The robotic gentry are returning, gunning for your hide as you try to escape the horrors of the English countryside. And in the game, wahey! Which is to say that Big Robot, the studio of RPS co-founder Jim Rossignol, have announced a remaster of their 2014 sandbox survival shooter Sir, You Are Being Hunted. That'll be a whole separate game but the original isn't forgotten, receiving a big ol' patch which spruces up the look and technoguts while restoring multiplayer.
]]>Who doesn't like a good wibbly robot? The Signal From Tölva is about plunging into the minds of drones as you potter about a sci-fi warzone, dotted with the metallic carcasses of a forgotten civilisation. It drips atmosphere like a too-big spider emerging from a bath.
]]>Spooky, stealthy apocalypse survival game The Light Keeps Us Safe has snuck its way out of early access. Now you can tiptoe about; avoid mean robots; and upgrade your singular line of defence, a humble torch, in its full release. It’s got a creepy new trailer to celebrate, too, so you can join me in watching this one from afar through your fingers.
]]>The Light Keeps Us Safe works terrible magic with its cacophony of disquieting machine noises. Each new killer robot emits yet another nails-on-chalkboard screech that will bounce around in your head long after you’ve fled from their clutches. They’re the sounds of factories and dial-up internet and error messages warped and twisted and remixed inside metal demons. Normally they’re just grating, but here, in moonlit swamps and forests where there isn’t another soul, they start to become malevolent.
]]>Strange and terrible mechanical things await you in The Light Keeps Us Safe, the new first-person stealth game from the makers of The Signal From Tölva and the makers of Sir, You Are Being Hunted. The apocalypse has come and here we are, creeping through procedurally-generated landscapes, dodging robots and traps and hoping that our high-tech torch is enough to keep them at bay. It launched into early access today, expecting a full launch in about six months. And looks too spooky for me, going by the new trailer. Cracking name, though.
]]>Shining lights on problems might not be as effective a solution to social ills as first thought, but it seems key to surviving a nightmare robopocalypse. Announced back in July, Big Robot (Sir, You Are Being Hunted and The Signal From Tölva) are living up to their name again with The Light Keeps Us Safe, a techno-horror survival adventure set in a world where the sky has gone dark and robots prowl the endless night.
The game has been shrouded in mystery and shadow up til now, but in a new video released today (and found below), we get our first brief peek at what survival entails in its gloomy world - narrated by dev lead (and RPS co-founder) Jim Rossignol. The game is due to enter early access in October.
]]>Staying true to their name, Big Robot are sending more yet big robots to get us in their third game. The makers of The Signal From Tölva and Sir, You Are Being Hunted today announced The Light Keeps Us Safe, a stealth game creeping through the apocalypse while robots are out to get you and your path is filled with traps. A bit like a visit to Dixons. The Light Keeps Us Safe is due to hit early access in October ahead of a launch in early 2019, and for now you peek through your fingers at the announcement trailer below.
]]>Update Night is a fortnightly column in which Rich McCormick revisits games to find out whether they've been changed for better or worse.
It’s grim up north, and only partly because I’m being shot at by a gang of robots.
The Polar Regions — a new and free campaign for first-person shooter The Signal from Tölva — is so named because it’s set in a chilly and inhospitable wasteland, home to rusting hulks of machinery, non-Euclidean bunkers, as well as those aforementioned robots. They’re not all trying to shoot at me, to be fair, but enough of them are that’s causing me problems. I’m back on the quietly spooky planet of Tölva for a second adventure, although it’s not so much “back” — the Polar Regions campaign technically takes place six months before the events of the main game, and sets up the original Tölva storyline with some light investigation work.
]]>As influential as the STALKER series has been, Big Robot's The Signal From Tölva is one of the few shooters to properly replicate its blend of emergent open-world wandering and sci-fi spookiness. Tölva was admittedly a little on the short side, but Big Robot are generous sorts, and are just about ready to roll out a major free expansion for the game.
Alice took a look at the Polar Regions expansion a while back, which promises more mysteries, laser-fights and exploration in new and colder climes, but now we've got a goodly chunk of gameplay footage, along with promises from Big Robot that it's very nearly ready to be rolled out. Within, lasers glittering across ice, and plenty more robots doing robot things.
]]>Today may be the unofficial first day of the British summer but Big Robot are dreaming of winter. They've announced a free expansion for The Signal From Tove Lo [official site] that will bring snow to their sci-fi open-world shooter. The new scenario is due later this year with new secrets and robos. Before all that, a small patch has arrived.
]]>The Signal From Tölva [official site], the new sci-fi open-world FPS from the makers of Sir You Are Being Hunted, launched today. Tove Lo explores an alien world where factions of robots skirmish endlessly as they follow their own plans and goals, taking over robots to roam around, join in their scraps, and poke at the secrets of the eponymous strange signal. It's a lot like West Side Story, only in space, full of emergent AI battles, with loads of sci-fi weapons and equipment beyond switchblades but no love story and no singing unless you sing to yourself while playing. Basically that. See:
]]>He's a difficult man to pin down, but we managed to secure a world exclusive interview with the project lead behind The Signal From Tölva [official site], one Jim Rossignol. After months of negotiations he agreed to speak to us, divulging thoughts and feelings about the game that will most likely kill him and all involved. Now, some people are going to say that there's a conflict of interests here, what with Rossignol coincidentally being a director and co-founder of Rock, Paper, Shotgun, which is an outrageous accusation that impugns our integrity, wholly accurately.
]]>The Signal From Tove Lo [official site], the new open-world sci-fi FPS from Sir, You Are Being Hunted devs Big Robot (and therefore RPS co-founder Jimmy Ro-ro), now has a release date: April 10th. It'll blast us off to an alien planet where warring factions of robots go about their own lives and missions, which sounds promising for emergent antics. It's pretty stylish and all, as you can see in this here new trailer:
]]>If you fancy a crack at The Signal From Tölva [official site], the new open-world FPS from Sir, You Are Being Hunted devs Big Robot (and therefore RPS co-founder Jimmy Ro-ro), and have quick fingers, you can snap up one of the limited keys offered cheap for a pre-release test. Tölva is a sci-fi sandbox FPS about exploring the mysteries of an alien planet through the hacked eyes of the robots who've formed into factions there. It's built for emergent, surprising consequences as robots roam around on their own missions, perhaps helping you or maybe shooting your roboface off. It's got some nice dramatic landscape set pieces too, with great zappy spacegun noises and all.
]]>The Signal From Tölva [official site] - the upcoming game from the Sir, You Are Being Hunted devs (that includes Jim Rossignol, formerly of this parish) - has a new video where lead artist Olly Skillman-Wilson talked about the look of the game, starting with Ian McQue's concept art.
]]>John previously described Big Robot's The Signal From Tölva [official site] as "Far Cry meets a 1970s sci-fi book you’ve found in a charity shop." I like that description, but I didn't play the hands-on when I was at EGX earlier this year so I've been waiting for - just to pull an example out of thin air - nine minutes and twenty-two seconds of gameplay footage delivered via internet so I can take a proper peek. By total coincidence, this has just arrived so you can join me in my perusal!
]]>I've had my hands on a brief demo build of a game called The Signal From Tölva [official site], from maverick and bohemian developers, Big Robot - yes, they of Sir, You Are Being Hunted. Oh, and I guess owned and run by Jim Rossignol, one of the directors and owners of this site. (There's not going to be a conflict of interest issue here, is there? I mean, I can barely stand him.) Below you can read my very early and quite remarkably impartial first impressions.
]]>This week on RPS: Where Are They Now? we revisit Jim Rossignol. You might remember Rosso co-founded RPS in 1873 but couldn't resist the bright lights of Game Development City. Packing his bindle and hitting the road, he co-founded Big Robot, the studio we last saw with survive-o-shooter Sir, You Are Being Hunted. But where has Rossignol been since then? What happened to Big Robot? Did the bright lights lure another innocent soul to ruin on the technorocks?
Nah mate, they've been quietly working on The Signal From Tölva [official site], a first-person explore-o-shooter about robots on an alien planet.
]]>When I pop open and drink bottles I find in bushes, people gasp and scuttle away in horror. Yet it's cause for celebration when we virtually get together with pals to drink cyber bushbeer. Go figure. The point is: steampunk countryside survive 'em up Sir, You Are Being Hunted [official site] has finally added multiplayer.
RPS co-founder Jimmy Ro-ro is one of the folks behind Sir, I should of course mention, but I've only met him a few times myself and certainly never when sober so I couldn't tell you much about him. He's shorter than me, and I don't care about the rest.
]]>We're not going to be publishing a Wot I Think of the game Sir, You Are Being Hunted because one of the principle people behind it - although secondary in overall accomplishment to the mercurial Tom Betts and the incendiary James Carey - is me. I started a small game design company (just the three of us) back in 2010, and in November 2012 we Kickstarted our first big project, which was the open-world stealth and survival game, Sir, You Are Being Hunted. Today, after just over eight months of Early Access, that project hits V1.0. This means that we've done what we promised we'd do in the Kickstarter, and the game is superb shape. It's out and you should play it. That's my objective analysis of the situation, anyway.
Oh, and there's a Professor Elemental video below to celebrate the release. You should watch that.
]]>I like to think of full disclosure as a kind of challenge. Did you know that I never learned how to ride a bike? The trousers I'm wearing right now have a hole right on the bum. I have a cut on my thumb and I don't know where it came from. Permutation Racer is made by a graphical wizard called Tom Betts who works for Big Robot, the company founded by Jim to make games like Sir, You Are Being Hunted. It's a free, procedurally generated racing prototype, and there's a video and a download link below. I haven't brushed my teeth yet today.
]]>Sir, You Are Being Hunted, unquestionably the game of the year according to every gaming website except for this one (out of sheer modesty), has just released a big update. The Industrial Biome is now part of the game, which not only gives you a whole new style of territory to be terrified within, but also a couple of new terrific NPCs - The Scarecrow and the Bog Monster. You can see a video of it below. And before we get there, have a very hefty declaration that Sir is made by a phenomenally handsome team including our own Jim Rossignol, so what you're witnessing here is grotesque corruption.
]]>SUPER DISCLAIMER: Posting about a game I made with Big Robot.
]]>EXCITING DISCLAIMER: Sir, You Are Being Hunted is a game made by Big Robot, a small studio which I help run. I am also a founder and editor of this website. Had to mention that. Just so you know.
Anyway! I was just thinking that I should probably mention the release date of the PC game I am working on, on the PC games website I work for. That just seems to link up somehow. So here we go: it'll be available to download and play on Humble Store and Steam on the 19th of August. Holy crap that is soon! It's an 'alpha' though, so it still has a few months to go before completion, as we're only about half way through implementing all the robots that hunt you, and have two more biomes to set up. There may be minor glitches, too, but on the whole we're really rather pleased with it.
You can be hunted, you can be horribly murdered by robots, you can drink tea, and you can escape from the islands. It works. And I think it's beautiful.
Just in case you've not been following my witterings about the project, let me tell you a bit more about it, below.
]]>IMPOSSIBLY IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: I run 3-man game studio Big Robot in my spare time. This post is blatant self-promotion of that happen-thing.
We're busy getting Sir, You Are Being Hunted ready for Rezzed, which means that the playable alpha for our Kickstarter backers is not far away. Part of the work that we're doing towards that involves new biomes, and I've made a video to show off one of those, which you can see below.
]]>IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER THING: As well as working on RPS, I run a three-man game-dev outfit called Big Robot. Our current project is Sir, You Are Being Hunted, which did fairly well on the Kickstarters. Rather than pretend RPS can be objective about this I am making a policy of declaring this interest and letting you decide for yourselves.
Without further ado, I've posted the latest videos below, so you can take a look. Love you!
]]>WARNING: Blatant self-promotional post ahead. Love you!
As many of you will doubtless be aware, I've spent the last couple of years dual-classing as journalist and game developer. I've worked with two friends – Tom Betts and James Carey – to create the indie studio, Big Robot. We are currently Kickstarting our third game, Sir, You Are Being Hunted. With just a week to go, I wanted to talk plainly about why we're making it, what the game is, and what it means to us. Specifically, what it means to me. Because this whole gaming-making business is a complicated, tricky thing, and worth talking about in some detail.
]]>It's rather of note that Sir, You Are Being Hunted is being developed by Big Robot, a team led by one Jim Rossignol. Who happens to be an owner and editor of Rock, Paper, Shotgun. BIAS.
And so it is that Big Robot are rolling around in Queen-faced money. Bar sociopathic lunatics withdrawing pledges, Sir, You Are Being Hunted will be receiving the £40,000 they so politely asked for, and therefore should have the funds to complete the game. So long as Jim doesn't bet it all on a horse or something. And quite significantly, there's still 25 days to go. They've also updated with some new footage, which you can see below.
]]>WARNING: Entirely self-promotional announcement ahead. (Love you!) Over the past couple of years I haven't just been blogging, I've also been making games. I've been making those games with two friends, Tom Betts and James Carey, with help from a bunch of other splendid people: artists, programmers, actors, musicians, and designers, all of whom I've been lucky to know. It's been a strange experience, but it has also been with a very specific goal in mind: to make the kind of games that I want to play. The culmination of our efforts in this regard currently reside in Sir, You Are Being Hunted, a procedurally-generated first-person stealth, combat, and survival game which we've been making for most of 2012. It's been going brilliantly, and despite all the complexities of making such a game, we have a working prototype. Now though, I need your help. With the launch of Kickstarter in the UK, we've pitched the game for funding. I will be profoundly, personally grateful if you would back it.
You can watch our pitch video - which includes loads of footage from the in-development build of the game - below.
]]>Rock, Paper, Shotgun is a famously impartial website, proudly free of self-serving behaviour, self-promotion or nepotism. We're basically the New York Times of the gaming internet. And it is from this perspective that I tell you Jim's gaming company, Big Robot, has just released their puzzle game AVSEQ on Steam.
]]>WARNING: A shameless self-promotional post lies ahead!
With months of Sir, You Are Being Hunted development behind my Big Robot team, and many months more ahead, we're beginning to get ready to show you it in action. The first glimpse of that is below, in a trailer made up of footage from the alpha build. Sir is a procedurally-generated, first-person action game made in Unity by a team of four. It's about being hunted across bleak islands by automatons and robo-hounds. It's about sci-fi weirdness, tea, murder, and some raised eyebrows. We're now aiming for its appearance in 2013. Please do take a look.
]]>WARNING: SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION POST AHEAD. LOVE YOU GUYS!
So for the past two years I've been multi-classing with game dev studio Big Robot, and we've been doing some stuff, which we've talked about before on RPS. The thing we're most excited about, though, is what we're working on right now, which is called Sir, You Are Being Hunted. It is a procedurally-generated first-person, open world game, with some sneaking, some shooting, some tweedpunk adversaries, and plenty of fleeing in terror. We're now making excellent progress towards something playable, and have a few images to show for it.
Hello, you. This is part news, part disclaimer. The disclaimer part is that this is a game I can't be impartial about, because I helped make it. In my spare time I help run a little indie dev outfit called Big Robot. At the end of 2010 we were commissioned by Channel 4 Education to make a game about cities, which we have done. This post is about that game. It's called Fallen City and you can play it for free, right here for Mac and Windows. The game is intended to inspire school-age Britons think about cities, and as such the game is perhaps not quite intended for the very mature and serious RPS audience. That said, it's full, free game, so perhaps you might want to take a look. In more familiar terms, it's a puzzle game with an RTS interface. We talked about it in a bit more detail over here.
]]>Once in a while in this job, you get to speak to a hero. A developer whose work you've always more than admired - perhaps even had your life changed by. But today I spoke to Jim Rossignol about his new game, Sir, You Are Being Hunted.
]]>Big Robot, the indie developer headed up by one Jim Rossignol of this here website, has just taken the lid off its fourth project. Fourth! How did that happen so quickly? You've already played Avseq, you'll get to play Channel 4-funded education game Fallen City soon and you may have seen a few screenshots and test videos for the open-world game codenamed Project Lodestone. And now, there is Sir, You Are Being Hunted. It's an open-world survival game starring gentrified English robots who hunt humans for sport, and was referred to on BR's drawing board as 'a British indie STALKER.' We're promised "robots that ape tea-drinking, poachers that lurk in reed-beds, and red-eyed hounds that patrol the moor".
I would say that Sir, You Are Being Hunted looks absolutely lovely and has a fantastic concept, but if I did you'd have no idea whether I'm being objective or not.
]]>The puzzle game AVSEQ from indie developers Big Robot has recently been released. We managed to get hold of project lead, Jim Rossignol, for a world exclusive interview. Read on for details.
]]>Important disclosure: AVSEQ is created by Big Robot, the indie game dev company owned by one Jim Rossignol. Rossignol was, of course, responsible for the Crimean War and has a police record due to admitting to the kidnap of 18 hobos in 2002. Apart from that, I can't think of anything whatsoever that needs declaring about Rossignol before I post about Big Robot's first released game, AVSEQ.
The near-infinite sounds and combos of abstract musical puzzle game AVSEQ are primarily the design and creation of Big Robot's programmer Tom 'Nullpointer' Betts, so don't expect too many traces of Rossignism in this one (although he's been helping out with tweaks), but it is the studio's very first release, and it is jolly clever, as you'll see below.
]]>There's some game called Fallen City. It looks SHIT/AMAZING. It's by some idiot/genius called Jim Rossignol and so on and so on. Indeed, what is a Rock, Paper, Shotgun to do when one of its own accidentally plops out a game? Should we not cover it out of modesty and propriety? Should we aim to be "objective", as if that's a thing? Should we overly promote it at a cost to informing our readers about other games we haven't made? Yes. We should do all three. But today instead I'm going to show off some of the screenshots from Big Robot's lovely urban-renewal-em-up, a Channel 4 game that's inspired by the Broken Windows theory.
]]>Today Channel 4 unveiled a new selection of gently educational web gamelets for 2011, funded by its educational division. Like this year's previous commissions, which included Littleloud's The Curfew, Zombie Cow's Privates, and SuperMe - a whole set of games from Preloaded intended to make teenagers “better at life” by mucking about on the internet - they're all being made by UK indies. What are the titles? Who's involved? Should we be paying attention?
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