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The next additions to Games With Gold promotion have been revealed as eclectic tower defense shooter Iron Brigade, and the whimsical city-building game World of Keflings.

According to Xbox spokesman Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb, World of Keflings will make its Xbox Live debut on November 1. While normally the game features a $10 price tag, anyone with an Xbox Live Gold subscription will be able to download it for free until the end of November. Iron Brigade joins World of Keflings on November 16, and will likewise be a free download for the remainder of that month.

As with all Games With Gold additions, once you've download either of these games, they're yours to keep - unless you delete them from your hard drive. If this occurs while the game is still a part of the Games With Gold promotion you can simple re-download the data, but if you wait until after the promo has expired your game is gone forever.

These two additions mark the second to last month of Microsoft's promotion. As the Games With Gold FAQ notes, "two free game downloads will be available monthly, starting on the 1st and the 16th of every month from July through December 2013."

Double Fine's Massive Chalice has finished its Kickstarter campaign, funding the project and earning a total of $1.2 million (minus Kickstarter's various fees) for production.

In addition to the core game, which sounds like an intriguing mix of turn-based strategy and large-scale kingdom building, the team promised to grow the project's scope based on the funding received rather than rely on stretch goals. Other features and platforms will be determined as the project goes along. Development is being led by the smiley Brad Muir, above, who also designed tower-defense shooter Trenched, later called Iron Brigade.

This is Double Fine's second successful Kickstarter; the first was the Adventure Game project, which resulted in the upcoming Broken Age. Massive Chalice's $1.2 million isn't quite as big as the $3.3 million earned for the game that became Broken Age, but the latest project began with a goal of $725,000, much larger than the Adventure Game's initial goal of $400,000. Massive Chalice will now start production, so it'll likely be a while before we see the game ready for release.

No matter where you like to purchase your games, odds are you'll find a Double Fine game on discount right now. The developer has announced its entire catalogue is on sale across Steam, Xbox 360, Amazon and its own shop.

Discounts include Stacking and its DLC on Xbox Live Arcade, and both signed and stock copies of Brutal Legend on PS3 and Xbox 360 through the Double Fine Shop. Iron Brigade (formerly Trenched) is cheap on Steam and Xbox Live Arcade right now, and even Psychonauts is half-off through Steam and the Mac App store, and the soundtrack too.

We'd never tell you how to spend those hard-earned duckets you covet so much, but at least we can rest easy knowing you're not spending as much as you normally would.

Double Fine's Iron Brigade has crawled out from the trenches of Xbox Live Arcade and announced an assault on the PC, starting August 13 on the pivotal territory of Steam. Double Fine is bringing the heavy artillery, as the PC version will include the Rise of the Martian Bear expansion.

To celebrate, Iron Brigade has been discounted to 800 MS Points on XBLA and Double Fine has some related t-shirts on sale right now. For those who had no idea there even was a war on at the moment, maybe check out our review from the front lines and see if this is the battle for you.

In a GDC panel called "Creative Panic: How Agility Turned Terror Into Triumph," project leads from Double Fine's quartet of "Amnesia Fortnight" projects each outlined the process and inspiration behind their games -- with the exception of Costume Quest's Tasha Harris, who didn't share her insights because she wasn't there. "Amnesia Fortnight is a psychedelic mushroom and we all took it," studio head Tim Schafer said, before adding that it was really a two-week team game design exercise held in the middle of Brütal Legend work.

Born from a break in AAA development, the Amnesia Fortnight forged a new direction for the company when Brütal Legend 2 was canceled.

Lumbering manly mech news now, with Double Fine and Microsoft confirming the launch price of next Wednesday's substantial Iron Brigade (Trenched) expansion, "Rise of the Martian Bear." In exchange for 400 MS Points, or five Earth bucks, the DLC grants you four new maps (two of which can be played in Survival mode), a new boss fight, a diverse armory of beefed-up weapons, more customization options and, most importantly, a sombrero.

Those disappointed by Iron Brigade's lack of ambidextrous salutations will be pleased to hear about the free title update launching alongside the patch. It'll jolt your character's left arm to life, allowing it to perform gestures just like the one on the right. Oh, sure, the patch also ensures compatibility between regular and DLC-equipped players, but you have to appreciate the little things -- even when the game's about big stuff stomping around.

Iron Brigade's "Rise of the Martian Bear" downloadable content will be deployed on February 1, according to Double Fine project lead Brad Muir.

As the title implies, the DLC sees the Mobile Trench Brigade blasting off to Mars in order to continue the fight with the Monovision. The price for the content has yet to be named, though Muir promises to tweet the news once it comes down from Microsoft.

#2011yearinvideogames 2011 saw its share of disappointments, but it was also a year that contained a good number of nice surprises. Some were games we just didn't see coming—they snuck up on us and grabbed us with their excellence. Others were games that we thought were going to be terrible or at best so-so, but which would up being terrific. More »

The official worldwide name change of Double Fine's XBLA mech shooter, from Trenched to Iron Brigade, will occur on November 30, the developer announced today. That's when the long-delayed European version will finally come out, bringing with it new Iron Brigade content around the world.

In Europe, of course, that new content is all of the game, because it hadn't been released there previously. But even in places where Trenched previously existed, an automatic update will add an infinite "Survival Mode with ten new pieces of high-powered loot, along with a new leaderboard to track players on this Survival Mission."

The leaderboards and multiplayer will be cross-region, allowing everyone to discover this new material together.

That DLC for Trenche- er, we mean, Iron Brigade, that was kind of sort of revealed back in August is now official. And it's officially weird. At least, the premise is.

Titled "Rise of the Martian Bear," the premise goes like this: nemesis and all-around poster boy for the evils of Monovision Vlad was defeated, but not before he had time to transfer his consciousness into his pet bear. Which did the obvious thing and ran to Mars in order to regroup and rebuild the forces of evil and what we presume is more red-tinged bad reality television.

Rise of the Martian Bear doesn't have a release date, though Double Fine told us it should be "soon." Like, really soon. Meanwhile, once you do get your hands on it, you'll bask in the wonder of new missions and an objective-oriented wave-based survival mode. Which is kind of hard, judging by the small bit we played last week.

#ironbrigade Double Fine's Iron Brigade is getting a new campaign and horde-mode styled game mode, the game makers tell Kotaku. More »

Trenched is changing its name to Iron Brigade in all regions once it releases in Europe this month, Double Fine's Greg Rice and Brad Muir revealed on Whiskey Media's Big Live Live Show Live. By changing the name, Double Fine is averting a messy legal battle with the "Trench" trademark holder that was preventing the game's release in certain European regions. Having two separate titles would prevent people from playing online multiplayer together, Muir said.

The title update will include a new survival mode and weapons, costumes and gesture unlocks, and Muir confirmed more DLC is in the works.

We have contacted Double Fine for more details about the name ch-ch-ch-ch-changes.

The recent downloadable releases from Double Fine, as well as the upcoming Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster, all had their genesis in the company's "Amnesia Fortnight" events, in which small teams would make quick game prototypes. Schafer says that if not for those informal sessions, the company might not still be running.

"We had done one Amnesia Fortnight in the middle of Brutal Legend, and one at the end, so we had eight prototypes," studio head Tim Schafer explained to Edge. "I thought eventually we'd start working on smaller games with the extra money that we got from these huge games, and then we found out that Brutal Legend 2 wasn't happening." With nothing else going on, Double Fine started looking for deals for the best four Amnesia Fortnight prototypes.

"The thing I like about it is that we had a catastrophic event and the company saved itself purely based on the creativity of the team. Lee [Petty, responsible for Stacking], Tasha [Harris, who came up with Costume Quest], Brad [Muir, of Trenched], and Nathan [Martz, the game design puppeteer behind Sesame Street]- their ideas."

Had the Amnesia Fortnight not have been a success, we can only imagine that Double Fine would be forced to hold "Amnesia Fifteenminutes" within the fortnights, in which each employee rushed out prototypes while rushing out their other prototypes.

Both Trenched and Trench (the board game) pull from the trench-style warfare in World War I.

There is a strong likelihood that if you've played Double Fine's excellent action-strategy hybrid Trenched, you're probably someone from North America. Double Fine and Microsoft had every intention of releasing Trenched in Europe this summer, too, but a last-minute copyright issue pulled everything to a grinding halt.

A Portugese board game called Trench, designed by Rui Alípio Monteiro, was the problem. Besides the name, the issue becomes pretty clear just by watching the Trench trailer, which sports a World War I motif.

Instead, Trenched will arrive as Iron Brigade in September. Double Fine and Microsoft will have to alter various in-game assets to make the necessary tweaks to avoid trademark infringement with Trench.

When Trenched didn't show up in Europe, Microsoft and Double Fine didn't say very much. Microsoft blamed the issue on "unexpected challenges with distribution," while Double Fine simply apologized.

Monteiro released a statement to Eurogamer, explaining the history of his Trench trademark. Monteiro planned to release a board game, but his trademark covered games, too, and he'd been exploring the idea of an electronic version of Trench.

After the name change was announced, I contacted Monteiro and heard back from Phillip Moringer, the manager of Runadrake. Runadrake's responsible for the actual production of the Trench board game and the possible video game version.

"We at Runadrake would like to clarify a major misunderstanding," said Moringer.

A look at the still-in-production Trench, scheduled for a release this fall in Europe and North America.

Moringer said the video game adaptation is "is in development and does not have a release date," while the much more real board game is scheduled for October in Europe and November in North America.

"We are really [saddened by] Microsoft's lack of direct communication," he said over email. "Had there been an open line of communication, the delay would have been solved in no time and all player would have been able to enjoy both games earlier."

Trenched was the latest in a series of downloadable one-offs for Double Fine.

Remember, Runadrake is a Portugese company, so excuse the slightly awkward English responses to my questions.

"They made their decision to rebrand and spend a lot of extra effort and resources, that they could have used to create additional goodies in the game for all players, and that includes me personally," he continued.

Moringer wished Turneched-turned-Iron Brigade the best of luck, as he was looking forward to playing it.

"We had no intention in creating any delay to this game, especially since I personally would like to try the game out too," he concluded.

Throughout this process, Microsoft and Double Fine have remained--and continue to be--quiet.

Double Fine has said it's considering downloadable content for Trenched, but no specific plans have been announced.

The long, painful battle between Microsoft and Portuguese board game maker Rui Alípio Monteiro over the European naming rights to Double Fine's downloadable mech combat game Trenched has finally come to an end.

Microsoft's head trademark legal adviser, shortly before his abdication of power.

Microsoft signaled the end of hostilities today in Cologne, Germany at the opening of Gamescom, announcing that its legal forces would recede back to American borders. Instead, Microsoft will release Trenched in Europe this September under a new name, Iron Brigade, effectively surrendering the trademark to the name Trenched (and all derivations thereof) to General Monteiro.

Europe has suffered mightily during this time of conflict, with thousands of players unable to purchase Double Fine's alternate history World War I mech combat tower defense shooter due to the conflict with Monteiro's trademark, which stems from his board game, titled Trench. His trademark effectively blocked any advance by Microsoft into major European territories. Ultimately, a direct legal assault must have appeared too costly to Microsoft, and instead, the publisher chose American exile for the Trenched name.

In the end, this war likely could have been avoided altogether had someone at Microsoft's legal team simply done their due diligence and investigated the trademark ahead of time. Instead, countless Euros were lost due to an error in judgment so massive, it altered the very fabric of a downloadable game's branding.

From the ashes of this conflict, we can only hope that Microsoft works diligently to rebuild that branding, so that European players may recognize that this new Iron Brigade is, in fact, that Trenched game they wanted to play like three months ago, but couldn't because of that whole trademark thing. A Herculean task, no doubt, but one that must be done with vigor and determination. Otherwise, substantial profits will assuredly be lost to the flames of war.

After a Portuguese board game blocked the European release of Double Fine's XBLA title Trenched, Microsoft confirmed today that the game will be released in Europe this September under the new title Iron Brigade. More »

The general who advances without coveting trademarks and retreats without fearing disgrace, whose only thought is to protect his well-received video game and do good service for his customers, is the jewel of the kingdom. - Sun Tzu, from "The Art of Modern Warfare."

Microsoft has announced at Gamescom that Trenched, Double Fine's cooperative tower defense game for Xbox Live Arcade, will stomp into Europe this September. It will arrive as "Iron Brigade," a reference to the game's lumbering mechs that might as well be fueled by pure testosterone.

It also marks a retreat from the battle against an "intent to use" trademark for the board game "Trench," whose creators hope to adapt it into a video game. Rather than having burly, Microsoft-funded goons snap the puny and utterly fragile board game across their knees, the legal and marketing experts opted for a change in name instead. Let's just hope you weren't going to use "Iron Brigade" as the title for your upcoming American Civil War sim.

Trenched dug into our hearts and scooped out a big glob of love this summer, and it looks like the team at Double Fine are ready to take it to the next level. Matt Chandronait said he's playing some new Trenched content that he can't talk about, but that's "going to be awesome," on Rebel FM's Episode 108 (57:30).

Double Fine has yet to make any official announcements, but we've reached out for confirmation on what this surprise content could be -- DLC, a Games for Windows or Windows Phone 7 version, or a life-sized trench equipped with a Sassy Basket grenade launcher and sailor hat.

The trademark holder of Trench plans to keep on fighting to protect the name, which has prevented Microsoft and Double Fine's XBLA title, Trenched, from being released in "select" European territories. The legal wrestling involves Trench, a board game (pictured) that's being turned into a video game. Trench completed its trademark filing in 2009 for Europe and 2010 for the United States, almost a year before Trenched applied in May 2010.

"Because the application is barely 2 months old, the USPTO hasn't issued any actions on the Trenched filing. More than likely, the Trenched mark won't grant without some resolution to the Trench mark issue in the US," Law of the Game on Joystiq columnist -- and actual lawyer -- Mark Methenitis explains.

"Here's where this gets a little tricky. The Trench mark is filed as a 1(b) mark, which is an 'intent to use.' That is, they plan to use the mark, but aren't using it yet. From the notice of allowance (issued March 15 2011), they have six months to use the mark, request an extension for six more months. The maximum time they have to get a product to market is 3 years. So they only have until March 15, 2014, at the latest. But if they miss a response deadline, the application is abandoned, and then they don't have grounds from that application to stop the Trenched application."

#art The loading screens for Double Fine's triple-fine Xbox Live Arcade mech game Trenched are spot-on parodies of early 20th-century pulp magazine covers. Unfortunately (or fortunately), they go by too quickly to be properly enjoyed. Double Fine kindly provided all but one cover—that one had a spoiler—so that you can chuckle at their overt manliness at your leisure. (Scotch will be served, provided you are sitting at my desk.) More »

We've previously covered the utterly baffling issue between Microsoft and Portuguese board game maker Rui Alípio Monteiro over the trademark for Trenched, Double Fine's World War I mech combat tower defense game currently available in the Americas, but as yet unreleased across the pond in Europe.

The filthy, ill-gotten brand name in question.

In short: Monteiro owns the European rights to the name "Trench" and all relevant derivations thereof in several European territories. Evidently, someone at Microsoft didn't bother to check on that before attempting to release the game in Europe, resulting in a "whoopises!" situation that has thus far prevented European players from downloading the critically acclaimed title.

Up to this point, we've heard little from Monteiro on the matter, but today he finally broke his silence, releasing a lengthy statement to Eurogamer that signaled his intent to fight Microsoft on the matter, and also to release his own game under the Trench moniker somewhere down the road.

The original statement is rather lengthy and full of flowery descriptions of Monteiro's board game in question, but here are a few of the highlight paragraphs.

Always bearing the international market in mind, and after legal advice, Rui Alípio Monteiro registered the brand both in Portugal and internationally. In September 2009, he was granted the Trademark Registration Certificate for Trench nº 007508501 in the European Union. On 18th June 2010 he applied for the Trademark Registration of Trench in the USA, whose registration was granted on the 15th March 2011 under the Register nº 85066103.He also owns the international Certificates regarding the visual aspect of the game and components. Although the original idea was to produce a board game, he has also registered the trademark for electronic Games, since part of Rui Alípio Monteiro's global project is to turn Trench into an appealing electronic game, already in the development phase.

A couple of interesting things to point out in those statements. One, he states that he applied for a US trademark in June of 2010, and was granted the trademark in March of this year. How this trademark failed to interfere with Trenched's US release is unclear, though it's possible that the US trademark did not include derivative titles.

On the subject of a Trench video game, Monteiro's statement goes on to state that his game has a developer and even a publisher for Spanish and Portuguese distribution.

In regards to Microsoft and Trenched, the statement finally reiterates Monteiro's plan to fight the publisher on any attempts to infringe upon his trademark.

"This company, until the present date, has never contacted nor has any relation with Rui Alípio Monteiro. 'Criações a Solo' and Rui Alípio Monteiro, taking into account all investment already made, cannot do anything else but to obviously defend all their author's copyright and intellectual property against any infringements, as any designer would, and perpetuate their creation with the main goal of putting Trench in the international Hall of Fame of both classic electronic and board games."

Once again, this could all probably just end if Microsoft and Double Fine joined forces to re-brand Trenched in Europe. Movies do it all the time! Want to know what Basic Instinct was called in Japan? Smirk of Ice! What does that even mean? I don't know, but it still made money! And when Trenched is inevitably renamed to Super Mech Fighting Television Battlefield 120%, I'm sure it will make plenty of money then, too.

Until then, European players will just have to keep on waiting as they have been. Isn't trademark and copyright law fun?

The good folks over at XBLAFans have assembled a guide featuring everything you need to know about Trenched, Double Fine's excellent shooter/tower defense/World War I/mech mashup title on XBLA. From the Achievements to all of the various unlockable mech parts and soldier gear you can find in the game, this guide has you covered. They've even put some maps together on each of the game's levels, so you can figure out exactly where and when you want to put defenses down against each incoming wave.

In other words, if you've got questions about anything in the game, the answers are right there. Now, as for any possible DLC ... well, there is going to be DLC, right, Double Fine? Good Lord, please tell us you've got more content coming for this one. We can't get enough!

Trenched attempts to heighten the magic by putting you directly in the action--does it succeed?

So, this is weird.

Not for European consumption.

Since Double Fine's mech combat tower defense game, Trenched, released to a fair bit of critical acclaim on Xbox Live Arcade last week, some European players have been baffled as to why the game hasn't seen release in their territory. Double Fine, by proxy of studio head Tim Schafer's Twitter feed, stated that they too were in the dark on the issue, and waiting for news (presumably from publisher Microsoft) just like everyone else.

That may be because the whole thing is kind of a big, honking screw-up on somebody's part. As it turns out, a Portuguese board game designer named Rui Alípio Monteiro owns the trademark on the name Trench (and presumably all derivations thereof) in pertinence to a board game he designed. The game has been around since 2007, and because of the trademark, Microsoft is evidently forbidden from releasing Trenched in several European territories.

Eurogamer contacted Monteiro, who simply confirmed the existence of the trademark and offered no additional comment, beyond a redirection to his website for info on the game. The board game in question also uses World War I as a theme, though is sadly lacking in mech suits and Rasputin-inspired, TV-obsessed bad guys.

Presumably, Double Fine could do a little patchwork to rename the game in the relevant territories, but sadly, it seems like no matter what ends up happening, some European players simply won't be able to play Trenched for at least a while longer. Perhaps they can take solace in the fact that Lucha Fury was released on XBLA in Europe last week with no hassle to speak of. And by take solace, I of course mean experience frequent bouts of unchecked, murderous rage.

Double Fine's Trenched, released on XBLA in the US last week, is being delayed in Europe due to a legal dispute with Trench a European board game with similar themes. More Trenched Videos Portuguese board game designer Rui Alípio Monteiro confirmed to Eurogamer that the company filed a tr...

Look up at the sky and concentrate fire on those resistors!

Double Fine's latest downloadable game, the alternate-history mech and tower defense shooter Trenched, has been temporarily grounded in unspecified parts of Europe. A Microsoft rep told Eurogamer, "Distribution of Trenched in select European regions will be slightly delayed. We're working to resolve the matter as soon as possible."

Xbox Live EMEA Editor Daniel Maher tweeted the "official line" about the delay: "Unexpected challenges with distribution in some European regions." He then said it "Shouldn't take long!" We've checked in with Microsoft to find out more details about what caused the delay and which regions, specifically, are affected.

Strike them from the skies with the deadly flak cannon!

Learn to wield the mortar to annihilate a vicious beast!

I wouldn't blame you if your reaction to the announcement of Trenched, Double Fine's downloadable tower defense title, was entirely non-plussed. "Wow, how original." After all, this sub-genre of strategy games is approaching -- or has already reached! -- full saturation. I would blame you, though, if you didn't give it a chance, because it's honestly a desperately needed breath of fresh air in the genre.

It's not just that Double Fine's trademark wit and humor is evident in every facet of the game's design; Trenched a seriously polished and surprisingly deep game, too.