Australia is still burning, but over the last couple of days they’ve actually had some rain! While this is a big help to certain areas, there are still 83 fires blazing around the country, and there’s a lot of people and wildlife still in trouble. It’s good job then that there are even more game devs, companies, and communities banding together to help out our friends down under.

A new Humble Bundle, a donation from the makers of Warframe, and a charity initiative run by Eve Online players are just three more ways the games industry is raising money, and you can get involved to show your support too.

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This is The Mechanic, where Alex Wiltshire invites developers to discuss the inner workings of their games. This time, Crawl [official site].

Crawl is a game about cooperation, betrayal and murder and accumulating enough eldritch power to kill a god. Made by Australian indie Powerhoof, it s a couch multiplayer game played with up to three friends, but only one of you can be the hero. Everyone else is playing a monster, but when a monster kills the hero, it takes their place. This loop, of ganging up, competing to strike the final blow and then turning on your friends, captures the essential heart of the best local multiplayer games. It s that delicious tension of power and powerlessness, of ruthlessness and submission, of laughter and jeering. At the centre of Crawl is a lovely bit of:

THE MECHANIC: Unfairness … [visit site to read more]

Ace local multiplayer dungeon crawler Crawl [official site] will leave early access after two-and-a-half years to properly launch on April 11th, developers Powerhoof have announced. Crawl is a roguelikelike dungeon-crawling action-RPG, see, with one player as an adventurer and three player controlling the monsters and traps. It’s cooperative/competitive local multiplayer, or compoerative as we definitely do say in The Business. I’ve not played it in yonks but it was fun even way back when, so a full and fancy release sounds grand. … [visit site to read more]

Crawl [official site], I think it’s worth saying, gets the much lauded Gera Prize For Good Characters And Stuff. This is the game that produced the most eerily realistic albeit 2D cartoon rendering of Gabe Newell of all time. And now a nice and hefty update has come its way, bringing with it baddies of a more Dune-Meets-Ancient Greece variety. Or alternatively, Beetlejuice-Meets-Xena, or a different reference you build yourself depending on age and Nerd Pedigree.

The big addition to the game is that minotaurs and burrowing worms, which previously existed in the game as baddies of a lesser degree, now have ultimate forms.

… [visit site to read more]

Oh yes, yes, Gabe Newell’s in Crawl [official site] now but mercy me the Internet’s obsession with him doesn’t need any more stoking. Besides, the latest patch for on 3v1 compoerative (I coined that term, you can’t steal it) dungeon crawler’s journey through Steam Early Access also added a new Mini Beam Eye Bat evolution. Eye Bats! Boo! All the kids are in on hot Eye Bat memes, right? Loads of gifs of Victor Meldrew with the face of an Eye Bat saying “Eye don’t believe it”, right?

Oh, fine, fine, whatever: yes, Valve’s Gabe Newell is now a towering stabby enemy in Crawl with a mighty shoryuken. (Warning: 4MB gif within.)

… [visit site to read more]

Valve has granted permission for developers Powerhoof to include a godlike Gabe Newell character as playful extra in their game, Crawl [official site].

… [visit site to read more]

There’s the Mona Lisa and there’s the Venus de Milo, and then there’s this beauty. The kindly Australians of indie outfit Powerhoof have turned Valve’s very own high priest Gabe Newell into an enemy boss for their asymmetrical dungeon crawler Crawl [official site]. Take a look at this thing, in all the technicolour glory of an animated gif.

… [visit site to read more]

It’s a while since we covered the multiplayer roguelikelike Crawl but we’re no less enticed by the concept today. It’s still in Early Access but released its v0.3 update on Thursday.

In case, like me, your brain entered a dungeon last year and never came back, here’s a refresher: in Crawl you and one to three friends take turns controlling A Hero and do exploring, fighting, looting and levelling. You know, Hero Stuff. Meanwhile everyone who isn’t controlling A Hero is setting traps and using various monsters to try and bring the quest to a premature and preferably messy end. And in the game.

… [visit site to read more]