Fez II was announced by Polytron, at the Horizon indie game conference earlier today.  Very little information on Fez II has been given beyond Polytron’s involvement. It is confirmed that composer, DisasterPeace, who composed the first game, will return for the sequel. No platforms or a release schedule have been announced.  One thing we do know: developer Phil Fish prefers Roman Numerals over numbers.

Fez was originally announced by Phil Fish on July 17, 2007. The game had many delays but was first released on Xbox Live Arcade on April 13, 2012. Earlier this year, Steam and GOG versions were made for Microsoft Windows. In a Reddit AMA, Phil Fish said that Ouya, Mac OSX, and Linux versions were in production with the possibility of PlayStation Vita or console version in the future.

Phil Fish and Fez were featured in the documentary, Indie Game: The Movie created by James Swirsky and Lisanne Pajot.

Composer of the game DisasterPeace, released two remixes of the soundtrack: FZ: Side F and FZ: Side Z which respectively released before and after the release of Windows version of Fez.

You can purchase Fez for Windows directly from Polytron.

Source: The Indie Game Magazine – ‘Fez II’ Announced At E3 Horizon Conference

Today’s Developer Links include discussions on Nintendo’s eShop, luck and the left-digit effect.

Thoughts on Luck (Andy Moore, Radial Games)
“I think one of the best websites in the world is You Are Not So Smart (YANSS). They have an excellent series of long-form blog posts (and recently: a podcast) that delve into the intricacies of self-delusion and how the human brain works. I like to study how the brain works, and I am proud to say that many of my games have been designed with concepts from YANSS embedded in them. However, the biggest thing I take away from the content over there is what I think I’d call “self-help.” I’ve become happier and more productive, partially in thanks to that wonderful website. I’m sure there’s something you could take away from it too, so check it out. The most recent post on YANSS is one on Survivorship Bias. It is an excellent read, but within it there is an awesome section on Luck. I have a very negative reaction to the word Luck.”

Vlambeer News Roundup – May 2013 (Vlambeer)
“The month of May might have seemed like a relatively calm month from the outside, but we’ve been working pretty much around the clock for various reasons, all of them labeled ‘URGENT’ and ‘NEED THIS NOW’ in our mailboxes. LUFTRAUSERS will be shown at E3 (lots of work) and the game itself is pretty much done and ready for certification by Sony. We don’t know how long it’ll be stuck in cert, but we hope to have more clarity on when the game is releasing when it clears all of that red tape. When it does, LUFTRAUSERS will release simultaneously on PC, Mac, Linux, Playstation 3 and Playstation Vita.”

Nintendo’s new, relaxed restrictions for eShop indies (Joystiq)
“One rule that kept some indie developers off of WiiWare and DSiWare was that Nintendo required its developers to have a physical office space. That rule is “a thing of the past,” eShop business development manager Dan Adelman told Gamasutra. It was originally in place to make sure dev kits and confidential information was kept secure.”

Owlchemy Labs shares its formula to successful indie development (Joystiq)
“Alex Schwartz founded Owlchemy Labs in 2010, and since launch he’s built a team of six and has developed a steady stream of indie games across multiple platforms, including Snuggle Truck and the recent release Jack Lumber. He’s still in business, with more games on the way. The secret to Schwartz’s success is simple: Don’t expect your original IPs to make any money.”

Why I Want to Emulate an Octopus (Young Horses)
“When you work on something and fill it with love, you sacrifice pieces of yourself to your creation. Time, energy and hope are all slain on the altar of design and implementation. Octodad has put a lot of time into building something he doesn’t want to see disappear due to a misstep or thrown vase: his family. I feel the same way, sometimes, when I open the Octodad Editor and start building little worlds for him to exist in. If there is one trait Octodad seems to have, it’s confidence. He can stride through a room, flip tables and knock down grocery shelves without seeming to really care. Our game is a stealth game where the main character is wearing his disguise at all times and we encourage the player to go hog wild on the world around them. His confidence comes from the player and the need to keep up the charade.”

Play our new game Treasure Goblin (Lost Decade Games)
“Today we’re happy to announce our new game Treasure Goblin, also available on the Chrome Web Store! Treasure Goblin is a free, gamepad-enabled, side-scrolling platformer built in HTML5. Players control a nimble goblin who explores dangerous caves in search of treasure. The game features tight controls, procedurally generated levels, achievements, and of course, lots of treasure!”

Indie Gamer Chick has a New Writer and PC Coverage (Indie Gamer Chick)
“Indie Gamer Chick now has an Indie Gamer Guy. His name is Jerry Bonner. He will do PC reviews and editorials.”

The Left-Digit Effect: Why Games Prices End In .99 (The Psychological of Video Games)
“Why, when you saunter into a game store or navigate your favorite e-tailer, is everything priced $59.99, $29.99, or $19.99? More specifically, why do all those prices end in “.99?” Why not just be honest and price them at $60, $30, and $20? Retailers aren’t fooling anyone by pricing them one cent cheaper, are they?”

Source: The Indie Game Magazine – Dev Links: Now We’re Cooking

Siege of Turtle Enclave is an interesting looking game in every way. From its cartoonish visuals, concept of leading an army of turtles against a legion of birds, all the way to the unique style of a 4x real-time strategy.

A step-by-step plan of game’s development for the next few months has recently been released, promising to move into beta stage soon. The plan is to release a major update by the middle of March. The closest update will include twelve units, six structures, and new crops. The update will also include a test demo for Mac users to give, “…non-PC heretics a chance to command turtle hordes.”

King Heftig will release build 0.5.8 about a month after that, which will add an even larger number of units and structures.

In the time following 0.5.8, the developers will release the 0.6 beta update for Siege of Turtle Enclave. King Heftig promises the battle system and A.I. will be improved, in addition to features such as specific a unit leveling system. It was also said that, “A sense of progression and goals should be much more apparent in 0.6.” When the game enters beta stage, the alpha funding price of Siege of Turtle Enclave will increase from $4.99 to $7.99. You can follow King Heftig on Twitter, Facebook, or the game’s Tumblr blog for up-to-date info on development! You can also alpha-fund the game on Desura.

Source: The Indie Game Magazine – Slow and Steady – ‘Siege of Turtle Enclave’ Marches Towards Beta

In today’s Indie Links: Making a video game out of paper, the end of a doomed journey, and why making your players suffer can be a good thing.

FTL: The Fatal Frontier – The Last Stand (Rock, Paper, Shotgun)
“These were the voyages of the Starship Moggy. Its eight-sector mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new weapons and new system upgrades, to boldly go somewhere no-one has come back alive from before (apart from save-scummers).”

The Benefits Of Making Your Players Suffer (And Maybe Throw Up) (Gamasutra)
“Bennett Foddy, creator of QWOP, GIRP, and CLOPamong others, likes to play with his players, and he suggests that more of us should be doing the same. At the top of his talk at IndieCade on Friday, he asserted, ‘I’m going to try to convince you to put more suffering in your games.’”

Double Droids And The Wonder Of Game Development (Hookshot Inc.)
“This weekend I made an award-winning video game. I should probably clarify that.”

Video Game Origami: ‘Derrick The Deathfin’ Goes From Paper To Playstation (The Verge)
“There’s an incredible diversity in the kinds of graphics that video games have presented us with over the years, but developers are still managing to find ways to surprise us. Derrick the Deathfin is a new downloadable title launching today on the PlayStation Network that not only looks it was made out of paper, at one point it actually was. In order to make the art style as realistic as possible, the team at developer Different Tuna crafted papercraft models of each object before making them part of the game world. It’s a lengthy process but one that adds a sense of realism to a game about a cartoon shark. Or as Different Tuna’s Gordon Midwood says, it creates ‘something that’s kind of organic, that doesn’t look like every other video game.’”

TIGSource Devlog: Dom2D’s Visual Showcase Of Awesome New Games, Issue #1 (Venus Patrol)
“Since 2005, TIGSource has hosted the largest forum dedicated to independent game development. Its devlog section, in particular — where developers show their work-in-progress and get feedback from the community — has proven to be a goldmine for amazing design, gorgeous art and constructive criticism. As a game designer and an artist myself, I find these quite inspiring and feel these projects deserve more attention.”

iOS Hit Nihilumbra Coming to PC (IndieGames)
“Beautifun Games’ iOS puzzle platformer hit Nihilumbra is coming to Windows and Mac. Our own Cassandra Khaw appreciated the iOS version’s 10+ hours of gameplay. Additions to the PC versions include improved atmospheric and weather effects, new HD textures, an improved and fully remastered soundtrack with a new song, and minigames.”

Kickstarter Katchup – 6th October 2012 (Rock, Paper, Shotgun)
“It’s glum in the Katchup this week and I’ve been spending most of this fine Saturday morning wiping the tears from my eyes with a twenty pound note. If only I’d pledged it to the promise of a game instead of using it as a handkerchief for all these long months. If only! Two of my personal favourites have fallen by the wayside and there’s only one winner, although it is an interesting one by virtue of not being an obvious success story, powered to victory by the presence of a celebrity developer. There are a few projects on the verge of success and if I were writing this on Monday, the ‘Winners’ column would probably be much more satisfactorily populated.”

(Not) Getting Noticed On Steam Greenlight: Incredipede’s Story (Joystiq)
“In the indie world of secret handshakes and underground brunch meetings, there’s a specific phrase for the following complex process, as described by developer Colin Northway: ‘Apply to Steam, be rejected, release without it, get popular, be noticed by Valve, release on Steam.’ This is widely accepted as the ‘Offspring Fling’ submission process. It takes the name of Kyle Pulver’s retro platformer, which launched on Steam in May, months after not launching on Steam, despite Pulver’s attempts. Northway shares this rejection jargon with us in terms of his own puzzle game, Incredipede, and Steam Greenlight:”

Source: The Indie Game Magazine – Indie-Links Round Up: Construction Crustaceans

Yesterday, indiePub Entertainment announced the release of their physics-based weather puzzler, Storm, after years of the project being up in the air.

Storm has players using elements of weather to solve puzzles. Need water? Make it rain. Need wind? Whip up a tornado. The game offers three modes, Adventure, Challenge, and Spirit mode, each with its own environments and nature-inspired soundscapes from composer Terrance Lee (Dustforce).

Players can choose to use either the mouse and keyboard or sit back and relax using an Xbox 360 controller to play though each of Storm’s 49 levels. Each level involves players in the process of growing trees across the game’s landscapes. By using wind, rain, lightening, snow, tornadoes, ice, and even bubbles, players have the resources to see these seedlings planted.

Storm was originally recognized back in 2009, when Terrance Lee first developed the original concept in two weeks. Storm, and Terrance, walked away from the Independent Games Competition with $5,000 and a publishing agreement  with Zoo Games (now indiePub Entertainment).

Three years later, Storm is finally available to purchase on the PC. PlayStation 3, Xbox360, and iOS versions are expected to be released within the first quarter of 2013.

Buy Storm from the game’s official website, and follow the publisher on Twitter.

Source: The Indie Game Magazine – Weather-Based Puzzler ‘Storm’ Unleashes on the PC

Recently, Recoil Games posted a rather spiffy video showing off some pre-production gameplay for the Rochard: Part 2, the possible sequel to last year’s sleeper gem Rochard.

Shortly after the original title dropped on the Playstation Network (following last year’s PSN Play promotion) the team at Recoil began work on Rochard’s next interstellar adventure. Sadly, a series of financial drawbacks put the brakes on the game’s development. As stated by Recoil, their woes began when the PSN Store got hacked, soon after that Rochard’s release date was postponed until late September; making layoffs inevitable. Luckily a small group went on to polish up and port the title further for its Steam and Mac App Store releases.

Recoil went on to state “When the game finally became available on the PSN Store on September 27th 2011, there was not enough buzz for it to sell despite it being IGN Editors’ Choice and getting other great awards. We had no funds to do any marketing ourselves, so there was no choice but to rush the PC version to Steam despite the bad market timing.”

As of now production on Rochard’s sequel is at a standstill while the company attempts to obtain some additional funding. They’ve also stated plans to release some DLC at some point (of which I will gladly buy). Recoil was able to slightly alleviate some of their financial difficulties by releasing their gravity defying puzzle-platformer both in the last Humble Bundle (Humble Indie Bundle 6) and in a physical boxed format. Hopefully things will begin looking shape up for these guys, as they set their sites towards Kickstarter and Indiegogo for funding, and with any luck we’ll all get to join Rochard and his kooky gang on another adventure.

If you haven’t checked out the first title and own a Playstation 3 or a computer capable of running I strongly recommend it. The gameplay is fast and fluid, the mechanics are far more than solid, the dialogue is witty, and above all: its one of the most fun titles I’d played last year (and still one of the best physics based puzzle-platformers I’ve played thus far).

You can find out more info and read Recoil’s devblog over at rochardthegame.com. And as always keep your sights set on IGM as we’ll surely keep track of this title’s progress.

Source: The Indie Game Magazine – Recoil Games struggles to fund ‘Rochard’ sequel

Earlier today Re-Logic published their first video of the new Terraria port coming to consoles. The video has been put up exclusively for the fans who are following them on Facebook but will be published more publicly as the day goes on.

Terraria is a 2D side scrolling adventure game with construction elements that resemble Minecraft on a very basic level, but deviate much more. Terraria is more focused on exploring and adventuring then Minecraft with the ability to fight a whole host of monsters along with many unique and difficult bosses. The 2D side scrolling elements do resemble the classic Castlevania games, always a good game to model any game on.

Terraria has already been a massive sensation on the PC selling over 1.6 million units and after only playing the game for a short time it is easy to see why. The lure of exploration and RPG esque elements allowing you to better equip yourself via random drops to improve your chances to actually beating the increasingly more difficult bosses that you will encounter.

Re-Logic really did hit a gold mine crossing the creative elements of Minecraft with the adventure state found in classic 2D side scrollers making this hybrid, which is just great fun. With the ability to play co-op with your friends it really makes Terraria a fantastic game, soon to be available on your favourite consoles.

The Video shows a lot of the gameplay that has already been established within Terraria after the numerous updates, however at the end it does indeed hint that the console versions will include new content that has yet to be released on the PC version. The video released on the Facebook group page can be found here, so judge for yourself. I am greatly anticipating the wave of new players for this awesome little title from a fantastic studio.

For all the latest news as it breaks be sure to check back to The Indie Game Magazine or follow us on twitter @indiegamemag

Source: The Indie Game Magazine – Re-Logic Unveil First Video Of ‘Terraria’ Console Port

Over the weekend Eurogamer Expo hosted tens of thousands of gaming fanatics in the UK’s biggest gaming exhibition. Eurogamer this year hosted many new up and coming titles, both from the AAA market and the indie scene, with the Rezzed indie booth. The Rezzed indie booth allowed the public to get a hands on preview with many new titles from great indie developers such as Muse game’s Guns Of Icarus.

The whole show was a great experience with many competitions, exclusives and great developer conferences to fill up the 36 hours the Expo was open. Over the total four days at the Expo I was able to talk to many indie developers to find out a little more about their games and their studios overall, providing a very interesting insight into their current works. So expect to see many exclusive interviews going up on IGM over the next weeks along side previews and reviews for the latest indie titles shown.

Like any Expo it had a whole wealth of characters with the Cosplay fanatics, some highly intricate whilst others being a last minute attempt, but all entertaining. There was even a Resident Evil zombie make-up section to allow people to become zombified and shamble around the Expo floor, nothing completes a gaming event like zombies after all.

Not all the fun however happened on the floor area, with conferences held with developers and panels ranging across many different fields. The conferences not only created a podium for big publishers but they also opened their doors to Dean Hall the creator of DayZ, giving a very informative talk about his ambition to create the full stand alone game. As well as Introversion Software talking about their long history and the development so far on Prison Architect.

Along side the developer conferences Eurogamer Expo hosted the Games Industry Fair. The fair had a lot of interesting booths to check out about the gaming industry, with Friday hosting the highly informative career sessions covering how to make indie games to video game journalism. The VOD’s for the Games Industry career sessions can be found here.

Now with things slowly getting back to normal expect to see a great deal more information from Eurogamer Expo come to the site. Be sure to stay tuned to The Indie Game Magazine for the scoop on the Expo.

Source: The Indie Game Magazine – Eurogamer Expo Another Great Year In London

Today, Ronimo Games revealed the tenth member of the Awesomenauts team to be Skølldir, a melee-tank brute.

Formerly known as, “Skølldir the Terrible Space Viking,” he raided his way across the galaxy, leaving spaceports, cargo ships, and grocery stores smoldering in his wake. His legendary thirst for battle is unquenchable. Because Skølldir subscribes to the tradition that a great feast should follow a great battle, Skølldir eventually became renamed to ” Skølldir the Terribly Overweight Space Viking” by his peers. Needless to say, this nickname doesn’t fly with this Viking.

To make up for such a depressing title, Skølldir has set out, to reclaim his original title by proving to the galaxy that he still is a capable, and agile, combatant. Anyone foolish enough to tell him otherwise quickly finds themselves crippled and thrown aside.

Ronimo Games warns: “If you find yourself on the battlefield, and hear the sound of crushing bones and thunderous farts in the distance, flee, as Skølldir’s fury is upon you!”

Skølldir is voiced by Simon Lane, from The Yogscast gaming channel. Simon used his Space Dwarf/ Viking impression for the voice of Skølldir. Just like all of the other Awesomenauts, Skølldir comes with his own soundtrack, powerful items, devastating attacks, and unique Honeydew skin.

Awesomenauts was released last May on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and was brought to Windows August 1st. Skølldir is the second character to be added to Awesomenauts, following Gnaw, the alien-dog-thing.

Follow the developers on Twtter: @RonimoGames

Source: The Indie Game Magazine – New ‘Awesomenaut’ Revealed: Skølldir the Space Viking

Today, Targem Games, the developer of last year’s Battle vs. Chess, revealed the first trailer for their new game, Planets Under Attack.

The trailer shows off the Saturday-morning cartoony feel of Planets Under Attack’s visual style, while also revealing actual bits of gameplay footage. Targem Games calls Planet Under Attack’s gameplay, “easy to learn, hard to master.”

In Planets Under Attack, a galactic gold-rush sends humans, robots, and aliens to the edge of the universe in search of wealth. The ensuing bonanza causes conflicts to arise between the three species, and it is up to the player to ensure their species emerges victorious.

Planets Under Attack is largely a strategy game. Players construct their bases on planets then expand their bases to different planets, all while fending off invaders and doing a bit of aggressive negotiations themselves. By completing various missions and challenges, players unlock skill points which they can plug into a skill tree, which unlocks additional abilities and technologies. Targem Games compiled the skill tree to cater to all types of play styles, so the gameplay can change depending on the strategic style being used by a player.

Multiplayer is a big part of Planets Under Attack. The game includes 18 maps, supports up to 4 players, and includes Team Multiplayer, Elimination, Capture, King of the Hill, and Domination game modes. With unlockable ranks, avatars, and more, the multiplayer mode provides a good amount of replay value.

Planets Under Attack is out now on PC, Mac, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3.

Follow the developers on Twitter: @TargemGames and check out their official website.

Source: The Indie Game Magazine – ‘Planets Under Attack’ Launches with Trailer