It's been a few years since it first launched, but if you dust off your ol' memory box, I'm sure you'll find plenty of happy ones from your time with Hemisphere Games' 2009 masterpiece Osmos. The game was later ported to mobile devices, winning Apple's iPad Game of the Year award in 2010 - and, it would seem, the hearts and minds of The Simpsons show writers.The internet was abuzz this week with talk of this week's Minecraft couch gag on The Simpsons, but a voxelized Springfield wasn't the only indie gaming nod on this week's show. About halfway through the episode, when Milhouse learns that Bart has plenty of stolen goods - including Milhouse's iPad - Bart suggests he relax to the soothing sounds of "this bubble game."We reached out to Hemisphere Games to see how this collaboration came about, and it turns out they were just as surprised as we were."We had no idea The Simpsons cameo was coming," Hempishere's Eddy Boxerman told Gamezebo. "Our jaws dropped in disbelief when we caught wind of it! As a few friends have said (and who are we to disagree?) 'It's official -- Osmos is pop culture now!'"
Remember that time you fell in love with Bastion? Get ready, because it might just happen all over again. Supergiant Games today confirmed the launch date of their second big release: Transistor will be hitting PC and PS4 on May 20, 2014.Player's will take up the role of Red, a young girl with a mighty big weapon as she fights her way through a gorgeous sci-fi cityscape. The game's official site promises that Transistor "seamlessly integrates thoughtful strategic planning into a fast-paced action experience, melding responsive gameplay and rich atmospheric storytelling." If that doesn't whet your whistle, I don't know what will.Can't wait another five weeks? If you're making your way up to Boston, Supergiant will be showing off a near-final build of the game at PAX East this weekend. Be sure to pay them a visit at Booth 892.
MMOs tend to open with flashy, pre-rendered cutscenes to show of just how cool their universe is meant to feel. Seasoned players know this is just smoke and mirrors -- something to draw in the pedestrian crowd and invoke the "feeling" of what's actually conveyed by digital dice rolls and numbers leaping from wild boars' heads.The Elder Scrolls Online isn't really so different in the first sense. There's a lovely, action-packed trailer with all the excitement of chains crashing through the sky and wizard/barbarian types thrashing about demon-y things.Like all Elder Scrolls games, however, you start much more humbly -- as a prisoner. You've been taken to Coldharbour and had your soul removed. One of the big bads of The Elder Scrolls mythos needs it -- and those of several million of like-minded players -- to continue being evil. You escape from this contrived tutorial, of course, and the game drops you on Cyrodiil proper in one of three starting islands.Where you end up at first is determined by which faction you choose. Literally nothing is done to explain what choosing a faction means. I had to hit up the game's website to learn the Ebonheart Pact includes the vikings, lizard people and dark elves. These being the raddest of Elder Scrolls species, I obviously chose their alliance and wound up in Morrowind.
Every great game maker had to start somewhere - so why not school?The fourth annual Level Up Student Showcase was held in Toronto this past weekend, showcasing the work of nearly 100 student-run development teams. Everything you could imagine was on display, from well-established genres to completely unique offerings unlike anything we'd ever seen.There were plenty of great games to choose from, but there were five in particular that really screamed "the next big thing." Don't be surprised if you see these games - and their developers - making a big splash in the near future.
You may think you've conquered everything Card Hunter could throw at you, but the truth is that you've only bested all the challenges Blue Manchu's RPG-meets-CCG-meets-tabletop game has offered up so far. An expansion called Attack of the Artifacts is on the way before the end of April, bringing with it new monsters from beneath the Black Plume Mountain to put even the savviest players to the test.Creatures like Thought Munchers, Umber Bulks, Plant Pygmies and the awesome-sounding Sharkbear are waiting in Attack of the Artifacts' new adventures. Naturally, there are also new cards and weapons to aid your cause, adding to the strategic options the game already has in abundance.Fancy more PvP? The expansion introduces organized league play with new multiplayer boards and prizes ranging from Papa Manchu pizza (the in-game currency of the realm) to treasure chests and special figures. Maybe you'll even earn more grudging respect from Melvin, but don't get your hopes up.Card Hunter left me hungry for more when it debuted last year, so more content is welcome news -- and don't forget, it's coming to mobile too. There's no information on a hard release date or a price (if any, as the base game is free-to-play), but seeing as we're already more than a week into the month, it won't be a long wait.
From April 11th through the 13th, the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center is going to be crammed with tens of thousands of people in attendance for the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) East convention. In attendance at the convention will also be the iconic Indie Megabooth, a showcase of indie game developers. At the Indie Megabooth this year there will be over one-hundred games for convention attendees to check out, which is almost double last year's count.We've checked out the full list of indie games that will be at PAX East and narrowed it down to four upcoming indie games that attendees will not want to miss.
When Disruptor Beam hinted to us earlier this week that its next game would be based on an IP even bigger than the one featured in the title that put the studio on the map, Game of Thrones Ascent, the natural reaction was skepticism. What could be bigger than the show so popular it crashed HBO Go during its season 4 premiere last Sunday?As it turns out, what the Boston-based developer really meant is that it's working with a brand that has withstood the fickle, ever-changing winds of pop culture fandom for decades. Get ready to seek out new life and new civilizations online and on mobile devices, as the company's next project is Star Trek Timelines.Described as a strategy RPG like Game of Thrones Ascent - and made possible by a license from CBS Consumer Products - the new game will draw on characters from The Original Series all the way through to Enterprise in a story-driven voyage that challenges players to explore the galaxy the Star Trek way. That means assembling a ship, gathering a crew and determining whether combat, diplomacy or science is the proper solution to any given situation (Kirk may add seduction in there too).If that's not enough to pique the interest of your inner Trekkie or Trekker, consider that Disruptor Beam CEO Jon Radoff sounds every bit the kindred spirit.
Here's an interesting development that Kentucky Route Zero fans probably weren't expecting. Series creators Cardboard Computer - who earlier this year told their fans that it was too big a project to really give an ETA - may now in fact have an ETA!The team took to Twitter on March 29 to answer questions in a very tongue-in-cheek Magic 8-Ball sort of way. Much to my surprise, they provided a pretty solid answer to the following question from @HotAndSpicyMilk: "Act III before May 31, 2014?""signs point to yes."Magic 8-Ball's aren't infallible, and if the team behind Kentucky Route Zero: Act III is to be believed, it's a big enough game that unforeseen delays might be par for the course. That said, having a release window - any release window - is an exciting development from a studio who has publicly shunned them after their experiences announcing dates for Act I and Act II.Here's to hoping we're back on the Zero before summer solstice hits. Something tells me that'll be a weird place after that. Well… weirder, anyway.