Frozen Synapse Message Board

Frozen Synapse, Mode 7 Games' top-down, turn-based tactical strategy game that challenges players to not get shot, is using its next turn to head toward your iPhone. Mode 7's Paul Taylor shared the news on Twitter, adding that while he wasn't sure of a specific release date, he expects the port's release should "definitely be by the end of the year."

Previously available on PC, Mac, Android and iPad, Frozen Synapse lets players work through a campaign or try and outwit a friend's strategy in its multiplayer modes. With destructible sections and varied weapons including explosives, Frozen Synapse seems like the sort of game where a strategy can crumble in a single, well-played turn from your opposition. [Mode 7 Games]

I dug strategy/futuresports robo-tournament Frozen Endzone, but while I’m well aware it’s just in beta form for now I’m very much in need of more personality (and in the game, etc) and variety if I’m to be in it for the long haul. Fortunately devs Mode 7 have detailed their plans for the game’s first major update, and it sounds as though they’ll be tackling HAHA LIKE IN SPORT quite a few of grumbles I grumbled its way, grumblily.(more…)

I'm referring of course to indie group Mode 7's upcoming Frozen Endzone, which can now be tried by anyone who's willing to give the developers a vote of confidence by way of a pre-order.Read more...

>Frozen Endzone is a primarily multiplayer turn-based strategy game about robots playing American Football. Calling it the result of XCOM and Speedball having one hot night together wouldn’t be entirely inaccurate, but it has more in common with its acclaimed predecessor, Frozen Synapse. Its beta is out today.

Yes, yes, Frendzone, Cold Arse, jolly good, we’ve all giggled about it enough times now. I’m going to give you thirty seconds to get it all out of your system.

(I really would have changed the game name if I were Mode 7, but I do admire their resolve).(more…)

Are you ready for some hard-hitting, neon-sweat-slick (but not like in those silly Gatorade commercials) eSports? I mean that literally, too: Frozen Synapse developer Mode 7 has devised its very own electronic sport. Balls are thrown, touchdowns are scored, lives are at stake. OK, maybe not so much that last one, but that’s not to say that Frozen Endzone is a total departure from Frozen Synapse’s simultaneous turn-based battle of wits and weaponry. For one, it reprises the latter’s brand of two-steps-ahead-or-else-you’re-dead strategy, and also an inordinate number of things are blue. Something for everyone! Watch it in action and learn about the right-around-the-corner beta below.

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Frozen Endzone, Mode 7′s futuro-sports game that I would like to take on the cheeky little nickname of Frozone, is not out yet. For the people who want to play it this a problem on many levels. I sympathise, and at least have some news that’ll excite and thrill you. Frozone’s beta is about to go public, and you’ll be able to buy into it sometime in November. When in November? No idea. This November? I am 99% certain the November they mention in the press release is this November. Anyone buying a copy will receive an extra copy of the full game when it’s released, a generous trick they pulled with Frozen Synapse.(more…)

Crossplay used to be what happened to me when I played Team Fortress 2, but after a restraining order from my mouse pad and some anger management classes, I no longer feel the need to be angry at Pyros. Now the world has moved on, the word has taken on a new meaning: what happens when one gaming system and another defy all cultural boundaries and work together. Frozen Synapse is about to do just that with its iPad version: you’ll be able to play multiplayer across the PC and the iPad, and if you own both versions then you can continue your game you were playing on whatever system you have at hand. Toilet time just got tactical.(more…)

Frozen Synapse takes tactical defense to the iPad on Thursday, May 16, complete with cross-platform play between PC, Mac and iPad. Players will be able to access all of their games on any platform, at any time, though current owners will have to buy the iPad version separately to get it on that slim screen.

We first learned of Frozen Synapse's journey to iPad in early April, and developer Mode 7 said an Android version will launch sometime after the iOS installment, each with "competitive" pricing.

Mode 7's tactical game Frozen Synapse is coming to the iPad, with a slated launch some time in May, Joint Managing Director Paul Taylor has revealed to Joystiq. A port to Android tablets is planned for after the iPad launch - on both platforms, Taylor says the price will be "competitive."

Cross-play between iOS, Android and the desktop version "is definitely happening," Taylor says. Players will be able to start a match on one device, then resume their turns on other platforms; the 'Red' DLC adding co-op play and new missions will also be available on iPad and Android tablets.

As well as pointing my tragically non-robotic eyes at robot futuresports / strategy game Frozen Endzone last week, I also had a long natter with Mode 7 founders Ian Hardingham and Paul Taylor about their follow-up to the splendid Frozen Synapse. Read on for its origin story, how it’s not really like American Football, their roguelike-like plans for the game’s singleplayer mode, inevitable comparisons to Blood Bowl and Speedball, and Luigi fanfic.(more…)

Frozen Endzone is a turn-based futuresports game from the creators of asynchronous strategy game Frozen Synapse. I went to see it last week. I drove there in a car and everything. I returned with the following words and thoughts.

I was anxious, worried, scared: this I will admit. Me, a 5’6″, nebbish man of words and screens whose strongest-ever investment in sport was playing badminton once a week for a year, on my way to see a game ostensibly about American Football? Out of my depth, surely. I read a Wikipedia page about American football before I set off to visit Frozen Synapse, and now Frozen Endzone, developers Mode 7 in their Oxfordshire studio, but it only made me more confused.

Turns out I needn’t have worried. Frozen Endzone is sports in theme only – in practice it’s turn-based strategy, and a natural heir to the men vs men tactical gunplay of Frozen Synapse despite its complete lack of metal tubes which go bangbangbang.(more…)

#frozenendzone In 2011, indie developer Mode 7 Games released a turn-based strategy game called Frozen Synapse. It was pretty good. Now they're following that up with Frozen Endzone, which is "futuristic, highly-stylized, exaggerated NFL football" according to PC Gamer. More »

Juuuust a quick one, as I shall be returning on Tuesday with vastly more fulsome news on Frozen Endzone, Mode 7′s next game after the wonderful Frozen Synapse. But they’ve just gone live with a trailer and a Greenlight page, so see what you think. It’s a future sports game. It’s a strategy game. In other words, it’s a sports game that isn’t really a sports game. And it looks well flash.

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Mode 7's indie tactical-combat darling Frozen Synapse is coming to retail via a special boxed edition this fall, courtesy of publisher Merge Games. This collector's edition will be compatible with both PC and Mac, and tosses in the game's soundtrack, a sticker and postcard, plus a Steam key to unlock an additional copy of the game for a friend or curiously nice enemy. Hey, it's none of our business how you treat your enemies!

The Red expansion pack - an update from back in May that added co-op gameplay, a new unit, a new game mode and a host of new missions - is also included in this collector's edition package. Frozen Synapse: Collector's Edition will be exclusive to UK retailers and launches on September 7.

Simon Roth is best known as the newest recruit to Frozen Synapse creators Mode 7, but he’s also one of the most veteran developers in the entire history of the world, if my research is correct. And he’s moonlighting on a side-project all of his own, the Bullfrog/early Maxis-inspired sci-fi management game Maia. This isn’t a matter of keeping colonists happy with space ice cream and zero-grav toilets – we’re promised the likes of ‘up to 2KM X 2KM X 2KM of procedural world’, water and lava simulation, defensive structures to fend off hostile wildlife, bipolar robots and a first-person mode.

Oh, dare I dream ‘sci-fi Dungeon Keeper’?(more…)

The indie darlings of yesteryear are back with a vengeance. I mean, with titles like Wrath of the Lamb and Red, what else could they possibly be out for? A pleasant stroll? A picnic? No, this is a declaration of war – or at least “Hey, we still exist. Notice us.” And I have! So everything worked out. Thank goodness. And wow, Frozen Synapse: Red, I must note in my trademark eloquent and considered fashion, contains a lot of stuff. Foremost, the entire single-player campaign’s been retrofitted to include co-op, and there’s now another 15-mission campaign to top it off. You’re also looking at challenge missions, mutators, deployable cover, riot shields, and a new multiplayer mode. But most importantly, levels can be red now. Yes, that’s right: Mode 7 has included a new color. Take that, Unreal Engine 4.

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* New Ending
Frozen Synapse has a brand new ending for a limited time only.
* Credit Music Fixed
The correct music now plays during the closing credits.

All the important games are changing their endings these days, you know. If you want a high profile, that’s the way to go – preferably after initially concluding your narrative with a last-minute bodgejob riddled with continuity errors, then subsequently bowing to fan ouctry. Frozen Synapse developers Mode 7 Games have sensibly realised that the route to true success entails screwing around with their creative vision willy-nilly, and as such a new, happier (and far sillier) ending to their splendid turn-based strategy game will go live later today.

“I don’t mean this to be critical of Bioware even slightly,” Mode 7′s Paul Taylor tells me. “It’s just an experiment. I was so bowled over and fascinated just by the fact that such a change would even be considered, so I thought I’d see how it felt to do it.”(more…)

The year is 1999 and the crazy chaps at Epic Games have just came up with the concept of mutators, little mods that you can use to tweak game types. But just as they’re about to implement it, a cheap-looking wibbly effect appears in front of Cliffy A (Cliffy B is a clone) and a mysterious figure steals his PC! Mark Rein enters the room, asks what smells all wibbly and allows a distraught A to tell him what he’s crying about. “Is that all? We have backups.” But he kills A for showing weakness. And thus the Unreal Tournament series’ mutators survived. But what of that mysterious time-traveller? I have figured out who it is: step forward Mode7′s Ian Hardingham. J’accuse!(more…)

In 2010, we ran a series of cheerful chats with (almost) all of the lovely indie developers whose PC games had been nominated as finalists in that year’s Independent Games Festival. In 2011, we forgot. In 2012, we haven’t forgotten. We’re the best! So, here’s the first: Ian Hardingham and Paul Taylor from Mode 7 Games, whose high-speed turn-based strategy game Frozen Synapse is in the running for both Excellence In Design and Seamus McNally Grand Prize. Read on for what went right and wrong with their game, how they feel about their IGF rivals, what comes next and their answer to the most important question of all.

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Indie games travel in packs now. A group of UK indies is concocting another pay-what-you-want offering, in the same vein as The Humble Indie Bundle, that collects several enticing games and lets you split your donation between the developers and charity organization GamesAid. Dubbed "The Little Big Bunch," it's expected to go live (and actually have, like, a website) by December 14th.

According to Develop, the bundle will contain Explodemon, Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee, recent "Humble" headliner Frozen Synapse, and unspecified contributions from New Star Games and Mommy's Best Games (the Indiana-based team behind Serious Sam: Double D).

We'll let you know as soon as The Little Big Bunch opens itself to your unrestrained philanthropy / inability to resist cheap games.

#frozensynapse The award-winning turn-based tactical game Frozen Synapse is being ported over to the iPad, the developer Mode 7 said yesterday, expecting the game will hit the iTunes App Store in 2012. More »

Frozen Synapse, the game of intense, turn-based tactical planning and sudden simultaneous execution, is coming to the iPad. Posting on developer Mode 7's blog, managing director Paul Taylor reveals that the tablet version has been "in the works for a while," having already appeared in playable form at a pub meetup. Taylor says we can expect it sometime within the first half of next year, if all goes to plan.

Also part of the plan: cross-platform play between the iPad and other versions of Frozen Synapse. Taylor adds that the focus on the capable iPad port won't detract from existing platforms -- "we're actually working right now to hire another team member so we can give it more attention and update it more efficiently."

At the moment, Mode 7 consists of three core developers and a "group of trusted freelancers." Frozen Synapse has gained a lot of indie buzz in recent months, especially after becoming the star attraction in a recent Humble Indie Bundle.

Hopefully this is happier indie price-experimentation news than the below… What began as really little more than pay what you want for one game – that being Frozen Synapse – has been slowly expanding to be some games, as appears to be Humble Bundle trends. You’ll be very glad to hear that the very, very good Space Chem is the latest addition, joining Trauma which was bundled in earlier this week. And yes, this works retroactively for people who already bought the FZ bundle. So, whatever you have given or are prepared to give, you’ll end up with FZ, SpaceChem and Trauma – and if you beat the average price you also get a package of Frozenbyte games to boot.

All the games are available in PC, cultist PC and hippy PC flavours, by the way.

If you don’t know what Space Chem is, then boo. BOOOOOO. And also read this.

The ‘Humble Bundle’ tag by this point surely guarantees that any indie games blessed with it have the money hose turned on ‘em. Latest is Mode 7 Games’ most excellent tactical strategy affair Frozen Synapse, which has just now gone pay what you want under the trusty Humble banner – but only for the duration of the next 14 days. If you don’t have FZ already, then I thumb my teeth in your general direction. And also suggest you swoop right now.

Beat the average price- currently a genuinely humble $4.17 – and you’ll get last year’s Frozenbyte bundle (comprising Trine, Shadowgrounds, Shadowgrounds Survivor, a preorder for Splot and a prototype of Jack Claw) thrown in for free. Frozen Synapse normally costs $25, so this is a splendid deal from a punter’s point of view. Celebratory announcement video below!(more…)

Frozen Synapse now has a demo, which totally demolishes any excuse you might have made to not try this turn-based combat thingum. Other reasons to pay attention to it include this preview essay by Gillen, this AAR by Gillen, and this review by Meer.

Those are our endorsements. We stand by them.

There is more to Frozen Synapse than beating fellow games-journalist Mike Gapper, but I figure that’s as good an entrance point as any into its work of turn-based-tactical-manoeuvring. In lieu of a Verdict or a WIT or something, I figured I could try and explain some of the details of the game which make it so appealing to me, by yabbering over some video footage. Without a script. Or a plan. So, I set my newly-registered copy of FRAPS rolling and talked about the game. Go yabber! Go yabber beneath the cut!(more…)

Colorado Springs, CO Matrix Games and Mode 7 Games are thrilled to announce that their highly anticipated turn-based tactical game, Frozen Synapse, is now available! Be sure to check out the brand new trailer on YouTube to get a feel for the unique tactical action described by GamePro.com as a "Mas...

Kieron and Quintin‘s excitement about Mode 7′s Frozen Synapse has been somewhat infectious, which means it’s safe to say there’s rather a lot of people looking forward to the imminent release of the fast-paced simultaneous turn-based action strategy-em-up. It’s so soon! And its found itself a publisher in Matrix Games. There’s some new pictures, one of them moving, below.

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Colorado Springs, CO - Matrix Games and Mode 7 Games are thrilled to announce that Matrix Games will publish their highly anticipated turn-based tactical game, Frozen Synapse. To mark this announcement, there is a new pack of screenshots and a brand new trailer showing off in depth some of the inten...