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supericonblog · 6 years

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SUPER ICON NEEDS YOUR HELP

Our History So Far…

I began developing games back in the late nineties – Xtreme Racing on Amiga was my first game, and ever since then I have only ever worked at my own development studios.

Starting with Graphic State, which initially was a sub-contract artwork studio, later moving into handheld game development on the Gameboy systems. This then evolved into Icon Games, focusing on small-ish console games on Playstation and Wii.

I then founded Super Icon in 2012, with a focus on creating the games that I wanted to make, rather than trying to ride the coat-tails of current popular games or casual games. The focus was always trying to make great games, as good as we possibly can – games that people enjoy playing. Like many other small indie developers, we’ve had ups and downs, but I think the games we’ve made are the best of my career so far. Our first proper release was Life of Pixel on Playstation Mobile.

Back in 2016, after the release of Life of Pixel on Steam and our Battlezone type shooter Vektor Wars, we decided that it would probably be best to partner with a publisher going forward. Our sales numbers were low, and we failed quite badly at building any sort of interest in the games. They didn’t completely tank, but the numbers were bad, and not enough to sustain a business.

At the time we had just finished a Kickstarter for another game, Best Buds vs Bad Guys, and managed to get a little income in to complete the development. During the Kickstarter I started chatting to a great bunch of guys at a studio called Whitemoon Dreams, in particular its CEO Jay.

The upshot was I explained we were not having much success at selling/promoting our games, and they agreed to act as a publisher on Life of Pixel and Best Buds going forward, to take them over onto Playstation and Switch.

We worked together with them, releasing Super Life of Pixel onto Playstation 4 and Vita in December 2018. Also, during the development phase, we pitched another title we were making, called Platform Maker. After a fair few rejections, we finally found a publisher, pQube. We renamed the game to PLATAGO, and it was released onto Steam Early Access in 2018.

Fast forward to 2019…

The Current State of Play

So, here we are. Unfortunately, despite most players seeming to enjoy Super Life of Pixel, the sales on Playstation have been DIRE. So bad, in fact, that Whitemoon have decided they are unable to continue publishing for the time-being. As such, in the first quarter of 2019, we have seen our income pretty much completely grind to a halt.

Our income wasn’t much before, and we have had several very tough times since the later Icon Games period onwards, where we’ve had little or no income for months at a time. This time though, it is all a little different, I’m kind of burnt out. I’m also getting on a bit, I’m 46 this year, with a family, including three great kids who are now that much older, and it is tough for them.

I think being a penniless indie develop is a younger person’s game! Certainly not conducive to maintaining a stable family life and keeping the wolves from the door.

A Tough Decision

So, I have come to the decision that, unless this year things improve and we break this cycle, I don’t think I am able to continue making games.

I love making games, but there comes a time when you think if no-one wants to play your games, and you can’t support your family – perhaps it is time to re-evaluate.

Another thing I have done over the last couple of years is develop and pitch other games – the first a horror game called The Tower, the other an Action RPG called They Came from Beyond. The plan was to make sure we continued to maintain revenue once we completed the on-going projects.

I pitched both to various publishers, and they were both rejected. I stopped work on The Tower, as without funding it was just too ambitious. There is a blog for it (updated until I stopped working on the project):

https://thetower-game.tumblr.com/

I continued with They Came from Beyond, for the following reasons:

I love the game and believe in it

I have enjoyed every second of developing it

Although larger in scope than our other titles, it was still a realistic scope

It is my last chance, perhaps, to continue making games

You can download the in-development build for free from itch.io:

https://supericon.itch.io/they-came-from-beyond

Alas, I can’t get any interest in it at all, which kind of breaks my heart. I’ve also been working on it now for 15 months, completely un-funded, so there is a big personal commitment there.

So, there we are, but I do have a request…

If You Like Our Games, Support Us

We need your help!!

If you like any of our games – Life of Pixel, Vektor Wars, PLATAGO or like the look of They Came from Beyond – can you help us spread the word?

Without more support and a much larger community of followers, it will be impossible for us to continue making games. We just can’t continue without income – and I’ll be honest, it is a constant gut punch to try and continue developing when everything you do fails.

So, if you can - spread the word – help get us a little more known. Join our community on Discord or elsewhere, tell other gamers, sites or anywhere you think might be interested in our games. Without more followers, and more people buying our games, we’re done.

This was a tough post to write, and I hope it doesn’t come across in the wrong way – I just don’t know where else to turn. If anyone out there plays and enjoys our games, and wants us to continue making games – well, we can’t do it without you now.

Richard Hill-Whittall, March 26

Links

You can follow us in the following ways:

Website: http://www.supericon.co.uk/

Blog: https://supericonblog.tumblr.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SuperIconLtd

Discord: https://discord.gg/vPBTFtf

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/supericonltd/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SuperIconLtd/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/SuperIconLtd

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theonyxpath · 6 years

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Figured that now would be a good time to take a look at how things are going with your favorite gaming company.

No, not them, I mean Onyx Path. Sheesh.

After all, we’re near the end of the year – at least the part before everything gets holiday crazy – and next week we start our They Came From Beneath the Sea! Kickstarter.

So let’s take advantage of the time period and have a little snapshot of where we are. We’ll do more of a “Year That Was” thing in a later blog, I think. (This one is long enough as it is – yeesh!)

2018 was a challenging year, but one where we were able to catch up – finally! – on a lot of projects and start delivering some delayed ones…as well as delivering a bunch of Kickstarter projects earlier than estimated!

If you recall from MMN blogs in the past, I started Onyx Path with a three-part plan for the sorts of projects we would take on, so let me divide my comments based on that.

1- Our Wholly Owned Games:

This category is perhaps our timeliest right now, with both books for Scion 2nd Edition and the Trinity Continuum Core and Aeon all having delivered their KS backer PDFs and in various stages of prepping for their traditional print-runs.

This is very satisfying to be able to say, because as our KS backers know, a large part of the delay in getting these two lines to this point was needing to create a system for them that wouldn’t fall apart at higher power play, and which, frankly, was designed with an eye towards the last couple of decades worth of how games are played.

And while still being a recognizable dice pool system for our fantastic fans of the first editions who kept these games alive all these years!

Just today, our old friend and long-time writer and developer Bruce Baugh posted a long and informative “review” of Storypath on his Facebook page and RPG.net, and I’m taking the liberty of posting some of his thoughts here:

I mean to say, if, on the other hand, you tell players that all active approaches are good – that every one solves some problems well and makes for entertaining drama in trying to solve ones it’s not so great for – the choice moves from “should I risk it?” to “_how_ should I risk it?”, because of course they’re taking the kind of risk and get to decide how. Presuming here that players want to have an adventurous good time, the game’s stepping up to point out the scenic attractions and give them a hand where the footing’s tricky. I love it.

Or take a situation where the character’s pursuing someone, using the Athletics skill. The Forceful character uses Might, running fast, bursting through barriers, maybe throwing things to bring down the pursued, and so on. The Finesse character uses Dexterity, perhaps engaging in impromptu (or prepared!) parkour and acrobatics. The Resilience character uses Stamina, and might look for shortcuts that involve kind of long falls, knowing they’ll be able to take the blow, shake it off, and keep going. Every option is good, every option invites the player and Storyguide to look for opportunities to engage with the setting.

Meanwhile, as those two lines move to printing, we have Scarred Lands, which seems to be living up to its name. After a decent start, we had to go back to square one and reconsider how to publish this classic White Wolf-created D20 game after the death of Stewart Wieck, who was originally my partner in publishing it.

I’m glad to say that we indeed have a plan for how to “reactivate” Scarred Lands and you can look for a Kickstarter for the 5e version of the famous Creature Collection early next year. We’re teaming up with a brand new design studio to bring you a gorgeous and exciting new version of SL‘s classic monster manual as the start of more Scarred Lands greatness.

If you’re looking for a Scarred Lands actual play, Travis Legge runs one on Twitch: They play Mondays from 2-4 PM CST at twitch.tv/plasticageplays and archive episodes on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzVwM7FjhlU&list=PLmiXCaSrrCIjmCJQQ7oLwLNahmDbdn_2J and release it in podcast form via anchor at https://anchor.fm/mythsandmatchmakers

They Came From Beneath the Sea! art by Larry Blamire

And for the fourth of our Onyx-owned projects, the aforementioned They Came From Beneath the Sea! Kickstarter emerges from the waves next week on December 18th. Here’s a link to the teaser trailer, created by film legend Larry Blamire (Thanks, Larry!) and we’ll be revealing an Actual Play vid later this week across our social media:

Matthew and I will go into some more detail on what led up to this most unusual tabletop RPG next week!

We have some possible new game ideas percolating away right now, but I’m not in too much of a hurry to launch a new one right away, there are still great expansions and ideas to explore for the ones we already have!

#2- Creator-owned partner games:

Headed up by Cavaliers of Mars and Realms of Pugmire (which includes Pugmire, Monarchies of Mau, FetchQuest, and the upcoming Pirates of Pugmire).

These are different than a straight-up license, in that the creators are generally deeply involved with the project. Often they do a large percentage of the writing, or bring in teams they run for it. Depending on how we conceptualize the deal, they may have a lot of input on the art or just work on the concepts and let our art and layout folks do the voodoo that they do so well.

Scarred Lands was originally structured far more like this.

So, basically, I look for creative partners that have a very strong vision for the game world, and who I like and want to work with. From there, if the game line exists in the main book and some Stretch Goals, that’s cool. We made the thing and with the magic of the eternal shelf on DTRPG, that’s all it needs to be a success in my thinking.

If the line keeps gathering interest, we’ll try out more projects if the creator is cool with that. That’s the key, we don’t do anything if they aren’t OK with it.

For Cavaliers of Mars, we have just got the books selling into stores, and we’re going to see how things go. If you haven’t heard Rose talk about Cavs on the Onyx Pathcast interview that went live last Friday, it’s a great listen, and she gives advice on how to get started with Cavs as a bonus!

Here is the link to that: https://onyxpathcast.podbean.com/e/episode-29-rose-on-mars/

Roll of Good Dogs and Cats art by Shen Fei

Realms of Pugmire is the umbrella brand for Pugmire and Monarchies of Mau projects, and we still have a wide range of projects that came out of both Kickstarters. Here’s Eddy interviewed at PAX Unplugged by Gamerati: https://twitter.com/gamerati/status/1070095836233646081

I currently have two creators talking to me about teaming up for their projects, and again, I’m pretty good with our current slate here, but if the opportunity suggests itself I am open to adding more.

#3- Licensed games:

Which of course start with our WW-owned World of Darkness, Chronicles of Darkness, and Exalted gamelines, but which also include Dystopia Rising: Evolution, and Legendlore.

No doubt about it, this has been a challenging year with our White Wolf licenses. To give you an idea of the complexity, Matthew’s oversight is primarily “just” the WoD projects, and Dixie covers CofD and Exalted. Eddy covers all the rest, with Matt overseeing a bunch of our fiction projects.

The transition to Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition, and getting Mage, Wraith, and Changeling 20th projects to final stages at the same time was a huge effort, but seeing the success of the V5 Chicago By Night Kickstarter has justified it. We felt it to be important for Onyx Path to be able to show what we could do with V5 books, as we had a few pundits insist we could only do “old” Vampire.

Chicago By Night put the stake in that!

We’re moving along really well on Exalted 3rd projects as well, with Dragon-Blooded looking to release its Backer PDF several months before estimate, and Lunars looking good for having its complete text ready for an early 2019 Kickstarter. Meanwhile, there have been monthly PDF releases all year, and smaller EX3 books working their way through the production progress list.

I can’t say enough good things about the entire EX3 creative team, and I’ve just been impressed as hell with co-developers Robert Vance and Eric Minton. They work with their writing teams and with Dixie to maintain their vision for the line while incorporating the creativity of the team.

The Chronicles of Darkness game lines continue to come on line in terms getting their projects finished up in reasonable time frames, and Dixie is still working with the creative teams to emphasize their strengths, and bolster the areas that give them trouble. We’ve had some real movement VtR2, and the Night Horrors books, and then Mage2 is getting back on track as well.

As you can see in the project progress list below, we have some fantastic WW game line projects already rolling into next year, and a bunch of pitches at WW we are waiting to hear back on.

We ran the Dystopia Rising: Evolution Kickstarter this last year, and it was enough to seed several added projects as Stretch Goals to the line. I don’t think we actually reached as many of DR‘s fans as we could have, judging by the comments we’ve received after the KS was done, so it will be interesting to see how sales go once it is in stores.

We picked up this license for a few reasons. First, DR‘s top folk, Michael and Ashley, are extremely smart and creative folks who have innovated a lot in the LARP area, and we like people who can teach us stuff. Second, a new kind of zombie mythos that we, the horror “experts” hadn’t had a chance to play with.

Third: zombies meet Mad Max. Love that woohoo concept. Finally, and really most importantly, it gave us a chance to try the Storypath System in a world that was both grittier and more horrific than baseline Scion or Trinity Continuum. This was really important, and from I’ve heard it works really well for this sort of genre.

For Legendlore, well, apply what I’ve been saying about finding licenses that we can apply our aesthetics to, not visual aesthetics as we’re flexible about those, but design and thematic ones. For now, I’ll leave it at that, as the book has just appeared in the project process queue, and we’ll say a lot more about it next year.

Will we be adding more licenses this year? Well, discussions continue on several properties, so we’ll see. Basically, a license has to be either one that we feel we can create compelling worlds from, even if it is an already existing game, and that works well with our publishing model, or that pays us oodles of cash for very little work (riiiight, and if you find one of those, let me know!).

Trinity Continuum Core art by Pat McEvoy

We’re thrilled to be able to publish so many immersive worlds where players can find deep meaning in their game play. That’s a testament to the amazing writing and visuals that take us to all these places, and to an in-house team that has filled-in, rejuvenated, cajoled, encouraged, and relentlessly supported our out-of-house creative teams.

Mighty Matt and Mirthful Mike, and our trio of Dixie, Matthew, and Eddy, have pushed, prodded, pleaded, and practically puked to get our vast array of projects finished with love and care this whole year, and their efforts are paying off big time as noted above!

In fact, you can listen to the Terrific Trio every Friday on the Onyx Pathcast and often get some clues as to where the projects they are responsible for are headed, and the sorts of challenges they surmount every week.

This Friday, they flash back to the conventions we attended a couple of weeks ago and tell each other about their favorite characters!

Truly, this post has been all about our:

Many Worlds, One Path!

BLURBS!

KICKSTARTER:

Next up, we’re working on the Kickstarter for They Came From Beneath the Sea! (TCFBtS!), which has some very different additions to the Storypath mechanics we’ll be explaining during the KS. They take an excellent 50’s action and investigation genre game and turn it to 11!

Check out the teaser above!

Looking to start on Dec 18th at 1pm EST but run it extra long into January!

ELECTRONIC GAMING:

As we find ways to enable our community to more easily play our games, the Onyx Dice Rolling App is now live! Our dev team has been doing updates since we launched based on the excellent use-case comments by our community, and this thing is both rolling and rocking!

ON AMAZON AND BARNES & NOBLE:

You can now read our fiction from the comfort and convenience of your Kindle (from Amazon) and Nook (from Barnes & Noble).

If you enjoy these or any other of our books, please help us by writing reviews on the site of the sales venue you bought it from. Reviews really, really help us with getting folks interested in our amazing fiction!

Our selection includes these fiction books:

OUR SALES PARTNERS:

We’re working with Studio2 to get Pugmire out into stores, as well as to individuals through their online store. You can pick up the traditionally printed main book, the Screen, and the official Pugmire dice through our friends there!

https://ift.tt/2w0aaEW

And we’ve added Prince’s Gambit to our Studio2 catalog: https://studio2publishing.com/products/prince-s-gambit-card-game

Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Try this link! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Onyx-Path-Publishing/

Here’s the link to the press release we put out about how Onyx Path is now selling through Indie Press Revolution: http://theonyxpath.com/press-release-onyx-path-limited-editions-now-available-through-indie-press-revolution/

And you can now order Pugmire: the book, the screen, and the dice! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/manufacturers.php?manufacturerid=296

DRIVETHRURPG.COM:

This week, in celebration of both Monarchies of Mau and Cavaliers of Mars being live for retailers in Studio2, we have new themed merchandise on our RedBubble store: postcards and mugs and all sorts of stuff!

CONVENTIONS

Start getting ready for our appearance at MidWinter this January in Milwaukee! So many demos, playtests, secret playtests, and Onyx Path Q&As you could plotz!

And now, the new project status updates!

DEVELOPMENT STATUS FROM FAST EDDY WEBB (projects in bold have changed status since last week):

First Draft (The first phase of a project that is about the work being done by writers, not dev prep)

C20 Novel (Jackie Cassada) (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

M20 The Technocracy Reloaded (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

M20 Victorian Mage (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

City of the Towered Tombs (Cavaliers of Mars)

Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition core rulebook (Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition)

Scion Jumpstart (Scion 2nd Edition)

Geist2e Fiction Anthology (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2nd Edition)

Pirates of Pugmire (Realms of Pugmire)

Distant Worlds (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Dragon-Blooded Novella #1 (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Across the Eight Directions (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Exalted Essay Collection (Exalted)

Legendlore core book (Legendlore)

Creatures of the World Bestiary (Scion 2nd Edition)

Redlines

Deviant: The Renegades (Deviant: The Renegades)

Witch-Queen of the Shadowed Citadel (Cavaliers of Mars)

Scion Companion: Mysteries of the World (Scion 2nd Edition)

Memento Mori: the GtSE 2e Companion (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2nd Edition)

Second Draft

Tales of Good Dogs – Pugmire Fiction Anthology (Pugmire)

Night Horrors: Nameless and Accursed (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)

Heirs to the Shogunate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Scion Ready Made Characters (Scion 2nd Edition)

Development

Hunter: the Vigil 2e core (Hunter: the Vigil 2nd Edition)

CofD Contagion Chronicle (Chronicles of Darkness)

Lunars: Fangs at the Gate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

WoD Ghost Hunters (World of Darkness)

Oak, Ash, and Thorn: Changeling: The Lost 2nd Companion (Changeling: The Lost 2nd)

CofD Dark Eras 2 (Chronicles of Darkness)

Manuscript Approval:

Wr20 Book of Oblivion (Wraith: The Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition)

Trinity Continuum: Aberrant core (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Editing:

Signs of Sorcery (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)

Aeon Aexpansion (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Dystopia Rising: Evolution (Dystopia Rising: Evolution)

M20 Book of the Fallen (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

Adventures for Curious Cats (Monarchies of Mau)

In Media Res (Trinity Continuum: Core)

Tales of Excellent Cats (Monarchies of Mau)

V5 Chicago By Night (Vampire: The Masquerade)

Spilled Blood (Vampire: The Requiem 2nd Edition)

Night Horrors: Shunned by the Moon (Werewolf: The Forsaken 2nd Edition)

Post-Editing Development:

C20 Players’ Guide (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

Indexing:

ART DIRECTION FROM MIRTHFUL MIKE:

In Art Direction

Dystopia Rising: Evolution – Finals coming in.

Geist 2e

The Realm

Ex3 Monthly Stuff

Chicago By Night – Contracting next bits.

C20 Player’s Guide – Still sketches and more sketches.

Aeon Aexpansion

They Came From Beneath the Sea! – KS prep.

EX3 Lunars – Sketches coming in, some finals already.

Signs of Sorcery

In Media Res

Marketing Stuff

In Layout

Ex3 Dragon Blooded – 2nd proof.

Ex Novel 2 (Aaron Rosenberg)

Proofing

Scion Hero – Page XXs and then Indexing.

Scion Origin – Page XXs and then Indexing.

CtL2 Jumpstart – At WW for approval.

M20: Gods and Monsters – With Phil.

Pugmire Roll of Good Dogs and Cats

Trinity Core – Waiting for errata from Backer PDF.

Trinity Aeon – Waiting for errata from Backer PDF.

At Press

Wraith 20th – Waiting for new cover proof. Everything else good to go though.

Wraith 20 Screen – Printing.

Scion Dice – At Studio2.

Lost 2e Screen – Printing.

Scion Screen – Printing.

Changeling: The Lost 2e – Soon shipping from printer to shipper. PoD proof ordered.

Fetch Quest – Proof sent back to manufacturer, printing starting.

Exalted 3rd Novel – Prepping for release.

PtC Tormented – PoD proof ordered.

TODAY’S REASON TO CELEBRATE:

It’s 7th Sea creator John Wick’s birthday today. I’m sure he doesn’t feel a day older than YARRR!

#Onyx Path Publishing

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christhehoff · 7 years

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Direct Hit?

Nintendo Direct 9/13/17 Thoughts & Notes

The latest Nintendo Direct has come and gone, and it delivered pretty much what I expected, if not slightly more. Given the timing of the presentation, this was Nintendo's best opportunity to push its fall and holiday lineup, and it did just that with new information on Super Mario Odyssey, Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, and a smattering of others. Anyone expecting big reveals set themselves up for disappointment; this was about selling the games hitting in the remainder of 2017 first and foremost. That's not to say there weren't surprises; not only were new first-party games announced, but so were third-party titles, new hardware variations, and even an unexpected blast from Nintendo's past. Here are the top 15 notable moments as far as I was concerned.

1. Super Mario Odyssey The more I see of this game, the better it looks. Nintendo has obviously been holding back information on this game since E3, showing only a handful of environments, enemies, and abilities, but the curtains opened a whole lot more during this Nintendo Direct. Sure, we expected Mario standbys like an ice world, a water world, and a jungle world, but it's nice to see them with our own eyes. As with previous looks at this game, the new footage displayed a world bursting with imagination and unparalleled creativity: running on water, controlling an adorable flying dinosaur, racing against Koopas, and engaging in a 2D Donkey Kong homage. The classic outfits tug at my Nintendo nostalgia, and the photo mode opens up a lot of fun creative possibilities. The best part is I think we've still only scratched the surface of this game. Well, the best part for some might be topless Mario's nipples, but I guess that's a personal preference. The Switch bundle that includes red Joy-Cons and a Mario carrying case is pretty snazzy too.

2. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 The new footage of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 really emphasized just how vast and beautiful the world is. The living, breathing environments, built on the backs of massive creatures, look absolutely stunning and, like in previous Xenoblade games, simply beg to be explored. The Nintendo Direct presentation - evidently narrated by a bored, genteel British grandfather - was absolutely ridiculous and probably didn't garner many new fans, but it didn't negate my enthusiasm for this anime-influenced RPG. The special edition - including a music CD and a 220-page artbook - is somewhat tempting too, but maybe not for $100.

3. Project Octopath Traveler Even though it's not set for release until next year, Nintendo put a heavy emphasis on the ludicrously named Project Octopath Traveler for Switch. I know it's supposed to be a temporary name, but hopefully it finds a better one sooner rather than later. More exciting than the presentation was the release of the playable demo, which lets you sample the game as two of the eight protagonists, Olberic the warrior and Primrose the dancer, each with unique special skills. The inclusion of eight protagonists gives the game a Saga Frontier feel, while the retro graphics feel like a throwback to 16-bit Final Fantasy games. This one has a lot of promise.

4. Nintendo Arcade Archives This came out of nowhere. Hamster, the company responsible for publishing a ridiculous number of Neo•Geo games on Switch, will now be delivering Nintendo's classic arcade lineup in pixel-perfect form to a console for the first time ever. Nintendo should have tried something like this with arcade Virtual Console on Wii, but it didn't; now, at long last, the original versions of these seemingly lost arcade games will finally be playable once again. While the differences between the arcade and NES versions of these games aren't huge, they're a captivating piece of Nintendo history, and hardcore fans will love picking up on the subtle differences in games like Mario Bros, Vs Balloon Fight, Vs. Ice Climber, Vs. Pinball, and Vs. Clu Clu Land. For me, it's all about Vs. Super Mario Bros and Punch-Out!!, but if the price is comparable to past Arcade Archive offerings ($8 or so), I'll probably buy the whole lot.

5. Doom & Wolfenstein II I'm not a big FPS fan, so these aren't games I'll likely buy personally, but I love the fact that the Switch is diversifying its lineup and seeing more support from Bethesda in the form of these popular shooters. Hopefully other publishers will do the same.

6. Pokémon Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon I loved Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon, and I want to say the same about Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, but the latest footage shown of these games didn't really inspire. Whereas Sun and Moon were exciting and refreshing, it looks like Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon are going to retreat an awful lot of the same territory. The Pikachu Park and new beach areas look nifty, as do the new Ultra Beasts, but I was hoping for a lot more.

7. New Nintendo 2DS XL Hardware On the other hand, the Poké Ball Edition New Nintendo 2DS XL (coming Nov. 3) looks amazing. I have to believe this will be one of Nintendo's most in-demand hardware variations yet. And the new white-and-orange New 2DS XL (coming Oct. 6) looks perfect for fall as well.

8. Kirby: Star Allies It's bright, it's colorful, and it's full of multiplayer action and crazy copy abilities - it's definitely a new Kirby game. We still don't know much about this previously untitled Kirby game that was revealed back at E3, but it's sure to be a blast when it hits in spring 2018.

9. Mario Party: The Top 100 With a November 10 release date - less than two months away - this one came out of nowhere as a surprise announcement. But is Mario Party out of ideas? This 3DS release curates the best 100 minigames from past Mario Party titles and compiles them into one game. Mario Party games have a reputation for being very similar, but in this case it literally reuses the ideas from the past. Hopefully it has compelling boards to tie it all together.

10. Kirby: Battle Royale Taking a break from the usual Kirby formula, this is a four-player Kirby fighting game for 3DS. There's a single-player mode, of course, and several types of competitive play, but it's kind of a bummer that there's no stereoscopic 3D.

11. Dragon Quest Builders Essentially combining elements of Dragon Quest with Minecraft, this one was released on other platforms some time ago, but I'm glad to see that it's coming to Switch in North America.

12. Minecraft: New Nintendo 3DS Edition It's hard to believe there wasn't a 3DS version of Minecraft until now. This game probably would have had more impact if it were released a year or two ago, but better late than never, I guess! The digital version is already available for download, and a physical version will be coming down the road.

13. Snipperclips Plus The original Snipperclips was a tad too frustrating for my tastes - perhaps I needed better co-op partners - but it's nice to see it returning with an expansion, and with a physical release. You can grab the full package at retail for $30, or if you already own the original digitally, you can add on 30 new stages and other features for just $10.

14. The Alliance Alive Other than the fact that it's a traditional fantasy RPG featuring nine protagonists, and that the story focuses on humanity rising up against demon conquerors, little has been said about this one. But Atlus rarely steers us wrong with role-playing releases, and one of the writers of the early Suikoden games is involved, so I'm definitely interested.

15. Amiibo Release Dates If there’s one thing I love, it’s amiibo. And I can't wait for the latest releases, all of which now have release dates. Koopa and Gooma hit Oct. 6 (the same day as Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions); Chrom and Tiki hit Oct. 20 (the same day as Fire Emblem Warriors); and the Champions of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Mipha, Revali, Daruk, and Urbosa) hit on Nov. 10. Who knows? Maybe the second batch of BOTW DLC will hit around that time too. Of course, the Mario, Peach, and Bowser amiibo hit alongside Super Mario Odyssey on Oct. 27.

#nintendo #mario #pokemon #video games #xenoblade #amiibo

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tdinizcolas · 5 years

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Through my years working as a journalist and creator of content, I saw many different stories involving the distribution and publishing of artistic content, some of which I just watched and reported, and some of them I actually took part in.

As a journalist, I specialized in independent and underground art, be it music, books, games or my biggest area of expertise, films. And I interviewed and hosted many artists, each one of them finding their own way of making their creations known to the world. One comic book creator, Francisco Marcatti Jr., was proud of printing and selling all his comic books by himself, in a completely artisanal process that he even documented in a video, that can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3On3X2-KFIw. Another one I interviewed in person, Lacarmelio, was known for printing his own monthly comic book, Celton, and sell it on bus stops and street lights in the city, and he made enough money to make a living and raise his children doing that, until passing. Another one of them, a close friend of mine, is a writer and RPG game designer who got famous on the independent game scene in Brazil, and now publishes his games in small scale through crowdfunding and, while he still has a day job, manages to publish between 3 and 5 books every year. Those three has been creating and selling in small scale, but managed to succeed in their own way.

Not all stories I witnessed were as successful, though. Many filmmakers I interviewed were trapped in the festival circuit, unable to bring their creations to the great public. Writers that had amazing works, but were stuck selling books on their own barely functional websites. I myself worked for a small WebTV where getting a big enough viewship was a struggle, but I managed to make it work. Still, the biggest crash and burn I saw when it comes down to publishing and distribution was one that happened very close, and that I tried, but was unable to avoid.

I used to work for a website/publisher called HQManiacs. They were a group of friends of mine that created a site for reporting and reviewing comics and films, and eventually became a small publisher. I was invited to invest and be one of the partners, but refused. Their first contact in the comics industry was with Robert Kirkman, creator of the original The Walking Dead comics. In fact, The Walking Dead was their second published title, in a time when the distribution consisted of myself filling up the trunk of my car with copies of the comics to give the stores in consignation, for me to pick them up in 3 months. Through the years, they released their comics exclusively to comic book shops and special bookstores, but the owner had a dream of publishing comics on newsstands, like we grew up with in the 1980’s. He saw a chance when The Walking Dead became the super popular series we all know. A chance to publish a monthly comic book on newsstands. Both myself and his partners tried to convince him that even the biggest comic book publishers in Brazil were running away from the newsstands, and that a small company like ours would not survive, but he was too stubborn. In just a few months, both his partners had sold their share of the publisher and left, and I was only writing news and quick reports, concentrating my efforts on the TV station I was on. And in just a year and a half, the publisher went under.

Publishing and making your work available within your budget and in an efficient manner is fundamental for an entertainment company to survive. Being humble and knowing how and when to aim higher is the most important skill here, and finding out how to make your work available is a must, specially today, when there is so much content that it is easy for your creations to go unnoticed.

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symbianosgames · 7 years

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Game Design Deep Dive is an ongoing Gamasutra series with the goal of shedding light on specific design features or mechanics within a video game, in order to show how seemingly simple, fundamental design decisions aren't really that simple at all.

Check out earlier installments, including the action-based RPG battles in Undertale, using a real human skull for the audio of Inside, and the realistic chat system of Mr. Robot:1.51exfiltrati0n.

I’m Peter Ilves, one of the co-founders of Stunlock Studios and the Game Director on Battlerite, as well as Stunlock's previous titles Dead Island: Epidemic (Epidemic) and Bloodline Champions (BLC).

I would best describe my role as a wild combination of a producer, game designer, and programmer. I started my career by studying game design at the University of Skövde in Sweden back in 2006. I eventually made some friends at university and together we created a game as part of a development-course. This project eventually turned into Bloodline Champions (BLC) and me and 13 other students that developed the game founded Stunlock Studios.

Battlerite is the spiritual successor to Bloodline Champions, a team arena brawler that is best described as a mashup between World of Warcraft Arena and a traditional fighting game.

[embedded content]

As I’m writing this, Battlerite has been out for less than 3 weeks in Early Access and have already reached an audience of 250 000+ players.

At its core Battlerite shares a lot of the DNA of BLC. We determined that the lack of success of BLC was partly due to factors outside the game itself and partly due to the game not being approachable enough. These include:

Getting into the game was too hard

Business model didn't work well with the core design of the game

Weak server-infrastructure

Not enough resources for community management

Stunlock Studio's Battlerite.

Bloodlines Champions was a passion project. A group of 14 students coming together to create the best possible arena game out there. Our ambitions were sky-high: a PvP Game with a dedicated server network and a focus on eSport long before the eSports scene exploded. With almost no budget, we started developing everything from our own graphics engine to our own network-solutions. Personal loans and people working with “real” jobs on the side funded the project.

Late in the process, we signed a publishing deal with Funcom that enabled us to eventually launch the game. BLC is an extremely hardcore game but it was critically acclaimed and we managed to build a small but dedicated community.

We received our first paychecks and continued to update the game post launch with new content and new features but BLC never really took off. After more than a year of struggling with making the game fly people were starting to lose confidence and eventually we had to move on to stay alive as a studio.

We were able to sign a deal with Deep Silver and started working on zombie-slasher Dead Island: Epidemic. Everyone was super excited and for the years to come there were very little talk about BLC.

Dead Island: Epidemic was eventually canceled. Having a game canceled after 2½ years into production was frustrating but at the same time, I think it was a relief for many. It had been a stressful project and in the end, it was a work for hire.

Dead Island: Epidemic

I remember how we sat down with the studio, asking everyone what he or she wanted to do next. I was surprised by the result; we had not talked a lot about BLC during Epidemic but all of a sudden, everyone wanted to do a remake. Everyone still believed in the core values of BLC and what we started back in 2008.

Nothing similar had come up on the market over the years; nothing remotely similar to BLC at least, and we believed there to be a spot on the market for our type of game.

Everyone was aboard, and we were confident that as long as we can make this game on our own conditions we could make it into the best arena PvP game out there. We would not let a publisher hijack this project and thanks to our friends and investors at Coffee Stain Studios, we were able to develop the game on our own terms.

I believe Battlerite’s success is down to the following key points.

1. We knew exactly what we wanted to accomplish

When working on BLC we experimented with different types of gameplay, movement, game modes and so on. We did not really know what game we were making to begin with. For Battlerite we wanted to keep it straightforward, easy and approachable.

We took the core of BLC and decided to stick with that for the entire project. Focus on the Arena and the Champions, nothing else. Instead of investing resources into trying out new game mode ideas or trying to create new types of Champions, we took the best pieces from BLC and iterated, iterated and iterated.

Bloodline Champions

2. Zero Iteration Downtime

As we knew we were going to have an extremely iterative process we set a technical goal from day 1 – Zero Iteration downtime. This was a design goal that permeated every part of our content pipelines.

The toolset we have used to develop Battlerite is built from scratch for this project. We are using Unity as our render-engine while gameplay related elements as collision, network, AI, are all custom-made. We have developed a tool with the fancy name “Game Tool” in which we basically create the entire game.

The Game Tool is used to define objects, constant data, stateful data that change during gameplay, references to graphical assets and scripts as well as relationships between objects. Scripts are attached to objects and can then access the data and state for those objects dynamically, with changes to all of these available instantly without restarting. Scripts are compiled on save, constant & state data is changed in the running gameplay process as they’re made.

We embed a standalone Unity player process into a Game Tool window that we feed with the game state for rendering. Artists import assets (models, SFX, particles, animations) into a separate Unity editor project where they’re immediately built into bundles and made available for usage in the Game Tool and its embedded Unity process. Artists and coders can add content in an incremental fashion without having to restart, reload or compile unrelated assets or code, which we believe is key to our iteration process. Iterate, save, test, iterate.

Without this toolset, we would never have been able to create the Look and Feel that we aspired to when we set out.

3. Look and Feel

When comparing BLC and Battlerite the difference in visual quality and presentation is obvious. What is not as apparent but maybe even more important is how different the game feels. This has been one of the biggest challenge to us marketing-wise. The game looks like a RTS MOBA but once you get your hands on it you understand the vast differences.

Controlling your Champion with WASD movement is a huge difference and we’ve put a ton of effort into getting the gameplay feel just right. A video cannot sell you on that feeling. We ended up branding it as a Team Arena Brawler (TAB), basically creating our own genre.

This is the biggest improvement when comparing both games. Moving around, striking down your enemy, firing your guns, charging into combat. These are just a few mechanics in the game but we have worked so much on making them feel smooth and satisfying to pull off.

BLC has a more “choppy” feel to it, every time you use an ability you have to stand still to perform the action while in Battlerite we’ve tried to make combat more fluent. Many attacks allow you to move while using them and every attack has individual settings for how much it affects your movement. How much your champion slows down, different timers for acceleration/deceleration, different amount of post-attack time before you can perform a new action. It certainly has similarities to a fighting game.

As a player you probably will not even reflect on these settings but when balanced correctly it creates a very satisfying flow. This along with the many improvements in presentation (art-style, HUD, animations, SFX & VFX) makes the game more approachable and attractive.

[embedded content]

4. Servers & Net code

BLC is a very latency dependent game and we did not have the server infrastructure to support it. Many players were unable to enjoy the game because they resided too far away from our server locations.

Supporting BLC with a good server infrastructure was however not our obligations at that time. We had signed a publishing agreement and this area of responsibility was on the publisher's side.

With Battlerite we’ve been able to support the game with a worldwide state of the art server solution. We are fortunate to have had the chance to work with great partners that have enabled us to launch the game on a global scale already during Early Access.

When BLC launched we had one server in central Europe and one server in US East and that was it. These are the server options for Battlerite, 3 weeks into Early Access:

Battlerite's current server selection.

Beside server infrastructure, we have also put a lot of effort into optimizing and developing solid net code. With 7 years of experience working on top-down multiplayer games, we had a good understanding of how we wanted to develop the net-code for Battlerite.

Our goal from the start has been to make Battlerite available to as many as possible. For the netcode, this meant being able to handle a large variety of network environments like high packet loss, highly variable latency as well as just constant high latency. In BLC, the netcode would fall over if a player had even slight packet loss and it wasn't a great experience to play with more than 100ms latency. In Battlerite, a large amount of systems are designed around the reality of networks around the world.

Our current server infrastructure and a more refined net-code is probably the second biggest reason for the success of Battlerite, especially in regions with developing infrastructure.

5. Pricing

BLC launched as a Free-2-Play game with a similar business model as League of Legends. There was a free champion rotation system. Players were able unlock new champions by earning and spending virtual currency and you could purchase a champion or a bundle of champions for real money.

What we realized too late was that this model was fundamentally flawed for a game like BLC. A MOBA free-2-play model did not sit well with a game like BLC. BLC is all about the champions while I would argue that a MOBA is more about the game mode. By limiting access to Champions we made an already content-thin game even smaller. New players could pick up one of four champions and would ultimately face other players with the same champions as everyone had the same rotation.

It grew stale and repetitive very quickly and players quit early as the grind for a new champion was too big.

The Battlerite Early Access grants you access to all champions as well as all future champions for $20. We have not yet decided what model we will use when the game fully launches but know what we want to avoid.

I’d say that our current price-point is a great deal. It is also worth considering how players will react to how you price your game and what reputation you want to build as a studio. We have been taking a few hits over the years due to the pricing of both BLC and Epidemic. Pricing of some items in those games have been on a ridiculous scale but those decisions were often out of our hands.

With Battlerite we are independent and we can right some wrongs from the past and rebuild some trust. A fair pricing model goes a long way in that regards.

6. Community

With BLC we tried hard to build a strong community. At that time, we were still 14 people developing our first multiplayer PvP game and we still took time aside to create webpages, we developed and branded our own community forums, we hosted community events and tried our best with the limited resources we had to stay active with the community.

Many people in the studio felt that we let everyone down when we weren't able to keep this up due to both political and economical reasons.

With Epidemic it was easier. We were actually not allowed to interact with our players via forums or other media. This is another story of course but one of those interesting aspects of working with a publisher. The good side of this was that we had more time developing the game and we were less emotionally attached to the community (which was a good thing for us when Epidemic was canceled).

For Battlerite we are solely responsible for building our community and this time around there are no political reasons keeping us away from our players. We believe in transparency and as we are still a small team (25 people) everyone that can and wants to is able to help out. Answering posts on forums, doing write-ups that explains a features or a decision, helping with support and so on.

Everyone in the studio is allowed to talk to our community. This sometimes results in miscommunications (especially in language as we only have one native English-speaking person in the office) but so far the positive side far outweighs the negative side of this approach.

During our launch week, most people in the studio spent almost all their time helping people out that had technical issues, answering questions on forums and streams and relayed important topics to our coders so we could fix it ASAP.

There are always unforeseen technical issues that will occur once you get a lot of people into your game but we were prepared for it and communicated any issue directly via our in-game messaging system. During the launch week we worked around the clock and I think our ability to respond and fix issues quickly were very much appreciated by our community.

I would say that the most important part about developing Battlerite has been our team spirit and production mindset. We’re constantly iterating on our processes and refining our toolsets to enable everyone to work as efficiently as possible. Throughout the project we have been comparing ourselves with the biggest competitive games and we never settled for less. We didn’t have the manpower to create this type of game with the level of quality we desired. We had to come up with solutions that enabled us to work as efficiently as possible. Not only am I proud of the game but I’m proud of the toolset and pipelines we’ve developed. Iterating on a game can be tedious and I think that’s why many settle with mediocre results. Perfecting small variable differences within a game can be very time-consuming if you don’t have the right processes. When you have powerful tools it’s more fun to work and you never end up asking yourself if a change is worth the time investment or not, you just do it.

In the end, I believe that the commercial success of Battlerite is mostly due to how much better we were able to realize the game on our second try. Battlerite is the result of 8 years of iteration, iteration and iteration on a top-down action multiplayer game.

#IFTTT #Blogger

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theonyxpath · 7 years

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This is the blog post I never, ever, expected to have to write.

My friend, Stewart Wieck, co-founder of White Wolf Magazine and White Wolf Game Studio, creator of Mage: The Ascension, and founder of Nocturnal Media, was finishing a light session of fencing last Thursday when he was struck down by a heart attack and died.

Even writing the above, putting it into cold black and white words, just rips me apart.

And frankly, that list up there of his accomplishments doesn’t even touch on the reality of the man, of his grace and kindness. It doesn’t speak of passion for writing, and creating, and learning. Of his dry wit and his silly side.

Most of all, it doesn’t speak of the sort of man who can decide that he was going to create in a field he loved, tabletop RPGs (back when we just called them RPGs, as there were no others), and made it happen step by step while inspiring others to come to his side and storm the walls of heaven.

Or the TSR castle at Gen Con, for those of you who remember that!

This looks suspiciously like Stew in a Gen Con ballroom.

I was one of those people, and in 1986, I sent in art in response to an ad Stew posted in Dragon Magazine looking for illustrators for his upstart White Wolf Magazine. We shared a love of comic books, genre fiction, and RPGs, but were really little alike. Except we both kept our commitments. I delivered the art, issue by issue as the circulation increased, and once Stew saw that I was going to do that with the same quality and regularity as he put forth in getting the writing in and the magazine out, he handed over the art direction duties to me as well.

We had a bad spot when a marketing guy Stew had begun working with to propel the magazine into what was supposed to be a huge increase in circulation ran out with all the ad payments. I thought the magazine was over. But Stew went back to every advertiser and somehow convinced them to pay again so that the issue could be printed. I couldn’t have done it, but that was Stewart Wieck – he could explain what needed to happen, and he was so sincere and so obviously a good guy, that people would jump in to help.

Without the magazine, Stew wouldn’t have been working closely with Lion Rampant when they were looking for a CEO to keep them rolling. I remember him calling and asking whether I thought he should accept their offer. I thought it was a no-brainer as he had “just graduated college, and a game company wants you to be their CEO? If you keep them afloat, you’re a hero – if you can’t, then nobody could have”.

Stew went one step better, though, and became a partner with Mark Rein*Hagen instead of just the CEO. Oh, and part of the deal was to change the company name to White Wolf Game Studio. Also, Mark had this interesting idea for an RPG: something to do with playing a vampire…

Stewart and Mark in Stew’s office at WW.

Now, I say that kind of lightly, but the reality is that without Stewart adding both his creative talents (vampires being descended from Cain is just one of his contributions) and his head for business, it is entirely possible that Vampire: The Masquerade would never have been published. And beyond that, his wit and grace and patience provided a center to the WW creative team – a calm in the center of a storm of egos, passions, and crazed creative impulses that could have torn the young company apart.

For years, Stew had the idea that I needed to come down to Atlanta and art direct the company, and for years I let him know that I would need a real salary that we both knew just wasn’t possible. I had a little girl I was raising by myself, and was working a full-time job, and teaching, and doing freelance work, of which WW was my biggest client.

In December of 1991, he called me up, and the first thing out of his mouth was, “Rich, we can do it. Vampire is huge, we are reprinting it as fast as it is selling out, and next year it’s time to bring you down here.”

Which was great, except, like I said, I was raising my little girl by myself, I had a house and dogs, and all of my support systems were where we were. As well as a girlfriend that I had been dating for only a month. To put it bluntly, I was scared shitless. But I trusted Stewart Wieck. He had never let me down. He told me it would be OK.

We were in ATL and I was in charge of all WW visuals and production in May of ’92.

Keith Winkler, Stew, Ken Cliffe and his chest, Steve Wieck, and me at a WW company retreat.

White Wolf grew, exploded really, and Stew was not just riding herd on all of the expanding crew, he was creating the third game in the World of Darkness, Mage: The Ascension. A game where you change the world by exerting your will and beliefs upon it. Go figure that’s what this guy would come up with.

With three wildly successful games powering the company, and his equally creative and business-savvy brother Steve brought on as CEO, Stewart decided to pursue his dream of WW also being a fiction publishing house. New fiction work for our RPG lines, and also new experimental offerings that might not have been published by the mainstream houses. And my favorite part, republishing the giants that he and I had read so avidly in our early years. Fritz Liebers’s Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser stories, the legendary Harlan Ellison, and the ultimate delight of working with Michael Moorcock and republishing his Eternal Champion novels, including the legendary Elric. Also known as the White Wolf. We had come full circle.

Always, it was Stew who made the deals possible. Stew who juggled what could be done with what needed to be done, and who any of us could go to for a calming talk when things got too crazy. I certainly did!

But nothing lasts forever. Working with writers took up time for writing. And if anybody deserved a chance to recover their personal Muse, it was Stew. He was still connected to WW and working on projects, still always, always, available to talk over phone or email (we would have loved Skype then), but he stepped back from the day to day struggles.

Until, several years ago, he was back! Back with Nocturnal Media, a new company he founded. We immediately went in together on buying the Scarred Lands property from CCP as we had both helped create it back in the day and wanted to team-up again like we had done so many times. And the Stew who could pull publishing deals together returned as well, as both older creators and younger became part of Nocturnal‘s creative circle.

This year at Gen Con, he and I were looking forward to sharing our booth space, our respective companies shoulder to shoulder, he and I shoulder to shoulder once again.

But it was not to be.

Over the years, Stew and I exchanged so many messages. Emails and letters and packages. But most importantly, for years and years he’d send me a message on the anniversary of my first wife’s death, just to let me know he remembered. He always signed them, “Your friend, Stewart Wieck”.

Goodbye, my friend.

BLURBS!

KICKSTARTER!

Dark Eras 2 goes live Thursday, July 6th at noon Eastern US time! Once again, help us decide on which Eras and which game-lines should fill up this Prestige Edition book!

ON SALE!

ON AMAZON:

We’re delighted to announce the opening of our ebook store on Amazon! You can now read our fiction from the comfort and convenience of your Kindle. Our initial selection includes these fiction anthologies: Vampire: the Masquerade‘s Endless Ages, Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition‘s Rites of Renown: When Will You Rage 2, Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition‘s Truth Beyond Paradox, Chronicles of Darkness‘ God Machine Chronicle, Mummy: The Curse‘s Curse of the Blue Nile, and Beast: The Primordial‘s The Primordial Feast!

And now you can get these books in the Barnes and Noble Nook store too!

Vampire: The Masquerade: The Endless Ages Anthology

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Rites of Renown: When Will You Rage II

Mage: The Ascension: Truth Beyond Paradox

Chronicles of Darkness: The God-Machine Chronicle Anthology

Mummy: The Curse: Curse of the Blue Nile

Beast: The Primordial: The Primordial Feast Anthology

And here are six more fiction books:

Vampire: The Masquerade: Of Predators and Prey: The Hunters Hunted II Anthology

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: The Poison Tree

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Songs of the Sun and Moon: Tales of the Changing Breeds

Vampire: The Requiem: The Strix Chronicle Anthology

Werewolf: The Forsaken: The Idigam Chronicle Anthology

Mage: The Awakening: The Fallen World Chronicle Anthology

Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Here’s the link to the press release we put out about how Onyx Path is now selling through Indie Press Revolution: http://ift.tt/1ZlTT6z

You can now order wave 2 of our Deluxe and Prestige print overrun books, including Deluxe Mage 20th Anniversary, and Deluxe V20 Dark Ages! And Screens…so many Screens!

ON DRIVETHRURPG.COM:

From the massive Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras main book, we have pulled this single chapter, Dark Eras: Requiem for Regina (Vampire: The Requiem Elizabethan London 1593). We have shared the world with monsters for millennia. In Elizabeth’s London, vampires built their own empire brick by bloody brick while Elizabeth I cemented her grip on newly Protestant England. Carefully balancing demands from those with Catholic and Lutheran sympathies, she forged a police state. Yet London emerged as a thriving cultural center, and from the crucible emerged a Kindred society forever changed.

On sale in PDF and physical copy PoD versions Wednesday on DTRPG!

What dark secrets do the eldest vampires hold? Find out in Thousand Years of Night for Vampire: The Requiem! Advance PDF version available now on DriveThruRPG.com. http://ift.tt/2sV8lZR

You may think that with a multitude of people coming, going, dying and running away, we’d be tired, done, or ready to give up. Instead, I find myself restless, looking for the next thing. There’s always a next thing, and I for one am not yet ready to die.

– Elder Kincaid, Daeva Crone

This book includes:

• Detailed instructions on creating elder vampires, including how to base chronicles around them

• A look into the lives of elders, how they spend their nights, who they work with, and why including their roles in both their clans and covenants

• New Devotions, Merits, and Rituals for elder vampires

• The kinds of creatures that pose a threat to elder vampires, including Inamorata, Lamia, Sons of Phobos, a new elder conspiracy, and more

From the massive Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras main book, we have pulled this single chapter, Dark Eras: To The Strongest (Mage Death of Alexander 330-320 BCE). In the rise and fall of Alexander the Great’s Empire, armies marched and cultures clashed. In the birth pangs of Hellenistic civilization, Awakened sorcerers all over the ancient world met, fought, and joined together. In the chaos of Alexander’s assassination and the wars that followed, Cults became Orders amid conflicts still burning in the present day.

http://ift.tt/2tmTVl6

On sale in PDF and physical copy PoD versions on DTRPG!

From the massive Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras main book, we have pulled this single chapter, Dark Eras: Three Kingdoms of Darkness (Changeling and Geist China 220-280). Famine weakens the empire, and war splits it apart. It is an age of ambition and strife, where the hungry dead walk the earth in great numbers, and the Lost must rely on their own kingdoms. Warlords and commoners, ghost-speakers and orphans — who truly serves the Mandate of Heaven?

On sale in PDF and physical copy PoD versions on DTRPG! http://ift.tt/2rp8hPL

From the massive Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras main book, we have pulled this single chapter, Dark Eras: The Wolf and the Raven (Werewolf and Geist Vikings 700-1100). The Viking expansion across Europe comes at a pivotal time in history, as new faiths rose to challenge the old and new ways threatened to sweep ancient tradition aside. The Forsaken sail with raiders and explorers, seeking new lands to claim and new spirits to conquer, while Sin-Eaters walk the battlefields bringing the honored dead to their final rewards. The world grows larger and more dangerous by the day, but there are great rewards for those brave enough to fight for them.

On sale in PDF and physical copy PoD versions on DTRPG! http://ift.tt/2rUjKtX

Curated by Matthew McFarland, developer of Changeling: the Dreaming Twentieth Anniversary Edition and featuring authors such as Myranda Kalis, Wren Handman, and Peter Woodworth, this C20 Anthology of Dreams is on sale in electronic/PDF and physical copy PoD formats on DTRPG.com! http://ift.tt/2snBT0X

We dream, and we tell stories. We dream of love and the sort of person who might complete us. We dream of horror and wake breathless. We dream of magic, of flying through the air, or breathing underwater. We dream of fantastic vistas and amazing monsters.

We dream, and then we wake, and we tell stories. Our dreams create the Kithain, the changelings. Our stories are sustenance.

Now on DTRPG, the EX3 Tomb of Dreams Jumpstart PDF/PoD jumps up for sale!

http://ift.tt/2qdriZU

Once, in the time before the gods forgot their names, when the world was flat and floated on a sea of chaos, there was an age of gleaming cities, untamed wilderness, enlightened devils, greedy spirits, and mighty heroes. This was the age of the Exalted, champions empowered by the highest of gods.

Tomb of Dreams will jumpstart your group’s Exalted game—all you need to start playing Exalted Third Edition is this book, pencils, and 10-sided dice. Included here are the game’s core rules, five pregenerated characters, and a self-contained scenario that can start a new campaign or that Storytellers can use in an ongoing chronicle. And for groups that already have the Exalted Third Edition main rulebook, Tomb of Dreams will serve as an introduction for new players and a quick reference during play—anyone intimidated by that prodigious volume need only read Part 1 of this book to get started.

What legends will they tell of your deeds?

Sailing out of the dark, the V20 Dark Ages Companion Advance PDF is now on sale on DriveThruRPG.com! http://ift.tt/2pX42dq

Travel the long roads and deep seas in search of power and experience danger, or tackle the wilderness to hunt monsters and face death. Settlements large and small dot the black expanse with the promise of sanctuary, life, and community. These bastions of civilization present cold comfort, when playing host to vampire warlords and sadistic Cainite faiths. Whether led by a Prince, a coordinated belief, or hounded by monsters from without and within — no domain is truly the same as another.

Dark Ages Companion includes:

• Domains scattered across the world, from small fiefdoms to massive cities. Bath, Bjarkarey, Constantinople, Rome, Mogadishu, and Mangaluru each receive coverage.

• Apocrypha including plot hooks, new Paths, and mysteries to explore in your games.

• A how-to guide on building a domain within your chronicle, including events and servants necessary to make a domain as functional or dysfunctional as you wish.

• A study on warfare in the Dark Ages period, so combat in your chronicles can gain authenticity and lethality.

Bill Bridge’s new W20 novel, The Song of Unmaking, is on sale in PDF/ePub/PoD versions on DriveThruRPG.com: http://ift.tt/2qXQH9f and in ebook form on Amazon: http://ift.tt/2qpQM2V !

The fabric of reality is cracking. Fissures appear in thin air, glowing with balefire. Something is scratching on the other side, pressing, beginning to break through….

The Wyrm’s corruption finds its way into the hearts of humans and Garou alike. Even an ultra-rational techno-cratic scientist can fall sway to its lies. Channeling his hate and resentment through the most sophisticated machine ever created, Basil Czajka has turned a tool designed to peer deep into the heart of the quantum universe into a nursery for the hatching of a horror — a creature whose birth cry is destined to unmake Gaia’s Song of Creation.

The only ones standing in his way are One-Song, a broken-down old Theurge, and Lord Albrecht, whose heed-less anger might be the very weapon the enemy needs to crack the egg and free the Unmaker.

The Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras Companion has arrived in PDF and PoD physical book versions at DriveThruRPG.com! http://ift.tt/2pygIL7

The Dark Eras Companion presents eleven new Eras for the Chronicles of Darkness. Stretching from Ancient Rome and Egypt through the Black Death, the Thirty Years War, the Reconstruction, and the Russian Revolution, the Companion showcases even more of the secret history of this eldritch world. Included in each era are “snapshots” of the various supernatural creatures, including vampires, changelings, mummies, and demons. Also included are lists of inspirational media to help you put these Eras in context for your troupe.

Open the Dark Eras Companion and take another look back in time.

CONVENTIONS! Discussing GenCon plans. August 17th – 20th, Indianapolis. Every chance the booth will actually be 20? x 30? this year that we’ll be sharing with friends. We’re looking at new displays this year, like a back drop and magazine racks for the brochure(s).

In November, we’ll be at Game Hole Con in Madison, WI. More news as we have it, and here’s their website: http://ift.tt/RIm6qP

And now, the new project status updates!

DEVELOPMENT STATUS FROM ROLLICKING ROSE (projects in bold have changed status since last week):

First Draft (The first phase of a project that is about the work being done by writers, not dev prep)

Exalted 3rd Novel by Matt Forbeck (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Trinity Continuum: Aeon Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)

M20 Gods and Monsters (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

M20 Book of the Fallen (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

C20 Novel (Jackie Cassada) (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

The Realm (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Dragon-Blooded (Exalted 3rd Edition)

C20 Ready Made Characters (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

Redlines

Kithbook Boggans (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

DtD Night Horrors: Enemy Action (Demon: the Descent)

Hunter: the Vigil 2e core (Hunter: the Vigil 2nd Edition)

Second Draft

WoD Ghost Hunters (World of Darkness)

Pugmire Fiction Anthology (Pugmire)

Ex Novel 2 (Aaron Rosenberg) (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Development

Signs of Sorcery (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)

SL Ring of Spiragos (Pathfinder – Scarred Lands 2nd Edition)

Ring of Spiragos (5e – Scarred Lands 2nd Edition)

Changeling: the Lost 2nd Edition, featuring the Huntsmen Chronicle (Changeling: the Lost 2nd Edition)

M20 Cookbook (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

Pugmire Pan’s Guide for New Pioneers (Pugmire)

Scion: Origins (Scion 2nd Edition)

Scion: Hero (Scion 2nd Edition)

Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)

GtS Geist 2e core (Geist: the Sin-Eaters Second Edition)

WW Manuscript Approval:

Editing:

Wraith: the Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition

Book of Freeholds (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

BtP Beast Player’s Guide (Beast: the Primordial)

W20 Changing Ways (Werewolf: the Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition)

VtR Half-Damned (Vampire: the Requiem 2nd Edition)

V20 Dark Ages Jumpstart (Vampire: the Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition)

Post-Editing Development:

Arms of the Chosen (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Indexing:

Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

ART DIRECTION FROM MIRTHFUL MIKE:

In Art Direction

Beckett’s Jyhad Diary

W20 Pentex Employee Indoctrination Handbook

Cavaliers of Mars

Wraith 20

W20 Changing Ways

Ex3 Monthly Stuff

Storypath Brochure

VDA Jumpstart

Scion Origins

Ring of Spiragos

Ex 3 Arms of the Chosen – Sketches coming in.

Beast PG – AD’d and contracted.

VtR Half Damned – getting artists lined up

Marketing Stuff

In Layout

M20 Art Book – In progress…

Prince’s Gambit – New Cards out for playtesting

Gen Con Stuff – 2017 Brochure and 2017 Storypath Brochure

C20 Jumpstart

Proofing

CtL Huntsmen Chronicle Anthology

At Press

Beckett Screen – Shipped to shipper.

Pugmire – Shipping to fulfillment shipper.

Pugmire Screen – Shipping to fulfillment shipper.

Pugmire Cards & Dice – Shipping to fulfillment shipper.

Wise and the Wicked PF & 5e – Printing.

Dagger of Spiragos (5e) – Out to backers.

Dagger of Spiragos (PF) – Out to backers.

V20 Dark Ages Companion – PoD proofs coming.

BtP Building a Legend – Files uploaded and processing.

Monarchies of Mau Early Access – PoD proofs ordered.

Dark Eras: Requiem for Regina – PDF and PoD on sale this Wednesday on DTRPG.

Dark Eras: Lily Sabre and Thorn – PoD files uploading.

M20 Book of Secrets – Errata ending this week.

VTR: Thousand Years of Night – Advance PDF on sales on DTRPG, gathering errata.

TODAY’S REASON TO CELEBRATE: To absent friends.

#Onyx Path Publishing

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symbianosgames · 7 years

Link

Check out earlier installments, including the action-based RPG battles in Undertale, using a real human skull for the audio of Inside, and the realistic chat system of Mr. Robot:1.51exfiltrati0n.

Battlerite is the spiritual successor to Bloodline Champions, a team arena brawler that is best described as a mashup between World of Warcraft Arena and a traditional fighting game.

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As I’m writing this, Battlerite has been out for less than 3 weeks in Early Access and have already reached an audience of 250 000+ players.

Getting into the game was too hard

Business model didn't work well with the core design of the game

Weak server-infrastructure

Not enough resources for community management

Stunlock Studio's Battlerite.

We were able to sign a deal with Deep Silver and started working on zombie-slasher Dead Island: Epidemic. Everyone was super excited and for the years to come there were very little talk about BLC.

Dead Island: Epidemic

Nothing similar had come up on the market over the years; nothing remotely similar to BLC at least, and we believed there to be a spot on the market for our type of game.

I believe Battlerite’s success is down to the following key points.

1. We knew exactly what we wanted to accomplish

Bloodline Champions

2. Zero Iteration Downtime

Without this toolset, we would never have been able to create the Look and Feel that we aspired to when we set out.

3. Look and Feel

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4. Servers & Net code

Supporting BLC with a good server infrastructure was however not our obligations at that time. We had signed a publishing agreement and this area of responsibility was on the publisher's side.

When BLC launched we had one server in central Europe and one server in US East and that was it. These are the server options for Battlerite, 3 weeks into Early Access:

Battlerite's current server selection.

Our current server infrastructure and a more refined net-code is probably the second biggest reason for the success of Battlerite, especially in regions with developing infrastructure.

5. Pricing

It grew stale and repetitive very quickly and players quit early as the grind for a new champion was too big.

With Battlerite we are independent and we can right some wrongs from the past and rebuild some trust. A fair pricing model goes a long way in that regards.

6. Community

Many people in the studio felt that we let everyone down when we weren't able to keep this up due to both political and economical reasons.

#IFTTT #Blogger

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