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Greenlit Steam game Towns halts development
Development of the in-progress city management game Towns has halted and will not resume due to declining sales, developer Florian Frankenberger revealed this week. Towns was among the first games to hit Steam as part of Valve's community-driven Greenlight program. The game launched in November of 2012 for Windows, Mac, and Linux, and players who paid $14.99 for an early version were promised frequent updates as Towns expanded to fill its intended scope. "After getting used to the source code and publishing the first new version of the game, we talked about the agreed payment and it turns out that the [sales] are getting down rapidly," Frankenberger explained. "So we are now selling less than a third of the [expected] copies a month, [losing] about 33% of [sales] per month. To be completely honest, I can't work for that little amount. I have to pay for the rent and food and this doesn't really suffice for any of it." Frankenberger continued: "I'm sorry that we had to pull the plug right here, but I sincerely hope you can understand why we had to make that decision right now." Frankenberger discussed the possibility of continuing development in a sequel game, and notes that players who paid for the original Towns will be compensated in some way upon the sequel's launch. [Image: SMP]
Black Desert shows off new features for its second beta test
The testing process for Black Desert continues apace in South Korea, and the process of staring at the monitor and speculating continues apace for Black Desert fans who are not actually in South Korea. Luckily, there's a translation available of the game's latest development blog which shows off the new features available in the game's second closed beta test. We've heard about a new region, and now we know about some of the new monsters being introduced as well as a new town. The town is a coastal fishing city known as Eferia, offering players plenty of saltwater fishing opportunities as well as the other services you'd expect from a seaside fishing town. Players will also be facing off against new monsters including what appears to be a dinosaur, a harpy, and... well, that third one isn't exactly clear. Still, it's more new stuff for players to look forward to when the second test goes live. [Thanks to levakd for the tip!]
Indie Royale's current bundle is complete in alpha edition
Indie Royale's current bundle is an amalgamation of a few popular ideas, including the online fundraiser and, well, the bundle, which has become a beast all of its own. This may sound like a contradiction -- underground developers borrowing mainstream methods -- but in fact it somehow makes this bundle even more indie.The Alpha Collection, offered now through the next week, features three games in alpha mode, and "buying" the bundle is a way of "funding" their continued development while getting access to their current builds. Similar to backing a Kickstarter project, The Alpha Collection has people invest in the potential of the following three games: Towns, 3079 and Wyv and Keep.The low price for the Alpha Collection is hovering slightly above $5, the recommended price is $10 and the "Show Support" price is listed at $20, but of course you can pay any amount above the low price if you believe the future of these games is worth it. As with all Indie Royale bundles, the more you pay, the less the people after you will pay. It's like 360-degree charity.
Wasteland Diaries: The Nerfpocalypse
I don't know about you, but when I think about a post-apocalyptic future, I think about bands of merciless raiders, anarchy and danger along every roadway. Does Fallen Earth have all of these things? Yes, but it is hardly the lawless, danger-ridden place (once you get acclimated to it) that you would expect to find when civilization has collapsed and there are mutants running amok. Fallen Earth is hardly the quintessential post-apocalyptic future. Games like Gamma World (a pen-and-paper RPG from days of yore) and Wasteland captured the bleakness of a destroyed world much more convincingly. But who knows. Maybe the folks at Icarus got it right. We'll never know until the earth is destroyed. And games won't be such a matter of import when almost everyone is gone. Anyway, what I am getting at is the setting. The setting looks fantastic; the art department has certainly captured a desolate wasteland. The writing is great, and the towns and encounters are well-designed. Fallen Earth has the ambiance nailed. But the wasteland just doesn't have that sense of danger about it. Not for me, at least. After the cut, I'll discuss what I thought FE was going to be like, what it is, and what I think it should be.
Final Fantasy XIII producers: Traditional RPG towns are tough to do in HD
Lots of fans think it would be great to see the classic Final Fantasy VII remade in full HD glory on a platform like the PS3, but Final Fantasy XIII producers Yoshinori Kitase and Motomu Toriyama say it would be really tough to do. In a recent interview with Ultimania, they say that the limit isn't the HD technology, it's the amount of artisanship. "Considering the amount of work to make graphics that deserve HD, it is hard to make towns in the conventional style," said Toriyama. FFVII's graphics were beautiful at the time, but when you consider that we all played them on a 4:3 TV SD screen rather than the 1080p HD behemoths we're all playing games on today, you realize that it's a lot more work for artists to put in to make the game look as epic as Final Fantasy should. That's one reason why FFXIII doesn't have conventional RPG towns. Kitase agrees, saying that "it is very hard to make games on PlayStation 3 in the same style the games in that era had. Making graphics will take enormous time." So score one for standard definition and the limits of the old pre-HD consoles. Note that neither producer says it's impossible, just a lot of work. So maybe some enterprising young developer will come along and make a solid, HD JRPG in the old-school fashion.
Battleground Europe patch adds new towns and brigade types
If you're making an MMO, you can go one of two routes. You can go mainstream -- try to please everyone at once -- or you can carve a niche to be occupied by a small but loyal player base. Playnet has always aimed for the second option with World War II Online: Battleground Europe (or, The Game Formerly More Prominently Known as Just World War II Online, if you prefer) -- a hardcore combat simulation that emulates a huge chunk of the European theater of World War II on land, sea, and air.Playnet just released a new patch for the game that adds 26 new towns and 3 new brigade types. It also makes "a change to scoring against naval vessels." Players will get a chance to interrogate the game's senior producer about the changes in a live chat this Wednesday at 4:00 PM EDT.Full patch notes are available on the official Battleground Europe forums. Beware, though: a certain Massively blogger has a soft spot for this game, and is looking forward to blowing you to smithereens in a bombing run. You have been warned. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall ... you get the idea.
PotBS towns to receive attractive makeovers
The folks in the Environment team at Flying Lab Software have decided that some of the towns in Pirates of the Burning Sea look a little bit sad and outdated, and so they will be giving them graphical overhauls in an upcoming patch. The team has been kind enough to provide us with an early look at how these towns will be brought back to life in some before-and-after shots, and we have put these pictures in a gallery for you to check out.According to the patch notes for the Testbed server, many towns have already received their updates and will probably move over to the live servers shortly. We are promised that the magic wand will be pointed at other towns in the Caribbean soon, making your on-land shenanigans a lot prettier to look at.%Gallery-25334%
