I Will Survive – On Kickstarter

Posted: 15th November 2012 by Maxim Bardin in Uncategorized
Tags: , ,

I Will Survive looks like an interesting platform game with dark homer, uncensored adult content, gore and zombies.
All animations are made frame by frame, drawn by hand and looks excellent.
With ~50 playable characters and ~150 monsters/zombies to kill, this is a huge amount of work.
I really don’t know why there are so few backers to this project with it’s already low goal of 5,000 British Pounds.
 

 
I Will Survive is a multi-genre, somewhat endless game in a comic style with an uncensored design an story built on sarcasm and satire.
 
Decaying Logic needs your help. We are a small team founded in 2011 by Matt D. C & Lampros Papadopoulos working towards our dream of finishing and releasing our game ‘I Will Survive’. We are reaching out to the gaming community because we want our project to reach its highest possible potential.

The more funds we have the more we can do and the more platforms we can aim at, and…. software licenses are really expensive and we don’t have big company pockets.

Most stories follow the hero, the survival minded protagonist who will prevail no matter what situation is thrown at him. We want to take the opposite approach and focus on the people whose lives were cut short due to unforeseen consequence, and therefore not able to tell their story no matter how heroic or tragic.

I Will Survive has been up on Steam Greenlight for a few months now and we’ve had a lot of attention and overall a great response from the community. You can find the page HERE if you want to check it out and maybe help us out with a vote up and see our game on Steam.

As well as for the PC, Mac and Linux, we will be making versions for Android and IOS. We want to try to bring the game out on as many platforms as possible and if we can we’ll go for the Xbox360 and PS3 too.

We have around 50 playable characters so far and our enemy count almost triples that. Quality to us is number one and we never re-skin the same characters or enemies to give the game more filler. Every level and environment is built from the ground up. The idea of reusing the same levels and copy pasting everywhere is pointless and we would rather put in the effort. Eye candy tastes good and we have lots of it.

Each character has its own unique weapons and capabilities, with its own story to tell, which will play out in segments as you switch between them.

Everything you see in the game is hand drawn and animations are carefully done frame by frame then colored, animated and polished down again to give each movement the smoothest possible finish.

As a thank you to all who donate to help our project reach its full potential, we have a bunch of cool stuff to give away such as T-shirts, key rings, stickers, original signed artwork from the game, PDF and some hard copies of our Survival Guide/Art Book.

 

 

 

Thanks for reading this and looking at our project. For more pictures of the game and artwork, checkout the IWS website HERE.

Check out the website to see more screenshots, concept art and to generally get to know more about the game. You can also follow what we’re doing via Twitter, IndieDB, Facebook, joing our STEAM group or of course at our little dev blog on the website.

 

Unity 4.0 Released !

Posted: 14th November 2012 by Maxim Bardin in Uncategorized
Tags:

The Unity4 Game Engine that brings GNU/Linux support and many, many, many new games that uses it – is finally released !
Unity4 was the number 1 engine of choice by most Kickstarter game projects and thanks to it, they could promise a GNU/Linux client for their games.
Unity4 brings a huge boost to the GNU/Linux gaming – and was a big part of me discontinuing my “Upcoming GNU/Linux Games”  list.
It just got so huge that I could no longer keep track of upcoming releases.

 

The press release :

 

Unity 4.0 Launches

San Francisco – November 14, 2012 – Unity Technologies, provider of the Unity multi-platform engine and development tools, is proud to announce Unity 4.0 is now available for download. Unity 4, announced in June, will consist of a series of updates designed to improve the product through an extensive improvement of existing tech and the rollout of new features.

The first in a series of updates for Unity 4, this version includes significant additions such as DirectX 11 support and Mecanim animation tools. In addition users will have access to a Linux deployment preview and the Adobe® Flash® Player deployment add-on.

“Unity 4 will see the addition of an incredible number of new, highly advanced, features and continuous improvement across the tech to be released in smaller, faster increments than Unity has seen in the past,” said David Helgason, CEO, Unity Technologies. “It’s an exciting time for Unity and the 4.0 release marks the beginning of a great new era for our technology.”

Mecanim – Stunning Character Animation
Mecanim, Unity’s powerful and innovative animation technology, is setting new industry standards for tools in integrated development environments allowing the creation of complex state machines, blend trees, IK rigging, and auto retarget animations to characters of different sizes and shapes, all inside of the Unity editor. Developers will find a sizeable selection of retargetableanimations available in the Unity Asset Store: http://unity3d.com/unity/asset-store/.

DirectX 11
With the ability to take advantage of full DirectX 11 support, including shader model 5, tessellation for smoother models and environments in game worlds, and compute shaders for advanced GPU computation, Unity 4.0 empowers developers. DirectX 11 support development was aided by development of the Butterfly Effect demo: http://unity3d.com/promo/butterfly/.

High-end Visual Capabilities for All Platforms
Unity 4.0 also features real-time shadows on mobile, skinned mesh instancing, the ability to use normal maps when baking lightmaps, and a refined GPU profiler. It’s easy to make extremely high-end visuals that scale across the best of what’s available on modern PCs and the most advanced mobile graphics chips.

Adobe Flash Player Add-on
The Adobe Flash Player deployment add-on will empower developers to publishtheir new and existing titles to one of the world’s most ubiquitous gaming platforms on the web. With the wealth of incredible features in the 4.0 release, Unity is the most powerful development pipeline for creating high quality 2D and 3D content for Adobe Flash Player. The add-on is now available for sale in the Unity store: https://store.unity3d.com/.

Linux Publishing Preview
Unity 4.0 will also include a preview of a new deployment option to publishgames to Desktop Linux, clearing a path for the Unity community to bring exciting new content to the PC market’s most voracious indie gamers. Desktop Linux standalone publishing will be available for all Unity 4 users at no additional cost.

Unity 4 introduces many additional features and improvements, including:
? Shuriken particle system supports external forces, bent normals, automatic culling, and environmental collisions
? 3D texture support
? Navigation: dynamic obstacles and avoidance priority
? Major optimizations in GUI performance and memory usage
? Dynamic fonts on all platforms with HTML-likemarkup
? Remote Unity Web Player debugging
? New Project Window workflows
? Iterative lightmap baking
? Refined component-based workflows
? Extensible inspectors for custom classes
? Improved Cubemap import pipeline
? Geometry data improvements for huge memory and performance savings
? Meshes can be constructed from non-triangle geometry – render points & lines efficiently

Unity 4 and the Adobe Flash Player add-on for Unity are now available for purchase at the Unity store (https://store.unity3d.com/).

About Unity Technologies
Unity Technologies is the creator of Unity, an intuitive and flexible development platform used to make wildly creative and intelligently interactive 3D and 2D content. The “author once, deploy everywhere” capability ensures developers can publish to all of the most popular platforms. Unity Technologies boasts a thriving community of nearly 1.5 million registered developers including large publishers, indie studios, students and hobbyists. Unity Technologies aggressively re-invests in its award-winning 3D development tools and democratization initiatives, such as the Asset Store digital content marketplace and Union game distribution service, in order to remain at the forefront of innovation. Unity Technologies is headquartered in San Francisco and has offices in Canada, China, Colombia, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Japan, Korea, Lithuania, Sweden, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom. For more information, visit: http://unity3d.com.

After seeing that the pledging to Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption wasn’t as good as they hoped and even reaching the starting goal will be a struggle, Corey Cole removed the stretch goal for supporting GNU/Linux and now promises that support without a stretch goal some time after the Windows release.

Here what Corey Cole about the GNU/Linux support :
We have had a lot of requests for a Linux version, but the team had concerns that spending time on making Linux builds, testing them, and getting them out to the Linux Beta testers might affect the development schedule. A few nights ago, I came up with a solution.

I have decided to personally commit to bringing Hero-U to Linux. Originally we planned this as part of our first stretch goal, but I came up with a new plan. After Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption is complete and on the way to our Windows and Mac users, I will personally port the game to Linux and – with the help of some of our passionate Linux friends – make sure the game is rock solid.

See, there’s a little part of my history that 5 or 6 of you might not have heard yet. Before I was a game designer, I was a system programmer. My first job at Sierra was to translate the SCI game engine to the Atari ST and port the first four SCI games to the ST. I’ll just put on my software engineer hat for this task.

Why am I doing it this way? It is so that none of the Kickstarter proceeds will be used for the port. I will be doing it on my own time after the game is complete, so that we can guarantee that the Windows/Mac versions of Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption are absolutely the best we can make them.

Welcome, Linux friends!”

 

About Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption

Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption is a classic 2D role-playing adventure for Windows PC, Macintosh, and Linux by award-winning game designers Corey and Lori Cole (Quest for Glory, Castle of Dr. Brain, etc.).

Hero-U combines the rich character relationships, story and puzzles of a classic adventure game with the exploration and excitement of a role-playing game.  Bringing all these features together makes Hero-U a completely unique game experience.

  • Classic adventure game characters, story, and puzzles
  • All the exploration, skill development, and choices of a classic RPG
  • A rich story that changes based on the way you play
  • Tactical turn-based combat
  • Characters with unique personalities and their own agendas
  • Fun, Funny, and Punny

There is danger and intrigue within the hallowed halls of Hero-U. Danger? Ha! Rogues laugh in the face… well, actually, they sneak up behind danger and bop it in the head, then run really, really fast.

You can be that Rogue!

  • Classic adventure game characters, story, and puzzles

Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption combines role-playing, puzzles, an immersive story, and rich character interactions. As in our acclaimed Quest for Glory series, every element works together to create a unique game experience that you will love.

In Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption, you take on the role of Shawn O’Conner, a would-be Thief who has had a rough life. As Shawn, you will attend Hero-U, a school that tries to teach young adventurers to be heroes. Shawn can continue his quest to join the Thieves’ Guild, or he can strive to become a Rogue Hero. He has a lot to learn to succeed at either path.

  • All the exploration, skill development, and choices of a classic RPG

Hero-U plays like a classic RPG, with turn-based tactical combat and exploration of the environment on top-down, 2D maps. There are traps, obstacles, and enemies for you to overcome as you explore the school and the ancient catacombs beneath it. Key scenes feature beautiful painted backdrops to let you see from Shawn’s perspective.

Shawn has skills and attributes that improve through game play. He will also acquire possessions that give you additional options.  Your choices determine which skills Shawn learns.  He can improve them through study and practice.  Explore the school and catacombs as Shawn fights monsters, avoids trap, finds hidden items, and solves mysteries.

  • A rich story that changes based on the way you play

Your life has not been an easy one. Caught red-handed during your thief guild initiation, you have a choice – Go to reform school or rot away in prison. The teachers and students are intent on making your life a living hell, while trouble lurks in the catacombs below. It would help if you didn’t need to worry about being killed and passing midterms.

In your hands, Shawn has real choices. If he does someone a favor, it is because he figures they will be useful to him later. If he wants to unleash nameless horrors of destruction upon the world, well, hey, that’s his business… and yours.

Along the south coast of Marete to the east of Silmaria, there stands a great sprawling castle built in ancient times when demonic creatures sought to dominate Gloriana. Long abandoned, the castle was greatly feared by the people of Silmaria. There were rumors of hauntings, curses, and a great Evil buried within its rocky walls.

Over the years, a few desperate and foolhardy souls dared to explore dark towers and musty hallways in search of forgotten treasures. Even fewer returned; they whispered of eldritch horrors best left buried beneath the ancient stones. The castle’s grim silhouette upon the cliffs warns us that there are dangers in this world that mere mortals are not prepared to face.  

So what better place than this to build a University for Heroes?

Besides, the rent was cheap.

Catacombs Concept Art - Built with Tiles!
Catacombs Concept Art – Built with Tiles!
  • Tactical turn-based combat

One doesn’t just wander around an ancient, possibly haunted, castle and expect to have an easy time of it. Your hero must learn the cunning, deception, and just plain Rogue skills, then use them to survive. “Hack and Slash” won’t cut it for a Rogue. Shawn must outwit and outmaneuver the creatures that lurk within the ancient catacombs beneath Hero-U.

Our turn-based combat system features an action point system that will make you choose between slow, powerful attacks, tactical movement, or a mixture of defense and quick attacks. Shawn will supplement his Roguish skills with clever use of traps and other items. Between battles, you will explore the catacombs, setting and avoiding traps and other challenges.

  • Characters with unique personalities and their own agendas

Many of the characters you encounter have their own reason for being there.  They aren’t there to serve you, only themselves.  Shawn will meet with these characters as you choose what he says to them, and how he relates.  Conversation is an important part of Hero-U.  It is a way for Shawn to gain information, make friends, and try to stay out of trouble.

  • Challenging puzzles that are an integral part of the story

We believe that puzzles are an important part of a good adventure game or RPG.  Hero-U is filled with challenges that will make you think and that enrich the story.  The problems Shawn faces are all closely linked to the story and characters at Hero-U.

  • Elective system that lets you customize Shawn’s abilities

All rogue candidates study basic techniques such as stealth, picking locks, and setting traps.  But Hero-U also offers elective courses that will allow Shawn to customize his to assist his extra-curricular activities.  These electives will give you choices on how you like to play.

Lori and Corey Cole have been making and playing games for… let’s just say, “forever”. At Sierra On-Line, we created one of the first hybrid graphic adventure/role-playing games. Our award-winning Quest for Glory was one of Sierra’s most successful game series.  Corey’s Castle of Dr. Brain puzzle adventure game was another top-selling, critically-acclaimed game that spawned a successful series.

  • Game Designers: Lori and Corey Cole, creators of Quest for Glory, Castle of Dr. Brain, Shannara, Mixed-Up Fairy Tales, and Tower of Indomitable Circumstance.
  • Programming: Andrew Goulding and the Brawsome team, developers of Jolly Rover, MacGuffin’s Curse, and many other games.
  • Art and Animation: Eriq Chang and Eric Varnes (Fable Foundry Creative Studio), Paul Bowers, and John Paul Selwood.
  • Music and Sound Design: Ryan Grogan, composer of music for film, animation, and games including MacGuffin’s Curse.
  • Marketing Maven and assistant combat designer: Michael Cole
  • YOU! Your support makes this game possible, and your feedback on the Hero-U forums will help us shape and perfect the game.

The Kickstarter revolution has changed all that.  Now you, the players, help decide which games get made and which go back to the drawing board.  We are very excited about our plans for Hero-U and think you should be too.  This game will be the spiritual successor to our Quest for Glory series.

We have a file drawer full of great game proposals that we couldn’t convince traditional publishers to support.  In one case, the publisher decided instead to design their own game.  Millions of dollars later, they created a dismal failure that sold under 1,000 copies.  Alas, we didn’t get a chance to tell them, “We told you so!”  They were out of business after that.

We think you’re a lot smarter than most of those publishers.  You know the kind of game experiences you want to have – Ones in which substance rules over form.  You want well-designed game play that rewards thinking, with an immersive story, meaningful character development, and intelligent puzzles.  Killing monsters is fun too, but it all needs to be part of the story.

You can help make Hero-U become a reality.  If enough people support our Kickstarter project, we will be able to bring a new type of game to market.  But if too many people choose to wait and see what our game looks like, we may never have the opportunity to make it at all.  Your support here is important!

 

The project currently stands %50+ from it’s goal of $400k and has 11 days to go….so it’s still possible.

Zero Point Software who are now having a Kickstarter campaign to fund the development of their realistic FPS “Interstellar Marines: Prologue” agreed for an interview with LinuxGamingNews.org

 

1. Please tell me about your team ,how many people are you and what each does ?

We’re currently two partners working full-time on the project; Kim Haar Jørgensen (Game Director) the visionary man behind Interstellar Marines, and Mikael Garde Nielsen (CTO) the guy in the engine room making sure all the wheels are turning.

On top of that we have assembled a core roster of extremely talented people who have all worked on the project at some point, and are ready to go full-time when the resources allow for it. Their experiences range from small unknown indie titles to big blockbuster games like Crysis and Deus Ex, and they all share the same intense desire to realize this ambitious project with us.

 

2. Originally you made a prototype using the UDK engine … which in my opinion looks graphically better than the current game (shame UDK doesn’t support GNU/Linux).
Please tell me what happened after the well received release of the prototype ? why didn’t you continue developing the game with UDK ?

Good question. Actually the prototype was made on an UE3 evaluation license back before there ever was an UDK. The publisher demo that we created was well received, however when we found out that no publisher were willing to risk their money on a new IP and an unknown team, during a financial crisis, we changed gears and tried our luck in crowdfunding, which eventually lead us to changing to the Unity engine.

The main reason that the demo graphically looked better than the current is that we had a 2  team working on it, compared to 4 people on the current Deadlock prototype.

 

3. What made you move from UE3 to Unity ?

With the UE3 evaluation license we were not allowed to show off our work to the world unless we paid the multi-million dollar price tag on the engine (remember, this was before UDK was available), and we worked out that in order for us to be successful in crowdfunding we would have to show more than just ideas to the public. We had to show playable prototypes.

At this time the Unity3D engine were quickly gaining grounds, and it seemed like the natural choice for us, so we decided to try it out and we haven’t looked back since.

This whole process is explained in more detail, in the Kickstarter video (http://kck.st/VKkH3K)

 

4. What features are added or missing game wise after the engine switch ?

It’s kind of hard to compare the two; the UE3 publisher demo served as a vertical slice to sell the vision to publishers who normally required such demos at the time, whereas the Unity prototypes serves more as proof of concepts of the various central features of what is to become Prologue.

 

5. Will it be a deathmatch/arena only FPS game or a campaign/missions are planned in the future ?

From the outset Prologue is a game that is focused on training scenarios, whether that be in multiplayer deathmatch to single-player target practicing or co-op hostage missions, everything is built around fun and engaging combat in an immersive training facility, where you’re constantly improving your proficiencies as a candidate for the Interstellar Marines battalion.

 

6. Why do you show the outdated UE3 videos from 2008 on the main Kickstarer campaign page and not the current Unity videos ?
I mean the UE3 videos look better, but your current game looks much different and it’s no longer represent it.

As described before, the prototypes zooms in on the various features of what is to become Prologue but we still feel that the old videos from 2008 is better at showing “the big picture”. They most accurately portrait what kind of game and style we want to deliver, despite their age.

 

7. You strive for realism and simulation, and your game so far looks great and is heading to the right direction.
How will the damage in the game work ? will you be killed from 1 shot ? or can parts of your body be damaged ? (like if you aim for the leg, the person won’t be able to use it and will crawl, or shoot his hand and he will lose his weapon).

Prologue will feature simple component damage to destin; which means thatWe’re simulating a lot of immersion effects to enhance the belief of looking out the eyes of your character and when it comes to e.g. being fatigued, stressed, wounded etc. we’re always considering which audio / visual cues we can implement to enhance the immersion.

 

8. What kinds of arena games the game will have ? (deathmatch, capture the flag etc…).

We’re planning to have all the standard game modes that we all love to play in other games; Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture The Flag, Domination etc. In addition to this, and since the game is about training for “first contact”, the training scenarios will be controlled by a all-encompassing AI (SARA), which controls both the simulation of the environment (rain, lights, sounds, access ways etc) and the mission parameters (objectives, AI, allowed equipment etc.) which opens up for a whole range of possible game modes.

 

9. Anything you would like to add ?
Like the Linux community and open source movement, we are all about honest and authentic communication. We believe that inviting the fans to play our game at a very early stage, makes for a much better result, and this is why we’re openly sharing our prototypes and work-in-progress builds with the community.So we hope we will gain a few Linux fans out there, as we will need all the feedback we can get from now until release of Prologue. 🙂

 

I wish “Zero Point Software” best of luck in funding their project on Kickstarter.
If you want to help them make it happen, please pledge.

Bloom – Fantasy Action Adventure RPG !

Posted: 7th November 2012 by Maxim Bardin in Uncategorized
Tags: , , , ,

Bloom is a beautiful fantasy action adventure game with a dose of RPG elements.
The concept art and sketches look great and the early gameplay concept is also very good.
They ask for $150k (which isn’t a lot for that kind of game) and we have 40 days to achieve it.

Bloom is an isometric action adventure game with a dose of RPG elements. Set in a rich fantasy world caught in the midst of an epic battle between nature and the re-emerging technology of the past, Bloom strives to bring forward an entirely new experience to the players.

Over time, the idea of Bloom slowly developed from the modest beginnings of an unreleased graphic novel into a living breathing world of deep history and exciting creatures.

Beyond it’s history and unique story, Bloom will give players a fresh new world to explore and challenge them in ways they have never been before.

In Bloom, you take on the role of a young survivor just beginning to explore her people’s innate connection with nature as you try to stay alive against impossible odds. A deep history and unexpected story propels you forward as you continue to cling to a quickly diminishing glimmer of hope.

While the story and setting is rich and engaging, Bloom also takes a fresh approach to the entire player experience with a new level of game design.

Synergetic Design

Our entire ability system is designed with as much cross interaction as possible. An ability, such as being able to shoot an arrow, is not limited to simply a damage roll against a creature. Instead, it serves as a single tool which can be used in a wide range of ways throughout the game. From adding weight to an object, to pressing switches, to delivering an object in your inventory to a distant location and much more.

In this way players are not overwhelmed with long menu lists and other disruptions to the flow of game-play. While at the same time, players will find they have a great number of options in how they strategize and approach situations depending on how they choose to use their tools.

Strategic Real-Time Combat

Combat in Bloom is made to challenge players to think and plan ahead as they manage their energy and dodge or counter attacks. Winning does not come down to who can mash the X button the fastest. Instead, the game challenges players to invent creative ways to overcome their enemies. Congratulations, you can shoot an arrow… but lets see you use your bow to defeat an enemy that can’t be hurt by arrows.

Not only that, but enemies will begin to adjust their tactics to match you. Even when knowing an enemies weakness, the battle isn’t over by far.

Living Environments

In Bloom, the world around you is far more than simply a backdrop. It is key to your success in moving forward. You will be able to spot and utilize boons and other environmental advantages as you fight and use the environment to set traps or other strategies you invent. Rushing into a fight blindly will only get you so far. ..sometimes you have to sit back and look around you for a minute (of course, at the same time you might have an angry creature vying for your attention).

These are just some of the great features we have planned to create an experience unlike any other. You will find Bloom isn’t trying to copy some other game, we are rewriting the rules and bringing new life to the party.

 

 

Jordan Brock sent me an email about a game he is working on with his team called Just Tactics (they are also working on a new website 😉 ).

Just Tactics is a free (for now) turn based, online multiplayer, 1v1, tactical war game involving squads and deck building.

They Follow the “Minecraft business model” in which they give the game for free at first and as the game development progresses they start charging money from lower to higher (so those who buy early get a better price).

The plan is to gradually build a community that can help test the game and  enjoy it together (it is a multiplayer game after all).

 

The interesting thing is that they use the jmonkey engine and a lot of other open source tools but also give back to the community.

You can see the tools they have developed and released under the BSD license  far from their dev blog, and they are always working on new tools !

 

Here is the email Jordan Brock sent me :

Hi Maxim,

Sorry, I am not a pretty girl.

 

We are working on a game called “Just Tactics,” currently available for Linux and Windows.  Just Tactics is a Turn Based, Online Multiplayer, 1v1, Tactical War Game involving Squads and Deck Building.

 

We are using jmonkey engine and a lot of other open source tools.  Our entire codebase is not open sourced, but some day it likely will be (right now what is not open sourced is our art assets and the game logic specific to our game, honestly not particularly useful to anyone).  Any tool that we have made that actually would be useful to someone, we have open sourced, you can check them out on our devblog:  http://devblog.htssoft.com/

 

For Just Tactics we have been doing QA testing for 6 months, so there aren’t many bugs left.  The game is not quite finished (there are a number of art assets missing, mainly some paint and sound effects).  However, Just Tactics is very much playable, and it is time to build a community of gamers that will love all of the tactical goodness packed into Just Tactics.  We are looking to give away several thousand copies of the game, this will allow us to stress test our infrastructure, and also gets us to the ever important “critical mass” of gamers the community needs so that when you join the Quickmatch queue, you actually find an opponent.

 

We are using a “Minecraft pricing strategy.”  Right now the game is free.  As the game becomes more complete, we will start to charge a modest price for it.  As Just Tactics gains more content, we will continue to up the price commensurate with what is reasonable.  This creates an incentive to join the community now (especially now because the game is free 🙂 as opposed a traditional pricing structure where the game comes out as a finished product at a high price, and then some people delay their purchase until the game is in the “bargain bin.”  We feel that the “Minecraft pricing strategy” is a better fit for indie games like ours.  When we do start charging for the game, anyone already in the community is still good to go, you do not have to pay for DLC or anything like that.  Even when we are charging, new players will be able to demo the game for free forever using a default army (which is a decent army, not crippled in any way).  By letting you demo forever, it helps us to continue to grow the community, and it lets us simply ignore that part of DRM 🙂  When you grow weary of the default army, you can pay, and then you have access to everything  (paying gets you everything, all units, all cards, all future units, all future cards, there is no “pay to win,”  which is why having your fans join our community now, for free, is quite a good proposition for them 🙂

 

Check out some of these videos to see what the game is like:
First Look

Tutorial

Teleporters

 

Please check out the website (we have a web designer working on a nice design at this very moment I swear!)

The wiki is a good resource to learn how to play.

 

If you want to play a couple of matches add me as a friend on the client, I am ‘carnator’.  If you join Quickmatch you will probably not find a match (tiny community = no one online looking for a match, this is why I am writing you 🙂  Hit me up with an email if you want me to hop on and play you 🙂

I think that some of your site’s fans will really enjoy the awesome Linux game we are working on (and, hey, it’s free!)  I think that you will appreciate how we approach building the community, expanding the game, running our business, contributing back to the open source community, etc.

 

Cheers,

-Jordan Brock

 

So create a an account and download the GNU/Linux client while it’s free !

The Fall Bundle from Indie Royale is now under way for only 4 days !
And 2 of the games in the bundle (from the total of 5), have a native GNU/Linux client !
The games are Oil Rush and Reprisal.
So here is your chance to get those 2 games at a low price.
And if you pay $8 and more, you also get a cool music album called 88:88.

 

About the games
Oil Rush
Oil Rush is a real-time naval strategy game based on group control. It combines the strategic challenge of a classical RTS with the sheer fun of Tower Defence. Fight the naval war between furious armies across the boundless waters of the post-apocalyptic world. Pump the ever-so-precious black gold by oil rigs, capture platforms and destroy the enemy in the sea and in the air. Be ingenious to unlock super technologies and quick to send your squads straight into the heat of the battle!

Reprisal
Created in homage to Populous, Reprisal lets you take control of a tribe, guiding them, building land and making them grow in number. Using special totem powers you can control nature itself unleashing its full fury on anyone that stands in your way. But be warned, other tribes may not take too kindly to your intentions and will put up a fight!

Desktop edition includes:
Enhanced full stereo chip tunes to knod along too, Unlockable challenge islands, Offline local storage and Enhanced full screen display features! It also includes a full standalone PC installer and Mac App version. A minimum screen resolution of 1024 X 768 required.

So go ahead and grab it while it’s hot because time is running out !

Want Fabled Fortress On GNU/Linux ?

Posted: 16th October 2012 by Maxim Bardin in Uncategorized
Tags: , ,

Fabled Fortress is a hybrid strategy game about building, managing, and defending the kingdom of your dreams against ruthless invaders.

While they currently using Unity3.5, they will upgrade to Unity4 when it officially ships.
But as their game is planned to be finished at March it could be a problem to deliver a GNU/Linux port…
However if you want this game to be ported to GNU/Linux, the developers asked to message them .
With enough interest, they may commit to a GNU/Linux client.

 

From our conversation :

 

LGN:
Hello !  , What about a Linux version ?

 

fine Orange Games :
Hi Maxim!

Thank you for your interest in Fabled Fortress!
Because the current version of our development platform, Unity 3D, doesn’t support Linux we haven’t listed this platform among our initial releases; however, the upcoming update of Unity 4 includes Linux support!
Provided we get enough backers from the Linux community and there are no unforeseen issues moving from Unity 4 beta to release, we will strive to release on this platform. We hope this gives you the confidence to back the project.
If you have any remaining questions or concerns, please feel free to respond.
Thanks again for your support! It really makes a difference!
fine Orange Games

 

LGN:
If you are going to upgrade to Unity4 which supports Linux, why not offer the Linux support so Linux gamers could pledge for your project ? (MANY other games that use Unity4 promised a Linux client…).
I mean, if you cannot promise it, then why should people pledge for a project they won’t even sure they could play later ?Thanks
Maxim.”

 

fine Orange Games :
Hi Maxim!

The main issue is making sure that Unity 4 is live and not still in beta during our release in March. We take this stance because shipping on beta software could cause unforeseen problems and, in our view, we can deliver a better product after all the Unity 4 beta issues are resolved. We have decided not to upgrade to Unity 4 until it has officially shipped and is not still in beta.
With that said, several of our backers have already requested Linux support and it is only a matter of time before we deliver this support. The only reason Linux support isn’t listed among the initial releases is because we want to make sure that Unity 4 is no longer in beta before committing to delivering in March.
Why don’t you check back closer to the end of the project when we should hopefully have more details from Unity about the Unity 4 release date? Because of the overwhelming number of requests for Linux in the past few days, we are going to review when we can realistically offer this support without any issues.
If you know of any others in the Linux community who are interested in adding this support, could you also have them send us a short message? This would really help reinforce adding Linux as an early release.

Thanks again for your support!
fine Orange Games

 

 Kickstarter Intro

Fabled Fortress is a hybrid strategy game that allows you to build, manage, and defend the kingdom of your dreams. Rule your peasants, embark on quests for rare loot with fellow monarchs, and annihilate your friends’ kingdoms with apocalyptic spells and ruthless armies all before lunch! It’s good to be king.

Game types:

  • Real-Time Strategy
  • Tower Defense
  • City Building/Management

Initial release on iOS followed by Android, PC, & Mac.

  • 9 characters to aid you in the single player campaign
  • 6 chapters with 36 missions for approximately 10 hours of gameplay
  • Faction-specific playable units and buildings
  • 4 factions: Humans, Elves, Orcs, and Undead
  • Over 40 3D buildings
  • Over 25 units including melee, ranged, magic and boss units
  • Over 30 quests provide rare loot to unlock unique buildings, units, and spells
  • Devastating spells to annihilate even the strongest invasion
  • Asynchronous multiplayer

 

So if you want to see this game on GNU/Linux, make them know about it !

Pedagogical Bundle – Pay What You Want !

Posted: 15th October 2012 by Maxim Bardin in Uncategorized
Tags: , ,

Pedagogical Bundle feature 5 cross platform, educational games made by  RyXeo.
Those games are aimed for children and (some for)  adults.
If you have children and you want educational games on GNU/Linux – that’s the bundle for you.

 

 The Games :

Mulot

Screenshot of MulotTrain your children to use the mouse with Mulot. Watching the image appear gradually allows them to develop their vocabulary by discussing what the image represents as it appears.

 

Fubuki game

Screenshot of Fubuki gameIf you like intellectual games then try our Fubuki. You can adjust the settings to challenge yourself to the maximum!

 

Mental Calculation

Screenshot of Mental CalculationIf you can’t imagine that homework could ever be a pleasure, test Calcul Mental (Mental Calculation).

 

Raconte-moi

Screenshot of Raconte-moiThe simple software game Raconte-Moi (Tell-Me) is designed for even the youngest pupils to use, yet it is also great for constructing quick presentations including pictures, text or recorded voices.

 

Coloriages

Screenshot of ColoriagesThe graphic design work on our software bundle is exceptional, making it enjoyable to use. Your children will however have the chance to personalise their drawings with Coloriages (Colouring pictures).

 


Improve with only five games! Pedagogic Bundle features five innovative educational games. Name your price and train your children (or yourself) in mental calculation with Calcul Mental or Fubuki. Introduce your family pictures or create stories with Raconte-Moi and just keep your kids amused for a while with Mulot or Coloriage.

Pay what you want. If you bought all this awesomeness separately, it would cost over $135. But we’re letting you set the price!

Play on Windows, Mac*, and Linux*. Note that these games are absolutely cross-platform. Please be patient while the developers put the finishing touches to the English-speaking version as quickly as they can and don’t hesitate to contact us if you wish to contribute to this process.

Free updates for a year !

Support non profit organisation (abuledu.org) Choose how your purchase is divided: between the developers and a non profit organisation that promotes educational activities… And if you like this promotion, a tip to Pedagogic Bundle would be greatly appreciated!

 

Star Citizen is HUGE space game in developed with one of the best and detailed graphics we have ever seen to date.
It’s being developed by  Chris Roberts who brought us the legendary space games Wing Commander, Privateer and Freelance.

João Santos contacted Chris Roberts asking him about the possibility of a GNU/Linux version and he said that while a GNU/Linux version it’s high on their “wish list,” it will depend on community interest.
Then João Santos  asked him if a petition would help and he said it could help because : “it’d be good to know how many people really want a Linux version. I’m getting a LOT of requests for a Macintosh version, but not so much mention of Linux…”

So here is our chance to ask for a GNU/Linux version of this excellent to be, space game.

If you are interested, please sign the petition.

 

The developers are also raising funds to continue the development of the game (like a Kickstarter, but in their own website), the campaign ends in 30 days – but till the GNU/Linux client is not confirmed, I won’t propose to donate to this project.
This why we have this petition first.

 

Here is the introduction video of the game :