I told myself I wasn’t going to pick up any more games for coverage, and then the key for Star Trucker showed up. Whoops. It’s been one of my most anticipated games this year, alongside Uncle Chop’s Rocket Shop and Hollywood Animal. Too bad I can’t keep track of release dates.

So, I jammed Star Trucker into my schedule as best I could, but I was still unable to get to a point where I feel confident in full??y reviewing it. It should be soon, though, so I’m going to be real quick with this.

Star Trucker (PC [Reviewed], Xbox Series X|S)
Developer: Monster and Monster
Publisher: Raw Fury
Released: September 3, 2024
MSRP: $24.99

Star Trucker is a game about trucking through the stars. Technically, portions of games like Elite and X4 involve space trucking, but Star Trucker is entirely about that life. To make up for the lack of space combat and mining, the star truck itself is very detailed. You can walk around its interior, organize your space supplies, and do maintenance. You’re not playing as the truck, but rather the eponymous Star Trucker.

Maintenance is very simple. You replace power cores whenever they get depleted, UCCs when they break, and air filters when you can’t breathe. If you hit space debris, it might punch holes in your truck, and you’ll need to spacewalk to fix it. It’s not super deep, but it’s a lot deeper than you commonly get in ??thi??s genre.

You use this star truck to grab delivery jobs, pick up the cargo, and take it where it needs to go. There are varying types of cargo, and new hazards show up, but it’s largely point-to-point. However, there are jobs offered by NPCs that offer a bit more variety and contain what storyline Star Trucker has. There are also hazards like electrical storms and solar flairs that? you need to protect yourself from. Aside from that, it’s what it says on th??e jar.

Star Trucker has a lot of visual polish, and the dev team seems to have had a strict plan for what they wanted to includ?e and managed to p?revent a lot of feature creep. It’s tight. I ran into some bugs with the pre-release version, but nothing too obstructive. One dude in a little forklift-like vehicle rammed me, which I didn’t appreciate. I appreciated less when someone rear-ended my truck while I was spacewalking, forcing me to fly all the way back to it. The little moments.

The game’s economy has given me some headaches. An air filter is, ??like, $3000 (if I recall accurately), and, at least into the game’s midpoint, most jobs pay considerably less than that. You have four spots for air filters, so good luck buying enough to fill them. Cores drain rather quickly, even when you have the highest quality. I’ve been able to maintain some level of profitability, so it isn’t completely unreasonable, but it can be vexing when you’re forced to keep jumping into your space suit because your air filter is bust and you can’t find a new one in the store.

I also refuse to take another “Just in Time�job. Those aren’t rush jobs, by the way. They have a threshold that you can’t deliver before, so the delivery can’t be completed early. There is no way to advance time in Star Trucker aside from jumping to a new region, and your truck continues to degrade all its cores and filters and UCCs while you sit there waiting. You can turn off some systems to conserve your parts, but I wouldn’t recommend switching off oxygen. I’m always early. I’m always left waiting on these jobs. Never again.

Star Trucker has been a reasonably good time so far. I’m about 14 hours in, but I want to try and complete some more story missions before I give a full report. I’m not expecting the narrative to get amazi?ng, but later areas could potentially add some cool gameplay twists.

I will also get a bit more detailed in the full review, which I’m hoping to have done later this week. For now, it’s worth trying out. It takes some of the enjoyable parts of terrestrial trucking games, combines them with space simulators, and adds a bit of depth and character. I’ve enjoyed the time I’ve put into Star Trucker, but I still have to see how it ??performs on a lo??ng haul.

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Come on, let’s go star truckin�

Raw Fury has announced that they’re bringing Monster and Monster’s star-hauling game, Star Trucker, to PC in 2024.

I know what you’re thinking, “Isn’t Elite Dangerous just another name for Star Trucker?�Yes! Except Star Trucker is a more literal version of that. It’s more like if you jammed Elite Dangerous into Euro Truck Simulator 2 and then removed all the superfluous bits. For example, I see no mention of space pirates or combat of any kind within the walls of thi??s press release. Nor in the twangy trailer.

//youtu.be/0ByyuI-azZs

What I do see is the kind of approach I love. There’s this slowly building philosophy in the sub-mainstream game development community where tactile gameplay is beginning to slide in. Specifically, when it comes to driving games, there’s a push to make you feel more like a person in a vehicle rather than the vehicle itself. That means having to get out and perform maintenance or take care of your meat-vessel needs. This is in contrast to games like Euro Truck Simulator 2, where you?? hav??e no real existence outside of your truck.

We're star truckin' round the stars

The trailer doesn’t show off a lot of gameplay, but it does depict things like patching holes in your truck. It looks like you activate things within your truck by actually looking at them and interacting. Moreover, during the sequence where the player fixes the exterior of their space-truck, you get a glimpse of the inter?ior, and it seems to be more than just a cockpit.

That’s more-or-less just speculation. What Star Trucker does promise is hauling jobs, goods of the legal and less-than-legal variety, and customization of your space-rig. There’s also a CB Radio that allows you to “interact with a fully voiced cast of characters for an authentic trucking experience.�/p>

PC is the only announced platform for Star Trucker, while the re?lease window is for the wide-open road of 2024.

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Take the Leap

Publisher Raw Fury, in association with developer Shedworks, has announced that the critically acclaimed sci-fi adventure Sable will be coming to PS5 next month, following on from its previous release on Xbox an?d PC platforms in the fall of 2021.

Sable, for those yet to have experienced it, is an ethereal adventure game set within the isolated desert lands of The Midden. Players guide a mysterious protagonist as they venture across the plains and dunes astride a futuristic hoverbike, search??ing lonely caves, crumbling ruins, and encountering forgotten nomadic civilizations while on a search for their own identity.

You can check out Sable's fascina??ting world and evocative visual style in the trailer below.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0dPJN1Y8hM

Upon release, the title was praised for its enigmatic and open narrative, as well as its striking visuals and beautiful score, composed by artist Japanese Breakfast. The PS5 edition will feature the game in its entirety, with further optimization for the DualSense' Haptic Feedback technology. In addition, the PS5 version will feature a new fishing mini-game, allowing the player to g??ather rare breeds of finned wonderment to display in an in-game aquarium. As we all know, it isn't a real game without fishing.

Sable will launch on PS5 November 29. It is avail??able right now on PC an?d Xbox platforms.

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Who Goes There?

Publisher Raw Fury (of Sable fame) has released an intriguing but incredibly eerie trailer for upcoming psychological horror title My Work is Not Yet Done. The lo-fi survival adve??nture is currently in development for PC at indie outfit Sutemi Prod?uctions. A release date was not revealed.

In My Work is Not Yet Done, players will take control of Avery, the last surviving member of an investigative who trekked deep into strange and uncharted country to source a mysterious radio transmission. A brain-heavy piece, the new title will com?bine investigative and analytical mystery alongside the simulation of surviving as a single person in a changing, isolated, and deeply unnerving environment.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=sC0fSDi5b4g

As Avery, players will be tasked with continuing the work of her departed investigative team, staying one step ahead of death and insanity while uncovering the clues that will lead to an almost indecipherable phenomenon. From the official blurb, My Work is Not Yet Done appears doom-laden, suggesting that the team's �Avery's �task may be unfinishable, as each and every day brings with it further mystery, more questions than answers, and ??the smothering cloud of both isolation and mortal fear. Heavy stuff.

Regardless, with its creepy, staccato imagery, immersive atmosphere, and non-linear approach to adventure, Sutemi's new release might prove to b?e a real sleeper hit for those who like their horror a littl?e on the cerebral side. Definitely worth battering down the brain hatches for, at any rate.

My Work is Not Yet Done is currently in development for PC.

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Sometime you just gotta shoot your friends

Sometimes you see a trailer for a game and think, "yeah, that checks all my boxes." Colorful? Yup. Card-based? Go on. Shooter? I'm there. That's what I was thinking when I saw the trailer for Friends vs. Friends during the Gamescom stream today.

We got a first look at the game through song, which told us a bit about what to expect. From the looks of it, you'll be fighting against friends, although it's unclear whether that means your in-univ??erse friends or real-life ones. You can play onli?ne with 1v1 or 2v2 combat, either with friends or other players online. With such a fun art style, though, I'm usually always on board for indies like this to get a look at what it's all about.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=W06-Ff9r0cY

Friends vs. Friends will be releasing on PC and consoles, and it's available to wishlist now on Steam. The game is being published by Raw Fury, who have a pretty awesome?? track record with indie games, so I have hope that this'll be a fun little romp.

We don't have any sort of release date yet, so we'll have to be patient on that fr??ont. I'm always itching for a new shooter to try out, so this is one that I'll be looking for??ward to.

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Where is my camera?

One of the most compelling things a game can do in my eyes is have a clear artistic vision and go balls-to-the-wall in order to execute it. American Arcadia is one of those games. From the very first trailer I saw, I knew it was going to be one of those titles that delivers on aesthetic and concept, which can either be spectacular, or flop on its face. After playing a preview of American Arcadia?? for the Tribeca Games Fest, I have a feeling it wil??l be leaning toward the former.

Sometimes a game can bite off more than it can chew with a bunch of different elements �more complexity isn't always better. There's certainly much more game than what I got to play of American Arcadia, but from what I did get to see, it looks like a really fun balance of different styles of art and gameplay. It's got a little bit of retro-future '70?s flair, a little bit of voyeuristic, capitalist dread, some platforming, some puzzles, some snarky dialogue �and yet somehow, it all works togeth?er.

Premise is everything

The story follows Trevor, a man who thinks he's living a normal life, but it turns out he and all of the other citizens of Arcadia are being broadcast live 24/7. Sound familiar? It's inspired by The Truman Show, but actually gives the concept an interesting new twist instead of resting on its laurels. That's one of my favorite movies, so seeing a game take the conceit and run with it is ??really cool as a fan.

The twist is that a hacker on the outside, Angela, has taken an interest in Trevor, and wants to help him escape. American Arcadia's story cuts between the two characters as?? they try to navigate the escape, with Angela using the camera feeds and controls to clear the way for Trevor to get the hell out of dodge.

Let's talk gameplay

Trevor's port??ion of the game has 2.5D side-scrolling gameplay with platforming, chases, and puzzles, while Angela's perspective is first-person with exploration, stealth, and hacking. At first I thought that these two halves of the game would feel too disparate and detached from one another, but like I said, from the section of the game that I played, they actually seem to balance each other out quite nicely.

To be frank, none of the gameplay elements seem to really be reinventing the wheel here, but the real magic comes from how all of the different pieces and sequences fit together to create the overall experience. There's a certain lack of cont??rol in Trevor's section that you don't really notice until you play as Angela, and that makes for some pretty powerful stuff.

Aesthetic, color, and theme

Art style is more important to me than I care to admit when it comes to games, and American Arcadia has one of the prettiest aesthetics I've seen in a while. It's a visual feast that knocks its retro-future '70s visuals right out of the park. Walking through the office building that Trevor works in was something out of a groovy capitalisti??c fever dream, and I love it �never in my life did I ever think I would see a conversation pit for cubicles. What a fun, campy detail that actually demonstrates these characters' relationships to their work, and if that's any indication of what the rest of the game is going to be like, I think we're in for a treat.

What I think is most impressive about American Arcadia and its use of so many different elements is how well it uses its dual protagonist/dual gameplay styles to reflect on the story's main themes. We don't get to see the world through Trevor's eyes (at least as far as we know at this point??), but instead through the voyeuristic perspective that others have been seeing him through his entire life.

While Ang?ela is trying to get Trevor to a place where he will have his own autonomy, she is still controlling everything he does in order to get him there. This game raises a lot of intere??sting questions just on premise alone, so I'm really looking forward to seeing how they address those plot elements in the full experience. Just as how the contrasting perspectives make for some compelling gameplay, they also make for a compelling story as well.

It's on the wish list, for sure

As a narrative-lover, American Arcadia is at the very top of my list of games to look forward to. Out of the Blue Games knows how to deliver on style, as we've seen with their first release Call of the Sea, so I have nothing but confidence that Arcadia will be one? of the most enjoyable and refreshing interactive narrative experiences of?? the next few years.

The game d??oesn't have a release window yet, but we do know it's getting a release for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC thanks to publisher Raw Fury. For now, this is one I'll just have to be patient for.

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Dive in and out of the shadows

We got a glimpse of Ereban: Shadow Legacy at the Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase, and if you're into faster-paced stealth games, it's worth a look. Raw Fury and developer Baby Robot Games showed a new trailer with cool wall-climb??ing ??shadow abilities, and confirmed the PC and Xbox Series X/S title will be playable day one on Game Pass.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=sC9u7sM2RVk

As super dramatic as the trailer was, the footage lo??oks pretty fluid ?and fun.

Story-wise, you're playing as the "last E??reban," so all of the sneaking around and shadow-morphing will be in service of figuring out "who you are and what happened to your people." (And, presumably, getting lots of? well-justified revenge along the way.)

"Traverse the ruins of lifeless cities, infiltrate sci-fi facilities carved into ancient temples, and discover the remnants of your forgotten race," according to the team. "Absorb echoes to learn more le?thal and non-lethal shadow powers, craft high-tech gadgets, and combine all this with your agility to infiltrate Helios lines and investigate what they are hiding."

Ereban: Shadow Legacy will be out on Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and? PC in 2023.

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I Did Not Murder Him... (I Totally Did Though)

During today's Summer Game Fest..ivities, Lunar Software and Raw Fury gave us a new look at a creepy-looking sci-fi title, Routine, in which a first-person protagonist seemingly finds themselves under siege from a group of incredibly sinister �and clearly highly dangerous �androids. The game will be scored by the legendary musician Mick Gordon, of Doom and Killer Instinct fame.

The traile?r begins with a montage of strange and abstract imagery before we cut to an unseen explorer picking their way through what appears to be a dilapidated subway system. It is a short-lived journey, however, as they soon find themselves in the hands of the futuristic, frightening bots. I'm not sure if that weird, box-shaped gun is going to get the job done against this Metal Mickey. Intriguing stuff.

Routine is currently in developme?nt for Xbox, PC, and Xbox Game Pass.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=y815gkkBsJs

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It was the blurst of times...

Publisher Raw Fury, in association with developer Fury Studios, has opened up its neon yellow bum-bag and pulled out a teaser for the next entry in the strategy/building Kingdom series: Kingdom Eighties.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=srq0fgpX9F0

Currently in development for "the coolest platforms," Kingdom Eighties: Summer of Greed will see that series visit the manic, Day-Glo vibe of 1980s Americana, utilizing a wild, Saturday Morning Show vibe to backdrop its latest bout of exploration, world-building, and conquest. While Raw Fury is keeping tight-lipped on the details, we do know that the premise of Kingdom Eighties concerns a rag-tag gang of kids and their efforts to save their neighborhood from the mysterious and titula?r "Greed."

The new game will represent the fourth release in the franchise, following on from Kingdom (2015), Kingdom: New Lands (2016), and Kingdom: Two Crowns (2018). The new game will retain all of the resource-management, base-building, and combat of its predecessors, but is simply choosing to set the action in an entirely new world, one of arcade games, weekend adventures, and Denver the Last Dinosaur. Just remember to trade in your trusty steed for a BMX and you'll be ???golden.

Kingdom Eighties is currently in development for PC and consoles. It is scheduled to la??unch in 20??22.

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Escape from TV

The creators of 2020 puzzle-adventure game Call of the Sea have a new story in the works. American Arcadia is about a blissful town where its citizens live a life of luxur??y, so long as they stay in the audience's favor.

Out of the Blue's next game, American Arcadia, is about the broadcast world of Arcadia. This retro-future utopia seems wonderful, but as it turns out, it's just a set. The city's denizens are actually unknowing cast members on American Arcadia, a 24/7 show ?that's been airing for decades. Those who are popular get to live carefree, while those who bore the audience won't get a pleasant?? ending.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=jL4lH_fdRL8

Trevor Hills is one of the ??more ordinary citizens of Arcadia, so he's in quite a pickle. But a mysterious voice helps guide him through the "backstage," on a run for his freedom. Only, ??is this real? Or is the escape attempt, itself, scripted?

This novel idea also looks to take on some different styles of gameplay. One character will tackle 2.5D sid??e-scroller levels, with platforming, stealth, and puzzles. The other is a full 3D first-person view, also with a bit of stealth and puzzles, but hacking and exploration too.

Life in technicolor

The story of American Arcadia will be told in other means too, like character interviews and interrogations mirroring a documentary. Plus, some great voice talent is on for the project. Yuri Lowenthal and Cissy Jones team back up, as two of the main characters from Call of the Sea are in for Out of the Blue's new project. Krizia Bajos (Cyberpunk 2077, Arcane) is also on the cast.

Publisher Raw Fury and Out of the Blue's previous team-up, Call of the Sea, was a pretty neat and engaging story. It had a Myst kind of vibe, with lots of puzzles to solve and little pieces of lore to carry you through the adventure. Out of the Blue has shown it's got a penchant for interesting sto?ries, so adventure fans might want to look out for this one on PC and console. No release window has been set yet.

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Welcome to a dystopian take on New Orleans

When I played a preview of NORCO last year, I was tentatively excited to play the rest of the game. It had the makings of a re?ally cool experience, but I've also been let down by such promising beginnings before. I'm still reeling after finishing the game, but one thing I can say for certain is that this is easily my favorite game I've played so far this year.

Just as I said after playing that preview, NORCO is a really bizarre game. However, it doesn't fall into the trap of being weird just for the sake of it �it uses its strangeness to unsettle you in ways that tie into the game's main themes really well. Every plot point and character is nuanced, and the game sympathizes with each idea it introduces, regardless of how ugly or off-putting or pathetic it may seem at ??the outset.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFVhJNfnxCY

NORCO (PC)
Developer: Geography of Robots
Publisher: Raw Fury
Released: March 24, 2022
MSRP: $14.99

The visuals in NORCO are some of the most stunning and evocative I've seen in a game in a long time, and it has some of the most beautiful pixel art I've ever seen. It's moody and atmospheric, feeling like a real space that these characters inhabit, while at other times, the visuals are trippy, otherworldly, and grotesque. It walks a fine line between reality and fantasy, and I felt that it bala??nced the two perfectly, whether it?? was in the writing, visuals, or gameplay.

Genre fiction at its finest

As a piece of genre fiction, NORCO does an excellent job of using its genre to say something meaningful about our present time outside of just being an enjoyable point-and-click mystery game set in the Deep South. The game creates this incredible sense of futility, dread, and inevitability. ??It's a portrait of people who are just trying to get by to the best of their abilities,?? and the acceptance of a life that they didn't envision for themselves.

It's about life feeling different than you wanted it to, something that re??ally hits home in the mids?t of a global pandemic, and the developers were able to perfectly capture that struggle of wanting the world and the future to be better, but also feeling the world push back when one tries to bring about any sort of change.

NORCO?? also has one of the best implementations of phones I've seen in a game, not just in gameplay, but in the story as well. It never feels like a mechanic that was implemented for superficial reasons, but instead feels like a natural extension of the characters and ?how they interact with the world. It somehow manages to critique our over-connectedness, as well as the predatory corporations that run the apps that we use all too often, while also still understanding why we use them, and sometimes really enjoy them, in the first place.

Southern Gothic meets magical realism

And the writing �ugh, it's so good! It's poetic and whimsical and dark, and feels evocative of other Southern writers like William Faulkner or Flannery O'Connor, but with a nihilistic sci-fi twist. The characters all feel so alive and dynamic, even if we only see them for a second, and when the prose?? gets more abstract, it really does feel like you're reading poetry.

As someone who is from the South and absolutely adores Southern Gothic, NORCO truly feels like a love letter to both its genre and its setting. Like I said, you can see clear inspirations from Southern writers of the twentieth century, and the story dives deep into the ecological and geographical characteristics of New Orleans, and the reciprocal relationships between the big corporations, the land, and the people who inhabit i?t.

I can also feel clear parallels to another Southern Gothic game that leans into magical realism: Kentucky Route Zero. Even with all of its influences, though, NORCO manages to carve out its own space and identity, not just in the games industry, but in the Southern Gothic can??on as a whole. I can't think of anything else that feels quite like it, and it's a game that I know I'm going to be thinking about for weeks to come.

A few small things

I do have a few gripes, although they're relatively small compared to the rest of the game. There were places whe??re I felt the gameplay dragged a bit, mostly because of set pieces that felt slightly out of place for being too "game-y." It broke immersion a bit when characters would stop what they were doing to explain and re-explain gameplay mechanics to me, but it only happened a few times over the course of the game's run time.

I will say that NORCO is designed in a way that it doesn't let you feel lost very easily, which can often be the case for point-and-click games. I didn't have to spend a lot of time backtracking or trying to figure something out, and while a few moments felt a little hand-holdy, I'd rather have that than a game that throws me into the deep end all by myself. First and foremost, NORCO i????s a story game, so prioritizing progressing the narrative over stumping players was a smart move on the developers' part.

NORCO takes you on a wild, bizarr?e journey that makes you feel like you've really gone through something when you come out the other side. In a sea of point-and-click narrative adventures, it oozes style, polish, and earnestness in a way that makes me think it will become a staple of the genre in years to come.

Geography of Robots may be a studio that's still in its early days, but after playing this game, you'd think they're seasoned pros. When I get excited about video games' potential in what they can do as a brand new storytelling medium, NORCO is exactly the kind of experience I envision.

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Building a better hero

It takes something a little extra to stand out in a genre as specialized as isometric dungeon crawlers. A few games are already providing a lot for players to dig into, and so something new like Stitch Heads and Raw Fury's Superfuse ??will need something fresh and new to draw play??ers in. I think it might have that, and in some unexpected places.

Booting up Superfuse, the first thing I noticed was the look. This is a comic book game, with some extreme comic book influence. Those who dig comics like The Boys will feel right at home with the art, as well as the setting. Godlike elites lor??d o?ver an otherwise impoverished human race, doling out powers to their Enforcers to fight evil monsters called the Corruption across the galaxy.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=quDSvzDOaXo

I started to pick up pieces of modern references, from the artistic styles mentioned above to the way characters reference others from different regions of space using broad terms, a la The Expanse. It's an intriguing set-up that seems a little strange for a dungeon-crawler, but allows for a lot of visual variety and stylish characters. Rather than something grim and dark, Superfuse has neon glow and a sci-fi meets comic book look t?o it.

What really drew me in??, though, was the skills system. My selected character, the Berserker, had several different abilities: a ground pound, throwing axes, and a series of punches, for example. Each one was interesting but, on its o??wn, somewhat basic.

The skills system is where abilities can grow. Superfuse lets you mod and augment abilities, creating evolved forms. Maybe my a??xes lose some power, but can split into different d??irections, or fire both in front of and behind me. Or I might want them to travel faster, or even slower.

Each node lets you designate effects, and when the effects happen. Some happen right when the ability fires, while others apply on-hit, and even more apply on kill or after an attack connects. The more I invested?? into an ability, the more of these nodes I could open up, to keep augmenting an ability over and over.

I spent a long time during my demo just tinkering with the potentials of this sys?tem, ev??entually crafting a version of my ground pound that ran over the demo's enemies. One effect released a shotgun blast of projectiles at the end of my attack, so I figured: what if I made more "ends?"

I kept tacking on splitting mods, turning one "end" of my shockwave into more and more until I had at least over a dozen, then had them all fire shotgun pellets out at their conclusion. What I made was, essentially, a bull?et h?ell boss. And it was really fun to play.

There's a lot that Superfuse has going for it, in terms of reasons to dip a toe in. The world and story seem very unique, and it could be a pretty fresh take on the action-RPG genre that's usually a little more dour and grim. I like the set-up of these godlike elites, and am secretly hoping the Enforcer??s get to smack some gods down at some point in the story.

What I thi??nk is going to keep people in once they've checked it out, however, is the modifiable skills. It was a really enjoyable way to approach evolving my skills, and though I was given freedom to mess around with unlimited resources in the demo build I played, I'm interested to see how it feels over time in the campaign.

Building your own upgrades and arsenal might be more of a draw for those interested in design and weird mechanical interactions, but it certainly has me intrigued. Superfuse is set to launch in early access later this year on PC, with a full launch in 2023.

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Bunny-hopping to the beat

Rhythm game spins have been steadily increasing in popularity. The metronomic pulse underpinning the action forms a thin line to navigate, somewhere between flow state and tripping over your own feet. That's the line Jaw Drop Games' Gun Jam rides, and it does so pretty well.

I had a chance to see and play Gun Jam, as well as speak with Creative Director Martin Darby and Paul Wilson, a producer from publisher Raw Fury. The game was seemingly born out of a concept made a few years ago, of moving and blasting enemies to the beat. Now, Jaw Drop Games has brought the concept to life in Gun Jam, a rhythm first-person shooter where?? players have to move to the beat to survive.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQaSfx56aR0

It's a pretty simple concept, if you've played something like 2016's Doom or even the original. Enemies spawn in, and the player blasts them as they arrive. In Gun Jam, the action centers around the music t??humping through the stage?, making it pulsate with the beat. A metronome lane of beats scrolls up from the bottom of the screen and into the crosshairs, intuitively showing the player the right time to click heads. Different colored notes will correspond to a few different weapons, ranging from a simple gun to a more powerful rifle or grenade launcher.

I watched the devs play through the level before taking my own crack at it. I note this because Gun Jam took me on a very humbling journey from thinking I got the general idea, to realizing how much was being asked. There's a general flow through the level, but no rails. It was up to me to dodge fire, mov??e around the arena, and keep the beat alive by sho??oting, kicking, or dashing along with it.

It felt a bit like the old rub-your-stomach, pat-your-head routine. Once I started to see beyond the lane, so to speak, it clicked. If you've played a rhythm game like Rock Band or Guitar Hero, you'll know the feeling of seeing "beyond" the highway, and recognizing patterns out of the corner of your eye. That's pretty crucial in Gun Jam, where I'm trying to determine my next moves and high-priority targets whil?e also matching incoming beat patterns.

Balancing between arena shooter and rhythm game can feel a bit like playing two games at the same time. And, as Darby tells me, it was the core challenge in bringing Gun Jam to life.

"We've go??ne through a lot of prototyping, and a lot of pre-production, in order to get that right, and get what we feel strikes that balance i??n between those two aspects," said Darby.

The core becomes, like any rhythm game, learning the song. Eventually, the player will start to remember core parts of the tune coming up as they should. The chorus arrives, and they know the grenade launcher will drop on the downbeat. If they see a group of enemies all huddled up, the gears turn. And in my playthrough of the demo, I felt that happening; one particular section keeps the main beat going with the main rifle, but adds in a three-beat syncopation between those steady rhythms. Once I knew when to expect those three extra-quick?? rounds, I could anticipate them, identify a dangerous foe, and burst it down quickly with the boosted firepower.

"We want people to like listening to these songs, and through that learning process and knowing when some bridge or chorus or a drop is coming, will kind of trigger a player to k??now that a grenade launcher is on the way also," Wilson told me. "So it's kind of this learning experience, as well as something that they're enjoying moment to moment, if that makes sense."

In the demo I played, death was turned off. In the final build, as Darby tells me, they're looking to have a soft-fail condition, similar to missing notes in Beat Saber or Guitar Hero. Rhythms will also get f??unkier; though the demo build was very metronomic, Darby says there is stuff in there for them to ramp up to higher, "Nightmare" difficulty.

As for its soundtrack, Jaw Drop Games is looking to have multiple genres. The devs identify electronic music, trap, and metal as genres? they're looking to explore, each with their own corresponding character.

"We got some ?polyrhythm sections for you, if you like," Wilson jokes.

User-generated content is also something Jaw Drop Games is interested in, as something in their stretch goal category. I brought ?up the question of copyright, as users could potentially start using Metallica instead of original music, and the developers assured me they would want to work within the "legal constraints" of what can be done.

One song and dance with Gun Jam definitely has me interested. I like the different genres they're approaching, the bright colors, and use of weapons as nodes to add some in-the-moment creative problem solving. Clicking heads to a beat is fun, and Gun Jam easily finds the synchronicity between the two.

Gun Jam is up for wishlisting on Steam now.

The post Gun Jam is a rhythm FPS where beats dr??op in time with bullets appeared first on Destructoid.

Raw Fury is publishing the monster-fusing RPG, and it'll be on Xbox Game Pass

It's nice to check back in on a promising PC-based indie game only to find out that it's coming to more platforms, and it's been picked up by a publisher, too. In this case, I'm talking about Cassette Beasts, a monster-battling RPG in the vein of Pokémon that grabbed our attention last year with a kinda funky fusion system. It even had an in-browser demo.

I haven't given the game much thought since then, but the team at Bytten Studio has been making moves. Raw Fury is going to publish Cassette Beasts �it's coming to PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S, with a no-brainer inclusion into Xbox Game Pass on PC and ??consoles. A release date hasn't been announced yet.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0zv4r-DTPg

The new "announcement" trailer highlights the game's turn-based battles, bonds, fusions, and open-world traversal. I'm curious about that skeletal creature with a threatening aura at the 1:03 mark �most of Casette Beasts uses a modernized pixel-art look outside of illustrated character portraits, but th??is creature has a different art style that seems to clash in a purposeful way. What can I say, I like reading into split-second trailer edits.

I feel like a "Pokémon-esque PC game" isn't necessarily the sell it used to be. At the same time, I think Cassette Beasts is one of the more interesting examples, and there's also no denying that a certain part of the audience isn't thrilled with the at times frustratingly set-in-its-ways series. It also helps that these developers, Jay Baylis and Tom Coxon, contributed to projects like Stardew Valley, Wargroove, and Starbound at Chucklefish.

"[Raw Fury] gets what we're trying to achieve with the project," the team said in a press statement. "Cassette Beasts truly feels like a collaboration between us and them �it really wouldn't?? have been able to grow into what it is now without Raw Fury backing us."

To dig in a little more, I'll point you to the official site �the developers have been posting some fairly detailed behind-the-scenes blogs, and you can check out creatures like Nevermort, a poison-type bird; Artillerex, a turret-bellied dino; and Mascotoy, a? plastic-type beast that's now "closer to a shambling corpse" than a "character costume."

The post Cassette Beasts locked in for Nintendo Switch, Xbox, and?? PC appeared first on Destructoid.

A new production agreement will see the likes of Sable hit the silver screen

A new partnershi??p will see several titles in the Raw F??ury publishing lineup hit some new screens. Raw Fury has partnered with dj2 Entertainment to produce film and television versions of their games.

This is according to a report from Variety, which confirms the partnership is kicking off with a three-game deal. Sable, Night Call, and Mosaic are the first three up for adaptations. Dj2 will also get first opportunity on other Raw Fury titles, and with a catalog that includes games like Call of the Sea and the upcoming Norco, there are definitely some good opportunities in ?there.

Dj2 Entertainment is the company behind several modern video game adaptations, notably working on the Sonic the Hedgehog film. The production company is currently working on several other projects, including the Disco Elysium TV treatment.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fojy_YRseGk

"Entering into a partnership with Dj2 feels like a perfect fit for Raw Fury," said Raw Fury CEO Jónas Antonsson via GamesIndusry.biz. "Their creativity and abili??ty to take the core of each game and transform it into new art forms fit the Raw Fury vision and we are excited to work together and see what we will create."

The first three games that Raw Fury and dj2 have lined up for their film and TV adaptations are certainly good to start with, especially Sable. The hover-bike adventure has a striking look and a soundtrack from Japanese Breakfast??, which seems like a perfect mix for a good series or film.

The post Several Raw Fury games are getting adapted?? for film an??d TV appeared first on Destructoid.