Duck and Weave

Mexican developers Bromio have announced the Punch-Out!!-inspired Pato Box, that features a d?uck/human hybrid pugilist on a quest for personal revenge, is coming to Nintendo Switch.

After being betrayed by his sponsor, Deathflock, World Champion Patobox, a man with the head of a duck, dons his gloves and sets about destroying the infrastructure of the corporation, taking down its fighters and dodging hazards as he journeys into  the sponsor's lab?yrinthine headquarters. I'll give you a momen??t to take this in...

The game features comic-book, black and white imagery and pattern-learning mechanics familiar to anyone who has played Nintendo's Punch-Out!! titles. Players will guide Patobox through the Deathflock building, taking down bosses and defeating mini-games, all while learning the backstory behind t??he mallard-mauler's betrayal via interactive cut-scenes.

Originating on Steam Greenlight, Pato Box was previously announced for PC and PS Vita, and is now has confirmed for Nintendo Switch, while there is no specific date for release, the game is scheduled to arrive sometime in 2018. A demo is available on the game's official website.

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Reminds me of the first Amnesia

One of the last ever games to make it onto Steam Greenlight (an alternative program is coming next week) is Lust for Darkness, a first-person psychological horror game with "with erotic and occult themes" set in "the Yelvertones' victorian mansion and a perverse land inspired with Lovecraft's works and paintings of Zdzisław Beksiński."

Protagonist Johnathan Moon heads to the mansion after receiving a letter from his wife who had disappeared a year prior, and he stumbles on some sort of Tom Cruise Eyes Wide Shut party with actual eldritch horror going on. The player will split time between the mansion and "an alien d?imension...overgrown with alien vegetation and full of monstrosities squirming in a never ending ecstasy."

The post Lust for Darkness is Lovecraftian BDSM horror appeared first on Destructoid.

Set to debut this spring

Valve is constantly looking for new ways to streamline the process of developers getting their games on Steam. In 2012, it introduced Greenlight, a community-focused initiative that let users vote for the titles they thought should be added to the service. At the time, it wa?s a monumental step up from the heavily curated nature of Steam. Now, in 2017, it's holding developers back.

Steam and the independent video game creators who put their games on Steam have outgrown Green?light. So, Valve has outlined plans for a successor, something it calls Steam Direct. If the old system was akin to a popularity contest, the new one is much less exciting -- something that Valve describes as like "applying for a bank account."

Steam Direct will ask developers to complet?e a set of digital paperwork, personal or company verification, and tax documents. Once that's complete, they'll have to fork over a recoupable application fee for each game they want to add to Steam. The idea here is that requiring mo??ney upfront will discourage people from submitting games that have no realistic chance of selling more than a couple of units -- the kind of blatant, uncreative, and usually-broken asset flips that are a pox on Steam.

However, Valve hasn't yet determined how much this application fee will be. The trick would seemingly be in finding that sweet spot that isn't prohibitively expensive for sincere developers, yet still pricey enough for those who are just looking to exploit the system. Valve says that it has talked to several creators about this and their suggested ranges go as low as $100 and as high as $5,000. Also gone unexplained is exactly how and ??when developers will recoup this cost.

It's a lot to figure out still, and Valve will have to solidify the details fairly quickly. Steam Direct is set to debut sometime this spring (although, it'll surely be tweaked substantially in the time following ??its launch). Out with? Greenlight, in with Direct.

Evolving Steam [Steam]

The post Valve’s replacing Greenlight with a new system it calls Steam Direct appeared first on Destructoid.

Bringing a whole new meaning to the pantsu genre

Hoo boy, this one's a doozy! Recently put up on Steam Greenlight is a game made surprisingly not in Japan, but by a guy in Taiwan. While most soft-core hentai games like Senran Kagura or Akiba's Trip focus on seeing and collecting women's underwear, Pan Pan flips the narrative by having you play as women's underwear. That's a first for me.

It appears you normally attack by shooting Dragon Ball style energy blasts because of course you do, but there also appears to be both melee and projectile weapons such as katanas, machine guns, and sniper rifles. If only this had multiplayer (it doesn't) then the likes of Call of Duty, Titanfall, Battlefield, and Gears of War would have met their match.

The creator wants you to know it's not a dirty hentai game, and that all, ahem, garments have their own unique abilities with descriptions such as "The Wh?ite panty is soft, the Bear panty is fierce." I don't want no trouble ?Mr. Bear.

Pan Pan [Steam Greenlight]

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CASE closed, uninstalled

I went into CASE: Animatronics with an open mind. Yes, as a Steam Greenlight game featuring evil animatronics, there was some obvious cause for trepidation. That it would turn out to be a shameless copy cat, a thin experience riding another franchise's coattails for? a quick buck.

But, I wanted it to be cool. I liked the pitch of taking the familiar Five Nights at Freddy's aesthetic and turning it into a proper first-person stealth survival horror game. A fully realized 3D environment where you we??ren't stuck to a desk and could move around, explore, and run from the robots.

Someday, I'm going to learn to trust my instincts instead of my o??ptimism.

CASE: Animatronics (PC)
Developer: Last Level, Aleson 
Publisher: HypeTrain Digital
Released: August 3, 2016
MSRP: $10.99

Stop me if you've heard this one before. It's nighttime and you're all alone. You're trapped in a building that's filthy with flesh eating animatronic mascots gone mad. The only information you have to work with is delivered to you by means of a cryptic one-way telephone conversat?ion. All you have to defend?? yourself with is a network of security cameras and your ability to outwit your mechanical menaces.

Hey, don't call it a rip-off. This time you're a detective, not a security guard.

The basic premise of CASE: Animatronics will be immediately familiar to anyone with even a cursory knowledge of the Five Nights at Freddy's series of games. The big selling point of CASE however is that unlike its direct inspiration, you're not confined to a small? security office. You can instead wander around the poorly rendered surro?undings (which in this case happen to be an entirely empty police station), poke around for clues, and play cat-and-mouse with the animatronics to avoid the predictable jump scare murder animation they usher in.

Of course, CASE wouldn't want to stray too far from the familiar formula, so you're given a tablet that provides a Five Nights-esque system of security cameras to peep through. You can cart it around in your off-hand and watch it passively while exploring, or take a more detailed look by bringing it up to full screen with a press of the tab button. Or, as I like to call it, the suicide button. The bu??tton you use to call a robot directly to your location. The button you press when you're tired of wandering and would rather watch the death animation again.

You also get a flash light. It blinks a lot. Spooky.

CASE doesn't make much of its? mobile freedom. There are a few basic puzzles to solve (with a dash of randomization to make them “interesting”), but mostly there is a whole lot of fruitlessly rifling through cabinets and looking in corners to find notes and keycards. It's a scavenger hunt game that does nothing to make the goodies you're looking for enticing.

The story in CASE (such as it is) is told through a series of notes that allude to a dark and tragic past, a possible conspiracy, the mu??rder of a young woman named Emma, and a bunch of other crap I lost interest in. It's all the intentionally vague mystery bullshit writers will crutch on when they want to seem deep and interesting but can't put t??ogether a real narrative.

Maybe what pissed me off the most about CASE's paper-thin horror movie cliché plot is that it doesn't even have the guts to commit to it. I won't “spoil” it but one of the later notes found in the collection completely deflates the narrative by suddenly spinning it into a joke. Like a shitty teenager posing tough in front of his high school buddies, CASE pretends it never really cared in the first place as soon as any re??al expectation of? an emotional or narrative payoff kicks in.

Playing hide-and-seek with the robots is not nearly as fun or interesting as it sounds. The robot's AI oscillates between “blind hunk of junk” and “heat-seeking predator missile” seemingly at random. Sometimes a robot will materialize out of thin air and chase you down like a cheetah pou??ncing on a particularly fat antelope. Other times, one will bumble around a room while you politely wait in a corner for it to leave. There is no consi??stency.

The lack of consistency becomes a real sticking point when you consider how painful it is to die in CASE. For some reason, almost every checkpoint is placed directly in front of a lengthy exposition scene. Every time you die, you can look forward to having to listen to the same cliché phone conversations again and again. Unfair deaths combined with tedium make CASE an excruciatingly dull experience.

The stealth system is severely undercooked. W??hile the sound design is actually pretty good, everything else is a mess. Elements you would think would affect your stealthiness seem to have no real effect. At one point, I huddled underneath a desk blinking my flashlight on and off with a robotic wolf standing not five feet away. He hung around for a few seconds before shuffling away without a worry. After that, I just left my light on all the time. Any potential tension? of wandering in the dark completely evaporated.

The tablet security monitor is unreliable at best. Mostly it just calls attention to all the times the game will randomly spawn a robot in an inopportune location to block you. It's bizarre to look down a hallway that'??s dominated by the?? silhouette of a hulking robot, while at the same time the monitor of the same hallway shows nothing. Chalk it up to spookiness, I suppose.

Of course CASE is aware that it is heavily inspired by the Five Nights series and includes some cheeky references to the franchise. Scattered in the notes are clumsy allusions to preparing the animatronics for their debut at a beloved “local pizzeria” and one of the three named characters in the game is called “Scott,” presumably in honor of the creator of the Five Nights brand.

I imagine this is intended to be fun. A kind of flirting with the series that obviously inspired the game. But it's so ham-fisted and obvious that it doesn't land right. It's like CASE is winking acro?ss the bar at Five Nights, but is in such a drunken stupor that it doesn't realize its fly is down and half its drink is dribbling down its chin. By morning, it will wake up in the quad with a bunch of dicks drawn on its face and a citation for public urination.

There are bugs aplenty. Robots traveling through walls, random bits of Russian text that pop up in one of the puzzles, and I experienced a hard lock-up in my short time with the game. There are also pointless clichés and lame attempts at unearned scares. At one point I was ambushed by a 2D sprite of a ghost girl straight out of an early 2000s J-horror movie. Her presence was never explained or referenced again. In another standout moment, the game literally makes you wait out the clock for 10-or-so minutes while inducing some Amnesia inspired screen distortion. It tries so hard to ape the trappings of better horror games that it never stops to think about how to use them. Mercifully, CASE is staggeringly short.

Depending on your luck with the randomly placed key-cards and robot AI (whether you get the T-800 chasing after you or the Furby with one droopy eyelid that doesn't blink anymore) it will take somewhere in the neighborhood of an hour or two. And when it ends, it ends. As soon as yo??u escape the police station it goes straight?? into a white dissolve and a logo splash screen. No epilogue, no wrap up, not even a voice over.

You know what? That's fine. A quick end is about the best that CASE: Animatronics could hope for.

The post Review: CASE: Animatronics appeared first on Destructoid.

'Post-apocalyptic rhythm metal'em all'

Taiko Drum Master is good, clean fun, but you know what it isn't? Metal. I mean, not just the material the game is made out of (plastic) or what actual taiko drums are built from (wood). But also the chipper J-pop just doesn't appeal to the same crowd that bites the heads off bats and ruins Rock Band pedals. Enter Double Kick Heroes.

Described as a "post-apocalyptic rhythm metal'em all," Double Kick Heroes features a raging metal band surviving on a zombie-infested highway, with only the manager's C??adillac and a wea?ponized drumset at their disposal. Check out the video; it looks rad. I love that demon train at the end, slowly creeping closer and closer to the car. It's so ominous.

Double Kick Heroes originally began as an entry to Ludum Dare 34 and is currently seeking approval on Steam Greenlight.

The post Double Kick Heroes’ multi-eyed demon train is metal as heck appeared first on Destructoid.

That's NES Castlevania

Brave Earth: Prologue was announced in 2011 and we last wrote about it 4 years ago. The latest game from I Wanna Be The Guy developer Michael "Kayin" O'Reilly' has popped up on Steam Greenlight (where it needs your votes to land on the games portal) and damn do??es it look hot.

Inspired by the likes of the original Castlevania and Ninja Gaiden (so, hey, not another metroidvania!), Brave Earth boasts a proper 8-bit aesthetic that?? would leave it looking right at home on the NES. And "a 2016 release is almost assured!"

Brave Earth has four difficulty settings that go as far as fill some pitfalls with blocks on the easiest setting, a nice bit of hand-crafted adjustment. There are "three main playable characrers with diverse abilities," too: Naomi vos Cruz, Sinlen Rothschild, and Trevor vos Cruz. You can catch more details over on its Greenlight page.

The post Impressive! 8-bit Castlevania-ins??pired Brave Earth looks legit appeared first on Destructoid.

GDC hands-on preview

During GDC I met with a couple of lovely Brazilian gents from Cat Nigiri, a studio whose logo is a kawaii-looking kitty draped under slab of raw fish. The duo was showing off its commander-less Keen, a Zelda-inspired game that's basically one?? big icy-floor-sliding puzzle.

Studio founder Caio Lopez explained how Cat Nigiri's previous worked on a handful of mobile games (Kitty KItchen, Popeman), but it's, "not what we wanted to do, we want to do better." There are some realities to face when you live in a country where a mix of poverty and import laws make piracy commonplace and paying for games is the exception. Hence a stab at the North America market with what has been, so far, a well-received campaign on Steam Greenlight.

That kind of recognition when you've been working on a game in relative isolation, Lopez said, was welcomed. And well-reasoned. From what I played, Keen is complete pastiche, but not a bad idea.

Keen is a "fusion of puzzle and action" that's "part Zelda-like dungeon exploring, part turn-based combat." The tight, single-screen puzzle layouts (and star-awarded accolades, like for clearing a stage in under so many turns) hint at the studio's past mobile experience, but as you pass the tutorial, these screens become pieces of larger, connected dungeons, not unlike the original Legend of Zelda.

Except that with Keen, ??everything's about movement. Enemies (talking pastiche, it's zombies and robots at the onset) only ?move when you do and only get a hit off if you land in an adjacent square to a live one. Kim will slash or stab depending on if there's an obstacle in the path, as all of her movements extend until she runs into something in the environment. So each screen can be a mix puzzling navigation (with extra wrinkles thrown in like switches that need to be activated) and slashing up fodder.

Lopez said that a "normal stage" would be "the size of this tutorial [that I played]," if not larger. The bit I played ended with a boss robot that drops mines every time he's hit, littering the playing field with extra obstacles. This structure lends itself to gyrating pacing, between zipping around slashing up fools to pausing, carefully calculating each movement and where enemies would move in kind. Additional enemies will not just be harder to kill, but add behaviors, like moving twice to your one step. Lopez assures that Keen is meant to be lean and that it won't lean on padding and "filler," which is always the right idea. If you think you might dig it, you can hat tip Keen on Greenlight en route to its early 2017 rel?ease.

The post I’m keen on Keen, a Zelda-inspired puzzler appeared first on Destructoid.

Seeking over $10 million in damages

_{[Disclosure: Jim Sterling is a former reviews editor at Destructoid]}

On March 4, 2016, James Romine (one-half of Digital Ho??????????????????????????micide, along with his brother Robert) filed a ci??vil suit against our old friend Jim Sterling, seeking $10,761,000 in damages; $2,261,000 in "direct product damage," $4,300,000 in "emotional, reputational, and financial distress," and $5,000,000 in "punitive damages." Add up those three numbers and you get $11,561,000 -- I do not know where the missing $800,000 went and I've read every publicly available court document.

According to court documents filed by Romine, the lawsuit centers around ten specific counts of libel. The complaint states that "The Defendant (Jim Sterling) falsely accus??ed The Plaintiff (Romine) and caused damage to reputation, damage to product, loss of product, and causing severe?? emotional distress to The Plaintiff, The Plaintiff has right to receive restitution for these damages."

The feud between the Romine brothers and Jim Sterling can be traced to a video where Sterling played a game called The Slaughtering Grounds, released under Digital Homicide's previous nom de plume ImminentUprising. If you've seen one video where a snarky gamer plays bad Steam games, you've seen them all -- Sterling's is no differe??nt. Since the video's release, Sterling and Digital Homicide have engaged in a near-litigious back-and-forth, culminating in this month's lawsuit.

The alleged damages include a claim from Sterling that Digital Homicide impersonated Polish game company ECC Games, harassment from Sterling's fanbase, and the fact that Sterling compared them to the Wet Bandits from Home Alone. This is not a joke.

More concrete is the claim that Digital Homicide spoke with Valve representatives Connor Malone and Tom Giardino, where they allegedly told Romine they would be disabling the company's developer account. Romine claims that he was able to convince Malone and Giardino to leave the account in exchange for de-listing the rest of Digital Homicide's then-current Steam Greenlight projects. We've reached out to Giardino for comment, since Malone's contact information does not currently appear on Valve's 'People' page.

Sterling is not currently commenting on the lawsuit, but he addressed the matter on his ask.fm page. "I have nothing yet to say about any legal situations. In unrelated news I am in a very confident mood today." In a comment sent to Gameranx and later to Destructoid, Sterling said he was "dealing with the situation" and re-emphasizing his confidence. Sterling has previously criticized Digital Homicide for pushing multiple games of low quality through the Steam storefront, most of which he claims are built e??xclusively using pre-purchased Unity assets.

In the course of his investigation into Digital Homicide, Sterling claims the company published multiple games under different banners, including "Micro Strategic Game Designs" and "ECC Games." Sterling also claims to have gotten in touch with previously existing company ECC Games Poland, where he quotes producer Dorota Muzynska as saying "We probably fell victim to a people previously known as Digita??l Homicide. We have already taken legal actions aimed at ceasing infringement of ECC Games rights." We have also reached out to ECC Games for comment regarding this claim.

When asked for comment, Robert Romine instead forwarded Destructoid his entire conversation with another gaming o??utlet. When pressed for comment on the questions we actually sent, Romine said they were not disclosing the names of the attorneys involved in the case. He also framed the case as a fight against online harassment. "We hope this case and documentation will show others they don't have to take it,?? what to do when it happens, and that those who do it will be punished."

Romine also told us that "re-printing defamatory materials in your own words would result in liability on your part," which sounds an awful lot like a threat to m??e.

According to multiple so??urces close to the story, Destructoid does not kowtow to threat?s.

The post Indie developer Digit??al Homicide sues Jim Sterling appeared first on Destructoid.

Dynasty Warriors + L4D = Grimm Eclipse

Rooster Teeth’s popular animated series RWBY is getting a game called RWBY: Grimm Eclipse, and is up for you to vote for on Greenlight should you want to.

Grimm Eclipse is a four-player co-op hack-and-slash that seems like it borrows some elements from the Dynasty Warriors and Left 4 Dead series, as ??well as a leveling system more often found in MOBA?s.

You’ll be able to play as four of the lead characters (Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang), and the game is meant to include a new story as opposed to just adapting the series. This all sounds pretty neat if you're a fan of RWBY, but for those who've not watched it ?yet it might be a little difficult?? to get into.

RWBY was originally created by Monty Oum, who, unfortunately, passed away back in February. The series is known for its high-speed and detailed fight sequences (seriously you should watch RWBY if you like over-the-top fighting), so whether Grimm Eclipse can replicate that will probably be critic??al to its success.

Still, I really like RWBY, and I have enough friends who do too that we could probably get some enjoyment out of this when it comes out. We can also loudly and obnoxiously sing Time to Say Goodbye while doi??ng it, so that’s good enough for?? me.

The post An official RWBY game is on greenlight, and it ??looks pretty great appeared first on Destructoid.

Lo-fi Firefly

When it comes to pixel art, there is good stuff and there is bad stuff. Recently launched on Kickstarter, Wanderer falls easily into the former category. I just love the look of the pixelate??d characters on the mo?re painterly backgrounds. On paper it doesn't sound like it should work, but it does.

Of course, there's more to Wanderer than just its look, and the rest looks intriguing as well. It has a role-playing game-style battle system with platforming elements incorporated into the exploration. That dog jump-dash move in the trailer, right? All of this is set in a science fiction universe that brings the cult classic television series Firefly to mind.

Wanderer is currently seeking approval on Steam Greenlight, and is about 10 percent to i?ts base funding goal of $70,000?? on Kickstarter.

The post Feast your eyes on sci-fi platformer-RPG Wanderer appeared first on Destructoid.

More delicious Disasterpeace music!

It has been nearly two years since River City Ransom: Underground was funded on Kickstarter, and the game has just recently went up for voting on Steam Greenlight with the above new trailer in tow. While you're giving it a watch be sure to look for the four person box stacking and a shark on the receiving end of a flying pile-driver a??nd listen for a wonderful soundtrack by one of my favorite artists, Disa??sterpeace. 

Can I gush about Disasterpeace for a minute? He has made some of my favorite chiptune albums and did the score for my movie of the year (thus far) It Follows, which is easily one of the best horror films I've seen in years. The fact that he is making the soundtrack to the sequel ??to one of my favorite games of all time has?? me giddy.

Okay, back to River City Ransom: Underground; it is said to be the sequel to the original though one could argue it had various followups in Japan, such as Downtown Special: Kunio-kun no Jidaigeki da yo Zen'in ?Shugo!, which were never localized. The River City Ransom series is better known as the Kunio-kun in Japan where there were around 15 games starring the sexy beast known as Kunio, including many sports games that came west as Super Dodgeball and Nintendo World Cup. 

Underground is set to feat??ure over 100 hand-drawn levels, over eight heroes to choose from, and a four player co-op campaign that can be played locally or online. I remember beating the original title in an afternoon, so the thought of having over 100 levels to play is a bit ??overwhelming, but would certainly be a great time with three other friends.

I seriously encourage everyone reading this that has ever been a fan of beat 'em ups to go to the Steam Greenlight page now and vote for River City Ransom: Underground; don't make me BARF!

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And other ball-related puns

We might just be in a new renaissance of "roll the ball to the goal" games right now. Super Impossible Road showed us the benefits of breaking the rules. Polyball took it to a trippy otherworld. Now we have word about Roll Playing Game, which came with the description "a ??rhythm-driven puzzle? platformer to marble at." Oh, puns. Some developers know the way to my heart.

Even without the pun, Roll Playing Game has a striking, Tron-esque look to it. Though the trailer below showcases more of the action, developer Kai Hillenbrand stresses that it features puzzles and a story to unfold as the spherical protagonist avoids the giant red?? rollers in its quest for Ballhalla. And we're back to puns again.

Roll Playing Game has already been approved on Steam Greenlight. It is expected to rele?ase for Linux and Windows (no Mac?) this fall.

The post Roll Playing Game gets the ball rolling this fall appeared first on Destructoid.

All looks a bit fishy

[Update: It appears as though this may well have been an unfortunate misunderstanding, as the save location on the version of Big Fish Legend ava?ilable from Alawar actually mentions Igry.ru. This screenshot showing the location has been tweeted to us:

While this still doesn't confirm Igry.ru have the distribution rights to Big Fish Legend, it makes it much more likely they they di??dn't simply copy and upload the ga?me to Greenlight as was suspected. 

This also still does not answer the??ir actions while going through the Greenlight process. We are currently still waiting for a response from Alawar.]

A game recently released on Steam called Big Fish Legend may have been stolen from its original developers, according to m??essage recieved by Destructoid. According? to claims sent privately to Destructoid, it may not be being sold by the true developers.

The Steam page claims it is developed and published by a company calle?d Igry.ru, and is being sold for $6.29/£4.49. All seems above the board at fir?st, but the claims we received do have weight to them.

Igry.ru isn’t a known developer, instead it is a free flash game website in Russia, hosting a whole load of games with dubious copyrights. Big Fish Legend is its only game released on Steam.

It’s also worth pointing out the only reason Big Fish Legend even got through the Greenlight process is due to promising keys for votes, a practise slammed by Valv??e a whi??le back.

Big Fish Legend is also available as a free demo on the site of Russian developer and publisher Alawar. It already has a presence on Steam, having released quite a few games already. Companies registered as publishers on Steam don’t need to use Greenlight, and c??an simply? release games themselves.

If Alawar wanted to put its free title Big Fish Legend on Steam, why would it be doing ??a Greenlight under the name of a totally different company? A company which is already known as hosting Flash games?

Now this could all be a big misunderstanding. It is worth pointing out this is based on claims and rumours from unconnected parties at the moment. Igry.ru mig??ht well be making a push into the publishing space, and this could all be totally above-board.

Dest??ructoid?? has contacted Alawar for comment, and we will update should we hear from them.

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Capers, please

Papers, Please released a couple years ago, but it struck a chord with many who played it. One of the most discussed elements was the decision-making process between doing what is right and doing what is necessary. First-person role-playing game Family Man looks to take a close ??look at that aspect through the lens of the 2008 financial crisis.

Normally I shy away from the low-polygon look of a lot of 3D indie games (though there are always exceptions), but the trailer and the premise behind Family Man have me intrigued. Following the descent from a decent job to a less desirable one to a life of crime could be a poignant commentary on the world today. I'm mostly curious to see how developer Blue Button Games handles player choice; branching pathways and multiple endings are advertised, so it could be interesting to see what happens to those who don't go d?own the path of murder-for-hire.

Family Man is currently seeking approval on Steam Greenlight, with an expected release next year for PC.

The post Suffer through economic recession in indie?? RPG Family Man appeared first on Destructoid.

The joke is its penis is the gearstick

Remember that time Laura jacked off a car? Yeah, it’s the reason she’s banned from every Kwik-Fix and? car d??ealership in Britain.

[Editor's Note: I was only banned from a couple of Michelin Tyre Centres, okay?]

Well now you too can tightly grasp a Volvo’s thick shaft, and make that engine purr, because developer Robert Yang has put the game on Steam Greenlight.

Look, whether you think this game looks good or?? not doesn’t matter. We could get a game about jerking a car’s gherkin onto the front page of Steam. If that’s not a cause we could all rally behind, I don’t know what is.

The post Mechano??philes rejoice, Stick Shift is on green?light appeared first on Destructoid.

Shadow of the Colossus of the sea

It's starting to feel like underwater adventure games are set to become the next big thing. With upcoming titles like Subnautica, ABZÛ, and Neptune, Have Mercy, it looks? like we're going to be spending a lot of time diving into digital undersea worlds. And I'm defini??tely okay with that!

The latest submarine adventure comes from Swedish indie studio YCJY. The Aquatic Adventure of the Last Human will feature a lone survivor in a flooded post-apocalyptic world populated by terrifying giant sea creatures. It will have a heavy focus on exploration and boss battles, taking inspiration from games such as Shadow of the Colossus and Super Metroid, as well as visual inspiration from games like Teleglitch. The boss battles look? especially exciting; check out that octopus!

YCJY is currently looking to Kickstarter and Steam Greenlight to try and get the game off the ground.? I wish the studio luck, because I need more games like this in my life!

The post The ?Aquati??c Adventure of the Last Human has awesome underwater boss battles appeared first on Destructoid.

Kill The F*ggot dev refuses request

[Update #2: In a tweet by Cruachan, it h?as been revealed that Skaldic Games have agreed to no longer use Cruachan's or Rachel Lally's contributions in The Shelter.]

Confirmation this morning. @SkaldicGames will NOT use our voices or music, or @AphroditeSent. Common sense prevails. Thank u all who helped.

— Cruachan (@CruachanClan) May 13, 2015

[Update: Destructoid have been provided with copies of the involved contracts. We have po??sted below the section which seems most relevent to these legal proceedings. The below section prevents retraction of works and right to sue based on content in the game, but it only references this post release.]

Last week, Destructoid reported on “Kill The F*ggot”, a game by Skaldic Games that was removed from Steam Greenlight for homophobic and transphobic content. The game rewarded the player for? killing stereotypes of gay men and trans women, punished players for killing straight men, and caused a very large public backlash.

In response, voice actors and musicians involved in Skaldic’s other game The Shelter pulled out of the project en masse. When distancing itself from Skaldic, Irish folk metal band Cruachan labelled the game “vile”, while voice actress and model Rachel Lally sa?id she was “truly offended”. Both claim at the time of providing voice acti?ng and music for the game, they we?re misled regarding the context their work would be used in.

It has now been revealed that Skaldic is refusing to remove Cruachan and Rachel Lally’s contributions from the developer's games. Both have tweeted about the situation publicly:

Skaldic have ?informed? us they will use our voices anyway despite being requested not to. Anyone in a position to offer legal advise?

— Rachel Lally (@AphroditeSent) May 11, 2015

Skaldic games have informed us the?y will use our voices anyway despite being requested not to. Anyone in a ??position to offer legal advise?

— Cruachan (@CruachanClan) May 11, 2015

However, email conversations between Cruachan and Skaldic Games have this morning been aquired by Destructoid. Skaldic claims that as it previously signed an agreement, Skaldic still has permission to use Cruachan and Lally?’s works and refuses to remove them fro??m the game:

“Just letting you know Cruachan's music WILL appear in The Shelter, along with yours and Rachel's voices. You signed an agreement with your music and your voices. Come take legal action if you want, but whether you like it or not, you signed an agreement. You and Rachel sending me an email saying you want out of the game is not legal grounds to remove you from the game. I will still honor all payments to you once the game is released.”

It is importa??nt to note that this particular exchange confirms to us that the artists requesting their work be removed have currently not been paid by the developer for services rendered.

In response to this, Cruachan argues that as its music is published via a ?record label, the band canno??t itself license the music out:

“Circumstances have changed so much that yes, legally we have a right to no longer appear in your game. I spoke with my record label and I had no authorisation to permit any Cruachan music or logo to appear in the game. Trollzorn Records own the rights to all Cruachans back catalogue and logos, images etc. You will be receiving separate correspondence from them.”

 However, Cruachan’s voice acting for the ga??me is not owned ??by Trollzorn:

“That leaves me to deal with my voice recordings on my own as they told me there is nothing they can do in this regard. So, I ask you now again - please do not use any of my voice recordings. So much has happened in the media and from your side to make my release form null and void. If you release any game with my voice work, I will take all necessary legal action against you.”

In another email from Skaldic:

“As for your music, I remember you said I could use them music from the older albums, not from the new one. So I was not going to have anything from Blood for the Blood God appear in the game, so no reason to get Trollzorn involved since they don't own the rights to the older albums. As for band logo, I won't use that in the game.”

Cruachan then claims that Trollzorn owns the rights to its back catalogue as well as its newe??st releases. In response to this, the conversation gets meaner with one very short email from Skaldic:

“Then I will see Trollzorn, and you / Rachel in court then :)”

Cruachan then argues that it is within its rights to retract permission as The Shelter hasn’t been published yet.

The response from Skaldic ?again has a very unprofessional tone and more thinly veiled threats:

“You must be confusing you country's law with America's law. It's not just consent as you mentioned, it was a signed legal document drafted by a lawyer. You already signed an agreement saying your voice cannot be removed from the game due to the game's content. You and Rachel are the ones that embarrassed yourself, complaining to various websites and newspapers about everything. You failed to mention to them that you already recorded and signed a legal release for allowing your voice in the game, so you two are going to be the ones embarrassed by all the fuss you made once the game will be released with your voices in the game anyways.”

Part of Cr??uachan's final reponse to Skaldic in this email chain was:

"we made 2 statements distancing ourselves from that sick game you made. the papers came to us."

And there you have it. Skaldic is refusing to remove Cruachan’s contributions following the release of "Kill The F*ggot". Rachel Lally has told Destructoid that Skaldic ha?s not contacted her in regards to this situation at all, while Cruachan has told us The Advocate -- an LGBT+ rights magazine and website -- is assisting them with this matter. It also appears that Cruachan has found an LGBT lawyer willing to present them for free.

Whether legal proceeding will take place, we don’t know. We’ve approached Skaldic Games for comment on this, and will update it if we hear from it.&??nbsp;

The post Skaldic G????????????????????????????ames refuses to remove VAs following anti-LGBT game appeared first on Destructoid.

No more 'Kill The Faggot'

Congratulations, we have a new winner for most offensive game to appear on Steam Greenlight! Skaldic Games, run by christian game developer Randall Herman, yesterday put a game up on Steam Greenlight called Kill The Faggot. In Kill The Faggot you're rewarded for shooting gay m?en and trans women, whi?le being punished for killing straight men. 

How could you tell who to kill in the game? Well, gay men wore pink tops and trans women were caricatured men in dresses grasping at their genitals. Kills are rewarded with full screen, slur filled prompts about which minority group you successfully murdered. Killing gay men is worth points. Killing trans women is worth even more points. Killing straight men lowe?rs your score. I wonder why people got offended by its existence?

So, why did the developer make this game? Apparently to prove how the world is overly sensitive to LGBT righ?ts.

"I decided to release it on Greenlight to see people's reactions, The reason behind this particular game is because of how tired I am of people being overly sensitive and how easily offended people are by every little thing, especially with LGBT issues."

"I didn't make this game to attack LGBT people personally, and no I don't hate gays and think they should be treated fairly, but I made this game just to piss off those people that are way too overly sensitive, which includes straight people, These people that think if you are even remotely homophobic, you are 'hateful' and a 'bigot', and do everything they can to destroy you in every vicious way possible."

Thankfully, not only was thew game pulled from Greenlight within just a few hours, but multiple voice actors and musicians who worked for the?? studio have revoked rights to use of their work. Apparently many ??were misled about the context their work would be used in.

While the upcoming release of Hatred seems to employ an equal-opportunity stance toward the murder of civilians, Kill The Faggot? targeted the murder of a specific minority group that already has to fear a higher rate of murder than the general population. Thankfully, the game was met with almost universal condemnation and has since been pulled from Greenlight.

The post Homophobic and transphobic game pulled fro??m Greenlight appeared first on Destructoid.

I don't think that's how astronomy works

I kept coming back to the We Are the Dwarves! email that was sent in to Destructoid a few days ago. On the one hand, it isn't especially clear what kind of game it is or how it plays. The Steam Greenlight page lists action, adventure, and?? strategy under its genres, so it could really be anything. The trailer shows some enemy-slicing combat, but it doesn't l?ook like in-game action.

And yet, I watched the trailer (above) and the introductory cinematic (below) a few times each. It has a cool setup involving a group of dwarves riding in a spaceship down into the water beneath their homes (I guess dwarves call submarines "spaceships"). I'm particularly drawn to the asymmetry in the three protagonists; it reminds me of The Lost Vikings, even though I'm sure it doesn't play like that.

We Are the Dwarves! has already gone through Greenlight and is?? expected to release for PC at the end of thi??s year.

The post We Are the Dwarves! searches fo?r stars in the dept?hs of the earth appeared first on Destructoid.

Have you ever licked dirt? It ain't all that bad.

Games are often too hectic with all that blood, gore and babies crawling out of a dead woman’s nipples (thanks, Dante’s Inferno). Sometimes I consider taking up another hobby like gardening, or magic mushrooms. Unfortunately both of those involve going outside and so Earthtongue is here to save the day.

Earthtongue’s a game by indie developer Eric Hornby where you lovingly tend to a garden of bugs and mushrooms on an alien planet. Or you can leave it all to handle itself. Or you can tear shit up and unleash a horde of locusts to obliterate the freaking ecosystem forever. Or you can gently breed cute bugs. It’s a pretty strange game, and not something I’d h??ave expected to get through the Greenlight system, but lo and behold it has.

yep! Earthtongue will be ava??ilable on steam Apri?l 27th!

— EricHermit (@Erichermit) April 21, 2015

Hornby has announced the game will be coming to Steam on April 27, but has been available on Itch.io for quite a while for the cost of $5 or, interestingly, by paying with a?? piece of fan art. Someone send hi?m an interpretive dance about two beetles banging and see what happens.

There’s mushroom for growth in the genre and this game seems like a fun-gi, so we’ll see if it spore-ns any copycats aft?er its release. There’s the necessary fungal puns that quali??fy me as a writer, now get the hell out of my space garden.

The post Earthtongue lets you grow shrooms on April 27 appeared first on Destructoid.

With marginal success

At a base level, I think I understand what's going on in Circa Infinity. While on the outside of a circle??, the player character needs to get to a wedge to move inside. While on the inside of a circle, the player character needs to jump to? the next circle. Return to step one; repeat.

Watching the video above, I'm not totally convinced I'd be able to do it. At least, I wouldn't be able to do it with the same speed and grace shown in the trailer. Student developer Kenny Sun describes it as "Super Hexagon as a puzzle-platformer." If I can take all the time I need to go from one obstacle to the next, I'm in. I'm not sure if that fits the Super Hexagon-like bill though.

Still, Circa Infinity looks cool, and it's looking for some support to get on Steam. It is planned for Linux, Mac, and Windows, and it is currently seeking approval on Steam Greenlight. A public demo should be available on April 30.

The post I’m trying to wrap my head around Circa Infinity appeared first on Destructoid.

Commit crimes without consequence

Garbage Day is an open-world sandbox title on Steam Greenlight that sticks players in a seemingly endless time loop that can in fact be broken. ??????????????????????????(But how?)

The basic premise is similar to the hit Bill Murray comedy Groundhog Day except, you know, the whole shooting people's heads off thing. And slicing. You can slice limbs off and there's a gif to prove it. Grim as that might sound, th??e graphics are crude in an endearing, low-pol??y way.

"When you wake up you still know the information from the previous day and this influences the dialogue choices," reads the description. "Be a ruthless killer or become the friendliest ne?ighbor to have ever walked the earth. Nothing matters when you're stuck in the same day for eternity... But ma??ybe there's a way out."

I'm hopeful it will be possible to complete Garbage Day without resorting to violence (though I'm totally going to do that initially). This trash isn't going to take itself out!

The post Garbage Day does the ol’ Groundhog Day time loop appeared first on Destructoid.

Wanna scrub that dad

Laura first reported on Shower With Your Dad Simulator 2015 last week, but we didn't know many details about the game yet. A few days ago, the dad-showering simulator went up on Steam Greenlight? with a trailer and new info, awaiting the approval of the ga?mers.

The game will feature three dads, four different game modes, a free soundtrac??k, and SECRETS! What secrets could lie in a shower room filled with dripping wet dads? Nobody kno??ws for certain, but the possibilities fill me with excitement.

The developer has also been reveling in the negative pre?ss he's been receiving since the game appeared on Greenlight, with "endorseme??nts" from the likes of Jim Sterling and Total "That's it, I hate videogames" Biscuit. Personally, I think it looks hilarious. I can't wait to shower with my dad!

The post Shower With Your Dad Simulator? ??2015 washes up on Steam Greenlight appeared first on Destructoid.

Valve puts a stop to this practice

It seems as though developers pushing games through release via Steam Green?light have been promising keys as a means of amassing votes from prospective buyers. Not that this notion is surprising in any way, but it's certainly a shady practice that Valve is?? now seeking to stop.

In a post in the Steam Greenlight developer group, user Alden outlines the practice, where developers give away copies of their game via drawings or direct distribution ?in exchange for votes to get the game in question greenlit.

The post details the submission guidelines for prospective developers, and states that each submission must have a gameplay trailer, four screenshots, and a written description. It also makes it very clear that gameplay i??s absolutely important, noting that if the game is too early in the development process for that sort of thing, you don't actually have a game at all and are promoting a concept instead.

Hopefully this will level the playi?ng field as far as wh?at gets greenlit and pushed through the process to be listed on Steam, and make things a little fairer for everyone.

@SteamDB [Twitter]

The post Sorry, Greenlight developers, no more offering Steam ke?ys for votes appeared first on Destructoid.

Don't starve, freeze

Impact Winter looked cool when it showed up last year on Kickstarter, but potential backers gave it an icy reception; it only made about 22% of its initial funding goal. Any who were worried that it may not see the light of d?ay can chill out; developmen?t on the survival adventure has not frozen.

Indeed, the project has moved onto Steam Greenlight with a projected release window?? of 2016, hoping that Steam users won't give it the cold shoulder. It may be a long ways off still, but even in its early alpha state it's snow slouch in the visual department. Destructoid will contin??ue to keep its ice on the project.

The post Impact Winter’s post-apocalyptic squad survival goes to Greenlight appeared first on Destructoid.

With an interesting luck mechanic

Luck is a concept rarely addressed directly in games. Sure, there are tons of games that use random number generators for everything from environment generation to damage calculation, and luck does factor into those. But the way Luckslinger takes it on feels unique: luck is a resource to be managed and it affects the world?? in obvious ways.

If the player has a lot of luck, life-saving platforms may appear at just the right moment. If the player is down on his luck, loose boulders may fall on his head. There is a Russian roulette minigame in there, for those willing?? to push their?? luck.

The other strange thing about Luckslinger is the genre mashup it uses.? It's a 2D shooter set in the wild west, but it features an instrumental hip-hop soundtrack. Hmmm.

Luckslinger is currently on Steam Greenlight and Kickstarter seeking a low funding goal of €7,000 (about $8,000).

The post Luckslinger blends 2D shooting, weste?rns, and hip-hop appeared first on Destructoid.

It's been a long time coming, but it's been well worth the wait

I've been talking with Berlin-based solo developer Johannes "Dek" Märtterer since early September of last year. Some of you may already be familiar with his work. He's the creator of the charming neo-retro-styled roguelike platformer Path to the Sky, which, I should mention, has already been Greenlit on Steam.

Newer details on the game have been relatively scant in the last several months as he's been hard at work on the title, but if you've followed his website or his Twitter account y??ou may have seen some newer .gifs lifted from the build demonstrating progress that's been made.

Now that Path to the Sky is tentatively slated for release on Steam Early Access in Q2 2015, Dek's been kind enough to take the time out of his busy schedule to share with us some important details about the game i??tself and allowed us to premier the first official teaser seen above.

In Path to the Sky, you'll play the role of a hired crewman aboard a spice trading vessel sailing the Indian Ocean during the 17th century. While on route, the ship is sacked and plundered by buccaneers. The vessel is sunk and its crew is lost to th?e sea. Alone, you find yourself stranded on the beach of an unknown island. This is where the adventure begins...

The player's main objective is, of c??ourse, to stay alive and ultimately ascend to the topmost portions of the island in hopes for a rescue. However, things get complicated quickly as it turns out that the island is inhabited by various kinds of hostile birds which seem none too happy about your encroachment on their island home.

Dek classifies Path to the Sky as "a procedurally generated roguelike platformer," which "inherits many ?of the things we associate from classic roguelikes, such as replayability, randomly generated items and levels; and, of course, swift and painful death." Permadeath to be more specific. You'll have only one shot to make it to the top, so you'll need to make it ??count.

Path deviates from the norm somewhat in that it reverses the roguelike principle of entering a dungeon and descending floors; instead, as mentioned earlier, you'll be tasked to climb ever upwards. The higher you?? climb, the harder the challenges you will face.

Physics will play an i?ntegral part within the game's design. The developer elaborates on this by saying that "the player can interact with the environment in a very direct way. For example, shoot an arrow -- it can bounce off a wall and hit an enemy taking cover behind an obstacle. Shoot an arrow through a fire that you've made, and you'll create a burning arrow -- and, with any luck, burning enemies."

A good deal of thought has gone into inventory management as well. There is no magic Bag of Holding that will allow you carry around everything that you find. Instead, the player can only physically pick up items and place them on his back (max of five at the start) or put them back down on the ground again. Because you can only carry around a limited number of things, crafting will work more in a puzzle-like way rather than just allowing you to h??orde everything and create items on demand.

As mentioned, you'll have the ability to craft new and more useful items as you explore the island. For example, you might come across a stick and a feather. Carry the stick to the feather and place it next to it and you'll create an arrow. Once crafted, the item represented by the arrow will function ??as a quiver of sorts -- one "arrow" will represent roughly ten shots, with a maximum carrying capacity of around 30. "I don't want to make arrows something the player has to worry about too much, but I still want them to have to prepare for the bigger fights."

The developer wraps&nb??sp;things up saying that "there are many other things planned that are not shown in teaser provided for us today, but will be featured in finalized version of trailer, which we'll be seeing later." Examples include "friendly birds that can be controlled by the player to pick up items for you, or remotely activate parts of a puzzle." And, of course, "tons of different it?ems, enemies and environments."

Dek also mentions that local co-op implementation is currently in the works, so for fans o??f teaming up with a friend definitely have something to look forward to.

For a one-person development team, I really have to admire how much he's accomplished. Path to the Sky looks incredible o??n multiple levels. Whether you're a fan of retro-inspired pixel art, challenging platform games, or rougelike randomness ?and permadeath, Dek's labor of love has a little of something for everyone.

The post Path to the Sk??y teaser debut, game details revealed appeared first on Destructoid.

Purple trees? I'm listening

I don't know when I'll be in a state of mind to play another "sandbox survival experience," but I do like the look of GRAV and its vibrant alien worlds. The dancing is a ?nice? touch, too.

This is a PC game in development at BitMonster, a studio founded a couple years back by former Epic Games developers (and also a pair of adorable dogs). It ticks off the usual boxes: resource ga??thering, crafting, modular base building, procedural generation, r??anged/melee combat, player versus player but, again, the setting appears to be the defining characteristic.

BitMonster is hoping to push GRAV through Steam Greenlight and ??release it on Early Access, which I'm sure it'll be able to do in no time -- the game seems like something Steam users at large would be into. They can play it and provide feedback while I wait for the finished version.

The post GRAV is a survival sandbox set on alien worlds appeared first on Destructoid.