A tentacled meeting is rarely a casual one, yet, The Game Bakers describe their game SQUIDS as a “casual RPG”…whatever that is. Oh and it’s just been released for PC, whereas previously it was an iOS and Mac title.
We’re loving the increased frequency of of iOS ports, some may scathe and claim they’re malformed games far too suited to the simple controls of the touchscreen devices. While not a lie, who can really complain about getting more games on more platforms? SQUIDS joins the rank of some of the top notch iOS titles that have made the transition to PC and Mac and is ready for your purchase and judgements for $6.99/ €5.49/ £4.99 over on the official store and a number of other digital retailers.
SQUIDS follows a little troop of sea creatures, each with their own unique abilities, as they fight back the crustaceans who have become infected by a black ooze. Gameplay-wise, you’ll be flinging the heroes at the enemy as if a game of billiards. Yes, it’s quite touchscreeny but a mouse can be flicked just the same. You’ll also need to be aware of advantages in the environment, as well as the ability of the hero and the weakness of the enemy – hence the casual RPG claim.
We’ll be giving this PC version of SQUIDS a look but in the meantime you can read our review of the iOS version if you’re curious.
More information on SQUIDS can be found on the game’s official website.
There’s not too many games set on the moon, and if they are it’s usually in some quirky fashion – certainly not a fairly serious turn-based strategy experience. Bucking the trend is Moon Rising, which slips quite neatly into said genre. Set in 2099, the moon has become a place of high interest for Earth’s super powers due to the mining of its hidden resource, Helium-3.
As you can guess, this has led to there being quite a battle on the moon (such a safe place for one), and this is where you come in; attempting to take over five key areas for mining Helium-3. The setting of the Moon and battles between mining astronauts makes for a fairly weird principle, at least visually – you never see astronauts floating about in mid-battle.
The game will be realised as a single player campaign, but Moon Rising will also have a multiplayer mode too. Speaking of which, you can sign up for the closed beta right now on this page.
The game has only just been announced by the developers but with its unique setting and a promising trailer, it’s not looking half bad at all. We’re interested to see how this develops, at least.
Moon Rising is expected to release in Q4 of 2012 and will be available on PC, Mac and mobiles too. More information can be found on the game’s official website.
You better have your adventure hats on, as well as your adventure sticks in hand. Don’t forget the adventure boots either! The reason being that it has been announced that the adventure game themed Bundle In A Box is going live on May 23rd. That’s a week from now!
Adventure games in all their majesty are quite the rage at the moment. There’s both a surge of interest in them from players and a number of high quality titles in the genre seeing releases as of late. No more appropriate is it then, than to have a whole bundle dedicated to this glorious genre in gaming. Seven whole games will be gift wrapped for you in this promiscuous box, one of which will be a brand new release.
What are these titles? Only a select few know, but all will be unveiled come May 23rd. We also found out that said bundle will run for a whole two weeks. Well, that’s all for now, but keep an ear out.
More information about Bundle In A Box can be found over on the official website.
One of the best things about going to developer meetups and indie game festivals is playing the physical party games on display. These are typically played with lots of people in a big space and are very fun. Tom Sennett and Salil Malkan agree on the fun factor of these games but found themselves annoyed by the four player limits to these, with many people having to wait their turn.
Waiting is boring, so they’ve made Row Row Row Remote which allows anyone with a smartphone to drop in and out of the game and it seems that it supports a lot of players, though the maximum number isn’t given. The game itself runs on a PC and uses a traditional screen, but the control is the person’s smartphone. Tapping on the left or right of the screen will make their avatar row their paddle on that side of the canoe when the player makes the appropriate motion.
The idea is that there are many people crammed in one canoe and racing against another canoe of players to reach the finish line. Each player has an effect on the direction and speed of the canoe, so trying to achieve a rhythm within the team would be optimal. There are some obstacles that should also be dodged on the way, rocks being the most prominent, but there are also ramps to hit and chests full of ducks too.
You can check out the game in this video from the developers below. No more information about the game is currently available, but you can look out for some when it pops up on the official website.
KERACK! That’s the sound of lightning which can only mean another Indie Royale Lightning Pack has struck. This one is different though. Why? All proceeds go to charity. One. Hundred. Percent.
For the next 100 hours you can be very generous by buying games at an outrageously low price. Say what? Yep. Not a bad deal – Indie Royale’s All-Charity Pack includes four indie games and three chiptune albums (because they’re the indie-est?), the latter requiring a $7 minimum spend.
Osmos is available for Windows, Mac and Linux while the other three are Windows only. If you’re looking for Steam keys, then you’ll get them for all of the games except The Shiva. Direct downloads and Desura unlocks are included for all four games.
If you pay $7 or up for the Royale then you’ll also receive some chiptune music in album form. To be specific: Jake Kaufman’s ‘FX4′ (Retro City Rampage composer), Disasterpeace’s ‘Level’ (Fez composer), and a brand new EP from 6955 called ‘IN1ep’ (Super T.I.M.E Force composer).
You can grab The All-Charity Pack over the next 100 hours over on the official Indie Royale website.
Sneaky Bastards: The Stealth Gaming Blog has organized a 48 hour game jam based entirely around exploring “new avenues of stealth gameplay”. They have teamed up with the Academy of Interactive Entertainment (AIE) and iFEST: The Independent Games Festival in order to host this global event, so that all entries will be entered into the iFEST game development competition with a chance of winning prizes.
The Global Stealth Jam will be held from June 22nd-24th and will kick off in Sydney, Australia and interested developers can sign up over on the official website to secure themselves a ticket to the event. At the moment, there will be Stealth Jams held in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Ontario, Darmstadt and hopefully many more! You can organize a Stealth Jam around your local area by contacting the organizers at stealthjam@sneakybastards.net.
As well as being a 48 hour game jam event, Stealth Jam will also host some talks from the indie scenes most prominent stealth game developers, the lineup so far consists of:
Andy Schatz (Monaco, Pocketwatch Games)
Nels Anderson (Mark of the Ninja, Klei Entertainment)
Tom Francis (Gunpoint, Suspicious Developments)
Dan Silvers (Children of Liberty, Lantana Games)
For more information on Stealth Jam and to sign up, head on over to the official website.
Rami Ismail of Vlambeer has developed an easy-to-use tool for putting together press kits for developers. We highly recommend that you give it a look and begin using it when contacting any members of the press about your game.
As we’re on the receiving end of the many press releases about indie games, we know that there is definitely some room for assistance in this field. This is why presskit() (pronounced ‘do presskit’) has been made available to the public; making communication between developers and press easier. Even if you’re a press kit master, putting together press kits is still a right slog, right? Well, what if you could put together a whole press kit with ease in just an hour or less?
The tool was originally developed by Rami for personal use when promoting Vlambeer’s games, but after some interest from other indie developers was initiated, it was clear that this would have great benefit if released publicly. So, Rami set out to make it as simple as possible by collating feedback from developers and members of the press and tweaking accordingly.
That process is now over and presskit() is available for free, though it is in beta form which means that it’s fully functional but not everything has been fully tested. Understandably, Rami accepts no responsibility for any problems that might occur after installation – which are unlikely to pop up we should add.
Grab your free download of presskit()right here and visit the official website for more information. We’ll be looking out for plenty of press kits coming our way!
PixelJunk 4am has now been released onto the PSN Store at a price of $9.99, you’ll also need to invest in a PlayStation Move controller if you don’t already own one.
Described as a Virtual Audio Canvas, PixelJunk 4am allows players to create music with a swish of the PlayStation Move. It’s a great looking innovation that makes the process of creating music much more accessible and seemingly more fun (or at least physical). More and more we see indie developers experimenting with creative music games, and as Jon Brodsky said at Indie Connect, there’s still a lot of things to discover in this fairly empty field of development, all of it very experimental and exciting.
At launch, 4am comes with seven songs, six visualizers, 38 variations, 10 events and over 190 different sounds to play with. It also supports in-game Twitter and Facebook connectivity so you can promote your performances; little odd that one. If you’re not up for all the swishing then you can also use 4am as a stand-alone visualizer and let it provide a scene to your own music on your PS3.
If you haven’t seen it in action already, then PixelJunk 4am may seem a little odd. The video below should alleviate any confusion – it seems to be very user-friendly once the player learns the various wrist-spins and where the instruments are located. This is just one controller too – you can dual wield as well, as if calling a plane in for landing.
More information on PixelJunk 4am can be found on the game’s official website.
As the alpha release went well and much feedback has been collected, the multiplayer turn-based dwellings of Fray have now been fully upgraded to beta status with the latest release. As the game is now feature complete, Fray‘s updates from here on out will be pure eye candy improvements – graphics, animations particles and all of that sweet stuff.
Jumping into the game for the first time now would then be a wise decision, considering that the previously expert players would have to adjust to the new changes. Catch them with their pants down! How do you know if you’ll like it though? If turn-based or RTS gameplay is your thing, especially against fellow humans, then it’s likely right up your street. Fray is a turn-based strategy game but as players are taking turns simultaneously it moves with the pace of an RTS.
It’s actually a class-based affair too, of which there are six to choose from and before each match you’ll be asked to side with one of three factions, which will unlock faction specific bonuses and enhancements. If all sounds good then you may as give the newly released beta version of the game a go – you can download it right here.
If you want to secure yourself a copy of the full game though, you can grab it straight from the developers or head on over to Desura and pre-order it, also giving you access to the beta of course, which is updated regularly. Plus, the advantage of pre-ordering the game is that you get to keep your stats all the way through release and you’ll get a copy of the game which you can share with a mate.
More information on Fray can be found on the game’s official website.
Fleshed out with Gameboy Color graphics, I’d be very surprised if Soldier Of doesn’t immediately appeal to a lot of you on visuals alone. Wait until you hear the music and sounds then! I’m actually writing this with the demo playing in the background because the music is just a chiptune wonder.
I’ve been keeping an eye on the development of Soldier Of for a little while now (shh, don’t tell the developer) and it’s always impressed me for its style and simplicity. It encompasses what it aims to be – a Gameboy Color action RPG – perfectly and after having spent a little bit of time with the pre-alpha demo, I’m all the more confident it’s going to be a really great game come release.
In the game you’ll be playing as Simon Brower as he returns home to find that his city, New Pitria, has been attacked and invaded. The idea is to make your way to the center of the city where your home is located and find your wife, Tracy. Then comes the escape! The armed soldiers aren’t the only obstruction in your journey, as Soldier Of incorporates classic metroidvania aspects, most prominently having to find items to progress. Your first item will be Jump Boots which quite simply allow you to jump over obstacles.
You can download the pre-alpha demo for Soldier Of on Windows, Mac and Linux from this link, but be warned that there are many issues with the game as not everything has been implemented yet. For instance, you can’t even die, plus you can get stuck in some parts of the level.
There’s also no explanation of the controls – X is your primary action button, C is your secondary, Enter opens the inventory and you use the arrow keys to move. Pressing the number keys also increases and decreases the size of the window.
More information on Soldier Of can be found on the game’s official development blog.
351 
2618 
1096 
