The Black Glove, a game from former Bioshock developers Day For Night Games, has failed to meet its Kickstarter goal, raising only $216,517 out of the $550,000 it needed, which, in keeping with Kickstarter’s policy, will be returned to backers.
In its last Kickstarter update, Day For Night Games said it’s working as hard as it can to keep The Black Glove from being canceled. However, it’s not going to try for another crowdfunding campaign right away.
“We asked for the total we needed to guarantee that we could self-publish the game within a year with 6+ hours worth of content for $20,” Day For Night said. “If we turned around immediately and asked for less without having secured the rest of the funds necessary, we wouldn’t be able to guarantee our Kickstarter backers that we could deliver the game.”
Day For Night said that it’s pursuing all options, and is beginning to talk to all the publishers that have reached out to it over the last few weeks. It added that if you want to help, you should sign up for email updates on its website and follow it on Twitter.
First announced in June, Day For Night describes The Black Glove as a surreal first-person game where the player’s goal is to improve artists’ work by altering the past. During the Kickstrater campaign, Day For Night said it would release the game on PC and PlayStation 4, and add VR support for both the Oculus Rift and Sony’s Project Morpheus.
We’ll be updating this story throughout the weekend so check back again for the latest updates from Blizzcon 2014. In the meantime, here are the biggest stories so far.
The next World of Warcraft expansion, Warlords of Draenor, is releasing just next week. But the primary Warcraft news at the show focused on the upcoming movie. Director Duncan Jones called it “Avatar and Lord of the Rings at the same,” during a panel.
Legendary and Blizzard also brought down the wall on the Warcraft movie cast list, so you can check out the cast of the Warcraft movie. We got to see a work in progress trailer for the film (which will hopefully be available for viewing for non-Blizzcon attendees soon. But, in short, it looks epic and absolutely nails the look and feel of the Warcraft universe.
We also learned about new additions to the game’s roster including:
The Lost Vikings
Jaina Proudmoore
Thrall
Sylvanas Windrunner
New battlgrounds will include:
Sky Temple
Tomb of the Spider Queen
Diablo-themed battleground
Click on any of the images below to see a larger version.
Diablo III
At Friday’s Blizzcon Diablo III panel, it became clear the Diablo team is focused on the longevity of Reaper of Souls, making pretty substantial additions with each patch. Version 2.1.2 will see the addition of new types of treasure goblins (that drop gems and other materials), and the start of season two, but special attention has also been paid to rifts. The development team behind Diablo wants to improve areas that didn’t necessarily make for good rifts due to placement of conduits (that will now be counter-acted by pylons that give buffs), the lack of variation in rift guardians, and problems associated with how and where players died. In fact, members of the development team revealed the possibility of a death timer, but they’re expecting feedback if that ever gets integrated into the public test realm version of the game.
Additionally, some extensive work is going into the adventure mode. Many of the areas that were lacking in randomization are getting some attention. For example, Tristram Fields will be rebuilt with an eye for making it feel a little more dynamic than it was previously, almost by splitting it down the middle. But perhaps the most notable addition coming in a future patch is the addition of the ruins of Sescheron. Fans of Diablo will remember that as the barbarian stronghold laid to waste by Baal in the Lord of Destruction expansion for Diablo II, and it was great to see it interpreted for Diablo III.
There are several other items coming down the line for Diablo 3 beyond patch 2.1.2, including new monsters like the Rat King, as well as ancient items that are even more powerful than the game’s legendary offerings. So while some may have been disappointed by the lack of an expansion announcement, it would seem the team is keeping itself plenty busy.
During an interview with Starcraft II: Legacy of the Void Lead Producer Tim Morten, GameSpot asked about the waning popularity of the the real-time strategy genre, and if Blizzard has a plan to make it more appealing to a wider audience in the future.
In short, even Blizzard, whose StarCraft and Warcraft games helped define the genre, doesn’t have a clear answer, but it hopes that the popularity of MOBAs like Dota 2 and League of Legends is a good sign.
“We talk a lot about that internally and there’s a hope on my part that the audience that’s playing Heroes of the Storm, that’s playing MOBA games, will be interested in feeding into more complex gameplay,” Morten said. “In a way that’s a gateway to what RTS is, and of course grew out of RTS in the first place. I hope there’s some synergy there.”
Morten added that part of the problem is that RTS games have a steep learning curve, and that Blizzard is trying to address that issue as it’s revisiting the tutorial and training missions from the previous games in Legacy of the Void.
Additionally, Blizzard hopes that players will be less intimidated to play online with Legacy of the Void’s Archon Mode, a brand new cooperative mode where two players share control of a single base and units.
“But there’s a lot more thinking that I’d like to do. it may wind up being the case that it becomes the focus of something in the future, but it is something that we’d like to figure out how to solve. I wish I could say we knew what the magic bullet was.”
Blizzard has not yet announced a release date for Legacy of the Void, the third, final, and standalone expansion in the StarCraft II trilogy. You can sign up for the game’s beta today at Battle.net.
You might notice some changes if you turn on your Xbox One today, as Microsoft is rolling out its November system update, the company has announced.
The November update adds the ability to create custom backgrounds, which Microsoft said was the “number one requested feature” from fans. This isn’t quite the custom themes Xbox head Phil Spencer said he wanted to support on Xbox One eventually, and we won’t see that functionality at least until next year. As Spencer explained, we might see smaller system updates next month, but Microsoft doesn’t want to roll out big updates in December as many new consoles bought during the holiday season are coming online.
Other additions to the November update include the option to attach a up to six game clips or achievements that will be displayed in a carousel format. You can also share your favorite Xbox One game clips on Twitter, but not screenshots, another feature that the Xbox One won’t get to until 2015.
A full breakdown of updates, written by Microsoft, is published below, while a video walkthrough is available in the video above.
Show Who You Are – We’re including some of the top fan requested features this month. Among them is the ability to customize the background on your Xbox One, show off your top achievements and share game clips in new ways.
Custom Backgrounds – For the first time, each account on your Xbox One can have a customized background. You can choose a custom color as a theme or achievement art as your background image and those will show on any Xbox One that you Sign In on with your account. Additionally, you can use the Media Player app to pick any JPG or PNG image off of a USB attached drive or a home media server that supports DLNA. While viewing a picture/photo in full screen mode, press the Menu button and choose “Set as background” – your custom image is stored locally on that Xbox One console.
Gamer Profile – You can now share your location and bio as part of your profile. You can set these options on your Xbox One console and use Xbox One SmartGlass to browse to other people’s profiles and check out their showcase items. Additionally, you can now select a set of showcase items that are displayed when other gamers look at your profile on an Xbox One console. You can use Xbox One SmartGlass or Xbox One console to add or remove up to six game clips or achievements that will be displayed in a carousel format.
Tweet about your Favorite Game Clips – You can now share your favorite Xbox One game clips with your followers on Twitter. Use the Share button on any game clip you have created and select Twitter to compose the Tweet.
A New Way to Watch TV – For the first time, you can discover new shows and see what people are saying about them in real-time with new Live TV and Twitter integration.
Live TV Trending – Xbox One owners in the U.S., Canada and the UK, will see a new “Trending” tab in OneGuide that displays the top 20 most watched TV shows, with the list filtered down to the shows that are currently available to you based on your OneGuide settings. The Live TV on Xbox trending list is updated by the minute, so you can easily discover shows that are popular with other viewers.
Twitter TV Trending – Additionally, if you are in the U.S., you’ll see what Live TV is trending based on the highest number of tweets. The Trending tab in OneGuide is updated to display Live TV on Twitter first and Live TV on Xbox trending second. You can tune to a specific show from either trending list by pressing the A button.
Tweets in MiniGuide – Also, initially available in the U.S., you will see the actual tweets for the Live TV shows in real time and quickly find the Twitter #hashtag to join the conversation.
Recents and Favorites in MiniGuide – MiniGuide has been updated to include your favorite TV channels in a combined Recents and Favorites area and MiniGuide can now be activated via voice by saying “Xbox Select – MiniGuide” while watching TV.
Store improvements and SmartGlass updates – We’re introducing cool new features for SmartGlass and Store as well:
Xbox One Store improvements – The Store pages on Xbox One have been improved to enable you to more quickly browse and find content. The navigation buttons are moved to the far left so you can find them easier. You can also more quickly find game add-ons, perform store specific searches and recommendations are more prominently displayed. Finally, store categories have been standardized so you can easily see the top items in each query at a glance.
Friends’ Game Activity on SmartGlass – You can now see a list of your friends that have played a given game within the Xbox One SmartGlass experience.
Games with Gold & Deals with Gold on SmartGlass – For gamers with an Xbox Live Gold subscription, you can browse “Free Games with Gold” and discounted content with Gold and initiate download of the content to your Xbox One console from your mobile device.
SmartGlass Store Improvements – We added a new section for Apps to make it easier to find and download apps for your Xbox One, as well as adding a Coming Soon filter for Games and Add-ons to make it easier to see upcoming Xbox One releases sorted by anticipated release date.
Other Fan Requested Features:
Snap IE – From the Address Bar in Internet Explorer, you can now easily snap from a full screen experience and move Internet Explorer into snap mode.
IE Featured sites – Now, Internet Explorer will show a number when something is newly-added to featured sites. Newly-added sites will also display a badge (denoted by an asterisk (*) in the upper right corner) until you launch them or seven days have passed since the site was added to the Featured list.
Restart now – If you want to restart your Xbox One console without getting out of your chair, you can now do it by going to Settings – Power & startup, and choosing “Restart now.”
Console update information – Under Settings – System – Console info, you can now see the latest status (e.g. “update successful”) for Xbox One console updates, including date last updated and last automatic update check.
Earlier this week, Nintendo revealed that Splatoon, the company’s new multiplayer third-person shooter, will have a single-player mode, focusing on “nature’s epic battle” between squid and octopus.
In August, Nintendo’s iconic game designer and senior managing director Shigeru Miyamoto said that Splatoon could have been another Mario game, but that ultimately Nintendo wanted to create a new IP. However, you can see more of that Mario DNA in the single-player trailer than the multiplayer, arena gameplay we’ve seen until now, where two teams of four players armed with paint guns have to try to cover the level with as much of their team’s color.
Instead of just letting you take on bots, the single-player mode seems to have a variety of enemy types and elaborate platforming sections that take advantage of the game’s painting mechanic, which allows you to swim up walls or under obstacles painted with your team’s color.
Argi, a cute little ram-like creature, will “help guide you through the savage lands of Draenor, climbing, swimming, and running wherever you go,” Blizzard said. She’ll go on sale via the Battle.net Shop starting December 3—just in time for the Winter Veil event—for $10 in the United States (pricing varies by region), and will be available until December 31.
This isn’t the first time that Blizzard donated the sales of a World of Warcraft pet to charity. Last year, players could purchase the Alterac Brew Pup pet for $10, half of which went to Make-A-Wish, a United States-based charity that grants wishes to children diagnosed with life-threatening medical conditions.
If you couldn’t make it to BlizzCon 2014 but want to watch the world championships finals in Hearthstone, World of Warcraft Arena, and StarCraft II, ESPN has you covered.
The cable television sports network and Blizzard have agreed to live stream the events on ESPN 3, its online branch. The Hearthstone World Championship (Semifinals And Final), World of Warcraft Arena World Championship (Semifinals And Final), and StarCraft II WCS Global Finals (Semifinals and Grand Final) will stream live today at 1:00 p.m. EST.
You can watch the best players in the world compete for a total prize pool of $750,000 on any device that can download the WatchESPN app, or just head over to WatchESPN.com.
In September, ESPN’s president John Skipper said games like League of Legends and Dota 2 aren’t a sport, but ESPN 3 obviously continues to broadcast eSports events like the one taking place at BlizzCon 2014 this weekend.
Fantasy role-playing series Dragon Age has garnered a dedicated base of fans with its lore-heavy storytelling and memorable characters. The debut of 2009’s Dragon Age: Origins was a very well-received beginning to what would become BioWare’s flagship fantasy tale. While sequel Dragon Age II was met with a somewhat-positive response, it did not quite live up to the standard set by its predecessor.
The newest entry into main series, Dragon Age: Inquisition, launches this month. Powered by a new engine and the promise to incorporate players’ past choices into a story framed by a vast new world to explore, the game has some rather high expectations to meet. I sat down with BioWare creative director Mike Laidlaw to discuss what fans can expect from stepping into the shoes of the Inquisitor, character relationships, and the future of the series.
Dragon Age: Inquisition places players in the role of the leader of the Inquisition, an organization formed with the purpose of defending the nation of Thedas against peril. As such, It is the responsibility of this leader to deploy troops and agents to the battlefield. Curious how in-depth this strategic gameplay would reach, I asked Laidlaw whether this element of the game would require players to be familiar with tactical planning. Would players who were less than familiar with commanding troops in war be penalized?
“We set down as a rule, let’s not turn it into moving pieces around,” Laidlaw said in response. “Instead, what we wanted to go back to was the feel of a leader and a commander who generally doesn’t have to specifically layout troop movements…you have specialists who handle that. We thought it would be a much more satisfying way to treat it like it was almost a story beat. What they’re looking from you is direction. They can handle it, they can take care of the details, but they want to know how you would approach this.”
In a non-spoiler example he provided, a group of refugees take up residence on a lord’s land. The lord will approach the Inquisition with a request to have the refugees removed from his property. Players consulting with the diplomat will have her encourage them to talk to the local bands and find a new location for them. Speaking to the spies will reveal the option to have them removed. If the commander is asked, he will offer to help the band because he finds the lord is “a bit of a jerk.” Here, Dragon Age: Inquisition will offer a variety of paths to take in decision-making, with results ultimately emphasised through consequences that may surface further down the path.
“We’ve tried to make them more about leadership choices, leadership style, and more about reactivity to choices you make throughout the game. A lot of those operations appear in response to you having made an ally, or you having done this major thing and suddenly people are reaching out to you because they’ve heard about it,” he said. I wondered if the conflict in that scenario would continue, regardless of whether the player chose to intervene or realign their focus on the main story. Would this area remain in a perpetual state of pause until the player chose to address it?
“It really depends on the conflict. In the case of that one, it would eventually go away. It takes a very long time, it’s not on a timer or anything. A major story event would probably wipe it out at one point. But the world is fairly chaotic, it’s a rough time. We don’t want to penalize the player and say these things are going go away in the sphere of time. However, stabilizing the world fundamentally feeds back into the story.”
According to Laidlaw, should players do the opposite and focus on side-quests instead of the main game, the core story would remain on hold.
“The nice thing about the nature of the game we built is that the Inquisition is essentially turning over rocks. They’re investigating, they’re finding the source of the chaos that’s affecting the world. Because it’s so entrenched, it’s so hidden, it’s not as immediate as ‘there’s an army coming over this hill, but don’t worry I’m going to rescue this kitten instead.’ What we’ve tried to do was make rescuing the kitten instead, [the player] should be doing something that helps the Inquisition. You don’t necessarily have an immediate threat, but you have an immediate goal. The nice thing that balances that out is that at the beginning of the game, you can’t go everywhere available. It’s not like you’re going to be like, excuse me for 200 hours while I make no progress at all. Instead, as you advance through the story it opens up new areas for you to visit.”
While I enjoyed Dragon Age II, it did not impact me with the same sense of wonder and awe that Dragon Age: Origins did. I asked Laidlaw if he felt that Inquisition was closer in nature to one of those two games than the other.
“It’s closer to Origins in overall feel. It’s bigger, it’s bolder. It plays slower than [Dragon Age 2]. That said, there were some things for DA2 that I felt were very powerful. The characters I felt did a better job of having their own stories or agendas. So we held on to a lot of that. We wanted to make sure they had their own arcs, whether you were romancing them or just friends. The other big thing that we kept from DA2 is that combat in general feels responsive. I think DA2 was very successful in making you feel like oh, I tagged that guy and moved in, I punched him in the face. Some people would get annoyed because they thought I was dismissing Origins, but when your character took a long time to shuffle into position it was like, ‘you’re a trained warrior, you can do better.’”
Combat in Dragon Age: Inquisition has been touted by BioWare as “more challenging” than that of the previous games. When pressed for specific examples, Laidlaw explained, “there are two big changes in terms of enemy opposition; there was much stuff with balance and they’re tougher, and we don’t have waves of dudes that explode in one hit. Enemy factions like the Red Templars, the Venatori, these enemies typically will work together quite effectively. The guardsmen with their large shields, generally if they’re not in immediate combat they will try to place themselves so that your shots at the mages behind them will be deflected. Enemy assassins or other stealthy characters will actively hunt out your mages and rogues, your back rank characters.”
Fighting the dragons will also be different to that of previous Dragon Age games, with players able to target the the legs and head of dragons individually. The properties of each dragon’s breath will also come into play, interacting with environments.
“The way we developed them, we built the bases, and we had a team of level designers, and the creature guys, and the animators, and the visual effects guys, all of them would come in and play each dragon. They’d pick one dragon per day and it was about a two to three week cycle for them to go through them all. Then they’d go and make improvements, like making it so that his lightning breath electrifies the water.”
But battles on this scale cannot be fought alone, and Dragon Age: Inquisition sports over “a small novel’s worth” of banter between characters in the party. Interaction shared between characters brought a new sense of depth to the characters who populated the Dragon Age world, where I felt that their relationships with each would persist and progress without my presence.
“Obviously you see 100% of your relationships, but it’s nice to have these narratives happening off on the side and some of them are conditional. If you did X and Y, that turns some of these back on.” Laidlaw said. Players will be able to influence such relationships “to some degree” in Inquisition.
While BioWare has already stated that Inquisition is by no means concluding the Dragon Age series, the game “puts a few nails in quite a few coffins” and “introduces some new twists.” For Laidlaw, the introduction of a multiplayer mode into the game is something he would like to continue exploring.
“I’m not sure if it’s a perfect story situation, but it might be. I think it’s something that’s worth at least an investigation, especially based on reactions to the mode itself. I would say we’ve covered most of the South, I think we’ve covered the Chantry enough. But I do want to look more toward the North, I want to see what happens to nations like Tevinter, Rivaine, and do more with the Qunari. We’re going to go with the same process we did with Inquisition, which was where we have a core story idea that starts to form and drive where we’re heading next… the darkspawn, they’re still nowhere resolved, there’s still multiple arch-demons underground waiting to be woken up by them, there’s still demons on the far side of the Veil. Nobody really knows what happened to the Elves. The Tevinter Imperium is still locked in a war with the Qunari. There’s so much we could do.”
The Humble Bundle Store is celebrating its first birthday by offering Metro 2033 for free, but you only have a little more than an hour to grab it. The offer will end today at 10 a.m. PST.
In addition to Metro 2033, the Humble Store 1 Year Birthday Sale also has some great deals. You can get Thief for $10, the Metro Redux Bundle for $24, and Papers, Please for $5.
Humble said that since the store launched on November 11, 2014, it has since added 1,300 games to its catalog and generated more than $1.5 million for the American Red Cross, Child’s Play Charity, Electronic Frontier Foundation, World Land Trust and charity: water.
Which games are picking up this weekend? Let us know in the comments below.
Space sim Elite: Dangerous will release on December 16, developer Frontier Developments has announced.
The game has been available to backers and player who preordered it in various alphas and betas for months, and Frontier Developments always said that the plan was to release it by the end of 2014, but it didn’t get an exact date until now.
Elite: Dangerous will cost $60 when it’s released on PC, but you can preorder the game’s Mercenary Edition right now for $50 and some extra rewards including an Eagle fighter ship docked in a secondary location in the game, and an exclusive pack of ship paint jobs. You’ll also get a digital players guide, a “day one” ship decal, a digital concept art book, and other digital rewards.
