A new version of blood-soaked platformer Super Meat Boy will be released for iOS devices, developer Team Meat has revealed.

Now-renamed Super Meat Boy: The Game, the fresh incarnation will be remade "from the ground up" to rework the Xbox 360 and PC's precision controls for a touch screen interface.

Explaining the need to remake the game, Super Meat Boy designer Edmund McMillen wrote on Team Meat's blog that "there was no way in hell [the original] would work on a touch screen with buttons all over it, Super Meat Boy isn't a game we want to make a sub-par version of just to cash in".

Hence the new version for iOS.

McMillen went on: "what the game isn't: a shitty port of an existing game with non tactile buttons spread all over the screen blocking the players view and making for frustrating controls."

And neither is Super Meat Boy: The Game "the Super Meat Boy you're used to, there are aspects of Super Meat Boy in there, obviously, but this is a brand new game with new art, new sound, everything".

The first image of Super Meat Boy: The Game lies below, showing more rounded, cartoon graphics akin to the original game's cut-scenes. No release date was mentioned.

UPDATE: Microsoft has confirmed that as of next month, all Xbox Live Arcade titles will have the option to increase from 200 to 400 Gamerscore points, with the addition of up to 30 Achievements.

The new 400 Point ceiling will be mandatory in all new XBLA games releasing from June this year.

ORIGINAL STORY: The Achievement limit for Xbox Live Arcade games is about to be doubled, a new report claims.

A fresh set of rules from Microsoft will double the current 200 Gamerscore base limit for downloadable titles to 400G.

XBLA games will also be able to include a maximum of 30 Achievements, up from the current 20 limit.

The new Achievement policy, unearthed by Xbox360Achievements, will apparently be mandatory for all XBLA releases beginning 1st June, while downloadable games launching from 1st April can opt in to the new system.

Achievement rules for XBLA DLC packs are also changing. The current standard for XBLA games is 50 extra Gamerscore and five more Achievements per quarter, up to a limit of 350 Gamerscore and 35 Achievements total.

This will increase to 100 Gamerscore and 8 Achievements per quarter, up to 800 Gamerscore and 62 Achievements total, meaning XBLA developers can add Achievement-infused DLC for a full year after release.

Eurogamer has contacted Microsoft for comment on the report. We'll update if we hear back.

Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, a follow-up to the supremely scary 2010 PC survival horror, launches later this year, Frictional Games has announced.

As detailed on Joystiq, the game takes place in the same universe as the original but features an entirely new cast of characters.

Set in 1889, it follows "wealthy industrialist" Oswald Mandus who has just returned from an ill-fated trip to Mexico which ended in tragedy. He's picked up a fever and is haunted by visions of a mysterious machine.

Dear Esther studio thechineseroom is taking over development duties from Frictional, with a launch planned for this Autumn.

The original won a hearty 8/10 from Eurogamer.

"Fans of horror gaming should definitely have Amnesia: The Dark Descent in their lives. It's a brave experiment in the genre, a more solid package than the Penumbra games and stops at nothing to make you truly, deeply uncomfortable," read Quintin Smith's Amnesia: The Dark Descent review.

Acclaimed PC survival horror Amnesia: The Dark Descent could be getting a sequel, judging by a new teaser site posted by developer Frictional Games.

As spotted by Rock Paper Shotgun, the page sports the Amnesia logo, a blurry image and the phrase "Something is emerging".

Click on the image and you're taken to a Google Maps view of China.

The site's meta data offers up the following key words: "3D game, frictional games, advanced physics, survivial [sic] horror, action adventure, first person, horror, scary, HPL, work in progress, upcoming game, next frictional game, game development."

It also states: "Welcome to the next frictional game site, a site with information about our game projects in development. We use this site to post content about a project in development, during the period it does not have a final name decided."

The thoroughly squirm-inducing original launched back in 2010 to widespread critical acclaim.

"It's a brave experiment in the genre, a more solid package than the Penumbra games and stops at nothing to make you truly, deeply uncomfortable," read Eurogamer's 8/10 Amnesia: The Dark Descent review.

Team Meat is currently tinkering around with a smartphone version of its hit platformer Super Meat Boy.

Studio co-founder Edmund McMillen told Eurogamer that it has an idea for how to make the precision jumper work on a touchscreen and is prototyping the concept.

"We are currently developing tech for the next game that might be a touch remake of Super Meat Boy for both [iOS and Android] platforms mentioned," he explained.

"If we end up doing it it won't be anything like the version people are familiar with but something new that embodies the SMB spirit.

"Bottom line, SMB on a mobile device is by far the most requested thing we get asked and a few months ago we started playing around with a very odd idea that could make SMB work on a touch devise," he added.

"It seemed fun and inspired so we decided to start prototyping it to see if it was worth making. That's where we still are.

"Who knows if it will happen or not, if it sucks we won't release it, if it's fun we will continue working on it."

Team Meat hasn't exactly been vocal in its enthusiasm for smartphone gaming in the past. Back in March 2010, McMillen's colleague Tommy Refenes publicly stated that he "absolutely f****** hate[s] the iPhone app store", likening the service to the failed '90s Tiger handheld.

However, McMillen explained the pair are now slowly starting to come around.

"As for the 'U-turn', Tommy and I decided to question the platform's strengths and instead of being pessimistic at least make an attempt at making a good game for the platform rather than just say it's all s***. There have been quite a few good games that have come out since Tommy's rant so there is hope.

"FYI, the rant about the iPhone was from about three years ago and about how porting games to iPad was like Tiger handhelds of the early '90s, and also how the store sucks (it still sucks).

"You can't get away from how the mobile market is pretty bad these days, especially with its horribly encouraged copy-cat mentality and everyone out to make a quick buck.

"But there have been good games made for the platform that are unique and well done, we would like to attempt to be one of those instead of simply poo-pooing every aspect of the platforms."

Team Meat's notoriously unforgiving debut launched on Xbox Live Arcade to rave reviews back in 2010. See Tom Bramwell's sweat-flecked 9/10 Super Meat Boy review for details.

US cable TV network HBO has optioned the rights to make a fictional TV series based on forthcoming documentary Indie Game: The Movie.

According to Deadline, the film's directors Lisanne Pajot and James Swirsky signed on the dotted line at the annual Sundance Film Festival in Utah over the weekend, where the film premiered to glowing reviews.

Initial reports that HBO wanted to turn it into a half-hour comedy have proved wide of the mark, with a post on the movie's Facebook page today stating "HBO has optioned IGTM for the basis of a (fictional) series. It is NOT a comedy. It is NOT a sitcom."

Hollywood veteran Scott Rudin - whose credits include 2011 Oscar winner The Social Network, Moneyball, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The Queen and Wes Anderson's take on Roald Dahl favourite The Fantastic Mr Fox - will reportedly produce. No word on potential casting choices, but the mind boggles.

It's worth noting that not every property that gets optioned by a network necessarily makes it through to full production.

The film follows a number of recent indie titles through development, including Super Meat Boy, Braid and Fez. Take a look at a trailer for the flick, which is due out later this year, below.

Rock hard downloadable game Super Meat Boy has sold over one million copies, developer Team Meat has revealed.

"Fun Fact: Super Meat Boy past [sic] the million sales mark last month!" the indie developer wrote on Twitter. "PLATINUM BABY."

Super Meat Boy, designed by Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes, launched on Xbox Live Arcade in October 2010 as part of Microsoft's GameFeast XBLA promotion. It later launched on PC and Mac.

The two-man studio is now hard at work on its "ambitious", "fun", "more experimental" new project.

UPDATE:

Microsoft's Major Nelson has revealed a few more deals just for today. These are live now and last 24 hours:

• Fallout 3 - £14.99 (25 per cent off)
• Full House Poker - 400 points (50 per cent off)
• Warhammer 40K Kill Team - 400 points (50 per cent off)
• Marvel vs. Capcom 2 - 320 Points (73 per cent off)

ORIGINAL STORY:

Microsoft has halved the price of over a dozen pieces of Xbox Live Marketplace content, allowing UK gamers to download some US Black Friday-style bargains.

Brutally addictive 9/10 platformer Super Meat Boy has carved off half its price, available for 400 Points - the same discount given to Sega racer OutRun.

Charming Double Fine adventure Stacking comes cheap at 600 Points, as does the latest DeathSpank game, The Baconing.

There's discounts for game DLC, too. Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood's enjoyable extra episode The Da Dinci Disappearance is 400 Points, while Left 4 Dead 2 add-on The Passing is 280 Points.

More titles should join the sale later this week.

Here's the full list so far, as spotted on NeoGAF:

• Happy Tree Friends False Alarm - 400 points
• Bejeweled Blitz Live - 200 points
• Bejeweled 2 - 200 points
• Magic the Gathering Duels 2012 - 400 points
• Super Meat Boy - 400 points
• OutRun Online Arcade - 400 points
• Bejeweled 2 - 200 points
• Stacking - 600 points
• Fancy Pants - 400 points
• The Baconing - 600 points
• Weapon of Choice - 200 points
• Phantasy Star 2 - 200 points
• Sega Soccer Slam - 600 points
• Flotilla - 200 points
• Pinball FX Marvel Pack - 400 points
• Pinball FX Classic Pack - 400 points
• Pinball FX Core Pack - 400 points
• Homefront: The Rock map pack - 200 points
• Homefront: Fire Sale map pack - 120 points
• AC Brotherhood: Da Vinci Disappearance - 400 points
• Left 4 Dead 2: The Passing - 280 points
• Battlefield: Bad Company - 25 per cent off
• Battlefield: Bad Company 2 - 25 per cent off
• Battlefield 2: Modern Combat - 25 per cent off
• Civ Revolution - 25 per cent off
• Bulletstorm (PC) - 50 per cent off
• Street Fighter IV (PC) - 50 per cent off
• Section 8: Prejudice (PC) - 50 per cent off

Canadian developer Brian Provinciano spent two months negotiating his contract with Microsoft to get Retro City Rampage on Xbox Live Arcade. It was, to say the least, a tough process - and one that he could have done without. It delayed the creation of the game, but in the end he thought f*** it, and signed on the bottom line.

Retro City Rampage was first announced as a WiiWare game. Then, all of a sudden, it was delayed on Wii and coming to Xbox first. Money hats, the Nintendo faithful claimed.

"I got a lot of flaming and hate and trolling from when I announced it was delayed on the Wii because it's coming to Xbox first," Provinciano tells Eurogamer. "Everyone thinks I got this big, huge chunk of money from Microsoft. I didn't. I'm poor and I've got nothing. They haven't given me anything."

So why go with the big M rather than the big N? Put simply, Provinciano had had enough.

"I had been pitching the game, doing documents, vetting all sorts of review stuff for months and months and months," he recalls. "The contract negotiation alone was two months for Xbox, trying to negotiate the nickel and dime of it. It was a really rough process. I'd say a good 85 per cent of developers you talk to have had unpleasant experiences. It's like, stop nickel and diming us. If you just let us make our awesome game it'll be better and it'll make more money for all of us anyway. That's my opinion.

"It's one thing to go through the difficult process of going through the gate and getting your game approved, but once it's approved it's a really rough process of negotiating and trying to get a fair deal for yourself. That's a tough part everyone has to waste time on. In any case, I was talking to a number of other big publishers as well, and some smaller ones. And I was talking with Sony. But it got to a point where I was so drained.

"It was the most unpleasant experience of this whole project. It's like, years and years and years have gone into this and the worst part of it all was doing the contract. I was so drained with it, and so tired. Every day I wanted to finish the game and get the game out the door, but I had to deal with emails and contract negotiation. After all of that time I was like, okay fine, I'm just going to sign it! I just want to get it over with! And so I did."

This weekend, 10 notable - and in some cases, brilliant - PC games are bundled cheaply inside The Super Meat Boy Anniversary pack/bundle on Steam.

For £17.89, you get:

• Super Meat Boy PC and Mac (9/10 Eurogamer)
• Bit. Trip Beat (7/10 Eurogamer - Wii version)
• Bit. Trip Runner (7/10 Eurogamer - Wii version)
• World of Goo (9/10 Eurogamer)
• Braid (10/10 Eurogamer)
• Gish
• Aquaria (7/10 Eurogamer)
• VVVVVV (8/10 Eurogamer)
• Machinarium (8/10 Eurogamer)
• Half-Life 2 (10/10 Eurogamer)

Separately, that lot costs £71.40.

The Super Meat Boy Anniversary pack/bundle is available until Monday, 21st November.

Soundtracks for Super Meat Boy, Braid, Machinarium, Bit Trip Beat and Bit Trip Runner are also thrown in.

The games you already own on Steam will become gifts you can give to friends.

Plus, the price of Super Meat Boy alone has been halved to £5.99 for the weekend. The soundtrack has temporarily dropped in price to £2.49, too.