It’s episode four of RPS’ indie podcast Indiescovery and this week the team got into the Valentine's Day spirit and had a long chat about our favourite indie game romances (any excuse to gush about how hot the characters are in Hades, really). We get gabbing about our favourite game OTPs, the fabulous representation of queer romances in indies, and then finish with a cursed (not horny) Cosmo-style dating quiz.
]]>The house cat. Felis destructus. Humankind's absolute best mate and undisputed master. Some upcoming video games are planning to examine the motives behind these enigmatic creatures, whose origins remain unknown. Stray will put you in the paws of a street cat finding their way home in a cyberpunk city. Little Kitty Big City will see you wearing the whiskers of a cat less concerned with going home than it is with wreaking urban havoc. But what if you don't want to wait for these games? Well, you have options. Here are 10 of the best cats in PC games.
]]>As someone with bipolar, I have often wondered why sinking several hours into something soothing such as Shovel Knight does so much for my soul. However I recently read that Geek Therapy, a non-profit advocating the use of video games for wellness, promote using world-building games such as Minecraft, Roblox, Animal Crossing, and Fortnite to help people deal with mental health issues. While play therapy has long promoted the therapeutic powers of escapism to imaginary worlds, it is more recently that thought has gone into how these online experiences can be used to combat my, I mean someone's, anxiety and depression.
]]>The Glory Society, the new worker cooperative founded by some of the creators of Night In The Woods, have started summoning their next project. Glory Society have awoken on Twitter to post this spooky gif of a crow on a gravestone. No, it's not Night In The Woods 2, they say. Just getting that out of the way.
]]>This weekend, indie-centric storefront Itch.io kicked off their massive Bundle For Racial Justice And Equality. Pulling together a collection of 749 (and counting) indie darlings, hobby projects and unsung curiosities for a meagre $5, Itch's massive bundle has currently raised well over $400,000 for legal defence funds across the United States - and there's no sign of slowing down anytime soon.
]]>Last week, the haunting and hilarious Disco Elysium added an extra difficulty setting called ‘Hardcore True Detective Mode’. On the surface, it seems like a fairly standard set of tweaked parameters. More demanding dice roles to shaft dear old Harry Du Bois at every opportunity.
If you take time to read the update notes though, it becomes clear that these new changes are storytelling devices as much as adjusted sliders. Since there are no monsters to make tougher, it’s your wallet and psyche that take the hits. It’s had me thinking about how ZA/UM’s surrealist cop odyssey, and other games, express poverty through their systems. Games that invert the traditional power curve of farmhand to godhood, or make us try twice as hard to get half as far. Far from being a detached add-on, the update is a deft application of mechanics-as-metaphor that wouldn’t work if desperation, isolation, poverty, and addiction weren’t already stitched deep into the fabric of Disco Elysium’s fiction.
]]>Alec Holowoka, the co-creator of Night In The Woods, died on Saturday morning, his sister Eileen Mary Holowka has reported. Alec Holowka was co-designer, coder and composer on Night In the Woods, and previously filled the same roles on Aquaria. Last Monday, he was accused of sexual assault and abusive behaviour several years ago by developer and writer Zoë Quinn. Alec's sister didn't state a cause of death, though the implication is clear.
]]>Two of Night In The Woods's creators have announced they are "cutting ties with" Alec Holowka, the third co-creator, following allegations of abusive behaviour and sexual assault made against him this week. "We take such allegations seriously as a team," Scott Benson and Bethany Hockenberry said in Wednesday's statement. They have now cancelled one unknown "current project" and are postponing NITW's planned physical release.
]]>Allegations of abuse have been made against multiple games industry figures in the past 24 hours. On Monday afternoon Nathalie Lawhead, developer of the IGF-winning Tetrageddon Games, wrote a post on her website alleging that Jeremy Soule, the composer of Skyrim, raped her while she was working for an unnamed Vancouver-based games studio. Seven hours later, comics writer and indie developer Zoë Quinn posted tweets alleging that Alec Holowka, co-creator of Aquaria and Night In The Woods, sexually assaulted them. Later that same night, Adelaide Gardner posted a series of tweets alleging that Splash Damage tools programmer Luc Shelton sexually assaulted and gaslit her.
(CW: rape, sexual assault, gaslighting, emotional abuse)
]]>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.
]]>Since moving to California, I find myself missing the seasons. I grew up in Virginia, where the leaves change colour every September. When living in England, there was a yearly rotation of scarves and heavy coats to mark the coming of autumn. It seems silly to complain about the year-round temperate climate that blesses the beachy shores of SoCal, but it gets pretty boring here in paradise. Plus, I look better in layers.
This week’s selection of games brings a little dose of autumn, for those who are similarly denied its pleasures or simply can’t wait for the leaves to turn.
]]>I was going to write today’s supporter post about how I'm finding No Man’s Sky and Yakuza 0 structurally tedious for different reasons while enjoying them both, but something more important has come up. Is Mae, the cat from Night In The Woods, a cat?
I hope you kids have brushed up on your essential and accidental properties.
]]>♪♫ When you go to San Fraaaanciscooo, be sure to wear a lanyard with ‘Media’ inscribed on it round youuur nnnneck ♪♫ That’s what Adam, John and Brendan sang to each other as they gleefully skipped through the streets of California’s tram-infested hill city. The crew were in town for the yearly Game Developer's Conference where they spoke to developers, played games, and gambled on the results of the annual awards show. Now they’re back and ready to tell you all about their Stateside adventures on the latest RPS podcast, the Electronic Wireless Show.
]]>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.
]]>This is Brendan, broadcasting live from rumour world, where everything is made of a nebulous candy floss-like substance. The locals call it “hope.” Amid this sticky cloud, a figure has formed. It’s Geralt of Rivia, hero of popular Gwent spin-off, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. The monster-hunting swordsman will “make an appearance” in another game later this year, according to CD Projekt Red community lead Marcin Momot. Some have asserted that he'll be a guest character in upcoming fighting game Soul Calibur VI. Which makes sense given the close business ties between the Polish studio and Japanese publisher Namco Bandai.
It isn't confirmed. But it does raise the question: who else deserves a place on the stage of history? I asked the RPS treehouse who they’d like to see. Here’s the list we all settled on.
]]>It's that time again already - 2018's Independent Games Festival hands out its best-in-indie gongs on March 21 (as part of the Game Developers Conference), and these are the games in line for a prize. And, more importantly, a big shot at success thanks to the profile, although it should be noted that a fair few of these have done rather well for themselves already.
Scooping the most nods at 4 is veritable brain-frying, rule-rewriting puzzler Baba Is You, while the singular, surreal climbing game Getting Over It... With Bennett Foddy and charming, cups-on-ears narrative adventure Night In The Woods both boast a respectable three, followed by FTL follow-up Into The Breach with 2. There are many more lovely, lovely things on the full list of finalists below.
]]>This year it has felt like there's been a string of quality games releases. Games that I’m proud to support, whether it be for their tackling of serious subject matter or excellent writing or unique concepts that push the industry forward. Games that are already redefining preconceived standards of play.
In short: next year has a tough act to follow.
]]>The calendar's doors have been opened and the games inside have been eaten. But fear not, latecomer - we've reconstructed the list in this single post for easy re-consumption. Click on to discover the best games of 2017.
]]>Depressed animal economic collapse adventure Night In The Woods exists in a strange place in my consciousness. While I absolutely love so much about it, from the characters to the art to the music and beyond, it's not particularly my sort of game - I'm more of a hands-on, solve problems kinda guy.
I've also seen almost everything the game has to offer, thanks to friends streaming it several times over, and now I might have to tune in again to see what's fresh, thanks to the game getting it's very own director's cut version, extended and expanded to coincide with its console launch. Welcome to Weird Autumn.
]]>The wonderful Night In The Woods will receive "a whole bunch of new content" later this year with its 'Weird Autumn Edition' update, developers Infinite Fall have announced. Promising "new weird", "new crimes", and "old tales", they say to "think of it as the Night In The Woods director's cut." I've just about come to terms with the initial coming-of-age crisis so sure, I should be up for more when the free update hits on December 13th.
]]>The RPS podcast, the Electronic Wireless Show, was recently brought out of retirement for one last job. But it turns out that job takes place on a weekly basis. That's why the third episode is out now, in which Pip, Adam and I talk about sunny platformer RiME, alien-smashing grand strategy Endless Space 2, and walking simulator-with-bullets OrbLands.
This week also features Quickfire Questions with one of the developers from Night in the Woods, and some chat about our recent bestest best games of 2017 so far feature, where we talk about some reader suggestions to decide if they are worthy of the list or not. Also: some board game chat! We'll try not to make a habit of it.
]]>Update: The year is finished, which means you can now read the final list of our favourite games of 2017.
2017 has already been an extraordinary year for PC games, from both big-name AAA successes to no-name surprise indie smashes. Keeping up with so much that's worth playing is a tough job, but we've got your back. Here is a collection of the games that have rocked the RPS Treehouse so far this year.
We've all picked our favourites, and present them here in alphabetical order so as not to start any fights. You're bound to have a game you'd have wanted to see on the list, so please do add it to the comments below.
]]>'Terrible' only in the sense of their gaming capability. Honestly, I'm sure your laptop is lovely to look at and it was definitely a extremely sensible idea to spend all that money on it instead of buying a holiday or helping to save the pandas. Truth is, though, that playing recently-released games on the vast majority of laptops is about as effective as starting an online petition to uncancel your favourite television show.
A little discretion goes a long way, however. Sure, you may be denied the glossiest of exploding viscera, but it is entirely possible to keep up with the Joneses even on a Terrible Laptop that has no dedicated graphics card. Here are but twelve contemporary games - either recently released or still-evolving going concerns - that will indeed run on your glammed-up toaster. Additional suggestions below are entirely welcome.
]]>At one point I was sure I was going to write about how much I disliked Night In The Woods [official site]. At a later point I realised I was going to write about how much I loved Night In The Woods. I think there’s a lot to know about Night In The Woods from that. It is both extraordinary and wanting, fantastic and frustrating. It’s a story you click through, yet features platform-based dream sequences. It’s defiantly linear, yet seems to offer moments of enormous choice. It’s perplexing, wide-ranging, specifically brilliant and specifically half-baked. The writing is sharp and intriguing, yet mono-voiced and peculiar. It’s a visual novel, but it’s a platform game, but it’s an adventure, but it’s something else entirely. I’m pretty sure I love it at this point.
]]>In a shocking turn of events, the colourful homecoming adventure Night in the Woods [official site] did not get delayed this week, causing it to become available on your PC mere hours ago. This is bad news for me. We've had our ‘Night in the Woods has been delayed again’ article ready to go for weeks, based on all the other times it’s been postponed, and now we’ve been totally blind-sided. That’s why this news piece is so late. I’ve had to re-write the whole thing from scratch.
]]>I know you’re still upset that indie adventure Night In The Woods [official site] was delayed that one time. And then that other one time. And then that third one time. But the colourful homecoming tale is definitely, DEFINITELY coming out on February 21, the developers say. They made a tweet about it with a poster that has the date on it and everything.
]]>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.
]]>So sure, Night in the Woods [official site] is delayed once more but, y'know, stuff happens. At least this latest delay is only a few weeks. Besides, given the state everything will be in after New Year, I probably wouldn't have time for it on its original date of January 10th. The cute explore-o-adventure about a college dropout cat returning to her home town, where something strange is happening in the woods, is now expected in early February.
]]>The launch of Night in the Woods [official site] on may be an entire year away, on January 10th in 2017, but- oh god, that's really soon. Everything that seemed a year away is now almost tomorrow. I can't handle a feline dropout's problems now - I've barely started on this dropout's. But life, as I'm told it often will, keeps on rolling. So fine, let's get into it, let's enjoy a delightful new trailer looking at the explore-o-adventure game's beautiful cartoon world, knife fights, and mystery of what might be in the trees.
]]>Night in the Woods [official site] - a narrative-driven platform-ish game about a cat who goes back to her hometown and no longer feels like she fits in - finally has a release date! It's 10 January 2017.
]]>Oooh! Night in the Woods [official site] will be coming out this fall. I'm not sure how much of a "thing" Night in the Woods was - we talked about it a fair bit in the hivemind secret chat palace but, in case you've forgotten, here are the basics:
]]>It's Boxing Day. I know tradition holds that we all fight to the death over the leftovers from yesterday's pagan feast, atop the long-table, in full view of our clansmen and clanswomen. But let's take a moment to appreciate that, while the rest of us are throwing bones at one another and plotting various tribal coups and possibly some patricide, there are people out there still making free games. May the winter gods bless them, and may they fight like demons on the table.
]]>"Sad news from other people at GDC" time: Eurogamer are reporting that Night In The Woods [official site] is probably going to be a 2016 release rather than a game to be played this current sun-cycle.
]]>If you're looking for something in the realms of macabre fairytales to accompany the frozen January darkness, take a look at Lost Constellation, from the makers of Night In The Woods.
It's a short puzzle-based story set in the same world as NITW but is billed as a supplement rather than a demo. What you'll find is a ghost story told by cats and enacted by you – a crocodile astronomer called Adina.
]]>I've already spotted two examples of a new golden age of 2d animation during E3, which is precisely the sort of thing I didn't expect to write before E3 actually began. Silly not to expect all kinds of sights really, particularly considering the number of imaginative indies setting out their stalls on the consoles in the digital download age. Night in the Woods, which was Kickstarted toward the end of last year, is the third. It's coming to PS4 but it'll be gracing the PC with its presence as well. It's an adventure with light platforming about monsters hiding between tree trunks and about returning to a much-changed childhood home.
]]>Hello, roving pile of RPS readers. Have you seen GDC day three laying about? I appear to have misplaced it. Or perhaps I am Gabe Newell, and I simply willed the number three out of existence or at least ignored it until it got bored and went away. Regardless, we've returned in style for day four, by which I mean we gracelessly crammed as many interesting humans onto John's hotel bed as possible. This time around guests include Ashly and Anthony Burch of Hey Ash Whatcha Playin/Borderlands/infinity other things fame, Towerfall creator Matt Thorson, ever-handsome journo/Maia writer Paul Dean, Harmonix vet and Fire Hose talky man Sean Baptiste, and more still. They join John, Hayden, and I to discuss GDC's overwhelmingly powerful #1ReasonToBe panel, the equally impactful Lost Levels "unconference," the creeping toll constant layoffs are taking on the gaming industry, the new Arrowhead-developed Gauntlet game, the absurdly delightful Night In The Woods, and tons more. This is quite an episode! Tune in below.
]]>Adam Saltsman is probably known to you as the creator of Canabalt, the infinite runner with the fabulous glass-smashing sound. He and fellow developer Rebekah Saltsman are now setting up a studio, Finji, to bring together their many game projects under a single name. That includes Overland, a collaboration with Shay Pierce; Portico, a turn-based sorta-tower-defence-ish game previously called Grave; Capsule, a really neat, extremely difficult space game about asphyxiation which you can buy right now; and Night in the Woods, the Kickstarter funded adventure game from Alec Holowka, which Finji are helping publish.
Pssht. Lazy.
]]>You have infinite money, right? I mean, you look like the sort, what with your snazzy diamond-encrusted cane and hat/jacket ensemble knitted entirely from Kickstarter bonus swag. That in mind, what's one more delightfully promising project to throw a worrisome amount of cash at? Because seriously, Night in the Woods has all the makings of quirky, wildly inventive greatness - with a hint of sincere humanity thrown in for good measure. Also, anarchic, mailbox-busting cats. The fact that the story-based adventure looks uniquely gorgeous certainly doesn't hurt, either. Oh, and it's from one of the minds behind ageless indie darling Aquaria. Bouncy, bobby, meow-y video below.
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