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Gunpoint dev working on stealth space game Heat Signature
Tom Francis, the developer behind Gunpoint, has announced one of his new projects, Heat Signature. It's a stealth game, set in space, in which you stalk randomly generated ships and board them. Stealth isn't so much about the enemy ship's line-of-sight as it is about your ship's temperature. Each randomly spawned vessel has heat sensors that can pick up on warmth within their proximity, so it's paramount you float up to ships while using your thrusters sparingly. Of course, relative size of your target also affects the difficulty of this maneuver. Once you've docked, you can walk around inside the unsuspecting space barge, avoiding or killing its guards. As Francis points out in the video, this build is still early and missing a lot of the final systems he has planned for Heat Signature. At first you'll spawn into the world as a random class of character, with a certain goal or objective that requires you to board ships and hack terminals for more information. One play session of Heat Signature may ask you to kill a target, while another may challenge you to track down and steal a rare ship. Francis doesn't say when to expect Heat Signature, but he's set up a mailing list for all those interested in being notified of important development updates (like this one). [Image: Suspicious Developments]
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.
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%
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.
