Dark Day Interactive has launched Kickstarter campaign for Once Bitten, Twice Dead! a blocky zombie apocalypse scenario game.

Planned for Nintendo Wii U, PC, Mac and Linux it is plans to offer single player and multiplayer zombie action featuring crafting, stealth, action and all the goodies for this genre. The game is expected to come out of production somewhere around Q4 of 2015.

This new development team from Adelaide Australia is formed from a team of experienced veterans of the gaming industry. Brought together by their passion for video games, they plan to create unparalleled gaming worlds and experiences.

The pre-alpha version of game that Mark Hann and the rest of the crew from Dark Day Interactive cutely dub zomblokalypse is now available to masses. They have chosen the Kickstarter way in order to get the needed mass exposure to fund the Wii U game port and create all the envisioned elements.

Once Bitten, Twice Dead! is a mix of action adventure, horror and survival that lands the players in the middle of a virus pandemic that is turning everything around them into the flesh eating undead. After a catastrophic event that resulted in the creation of these ghoulish gribblies the rest of the humanity is holed up in their camps. Some brave survivors go outside to scavenge for building materials, weaponry and the rest of the necessities like food and water. Brave or suicidal players can go out in the world solo or take the safer way and team up with others.

There are fifteen different characters available to the players, each having their own unique skill set. Over 50 weapons and 100 craftable items will be obtainable offering survivors a chance to gear up and prepare for the zombie onslaught. Once Bitten, Twice Dead! features a true open world enviroment, solo or team based gameplay experience, harvesting and cooking. Multiplayer offers ability to play with 100 players across multiple platforms like PC, Mac and Linux.

Undead munchers come in over 50 variants from police, soldiers, firemen, doctors and other types. Vehicles for exploration of the huge game world and the random boss encounters will spice up the gameplay. The world itself is huge, beautiful, deadly and comes with day and night cycles. For competitive sorts the game will offer arenas and death match modes and finally an Outbreak mode where one can choose to play as the Infected.

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Ogardonix Studios, a game developer from London, has launched a Kickstarter campaign for Ralin: Dwarf Wars. This community driven, challenging hack-and-slash RPG will be available on PC, Mac and Nintendo Wii U.

Work on the project started in April 2014 when a group of friends joined Ludum Dare, a time based video game development competition.  Three days of hard work was involved, and at the end the conclusion was that the Ludum Dare was not the right place for a game like this. These guys tossed the graphics but kept the code and in time some of them formed the Ogardonixx Team. Being the dwarf lovers they are, they went on a quest to gather artists needed to bring this concept to life.

Ralin: Dwarf Wars tells the story of the King Duur, current king rulers of the dwarves and his descent from once peaceful ruler into a sinister and brutal sovereign. As the surfaces invade the dwarf realm and rebel against the dwarf rule is wisdom slowly abandons him and  turns him to madness. With no love for the troublemaking outsiders he condemns them to live in poor, closed of reservations with no contact with the dwarves.

Players will join their brothers in a bloody war between Dwarves and Goblins that rages on in the deepest underground caves. A dwarf must  ready his weapon and be prepared to protect the treasures of his clan, those mined with sweat, blood and tears. Interelopers that dare to traspass into the clan area will be hacked, slashed and smacked upside their heads with a massive hammer.

Ralin: Dwarf Wars will feature singeplayer, multiplayer and online cooperative modes on local and private servers. Maps are going to be pre-defined in the campaign and generated for the roguelike gameplay with a map editor being planned as a later addition. As usual for rpgs game will have health, leveling, loot, crafting, attributes, quests systems and toons of stuff to scavenge.

This is Ogardonix Studios largest undertaking and will have to rely on community support to raise the funds needed to bring Ralin: Dwarf Wars up to snuff. So far their chief payed for stuff and most of the basic things were built from scratch. They  plan to invest the Kickstarter funds into sound designers, 3D Artists, programmers and everything needed to bring out the maximum from possibilities that the Unity engine offers.

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Merge Games,  a UK video game publisher and distributor has announced the release of Finish five man developer team Still Running’s Zombie Kill of the Week – Reborn. Available on Steam it is an adrenaline pumped and tough, 2D survival shooter game.

Based in Manchester, Merge Games is an independent video game publisher and distributor of interactive software worldwide. It deals in software for PCs, video game consoles and mobile devices. They also publish collectible games for retail and distribute games for independent developers.

A Finnish based independent game studio Still Running is a studio composed of five developers and founded by Santeri “REllU” Relander. It focuses on edgy, fun and engaging games. Their latest game is the zombie smashing survival extravaganza Zombie Kill of the Week – Reborn.

The goal of Zombie Kill of the Week – Reborn is to hold out as long as possible while slaughtering endless zombie hordes. Money gathered from zombies can be used on more than twenty five various weapons. These range from chainsaw, katana and mini-gun to rocket propelled grenade launcher. Cash is also used to open doors and activate jumps which are necessary to reach certain map areas. As the fight continues players get access to more weapons and prizes like a special magic fridge.

Surviving for a long period awards ZKW, Zombie Kill of the Week Points that are used t o customize player characters and weapons, buy perks, open new maps and other stuff. The PC version of Zombie Kill of the Week – Reborn has arrived at a price of £4.99 €5.99 and $6.99. It features an exclusive level editor giving the community an opportunity to create their own levels that can be freely shared among players. There are numerous possibilities to create various challenging and interesting levels.

Game features killing zombies with a crazy arsenal of weapons, over 20 Steam Achievements, 4 unique maps, exclusive level editor for PC and cooperative multiplayer for up to four players. All of the highscores can be tracked online. It has a full controller support. There are great amounts of player weapon and character customization options, skills, trophies, perks, blood and gore. The music score is composed by Roland La Goy.

Zombie Kill of the Week – Reborn game supports cross platform gameplay that is compatible with Android and Mobile devices allowing players to experience it everywhere.

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NIS America, a subsidiary of Nippon Ichi Software, has released Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunters on the European market. This ghost hunting adventure interactive novel was first time announced by Aksys Games at Anime Expo 2014.

Formed in Southern California, NIS America was created with the sole purpose of bringing Japanese culture and games to the Western market. Since its founding in the year 2003 it has released several Japanese anime titles, such as Toradora!, anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day, and Natsume’s Book of Friends. Its parent company Nippon Ichi Software is known for its famous strategy roleplaying game titles like Disgaea, Phantom Brave and Makai Kingdom.

Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunters is a new visual novel that comes from the developers of Deadly Premonition and features music by Nobuo Uematsu. This epic story of life, death and the weird spaces in between offers a unique battle system.

Players start their adventure as ordinary transfer students at Kurenai Academy in Shinjuku. Encountering the strange and unusual supernatural on their very first day at the new school they are thrown into the world of ghost hunting. Blurring the line between life and death they must face the phantasmal entities that haunt this place. The story unfolds through 13 episodic tales and various side missions, shifting and branching out on certain points, providing a different experience through several replays. With multiple possible endings this immersive story offers a modern take on Japanese ghost legends and it is up to the players to choose their fate.

Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunters features a unique strategy RPG inspired battle system focusing on setting up ghost traps and phantom trackers on the level before starting combat. Once the battle starts gameplay will switch from normal map to a first person in your face ghost encounter. Steel your nerves and prepare your bowels before this one — its not recommended for easily spooked folks or those with heart problems. The most important roleplaying element, conversation is represented by a number of gorgeus illustrated almost painting-like character portraits. Unlike the simple multiple branch conversations these use a unique emotion system. A special wheel is used to combine certain emotion with one of the five senses.

Now available at retailers across the Europe Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunters is supported on PlayStation®3, PlayStation®Vita and EU PSN this week.

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The Kickstarter Campaign Halycon 6: Starbase Commander started on Tuesday March 10 managed to hit the funding goal of $40,000 in 40 hours.

After two days it already reached its first stretch goal of Expanded Alien Content, and that was quickly followed by Expanded Tech Tree and more Expanded Alien Content. Sitting at almost $60,000 in pledges, Halycon 6 is closing in two more stretch goals.

The game is being developed by a studio called, Massive Damage. It’s an indie developer team that got a marketing boost from teaming up with Square Enix Collective. There are no funds involved as Square Enix is asisting purely with the marketing and public relations.

Halycon 6: Starbase Commander is a rogue like sci fi strategy survival game that revolves around base building, tactical combat, crew management and story. Players command a ragtag group of Terran officers stuck in the midst of a disastrous war. These weary combatants discover an ancient, derelict space stations full of advanced tech. Finding a way to use its power could give the edge in the war for humanity’s very survival.

The game is inspired by classic games like Star Control II, Master of Orion, X-COM, Civilization and Faster than light. Core gameplay revolves around base building, exploration, crew management, combat and story events.

Bases give the option to build station facilities that ehance production and technological capabilities or  create ships to cover more territory. Exploration allows the player to assign his feelts to various locations across the galaxy, where they can handle emerging enemy threats, do missions for alien factions or secure bonus resources. The crew can be assigned to facilities to greatly improve their output efficiency, or to ships where they can contribute in unique ways to combat, missions and events.

Halycon 6 will feature a vast, merciless and uncaring universe filled with stuff that wants to eat, probe or dissect our heroes and ancient artifacts. Crew mates all come with their own unique traits, talents and personalities. Each of these elements will have their positive and negative sides from unlocking story events to hillarious mishaps when the officers’ personality quirk messes up a perfect plan. Five alien factions, each with their own different goals and approaches to life will test the players’ wits they want to establish diplomatic relations.

Massive Damage hopes to offer unlimited replayability with randomly generated derelict station, surrounding galaxy, crew recruits and alien factions. As standard in  these X-COM clone/homage games players can expect a tough and strategic gameplay that rewards tactical brilliance and brutally punishes errors.

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As [NUREN] The New Renaissance Kickstarter Campaign continues with four more days to go,  CSP Industries teases with more upcoming content.

The initial images and videos of the worlds first virtual rock opera have showed us a dark and moody futuristic cityscape. Grim and sterile techno metropolis in the veins of Blade Runner, Tron, Nathan Never comics and similar sci-fi themes was merely the first segment as more story parts are being developed by the team.

In the post-war future of NUREN, humanity is controlled and sedated paying the price of peace with sedation. This illusory utopia may appear as a heaven to some but all the work rests on the backs of androids, futuristic slaves with predeterminded roles and destinies. The humans grow complacent, untrobled and unstimulated while the robots do all everything.

The latest android model, created by the CSP Industries, is designed to possess genuine thought and empathy, bringing the emotions back to the world, feeling instead of humans. A sudden malfunction occurs with the newest prototypes QGK and RIX resulting in an unintended human trait self-awareness. Free of the sterile and sedated concepts these androids develop a desire to sing, something that is against everything the new society stands for. They become fugitives with one missions, to bring the joy of music back to the world.

Different art and music teams are working on various NUREN segments combining hand drawn animation and 3D to provide different themes and atmosphere for areas that range from laboratiories to deserts. The new NUREN footage reveals another segment following the metropolis one. It appears to be a harsh wasteland not unlike the one featured in Mad Max or the Fallout series.

Along with this reveal CSP Industries has created a new NUREN collector’s items that can be obtained with a $50  pledge. These are custom made, heavy metal collectible cards, made from anodized aluminium and feature laser etched image of a chosen character. For those crazy collector types that must have every card or just can’t decide which are their favorite there is a Platinum card collection at $200 pledge tier. It includes all four combinations of red and blue  cards with QGK or RIX and one platinum colored aluminum card. These limited edition items will all have custom art and CSP Industries team signatures.

There will be more NUREN content reveals during these last days of the Kickstarter Campaign.

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As the six year anniversary of the North American CrossFire version arrives, Smilegate West has decided to mark it with the release of a massive update.

Developed for the PC platform by Smilegate Entertainment, a leading publisher of online and mobile games, CrossFire is a free to play Couter-Strike style first person shooter with the largest global user base in the world. This game offers  fast paced action pack experience and regulary recieves updates, additional maps and models.

This large 2015 Anniversary Update celebrates the game’s progress and great reception it has recieved since its launch back in 2009. New items, game mode and events will be available through the month.

Some of the new weapons included are the AK47- St.Patrick’s Day and the Barrett M82A1-Imperial Dragon. These are color customized and unique takes on the player favourite weapons. The update also marks the return of the fan favourite patriotic M4A1 – Liberty as a potential reward. In the second half of the month there will be a Happy Birthday CrossFire even that will award multiple 1d versions of this classic weapon to players both new and old.

From March 19th until March 23rd there players that log in will recieve numerous daily award free items. Among these one can find 1d M4A1 – Liberty, six-year-anniversary sprays, name cards, weapons and even a birthday party hat for their character. Later on March 26th there will be a Weapon Master Event, a challenge to get kills using a predetermined weapon every day of the week. Rewards for completing the event will be seven-day items and creates that contain permanent weapons.

The final addition to the Anniversary Update is the Mutant Knight Mode. This team based mode will put the players into roles of mutants or soldiers, each growing in power and earning new abilities as the match goes on. Tuesday Knights event will take place every Tuesday from March 17th ti April 7th awarding Bonus Exp, tons of in game cash and chance to earn a special weapons crate reward.

Players interested in the game and the full patch notes can visit the CrossFire website and check the stuff out. Registering the account and downloading the game is completely free. Additional info can be found on game’s Facebook, Twitter and YouTube pages.

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Survivor Squad: Gauntlets, a strategy action game by Endless Loop Studios has received Update 17 that brings Motion Sensor, Personal Defense System, more Gadgets and new sprites.

In this game players command a squad of survivors that have to go through the gruesome gauntlets full of dangerous traps and fight off the massive hordes of the Infected. Squad is controlled from a top-down perspective taking command of each individual survivor. Good positioning and focus on the line of sight is imperative as survivors need to move as one unit, carefully covering any corner. Having a blind spot can give the Infected the needed edge and end up with catastrophic consequences for the team.

The core gimmick of the Survivor Squad: Gauntlets is the powerful editor that lets the player create his own Gauntlets. These can be customized with various Objects and numerous possible Event Actions allowing many combinations and unique maps. These can be shared freely among the community.

On to the Update 17 content. This update for the Survivor Squad: Gauntlets adds 45 new Gauntlet Sprites that can be used to add some flavor to the players’ creations. Game has also received many Gadgets that can be used on the map or as items in Survivor Secondary slot. The classic Sentry Gun places a sentry gun on selected Survivor position that shoots automatically on any Infected it detects. The Personal Defense System is the device that instantly kills infected that come into Survivor’s range. A video camera provides vision in chosen area and can fully rotate for better coverage. The motion sensor is used to send out a pulse that detects enemies while the final gadget, a Decoy, attracts the Infected until they destroy it.

Already present in the original Survivor Squad these useful devices have received some new functionalities like Condition tested before usage and an Event afterwards. This allows some interesting possibilities like giving the Player a video camera gadget that he can use to spawn a video camera item and then a remote device that lets him enable or disable it. This update also improves object scaling compared to the original as the scale origin is now in the corner and not the center like before. This change allows better control over scale size selection.

Following this update the Endless Loop Studios is inviting players to post suggestions in the forums and make Steam page reviews as they are constantly looking for new feature suggestions.

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Tormentum Dark Sorrow is a dark point and click adventure created by the three man developing team OhNoo.

A nameless robed figure finds himself hanging from a cage under the zeppelin. Skies are dark and twisted as the flying machine travels through a hellish meteor showered landscape. In the cage near him is a weird horned ratlike creature. The conversation is brief and provides little information except the promise of suffering that is to come.

A sinister citadel in the center of hell is their final destination. The robed figure finds himself in a prison cell, skeletons litter the room and a few moments later a dark knight approaches. Our protagonist has been a very very bad man and the time has come for him to pay for his sins. The problem is he has no idea who he is or what sins he actually committed.

The nightmarish art direction of Tormentum Dark Sorrow is inspired by the works of H.R. Giger and Zdzisław Beksiński. It is a dreamlike world filled with strange shapes and elements that should not mix together in a natural setting. Some might find it bleak or depressing but for those of us that grew on similar game themes it is a real treat.

Tormentum Dark Sorrow is an old school type of point and click adventure with a very retro look and interface that is hard to find nowadays. It follows the now long forgotten formula where art design and atmosphere trump ultra crazy graphics and cheap scares. Gameplay is the classic search the rooms and find the useful item, put the item in the backpack and use it when you find the place it goes in.

Along the way the player is faced with several moral dilemmas that affect the knowledge he uncovers about himself and the world as well as his final fate. These choices can appear cut and dry but are not always what they seem and some might find themselves surprised when they find out that the good ending they “deserved” is not what they got in the end.

One can easily see various influences the team has taken as inspiration. While it is flaunted as being inspired by H.R.Giger storywise it reminds me of one old video game called  I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream based on the book by Harlan Ellison. In that game there are several characters trapped in gruesome nightmare scenarios that can only be solved by making certain ethical choices at key parts, or making the wrong ones and realizing what a horrible person you played all along.

The game also draws a lot of influence from the fantasy setting, probably Planescape most of all. The main character is a nameless robed figure that has no memory of who he is or what his great sins are and everything around him is unnatural and alien. Atmosphere created by the combination of art design, music and the story theme is a fantastic and grotesque abomination. It is a freaky and outlandish journey of self discovery that one can easily recommend to any horror adventure fan.

The post Pay For Your Sins in Tormentum Dark Sorrow appeared first on VR World.

[NUREN] The New Renaissance, the world’s first virtual reality rock opera is entering it’s final days of Kickstarter Campaign.

This collection of music videos that form a full story in virtual reality is the creation of Shovel Knight composer Jake “virt” Kaufman and Double Dragon Neon vocalist Jessie Seely. With almost $40,000 in pledges and seven more days to go NUREN is closing in on the $70,000 funding goal.

Considering that the USB thumb drive which comes with the $50-tier pledge completely sold out, NUREN CSP Industries is introducing a new reward. This original item in this offer was a custom-machined USB thumb drive, containing the complete NUREN production for Windows, Mac, and Linux, as well as a copy of the soundtrack in MP3 and FLAC.

The new $50 pledge tier reward is The Complete Virt Collection. It includes every album virt has released on Bandcamp, including game OSTs and original albums, all in a single download. These are fifteen soundtracks and original albums, including his Shovel Knight and the Shantae series. As an extra goodie included in the deal is an entire Secret Backer Bonus Album containing exclusive, never before available on Bandcamp material with custom artwork.

This is an easy way for fans to round up their collection of Jake’s music all at once in a nice big Zip file, with organized folders containing album art and his personal thoughts about each album.

As the campaign goes towards its end the team will finish the prototypes and unveil pictures of the collectible art book and T-shirt. Depending on the demand they might opt to create a physical series of soundtrack CDs. CSP Industries welcomes any fan suggestions on additional rewards and items.

Along with The Complete Virt Collection in additonal news NUREN will be joined by the legendary C64 composer Chris Huelsback who will be co-writing a track with virt. Like in the previous article  with Vince DiCola and Kenny Meriedeth of Transformers: The Movie from 1986 and Rocky IV, Chris is also a famous name popular for his work on the Turrican game series.

With Jake and Jessie performing game music in concert as well as playing themes from Vanguard V, Shovel Knight and Double Dragon Neon NUREN team hopes for a successful GDC showing.

The post The Complete Virt Collection Marks the Final Days of NUREN Kickstarter Campaign appeared first on VR World.

The Game Developers Conference 2015 was the opportunity for Liminal Games to showcase its new open world RPG to fans and the press. Made with the CryEngine, The Memory of Eldurim is described by its creators as a mix between Skyrim and Dark Souls.

This small team that consists of only three full time developers and is constantly adding more content and pushing almost weekly updates for their game.

As the interested GDC patrons swarmed The Memory of Eldurim part of CryEngine’s floor Liminal Games issued a challenge. The task was to defeat the first boss in one try without dying yourself. There were many challengers but they failed one after another until the chosen one managed on Thursday. Her reward was admiration from the crowd and a free copy of  the game.

This little task was made with the intent to show the Liminal Games’ gameplay direction with The Memory of Eldurim. The plan is to make the game enough challenge for the players that they have to work for it but not frustratingly hard. Hitting the sweet spot between giving a hardcase his pleasure or making people quit is something they are working on. Dying on the first attempt to defeat the boss is expected but successful tactic should become clear before the ragequit phase.

Liminal Games says it is pleased with CryEngine and considers it a perfect platform to deliver their story. They are the first indie company approved by CryTek to use that engine. Unlike the standard RPGs The Memory of Eldurim does not have the usual 1 to 99 leveling formula but uses a system similar to one from The Elder Scrolls series. Doing stuff makes stuff better. Hitting enemies with the sword makes the player better with swords while taking savage beatings hardens him with more health. This design is incorporated into many aspects of the game.

GDC attendants that tried the demo praise the game’s mythical atmosphere, amazing graphics and gameplay itself. They were offered the exploration of a large island with a temple overlooking it from a summit that gives only a glimpse of what can be found in this world.

The Memory of Eldurim is currently available on Steam Early Access for $18.99 as an early alpha game client.

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As one of the first characters available in Gazillion Entertainment’s diablo clone Marvel Heroes Online, the Punisher has been waiting for a rework for a long long time. Similar to Thor mentioned in an article some time before, he had a pretty outdated kit that desperately needed an update.

Marvel Heroes Online originally followed a hero design direction that made them all unique yet extremely unbalanced to each other. This was not a simple thing like a case when one of them is just more powerful than other but rather that some lacked basic things needed for gameplay. Or to be more precise things that became needed for gameplay due to constant updates and changes to the game system and enemies. There were guys without travel powers, vulnerability debuffs to throw on mobs, ability to break crowd control, any burst damage, damage over time abilities. The way things were set some heroes were awesome while others painful.

Nowadays Marvel Heroes Online characters use a 52 Rework formula that ensures that everyone has access these things and some more. Along with the previously mentioned things that some heroes lacked Gazillion introduced signature powers,  a 30 or more second cooldown mini nukes that greatly help with bursting down enemies. Old heroes without this ability have a very slow kill time and are slowly being brought in line with newer ones.

Punisher had an archaic kit that lacked a good travel power, signature, ultimate power that actually does something and burst damage. Crowd control breaker was added some time ago. Instead he relied on his high pain tolerance and damage over time ability stacking. At certain points he had solid high damage builds but these were nipped in the bud every now and then.

The new Rework 52 Punisher addresses some of these things yet does little to provide gameplay variations. While some skills have different names it is still best to just toss a grenade (used to be mine), follow it with a chemical grenade (also used to be a mine), apply flamethrower and then shoot with three round burst or flechette shotgun blast. Yeah the signature is new and can be used in the rotation but the flamethrower now has a cooldown, the shotgun is no longer a free basic attack, same with three round burst. It is actually the same build as before but more complicated with more attacks in the mix and irritating cooldowns.

His ultimate power got changed from a damage buff and self resurrection to a customized remote controlled van that shoots death at everything in sight. No problems here. He even got a nice travel power, sprint.

The middle tree that deals with survival and knives is still barren and useless except for passives and travel. Minigun spec that was advertised as a viable alternative to the dot stacking is clunky. One cooldown ability that uses the Ol’Painless minigun, misses most of the stuff and tons of random single target attacks with no real flow.

In the end the Rework 52 Punisher kills a lot faster than before but the changes he received are mostly random and unasked for while the core problems remain. Reliance on dots, lack of all guns blazing crazy soldier build and weak melee options.

The post Punisher Rework Hits Marvel Heroes With Mixed Reaction appeared first on VR World.

Three Flip Studios, the production house responsible for Influent, a language learning game, is starting a Kickstarter Campaign for their its Armed and Gelatinous title.

This game was originally developed as part of the 2013 48-Hour Game Making Challenge by the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia and was crowned the winner at the event. With three words, Growth, Arms and Sticky and only two days to work, 30 teams of up to six developers took on the task.

President Tofu, the original team behind this scattered all over the world to work on various projects and abandoned the concept. Later Rob Howland one of the creators decided to pick the project off the shelf, polish it and show it at Gamescom in 2014. After a positive reaction he teamed up with Brandon Jones and Anthony Prusakowski with the intent of pushing this idea as a fully functioning game.

Armed and Gelatinous is a fast paced couch competitive multiplayer game in which players engage each other in blob warfare. In the far reaches of the space gelatinous blobs are waging a war equipped with Earth made weapons looted from a transport vessel that was aimed at the sun. With each absorbed weapon the mass of these blobs’ bodies increases, becoming bigger and slower in the process.

The player has access to one of the four militant gelatinous blobs hellbent on destroying others of his kind. As weapons they absorbe cannot be removed once they are stuck to a blob it is imperative to stick them in the right strategic locations on the body. Along with the use of weapons blobs can opt to use their dash ability to body slam their enemies or evade their attacks. Calculated use of these abilities will be necessary to achieve victory and even more tactics will come as the game progresses further.

Originally made in Unity with a 3rd-party 2D plug in called ex2D, the game is currently being worked on with Unity’s official 2D tool set. At the moment it has two game modes in which players destroy each other until the two minute mark is up but more is in the plans. Taking influence from Super Smash Bros game developers plan to offer more modes, weapons, power ups and a huge level of control and freedom to customize the game in any way the player wants.

Additional planned game modes are Timed Match, Death Match and Stock Match wit the options of Timer Select, Weapon Select, Power-up Select, Level Select and Blob Customization. Weapons currently present in the game are Revolver, Shotgun, Cannon, Blunderbuss, Machine Gun and the Rocket Launcher. A huge list of planned weapons follows it including Uzi, Crossbow, Sniper Rifle, Desert Eagle, Grenade Launcher, Rail-Gun, Mini-Gun and more. Envisioned Power-ups range from Shield, Speed-Up, Magnet and Spin to the famous Bullet-time.

The Three Flip Studios is excited to work on this funky game and invites everyone interested to follow them on their YouTube channel and Kickstarter page.

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As the final day of Underworld Ascendant Kickstarter campaign closes in, OtherSide Entertainment is proud to reveal the arrival of the Lizardmen race.

Underworld Ascendant is a roleplaying game inspired by the Ultima Underworld series. It is being developed by the original creators as well as the people who played key roles in Dishonored, Last of Us and BioShock. These are know names like Warren Spector who is acting as a creative adviser, Richard Garriot of Ultima, Shroud of the Avatar, Kevin Levine from BioShock and Chris Roberts of Star Citizen and Wing Commander.

Originally going for $600,000 in pledges this Ultima Underworld inspired roleplaying game is looking to pass a few more stretch goals. With almost $780,000 pledged  it has already claimed the original core Underworld, new area The Underswamp, a novel by Tracy Hickman and now the Lizardmen race. These nasty reptiles will be living in the new game area, the Dire Grove.

Closing in on $775,000 pledged stretch goal for Underworld Ascendant is the Stygian Abyss, the Necrotic Graveyard. This dark and twisted place has the mysterious power to lure in the adventuring travelers and monsters that roam the surrounding areas. Once they enter the graveyard they mysteriously pass away and reawaken as the undead. The player must investigate the cause of this terrible curse and find a way to break it.

Following the Lizardmen and the Stygian Abyss is the stretch goal of $800,000 pledged that will add the  Creature Companion feature to the game.

Originally released back in the 1992 Ultima Underworld was a critical success among critics and the audience. With cutting-edge visuals and being the first game to have a texture mapped first person 3D it pushed the RPG genre into open-world sandbox gameplay. Many popular roleplaying titles like System Shock, Deus Ex, BioShock and Dragon Age credit Ultima as their inspiration.

Underworld Ascendant is a next generation sequel to Ultima Underworld and Ultima Underworld 2. It plans to modernize the series and take advantage of power offered by PCs of this day. Story will have strong ties to the original games putting the player into role of The Avatar, a human that arrived from our Earth through a Runegate. These dimensional portals will play a key role in the game offering  travel between various worlds.

The core of the game, its workhorse is the Improvisation Engine. With this new system OtherSide plans to take the freedom of choice seen in games like Deus Ex, Elder Scrolls and the original Ultima Underworld to the next level. The goal of the Improvisation Engine is to provide multiple functional solutions to any possible problem that the player encounters on his adventure bringing this new RPG closer to the traditional pen and paper experience.

People that form the OtherSide Entertainment are the names behind over 25 award winning games like Ultima Underworld, System Shock, Thief, Deus Ex, GEX, Neverwinter Nights, Dishonored, Medal of Honor and more. It will be interesting to see what they can accomplish with this project.

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Spanish mobile indie studio, Codigames, has announced the worldwide launch of its iOS RPG adventure Schools of Magic.

The company has published five games since it was founded in 2012. It’s latest game, Empire of Sand, has reached over 1 million downloads.

The goal of the Schools of Magic is to become the best mage in the known world. To achieve this players will have to face powerful enemies, train hard and learn to manage their resources wisely. Along with combat and personal growth they will also have to build, manage and expand their own magic school as this is the way to reach new spells and equipment. The game combines standard RPG elements like turn based combat with the options provided by mobile devices allowing things like real time combat between players on the different sides of the world. Combat system is designed to be easy but dynamic and requires a bit of strategy.

Inspiration for the game was found when the devs were working on the beta version of Empires of Sand and someone asked: “Why do they have portals?” The answer was: A wizard did it!

From that point Codigames knew they will have to base their next game on magic, wizards and sorcerors.

Schools of Magic has four game modes. School management deals with developing ones school, attracting new apprentices, research of new spells and making improvements on player’s own wizard. Player vs Player mode allows real-time multiplayer combat between various wizards accross the world. Campaign mode is the classic single player storyline in which players must travel into the magic world and defeat the four great wizards. This foul four has used their dark magics to enslave the world and must be stopped. The final mode involves customizing your wizard allows the player to equip his wizard with hats, caps, robles, capes, rings and weapons  that grant special powers and skills.

The key features of Schools of Magic are high-resolution graphics, real-time battles of arcane power, creation and management of player’s own magic school, challenges between powerful wizards accross the globe and collection of magic objects and weapons. Some items will be be obtainable through the weekly events. Real time combat is not only used for multiplayer battles but also provides a co-operative gameplay option for those wishing to invite their friends.

This roleplaying adventure game for iOS will be available worldwide on March 19 through the App Store.

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Blowfish Studios has announced that Gunscape, its award-winning first person shooter construction kit is now available on Steam Early Access, free of charge.

Two theme packs will be included in the early access version. This independent game development company from Australia specializes in game applications for PC, console mobile devices and web browser games. With focus on creative gameplay and unique fun games they have over 1,500,000 downloads since 2008. Blowfish Studios has also teamed up with Alienware for a limited quantity one of a kind theme pack.

Gunscape is an FPS construction kit but it is also a game that lets players mash up their favorite classics into something amazing that can be played and shared with others. Blowfish Studios was inspired by the first person shooters like Doom, and decided to take all the most memorable elements and place them in a toolkit to be used and combined however the user wants. Easy-to-use tools based on a block-placement interface everybody’s already familiar with are used to create single-player campaigns, co-op maps and multiplayer arenas and there is also a functionality to share creations with others. Instead of building the game from scratch, players build their levels withing an already existing game customizing it with a large selection of weapons, enemies and level elements that are combined together.

The game has many themes that are taken from the entire FPS game genre. These range from early shooters like Doom and Wolfenstein to stealthers and war games. Every theme is unique and has its own building blocks, player models, enemies, bosses, music and special elements. These range from doors to elevators, teleporters, lava floors, deadly laser emitters and spike traps. So far there are 38 weapons planned. These are time honored classics like bombs, bats, swords, flamethrowers, chainsaws, rocket launchers and more. By the time it gets to open beta Blowfish Studios expects Gunscape to have 8 themes, 16 player avatars, more than 20 enemies and 4 multiplayer match modes.

Core features are solo and online co-operative multiplayer level creation, single-player campaign mode, co-op mode, multiplayer arenas, cross-platform multiplayer and global and persistent map sharing.

Full release of Gunscape is expected to arrive in the fall of 2015.

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Tactical Simulations Interactive (TSI) has revealed their plans to release Gateway, the cross-game character import and export system.

This system is designed to allow the players to transfer their characters from RPG games that support it. TSI has invited various RPG developers to take part in the Gateway initiative and offer the players old school pen and paper experience of transfering favourite characters to new stories or settings.

Gateway will start with TSI’s debut title, Seven Dragon Saga, a fantasy RPG for PC, Mac and Linux that is based pen and paper roleplaying system created by Keith Brors and David Shelley formerly from Strategic Simulations Interactive.

Seven Dragon Saga will soon launch a Kickstarter campaign to gather funds for game development. This will be a high powered fantasy universe that focuses on the Empire of the Seven Dragons. Going against the standard RPG themes TSI promises to give the player to the effective heroes as soon as the adventure begins. With this game TSI wishes to recreate the old roleplaying game feeling that was present in the old SSI Gold Box titles.

Players will not start the game as farmers that need to kill hundred rats with a stick while wearing nothing but rags until they can avenge their village that got destroyed by orcs. They will wield awesome power. They will create an adventuring party filled with powerful individuals “touched by the winds of chaos”. These chosen few, known across the realm as the Touched will take upon themselves a task to uncover what is hidden and determine the final fate of the Empire.

The high fantasy realm of the Seven Dragon Saga will offer an intricate turn based combat that can adapt to party’s strengths. Classic RPG system combined with the modern gameplay concepts lets the player jump into an epic adventure with a full party right from the start.

Turn based tactical combat will allow strategic maneuvers and ability to take advantage of terrain and destructibles. As usual in these games all choices have their consequences. Social and political choices have impact on the world as do ones between duty and honor or gold and adventure.

Like Shadowrun Returns, Wasteland 2, Shroud of the Avatar and some other games Seven Dragon Saga is built with the Unity3D engine. Seven Dragon Saga will start the Gateway initiative and several developers have already joined this project with more on the way. Shadowrun: Hong Kong and Torment: Tides of Numenera are the games scheduled to follow.

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3D Realms was once a publishing powerhouse in the gaming business. This is the studio responsible for some of the classic titles of the 90’s such as Commander Keen, Wolfenstein 3D, Rise of the Triad, Shadow Warrior, Duke Nukem, Max Payne and Prey.

Before the political correctness and false decency that is present in this day we had games that made players laugh and moralists cringe. Macho Duke Nukem snuffed aliens and made girls shake it while Lo Wang the Shadow Warrior pushed every Asian stereotype to the maximum.

For its return 3D Realms has teamed up with a Denmark based game studio Interceptor Entertainment, known for their Rise of the Triad remake from 2013, to work on a new title called Bombshell.

Bombshell comes from minds of the creators and producers of Rise of the Triad, Duke Nukem and Max Payne. A new larger than life movie action star like character Shelly “Bombshell” Harrison is a former bomb technician that chose a mercenary career. Quick on both trigger and mouth and packing a classical 90s stereotype, powerful mechanical arm she is ready to blow away any alien scumsucker standing in her way.

Shelly was discharged from the Global Defence Force after “The Washington Incident”, a horrible event that caused her to lose her arm and squad. An otherworld bomb was placed in the Washington and failing to disarm it resulted in a catastrophe she was blamed for. Now working for a private military contractor she is given a second chance at redemption. Technological remnants left over by the aliens after the incident are used to outfit her with a new powerful mechanical arm.

Shelly’s mission is to travel through crazy otherworldy alien places to rescue the President and save the Earth from certain doom. Using her arm and huge amounts of destructive weaponry she will face a diabolical mad scientist Jadus Haskel, the mastermind behind the alien invasion.

Bombshell is an isometric fast paced shooter game that uses roleplaying elements like special skills, tech-tree upgrades and tons of customizable arm configurations to spice up the usual “blow stuff to hell” gameplay.

With Bombshell 3D Realms plans an explosive return to the gaming scene, one that involves massive destruction, action and a story full of twists and turns. Having a punk cyborg chick hero also does not hurt.

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The Vilium Shards,  the first team project of Turtle Squadron, a group of six Computer Games Technology students from Portsmouth University has seen a spectacular level of support in the first few weeks of its Kickstarter campaign.

The Vilium Shards is a single player, action adventure RPG that plans to appeal to fans of combat, strong narrative, magical abilities and epic loot. Along with the classic features Turtle Squadron is bringing in some new fresh mehanics.

The game started as a study project meant to bring some industry experience to the team but has evolved thanks to the great fan support from Facebook, Twitter and Turtle Squadron’s own website. Since the launch of Kickstarter campaign support is coming from all over the world, from Tokyo to Ottawa. Financial support gathered from Kickstarter will allow the team to buy extra licences, better hardware and invest in higher quality game audio.

As the story goes, a meteor fell and leveled a faraway city. This has caused the death of the protagonist’s parents and spawned an army of mutated creatures. Classic Heavy Metal Loc-Nar, Warhammer Warpstone or Creepshow mutating meteor thing.

Hero finds himself in a strange world where magic has awoken and his best companion is a mysterious prosthetic arm built by his adoptive father Thilleon. This single Vilium crystal adorned contraption made of wood, brass and iron works and and feels as if it were made of muscles and bone. With a broken memory and no clear explanation from his “father” he sets on a task to uncover the cause of these strange events.

To get the bottom of this he will have to face hundreds of deadly monsters and elite bosses that lurk within the numerous generated dungeons. Along with the standard crazy equipment that comes with the genre his most powerful tool will be the Vilium Shards, fragments of the fallen meteor that grant the hero special powers. The thing is everyone wants these shards. Some for decoration, some for worship, hero to make his arm work but the most dangerous people because they know their true purpose. To reach them he will have to solve numerous tasks from political schemes and social awareness ones to slaughtering hundreds of mutants.

At this moment there are four classes planned with the possibility to add more later. These are the Sorceror, the Hunter, the Knight and the Shadow. Each of these classes will use their own unique weapons, gear and abilities gained through the power of the Vilium Shards. Leveling up will allow these abilities to morph into various elemental forms.

One of the interesting features planned for the game is rebuilding. On his quest the player will encounter many cave-ins, broken bridges and ruined buildings. Fixing these will be needed to progress through the story and uncover secret areas or dungeons.

Separate from the main and side quest there will be numerous dungeons to explore and loot, some designed and others randomly generated.

Turtle Squadron is determined to push this project to the finish and is relying on financial help from the community to see it through.

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The Kickstarter Campaign for new online game Crowfall by ArtCraft Entertainment has reached its goal of gathering  $800,000. The pledged funds were amassed in mere three days since the start of the campaign. With almost a month of Kickstarter time left ArtCraft will continue to gather pledges so they can add more features.

Crowfall is hailed as a new online game genre, a Massively Multiplayer Online Throne War Simulator, a combination of Game of Thrones and EvE Online. It is a brainchild of Gordon Walton, executive producer of Ultima Online, The Sims Online, Star Wars: Galaxies and SWTOR and J. Todd Coleman, creative director of Shadowbane, Wizard101 and Pirate101.

The game is a blend of classic MMO experience and a large scale Strategy game. Throne War Simulator is a unique concept that relies on three major gameplay factors; time, destruction and power.

Crowfall has an interesting gimmick where player characters, Eternal Heroes are permanent and sort of immortal while the worlds they fight in die in time.

“We are immortal.

The gods choose the best of us to be champions.

They send us to the dying worlds to fight, to collect the souls of the damned.

The mortals fear us. They see us as executioners and scavengers.

They call us crows…”

Campaign Worlds, or servers exist about three to four months depending on victory condition. Once the Campaign is over the world gets wiped but characters remain. As Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter pass a legion of undead The Hunger descends upon the world to consume it. Once a world dies the heroes return to the Eternal kingdoms. These worlds are random, unique and each features its own set of rules and limitations.

Like Minecraft, Crowfall uses a refined for of VoxelFarm technology providing a completely destructible world. The process of map creation is automated and creates all the buildings and objects itself. These can be further shaped and destroyed according to the player’s whims.

Finally the power aspect comes into play. The Crowfall universe has two types of Worlds, the Campaign Worlds and the Eternal Kingdoms. The first ones are scavenged for materials like stone, iron and wood while the second ones are barren, souless yet immortal homebases.

Players rule these worlds as benevolent kings or iron-fisted tyrants. They forge alliance, fight their enemies. Risk and betrayal are around every corner but the conquest must go on.

As the initial Kickstarter fund goal has been reached ArtCraft Entertainment can now focus on additional features that will further improve the core game like new characters, races, mounts and various forms of transportation.

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