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Development

Today in Gaming News – March 13, 2012

March 13, 2012 By Richard Jacklin In Microsoft, News, PC, Playstation 3, Sony, Xbox 360

Notch says Psychonauts 2 won’t happen “for a while”

Despite offering funding to aid development of a Psychonauts sequel, Markus “Notch” Persson has revealed that it will be a while before the game becomes a reality. In an interview with Gamespy, Notch said that he met Schafer at GDC where the developer revealed that Double Fine had “a lot to do for a while.”

Notch added that if the studio wants to develop the game and “the numbers are reasonable”, he would be willing to help as long as there is a “return on the investment and stuff.”

“I think Psychnoauts 1 did surprisingly poorly in sales, which is bizarre,” Notch said. “Sure, it’s kinda niche, but it has huge personality and only one bad level: the meat circus. So I think there’s definitely room for a Psychonauts 2 to sell well. Especially now, because you could treat as not necessarily a triple-A project. I mean, you can’t make it too small scale, because it needs to top the first one.”

Gamerscore reset issue plagues Xbox players

Ealier today an issue on Xbox Live was causing Gamerscores to be reset to zero. Microsoft responded to the issue quickly and took to their support page to tell users We are aware of the problem and appreciate your patience while we implement a solution.”

Later today Microsoft resolved the issue, posting the following on their support page:

“The issue that some customers were experiencing with zero Achievements and Gamerscores has now been resolved. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. You may need to log off and log back in for the information to be updated.”

This issue comes a day after Microsoft revealed that the achievement cap for XBLA games would be raised from 200 to 400.

Alan Wake sells two million across two platforms

Psychological thriller Alan Wake has sold over two million copies across the Xbox 360 and PC. This mileston secures the title’s future as a series.

“We’ve moved over two million copies — that’s including PC,” Remedy’s Oskari Häkkinen told CVG. “So after a slow start it’s turning into something really positive. It’s definitely had legs. I think narrative experiences just have a tendency for that.”

With Alan Wake’s future secured, we can all eagerly await news of an Alan Wake 2.

Mass Effect 3 multiplayer DLC spotted

An image of what appears to be unannounced Mass Effect 3 multiplayer DLC has hit the internet. Originally found via Facebook and spread across Reddit, the image apparently comes from an unknown player who reached a developer server for the game which unlocked “test DLC” for the game.

Some are wondering if the DLC in question is from the Mass Effect 3 action figures that are set to be released, but according to Bioware, those are supposed to include randomized DLC that could be anything from new characters to new weapons.

Retailer reveals Ninja Gaiden 3 special edition with bloody-sword Move accessory

A week before the release of Ninja Gaiden 3, a listing for a special edition of the game has popped up on the website of the Canadian online retailer Video Games Plus. The special edition features a copy of the game along with a special bloody “Dragon Sword” Playstation move accessory.

This edition has not been listed anywhere else so it is either a Canadian exclusive or never made it through production.

Phil Harrison takes over MGS Europe

The fromer Playstation front-man Phil Harrison has switched sides, joining Microsoft as head of its European Games Studios. This news comes after the departure of Peter Molyneux, but Microsoft claims Harrison will not be taking Molyneux’s old job and that the hiring of Harrison is “completely unrelated to Peter’s departure.”

A spokesperson for Microsoft added:

““Phil will lead Microsoft Studios European organization, but will also influence the broader performance of IEB’s European business. We will continue to rely on our stable of first party developers as we determine if and when the Microsoft Studios Europe creative director vacancy should be filled”

Harrison has been known for switching positions often and never staying in a single job for too long. It remains to be seen if he will settle down with Microsoft.

Double Fine Adventure Kickstarter ends today, nearing three million

As of writing, the Double Fine Adventure Kickstarter has only four hours left. A little over a month since it started, the Kickstarter has raised just over three million dollars. That number far exceeds the initial $400,000 goal.

Those who are eager to see how much more Double Fine can Kickstart in the final two hours can watch a live stream of the Double Fine offices. Can they reach four million? Likely not, but it will be fun to see them try.

Wasteland 2 development being Kickstarted

Originally released back in 1988, the original post-apocalyptic RPG Wasteland is back … if it can be funded. inXile Entertainment has started a Kickstarter to fund the development of Wasteland 2, a sequel to the “Godfather of post-apocalyptic RPGs.”

The developer has set a funding goal of $900,000 and has raised just over $250,000 as of writing. With lots of great rewards for backers, it shouldn’t be too difficult for inXile to reach — or possibly surpass — their funding goal.

Double Fine and 2 Player Productions Announce Kickstarter for New Adventure Game and Documentary

February 8, 2012 By Richard Jacklin In News, PC

Double Fine and 2 Player Productions have officially announced a kickstarter for a new adventure game and documentary. This announcement comes hours after Tim Schafer took to Twitter to say “on the topic of using non-traditional game funding to fulfill fan requests, we WILL be making an announcement later today!” This announcement also came via Twitter.

Those interested in donating large amounts to the Kickstarter fund will receive the following:

Pledge $15,000 or more:
Dinner with Tim Schafer and key members of the dev team.

Pledge $20,000 or more:
Dinner and BOWLING with Tim Schafer and key members of the dev team.

Pledge $30,000 or more:
Picture of Ron Gilbert smiling.

Pledge $35,000 or more:
Undoctored picture of Ron Gilbert smiling.

Pledge $50,000 or more:
Become an actual character in the game.

Pledge $150,000 or more:
Tim Schafer (that’s me) will give last four remaining Triangle Boxed Day of the Tentacles, in original shrink-wrap.” (Limit of 1) (Holy crap, what am I thinking? I only have four of those!)

Previously Schaffer was in talks with Minecraft creator Notch about the possibility of Notch funding the development of a sequel to Psychonauts. Talks are underway over the development of a Psychonauts sequel and it remains to be seen how this latest announcement will affect those talks.

You can check out the Kickstarter page for the game here.

Sources: Twitter, Double Fine

Crytek Offering CryEngine 3 SDK Up For Free; Make Your Own Crysis If You Dare

August 18, 2011 By Thomas Mayer In News, PC

Think Crysis 2 ain’t hot shit? Time to put your money where your anus is. Crytek has opened their gates and allowing anyone to download the CryEngine 3 SDK for free. This is the same software that powers Crysis 2 and will be used for future projects.

Aspiring developers and programmers who want to try out Crytek’s flavor of 3D-middleware (instead of using Unreal) now have a powerful toolset in their hands. Try making something ridiculous like Unreal Tournament. I assume it’s like dividing by zero, and you inevitably create an inescapable singularity, but for those fleeting moments, it will be pure awesome:

Crytek Releases CryENGINE®3 SDK Free-of-Charge

All-in-one multiplatform development solution now available to everyone

Frankfurt (Germany), August 17, 2011 – Crytek GmbH (“Crytek”) is excited to announce that they will release their latest all-in-one game development solution CryENGINE 3 free of charge for non-commercial use today. The award winning SDK provides the complete game engine to create AAA quality next generation games for PC, and includes the CryENGINE®3 Sandbox™ level editor, a production-proven, 3rd generation “What you see is what you play” (WYSIWYP) – tool designed by and for professional developers. The free toolset is available for download at crydev.net, the former crymod.com community portal that offers documentation written by the developers of the engine, a thriving community and a supplementary knowledge base for CryENGINE 3. The free CryENGINE SDK will be updated regularly, to make sure our community has access to all the advances we make to CryENGINE 3.

“With the release of our SDK we encourage creators to try out CryENGINE 3 and hope it will lead to new companies being formed and using our engine. More importantly we expect to increase the talent pool for CryENGINE developers, as well as boosting our online community of users. This SDK contains more toys than we’ve ever released before – it empowers people to create whole new games from scratch, not just mod Crytek’s own games, so we encourage all aspiring and indie developers to try it out.” said Carl Jones, Director of Global Business Development CryENGINE.
“For those who want to make the step into commercial gaming, we’ll offer a royalty-only license model for games made with this SDK, where Crytek require only 20% of the developer’s revenues from the commercial launch of their game.”
For more information visit http://www.crydev.net and http://www.mycryengine.com
About Crytek

Crytek GmbH (“Crytek”) is one of the world’s leading independent development studios for interactive entertainment. It is based in Frankfurt am Main (Germany) and has additional studios in Kiev (Ukraine), Budapest (Hungary), Sofia (Bulgaria), Seoul (South Korea) and Nottingham (UK). Crytek is dedicated to creating exceptionally high-quality video games for next-generation consoles and PC, powered by their proprietary cutting-edge 3D-Game-Technology, CryENGINE®.

Since its foundation in 1999, Crytek has created the multi-award winning PC titles Far Cry®, Crysis® (awarded best PC Game of E3 2007 and Best Technology at the 2008 Game Developers Choice Awards), Crysis Warhead® (awarded Best Graphics Technology at IGN Best of 2008 Awards) and Crysis® 2 (awarded Best Shooter of E3 2010 and Gamescom 2010).

Crytek, Crysis and CryENGINE are registered trademarks or trademarks of Crytek GmbH in the USA, Germany and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Unreal Development Kit now supports iOS development (available today)

December 16, 2010 By Craig Hart In Apple, iPad, iPhone, iPod

Epic Games, Inc. has released the latest beta of the Unreal Development Kit (UDK), the free edition of its award-winning Unreal Engine 3 that provides access to the engine’s fully integrated suite of tools, which power blockbuster games, training simulations, films and 3D visualizations. The December UDK Beta includes new tools for making iOS games and apps, such as Epic’s free “Epic Citadel” App, which has been downloaded to more than 1.5 million iOS devices.

“Epic Citadel” introduces the setting for “Infinity Blade,” the all-new action adventure sword-fighting game for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad from Epic’s ChAIR Entertainment available now at the App Store. Released December 9, “Infinity Blade” has already been named IGN Entertainment’s iPhone Game of the Year.

Until now, only select Unreal Engine 3 commercial licensees have had access to the engine’s world-class mobile game development tools, which bring top of the line, triple-A visuals to handheld gaming platforms. The release of UDK with iOS support marks a major breakthrough because now anyone can work with the same toolset used to create Epic’s blockbuster “Gears of War” series of games as well as the graphically stunning iOS releases “Epic Citadel” and “Infinity Blade.”

UDK’s iOS development feature set includes:
- The full source and content for “Epic Citadel,” plus an additional castle demo map;
- Support for major Unreal Engine 3 desktop features, including the award-winning Unreal Editor and its fully integrated suite of tools including Unreal Kismet, Unreal Cascade and Unreal Matinee;
- Superior rendering systems, including Unreal Lightmass global illumination supported by Unreal Swarm distributed computing;
- Content streaming functionality: Build huge, seamless environments;
- Advanced lighting and shadowing such as per-pixel lighting and real-time shadows;
- Console-quality capabilities: Make games with animations, particle effects and player collision;
- Full Unreal Kismet visual scripting functionality: Create games without having to modify program code;
- Convenient mobile previewer makes it possible to emulate games at native resolution for quick iteration;
- UDK Remote enables iOS devices to serve as wireless controllers with full touch and tilt functionality for testing games on the computer;
- New Unreal Frontend system compiles scripts and deploys builds for multiple platforms with the simple click of a button.

“With the tremendous success of Infinity Blade, we couldn’t be happier to put our free tools into the hands of iOS developers all over the world. We’ve proven what Unreal Engine 3 can accomplish on mobile, and we’re ready to usher in a new wave of amazing handheld games and applications,” said Mark Rein, vice president of Epic Games.

To download UDK, visit www.udk.com/download. Noncommercial and educational use of UDK is free, and information about commercial licensing terms is available at www.udk.com/licensing.

Mother 4 In Developement, but Not by Nintendo

October 19, 2010 By Richard Jacklin In Images, News, PC, Videos

Nintendo had a good thing going with their wacky JRPG series Mother (known as Earthbound in North America). Three games were released in Japan, but only one (Mother 2) was released here. After Nintendo refused, and continues to refuse, bringing Mother 3 to North America with a full English translation, fans took manners into their own hands. The Mother 3 Fan Translation Project turned out a fully English ROM of Mother 3 that has given many non-Japanese speaking gamers the ability to play the classic GBA game.

Everything was set for Nintendo to release Mother 4 and set the world a blaze, but they refuse to do so. Once again taking matters into their own hands, Mother fans are attempting to create their vision of Mother 4. With no help from the big N or the series creator, this team of avid fans are attempting to structure an entire RPG on their own.

There is currently no release date for the Mother 4 project, and development still has a long way to go. If this game does ever see the light of day, it will likely come in the form of a free downloadable PC game. Let’s just hope that Nintendo’s crack team of lawyers don’t smash it with a bat before we get the chance to play.

Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 Has Been in Development Since Summer 2008

April 23, 2010 By Richard Jacklin In Microsoft, News, Playstation 3, Sony, Xbox 360

Capcom made a surprising announcement today. It turns out, they’ve been developing Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 since summer of 2008. Most gamers have assumed that Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 was announced due to the success of the downloadable version of Marvel Vs. Capcom 2. If this is true, then that means that Marvel Vs. Capcom 2′s sales had nothing to do with the decision to develop the third in the series.