Online Sandbox RPG Citadel: Forged With Fire Out Now On PS4
/Citadel: Forged With Fire from Blue Isle Studio has been out on Steam Early Access since 2016, and is now out in full on Steam, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
Read MoreReporting on the games made in Canada and the creators behind them
Citadel: Forged With Fire from Blue Isle Studio has been out on Steam Early Access since 2016, and is now out in full on Steam, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
Read MoreSlender: The Arrival, Blue Isle Studios indie hit from 2013 is heading to the Nintendo Switch next month on June 20th.
“You're on your own. No one to come for you. No one to help you. No one to hear you scream. Slender: The Arrival is the official video game adaptation of Slender Man, re-created from Mark Hadley's original nerve-shattering sensation. Developed by Blue Isle Studios, The Arrival features a brand new storyline, improved visuals, great replay value, and most importantly, survival horror at its best.”
Continuing the trend of Canadian games being ported to Switch, Blue Isle Studios have announced their first person adventure game Valley is hitting the Nintendo Switch next month on March 7th. Valley was originally released on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC in 2016, and we did a small interview with the games composer which you can check out here.
Mark your calendars folks, it's happening!
— Blue Isle Studios (@BlueIsleStudio) February 19, 2019
We are SO excited to announce that Valley is coming to #NintendoSwitch on Thursday, March 7, 2019 🍃✨ @NintendoAmerica @NintendoEurope @NintendoAUNZ https://t.co/DIXqBoYiFE pic.twitter.com/yTm4oKncGl
Valley is a First-Person adventure unlike any other. Hidden deep within a remote region of the Rocky Mountains, you find yourself bewildered within a secluded valley. With the power of a recently discovered L.E.A.F. suit (Leap Effortlessly though Air Functionality), run and jump your way through beautiful forests, dangerous ruins and vast environments; all the while utilizing the power to control life and death to uncover the startling secrets of the mysterious valley.
Halifax-based devs Max Inferno have released Cupboards & Drawers DLC for their 2022 puzzler A Little to the Left.
Vancouver-based indie powerhouse Brace Yourself Games (@BYG_Vancouver) announced their upcoming rhythm game spinoff will be released on Nintendo Switch as well as Steam.
Toronto-based Drinkbox Studios’ Tales From Space: Mutant Blobs Attack will be getting printed on a cart.
Montréal-based game dev Johan Vinet has partnered with Limited Run Games to release physical copies of his upcoming 2D cinematic platformer LUNARK for PlayStation 4, 5 and Nintendo Switch- set to release later this week.
Vancouver-based Daniel Mullin Games is working with Special Reserve Games to release a physical edition of his 2021 roguelite deck-builder Inscryption for PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch.
Toronto-based indie powerhouse Vagabond Dog is releasing a physical copy of their cult classic 2014 RPG maker title Always Sometimes Monsters in partnership with Limited Run Games.
Cuphead is celebrating its initial launch on PC and Xbox One 5 years ago today, September 29, with the announcement of a physical copy of the game coming to PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Switch.
Tribes of Midgard Season 3 drops later this month which comes with a slew of free updates, including a new Saga Boss, a revamped survival mode, new weapons, enemies, armors, and more.
Sea of Stars, the Sabotage Studio follow-up to The Messenger has been delayed into 2023. Originally announced in 2020 with an extremely successful Kickstarter for a 2022 release date, the team has pushed it to next year citing two main priorities: quality of life for their team, and the quality of the finished product.
Teased earlier in the week, Blue Isle Studios formally announced their next game - Citadel: Forged with Fire. The game looks like a combination of Skyrim with some Harry Potter wand magic you'll play as a "newly minted apprentice of the magic arts" and will have complete freedom to shape their own destiny.
You can check out the trailer below, and head over to the Steam page to check it out. The game will hit Early Access on July 26th with a full release planned for early 2018.
Citadel: Forged With Fire from Blue Isle Studio has been out on Steam Early Access since 2016, and is now out in full on Steam, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
It hasn't been a year since Valley came out, but Blue Isle Studios will be revealing their next game this Wednesday live on Facebook. The link takes us to a Facebook page for Citadel: Forged with Fire - what all of this means we'll have to wait until Wednesday. We'll have it here on TorontoGameDevs.com as well.
Join us on July 12th for the LIVE reveal of our huge new game!
— Blue Isle Studios (@BlueIsleStudio) July 10, 2017
Reveal to be hosted on our new Facebook page: https://t.co/OLB5ygscsy pic.twitter.com/Xzlnqr7spw
Citadel: Forged With Fire from Blue Isle Studio has been out on Steam Early Access since 2016, and is now out in full on Steam, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
Valley by Blue Isle Studios is now 60% off on Steam.
Start your week off right by purchasing Valley for 60% off on Steam! See if our concept art resembles the real deal https://t.co/cdpIa8ZkE3 pic.twitter.com/BDD9GZxpar
— Blue Isle Studios (@BlueIsleStudio) April 10, 2017
Canadian indie game studio Red Meat Games have released their episodic, narrative-driven audio game Project Dark on Steam and Nintendo Switch.
As part of the Mix Showcase last month, Toronto developer Kitten Cup Studio showed off some gameplay from their 2022 game Pekoe.
Quebec developer Norsfell have announced their 10-player co-op action-RPG Tribes of Midgard will be out on PlayStation, and Steam on July 27th - the game is also available for pre-order on both platforms.
Triversal, the puzzle game from Toronto developer Phantom Compass has a release date, and thankfully we won’t have to wait that long. The game comes out on July 13th, and you can wishlist it on Steam here.
BOMBING!!: A Graffiti Sandbox, the graffiti sandbox simulation game from indie dev (and friend of the site) Devon Wiersma, is out now on Steam, and itch.io.
After launching on Steam last year, St Catharines based Rocketship Park will be porting their puzzle story-driven adventure game LOVE to Nintendo Switch “soon”.
PixelNAUTS Games, who last released Lost Orbit: Terminal Velocity on various platforms have released a new trailer for their upcoming space-racing brawler Rocket Rumble. You can wishlist the game on Steam right now which is scheduled for sometime this year.
Mad Devils, the twin-stick shooter from Itzy Interactive got a new gameplay trailer ahead of its May 10th release date. Mad Devils is an arcade co-op shooter set during World War 2 but has Allied special forces hunting down Nazi occultists resurrected as demons
A few months ago, I was reached out by Aakaash Rao, the composer for Valley from Blue Isle Studios, asking about an interview. I really dug the soundtrack in Valley so I of course said yes! You can check out the interview below, and a lot of Aakaash's work can be found right here.
TorontoGameDevs.com: Thanks for doing the interview! Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? What your role was in creating Valley?
Aakaash: Thanks for reaching out! I’m a game composer based jointly in the San Francisco Bay Area and in Chicago, and I had the privilege to compose the soundtrack for Blue Isle Studios’ Valley.
TorontoGameDevs.com: How long have you been creating music? What other games or projects have you worked on?
Aakaash: I’ve been composing ever since I learned to play piano as a child, but I only got into games a couple of years ago. Since then, I’ve worked on several PC, console, and mobile titles — I particularly enjoy writing story-driven soundtracks for RPGs. One of my larger project, a voxel-based sandbox called Planet Explorers, came out late last year.
TorontoGameDevs.com: What was the design process like for Valley? Did you have free range to create the music you thought would fit the mood, or was there specific notes from different members of the team?
In general, I had a lot of creative freedom. One thing I really appreciated about working with Blue Isle is that I had a working build of the game almost from day one — which happens a lot less often than you might think. The game itself was a fantastic source of inspiration, and I’d often hit upon ideas while exploring the landscape or leaping around in the L.E.A.F. suit.
That said, the other two members of the audio team (Brenden, the audio and technical director and Selcuk, the SFX designer) definitely gave me plenty of input through the process. I’ve worked with a lot of big audio teams in the past, and I think there’s definitely a “too many cooks spoil the stew” effect when too many people get involved in the music, but Selcuk and Brenden did a great job of balancing their own visions for the game’s soundtrack with my ideas. The live musicians with whom I worked also gave me some very helpful input, particularly in regards to using world instruments with which I was not familiar.
TorontoGameDevs.com: There's a lot going on in Valley. There are open world elements within forested areas, buildings, underground mines, etc. You get to move really fast, and jump extremely far as you traverse this world, but there is a lot of historical pieces from the 40s told to the player while they are playing. How did this contribute to the overall soundtrack for the game?
One of the biggest challenges in tackling projects of this scope is balancing variety with cohesiveness. You don’t want to bore the player by repeating the same motifs over and over, but you also don't want a complete musical disconnect between the themes associated with different areas. For example, I made a conscious choice to write sweeping orchestral music for the outdoor areas and more distorted, electronic music for the darker indoor environments, but I approached the indoor areas with a mindset of muting and warping the outdoor style rather than selecting a whole different musical palette. Amrita, the theme for the final level and one of my favorite pieces from the soundtrack, blends pads and electronic sounds with some warped live flute.
There’s a lot of subtle melodic and textural motifs weaved into the soundtrack, so the idea is that they help weave the disparate elements together. This is probably more of a subconscious phenomenon — I doubt that most people are listening intently to recognize the musical motifs as the play the game — but I think it does contribute to the player’s immersion. This is most important at the end of the game, where the final track states outright a lot of the themes that previous pieces have been hinting at. As I’m sure your readers who have finished the game can attest, the ending of the game is definitely a cathartic experience, so I hope that the final piece reflects and amplifies the feeling of cleaning and completion.
TorontoGameDevs.com: In your mind, what game excels with its soundtrack?
I’ve always been a huge fan of Nobuo Uematsu’s work on the early Final Fantasy. These were some of the first games I played, so there’s an element of nostalgia, but I still think it’s absolutely incredible how much emotion he was able to convey under the console’s technical constraints. Arnie Roth’s Distant Worlds albums include some fantastic orchestrations of Uematsu’s work. More recently, I’ve also really enjoyed Austin Wintory’s Journey and Gareth Coker’s Ori and the Blind Forest.
TorontoGameDevs.com: Is there anything else you'd like to tell our readers? What can we look forward to next?
As I mentioned, Planet Explorers came out last year. I’m also currently working on a strategy RPG called Liege, which is a dark, strategy-driven RPG somewhere between Fire Emblem and A Song of Ice and Fire. Now that I’m done with Valley and Planet Explorers, though, I’m keeping my eye out for interesting new projects — I’d love to do a more intimate soundtrack for an RPG or puzzle game.
Thanks so much to Aakaash for taking the time, and remember that Patreon's got access to this interview early. You can check out Valley on Steam, and all of Akaash's work right here.
Valley from Blue Isle Studios, and Alone With You from Benjamin Rivers are out now. You can check out our the review for Alone With You here.
You can get Alone With You on PlayStation 4, and PlayStation Vita. Valley is available on Steam, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4.
Hey there! Two Toronto developed games came out today. I've already told you my thoughts on Alone With You, so here are my thoughts on Valley from Blue Isle Studio - full review incoming.
Until then, subscribe on Youtube!
Blue Isle Studio has released a new extended trailer for Valley, which is coming to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. Originally announced for summer - we now know the first person shooter will be coming out August 24th.
"Valley is a First-Person adventure unlike any other. Hidden deep within a remote region of the Rocky Mountains, you find yourself bewildered within a secluded valley. With the power of a recently discovered L.E.A.F. suit (Leap Effortlessly though Air Functionality), run and jump your way through beautiful forests, dangerous ruins and vast environments; all the while utilizing the power to control life and death to uncover the startling secrets of the mysterious valley"
If gamers are looking for more Toronto developed games in August, Benjamin Rivers' Alone With You launches the day before.
Valley, the first person adventure game from Blue Isle Entertainment was announced last April, and some new footage has surfaced. Garrett Marks took the PlayStation Blog to talk about the game, which is coming this Summer to PlayStation 4, and PC.
"As you’ll see in the video, intrepid players can do some truly incredible things as they seek to further uncover the mysteries of the valley: give life to dying trees and animals; leap the distance of an entire football field; swing through a Pathfinder training forest of ginormous trees; and even defend oneself against some mysterious enemies. These are just some of the many awesome things you’ll be able to do as you explore the ancient depths of the valley, all the while keeping both it and yourself alive."
Hopefully we'll see more of the game at E3, but until then make sure to follow the studio on Twitter.
Blue Isles Entertainment, the Toronto developed responsible for Slender: The Arrival have announced that Valley, their first-person adventure game will be coming to Steam, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 this summer.
"Valley™ is a First-Person adventure unlike any other. Hidden deep within a remote region of the Rocky Mountains, you find yourself bewildered within a secluded valley. With the power of a recently discovered L.E.A.F. suit (Leap Effortlessly though Air Functionality), run and jump your way through beautiful forests, dangerous ruins and vast environments; all the while utilizing the power to control life and death to uncover the startling secrets of the mysterious valley. Be forewarned, with these new-found abilities comes a daunting repercussion: the more you experience death within the valley, the more the valley will die around you."
Cat couple owner slash game dev studio Max Inferno announced a 2nd DLC pack for their tidy puzzler.