Battleblock Theater

It’s for The Behemoth’s booth at PAX East and Prime conventions to draw large crowds of gamers willing to wait in line for the chance to step up and play BattleBlock Theater. At each PAX for the past few years there’s always seemed to be an an amorphous throng of bodies awaiting their turn. As with anyone waiting in line, they could work together in groups of friends to navigate closer to a machine, or they could get a little more sassy and exploit someone else’s momentary pause or inattentiveness to edge their way ever closer to playing a game that also lets you work with or take advantage of others.

Last month, 10,000 more gamers were presented with the option of cooperating with or causing trouble for fellow players in the BattleBlock Theater beta. It wasn’t meant to be a free-for-all, however. Invitees received daily emails asking them to play certain game types on certain days. The Behemoth didn’t just want to let more gamers play its game early; it wanted gamers to help it make a better BattleBlock Theater. So when XBLAFans caught up with The Behemoth President and co-founder John Baez and Level Designer Ryan Horn in Boston two weekends ago, I had to know: did gamers follow instructions? Or did they give in to a desire to have fun their own way at the expense of helping to better the experience for the masses who will play the game for the first time tomorrow?

“They were really good,” said Horn of the beta testers’ willingness to follow instructions. “I mean, we didn’t expect 100 percent compliance — everybody’s busy. For the most part, all of the beta participants, they wanted to help us make the game better, and that’s what we got from them.”

Read More

Somewhere in San Diego there exists a couple of buildings. They’re buildings with glass windows and a soft feeling, or so I’ve been told. They’re buildings that are “not too intimidating” when compared to other species in their particular building genus. At least, that’s how The Behemoth President John Baez described them to me at the tail end of a roughly 32-minute interview that took place in Boston last weekend during PAX East. Baez and Level Designer Ryan Horn shared their thoughts on several topics: BattleBlock Theater, what the studio would like to see from the next-gen version of Xbox Live Arcade and the developer’s thoughts on working with Microsoft.

Yes, we managed to cover a lot of ground. This despite the fact that we were sitting comfortably in folding chairs set up in a largely unoccupied space behind the booth over which hung a large arrow bearing a single word: “Behold.” What precisely the attention of PAX attendees was being called to may not have been initially palpable to the first-timers among them, but then again, nor was it to the XBLAFans crew when Horn and Baez — the latter fielding an increasing percentage of the questions we asked the two men — began talking about video game prototypes.

Our attention, as it turned out, was being directed towards those two buildings. Or rather, what goes on inside their walls.

They’re not buildings in which the developer makes games, mind you. They are buildings in which the developer tests games to see if they work. Interestingly, one of the games that has been analyzed there isn’t property of The Behemoth — it’s property of fellow successful indie studio Supergiant Games. And at some point this summer, the iOS version of Bastion will lose the distinction of being the only game from another developer to be put through its paces by The Behemoth. The studio will begin using its pair of non-development buildings to investigate whether or not all manner of foreign games work in the manner that their designers intended them to, and whether or not that’s the way they should work.

The Behemoth will task those working inside the friendlier-than-most-of-their-kind buildings with providing quality assurance (QA) and usability lab services to fellow independent game developers. One indie should help another indie. This type of help, however, will come with a price tag — and not a discounted one.

Read More

We’ve been waiting a long time for Battleblock Theater, but that wait is nearly over. In a video recapping our anxiety and anticipation over the years, those tricksters at …
Read More

The Battleblock Theater closed beta is now over, leaving The Behemoth to mull over the data it collected. During the course of the beta, players were able to try …
Read More

[springboard type=”video” id=”674997″ player=”xbla001″ width=”640″ height=”400″ ]

Battleblock Theater is known for making its numerous prisoners perform deadly plays, but no prisoner’s tale is more tragic than that of Prisoner …
Read More

The closed beta for The Behemoth’s forthcoming Battleblock Theater finally has a release date. Those lucky enough to grab one of the coveted 10,000 spots can expect to get started in two short weeks, beginning February 28. Selected beta testers for Battleblock Theater will be receiving email notifications from The Behemoth in waves, so if you applied and haven’t yet been contacted, don’t fret just yet. There’s still hope.

All last week, XBLAFans ran a contest in partnership with The Behemoth to guarantee a certain number of beta spots for eager volunteers. In case you missed it, there’s still time to sign up and hope your number gets pulled. All you have to do is head over to The Behemoth’s official beta page, peruse the regulations and, if you meet the criteria, fill out the form. If you’re interested in getting your hands on Battleblock Theater before anyone else in the world, but not sure what to expect, check out the official trailer below.

[springboard type=”video” id=”668499″ player=”xbla001″ width=”640″ height=”400″ ]

Read More

We have a winner! Congratulations to reader “KnuX86”! We’ll be in contact with you soon to explain how to claim your prize! The correct answer was “Antlion” from Castle Crashers (check the original image after the jump). Thanks for entering, everyone!

Welcome to the final day of our Battleblock Theater XBLA multiplayer beta code giveaway contest! At some point in February or March (the exact date has yet to be sorted out), The Behemoth’s Battleblock Theater will begin a closed beta, with 10,000 XBLA gamers getting access.

Sound like fun? Want in? Then all you have to do is guess which Behemoth game character (or other noun) is pictured in the above distorted image. Post your best guess in the comments below, and remember, if you don’t win today, be sure to keep coming back, because we’ll be picking a winner every day for an entire week. Good luck!

Read More

We have a winner! Congratulations to: littlenekochan – We’ll be in contact with the winner soon to explain how to claim his/her prize! The correct answer was the “Iceskimo” from Castle Crashers (check the original image after the jump). Thanks for entering, everyone, and don’t forget to try again tomorrow!

Welcome to day six of our seven-day Battleblock Theater XBLA multiplayer beta code giveaway contest! At some point in February or March (the exact date has yet to be sorted out), The Behemoth’s Battleblock Theater will begin a closed beta, with 10,000 XBLA gamers getting access.

Sound like fun? Want in? Then all you have to do is guess which Behemoth game character (or other noun) is pictured in the above distorted image. Post your best guess in the comments below, and remember, if you don’t win today, be sure to keep coming back, because we’ll be picking a winner every day for an entire week. Good luck!

Read More

We have a winner! Congratulations to reader “Matthew Donovan.” We’ll be in contact with the winner soon to explain how to claim his/her prize! The correct answer was “boss chest” from Castle Crashers (check the original image after the jump). Thanks for entering, everyone, and don’t forget to try again tomorrow!

Welcome to day five of our seven-day Battleblock Theater XBLA multiplayer beta code giveaway contest! At some point in February or March (the exact date has yet to be sorted out), The Behemoth’s Battleblock Theater will begin a closed beta, with 10,000 XBLA gamers getting access.

Sound like fun? Want in? Then all you have to do is guess which Behemoth game character (or other noun) is pictured in the above distorted image. Post your best guess in the comments below, and remember, if you don’t win today, be sure to keep coming back, because we’ll be picking a winner every day for an entire week. Good luck!

Read More

The Behemoth recently announced that they are looking for 10,000 players to participate in a closed beta test of their upcoming Battleblock Theater beginning sometime in either February or March. The beta program will give willing testers access to story levels, the level editor and a few levels of all arena modes. However, we’ve not had a lot of details on what these arena modes actually are, until now that is. For The Behemoth have just published some details on their developer’s blog on the multiplayer games we can look forward to:

• Soul -Steal enemy souls and run away. Stomp, punch, kick or kill your opponent to capture their soul. The longer you have their sweet, sweet spirit, the more points you or your team will get. Don’t forget that you’ve got a soul too, so you better make sure that doesn’t get stolen in the process!
• Muckle – Beat and kill the enemy team. It’s that simple. One, two and land those punches. Give them a good uppercut. Use those weapons you earned. Get points for being the most powerful team.
• Challenge – Score the best time. How fast can you go through a level? Or a better question would be: How much faster can you go than others? Prove to everyone that you’re the best of the best at finishing before anyone else… In this context it’s a good thing!
• King of the Hill – Stand on the crown blocks. They’re golden and shiny. You can’t miss them. The only problem is your enemies can’t miss them either! Keep your opponents off those blocks and do your best to stay on them for a multitude of points.
• Color the World – Color more blocks than the other team. You’ll start off with a “blank slate” of greyish blocks and end with a kaleidoscope of colors – unless you’re really good or really suck, then you’ll only see giant blocks of color.
• Grab the Gold – Grab more gold than the other team. A floating whale spits out gold. Your objective is to take those pieces to the safe. It’s that easy. Just remember to keep them safe from your opponents!
• Ball Game – Get the ball in the basket. When you play this mode, you’ll be grabbing, passing and dunking in no time! Just remember to put the ball into your opponent’s hoop and not your own!
• Horse – Ride the horse to the stables. You’ll have a chance to use your sneaky skills to steal the other team’s horse. Lead the horse all the way back to your own stable to get your haul of points.

You can sign up for the beta here, but to guarantee a spot then best look out for one of our daily giveaway contests. Hit the jump for some screenshots of all modes described above.

Read More