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Confronting The Showdown Effect and its Super Smash Bros. inspiration
The Showdown Effect, the new jam from Magicka developer Arrowhead Game Studios and newcomer Pixeldiet Entertainment, was inspired by '80s and '90s action movies, and even Nintendo's multiplayer-focused brawler, Super Smash Bros.Emil Englund, Design Director at Arrowhead Game Studios, offered some insight regarding the creation of the game as he watched me experiment with the shotguns, pistols, rifles, pool cues, stools and rocket launchers cluttering up Neo Tokyo, 2027. The future's a pretty violent place!%Gallery-149554%
Face off against The Showdown Effect beta this summer
We certainly don't blame you for wanting to play The Showdown Effect. Thankfully, here at GDC, Paradox Interactive was more than happy to oblige and sat me down in front of a PC next to Emil Englund, Design Director at Arrowhead Game Studios. But before I could place my fingers over the WASD keys and start shooting everything in sight, I had to ask one question: Will there be a beta?"Beta in the summer," Englund quickly responded. As for how the beta will work and who will get in, Englund says "that's still being decided" by publisher Paradox Interactive, and that more would be revealed later.Another question I had was in regards to controller support -- Magicka on the PC is compatible with Microsoft's Xbox 360 controller, and when asked if The Showdown Effect would support it too, Englund told me that the earliest testing on The Showdown Effect was done with controllers. "The first months of development we actually only used game pads so, yeah, it should be in there," he told me.The Showdown Effect is currently slated to launch "when it's done -- in 2012."%Gallery-149554%
Paradox reveals 3 new games: The Showdown Effect, Dungeonland and Red Frontier
Paradox has, as promised, revealed the next three projects in the pipeline from Arrowhead Game Studios, Critical Studio and Zeal Game Studio at GDC. Each is set to launch on the PC and Mac sometime this year.The first game is The Showdown Effect, from Pixeldiet Entertainment and Arrowhead Game Studios -- you may recall the latter outfit's previous effort, Magicka. Paradox describes the game as "a 2.5D multiplayer action game in which players will be participating in death-matches to gain glory and fame." It's set in Neo Tokyo in the year 2027, and focuses on a cop destined to meet his ... destiny.The second on the list is Dungeonland, from Brazil-based newcomer Critical Studio. Up to three players assault Dungeonland, a theme park where adventurers can go to hack and slash stuff together, while the fourth player takes on the role of Game Master, devising traps and overall trying to kill their friends -- sounds like the perfect role for that one passive-aggressive friend of yours.Finally, Red Frontier is a competitive RTS that tasks players with mining resource deposits in space. Sharing is caring, guys -- even in the future we can't get along? It seems so.Hit the jump to check out the rest of the announcement trailers and some screens, hot off the wherever screenshots come from.%Gallery-149554%
