Warhorse Studios Licenses CryEngine 3 for RPG
Warhorse Studios have announced that they have reached an agreement with Crytek to use their game engine, CryEngine 3, for use in an as-yet-unannounced RPG.
This will be the first game for Warhorse Studios, a new studio set up in 2011 by industry veterans who were previously involved with the Mafia franchise and Operation Flashpoint.
Though their new project has not been announced, they say “it is a game that is not going to disappoint fans of open realistic worlds and quality stories”.
Double Fine Adventure
Last night, Tim Schafer announced that Double Fine and 2 Player Productions were to use Kickstarter to fund an adventure game and documentary.
Kickstarter is a funding platform allowing people to pledge money to support a creative project; money exchanges hands once the goal is reached. You can back the Double Fine Adventure here. While the creative owner retains all rights to the project, those supporting it can earn bonuses and rewards.. with larger pledges achieving better rewards. Double Fine set up some extra rewards for “premium” pledges.. you can check those out here.
Within two hours, pledges had reached $200k, and before the night was up, it had passed the $400k goal, with more than ten thousand people having pledged to support it! Update: The project reached 1 million dollars in funding within 24 hours, and is currently just over $1,500,000!
Tim Schafer has also recently announced that he’d like to make Psychonauts 2.. with Notch offering to back it. The two have been talking about it, but as yet that’s all.
Skyrim: Creation Kit and High Res Texture Pack Available Now
Bethesda have now released the Skyrim Creation Kit on Steam, and along with it, a free high-res texture pack! The Creation Kit will be available when you next log into Steam, with the texture pack an optional extra. A wiki for the Creation Kit can be found here.
You can also now browse the Steam Workshop.. and discover another little surprise: Fall of the Space Core, Vol. 1!
To celebrate the opening of the Steam Workshop for Skyrim, Valve and Bethesda have teamed up to bring you the Space Sphere mod, which’ll let the aggressively space-centric little robot tag along on your adventures in Tamriel!
The Indie Royale Valentine’s Bundle: Pre-Order
The Indie Royale have now opened their Valentine’s Bundle for blind pre-orders, with a recommended £10 contribution and a minimum of $3.99 USD.
The games in this bundle include a fantastical first-person action-adventure game (Steam for PC), an IGF-nominated puzzle adventure title, a ‘scorching’ single and multiplayer arcade-strategy game, and a world premiere on PC for a pair of retro RPG-defense games.
Those who pre-order the bundle will also receive a bonus compilation album, Music To Play Games By Too from One Life Left, and will gain access to the games when the bundle officially launches.
The Valentine’s Bundle will launch later this week on a pay what you want scheme, starting with the minimum price of $3.99 USD.
Castle Story Timelapse
Sauropod Studio, creators of upcoming voxel-based RTS Castle Story, have released a timelapse video showing some new gameplay mechanics: gathering wood, mining, and the day and night cycle!
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPAMXCCEgkA]
Hawken – Mech Combat FPS
Hawken is a multiplayer mech combat game, developed by Adhesive Games using the Unreal Engine from Epic Games.
The team have now announced an official release date of 12/12/12, and confirmed that Hawken will be a free downloadable title, with in-game purchases allowing greater customisation and weapon variety.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwA03XsKzbY]
While the 12th December is a long way off, you can get in on the action sooner by enlisting for the beta.
The Skyrim Creation Kit Arrives Today!
The Skyrim Creation Kit is planned to arrive today according to Bethesda’s Pete Hines. This will be a free download for PC users, via Steam.
The Creation Kit features the same set of tools used to create the game originally, and will include new features such as scene editors, dialogue tree tool, and a new scripting language called Papyrus. For those new to modding, Bethesda are also releasing wiki documentation, written by the developers.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EU4oAKZE1VI]
As the Kit has been integrated with the Steam Workshop, you can browse or search for existing mods, and comment and rate them, as well as upload your own. You can even subscribe to mods too: the launcher will download and install the latest version of any subscribed mods when you launch the game.
The Last of Us Details
The Last of Us is a third-person survival-horror adventure by Naughty Dog, set in a world where a fungus outbreak has decimated humanity. Survivors live in quarantine zones, with anyone showing any signs of fungal infection immediately executed. The game follows two characters, Joel and Ellie: player-character Joel is a weapons and drugs smuggler, and he rescues Ellie from camp as a favour to a dying friend.
New details about the game were published by Game Informer, who were given a short demo of the game by the developer.
Although there are infected humans in the world, the focus of the game is apparently human enemies. Combat will be melee heavy, as ammo is limited, but guns will be more lethal. The AI is able to react to the state of combat and the weapons you are using.. they take cover and try to flank you if you are using a gun, but rush you if they see you only have a melee weapon. They also get angry when you kill one of their friends, and react with fear when they are losing.
While you don’t control Ellie, she takes part in combat and can warn you of dangers, and apparently gains in combat ability through the game. The developers didn’t want to turn the game into an escort quest and so have tuned her AI so that she is able to keep up with the player without getting in the way.
The story has been designed to be self-contained, so no matter what happens with the IP, there will be no unresolved cliff-hangers here. There will also be an online component to the game, but the details haven’t yet been decided on.
The Indie Gala 2
The Indie Gala has returned with their second set of bundles, containing indie games and music albums, with proceeds being split between developers, charity and the Indie Gala itself.
While it is a pay what you want scheme, this time it’s a little different, with three tiers of bundle available depending on how much you pay:
The Carebear Bundle contains Critical Mass by Manic Games Studios, Fortix 2, by Nemesys Games and Bunch of Heroes by NGD Studios along with Casey Lalonde’s Skitter EP, Giraffage’s Comfort, and The Numbers’ Beautiful EP.
The Big Saver Bundle contains all the contents of The Carebear Bundle, two more games: Greed Corp by Vanguard Games and Roboblitz by Naked Sky Entertainment, and music: Casey Lalonde’s Thank You, Robot Science’s Square, and Jack Butler’s Fit the Paradigm.
The Epic Gala Bundle contains all the games and music listed here, but also contains all the contents of the previous Indie Gala bundle: inMomentum by Digital Arrow, hacking sims Hacker Evolution: Duality and Hacker Evolution: Untold, by Exosyphen Studios, puzzler Your Doodles Are Bugged! by Spyn Doctor Games, and Sigma Team‘s Zombie Shooter 1 and Zombie Shooter 2, with Robot Science’s Doodads album too.
THQ Problems Continue, Metro Delayed
Rumours have been circulating for a while now in regards to THQ’s financial situation and the position of their future titles. While THQ eventually denied the rumours that they were to cancel their 2014 line-up, their financial situation has not improved; their share value remains under the $1 mark which means they are at risk of NASDAQ delisting, more job losses have been reported, and recently published figures show $55.9 million in losses in the last quarter.
The latest release schedule shows that Metro: Last Light has been pushed back to early 2013, from a summer 2012 release. The reason for this delay is said to be so developer 4A Games can polish the game before release, but we’ll be hearing more closer to E3.
As for Vigil Games‘ 40k MMO Dark Millennium Online: while the game is still on for a 2014 release, Brian Farrell confirmed during the investor call on Feb 2nd that THQ is looking for a partner to help complete the title (via Eurogamer).