When designing a “god game,” it is very important to make the player feel powerful, yet still include a game with difficulty. With Arcen Games’ Skyward Collapse, this balance is hit very well. Skyward Collapse offers some twists on the usual formula. For one, you don’t continually choose between benevolent and vengeful. You don’t have to follow the usual good-versus-evil trope. You are largely indifferent to the daily lives of your subjects, and you don’t need them to worship you. You simply want them to fight. READ MORE
Daedalic Entertainment seems to be having a good run with the point-and-click genre. The adventures of the ’90s seem to be a lost art these days, but companies like Daedalic are working their hardest to change that. Both Deponia and Harvey’s New Eyes have been critical successes. The Night of the Rabbit, though, may be its best yet. READ MORE
Board games have made me a very demanding person when it comes to game mechanics. After finding so many great titles focused on a powerful idea, an interesting problem or summarized in two pages of rules, the idea of spending time with wrinkles and subsystems has grown increasingly unappealing to me. However, it’s not a sustainable position. Games are enjoyed as a whole, and sometimes the wrinkles do much more than they seem at first glance. READ MORE
In its pre-E3 show today, Konami revealed the new voice for Snake, showed more of Lords of Shadow 2 and… not much else. Elsewhere, we learned about Respawn’s new game, Harmonix’s next project and a localization of a Japanese rhythm game sensation. More on these, and the rest of this week’s developments, after the break. READ MORE
In these early pre-launch days, it’s tough to say how much success the Ouya will manage. What is clear, though, is the obvious tendency the system has toward fun local multiplayer experiences. It doesn’t have any unified matchmaking, sure, which probably helps. Mostly, though, it appeals to indies developing for PC and mobile, and the advantage it has over both of those is its TV-native comfort in supporting split-screen or same-screen play. READ MORE
