It’s not often that we’ll report on teased news before it’s actually revealed, but this is a point of great interest for a ridiculous number of gamers. Action/RPG/Platformer/Sandbox Terraria was – and continues to be – a hugely popular game, currently supported by its dedicated fanbase after the lead (and lone) developer decided to spend more time on raising his newborn child, rather than updating the game further. An understandable decision, although it still left some of the more vocal fans upset, despite receiving free updates that effectively doubled the size of the game.

It’s vague teaser territory here, full of questions. All we have to go on so far is that SOMETHING is being unveiled tomorrow. It’s related to Terraria, and the mysterious picture above was just posted on the official Twitter and Facebook pages for the game. It’ll be interesting to see how this story pans out, especially as former Terraria sprite-artist Tiy has long-since broken away to form a new team in order to develop the space-borne (and rather spiffy looking) spinoff Starbound.

So, anything in particular you eagle-eyed lot can glean from the mystery picture above? Is it just the Terraria logo in ultra-low-fi ASCII? Is there something more to it? What could it all mean? The Terraria community has been clamoring for expansions, updates and integrated mod support for the game. Could this perhaps be a step in that direction? Perhaps it’s a full-blown sequel to compete directly with the upcoming Starbound? It’s an exciting prospect however you slice it. Personally, I think there’s plenty of room for two (or more) Terraria-esque games in this town.

Source: The Indie Game Magazine – ‘Terraria’ Developers Re-Logic Tease ‘Something Big’

Wadjet Eye Games have really been cementing their place as the second coming of Lucasarts these past few years. They’ve put out a steady stream of well-written, thoughtful and interestingly themed point-and-click adventures, and now they’re ready to tease their next project – Primordia. Here’s the brooding, atmospheric first trailer:

A dark, apocalyptic cyberpunk aesthetic here, and a story revolving around a machine-city falling into corruption and disrepair in the absence of human control. All of this, and it’s narrated by Logan Cunningham, the inimitable voice of Rucks from Bastion. The art (while slightly low-res, admittedly) looks fantastic, and reminds me a lot of Beneath a Steel Sky. This is on the grungy, worn-down end of the cyberpunk scale for sure.

No specific release date on this one yet, but Wadjet Eye are aiming for the fourth quarter of this year. We’ll be covering news on this one as it unfolds, but you can follow the development of the game and read up some more on the official site here.

Source: The Indie Game Magazine – Cast Your Ocular Receptors Over This ‘Primordia’ Teaser Trailer

Now here’s a paradox – an overwhelmingly atmospheric game set on the moon? Likelier than you think. We’ve covered Routine (from the fittingly named Lunar Software) a couple of times before, but now it’s really shaping up to be something special. A semi-roguelike-esque first person horror/exploration game. You’ve got one life, an uncertain environment around you, and a mission to discover why a moon-base has gone silent. Here’s some appropriately intense new footage:

And let this be a lesson to you: Gunfights in space are a very bad idea, even worse than gunfights on Earth. I’m digging what I’m seeing so far – what looks to be a rather more serious ‘hard’ sci-fi setting. No outlandish monsters, although some rather imposing robots and guys with guns. The game promises to be a more tactile experience than most, with Deadzone aiming (think along the lines of Red Orchestra or Arma) and little to no HUD. No health points, either. Injury is going to be handled more realistically here, too. Oh, and as mentioned, you’ve got one life. Death resets everything, and things might play out very differently next time round.

There’s no fixed release date yet for Routine, although the developers have ballparked it for 2013. Keep an eye on IGM for more big reveals as they happen, as well as the official site for the game.

Source: The Indie Game Magazine – ‘Routine’ Promises Space-Borne Scares In This New Gamescom Trailer

Senscape has been kind enough to provide us all with a brief and entirely interactive glimpse into the world of Asylum, the first and – by that logic – freakiest game to be created using their homegrown Dagon engine.

It’s a point-and-click adventure, set within the hallways of the mysterious Hanwell Mental Institute – the developer’s official stance is to keep quiet about specific plot details. All we can assume so far is that the protagonist has been tasked with an investigation into the recently closed asylum, to uncover ongoings that are no doubt nefarious in nature. It’s a classic setup and, were there not to be some manner of supernatural development down the line, I would be entirely stunned.

I’ve taken my first trip through it, fifteen minutes from beginning to end, and I’m suitably impressed by the atmosphere they’ve created with the engine. It’s Lovecraftian through and through. The player character coughs through the dust within the abandoned rooms. He offers notes and descriptions in a manner that seems entirely well-placed considering his surroundings. There’s fear in his voice, a hint of madness and a foreboding sense of determination to continue with his task. And then there are the inmates, banging and wailing.

If you want to have a go for yourself, head over here to download. The teaser is currently available for PC, Mac and Ubuntu. And if you want to find out more about Asylum, check out the main site, here.

It’s important to note that Senscape have not released this as a demo per se, as the content has been created separately from the main game, but it offers an indication of what we might expect. The full release is expected to be with us next year.

[With thanks to Richard Cobbett for bringing this news to my attention]

Source: The Indie Game Magazine – Senscape Release ‘Asylum’ Interactive Teaser

Always nice to hear from The Narrator again. We last heard from the delightful fellow early last month, along with an announcement that he’s hard at work on an updated remake of Source-engine mod The Stanley Parable. Well, in the time since he last graced us with his presence, he has received some interesting e-mails, including a particularly insightful, emotional and logical piece of feedback. Always one to take creative critique to heart, here’s his video response:

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I can’t wait! Of course, being the hardcore sort that I am, I’ll be playing through exclusively in full-logic/full-emotion mode. There’s no word on when the new version of The Stanley Parable will be released, but if it’s even three-quarters as emotionally moving as the teaser footage we just saw, it will probably be good enough to make your cat cry.

In the meantime, do yourself a favour and grab the original version from Desura. While not nearly as emotional or logical as you might hope, it’s still entertaining enough, and surely on the right path. You don’t need Half-Life 2 or any specific Source engine game, just any Valve title on your Steam account will do.

Source: The Indie Game Magazine – ‘The Stanley Parable’ Will Touch Your Heart Exactly 176 Times

For a moment there, we were under the impression that we were getting another serene first person ‘walking game’ (Dear Esther, Proteus) with Xing. It’s a puzzle game though, not to say that it won’t let us wander around its beautiful, UDK-made environments, soaking up every inch. There’s even a degree of freedom as to where you’ll place your feet, one after the other too – but of course your task is to solve the various puzzles that lay in wait for you.

You ended up in the mysterious but desolate land of Xing after your spaceship crash landed on a remote island. With nothing else to do, you begin to look around at which point you’ll come across hints of a lost civilisation. Upon entering the caves, you are transported to Xing and from there you’re left to figure your way around this place of floating islands and relics of the past, and potentially the future.

The game rewards the player for exploring, as the dynamic level design adapts to their current goals and objectives. In solving the mystery of Xing, you’ll end up travelling to three different time periods. Though the game is very different to Proteus, it is said that the game’s musical cues adapt to player progression – how it does this and to what effect isn’t exactly clear.

This is all teaser stuff at the moment, but given the premise, the feature list and the look of the game, it certainly seems to be worth sticking your head out for. More information on Xing over on the official website, oh and it’s coming to PC of course.

It’s time to hide behind your chair again, turn the lights up bright and repeat to yourself: ‘It’s not real. It’s not real. It’s not real’. Those charmers over at Frictional Games are back, and this time teamed up with thechineseroom (of Dear Esther fame) to bring us something just a little bit grim. Amnesia is back, and this time we’re leaving the confines of dusty castle corridors, and settling into something a little closer to familiarity. Not that it helps.

A teaser trailer of the upcoming first-person horror adventure has just been released. Enjoy.

Pardon the blurry image above, as there’s no official site for this one yet. Clawhammer Games, creators of iPad/Phone game Hyper Snake, have snuck an intriguing little teaser video for their upcoming platform-puzzle game Chroma onto Youtube. Shift your attention downwards, and let the concepts sink in. Do note that this is very early concept footage, so the full game may look nothing like this by launch.

In addition to looking rather charming, in a pointedly Fez-like kinda way, it looks like light and shadow are the key elements of this game so far. Specifically, you can separate your shadow from your light-emitting body, and then use the shadows cast by your physical self as platforms. It’s rather clever, really – a concept that a few other games have explored, but it’ll be interesting to see how this one pans out over time.

No word on what platform this one is on, either – it really could be either iPad or PC at this point. Mysterious! We’ll be keeping an eye on this one, either way.

Double Bear Productions have released a teaser trailer for Dead State, their zombie RPG that has been in development for a few years now. It’s been anticipated by quite a number of people as the developers are ex-Obsidian and therefore significant in the genre. That, and the fact that it’s turn-based, open ended and focuses on survival – all elements of RPGs that seem to be making a popular comeback at the moment.

Things went quiet about the project for a while but a few weeks ago Double Bear emerged once again to discuss the possibility of a Kickstarter project for the game now that momentum was being gained. Since then, not many developments have occurred except a new teaser trailer which really does nothing but tease, and not too effectively either.

Maybe we’ll hear more word on Dead State soon as it seems the game is certainly coming along and Double Bear are keen to re-ignite the interest in it. For now though, you may want to hold your ears or turn the volume of your speakers down – the static noise in the teaser will grate you:

More information on Dead State can be found on the game’s official website.

A silhouetted puzzle platformer may not be the most original game idea in the world, but we can’t deny that upon finding the teaser trailer for O (The Experience) we were quite mesmerized. The painted backgrounds make for a very moody impression and one that soon leaked into fascination as the layers of surreality played out before us. The animation on the main character isn’t the best but for a student project, O certainly impresses.

We were disappointed to not find a website for O, but were pleased to receive a prompt reply from the developers about the game, which both satisfied our need to know more and provoked further questions to be asked. Currently they attend ESNE Videogames in Madrid, Spain and the concept of their game is very intriguing, especially when combined with what’s on display.

You wake up in a cold swamp while drifting atop a filthy raft. You have no idea of your whereabouts and your sister clutches on to you, scared. You need to escape. As you travel, you’ll move through beautiful forests, inky landscapes and climb huge mountains. This is a world of fantasy and surrealism though, so you’ll also pass through doors that lead to unreal encounters; flying trains in the clouds and huge rooms full of clocks that move with time for instance.

Whatever “O” is, it awaits you according to the developers. They describe the game’s main mechanic as “turning the world”, which is as integral to the puzzle solving as the relationship between the boy and his sister. When And Yet It Moves was brought up for comparison to this central mechanic, they said that it is quite like that but only in 90 degree portions. When considering the game overall, they say that it combines elements and ideas from Limbo, Shadow of the Colossus and ICO; that much seems pretty obvious.

O (The Experience) will be released in June for web browsers, we just hope that the game matches up to the promise it shows. There’s no website or anywhere else to find more information about the game at the moment, except the teaser trailer below.