Serious, authentic and grim? Not this Second World War VR

Transcription

The Independent Games Magazine
Issue Six, Spring 2015
Serious, authentic and
grim? Not this Second
World War VR shooter...
ALSO IN ISSUE FIVE
FEATURES
REGIONAL
EVENTS
NEXT GEN
Beyond Flesh
and Blood,
Super Dungeon
Bros, and so
much more
We talk to Allyza
Taylor, Mineski’s
Shoutcaster
from the
Philippines
We were at E3
2015 in LA, the
worlds’s biggest
and best games
event.
The Google
Play Store is
not without its
flaws, says our
Next Gen gamer
BATMAN: ARKHAM
KNIGHT ARK, THE
WITCHER 3: WILD
HUNT, AND ARK
SURVIVAL EVOLVED
REVIEWED
2 MARCH 2015 ISSUE FIVE IND13.COM
Contents
Editorial
Page 4
Indie games are going full Steam
ahead...
Pages 38 - 40
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Pages 42 - 46
Ark: Survival Evolved
IND13 Q&A
Page 6
Can you tell us about a positive
experience you’ve had working in
independent gaming?
Beyond Flesh and Blood
Pages 8 - 11
A new apocalyptic game set, of all
places, in Manchester
Super Dungeon Bros.
Pages 12 - 16
A cross platform, rock music themed,
co-op dungeon brawler
War for the Overlord
Pages 18 - 24
Harry Cole and Lee Smith talk to
Lee Moon – Community Manager at
Subterranean Game.
World War Toon
Pages 26 - 32
A humorous first person shooter and
tank combat game set in a whimsical,
toon inspired world.
Sirius Gaming Reviews Section
Pages 34 - 36
Batman: Arkham Knight
Allyza Taylor
Pages 48 - 52
We caught up with allyza Taylor,
Mineski’s Events Team Commentator/
Shoutcaster to know if there’s more to
“gaming” than what she has now as a
shoutcaster.
The Kraken Sleepeth
Pages 54 - 56
The new game from Team Pesky, the
studion set up by Andy Gibson.
Google Play
Pages 58 - 59
Google Play is the official go-to place
for Android games. But, is it all that it
seems?
Brighter Day
Pages 60 - 63
Probably the most colourful horror
game you will ever play.
E3 Expo 2015
Pages 64 - 68
Richard, IND13’s globe trotting
developer, went to the E3 2015
conference in LA.
Develop. Brighton. 2015
Pages 69 - 70
Richard went from LA to Brighton, to
attend the annual Develop conference
for the first, and not the last, time.
IND13.COM SUMMER 2015 ISSUE SIX 3
FEATURE: Editorial
Indie games are
going full Steam
ahead...
The Independent Games Magazine
Issue Six, Spring 2015
1850 games arrived on Steam in 2014, 2500 are predicted in 2015...
That is a hell of a figure, and is one that was exclaimed earlier this
year by TinyBuild’s Mike Rose.
grim? Not this Second
ALSO IN ISSUE FIVE
FEATURES
REGIONAL
EVENTS
NEXT GEN
Beyond Flesh
and Blood,
Super Dungeon
Bros, and so
much more
We talk to Allyza
Taylor, Mineski’s
Shoutcaster
from the
Philippines
We were at EGX
2015 in LA, the
worlds’s biggest
and best games
event.
The Google
Play Store is
not without it’s
flaws, says our
Next Gen gamer
BATMAN: ARKHAM
KNIGHT ARK, THE
WITCHER 3: WILD
HUNT, AND ARK
SURVIVAL EVOLVED
REVIEWED
IND13 is a magazine dedicated to independent
games. Our aim is to create interesting news,
reviews and articles, all focusing on independent
games. The nucleus of our team is based in the
UK but also have a team stretching the globe. We
have independent gaming news from all gaming
territories including UK, US, Europe and Asia.
The team behind IND13 are all volunteers, and we
are giving our time because we are passionate
about indie games. The content of the magazine
will be made up of articles created by the IND13
team but also by voluntary contributors from the
games industry.
Advertising is available in the magazine, and
all proceeds will go into the development and
stability of IND13’s production. Please contact
us to discuss the bespoke packages that we can
offer all advertisers.
If you would like to contribute, email us an
example of your work.
We hope you enjoy the magazine and please do
get in touch with questions and comments.
The Team:
Richard Hoffmann: Editor-in-Chief
Harry Cole: Publisher
Lee Smith: Creative Director
Our Channels:
Website: www.ind13.com
Essentially what that means is that indie gaming is in good shape.
Every year more gamers are turning towards the indie developers
for their gaming fix which means that, not only do developers earn
a little money to help them continue making games, but that more
developers are working on games buoyed on by an increasingly
successful market.
Steam, the PC retail behemoth, currently has 125 million active
accounts. 125 million potential buyers, and a market that is always
eager to try out new and inventive titles.
If you can gain the the attention of YouTubers, Mike has said, and
get the marketing right, a top selling title can sell 3 million units.
A game that does the bare minimum can still expect to shift 1000
copies. And big or small games can both benefit from sales spikes in
later life thanks to the legendary Steam sales.
Of course, gaming is not all about the PC, but with the console
market increasingly open to indie games now, and the mobile
market seeing no sign of a slow down in business (quite the
opporsite actually), the indie gaming world has never been so
good. In terms of mobile games, 500 games a day were going up
on iOS in 2014, compared to 250 a day on Android. That’s a day. An
incredible amount. Of course, that figure probably includes a fair
amount of clones, but it is still pretty incredible anyway.
Even the WII U has seen 80 indie games released in it’s eShop. The
top price for a title on the Wii U eShop is around $15. However, Rose
has warned that after the initial exposure of launch, developers
could struggle to stimulate sales.
In this issue of IND13, the sitxh, we are featuring some of the best
indie games currently out there, and in developement, including
Beyond Flesh and Blood, Super Dungeon Bros, War for the
Overlord, World War Toon and more.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/ind13
Twitter: @official_Ind13
Contacts:
For editorial enquires: [email protected]
For advertising enquires: [email protected]
4 SUMMER 2015 ISSUE SIX IND13.COM
So, in short, carry on playing those games. Carry on making them,
blogging about them, vlogging about them, because the indie
game industry is thriving, and is here to stay.
Lee Smith, Creative Director, ind13
R
500 MILLION PLAYS
WITHIN 3 YEARS
WE PUT SOME OF THIS SUCCESS DOWN TO OUR
MINIWORLDGAMES IS A
GAMES STUDIO
IND13.COM MARCH 2015 ISSUE FIVE 5
POWERED BY
FEATURE: IND13 Q&A
Can you tell us about a positive
experience you’ve had working in
independent gaming?
HARRY
SOPHIE
Harry
There’s a great sense of community
throughout the games industry and
this goes into Indie gaming too, which
makes working with Indie games a
positive experience all-round.
But a personal experience would be
working with individual developers
who take on their dream project and
bring it to life.
RICHARD
LEE
that you only see once you open
your eyes, unwire your brain from
corporate mediocrity, and embrace
the weird, the wacky, and the
wonderful.
So I am lucky that I have managed to
get out there and experience a life
outside of the AAA games, and you
should too.
Lex
Seeing someone dedicated to doing
every aspect of a game themselves,
that’s really special to witness and
be a part of.
Our team is actually new in the
games industry; and we are doing
our best to give out every best
quality way possible for our readers
and visitors.
Lee
It is all about those damned games
because, when you work within the
indie gaming world, you play games
that challenge your thinking in a
more creative way.
Games that slap you around the
face shouting “hey, gaming isn’t just
about GTA you know fool!”
It is truly a rich and varied gaming
world out there, full of the sort of
challenges, variety and invention
The games community is big, bigger
than what older people have ever
imagined. We want our voices to
be heard, opinions to be noticed,
and our critics to be accepted. The
experience so far as a journalist in
the industry was actually great.
We were given a chance to interview
great people like Adam Kovic, review
great and mediocre games, and most
importantly write feature articles
related to gaming.
JENNIFER
LEX
All in all, being in the gaming industry
is actually fun, yet a bit stressful
at times. But doing what we’re
passionate about has always been
our goal and it overlooks the bad side
of things in the industry.
Richard
Working in independent gaming
is one of the most liberating
experiences, as you can do anything
to a game - no questions asked, well
except if you add a Goat to it...
Sophie
Seeing our first indie game blasted
all over the front page of the PSN
store, Nintendo eShop and Xbox One
store and thinking ‘wow, anything is
possible’.
Jennifer
You can never predict who you’ll
end up sharing a beer with! The
conviviality of the industry means
that I’ve been able to hang out
with some of my personal heroes.
Everybody’s excited about each
others’ work - we never run out of
things to talk about! «
FEATURE: Beyond Flesh and Blood
EARTH IS IN
RUINS AFTER
THE GLOBAL
WAR... AND IT
IS UP TO YOU
TO SAVE IT.
Beyond Flesh and Blood is a new apocalyptic game set, of all
places, in Manchester. Harry Cole had a Q&A session with the
makers PixelBomb Games about their horror-genre actionshooter.
Phil Muwanga, Lead Dev, Code
Lee Blacklock, Lead Dev, Design
Jane McConnell, Community Manager
Scott Wells-Foster, 3D Generalist
Could you introduce yourself, tell us
about the team and your studio?
Phil: OK. Hello! We’re Pixelbomb Games,
a studio from Manchester in the UK.
Some people call Manchester the second
city of England… We started in 2011
as a collective before joining forces as
a company, and we’ve been developing
Beyond Flesh and Blood, along with
building a studio, for the last four years.
What is the history of Pixel Bomb
and the details of your games
careers?
Lee: Well, I’ve worked with EA and Blade
Interactive over the last 10 years.
Phil: I’ve been an indie developer from the
get go, I had a game called Balls, and then
Funky Balls for Xbox back in the day.
Jane: My background’s a bit different to
the rest, from independent film, events
and TV land.
Scott: I’m new! I graduated from UCLAN
in Games Design last year, but I originally
started out in photography and graphic
design.
In your own words, how would you
describe your game?
Scott: Beyond Flesh and Blood is quite
simply, a gory and intense game which
takes a lot from what you might expect
in a mech shooter… then changes those
expectations by placing it in a UK setting,
letting mechs climb into other mechs, and
with it being story-driven as a single player
experience. Also, as a northerner in the
Click for
video
content
UK, I am very proud of its chosen location
- Manchester. I just have to wait until we
make the Preston version haha.
demos? The violence is easier to palate the
more extreme it is, as it takes on a cartoonesque vibe.
Lee: Interestingly, when people ask us
what the genre of the game is, we say
that it’s a third-person action shooter, it’s
different from your typical mech shooter.
What is the backstory to the game?
What was the inspiration behind
the game?
Phil: The backstory is quite interesting,
which you’ll see played out in the
introduction to the game.
It’s a third-person game, you just happen
to be controlling mechs. We absolutely
love robots and all forms of them, from
the Japanese ones to the big stomping
western mechs, so things like Steel
Battalion were a big influence.
Scott: We have an amazing artist called
Tony who is looking after a lot of the
overgrown greenery in the game – and
he actually goes outside looking for these
invasive plants that Manchester has on
the streets already, and scans them in for
design.
Phil: The interesting thing is that you can’t
die in this game. You’re in a space station
in orbit, so if your suit is killed then they
just send in another suit from orbit.
I’m an old-school gamer – I like games
that are hard, that you actually have to
think about them and learn the gameplay
mechanics, which is what we’re doing with
our game. Indeed, we have been described
as a ‘hardcore’ rather than an ‘implusive’
product, which is confusing but we guess
it’s true.
You can say also that it’s fairly gory. I hope
you’ve experienced that for yourself in our
Why Manchester, why choose such
a specific setting? What has this
localisation brought to the game?
Scott: If you mean localisation in terms
of Manchester – then it’s brought us easy
reference material! It’s literally outside.
Are we going to see United shirts
and Oasis posters? :)
Lee: We get asked this a lot! Haha. We
haven’t got any plans yet to put any Oasis
references into the game, I don’t know
our Oasis knowledge would do their fans
justice!
Jane: Ah, the football question. It would
be cool, but given both our own team’s
split with United and City supporters,
as well as a few other teams out here,
Pixelbomb’s taken a decidedly on-thefence approach to this. Might not stop one
of the level designers from popping a few
funny easter eggs in there though. They
might not even be Manchester related.
You’ll have to get the game to find them!
As for Oasis… personally I’d like to see
some gothic soundtrack references to Joy
Division, Manchester Pale Ale posters
and a rebel that looks like John Robb,
but life’s unfair, the war for resources
clearly finished them all off. There is an
independent soundtrack being scored
right now for the game though, which is
exciting.
If mechs were to Be Here Now, then
Manchester would be a different place
entirely. You could say there are themes
in Beyond Flesh and Blood which relate
to concepts of existence that Cast No
Shadow….get it… Wait, it’s OK, I’ll let
myself out.
The team is relatively newly formed,
what have the challenges been for
you?
Lee: We’ve not really had difficulties, but
it’s more about the amount of choices
we’ve got – we’ve got to keep narrowing it
down. Like Phil said, there’s lots of themes
we’d like to explore but it’s a case of just
how many of these we can effectively
explore in the timeframe.
You have a very British team, with
members straight out of Uni, has
this created a very British game?
Phil: BF&B is set in Britain – Manchester
specifically. It will feature a British cast,
and it’s made in Manchester by a local
team… Britain! Manchester! It was always
going to be set in Manchester because it’s
the city that’s adopted us misfits, creatively.
Are your environments based on
real life Manchester? Will there be
parts we recognise?
Scott: Loads. Town Hall, Albert Square,
“we have been described as a
‘hardcore’ rather than an ‘implusive’
product, which is confusing but we
guess it’s true...”
Deansgate, Great Northern Warehouse,
Triangle, the big wheel that the council
and the guys that own it are fighting about
at the moment; Beetham Tower, the back
of Quay Street…most of the city centre.
You received tax breaks, how has
this helped you create the game,
what has it made possible?
Phil: Made the money to go further.
It’s your bread and butter as a business
above it all, as that money goes back into
production and lowers the risk.
Basically, it’s enabled us to achieve the
plan: make a big, bombastic game about
our city.
And how did it work in terms of
application and receiving the
breaks?
Phil: The help from BFI was quick and
friendly. It wasn’t as if we were waiting
around for decisions. It’s continuing to be
a good experience for the studio.
How do the tax breaks work, and
affect the day-to-day business? Is
the British government making it
popular to Develop games in the UK?
Phil: We’ve added historically accurate
ideas into the game. For example, we’re
creating AR to explain the real-world
significance of certain famous buildings
we’ve scaled in the game’s version of
Manchester, which adds depth and
familiarity to the story, where the old order
of things is destroyed – it’s the perfect
contrast.
Jane: It’s a huge step forward for making
the UK better for developers, UKIE and
TIGA worked and lobbied really hard to
make that happen.
These kind of breaks happen already for
film and big budget TV production, so it
makes sense to make the whole creative
playing field equal.
When is the game out and how do
you expect will be received?
Scott: There will be announcements soon!
It might not be wise to predict how people
will react to the game – as long as gamers
enjoy it, people recommend it and we’re
able to make another one, that’s what we
can hope for. «
Beyond Flesh and Blood has been Greenlit by
the Steam Community, and you can find out
more about it here:
www.beyondfleshandbloodgame.com
FEATURE: Super Dungeon Bros
Axl
Click for
video
content
Super Dungeon Bros,
a cross platform, rock
music themed, co-op
dungeon brawler
Harry Cole talks to Chad Lee and
Brad Moss, from React Games,
about the upcoming game.
My name is Chad Lee, I am the CEO of
React Games and I’ve been in the industry
21 years now. I come from the creative
side, working as an artist and animator
before starting React in 2008. We have
over 30 people now working on Super
Dungeon Bros and a few other projects.
Our team consists of some of the best
talent in the world. Most of the team has
been together since the beginning and
we’ve shipped over 50 titles across various
platforms for some of the top clients in
the world, including Dreamworks, Disney,
EA, Intel, Microsoft, Hasbro and others.
We’ve been very fortunate to be on the
cutting edge of innovation for many of our
projects, doing things that have never been
seen or done in the industry.
My name is Brad Moss and I’m the
President of React games and I’ve been
a gamer all my life. I started out making
games in Hypercard on my parent’s Mac in
the early 80s. We have a strong studio with
some of the best developer talent in the
world. We’ve shipped over 50 games in our
7 year history. I applaud my team in their
ability to do big innovative things really
quickly. Because of their talent we’ve done
stuff for Dreamworks, Disney, EA, Intel,
Microsoft, Hasbro and others.
What is the ethos of the team,
what sort of games to you strive to
create?
Chad Lee We strive to create compelling,
innovative games without a particular
regard to a certain genre. Our first game,
Archon, was a strategy/action game, while
Super Dungeon Bros is a co-op roguelike
game. We strive to be the best at whatever
we’re given, or decide to develop ourselves.
Internally, we have a variety of players, for
instance, one of our guys was ranked #1 in
the world for Spelunky on the PlayStation
Vita and another was a tournament
HALO player … then there’s me, who
generally plays mobile games when I get
the chance.
Ozzie
Brad Moss We focus on finding fun in
new places. This means we aren’t overly
heavy in one specific genre, although I’ve
noticed the team enjoys their work the
most when making multiplayer games.
We’re all gamers too, with several members
of our team being top
ranked players in
games such as
Spelunky, Geometry
Wars, Halo, and
Guitar Hero. Chad and
myself are
big on
accessibility
to all
players, so
we do have a
healthy focus
on making our games accessible. That
DOESN’T mean lacking depth or skill
though – as you’d guess our guys make
sure we always have depth for core gamers.
What got you into making games?
What’s your career history so far?
Chad Lee Getting into games was purely
accidental. Back in my day (I’m old
enough, so now I can say that) there
were no gaming degrees or anything like
that. You went to college to become an
accountant or something respectable. I
never thought you could make money
developing video games. Fortunately a
small gaming company put an ad in the
local paper, I applied as an artist
and the rest is history. I’ve
worked on almost every
platform from SNES on up.
I’ve worked on some of the
best franchises in the world
(Mortal Kombat 2, WWF
Raw, Crash
Freddie
Bandicoot) in one capacity or another.
I loved animation, so in 2000, I left the
games industry to start an animation
company, then came back to gaming in
2008 when I started React.
Brad Moss I was making games since
I was a kid. I remember the first game
I ‘modded’ was “Archon”. After that I
made a game with a kid in Canada over
ICQ program. I got into college, did film
studies (there were no game programs
at that time). But alas, before I finished
my degree, I had a job in a local game
dev studio. After that I did an MBA
and worked for Amazon as a business
leader. But the excitement and speed
of innovations in games drew me
back, and I’m really happy to be
in such a fun
and exciting
industry.
describe Super Dungeon Bros?
Chad Lee The best co-op roguelike
dungeon brawler on the planet.
the game? Why did you make it?
Chad Lee It came about during some
down time between projects. We
wanted to enter something into the
KILLSCREEN/OUYA competition back
in 2013 and the team developed a funky
dungeon crawler. It quickly became a
company passion as we saw the potential
of what it might become. The more we
played the more fun we had with the
co-op elements, so we iterated the design
a few times and ended up with what you
see now.
What is the setting of the game,
where do the dungeons come into it?
Chad Lee You play as one of 4 Bros (Axl,
Ozzie, Lars and Freddie) who love the
Rock-n-Roll lifestyle, even though they
can’t play any instruments. They’re based
in a medieval fantasy universe of Rökheim
and love to live fast without much regard
to the future. They’ve heard a cry for help
from one of their favourite Rock Stars
and have entered the dungeons to help
him and be the heroes they always
dreamed of being.
What are the bosses like? Big
Demons I hope.
Chad Lee The bosses are varied
and impressive. The main boss of
Cryptheim (the first level in Super
Dungeon Bros) is “Duke Spookem,” who
makes fun of you as you try to defeat him
and dodge his balls of steel (spiked balls
that extend from his arms!) I can’t go into
too much detail about the others, but
they are just as fun and wacky…They are
a real treat to encounter and it makes the
levels well worth playing … but they are
really hard!
Brad Moss Big Demon-ish creatures.
These are the gods of each of the worlds
that the bros will travel to and they aren’t
happy the bros are there. They are big and
exciting with unique mechanics, and really
require a team to take them down.
Levels regenerate in a totally new
layout. How does that change the
players’ experience each time they
play?
Chad Lee It changes the experience, but
not the framework, similar to any sport.
Take basketball, for example, the same
rules apply every time you play or watch
— 5 guys on a team and you’re just trying
to get the little ball in the opponent’s
basket as many times as you can. But
each experience is totally different and
immensely rewarding — which is why
sports guys can play or watch basketball
or football for 20 years and never get
tired of it (and they get sooo worked up if
something is on the line.) Similarly, Super
Dungeon Bros can be played many times
without getting repetitive because of how
you’re levelling your weapon, how you’re
interacting with your team and when you
encounter enemies, traps and puzzles.
“We’ve spent a lot of time setting
up a really intelligent procedural
system. One of our internal tenets is
that players will always need a fresh
experience...”
Brad Moss We’ve spent a lot of time
setting up a really intelligent procedural
system. One of our internal tenets is that
players will always need a fresh experience.
We started off with just building complete
pieces that randomly hook up together.
That wasn’t keeping the experience fresh
enough. So we created a method that nests
our procedural generation multiple times
in each framework piece, so 1 piece can
generate 1,000 different configurations
instead of one. Now, another major
tenet is that players will always want to
apply what they’ve learned. So dungeons
generate in a framework that focuses on
the excitement curve, helps players level
their weapons, and reach the big bosses
with all the tools they need. Of all the
innovations we’ve created in building
Super Dungeon Bros, our procedural
system is one of the best. We can’t wait
for more people to play it and tell us what
they think.
Four player on one screen co-op,
online and on-screen multiplayer?
Is that a nod back to retro
multiplayers?
Chad Lee Yes and No. We wanted to
create an awesome couch experience
(you should hear our playtests) while
keeping all the players on the same screen,
which is what a lot of old school games
had done before because of technical
restraints. But we also wanted to extend
the “couch” experience to online play
and have just as much fun. We also have
some randomly generated levels, which is
a great innovation. We use AI to populate
the levels using a pacing algorithm so they
get the right amount of excitement and
strategy to break up the gameplay in an
interesting way. Because of this, it never
gets repetitive.
Brad Moss From a design perspective one
great thing that the ‘on-screen’ limitation
gives players is team awareness. We are
focusing on co-op, and when players can
see their bro on the screen is in danger,
they naturally want to help them out. It
really adds to the game design, rather than
feel like a constraint or limitation.
How important is it to work with
friends to progress through the
game?
Chad Lee It is imperative to work with
friends to get through the levels and
puzzles. In Super Dungeon Bros, the
co-op is not just thrown in, but the
framework of design. You throw your
bro across a chasm to retrieve a key, or
unlock a feature. Or you stack on top of
each other to reach treasures in tall towers.
With that said, there is also a competitive
element within the Bros…like who is
going to be the jerk who gets all the
health? Gets the most kills, etc. You’ll get
bonuses for that at the end of each level.
This way, it keeps the competitive tension
within the co-op framework.
Chad Lee Not too deliberate, we just
wanted people to know how Super our
Bros were at raiding Dungeons! It’s a
fantastic name that conveys the outrageous
whimsy nature of the game. It’s epic, but
doesn’t take itself too seriously.
Brad Moss If you are playing with your
bros, you really need to work with your
bros. So much of the co-op game is
structured around co-op gameplay that
if you don’t think about approaching a
dungeon as a team, you will die pretty
quickly.
What stage are you at in the game’s
journey, when’s it released?
Chad Lee We are currently in Alpha and
will be heading towards BETA very soon
with a release schedule for fall 2015.
Combo attacks, Booby traps, loot
and plunder. These are a few of my
favourite things. What can you tell
us about them?
Chad Lee There are LOTS! Since this is
co-op, the combo attacks extend beyond
your character…for example, we have
the “Bro-nado” attack, where all Bros
stack on top of one another and spin to
create this whirlwind of doom, wiping
out enemies with ease. We have certain
Bro combos that if you use as a group,
causes exponential damage…and you can
always throw your Bro into enemies
like a projectile weapon. It’s pretty fun!
Each character has their own individual
combos as well. There is a lot of loot
to collect, traps to spring and enemies to
destroy, so players will be very busy.
Brad Moss One of the big focuses we’ve
had as a team is in the weapons the bros
use in a dungeon. Weapons in Super
Dungeon Bros are like Champions in
League of Legends. Each weapon is so
unique, but has a general role to play in
the team configuration. Collect loot, forge
new weapons, and find the best items in
the game!
The name is similar to another game
I have heard of, was this deliberate?
Brad Moss There are a lot of tonguein-cheek moments in Super Dungeon
Bros. The name really lives up to the
theme of the game, rather than it trying
to copy something else. These bros rock,
their super in every way, and they crawl
dungeons.
stages, so I can’t say too much about them.
Brad Moss We aren’t working on anything
that is as Super, Dungeony, or as Brotastic
as Super Dungeon Bros! We do have some
really innovative new ideas, some in other
genres and some in similar types of games.
We have some solid prototypes of these
new ideas and will continue to work on
them as the team starts to transition off
Super Dungeon Bros. «
Super Dungeon Bros is scheduled to launch
in Fall 2015 and you can follow the games
progress at www.superdungeonbros.com or
www.facebook.com/DungeonBros
What other projects is
React working on?
Chad Lee We have
several projects that
we’re prototyping. One
is an innovative MOBA
and another is a mobile
title, but they are
in their early
Lars
IND13.COM SPRING 2015 ISSUE FIVE 17
FEATURE: War for the Overlord
Are you an Underlord
with unrivaled
dark power and an
insatiable desire for
bloody conquest?
Than War for the Overlord might
just be the perfect game for you
then. Harry Cole and Lee Smith
talked to Lee Moon – Community
Manager at Subterranean Games.
W
ar for the Overworld
is a real-time strategy
video game developed by
Subterranean Games.
Inspired by Dungeon Keeper, players build
dungeons containing deadly traps to kill
adventuring heroes that enter. So far so
good then it seems, and it is good. Really
good. What started in 2009 as a fan-made
sequel to Dungeon Keeper and Dungeon
Keeper 2, has just taken on a life of its
own and spread its demonic wings.
So, as we and IND13 are always curious
about how games such as War for the
Overworld come into being, and as
we love talking to indie developers, we
managed to get in touch with Lee Moon,
the Community Manager at Subterranean
Games, who gave us a bit more insight.
Such as, how it all started. “We’re
extremely fortunate as an indie studio to
have a relatively large group of incredibly
talented and passionate people from across
the world”, Moon says.
“The majority of us met on a Dungeon
Keeper fansite known as Keeper Klan
where we debated and prototyped a
project like this multiple times but never
really got going until Kickstarter. Everyone
else are individuals who shared a passion
for this type of game who we’ve picked up
along the way!”
“Currently our team is 15 strong including
three programmers, two 3D artists, two
animators (one of whom is part time), a
VFX artist, two audio designers, two on
community and website and finally our
CEO and Game Designer. That’s not
including any external contractors who
work on other projects as well.”
Yep, it really is as it sounds. But we have
all been there right? Where you are such
fans of a game you would love to make
your own version? Well, most of us don’t,
by these guys did. They were/are massive
fans of Dungeon Keeper and just thought
‘we should make this game’?
“That’s right! We’re all huge fans of the
Dungeon Keeper series as well as other
entries into the genre such as Evil Genius”,
Lee explains.
“For us we’d been waiting to see a new
Dungeon Management Game come
around that captured the essence of what
we considered to be the core of the genre.”
“For years we debated and prototyped the
idea of War for the Overworld but it was
only with the advent of Kickstarter that we
truly had the opportunity to make it more
than a pipe dream!”
It cannot have been easy though, tackling
a project as big as this, and it wasn’t. It was
“a long bumpy road, and we’ve certainly
taken our knocks” Moon says, “but we’ve
also revelled in our successes.”
He then says that in terms of down points
they’ve “had our fair share over the two
years and four months we spent in initial
development; the biggest of which have
probably been our troubles with our
original plans for mod support.”
“In terms of projects there’s some
huge gaps that have been left by the
big publishers, and it’s a great place
for aspiring developers to step in to
fill the gap...”
Originally their plans were to include
extensive support through a piece of
middleware which they would devlelop
in-house, but this “proved to be overly
ambitious and nearly cost us the whole
project, thankfully some quick thinking
helped us to turn it around though. It’s
a long story that we touch on in our first
year retrospective so for additional context
you can read that: https://wftogame.
com/war-for-the-overworld-a-year-inretrospect/”
Other than that, their next biggest down
point were the months leading up until
release where they were struggling to keep
themselves afloat. The crunch period they
went through was “quite tough on all of
us” Moon says, “but again we’ve made
it through and while it was tough, we’ve
come out with a lot of knowledge because
of it. You can read more about that over
in our State of the Game retrospective:
https://wftogame.com/state-of-thegame-13-04-2015/”
Optimisim abounds with Subterranean
Games though, as there’s “always another
edge to the coin”, Lee exclaims, “where
we’ve had huge highlights, every time
someone thanks us for making the game
it’s like a bright light is being shone where
we’ve just made someone’s dreams come
Click for
video
content
“We were so excited we actually ended up buying all of the
copies in our local game shop!”
true. For us it’s always been about making
this game, making War for the Overworld,
a brand new Dungeon Management Game
and to hear that there are people really
enjoying it. That’s just fantastic and makes
all the trials and tribulations we’ve faced
worthwhile. In many ways that’s one of
the things that’s kept us going.”
So they were fans of Dungeon Keeper,
but what made this game so cool to them?
Well, as Lee explains, “the thing that most
resonated with us and indeed many fans
of the Dungoen Keeper games is how
unique they felt, this is one of those rare
opportunities where you get to be the bad
guy and not only that, but you’re in charge
of a whole dungeon of unique monsters
with their own personalities.”
“It was extremely cool to be on the
opposite side, rather than being the goodly
hero wandering in to kill the dark lord
and plunder his riches you are in fact that
very dark lord looking to stop that from
happening. The whole concept was great
and is still rarely seen today.”
It must be immensely satisfying to make
a game like this, as a fan of the genre
especially, and a fan of games in general. I
cannot imagine what that feels like, but I
imagine that the first time they watch the
trailer and hear the voice over, they must
be like, “we did it!”?
“It’s great to see all of your work finally
come together into a product, seeing the
trailer of the game was exhilarating”, Lee
says, “especially after the work we put into
the game and indeed the trailer.
Even more so is being able to go into a
local game shop and see it there on the
shelves next to other PC Titles.”
Infact, they were “so excited we actually
ended up buying all of the copies in our
local game shop!”
It isn’t just the look of a game that
ensures that it has the right amount of
atmosphere. When you hear the sound
effects of the Imps cutting away the soft
earth and claiming rooms, you know how
important is it to get these aspects into a
game that you are affectively remaking.
“We spent a lot of time in the last few
weeks implementing a huge amount of
art and sound assets, the difference is
staggering and you feel so much more
involved in the world when you hear every
little thing happening. In terms of getting
a feel for a world, you’d truly notice if the
sound design wasn’t up to scratch!”
Those very sounds actually gave me
goosebumps, and bought back amazing
memories of early Dungeon Keeper.
“As big fans of this genre we’ve always
been waiting for the next big game in it.
When it was clear that we weren’t going to
see something akin to what we wanted we
decided to go for it ourselves!”
“Sound design is something so very
important in all games, yet often
overlooked” Lee explains.
“For many of us these kinds of games
were our childhood, it’s what we grew up
with and something that has been so sadly
missed in the past decade of video games.
It’s great to see RTS Games, God Games
and others making a return, we’re even
seeing some new DMGs coming to the
forefront. We live in exciting times!”
“We’re fortunate to have two incredibly
talented Audio designers who have
singlehandedly constructed all the Music
and SFX in the game and even provided a
huge chunk of VO for plenty of the units
and other characters in the game.”
This is a pretty new team to the world of
games development. Lee says that they
could even be called “neophytes to the
industry, as for many of us this is our very
first project. Although some of the team
have experience in modding WFTO is
Prepare to
be Slain!
A homage to the gory hack and
slash games of the ‘80s and ‘90s.
www.wolfbrewgames.com/slain
very much their first professional project.’
Although most of our talent comes
from other industries or indeed straight
from education, they do have people
from all different fields joined by one
common goal, to make the best Dungeon
Management Game we can.
And in a way this inexperience has
occasionally netted them in a few difficult
situations where our plans were bigger
than their team could cope with, “all in
all the project itself is a lot bigger than
would usually be attempted with a team
this size”, he explains, “but we’ve risen to
the challenge at each step and we’ve found
we’re much stronger for it!’
Crowd sourced, crowd funded, based on
pre-loved concepts? It’s something that
we have seen more of in the last year.
Something which is on the rise.
Lee agrees, saying that “it’s definitely
something we’re going to see more of,
in terms of tools available to indie devs
to make their dreams come true there’s
never been a better state in the industry.
With the advent of Kickstarter, Steam
Early Access, Patreon and other funding
methods it’s now easier to acquire funding
than ever before.”
“In terms of projects there’s some huge
gaps that have been left by the big
publishers, entire genres have gone with
very little input from them and it’s a great
place for aspiring developers to step in to
fill the gap.”
Lee does advise, however, that’s “it’s
important that aspiring Devs understand
the commitment they’re taking on, we see
all too many collapse under the pressure
and that doesn’t help anyone, it destroys
consumer trust and helps to make it more
difficult for those who have the talent to be
funded in this manner.”
The key here, Lee suggests, “is to plan
as much as you possibly can, research
and develop a great pitch this will draw
people in provided your idea is great. If
you get crowdfunded then your next step
is to remember your community is your
lifeblood.”
At every step of this project they believed
in the power of our community, they know
it’s the reason “we’re here so we’ve done
everything we can to keep them informed
and posted weekly news updates for the
entire time our project has been running.”
“Although WFTO is entirely our own
property, assets, code and design
we wanted to ensure we kept off
anyone’s toes and the guys at EA have
been great about that...”
With games in general, but especially
games such as these, it is all about the
paople that play the games, that build a
relationship with the game.
“Never doubt the power of your
community,” Lee says, “look after them,
respect them and they’ll help see you
through. For us we’ve always seen it in one
way, treat your customer as you would like
to be treated while understanding all the
risks.”
They knew there was a big demand for this
genre of games as they’d “often been on the
demanding side. Then it was the case of
taking the side of the community wherever
we could, for a long time we’d been a part
of that very same group of people and we
don’t see any reason why it should be so
differ”
“We’re incredibly pleased that the game
has been something the community could
rally around. We believe that it’s through
the strength of what we’ve created, on top
of our continued commitment to engaging
with our community that helps to give
them faith in us.”
As for the bigger companies, well, they
have been surprisingly supportive of the
team and War for the Overlord.
“We’ve been rather fortunate that we’ve
had some great contacts at EA who have
helped to keep us in the clear in regards
to anything that we should avoid”, Lee
says, “Although WFTO is entirely our
own property, assets, code and design we
wanted to ensure we kept off anyone’s toes
and the guys at EA have been great about
that.”
“It was in our Kickstarter campaign that
we were first contacted, they wanted to
check in on us and make sure we weren’t
a big company attempting to use any of
their property, they were happy with what
they saw. We got some advice on anything
we should avoid and from there it’s been
almost entirely clear sailing.”
Amusingly they did have a small run-in
where their voice actor Richard Ridings,
who voices the Mentor and is famous for
the part he played in Dungeon Keeper was
potentially being prevented from voicing
for them due to a supposed non-compete
clause we had in his contract (Which
didn’t exist but was presumed by his
agent).
“It was when they were looking at getting
lines recorded for Dungeon Keeper
mobile” Lee explains of the strange
situation, “that his agent replied he was
under a non-compete. It wasn’t long until
we received a call asking “Did you get
him to sign a non-compete” to which we
hastily double and triple checked before
responding with a definitive no.”
“It’s somewhat amusing though that for a
short while it looked like we were blocking
them in a small way, to think that we
could hold up a giant is a scary thought.”
Right now, though, since the release,
they have been working on “fixing up all
the bugs that people are finding, that’s
currently our top priority. We’ve patched
up a huge amount with the 23 hotfix
patches we’ve had since launch but there
are still some issues facing a few users,
worst of all are the CTDs and we want to
get those patched as soon as possible.”
They are also working on the various parts
of what will be included in the 1.1 update,
particularly new hotkeys, multiplayer and
skirmish lobbies as well as enhancements
to both those modes, new maps, tooltips
and other improvements that people have
been asking for.
Going from a dozen or so users at a time
to thousands was quite the profound
change.”
However they have been hard at work
“patching things up and releasing huge
numbers of hotfixes and we’re now hearing
from players that the game has improved
dramatically for them. People have been
really happy to see our response, and this
has helped assure players of our dedication
to the game!”
“Currently we’re sat on 75% Positive
Steam reviews and we’re hoping we can
grow that back up as we continue to
improve the game and fix issues that
players have faced!”
It must have been an incredibly stressful
project to undertake, though, especially
given the sheer size of it.
How have the fans of the genre, and games
in general taken to the game, what has the
response been to this incredible project?
“It’s been a long road that’s for sure. I
would say that the game was perhaps a
little too big and ambitious for our small
team, especially on the resources and
experience we had and that’s certainly
caused some stress at times.”
“Overall we’ve seen a mixed response”, Lee
says honestly, “but gradually growing more
positive. Our launch helped us to uncover
a huge number of bugs which we hadn’t
previously found, sadly this has negatively
affected many peoples experiences.
“In the last few weeks running up to
release especially we were working 18,
24 and even 48 hour shifts to push in as
much as we could and straight after release
we were doing the same. When you get
to crunch time in game development you
What do they have planned for the future of this game and for the future of the studio?
In the Short term we’re looking to improve the Skirmish
and Multiplayer modes as a priority, we had to remove
4-Player maps as there were some issues that caused
them to completely fall over so we’re hoping to get
those back in soon.
After that we have a couple of other features on the
way, we have a completely overhauled Survival mode
that will be more fully featured than the prototype we
currently have, this update will be free to everyone.
We also have some tentative plans for Story DLC
which will be free to everyone who we consider to be
an “Early-Adopter” that’s everyone who’s purchased
the game within or before the first month of release.
In this DLC the players will be taking on the role of
an Underlord they’ve previously met in the original
campaign and exploring some of that Underlord’s
backstory.
As for the future of our studio in general we’d like to
continue supporting WFTO for as long as we can, this
has been our baby and it’s a project we’re very proud
of. It’s been a labour of love from the very start right
to where we are now. So hopefully we’ll be releasing
updates and content for that for some time to come.
We’ll also be looking at other projects in the future and
while we have some ideas I’m afraid that I can’t talk
about them just yet.
soon find your free time going out of the
window and that can be tough.”
appropriate ones if there are applicable ones
for you.
“There’s also a surprising amount that you
have to have ready for release, trailers,
screenshots, press kits, store pages and not
to mention the game itself means there’s
a lot to be done and not a lot of time to
do it in! But we pulled through and we’re
finally looking forward to going back
to normal working hours and perhaps
even seeing the mythical beast that is a
weekend!”
You can also follow them on Twitter @
Wftogame, like us on Facebook (https://
www.facebook.com/wftogame) or follow their
weekly news posts over at wftogame.com for
news on development, patch notes and other
information!
“Still, I don’t think anyone on the team
would change it for the world, what
we’ve accomplished here is something
we’re proud of and something that we’re
looking forward to continuing to dedicate
ourselves to!” «
You can purchase War for the Overlord
directly from Steam (http://store.
steampowered.com/app/230190), their site
(https://wftogame.com/game/) and from
various other outlets such as Humble, the
Amazon App store and GMG.
Physical copies are available in several
countries throughout the world. Sean from
Sold Out will be able to direct you to the
“This has been our baby and it’s a
project we’re very proud of. It’s been
a labour of love from the very start
right to where we are now...”
Save the sheep from a horde of wolves by building a fence around
them, in this increasingly difficult new puzzler from McPeppergames
www.mcpeppergames.com
FEATURE: World War Toons
and grim? Not this Second
World War Toon is a humorous first person shooter and tank combat game set in a whimsical, toon
inspired world. Lee Smith talked to Pete Blumel,the Executive Producer at Reload Studios about World
War Toons, Virtual Reality, and animation.
“
In a stroke of
serendipity, the cartoon
aesthetic proved to be
an ideal solution.”
This is what Pete Blumel, the Executive
Producer of Reload games, told me when
we discussed their World War Two game
with a difference, World War Toons. More
specifically I was asking him how, in the
midst of ultra realistic first-person shooter
games, did they come up with an idea to
make it fun?
To take WWII and create a whimisical,
cartoony, joy to watch and play, virtual
reality based game.
“In one sense, WWII was an opportunity
to return to our roots”, he explained, “in
another, the setting has always been very
distinctive. One glance and players can
quickly tell what side they’re fighting on,
who’s friendly and who’s the enemy”.
Which is indeed true. It was a true gift for
film games makers that the uniforms were
so markedly different. It is easy to pick
sides, to see the enemy, to choose who
best fits not your moral nature but your
sartorial one.
“However, in regards to VR”, he
continues, “we really had to evaluate
performance and frame rate vs graphics.
In a stroke of serendipity, the cartoon
aesthetic proved to be an ideal solution”.
And bang, there we have it. World War
Toons... in VR... with amazing graphics
and a trailer which you would be happy
to see made into a feature leangth film...
it all proved to be, in the end, the ‘ideal
solution’.
If you are not already familiar with
World War Toon, it is, in some ways, a
playable cartoon where, in typical cartoon
fashion you are more likely to see an anvil
drop out of the sky than an air strike.
Indeed, the game’s debut trailer shows a
soldier skipping around a battlefield and
committing random acts of lunacy like
replacing an enemy’s gun with a chicken.
Not only that, though, but it is also
aiming to take advantage of the
burgeoning virtual reality technology
that it was primarily designed for. Where
it will enable you too immerse yourseld
in the madcap gameplay which, for all
it’s cartoon style and fun, is promising
amazing fun and addictive gaming.
It is also the first game from Reload
Studios. Reload is at the forefront of
the VR revolution, actively engaging
and experimenting with virtual reality
hardware in every facet and leveraging
the capabilities of emerging headsets and
hardware.
They ar an independent game
development studio formed by the
talented developers that led the creation
and production of some of the best
selling video games in the world. They are
developing content to entertain an ever
expanding audience for emerging Virtual
Reality and existing game platforms.
What is really unique about Reload is that
their background isn’t just in games, but
from animated movies, from the media of
films.
Their team of veteran game developers
has united with the feature animation
industry’s most experienced creative artists
to bring a unique set of highly stylised
characters and environments to World
War Toons.
From games and films such as Call of
Duty, Ghosts, Frozen, Wreck It Ralph,
World of Warcraft and so, so much
more, this is a studio that has a combined
experience of a gazillion games and films
and animations, which is what makes
World War Toons so special.
Pete describes it as a long term project, as
in the team coming together, and almost
destiny. With the emerging technology
being the force that finally made them
make the leap and set up Reload.
“This team was several years in the
making”, he explains, “as many of us have
known each other for quite some time.
The ascendance of VR was the perfect
catalyst for us all to finally come together
and do something fun and different.”
Of course setting up a studio is no easy
thing to do, and especially when your ‘day
jobs’ are so enriching and rewarding. but
sometimes you have to cross that rubicon
in your career. That time when, no matter
how good things may be, it is that time to
be yourself almost.
“We love video games and we’ve
created a culture where making
games is fun again...”
production. Even so, it is still a challenge
when you don’t have the security and
teams of people behind you when working
on a major title.
“It’s all relative. Working in indie
development brings about different
challenges than producing something like
Call of Duty,” he says, “You learn to pivot
quickly and eat stress for breakfast. In that
regard, we’ve surmounted lots of obstacles
and garnered tremendous insights in the
process of going independent.”
But it is a big step to take, something
which Pete completely agress with.
“Indeed,” he says, “but there comes a point
when you want to take back the reigns of
your career and break away from the giant,
risk averse corporate structure. We love
video games and we’ve created a culture
where making games is fun again.”
It is truly with the emergence of VR
technology that is driving both Reload
Studios in general, and their making of
World War Toons. With the Oculus Rift,
Project Mopheus, and various other VR
devices being developed and readied for
our eager use, we really are living in lucky
and exciting times. Games wise that is,
reality wise the world is very different
which probably explains why so many
of want to escape from the reality of
collapsed economies, endless atrocities in
the name of [insert religion/politic here]
and Taylor Swift songs.
As mentioned before, though, these are
no newbies to the industry. Pete himself
has over 19 years of experience in feature
film, animation and AAA interactive
That’s the thing about VR. It has long
been dreamt about, especially by my
generation (80s kids), who saw the gaming
world evolve from the humble Atari to
the powerful beast that is the PS4. In
all this time, throughout all those years,
it was always the one thing we wanted.
We fantasised about entering some Tron
like world to play our games and push
our mental boundaries and imagination
further than we ever could in reality.
Now this is starting to become reality.
The dream is starting to be realised and,
thankfully, we are still yound enough to
be able to enjoy it. A little podgier maybe,
with more responsibilities, and endless
bills to pay, but also enough money to
want to immerse ourselves in a different
landscape. And, as mentioned in the
beginning of the article, World War Toons
is the ‘ideal solution’.
“We all saw the potential,” Pete says,
“and believe there are great opportunities
in VR, especially for game developers”,
highlighting what the rest of us saw, but
that most of us didn’t know what to do
about it. It is an ever-evolving technology
though, even before it has really been
unleashed on the eager world.
“There are innovations happening
seemingly every day in VR. We’ve
established wonderful relationships
throughout the industry to find ways
to push the boundaries of presence and
”Verdun is a squad-based multiplayer FPS in a realistic WW1 setting. The merciless
trench warfare offers a unique battlefield for tactical squad play in the realistic
Frontlines game mode, and raw gameplay in the rifle-deathmatch.”
Available Now
www.VerdunGame.com
immersion not just for World War Toons
but for our other future projects in the
space.”
With so many different formats though,
with so many companies throwing
their vitual hat into the ring, does that
create another set of challenges? Oculus/
Facebook, Sony, Samsung, Microsoft, even
HTC… Pete doesn’t see this as creating a
development nightmare, though, but as a
good thing. A sign that people are taking
the technology seriously enough to invest
properly in it.
“I think it’s great to have a variety of
channels to distribute VR content and the
fact that such big players are jumping in,
clearly seeing the potential of the platform,
is simply invigorating.”
And the fact that so many people and
companies are developing in it, means
that VR is now about to have its moment.
However, it doesn’t matter how great the
technology is, if the games are not good
enough for us to want to play. Just a small
point, but one that is pretty crucial I
think. With World War Toons, though,
I think we are in safe hands. They are also
“Working in indie development brings
about different challenges than
producing something like Call of Duty. You learn to pivot quickly and eat stress
for breakfast...”
ensuring that they cover all bases too, and
are not just relying on people upgrading
to the new gadgets as soon as they are
shipped. All these things are expensive you
see. So despite making World War Toons
for Virtual Reality, it will also support
standard play too.
“VR performance, gameplay, design and
controls are all things we’ve prioritized
since day one,” Pete explained.
“But as an indie developer, we feel our first
title should leverage as many platforms as
possible.” «
Reload is planning on a 2015 release date for
World War Toon. You can find out more by
visiting: wwt.reload-studios.com
Click for
video
content
Review Section
BATMAN:
ARKHAM
KNIGHT
REVIEWED
ALSO REVIEWED
THE WITCHER 3: WILD HUNT
ARK: SURVIVAL EVOLVED
There’s no escaping from the fact that The Witcher 3 is this
year’s big RPG, having won over 200 awards.
Stranded naked, freezing
and starving
on the
shores
a 33
IND13.COM SUMMER
2015
ISSUEof
SIX mysterious island called ARK.
REVIEW: Batman: Arkham Knight
Batman: Arkham Knight...
the most disturbing
Batman story ever told
Review by Lexuzze Tablante
The highly anticipated final
installment of Rocksteady
and Warner Bros. Batman
Arkham franchise came in with
negative feedbacks from the PC
community as the game itself
had a lot of technical issues.
The PC port was developed by an
outsourced development team
named Iron Galaxy Studios. There
were a lot of frame rate drops when
driving the Batmobile or gliding, no
SLI and Crossfire profile support, and
textures not rendering fast enough
even on high-end videocards like
the GTX 970 and R9 290X. These
concerns, however, are being worked
on by Rocksteady while Warner Bros.
suspended the game’s sale through
Steam and physical copy shipments
until they fix the issue.
I was able to get the game since I
pre-ordered a physical copy from
our local store Datablitz because
Warner Bros. PR didn’t provide us
any press copies for us to review
Batman Arkham Knight on PC. I will
make sure that this PC review and
score will be updated as soon as they
fix the game. For some PC gamers
who already bought the game and
experienced the performance issues,
34 SUMMER 2015 ISSUE SIX SIRUSGAMING.INFO
follow these configurations as what
Rocksteady suggested. Following
these configurations, I was able to
play the game smoothly with less
stuttering on 30 frames per second.
Batman Arkham Knight is the third
and final installment of Rocksteady’s
Batman Arkham series which
concludes the story of the Dark
Knight. The game is still an openworld action adventure title. The
narrative is set in Gotham City to
stop the not-so-scary psychopath
Scarecrow from spreading a
highly concentrated fear toxin
while introducing a new character
joining the bandwagon of villains
who wants to stop Batman, the
Arkham Knight. The darker twist
of the game’s story is simply
fantastic. If you have watched the
famous Christopher Nolan’s The
Dark Knight Rising movie, you will
know that Batman Arkham Knight’s
dark-themed narrative is great. It
makes the players want to re-play
the whole Batman Arkham series,
except Arkham Origins, and feel the
emotional impact of Batman Arkham
Knight’s story.
Batman Arkham Knight retains the
main gameplay element and gadgets
from its predecessors. There are
some added elements in the game
like the “Fear Takedown” which
players can do the “Takedown” move
to a certain amount of enemy AI in a
slow-motion effect, giving the last
blow that accomplished feeling to
players.
Combat feels more faster than what
we’ve seen in Arkham City. Adding
the “dual-play” gameplay, it lets the
player switch from one character
to another and do combined
takedowns with Batman’s buddies
like Catwoman, Tim Drake, and
Nightwing in certain side quests.
However, Dual-Play is a weak
gameplay element that should have
been better if it was utilized more in
the game’s main story.
Now, gadgets, gadgets, and
gadgets… Batman Arkham Knight still
“Combat feels more faster than what
we’ve seen in Arkham City. Adding the
“dual-play” gameplay, it lets the player
switch from one character to another ”
showcase some old favorite Wayne
Industry technologies present from
its predecessors like the Explosive
Gel, Remote Controlled Batarangs,
Remote Hacking Device, Batclaw,
and more. Along with these classic
gadgets are 2 new devices: the
Voice Synthesizer where players can
imitate certain villains to order them
to open gates or investigate certain
areas for you to take them out, and
most importantly the Batmobile
Remote that controls the highly
anticipated Batmobile.
The Batmobile is the main attraction
of the newest feature in Batman
Arkham Knight. It allows players
to roam around Gotham City like
never before in any Batman Arkham
title. The Batmobile transforms to
a tank-like destroyer to take out
unmanned remote controlled tanks,
and shoot enemy AI with rubber
bullets to instantly taking them
down, not killing them. The controls
of the Batmobile are pretty smooth,
especially drifting.
The tank-like mobile of the Dark
Knight is not overpowered, there
are options to upgrade the Vulcan
gun, 60mm Canon, Armor, and the
magnificent Afterburner. However,
the visual design of the Batmobile
have references from Christopher
Nolan’s Batman Begins (the Tumbler)
for being a tank-ish vehicle and the
canon as what we’ve seen in the
upcoming Batman v Superman:
Dawn of Justice movie. The
Batmobile did live up to the hype of
all Batman fans who were waiting for
this and it wasn’t a disappointment.
With all the impressive elements
that were shown in its gameplay,
Batman Arkham Knight’s overall
graphic design is spectacular. Even
if the game can’t run on Normal
for now because of the game’s
optimization issues, running it on
Low settings with Anti-Aliasing
turned on in 1080p resolution
already makes the PC version on par
with the console versions.
Gotham City looks astonishing,
smokes, the splash and explosion
effects from the tanks, the
Batmobile, rain effects, villain’s
visual designs, and as well as
Batman looks great on Low settings.
It’s pretty much stable on Low
SIRUSGAMING.INFO SUMMER 2015 ISSUE SIX 35
REVIEW: Batman: Arkham Knight
configuration as long as you meet
the minimum specs and experience
minor to no stuttering in gameplay
experience. Smooth as butter.
The pretty graphical effects of
Batman Arkham Knight also came
with an impressive voice-acting
from Kevin Conroy as Batman and
the most precious voiceover of John
Noble as Scarecrow.
Even if Scarecrow’s plans and
looks were not that scary or
even intimidating to players and
Batman, Noble gives out that
horror atmosphere for being Dr.
Crane’s voice that will overlook the
character’s weaknesses.
The game’s soundtrack was not that
impacting and emotional at some
point in the game than what Arkham
Origins and Arkham City have.
Composed by David Buckley and
Nick Aundrel, they’ve mixed some
tracks from Arkham City and Arkham
Asylum to make it darker which I
thought that it didn’t have that
“emotional” feel than what I’ve heard
from Christopher Drake’s tracks in
Arkham Origins.
Just on a side note, I know this is a
PC port and this should not be taken
lightly. What I wrote in my previous
paragraph is the mere review and
experience that I had with the
game. I am comfortable playing the
game at 30FPS and I know most of
you readers and PC gamers don’t
understand why we should play at
30FPS when our beast computers
can run it more than 30FPS and even
more than 60FPS.
For me, it’s basically on pure
preferences of the players.
If you guys wants to play it on 60FPS
or higher, then that’s your choice. I
wouldn’t force you to play it or even
suggest it if you’re not comfortable
playing a game on 30FPS.
And I wouldn’t want to be too
biased in this review because the
game’s first release was horrible.
I’m reviewing the game based on
my experience of the game as a
critic, and for me it was a great
Batman experience. The graphical
improvement can wait until they
patch the game.
I know the game has issues with
performance and stability, in
short poor optimization overall.
It’s worse than what Ubisoft had
with Assassin’s Creed Unity and
this is because the development
of the game was passed to
an inexperienced outsourced
development company and it was
GRAPHICS (WILL BE UPDATED)
75%
SOUNDS
80%
GAMEPLAY (WILL BE UPDATED)
80%
REPLAY VALUE/DLC
95%
FIRST RELEASE SCORE
35%
a bad move from Rocksteady and
Warner. They were too focus enough
of having the game released on par
with the console versions.
Now, the game is currently
unavailable on Steam and physical
copies are currently suspended until
the game is fixed.
There was already a minor patch
that fixed some bugs and added
the rain effects on the PC version,
Rocksteady already posted in their
forums that they’re now focusing on
the game’s major patch update and
that’s already coming.
Overall, Batman Arkham Knight
is still a great game despite its
optimization issues.
I already used Rocksteady’s
configuration advice for graphics and
it already gave me a great experience
in the gameplay.
The story was spectacular, graphics
were great even on Low how much
more if we can set it on High after
Rocksteady fixes the game, and the
overall experience was fantastic.
Batman Arkham Knight is a game
where players can now experience
what a Batman game should be and
the epic conclusion of the Batman
Arkham franchise. «
Despite having poor optimization, the temporary
suggested configuration from Rocksteady made
my gameplay experience a lot better. Batman
Arkham Knight is one of the best Batman game
there is and brought us the epic conclusion of the
Dark Knight himself.
83
%
overall score
Voted one of the
top 5 Indie games
at Play Expo 2014
- Gamertime.co.uk
HARD-HITTING
BEAT-EM-UP ACTION!
‘MakinGames has got that beat'em-up feel just right, complete
with bone-shuddering weapon
attacks and weighty divekicks.’
- Pocketgamer.co.uk
- BONE-CRUSHING MOVES - DEADLY WEAPONS - INSANE BOSSES DO YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES?
COMING SOON to CONSOLE, PC, MAC, AND MOBILE
REVIEW: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
The years big RPG
reviewed indepth
Review by Davrel
There’s no escaping from the
fact that The Witcher 3: Wild
Hunt is this year’s big RPG,
having won over 200 awards,
this mammoth game casts you
in the role of Geralt of Rivia, a
Witcher, and sets you off on a
continent-spanning adventure
that’ll see you facing down
man and beast alike.
For the uninitiated, a Witcher is
a kind of bounty hunter, but one
that deals specifically in the killing
of unnatural creatures, demonic
beings, ghosts and the like. You
play as Geralt, arguably the most
famous of Witchers, as you search
the continent for “the child of
prophecy, an ashen-haired girl, a
living and highly volatile weapon
everyone wants to control.”
The world you explore in Witcher
3 is without doubt one of the
most absorbing, atmospheric,
and despite the monsters,
realistic game worlds I’ve
encountered. Take Velen, one of
the several distinct main regions
you travel to, as an example:
it’s a bleak, miserable, swampy
place, struggling to adapt to the
outcome of a recent invasion –
it delivers all this atmosphere
without becoming a stereotype
‘gloomy swamp’ location.
In terms of what it looks like, the
closest real-world approximation
I can give would be Scotland, if
Scotland were much flatter and
closer to sea-level; the terrain is
made up of rugged heathland,
lakes, bogs, etc. And yes, plenty of
fantasy tropes are dotted around
the landscape like mage towers,
ancient caves and forts, but
everything has a sense of solidity –
it looks like somewhere that could
actually exist.
There are battlefields where
corpses lay rotting, villages and
cities where peasants eke out
a living, forests – actual damn
forests (not just impassable areas
of trees added for effect) – filled
with bandits and other nasties,
granite boulders peeking out from
dense heather, and wild dogs
roaming in packs.
The rain pours, the wind blows,
the sun rises and sets. Solid worldbuilding is top of my wishlist
when it comes to RPGs and this
game does it expertly. And it
looks beautiful on PC too, despite
the uproar over the graphical
‘downgrade’ in comparison with
early gameplay videos. With a
few exceptions (red bricks, for
example), the textures are sharp;
character and object models and
animations are well-realised and
and let’s not forget the hair.
If you’re rocking a relatively beefy
NVidia card, you can even use
their proprietary hair rendering
software to cast Geralt in his own
Herbal Essences ad… Only with
more blood and death.
A further staggering hair-related
innovation is that Geralt’s beard
grows in real time! Amazing! Jokes
aside, it really is a very pretty game
to look at, and well optimised too.
In a time when we seem to be
heading into a dark era where PC
games are released with chronic
bugs, The Witcher 3 is a shining
example of how to launch a game
properly.
As well as the main storyline,
the world is littered with long
branching side-quests requiring
you to use your special Witcher
“I got into a bar fight with some of
a local ruler’s guards. Ultimately, I
decided to murder them because
they were rude...”
abilities, talk to locals and cross
the world on foot, horseback or
even by boat.
The side-quests are miniature
story-arcs unto themselves, with
actual impact on the game world.
They’re overwhelmingly bleak
and usually result in at least one
unexpected death or maiming,
but this fits well with the whole
atmosphere of a war ravaged land.
In addition, these quests far from
the mmo-esque tedious fetch
quests that marred the experience
of Dragon Age: Inquisition. And
best of all, your choices (both
in action and speech) have a
meaningful impact on how other
characters react to you and how
events pan out. Case in point: I
got into a bar fight with some of
a local ruler’s guards. Ultimately, I
decided to murder them because
they were rude, later on I earn the
respect of their leader and the
fear of his other guards for my
behaviour – NPCS would mutter
about their fallen colleagues as I
passed.
Even when your choices
don’t impact the overall story
dramatically, it’s satisfying to
see then referenced by other
characters.
And when these characters speak,
it’s a joy. Bethesda take note: this
is now you do voice acting. The
cast has a range of interesting,
world-appropriate accents and (in
my experience so far) when there
is a repetition of an NPC voice
actor, it’s barely noticeable.
This isn’t Skyrim. The rest of the
sound too is generally first rate,
with wind and rain, steel against
steel, and general ambient sound
all adding to the immersion and
sense of being in another world.
My only real grumble about this
game is the combat, and I fully
admit that this probably wouldn’t
have come up if I was better at
playing games. Fighting monsters
and people can be at times be a
little tricky, not from the difficultly
level so much, but because
Geralt’s fighting style is highly
acrobatic – if you fail to lock on to
a particular target, you can find
yourself murdering the scenery
around you and not the guys about
to stab you in the spine.
I also find switching between
Signs (Geralt’s semi-magical
abilities) in combat can be a little
fiddly; it works much the same
way as the weapon wheel system
in GTAV – with the action slowing
down almost to a pause as you
enter the quick-select menu – but
I quite often find myself thinking
I chose a certain Sign, only for
nothing to happen.
I think this is because rather than
just highlighting the Sign required,
you have to highlight and then
click it. You can avoid this process
altogether by using the mouse
wheel, so this is probably more a
case of me getting used to using
the controls more effectively than
a major flaw.
One minor, additional complaint
I have is that weapons and items
seem to wear out very quickly,
meaning regular boring trips to a
blacksmith.
That being said, despite its
flaws the combat is far superior
to the original Witcher game
and Witcher 2. Overall the
game’s difficulty level is slanted
somewhat towards the harder
side, it’s not exactly Dark Souls,
but it can take a little while to get
used to, especially if you’re a bit
inept like me.
This is by no means a bad thing, in
fact, it’s a good thing, but when
looking at the difficulty settings,
think of them as one level above
REVIEW: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
the usual, so ‘Easy’ would equate to
‘Normal’ in most other games, etc.
It’s also very hard to play the game
properly without making full use of
Geralt’s abilities, you’ll need to become
proficient in alchemy, explosives and
general crafting; this is a game that
really does reward character mastery
– knowing which potions to brew,
what items to use, etc.
Again, not a complaint, but unless
you’re playing on easy, don’t expect
to just steamroll through it. Despite
my minor complaints regarding the
combat and the (massively inflated)
controversy over the graphical
downgrade, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
is a staggeringly accomplished game.
The developers, CD Projeckt RED
should be proud of what they’ve
created. I just hope that others are
paying attention.
Click for
video
content
Buy the damn game already. «
GRAPHICS
93%
SOUNDS
93%
GAMEPLAY
92%
REPLAY VALUE
90%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is a staggeringly accomplished
game. The developers, CD Projeckt RED should be proud
of what they’ve created. I just hope that others are
paying attention.
92
%
overall score
disrupts.tv
the video station for the startup scene.
beta now live
REVIEW: Ark: Survival Evolved review
Stranded naked, freezing
and starving on the
shores of a mysterious
island called ARK
Review by Lexuzze Tablante
I stood upon a small grassy hill
overlooking an azure sea, the tail
of some horrifying sea creature
arcs back into the water;
pterosaurs soar in flight above.
Turning to my right, I catch sight
of a diplodocus and marvel as it
crashes through a forest, leaving
trees smashed in it its wake.
Suddenly there is a large, naked
man standing in front of me.
‘Hello?’ I type tentatively. ‘Hi’ he
replies before punching me in the
face. Welcome to ARK: Survival
Evolved.
I flee. Not really knowing what to do,
I just turn and run. But after running
in circles for a few minutes I realise
I can’t shake my pursuer and turn to
fight him. I land a couple of blows
and he backs away, grabs some
berries from a bush, and eats them.
‘Clever’, I think, he wants to regen
some health… He then drops down
dead. Great!
I walk over to his body, wondering
what the hell is going on. Turns out
he’s not dead, just unconscious and
the berries he ate are ‘Narcoberries‘.
I’m laughing out loud at this point,
and in my good humour I decide to
be merciful and grant him a swift
death by… err… repeatedly punching
his head.
Five minutes into the game and,
despite the optimisation issues, I’m
already having a blast – I’ve seen
dinosaurs, met other people, learned
some important things about
berries, killed other people – what
more could you want from a game?
It’s only then that I find out that you
press Z to defecate. Amazing! I turn
to the corpse of my fallen enemy
and, in time-honoured gaming
tradition, proceed to enthusiastically
commit a war crime.
So, Ark: Survival Evolved is a game
that sees you dropped onto tropical
island littered with dinosaurs and
bizarre alien artefacts and leaves
you to fend for yourself. Starting
from nothing but your bare hands,
you must forge the tools of survival;
gather rocks, wood, berries, leaves
and plants to make a fire, basic tools,
a primitive shelter and simple meals.
As you again experience and level
up from foraging (often amounting
to literally punching the wood right
out of trees) and exploring, you’ll
get the chance to boost your stats
and unlock new ‘Engrams’, which act
as blueprints for more complicated
craftable items.
To put things into perspective,
the first tool you’ll make is a stone
pickaxe, but eventually you could be
wielding an RPG, and sending rockets
into the faces of nearby dinosaurs/
other players. Although, considering
how much time it takes to gather
basic resources, it looks like playing
co-operatively with others and
joining a ‘Tribe’ is going to be the only
way you’ll ever do that though.
Any player can form a tribe of their
own and invite friends to play cooperatively, gaining bonus XP for
performing actions like crafting and
foraging near other tribe members.
I’ve yet to join a tribe, but only
because every interaction I’ve had
with other players has ended in
murder. Still, other people seem
to manage it and they’re off riding
Tyrannosaurs around – must be
something about my face…
In my time playing, I haven’t got
much past the ‘managing to just
about survive’ stage where you’re
too weak to kill anything more
serious than a Dodo (and even that’s
a challenge), you’re constantly
scavenging for berries to eat and
other players are a serious menace.
I built a house made out of straw
and (in a severe breach of health and
safety laws) put a fire in it, and spent
my time scavenging for food and not
venturing too far from safety, slowly
levelling up in the hopes of one day
being able to ride a T-Rex.
The day and night cycle adds some
variation to this routine. When night
falls, you’re forced to stock up on
torches, find warmth and shelter and
keep an eye out for lurking predators
– not really being able to see where
IND13.COM MARCH 2015 ISSUE FIVE 45
“I built a house
made out of
straw and (in a
severe breach of
health and safety
laws) put a fire
in it...”
you’re going definitely adds to the
feeling of vulnerability and it can be
especially daunting when you realise
that you have no shelter, no food,
and you’re freezing to death. There
are perks for night time exploration,
however.
Beams of light mark points on the
map where loot-crates are dropped.
These are usually filled with tools
and supplies and are often worth
a night time trek. Without them, it
would be very tempting just to sit
inside and wait for daybreak.
As you might expect with an
Early Access title, there are some
optimisation issues. I’m running a
fairly high-end machine, capable of
smoothly running the Witcher 3 on
ultra, but in ARK:SE, I get around 2030 fps. Apparently this is a wellknown issue and the developers do
seem to be pumping out updates and
patches every other day or so – it’s
already running better than when I
started playing.
Messing about with some of the
settings also improved, but the
performance is still sub-par and
leads to my eyes feeling grainy after
an hour or so of game time.
Click for
video
content
The low fps can also cause problems
in melee combat – frantically trying
to land a punch of a dinosaur’s face
is only made harder when it feels like
you’re watching something that’s
GRAPHICS
80%
SOUNDS
70%
GAMEPLAY
75%
REPLAY VALUE
75%
already happened.
Aside from these issues, the game
does generally look gorgeous, with a
colour palette that appears similar to
Crysis or the original Far Cry – bright
leafy greens, sandy beaches, blue
waters, etc.
The dinos themselves all look
realistic enough if they stand still,
but some of their animations need a
bit of work. Pterosaurs fly in sort of
m-shaped patterns, and rarely higher
than about 20ft.
The really big dinosaurs, whilst
impressive, lose some of their
majesty and begin to look downright
derpy when they move, with legs
not quite reacting properly to the
slope of the terrain under them and
tails and necks passing harmlessly
through tree trunks as the big beasts
pirouette on the spot.
Still, this game is very much in Early
Access and (judging by the rate of
patches) I’m confident that most,
if not all, of these issues will be
addressed eventually.
My only other gripe with the game so
far is that the official servers appear
to be perpetually full, meaning
you’re left with a choice between
waiting or playing by yourself. Which,
considering the brutality of other
players, probably isn’t entirely a bad
thing… «
75
%
overall score
Overall, Ark: Survival Evolved
has great potential. It’s a
gorgeous-looking game with
a great (if not entirely original)
concept. If you have a high-end
machine, then it’s probably
worth getting now, but if
you’re playing on a potato then
you might want to wait until a
few more optimisation patches
come out before getting out
your wallet.
THE LATEST
GAMING NEWS,
VIEWS & REVIEWS
The Sirus Gaming team are a group of passionate
video-game journalists and gamers from the Philippines,
dedicated to bringing you the latest news, reviews,
previews, and more in the video-game industry. Their team
of writers are selected for their knowledge on the
video-game industry, quality articles, and reviews.
sirusgaming.info
REGIONAL REPORT: Philippines
“Live simply. Love
generously. Speak
truthfully. Breathe
deeply. Do your best.
Leave everything else to
the powers above you...”
Lex from Sirus Gaming, IND13s
partners caught up with allyza
Taylor, Mineski’s Events Team
Commentator/Shoutcaster
to know if there’s more to
“gaming” than what she has
now as a shoutcaster.
C
ertain video games are treated
as sports by the gaming
community. Big events on
the rise where Major League Gaming
(MLG), Intel Extreme Masters (IEM),
DreamHack, and Dota 2’s The
International are having more views
than a regular sports would have.
These events feature competitive
titles like StarCraft, Dota 2, League
of Legends, Call of Duty, CounterStrike, and other games that gives
“competition” as the main attraction.
With events like MLG, there will always
be a shoutcaster to commentate on
the matches; they give you knowledge
about the game and details on what the
game’s situation is. And Allyza is one of
those shoutcasters.
Hi Allyza, thanks for accepting
our interview request. Can you
tell me more about your general
gaming experience aside from
eSports?
Hahaha! No problem! I started playing
games basically my entire life. I could
already talk and play. Haha. I just go
by my cousin’s house then we play on
the first Playstation since thats what
was popular at the time. Then we
have a computer shop in Bicol and, of
course, I stayed there because it was our
business. My cousins are always there,
They were the one who taught me how
to play Counter Strike and then after
bloomed my love for FPSs.
When I was with my mom already and
we transferred to a house in Cainta
because of my studies, we didn’t have
any PlayStation console or some sort.
So, I would go to these computer shops
just to play Special Force; it’s an online
FPS game and it’s free to play. So I
started playing it with my friends that
I already knew from that area as well
after a while of playing it casually, there
is this game that my friends introduced
me to: “Crossfire“.
Crossfire is almost the same as Special
Force and by that time the game was
under Gameclub. So my friends and
I switched to Crossfire, since most of
them already migrated to that game,so I
joined them. Then I met a lot of friends
with Crossfire, from school there were
people who played it so they decided
to ask me if I want to join and I always
do. That time my mom bought a
system unit since she complained that I
always leave the house to play hahaha.
I have alot of friends in the Crossfire
community by that time and up to the
point I joined the group “Vanguard”.
These people introduced me to the
competitive scene on FPSs. (Shout out
to Vanguard and Eric Marquez!). Haha,
sorry would slip that in since they were
really the one who introduced me to this
scene. But of course shoutout to my mom
cause she was really supportive all the way.
Super casual gaming by that time.
Auto: Vice City for me and my mom
actually helped me finished missions. She
was really cool hahaha. I remember her
finishing a mission which I can’t and she
stayed up to 3am just to get it done.
Anyway, I started joining mini
tournaments with my friends from
vanguard, just for the sake of playing
that time since it was more fun and it
feels REALLY GOOD. The adrenalin.
its different. Its sort of addicting but not
totally. It’s like playing against players
who would like to win as well. So both of
our teams want to win which makes it a
good fight and its really fun, especially the
bonding with your team during practices.
You learn more about the game and you
know your team mates more.
Nostalgia with Crash Bandicoot. It
was an awesome game. I’m actually
amazed that you were able to play
certain titles in PS2, especially GTA.
Was your mom a gamer too?
I think she was actually kinda of a gamer.
Haha. She would really stay up all night
just to finish missions and tasks. I know
her favorite game was Red Alert! By the
time we got a system unit we were arguing
whose going to play first cause she wants
to play too. Of course i had classes the
next day so she would let my play first and
she would stay all night to play her game
hahaha.
By 2012, Gameclub made a tournament
called “Women’s League”, this time its
an all girls competition which makes it
really interesting for me, since I play with
guys and mostly all the people ive met
in Crossfire are guys. In the Vanguard
group, there were girl gamers. So we made
a team composed of five players and we
were all girls so we can compete for the
Women’s League. We came 4th place for
that tournament and after that so started
to lie low on the competitive scene since I
joined Mineski.
Technically, you’ve been exposed to
first person shooter games when
you guys moved to Cainta. We never
really see a lot of girl gamers who
actually play competitive shooters.
So, basing on what you said, you
played on a console. What was your
first game on PS? Was it PSone or
PS2? How was your playthrough
experience with your first video
game?
PS1! We didn’t own any PS1 by that time
and I will just go by my cousin’s place for
us to play Crash Bandicoot. I really can’t
remember a lot from that time since i was
really young. But I owned a PS2 because
my mom gave it as a gift for my birthday.
The first game she even bought me for
it was Bratz lol. But I was super boyish
and I really wanted to play something
with action so she bought Grand Theft
Not a lot of parents supports their
kids in gaming. You have a great
mom. So, moving on, have you
played first person shooter games
on consoles? We know FPS games
are preferred on PCs, but for you,
what do you think about FPS games
on consoles? And what FPS games
have you played on consoles?
I didn’t get to play with my PS2 for a long
time because we had a financial problem
and offered my mom that we sell my PS2
for us to have money. So I only played FPS
in PCs ever since.
To be honest though when I try playing
fps in a console it’s kind of tough for me.
Since I don’t find it precise when aiming
especially using a controller. But i have
tried playing some Battlefield 3 on a ps3
since my friends and I sometimes had
LAN parties and he actually had a PS3.
But most of us brought our laptops and
played there.
I agree, it’s hard to get used to the
aiming mechanisms without really
strafing in consoles. Currently, we
heard that you have a team with
Strategic Technologies? What game
are you playing on? Do you play
competitively til now?
Kinda complicated though because I
“Gaming and esports will forever have
a place in my heart. I grew up playing, I
will die playing...”
can’t really go on full time playing as a
competitive player because I am currently
an FPS shoutcaster for Mineski and
a Mineski talent, which means I host
eSports events and related events to
gaming. Aside from not having a lot of
time to play anymore, sometimes it’s a
conflict especially if the tournament is
hosted by Mineski. I couldn’t play, but
I am actually a 6th man of Strategic
Fuma. It’s an all-girls team under strategic
gaming. I stand as a manager/6th man
for the team. Hehe. There are a lot of
issues with it since I am also studying
and working at the same time, I feel like
i couldn’t do a lot for the team especially
being an active member. So I decided
to just manage teams under Strategic
technologies.
Having a lot of things to do
like being employed, studies,
shoutcaster, that’s honestly of
work. You don’t feel stressed
out sometimes? Do you ever plan
doing this in the long run? I mean,
sometimes we grow up and do other
things, but for you? Will you still
continue your part in the gaming
industry?
I am in love with eSports and I am
devoted to eSports and gaming. Maybe in
time I would be doing other things, but
gaming and esports will forever have a
place in my heart. I grew up playing, I will
die playing. I want to be someone who
was a part of making this industry grow.
Philippines doesn’t accept eSports that
much but I believe that one day eSports
will become something that is worth
working hard for that’s why as of now I
have no doubt into switching professions
or some sort.
I feel stressed but after a while and
completing all the work. Seeing the
outcome or the result of what you are
doing is a fulfillment for me. I love what I
am doing and eSports is my passion
It’s really fun in being part of the
esports scene. You get to meet a lot of
people, of different race and of different
personalities. You get to know how to talk
with these people, how to be with them
and everything that follows. It’s a really
huge advantage for me; experience is the
best teacher and experiencing this things
while I am this young is a huge part of my
character.
The passion that we have as gamers
is the only thing that keeps our
community strong. Stronger than
any other mediums in this world.
For being a part of the gaming
industry, what can you do to
contribute as being part of the
community aside from eSports?
Before even being a shoutcaster and a host
for gaming events. I was actually a forum
moderator of Crossfire PH. I understand
and help these players having a hard time
or having problems within the game and
I help them establish and connect with
the GMs about how they feel or what can
be the possible solutions or even making
the game a better one. The greatest part
of being a player of the game before
being one of its personalities is that you
experience it first-hand. From problems to
solutions you were there.
Even with events though, before I was
just attending events for fun, and I was so
happy getting these ballers and freebies.
To be honest I didn’t even imagine that
one day I will be the one in the stage and
hosting these sorts of events knowing that
I was just an attendee before. I am actually
secretly happy when I host events and get
freebies. You know, maybe for other hosts
“I always
remember
trying to fit in
to a crowd of
guys and trying
to raise my hand
for the host to
pick me...”
it’s nothing to them just normal things
that they give away to the people. But the
feeling i get when I am the one handling
these things is genuine happiness. Hahaha
I’m such a kid.
Because I always remember trying to fit
in to a crowd of guys trying to get these
ballers and trying to raise my hand for
the host to pick me. Hahah it’s just funny
that I didn’t actually expect that the next
events that I will be going to, I won’t
even need to jump and raise my hand
anymore because I am the one picking
who the winner is. Kind of amazing right?
Sometimes you just don’t know where
fate would take you. Whatever makes you
happy go for it. When opportunity comes,
grab it because you wouldn’t know what
would be its effect on your life. Bad or
good, you will learn a lot from experiences.
That’s the perks being in the
industry, right? Free ballers and
tshirts and even more! Before I was
just a hardcore gamer who didn’t
really mind anything at all for the
community, but now I was able
to form a team to contribute for
the gaming community by giving
unbiased reviews and news within
the industry. Great thing about
you Allyza is that you actually also
have passion in gaming and that is
certainly great.
Now, do you have anything to say
for your fans, for the community,
and for the girl gamers out there?
I would like to tell you guys that Gaming
is a lot of fun. Yes it is, but never ever
forget your priorities. Your studies or work
is important. But what is more important
is the time for your family, please just
please love your family. Time flies, it’s
up to you to be a navigator. Maybe the
death of my mom made me this person,
which I would cherish every second and
every minute being with someone I love.
anyways, love your family more than
anything. And of course pursue your
dreams, do what makes you happy as long
as you’re not stepping on someone and do
not exchange short term happiness.
I dont really have a message specifically for
girl gamers, because whatever you are, a
guy, girl, gay or whatever your sexuality is.
A gamer is a gamer. For all the gamers out
there who is really passionate for esports. «
FEATURE: The Kraken Sleepeth
The Kraken Sleepeth
The Kraken Sleepeth is the new
game from Team Pesky, the
studion set up by Andy Gibson.
IND13 caught up with him to talk
about games and Victorian Sci-Fi.
Hi, I’m Andy Gibson and after 13 years of
professional game development I took the
plunge to set up Team Pesky in 2012. The
idea was to focus on smaller, polished titles
and that lead to the release of Little Acorns
(iOS, WinPhone, Vita, Xbox 360 Indie &
3DS) and The Kraken Sleepeth (Windows
App Store). What’s your game making history?
My first gig was at Revolution as a junior
artist and I worked my way up through
lead to art director at studios around the
UK. I also did 2 years as Producer so have
a pretty rounded experience across projects
and platforms.
Working on titles like Tomb Raider opens
a few doors but I’ve really dropped out of
working for other people to develop my
own ideas now. I consider myself pretty
lucky to be able to do what I do.
Click for
video
content
describe your game?
The Kraken Sleepeth is a twin-stick
gothic undersea arcade adventure. It’s an
experiment in narrative and arcade action
- sort Asteroids in a Jules Verne/Lovecraft
underwater world. The game challenges
the player to explore sites around several
locations around the world and has a lot
of subtle and hidden secrets to uncover.
The core mechanic of moving and
shooting are very easy to pick up but the
game offers upgrades so the player can
invest more in the game as they progress.
What is the back story to the game?
the game? B Movies?
The Kraken Sleepeth was inspired by the
classic family movies like ‘20,000 Leagues
under the Sea’ and ‘Warlords of Atlantis’.
I’m also a huge H P Lovecraft fan so a
few tentacles and mythos references made
it into the game. I wanted the game to
feel like a real B-movie so focussed on
colour schemes, posteffects like grain
and noise,
etc. and
commissioned a professional actor Peet
Torjussen for the voice over.
The incredibly talented Ben McCullough
wrote and recorded an original soundtrack
which is amazing. The music reacts to
your progress in the levels, something
which really adds a rich, dynamic feel.
There are several easter-egg secrets across
the game so players can work out backstories if that interests them.
There’s certainly a mix of eras used
in gaming, why did you choose
Victorian?
The archetypal arrogant, English Victorian
explorer was a simple choice for me.
Someone who believed they were “on the
edge of knowing all there was to know”,
as he says in the game. Someone who
would be challenged by what he gradually
uncovered. This means the final choice
confronting the player at the ‘end’ of the
game actually matters, they’ve travelled
with the Professor and shared
his adventure.
A platformer with a
unique mechanic
USD $9.99
EUR €7.99
CAD $11.49
GBP £6.49
You can dive into the ground. Momentum
is conserved but gravity is reversed, letting
you fling yourself high into the air or deep
beneath the surface. The goal is always
straightforward - collect the three orbs in
the level and jump into the wormhole - but
spikes, endless drops and impossible heights
make this more and more difficult.
“Overall
winner of
Ludum Dare
29.” April,
2014
PC / Mac / Linux Steam
www.daniellinssen.net
FEATURE: The Kraken Sleepeth
Who is the hero of the game, what
character do you play?
You control the bathysphere designed
and occupied by Professor Eldritch. He
is researching the flora and fauna around
the north coast of Scotland when he finds
evidence on a sunken ship. His curiosity
piqued he explores neighbouring sites,
finding weird, unnatural mutations and
the hull of a ship he discovers was reported
sinking in Antarctic waters... And the
mystery begins in earnest!
How important is the narrative to
the game, would you say it is an
important as the gameplay?
I really don’t separate narrative from
gameplay in TKS, one drives the other
drives the other. The story is intrinsic to
the game, but it can be played without any
interest in the narrative. The structure of
the story arcs across the locations around
the world but the puzzle elements require
no memory of previous events. The
game is designed so players can enjoy the
narrative as part of the atmosphere, it’s
told via voice over (with subtitles) but
doesn’t require reading or press-A-tocontinue mechanic, so it can flow a bit
quicker and keep the tension. I want drive
the player on to explore another site on
the map, or retry on failure.
Tell us a little bit about the game
play?
The heart of the gameplay is a twin-stick
shooter with asteroids-like control eg. a
slight weight to the bathysphere to get the
underwater feel. Movement is left stick/
keyboard and directional shooting is right
stick/mouse. Touch screen controls are also
supported. By collecting artefacts across
levels the player can choose upgrading
paths for Engine (top speed), Weapon (5
classes with sub-class improvements), Hull
strength (health) and Battery (torch life).
The right stick/mouse also directs a torch
light with fades as the battery is used. This
limits the range the player can see so as
they sink into the depths the atmosphere
because more claustrophobic. I don’t want
to detail more as discovering the world is
part of the fun of games I think. The levels
are randomly generated apart from the top
and bottom. This makes replaying levels
much more interesting and enhances the
feeling of mystery I hope.
The game looks sublime, was it
important to get that B Movie look
spot on?
Thanks, I’ve a strong background in
art direction and as a solo project I
wasn’t limited by a licence or conflicting
opinions. I love those old movies for
their visual style as much as their sense of
wonder, and fun. Games obsessed with
photo-realism miss a trick as far as I’m
concerned, expressive styles are another
tool to make the player feel scared, or
elated, or anxious.
As game designers we should exploit the
tools we have and not seek to copy films
or TV slavishly. Interaction is what make
games different so we need to exploit that
to offer unique experiences. So the sound,
music and visual effects actually change in
reaction to the players performance in TKS.
The light shining on the pod, the
music, it feels like you are on your
own sinking to the bottom of the
ocean. How did you create such an
atmosphere?
Visually it’s about the combination of
slightly saturated palette, a little bloom,
some post-effect noise really. The sound
design, music, voice over and art direction
all support each other so the final effect
is more cohesive. My approach is prove
the fun and core mechanic first, then
start to hone the direction. No amount of
great music or pretty content will rescue a
poorly executed game mechanic. I made
plenty of mistakes on TKS and I’m still
learning and practising the craft of making
games after 15 years.
I honestly wish I’d spent a lot more time
designing the backgrounds and enemies
but TKS was my first coding project really
and I spent a lot more time on code than
I’d expected.
How did you find the voiceover for
the game? It’s great.
My original direction was Brian Blessed
(turned down bit) but through Jerry
Ibbotson (the audio engineer who
recorded the voice over) I was introduced
to Peet Torjussen, a professional actor who
gladly obliged, delivering just what I’d
asked for at an audition.
He also suggested another tack, the voice
we ended up recording, which was so
much better. It sounds like John Hurt to
me, more breathy and has a fragility whilst
still being bombastic enough.
Can you tell us about any sharp
learning curves that you have had
creating games?
Cue old man’s voice, misty screen
timewarp effect... When I joined the
industry 15 years ago things were very
different in terms of tools and technology
but as an artist the core skills are still
the same. Drawing, lighting, form,
composition, colour theory, etc. still
separate artists.
I was lucky enough to work with some
really talented people and put the time
and effort in. It’s easier than even to make
games now, but still hard to make games
well, and nigh-impossible to make a living
from making your own games.
If you’re interested in making games just
download Unity and follow some tutorials.
Keep your idea as small as possible but
finish it and release it in some shape or
form. Watch other people play.
What is next for you and the game?
TKS was a great ride for me, I was
nominated for a TIGA award and invited
to show the game at the BAFTA Inside
Games Arcade at Rezzed. Since then
I’ve been playing with 4 new ideas and
showed one Insomnia last week to a great
reception from players.
I’m now focussing on turning that into
a full game and will be showing builds
across this year. Follow @teampesky for
dates and information, maybe even open
playtests. «
The Kraken Sleepeth is available for a free
trial. Visit the Facebook page for more
details: www.facebook.com/TeamPesky
NEXT GEN: The flaws of Google Play
The flaws of google play
Google Play is the official go-to place for Android games, without all the controls of Apple’s App Store.
But, says Ophelia Matthews-Smith, is it all that it seems?
G
oogle Play is one of the most
used apps when looking to
download a new game… yet it
has its flaws.
When you look for a game, you’ll
rarely come across a dodgy game.
Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean they
don’t exist because they can be found.
By ‘dodgy’, I mean a game that has a
virus. Like a computer, things that you
install can wield viruses… but because
it’s a phone, the viruses are much harder
to get rid of. If you’re lucky, it may just
be a virus that will take a while to get
rid of however, if you’re unlucky it may
destroy your phone.
Not all dodgy games have viruses
though. Some games may be really
good games but are so riddled with
pop-up ads that you can’t even get to
the game. Every couple of seconds an
advertisement will pop up, sending you
to the Google Play store, only to find
yet another game riddled with ads.
They then expect you to pay money to
remove the ads, but you won’t know
whether it is worth paying for the game
or worth uninstalling it, or if the game
is even good.
Sometimes, the game may ask for your
card details to remove the ads, and then
not even remove the advertisements.
There’s also been cases where a game
has had so many ads that you couldn’t
even enter your details to remove them
without the game being too glitch or
full of ads!
Inappropriate content is a major issue
on the Google Play store for many
separate reasons. Most people who
use Google Play to install games are
children as they get bored of games
quite quickly. When they’re looking
for a game, inappropriate content will
come up. Whether it is pictures, names
or descriptions it shouldn’t be where
children will be able to access it.
Also, the App Store is more childfriendly than the Google Play store,
because here are less people swearing,
less inappropriate content in games and
when it comes to buying apps (games),
it is harder for a child to pay using their
parent’s credit or debit card.
Personally, I think that there shouldn’t
be content un-suitable a game store.
This leads on to the security levels of
submitting a game.
So, the conclusion is: Google Play have
some games that have viruses, some
games have so many pop-up ads that
you can’t play the game at all, Google
Play doesn’t check the games that are let
onto their store for people to download
and there is inappropriate content
lurking in the depths of games.
Google Play is different to the App
Store in many different ways. For
instance, Google Play tend to not look
at the games that are submitted, they
just submit the games onto their store
for anybody who uses Google Play
to access. Anything can be added to
Google Play, almost instantly!
What is said and described to be a
game might not actually be a game, but
because Google Play has no security or
control over what is added to their store
it will be added anyway! Surely they
must have enough people working on
the Google Play store to monitor the
games that are added.
The Apple App Store has many areas
that are worse than Google Play. For
instance: Google Play gives companies
a chance to make games worth billions
of pounds or dollars, yet the App Store
is strict and because a lot of their games
are extremely good, new games won’t be
noticed by many.
Google Play is extremely quick to add
a game to their store (partly because
they don’t look at the games that the
companies submit), yet it takes weeks for
a game to be accepted onto the App Store.
However, they give companies in
their youth the chance to share their
games, they give people the chance to
download games, whether they’re good
or not. Talking of games, I heard of a
game I might want to download… «
“Inappropriate
content is a
major issue
on the Google
Play store for
many separate
reasons...”
FEATURE: Brighter Day
Brighter Day –
Probably the
most colourful
horror game you
will ever play.
Sometimes a game comes along and turns an entire genre on its head.
A game that makes you think “but wait, it shouldn’t be like this...”
One of those games is Brighter Day, says Lee Smith.
FEATURE: Brighter Day
I
t’s the eyes. Those blooming eyes. There
I am playing a game that has more
sickly bright colours than Jony Ives
version of iOS, and this eye appears and
I scream like a school girl who has just
learned that a member of One Direction
has left the band to embark on a solo
career.
This shouldn’t happen. I have watched
far too many horror films, and played too
many horror games, for this to happen.
This is no ego trip, no ‘hey man, I am
unscarable, I am a freaking hard man,
nothing scares me...’ kind of boast. Mearly
a statement of fact. Everyone becomes
desensitised a little after a while, that is
just normal. Which makes the fact that I
jumped, literally jumped, at certain points
while playing this game.
My wife thinks that I am a little mad but
my daughters, who have played the game,
know. This is quite simply the scariest
game I have ever played.
As I have mentioned Brighter Day is
awash with very bright colours, and it also
has some of the spookiest music you will
ever hear too.
When you start the game, you awake in
what looks like a heavily sanitised hospital
room, which it is. You are in a psychiatric
hospital and something has gone very
wrong it seems. There are no people
around, only these ‘eyes’ roaming the
corridors.
Somehow you have to find a way to escape
from there and also find out exactly what
has happened. You do this by reading
some of the messages of the computers
that have been left on, and start building a
picture of why there is nobody there.
As I mentioned, the eyes patrol the
corridors, searching for you. Now you can
toss collected pills which are left in the
bathrooms of various rooms to distract
them, or exploit their fondness for big
glowing lights, but there are an awful lot
of them and they catch you... quickly...
What is refeshing about Brighter Day is
that it doesn’t rely on the usual tactics
employed by those whose aim is to scare
the bejesus out of you.
There are no long dark corridors that
you have to walk down, that has just one
flickering and slightly swaying light at the
other end. There are no blood splatters
on the walls, and promises of zombie
Nazis. There isn’t even a weird old woman
rocking back and forth on her chair,
warning you of the “terrors ahead mwah
ha ha ha...”
It does, however, create a tension in the
game that is very seldom felt, with just a
few simple graphics and a gameplay that
takes grip of your every emotion without
overburdening you with convoluted story
lines that, often, don’t even make sense.
There is a demo of the game available
which is a free download. This gives you
the chance to play the first level, up to
when you manage to escape from the
hospital and when even more scary fun
begins, but the game itself is only £1.99 to
buy anyway. This is both for the PC and
the Mac.
Personally, I wouldn’t want to see this
game on the mobile apps stores, purely for
the reason that I don’t want to be playing
it, on a game, and then screaming and
running down it like the complete wreck
that this game turns me into. «
theloneliestpixel.itch.io/brighterday
“This eye appears and I
scream like a school girl
who has just learned that
a member of One Direction
has left the band...”
Click for
video
content
EVENTS: E3 Los Angeles 2015
E3... We
‘Experienced
the Evolution’
in the sunny
LA climate.
Richard, IND13’s globe
trotting developer, went to
the E3 2015 conference in
LA... one of the highlights of
the gaming year.
G
oing to the E3 in Los Angeles
is one of the highlights of
the year for me. Not only
because of sunny LA California and
the T-Shirt (or Tees how they call
them here) climate, but also because
of the attractions and bit less public
access to check out the upcoming
video games. Having said that, this
year they handed out 5000 tickets to
gamers.
It seems the E3 is mutating slowly
from a Tradeshow to a consumer
Expo like the Gamescon. This is just
an observation some people shared
with me, who going there for almost
a decade.
What I find also great about the
E3 are the pre-show live-stream
announcements by Microsoft, Sony,
Nintendo, EA and Ubisoft.
The biggest 3 things I remember from
the Microsoft announcements were
the Rare Replay - 30th Anniversary
Edition - with 30 games for a
ridiculously low price of $29.99, but
exclusively for Xbox One. Lets hope it
will take us less time to play all those
times in a game marathon after release
of August 4th this year
Also interesting was the fact that
the Xbox One will have backwards
compatibility with a growing number
of your dust catching Xbox 360
games. Surprisingly this comes with
no extra cost, but not all games are
working yet. Microsoft says over 100
titles will become available to resurrect
on your shiny Xbox One by this fall
(yes meaning 2015), and hundreds
more in the months to come.
I hope they will announce the first
Xbox backwards compatibility, so that
I can recoup my long term investment
Steal Battalion (2002) aka Tekki and
(possibly) the most unique controller
in games history. Well maybe it just
stays a dream.
The most memorable part of the show was
obviously the Mindcraft and HoloLens
plus Surface in a cool and heart warming 2
player demo. You must check this out on
the YouTube channel to believe it. Playing
MindCraft together with others in the
same room and on a table is pretty cool if
it all work as advertised.
To Microsoft I have to say this: Don’t mess
this cool tech up like the Kinect 1 or 2,
or Peter Molyneux’s project Milo (RIP).
Which were discontinued and harder to
get these days, if you fancy doing some
(relatively) cheap motion capturing on
your PC for example.
Also the Google Glass comes to
mind,which was super expensive, but on
the plus side it made you look like a cool
weirdo with one rapid eye ball movement
always looking up north. No offense. Put
it next to the Virtual Boy in the dusty
shelf…
Microsoft said the HoloLens is an
Enterprise device first, so lets see what it
will cost at the end as well. Price point
and usability are important for the success
of this intriguing device. It is comes
through the backdoor as the good old IBM
PC Compatible discussed as a working
horse that was actually a better and more
meaningful gaming machine for most of us.
Lets Talk Indie!
GALAK-Z is still on of my favourite
games and I can’t wait to play it. It was
seen for a while now and it seems it is
coming out this year after all on PS4.
Jake Kazdal the Founder and Creative/Art
Director at 17-Bit reveals in an interview
“There is so much more I want to do as a
player then just stand in static position.
Not the best first VR experience I would
give to a VRgin (VR virgin)...”
that they are useing a pretty intelligent AI
by Cyntient.
The pixel art Nuclear Throne looks also
good on the PS4 and the big screen. I saw
Rami later at the Devolver trailer park.
This guy is everywhere I go, seriously ;)
Also a highlight was the IndieCade
Showcase and also the University
and College stands with all kind of
interesting and some strange games such
as Dysforgiveness or FUNBOX with
more physical and intimate collaboration
with friends. Or TRIPAD minimalist
3-player game ‘platform’, constructed
using LaunchPad DJ controllers, mounted
in an angled cubical configuration. Those
defiantly quality for a ‘The wild Rumpus’
event with friends.
It was a bit surprised to see also a few VR
Indie titles there too.
For example Pixel Ripped by Ana Ribeiro
which is a madcap, VR homage to
gaming history. A VR gaming experience
that transports the player back into a
1980s classroom, where they must try to
complete their favourite handheld video
game but not get caught in the process.
Unlike anything else available, Pixel
Ripped is a crazy, retro and meta
experience that is full of geeky references
and easterggs designed to excite the inner
child in all of us. Gameboy nostalgiawatery-eyes guaranteed!
Starport on the other hand is a VR social
app that features games, expressive avatars,
and amazing environments.
The Lost Valley VR by Paper Crane Games
is a virtual reality photography excursion
into the land of beasts that time forgot.
The SMS Racing is about the thrill of
texting and driving. I like their blurb:
‘Do you have what it takes to race at the
highest level while responding to your
friends’ messages? You don’t want to be
rude, do you?’ – Most defiantly SMS over
Driving in this game, or is it…
Btw, if you are in LA around October
between 22-25 by pure accident or luck,
then you have the chance to play those
titles at the IndieCade® Festival in Culver
City, CA.
Outside of the E3 in a Parking lot not
to far far away was the Devolver trailer
camp with nice air-conditioned Airstream
trailers to prevent the inside PCs from
melting. I was running a bit out of time,
to check out all the games, but the one
that sticked out the was most defiantly
WE ARE ANOUK
We are a group of Producers, Directors, Photographers, Camera Operators and Artists.
We are made up of a London based core team of progressive and determined individuals, with an
international network of trusted professionals.
We have extensive experience in all areas of production with years working professionally in image and film.
Please get in touch to talk about your project.
0203 605 3806
[email protected]
www.anoukproductions.com
Mother Russia Bleeds. Unfortunately also
the people in this 4 player co-op beatem-up are bleeding - a lot, which makes
it at least an PEGI 15 title or higher. In
Germany it might not even come out after
all with, who knows. It does take itself not
to serious though, which makes fun to
continue playing through the levels.
Where is VR and Quo Vadis?
There was not so much buzz about VR
in the mainstream as I hoped. Partially I
think it is a problem that VR is more an
experiential, then ‘intellectual’ thing.
You only get it really after trying it on
yourself. Talking about it is useless.
I had the chance to try out a few new
games on the Gear VR and latest Oculus
after queuing 45 minutes for each game
and platform.
Omega Agent by Fireproof and Anshar
Wars 2 by OZWE where my favourites on
the Gear VR with the Samsung Galaxy S6.
The new final Oculus Rift was very
light and tiny compared to all previous
Developer Kits I had. Unfortunately I was
allowed to test the new Touch (Halfmoon)
hand devices. They had them only out for
display, which seem they are not confident
to be tested by the public yet.
AirMech VR by Carbon Games, Damaged
Core by High Voltage and Eve: Valkyrie by
CCP Games are my favourites. VR sports:
Challenge Ice Hockey, Edge of Nowhere
by Insomniac Games and Chronos by
Gunfire Games did not worked for me in
VR. They don’t seem like games design for
VR and made me a bit disorientated.
I liked the VR sports idea with Ice
Hockey, but it was more a left right hand
limited movements experience, which I
would expect for Google Cardboard, but
now when I have a Xbox One controller in
my hands. There is so much more I want
to do as a player then just stand in static
position. Not the best first VR experience
I would give to a VRgin (VR virgin). «
“Microsoft said
the HoloLens is an
Enterprise device
first, so lets see
what it will cost at
the end as well...”
You can read more about
the E3 LA confernce s on the
IND13 website: http://ind13.
com/e3-awesomeness-2015/
EVENTS: Develop 2015
Brighton. Sun. Develop...
Richard went from LA to
Brighton, to attend the annual
Develop conference for the first,
and not the last, time.
B
eing first time at the Develop
conference in (almost) sunny
Brighton UK at the Hilton Hotel
close to the beach, I honestly wasn’t for
sure what to expect from the conference,
well except it is for developers obviously.
Over 1800 joined the 3 day conference
this year, of which the last 2 days also
contains the Develop Expo.
The line-up of speakers was quite
something I have to say. I really
appreciated the open keynote speachand
honest shares by Rami Ismail (Vlambeer),
Randy Pitchford (Gearbox Software), Neil
Young (N3TWORK, DeNA, ngmoco:) )
and may more.
The first day was already quite packed with
talks Neil Young with his Evolve Keynote
about VR and AR and mobile. The essence
of his message is: ‘Mobile is not dead and
VR/AR is taking longer to be where we
actually want it to be at the moment’.
Randy Pitchford’s (Gearbox Software)
keynote speech ‘Why We Fight’ was
inspiring, interesting and an entertaining
speech as he also showed a magic card
trick in front of the audience.
Develop 2015 also interviewed Rami
Ismail from Vlambeer about his keynote
speech and the way they treat and educate
their customers. Also interesting is how to
deal with those less pleasant once and that
developers need gamers, but not the other
way around.
The talk and interview Jennifer
Schneidereit (Nyamam) about being
Indie, traveling to conferenced and
talking about here game Tengami, which
received Apple’s coveted Editor’s Choice
Award. Jennifer looked at the 3 and a half
years spent making Tengami and share
Nyamyam’s key findings on topics such as
how to stand out in the F2P dominated
mobile world, working with the different
platform holders and lessons learned from
self-publishing on several platforms.
Mike Rose (tinyBuild Games) talked about
‘Keeping Ahead of the Video Marketing
Curve’
Mike Rose talks about the importance of
using ‘YouTubers’ and ‘Twitchers’ helping
to promote your game. Very useful to
watch and learn more on the YouTube the
Develop channel.
VR Talks:
This time we had two ladies talking about
there experience with there Indie VR
games year.
Ana Ribeiro with Pixel Ripped (http://
www.pixelriftgame.com) also launched her
Kickstarer during the conference. Support
this great game. It is totally worth it as it is
so different from most VR games I played
so far.
Katie Goode from Triangular Pixels talked
about her VR game Smash Hit Plunder
and creating Rich Dynamic VR Gameplay.
Definitely worth checking out the talk and
her interview on the Develop channel as
well.
London Studios talked about London
Heist and how to load a gun in VR with
two Move controllers and Atomhawk
shared insights about iterations of the VR
UI in the game CCP’s EVE Valkyrie. I
met the Atomhawk guys on a party before
there talk and I go to know that they also
worked on movies such as Guardian of
the Galaxy and games like The Order or
Mortal Kombat X. «
EVENTS: Develop 2015
Indie Showcase Awards
The Develop Awards are run by
Develop Magazine, with more
than 170 companies in the room
this year.
The winner of this years Indie
showcase awards were Dan Da
Rocha and Henry Hoffman with the
game Hue. Congratulations to you
guys!
New Games IP – PC/ Console
Life is strange
New Games IP – Mobile
Plunder Pirates
Engine
Micro Studio
Unity 5
Roll7
Services
Independent Studios
Audiomotion
Space Ape Games
QA & Localisation
In-House Studio
Testology
Rockstar North
Creative Outsourcer – Visual &
Development
New Studio
Use of Narrative
Life is strange
Speech Graphics
Technology Provider
Creative Outsourcer – Audio
Development Legend
Oculus VR (aka Oculus Rift)
Side
Chris & Tim Stamper
Design & Creativity Tool
Recruiter
Speedtree for Games
Amiqus
Production Tool
Publishing Hero
Perforce
Team 17
Use of a Licence or IP
Alien: Isolation
Visual Arts
Lumio City
Audio Accomplishment
Alien: Isolation
Starship
You can read more about the
Develp conference on the
IND13 website: http://ind13.
com/develop-brighton-2015/
www.souzou.co
WE ARE SOUZOU
a creative agency built for you
We are not your usual agency. We are listeners, questioners,
and problem-solvers. We are also gamers, and work closely with
independent game studios to help advertise and promote their games.
So if you are looking for complete branding, a new website,
or some advertising and marketing help, visit www.souzou.co
creative design
|
branding
|
digital |
advertising

Serious, authentic and grim? Not this Second World War VR

Transcription

Similar documents

Addictive Games and affect on our children

Totalizator Sportowy Sp. z oo WLA certification

View

Characterizing On

On the cover On the cover

Arkham Asylum

Bram - Keynote - ExplOERer.pptx

Crave, Oct 2012. Interview with Chef Susur Lee

BCLC the new age of gaming

the horizon foundation investing in business