About Nick Santangelo

“If Clementine came off annoying, people would be trying to find the button that sends her straight into a herd of walkers,” Melissa Hutchison, voice actress behind The Walking Dead‘s Clementine, told Game Informer in regards to how she and developer Telltale Games had to avoid making the little girl just another aggravating video game companion character.

“From the beginning, the designers knew they wanted a character that would act as a moral compass for the main character as he progressed through the game,” Art Director David Sakai said. “The designers envisioned a smart, honest, and capable girl around eight years old.”

Telltale’s designers didn’t have to completely imagine the character into existence, however: Clementine’s personality, attire and candid dialog were based upon Sakai’s daughter. With those inspirations and imaginations in place, the developer then had to find someone to breathe life into its creation, a task that proved to be initially troublesome.

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Developer Arc System Works has revealed that it will be bringing the previously Japan-only Plus R update for XBLA fighting game Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus to North America next spring.

After Core was initially released on the PS2 in 2008, its developer followed up with Core Plus in 2009 before releasing Plus R exclusively in its home country back in September. The XBLA version of the game then arrived in North America on October 24 sans Plus R. Despite the game’s myriad ports and updates, fans in this part of the world have still been asking questions on message boards such as NeoGAF as to when the most recent update would make its way here. Now they have their answer.

When Plus R does arrive in the States players will be greeted with a new title screen that reflects this version of the game once an update has been installed. They will then need to go into the game settings in the options menu and enable Plus R. Players who trudge through all of that setup will be able to select fighters Kliff-Undersn and Justice in ranked matches and all Player Match sessions. In addition, Plus R-specific leaderboards and achievements will be appended to the XBLA game.

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Japanese developer 5pb Games has revealed in a recent blog post that Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds, the XBLA co-op side-scroller starring characters …
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Speaking with Polygon, a Ubisoft representative confirmed that the upcoming DLC for 2010’s Scott Pilgrim vs. the World has been pushed back to 2013. With December nearing an …
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It was way back during April’s PAX East when 17-Bit studio boss Jake Kazdal told XBLA Fans that development was nearly complete on his team’s turn-based strategy game, Skulls of the Shogun. The game, which pits small armies of dead Japanese samurais against each other in the afterlife, appeared to be polished to a sheen and was every bit (no pun intended) as enjoyable to play as it was when yours truly first played it one year earlier.

Kazdal said at the time that the plan was to release the game on XBLA in October alongside the launch of Windows 8. That didn’t happen. September saw the game being delayed to November. Strategy fans would have to wait just a little bit longer. In case you didn’t notice, they’re still waiting. Skulls of the Shogun missed its new target window and 17-Bit has not announced a new, new window.

Kazdal did recently speak to Polygon about his missing-in-action game, though. He informed the outlet that trying to coordinate a multiplatform launch (Skulls is headed to PC, Windows Phone 8 and Microsoft Surface tablets in addition to XBLA) with only three developers on his team is an arduous undertaking.

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Citing “various reasons,” publisher Bandai Namco announced today that it has chosen to end development on Aero-Cross. It was just over two years ago when the publisher announced …
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Developer Might and Delight has announced that it plans to make its puzzle-platformer, Pid, more accessible by adding an Easy Mode to the game’s existing Normal and Hard …
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If “people familiar with the company’s plans” are to be believed, then Microsoft has a holiday 2013 release in mind for the Xbox 360’s successor. Bloomberg was informed by anonymous sources that the console that’s said to be codenamed Xbox Durango will make its way to retailers in time for next year’s Thanksgiving.

Bloomberg’s tipsters were, unsurprisingly given the sensitive nature of such information, light on details. The only other tangible morsel of information discussed was what Microsoft has yet to decide: where and when to finally show the console to the world. Microsoft is said to be wavering between pulling back the curtain at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in June of 2013 and doing so at special event held specifically to debut the next-generation platform.

E3 seems the obvious choice, as the annual Los Angeles convention is usually the site of more major industry announcements than every other event held in any given year. It was not, however, Microsoft’s choice for the initial Xbox 360 announcement. The current Microsoft console’s coming out party was a May 2005 event all its own that was broadcast on MTV.

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It was revealed last week that “the entire” team responsible for Reverge Labs’ XBLA and PSN fighting game, Skullgirls, had been laid off this past June. In an interesting twist — and a welcome one for the displaced developers — publisher Autumn Games was revealed to be in possession of the IP and the publisher decided to bring together the team responsible for it under a new banner, Lab Zero Games.

Upon hearing the news, XBLA Fans reached out to Reverge, Autumn and Lab Zero in search of clarification as to the nature of the split and the current state of the studios and the Skullgirls property. Though multiple requests for comment from the Autumn/Lab Zero camp have gone unanswered as of publication time, Reverge Labs CEO Richard Wyckoff was willing to briefly talk about the lay-offs last week.

“I can’t say much except that Reverge completed the Skullgirls contract with Autumn Games when we shipped the game in April and we aren’t currently engaged by Autumn for any other Skullgirls work,” Wyckoff told XBLA Fans via email. “Because of this we did have to lay off some of the Skullgirls team.”

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The video game industry, like most entertainment industries, can be a cold business. It’s not uncommon for a few bad reviews of a game or debut sales numbers that fail to reach blockbuster heights to lead to massive studio layoffs, with the ax sometimes falling on entire teams or studios. As if that wasn’t depressing enough, layoffs can even occur when a release garners strong sales and decent review scores. Though gamers are just hearing about it now, five months ago that became the fate of the team at Reverge Labs responsible for developing XBLA’s Skullgirls.

In June, “the entire” group that developed the XBLA and PSN fighting game was laid off by developer Reverge Labs. Members of the development staff were gagged during the intervening months, but they have just recently been able to open up about the matter. In an introductory post on its new website, the team briefly discussed its severance from Reverge and revealed that it’s not all bad news: Lab Zero Games, a new studio comprised of the former Reverge employees, has been founded in Los Angeles. What’s more, Lab Zero is doing “everything in [its] power and then some” to return to working on a planned Skullgirls DLC character and a PC port “as soon as possible.”

It’s an unlikely development in the team’s saga, made possible by the fact that Reverge never owned the IP. Publisher Autumn Games apparently retains full rights to all things Skullgirls, and it “is fully behind the new studio,” according to Lab Zero. The two sides are going to continue collaborating on future content for the game thanks to Autumn’s support of the developer. More merchandise and “a few other things” are in the works on top of the previously mentioned DLC and PC version.

IP battles between developers and publishers have been well-documented over the years. Both parties traditionally seek to secure the rights to a game franchise and deals are regularly signed or passed upon based on insistence of ownership by one side, the other or both. This case is unique in that the creators of a new IP actually benefited by not being granted ownership of it. Had Reverge seized control, Lab Zero would obviously not be in a position to continue working on the game today.

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