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Former Good Morning America child star, Tom spends his time these days writing lots of things for people to read. He's a fan of independently developed video games, and always roots for the underdog. Send him animated .gifs on Twitter: @tomscott90. He likes those things
  • Starbound devs announce new title in development
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    • iOS
    • PC
    Starbound devs announce new title in development

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    Amidst the continual development of outer space collect-em-up, Starbound developer Chucklefish Games has revealed they are in the process of assembling a new team to work on the studio's next game.  A recent blog post on Starbound's website explained that the development team has recently acquired a legitimate office flat and are looking to expand the team in order to facilitate the demand that developing a second game will put on the existing team."This won't slow down the production of Starbound at all, worry not," assures Chucklefish Games designer Finn "Tiy" Brice. "I will be assisting in the design but we'll be working with entirely new developers. At the moment we're still in the stage where we're kicking around ideas, one that keeps popping up is a top down, open world, multiplayer pirate game."Brice urges that interested game developers should send in their applications. He also hints that the next game has the possibility of being a, "top down, open world, multiplayer pirate game."Read the full blog post, on Starbound's official website. 
  • Dawn of the Plow Review
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    • iOS
    • PC
    Dawn of the Plow Review

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    When game developer Dan Fitzgerald decided to take a "mini-vacation"from developing his main game, Dog Sled Saga, he really didn't take a vacation at all. Instead, he got to work on another title, but rather than an Iditarod-esque adventure, this new game is much more...undistinguished —undistinguished in the task at hand, not the fun to be had. Make no mistake: Dawn of the Plow is plenty of fun.Dawn of the Plow has players clearing the roads of snow, allowing drivers to safely get home. Snow is constantly falling, and if left neglected, will pile up and completely block a road. As the driver of a snow plow truck, it is the player's duty to ensure that everyone can get home in a timely manner. Drivers waiting for extended amounts of time will cause the player's approval rating to plummet. The more a driver waits, the longer the approval meter drops. Too low of an approval rating and the player gets fired. Players get a point for every driver that makes it through the map and gets home. Each level requires a certain number of points before the next level unlocks.Sometimes in order to clear a pile of snow, players must go off-road to move around a car and tackle clearing out a pile. Easier said than done. The snow causes a severe loss of traction and makes tight turns impossible. Of course, there is more than one car on the road at a time, so skidding around out of control is complicated by other motorists attempting to get home. Accidently smashing into another car is grounds for immediate termination. Chances are, players will accidently sideswipe or rear-end another car, long before their approval rating hits zero.Luckily for players, Dawn of the Plow randomly spawns pickups throughout the levels, which upgrade the snow plow in some way. One of the most useful pickups is special tires that allow the player to drive on snow without loss of traction. Another pickup allows the player to coat an area with ice, which stops snow from piling up. All the pickups expire eventually, so you'll need to be as efficient as possible when one is equipped.
  • Play this browser game NOW: Zos, a fantastic sci-fi adventure platformer
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    • PC
    Play this browser game NOW: Zos, a fantastic sci-fi adventure platformer

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    Zos is a full-fledged adventure game brought directly to your web browser courtesy of developer 8bitSkull. Based in a surprisingly rich science fiction universe, Zos has players completing objectives, talking to characters, and platforming across a variety of colorful planets. What is essentially a giant space monster is slowly consuming the universe, and it is up to the player to find the artifacts called 'The Essences' that are capable of stopping the beast. Of course, The Essences are scattered all across the galaxy.As the player adventures through the planets, they can interact with the inhabitants of whatever planet they are on. Zos has surprisingly well-developed alien cultures, and it was always interesting to go and interact with the NPCs that were encountered along the way.
  • Warhorse nets upwards of $900k on Kickstarter for Kingdom Come, and there’s still two weeks to go
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    • PC
    Warhorse nets upwards of $900k on Kickstarter for Kingdom Come, and there’s still two weeks to go

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    With over 18,000 backers and (as of this writing) £571,108 (roughly, $938,613), Warhorse's upcoming medieval RPG, Kingdom Come, is on-track to be one of 2014's biggest Kickstarter campaigns. Warhorse was founded in 2011 by game industry veterans who have previously worked on games like Operation Flashpoint, Mafia, Forza Horizons, Crysis 3, and more. Kingdom Come is being developed with CryENGINE 3, and Warhorse is anticipating a quarter four, 2015 release date.Kingdom Come is a first-person medieval warfare game set in Medieval Europe that features a non-linear story where players can end up the hero, or the villain. The world of Kingdom Come is planned to be three-and-a-half square miles large, and Warhorse estimates that gameplay will last for over seventy hours.
  • An indie developer is making one game a week (and the results are pretty great)
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    • PC
    An indie developer is making one game a week (and the results are pretty great)

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    Game developer, Thomas "Less Milk" Palef, is currently in the middle of a self-imposed challenge to develop one new game every single week. Game development is a hobby for Palef, but he wanted to kick things up a notch and actually start finishing playable games. So, for over a month, Palef has been busy coding a producing a new HTML5 game every week."It's been six weeks now, and I've learned a lot," Palef said to Gamezebo during an interview. "I'm really trying my best to make each game better that the previous ones, and so far I think that I have achieved this goal. I know that I have only one week to make a game, so I keep my ideas and mechanics simple. This way it's not that hard to make a game in one week."
  • The best games of #CandyJam (so far)
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    The best games of #CandyJam (so far)

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    After last week's debacle involving game developer King trademarking the word CANDY, game developers around the world vented their frustrations by participating in the Candy Jam, a game jam event designed solely to passive-aggressively taunt the trademark system as well as King's other embarrassment from last week, being accused of ripping off another developer's game. The Candy Jam website sets its mantra as: "Because trademarking common words is ridiculous, because ethics matter and because it gives us an occasion to make another game jam."Developers have since been working on creating their games, and uploading them to the Candy Jam website for others to check out. While the Candy Jam lasts through February 3rd, there are a good number of games already posted.One of the more polished games posted is Discord Games' Candy Chasm Saga, an endless-faller that involves falling down an chasm filled with candy, attempting to collect as much candy as possible while avoiding crashing into the scary-looking tokens floating about. Magnets are available to scoop up and make your candy-grabbing life easier, and golden apples provide limited invincibility. Candy Chasm Saga borrows art assets from Discord Games' full-time project, Chasm. 
  • Savage: The Shard of Gosen is one barbaric adventure
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    • PC
    Savage: The Shard of Gosen is one barbaric adventure

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    Currently seeking for $6,000 through Kickstarter, Savage: The Shard of Gosen puts players in the loincloth of a barbarian in the world of Lor. Heavily inspired by Conan, Super Mario Bros. 2, and Castlevania, Savage: The Shard of Gosen is currently being developed for Windows PC with an estimated release window of July-December of this year. Matt Fitzgerald is the solo developer behind the game, and describes Savage as a real passion project."I've tinkered with art, music, film, animation and comics in some capacity," Fitzgerald explains on the Kickstarter campaign, "everything from amateur to freelance, and it's an absolute joy to concentrate everything I've learned and apply it to a video game project. It scratches so many itches: from logic and design to art and music!"
  • Winds of Destiny – Duels of the Magi Review
    Reviews
    • Android
    Winds of Destiny – Duels of the Magi Review

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    Winds of Destiny - Duels of the Magi is one of the most straightforward games I've ever played. Seriously, the game is on par with Checkers as far as complexity goes. A single match in Winds of Destiny can be completed in minutes, and the entire single-player game can be knocked out within a half-hour or so. Best of all, the game's brevity comes without penalty. It's clear that the developer, Stupidgizmo, realized the key to a good smartphone game is succinct gameplay, and they capitalized on that knowledge here completely.Players start the game out by choosing a guardian from one of three class types: healer, protector, and "damage." There are eight guardians in total, and the only difference between them (apart from varying cosmetically) is that every character possesses a special ability which can be activated during battle. Once a guardian is selected, players meet Custos, the leader of the guardians! Custos introduces himself and it is quickly apparent that his own special ability is conjuring up walls of text out of thin air."Once Custos' history lesson is over, players are plopped right into their first battle. There is no tutorial in Winds of Destiny. In lieu of a tutorial, Stupidgizmo uploaded a video onto YouTube that runs through the basics of the game. The video is linked on the main menu, which is inaccessible during gameplay: a fact I discovered straightaway. I found myself starring at a hand of cards, some with numbers, some with pictures, and I had no idea what to do.Luckily for me, and probably the good chunk of players who failed to see the tutorial link on the main menu, Winds of Destiny is really easy to figure out. At the start of each turn, players choose three cards from the hand which has been randomly drawn. If the player selected three numbered cards, the numbers are added together and that is how much damage is dealt to the opponent.