Everyone has a fighting chance
At this week’s Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco, freemium publisher Kabam showed its latest project, a soon-to-be-released fantasy action-RPG called Spirit Lords. Afew hours playing the Spirit Lords beta revealed that it’s a vivid and humorous dungeon crawler that successfully combines traditional role-playing mechanics with the quick-play sensibilities of mobile games.
At GDC this week, Valve rocked the gaming world with the unveiling of the virtual reality headset, the Vive. Not to be outdone, Sony revealed their updated Project Morpheus VR headset which leads the industry in hardware, but remains exclusive to PlayStation devices. With release dates of less than a year, virtual reality is coming, but will it succeed?
As is appropriate for a convention with the name "Game Developers Conference," GDC seems to be becoming more and more developer-centric and less a space for press reveals and previews. At GDC 2015 this past week, there was a noticeable trend towards showing off new tech, such as Nvidia’s Shield and Valve’s SteamVR, along with a host of new (or new versions of) indie games.
Daybreak Games Studio has announced that submissions are now being accepted for the 8th annual G.I.R.L. (Gamers In Real Life) Game Design Competition. This year, two scholarships will be awarded, one for Art & Design and the other for Programming & Engineering. Each recipient will receive $5,000 that can be applied to offset course work or other educational expenses at the winner’s college or university.
The Funcom 2014 financial reports have been published that show a slight growth over the previous earnings quarter but an overall decline in 2014 over 2013. "Aging titles" are cited for the decline. According to the investor presentation, earnings grew ~$300,000 over Q3 2014. Additionally, LEGO Minifigures Online is in line with predictions that monetization of the game is taking more time than expected.
Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor took home top honors at the 15th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards. Other notable awards included The Banner Saga’s Stoic Studio for Best Debut; Blizzard’s Hearthstone for Best Design; Bungie’s Destiny for Best Technology; and Elite: Dangerous took home the Audience Award.
What we see quite often here at TGN is that lots of YouTubers follow the shining light of fame that they think is achieved just by acting crazy on screen or playing popular games. It’s not all that easy though, and Creators who have made it big without a strict game plan are few and far between. If you want to take your YouTube game to the next level, start by following these fundamental tips to gain a returning fan base.
What does the inside of a Warhammer 40K hotel look like? That’s the kind of question that the folks at Pixel Hero Games are asking in the development of their new 3D action adventure game, Eisenhorn: Xenos. Eisenhorn follows the adventures of the titular character from the 40K trilogy by Dan Abnett, and explores a side of Games Workshop’s universe that has heretofore taken a backseat to more popular aspects like Space Marines: that of the Imperium.
Kitty Lambda Games and Devolver Digital have announced a new action RPG called Paradise Never. The game begins in 2027 and centers around a French island colony. Players relive the same three days over and over in an attempt to free the island from oppressors and to keep a band of friendlies together (and alive) through it all.
It’s show season. That means we here at MMORPG will spend the next 6 months traveling and seeing dozens of games and writing or speaking about them here on the site. Inevitably, we’ll see some great games, and plenty of bad ones too. But what kind of preview do YOU want to see, and what makes you trust one over another?