Heaven's Vault is a puzzle game about translating a fictional, ancient language, but it's also a rich narrative game. If you want to spend more time in its world, with its story and characters but without the puzzles (or space-sailing), then good news: Heaven's Vault is now available as a two volume novel from Jon Ingold, the original game's narrative director.
]]>Inkle Studios of Heaven's Vault and Pendragon fame began teasing their Arthurian strategy game in January this year and launched it in September. For their next outing, they want to be much more open about their development process than they've been in the past. So much so that they've begun talking about their next game, something set in the Scottish Highlands, just a few months after Pendragon's launch. Come have a look-see at what they've revealed about it so far.
]]>Ultrawide gaming monitors can seem excessive compared to regular 16:9 gaming screens, especially when their demanding resolutions often require powerful and expensive graphics cards to make the most of them. Once you try one, though, there's no going back. I've been a big fan of ultrawide gaming monitors for years now, as their extra screen space not only makes them great for juggling multiple desktop windows, but supported PC games also look uttery fantastic on them - and to prove it, I've put together this list of the best ultrawide games on PC.
]]>Happy Star Wars: Squadrons day, internet. I have nothing to offer but the sneer of a veteran Elite Dangerous pilot. A disdainful scoff as you vroomify your engines in the docking bay, click-clacking your flight checks in the seat of some dusty Y-wing, some classless X-Wing, some bogus B-wing. Who do you think you are? Sitting there in the pilot’s seat of that garish tin can. Only an exponent of the foulest incorrectitudes would indulge a shipyard with all the basic-ass nomenclature of an episode of Sesame Street. Here, you fripperist, you child, gaze upon the true list of the 9 best spaceships in games.
]]>Heaven's Vault is one of those games that manages to occupy every waking moment of your life as soon as you start playing it. It's an archaeological linguistics mystery that sees you hop between planets and sail across vast, serene space rivers as you work to uncover the secrets of an ancient civilisation through the power of translation, deciphering age-old hieroglyphics so you can understand more about what the future holds for your home region of space known as the Nebula. I couldn't stop thinking about it when it came out in the spring of last year, and as we inch closer to the release of Inkle's next adventure, the Arthurian-based Pendragon, I've found it's wormed its way back inside my brain yet again.
]]>Times are strange and frightening. But one point of great solace for me has been hearing people celebrating things in their lives. It feels especially important right now to hold on to what makes us all proud about what we do and who we are. And what I really love is people showing off things they’re proud of making.
So I’ve been asking a bunch of developers to pick out something they’ve created that brings them pleasure to look back on. And here they are, including Harvey Smith remembering his input on Deus Ex and Dishonored, Derek Yu on one of his first-ever games. There’s pride in doing something for someone else’s game, in the power of details and in little inventions, and ah gosh, shut up, let’s just tuck into a big slice of escapist positivity.
]]>The human race evolved the facial expression known as the “smile” because we needed a way to silently communicate satisfaction to other members of our species. So we decided to bare our teeth at one another and squint. This stuck, and now even the characters of your favourite digital storyderby are doing it. It’s sort of disgusting, and yet… you know what, I like it. Here are the 11 best smiles in PC games.
]]>While the Game Developers Conference is not happening this week, postponed by Covid-19 health concerns, its two big awards shows went ahead on livestream. The vile waterfowl of Untitled Goose Game ran off with the Game Of The Year Award at the Game Developers Choice Awards, and the chill A Short Hike scooped the Grand Prize at the Independent Games Festival Awards. A Short Hike and fellow winner Mutazione are both free for keepsies on another few hours too. If you enjoy having your preferences validated by awards from distinguished-sounding bodies, read on!
]]>Early this month, the studio behind the archaeological language adventure Heaven's Vault tweeted out seven words teasing their next project. At the time, the story-focused Inkle Studios had only this to share: "swords, anguish, Britain, unrequited, forests, hope, and revenge." As of today we've still got no imagery to go with all the teasing but we do have some more words and they're much less abstract this time.
]]>Swords, anguish, Britain, unrequited, forests, hope, and revenge are seven words that apparently relate to the next game by Heaven's Vault developers Inkle Studios. Most game studios would post a teaser video or a cute gif to showcase what they'll be working on next but Inkle is all about words so this seems plenty fitting.
]]>2019 was a great year for PC games - aren't they all? - but you might not yet know what the very best PC games of 2019 were. Let us help you.
]]>Seeing as DRM is a real barrier to the preservation of our cultural history, it's only fitting that the dead-language-translating archaeology 'em up Heaven's Vault is now sold on GOG too. The virtual vendors of vintage (and virgin) video games had originally rejected Heaven's Vault and declined to stock it, but this week chucked a uey and admitted they were wrong. If you want it DRM-free, get at it. GOG's curation is baffling but hey, here's another good game now on their store.
]]>Summer. The heat age. Scorch season. Spring's hangover. It's the mid-point of the year and you know what that means. No, not "mojito time", Geoff, put those away. It's time we told you what the best games of the year are so far. There are quite a lot of them. Just look how many videogames have escaped from their developers in the past six months and are now running amok through the blistering streets, getting stuck in the melting tarmac, like ants in jam. It's unsanitary. So allow us to round up these unruly games and trap them in a handy list. Here are our favourite sword swingers and space 'splorers so far this year (and a couple of DLCs for good measure).
Okay, Geoff, now bring the mojitos.
]]>You’re a good person, reader, and I will always believe in you, no matter what. No, not you. The person behind you. No, to the left of... No, the other person. The one in the green-- No, you, with the... NO. The person BEHIND you, I said. The person with-- Oh great they’ve walked off now. This whole thing has been a waste of time. My only friend among you is gone because we’re several sentences into this intro and none of you can understand how pointing works. I hope you’re all happy. Here’s your god damned podcast, the Electronic Wireless Show.
Honestly.
]]>"Do the rivers unite us, or do they divide us?" I've translated my way through a good chunk of Heaven's Vault, and I keep coming back to that question. I found the relevant statement on an urn, I think, amidst some ruins on the bank of a celestial river. My grasp on the ancient language has lent me confidence about every word, except the most pivotal. It's all a bit profound, innit?
If that's the kind of question YOU want to be plagued by on a nice Sunday in the bath, you should (probably) check out the freshly released free demo.
]]>Do you speak the old language? No, not High Valyrian, get away from me. I mean Ancient, the mysterious language of archeological adventure game Heaven’s Vault. It is very cool. The word "sky" translates to "star-place". The word for “traitor” is “person-who-does-not-truth”. That’s wonderful. Less wonderful are the game’s niggles and annoying quirks, the kind that Alice B pointed out in her Heaven’s Vault review. “The game is in desperate need of a more comprehensive fast travel system,” she said, for example. Well, happy news sci-fi history buffs. It’s got one. Sort of. It’s definitely better than what existed before.
]]>This week I’ve been exploring the nebula of Heaven’s Vault, but, like so many of the translations protagonist Aliya is trying to untangle, my playtime has been fragmentary. Picking through in half-hour chunks, I’ve become very appreciative of how the game preserves its own history. Loading up will give you a short but specific reminder of what you were up to before, and for more details you can dig into the timeline, which stretches back thousands of years but simultaneously keeps a helpful log of the events of the past few days.
]]>Even though I went to a grubby comp, I did Latin at school, and in one of the first exams I translated the word ‘taberna’ as ‘small shop’. This is technically correct. I doggedly translated a story where Caecillius declares to his wife Metella that he wants to go down the little shop, and Metella is all like “You’re always going down the little shop, Caecillius!”, and then Caecillius is all like “This argument has made me need to go down the little shop even more!”
An alternative translation for ‘taberna’ is ‘pub’. Context is key.
]]>Sail the rivers between moons and planets, explore ancient ruins and bustling towns alike, and learn a lost ancient language in Heaven's Vault, out now. The sci-fi archaeology adventure is the latest game from Inkle, the studio behind the excellent 80 Days, and that's enough to make me buy it. Hold on a sec.
Okay, done. For realsies. Lovely.
Alice Bee is currently writing down Wot She Thinks of Heaven's Vault to inform us all sssssoon but, for now, here's word that it is out.
]]>EGX Rezzed 2019 kicks off today: all the best games will be there, and all the best people will be schlepping to London to see 'em. Except you. You're the best person, clearly, but London? No way, mate.
Good news! You can watch the RPS video team playing a bunch of the most exciting and/or charming games from the show, live from the comfort of whatever you prefer to gawp at a monitor or phone from. That's thanks to the RPS Sessions, powered by XSplit and supported by RIG Gaming and GamesPlanet. Today's line-up includes Julian Gollop's X-COM heir Phoenix Point, the Double Fine-published Knights And Bikes and Samurai Gunn 2, Inkle's Heaven's Vault and many, many more. (Alright, nine more. And even more tomorrow, yeah?)
]]>If my translation from Press Release-ese is correct, I believe that sci-fi archaeological adventure Heaven's Vault will launch on April 16th. Probably a little easier than translating alien hieroglyphs, which seems to be the core of Inkle's next story-driven puzzler. Unlike the studio's earlier 80 Days, which was easy-going interactive fiction, this one poses more direct challenges, but will apparently bend its narrative around your choices and even failures. They boldly claim that it's "a story that will be different for every person who plays it", and after 80 Days, I'm eager to see them make good on that next month.
]]>Bang bang, listeners. This week we are talking about the greatest guns, the wackiest weapons, the most fabulous firearms, all in a serious and knowing fashion on the RPS podcast, the Electronic Wireless Show. The pod squad are stocking a chest full of videogame firearms, like three frightening quartermasters. Matthew is sequestering a laser pointer from Gears of War, Alice wants the exploding teddy gun from Sunset Overdrive, and Brendan is taking Symmetra's energy gun from Overwatch. What are you taking?
]]>I love words, me. They’re so expressive and weird and can do so much. I think of people who are very good at word-balling as like conductors mixed with magicians. They marshall all these weird squiggles into a specific order that make other people spontaneously feel real feelings, in whatever order they want. Madness! And the origins and cross-pollinations of language, especially one as terrible as English (consider the words ‘content’ and ‘content’ for example) that you can study words specifically, which is called etymology.
For example, did you know that avocados and orchids are both basically big swinging balls? Avocado is a corruption of the Aztec word for testicle, and orchid comes from the Ancient Greek for same, orchis*. This once again goes to show that humans have evolved very little. But we have at least evolved to the point that we can make video games with an etymological flair. That gold standard segue leads me to Heaven’s Vault.
]]>Science-fantasy adventure Heaven's Vault remains one of the most intriguing upcoming games of 2019. It's a game about archaeology - the proper sort, where you rummage around through the artifacts and ruins of civilisations past, and attempt to piece together what it is you're looking at. It's the latest from 80 Days studio Inkle, but this time they're expanding past prose and into the third dimension and beyond. Archaeologist Aliya explores strange worlds in a wooden space-sailing ship, deciphers an alien language and generally refuses to hit things with whips. Ponder the newly unearthed trailer below.
]]>New year, old friends. The boys and girls of the RPS podcast have not been reborn, they have no resolutions, no ambitious goal to learn German or eat more spinach. They just want to play more videogames. Unbelievable. So let’s listen to them chat about the shooters and RPGs that have them most excited. That’s what they do on these podcasts, you know, they just talk nonsense. And they get PAID for it. It’s outrageous, if you ask me, a nameless publication byline.
]]>Wow 2019 is a thing, huh? How are we all doing? Relieved? Bowling a hangover and a nagging sense of trepidation? Maybe you work in retail and, surprise! You were supposed to be at work half an hour ago. Time loses all meaning post-New Year break, doesn't it? You're just sort of adrift in a sea of empty Quality Street wrappers. That's okay. We're all there too.
Pretty soon the grim news cycle is going to grind to life again. Only three months until -- no! Don't think about it. We still have a moment here, on the crinkly, brightly coloured waves. Listen to their quiet rustling and think, not about reality, but about games! Yes, lovely, shiny games. We can bury our face right in them. And from that point of view the next 12 months are looking pretty good. Here's our selection of the games we're most looking forward to next year.
]]>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!
]]>“That’s the Ancient word for ‘writer’,” says Jon Ingold, pointing to some indecipherable symbols on his business card. “What it breaks down to is ‘Person-who-speaks-without-speaking.’”
Ingold is the writer for Heaven’s Vault, an upcoming sci-fi adventure from Inkle (the folks behind 80 Days and Sorcery!) You play an archaeologist investigating the remains of an ancient civilisation in an otherworldly “Nebula”. He and some others from Inkle Studios have been watching me waddle around a garden of strange monuments, trying to discern meaning from the faded words I find carved into trees, walls, rocks and reliefs. In creating this game, they've constructed a fictional language of over 1000 words. They’re so proud of this new language, they’ve even used it on their business cards.
Ingold examines a card from Joseph Humfrey, the studio’s co-founder and programmer who is sitting nearby. He thumbs over the pseudo-ancient script.
“Joe’s means: ‘Person-who-controls-robots’.”
]]>Some studios are content to take their time, and refine their craft to a perfect, incisive edge. Inkle, previously of the excellent 80 Days have been working away at Heaven's Vault for almost a full year since RPS's Adam Smith took a peek at it last GDC and fell madly in love with its quiet, thoughtful, nature.
While Inkle aren't quite ready to pin down any of the gritty details like a release date or system specs, they are ready to show the world a little bit of the game in motion. Take a moment to ponder its nature, before rushing off to the next game.
]]>With 80 Days and Sorcery, Inkle have made some of our favourite games of recent years, but Heaven's Vault [official site] might just be their greatest achievement yet. It's early days, of course, but a half hour play session at GDC has already convinced me that this science fiction adventure is a very exciting thing indeed. It's a game about exploring the past, in the future, through archaeology and translation, and it has a remarkable sense of wonder.
]]>After travelling around the world in the fantastic 80 Days and to Fantasyland in Sorcery!, Inkle have announced their next game will go into space. Heaven's Vault [official site] will see an archaeologist and her robot buddy travelling the mysterious rivers which connect moons, trying to uncover their secrets. Meet people! Chat! Solve puzzles! Translate languages! Travel an open world! Experience consequences! It sounds pret-ty great. I've a nagging suspicion that working with existing stories and worlds has kept Inkle from reaching the huge and fawning audience they deserve, so maybe this here all-new tale will do it.
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