Everyone has a fighting chance
NCSoft West has announced that it has opened a new studio in California that is dedicated to mobile games, "as well as titles inspired by NCSoft’s existing game portfolio". Called Iron Tiger Studios, development will initially be focused on three individual teams and projects.
Several months ago, I wrote a piece about the potential for multiplayer RPG experiences, drawing a comparison between MMOs and single-player RPGs. Considering classic titles like Baldur’s Gate and newer ventures such as Star Wars: The Old Republic, I posited that there might be a middle ground between co-op modes in traditional single-player games and player character story arcs in modern MMORPGs.
Our very own Som Pourfarzaneh has turned novelist with today’s publication of his first book, "Entromancy", the first in a trilogy of books called The Nightpath.
Battlestate Games has announced that it is working on a genre-bending MMO that combines FPS/TPS and RPG elements. Called Escape from Tarkove, the game takes place in the Russian city of Tarkov with characters working for two private military companies.
Logic Artists has announced that its indie-developed Clandestine has emerged on Steam. Called "an asymmetrical co-op espionage thriller", the game places players in the spy game in an effort to uncover post-Cold War conspiracies spanning the glob.
Nutaku.com, a multi-games portal, has officially launched. Nutaku seeks to bring the "greatest online games from around the world" to English-speaking audiences. To demonstrate that goal, the first games to be released are Kanpani Girls, a popular JRPG, and Angelic Saga, a deck-building strategy game.
Every year that Blizzard has conducted a Blizzcon, millions of fans have deeply sighed at the ceiling in contemplation of what they might hear about their favorite titles. This year, dewy eyed fans are hoping their dreams come true in any one of Blizzard’s stable of games: World of Warcraft, Starcraft, Diablo, Overwatch, Hearthstone or Heroes of the Storm.
A new ad has popped up on the Blizzard jobs page that seeks a "Senior Software Engineer, Classic Games". According to the post, the job asks applicants to bring skills to bear that will "make gameplay first again on modern systems". Could this mean enhanced versions of classic games like the Warcraft series, early Starcraft games, Lost Vikings and Diablo 1-2 on mobile devices and / or console?
Today’s EVE Online update is called Parallax and brings with it several key quality of life improvements that are designed to pave the way for the larger December release. Players can look forward to a new probe scanning interface, backend code changes, Skins, Jump Fatigue reduction and more.
Game Design is a funny thing. There are many ways to create and build all types of games. Over the past twenty years we have seen the tremendous rise of video games into our popular culture, and now they are here to stay. However, in this latest batch of games coming forth in 2015-2016 there is a new element to design as studios try to capitalize on a growing market: eSports.