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Rochard now available in Mac App Store for just $2.99
As the first Unity-powered game on PlayStation 3, it should have been obvious that Recoil Games' Rochard would eventually find itself on other platforms supported by the famously cross-platform engine. The PC release followed some two months after the PS3 release, dropping just last month, and now this puzzle-platformer is also available on the Mac App Store. The best part: At just $2.99 (a 70% discount!) it's an effortless recommendation. We've asked Recoil if it plans to bring the Mac release to Steam and we'll let you know what we hear back.
'Pid' is a pretty platformer from Grin vets Might & Delight, planned for XBLA/PSN/PC in 2012
We're suckers for artsy platformers, so when Beefy Media's Adam Boyes took to Giant Bomb's livestream this evening with a debut trailer for Might & Delight's latest offering, "Pid," and the game was a gorgeous hand-drawn platformer, we were pretty excited to tell you all about it. In Pid, you'll control what appears to be a little boy in a colorful and mysterious world of platforms and robots -- like Limbo and Machinarium had a digital baby, if you will. The trailer showed off a bit of co-op play, as well as a variety of different environments through which to romp. Pid is being built using the Unity engine (like that mystery Square Enix game, among many others), thus making its ubiquity across platforms all the easier. While Boyes admitted the M&D folks don't have a publisher for the game yet, he said they've been actively speaking with publishers and are looking at an Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, and PC release in "the back half of 2012." Expect more details and the trailer tomorrow, on Joystiq, when the game gets announced "officially." Head past the break for a quick snap of the game in action.
Square Enix using Unity for Vita and PS3 title
Square Enix's 1st Production Department, the team for the Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts franchises, is currently working on a PS3 and Vita project in the Unity engine. Andriasang dug up several job listings that mention the game is an action RPG, along with noting several other classic JRPG staples like airships, inns and world maps. Unity is a prolific game engine that currently works on many platforms (excluding microwave ovens... and Windows Phone 7). At this point, we know more about what game engines Square Enix is using for its projects than we do about the actual games. The company also recently announced an original, Unreal-powered action RPG under the direction of Ryutaro Ichimura (Dragon Quest 8 and 9). The company later teased the project with some concept art.
Unity 'skipping' Windows Phone 7
Prolific and flexible game engine Unity will not support Windows Phone 7. Speaking with Develop, David Helgason, CEO of Unity Technologies, said the company is "skipping" WP7, but is looking at Windows Phone 8. "[WP7] is a relatively closed system so you can't run native content, which means we can't really support it," explained Helgason. "We could, in theory, do what we've done with Flash, which is to rewrite the engine so it works inside a non-native environment. So it could be done, in theory, but it's very much in theory because that would require a huge amount of work and uncertain results." With under 2 million WP7 units sold around May, sales don't really scream for Unity to go out of its way to ride the Redmond line. Meanwhile, Apple's recently launched iPhone 4S sold four million units in a weekend.
Roadeo: A game about a road versus a car
Regardless of who claims to have had the idea originally, we're totally on board with Roadeo, a game that pits asphalt against automobile. One player controls the road while the other tries to keep the car on the road. As you can see in the video above, it's easier read than done. Now for the best part: you can totally play it right now. All you have to do is grab a friend, share the keyboard, and you're good to go. We've already ruined three friendships today playing it, but your mileage may vary.
Ubuntu coming to tablets, phones, cars and smart TVs by 2014
We've already seen Ubuntu running on tablets and smartphones, but not in any official capacity. Rumors had it that Canonical would be making a serious push into the tablet space in early 2011, but that effort never materialized, or at least was never acknowledged. Still, Unity has some finger-friendly streaks and Oneiric added ARM support -- so it's not much of a stretch to see the popular Linux distro on your mobile devices. Well, at the Ubuntu Developer Summit, Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth made that move official by issuing a challenge to the Ubuntu community to start pushing beyond the traditional PC form factor. Few details were given, but Shuttleworth did say that he believes the time is right for the OS to start making moves into the tablet, phone, in-dash infotainment and smart TV spaces. There were no products to announce, but Shuttleworth was confident the OS would be ready and in shipping consumer electronics by the time version 14.04 arrived in April of 2014. Though, we're sure some prototypes will start showing up sooner rather than later.
The countdown to Oneiric Ocelot begins, Ubuntu 11.10 arrives October 13th
A whole new world? A whole new computer? Those are some pretty epic promises coming from the folks at Canonical, especially since we've seen the most recent beta and Ubuntu 11.10 and, while its packed with welcome improvements over Natty, it's not exactly revolutionary. Still, we're excited that on October 13th the final release of Oneiric Ocelot will be hitting the web with an improved Dash that integrates search Lenses, new default apps, a spiffed-up app switcher and application syncing across multiple devices. There are plenty of other little tweaks and improvements that add polish to the popular Linux distribution -- more than we could possibly cover without inspiring a string of TLDR comments. If you're the adventurous type you can download the second beta now, but we suggest you wait till the timer at the source link reaches zero. If you want to spread the Gospel of Ubuntu you'll also find a printable flyer at the source with a QR code and tear-off URL strips that lead to ThisIsTheCountdown.com.
Unity Technologies revenue up 258.7 percent, Asian pirates to blame (or thank)
Revenue for Unity Technologies, developer of the Unity 3D game-authoring tool, is up 258.7 percent year-over-year in Asian markets, with the most monthly users worldwide coming from Seoul, Beijing, Shanghai and Nei-Hu, Taiwan. Unity's general manager of Asia John Goodale is excited about the company's Asian prospects and the unexpected reason for the region's growth. "In China, quite candidly, what is driving a lot of our growth, is piracy," Goodale said. "Even through a pirated version of Unity, we can still make revenue from that customer, for example through the Asset Store." Korea's revenue pool grew 50 percent year-on-year, while China gained 280 percent and Japan exploded with 897 percent. Unity doesn't support piracy, of course, but it doesn't not support revenue growth, no matter the reason. "We don't condone it, but it's also something we don't super-aggressively persue," Goodale said.
Muse announces Guns of Icarus, unveils CG trailer
Browser MMOs are a dime a dozen these days, and sometimes it seems like there's a new one popping up on an hourly basis. Consequently, first impressions are everything in such a crowded marketplace, and if its CG trailer is anything to go by, Guns of Icarus may raise a few eyebrows when it launches in 2012. The game is built around the popular Unity engine and features a post-apocalyptic world that mixes steampunk, classic aviation, and an adventure-serial feel that evokes the seminal Xbox shooter Crimson Skies (and perhaps a gritty, aerial homage to Indiana Jones). Gameplay centers around your airship, and dev studio Muse Games says that "moving from town to town, trading and collecting resources, outfitting your ship, and battling deadly pirates" are just a few of the things you'll do. Your airship can also feature additional player crewmembers (or NPCs if you're a loner), and the game's skill and leveling system looks to make each crewman both unique and versatile. "Expect to find your pilot putting out a fire or your mechanic manning the guns at any moment," says Muse's press release. You can check out the new CG trailer as well as a brief gameplay video after the break.
Icarus and GamersFirst collaborate on new MMO
Icarus Studios and Gamersfirst's Reloaded Productions have announced today that the two studios will be partnering yet again on an upcoming MMORPG. The game, titled Hailan Rising, will be based on Icarus' xScape platform, which is being modified to support Unity 3D. Hailan Rising is "slated to be the industry's first full scale PvP-based Fantasy MMORPG developed in Unity 3D," and places players in the role of one of eight character classes in the post-apocalyptic fantasy world of Hailan. After the world is destroyed by a huge flood, land is at a premium, so players must battle it out for the newly created islands and the resources they hold. For more information on this upcoming title, head over to the game's official site. %Gallery-128213%
MMObility: The constants of the console
Once again I find myself envious of the console gamer lifestyle. If you think about it even for a bit, you can see how they almost have the best of all gaming worlds. Most popular console titles support some version of multiplayer that can simulate an MMO. Granted, players don't have access to potentially thousands of players at once and all that "massive" entails, but if we are even mildly honest, we'd admit that a great many MMO players spend their time in an instanced dungeon with the same handful of people, most of the time. A console is also portable and standard. If you buy a console game, you pretty much know it will run on your system. Sure, there are hiccups here and there, but those would be generally the same hiccups that all players would have. The games are made for the console, not the other way around. My jealousy has begun to affect how I play -- I am starting to find ways to step further and further away from the standard PC setup, and hopefully I will never utter the words "upgrade my PC" again. Browser-based and portable gaming are much like the console market. Let's discuss how so and why this really makes me feel good. Click past the cut!
Ubuntu 11.04 'Natty Narwhal' brings new Unity UI, controversy to the desktop
It's April, the fourth month of the year, and that means it's time for a new Ubuntu release. (This also true of the tenth month of the year -- those Canonical folks like to keep busy.) Ubuntu 11.04, or Natty Narwhal as the kids are calling it, is here and packing some significant changes from earlier editions of the Linux distro. The most obvious being the arrival of the Unity desktop environment, which was previously relegated to netbooks. It's got integrated search, a combination launcher and taskbar, and app menus that have been moved to the top of the screen à la OS X -- basically it's harvested the best ideas from Apple and Microsoft and splashed a pretty coat of aubergine paint on it. The new UI is not without its detractors and reportedly has some stability issues, but you can always choose "Ubuntu Classic" to stick with Gnome. The update also makes Firefox 4 the default browser and replaces the Rhythmbox music manager with the sleeker and more functional Banshee. Hit up the source link to download the 700MB ISO -- it's free and you can try it without installing, so what's there to lose? [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Gameloft launches N.O.V.A. Elite on Facebook, demonstrates the ubiquity of Unity
It turns out N.O.V.A. Elite isn't one of the three new iOS games that Gameloft has licensed the Unreal Engine for. In fact, it's not an iOS game at all. Instead, Gameloft has decided to bring its popular science-fiction shooter franchise to Facebook as a competitive multiplayer 3D shooter tied to your social network and running on the Unity engine. While the core style of the earlier N.O.V.A. games is still the same in N.O.V.A. Elite, it has also picked up many of the features you've probably come to expect from any free-to-play Facebook game, including friends invitations and purchasable upgrades. That's right, if you want to have all the best gear, you'll need to pull out your wallet and exchange real money for Facebook Credits. Don't worry though, they aren't required to play. If you don't mind the free-to-play model, there's a lot to like about Elite. The pace is fast, and I found the gameplay smooth and satisfying, even on dated hardware. The graphics are adequately impressive for a browser-based game, but they are more comparable to N.O.V.A. 2 running on an iPad than a modern native PC or console game.
Unity Corporation releases Xtion Pro PC motion sensor in Japan
We're still waiting for some specific US launch details for the Xtion Pro and Wavi Xtion motion sensors that ASUS showed off at CES earlier this year, but it looks like folks in Japan can now already get their hands on half of that duo. Unity Corportation has just announced that it's releasing the Xtion Promotion sensor (complete with an SDK) in the country for ¥19,980, or roughly $240. That should work similarly to a Kinect considering that PrimeSense is responsible for much of the technology behind it, although you should be aware that this one is aimed squarely at developers looking to create their own games and applications for it. You'll have to wait for the more consumer-friendly Wavi Xtion for something that you can simply plop down in your living room.
Gamigo opens the news floodgates
"Cry havoc, and unleash the titles of war" might as well be gamigo's cry, as today it has seen fit to give us what can only be termed as a new title news explosion. Aside from offering up an interesting tidbit on its upcoming space dogfighter, Black Prophecy, the company has released information on a handful of other new titles that should pique the interest of gamers who are looking for something beyond the standard free-to-play MMO fare. Better still, some of these titles will be available in-browser, helping to open up more "jump in and game" free-to-play options. Grimlands offers something for players who have been waiting for a post-apocalyptic title that promises the ability to evolve their own playstyles -- and cities. UFO Online: Fight for Earth features a tactics-heavy browser-based MMO environment where players will battle against each other and enemy NPCs in a world overrun with gobsmackingly enormous amounts of aliens. Magic Campus offers adventure in a turn-based world where players build a powerful cadre of pets and mentor others in the ways of magic -- all in their browsers. Sound intriguing? Join us behind the break for a first look at screenshots and video from these upcoming gamigo titles!
Canonical christens Ubuntu 11.10 'Oneiric Ocelot' (update)
Canonical's still one month away from letting Natty Narwhal (also known as Ubuntu 11.04) out of the cage, but it's already teasing us with another OS flaunting an alliterative mammalian monicker. Like the Narwhal before it, Oneiric Ocelot (or Ubuntu 11.10), due out this October, will offer a 2D OpenGL-based Unity interface to support older computers, as well as Qt -- you know, the framework Nokia loved and left hanging. You can also expect Ubuntu to scale back on the number of cloud services with the Ocelot, as it gears up for the release of the as-of-yet unnamed Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (long term support). For now, that's all she wrote, but if you're dying to find out how they come up with those adorable Animalia appellatives, check out the source link below. Update: Oneiric Ocelot has also apparently devoured Ubuntu Netbook Edition whole -- starting with Ubuntu 11.04, the products will be completely unified and (according to Canonical) work equally well no matter the form factor.
Game developers looking at iPad 2's speedier A5
The iPad 2's Apple A5 processor may not be listed as faster than the existing A4 -- it's running at the same 1 GHz speed -- but the dual core architecture will be able to accomplish a lot more number crunching while still providing great battery life. Now game developers are getting excited about the possibilities for the new processor. MacNN is reporting that Unity's Chief Creative Officer, Nicholas Francis, has said that his company will use the A5 to "really fine tune and really optimize it to run fantastic on the iPad." The Unity game engine already runs on multi-core processors like the A5, and now Unity developers can start adding effects to iOS games that previously took a dedicated gaming console or powerful PC. Francis noted that some upgrades could include real-time shadows and shafts of light, effects not previously available on the iPad. Infinity Blade developer Epic Games comments that their gaming engine -- Unreal Engine 3 -- can already take advantage of the iPad 2's A5 dual-core processor. When PC games are moved to a more powerful PC with multiple cores, "you can ... turn up all the dials in your game to get more details, more textures, more shaders," says Epic's Mark Rein. He also noted that more CPUs brings up the possibility of more complicated physics or more enemies on the screen at once, or perhaps expanding the view of an environment. Firemint, developers of Real Racing HD, anticipates that the next version of the game will take advantage of another new feature of the iPad 2 as well -- the built-in gyroscope. The company is hoping that they'll be able to improve steering through use of the gyro, as well as kick the graphics of the racing game up a notch. There is a potential downside for developers: unless apps are coded to take best advantage of the hardware that they're running on, the new apps might need to be marketed for a specific iPad version or they might run slower on the original iPad. From the comments made by these top iOS game developers, it's apparent that they're doing their best to give all iPad users the best possible gaming experience.
TUAW interviews David Helgason of Unity (part two)
Yesterday we posted part one of my interview with David Helgason, co-founder and CEO of Unity. This time we talk a little more broadly about Unity as a tool and the industry and where Unity fits into the mobile and console spaces. Click read more to see the video.
Xperia Play pre-loaded with 'legendary' PS1 game, will launch with 50 games from 20 publishers
Sony Ericsson has (finally!) officially announced details on the Xperia Play, aka PlayStation Phone. The device will come pre-loaded with a "legendary" PS1 game, according to Kazuo "Ridge Racer" Hirai and a number of PlayStation titles will be available through the Android Marketplace "exclusively to Xperia Play" for a limited time. PlayStation Suite will be available later in the year. In addition, Ericsson has revealed that 20 publishers are working on content on the device, with up to 50 games available at launch. Some of the brands you can expect on the device include the not-so-dead Guitar Hero, Assassin's Creed, Battlefield, and Dead Space. Notably, EA's FIFA will be "the first multiplayer FIFA game on mobile." Many of the games available on Xperia Play are ports, and a partnership with Unity -- a cross-platform engine -- will allow for easy and optimized ports to Sony's mobile device. But there are some exclusives beyond PSone games: Dungeon Defender Wave 2, for example, is exclusive to the platform. Today's announcements make it clear that Android's finally got game -- but are you interested?%Gallery-116437%
Battlestar Galactica gets an open beta date
Are you ready to step into the world of Battlestar Galactica Online and have a frakkin' good time blowing Cylons into the next century? Perhaps you're more the type of person who feels a certain affinity with the toaster-people and instead would prefer to play on the side of the Cylons themselves? Whatever the case, if you've been waiting for Bigpoint Games' upcoming free-to-play SyFy Channel space dogfighter, then you're in luck. According to a post by Husker on the Battlestar Galactica Online forums, the game's open beta is right around the corner: February 8th, to be exact! Initially, three servers will be launched for open beta: Caprica for the U.S. West coast, Scorpia for the U.S. East coast, and Tauron for players located in the EU. However, all players will be expected to use English in common chat channels, even on the EU server. The only exception is in Squad and Wing chat, which is left up to players. Any other language used in open channels will cause you to be ganked with a GM banhammer and be sent to appeal on the forums. Bigpoint also states that if more servers are needed, the company will be adjusting accordingly. In the meantime, you can check out Beau's First Impressions of the game or watch the red-hot trailer Bigpoint just released to get an idea of what this very ambitious Unity-engine-based game will be like.
