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The Behemoth’s highly anticipated XBLA title, BattleBlock Theater, releases in just under a week. If that’s not exciting enough, the developer recently announced that in addition to the game’s story …
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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.

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Starting April 1, Xbox Live Rewards is launching a new program to reward members even more. According to Major Nelson, MyPunchcard will keep track of your online activity and offer …
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Longtime champion of Xbox Live Arcade, developer Twisted Pixel has resolved to bundle its complete non-Kinect XBLA catalog of games. Reported by our friends at PlayXBLA, the bundle will feature …
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This September, Minecraft builds its empire by venturing into the world of print with the help of UK publishing house Egmont. The new line of officially licensed books will launch with four handbooks designed to entertain and educate beginners and experts alike. The books include: The Beginner’s Handbook, The Redstone Handbook, The Combat Handbook, and The Construction Handbook–each title is fairly self-explanatory in what readers will find between the covers.

Egmont hopes to offer engaging books that introduce readers to the world-building game in a unique format while also offering exclusive material from Mojang not available online. After the first set of handbooks, there will be a Minecraft Annual, Minecraft Poster Book, and an All About Minecraft Magazine. Additional titles in the series are planned for next year.

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Twisted Pixel’s newest trailer for their forthcoming game LocoCycle introduces gamers to Pablo, the man behind the sentient motorcycle I.S.I.S.–literally. In “Meet Pablo,” Twisted Pixel reveals actor Freddy Rodriguez as …
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We recently had the opportunity to speak with Wizards of the Coast about the next iteration of the annualized Duels of the Planeswalkers franchise: Magic the Gathering Duels of …
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Telltale Games’ previously teased episodic title based on DC Comics’ Fables series has been officially announced as The Wolf Among Us. Fables centers around the many characters of fairy tale and folklore, who’ve …
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In an effort to continue growing the popular game Skullgirls, the developers have set yet another stretch goal. Lab Zero Game’s CEO Peter Bartholow confirmed to XBLAFans via e-mail that they have added a fourth character to their donation stretch goals. Originally, the developer added a mystery character as incentive, which was revealed to be Robo-Fortune. The threshold for Robo-Fortune is $725,000, and at the time of this article being published. Robo-Fortune is a character inspired by Robo-Ky, and will recycle the frames of Ms. Fortune. “With that money, we should be able to redraw her head and give her some new moves and animations too,” Bartholow stated.

With donations currently at $718,483 with 12 hours left to go to donate, the DLC is expected to reach that goal. Lab Zero Games has also added a fourth mystery character as incentive. If they manage to reach $825,000, the mysterious character will be created, and at $850,000, they will create a story mode and stage surrounding the mysterious character.

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