Whitaker-Trebella
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Pivvot turns to Steam on July 14
Pivvot ... Pivvot. Pivvot! Now that the word has lost all meaning, let us infuse it with beautiful comprehension: Pivvot is a twitchy, simplistic strategy game in the addictive vein of Super Hexagon, and it's due out on Steam for PC, Mac and Linux on July 14, at a launch sale price of $4.50. The Steam version includes a local co-op mode and full controller support – upgrades from the mobile editions that launched earlier this year – plus Steam achievements, trading cards, cloud support and leaderboards. "For the Steam launch, Pivvot includes several new elements such as the ability to play seven of the eight game modes in a local co-op multiplayer setting with up to four players," the Pivvot press release reads. "While this might suggest a more forgiving version of Pivvot, don't be fooled. It's riddled with challenges and hectic gameplay that make for an even more adrenaline-rushing experience." Creator Whitaker Trebella announced the date on Twitter, along with the new trailer. This is Trebella's first game on Steam, and his first launch as a full-time independent developer. To celebrate, he's giving away at least one ticket for the GDC 2015 Indie Games Summit to an up-and-coming developer: "By sharing a screenshot on Twitter of their Pivvot gameplay with the hashtag #PivvotToGDC between the dates of July 14 and July 21, at least one person will be entered to win." [Images: Whitaker Trebella]
Get Even, Dead Synchronicity among 75 games Greenlit for Steam
Steam's Greenlight community gave 75 more games the thumbs-up for distribution on the PC platform this week, adding a few familiar titles to the mix. Among the games that can begin start selling on Steam is Get Even, a first-person shooter from Polish developer The Farm 51. Unlike other first-person games, players jump into the memories of Get Even's main characters to make decisions that impact their personality traits as the game's story progresses. The developer spoke at length in March on films and games that explore players' perceptions of reality, which the Painkiller: Hell and Damnation developer set as a goal. Other games greenlit for distribution include pretend dogfighter Cult of the Wind, dystopian 2D point-and-click adventure game Dead Synchronicity: Tomorrow comes Today and Pivvot, which brings minimalistic arcade-style action to Steam. Pivvot achieved over 2.65 million downloads on iOS and Android and comes from Whitaker Trebella, a Chicago-based developer that shifted from music composition to programming in 2010; though he still crafted tunes for more recent games like Nimble Quest and Super Stickman Golf 2. [Image: The Farm 51]
An Ambitious Pivot: Whitaker Trebella's shift from composer to game maker
Whitaker Trebella spent most of his life studying music – first as a child taking piano lessons for more than a decade, and later pursuing a music education degree in college – and progressively building his talents, so when he found success composing tunes for popular indie games, it might not have seemed so surprising. But much as his work for mobile titles like Super Stickman Golf and Tilt to Live bought him some recognition within the industry, he'd long held a much grander idea: to make his own game. However, the Chicago-based Trebella hadn't spent his time studying programming; when he ran his fingers across keys growing up, the result was pleasant music, not promising code. Inspired by the success of the indie creators that made the early games carrying his tunes, his loose plan gained new life. "I'd always wanted to make a game in the back of my mind, but whenever the thought came up, I always brushed it off thinking, 'Well, only programmers can make games,'" he explains. "But back in October 2010, I finally thought, 'Why can't I be a programmer?' So I became one."
