest game when pitted against the average smartphone title -- maybe that's why Atari is asking indie developers to jazz it up. Yes, the Pong Indie Developer Challenge is in full swing, and Atari has pared down some 90-odd submissions to mere 15. Not familiar with the contest? Here's a quick refresh: Atari is looking for indie developers to re-imagine Pong for iOS as a fun, original, visually interesting and overtly marketable title. The stakes? Winners can score up to $100,000 and a publishing contract with Atari. Many of the semi-finalists' redesigns are as simple as adding multitouch gestures or bending the traditionally square playing field into a more circular court, but a few ambitious developers mixed it up with 3D playing fields, anthropomorphic paddles or augmented reality multiplayer. Check out Mashable's collection of contestant trailers at the link below for a look at the Pong of tomorrow. As for us? We're still pretty pleased with yesterday's model.
If it looks like an MMO, walks like an MMO, and quacks like an MMO...
Then it might just be an MMO! Indie gaming fans out there are probably already familiar with thatgamecompany, creators of hit PSN titles such as Flower, flOw, and the to-be-released Journey. Journey is going to be the studio's first experience with online interaction between players, but a new job listing from the studio seeking a scalability engineer states that the studio would "like to take it a step further with [its] next game." Taking online interaction a step further, you say? Why, they could be talking about an MMO! The job listing further corroborates this theory as it continues on to state that "while [thatgamecompany is] pretty experienced making games, [the studio has] never built a full scale online service available to hundreds of thousands of users." Hundreds of thousands of users, you say? Why, that sounds even more like an MMO! Of course, this is all pure conjecture at this point, but surely we're not alone in our belief that an MMO from the minds of the folks that brought us Flower and flOw would be pretty groovy. But the fact remains that Journey won't even be released until next month, so this next project -- whatever it may be -- is still far off the horizon, but stay tuned. Hopefully we'll know more about this new project before too long.
OnLive now working over Wi-Fi, announces 'Indie Fest'
OnLive has begun rolling out support for Wi-Fi connections to its cloud gaming service. So sure is the company that it can offer lag free streaming of game content that it is bringing Wi-Fi support to subscribers before it planned to. Support is still in beta, but most OnLive members are supposed to see the fuctionality available sometime this month. OnLive users with questions can get answers from this FAQ. Additionally, the company has announced an initiative to support indie games on the service, offering its developer tools and SDK to independent game companies to sell their titles to subscribers. This coming weekend, OnLive is holding an "Indie Fest," offering discounts of up to 75% on great indie games like World of Goo, Trine, and AaaaaAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! We would like to know how offering indie games for cheap means you're supporting the developers, but it's cool -- we don't understand how the whole streaming things works so well either.
