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Chinese indie developer Onipunks Studio kicked off its Kickstarter campaign for C-Wars last week. C-Wars is a roguelike real-time strategy and tower defense-styled game that is currently in its alpha stage of development. The game has players investigating infected areas of a post-apocalyptic world, taking on enemies in Mega Man Battle Network-style RTS combat along the way. The game's site notes that battles are much faster paced with non-stop action being a focal point, as seen in the developer's Kickstarter video above.

Onipunks is offering a free demo of the alpha build of the game on its website. C-Wars is currently sitting at $19,943 in funding, and is seeking $32,000 by May 11 to complete its Kickstarter campaign. The game is coming to PC, Mac, Linux and Android tablets in fall 2013, with the developer considering Wii U and 3DS support, providing enough money is pledged to make that happen.

Spellirium is a mix of classic graphic adventure game Loom and word scrambler Boggle, and it's available for pre-order now on developer Untold Entertainment's site. Pre-ordering Spellirium grants instant access to the alpha version for PC or Mac, which is almost complete but is missing sound and some ending cut-scenes, as creator Ryan Henson Creighton explains in the above video.

Spellirium has classic point-and-click adventure mechanics, but the core gameplay involves swapping letter tiles in the Spell Caster to create relevant words, rather than standard item manipulation. The word-find game goes deeper than spotting full words on a grid, sometimes asking players to look in specific directions or colors to complete puzzles. Pre-orders will go toward the final push on Spellirium's development, with different tiers and rewards. It's a "Kickender," as Creighton describes it.

Creighton is the father of Cassandra Creighton, the 5-year-old mastermind behind Sissy's Magical Ponycorn Adventure, 2011's breakout point-and-click oddity on the indie scene. Ryan Creighton has been developing games for 13 years for children's television shows in Toronto, but Spellirium is his first game for a broader public audience. He's trying to get it on Steam Greenlight, and it's due out "when it's finished."

Last weekend took on a life of its own, which is the sort of thing weekends should probably do more often, and I was stranded away from my trusty keyboard and therefore unable to type words about games that might exist at some point in the future. This was a sad thing. Fortunately, missing a week means that there are more winners than ever before and the bumper crop contains two games that I’ve played and enjoyed, at least three that I look forward to playing when they are released and a project that makes me realise how much I want to play with an Oculus Rift.

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Book publisher Random House is putting Failbetter Games' StoryNexus platform to good use with a free-to-play browser-based narrative project dubbed Black Crown. So far Black Crown has a website, which features a gas mask icon and describes the endeavor as "an infectious new kind of narrative experience." A phrase in latin on the top of the page translates roughly to "now comes truth, God, truth comes now."

Whatever it is, Black Crown is scheduled to go live in May, and Random House plans to run it for a full year, first hoping to generate "thousands rather than hundreds" of registered users before launch. The author behind the project remains a mystery until May, and this whole thing might result in a physical book and ebook down the line, Digital Publisher Dan Franklin tells The Bookseller.

Failbetter Games is behind such narrative games as Fallen London, and its StoryNexus platform is available in public beta for anyone who wants to create browser-based, interactive stories, right here.

Starbound, a "story within a sandbox" game that has players traversing the universe to explore and complete quests, recently began taking pre-orders. As of this writing, developer Chucklefish hauled in $409,907 in its crowdfunding initiative. While the developer opted to use its official site instead of services such as Kickstarter or Indiegogo to host its tiered funding campaign, it still set stretch goals for the project. A new "novakid" race will be included in the game should pre-orders reach $500,000.

The game promises an endless number of procedurally-generated planets that encourage exploration from players. Starbound's site notes that much like a point-and-click adventure game, players can examine and catalog every item on the varying planets. Additionally, Starbound will feature cooperative and competitive multiplayer options.

Chucklefish was one of ten developers that earned a free Ouya dev kit in December 2012, though the game's site notes that Starbound only supports Windows, Mac and Linux at this time. Backers will receive a Steam key for the game when it launches sometime in 2013.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

❤ (◡ ‿ ◡ ✿) ❤ SPECIAL LOVE EDITION ❤  (◡ ‿ ◡ ✿) ❤

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Sundays are for picking the shredded remains of the previous week from your teeth, and thinking about the battles that lie ahead. Never surrender, readers.

• Ah, damn. This was an essay I should have written, and knew I should have written, but didn’t because I am weak and old. I am so glad someone else seized it, because it’s obvious and important. Geoff Dyer’s book Zona, which is about The Zone of Tarkovsky’s Stalker (and also Chernobyl) had a vast and glaring omission. For all its cultural literacy, it entirely ignored the game. Perhaps with good reason, but still. The New Your Review Of Books (of all places!) takes up this topic: “The Zone in the video games is a beautifully dangerous place, bigger and grimmer than Tarkovsky’s, but somehow still appropriate. There are plenty of long, tense walks through damp weather or empty, creaking tunnels. Packs of dogs wander the landscape, ruined farmhouses give shelter from the rain; here and there the ground ripples strangely. Stalkers gather around campfires, bandits take potshots at passersby, and a man lies wounded in a ditch, begging for help. Watching Stalker, one is occasionally brought up short by remembering that it was not filmed in Chernobyl, so perfect an analogue does that event seem for the film’s images of technology and nature, beauty and danger in strange alliance. The games, at their best, can seem like a sort of miracle: a dead man’s masterpiece, come home at last.” Not sure I agree with “subpar graphics”, but then I suppose that’s partly a matter of taste and hardware (and modding.)(more…)

I haven’t actually played Space Whale yet (my Internet connection has been nearly nonexistent all day, so no downloads for me), but I’m pretty sure it’s already my favorite game of all time. It is, as you might have surmised, about a gigantic whale in space and his endlessly ravenous quest to grow even more gigantic. So he languidly floats about to soothing piano music and inhales any bits of planetary plankton bold – or foolish – enough to cross his path. Like you do. In spite of its rather apocalyptic setup (the universe is in the process of, um, collapsing) and amazingly caps-conducive name, Space Whale seems quite relaxing. Wade slowly into the break’s healing waters to see for yourself.

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I guess it is Saturday morning, so I guess it is time to cast our gaze across the various gaming digital storefronts across the globe to see who’s got the best deals going right now. Will you see a deal that tempts you to part with your cash this week? There’s only one way to find out. For more of this sort of thing, pop along to SavyGamer.co.uk. (more…)

Truth be told, things at Test Drive Unlimited, V-Rally, and Alone in the Dark developer Eden Games haven’t been going particularly well for quite some time. The sorry saga began with a gigantic round of layoffs and a nice, breezy Sunday afternoon strike in the park, and now – two years later – the final nail’s been hammered into the coffin. Atari, as it turns out, quietly boarded up Eden’s doors back in March, ending a fairly loud, messy state of affairs with barely a peep.

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Starbound, which we’ve talked about previously, is said to be a “spiritual successor” (although not directly affiliated) to the enormously popular Terraria. This sentiment bodes well for the game as its pre-orders, which have only been open since last night, have already raised an exceptional $159,799 at the time of writing. That’s a figure that’s fast increasing. That’s a figure that – hand in hand with Prison Architect – show that you don’t need to rely on Kickstarter if you have the right game. Starbound is due to have a beta this year, and pre-ordering persons will gain access when that appears.

Below here lies a video that will give you a taste of what’s in store.(more…)

You’re probably thinking, “Action? Hah. The closest card games have ever gotten to action was the grisly paper cut massacre of 1912.” But actually, Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft keeps quite a brisk, effects-packed pace. Ice and fire sing down from on high (or at least slightly above the coffee table), and monster slabs snap, crackle, and pop en route to shattering to the winds. Turns, meanwhile, go by in a flash – at least, when players who know what they’re doing are trading heated strategic blows. See for yourself via a full Shaman vs Mage match after the break.

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EA may not be making the most, erm, popular calls these days, but in terms of sheer quantity of beloved classics, you certainly can’t take a motorcycle-propelled sledgehammer to its accomplishments. That last bit, however, is the exact premise of Road Rash, a largely console-based illegal bike racing classic that stole the hearts of starry eyed youths and – as unbiased science has proven – transformed them into vicious brigands and/or motorcycles. Failed reboots and false starts, however, have left the series to the ravages of time, which is basically the saddest thing. But now, hope’s arrived on a gleaming two-wheeled steed. Introducing Road Redemption, a spiritual successor from a bunch of former Road Rash devs.

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DarkSeas Games is looking to finance a spiritual successor to Road Rash through Kickstarter. Road Redemption is a Unity-based game for PC, Mac OSX and Linux featuring a single-player story revolving around biker gangs and drug distribution routes and online multiplayer. As you can see in the announcement video above, the Road Rash influence is palpable.

Melee weapons, firearms and explosives will all be tools of the trade for bikers, with a counter and parry system at the heart of combat. Bikers can also kick other bikers into oncoming traffic because bikers are violent maniacs.

Gameplay is being "geared toward experienced players," the Kickstarter page says. The developers explain the systems will feel more satisfying because of the difficulty. A few months after launch, should the Kickstarter drive yield success, DarkSeas Games will release the source code, art assets and project files to the public for modding.

It's important to note that none of the individuals involved with Road Redemption actually worked on the Road Rash series, odd considering co-designer Dan Geisler's statements on Reddit last month. When asked, "Why hasn't this game resurfaced?," Geisler responded that he wasn't ready, but is now and may even seek funding through Kickstarter. Awkward.

Road Redemption is looking for $160,000 over the next 29 days. As of right now, the campaign has pulled in around $8,000.

[Thanks, Derek]

Figuring out new ways to make believe that we're a pretty, pretty unicorn takes up about 80 percent of our day, so we always appreciate it when someone else does the majority of the grunt work for us. Imagine then our appreciative, wistful sigh upon learning of PixelJam's new game with Adult Swim, Retro Unicorn Attack: Challenge Edition.

As retro and/or pixelated as its name and developer imply, Retro Unicorn Attack is an endless runner that tasks the player (a beautiful and majestic unicorn, obviously) with collecting fairies and dashing through vortexes, while avoiding obstacles and generally falling to a horrible death. The game is, besides being adorable and addictive, also quite difficult. Players can upload their best scores to a global leaderboard, hence the Challenge Edition subtitle.

Tekken Card Tournament was downloaded over a million times (in aggregate) within the first four days of its availability on the App Store, Google Play and Amazon's Appstore for Android, Namco Bandai has announced. That's not counting however many people played the game directly in their browser, either.

To signify the occasion, Namco Bandai has enacted a 48 hour, 30 percent off sale for all in-game booster packs, as of 11 a.m. Eastern this morning. Do note: this discount applies to the packs of cards themselves, which must be purchased using in-game currency. The purchase price of the in-game currency itself, however, has not been discounted, though you'll still get more for your credits while the sale is in effect.

You can always earn credits by winning matches and stuff too, but who has time for that in this modern age?

Blizzard's latest entry in their blockbuster StarCraft series earned rave reviews upon its debut. But how does the community feel a month later?

Artifice Studio’s newly-released Sang-Froid: Tales of Werewolves is, for lack of a better term, an action-strategy-roleplaying game about trying to defend a small community in the 19th century Canadian wilderness from invading wolf-creatures. It’s both fascinating and infuriating: here’s why.(more…)

Noomix is giving me weird deja vu. I am certain I have not seen it before, nor have we posted about it previously. And yet the appearance of “Gordo The Apetronaut” – via PixelProspector – strikes me as ever-so and all-too familiar. Can there be another chimp-in-spacesuit games out there? Is this a genre I am simply unaware of? Or is it speaking to me from a world of half-remembered NASA-ape and 2001 images, merging with childhood visits to the zoo in the molasses of my disintegrating memory?

Hmm. Whatever the truth, it’s fair to say that Noomix has an interesting style all of its own, even though “planet of the noomies” is a silly phrase: “Your spacesuit allows you to merge with those little witty creatures and use their powerful abilities. Help Gordo to use those powers wisely in order to leave for home again!” The game is still in development. Video ‘neathwards.(more…)

There are two choices here. You can take my word that it’s worth playing this year-old free first-person puzzle game Good Morning, Commander, and approach it as unknowingly as I did (thanks Indiegames.com, who spotted it last week). Or you can have a bit of convincing from the words below, that shall still not contain any major spoilers. Decide… NOW!

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Magrunner Dark Pulse is one of my favourite crowd-sourcing pitches: a first-person puzzler set in the future, only with Cthulhu Mythos. They explain: “In the near future of 2050, a handful of brilliant young citizens are chosen by the Gruckezber Corporation to enter the Magtech deep space exploration training program. What begins as the opportunity of a lifetime soon descends into madness and cosmic horror!” So it’s Lovecraft vs Portal. Yeah. Anyway, it’s been a while since we heard from them – the project was funded last summer – but now they’ve sent word that they’ve launched a shiny new website, complete with a devblog which will apparently be regularly updated with information about the project. Expect more information soon, via the magical medium of an RPS interview. In the meantime, there’s a glimpse of gameplay footage here.

I do so love the blend of madness, sincerity, and unbridled subversion game jams often inspire. While genres normally build on themselves – ripping conceits and mechanics from compatriots like oily scrap from a spent machine – jams often operate in reverse: curious developers tear down everything that’s been established and rebuild, in their own image, from the ground up. I say this because – presumably like most of you – I don’t really play dating sims. Outside of obsessively wooing Tali and Garrus in Mass Effect, they’re just not my thing. But when I heard about the Pulse-Pounding, Heart-Stopping Dating Sim Jam, I was actually kind of thrilled. Here was an opportunity for new interpretations, new beginnings, new relationships. It did not disappoint in the slightest. These are some truly beautiful games. And yes, that’s definitely a T-Rex. 

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Impossibly handsome plague-as-strategy game Death Inc might have missed its Kickstarter target, but it is far from dead, as is proven by their new in-house paid alpha thing, which is here. They’ve gone for a similar reward model to the Kickstarter, allowing you to get the game right away for a mere $10, right up to to an eye-watering $5000 contribution which includes everything from previous tiers, including t-shirts, artbooks, and your own in-game pub, as well as the right to call yourself “King (or Queen) Of The World”.

There’s a sumptuous trailer below, too. Very deathy.(more…)

This week’s hunk of ‘huh?’ was going to be devoted to four ZX Spectrum wargames inextricably linked with the late Margaret Thatcher. Unfortunately, having checked my files, I now realise Operation Solstice, Battleground Orgreave, and Where There Is Discord were just taproom fantasies dreamt up by me and my mate Lee some time in the early Nineties. We never actually got round to making them. The Crash cover, the sedition charges, the infamous Wogan interview where I ended-up head-butting Barbara Cartland… none of that actually happened. (more…)

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT), which handles consumer protection in the UK, announced it's reviewing if freemium web and app games are encouraging children unduly to make purchases. The OFT says it's contacted certain companies behind free-to-play games, and asked parents and consumer groups to reach out with info about "potentially misleading or commercially aggressive practices" within such games.

The investigation is focusing on games that directly target children, the OFT says, via excessive pressure to make a purchase or to do something that requires a purchase. The OFT states this is illegal under the country's Consumer Protection Regulations Act of 2008.

"We are concerned that children and their parents could be subject to unfair pressure to purchase when they are playing games they thought were free, but which can actually run up substantial costs," said OFT Senior Director for Goods and Consumer Cavendish Elithorn. "The OFT is not seeking to ban in-game purchases, but the games industry must ensure it is complying with the relevant regulations so that children are protected. We are speaking to the industry and will take enforcement action if necessary."

According to OFT, 80 of the country's highest grossing Android apps on April 9 were freemium ones. Earlier this year, Apple paid upwards of $100 million in gift certificates to account holders whose children spent money without holder permission on Capcom's Smurfs Village iOS game, this after a settlement on a lawsuit which stated Apple "failed to adequately" disclose the presence of in-app purchases aimed at children.

[Image Source: PicPocket Books]

Ridge Racer, arcadey automotive classic and proof that dumb Internet jokes will outlive us all, is still alive and kicking, even in a racing landscape where cars have finally learned to fly. Last year’s hyper-destructive Ridge Racer: Unbounded was a messy good time, and former FlatOut developer Bugbear is once again behind the wheel for Ridge Racer: Driftopia. Two things, however, distinguish this one from the rest of the powersliding pack: 1) it’s free-to-play and 2) whiirrrrrr rubber screeeeeech driiiiiiiiiiift thoooom [sound of a tire wobbling around on pavement before falling over]. There is, in other words, a focus on drifting. But goodness, this otherwise looks like a low-rent Burnout, and I am physically incapable of complaining about that. Here, watch me try. Whoops, now I’m bleeding everywhere. While I mop all of this up, might I suggest a metal-mangling scream of a trailer after the break?

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Despite failing to hit its Kickstarter goal, the project from ex-Media Molecule, Lionhead, and Criterion brains isn't dead yet.

The UK's Office Of Fair Trading has launched an investigation into free-to-play titles with in-game purchases to see if children are being unfairly encouraged to spend money.

Hey, remember pens? Once upon a time, humanity used them for chewing into gnarled oblivion (and also writing) before we evolved the ability to channel our psychic whims through keyboards, touch screens, and the like. Depressingly, there will probably soon be a generation that actually needs that explained to them. They’ll then nod astonishment through their VR displays before adding, “Wait, what’s a keyboard?” At which point I will fall down. I will fall down and burst into outraged (and very real) flames.  But until then, can we all come together and appreciate just how completely incredible Ballpoint Universe‘s entirely ballpoint-drawn universe looks? I mean, goodness. The exploration platformer/shmup (yes, that is a thing) looks brilliant in motion too, and you can experience it via either a trailer after the break or a free demo.

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Pippin Barr's doctoral thesis is titled Video Game Values: Play as Human-Computer Interaction, submitted in 2008 to the Victoria University of Wellington as the final stage of his degree, Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science. In the thesis, Barr highlights the act of playing a computer program rather than simply using one, with case studies in Civilization 3, Fable, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Half-Life 2, and The Sims 2.

Schoolwork completed, Barr spends his time teaching at the University of Malta's Institute of Digital Games, and developing small, profound games with an experimental edge. Barr's projects are simple, thoughtful and play with the boundaries of what a "game" can be:

The Artist is Present is a game about waiting in line at New York's Museum of Modern Art, complete with real-life museum closing times and hours of standing, doing-nothing excitement. Let's Play: Ancient Greek Punishment is a series of short games about Greek myths - short because they're all unwinnable, with death as a constant outcome looming behind each stark, pixelated scene. Barr's most recent project, the Mumble Indie Bungle, features six games based on popular indie titles as if your grandmother misheard them at the last family dinner, such as World of Glue, Carp Life and Gurney. They're short, minimalistic and frustrating, but they're definitely not all supposed to be "boring," Barr tells me.

"I want to make games that controvert the standard rules - I spent quite a bit of time on that in my early games - well, maybe all my games," he says. "Games that you can't win, games where you just have to wait for a long time, games where you win but it's not satisfying, games where you're not very important in the world of the game, and so forth. These games can be boring if you're not prepared to embrace a different perspective on things - but if you are prepared to do so, I think they can be quite interesting experiences."

Surprisingly, Barr has never been called a hipster.