Annapurna Interactive, the publisher of well-regarded sleeper hits like Sayonara Wild Hearts and Maquette, held its first showcase today. Historically, the mega-purveyor of indie darlings has shown off its games in buzzy pressers put on by far larger companies, hitching its wagon to the likes of Nintendo, Sony, and…
All of you lucky Game Informer readers and stream viewers have quite the treat today. Shortly after Dan Tack and Alex Stadnik wrap up watching the Annapurna Interactive 2021 Showcase today, we’re going live yet again to play one of this week’s big releases: Final Fantasy III Pixel Remaster. At around 3 p.m. CT, Associate Editor John Carson and PC Editor Dan Tack will be partying up and venturing forth onto Twitch to show off this classic the way we never got to see in North America.
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Outer Wilds from Mobius Digital is a phenomenal space program adventure that was met with positive reviews and excitement for the future of indies. The universe is constantly evolving, changing, and every mystery reveals ten more just beyond it. Because of this freedom, this exploratory wonder, a new Outer Wilds experience is on the way. During the Annapurna Interactive showcase, a first for the publisher, new Outer Wilds DLC has been revealed called Echoes of the Eye.
The newest adventure begins with a strange satellite photo that can't be explained and a question emerges: is it better to uncover all of the mysteries that the universe holds, are is some knowledge better left alone? Secrets like who build the alien ruins on the moon and what secrets does the ominous Dark Bramble old. The Echoes of the Eye expansion takes that adventure one step further when the Hearthian space program finds an anomaly that has no tangible traces to the galaxy we know, something new entirely.
See what Echoes of the Eye has in store with the reveal trailer below:
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Mobius Digital's excellent space exploration game Outer Wilds is getting an expansion. Announced during Annapurna Interactive's NotE3 showcase, Echoes Of The Eye is set to release on September 28th. While the devs say it will be involved in the game's existing narrative, they're keeping quiet on what exactly we'll be getting up to. But, judging from the name, it likely has something to do with Eye Of The Universe, a mysterious object in the solar system that you spend most of your time in Outer Wilds trying to reach.
Annapurna Interactive had plenty to reveal during its July showcase, releasing trailers for several upcoming games and expansions. The publisher also revealed that it's partnered with a few more developers that are currently working on unannounced projects.
Below, we go over everything that was announced during the Annapurna Interactive Showcase. We go through the announcements in the order that they happened.
The Artful Escape
After a brief intro, Annapurna Interactive kicked off the show with a new trailer for The Artful Escape, an upcoming musical game about a young performer struggling to escape his father's shadow. The trailer ended with the reveal that The Artful Escape will launch for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC, and Xbox Game Pass on September 9.
Neon White
Up next, Annapurna Interactive revealed a gameplay trailer for Neon White. When talking to GameSpot, Neon White developer Ben Esposito said "[Neon White] is structured like a speedrunning game," but added that the game isn't just for pro speedrunners. The trailer concluded with the reveal that Neon White is coming to Switch and PC this winter.
Outerloop Games
The exploration adventure game Outer Wilds is getting an expansion, and it's coming sooner than you might expect. The Echoes of the Eye expansion is coming on September 28.
Annapurna Interactive confirmed the "first and only" expansion with a trailer during its games showcase. The development team acknowledged that the original game didn't leave much room for expansion, but hinted that questions like "why" may be answered in the DLC itself. A press release says the DLC revolves around "an anomaly that can't be attributed to any known location in the solar system."
Echoes of the Eye was actually leaked in April by a SteamDB listing, and publisher Annapurna gave a winking signal-boost to the discovery that acted as almost-confirmation. This is the first official word we've heard of the expansion, however.
Outer Wilds was one of GameSpot's best games of 2019. A big part of that was its story, which helped to inspire curiosity and discovery with a sense of scientific wonder.
Outer Wilds, the first-person space exploration game beloved by everyone at or no longer at Kotaku—and also every other sentient being on this planet—is getting an expansion. It’s called Echoes of the Eye, and is slated for a September 28 release. Developer Mobius Digital announced the news on Thursday’s Annapurna…
Space Engineers feels ancient to me at this point, but it seems only to grow in popularity. Its developers continue to support the game, too: today saw the release of the 1.199 major update and the Heavy Industry DLC pack. The changes are largely cosmetic, but it's good stuff if you like building big factories full of pipes.
Tonight's Annapurna Interactive showcase revealed an array of new projects, updates and release dates for the many eye-catching indie games the company currently has under its wing.
The top-drawer indie publisher showcased more than a dozen upcoming titles including The Artful Escape, Stray and Outer Wilds, plus confirmed new partnerships and ports.
The showcase opened with another look at the long-awaited The Artful Escape, which you can read more about here. Its starry voice cast and a 9th September release date for Steam and Xbox were also announced.
Tonight, Annapurna Interactive held their very first E3-like showcase, showing off loads of games they're publishing over the next year or so, as well as revealing new developers they're working with. We saw new gameplay for Stray, Neon White, Skin Deep, and a very special announcement from Outer Wilds developers Mobius Digital about a cryptic new expansion.
If you missed the stream, read on, because we've made a big list of everything that happened at the Annapurna Interactive Showcase.
BlueTwelve Studio walked us through its cat-centric game, Stray, during the Annapurna Interactive Showcase today. The new trailer focuses on the game’s protagonist and world, including a look at one friendly little drone, and breaks the news that Stray will now launch in early 2022 on PlayStation 5, Playstation 4, and PC.
Though the game seems poised to become an indie darling, probably fueled by the internet’s well-documented love of cats, we didn’t know much about Stray before today. First shown at Sony’s PlayStation event last summer, Stray’s announcement trailer communicated two things very well. One, Stray has a cat in it – that sometimes wears a tiny backpack. Two, the game’s fearless feline inhabits a grim cityscape populated by mechanical beings. Humanity, it seems – if several graffiti messages in the trailer are any indication – has met with some unkind end. Between the game's intriguing, though foreboding, world and its adorable character, we were eager to see more.
Luckily, today’s showcase was happy to oblige. Stray’s new trailer explains the game's lead has been separated from its family. Lost and hurt, it makes its way through a hostile and unfamiliar metropolis just trying to survive. The player will experience this through the cat's eyes. Whether it's crossing a lake of toxic sludge or finding a way past whirling fan blades of death, it looks for a while like you'll be left alone to fend for yourself. Until B-12 appears.
Stray, a game about a cat wearing a backpack in a world taken over by robots, was already poised to be the most precious thing in the world before we even saw gameplay. During the July 29 Annapurna Interactive stream, however, we were given our first look at Stray in action, including a harrowing chase sequence. And we also learned as part of the event that it's coming out next year.
After meeting a drone named B12, the cat is able to communicate with those around it, including the humans who still exist in the harsh world we wouldn't wish on a single real kitty. It's so harsh, in fact, that a chase soon begins as slug creatures try to consume the cat. Using B12's unlockable abilities, the drone is able to stun them long enough for them to be defeated.
You'll have to use your stealth and agility to make it through Stray, and according to Annapurna Interactive, you'll also need to sometimes be "as annoying as possible." If you have ever had a cat, you know this is a crucial element of their entire species. You can even knock stuff off of ledges to solve puzzles and claw up a leather couch like a little demon.
Stray was planned for a 2021 launch, but it's now going to launch in 2022. Alongside the PC release, it will also be available on PS4 and PS5. Make sure to stock that backpack full of plenty of catnip toys and delicious tuna treats while you wait.
Skin Deep, the next game from Quadrilateral Cowboy and Thirty Flights Of Loving developer Brendon Chung got a new gameplay trailer at tonight's Annapurna Interactive showcase, showing lots more weird and wonderful ness for the "Die Hard in space"-like. It's a game where you've been, uh, "hired" by cats to be their insurance guy during a space flight. So, when pirates attack the ship, they pop you out of a container to fend them off.
Naturally, I had to ask Chung: why cats?
What do you get when you have a team that just really wants to make a really weird shooter? A really weird shooter where cats are in charge. That's exactly what the team over at Blendo Games is doing, under the publishing umbrella of Annapurna Interactive, with its newest title called Skin Deep. There's sneezing, there is getting weird stuff stuck to the bottom of your feet, and there is the need to survive while trying to escape a group of pirates after being frozen on a cargo ship by an insurance firm run by ... cats. Yeah.
We sat down with Brendon Chung, the head of Blendo Games, to talk more about the studio's latest title. Coming off of creating some wild experiences like Atom Zombie Smasher, Thirty Flights of Loving, and more, Skin Deep fits right into the growing library of oddball experiences that are just about having fun. Not every game has to have a billion subplots, not everything needs to be super complicated to be enjoyed. With Skin Deep, it's about having fun, the thrill of a shootout, and not taking life too seriously.
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Announced at the Annapurna Interactive showcase, the skating, monster-killing, vibey and vibrant Solar Ash will be released on October 26th. It's the next game from Hyper Light Drifter developers Heart Machine, sharing Hyper Light's cool and colourful 80s aesthetic, but flipping from 2D to 3D and putting a real emphasis on fluid movement throughout a huge world.
I had a chance to chat with the devs about Solar Ash, and they told me a bit about why they decided to go for something so different, and about the challenges of making such a speedy character.
A new trailer for Solar Ash debuted during the Annapurna Interactive Showcase, revealing that developer Heart Machine's upcoming game will launch for PS5, PS4, and PC on October 26. The trailer showcases a bit more of what exploration looks like in Solar Ash which, according to creative director Alx Preston, is the first-and-foremost focus for the game.
"We're traversal first," Preston told GameSpot. "That was kind of the vision of the game: Control the traversal, the environments that you're moving through, and the spectacle of it all. Especially the scale on the grandiosity of it just feeling impossibly large and you're feeling really tiny and insignificant in as many ways as possible. The traversal absolutely takes precedence and the combat is kind of intermingled with that traversal."
To do that, Heart Machine has designed Solar Ash's movement mechanics to be fairly easy to grasp. You will have to practice to achieve the same level of fluidity seen in trailers. But when I asked Preston, he said that Solar Ash's movement more closely resembles the easy-to-pick-up web-swinging mechanics of Marvel's Spider-Man than the carefully timed button presses and precise turns needed to perform an amazing aerial goal in Rocket League.
"I would say it's pretty approachable," Preston said. "I think we're very aware of how challenging a third person game can be with a freeform camera."
"If you're comfortable with third-person action games, you're not going to find anything super wild here where you have to be pressing both triggers in tandem or anything like that. I would say it'll be pretty straightforward how to manage your character."
It’s been a little over a year since Heart Machine’s second project, Solar Ash was unveiled during Sony’s PlayStation 5 reveal event, but the wait for this fast-paced, interstellar adventure is almost over. The game’s eagerly awaited release date was officially announced today during the Annapurna Interactive Showcase, and it’s only a few months away.
Solar Ash’s trailer didn’t reveal many more details about the game’s world or its story but did include one piece of information we’ve been waiting for all year, the launch day. You’ll be able to grapple, weave, and fight your way through the cosmos when Solar Ash comes to PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and PC on October 26.
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We finally know when Marvel’s Avengers will receive its next major expansion after a long period of uncertainty: War for Wakanda launches for free on August 17.
Daniel Benmergui of Ludomancy is an Argentinian independent game designer that I've respected for a long time because his approach to creation is so unique and explosive in its intent. He has been behind some incredible thought-provoking games like Today I Die and I Wish I Were the Moon, and with today's Annapurna Showcase, he showed off Storyteller, a game that made its first debut back in 2008 but is now ready to be shared with the world.
Storyteller is a creative spin on the puzzle genre where players have the complete freedom to tell a story of their choosing. Whether it be a comedy or a heartbreaking tragedy, players are given a toolbox filled with characters, settings, and emotions to craft a narrative that can inspire love, revenge, and resonate with the deeper depths of our emotions. Twist a supernatural tale, if that's your fancy, or go the more Shakespearean route; the choice is yours.
Sitting down with Benmergui, he opens up to us about the more vulnerable side of being a game developer, especially with a tale such as this. There's a lot of himself in this game and with so many years building up towards its release, he admits that the thought of launch day scares him a little. "In the case of [Storyteller], it was very ambitious," he says. "Why don't you make a game about people making stories? It's very difficult to relate it to other things we've done."
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Neon White sounds like a lot. As you may have seen from tonight's Annapurna Interactive Showcase, it's a speedrunning first-person shooter where you use decks of cards that represent weapons to stop demons invading heaven. It also has dating sim aspects where you can chat and have a nice time with the other Neons (the demon slayers you're sort of working with). Better yet, it's made by the developers of Donut County, and designer Ben Esposito tells me that massive tonal change was because he wanted to go "apeshit".
The Annapurna Interactive Showcase revealed a new trailer for Neon White. Despite being in first-person and featuring gunplay, this game is not a first-person shooter. Neon White isn't a roguelike or deck-builder either, despite featuring a cyclical run-based formula and card-based combat. According to its developer, Ben Esposito, Neon White is a "speedrunning" game.
"[Neon White] is structured like a speedrunning game in the sense that you have a bunch of levels and to proceed in the game--to continue in the in-game competition so to speak, in the fiction of the game--you have to achieve certain medals or certain status by playing the levels faster," Esposito told GameSpot. "So you play a set and you survive through them and then you revisit them and you start to pick them apart and start to play them faster and get more familiar with them."
"I'm a little reluctant to say it's exactly like a speedrunning game because I think that to a lot of people, that scares them a little--it evokes the extreme dedication of a Twitch streamer. But I think it's an accurate description because [Neon White] is structured where the main goal is to get faster at it. But the game is designed to onboard you into speedrunning in a pretty gentle way if you haven't done it before."
In Neon White, you play as the titular character, a demon from Hell who's competing against other demons for a chance to ascend to Heaven. You race through levels, killing enemies in a competition of skill and speed. With each enemy you defeat, a card is added to your hand. Each card has two effects depending on whether you use it or discard it. As an example, a card may give you a shotgun attack if you use it, or send out a fireball if you discard it.
Ben Esposito is not making Neon White for everyone – in fact, even though he admits it's probably not the best marketing move, he says he's trying to make a cult game. He wants Neon White to find players that love it the way he loves the cult games that influenced him, like God Hand, Danganronpa, and El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron.
Put another way, as Esposito said in the game's most recent trailer, Neon White is a game made for "freaks."
On Thursday, during the Annapurna Interactive Showcase, Neon White made its latest showing after being announced back in February. But this time we have a better idea of the game itself; how it's played and a bit of the story. You can see its latest trailer below:
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Rock opera adventure The Artful Escape will finally launch for Steam, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S on 9th September.
The long-awaited and glorious-looking platformer will also launch directly into Xbox Game Pass.
The Artful Escape stars Teen Wolf's Michael Johnston and newcomer Caroline Kinley as main characters Francis and Violetta, plus Game of Thrones' Lena Headey, Fargo's Jason Schwartzman, Kingsman's Mark Strong and The Mandalorian's Carl Weathers.
Because of her moveset and nature, Ayaka feels helpful and practical in Genshin Impact even if she's at a far lower level than her allies.
The post Ayaka Feels Helpful Even at Lower Levels in Genshin Impact appeared first on Siliconera.
Outer Wilds developer Mobius has officially confirmed Echoes of the Eye, the game's "first and only expansion" which will arrive on 28th September for PC, PlayStation and Xbox.
The story of this new chapter, revealed as part of tonight's Annapurna Interactive showcase, remains largely a mystery.
"It's going to weave directly into the existing world and narrative," creative director Alex Beachum teased. "Now, if you've played the game, you might be wondering how. And also why. And those are very good questions."
Starbase looks like one of those games you could lazily suggest throws everything but the kitchen sink at the player, but after seeing the asset browser in the latest trailer, I think it might even have one of those in there, too. It’s Trine developers Frozenbyte’s fulsome space survival sim, one where you find resources, build ships, explore, trade, and fight with others. I could have listed way more things, but it was getting silly. And this is an early access release, so there’s more to come.
Spelunky developer Derek Yu joins Gamasutra's Kris Graft and Alissa McAloon in a live GDC Podcast to talk all things Spelunky, how indie game development has changed over the years, and how game development is an exploration of ideas. ...
There is no denying that Cyberpunk 2077 had a lot of issues. Whether it was performance, story, or just failing to deliver on promises, the game ended up being a disappointment for a lot of people. With that said, there is no denying that the game has a lot of beautiful elements to it.
You need no further proof of the game’s beauty than by looking at the time-lapse image that one Redditor just created. Below, you can see the result of user GAME-LAPSE’s two-day in-game recording of Night City, which took place across the span of six real-life hours.
Capcom opened up a The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles survey that asks people's thoughts on the game and series and offers free wallpaper.
The post Great Ace Attorney Chronicles Survey Asks About the Series, Offers Wallpaper appeared first on Siliconera.
Halo Infinite's first multiplayer beta is beginning today, and developer 343 Industries has revealed much more of what you can expect from the next iteration of Halo multiplayer. In particular, the studio showed off the multiplayer settings, which include a bunch of new accessibility options like the ability to change Halo's iconic red and blue multiplayer colors.
Specifically, 343 Industries is including a setting to let you change the coloration of both teammates and enemies. While "red vs. blue" is, of course, famous as the default setup of Halo multiplayer, that color scheme isn't great for everyone. This setting will give colorblind people options to achieve more visible contrast between friendly and enemy players.
In addition, the studio is incorporating a whole array of various graphics, UI, and gameplay settings to significantly expand the customization options for players. These include the ability to change the positional offset of weapons on the screen (to allow old-school players to have their weapons more centered, for instance), and an opt-out button for speed lines, a graphic effect triggered when players are sprinting.
Developer Asobo Studio's wonderful, rat-infested medieval stealth adventure A Plague Tale: Innocence will be free on the Epic Games Store starting next Thursday, 5th August.
A Plague Tale unfolds in a bleak, but gorgeously wrought, version of 14th century France, and follows the harrowing journey of Amicia and her sickly 5-year-old brother Hugo, the children of a nobleman, after they're forced to flee their home in an attempt to escape the Inquisition.
What follows is a brilliantly engaging single-player adventure - primarily built around simple stealth and dual-character puzzling - that sees players evading ravenous rat hordes, English soldiers, and other perils as they traipse across the desolate, plague-ridden landscape.
Kairosoft announced that Game Dev Story +, its game developer sim, is now a part of the Apple Arcade lineup.
The post Game Dev Story ++ Added to Apple Arcade appeared first on Siliconera.
Money is tight these days, but that doesn’t mean you have to miss out on high-end personal audio features such as fantastic 7.1 surround sound for your favorite games, or exquisite headphone comfort courtesy of HyperX’s very own signature memory foam. The HyperX Cloud Core 7.1 is a breathtakingly good deal for its performance, giving you many high-end features for the comparatively low price of $69.99. Needless to say, this headset is an incredible bargain, especially if you’re looking to fully immerse yourself in the latest releases like Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart or Scarlet Nexus.
There are several core features that make the HyperX Cloud Core 7.1 better than its similarly-priced counterparts, and they’re pretty easy to spot! After all, the HyperX Cloud core 7.1 is a super straightforward piece of equipment; what you see is exactly what you get, and what you're getting here is a fantastic piece of gear for gaming enthusiasts on a budget.
It features Virtual 7.1 surround sound, which allows you to experience games with the sheer intensity afforded by 7.1 channels of breathtaking audio. Basically, plugging in a Virtual 7.1 surround sound headset like the HyperX Cloud Core 7.1 is like listening to audio in a movie theatre. The regular set of left and right channels that you'd normally hear in a stereo headset are bolstered by left and right surround channels as well as an additional LFE channel for bassy sounds like explosions and engine revs, meaning that sounds can zoom past you from every direction, including above and underneath you.
The weekly playlist refresher arrived to Black Ops Cold War today, and the July 29 patch notes include some minor improvements to Zombies. Players can also expect a new Gunfight tournament and Double Weapon XP.
Collateral Combined Arms 24/7 has returned to Black Ops Cold War, which is a mix of the 12v12 Combined Arms modes. And 3v3 Gunfight Snipers Only replaced the 2v2 Gunfight Blueprints. For fans of the large-scale Fireteam modes, Sat-Link was added to the Multi-Team Moshpit playlist.
A new Gunfight tournament starts today with new and exclusive in-game rewards. You can still unlock any previous tournament prizes you missed, you just need to replay and win the tournament bracket multiple times to unlock the additional rewards.
Today's patch notes mentions stability fixes and gameplay improvements for the mode, which include specific fixes for issues with the main Easter egg quest in Mauer der Toten, unresponsive Mimics in Firebase Z, various stability issues, and more.
Double Weapon XP will be active for both Black Ops Cold War and Warzone from July 30 through August 2.
While it may not have the AAA-clout of a Microsoft or Sony, publisher Annapurna Interactive has been able to translate its understanding of storytelling in cinema and convert it for a more interactive audience. Whether you've realized it or not, the group is responsible for arguably some of the best indie games of the last few years, including Florence, What Remains of Edith Finch, and Kentucky Route Zero, to name a few. But now it feels like the publisher is just getting started with a very exciting slate of new indies just around the corner.
Click here to watch embedded mediaThis brings us to today. Annapurna Interactive is hosting its 2021 digital showcase, and we're going to be there with you live! The show kicks off at 2 p.m. CT, but we'll be starting the fun 15 minutes earlier to discuss what we're excited to see from the day's announcements and trailers. But who's we, and why should you tune in? We've assembled an exciting duo of Alex Stadnik and Dan Tack for the day's festivities, so we hope you'll join us over on Twitch!
Ubisoft is in the midst of a major transition. Once a bastion of content-rich single-player games across multiple different genres, from Ghost Recon to Assassin’s Creed, the company’s portfolio is fast becoming almost exclusively a selection of “live-service” multiplayer experiences — a change in strategy likely sparked by the immense commercial success of Rainbow Six: Siege and The Division. And earlier this month, Ubisoft announced the impending arrival of yet another of the same ilk: Tom Clancy’s XDefiant.
Hardcore fans of Tom Clancy video games, which have traditionally been grounded in gritty military realism and tactical gameplay, already seem upset by XDefiant. Its debut trailer, which hasn’t enjoyed a positive reception based on its like/dislike ratio, showcases a fast-paced, arcadey shooter complete with Overwatch-like abilities and colored by a similarly bombastic line-up of hero personalities. These are all in vogue and, honestly, predictable design choices for a contemporary shooter, but none that represent the hallmarks of Tom Clancy in any way, shape, or form.
When you consider the celebrated lineage of Tom Clancy games, which were original stories but still felt authentic and genuinely connected to the author’s beloved universe, it’s not difficult to understand why some perceive XDefiant as a betrayal of everything that it means for a game to be affiliated with the Tom Clancy brand.
Fortnite is getting ready for its next big event with another big-time artist. The three-day music festival titled Rift Tour was announced by Epic Games and is scheduled for Aug. 6-8.
Fortnite announced the Rift Tour on Epic Games’ official website, giving players a chance to partake in another musical event. The game will have five shows in the next three days featuring a “record-breaking superstar.” Players can get access to the event once they register in-game and schedule the days and times that they plan on attending through the Rift Tour tab in the game menu.
Epic Games does suggest to fans that they must arrive an hour before showtime. The playlist for the tour should be live and accessible 30 minutes before the show. Fortnite also shared a tweet announcing the big event that drops in about a week.