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Archived News:
A new
Kickstarter update for Double Fine Adventure, aka Broken Age,
outlines the current financial state of the game, but the update is for backers
only, and not viewable by the general public (thanks nin). The post lays out
some bad news about the game, as Tim Shaefer reveals that that in spite of
raising over $3.3 million for development, money is still tight, for as he puts
it: "that didn’t stop me from getting excited and designing a game so big that
it would need even more money." He explains further: "I think I just have an
idea in my head about how big an adventure game should be, so it’s hard for me
to design one that’s much smaller than Grim Fandango or Full Throttle. There’s
just a certain amount of scope needed to create a complex puzzle space and to
develop a real story. At least with my brain, there is." He describes their wake
up call when they projected they would not be done with the first half/episode
of the game until a year from now, which would mean they'd need to cut the
game's design by 75%. Realizing they couldn't go back to Kickstarter or a
publisher, nor could they afford to absorb the overages, Tim explains they
decided to release the game via Steam Early Access in January 2014
after some "modest cuts." Here's a bit on the plan: We were always
planning to release the beta on Steam, but in addition to that we now have Steam
Early Access, which is a new opportunity that actually lets you charge money for
pre-release content. That means we could actually sell this early access version
of the game to the public at large, and use that money to fund the remaining
game development. The second part of the game would come in a free update a few
months down the road, closer to April-May.
So, everybody gets to play the game sooner, and we don’t have to cut the game
down drastically. Backers still get the whole game this way—nobody has to pay
again for the second half.
And whatever date we start selling the early release, backers still have
exclusive beta access before that, as promised in the Kickstarter.
I want to point out that Broken Age’s schedule changes have nothing to do with
the team working slowly. They have been kicking ass and the game looks, plays,
and sounds amazing. It’s just taking a while because I designed too much game,
as I pretty much always do. But we’re pulling it in, and the good news is that
the game’s design is now 100% done, so most of the unknowns are now gone and
it’s not going to get any bigger.
Ubisoft has suffered a security breach, and while they say no payment
information was accessed, but that users should create new passwords (thanks
Mashiki). Here's the mail they are sending about this: Dear Member,
We recently found that one of our Web sites was exploited to gain unauthorized
access to some of our online systems. We instantly took steps to close off this
access, investigate the incident and begin restoring the integrity of any
compromised systems.
During this process, we learned that data had been illegally accessed from our
account database, including user names, email addresses and encrypted passwords.
Please note that no personal payment information is stored with Ubisoft, meaning
your debit/credit card information was safe from this intrusion.
A new trailer from
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 celebrates the release of the Vengeance map pack
DLC, which debuts tomorrow for the Xbox 360 and will come in the future to the
Windows and PS3 editions of the military shooter sequel. The "Always Running"
clip is a cinematic look at Buried, the included new chapter in the game's
zombie mode. The clip's evocative score recalls the original Dead Island
trailer, though the footage of mowing down endless hoards of the undead doesn't
strike the same emotional chord. Here's word on the mission: "Players will be
challenged to face their deepest fears, trapped inside a long-forgotten
subterranean Old West mining town infested with swarms of flesh-eating undead."
Early access to Infested Planet is now available
on Steam, where players
can support development of Rocket Bear Games' strategy game buy purchasing it in
advance, which carries a 20% discount. This includes access to the game as it
currently stands, and here's word on where that is: "Infested Planet is very
close to being complete, but there are still many finishing touches that it
needs. What do you get right now? Hours and hours of random battles using our
procedural mission generator and the finished half of the story campaign."
The Left 4 Dead Blog
announces Linux support and other new features for Left 4 Dead 2 are now
out of beta: The Extended Mutation System, Linux support, and other
features and fixes are moving to Left 4 Dead 2 proper. Thanks to everyone who
helped test all the changes in the Beta Build. You can find a complete list of
the change notes here.
Linux The Linux conversion is ready for primetime so we are opening it up to
more people and releasing it officially on Steam. This will let us get feedback
on more builds and distros.
SteamPipe Some of you may have noticed a quick update to your game last week.
That was our conversion over to SteamPipe. For L4D2 it was quick and painless as
our system was already using VPKs. What does this change mean? For server
operators there is an easier update path and smaller downloads. For clients, we
have improved the downloading experience and you can now install L4D2 on any
drive. You can get more details on
the
support page.
Extended Mutation System. The EMS takes the current idea of mutations and
mutates it into a powerful tool for modders. They have been busy at work
creating a bunch of new Mutation and game modes that will begin to be uploaded
to the L4D2 workshop today. With names like Vicious Infected, Boomer Peril,
Stranded, Vampirism, Plague of the Dead, Zombie Run, and Tiny Terror, there is
something for everyone.
The Telltale
Games website has release details on 400 Days, the new DLC for their
episodic The Walking Dead game. The Windows and OS X PC editions will come tomorrow as part of a staggered schedule that begins with
today's release of the DLC on PSN and will culminate a week from Thursday when
the iOS edition comes out.
This FAQ has
details on this content and the explanation of why it's not included with season
passes for the game, and word is they will be showing off some gameplay in a
live stream on Twitch today at
3:00 pm EDT.
Wargaming puts out the call for test pilots, as World of Warplanes soars
into open beta testing, allowing everyone access to this MMO aerial combat
shooter. Signups are being conducted on the
North American Website and
European Website for the game, and
here's the rundown of what to expect: July 2, 2013 — Wargaming, the
leading free-to-play developer and publisher, today announced that the company's
highly anticipated free-to-play flight combat MMO World of Warplanes has
officially gone into open beta testing, inviting all virtual pilots to climb
into the cockpits of some of the most iconic warbirds from the 1930s to the
early 1950s. Open beta goes live today in Russia and North America, and July 4th
in Europe. In total, the closed beta saw more than 2.7 million applications from
194 different countries.
Featuring planes from the United States, the Soviet Union, Germany and Japan,
players will be able to jump into white-knuckle 15 vs. 15 PvP matches, where
supremacy of the skies is determined not only by skill, but also coordinated
teamwork and cooperation.
Continue here to read the full story.
A new trailer from
PlanetSide 2 shows off content from an upcoming patch that will add Battle
Islands to the MMOFPS. The clip shows off the vast interior and exterior
environments of Nexus Battle Island along with some combat. According to the
description, "Battle Islands is currently in development for Auraxis but will be
integrated into the live game servers in preparation for esports." Here's more
on the plan to offer focused 48x48 island combat: Battle Islands are
designed to emulate the PlanetSide 2 live game as closely as possible, but in a
tighter space to encourage Outfit vs. Outfit competitive, close-quarters
gameplay. Battle Islands will be integrated into the live game servers and will
have a population cap. All gear, vehicles and features available in the open
world of Auraxis will be available in the Battle Islands... just with fewer
places to run or hide. Multiple win conditions will encourage both offensive and
defensive tactics, so outfits will be challenged to come up with mixed-arms
battle plans tailored for their opponents.
To help Outfits prepare, SOE is giving players a sneak peek at one of the
islands, Nexus. A throwback to the original PlanetSide battle islands and
themes, the Nexus battle island features an icy terrain, complete with ice
caves, alpine forests, frozen canyons and ice fields.
As troops train for Battle Islands, they can also start preparations for
upcoming updates to the Infiltrator class. The Infiltrator will now be deadlier
and stealthier than ever with updates including a stalker cloak, motion sensor
and recon drone. Decoy grenades will also help the Infiltrator to distract enemy
troops.
IncGamers has a write-up of what they learned from Blizzard Entertainment
about the future of Diablo III during a "fansite summit" about the
action/RPG sequel. The main lesson is the future is not the present, and nothing
much is changing in the short term, as the "itemization" patch first
mentioned four months ago is not to be expected for at least another four
months, as they confirm it is not expected to be released before BlizzCon in
November. They also believe that the game's first expansion will be first
unveiled at BlizzCon, which would support
a recent indication that the release
of an add-on will probably not happen before next year.
Kotaku Australia describes having sighted a "low violence" edition of
Saints Row IV on the
Steam page from Volition's open-world action sequel. They speculate that
this may be intended to address the game recently being
refused classification in
Australia. We cannot find the listing for this edition of the game as of now, so
it may be removed or localized content, or it could be premature, as Kotaku
received a "no comment" reply from Deep Silver about this, and they were told
the Classification Board were not aware preorders of the game were still
underway.
Well, we're officially halfway through 2013, as there were 182 days before today
this year, and 182 days remaining after today (I guess the pro trick is to remember
to commemorate this at noon). At the halfway point I'm going to have to give the
year so far a failing grade, if for no other reason than I still don't have my
flying car.
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