Super Meat Boy sold best on Steam, sold me on
LARPing

post from Destructoid on 28 February 2011 11:06:17 PM. © Destructoid

Super Meat Boy sold best on Steam, sold me on LARPing screenshot

Despite the fact that it hit XBLA first, and launched with an enormous sale, it looks like Super Meat Boy still sold better on Steam. I'm waiting on exact numbers on sales for both platforms, but according to Team Meat's Twitter, "Steam out sold xbla, we have sold about 400k copies to date" and "it also out grossed. before the xmas sale we had made as much in those 2 weeks as we did on xbla".

I think I know what they mean by that, but I'm not sure enough to make any assertions. I will say that anyone who doubted the relevance of PC gaming, or at least Steam as a gaming platform, may need to reevaluate. Now we just need to see if Bit.Trip RUNNER sells better on Steam than on WiiWare.

While I'm being ridiculous, I might as well encourage you to check out this Super Meat Boy LARP video. It's totally a thing.

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Civilization V: New DLC set in Polynesia, coming
March 3

post from Destructoid on 28 February 2011 11:06:17 PM. © Destructoid

Civilization V: New DLC set in Polynesia, coming March 3 screenshot

Coming this week for Sid Meier’s Civilization V is new DLC. On March 3 for Windows PC you can nab the Civilization and Scenario Pack: Polynesia for $4.99 and the Multiplayer Map Pack. In it you'll get the Polynesian civilization and a new scenario, Paradise Found.

Here's 2K's description of Paradise Found: "Players take on the role of one of the four great Polynesian kingdoms as they strive to become the dominant culture in Polynesia. All-new technology and social policy trees unlock powerful advantages to players, including the fearsome Maori Warrior and the enigmatic Moai. Special changes to the game rules allow players to build expansive kingdoms quickly without impeding their cultural growth, but the seas of the Pacific are huge and land is at a premium among the atolls and islands."

If you're cheap, there's also some free DLC. A new set of multiplayer maps for Civilization V will be available as a free Multiplayer Map Pack download upon connecting to Steam. The maps are named Skirmish, Ring and Ancient Lake, and 2K says that these maps are carefully balanced for competitive online play and will give players new worlds to conquer.

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Atlus not planning western release of Catherine

post from CountGameula on 28 February 2011 10:18:10 PM. © CountGameula

Catherine, the punishing erotic puzzler from the same team behind the Persona series, won?t be...[...]

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http://countgameula.com/post/3575674722

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Atomic Knights Guild

post from 8-Bit City on 28 February 2011 10:06:09 PM. © 8-Bit City

The Official Atomic Knights NESTalgia Guild

Founded February 28, 2011

Shrenwold Server

Current Roster:
Robot, GM
Frank
Brian
Igneus
DooD
Drew

This page can be used to leave message for offline guild members, co-ordinate parties, announce level ups, talk about strategy, ask questions, general social chat, and anything else. As the guild expands, I will expand the page.

Atomic Knights!

Invite friendly and awesome players!

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http://8bitcity.blogspot.com/2011/02/atomic-knights-guild.html

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Half-Minute Hero: Super Mega Neo Climax sounds
fun

post from Destructoid on 28 February 2011 10:05:51 PM. © Destructoid

Half-Minute Hero: Super Mega Neo Climax sounds fun screenshot

A listing for something called Half-Minute Hero: Super Mega Neo Climax has been found on Australia's rating board database. It's developed by Marvelous Entertainment and published by Microsoft. Half-Minute Hero for Xbox Live Arcade? Make it so!

Whatever this game is -- it could be a port of either of the two PlayStation Portable titles or even an entirely new installment -- I want it. Half-Minute Hero is easily in my top five favorite PSP games for its belittling humor and fast-paced everything.

Half Minute Hero comes to XBLA in a Super Mega Neo Climax Edition [XBLA Fans]

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Gameloft making four new games using Unreal
Engine 3

post from Destructoid on 28 February 2011 10:05:51 PM. © Destructoid

Gameloft making four new games using Unreal Engine 3 screenshot

It's unreal how much news we've been hearing about Unreal Engine 3 lately. Gameloft has just announced a licensing agreement with Epic Games to use their Unreal Engine 3 to make four new games. They say that two will be launched this year, with the other two to follow in 2012.

"Gameloft is very pleased to partner with Epic, especially with their ability to stay ahead of the curve and continually place the best game engine technology in developers’ hands at any given point in time," said Julien Fournials, vice president of production, Gameloft. "Using Unreal Engine 3 allows us to push game visuals with remarkable lighting and high-fidelity environments. We are confident that players will enjoy the games powered by Unreal Engine 3."

I wonder what they're working on. Maybe they'll make the push to do more console stuff with UE3. With this week being GDC, I'm sure we'll hear something.

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Rochard coming exclusively to PS3, messes with
gravity

post from Destructoid on 28 February 2011 09:05:31 PM. © Destructoid

Rochard coming exclusively to PS3, messes with gravity screenshot

Recoil Games and Sony Online Entertainment are working together to bring a new action platformer exclusively to the PlayStation Network. It's called Rochard and it's about a rather large, hairy fellow how screws around with gravity to solve puzzles and defeat bad guys.

"Developed by Recoil Games, Rochard is a fun and original space adventure game that features a resourceful hero, ominous villains, rugged machinery, big explosions, even bigger stunts and sharp one-liners," says the PR blurb. "The game tests players’ coordination and wits as they use gravity to their advantage, changing it at will to solve environmental puzzles and advance through each level. By using the upgradable G-Lifter, the main tool of the game, players can lift and maneuver heavy objects around the environment, and can eventually swing, jump and propel themselves huge distances throughout each level."

The game stars John Rochard, an astro-miner whose team discovers a mysterious ancient structure in an asteroid. Rochard's team suddenly goes missing, and he is left alone on the asteroid with encroaching space pirates. Gravity puzzles ensue!

It looks bright, quirky and potentially fun. Who can turn their nose up at that?

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Another Dragon Age 2 Unlockable Goes Up For Grabs

post from The Escapist : Latest News on 28 February 2011 08:45:00 PM. © The Escapist : Latest News

BioWare has put yet another Dragon Age 2 unlockable on the table and this one might actually be a little tough to achieve.

View Article

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http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/108110-Another-Dragon-Age-2-Unlockable-
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XCOM Development Troubles As Studio Head Leaves

post from MonsterVine on 28 February 2011 08:38:29 PM. © MonsterVine

2K Games has confirmed that 2K Australia studio head Martin Slater had left the company, following rumors that the departure signaled “some big changes since it [XCOM] was announced.” In a statement, a 2K Games spokesperson said this, Over the course of a project, development teams do change and evolve from time-to-time. While we can [...]

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http://monstervine.com/2011/02/xcom-development-troubles-as-studio-head-leaves/

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Raph's 40 social mechanics for social games

post from Wonderland on 28 February 2011 08:05:29 PM. © Wonderland

Raph Koster just explained how societies work, how humans work, and how we interact as beings with each other, described as social mechanics and how they could be applied (and are sometimes applied) in social games.

190 slides - I couldn't write what he said as he said it, but his slides will go up shortly on his site.

Meanwhile, as a taster, his list of the 40 essential social mechanics that have ever existed, in order that game designers need never have to reinvent them again.

I hope I got that bit right ;-)

?I have 190 slides. This pres is largely a list. 40 mechanics used to create social activity in a game so you don?t have to design this stuff again.

Social games today are primarily single player experiences.

Social games are playing in parallel with people, or maybe collaboratively??

#1: The simplest form of multiplayer is simple advice and assistance. How good are your channels for communication? Helping is the building block of all social gameplay.

Parallel symmetric games: darts, golf, snowboarding. You play alongside each other, comparing performance. Meausring progress against someone else is what makes it multiplayer.

#2: Quantifying achievement. Putting it into a database.

#3. Races. The first user to reach a goal, wins. Curiously absent. Why not have races to a level? You can use this in a network setting. Social games don?t tend to use racing.

#4. Leaderboards: everyone competes asynchronously, parallel with historic attempts. We see this in neighbourbars.

#5: Tournaments: bracketing users. Social games tend to use bracketing for simple pvp matchmaking: it?s under utilised.

#6: Opposition. A rival good is something that can?t be used by someone else at the same time. You have my stuff, I can?t use it. Non-rival is stuff that clones itself: information, etc.

#7: Dot-eating. I ate it, you didn?t. Zero sum resource consumption.

#8: Tug of War. A winner and a loser.

#9: Handicapping.

#10: Secrets. Fog of War. Hands of cards.

#11: Last man standing. Deathmatch.

#12: Bidding. Mediated status. You bid, you take your rival goods (money) and whoever gets the thing, wins. Where are the silent auctions in social games?

#13: Lying. Deception and bluffing. Deception only works against other people; not a computer. We depend on quantifying things in our social games; the more we move into psychology the more we can leverage things like bluffing.

#14: 3^rd party Betting. Betting is driven by the human brain?s bug at calculating odds. We?re lousy at it. This only works on people; you can?t do it vs a cpu.

#15: prisoner?s dilemma. Players don?t have all the info, they?re on the same side. If either one caves, they both lose. If they both hang together, they will succeed. You don?t know if the other person will uphold their side. We currently don?t see this in social games. Yet.

#16: Kriegspiel. Tabletop military strategy, effectively. Creates the dungeonmaster, the gamemaster. A referee enforces the rules, a gamesmaster directs the action, directs the game. We don?t do much directing in social games right now, but we could.

#17: Roles. How many multiplayer games can you think of that don?t have positions on a team. We don?t use team roles or classes in social games. That?s fascinating. This one is guaranteed to increase retention.

#18: Ganging up. Being it. Hot potato, Tag. Victim & Hunter.

#19: Rituals. Role transitions: weddings, cut a cake, levelling, ding gratz. What is the social game equiv of attending the wedding? Shared rituals bind community like nothing else. The biggest thing that marks rituals is gifts. This one I?m happy to say, we?ve nailed.

#20: Gifts. This is moving a rivalrous good to another actor in order to increase their status bar. Gifts have a whole pile of embedded cultural practice. [note, I think #20 was titled gifts, I was momentarily distracted...]

#21: Reciprocity. Players will send what *they* want, as they know they?ll get it sent back to them.

#22: Mentoring / Twinking. When a hilev hands a lowlev a pile of stuff. It?s hugely welcoming. It?s not cheating, it's powerful social glue.

#23: Identity. Means of displaying your status inside a social context.

#24: Ostracism. Group removal. Denial of resources.

#25: Trust. Does your game call on your to trust someone you don?t know?

#26: Guilds & tribes. Hugely powerful. Barely present in social games.

#27: Exclusivity. Velvet rope. VIP clubs. What could this do for your monetisation?

#28: Guild vs Guild. We know groups like to annihilate each other. Rivalry. Even in a farming game, you could have tropical vs temperate, and they will envy each other, and they will develop passion, and identity, and then?

#29: Trade. These large-scale structures become dependent upon each other. They?re less likely to quit. We haven?t focused on them selling things to one another?

You are shaping societies. You are building the things people play in, talk about, take part in. Be awake to this.

#30: Elections. The largest MMO in the world today is American Idol. Politics.

#31: Reputation, influence and Fame. Rolemodels for other players to follow or imitate. You can affect the way players behave by making them famous. Don?t publicis the griefers, publicise the wonderful ones.

#32: Public goods. Parks. Air. Is there an infinite common resource in your game?

#33: Tragedy of the Commons: can you use up your public good? The price of Facebook ads: the prices are going up, we?re driving those prices up, we're all affected...

#34: Community. Where we start playing games on you, the player. If you don?t have good facilities for community interaction, you miss out on the people who set the tone and opinion for everyone else. They?re the small squeaky wheel with enormous broadcast reach.

#35: Strategy Guide. Players are able to solve insane problems as a group via the scientific method. Every player is a fresh experiemtn trial run, they get better, they figure stuff out. But this only works at large scale with shared info.

#36: Teamwork. Groups operating together are more successful than those operating on their own. Dragon Kill Points.

#37: Arbitrage.

#38: Supply chains. Chain value, interdependence.

#39: User generated content. Design for this.

#40: Griefing. Change the rules out from under the players. Sometimes players are reinventing your game for you.

Wonderful stuff, as ever, goes without saying. Watch out for his slides, because not only is there more explanation, but also a bibliography!