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Devolver Humble Bundle has games, films; supports Brandon Boyer
The Devolver Digital Double Debut bundle offers a mix of screen-based activities – five games and five movies – now through March 16. It's hosted by Humble Bundle, so some items are available for whatever price you want, and others unlock if you pay more than a certain amount, this time $10. Available for any price are the games Duke Nukem 3D: Megaton Edition and Shadow Warrior Classic Redux, plus the movies Austin High, The Poisoning and One Couch at a Time. Pay more than $10 to also snag the games Defense Technica, Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure and Cosmic DJ, and the films MARS and Good Game. This bundle marks the debuts of Cosmic DJ and Good Game. Cosmic DJ is a music-creation game designed for everyone to pick up and play, regardless of musical competence, and it's available now DRM-free on PC and Mac. Purchase will include a Steam key once the game launches there. Good Game is an independent documentary from Nine Hour Films that chronicles a year on the premiere pro gaming team, Evil Geniuses. Payments are distributed among Humble, the developers and charity, and this time the charity hits close to home for many developers. Proceeds from the bundle can go to the Brandon Boyer Cancer Treatment Relief gofundme campaign – Boyer is chairman of the Independent Games Festival and founder of game culture site Venus Patrol. Great games and a great cause, at whatever price you wish. [Image: Brandon Boyer]
'Horizon' is an E3 alternative from Venus Patrol and MOCAtv
Venus Patrol, the website "in search of beautiful things from the world of video games," is hosting a special event called Horizon as an alternative to E3's usual bluster this year. The event will be held in partnership with the LA Museum of Contemporary Art's video channel, MOCAtv. Horizon will have "a lineup of beautiful games" on display, though that lineup is currently top secret. Venus Patrol is promising projects from studios of all sizes, adding that Horizon will "showcase new looks at and details about some games you may have already heard of, as well as brand new games from some of your favorite developers, and very possibly some super secret new surprises that will be entirely unexpected." We're going to guess that none of those surprises involve Call of Duty DLC exclusivity agreements. Horizon is slated to go down on Thursday, June 13, the last day of E3. Assuming the event goes well, Venus Patrol hopes the event will become an E3 tradition.
Katamari creator Takahashi meets the Tenya Wanya Teens
Tenya Wanya Teens is a new game from Katamari Damacy and Noby Noby Boy creator Keita Takahashi and his wife Asuka Sakai. Their studio, Uvula, is creating Tenya Wanya Teens in collaboration with UK outfit Wild Rumpus and indie game site Venus Patrol, the latter which describes the game as "a coming-of-age tale about love, hygiene, monsters and finding discarded erotic magazines in the woods."Tenya Wanya Teens was originally set to be unveiled during GDC, as a party game for two players using massive 16-button controllers. Game designer Robin Hunicke posted this image of the prototype controllers onto Instagram recently, and Wild Rumpus is currently working on the final controllers that will be unveiled alongside the game next week. Plans are also in motion for an actual release to the gaming public at large, ridiculous controller and all.
Keita Takahashi unveiling new multiplayer game during GDC
Keita Takahashi, creator of the Katamari Damacy series and Noby Noby Boy, is currently working on a new multiplayer-focused game. Takahashi will unveil his new work during the joint Wild Rumpus/Venus Patrol party on March 27 during GDC in San Francisco.Wild Rumpus and Venus Patrol both collaborated with Takahashi on the new project, and promise all parties involved will reveal more on the lead-up to GDC at the end of March. Takahashi's last collaboration was with Canabalt creator Adam Saltsman, late last year when the two contributed to the LA Game Space Kickstarter campaign.
Free God of Blades spinoff turns you and a friend into 'Slayers'
The iOS swordfighting game God of Blades comes to PC and Mac in the form of a free multiplayer spinoff called Slayers. Slayers is a side-scrolling fight between two players, who first control a line of underlings, and then a stronger champion with a randomly-generated pulp fantasy name. The first person to kill the opposing champion wins.It's rather like Nidhogg in its back and forth swordplay, and it's been great fun at Juegos Rancheros events in Austin. And it's free, thanks to some kind of partnership between developer White Whale Games and Venus Patrol. You can have sword tournaments with friends in your own airbrushed vanscapes!If you have yet to try the iOS single-player God of Blades, it's on sale for 99 cents right now, coinciding with an update that adds a new asynchronous multiplayer mode and other new stuff.
Indie game site Venus Patrol takes off
Venus Patrol, the long-in-progress independent game news site by IGF chair Brandon Boyer, is now live, with a lovely design by Cory Schmitz (who most recently did art direction work for Sound Shapes, and designed our "Setup" shirt).The site takes an interesting approach to fundraising and comment moderation: if you want to comment, you have to pay $3 a month (or $25 a year) for a subscription. In addition to membership to the comment club, you also get lots of exclusive content from Vlambeer, Adam Atomic, Baiyon, Keita Takahashi and more, some of which was previously available as Kickstarter rewards.Boyer describes Venus Patrol as "a website in search of beautiful things from the world of videogames." In addition to new content, it also hosts the archives from Boyer's previous site, Boing Boing's Offworld.
PSA: Venus Patrol exclusives released to Kickstarter supporters
If you donated $25 or more to the Venus Patrol Kickstarter fundraiser back in September of last year, check your email: Gun Godz, the retro hip-hop FPS developed by Vlambeer of Super Crate Box fame, and Capsule, the "minimalist sci-fi/survival-horror" title from Canabalt's Adam Atomic are both waiting for you.As we found out late last year, Capsule's heavily stylized visual aesthetic and atmospheric, claustrophobic sound design are best enjoyed while wearing headphones in a darkened room, as are Gun Godz's Wolfenstein 3D-inspired graphics and Doseone-infused hip-hop soundtrack.%Gallery-141893%%Gallery-141928%
Vlambeer and Adam Atomic's Venus Patrol-exclusive games revealed
If you contributed to the Kickstarter campaign for Brandon Boyer's upcoming indie game website, Venus Patrol, you gained the promise of access to exclusive new games from superstar developers Vlambeer (Super Crate Box), Adam Atomic (Canabalt), Superbrothers (Sword & Sworcery), and Die Gute Fabrik (Where Is My Heart?) Die Gute Fabrik's screenless Move party game, Johann Sebastian Joust, went out to contributors on November 17. Last weekend, at a party for the website, I got the opportunity to play the new games by Adam Atomic and Vlambeer, and to see work-in-progress footage of the one from Superbrothers.%Gallery-141928%
Kickstart Boyer's 'Venus Patrol,' get new games from Superbrothers, Vlambeer, Adam Atomic, and more
IGF chair and former Offworld editor Brandon Boyer wants to start a new website called Venus Patrol. To raise capital for this effort, he's instituted a Kickstarter campaign -- one with bonuses that rival the Humble Indie Bundle. Even if you never read another website in your life, you'll probably want to throw some money over. Everyone who donates gets an exclusive wallpaper by Katamari Damacy/Noby Noby Boy creator Keita Takahashi and a set of Minecraft character skins by Pen Ward of Adventure Time. Pay more than $25 and you get exclusive new games from Adam Atomic (famous for Canabalt), Vlambeer (known for Super Crate Box), and Superbrothers (as in Sword & Sworcery EP). You also get the first release of Johann Sebastian Joust, a PlayStation Move-enabled PC game in which players annoy each other in slow motion, in an attempt to goad each other into moving their controllers. $75 gets you that stuff, plus a record of Sworcery remixes and hidden tracks by Scientific American, a copy of Mathew Kumar's exp. -3, a deck of "Monster Mii" trading cards designed by comic artist James Kochalka, and a patch of a Venus Patrol emblem. $200 throws a set of five "Great Showdowns" prints by Double Fine's Scott C. onto the pile ($300 gets you ten, plus everything else above). After the break, Boyer explains the concept of the website.
