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/

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.

jdodson: The last time we talked you dropped the news you were leaving Fantasy Flight and going freelance. I wonder how things have been going for you since we talked?

Kevin Wilson: Things have been going quite well for me so far. I might have as many as 6 new games out this year, depending on production times and if my 2 unsold games get picked up soon. I've also managed to get my LLC (limited liability company) set up, started a blog, and put together a website for my company. Money's still tight, as I expected while getting started, but I'm beginning to feel reasonably confident that I'm going to be able to make it as a freelancer in the long run.

jdodson: You are working with with Eric Lang on a really interesting project. Specifically two games that seem to be companion pieces to each other. I wonder if you could give us a few hints as to how these games will operate together and what genre these games inhabit?

Kevin Wilson: Ah, Tweedledee and Tweedledum actually don't have anything to do with each other except that they're both for the same company, both are based on existing IPs that I enjoy, and they're both co-designs with Eric Lang. Structurally, they're extremely different from each other, but I'm very excited about each of them.

jdodson: One thing I thought was pretty awesome is that you have been talking about your games playing on a “Buttery Smooth” scale. As you have been working on games for sometime, for you, what separates a 99% Buttery Smooth game from something less like 80%?

Kevin Wilson: The buttery smooth scale of rating a game is really half science, half art. :) But seriously, if I had to pin it down, I'd say it has to do with the "flow" of the game. Are there stuttery stop-start moments in the game? Then its buttery smoothness goes down. Do you lose yourself in the play and forget what's going on around you? Its buttery smoothness goes up. Like player and group psychology, it's a design principle that I've been trying to master over time.

jdodson: Is there one thing about the industry you would change if you could?

Kevin Wilson: Well, it's only a tangential answer to your question, I'm afraid, but I'd like to see game design continue to grow as a profession and I'd like to see more schools of thought on the topic crop up. Right now, nearly all game design attention is on videogames, because of the money in that industry, and it can foster a weird, blinkered view of games and game design. Games are all fundamentally the same, even though a part of good design is matching the design to the medium you're working in. But I'm hopeful because I've started to see a few game design books popping up here and there that are more about the philosophy and discipline of game design and less about the nuts and bolts of designing videogames. That's the stuff designers need to study if we're going to push forward the art of game design rather than the art of computer graphics.

jdodson: Recently I re-watched the film “The Frighteners” on Netflix. Its a comedy horror Peter Jackson film starring Michael J Fox and was quite a lot of fun. I wonder if you have seen anything recently you might recommend?

Kevin Wilson: I don't personally watch a ton of movies, but I do spend a chunk of time watching cartoons and other animation (I'm just a big kid when you get down to it). In that category, I'd have to recommend Adventure Time, Gravity Falls, and My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Yeah, I know, I know. Those shows are all funny and well-written, and often have surprising depths to them. Adventure Time in particular has left me flabbergasted several times, though I suggest watching it in order if you can, and giving it a chance if the first few episodes don't grab you.

Still, if you must have a movie recommendation from me, then I'll recommend an old favorite of mine: Joe vs. the Volcano. It's one of Tom Hanks' earlier movies, and it layers a surreal comedy over the top of some fairly neat bits of philosophy and symbolism. Meg Ryan plays all the important women Hanks meets along the way. It's quirky and fun, but it has layers to it, along with the greatest set of luggage ever depicted outside of Discworld.

One of these days, I'm going to get a necklace made of the symbol that recurs throughout the movie, as the idea of the crooked road a man must walk in life is particularly fitting for me. Life has taken me in directions I never would've expected, but that I've always found to be satisfying anyway. For instance, I would've never, ever in a million years predicted that I'd grow up to be a successful board game designer of all things, but here I am, and I passionately love what I do.

jdodson: One game you are talking about publicly that is shipping soon is the upcoming Elder Sign expansion Unseen Forces. Did much change in your process for designing this expansion and how do you think it turned out?

Kevin Wilson: No, Unseen Forces was a pretty straightforward process, as I had a strong idea what I wanted to do with it from the start. I think it'll provide an excellent boost for Elder Sign and give fans of that game some more of what they've been wanting for it.

jdodson: Has there been anything that has happened as you have been freelancing that has been a surprise to you?

Kevin Wilson: I think my biggest surprise is just how different every company in the industry operates. I was at FFG for a long time, and I got used to their standard practices. As a freelancer, there's not really such a thing as standard practices. I'm having to be more adaptable and lighter on my feet these days, but I can only see that as a good thing.

jdodson: You mention a new game you are working on codename “Lottery.” You mention a few bits about it being a casual card game meant for an audience you don’t typically play to. Did you branch from your typical design process for “Lottery” in some fashion to approach casual gamers?

Kevin Wilson: Lottery was the result of a brain flash rather than a long-term design process. I designed the first draft one night while eating dinner at a restaurant using sugar packets. It's a super simple card game that plays for 1-4 players in about 15 minutes, and I just have a feeling about it. It could reach a much wider audience than I usually design for. I could even see it being successful in classrooms.

jdodson: You have made some seriously epic board games that I love. Are you working on something now that you are freelance that hits the epic scale of something like Arkham Horror, Doom or Descent? Dungeons must be explored!

Kevin Wilson: I'm not sure that anything I'm working on right now is going to play in quite the same time frame as those games, as my designs are skewing shorter these days, but I will say that projects Rattler, Fury, and Volcano are all going to be games of epic adventure. I'll be exploring genres I've never tapped into before, and each of them have some cool mechanical twists at their heart that I can't wait to show off!

jdodson: I want to thank you for taking the time to talk with me Kevin, looking forward to your games shipping! Is there anything else you want to add before we wrap up?

Kevin Wilson: Thanks for having me back to chat again! It's been a fun interview! I guess all I'd like to add is that your readers can follow me on twitter (@KevinWilson42) and visit my website at http://www.wilsoncreativellc.com.

jdodson: If you want to read my previous interview with Kevin Wilson, check it out here:
http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/666

"For those who wish to test their mettle against fellow Nephalem, your time has come. Players will now be able to battle one another in a new zone designed specifically for this style of combat called "The Scorched Chapel." This zone can be accessed by speaking with Nek the Brawler in any of the four Act hubs, and supports 2 to 4 players in a Free-For-All format."

Been really interested in Brawling coming to Diablo III and as such @panickedthumb and I updated our games and headed in to BRAWL just a bit ago! I came to the fight with the level 56 Witch Doctor and he had a level 60 Monk. His Monk kicked me into the dirt each battle hands down. Still, it was fun to enter the new Brawl graveyard and take a swing at each other. I imagine character of similar level geared similarly would be a bit more evenly matched. If you have Diablo III and always wondering if you could beat your fiends in combat, wonder no longer and Brawl it out!

http://us.battle.net//d3/en/blog/8608455

When I first saw the video for Stardew Valley I was excited. A retro styled farming game focusing on the local community, RPG elements and featuring *drumroll* 4 player co-op? Yes please. Since Harvest Moon I haven't seen much surface that advances this kind of game unless you count disappointments like Farmville, which I do not.

The folks behind Stardew Valley released a video showcasing more of the 4 player co-op and it looks epic and you should watch it right now:
http://youtu.be/FJggZec6qqo

In a world featuring the next Call of Duty shooter and game sequels that go to 11, its nice to see a game less world cataclysmically epic and something a bit more simple. Don't get me wrong, I love game where you can nuke the universe, its just also seems totally awesome to chop down trees and focus on convincing people of the sustainability of your crops. And playing this game with all of you sounds even more awesome.... r.

If you are interested in seeing this game launched on Steam, head over and vote for it on Steam Greenlight RIGHT NOW!

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=93285018&insideModal=0&requirelogin=1
http://www.stardewvalley.net/about.html

"In a continued effort to support our PC fanbase, we’ve released a Steam update to Skyrim’s (free) HD Texture Pack. In addition to high resolution textures in the main game, the update adds improved textures for Dawnguard, Hearthfire, and the newly-released Dragonborn.

Before you download, make sure your PC has the horsepower to support it. Make sure your system requirements exceed Skyrim’s recommended specs before attempting to install, and that your PC has Windows Vista/7, a minimum of 4GB of system RAM, and a DirectX 9.0c compatible NVIDIA or AMD ATI video card with at least 1 GB of RAM and the latest drivers."

Its pretty crazy how large game updates are getting. I seriously recommend you try out the High Texture pack if you have a computer that can handle it, its seriously beautiful. That said, it is 4.7 gigs and if they update it again you will have to fetch it all. Oh well, bandwidth is cheap right :D

http://www.bethblog.com/2013/02/06/skyrim-hd-texture-pack-update-on-steam/

Blizzard released a video showing off the new UI for Heart of the Swarm and how you can go about playing the game. Starting with training, to playing with bots the game works to ease you in to getting you in the game.

Very excited to see this drop next month!

GOG.com is a cool digital games store focusing on getting great DRM free games in the hands of gamers for awesome prices. I have been a fan of the site because it really distinguishes itself as a purveyor of classic games and a sort of digital archivist of gaming culture and history. You can totally see that in the way they curate the space behind such amazing works as Baldurs Gate and Simcity 2000. Recently I dropped my friends at GOG.com a line and they were amicable enough to answer some of my questions. The interview goes into rad-territory covering the Indie Games explosion, Linux, Age of Empires 2 and Star Wars. Yeah, apparently the people GOG.com think about Star Wars too!

I was put in contact with Trevor Longino at GOG.com and want to thank him for taking the time to talk with me.

jdodson: GOG.com releases classic games and gives them a nice fit and finish for release on modern operating systems often times bundles art and soundtracks with the game. As you get the approval from the publisher to release a game do you at times get the source of the original to recompile for games that don’t work in a modern OS?

Trevor: 99.9% of the time, no. We get our games from our employee's private collections, as well as scouring ebay and other similar site for auctions, hunting for original releases. Then we work with that. Some games take more work than others to persuade them that sticking to their original release systems doesn't really pay off to their legacy. The most stubborn ones give our coders an occasional headache, but in most cases we manage to pull it off.

jdodson: Recently there has been a pretty strong push to porting games to Linux with such projects as The Humble Indie Bundle and most recently with Steam. Any plans on supporting Linux in the near future?

Trevor: We put a lot of effort into launching on Mac--it took us more than a year, from start to finish, to carry it off--and we're thrilled how well it's been going for us. Moving to Linux and keeping our high level of customer service and simplicity of use is something that presents challenges for us at the moment--there are many distros and flavors, and picking how to support what, for how long, and where is quite a challenge. So while we've looked into this and are continuing to evaluate it, we haven't found a solution that meets that high standard to our satisfaction yet. Never say never, but--at least for the moment--we're going to say, "not now."

jdodson: I love Age of Empires 2. How hard would it be to make this available on GOG.com? I would love to be able to play this game with my friends again without major game surgery. That said, do you at times approach companies about games you would love to see on GOG.com?

Trevor: We have a community wishlist feature on our site, where you can vote on the games you would like to see in our offer. Age of Empires 2 is currently number 26 on that list, so we can see that there's a pretty high demand for it. We always take what the community has to say into account when deciding which games we should try to acquire for our store. Well, that and our personal favorites, of course. Those tend to be pretty much in sync with what users want, by the way. After all--we're all gamers. We always seek to bring you all the best available titles, so--as long as there aren't any unbeatable legal obstacles in our path--you can assume that all your favorite games will end up on GOG.com eventually. Time truly is on our side.

jdodson: What do you think of the recent news that JJ Abrams will direct Star Wars VII? Do you think JJ will bring back Jar Jar Binks or the Gungans? Personally “Messah not suren of theesa plan.” Don’t get me wrong, JJ is superb but he did Star Trek... I don’t know.

Trevor: Man, I don't know! We're pretty much torn in half about this in the office. There never was much of a conflict between Trek fans and Star Wars fans in GOG.com, so the only controversy here is JJ Abrams himself. I mean, he did more than a decent job bringing us the Star Trek reboot movie, he gave us Fringe, a show that managed to bring us some top-notch science-fiction and actually pull off a finale that wasn't half-bad despite its flaws. Even his Cloverfield turned out to be a fresh breath of air in the monster movie genre. The geek is strong in this one, obviously. Probably even strong enough. But then again--the finale of Lost? Yes, sure, he didn't write it--but he allowed it to happen! Just when you want to say "yes, this guy really knows what he's doing and we can trust him not to break the Star Wars franchise any further", that horrid anti-climax of an otherwise good show comes to mind. Oh well, we'll see.

jdodson: GOG.com now sports an awesome Indie section with games such as “Legend of Grimrock,” “FTL” and Torchlight. It also seems like GOG.com is moving to support more modern games. Do you see a time where GOG.com supports new releases from companies like iD or 2K?

Trevor: We seem to have misplaced our futuregazing goggles :-( That said, we're all about bringing good games to people in need of entertainment, so that doesn't really fall far from our usual agenda. If iD or 2K is willing to sell games in the GOG.com fashion: that is to say, no DRM, Fair Prices, with tons of extra goodies and love for our customers, we'd welcome them on board.

jdodson: What three games would you personally be happy with bringing to GOG.com if nothing was standing in your way?

Trevor: X-Com: UFO Defense, System Shock 2, and Street Rod. Ha! I got you now, haven't I? "What's Street Rod?" I'm not surprised you don't know it. It's an early 1990s game developed by a small Polish studio called California Dreams. What's it about? Think Geoge Lucas' "American Grafitti". Crazy teenagers hanging out in front of diners, pimping-up their rides, and racing each other 1970s style. Sweet thing. We can't locate the rightholders, though.

jdodson: I wonder what GOG.com's response to this very important message is?
http://i.imgur.com/3WO65ML.jpg

Trevor: Why, of course it's:

Never gonna make you cry
Never gonna say goodbye
Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you

jdodson: Some of our favorite gaming experiences of the past few years come from the Indie Gaming scene. How do you think Indie Gaming is changing how traditional publishers operate?

Trevor: We see the indie scene as a reflection as what we like to call the golden dawn of game development. Back in the old days game developers couldn’t rely on eye-candy graphics and power of marketing, so they had to compete with each other by the means of original ideas, good story, and solid level design. I see the exact same mechanisms fueling indie game development right now. The indie scene as a whole as a distinct retro vibe to it, as a matter of fact. I wouldn’t go as far as calling this a new renaissance of game design, but it’s safe to say that a lot of good things are happening in the industry and the root of it lies in the past.

jdodson: As GOG.com looks to 2013 I wonder what you guys have on the roadmap you wouldn’t mind sharing?

Trevor: We continue to use the same one each year: bringing good, DRM-free games at fair prices to broader and broader audience. Throwing in some extra goodies and customer love to the package. There's really not much more to it, that I could tell you.

jdodson: GOG.com, Steam and Origin are the big players that come to mind when I think about digital games stores. I wonder how GOG.com looks at Steam and Origin and how you plan on moving forward in the space while drawing a stronger distinction between these other services?

Trevor: Steam is the 800-pound gorilla in the market, and there’s a good reason for that. They weren't the first to come up with the idea of selling games for download, but they were one of the first, and they were better than their competition. They managed to change the expectations of the public and the way people shop for games online. Steam took risks--keeping in mind that Valve was a successful company in its own right, and could afford to experiment in ways that a startup couldn't--and took a key role in shaping the marketplace to what it is today. Many companies, including GOG.com, exist in part because they blazed the trail. But following right behind Steam isn't the way to make successful company. There are a lot of others out there who've tried and who haven't been different enough from Steam to succeed. We're different from them by design, and our strengths lie in that difference. We intend to continue to focus on those strengths--our three core values of DRM-free gaming, fair prices, and customer love--and find ways to bring more content that our audience will love, regardless of its age.

jdodson: Thanks Trevor, I wish GOG.com a really awesome 2013!

http://www.gog.com

If you want to vote on a game to make it to GOG.com, you can do that here:
http://www.gog.com/wishlist/games

Sword & Sworcery made a few waves when it was released as it blended Adventure gaming with a fantastic score. As Sword & Sworcery made its way to be localized for Japan, Jim Guthrie released a remix album called "The Scythian Steppes: Seven #Sworcery Songs Localized for Japan." I picked up the album on Jim's Bandcamp page and wanted to toss out a few words about it.

I recommend downloading this album if you enjoy listening to Jim Guthrie's music because these remixes take his work and bring it a unique voice. Jim Guthrie's music is already very eclectic and the first remixes seen in Little Furnace and The Ballad of the Space Babies really bring a certain modern techno drive to the start of the album. The album continues on with a pretty interesting array of sound scape remixes and ends of with a Bones McCoy remix laden with heavy guitars.

Nab it right now on Jim's Bandcamp page for as much as you care to pay:
http://jimguthrie.bandcamp.com/releases

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.