Timebreaker game

This was released a few months ago granted but still, I wanted to blog about it as it is a great game and also the creation of several students from the games dev courses here at Bournemouth University (and the Creative Technology Department).

Timebreaker by Obverse Studios is a mobile game for Android and also iOS mobile devices with a strong platformer element and great art which would in fact be very fun to play in the last few remaining days of the festive break. 

More on the game (and also Obverse Studios) here on their official site.

Night Trap, 25th anniversary release

A game that for many sealed the fate of full motion video (FMV) games is now seeing a release as a 25th anniversary version according to the Eurogamer site (see here).

This is Night Trap (many gamers of a certain vintage age like myself will of course recognise the name immediately) and you will be able to play this on a PS4 or PC (via Steam).

Worth a cursory glance to see why FMV defined, for a while at least, an era of gaming in the 1990s. 

Unfortunately Fortunate Organisms game

If you're looking for a great casual game on Steam this summer I'd really recommend UFO (Unfortunately Fortunate Organisms) which is a game that has come out of a games jam competition here at Bournemouth University, by Rebourne Studios. 

The studio includes BU BSc Games Technology graduates (who by the way are working on their Rite of Life game currently, I believe I have blogged on this before).

The game can be found here and is excellent fun and very modestly priced too; I'd wholeheartedly suggest you give it a shot if you're on Steam.

Ninja Theory's DEXED

A VR game which came out in the latter part of 2016 which I can definitely recommend is DEXED, from Cambridge-based developer Ninja Theory.

This works both on the Vive and the Oculus Rift (and Touch, which I blogged about recently) and other than a great VR game is also strong evidence of just how inspirational game jams can be as this game was in fact the product of an in-house game jam idea. The game is also built on Epic Games' UE4, more on this here.

Warcraft, the adventure game

For the very last blog post of 2016, this is something which came as a surprise to me; apparently not only did Blizzard design a classic adventure game based on Warcraft (called Lord of the Clans) back in the late 1990s but this was also leaked a few months ago (earlier this year), almost 20 years after its cancellation.

This is no longer available of course but you can check out the game in the play through video above if you are curious to see what a very traditional, 2D and point-and-click in nature adventure game set in the Warcraft world, with hand painted graphics, would look and play like.

Blueprint Digital Media's Relapse: How to Build Content for Horror Games article at 80 Level

A great article from Katie, a graduate from the Bournemouth University Games Technology degree from a few years back, can be found here at 80 Level, titled "Relapse: How to Build Content for Horror Games". 

This production article focuses on the Relapse game (pictured above) from Blueprint Digital Media, which is created in UE4 and takes the reader through the development of this upcoming title, including a discussion on how assets, materials and even Blueprint scripts for it have been put together.

It's a great read, well worth going over and an excellent promotion for what is to be a great horror  adventure game.

Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption game

The makers Corey and Lori Cole, of one of my favourite game series of all time (Quest for Glory from Sierra Online), are working on a new game, titled Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption, which appears to have a lot of similarities with the QFG series.

You can see more about the ongoing Hero-U development here on the official site, a must visit if you have played and enjoyed any of the five QFG games.

Day of the Tentacle Remastered now released

As of a few weeks back Double Fine has released the remastered version of one of the most iconic adventure games of all time; Day of the Tentacle. 

Effectively Manic Mansion 2, the original LucasArts game is a great example of what adventure games did best back in the 1990s.

Now that it has been brought up to date a bit visually it is well worth checking out for a great example of game design blending original puzzles and humour with a strong and very unique story line. 

Diablo pitch/proposal document now available

For aspiring game designers who enjoy dissecting the creation of iconic games from the past this is a must; here you can find the original pitch/proposal document for Blizzard's Diablo, an absolutely classic game that launched the successful series that is of course ongoing (with the third game of the series).

This is borne out of a recent GDC 2016 talk and is a great read indeed to see how the game was eventually envisaged and then shaped (if you have played it). Maybe we will one day see a similar document of GGD (game design document) for Diablo 3 too.

Iron Maiden game in the works

I blogged about Iron Maiden's video for Speed of Light from their last album and its take on video gaming history a few months ago; it appears that the band is now to also work on a game (not the first time in their history, see Ed Hunter from quite a while back).

This apparently is to be a mobile RPG and to be called Legacy of the Beast (more here). An interesting move from the band; which will hopefully yield in an engaging game too.

Game to be shipped with the Oculus Rift announced

It appears that the Oculus Rift VR headset is now to be bundled with a game called Lucky's Tale (on its release). Bundled titles like that (for consoles and gaming hardware in general) has been about showcasing the hardware as much as the game itself so much is expected from the game.

You can read the full news and check out a video of the game on the official Oculus Rift blog here.

Superhot game

It is not often that a first person shooter provides significant innovation to the genre these days; despite the fact that there are many great FPS games released continuously. Superhot, coming out of Steam Greenlight and Kickstarter campaigns, appears to be doing this both visually but also (more importantly) in terms of mechanics.

More about this upcoming, to be released in 2016, game on its official site here.

Rite of Like Kickstarter campaign

An indie games dev studio, Rebourne, consisting of Bournemouth University students from the Games Technology course has recently launched their Kickstarter campaign for their game Rite of Life.

You can find more about the game and the campaign (which has exceeded the original goal and remains ongoing) here. 

Mendel's farm Greenlit

Mendel's farm, a game created by former Bournemouth University students of the Games Technology course has recently been Greenlit on Valve's and should be making its way onto Steam soon. 

Many congratulations to the Static team again for this fantastic achievement. More info on Steam here.

Angry Birds in VR?

This is making headlines over the web (alongside the screenshot below) and is definitely worth mentioning here too; it appears Rovio is preparing a VR version (on the Samsung Gear) of their hugely successful Angry Birds title. 

While not a lot of information is available on this currently it appears the exciting part of this is the player being placed at a third person viewpoint, this time behind the action.

As this is one of the most iconic games of all time it goes without saying that should this ever be released, it could potentially be a big boost for the medium.

Mendel's Farm downloadable beta

Static Games, a company set up by a number of Bournemouth University's Games Technology degree students whilst on their placement, has recently released a downloadable beta (version 2.0) of their game Mendel's Farm. They're very keen for people to report on bugs and issues and provide any feedback.

A lot of work has gone into the beta (a very early version of the game competed in Epic Games' Make Something Unreal 2013 competition) and it's a very impressive effort, it can be downloaded from here. 

Sierra brand revived by Activision and new King's Quest game

Rumblings of the iconic Sierra brand revived by Activision started reaching a number of sites and recently it's been officially confirmed that indeed the name that arguably brought the adventure game genre to the mainstream is returning. Activision plans to use the brand for indie projects it appears.

Interestingly, one of the first titles planned is a King's Quest reboot (the classic adventure game that Sierra became known for in the 80s) though not much is known about it now other than it will indeed be an adventure game. Here's to hoping some more of the classic Sierra franchises also make an eventual return with quality reboots (such as Space Quest, Quest for Glory and many others).

Grim Fandango to be remastered

Amongst the many announcements at the recent E3 this one stood out for me personally; the legendary Grim Fandango adventure game (from 1998) is to be remastered for the Sony PS4 and Vita platforms.

This is great news and it seems other platforms may also follow later on; the title came towards the end of the adventure game genre mainstream popularity but is still hailed as one of its best examples.

Atari's E.T. cartridges now unearthed

The legendary story of Atari's 1982 E.T. game comes to a close (almost), as the urban myth of the disastrous game's cartridges (today considered widely as one of the worst games of all time) being buried in the desert is now proven true. As part of a documentary, a team has now unearthed a number of cartridges in the New Mexico desert and provided pictures of the event as proof.

The pictures show a number of cartridges but noone really knows how many cartridges were buried, with rumours still ranging all the way up to millions. 

Read more about this here. 

New Unreal Tournament game in the works

Epic Games has announced they will be working on a brand new Unreal Tournament game, using the new, 4th version of their Unreal engine. This will be the first Unreal Tournament game since 2007 (when Unreal 3 Tournament 3 was released) and is as such very eagerly awaited.

More information about this can be found here.