God game Crest sounds like a Peter Molyneux idea, and I say that with the greatest of affection. It’s the sort of thing he might idly muse about in an interview, not realising people might then expect that to appear in a game. Crest is a civilization-building strategy where players have no direct control over their followers, instead laying down commandments to influence their behaviour.

Developers Eat Create Sleep are trying to ride that old bucking crowdfunding bronco, and have released a prototype so you can give it a bash. Come have a look.

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In the second and final part of a conversation with Josh Sawyer of Obsidian (part one), we discuss how the design of Pillars of Eternity differs from Fallout: New Vegas. That involves a discussion of New Vegas’ post-release support, official and otherwise, and the pros and cons of traditional RPG systems. Of particular note – why Pillars of Eternity does not have a Speech skill, or any other skill of that sort.

With contributions from executive producer Brandon Adler, we also discuss the role of Paradox as publisher and the benefits of digital distribution, and end with a tribute to nineties RPG, Darklands.>

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In the first of what certainly won’t> be a regular innuendo-strewn column entitled Dan’s Hot Tip, I bring news directly from the Twitter feed of handsomely bearded journo Dan Griliopoulos. Jason Kingsley of Rebellion, the home of Sniper Elite and 2000 AD, discusses the UK developer’s plans for Battlezone. [We] “bought the IP at auction from Atari last year. Have some exciting plans for it and lots of ideas”. The purchase was made last summer and Rebellion picked up Moonbase Commander rights at the same time. The real news though – the part that you can actually touch – is the release of Bionite’s alpha.

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When I first discovered Stikbold! it was via a GIF of an as yet unreleased trailer. When I then posted about the local multiplayer dodgeball game, I figured that was it: I wouldn’t return to post the new trailer when it finally did come out. I was wrong, because here we are. I can’t resist its ’70s style, its expressively blocky eyebrows, or its co-op campaign which seems to see you lobbing your balls at buses, whales and, it seems, satan.

Trailer below, which it turns out marks its launch on Steam Greenlight.

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A pleasingly self-descriptive name, Breach & Clear. It’s a turn-based tactical game about squads breaching and clearing. Can you guess what’s new in sequel Breach & Clear: Deadline? Tricky, I know. As a hint, I’ll tell you that it’s officially stylised DEADline. Can you guess what it is yet?

Zombies! Because they’re DEAD, do you see? Hold your frothing for one moment: is the top-down tactical genre overrun with zombies? Might this be the one place not yet swarming with lively corpses? Could zombies be good targets for tacticising?

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Take game developers to a comic convention and they’ll get all giddy. They drink fizzy drinks, eat free candy, get their photo taken with seven Iron Mans, grab every promo t-shirt in sight, then, just before they break down in tears and beg to go home, they tell everyone what they’re making.

We may not yet have seen how Season Two of Telltale’s The Walking Dead game ends, but thanks to San Diego Comic-Con we do know that a third season will follow it.

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Hello, Cameron Kunzelman. Nice to see you, to see you nice. Epanalepsis is a figure of speech as well as the name of an upcoming game by Kunzelman, who last featured on RPS with the release of Catachresis. The new game, already funded on Kickstarter, is a ‘spiritual successor’ to last year’s short horror adventure, with a similar focus on exploration and narrative rather than puzzles and interaction. Like its predecessor, it won’t appeal to the majority but it might well make a specific minority group very happy indeed. That group will contain Philip K Dick, Gibson and John Dos Passos readers.

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Shootmania is to shooty games as Trackmania is to racing games: streamlined, almost austere, a platform for user creativity, and French. But though Trackmania cut away chaff to focus on the fundamentals of completing tracks quickly, Shootmania’s own abstractions – unusual laser-y weapons and unique modes and so on – made it hard to comprehend to people trained on other multiplayer shooters.

Shootmania Platform might help. It’s purposes are two-fold: to act as a showcase for the suite of creative tools and marketplace of Maniaplanet, and to introduce new players to the fundamentals of movement in Shootmania. There’s a trailer and more detail below.

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The first time I saw Mighty Tactical Shooter, I was at Rezzed. I was the guy in crumpled corduroy and tatty beard, and MTS was the game with the turn-based spaceship. I’d like to say it was love at first sight but MTS didn’t even notice me at first. I walked across the crowded hall, giddy with excitement, and had to stand in line to introduce myself. Sparks flew. Now that I have the demo in the privacy of my own home, sparks occasionally ignite the curtains.

Mighty Tactical Shooter is a turn-based side-scrolling space shooter. It’s smart, playable right now and yet somehow just shy of its modest Kickstarter goal with less than three days to go.

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Freeware Garden searches the corners of the internet to highlight one free game every day.>

Elizabeth Simins provided You Were Made For Loneliness with a brilliantly evocative opening illustration, that really sets the game’s mood and acts as a first warning of sorts. A warning followed by further trigger warnings for suicide, depression, and psychological abuse.

You Were Made For Loneliness, you see, is definitely not for everyone, but, for those who can brave disturbing scenes in their texty Twine games, it does offer both food for thought and some great, wild prose by Tsukareta*.

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