Retro RPG wonder Zeboyd Games, of Cthulhu Saves the World and Breath of Death VII fame, has pinned down a release date for its next game. Penny Arcade's On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 4 will launch on June 7, the developer announced yesterday, on PC and Xbox Live Indie Games at $5.
With PAX East kicking off tomorrow, half of this week's news has revolved around the expo organised by Penny Arcade, the games you can see there and the games you can play. Most fitting of all is the debut trailer, however, is the release of the debut trailer for Penny Arcade's On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 4, the retro RPG created by the webcomic gang and made by Cthulhu Saves the World developer Zeboyd Games.
Retro RPG specialist Zeboyd Games has revealed the final chapter of its webcomic spin-off, Penny Arcade's On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 4. The fourth in the series, which the indie team took over from Hothead with part 3, will boast treats including a more open world and more Zeboyd influence upon the story.
To tie 2012 up all nice with a bow before burying it in the woods out back, Microsoft has revealed the most popular Xbox Live, Xbox Live Arcade, Xbox Live Indie Games, and Games for Windows Live titles from that dead year, dead dead dead dead. Unsurprisingly, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 was the most-played Live game, while, you've guessed it, Minecraft topped XBLA.
While Xbox Live Indie game developers have lamented Microsoft's stunning lack of promotion, one game has managed to become a surprising success story. CastleMiner Z from developer DigitalDNA Games has crossed the one million sales mark, becoming the best-selling Xbox Live Indie game of all time.
A plucky gang of spunky indie developers has once again banded together to raise the profile of Xbox Live Indie Games with the Indie Games Uprising III. The community-run promotion has lined up ten more fine XBLIG games, which will be released daily on weekdays from today, hoping to draw attention and dollars to that sadly neglected corner of the Xbox 360 dashboard.
The indie games on Xbox Live have staged two uprisings so far, and a third is on the way. The upcoming self-started indie games promotion will run September 10-20, and feature nine indie games in all -- one for each weekday during the promotion. A new trailer highlights the featured titles.
Slowly, bit by bit, Microsoft is whipping the Xbox Live Indie Games marketplace into reasonable shape. Its latest change is to allow developers, from Wednesday, to change the prices of their games every seven days--a huge improvement over the previous 90. As other digital distribution platforms have shown, changing the price up can hugely help games.
Cell HD: emergence, the strategic shooter by New Life Interactive that immerses players in a microscopic world of cellular automata, impressed me with its unique ideas and presentation. Though perhaps not the most accessible game out there--partly because of its adherence to medical terminology and a "hints vs. hand-holding" approach--Cell provides a very rewarding journey for the playful and intellectually curious action gamer.
I contacted New Life Interactive's founder, Sheldon Pacotti, to pick his brain about a number of Cell-related topics, ranging from the creation of the game's proprietary Automata Engine to the construction of the game's narrative. We also touched on subjects like the game's mixed post-release reception, and discussed the emergent nature of "cellular automata" and its differences from traditional artificial intelligence.
It's been quite a while since I encountered a game that evokes as many contradictory feelings as did New Life Interactive's recently-released shooter based on cellular automata. Cell HD: emergence puts players in the role of a microscopic bit of nanotechnology that's been injected into a young girl wracked by a mysterious illness. Both the tools at the player's disposal and the game's variety of different "enemies" are rolled out in deliberate fashion until everything's in play; however, despite this progressive "learn-as-you-go" approach to how things unfolds, Cell HD: emergence's intentional vagueness walks a very thin line between welcome gameplay conundrums and outright frustration.
Back in June of last year, we reported about the development of an intriguingly complex indie game based on cellular automata called Cell: emergence. The voxel-based action title, developed by New Life Interactive and featuring a story written by Deus Ex writer Sheldon Pacotti, has been given a release date of February 9th.
Xbox Live Indie Games is an unlikely place to find a vintage PC RTS, but that's just where Dark Reign Redux launched last week. Even more curiously, it's a fan remake released with approval from the original Dark Reign: The Future of War's publisher, Activision.
Xbox Live Indie Games developers have something to cheer about as Microsoft has addressed a handful of concerns the community has been facing.
Projects may now be sized at a maximum of 500 megabytes, up from the 150 megabyte limit previously placed on games developed on the XNA-fueled platform. Developers have also been given the greenlight to host more projects than ever before, seeing the limit increase from 10 titles to 20.
Microsoft has long squandered the wealth of gaming in Xbox Live Indie Games by hiding the user-submitted titles away, but the recent dashboard update buried them even deeper. Inspired by the cack-handed categorizing, Mommy's Best Games--maker of Serious Sam Double D and several XBLIG titles--has released parodic arcade shooter Game Type to send up the new dashboard.
Incredible Ape took a bold step in co-op gaming earlier this year with the release of its platformer-shooter for Xbox Live Indie Games in April. Called PewPewPewPewPewPewPewPewPew, it includes a co-op gaming mechanic unlike any other: total microphone control. With a formula that has drawn praise from various critics, Incredible Ape duo Josh Schonstal and Ian Brock brought their microphone-controlled platformer to IndieCade 2011, where I had the pleasure of trying it out.
"I managed to snag one of the free steam keys for part 3 that Penny Arcade was hosting on the ..."
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