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A turn-based game with Indiana Jones-style flair.

Publisher cracks downs on attempt to “misappropriate and make infringing use of the Duke Nukem trademarks.”

Netrunner demake. VVVVVV + Flappy Bird. The best way to solve a missing person’s case is by tossing bombs everywhere.

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Sundays are for listening to The Smiths, playing with virtual reality spaceships, and assembling a list of the week’s game scribblings while continuing to resist the urge to link to your own podcast.

• This week was dominated by the re-structuring of Irrational Games. Our very own Rich Stanton takes to the Guardian to talk about the meaning of Irrational’s closure, holding up the company’s games and Levine’s comments as a mirror for what’s happening. Good quotes in there from Levine himself as well. “I love systems, I love board games and that’s all they are is systems. I think the challenge is that I probably have something more to say in the narrative space than I do in the system space, but who knows how that could combine? I mean maybe, we did this game called Freedom Force about superheroes, and one thing that I thought we did better than other superhero games was the narrative component. Superhero stories are soap operas, right? They take the characters and emotions and amplify them through the fantastical stuff, and without that character stuff – like without Uncle Ben dying in Amazing Fantasy #15 – Spider-Man isn’t interesting! Videogames often leave that on the table and make their games way more goofy than comic books actually are.” Thanks for the Spider-Man spoilers, Ken.

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It's not clear if this method of pricing will become a norm with the digital retailer.

Looks like we'll get to play Bad Golf 2 after all.

Daylight, despite its balmy, flower-scented hug of a name, is meant to be scary. Wicked scary. If you have pants, they will be scared off your person. Your pants will leave you to die. It’s a fascinating experiment, too, because many of the game’s levels and scares are procedurally generated, hopefully leading to high replayability in a genre that typically goes cold after you’ve figured out where all the boogiemen live. But that, apparently, is only the beginning. Developer Zombie Studios has introduced a new wrinkle: the ability for Twitch users to enter commands into chat ala Twitch Plays Pokemon and produce spine-chilling, flesh-rattling effects. Like kitties meowing! Seriously. Details and release info below.

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Once upon a time in Prior Age 2013, you might remember that Tim Schafer garnered some Internet scorn by confessing that Broken Age had broken Double Fine’s bank. This despite a Kickstarter so successful that it kickstarted the notion of using Kickstarter for games (Kickstarter). But then Schafer and co, those clever jesters, they hatched a scheme: break the game into two parts (WORDPLAY) and then use the first to fund the second. So, did it work? It’s a multilayered question, a  nigh-ineffable series of concepts, a seemingly simple binary that explodes into mind-boggling complexity, and the answer is yes.

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This has been a long, strange week for me. On the bright side, it’s the weekend and I might finally get the opportunity to watch the Lego Movie before it sneaks out of the theatres. Also, I made a burger with kim chi and sweet chilli cream cheese. I’m not sure if I recommend it. While I try to discreetly nibble on my Pan-Asian disaster(?), why not check out some pretty neat games for some low prices? Do it now, before Bucket Head gets you. (The inside of this bucket smells old soapy water.)

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So I think I’m going to make this Friday night/Saturday morning (depending on your timezone) stream a regular thing. And what better way to christen an official feature than by cursing the name of every major deity and wishing I had never been born? Rambo: The Video Game is not very good. Playing it will likely be An Ordeal. And so, for some reason, Hayden Dingman from PCWorld (who is temporarily living on my floor because I AM SUCH A GOOD PERSON) and I have elected to play it for your amusement/schadenfreude. Prepare to watch us curse through QTEs, bungle forced stealth sections, and generally rage against our machines. The stream will kick off at 9 PM PT/5 AM GMT. It will go until we remember that we are young and still have so much left to live for. Tune in below.

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Lunar Software want to see sci-fi horror game Routine on PS4 once its PC version is out.

Every day, in addition to The Daily Fix, we list off the day's biggest stories in this simple and easy to read format.

Abbey Games, the studio behind colossus god game Reus, is working on its next project, a turn-based, ever-changing exploration game called Renowned Explorers ​- International Society. It follows a team of explorers in the 19th century as they attempt to find legendary treasures before the World Expo begins.

As the captain, players gather a team of explorers and follow a series of leads to find specific treasures. Once a treasure is found, the game becomes turn-based as the team explores the location, encounters enemies and allies, and digs up resources. Abbey cites Jules Verne, Indiana Jones, XCOM: Enemy Unknown and Fire Emblem as inspirations.

"To grant you a new unexplored world every game, Renowned Explorers will generate and pose new mysteries, challenges, characters and combinations every time you start," Abbey says. "Our new game is built to train you in the art of exploration, and it will reward you with deeper mysteries and rare treasure."

2K Games sees BioShock as a "rich and creative canvas" ready for further exploration.

The protagonist in Nothing to Hide is an anxiety-ridden teenage girl, Poppy, whose father is a politician, and they live in a world obsessed with constant, encroaching surveillance. The browser demo begins with a private moment told as wall posts, with dad and daughter's every word and action posted for the world to see. Poppy, apparently, has had enough, and must sneak out of the house and across the city without alerting the government's numerous surveillance tools - she has to stay in sight of cameras and pretend to be casually happy at all times. One second out of range and she's shot down.

Nothing to Hide is for PC, Mac and Linux, and it's open source, meaning its code and art are in the public domain for anyone to mess around with (via Github). Developer Nicky Case says Nothing to Hide's premise and public domain distinction is inspired by our real-world issues with censorship, privacy and ridiculous copyright laws.

"First, it's a protest against our current copyright laws. As the law stands, it's horribly biased towards big companies - few indies can actually afford to go to court over a copyright infringement, while big companies can sue indies for using the word 'candy.'

"Second, I wouldn't have gotten started with games and programming if it weren't for open source. When I was 9, I found open source game files online, learned from them and modified them to make my own games. It gave me the confidence to delve further into programming and create more games of my own. Nothing To Hide is my gift back to the community. All its art and code is open for anyone to learn from and remix, and maybe one day, it will help another aspiring gamedev get their foothold."

Nothing to Hide is one week into a $40,000 independent crowdfunding campaign, and has so far raised $12,373. It uses a staggered payment system, where individual pledges are taken in 25 percent chunks over the course of four milestones: the campaign's success in March, an alpha version estimated to launch in June, a beta version in September and the full game in December. The crowdfunding campaign ends on March 12.

I showed the last Wargame: Red Dragon trailer to a friend who is knowledgeable about games. As it drew to a close they turned to me and asked, “What kind of game is this?” It’s a large-scale real-time strategy game with a dynamic campaign map, multiplayer, hundreds of modernish military units, and taut tactical combat, but I don’t know if it’s a good thing or not that you can’t immediately tell from the trailers that it’s not, for example, a first-person shooter. I do know it means it looks visually impressive. I do know it means you should watch the latest trailer, twice.

Once to appreciate how it looks, and a second time to double check how the voice-over pronounces the world “stealth”. … [visit site to read more]

The upcoming adventure title from the creator of the Gabriel Knight series is coming soon.

PopCap producer says they 'definitely' won't be available at launch.

The gleeful multiplayer exploits of Towerfall have long been the best (and perhaps) only reason to own the US Marine Corps sponsored Oorah! console. When we heard that a PC version was coming, with oodles of new features, I refused to be excited. I expected the newly colonised Towerfall: Ascension to show its face at shady conventions and to be passed around on sleek USB sticks at exclusive awards shows like Nidhogg before it. As the trailer below admirably demonstrates, Towerfall looks absolutely brilliant – a slapstick Spelunky deathmatch. The good news is that you won’t have to be in with the in crowd to play it. It’s out on March 11th. You will need friends though because multiplayer is local only, with no online support.

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John, Craig and I used to meet mulitple times a week in front of a projector screen to watch good films, bad films, action films. Of everything that we watched – Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Hercules in New York and The Villain included – no one provided us with more entertainment than Paul Verhoeven. His films were good, bad and action all at once.

That’s why I look at Infested Planet and get a little thrill from its Starship Trooperisms. It’s a top-down strategy-lite in which a small squad of soldiers can mow down thousands of chitinous alien bugs. It looks slightly less satirically fascist, but from up here, I can pretend every single soldier is Casper Van Dien.

It’s been in Early Access for a while, but is super-available to ultra-buy come its full-release on March 6th. New trailer below. … [visit site to read more]

The monthly meeting of the London branch of the RPS Social Club is set to take place this Saturday at The Blue Posts, a convival spot suitable for games of card, board and dice, the meeting of good spirits, and the imbibing of good spirits (also beers, cider, soft drinks and tea). If you’d like to discuss your fashionably timed arrival with other members of the RPS community, this particular forum thread is the best place to discuss such things. I see that somebody is planning to take Cosmic Encounter along, which is a fine treat, but I would suggest that at least one person take a set of Tiddlywinks and a 14th Century Halatafl set. More Social Club news below.

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“Another helping of Enigma machine gibberish from Rock, Paper, Shotgun’s resident sim gimp.” The Coventry Herald

“As usual, Stone switches subjects with the gracefulness of a derailing freight train.” The Aldershot Bugle

“The last time I saw that many commas that close together, I was visiting the National Museum of Printing.” Caravanning Today

“After reading this week’s pieces on IL-2: Battle of Stalingrad and BOMB, the fatwā calls suddenly made a lot more sense.” Contemporary Crochetist … [visit site to read more]

7Framed might sound like a name for the world’s most uncomfortable pair of glasses, but least it’s not called 7ramed. I will forever be thankful for that, as I have no idea how you rame something, let alone do it seven times. Silly name aside, there is a game here, and it actually looks rather impressive – well, from a “here is what is obviously a target render Kickstarter video” standpoint, anyway. Blending the first-person physicality of Mirror’s Edge and the multi-perspective murder mystery drama of some game I don’t know about that probably did those exact things, 7Framed has potential in spades. But of course, it wants your money. A lot of your money. To persuade you, developer VIE Games is offering an extremely attractive video, but not much else.

… [visit site to read more]

I promised myself I wouldn’t write about any more Flappy-Bird-alikes, but damn it, Delirious Bird is actually really good. I know, I know: I make myself sick too. In penance, I will hurl myself at the nearest 12-foot-tall cartoon pipe just as soon as I’m able. I guess that makes this my final act, assuming real cartoon pipes are the silent monoliths of imperceptible violence videogames have taught me they are. But anyway: Delirious Bird is basically Flappy Bird, except exposed to near-fatal dosages of psychedelic rainbow radiation. The end result? Total madness. And a really cool gameplay mechanic.

… [visit site to read more]

Have a spin on the latest title from the Heroes of Newerth developer.

Every day, in addition to The Daily Fix, we list off the day's biggest stories in this simple and easy to read format.

Team17, the UK outfit behind the popular Worms franchise, will publish Mouldy Toof Studios' indie prison break-out sim for PC, The Escapists. This is the second game to be published under Team17's third-party publishing label, the first being indie top-down stealth game Light.

In The Escapists, players assume the role of a prisoner determined to escape from confinement. Players craft items and weapons from everyday objects found around the prison while adhering to a strict schedule of activities. Inmates must avoid exposure during cell shakedowns and plan their escape without tipping off the guards.

The Escapists was successfully funded through Kickstarter back in November and passed through Steam Greenlight within a week of its submission. The Escapists is determined to tunnel out of development this summer. [Image: Mouldy Toof Studios]

Winter is almost over. Know what that means? That means more daylight! And starting on April 8, more Daylight. The procedurally-generated horror game for PC and PS4 from Zombie Studios has been given a new release date that corresponds with studio director Jared Gerritzen's comments made earlier this week. Zombie Studios has also announced that the game will feature not just Twitch integration, but Twitch interaction.

Twitch interaction should be familiar to anyone following the Twitch Plays Pokemon saga, where viewers control the in-game avatar using commands typed into the stream's chat. In the case of Daylight, the game will recognize certain words from chat and produce correlated results in the game. For (non-finalized) example, if someone were to type "meow" into a stream's chat, the game would make the sound of a cat. The commands will be on timers so they can't be spammed, and Zombie doesn't plan to release the list of compatible words.

Zombie also revealed two new areas that players will explore - should they survive long enough, of course. The Prison and Forest take place in, you guessed it, a prison and a forest. These levels, along with everything else in the game, will also support RealD 3D rendering. If you've got an Oculus Rift, the game is designed to be compatible with the virtual reality headset as well.

Daylight will cost $14.99 on both PC and PS4 when it launches. [Image: Zombie Studios]

Way back in the mists of 2011, when the world was newly formed and virgin to such ideas as “crowd funding” “early access” and “XBOX One”, our very own John Walker gave his honest thoughts on The Book of Unwritten Tales. Despite translation flaws, his younger self enjoyed it, summing up with “An adventure this long is such a rare treat. One this enjoyable at the same time is almost unheard of.” Now developers King Art have returned to the series, after various departures, with a Kickstarter. The twist is that their game is already funded and slated for an early 2015 release. What this money is for is to improve it, a task usually left to stretch goals and bonus rewards. Their hilarious kickstarter video and some details on how it’s going are below.

… [visit site to read more]

Joystiq Streams needs a break from all the high octane shooting action it's been doing in Titanfall. What better way to unwind from massive bouts of mech violence than with Necrophone Games' deeply strange Jazzpunk? Its heady blend of bizarre humor, pop culture detritus, adventure and weird mini-games has entranced a number of players this month, Joystiq's own Jess Conditt among them.

Jess will be streaming Jazzpunk on Joystiq's Twitch channel at 4PM EST. Anthony John Agnello will be hanging out in the chat, feeding your questions directly to Jess. Come talk with us and reveal in Jazzpunk's peculiar glow. [Image: Necrophone Games]