Thursday, April 18, 2013

Kickstarter for LucasArts inspired "A Small Favor"

A new kickstarter has been launched by ClickShake Games for a 2D side scrolling adventure game for Windows and Mac. The game, A Small Favor is a sci-fi comedy that was inspired by the classic LucasArts adventure games, as well as Beneath a Steel Sky and Another World (known in the United States as Out of this World).

The company is no stranger to adventures, as they already released their first game, The Ballads of Reemus, a traditional point and click adventure game based on their free flash series The Several Adventures of Reemus, in 2012.

A DRM-free download of the game itself is $10 USD (or for $4 less if you are lucky enough to get one of the few remaining "early bird" slots).  $10 more will net you DRM-free downloads of the game plus The Ballads of Reemus (the latter of which is redeemable as soon as the kickstarter closes).  The reward tiers for this one are the most reasonable I've seen so far.  You can name a character at the $30 tier, get a boxed copy of the game at the $35 tier, name a character and write one sentence of dialog for the character at the $40 tier, name an inventory item at the $100 tier, and become a character at the $200 tier.  There are also many more tiers to choose from, right up to taking a starring role in the game as a playable character in an easter egg side quest at the $1,000 tier.

They are only aiming for $30,000 USD for their goal, and as of this writing, they are already a tenth of the way there with 27 days left.  If you enjoy comedy adventure games, pick a tier, and support A Small Favor.

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Gemini Rue Is Now Available For iOS

Gemini Rue, the sci-fi dystopian adventure game by Joshua Nuernberger and published by Wadjet Eye Games, is now available on iTunes in a universal app for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad.

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

First Screenshots of The Wolf Among Us

In the May issue of Game Informer (available now in their digital issue), the first screenshots of The Wolf Among Us have been revealed. The art design enhances the playable comic book feel of Telltale's The Walking Dead tenfold.

The issue also reveals more of the "Fables" that we'll be encountering in the game. There's the ones we already know: Bigby Wolf (the big bad wolf), who's the sheriff of Fabletown, and the person we'll be controlling, Mr. Toad (who is a carjacking thief, and who is able to keep himself and his family in human form to keep from getting sent to the farm), one of the three little pigs (named Colin, the one who built his house out of straw, is a professional mooch who lives on the farm with his cousins, but sneaks into the city since he's bored with farm life). There's also Ichabod Crane (deputy mayor of Fabletown for nearly 115 years), Snow White (the assistant to the deputy mayor of Fabletown) Beauty and the Beast (she's dependent on him (but is still said to have genuine care and concern for him), and he works two and a half jobs in order to keep up their lavish lifestyle now that they don't have servants), and Buffin (a talking, winged monkey from the land of Oz who is Fabletown's librarian, and prone to mischief).

There's some more information on how Telltale has evolved the gameplay from The Walking Dead as well. The action has improved. It will still be motivated by the game's narrative, and it will still be presented in a cinematic style, but players will have more control over the action (which in this game involve bigby throwing punches). And since Bigby is a Fable, the action will be more over the top than The Walking Dead since Bigby can take more punches than Lee ever could (and the amount of damage you take is shown in your appearance, and is noticed by the other characters in the game). There will still be quick time events (involving Bigby making a decision in the middle of a fight to decide the game's outcome). However, it seems the QTE's this time will be just the decision making ones and not the button pressing ones.

The relationship building in The Walking Dead will also be expanded in The Wolf Among Us, as it's said to contain a lot more of that, and there will be a powerful emotional connection to the characters like Telltale did with The Walking Dead.

As Telltale has said before, you'll be able to choose what decisions to make like The Walking Dead. The Wolf Among Us will also have the opportunity to choose when to go to different locations, making the events unfold in different ways. Two events will happen at the same time, and the other event will still unfold regardless of whether you've experienced it first-hand or not, giving the game an extra element of realism (and replay value).

Sunday, April 7, 2013

Fester Mudd Episode 1 Is Now Available For iOS

iTunes now has a Fester Mudd Episode 1 universal app available for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad.

The best news is that it's available for only $0.99 USD for a limited time! At that price, every adventure game fan should pick it up.

First Moebius Gameplay Trailer and New Website

Moebius: Empire Rising, the upcoming crowd funded adventure game by Gabriel Knight creator Jane Jensen's Pinkerton Road studio, has just received a new website and the first game play trailer. The trailer is based on footage from the alpha release which is now available to people who pledged to a high enough tier on Pinkerton Road's kickstarter to receive it.

The trailer shows the game's protagonist, an antiquities expert named Malachi Rector, who finds himself in high demand by various government agencies for his incredible knowledge of history and photographic memory.

The game is scheduled to be release this year for Windows, MacOS, Linux, and iPad.      

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Telltale Cancels King's Quest

In a statement released to Digital Trends, Steve Allison, Telltale's senior vice president of marketing, has confirmed that Telltale's King's Quest series has been cancelled.

“While we deeply love King’s Quest here at Telltale, we can confirm that we are no longer working on the franchise. There was a time last year that we investigated partnering with third party developers to produce the game as a partnership but decided against outsourcing. We are not privy to what plans Activision has for the franchise, if any.”

In the same article, Paul Trowe of Replay Games states that Activision is planning on doing something with the King's Quest license. However, it's unknown just exactly what Activision has planned.

Disney Closes the LucasArts Development Studio, but LucasArts Licensing Remains

 
Disney has closed the LucasArts development studio, and all in-house projects have been canceled. LucasArts licensing remains and will only be licensing out the properties to external developers from here on out. Only Star Wars is mentioned, there is no word on whether the classic LucasArts original properties will be licensed as well.

“After evaluating our position in the games market, we’ve decided to shift LucasArts from an internal development to a licensing model, minimizing the company’s risk while achieving a broader portfolio of quality Star Wars games," LucasArts parent company LucasFilm said in a statement. "As a result of this change, we’ve had layoffs across the organization. We are incredibly appreciative and proud of the talented teams who have been developing our new titles.”

The LucasArts development studio has given me many great memories over the years, and I'm sorry to see it go. I give my best wishes to those who have lost their jobs due to the closure.