Cheekily-named Happy Game is the next puzzle-y adventure romp from the same folks that created point and click 'em ups Creaks and Chuchel. This one is about a little boy having an absolutely messed up nightmare. Here I thought my nightmares were bad. This kid absolutely has me beat. Happy Game is still looking terribly swell, but Amanita Design have announced alongside the trailer that it's being moved back to release in autumn of this year.
]]>The doors have been opened, the games inside have been devoured, and now it's time to recycle the cardboard. Below you'll find all of our favourite games from 2018, gathered together in a single post for easy reading.
]]>We ask the tough questions here at RPS. We’re like Jeremy Paxman but in a very long bear costume. We once asked 15 developers what they’d do if they were stuck in a room with a clone of themselves. This is important stuff.
Today, we ask another question: What would you gift the games industry for the holidays? We put this query to a bunch of game artists, writers and designers to see how charitable they were feeling. Today, you get to open these presents. Happy holidays!
]]>Amanita Design have redesigned Chuchel, the eponymous star of their delightful 2018 adventure game, to avoid associations with blackface. Chuchel is a dust mote but with his black face, curly black hair, thick orange lips, and scampish ways, yeah, I can see the comparison. The Czech studio say they didn't consider this at all when making the game, and they don't want to be "even remotely associated with racism", so they've given him a new look. Chuchel's black body is now orange, and his orange hat is now black - a look that will be patched into the game's various editions across "the upcoming days and weeks."
]]>Video games, you may have noticed, are often a little bit horrid. All sorts of naughtiness, and a distinct lack of people just being kind to one another. What are we like?! But fortunately there are games that make an exception to the potty-mouthed meanies that dominate, and today I celebrate them and their cuteness with a collection of lovely screenshots.
]]>We're just about halfway through 2018 (which has somehow taken both too long and no time at all). As is tradition, we've shaken our our brains around to see which games from the last six months still make our neurons fizzle with delight. Then we wrote about them here, in this big list feature that you're reading right now this second.
And what games they are! 2018 has been a great year so far, and our top picks run the whole range, from hand drawn oddities made by one person, to big mega-studio blockbusters that took the work of hundreds. And each of them is special to us in some way. Just like you are too. Click through the arrows to see the full spread of our faves so far. Better luck next year to the games that didn't make the cut this time.
]]>I’ve been playing the endless Assassin's Creed Origins, a game so gargantuan that the time on my save file lasts longer than Ancient Egyptian civilization did. This is a revenge mission stripped of all urgency by the simple fact of being five million hours long. Whatever big bad awaits at the end can rest easy knowing there are 800 fortresses to clear out before I reach him. Fearing a loss of sanity, I needed to remind myself of what progress actually felt like, so here are ten games you can see from start to finish in a more reasonable three hours.
]]>The awards ceremony at this year’s GDC was fun. At least, that’s what John told me from his seat in the crowd, where he saw the winners mount a stage some would consider too colourful for this planet. The Independent Games Festival Awards and subsequent Game Developer’s Choice Awards saw a range of trophy-grabbers, from indie students to adventure game veterans. Unfortunately for them, I was hiding backstage, skulking behind a black curtain and holding a voice recorder like a cudgel. I had one question to ask them all: If they had to give their award away, who would get it?
It’s like re-gifting, except you worked really hard for the gift and now you have to hand it over three minutes after your acceptance speech. Life is pain.
]]>Rad trash mammal simulator Night In The Woods scooped this year's Grand Prize during the 2018 Independent Games Festival Awards at the Game Developers Conference last night, also lifting the award for Excellence In Narrative. Baba Is You, an upcoming puzzle game about shifting words to change how parts of the levels and game work, also picked up two awards. Looking across all the winners, ah yes, there certainly are good video games going around.
]]>Hello chum! Sit down and have a nice glass of water and a pack of Bombay mix. That's how we greet our closest friends on the RPS podcast, the Electronic Wireless Show. This week, best pals John and Brendan discuss how friendship is handled in videogames, and what characters felt most like close buddies. John felt a kinship with Alistair from Dragon Age: Origins, and sees Lydia from Skyrim as Wilson the football from Castaway. Whereas Brendan felt a habitual closeness to the undead woman in Dark Souls who sold him poisonous arrows. Takes all sorts, really.
]]>The wonderfully colourful and funny Chuchel, the new adventure game from Samorost and Botanicula makers Amanita Design, is now out. Our John gushed praise in his Chuchel review but who can remember as far back as yesterday? "A tour de force of animation", he said. "Daft happiness at its purest, titrated into gaming", he said. For a game this great, a reminder is warranted. Ah, I laugh just seeing this angry little squiggle. Look:
]]>Chuchel is a tour de force of animation, every scene so vibrant and hilarious, colourful and manic, the slightest tweaks in character facial expressions eliciting guffaws. Every new scene is a glorious delight just to look at, before you even start playing with it. And then, as you click on every element on the screen, delightful, silly and gorgeous things happen. This is a game where I find myself trying to work out what is the correct solution to any given puzzle, just so I can avoid clicking on it before I've clicked on everything else. I exhaust every repeated joke until it loops, don't mind when they do, and call people in from other rooms to see the funniest moments. Chuchel is, beyond belief, wonderful.
]]>Chuchel, the next adorable adventure game from Samorost and Botanicula folks Amanita Design, is almost here. The eponymous tetchy fuzzball Chuchel will arrive on March 7, Amanita announced today, with a mission to simply get a cherry. He seems a wrong'un to me but I can't help smiling every time I see his defeated little face. Bless. Here, point your peepers and lugholes at this new trailer:
]]>Amanita Design have made some of the prettiest (and best-sounding) video games, from Samorost through Machinarium to Botanicula, and their next looks delightful too. Amanita today shared a look at Chuchel [official site], their comedy adventure game due in early 2018, and I'm well up for all this. Crank your sound and have a look:
]]>As Old Father Time grabs his sickle and prepares to take ailing 2016 around the back of the barn for a big sleep, we're looking to the future. The mewling pup that goes by the name 2017 will come into the world soon and we must prepare ourselves for its arrival. Here at RPS, our preparations come in the form of this enormous preview feature, which contains details on more than a hundred of the exciting games that are coming our way over the next twelve months. 2016 was a good one - in the world of games at least - but, ever the optimists, we're hoping next year will be even better.
]]>The makers of Samorost, Botanicula and Machinarium have announced a new game. It’s called Chuchel [official site] and judging by these two teasers it looks in keeping with the studio's tradition of odd games with even odder names. We don’t have much else to go on yet, however, just a couple of short trailers showing off what I’m guessing is the grumpy protagonist. Come and enjoy his garbled ranting.
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