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Steam Greenlight gets a mini round: Edge of Space; Papers, Please
Steam accepted a mini batch of games and software on Greenlight today, picking up four new, community-voted titles to eventually launch on Steam. The three games are Edge of Space, Venetica and Papers, Please, and the software title is Substance Designer 3, a texturing toolset. Edge of Space is a 2D terraforming experiment set on a distant, rogue planet; Venetica is an adventure set in historical Venice and starring Scarlett, the daughter of Death; and Papers, Please is an intense immigration checkpoint simulator. Steam will likely continue Greenlighting games in smaller batches so the entire process can move more quickly, this round's announcement reads. "These titles were selected on the same criteria we have been using in the past: Votes in Greenlight give us a hugely valuable point of data in gauging community interest along with external factors such as press reviews, crowd-funding successes, performance on other platforms, and awards and contests to help form a more complete picture of community interest in each title," the announcement says.
Venetica review: Venice on 20 souls a day
You might expect the sudden revelation of being Death's daughter -- as befalls the protagonist of Venetica -- to conjure some deep, introspective questions. What secrets from the beyond should you reveal to others? Is killing someone such a terrible option now that you know there is another plane of existence? Was having someone die at every dance recital really bad luck, or was daddy just doing his best to balance work and family? Perhaps that last question isn't so poignant, but Venetica, while possessing such an intriguing concept, seems unwilling to run very far with it. Instead, the afterlife flavors a rather straightforward and unpolished action-RPG.%Gallery-114606%
Atari bringing action RPG Venetica to North America in January
Venetica didn't really win critics over back when it was released in Germany -- while the story is supposed to be pretty good, the gameplay was called bland and repetitive. Nevertheless, Atari is bringing the game to North America, and will release it on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC on January 11 of next year. Venetica takes place in 16th century Venice, and casts the player in the role of a girl named Scarlett, who just so happens to be Death's daughter. She has to save the world and her father from a powerful necromancer. Sounds like fun -- just be careful around Death, otherwise he might end up making you do his job for him.
Become Death's daughter in Venetica: new PC, Xbox 360 RPG
When it comes to video games, dealing with Death just comes with the territory, but while we're used to seeing him on a pale horse and lining Piers Anthony's pockets with gold, we're less informed about the old guy's family tree. Nevertheless, one thing we now know, if developer Deck 13 is to be believed, is that the immortality incarnate had a daughter named Scarlett, with the German dev casting her as the central character in Venetica, an upcoming RPG for the Xbox 360 and PC.Publisher dtp describes the game's story as "cryptic" with a sixteenth century-style open world that "mixes emotions and action." However, like Scarlett, who apparently knows nothing of her lineage and hidden powers, we too are left guessing regarding most of Venetica's details. Still, the initial batch of screens and a teaser website have made this one look original enough to watch out for in 2009.
