Oops, they did it again. Back in January, Candy Crush Saga maker King underwent a great deal of public scrutiny about the choices they've made in the world of IP protection. Initially it was about a trademark on the word CANDY, but as the week unfolded it turned into a battle over Stoic's The Banner Saga trademark, and then even accusations of cloning. King CEO Riccardo Zacconi managed to quell the internet's furor with a seemingly heartfelt response on the issues that had been brought up.But now some new information has been brought to our attention that doesn't quite jive with what Zacconi was preaching.Lost in the shuffle of that January week was a little story about Albert Ransom, the creator of CandySwipe. As the creator of a match-3 game involving candy that pre-dated every incarnation of Candy Crush, Ransom had been fighting the CANDY CRUSH SAGA trademark for months. And he told Gamezebo that he intended to fight their mark on the word CANDY, too.Now, only weeks after our initial article, King is fighting back.
We love Kentucky Route Zero here at Gamezebo. Love love. It was our pick for 2013 Game of the Year, and that was based solely on the first two acts (of a planned five). And like most fans of the game, we've been waiting for Act III to surface so that we can continue the story. And it's been a long wait. Act II was released at the end of May 2013.So what's the hold up?The developers at Cardboard Computer recently took to their blog to explain the situation, reassuring everyone that development is coming along swimmingly (and when it comes out, it will have been worth the wait):
Stop the competition. Close the internet. The clone wars are over. If you've been wondering which half-assed Flappy Bird knock off was going to rise to the top, you can stop wondering - Terry Cavanagh doesn't half-ass things.The creator of the equally difficult "five seconds and your dead" game Super Hexagon, Cavanagh has just released Maverick Bird: A Flappy Bird Fan Game. It's dripping with both style and substance, pays homage to its inspiration, and does exactly what a good "me too!" game should: it improves on the formula.Maverick Bird is just like Flappy Bird, and yet it's so much better.
Developed by Wakeskater Studio and available now on Desura, SBX: Invsaion Base Defense is a neat little tower defense title that puts players in control of a space station under siege. As is expected in tower defense games, enemies spawn in through warp gates and head straight to the space station, dead-set on its destruction. To protect themselves, players are equipped with a fancy ship that can construct defenses on the fly. From walls to turrets to power sources, players will be busy scrambling around their space station ensuring that the defenses will hold.Things get complicated when the player must defend both the space station and the outlying asteroid mining colonies, which are the lone source of resources needed for essential upgrades. Players must strategically place power supplies and attempt to use their own ship's laser cannons to ward off enemies attempting to zero-in on the mining colonies.
A recent video uploaded to Lantana Games' YouTube account details the voice actors who are providing voices for a few of the characters in Children of Liberty. Attentive gamers may recognize a few of the voice actors included. Ashly Burah (Tiny Tina from Borderlands 2), Chris Ciulla (various Fallout: New Vegas characters), and Sarah Elmaleh (Katie from Gone Home) have all signed on to voice characters in Children of Liberty.Lantana Games' upcoming historically-accurate 2D stealth platformer, Children of Liberty, promises "fast and fluid" gameplay with hide and seek stealth mechanics. History buffs should take note that Children of Liberty is set to tell the tale of Paul Revere's famous night ride, and the mysterious events that led up to that iconic moment in American history.
During the frosty winter days of December 2012, French game developer Sébastien Bénard spent one full weekend focused on developing Atomic Creep Spawner in forty-eight hours for the Ludum Dare 25 game jam. Bénard submitted his game for the competition event and ended up winning first place in Best Game Overall, Most Fun, and Best Graphics. Atomic Creep Spawner was a runaway hit, and lucky for gamers, is free to play on Bénard's personal website.Games developed during Ludum Dare 25 had to follow the theme "You Are The Villain," and in keeping with that, Atomic Creep Spawner tasks players with spawning dungeon minions in an attempt to keep the hero from collecting treasure and destroying evil artifacts. The game has only two levels, but I had enough fun my first time through that I immediately restarted the game over again.
Those of us who attended school in a traditional classroom setting know the feeling all too well —glancing over one's shoulder to sneak a peek at a neighbor's test paper, a quick glance up to make sure the teacher was preoccupied, and then a side-long stare in an attempt to catch a glimpse at the smart kid's answer. It's almost a rite of passage. Game developer Sunken Places is attempting to turn that sensation into a videogame with Classroom Aquatic.To make things interesting, the classroom in Classroom Aquatic is, well...aquatic. As a foreign exchange student in a classroom full of dolphins, players must cheat their way through an impossibly-hard exam that they are in no way ready to take. Avoid getting caught cheating three times while getting all the answers correct on the test and the player beats the level.
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.