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Steel & Steam: Episode 1 embarking to save the world on April 2
Deserts aren't great at supporting many types of life, and that's the approaching problem for the inhabitants of Steel & Steam's steampunk universe. No, as in it's literally approaching them - the desert is spreading from the eastern half of the Terra Corpus continent, and if it's left unchecked, they'll find themselves with one hell of a sandbox to play in. Or die in, you know, whichever. With turn-based combat, optional sidequests and pixel art, Steel & Steam definitely recalls a classic era of RPGs. Thankfully, that means Terra Corpus also harbors an ancient legend, one involving people enlisting help from elemental guardians slumbering within the planet. Players follow protagonists Noah and Alyssa as they seek out this power in an effort to curb the expanding desert. After securing funds for two episodes last September, Red Meat Games is preparing a PC launch across "worldwide digital platforms" for its first episode on April 2 for $9.99, according to the related press release. Steel & Steam's GreenManGaming page lists a March 28 release however, so it may be available before then. Steel & Steam will reach the Humble Store, Gamersgate, Gamely and is up for votes on Steam Greenlight. Backers will receive the second episode at no additional cost once it's finished. [Image: Red Meat Games]
Sci-fi sandbox Proven Lands goes roguelike on Greenlight with demo
Berlin-based indie developer Thesetales launched a Kickstarter project and Steam Greenlight page for its roguelike game Proven Lands this week. The third-person sci-fi game is available to check out in its pre-alpha state in a proof of concept PC demo. Proven Lands features an optional five-episode main story arc in which players control Teruo Nakamura, named after a real-life soldier of the Japanese Imperial Army "who did not surrender until 1974." The game also includes an AI-driven story engine that generates a "one-off adventure" based on randomly-generated elements. Thesetales cites Don't Starve and Starbound among its inspirations, which is readily apparent in the hunt-and-gather style gameplay shown in its Kickstarter pitch video. A recent update on the project's crowdfunding page notes plans for multiplayer modes in some capacity as well. Thesetales is seeking £299,000 ($497,177) by April 12 to bring Proven Lands to PC in the first quarter of 2015, followed by Mac and iOS in the second quarter, then Linux and Android at a later date. Those that pledge roughly $15/£9/11 euros will receive a digital copy of the game when it launches. [Image: Thesetales]
Former PS All-Stars devs form Dead Alien Cult, introduce Viking Ghost
Indie developer Dead Alien Cult introduced its first game on Steam's Greenlight service this week, Viking Ghost. The developer comprises four people, two of which are former PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale developers: Andrew Marquis and John Lawrence. Viking Ghost is listed as an "Arcade Action Adventure-Dual Stick Shooter-Dungeon Crawler-Rogue-Like-Lite" game with weapons, abilities and an experience point-based upgrade system. The developer cites the Zelda series, The Binding of Isaac and Spelunky among its inspirations for the game, which has eight locations and procedurally-generated levels that liven up every playthrough. Marquis and Lawrence's former developer Superbot parted ways with Sony in February 2013 before downsizing in April. [Image: Dead Alien Cult]
Crawl, Super Chibi Knight headline Steam Greenlight's latest 50
The pixelated multiplayer madness of Crawl makes it stand out as the one to watch from Steam Greenlight's newest batch of approvals. The Windows, Mac, and Linux dungeon crawler combines retro-inspired action-RPG gameplay with a frenzied multiplayer in which one player controls the Hero, and up to three others play as monsters and traps. The twist is if the Hero is slain by one of the opponents, that player gets to take the Hero's place. Australian two-man outfit Powerhoof only put the game on Greenlight this week, but its debut trailer caught enough attention to speed it past the gates in a single day. Powerhoof says an early-access build is coming "as soon as possible," and while the prototype only features local multiplayer, the dev is exploring the possibility of online multiplayer. Crawl is due for full release in the first half of this year, and beyond that, Powerhoof's expressed interest in bringing its game to consoles. Super Chibi Knight looks to be another to keep an eye on, and there's extra good news for father-and-daughter team behind it because their game just surpassed its Kickstarter goal. The cutesy RPG adventure is due sometime this summer. The full list of the 50 approved games can be found on Steam Greenlight. [Image: Powerhoof]
Dream Build Play winner One Finger Death Punch now on Steam
Silver Dollar Games' over-the-top two-button brawler One Finger Death Punch is now available on Steam after taking the grand prize in Microsoft's Dream Build Play competition back in 2012. Originally released for the Xbox Live Indie Games service, One Finger Death Punch is a reflex-testing fighting game that challenges players to fend off waves of opponents with carefully-timed button presses as they approach from one of two directions. The game earned a devoted fan following after its initial release, winning it a spot in Steam's catalog via Greenlight. One Finger Death Punch is available at a discounted rate of $3.99 during its debut week. [Image: Silver Dollar]
Joystiq Tiny Streams: The Impossible Game creates blissful frustration
The Impossible Game is not precisely named. Playing The Impossible Game is certainly achievable, and it is feasible to succeed at doing so. The name of publisher FlukeDude and developer Grip Game's new PC version of the popular mobile platformer refers more to the feeling you get while playing The Impossible Game. As you attempt repeatedly in vain to time rhythmic jumps over plots of spikes, madness sets in. This game isn't meant for conquering. It's only mission is to infuriate and beguile you, much as it does here in Joystiq Tiny Streams. Failure is assured for David Hinkle, and yet he keeps playing. Devilish, The Impossible Game. Devilish. If you want more Joystiq Streams action, we broadcast every Tuesday and Thursday at 4PM EST live on the Joystiq Twitch channel. [Image: FlukeDude]
Ether One cures mental illness with telekinetic projection on March 25
Ether One takes place in the middle of the 20th century, when an advancement in telekinetic technology cures certain cases of mental illness and memory loss. Specific people, called Restorers, are able to enter a person's memories and restructure broken images. Traversing a person's memories can be tense and frantic, and it involves a point-and-shoot camera, apparently. It's a first-person exploration game with layers: It's an exploration of the fragile human mind, an exploration of a new world, and an exploration of complicated puzzles. The mechanics themselves are up to the player. Ether One can be completed as an exploration game alone, or as an adventure in deciphering riddles "to restore life-changing events of the patient's history in order to help the validation of their life." Talk about responsibility. Ether One was Greenlit last year and is due out for PC on March 25 from UK indie studio White Paper Games. The teaser trailer shows off what looks to be a sterile, industrial-style dentist chair being lowered into a mechanized containment sphere. The screenshots, however, display markedly different settings: a rustic seaside village and a large water facility. Ether One's website reads, "Welcome to Pinwheel." We're not sure why, but that seems ominous. [Images: White Paper Games]
Co-op choose-your-own-adventure game The Yawhg hits Steam
The Yawhg tells a randomized story every time you (and your friends) sit down to play, a story that begins with the evil Yawhg coming to ransack your town and ends in more than 50 different ways for each character. It's a choose-your-own-adventure game steeped in humor, magic and horrible things, from indie team Emily Carroll and Damian Sommer. The game supports up to four players locally and has full controller support on Steam. The Yawhg made it through Greenlight and launched today on Steam for PC, for $8 with a 20 percent off sale. The discount ends on March 6. Carroll and Sommer launched the game last year independently, and it's still available to purchase through their site. Carroll, a comic artist, ended up working with Sommer, a game developer, during the TIFF Nexus Comics vs. Games showcase. Apparently it was a match made in dark fantasy heaven.
Tulpa mixes Limbo, Alice, occultism for two-character platforming
Tulpa is an eerie, symbolic puzzle-platformer that draws inspiration from Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet, American McGee's Alice and Limbo, with roots in occultism and theosophy. In layman's terms, it's a creepy game about secrets and sanity. It features two playable characters: Ophelia, who can interact with the physical world, and Oliver, who uses telekinesis to move objects. Tulpa comes from two student developers and a musician in Larisa, Greece, working under the studio name Encryptique. The word "tulpa" translates to "conjured thing" or "thoughtform," magical things created by thought alone. "Oliver is Ophelia's tulpa," Encryptique writes. "He was created by her own mind in need for support. That cause has an effect. Ophelia needs Oliver to be close, otherwise she begins to lose her sanity, ensuing an inevitable death." Encryptique is looking to raise $4,500 on Indiegogo to finish Tulpa for PC, Mac and Linux. Specifically, the team needs two Unity Pro licenses, money for sound effects and a new laptop for the musician. Encryptique expects polishing Tulpa to take several months, though it will invite backers to beta test the game before launch. Tulpa is also on Steam Greenlight. [Images: Encryptique]
The year of the octopus continues with Airscape: The Fall of Gravity
Airscape: The Fall of Gravity pulls an adorable yellow octopus from his beachside (see: in the ocean) home and sticks him on a strange, alien planet with dangerous enemies and wacky gravity physics. It's an action platformer that has players leap over and around obstacles such as angry robots, lasers, vast pits and happy little trees. Airscape is a mix of cuteness and devious things. We're calling it now: 2014 is the year of the octopus. Airscape's first three zones are available to play in the new demo, launched ahead of the game's appearance at GDC with the Indie Megabooth. This is Indie Megabooth's first showcase at GDC, and Airscape is one of 15 games hand-picked to be in the premiere booth. Very fancy. Airscape comes from a team of students based around the world: project lead Daniel West in Australia, artist Claudia Starke in Germany and composer Sam Gossner in the US. It's due out this year for PC, Mac and Linux, and it currently has a Steam Greenlight campaign.
Prison breakout sim The Escapists picked up by Worms studio Team17
Team17, the UK outfit behind the popular Worms franchise, will publish Mouldy Toof Studios' indie prison break-out sim for PC, The Escapists. This is the second game to be published under Team17's third-party publishing label, the first being indie top-down stealth game Light. In The Escapists, players assume the role of a prisoner determined to escape from confinement. Players craft items and weapons from everyday objects found around the prison while adhering to a strict schedule of activities. Inmates must avoid exposure during cell shakedowns and plan their escape without tipping off the guards. The Escapists was successfully funded through Kickstarter back in November and passed through Steam Greenlight within a week of its submission. The Escapists is determined to tunnel out of development this summer. [Image: Mouldy Toof Studios]
Father-daughter team hoping to make Super Chibi Knight a reality
Last year we reported on Super Chibi Knight, an adorable-looking adventure in the Zelda 2 mold that's being developed by Abobo's Big Adventure creator Nick Pasto and his 8-year-old daughter Bella. Nick's on task for the programming nitty-gritty, while Bella provides the voice of the Chibi hero, sketches for character and weapon designs, and she's a valuable playtester - not least because she names the excellent Spelunky, Super Meat Boy, and Castle Crashers in her list of gaming favorites. Some eight months on, Super Chibi Knight is halfway along in development, and while it's stayed stuck on Steam Greenlight since then, Pasto (senior) tweeted this morning that it's currently ranked #2 in the queue. Everything's looking good for a summer 2014 release for this father-and-daughter game, except for the last bit of funding to get it past the finish line. So, Pasto's turned to Kickstarter with the relatively modest goal of $6,000 to get Super Chibi Knight funded. The fundraising campaign's already notched a third of that goal at the time of writing, with a healthy 32 days left on the clock. Also, if you want to pledge just a single dollar, Pasto says that if he ever has the pleasure of meeting you in person, you're guaranteed a high five there and then. More guaranteed high fives in the world can only be a good thing. [Image: Nick Pasto]
Steam Greenlight approvals include Arc Squadron, Dwarf Quest, A Wizard's Lizard
Steam Greenlight seems to have settled into a fortnightly routine for approvals, and that means it's time for another 50 games to frolic past the gates and into the heady lands of the Steam marketplace. We'll try to point you towards some of the highlights. The Star Fox-like Arc Squadron is one of the most recognizable names on there, and the Unreal Engine 3 iOS and Android game is warping to PC now, courtesy of Greenlight. If you prefer your space combat with more Minecraft, the first-person multiplayer of Blockade Runner may be more for you. Meanwhile, after arcade classic Ikaruga came through Greenlight to launch on Steam this week, the Japanese-styled Danmaku Unlimited 2 is another vertical shoot-em on the way. Finally, moving away from the space shooter theme, challenging action-RPG A Wizard's Lizard is Steam-bound - and Wii U eShop-bound eventually - and we also like the look of loot-grabbing dungeon-crawler Dwarf Quest. That's not to say the other 45 games aren't worthy of your perusal, more that it's hard to keep up when Greenlight is pumping 50 at a time every two weeks. Anyway, you can find the full 5-0 of Greenlight approvals here. [Image: Psyonix]
Epic Space Online presents space without borders
Let us introduce you to Epic Space Online, an MMO so epic, it says so right in the title. This indie game was developed by the Alpha Company and is currently available, although it's trying to get voted into the Steam Greenlight program for wider recognition and distribution. Epic Space Online takes place in a single shared, procedurally generated universe without any borders. Players can vie over territory, mine ore, deploy stations, make ships, trade goods, and even command giant carriers staffed by other players. The devs have promised weekly updates and features to keep things lively. You can check out the trailer after the break.
Noir Syndrome offers a new murder mystery with every play
Noir Syndrome is a novel take on a classic of the storytelling genre. Instead of offering players a single murder mystery, it uses procedural generation to randomize clues, suspects and victims each time you play. Beyond its randomized killings, Noir Syndrome also offers a number of other features you wouldn't expect from a game with such a pixelated, spartan aesthetic. According to the IndieDB entry on Noir Syndrome, despite its procedurally generated nature, all objects in the game are persistent, creating the illusion of a functioning, open world until you start a new game and everything is rebuilt from scratch. In this world, players are tasked with seeking out clues, then using these clues to nail suspects, but the game also offers players the freedom to ignore the central murder mystery in favor of exploration or gunning down random bystanders. Currently, you can find Noir Syndrome in the Steam Greenlight queue. Like all Greenlight games, it must attract a certain number of affirmative votes before earning the right to be listed on the Steam marketplace. While that means there's going to be a wait for the final, retail version of Noir Syndrome, you can attempt to gain access to a beta release of the game by following the instructions in this IndieDB entry. [Image: Glass Knuckle Games]
Ikaruga weaves its way onto Steam next week
Ikaruga, one of the most acclaimed shoot-em-ups out there, hits Steam next week in a newly tweaked re-release. After blasting through Greenlight, Treasure's polarity-shifting classic makes its Windows PC debut on February 18 - still no news on the price, though. Ikaruga debuted in arcades at the turn of the millennium, before scrolling onto Dreamcast and GameCube a few years later. It then came to Xbox 360 in 2008, and the Steam version is based on that re-release. No surprises, then, to see Xbox 360 controller support reprized along with screen rotating, allowing you to play the game either horizontally or vertically. The Steam version does have a few tricks of its own, though, including a Double Play mode that lets you control the two-player game with just one controller, if you fancy yourself as some kind of wizard. [Image: Treasure]
Gloria Victis needs your Steam votes
After its first day on Steam Greenlight, Gloria Victis is already in the top 100 and is hoping for an even better showing. Black Eye Games is heavily promoting the indie medieval MMO as it goes through the Greenlight gauntlet with the eventual goal of being offered through Steam's digital platform. Steam users can choose whether or not to vote for Gloria Victis to be greenlit. Currently the game is in pre-alpha testing with regular patches and expects to lift its NDA in the next few weeks. Gloria Victis features sandbox crafting, plenty of PvP, non-targeted combat, a feudal social system, and a harsh world. Its storyline is being written by The Witcher's Jacek Komuda and Maciej Jurewicz.
Latest Greenlight inductees include Energy Hook, Richard and Alice, Detective Grimoire
Steam Greenlight is increasingly resembling the opening sequences of classic Japanese game show Takeshi's Castle, known to US fans through Spike TV's MXC. Again, two weeks after the last batch, another teeming mass of 50 games charges madly towards the gates of Steam. If only the process was as hilarious as Takeshi's Castle; Greenlight would be vastly improved by dressing up game developers as skittles and chucking huge bowling balls at them. No offense, developers, it just would. Highlights from the batch include rooftop-swinging action game Energy Hook, which is also coming to PS4 and Vita, and Richard and Alice, the dark point-and-clicker co-penned by Starbound lead wordsmith Ashton Raze. Crowdfunded point-and-click mystery Detective Grimoire got through too, and like Richard and Alice the game is already available outside of Steam. Another game just out the door and now past Greenlight is Gigantic Army, an homage to 16-bit mech shooters that comes from the studio behind Satazius. The full list of the freshest fifty can be found on the Steam Greenlight site. [Image: Jamie Fristrom]
TUG gets the greenlight on Steam
TUG might not have a real name (or does it?) but it's definitely going places in the world: The title was one of 50 games that got greenlit on Steam today. Fans voted that TUG should be offered on Steam's digital distribution platform and apparently Valve agreed. Of course, TUG had some help getting there: The creators had offered supporters several types of virtual goodies if they helped TUG pass the greenlight threshold. TUG is still in early alpha with an eye to release sometime next year. Steam said that it will work with the studio to offer the title as a release on the platform.
Timey-wimey platformer Ethan: Meteor Hunter is coming to Vita
Ethan: Meteor Hunter is a tricky PS3 and PC platformer with time-stopping mechanics, and it was made by the self-described "bastards" at Seaven Studio. It was only in December the French team was lamenting some woeful sales numbers, so it's good to see it's persevering by bringing the game to Vita sometime "soon," in addition to Steam on February 7. Seaven credits Reddit with getting the game past Greenlight, after users there backed it in the wake of the dispiriting sales. As for the Vita version, one change-up is that players can use Ethan's telekinetic powers to move objects in stasis using the front and rear touchscreens, a feature that Seaven's Olivier Penot said "just made sense." No word on a release date for Vita, but Seaven is nonetheless ramping up the platformer's second coming with plenty of promos. PS3 users can try out a demo this week, with that version on sale at $7, or $5 for PS Plus users - the game will be Cross-Buy, so getting it on PS3 will unlock the Vita version when it arrives. Meanwhile, the Steam version will be 20 percent off at launch, coming in at $8. [Image: Seaven Studio]
