Nov 29, 2017

Rain World's difficulty-changing update is now in open beta on Steam

Rain World

I really liked Rain World, but I'm also really bad at it, and so I ultimately moved on to other things without making very much progress. But now I have a reason to go back—several in fact. The 1.51 update, which was announced in June, is now in open beta on Steam, bringing with it new difficulty levels, multiplayer modes, and "new secrets, strangeness, and hopefully a generally smoother Rain World experience."

The new difficulties actually come in the form of two new playable characters. The Monk, "weak of body but strong of spirit," will round off some of the game's sharper edges: "In tune with the mysteries of the world and empathetic to its creatures, your journey will be a significantly more peaceful one," developer Videocult said.

For those who for some reason think that Rain World wasn't hard enough out of the box, there is the Hunter. "Strong and quick, with a fierce metabolism requiring a steady diet of meat. But the stomach won’t be your only concern, as the path of the hunter is one of extreme peril," the studio warned. Playing as the Hunter will also introduce a number of strange new creatures to eat—or be eaten by.

The update will also introduce a four-player competitive mode, in which players earn points by catching bats and spearing creatures (including each other), and a sandbox mode, also for up to four players, that enables creatures and items to be placed and played with so players can experiment and learn more about how they behave and how to deal with them.

To access the Rain World 1.51 update, right-click the game listing in your Steam library, hit Properties from the menu, and then select the Betas tab. Enter MANYSLUGCATS into the beta key field (I don't know if it actually needs to be in all-caps but that's what they said, so that's what I did) and then check the code. That will make "beta - new release!" available in the dropdown menu—select that, download the 280MB update, and you're all set.

Note that you won't be able to switch difficulties in an existing game: If you want to try the Monk or Hunter, you'll need to start a new game. Fortunately, Rain World has three separate save slots, so you can horse around with all three without having to give up on my progress made.

Nov 29, 2017

Gravity Bone was a better spy movie than most spy movies

Thirty Flights of Loving

Editor's note: If you haven't played Gravity Bone you should definitely do that before reading this. It's packaged with Thirty Flights of Loving, but you can also download it free directly from Blendo Games.

Right from the start you know you're in for a treat. Trumpets blare a tune straight from Copacabana Beach while an elevator takes you to a raucous masquerade ball in the sky. Planes create smoke patterns overhead, while a trio of men in dark suits and sunglasses watch from on high, tracking you like the eyes of the Mona Lisa.

Gravity Bone has a lot of tricks, but its best is that it manages to feel lean and focused while still displaying the ambition of a game five times its size. In just 15 minutes it squeezes in an interactive tutorial, platforming, exploding birds, photography, plot twists, light puzzling, and a chase sequence that’ll blow your socks off—and it does it all to the accompaniment of upbeat Latin music.

You can tell that it was made on a budget (the party guests all talk in a wordless language that sounds like a frog getting stepped on), but Gravity Bone papers over the cracks by putting lots of interesting things on screen to constantly distract the eye. A green sign points to a door that you just have to look behind, a man with a red suit stands out from the sea of black-and-white outfits, a waterfall tumbles into nothingness. And besides, you’re not hanging around long enough to get bored. Within two minutes you’ve disguised yourself as a waiter, dropped a Manitoba beast bug into a champagne glass, served it to the man in a red suit, and made your getaway.

The second level pulls similar tricks. Basically, it’s the same task repeated five times: you freeze a lock, whack it with a hammer, and take a picture of a bird on the other side of that locked door. But it's broken up enough to keep you engaged, first by sending you into a new environment with a mini overhead train that you gawk at for a few seconds, and then by some platforming between flag poles that wobble in the wind.

Gravity Bone also slips in elements you’d expect from larger games, tricking you into thinking there is something grander beyond its borders. When you complete your first mission you're given money—but you never get the chance to spend it. One of your inventory slots remains empty, urging you to find an item to fill it.

The chase sequence is what really elevates it all. Up to then Gravity Bone feels clever, but running after the woman who shoots you is a genuinely frantic sequence that doesn’t give you a second to stop moving forward. You’re dodging incoming trains. You’re dropping through hatches. You’re falling onto a banquet table, the eyes of every diner on you. You’re following her over railings and along precarious rooftop walkways. It’s over in the blink of an eye but every section is so distinct that you can easily piece the whole thing together in your mind afterwards.

The chase culminates in a series of flashbacks after you’re shot and thrown from the top of a building. You see a car chase with passengers firing guns, a woman’s face, and an athletics race that could be from a school sports day. What's going on? Perhaps it’s just deliberately obtuse, or perhaps the obvious answer is the right one: it’s your life flashing before your eyes.

Gravity Bone is packed with personality. If you try to quit and then change your mind you get a cheer of celebration. Those five birds all fall off their perches and explode after the camera shutter clicks. When you land on a banquet table during the game’s chase sequence, your foot squelches in someone’s dessert as champagne glasses shatter.

It all adds up to a game that feels a lot more substantial than its short runtime, and demands multiple playthroughs to appreciate the detail that’s packed into it. Gravity Bone looks great, sounds excellent, and oozes class.

Do yourself a favor and give it a try.

Nov 29, 2017

Why do indie developers sign with publishers?

Kentucky Route Zero: PC Edition

Time was, indie developers used to be just that: indie. They'd develop games and release them themselves with complete creative freedom. OK, maybe not complete creative freedom, but the dawn of indie was an age of possibility, when suddenly anyone was able to distribute games across the globe at nominal cost. Niche games found audiences the traditional game industry overlooked; experimentation led to new game forms and expression. Halcyon days, as the cliché goes.

"Indie dev is a minefield now," says Paul Kilduff-Taylor, co-founder of Mode 7 Games, the indie developer behind the Frozen Synapse series. "To have a chance at a good level of success, you basically have to nail everything. That's a really tall order, so devs are simply looking to stack the odds in their favour."

I haven't yet been pitched by an indie who is already doing a lot of their own press, or has a significant marketing plan in place
Paul Kilduff-Tayler, Mode 7

And many are doing that by partnering with publishers who focus on indie developers. Many of the leading indie games today are published by the likes of Devolver Digital, Curve, Raw Fury, Double Fine, Finji, Adult Swim, Team 17, Humble, PlayWay. They might seem to portend the sad end of a noble movement, of big business moving in to profit off the indie spirit, but the truth is very different.

Tokyo 42, developed by SMAC Games and published by Mode 7.

Do indies need publishers?

The first and most obvious appeal of a publisher is as a source of funding, whether that's money that will pay a developer's rent while they finish a game or pay their collaborators. But publishers do a lot more than that. So far in 2017 over 6,800 games have been released on Steam, compared to 5,028 in 2016 and 2,991 in 2015. A lot of games are being made at the moment, and the great majority of them would self-identify as 'indie games.' So how can a developer stand out in all that noise? How do you make a trailer that shows off your game in its best possible light? How do you make a trailer at all? How do you make a game that appeals widely? These are the kinds of questions that routinely keep developers awake at night.

"I haven't yet been pitched by an indie who is already doing a lot of their own press, or has a significant marketing plan in place," says Kilduff-Taylor, who began publishing games at Mode 7 with the release of Tokyo 42 earlier this year.

"One of the biggest fears and unknowns is to sell and market a game," agrees Andreea Chifu, head of sales and distribution at Raw Fury, which publishes Gonner, upcoming The Last Night and most recently, Uurnog Uurnlimited.

Uurnog Uurnlimited, developed by Nifflas Games and published by Raw Fury.

"Yeah, absolutely," agrees Uurnog's creator, Nicklas 'Nifflas' Nygren. "I don't have time for it, and it's very, very difficult. It's scary and weird. I only really like creating new games, and since I do so many things because I work on music and code and design, it's very good if someone can help me, someone who I can offload marketing stuff and getting devkits to. I don't know how all that works and I don't have time to."

...there's something really encouraging about being sort of 'label-mates' with artists we greatly admire.
Jake Elliott, Cardboard Computer

Publishers also perform many other tasks that go into releasing a modern game: testing, localisation, porting to other platforms, developing relationships with distribution platform holders like Steam, working on branding strategy, administering store pages (this is a far bigger headache than you might imagine, with the need to create platform-specific images, write descriptions of different lengths, deal with uploading finished code and updates and associated bundles and DLC and oh my). There's also legal support, finding collaborators such as artists, music composers and writers, and managing their contracts.

In short, publishers do the crap that gets in the way of making a game. Necessary crap which requires specialized knowledge, contacts, experience and skills which are not often in line with those that go toward making a game. The way Nigel Lowrie, a cofounder of Devolver Digital, sees it, publishers are a tool that indies can use. "A developer should look at what a publisher has to offer, is it of use to them, do they think they can do it better, and will it help make their game a success? And more than that, help them make a better game?"

Hotline Miami, developed by Dennaton Games and published by Devolver Digital.

Every developer has different needs, and publishers—good publishers—must be very flexible to accommodate them. Experienced developers might simply want funding, while younger ones might want more hands-on support, with the publisher providing extensive design feedback and direction. Some just want help with marketing, others just want to offload platform porting jobs, like Cardboard Computer, which originally released Kentucky Route Zero entirely independently and only recently signed with Annapurna Interactive to port it to consoles, localizing it into new languages and drumming up attention. "All three of those tasks involve a lot of management, and are also all new territory for us, so it's great to have some help and guidance from this crew who have a lot of experience," says writer and programmer Jake Elliott.

"I think increasingly indies are looking for a publisher who really understands their particular project and can give it a lot of time, rather than one who is going to slot it in as part of a portfolio approach," says Kilduff-Taylor. As such, many indie-focused publishers have a certain style or specialty. "Devolver are outstanding with games that have a certain type of vibe and aesthetic to them," he suggests. "Team 17 are good at identifying and working with what I'd call 'mid-size' indie games and turning them into mega-hits, and so on. So really it's about the developer identifying which configuration is going to suit them best."

Even in the case of Cardboard Computer, late to getting a publisher for Kentucky Route Zero, they started talking to Annapurna all the way back in 2011 when it was originally Kickstarted. "We really appreciate Annapurna's artist-oriented focus and the other work they are publishing," says Elliott. "It's kind of an intangible, but there's something really encouraging about being sort of 'label-mates' with artists we greatly admire."

Kentucky Route Zero, developed by Cardboard Computer and now published by Annapurna Interactive.

Nygren takes a similarly human-centered approach. "I really look primarily for people who first just like the game," he says. "That's a very important thing, that they feel investment themselves in the game and don't just see it as a way to make money."

"It's people working with other people," says Devolver's Lowrie. "It has to be a tailored relationship with all sorts of variables and things that each side brings to the table, good and bad. Personalities, desires and everything like that." He's adamant that everyone should be open with what they want from the outset, so everyone understands what they want and how they see they'll get there.

There's lots of secret discussion among indies about who's good and bad, about bad deals
Nicklas Nygren, Nifflas Games

"A publisher should make you feel that you are part of a family, that you have a team, colleagues to bounce ideas off and to waive some of the stress that comes with a new release," agrees Chifu. "When we see that we've manage to build a nice community, it feels good. All our devs get to know the other teams we might work with, and most of the time they become friends and even help each other. This is sustainable because we prioritize transparency and trust."

Battle Chef Brigade, developed by Trinket Studios and published by Adult Swim.

Where the money goes

So it's all sunshine and flowers in indie publishing! Okay, maybe not at every level, but certainly, these top flight publishers know that cultivating indie talent might lead to landing the next Hotline Miami, Stardew Valley, or Firewatch. There are also gougers out there, who are outed now and then with claims of them failing to honor their part in deals or withholding funds.

"There's lots of secret discussion among indies about who's good and bad, about bad deals, about avoiding this and that," warns Nygren. There are many stories of things simply going wrong, often as a result of inexperience and breakdowns in communication.

For those worrying about deals going south, the deal itself is often a source of confidence. Neither Raw Fury nor Devolver ask for IP rights, which is to say that developers get to keep ownership of their game, brand, code and art, so they can do anything they like with it in the future. Many indies swear by this because once signed away they've no rights to build on their work and ideas in the future. This is a big contrast to the typical practice of major publishers, who are anxious to maintain control and maximize returns on what are often vast investments in a given game.

Bomber Crew, developed by Runner Duck and published by Curve.

Devolver and Raw Fury give a revenue share to all their developers. Raw Fury gives all its developers an equal partnership in a game so each party shares the same risks. After external costs are deducted, such as paid user acquisition, events and porting, all remaining revenue is shared 50/50 between developer and Raw Fury. Internal costs, such as making trailers in-house, are not deducted. This is right up Nygren's street. "I consider that if the game does well, it puts us in the same boat," he says.

Devolver's deals are based on a period of budgeting with the developer. It starts with the developer giving Devolver a budget detailing what they feel it'd cost to release the game in a certain timeframe with a certain feature-set. Devolver then goes over that budget, working in costs for creating builds to take to PAX and other shows, for QA and a hundred little unknowables. "Inexperienced developers tend to only work out what it takes to get the game done," says Lowrie. They also don't tend to think about factoring the time it usually takes between a game launching and the money being sent by the store-owner, which can be 30-90 days of starving.

Gang Beasts, developed by Boneloaf and published by Double Fine.

Once agreed, the next step is to figure out the investment Devolver will make into the budget, and how both sides will recoup their costs once the game releases, with the aim of both Devolver and developer coming to zero. And once that's reached, what the revenue share will be. In most Devolver deals, 60-70 percent of revenue goes to the developer. (This, of course, is after the percentage taken by Steam and other storefronts.)

There's a lot to consider in all of this. Signing with a publisher is complicated and risk-laden. These relationships take trust and communication. And with it comes the cost of not getting to keep 100 percent of revenue. But indie game production is becoming ever more complex and expensive and the market is becoming ever more saturated. Self-publishing is most certainly still within reach for many savvy and hard-working developers, but many others are finding the support of people—partners—who take all the crap out of their hands and share a stake in their success is invaluable.

Nov 28, 2017

The Witcher 3 Enhanced Edition mod completely overhauls combat and alchemy

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

This is not the Witcher 3 I played. In the game I remember, Geralt whirled and twirled his way through combat, magnetising to the nearest enemy. Combat wasn't always easy, and it did have some depth—I had fun wading into crowds of enemies, dodging and rolling out of the way, and buffing up with potions before big fights. But I was always disappointed with the limitations of The Witcher 3's skill upgrade system, and upgrading gear and the Quen sign made late-game battles less challenge, more race to see how fast I could decapitate every monster or thug in sight. The Witcher 3 Enhanced Edition does not play like that. And for anyone who was turned off by The Witcher 3's vanilla combat, this mod might be just what they need to enjoy one of the best games of all time.

Here's the pitch for The Witcher 3 Enhanced Edition, from the mod page: "[Insert generic sales pitch here.]" Okay, well, that doesn't help us at all. Let me take a crack at it: W3EE comes from a team of modders who couldn't stand the vanilla game's combat, and so they set out to fix it by removing autotargeting, adding new animations, new ways to parry attacks, the ability to control the distance of every swing, inflicting and taking injuries to body parts like the head and legs, and a whole slew of new stats that affect damage, speed, etc. And that's just the combat stuff.

What makes Witcher 3 Enhanced Edition a really interesting mod, even if you were fine with the original combat system like I was, is that it completely removes the concept of leveling from the game. Every item, enemy, everything out there in the world has a set level from the get-go. As you'd expect from a mod this big, signs, inventory, and especially alchemy have been radically changed as well. Here are some of the highlights:

"Gameplay and Exploration: There are absolutely no things in the game that are leveled anymore. Not the equipment, not the quests, not the enemies and not even Geralt. You can explore anywhere and take on anything at the beginning of the game with the potential to be successful in your endeavors instead of being completely barred from content. Geralt's progression happens organically through gameplay by using his innate abilities, like performing fast and heavy attacks, blocking, countering, creating alchemical items, casting signs, etc. These all increase the skill progression of their respective paths, granting you talent points for use ONLY in that path. If you brew many potions, you will be good at brewing potions. Makes sense.

"Talents: Talents have been majorly overhauled and rebalanced. Most combat talents were changed, along with half of alchemy ones and a couple of the sign ones. They are active as soon as unlocked and they only need to be equipped to synergize with mutagens.You can preview the later talent levels by highlighting it and using the contextual buttons displayed on the bottom of the screen.

"Poise: Poise is the stat which dictates resistance to stagger. Both the player and enemies have it. It is calculated based on armor worn, available health, red mutagens, toxicity, etc. Higher poise means a higher chance to resist stagger from an incoming light attack (and possibly heavy attacks too, later on)."

That's just a portion of the many changes Enhanced Edition makes, like adding different size enemies and giving enemies armor and more aggressive AI, and giving every alchemy ingredient a set of base components that can be used interchangeably.

But you get the idea. It looks like the same game, but a few seconds into combat and it feels very different. The simple lack of magnetism on attacks meant most of my early swings sliced through the air in front of me. A pack of random nekkers posed a real threat. But I liked the feel of pressing Ctrl or Alt to modify an attack's distance, helping me close gaps and dance behind an enemy to slash them without taking damage. There's suddenly a stiff skill curve here, and not one primarily dictated by what level I am compared to my enemies.

My favorite thing about the original Witcher was how essential potions and oils were to defeating its monsters. That was a hard-ass game, and hard in a way that utterly sold the idea of Witchers and the power of their mutagens.

Witcher 3 Enhanced Edition feels like it brings that back, and then some. The mod has been in development since last year, but recently hit its v2.5 release, and one member of the mod team posted a new video showing off the combat in more depth.

This is all a long way of saying: if you felt like you needed an excuse to spend a hundred hours playing The Witcher 3 again, now you have one. You can grab Enhanced Edition on Nexus Mods here.

Nov 28, 2017

Accidentally stomping on humans as Jettomero, the galaxy's clumsiest hero

Jettomero: Hero of the Universe

The last thing Jettomero wants to do is pose a danger to people. In fact, its sole objective is to valiantly protect an embattled human race—but there's a complication. Jettomero is a gigantic, lurching robot, a crimson tin-man cut loose in the cosmos who can circumnavigate entire planets with a few strides of its improbably spindly legs, razing human settlements to dust with a misplaced foot.

And Jettomero misplaces its feet a lot.

It's with more than a hint of irony that the hapless robot's in a game subtitled 'Hero of the Universe'. It's a title Jettomero aspires to, but is doomed to never achieve. Gabriel Koenig, the game's creator, began development with this concept: "a game that you can't ever win by doing what you intend to do."

Jettomero can't be a hero, because heroes don't unwittingly murder hundreds of innocent civilians. And Jettomero can't not murder hundreds of innocent civilians, because it's got all the coordination of a toddler taking its first steps. Koenig used procedural animation to create what he calls "naturally awkward" movement, providing the player with only limited control over each of Jettomero's planet-shuddering steps. Arms flailing, insisting that it means no harm, each plod of Jettomero is slow and painfully considered. But it's not enough to avoid catastrophe.

...some people will do everything they can to avoid the buildings, and other people will destroy everything that they can.
Gabriel Koenig

Seeing the trail of destruction left across the galaxy in Jettomero's wake, the inhabitants of the game's procedurally generated planets don't provide a hero's welcome. They swarm in their attack aircraft like gnats, peppering Jettomero with missiles and trying to pull the robot to ground using rope-like traps.

Being indestructible, Jettomero effortlessly shrugs off these attacks. There's little challenge to the game, which began as a Proteus-style exploratory experience. In the final game what it means is those who really suffer from the humans' antagonism towards Jettomero are the humans themselves.

Steering Jettomero through often densely populated planets is already a tough ask, but doing so while being besieged by the very people you're aiming to save is nigh-on impossible. Hostile ships clutter the screen, their missiles unbalancing Jettomero and making his movements even more erratic—his flustered stumbles even more damaging to the worlds underfoot.

It's rare for a videogame to grant the player such incredible destructive power and not have them revel in it, but the unerring positivity and sympathy shown towards humans by Jettomero, even while they attempt to destroy him, certainly suggested to me that wrecking stuff was to be avoided. Koenig's instinct is the same, and he found himself carefully treading around buildings even while testing, but he was also keen not to impose a correct way of playing.

"I liked leaving it open so that there weren't any punishments for that destruction," Koenig tells me. "In the videos I've seen of people playing it, it's kind of 50/50—some people will do everything they can to avoid the buildings, and other people will destroy everything that they can. It lets you tell your own story."

You can learn a lot about yourself based on how you play Jettomero. From my own approach (very careful to avoid destruction early on, becoming more ruthless after the story reveals humanity created Jettomero as a super-weapon, then mistreated and abandoned him) it turns out I balance generous instincts with a streak of Old Testament vengefulness.

Navigating these planets, the human inhabitants acting as both your chief irritants and your emotional impetus to continue, is when Jettomero is at its best. Facing off against kaiju-style monsters in defense of humankind lends Jettomero's quest a clearer focus, but the simple button-matching laser battles feel somewhat lacklustre.

Better is the game's way of relaying the various calamities that have led the humans to this position, a satisfying minigame which has you intercepting and decoding messages by rotating dials to switch letters, eventually revealing a forgotten slice of history.

But the weighty, ungainly feel of controlling Jettomero is a joy in itself, and this is what gives it life beyond its brief run-time. Merely being, to steal a wonderful turn of phrase from the game, a "vagrant of the cosmos" in this world is worth the asking price alone.

A large part of this is down the fact that it looks utterly fantastic. Koenig was heavily inspired by classic 1970s artwork when making Jettomero, and admits that it was a real struggle to convert that vibrancy to 3D. Whether or not he achieved that is up for debate but the result is utterly gorgeous in its own way.

It's a universe of bright colors and sharp contrasts, mint-green planets against deep purple skies, or whatever other combination procedural fate decides to throw up. It's hardly surprising that videogame photographers are already getting mileage out of the game's photo mode, but its very existence was merely a happy accident; Koenig initially introduced the in-game camera just to make the trailer, before realising that players might also enjoy playing with it.

It's the final piece of the puzzle, a serendipitous final addition that exemplifies the way in which Jettomero's many disparate elements and inspirations unite so harmoniously. Koenig's concept for this unwinnable game was initially 2D, but the keystone of its pathos was the move to 3D and the addition of procedural walking animation. Jettomero's relationship with humanity was already a complex and multifaceted one, then an injection of narrative made it so much more so. Sometimes, like a procedurally generated planet that could not have been designed better, these things just come together.