General Discussion [ Page 75 ]

The March To Perfection

Typically the new games I am the most excited about launching are Triple A studio titles. For many years, to me, they have been the pinnacle of rad. But starting this year that has changed. My most anticipated games coming out this year contain only one large studio title and the rest are from Indie companies.

Since I reject the hipster lifestyle I can attribute this to a shift in gaming at large and my gaming tastes evolving. For the last few years, Triple A titles primarily released on consoles have ruled the roost but this is changing significantly as more great Indie companies release awesome stuff. This stuff isn't just on consoles, its primary release is PC and... Read All Typically the new games I am the most excited about launching are Triple A studio titles. For many years, to me, they have been the pinnacle of rad. But starting this year that has changed. My most anticipated games coming out this year contain only one large studio title and the rest are from Indie companies.

Since I reject the hipster lifestyle I can attribute this to a shift in gaming at large and my gaming tastes evolving. For the last few years, Triple A titles primarily released on consoles have ruled the roost but this is changing significantly as more great Indie companies release awesome stuff. This stuff isn't just on consoles, its primary release is PC and often tablets and phones. Its a pretty awesome evolution too as the average Indie company can, for the most part, release a game a year while some Triple A titles can be in development for 5 or more.

Plus many of the games just look like fun. And I wanted to share with you what games I am looking forward to being released in 2013. The list I would have written in December is now, much, much larger but if you read the site as much as I do, most of these games won't come off as too much of a surprise. But its fun to collect them all for posterity sake.

bit Dungeon II: KintoGames sequel to the horribly addicting browser & iOS Dungeon crawler. From the occasional post on the Kinto blog it looks like BD2 will include co-op, which is a pretty awesome trend in many of the games on my list. Apparently I love playing games with friends or something.

Mew-Genics!: Team Meat's next game. They had me at the soundtrack and I have heard through the grapevine they will drop some more meaty news soon. Regardless, I am really excited for Edward McMillens next game.

Monster’s Ate My Birthday Cake: This is the first game I ever Kickstarted and I can't wait for this to drop. The visuals, play control and goal of this game really floored me. I like fun puzzle games and I can't wait to play this on my phone and PC. Visuals featured above.

Hammerwatch: A retro themed Gauntlet styled hack-n-slash featuring co-op? I can't help but think this game is an answer to my geek prayers. This games pixel art ascetic, concept and dungeon crawling really look quite cool. Can't wait to feed this to my Wizard...

Delver’s Drop: Fluid gameplay, built for replayability & awesome graphics mean Kickstarter <3. I hope they blow the door out on their goals so we can get more stuff added to this one.

Stardew Valley: Don't judge me for wanting to chop grass and wheat all day. So I like tending livestock and getting all sustainable crops with my farm.. its all good! Add in 4 player co-op... I don't know if ill sleep.

Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm: I can't tell a lie. I love Starcraft. Zerg is my most beloved race. I pre-ordered the Collectors Edition. How could I not, its like a game about... Zerg.

http://kintogames.com/
http://www.mewgenics.com/
http://sleepninjagames.com/
http://www.hammerwatch.com/
http://delversdrop.com/
http://stardewvalley.net/
http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/game/heart-of-the-swarm-preview/

Rage Runner, Poll For Obstacle Creation

Hey everyone, I'm Jake from Hypercane Studios, I'm the 3d artist for our small indie company. I
have finally wrapped up the major stuff I needed to get done before Rage Runner launches on OUYA.
Today I turn my attention to the community looking for any, and all feedback on our level editor. Over
the next week I will be gathering feedback from the community of 10 different forums on what types
of obstacles you would like in our level editor. After that week of gathering feedback ill take the top
obstacle ideas, and run a poll for everyone to vote on. Then I'll take the top polled obstacles and get
them ready for when the game goes live. Below are some basic things to keep in... Read All

Epic yelling in Chivalry: Medieval Warfare

I have never played Chivalry, but the presence of low-gravity servers coupled with the reaction characters have to being up in the air makes me want to buy it. This is hilarious, and looks like some wacky multiplayer fun you wouldn't expect from a game about knights.

BUNDLES GALORE!

Do you love game bundles? Sure, we all do. Three dropped today!

The Indie Royale Valentines Bundle 2.0
http://www.indieroyale.com/

Serious Sam 3: BFE

Shad'O

Oozi: Earth Adventure

Doc Clock: The Toasted Sandwich of Time

Lunnye Devitsy 2013

Wake 2013

The IndieGala Colossus Bundle
http://www.indiegala.com/

Subversion City Generator

Voxel Destruction

7.62 MM

Talisman Prologue

Darwinia

Multiwinia

Defcon

Uplink

Hearts of Iron III

Demigod

Bonus games will be unlocked as the bundle proceeds.

The Groupees Be Mine Anniversary Bundle.
http://groupees.com/bma

Eschalon Book 2

iBomber Defense Pacific

Livalink

Party of Sin

Major Mayhem

Men of War: Assault Squad

Two Worlds 2

Edna and... Read All

scrypt Supporter wrote on 02/15/2013 at 09:11am

Great post! So many great games all bunched together, supporting various people and causes... Amazing time to be a gamer :)

Gary_Butterfield wrote on 02/15/2013 at 05:45pm

Sort of wishing this post was about Kale.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 02/15/2013 at 06:28pm

Kale is tight, but not, like, real tight. "Tight" sounds wierd the more you say it. "Kale", on the other hand, sounds better the more you say it. So, maybe it is real tight.

I'm at work and deathly bored.

jdodson Admin wrote on 02/15/2013 at 06:53pm

Ok so I had no idea this was Kale, I had to asked @panickedthumb offline.

Yeah so apparently I don't each too many leafy greens... But I like Mario Brothers? Does that help? Ugh.

Gary_Butterfield wrote on 02/15/2013 at 07:16pm

Eat Kale.

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Steam for Linux Celebration Sale

To celebrate Steam coming to Linux, Steam is having a few sales on some sweet games. They are also giving away a special Team Fortress 2 Tux item!

Some of the sales and subsequently now available for linux:

FTL: $4.99

Sword & Sworcery: $3.99

Space Chem: $4.99

Counter-Strike Source: $4.99

Half-Life: $4.99

And a ton more...

http://store.steampowered.com/sale/linux_release/

PS4 controller puts all its eggs in one basket

Sources at IGN report that this is the prototype for the new PS4 controller. It's just a prototype, so the design may change by launch.

What you're seeing is all the standard stuff from the PS3 controller, along with a built-in mic or speaker, a touchscreen like what the Vita has on the back, and what appears to be the glowing part of the PS Move controller.

Sony is having a press event next week, where we will probably hear a ton of details about the next Playstation. Stay tuned!

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/02/14/is-this-playstation-4s-controller

JJ & Gabe's Dice 2013 Keynote

Dice posted the JJ & Gabe keynote in its entirety and I wanted to share it with yall. Apparently it contains some choice words so ensure you watch it!

**Edit** This talk is epic as hell, seriously JJ & Gabe trading off on each others work and doing a bit of a deep dive into the elements of what works and what doesn't.

Anti-ValentiNES

This seemed like a good time to share these. :)

http://www.2pstart.com/2009/02/11/anti-valentines/

While I don't necessarily hate valentines day I think we can all agree it is deserving of a little fun mocking.

"A View on Next Steps" Gabe's DICE 2013 Keynote

Awesome video where he discusses the new Steambox price point, how Steam adds value to gaming and economics. A total must watch and I hope Valve does well going forward with brining Steam to the living room!

Thought it was interesting when Gabe said Linux was the industries "get out of jail free card."

His talk doesn't start right away but you can skip ahead.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 02/08/2013 at 05:47am

Interesting perspectives he puts out there. I like the idea of free-to-use productivity software, although it might cause a bigger problem with ownership of distributed assets if you follow through with the shared revenue idea (i.e. who's licensing to whom). I also love the idea of local streaming of game collections to the living room, and have been begging for this for years. It's the retail cost of console games that has kept this from happening. There's no reason we shouldn't already be playing games off of our own local servers, without having to verify ownership by inserting a disc into the system. I'm really excited that Valve is pushing this.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 02/08/2013 at 05:11pm

I agree. Gabe is spot on when he says that people don't like to scap everything when the move to a new system. The next round of consoles should be really interesting!

Still wondering what Apple will do and like Gabe I think they are the biggest player to look out for.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 02/09/2013 at 06:27am

Apple already has the framework, they just haven't breathed any life into it. Why they haven't turned the Apple TV into exactly what Gabe is talking about, I don't know. I mean, I do know (Steve Jobs didn't care much for games), but still. I don't know when/if that motivation will change for them.

It's like all of this technology is hovering around something great, and nobody has really figured it out. Microsoft is going nowhere with the Xbox. Sony is coming around, and I guess we'll see in a couple of weeks what the "Ps4" will bring to the table. Nintendo is at least trying to be innovative, despite their reluctance to truly enter the online space. I tell you, I'm most excited about Valve and Ouya, at the moment. They just seem to get it.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 02/09/2013 at 09:42pm

Ouya looks really interesting and I dig the price point. Did you get one?

scrypt Supporter wrote on 02/10/2013 at 12:27am

I did, through the Kickstarter, so it should be here in about a month or so. I'll post a review when it arrives.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 02/10/2013 at 12:59am

Awesome! Look forward to it.

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Dat Firehose: Valve @ The Movies & Next-Box Rumors

Gabe Newell and JJ Abrams recently made a few waves at a DICE keynote with dropping a few words about a Portal or Half-Life film. I love JJ and Gabe, how could this be bad?

"Newell: What we are actually doing here, we are recapitulating a series of conversations going on. We reached the point that we decided to do more than talk.

Abrams: There’s an idea we have for a game that we’d like to work with Valve on.

Newell: We’re super excited about that and we’re going to figure out if we can make a Portal movie or Half-Life movie together."

http://www.slashfilm.com/j-j-abrams-and-gabe-newell-to-develop-portal-and-half-life-films-is-something-bigger-than-mere-movies-in-mind/

A... Read All

Blue_Element wrote on 02/07/2013 at 04:51pm

Oh my god, a Portal movie would be like the best thing ever. But if they made even a small mistake in the the movie, I would hate them forever.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 02/07/2013 at 05:09pm

What kind of mistake?

Blue_Element wrote on 02/07/2013 at 07:47pm

A mistake like maybe the story isn't good or just bad things about the movie.

Blue_Element wrote on 02/07/2013 at 07:51pm

BTW, it would be really cool if eventually sometime in the future you made a cheerfulghost app for iOS. Which would basically be just like the mobile version of the website but it would notify you on your phone when you get a notification on the site.

Blue_Element wrote on 02/07/2013 at 07:52pm

But it would probably take a lot of effort and be really hard to make.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 02/08/2013 at 02:07am

That's a really great idea! My first priority is to make a really bitchin' web app and have that work really well. One thing people have mentioned is they would like email notifications when stuff happens on the site and thats just a matter of when it gets added in.

As for a proper app, I have no immediate plans to do that. It takes some time to do and if I push all my time into the web app it can be used in so many places it makes sense to sort of put all my time here for now. At some point ill add an API and then anyone can build what they want atop Cheerful Ghost, including an app or whatever.

beansmyname Supporter wrote on 02/09/2013 at 08:06pm

Not 100% sure why, but the idea of J.J. Abrams working on a game for Valve excites me more than J.J. Abrams making a movie about Valve games.

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