Kind of ends on a cliff hanger.

/rimshot

Sometimes things happen that seem like the world is giving you a high five. Today was such a day in that Hidden Path Studios announced that they were releasing Age of Empires 2 HD. Yes folks, one of the the most amazing Real Time Strategy of all time is being re-released for modern systems on Steam!

Take a moment... breathe... this is really happening.

A bit of the press release:

"In Age of Empires II: HD Edition, fans of the original game and new players alike will fall in love with the classic Age of Empires II experience. Explore all the original single player campaigns from both Age of Kings and The Conquerors expansion, choose from 18 civilizations spanning over a thousand years of history, and head online to challenge other Steam players in your quest for world domination throughout the ages. Originally developed by Ensemble Studios and re imagined in high definition by Hidden Path Entertainment, Microsoft Studios is proud to bring Age of Empires II: HD Edition to Steam!"

Key Highlights:

* Re-mastered for high resolution displays 1080p+.
* Enhanced visual engine with improved terrain textures, water, fire and ambient lighting effects.
* New Steamworks features: Achievements, Leaderboards, Matchmaking and Cloud support.
* Share user created content with Steam Workshop support.

One of the things that suck is upgrading your OS and having awesome games break. Age of Empires 2 was one such game that was totally busted for LAN such that, the RTS gaming staple my friends and I played most often was removed from our lives. Now that Age 2 is finally getting the HD treatment for modern systems all is right with the world once more.

Oh right and it will only be $20 a launch and is currently marked down to $17.99 on Steam pre-order.

http://www.hiddenpath.com/
http://store.steampowered.com/app/221380/

Its as if a million geeks cried out in Joy and were not silenced.

Delver's Drop was successfully funded a bit ago to much acclaim. It moved into its stretch goals for a day one Linux port and now just hit another goal for a new game level and playable class. They are 15k away from another stretch goal of 4 player deathmatch and horde mode, something this game NEEDS.

Really excited to see this funded and get even MOAR AWESOMERRR! 5 days to go, so if you want to act, act soon.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pixelscopic/delvers-drop

My interview with Pixelscopics Ryan Baker:

http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/1022

If you want more information on gameplay, they have released an extensive PDF:

http://delversdrop.com/downloads/DelversDrop_GameMechanics.pdf

"Another Castle combines classic platforming gameplay with the randomness of a roguelike. You play as Andy, a dude who's looking for a random item, whether it be a kick ass magical sword, a wizard hat, or royalty. To find the item you must run, jump, and fight your way through a randomly generated castle. When you beat the game, you sadly won't get the item, as it's always in another castle. Instead, the item is now unlocked and can be found in future playthroughs of the game."

As I scour the depths of Kickstarter I want to bring you guys the best bits I find and "Another Castle" looks to be one of the better looking games. I like the idea of a Retro roguelike 2D sidescroller with procedural levels and loot. Plus it also looks like quite a lot of fun!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/uncadedave/another-castle

"Super excited to announce the release of CORPOREAL - a 4 song EP featured in the award-winning game, Sound Shapes by Queasy Games for PS3 and PS Vita. The EP consist of music taken from the CORPOREAL level which saw Jim Guthrie teaming up with superbrothers (for the first time since Sword & Sworcery) to create more video game magic (if I do say so myself!)."

I picked it up today and listened to this 4 song EP a few times. Overall its a good addition to your Jim Guthrie fan catalog and will mix in very well with your Video Game music library. If you don't have a video game music library, I recommend you also nab the Sword & Sworcery & Indie Game: The Movie score on Jim's band camp page as well.

http://jimguthrie.bandcamp.com/album/corporeal
http://www.jimguthrie.org/news/2013/3/5/corporeal-ep.html

Oh and Jim is releasing a solo album not at all related to video games. A few tracks are up for listening in his site here:
http://www.jimguthrie.org/news/2013/3/5/takes-time.html

The BBS talks to Gabe about the Steam Box and he dropped details that Steam Box prototypes will hit people in 3 to 4 months. When asked what the reason its taking a bit is:

"The main thing that's holding us up... we have a couple of different controllers prototypes we're using."

And...

"We'll be giving out some prototypes to customers to gauge their reactions, I guess, in the next three to four months."

"There are noise issues and heat issues and being able to [deal with] that while still offering a powerful enough gaming experience is the challenge in building it."

To watch the video on the BBC and read the entire article with Gabe himself check the link below:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21677119

I have really been enjoying the Zelda Sundial of Shadows animations created by Isobel Kelly. I wanted to ask her a few questions about the series, her process and thoughts about creating it. If you haven't checked out episode 1 I highly recommend it!

jdodson: I really like the style of Sundial of Shadows as it has the guts to do something a bit different. Instead of providing a paint by numbers generic story it takes its time to build its own style, and narrative. I wonder what you wanted to accomplish when you started the concept of Sundial of Shadows and wonder how you look at your first few episodes?

Isobel Kelly: I could've illustrated a comic book of this fan fiction but I wanted to really bring the story to life through animation. Sometimes I regretted creating it this way because of how long it takes to produce just one episode. I continue to remind myself of how worth it this will be in the end and of what a great self accomplishment it will be.

To create this Zelda fan fiction I had to first choose a concept, what character was the story going to be focused on and in what era of the Zelda timeline was the story going to occur? Ocarina of Time was my immediate choice, for the protagonist; typically, Link would've been the first choice but I wanted to try something different.

I thought back on the confrontation between Link and Dark Link in the Water Temple, it always used to bother me how the doppelgänger of the Hero of Time was never given a significant role in the game, he wasn't even made a boss monster. That's when I decided to shine the spotlight on the villain for once. I went with the concept that not everyone begins evil, there was a time where even the Great Ganondorf sucked on a pacifier. So where's a better place for the story to begin then at the birthplace of Dark Link, at the peak of his innocence.

The plot is of Dark Link's delve into darkness and his journey takes place during the same time as Link's. Their paths eventually intertwine at the fated location, The Water Temple. I wanted to do Dark Link justice and give him a proper purpose.

jdodson:The choice of using text to convey dialog and story as it harkens back to the original Zelda games. I wonder how you decided on this and if you considered voice acting for SoS?

Isobel Kelly: I've always considered voice acting for the series, for one it means viewers can enjoy watching the animation without the distraction of text and it's also nice to know what the characters sound like. I'd chosen simple subtitles to stick to tradition, I believe it also adds to the nostalgia of the Nintendo 64 classics.

jdodson:Link’s Awakening is one of my most beloved Zelda games, I wonder for you what game or games come to mind?

Isobel Kelly: If you're asking me which of the Zelda games are my favorite? Ocarina of Time N64 version, hands down. The first game I'd ever played, I was 6 years old at the time. I've played that game so many times (still do) I remember every puzzle by heart, I could play that game with my eyes closed. And then there's Majora's Mask. I can only ask, what happened to the keaton after that!? Any Zelda fan who has not, I implore that you play the classic Zelda games. Last time I'd visited an expo wearing a keaton mask with Link's cap, people were asking if I was pokemon crossed with Zelda.

jdodson:I wonder what prompted you to create Sundial of Shadows?

Isobel Kelly: I was first inspired to create this fan fiction after watching another person's animated Zelda series on Youtube. Seeing this person bring his story to life channeled the Zelda fan within me, before then it lay dormant for ages.

jdodson:I found SoS on one of the many game sites on the web. I wonder, as the episodes reach a wider audience how you look at this and what you think about it? Did you anticipate people to respond in the ways that they have?

Isobel Kelly: To imagine that more people could discover and enjoy this series excites me, I have what I believe is a great story that I want to tell everyone! But at the same time it worries me. Because I produce the episodes at such a slow pace, I can only hope that they can be patient. It's certainly a story worth waiting for. Thinking back I sometimes wish I could've saved up the episodes before releasing them, I was much younger at the time though and didn't realize how the series would catch on. Being a one person team I can only push forward and do the best I can.

jdodson:How many episodes of Sundial of Shadows do you plan on releasing to conclude the story or is SoS a story that can continue on for many seasons?

Isobel Kelly: I can't even determine how many episodes it will take to produce this series. HEAPS. Each episode I try to make at least 8 minutes long (not counting the 2nd ep since that had a specific deadline I had to plan around.) The series consists of the three stages of Dark Link's life, childhood, teenhood and adulthood. Each of which are almost an entire story on their own. However, I don't mind how long it will take to complete this series, it's the journey I should enjoy.

jdodson:Episode one takes its time with the characters to exist in the world and ends on a tense moment. Episode two takes us back to explain a bit more backstory. As you are charting out the Sundial of Shadows narrative how do you figure out what elements of the story should be shown in each episode?

Isobel Kelly: I've planned the whole story through a script, marking the key elements. I write a separate script for each episode using the overall script as a guide to ensure the story is told in the proper order. For the first sequence of episodes I plan to intertwine the stories of Dark Link as a child (under the age of 10) with the episodes of his current adventure. For example, the 1st ep was of his current adventure, 2nd ep was a flashback, 3rd ep will be current, 4th will be flashback and so on. This way you will get to know the relationship between his mother and him and the sort of character Uhu is.

jdodson:I want to thank you for taking the time to talk to me about SoS and wondered if you had anything you want to say before we wrapped up?

Isobel Kelly: No matter how long it takes this series will continue. And I just want to say that I appreciate everyone's support on the production of the series so far. Your encouragement has really kept me going during this large project. So thank you!! And thanks for this interview, I'm happy to have been given the chance to explain my process to everyone more thoroughly.

I love Starcraft and as such need to let you all know if something awesome happens in that arena. As it so turns out now until March 12th you can get Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty for $20 on Battle.net which just so happens to be the release date of the Heart of the Swarm Expansion as well.

Both games for $60? No too bad.

http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/8876310/Save_50_on_StarCraft_II_Wings_of_Liberty%E2%80%94Limited_Time_Only_-3_1_2013

Said simply:

"Space Qube is a voxel based retro shooting game which is going to hit iTunes store soon. The game is basically composed of two parts, game and workshop."

I love the idea of a rich iOS game that allows the ability to share your creations with others. For a time, I too enjoyed Words with Friends because it was a really interesting shared experience. Space Qube also shipping for free? Pretty much a must play for me.

http://www.lynxengine.com/games/spaceqube/index.php

Legend of Zelda Sundial of Shadows is a VERY unique fanimation set in the Zelda universe. They totally nail the feel of Zelda for me and each frame evokes dat nostalgia. That said, if you are turned off by more art house or Anime, then this isn't your jam.

Episode 2 is a nice continuation of Episode 1 but doesn't spend time following the events of episode 1, it takes a step backward and provides a bit more back story. It reveals little, but allows the viewer to see a bit more of the universe it so eloquently builds. I like the style of this series quite a bit and can't wait to see it unfold a little bit at a time.

I recommend you watch episode one:
http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/1031