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Former InstantAction CEO Lou Castle goes to Zynga
Lou Castle once founded the legendary Westwood Studios, and had worked with EA for a while on games like Boom Blox before moving on to browser-based gaming service InstantAction. Now that that service has shut its doors, what's a developer with an extensive game design background and experience in social and browser gaming to do? Go to Zynga, of course. Castle has joined the company as a VP of Studios, and will presumably oversee the various development studios at the social giant. Castle says that InstantAction was on its way to turning itself around, and would have done so in "another six months or so," but that the cost of the operation was too much. Castle says InstantAction wanted to "bridge downloadable and browser-based games," and that "it's understandable that it took a lot of time and energy, but it's also understandable when someone is writing a lot of burn money every month and they don't want to do it anymore."
InstantAction dies in an instant, future of embedded gaming looks questionable
Well, that was brief. Just a few short months after InstantAction went public with its embedded browser-based gaming platform at GDC 2010, the Oregon-based startup has gone belly-up. If you missed out on what this here outfit was offering, you clearly aren't alone -- but for the historians in attendance, we'd invite you to revisit our hands-on for an overview of what was planned. Unfortunately, the company has yanked all of its Vimeo clips detailing the system's features, and its website now affirms that the service as a whole is "no longer available." We're hearing that it'll be selling the underlying Torque Game Engine (and presumably that fancy "chunking" tech that enabled games to be played in a browser with just a broadband connection), but based on the tepid response so far, we're guessing it won't fetch much. We definitely saw a bit of promise in the concept -- after all, browser-based games like Solipskier are all the rage in some circles -- but bona fide console / PC games simply don't fit that mold, or so it seems.
InstantAction shutting down, company selling Torque tech
InstantAction, an Oregon-based web gaming and digital distribution platform, will cease operations. Gamasutra confirmed the closure, which was announced on the the company's Torque game engine site. Director of InstantAction's Torque game engine operations Eric Preisz posted the company's statement: "Today, InstantAction informed employees that it will be winding down operations. While we are shutting down the InstantAction.com website and Instant Jam game, Torquepowered.com will continue to operate while InstantAction explores opportunities with potential buyers for Torque. We thank all of our past and current customers for their support." The company had made several smaller games, like Instant Jam and Monkey Island, available to play using its browser-based tech. The tech's eventual promise was to make large games playable almost instantly through a browser or full screen as the title was progressively downloaded to the user's PC.
InstantAction announces Instant Jam, a browser-based music game
You're no longer limited to the old strawberries-plus-mallet approach for Instant Jam. Now there's a video game! InstantAction, the company behind the impressive embeddable game service, has announced Instant Jam, an original embeddable Rock Band-style music game for PC, developed by InstantAction's studio in Las Vegas. Instant Jam uses the music in your own music library, matching it to note charts for "the world's most popular songs." It supports the keyboard or USB guitar controllers, and allows in-game music purchases through Amazon or iTunes -- its version of DLC, which also happens to enhance your regular music library. A beta is currently available through Facebook. Versions playable through the website and embeddable elsewhere will be rolled out soon, and the team promises additional features regularly.%Gallery-99527%
InstantAction CEO: Game retail 'headed for a disaster'
InstantAction CEO Louis Castle is a big fan of "the kind of big, complicated games that cost a lot of money to make," he says. But he left a job making just those kinds of games at EA's Los Angeles studio in order to focus on finding "a new way to get the money needed to make those games." Without such a solution, Castle says we're "headed for a disaster in the retail space." The core cause of this impending disaster, Castle argued in a keynote presentation at the Develop Conference in Brighton today, is the big-budget, hit-driven focus that has overtaken the industry. This mentality has made it hard to make a game with a budget of less than $20 million and hard to profit on a game that doesn't hit the top 20, Castle said. "Really, we're becoming the worst of what Hollywood did become at one point before the independent film festivals and such," he said.
Greenhouse implementing InstantAction streaming tech
InstantAction, which provides the neat embeddable player for games like The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition, has teamed up with Greenhouse, Penny-Arcade's indie digital distribution store. The good news is that Greenhouse will employ InstantAction's streaming technology on its site, allowing you immediate access to selections from its catalog. "Indie devs think the same way we think about it," Penny-Arcade's Robert Khoo told Big Download, "which is that since they have the option to embed the games into pretty much anywhere, it's a win-win for everyone involved." The bad news is that you'll have to ... wait for that immediate access. The Greenhouse site is currently down while the new InstantAction stuff is being implemented. Khoo said that it would be back up before PAX, which starts September 3.
InstantAction goes live with browser-based gaming model
Remember InstantAction? You know, that startup that debuted at GDC in an effort to take on OnLive and catch the world ablaze with browser-based embedded gaming? If you've forgotten the dirty-dirty on this here company, be sure and give our prior hands-on a look; once you're up to speed, you may be interested in knowing that the company's first weekend in business (in the consumer's eye, anyway) is this one you're living in right now. The new "direct-to-consumer online video game distribution service" has gone live with LucasArts' The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition, enabling gamers to embed full titles into blogs, Facebook profiles and pretty much any other site that'll handle an HTML embed string. The magic involves a delicate mix of in-browser, thin-client, and progressive downloading technologies, and while this title may not float your boat, the concept could be gold for indie developers looking to reach directly to potential clients. Head on past the break for the full release, not to mention a play-by-play of how to try this thing out.
InstantAction streaming service launches: play Monkey Island in this post
InstantAction's new streaming service has debuted, allowing select games to be played not only in a browser window, but in an embeddable applet if desired (for those of you running Windows, anyway). The selection of games is currently limited to just one, The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition. The service allows the game to be played for 20 minutes for free, with the option to buy it for $9.99. Does it work? See above. You know. The Monkey Island game running directly above this text. Did you realize when you opened Joystiq this evening that you'd be clicking your way into the future? [Update: We mistakenly called the service "Gaikai-powered," which is inaccurate. Gaikai will provide some limited functionality in certain use cases; however, the embedded game above uses InstantAction's "chunking" technology to feed the actual executable to your computer. How and when will Gaikai be used? Look for our interview with InstantAction CEO Louis Castle later today.] [Thanks, Matthew!]
InstantAction streams full games to any web browser, gives indie developers a business model (video)
Look out, OnLive -- you've got company. InstantAction is having their coming out party at GDC, and we stopped by for a lengthy chat about the technology, its future and the hopes / dreams of the company. Put simply (or as simply as possible), IA has developed a browser-based plug-in that allows full games to be played on any web browser so long as said browser is on a machine capable of handling the game. In other words, you'll still need a beast of a machine to play games like Crysis, but the fact that you can play them on a web browser opens up a new world of possibilities for casual gamers and independent developers. You'll also be notified before your download starts if your machine and / or OS can handle things, with recommendations given on what it would take to make your system capable. Oh, and speaking of operating systems -- games will only be played back if they're supported on a given OS, so you won't be able to play a Windows only title within a browser on OS X or Linux. Rather than taking the typical streaming approach, these guys are highlighting "chunking." In essence, a fraction of the game's total file size has to be downloaded locally onto your machine, and once that occurs, you can begin playing. As an example, we were playing The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition -- which is the sole title announced for the platform so far, though Assassin's Creed was demoed -- within minutes, and since you're curious, that's a 2.5GB game, and we were on a connection that wasn't much faster than a typical broadband line. More after the break... %Gallery-88068%
Gaikai and InstantAction team up for streaming, embeddable games
If InstantAction.com's CEO Lou Castle is to be believed, we're apparently going to be playing games pretty much wherever we want in the not-so-distant future. He's just revealed plans (via IndustryGamers) to relaunch his site with a new business/distribution model and a partnership with game streaming service Gaikai. In addition to the already existing model of a quick download (a claimed 4 - 5 minutes) that still somewhat relies on your computer power to process the game's graphics, IA will now offer a streaming option for those who'd prefer a quicker, less hardware reliant gaming experience. "It's the perfect implementation of a thin client solution because when it's available it's brilliant and when it's not available it's ok ... you only have to wait a couple minutes." The aforementioned streaming option (employing Gaikai) will also be embedabble on the web, as demonstrated with Assassin's Creed (not to mention to us earlier today) "Now if people are reading a review of a game, they don't have to go find it ... they can play it right then and there in the browser." And that's just the beginning -- Castle clearly has an eye on digital distribution services when he talks about employing Facebook as "InstantAction's Xbox Live." IA's new distribution model essentially promises to developers/publishers the ability to release games with a variety of payment methods (pay as you go, free-to-play, one-time charge, etc.) while incorporating the aforementioned embed and streaming functionalities. So far, the company has inked one deal for distribution (with LucasArts for The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition) and Castle claims to be pursuing others right now. And apparently it won't be too long before we get to check out the new system ourselves, as the revamped digital platform is said to be "launching soon." %Gallery-88034%
First Monkey Island SE coming to PSN, Mac, Telltale, InstantAction
At a GDC 2010 event, LucasArts announced that The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition is headed to a plethora of new platforms and services. First and foremost, it's been ported for both the PlayStation Network and Mac OS. Furthermore, the game is also making the jump to the Telltale games store as well as InstantAction.com. There are currently no details as to when the game will hit the services mentioned above, but rest assured we're following up with LucasArts right now. It's worth noting that InstantAction.com is currently down for "maintenance," with the site's blog mentioning some "exciting announcements" in the near future. Regardless of when the game does show up, it's definitely good news for adventure fans that have been deprived of the remake thus far.
Lou Castle talks leaving EA for InstantAction
Even if Lou Castle's name isn't familiar to you, the franchises he's attached to certainly will be. Not only was he instrumental in EA's Boom Blox, the dude founded Westwood and was the driving force behind Command & Conquer. Now, Castle's left EA behind to run InstantAction, the browser-based portal that Castle says is at the vanguard of the industry's future, thanks to their experience with web development and social networking. "So I had an opportunity to join a company that was already proficient in the parts I frankly don't have as much experience with," Castle explained to IndustryGamers. Of course, I have a lot of experience making products, and the company I'm joining has a lot of eager and talented people that could really use somebody with a little bit more experience." Castle was most recently tied to now-closed EA Blueprint, built around the development of smaller, more social games. InstantAction said that, besides Castle's years of experience, they were mainly paying for the coolness of his name, which sounds like it would be perfect for a hardboiled newspaper editor that moonlights as a private dick with fists of steel and a nose for trouble. Can't say as we blame them.
Expanding choices in social gaming and Flash MMOs
There seems be an endless tide of online games and virtual worlds being made available to us, with more always on the way. Some of them are well-known and need little introduction, such as Second Life, Playstation Home, and Facebook games, to name just a few. But there's plenty more out there, some of which falls into the standard 'MMO' category, although it's a label that we find is steadily blurring as time goes on. Darren Gladstone, Senior Writer at PC World, has put together "The Social Gaming Guide" for his Casual Friday column. In it he explores some of the mainstays of social gaming like the options found within Second Life and Facebook, but also sheds light on some lesser known alternatives. Gladstone discusses some of the choices gamers have with The Casual Collective, which he describes as "a cool casual-gaming waterhole created by the minds behind DTD," or Desktop Tower Defense. He looks at Whirled, an open-source gaming community which is home to Flash MMOs. "For players, Whirled is an awesome collection of hundreds of games, broken out by category and just waiting for you to jump in," Gladstone writes. Forthcoming Facebook integration will also add more dimensions to gameplay at Whirled.
Fallen Empire: Legions open beta begins in one week
Just like a cartoon character barreling its way through a brick wall, body contorted in a character-shaped chalk outline pose – there's a peculiarly Tribes-shaped hole in our collective heart left when the classic team-based shooter was passed over by a newer, fancier generation of team-based shooters. But while those games have filled all sorts of other random holes in our heart (the thing was a perforated mess!), we find ourselves still Tribes-less.Our best hope for a full recovery comes a week from today, when Fallen Empire: Legions – a spiritual successor of sorts from the original Tribes developers, formerly of Dynamic and now at GarageGames – begins its open beta at InstantAction.com. If you want to get a quick taste of the browser-based FPS, check out our video from GDC embedded after the break or hit up the galleries below.%Gallery-25416%
Fallen Empire: Legions (or: Reminder to enter our InstantAction giveaway)
Fallen Empire: Legions isn't just the best reason yet to enter our giveaway for one of five $100 InstantAction.com accounts, it's also a spritual successor, if you will, to the fan-favorite Tribes series. You see, a bunch of the guys from Dynamix went on to form GarageGames and – after years of people asking them, "Hey, when are you going to make a Tribes-like game?" – they eventually just hunkered down and out came Legions. Coupled with Quake Live and Battlefield: Heroes – all three are free-to-play FPSs – we've got ourselves a full-blown gaming trend here. GarageGames' Tim Aste gave us a brief tour of Fallen Empire: Legions at GDC this year which we've embedded for you above. Also included, a tour of the second-most compelling reason to enter our giveaway: a tour of Cyclomite courtesy of Wideload's Scott Corley. You've got until tomorrow at noon to enter (that's two calendar days, so there's room for two more entries!). Joyswag: Win a $100 InstantAction account
Reminder: Win a $100 InstantAction account
While we were at GDC, we got a special one-on-one tour of the InstantAction platform from GarageGames CEO Josh Williams. He walked us through much of the site's functionality and answered some questions on the service. Lucky for you, we filmed the whole thing. If you're still not sure how InstantAction is different from other web gaming portals, watch the above video tour, then leave a comment here if you're interested in winning one of five $100 InstantAction accounts, courtesy of GarageGames.
Joyswag: Win a $100 InstantAction account
click for screenshot tour GarageGames wants you to reconsider the way you look at "web gaming" and it's hoping its InstantAction platform will be the lens that shifts your perspective. In short, InstantAction is a free web-based gaming platform with the requisite friends lists, chat rooms, and multiplayer; however, unlike web gaming sites of yore, InstantAction games sport impressive 3D graphics and similarly impressive exclusive games (like the excellent Marble Blast Online, Wideload Shorts' Cyclomite, and the upcoming spiritual successor to Tribes, Fallen Empire: Legion). While the gamesa rare free, everything won't always be; after the beta period, you'll be able to purchase additional maps, levels, weapons, et al for many of the games, and that's where our latest giveaway comes in. GarageGames is already generously dropping 100 ActionTokens (the platform's virtual currency) into every new account sign-up, but they wanted to do a little better for five of our (luckier) readers. You'll have five days to leave comments on this post – one each day – for a chance to win one of five $100 InstantAction accounts (that's more than 10,000 ActionTokens). If you're the cautious type, check out our screenshot tour of the service before you get commenting. To enter this giveaway, tell us your thoughts on InstantAction.com (you're in the beta, right?) You must be 18 years or older and a resident of the US or Canada (excluding Quebec; excuse-moi Quebecers). Limit 1 entry per person per day. If you enter this giveaway more than once each calendar day you'll be automatically disqualified and forced to play internet solitaire! This entry period ends in five days at 12:00pm ET Saturday 3/15/08. We'll randomly select 5 winners at that time (please check your email!) For complete rules you can play in a web browser, click here %Gallery-17941%
GarageGames' InstantAction beta open to the public, c'mon in
Though it doesn't "officially" launch until tomorrow, the fine folks at GarageGames let us know that you can sign-up for their InstantAction "platform" immediately – great for those of you eager to secure your precious gaming nom de guerre – and then sign-in to check out the service in beta. If you're not familiar with InstantAction, you can check out our preview of the service from last year, or settle for the following description: 3D "console quality" games in a web browser (note: PC only for now, though Mac and Linux compatibility is under works). Hit up InstantAction.com and click the giant red "Sign Up" button to get going. We just made an account for ourselves; we'll have a tour of the service up shortly, as well as a giveaway for you starting tomorrow. If you sign up, share your Username with us.
Joystiq impressions: InstantAction (PC)
Do gamers need yet another platform? GarageGames hopes so. The company's latest project, the InstantAction "platform" -- that word was specifically used -- sits inside a web browser, creating a new environment for gaming. And unlike Flash's 2D limit, InstantAction will support a variety of developer-driven technologies and engines, scaling up to first-person-shooters that even utilize video hardware acceleration. (GarageGames had its hand in the Tribes games after all.)Like other browser plugins, InstantAction has cross-platform intentions. It's first launching for PCs in early 2008, Mac support will be coming as soon as possible, and a Linux version is under consideration. Gamers will be able to download several titles at launch with pricing to be determined. (Free content may be an option, while paid titles could follow subscription models, multi-game package sales, or single purchases.)We recently explored an in-development version of InstantAction to wrap our heads around the platform-in-a-browser concept. The execution impressed us, but we're still unsure if InstantAction attempts to solve a problem nobody has. Will 3D and developer-driven environments be enough to displace Flash, as GarageGames hopes?%Gallery-9494%
Full-priced F.E.A.R. port is no treat
Sierra has confirmed that F.E.A.R. for Xbox 360 is gold and will ship out on Halloween. Aside from last year's PC game, the port will include some new levels (apparently, not the Extraction Point expansion), Instant Action mode, and 16-player Xbox Live support.While it's the competitive price, we were surprised to see that F.E.A.R. will retail for $60, given that the meat of the game has been ported from a year-old PC title. Despite an early jump, F.E.A.R. is competing in a shooter-jammed holiday and a $50 -- or dare we say, $40 -- price tag would have been more inviting. Where does F.E.A.R. rank on your priorities list?
