Alto's Adventure Now Available In More Languages

The developers behind Alto's Adventure (which I am still in love with) detailed their latest update for the game, and great news if you wanted the game in Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Russian, or Welsh. The game now supports those languages as well as English, French German, Italian, and Spanish. 

Developer Snowman also said they are looking into an Android version, as well as something to do with all the coins after purchasing everything.  You can check out the full post here.

Bloxiq From Blot Interactive Out April 14th On PlayStation Vita

Toronto game developer Blot Interactive took to the PlayStation Blog to announce their puzzle game Bloxiq is coming to PlayStation Vita on April 14th.

"We wanted to create a whole new type of puzzle game that returned to the classic philosophy of easy to learn and difficult to master games like Intelligent Cube, Devil Dice, or Echochrome. Where there is a definite solution, instead of relying on luck to be able to progress.

Bloxiq starts with the standard concept of color matching and brings it into the third dimension. Manipulate rows or columns of blocks by sliding them around a 3D level to connect four in any direction. Sounds simple, right? One of the best feelings is when you figure out how to match blocks in intricate ways that challenge your spatial thinking."

Make sure you follow the developer on Twitter. Who's excited for the "Demon’s Souls of puzzle games"?

StoryStylus From One More Story Games Helps Writers Create Games

I wrote this back on my tumblr account when it first launched, but wanted to give it a little boost.  StoryStylus from One More Story Games promises to help writers create interactive video games from their creations, and get paid as well.

"StoryStylus is an interactive storytelling games publishing platform designed for writers, screenwriters and game developers to create fun interactive reading experiences. Turn your stories into adventure games for the web or tablet!"

Currently the Kickstarter is just above 10% funded with lots of time left, so check it out and help our good friends up in Barrie.  Make sure to follow them on Twitter as well.

Humber Is Having A Gaming Capstone Showcase On April 16th

Jake Deichert let me know about a Gaming Showcase hosted by Humber for student developed games on April 16th. You can sign up for the event here.

Game exhibitors will be explaining their game design strategies, language choices and libraries utilized.  Unity developers will be reviewing the game component structures.

Some comments from our game exhibitors:

• Alice of human sacrifice.
• Be the overseer in a burglary.
• Come for the sun, stay for the fun.
• Did you ever want to build your own spaceship and lead it into battle?
• Do you have what it takes to be a real cop?
• Dodge them all, kill them all.
• Explore a mysterious world hunting powerful enemies for their advanced weapons and arms.
• Gobble, gobble.
• Have you ever wanted to throw a rock at a friendly?
• Hovercrafts? Multiplayer? EXPLOSIONS!?
• It's getting hotter, can you feel it?
• It's the year 2868 and war is coming
• Only the strongest survive.
• Spells n' combos
• Suck'em chuck'em
• Tug of war
• Who done it?
• You're bored come waste your time playing my game - I am not crazy, you're crazy

I got to play Jake's VR game Instincts last week at LevelUpTO and had a lot of fun with it. There are plenty of examples of student developed games being released, so be sure to check this out if you want a sign of things to come.

Check Out Upcoming F2P MMO: Fantasy Tales Online

Earlier last week I found out about another Indie MMO (you can check out the other game Dragon of Legends here).  This new one, created by 3 guys, Fantasy Tales Online promises to be a free-to-play cross-platform MMO, with some cool SNES style graphics, which you can check out in screenshots below (and more on their site).

Make sure to check out the guys on Twitter to stay up to date on Fantasy Tales Online.

New Lovers In A Dangerous Spacetime Footage

The guys over at Asteroid Base showed off some more footage for Lovers In A Dangerous Spacetime over at Destructoid.  The co-op action game is scheduled for release on Xbox One and Steam, and is looking pretty cool, with some neat neon-style artwork.

Make sure you also check out their other game Shuriken Skies.

Dragon of Legends Interview Over At True Indie MMO

Our good friends at True Indie MMO got to sit down with the guys at Thrive Games to discuss their upcoming MMO Dragon of Legends.  The interview is definitely a worthy read and talks about some gameplay elements, and creating a game in Ontario.

"TIMMO: You don’t give away much about the class system as of yet. Can you tell me anything
about it?

Nathan: At this moment the two revealed classes are the Norse Ranger (ranged DPS), and the Celtic Phalanx (tank). These will function much like you would imagine. Again can’t say much about this, but our gameplay teaser will be able to speak to this point further."

You can check out the interview over at True Indie MMO.  Make sure to follow them on Twitter, and follow Thrive Games on Twitter too.

So Now I'm Addicted To Tap Titans...

Confession time: I was addicted to Cookie Clicker...and Click Heroes. I had my computer on at all times always just clicking cookies, or clicking enemies. When I slept, when I went to work, when I left the house, I was collecting cookies, or killing beasts.

So earlier today I found out that Tap Titans, a similar clicking game on mobile devices, was created by Game Hive right here in Toronto.  Thanks to them, I now have my iPad just chilling on the table while I write this post, tapping away. I guess I'm addicted again.  

Once I get the will power to close the app, I'll check out Beat the Boss.  Make sure to follow Game Hive on Twitter.

Event: 5th Annual Level Up Showcase - Thursday April 2nd

On Thursday, LevelUpTO will be hosting the 5th annual LeveL Up Showcase, between 5pm-10pm.  The event is designed to demonstrate student-developed video games from our area.

"On April 2, 2015, the 5th annual Level Up Showcase launches at the Design Exchange, featuring dozens of student­-designed video games and over 2000 expected attendees from Ontario's diverse games community.

The five hour event is co­-hosted and organized by the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT), University of Toronto, OCAD University and Algonquin College in partnership with AMD, George Brown College, Sheridan College and Ubisoft Toronto.

This year’s FREE event will present over 80 interactive projects across 16 different institutions: University of Toronto, OCAD University, UOIT, Centennial College, Humber College, Seneca College, Sheridan College, Algonquin College, George Brown College, TriOS College, Niagara College, Ryerson University, York University, University of Waterloo, McMaster University, and Brock University."

You can sign up for the free event on their FaceBook page. I'll be showing up for part of it, let me know on Twitter if you want to meet up.

N++ Enters Final Bug Testing - Release Date Close

Make sure you go read the latest blog post on Metanet Software's site.  It goes over some of the final pushes the studio is taking to release N++, including a hint of a release date (to quote "a matter of months").

"N++’s core gameplay (single player, co-op and competitive multiplayer) is finshed and feeling great. Currently all of the levels are arranged and in the game, all of the colour schemes are designed and in the game and all of the music is licensed and in the game. The UI, packaging and transitions are in, though there still are a few placeholders, but we know what needs to change and how to change it — there are no more unanswered questions. This is a huge amount of stuff — and it only took two years "

Earlier today I wrote about how Severed is one my most anticipated PlayStation Vita games, and N++ is one of my most anticipated PlayStation 4 games. I'm glad there is only a few months left before release :)

Developer DrinkBox Studios Discusses "Enemy Manager" in Severed

Severed from DrinkBox Studios is one of my most anticipated games this year. The PlayStation Vita touch-based dungeon RPG looks really incredible, and I can't wait to play it. Last time I posted a Polygon article on my tumblr with gameplay footage. David at DrinkBox Studios discussed on their blog about the "Enemy Manager"when fighting multiple enemies.

"Combat is governed by an ‘enemy manager’. Rather than just wildly attacking you in parallel, which would often be super unfair, the enemies take turns attacking, dutifully queueing up one at a time like goons in a Bruce Lee group fight. For each attack an enemy can do, we specify how much time it needs to ready and then carry it out, and schedule the attack into the Enemy Manager’s queue. That doesn’t mean the attacks are necessarily easy to deal with (they can come as fast or slow as we choose), but the big benefit is this lets us easily prevent the player being put into impossible situations. (In principle we want someone playing perfectly to be able to get out of any given fight basically unharmed.)"

Make sure to check out the blog post here, and follow the studio on twitter.

Game Informer Previews Fortified

I don't own a Xbox One, and Fortified from Clapfoot Games is making that a really difficult situation for me.  Game Informer recently ran an article describing the co-op shooter:

"Fortified is a cooperative game that puts players in the shoes of one of four heroes, tasking them with defending a base from towering alien robots. Each of those characters has a play style that supports a different role in defense. While players can choose to play as any character at any time, a more diverse squad benefits from different perks. The Space Man can manage crowds, for example, but if someone sneaks past, the Rocket Scientist and her highly mobile jetpack are better for running them down. The different class-based abilities are a key part of how Clapfoot is making sure building tower defense elements like turrets and barricades isn’t the only thing that matters in Fortified."

Clapfoot Games co-founder Mark Ng even said in the article that the game use to have more of a horror feel to it, taking place on a ship in space where you had to defend against aliens. It's a great read, and the game is looking really cool.

Make sure to check out the article here, and follow Clapfoot Games on twitter.

Halcyon 6: Starbase Commander Is Crushing Kickstarter Right Now - Lots Of Stretch Goals

I wrote about Halcyon 6 on my tumblr blog earlier this month. At the time, developer Massive Damage Inc had just launched their Kickstarter and the very next day it reached full funding.  Since then they have added additional things like New Game+, and Space Pirates.  At the time of this writing they have raised $123,052 from 4,026 backers which is just incredible, and there are still 11 days left to go with plenty of more stretch goals.

If you haven't checked out Halcyon 6 yet, you should do so. It's a cool looking rogue-like sci-fi strategy game. You can check out the trailer for it below.

Make sure to follow the game and developer on Twitter.

Launching Of The New TorontoGameDevs.com

I've been running @TorontoGameDevs and torontogamedevs.tumblr.com for about 2 months, and the time has come to move to a proper website and hosting. Tumblr was nice since it was free, but it lacked control.

I'm not sure if I'll move all my past posts over, but I won't be closing down the tumblr anytime soon. Also playing around with the templates and everything, so let me know what you think of the design.

Regards,

Steve