12 years ago
Hopping down the bunny trail with Camille Guermonprez
The family is about to sit down for dinner and we’ve just wished each other Happy Easter — over the phone. Instead of sitting down at the dining room table with the rest of the family, I’m hours away in Boston for PAX East. A little white bunny is on a screen in front of me, but he’s not that bunny. No, this little rabbit hops down an entirely different trail than Peter Cottontail. The rabbit in question on the show floor, Ash, is the star of Arkedo Studio’s Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit and the Prince of Hell. The independent French studio has previously developed handheld, mobile and XBLIG games, so most Xbox gamers aren’t terribly familiar with it. Well, that’s all going to change this summer when Arkedo releases what studio co-founder Camille Guermonprez would later describe to me as “a [fluffing] video game.”
Easter Sunday was the final day of the 2012 convention hosted by Penny Arcade, and an appointment with Guermonprez to discuss Hell Yeah! was the last one on the XBLA Fans schedule for the weekend. I had passed by the game’s booth many times over the weekend and caught glimpses of what appeared to be a wonderfully insane and gorgeous action title that proudly channels early ’90s Genesis and SNES side-scrollers. Several other members of the team had gotten their hands on it during the first two days of the con and word was that this was not a demo to be missed.
But my schedule was jam-packed with appointments to play other promising games and talk to other developers all weekend. Hell Yeah! would have to wait. When XBLA Fans EiC John Laster, reporter Nick DePetris, photographer Scratch Pratt and I finally arrive to speak with Guermonprez, though, it turns out that we are doomed to wait just a little longer. Guermonprez, surely having spent even more time on his feet and in interviews than I had during the weekend, had given in to exhaustion and headed to lunch. And so we waited.
12 years ago
First Deadlight dev diary explains the game’s ‘bleak’ setting
Spanish developer Tequila Works has released the first developer diary for its debut effort, Deadlight. In the diary, CEO & Creative Director Raúl Rubio is joined by Narrative …
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12 years ago
Dungeon Defenders gets patch, DLC on XBLA
Developer Trendy Entertainment today released the first console patch for Dungeon Defenders alongside the DLC pack Quest for the Lost Eternia Shards Part II: Moraggo Desert Town on …
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12 years ago
Microsoft hiring Skype for Xbox engineer
In a development that will come as a surprise to precisely no one who followed Microsoft’s $8.5 billion-dollar acquisition of Skype nearly one year ago, the console-maker is now seeking to fill the position of “Software Development Engineer, Xbox – Skype.” Though Microsoft has issued no formal confirmation that it will be bringing its voice-over-internet-protocol service to its home home video-game console, the job opening — which is based in London — would seem to imply that is precisely what the firm is doing.
“We’re building the next generations of our products and technology right here in London,” reads the listing, “and Skype is looking to hire a Software Development Engineer to contribute to the development of our experiences on Xbox.” The individual who is ultimately hired as said engineer will join a “new team” within Microsoft.
Interestingly, the listing specifically mentions as a “passion for shipping product” as an attribute Microsoft is looking for in candidates. While there is of course nothing to ship when it comes to Skype, the wording strongly alludes to the software titan’s desire to make Skype on Xbox Live an actual service, rather than just a pet project. Again, such a move would not exactly come out of left field. Still, with the move still being qualified as unofficial at this time, there is no target date for its Xbox release.
12 years ago
Archer getting his own Pinball FX2 table?
Archer, the lead character of the animated FX show of the same name, may very well be getting his own pinball table in developer Zen Studios’ Pinball FX2, and fans of the show and game have Twitter to thank for it. Earlier this afternoon, Neil Holman, the production designer and art director of Archer, responded to a tweet proposing an exchange of “dead hookers” (yes, you read that right) for his cartoon spy to get his own table with, “Man, if they’re up for it, I will put them in touch with whoever they need. End of the day, it’s FX’s call though.”
Both tweets were also directed at Zen Studios’ Twitter account, and the developer was apparently quite smitten with the idea, tweeting back “Please do,” in all caps, complete with a smiley face.
Finally, Holman responded to Zen’s tweet by requesting their contact info be privately sent to him so that he the two sides could make this thing happen. “DM me a contact email/info! I’ll put the wheels in motion,” tweeted Holman. Nothing is confirmed at this time, but it looks very likely that FX’s narcissistic spy is destined to get the silver-ball treatment through future DLC.
12 years ago
Microsoft’s E3 media briefing set for June 4
Microsoft has revealed the date and location of its 2012 pre-Electronic Entertainment Expo media briefing. The conference will be held on Monday, June 4 in Los Angeles’ Galen Center. Industry and press members who have been invited have been asked to arrive at 9 a.m. PST. A precise start time for the conference itself was not identified by the console-maker, but it should be noted that the doors swung open at the same hour for last year’s briefing, with the official start time being 9:30 a.m.
It is expected that Microsoft will focus its efforts heavily on promoting Halo 4, its flagship 2012 title, during the course of the show. Judging from the strategy the company has employed at the past several Electronic Entertainment Expos, gamers can also expect the firm to make a multitude of announcements and show plenty of footage of the major Xbox 360, XBLA and Kinect titles arriving during the second half of 2012. The most recent reports have Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft focusing solely on Xbox 360 wares and electing not to pull back the curtain on its next-generation console, supposedly codenamed Durango.
12 years ago
Awesomenauts blends chaos and strategy…and space frogs
Awesomenauts‘ zany 1980s look is immediately appealing. Inspiration for the graphics was drawn from Galaxy Rangers and the Earthworm Jim and Bucky O’Hare franchises. The bright shades and disparate characters that clash in the outer-space battlefields send a message that the game is something fun and ridiculous. Aside from everything playing out on a 2D plane, though, nothing felt especially exciting when I first took the controller in my hands at PAX East. My options were pretty much limited to jumping or shooting in the early-going and death came swiftly. That all changed after building up some coin and getting the hang of what was going on. It was then that I began experiencing the joy and gratification the game’s silly character design and pretty colors had initially implied I would.
Playing as a cowboy character named Sheriff Lonestar I ran into the thick of things at the outset and began firing his laser blaster at the mindless drones marching ceaselessly towards my team’s first turret. Someone on the opposition was playing as the heavy robot class and he was relying on his thick armor and powerful weaponry to shred up poor little Lonestar. There are multiple levels to platform between in each map, but the side-scrolling nature of Awesomenauts still made it feel like there wasn’t much room for evasion. That coupled with the fact that there didn’t appear to be any way to recover from damage was making the situation look grim for our team of XBLA Fans writers.
12 years ago
Microsoft ‘to further monetize Xbox Live’ this holiday
A LinkedIn profile page for Praveen Rutnam, group product planner at Microsoft, has outed the publisher’s plan to roll out a new strategy for generating revenue through Xbox Live starting this a holiday season. The experience section of Rutnam’s profile explicitly states that he created a “strategy to further monetize [the] Xbox LIVE subscriber base.” It mentions this holiday season as the target date for the new monetization efforts to go into effect.
Although no specific details as to what the strategy will entail are laid out in the listing, Joystiq has gone ahead and done some speculating. One possibility is the implementation of an online pass of some sort, not unlike those utilized by publishers EA, Ubisoft, THQ, Sony and Warner. The publishing houses using them have seen a strong backlash from gamers over online passes, but the consumer resistance has done little to stop their growing ubiquity.
12 years ago
PAX East: Pulling the strings in Fable Heroes
Fable has never been the most serious or mature of RPG franchises. Players were as likely to save the kingdom and behave regally as they were to let one rip. After gong hands-on with the 4-player hack ‘n slash Fable Heroes at PAX East, though, it’s clear that Lionhead Studios has moved the series into more family-friendly territory than it has in the past. Up to four players take control of cutesy characters that look like marionettes and slash and spell cast their way through swaths of hobbes and other native baddies of Albion. You move in a linear path and mow down the monsters that flood the screen en route to a boss fight — a giant beetle that shoots projectiles and slams into the ground in the case of the PAX demo that several of us from XBLA Fans played in Boston this past weekend.
Oversized gold coins drop when enemies are overcome, which creates a near-constant scramble to get your hands on more than the other members of your party. The coins are used to buy upgrades in the time between stages, and they can also be transferred into Fable: The Journey. In addition, any of the 12 puppets that gamers can take control of in Heroes will pop up in their inventories in the forthcoming Kinect game.
12 years ago
PAX East: Making frienemies in Battleblock Theater
This summer will mark four years since The Behemoth-developed beat ’em up Castle Crashers made its debut on Xbox Live Arcade and quickly became the go-to cooperative game for seemingly every XBLA gamer with three people on their friends list. The tiny studio behind the game hasn’t rested on its laurels since achieving well-deserved success by capturing gamers’ hearts with Crashers — its followup to Alien Hominid — though. The team, which now boasts a whopping two full-time artists, has been slaving away at Battleblock Theater for more than three years now.
This past weekend the team dragged its stellar co-op platformer out to PAX East for the second year in a row, but you won’t hear anyone complaining, especially not yours truly, about once again playing the game at the annual Boston convention. Unless of course, they’re begroaning the fact that the title is still only playable in custom-made arcade cabinets at cons and not in the homes of Xbox owners everwhere. The impatience is understandable to some degree; Battleblock looks and plays wonderfully, so gamers want it for themselves. Now. Despite appearing to be quite far along in development, however, the game is still sporting a non-specific TBA 2012 release date.
Although the wait might be getting unbearable for some fans, it looks like all of us will be rewarded for holding on when this one finally comes out. Jumping and punching through the stages of the world’s first reality theater performance was even more fun the second time around. And accidentally intentionally tossing your co-op partner to his death? Yeah, that hasn’t gotten any less enjoyable.