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Lab Zero’s Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign aiming to bring new characters to its fighter Skullgirls came to a close this week after raising nearly $830k–easily crushing its initial goal of …
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If PAX East 2013 is remembered for anything, it will undoubtedly be the contagion that swept the showroom floor. It wasn’t some handshake-induced strain that whipped through attendees and across the vast reaches of the internet. It was something far more potent: the long-dreamed resurrection of DuckTales and its infectious tune, spreading with airborne hums and whistles. By day’s end nowhere was safe, and among the eager mobs huddled around Capcom’s display booth hoping to catch a glimpse of their childhoods, it was ground zero.

When sounds of the infectious DuckTales Remastered theme song caught the ear of XBLAFans, we naturally investigated. We were intent on finding the culprit, daring to believe rumors of the nostalgic possibilities at the end of the line. What we found was Capcom Senior Product Marketing Manager Matt Dahlgren manning an arcade machine surrounded by toe-tapping onlookers and a flurry of questions.

“The whole game has been built from the ground up. They did start with the 8-bit version but everything’s been layered on top of it,” said Dahlgren, speaking of developer WayForward Technologies. “It has hand-drawn and animated sprites – the game looks like the cartoon.”

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Have you played Minecraft? With the newly released sales figures for the game, odds are high that you have. 4J Studios, the developer behind the mega-hit, took to Twitter …
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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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