The obvious reason, and the one the proprietors of these services will gladly divulge, is that they actually drive people to buy the games they try. Some players use it as a cheaper “test drive” option so they can see if a game is worth the full price. Spending $5 or $15 to try a few games and determine if they’re worth the standard $60 price tag is a respectable way to go about being a consumer. Another reason for their growing popularity is that they allow multiplayer games to build and maintain a higher population. If a game is added to the service or available from launch, many more people are going to check it out. This is one of the reasons Sea of Thieves was able to stay relevant as improvements were made to its limited gameplay. Both of these are valid and certainly justify the existence of the programs to a degree, but I think there’s another goal in mind – and one which will ensure this isn’t the last game subscription service we see.

Anthem is a game as a service. The Division 2 and Sea of Thieves are as well. This means, briefly, that they are games players usually purchase in whole, but are rendered as a service to them. You can’t play them without EA or Microsoft’s servers, and there’s no way to run the servers yourself. These games strongly lean toward the idea of playing with other people online, but all of them feature gameplay that should be (and is) accessible by the solo player. However, without an internet connection, you can’t play at all. While the legality of this has come into question in many countries around the world, these publishers have a stake in building more of games of this type.

Games as a service allow companies to create games that entice you to keep playing over time. They regularly try to get you interacting with other players and spending as much time as possible in the game working toward long-term goals. Games as a service want you to build a connection so that, as new content is released for the service, you’re going to be more willing to spend money to access it faster, play it the way you want, or just look better doing it. It allows publishers to continue monetizing content with much smaller development teams and thus make them more profit. When the profit margin is too slim, they can shut down the game, move the developers on, and find a more profitable game to render as a service.

That’s where subscription services come in. When a game as a service is available in a subscription model, people will be more likely to try it – bolstering its online presence and allowing players to make more of a connection with the game and other players. Subscribers are also more likely to come back in and try new content giving the game more opportunities for a resurgence. It’s also easier to justify spending money on microtransactions when your price of admission is much lower than outright purchasing the game. Then, if a game does not “meet expectations” and is shut down, never to be played again, fewer people will be upset as they never purchased the game outright, but still had access to all of the features.

Don’t be surprised if, in the coming years, Microsoft and EA are joined by other major publishers and companies in subscription services. Google is expected to have a subscription service that goes along with their Stadia launch. These are going to be the routes through which games as a service are delivered – and they will be delivered. All the while, the least popular of these titles will get flushed down the drain with minimal protest from the public, lost forever because they couldn’t meet profit demands.

Microsoft announced today the launch of XBox Game Pass for PC and from what we can tell will be very similar to the existing Xbox Game Pass but more geared more towards the Windows PC gaming community.

“We designed a service specifically for the needs of PC gamers and PC game developers,” said Head of Xbox Phil Spencer.

“We researched whether a similar opportunity exists for PC players and PC game developers, and we believe that it does. We also considered the importance of bringing something new and additive to the PC gaming ecosystem, and we believe that we can.”

The games will come from over 75 content partners including big names like Bethesda, Deep Silver, Devolver, Paradox, Sega, and of course Xbox Game Studios.

Just like the existing Xbox Game Pass, there will be over 100 titles to play for an unlimited amount of time. And as new Xbox games are released, Game Pass for PCs will provide access to them day-and-date with launching.

As of now, Xbox Game Pass subscribers can play games on Windows PCs if a version is available, but there are very few titles available compared to console titles.

“We look forward to sharing more at E3, including the great games coming to the library, as well as more details on when and how you’ll experience the new Xbox Game Pass service for PC gamers.”

Microsoft didn’t say how much the monthly service would cost for PC gamers and developers, or when it would launch, but we imagine it will be $9.99 per month just like the existing Game Pass subscription for Xbox consoles (although maybe another incentive will be thrown in). [Update: Game Pass PC will cost $4.99 per month.]

Included with Xbox Game Pass for PC is a 20% discount on games purchased from the Microsoft Store (as well as 10% off DLC).

Microsoft will reveal more about Xbox Game Pass for PC at their E3 briefing on June 9th, and we wouldn’t be surprised if the new service was launched later that day.

Source: Xbox.com

With Canvas, Developers can create full-screen visuals, custom animations and transitions, custom layouts and GUIs data visualization, and video playback (although right now video is not fully supported may play in Canvas).

“The Canvas is a framework built on the Google Assistant that allows developers to add a visual, immersive experience to conversational Actions. This visual layer is an interactive web app that is sent as a response to the user in conversation.”

Source: Google Blog

25 years later, MTG still dominates trading card sales while other companies attempt to replicate its success.

Why Magic The Gathering Is Still Relevant 

Riding off the lessons learned from Magic: The Gathering Online (2017), MTG Arena (open beta launch September 2018) is taking the online trading card experience to a whole new level. Available only on PC for the moment, MTG Arena is an FTP (free-to-play) game without the usual cash grabs and poorly designed mechanics gamers are used to dealing with.

Those who have never played Magic, or are returning after a couple decade hiatus, will find the systems easy to understand and the visuals stunning. Even the gameplay mechanics are smooth and adaptable, helping newbies play complicated symbiotic decks without having to memorize steps.

MTG Arena also makes sure new players have an abundance of pre-made mono and dual color decks to play with, allowing them to compete with others immediately. Five recent sets make up these pre-made decks (and booster pack purchases) which include Ixalan, Rivals of Ixalan, Dominaria, M19 Core Set, and the most recently released Guilds of Ravnica.

Patch Update To MTG Arena Open Beta  

Wizards released an updated patch for MTG Arena on November 15, allowing for players to challenge their friends to an online match for the first time. While far from perfect (needing to coordinate with friend IRL first), developers are hoping to smooth out the kinks prior to its official 2019 release.

Other additions to MTG Arena beta online include links to an event calendar, video tutorials, along with articles on deck building and basic gameplay.  Events include draft competitions and pre-constructed deck competitions, rewarding players with plenty of gold/gems, booster packs, and a variety of single cards (common, uncommon, and rare). Players can even unlock cards they don’t own through special wildcards awarded through booster packs, allowing for precise customization of decks.

MTG For A New Generation 

MTG Arena is the flagship trading card game that’ll take Wizards of the Coast into the digital age, allowing for a whole new generation of gamers to experience what many have been for over two decades. It’s also for old guys like me, allowing for intense gameplay (without tapping into my retirement fund) after displacing my cards many moons ago. Grant it, there are a few minor bugs which need to be tweaked, but overall the entire experience is — dare I say, equal to playing IRL — making it relevant to everyone, no matter age, financial status, or skill.

The open beta of MTG Arena is currently available for PC. It’s free to download and free-to-play, with the option of spending money (but not necessary).

Those familiar with the genre of MOBAs are used to the three-lane maps and a small number of objectives that are fought over such as Dragon in League of Legends or Roshan in DOTA2. Dawngate had a two-lane map and a few more objectives to fight over and one of these objectives is almost entirely unique: Parasite, a creature in the middle of the map, evolves over time, becoming harder to kill but giving a better reward.

While most MOBAs relied on a mana resource, Dawngate had very few heroes that had mana or any other type of resource. There are other games out there that are in the same genre and have a small following, but by and large the games are similar. If a AAA company like EA found slow growth among the Dawngate audience, then many developers might be hard-pressed to find support for their new MOBA title.

Everyone is talking about Blizzard’s newest IP release, Overwatch.  This team centric, objective driven, non-twitch focused first person shooter (FPS) has many game enthusiasts excited and eager to see the official release.  I on the other hand feel cautiously optimistic at best.

I enjoy shooters as much as the next person and I’ve never felt particularly interested in being especially competitive with them, outside of my own friends of course.  So Blizzard’s first jaunt into the FPS should appeal to me considering that, as usual, they are making it as accessible as possible to hit a wider market.  While this business plan continues to provide Blizzard with steady streams of income, it also doesn’t seem to encourage much in terms of innovation or challenge.

Many people seem excited for Overwatch, but the more you read the more it becomes clear that everyone is more interested in what Overwatch could become.  Seasoned players of games like Team Fortress 2 (TF2) are hoping Blizzard will provide the matchmaking system they have been begging Valve to provide for years.  Players like myself are hoping that the world, characters, and story might redeem the company’s storytelling capabilities after disappointments like Diablo III, World of Warcraft (post WOTLK), and Starcraft II.  So far though, Overwatch seems mediocre across the board.

Now I haven’t gotten my hands on the game obviously because my only exposure was through the Blizzcon Virtual Ticket.  None the less, the characters look generic with A-typical archetypes being displayed across the various champions. You’ve got your healing angel, your sniper assassin (a re-skinned Sarah Kerrigan with extra cleavage), a dark hooded reaper named Reaper, etc.  This might be all well and good for providing traditional characters that are easily recognizable for experienced and non-experienced gamers, but it doesn’t cut it in the slightest for providing something worthy of being called “different.”

This is what I fear for Overwatch.  While on the surface the talk is nice about unique characters with backstories, it seems like Blizzard has reached for the lowest hanging fruit with each one of their newly revealed heroes.  Still, I did say I was optimistic, because with a new venture may come the willingness to adapt and give the market what it is asking for.  Let us hope then that the market asks for something it hasn’t seen a thousand times before.

Already successfully funded on Kickstarter at over $200,000, The Flame in the Flood is a rogue-like survival experience that sets itself apart with its’ unique backwater style and emphasis on the perils of Mother Nature. The Molasses Flood utilized the expected random level generation in a different way, replacing dungeons with river rapids and swamp riddled woods that host a variety of dangers. Players control the character Scout as she travels with her loyal dog Aesop as they journey to the end of the river against rapids, hunger, natural predators, and much more.

Dowling, a veteran of AAA development, discussed how this new studio formed, what the small teams’ hopes are for their project, and some financial facts regarding the development of a game on this scale.

Jesse Tannous: It seems like your entire team had worked on some part of BioShock Infinite, is that where you all came together? How did this partnership come about?

Forrest Dowling: Almost the entire team worked on Infinite. Bryn worked at Irrational years ago, around the time of Freedom Force. The rest of us knew each other through working on Infinite. The partnership came about after the closure of Irrational. There were suddenly a lot of talented developers in a town without a lot of jobs available in games. We knew we’d all have to move or start something new. Around that time, Damian was finishing up his own project, Third Eye Crime, and was looking for a new team to work with. We convinced Bryn to leave his job at Harmonix to come join us. Working on a small team on your own project is a pretty appealing idea for a lot of developers, so it wasn’t a very tough sell. The hardest part was convincing everyone to forego a salary for the unknowns of indie development.

JT: So far how has the team enjoyed the smaller studio environment as compared to working on something as large as the BioShock franchise? What have been some of the key differences?

FD: The biggest difference is scope and resources. Working on a large project means that you can do just about anything you can think up. If you need a voice actor, or motion capture, or weeks of an artist’s time, it can be done. Now we have 6 of us. If an idea can’t be done by someone in the room, in a reasonable amount of time, it’s not happening. That being said, on a large project you can do anything, but you can’t do everything, so we’ve always had to worry about scope. It’s just a much lower threshold now. One big advantage of working on a small team is nimbleness and speed. If I need a new tool written by an engineer, I can get it almost immediately. On a large team, there’s always more steps along the way, and changing things means fighting a lot more inertia.

JT: While a $150,000 Kickstarter goal is not the highest, especially considering previous video game projects that have appeared on the website, but it is on the higher end. What was the main motivation for setting a higher Kickstarter goal like this, especially when backers seem fully willing to fund projects well-beyond their stated goals?

FD: We set the goal at the lowest point that we felt we could and still make the game. $150,000 really is a shoestring budget for a game of the size we’re making. If we set it lower, there would be a risk of hitting the goal, but not blowing past it. At that point, we’d be in a pretty bad position, in that we’d have some of what we needed, but not all of it. I’d rather miss an honest goal then set one that was too low and hit it, leaving us unable to deliver what we promised. While backers are willing to go beyond funding targets, it seemed really dangerous for us to count on that.

JT: You state in your Kickstarter that you are combining self-funding, and crowd-funding in order to make this game a possibility. For those less experienced with developing a game on this scale how much does it really cost to put something like this together and how does it break down?

FD: That’s a good question. Not so long ago, Tim Schafer tweeted a number. It takes about $10k a month per developer to run a studio. That’s pretty accurate when averaged over a large team. You have some entry level people who make a bit less, and senior engineers can make a bit more. So for us, if we were just bankrolling this project and hiring experienced developers, the napkin math would point to about $720,000 in payroll alone.

Considering that we’re all pretty experienced, I’m guessing hiring the 6 of us at a major studio would even run a little higher. Payroll is the single biggest expense in making games, particularly on the engineering side, as you’re competing with Google and Facebook to hire people. Beyond that there’s QA, localization, certification costs, marketing costs… those can all be extremely variable and shift based on how many platforms you’re supporting.

At a baseline, if someone wanted to hire the group of us to make this game, they would probably need to budget close to a million. Fortunately, we can make this game for a lot less because we’re dramatically decreasing the biggest cost, payroll, by living off savings. We’re willing to do this because we’re not working for a paycheck, we are hoping that we’re building a studio that is ours for years to come.

JT: How did Chuck Ragan get involved in this project?

FD: Chuck and Scott Sinclair go way back. Sinc has done most the album covers for Chuck’s previous band, Hot Water Music, and their bands used to play the same shows back in Sinc’s college days. While we were figuring out what we wanted to make, I had initially proposed looking at traditional American acoustic music, folk, bluegrass, that sort of thing. Sinc proposed that we see if Chuck was interested. We approached him, told him about what we wanted to do, and he was immediately interested and wanted to help out.

JT: Are there any plans to update or add expansions to Flame in the Flood after it has been released?

FD: While the game could be expanded pretty easily, we’re just focused on the core experience right now. If it does well and people love it, we’d consider additional content down the line, but that’s pretty far off and not something we’re really thinking about right now.

The Flame in the Flood will have its’ own challenges to survive throughout the development process, but with the popularity of rogue-like games and the professional experience The Molasses Flood brings to the table, it could be the perfect move for a young studio hoping to make a name for itself in the wake of the Irrational Games closure.

Jesse is a reporter first who just happens to love video games and enjoys writing video game related articles and interviewing industry professionals.

As it turns out, video game sound is a much bigger deal than you might imagine.  It’s even the topic of GameSoundCon, a conference dedicated entirely to the art and business of game audio.

GameSoundCon runs for two days, October 7th and 8th, and takes place in Los Angeles.  It courts audio professionals from all backgrounds who are interested in learning more about the gaming industry or breaking into the increasingly lucrative business of video game sound design.

The BEEP team will be making an appearance at the convention, where they’ll be filming for the documentary and brushing elbows with big names in the business — many of whom will be speaking at the convention.  After the con, BEEP will continue to film through the spring, with the finished product planned for release sometime in early 2016.

If you’re curious about the business of sound development, there’s still some space in the convention, though it will cost around $500 for a two-day pass.  The rest of us will just have to wait for BEEP to satisfy our curiosity.

#GamerGate raises a lot of questions and has spurred plenty of debate, with plenty of voices stepping in to add to the discussion.  At the core of the debate is a question of identity: How is “gamer” defined, and who is or is not included under that umbrella?  As games become increasingly mainstream, the once niche audience for gaming publications feels it’s no longer being served by those same voices.  Worse, as gaming news outlets continue to focus on the story, frequently pointing out the negativity of the proponents of #GamerGate, those same proponents find their fears being validated.  “See?” They cry, pointing to the newest headlines.  “The media has stopped serving our interests!”

Setting aside for a moment the complex social issues that seem to go hand-in-hand with #GamerGate, it’s worth asking honestly whether the games that get positive press are really the games worth playing.  It’s also worth asking if game developers themselves are still trying their best to create great games, or if they’re busy pandering to a new audience.

It’s no surprise that gaming has gone mainstream, thanks in large part to the accessibility of games on user-friendly devices like smartphones and tablets.  It’s also no surprise that these games, with their shallow learning curves and low barriers of entry, are being scorned as unworthy by those hardcore gamers who value both challenge and commitment.

What is particularly interesting, though, is that the elitism goes hand-in-hand with a conservative mindset not found in other types of media.  In film, for example, the movies viewed as “quality” also tend to be the ones saluted for breaking norms and pushing the envelope.  These are the same qualities critics are eager to celebrate in games – innovation, fresh ideas and storylines that appeal to wide audiences.

In that light, the issue of #GamerGate ultimately boils down to a simple question: Do we as gamers really want that kind of innovation and inclusivity?  Or do we want to stick with more familiar ground, focusing on delivering exactly the gameplay experience the core audience prefers?  And is there no way to reconcile the two?

In the past, GameStop has only offered in-game features, such as exclusive maps or equipment for multiplayer modes, to its loyal customers. Now, however, it appears as though they’re interested in getting into bed with software developers from the drawing board, integrating these incentives into the gameplay and story.

“We are working with our [development partners] to get both physical and digital exclusives for our customers,” confirmed Jackie Smith, GameStop’s PR spokesperson.

When some gamers expressed distrust of this proposed plan, fearing the game’s content would suffer, GameStop was quick to release a clarification. According to GameStop CEO Paul Raines, the company’s involvement in the game’s actual development would reportedly be pretty hands-off.

“You won’t see us involved in the creative process,” he explained to Time. “That’s not something we do well. We love to play games…but we will not be involved in the artistic or the creative process. That’s not really our domain.”

Raines went on to add that “The day you see us in the creative side is when you can tell me we’ve officially lost our minds.”

What form this non-creative content will take remains to seen. The follow-up statement, released on Wednesday, has yet to fully ripple out into the gaming community and their reaction has yet to be seen.

Ubisoft sparked some scandal this week surrounding the development of Assassin’s Creed: Unity when it announced that no female characters would be playable in the upcoming game. James Therein, the game’s technical director, claims it’s “not a question of philosophy or choice, in this case…it was a question of focus and a question of production.”

According to Therein, at this stage in the game, including a playable female character in AC: Unity would require too many additional animations – approximately eight thousand – from Arno, the game’s main protagonist. Despite Ubisoft’s extensive resources and the size of their development teams, Therein and his fellow director, Alex Amanico, both claim they ultimately had no choice.

“It’s not like we could cut Arno,” explains Amanico. “The only logical option, the only option we had, was to cut the female avatar.”

This decision, however, was met with widespread outcry from the gaming public. Many fans of the series took to Twitter and social media to protest what they labeled as exclusive, even sexist behavior. One former Ubisoft animator, Jonathan Cooper, went on record saying that the company’s statement was inaccurate.

“In my educated opinion,” claimed Cooper on Twitter, “I would estimate this to be a day or two of work. Not a replacement of 8,000 animations.” He went on to explain that Aveline de Grandpre, a playable female character from a previous Assassin’s Creed game, actually shared more animations with one of her male counterparts than the male characters often do with each other.

Former Assassin’s Creed designer Patrice Desilets, on the other hand, sees Amanico’s reasoning as valid, but still believes making female avatars should be a major priority. “But that shouldn’t stop you,” Desilets said, “With all the time, money and people on that project, you could’ve done it.”

Google is considering yet another acquisition, the online live-streaming video gaming site Twitch. Unconfirmed reports around the web set the price of Twitch at $1 billion, in what could be an all cash deal. However, The Wall Street Journal plays down the reports saying the two companies are only in talks, and that Twitch may be looking to raise additional funding from investors.

During the week of April 7, Twitch accounted for 44% of live-streaming traffic in the US, according to a report by Qwilt.

Google has apparently been eyeing Twitch for a while now, as the video service has created its own niche within the live-streaming industry. In February, Twitch claimed over 45 million unique visitors per month. And, last year Twitch announced integration into PlayStation and Xbox consoles.

Google has previously invested in the YouTube channel Machinima. Google’s own live-streaming video game site, Let’s Play, was introduced at the 2013 Game Developers Conference.

Microsoft has good reason to offer a lower priced Xbox One system. Sony’s PS4 (also released in Nov., 2013) has sold about 2 million more units than the Xbox One, even with the help of the exclusive title Titanfall which analysts said could sell 6 million copies by the end of 2014.

Microsoft also announced that Xbox Live members will no longer need a Gold membership to access entertainment apps such as Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, Hulu Plus, Twitch, Machinima, ESPN, MLB.tv, and others among the available choices at the Microsoft store.

Steam, often regarded as the main conduit for the video game industry’s PC-based games, is currently beta testing its up-and-coming new operating system. The Steam OS is being designed based on Linux and meant to run on a PC in your living room. The goal is to give players the option of playing PC games on a big screen HDTV. We see this as a major step up for the future of the PC gaming industry that will set the bar even higher for PC game developers. The Steam OS is also implementing four new features to give even more benefits to their users: they’re adding in-home streaming, music, TV, movies, Family Sharing, and Family options.

In-home streaming is the file sharing from your Steam account to the TV inside your living room and will allow you to play games from your Steam library. They’re also adding movies, music, and TV shows to Steam and Steam OS, which we see as a great expansion opportunity for our Steam libraries as well as unifying our PC experiences. Finally the Family Sharing and Family options are the implementation of easier Steam game and library sharing between family members, and the ability to setup specific family settings for your family’s Steam and Steam OS experience.

Steam has captivated and organized our PC gaming experience since 2003 and we are looking forward to the new implementations that Steam is going to be adding with their new OS. Steam is still in the throes of beta testing the OS, but plan on releasing it sometime during 2014. Steam is also working concurrently on Steam Machines – a line of PCs built specifically for gameplay, and the Steam Controller, which we caught a glimpse of in this demo.

If you want to find out more about Steam’s new OS please visit their webpage.

     There are many different places online for gamers to purchase indie games and indie developers to sell their creations, but there is one that stands out from the rest. A website that has spent the last year devoted to assisting indie developers get their products out to the fans, indiegamestand.com, has finally opened up a complete online store specifically for independently developed games. The site uses the popular and indie-friendly “pay-what-you-want” purchase model with daily deals and bundles mixed in to further sweeten the pot.

The site boasts a particular ease of use for developers. Developers can have their game available for purchase in a matter of hours. With less hoops to jump through than some of the other mainstream platforms available, we get to see some of the best and most creative titles get an opportunity to woo the gamers who want to try something different. Taken directly from the site’s mission statement, “Every developer out there deserves a moment to shine.” This is a great way to approach designing both a site and a working business model that will benefit the actual developers for their creativity.

     2013 has seen some major changes for indiegamestand.com, a redesign of the store that takes some interface pointers from Valve’s Steam platform, a new checkout page that displays more information about the titles and developers, and recognition for top contributors. Allowing gamers to see how they actually helped with development works to bring the indie crowd closer and get more people interested in the work of some otherwise unheard of developers.

Soaring through the cosmos with ethereal grace.

In Gravity Ghost, you play the role of a ghost girl with strange terraforming powers who propels herself around a shattered galaxy using the gravity-fueled momentum of surrounding objects to save its remaining survivors. The game itself sports a no-fail gaming environment that lets the player simply enjoy the mechanics, going against the grain of common video game tropes that feature killing and destruction as the primary means of progressing through challenges.

Ring around the reindeer

What’s more, the game features an incredible hand-painted look that immediately evokes feelings of Van Gogh’s Starry Night painting peppered with a wonderful dose of storybook imagery that makes it feel like you’re watching a cosmic holiday in space, all the while serenaded with an incredible soundtrack composed by FTL: Faster than Light’s Ben Prunty. With rave reviews coming in from a number of sources, Gravity Ghost is set to take indie gaming potential in a stunning new direction. No definitive release date yet, but you can preorder the game for $9.99 directly from www.gravityghost .com, which includes a free No-DRM gift copy when the game is released.

Digital distributor GOG.com may have earned the love and respect of gamers by selling DRM-free versions of classic PC games, patched to run on modern operating systems, but for about a year now they’ve been expanding their catalogue to include newer indie titles. GOG now sells nearly 100 indie games, some of which have been rejected by Steam and forced to go through Greenlight. Today, GOG announced a new indie portal that developers can use to help get their games on the site.

Unlike Steam’s Greenlight system, the GOG indie portal is not a community-based popularity contest. Instead, it is a new way for developers to contact GOG and discuss plans to sell their game on the site. GOG staff will review the game and decide if it is something that they feel the site’s customers would be interested in buying. If a game is rejected, GOG’s staff will explain exactly what they feel is wrong with the game.

Perhaps the most interesting feature is a new revenue system that will allow an indie developer working on an upcoming title to receive an upfront payment from GOG to help with development costs. In these cases, the finished game’s revenue on GOG will be split 60/40 until the dev pays off the advanced payment, at which point it will change to the 70/30 industry standard.

Mercenary Kings

The second game shown at Sony’s press conference that will be making its debut on the PS4 this fall, Mercenary Kings from Tribute Games is an action side-scroller with lush hand-drawn art that provides some beautiful retro eye-candy sensibilities. The premise is centered on a group of the world’s greatest mercenaries, who are sent to an island in the Central American Pacific Coast to destroy an evil crime syndicate that has assassinated the character’s former team mates. It covers a whole spectrum of elements reaching as far back as the 8-bit era, but deftly combines the tone and feel of several game systems of the nostalgic past including the SNES and the Sega Genesis. It looks like the talented team at Yacht Club Games will have a bit of healthy competition (not to mention a compatriot in the unstoppable retro niche) for their upcoming Shovel Knight release.

Octo Dad: Dadliest Catch

The sequel to “the splash hit” Octodad, the newest title from Young Horses is a 3D puzzle and action game that once again throws you into the role of an octopi husband and father that is struggling to keep his identity as an octopus a secret. With his wife’s suspicions beginning to rise and a trip to the local aquarium that ends in catastrophe, it is up to you to make sure his place as Octodad remains secure throughout the comedically irreverent story. With fluid animation and wonderful art direction, Octodad: Dadliest Catch is sure to be a runaway hit when it gets released late 2013/early 2014.

Don’t Starve

Although currently available on Steam and Chrome, Don’t Starve from Klei Entertainment is billed as “an uncompromising wilderness survival game full of science and magic” that will be making its console debut soon after the launch of the PS4, though no definite release date has been set. In Don’t Starve, you play as Wilson, a “Gentleman Scientist” who is trapped in a terror filled wilderness world by a demon. Sporting one of the best visual aesthetics in the indie market and gameplay that will suck away your spare hours, look for Don’t Starve to be available in the Indie section of the Playstation store this fall.

Ray’s the Dead

Ragtag Studios has continued the indie tradition of innovation over technology with Ray’s the Dead, a story-driven Action-Stealth-Puzzler that puts you into the role of a newly raised zombie, Ray, as he seeks to find the reason he was killed. Building up a massive zombie army and digging up the most unlikely of friendships, the game has a distinct 80’s vibe to complement its rather heartfelt and humorous take on the zombie genre. Currently hoping to release on Steam Greenlight, Ray’s the Dead will be shuffling onto a PS4 near you.

Read Part 2 of “Indie at E3” where we will cover Secret Ponchos, Outlast, Oddworld: New and Tasty, and Galak-Z.

This morning’s press release from Ouya also boasts $15M in new funding led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, most of which will be used to better meet anticipated retail demands, as well as improve the Ouya game development community.

Ouya will be available for purchase in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. on June 25th. The console will sell for $99, with additional controllers selling for $49.99. Ouya consoles can be pre-ordered through Amazon and other retailers. (Note, Amazon is still posting the June 4th release date.)

Ouya and the independent game scene

The summer of 2013 will bring us all something that we haven’t seen in a while: the breakout of a new game console to compete against the big three that have ruled the console market for years now. Ouya, the difficult to pronounce new hardware contender, is centered on bringing gaming back to the television and the living room. Ouya is the brainchild of game industry vet Julie Uhrman who put together the most successful Kickstarter campaign the online pledge system has ever seen. With an initial goal of $950,000.00 to get the development process moving, we all got to watch in amazement as they raised almost ten times that goal in a very short time. While gaming innovations over the last five years have almost always been geared toward the exponentially expanding mobile market, Ouya seems to take the best creativity we have seen in that realm and put it back on the living room television where it can be enjoyed by the massive demographic that is the hardcore console gamer. Based on what we have seen out of Ouya so far, this will be a wonderful platform for the independent game scene and many of us are excited to see how its release will reverberate throughout the entire industry.

With a recently announced retail launch date of June 4^th, 2013 many Kickstarter backers and development studios began to receive their brand-spankin’ new Ouya consoles during the last week of March and into April, 2013. There are quite a few hardware reviews and “first impression” articles out there to check out if you are interested.  Some familiar names from the indie scene are amongst those that have backed the project since day one; Notch and Mojang studios are on board, Canabalt developer Semi Secret Software have their flagship title already included in the game lineup, and other major players such as Brian Fargo of Interplay and Robert Bowling of Robotoki are all providing the needed support to make this indie console a reality. Indie smash hits such as Minecraft, Canabalt, and Terraria’s spiritual successor Starbound currently in development by Chucklefish in the UK will all be part of the Ouya experience. I already have a small spot cleared off my desk next to my monitor that would be perfect for the tiny console.

In tune with what today’s console gamers expect with their purchase of a game console as an all-around media machine, games are not the only interactivity the Ouya will offer. Twitch TV, a network/community of broadcast gameplay and tournament coverage, is already included on the console as a native app. Iheartradio is proudly wearing the badge of the first confirmed radio app for the new console and hopefully we will see the likes of Hulu, Netflix, and even Facebook available on Ouya in the future. While this plethora of games and apps put together in one piece of technology sounds suspiciously like every other game console on the market, there is an underlying independent spirit and philosophy behind the development and eventual release of this platform. The complete development tools are available with the purchase of each console and the ability to get your game published on Ouya is going to be drastically easier than other platforms that allow the same avenues. The Ouya homepage even boasts that you will not void your warranty by tinkering with the hardware itself and they even express interest in seeing what hardware mods are created by the users. For us console gamers, it has been a long time since we have seen a company truly embrace what the user community is capable of and the nod in our direction is much appreciated. It is the reason that I will be preordering this great console to be a part of this experience. Directly from the Ouya website, “The revolution will be televised!”