There is a natural barrier in the video game world. We are limited in our control, the gamepad and keyboard only allow us to do so much. Much the same is true for life. Only so much of what we do is in our control. To survive we need to work and eat. We need to take care of our shelter and pay bills. We control only so much about our lives. Video game developers have a unique role in the creation of video games in which they choose what the player controls.

Journey utilizes this notion of minor control. You see, Journey is linear. You cannot vary from the path at hand. You are travelling for the light at the top of the mountain. You are not sure why but you know you must reach that destination. The player can do nothing but move, jump, and sing. Journey leaves the player as a robed figure who has the chance of finding another robed figure to assist each other on the adventure.

Those players have no means of communication beyond a singing voice which acts in tune with the background music. The musical notes are the light form of a gesture. The gesture is unfamiliar, allowing two players to communicate in a way unfamiliar to the both of them. It can be likened to having to communicate with someone who speaks an unfamiliar language. All we have to communicate with are broadly interpretable gestures. The control of communication is stripped from us, and we are put behind a screen, unable to see the person who will assist us.

Truly, Journey is as close to real life as a video game can be. Okay, stick with me. Journey is an explanation, in an hour or two, of our lives. One aspect of Journey, which truly captures a portion of the human experience are the other players one meets online. They are temporary and fleeting. A player may lose their partner and never know who, how old, what race, or what gender that player truly was. But perhaps that player helped us in our goal of reaching the light. In the same vein our connections with many people are small but purposeful. They come along and we form bonds, though often short-lived, which allow us to have a better understanding of people and the world. They may not be a lasting memory but they were important in the big picture. They help us toward our end.

The end is what Journey may capture best. The light is this mysterious end. Be it to you what it may. Regardless if your ultimate end is simply heaven or death, Journey reminds us that we have no reason to work towards that beyond that it is the only end we know. It is our forced destination and is somewhat out of our control. Not only do we not know the purpose of our destination, other than that the mysterious place is where we will end up, but we try to rationalize why we must get there. Even though we do not and cannot truly know. We can only postulate.

So why is Journey important? I only ask myself because I believe you should ponder the question for yourself. Journey is an expose of small life lessons. Perhaps they are assumed by the player, but regardless they are important for reflective pontification. I am not here to tell you what I said is true. I am not here to teach you about life. But I believe Journey is purposeful and valuable to reflection. I know I found myself asking the following questions: “Why do I work toward the light? Why do I care about this person who is only a temporary fixture in my life? Why do I continue my journey, unknowing of the end?” The answers to each are so very personal. But Journey is incredible because it makes the experience similar to each player, no matter what your answers to those questions are.

Check out Journey on PSN, on Journey’s official website, or on Facebook. Also, check out developers thatgamecompany at their official website.

Source: The Indie Game Magazine – The Why Of Indie Games: Journey

It always struck me as odd that the Newgrounds crew that produced Castle Crashers would ignore their patron platform for so long. Fortunately, time heals all wounds, and the immensely popular 4-player co-op brawler is finally migrating back to PC, and it’s confirmed for a Steam launch too, to boot. You can read the specifics (of which there aren’t too many) in this official forum post here. Here’s the PS3/360 version trailer, too, just in case you’ve forgotten what it looks like:

There’s no release date set yet, but they’re going to be demoing the updated PC version of Castle Crashers at Gamescom, starting tomorrow, as well as their upcoming anarchic combat-platformer BattleBlock Theater at PAX, starting August 31st. From the sounds of things, all the character and cosmetic DLC from the various console editions is getting rolled into the PC version from the start, which is nice. We’ll be taking a poke around the PC version once it launches to see what has changed over the years, if anything.

Source: The Indie Game Magazine – Indie Console Mega-Hit ‘Castle Crashers’ Coming To PC Via Steam

Yesterday, Ronimo Games patched up Awesomenauts. Two new Awesomenauts (Coco and Derpl) were added in this extensive update that has now gone live for all players – for free. If you’ve purchased the game on PS3 or Xbox 360 the game should automatically patch the next time you hop online. Apart from the two brand new Awesomenauts the update also contains lots of balance tweaks and some connectivity fixes that players longed for, as well as additional prestige levels. This is especially good to hear since balance issues were my main complaint in my review of the game 2 months ago.

The new FREE characters consist of Coco Nebulon and Derpl Zork. Coco Nebulon is the first female Awesomenaut and she specializes in psycho-electric melee abilities, lightning trails and detonatable lightning ball. Derpl Zork rides a transforming combat walker. You can see these new Awesomenauts in Action here:

Awesomenauts is currently available on Xbox 360 and Playstation Network for $10, but is also making its way to Steam shortly. You can learn more about the game from the game’s official homepage.

Source: The Indie Game Magazine – Awesomenauts Patch is here: 2 FREE new characters

It’s always good to see weird, unique and psychedelic indie games landing on big-name platforms. Today, Shawn McGrath’s eye-searing abstract action-puzzle-racer thing Dyad was released. Allegedly, it’s rather special, at least according to the buzz I’m hearing over Twitter at the moment. Internet resident and user-of-too-many-words Tim Rogers seems to agree. I think. Here’s him and a friend describing the game and generally being enthusiastic and slightly spaced out:

Well, I’m… well, I wouldn’t say convinced, but I am slightly dizzy and a little cross-eyed after watching all that gameplay. It reminds me a little of Space Giraffe, only instead of sitting above a well of swirling colour chaos, you’re being hurled down it at a squintillion miles an hour, trying to grab stuff and making laser-squids run into other, more tangible non-laser squids. I think. We’ll be trying to wrangle an official review copy off the developer for a proper hands-on look soon, so stay tuned.

Dyad is available for PS3 via the Playstation Network for $15 now, or $12 for Playstation Plus subscribers.

Source: The Indie Game Magazine – Abstract Score-Attack Racer ‘Dyad’ Released On PSN, Allegedly Blowing Minds

We’ve written about a new service called Gambitious before and now it’s starting to come to light after a slight launch delay. It’s a rather odd premise that it leads with; essentially players can invest their money into a game but rather than reap the rewards for doing so with a copy of the game or something of that ilk, they are treated as an investor like in the scary, real business world and see their return in a share of the profits from the game. Presuming it makes money of course. Otherwise you’re at a loss.

One of the first games to use this new service is Tink, which has been noted by us and others before now, largely due to its winning of the Best Project 2012 at Game Connection Europe which secured the game a place on PSN. Fear not – Tink is intended for multiplatforms and will not be exclusive. Tink is a wonderful looking game but apparently it sits in its current form as a tech demo, more or less. Appealing to us most is its use of color which moves beyond mere eye candy, being integrated into the gameplay itself. The idea is that you’re bringing color back into a dull world and fight back the dreary by altering emotions through the use of painting with these bright colors. It’s charming, bold and different – what’s not to like?

Considering this, it may seem to prompt quite an obvious answer from us if questioned as to whether we would invest in the game, or to phrase it better, to support its ongoing development. Yes, of course we would. However, using new funding platform Gambitious brings in a myriad of complications that, frankly, feels a little out of place.

Put it this way – Gambitious is clearly trying to appeal to players who care about a particular indie game and want to see it do well. The platform allows them to invest their money and in return they essentially get shares. The good thing about this is that it is going to encourage players to help promote a game. Why? Because if the game makes a loss, they make a loss. If the game makes plenty of profit, as does its investors. This could be seen as a good thing in this way. Communities of players will be much more active and more likely to give valuable feedback.

On the other hand, this kind of business practice will not entice those who truly care about indie games, we don’t think. It’s going to encourage outside interest because of the monetary aspect and it’s going to teach gamers to feel entitled to a game on a new level. This sounds restricting, whereas indie game development should be about freedom. Plus, we don’t want a load of “suits” walking into this part of the industry and commercializing it as well, do we? Heck no is the answer we’re looking for.

Before, crowdfunding incited in players an interest in a game because they were looking to get the best game possible for their prior investment. Now the focus is on making a profit. It’s a subtle shift and one we’re sceptical about at the very least. Gambitious is now available for European developers but is set to become available worldwide soon. Tink’s project on the site will be viewable here shortly.

Our marvellous leader, Mike Gnade, has been pining and winging and moaning about Snapshot for ages (you wouldn’t believe). “When is it coming out?” “When can I play it?” “It looks amazing, doesn’t it?” So he will be happy to find out that it’s coming to PS Vita and PS3 this Fall, thus joining the ever increasing line up of rather good looking indie games on Sony’s new handheld gizmo.

Snapshot, by the way, is a 2D puzzle platformer by Retro Affect whose lead designer is none other than Kyle Pulver of Offspring Fling fame. You play as a robot called Pic who has a rather special camera. With it he can take pictures, or rather you will be, of the environment to remove it and then paste it back in at a different position. Slightly hard to grasp that without seeing it though isn’t it? By any means, you can read a hands-on preview from Mike himself (prepare for a gushing) right here if you’re so inclined.

This is the first commercial game from the studio but it’s been looking rather polished in our eyes (or at least Mike’s) for a few years now. The main mechanic certainly appears to be unique, even for a puzzle platformer, and we’re told that this evolves and is used in many different ways as the game goes on as you might have already guessed.

We can only presume that Snapshot will still be landing on PCs as well as the PlayStation gadgets when it hits this Fall. Check out the new trailer below:

More information on Snapshot can be found on the developer’s official website.

Another trailer has just been released for Journey, this time it’s called the “Accolades” trailer and features even more gameplay to get you pumped to play it as it releases in the US today.

In just a few hours time (as of writing) Journey will be ready for everyone in the US to purchase with the EU territories coming a day later and Japan a day after that. We’ve already bombarded you with Journey in the last few days but one more trailer won’t hurt, especially for such a gorgeous game.

This trailer features a little more gameplay than previous ones as well as boasts all of the high scoring reviews it has received. Speaking of which, we have our very own Journey review up on the site for you to read, so head over there and prepare for this experience!

You can find out more information about Journey over on the official website.

Via thatgamecompany

Sony have confirmed that thatgamecompany’s Journey will be available to all PS Plus subscribers a week early, so that should be within the next couple of days then!

If you’re getting all antsy about the release of Journey then you’ll be glad to hear that you could be playing it very soon, providing you’re a PS Plus subscriber that is. The official release dates of Journey are March 13th for the US and 14th for the EU, so that’s next week, but Sony have said that you PS Plus people will get them a whole week early, which really means tomorrow and the day after respectively. You’ll also receive an exclusive dynamic Journey theme.

If you’re not excited about the game then you really should be, well, if you’re into beautiful trips with strangers in deserts. Okay so it’s a lot deeper than that if you want it to be, so make sure you do to get the full experience as intended.

Related news, while we have your attention, is that Sony are also apologizing for the late release of Trine 2 on the EU PS Store by offering a 30% discount for the next two weeks. Grab it while you can!

More information on Journey can be found on the official website.

It’s already out on both PS3 and PSP, so one might assume that the next place for Where is my Heart?, might be the Xbox 360, but no.The Danish developer, Die Gute Fabrik, have plans for Where is my Heart? and none of them involve another console. Instead, their retro-inspired hit is coming to both Windows, Mac and Linux; sucks for 360 owners, but who doesn’t have either a PC or a Mac today?Although, a lot of indie titles don’t even have a Mac port, so this is an impressive effort for a small developer, because once Where is my Heart? is released on that system (along with the other two), they’ve pretty much covered everything. They haven’t revealed who will be distributing the Windows version however and with quite a few options, I’m not even going to bother guessing.For details on the game, I recommend the official page, but for updates on all things Die Gute Fabrik, their blog is a better place to check

This Article was originally posted on our sister site, The Indie Game Magazine written by PeterChristiansen.

This being the fabled day of the big Retro City Rampage news, we source the news from the Playstation blog of all places. Yes, there will be an 8-bit rampage on PS3 and PS Vita!They warned us, VBlank Entertainment that is. They even had a video to outline how big the news hitting us today would be, honestly, we weren’t expecting this at all! Retro City Rampage will be coming to PS3, the PS Vita as well as Steam; before it was just Wii Ware and Xbox Live Arcade. Is there anywhere it’s not going to be available!?During the announcement, Brian Provinciano of VBlank states that the “PS Vita has been a dream to develop for as well.

Original Source: ‘Retro City Rampage’ Is Smashing It Up On PC, PS Vita And PS3 Too

This Article was originally posted on our sister site, The Indie Game Magazine written by Chris Priestman.