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By the way, Super Crate Box is free on Steam
Don't tell anyone, but Super Crate Box is on Steam, for free, and has been for a week. Super Crate Box is commonly found on PC via Vlambeer, also for free, or on iOS for $2. It's also slated to hit PlayStation Mobile when that launches later this year.Developer Rami Ismail intentionally staged a media blackout for Super Crate Box's launch on Steam, to see how the game would sell on its own merit within the system, he told us (yes, the media) at GDC Europe. Ismail is currently collecting the data from Steam, which has been decidedly busy itself the past few weeks.
Luftrausers probably doesn't cost $5,000 (it might!), but it's definitely launching on PC/Mac this year
Vlambeer, the folks behind hyperaddictive rage inducer Super Crate Box, have another game on the way, Luftrausers, and it's coming out pretty soon. "Luftrausers is set to release on PC and Mac in late 2012," says newly announced publisher Devolver Digital. Devolver previously worked with Vlambeer on the Serious Sam 3 spinoff game, "The Random Encounter.""But what's a Luftrauser?" you ask? Well, it's a fictional warplane created by the Vlambeer dudes, and it comes in a bunch of different varieties ("125 deadly combinations," says the PR). In practice, this means you spawn with a trio of settings for your plane and you've gotta survive as long as possible (while destroying enemy ships, planes, etc.). Mastering each combination and learning your favorite should help add plenty of depth to the basic spawn/shoot/die/respawn loop.In a few rounds I played during GDC Europe, it was quick to pick up and hard to put down. The concept of playing it with an actual gamepad makes Luftrausers' core gameplay all the more thrilling – I was playing on a laptop keyboard with WASD, which worked surprisingly well, but I'd prefer a pad. Moreover, the soundtrack is delightfully retro-sounding with modern influence – think 16-bit era midi with dubstep influence.Luftrausers arrives later this year on both PC and Mac, "with a price point set at $5,000." Of course, the phrase "release date and price subject to change" is attached to that hilariously high price, so don't go expecting to pay that much when the game launches.
The different deadly combinations of Luftrausers: parts explained in part
Luftrausers, Vlambeer's sequel to the singular Luftrauser, is all about ambiance -- and creating your very own form of airborne, rhythmic death with extensive plane customization options. Mostly it's about that second part.There are three customizable parts for each rauser: weapons, bodies and engines. On the development side, Vlambeer is trying out some of these lethal combinations, and shares its experience with three parts on its dev blog. The cannon is "insanely hard to use at the start," Vlambeer concedes, but if you do manage to hit something it explodes into shrapnel that blows up whatever it hits; it's particularly effective on boats.The melee body part offers "something like" negative 80 percent health, but you don't take damage from colliding with enemies. This is doubly helpful as it's possible to melee boats in Luftrausers. The "gungine" is a machine gun mounted on a standard jet-propulsion engine, and that's all the description we need.Each combination of parts will have its own name, and there will be at least five different parts for each section, meaning a minimum of 125 different combinations. For example, the aquatic propulsion engine and heavy armor body on a standard rauser may be called the "Blastoise," Vlambeer suggests. The soundtrack will change with each altered spec as well, meaning "Different weapon? Different bassline. Something like that. Hell yeah. Kozilek is gonna be busy."
Luftrausers announced by Super Crate Box dev Vlambeer
At the end of an introspective post by indie developer Vlambeer's Rami Ismail, he announced the company is working on a game called Luftrausers and posted the image seen above. That's it. Well, that's it for that post.A little bit of digging brings us back to another post by Rami last June, about a game called Luftrauser (no plural), that Vlambeer notes sponsors deemed "too extreme." The Flash-based arcade flight shooter is free and actually worth test flying."Luftrausers is basically Luftrauser redone from scratch, with everything ten times as spectacular," Ismail told Joystiq when we contacted him. "The biggest difference is that you'll be able to build your own Rauser.""We've got the full Super Crate Box art-team in the shape of Paul 'Pietepiet' Veer and Roy Nathan de Groot working on it. KOZILEK will be back to redeem his spot for the amazing soundtrack."Ismail tells us the team will have more info on the project next week as they finalize details.
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%
Devolver Digital open to indie pitches at GDC, set appointments now
Serious Sam publisher Devolver Digital will hear indie pitches as part of its "Pitch Fork Parker Project" at this year's Game Developers Conference. The project is a continuation of the successful Serious Sam Indie Series, in which Devolver Digital and Croteam produced Serious Sam "indie titles" with developers Vlambeer, Mommy's Best Games and Be-Rad Entertainment.Devolver will provide "completion funds and a publishing deal" to the three best game prototypes, demos or pitches it's presented. Indies interested in getting in front of the execs should email "pitchfork@devolverdigital.com" with details on their team and project to set up a meeting.
Super Crate Box iOS updated, next update coincides with 40 million crates collected
While our mom's word is good enough for us, others may have more fiscal ideas on what makes someone a success or not. For developer Vlambeer, it's neither -- they gauge success on how many crates iOS players have collected in Super Crate Box. The developer has set up a number of tiers for unlocking free content in the game, the first being five million. Players quickly surpassed that and reached ten million, prompting this 1.1 update today which adds new control options (jump and shoot!) based on player feedback, and two new unlockable characters. One is unlocked after collecting 1000 crates, the other by reaching 5000 kills. Finally, Vlambeer teases a new update when 40 million crates have been amassed. You'll also save a princess or something, but we're sure you've already done that once or twice in your lifetime.
Editorial: I love Super Crate Box and I hate virtual buttons
Guys, I want to like Super Crate Box on iOS so, so much. I really do. Vlambeer's latest release is a port of the truly wonderful (and completely free) PC, Mac, and Winnitron 1000 game that I've devotedly recommended to friends and readers repeatedly since playing it at last year's GDC. In short, it's a 2D action platformer in which your goal is to survive a non-stop onslaught of monsters falling from a hole in the ceiling toward you, while collecting boxes with randomized weapons (revolver, shotgun, rocket launcher, etc.). The more boxes you collect, the higher your score. Also, there are fire pits at the bottom of the screen that you can burn to death in, and enemies that fall into the pits will respawn at the top, only faster and meaner than before. It's a wonderful little loop of partially randomized risk/reward and it requires precision at very turn. There's one major blockade standing in the way of me enjoying the portable version of SCB, unfortunately: virtual buttons. Stupid, awful virtual buttons.
Daily iPad App: Super Crate Box
Super Crate Box appeared on iOS today (even though it's already packed with players), and I'm willing to say that it's the first great game of 2012. Especially on the iPad, where the virtual controls are a little bigger and the graphics are a little easier to see, this is a really slick and well-done arcade platformer. Sure, has its moments of frustration, but stays addictive throughout. The game's been available as a PC download from developer Vlambeer for a little while already, but I think it works better as an iOS game. To play, you run around a one-screen 2D level trying to collect as many crates as you can, while avoiding enemies who resemble surreal skulls. The action is fast and crazy, as just one hit will kill your character and end your game. But that frenetic, temporary action works -- games are short and fast enough that even when one ends, you're usually ready to jump back in for another one right away. The only other issue is with the virtual controls. Super Crate Box just begs for an old-school NES-style controller with every part of its being. Unfortunately iOS only offers the touch screen. It works well enough, but every once in a while, you'll miss a jump or a shot just because you couldn't find the little button area on the iPad's glass. That's not really the developers' fault, in my estimation, but man is it frustrating, especially when you are rolling along to what you're sure is a high score. All of that said, Super Crate Box is an excellent little game, with crisp, frenetic gameplay and more depth than it should really have. Game Center integration, leaderboards, and some really excellent chiptune music all pad out the package -- the app is available in a universal version right now for just 99 cents.
Super Crate Box iOS players collect a million crates in under a day
Vlambeer is "speechless" after 1,000,000 crates have been collected in Super Crate Box iOS in a little over 12 hours after the game's release. The math gets tricky here: that doesn't mean the $1 app has sold a million copies, since collecting dozens of crates is the focus of the gameplay, but it does suggest the title is doing well. "We're afraid Apple hasn't shared sales data with us yet!" Vlambeer's Rami Ismail told Joystiq when we asked. "Apple hasn't selected their features for the week yet, but Super Crate Box came from nowhere and climbed to the top 100 paid apps in many countries around the world. We're practically speechless at what a rollercoaster ride this launch was." The success comes as happy New Year's present. The studio spent the latter half of 2010 dealing with the Radical Fishing debacle, in which it saw an iOS clone of its browser-based game hooking App Store customers.
Vlambeer's Super Crate Box hits iOS on January 5, 2012
We've been unabashed in our love for Vlambeer's Super Crate Box, so we were more than a little excited to discover that the incredibly difficult, multiplayer survival-shooter ... thing has a launch date for iOS: January 5, 2012. The news was revealed via Vlambeer's official site a little while back, actually, but we somehow missed it (we're gonna pin it on too much eggnog). Vlambeer fans will no doubt be wondering whatever happened to the game's previously announced September 2011 launch window, as we were. It turns out that, between the Radical Fishing debacle and the PC/OS X version of Super Crate Box being a bit of a mess in terms of code, the porting took longer than expected. The game's launch is now officially official, though, as it's already been submitted to and approved by Apple for a January 5, 2012 launch. Vlambeer tells us it'll be a universal App (meaning one purchase works for both iPod Touch/iPhone as well as iPad), though pricing hasn't been set just yet.
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%
Serious Sam: The Random Encounter launches (a billion missiles)
Vlambeer's retro-RPG take on Serious Sam has launched on Get Games and Steam -- and you can save ten percent on Steam if you already own another Serious Sam game. Vlambeer's previous effort was Super Crate Box, a port of which recently released on the iOS platform. Serious Sam: The Random Encounter is a turn-based RPG in a 16-bit style, part of the Serious Sam Indie Series of games. The two previous Indie Series efforts were Serious Sam: Kamikaze Attack and Serious Sam Double D.%Gallery-137399%
Serious Sam: The Random Encounter gets hectic Oct. 24
With the delay of Serious Sam 3: BFE to November 22, lessen the crippling longing in your itchy trigger finger by picking up Serious Sam: The Random Encounter. The "retro" RPG will be available on Steam October 24 for $4.99. Serious Sam: The Random Encounter was developed by indie studio Vlambeer, known for quality titles like Super Crate Box. As well as the recent drama where its Radical Fishing experienced a case of, um, heavy borrowing. %Gallery-135110%
Serious Sam: The Random Encounter takes its turn in October
Super Crate Box developer Vlambeer is releasing Serious Sam: The Random Encounter, its turn-based mutation of Croteam's FPS franchise, in mid-October. Publisher Devolver Digital has been oddly hesitant to name platforms for anything in the Serious Sam Indie Series -- of which this is the last known game to be released -- so we're in the unusual position of being weeks from release and only now learning that it's a PC game. And as such, it'll be available on Steam, Get Games, and unspecified other digital distribution services, for $4.99.%Gallery-135110%
Super Crate Box iOS's controls demonstrated
We can't help but worry about the controls in the iOS version of Vlambeer's Super Crate Box, since we're pretty bad at the PC/Mac version even with a controller. The above video, demonstrating the virtual d-pad controls on an iPad, helps ameliorate our concern, as the player appears to be successfully moving around! Of course, if you want a real controller, it also supports the iCade cabinet. In the blog post containing that video, Vlambeer also addressed Muffin Knight, yet another mobile game cribbing from one of Vlambeer's designs, this time Super Crate Box. The developer remained sanguine about the situation, saying that "Muffin Knight isn't a 1:1 clone of Super Crate Box," and even praising the effort that went into the theme and design. "We think Super Crate Box iOS & Muffin Knight can easily co-exist without biting each other & for us, that places it a long way ahead of Ninja Fishing."
A Ridiculous Fishing story: Reel talk from Vlambeer and Gamenauts
While Super Crate Box developer Vlambeer was preparing to announce an iPhone version of its first game, the browser-based Radical Fishing, it discovered that the game was almost on the App Store. Sort of. A game called Ninja Fishing, published by Gamenauts, bears an unmistakeable resemblance to Radical Fishing. In both games, you start by controlling a hook falling through the water, dodging fish on the way down. You then pull the hook up at high speed, grabbing as many fish as you can. Then you yank the fish out of the water and destroy as many as you can before they splash back down. The art is different, and there are some tweaks, but the two games are, at the very least, closely related.
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.
Super Crate Box jumping to iOS in September
Indie shooter Super Crate Box is heading to iPad and iPhone next month. The news was announced by developer Vlambeer in a new video, which you can see above. You can also catch a glimpse of the title's wholly excellent gameplay. Of course, if you just can't wait until September, you can always download the free version for Mac or PC. Either way, you should really play it sometime.
IGF chair continues campaign against game cloning
Independent Games Festival chairman Brandon Boyer is quite unhappy with Gamenaut's iOS title Ninja Fishing, a game that's more than "inspired" by indie studio Vlambeer's Flash game Radical Fishing. Vlambeer was secretly in the process of porting the game to iOS when the studio was blindsided by the clone. "I have a chart I'm almost done with. This is not inspiration," Boyer told us at GDC Europe today when he brought up the dilemma. "The things [Radical Fishing] doesn't have is ... Fruit Ninja. Radical Fishing didn't have Fruit Ninja. [Ninja Fishing] has everything else, except they added Fruit Ninja to one of the parts." Boyer continued, "The progress, the structure, the power-ups. The mechanics, the three-part design. It's just Radical Fishing. I think most people in the indie circle haven't played Ninja Fishing, which is good, but I think because of that they don't quite understand how blatant it was. Once you lay it out side by side [a project that Boyer will publish soon on an excel sheet he showed us], it's like 'Oh yeah, they just 100 percent ripped that off.'" When asked what the difference is between "inspiration" and theft, Boyer said, "It's like the thing about pornography, you know it when you see it." If this type of blatant cloning sounds familiar, it's because it is. In February, the story of The Blocks Cometh theft made the rounds. Indies being ripped off by indies isn't the only type of iOS cloning going on, either. It can also happen with major publishers, as was the case with Capcom's MaXplosion, a blatant clone of Twisted Pixel's high-profile 'Splosion Man. [Image credit: Official GDC]
