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All Articles: GDC 2018
Prepare yourself… to not be shocked in the slightest… Zelda: Breath of the Wild won “Game of the Year” at 2018 GDC Awards
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild continues its sweep of this year’s “Game of the Year” awards, as it won the top honor at last night’s Game Developers Choice Awards. Developers for the adventure game also strode on stage to collect awards for “Best Audio” and “Best Design” during the ceremony.
The unique visual stylings of Jason Roberts’s Gorogoa were honored with the “Innovation Award,” and the puzzle game’s portability were also honored as “Best Mobile/Handheld Game.” Studio MDHR also carried home multiple trophies during last night’s GDC Awards ceremony for Cuphead, including “Best Debut” and “Best Visual Art,”
“Every year sees countless amazing games worthy of recognition, but this year in particular has seen some of the strongest titles to arrive this generation. The GDCAs give us an opportunity to reflect on and honor the games that provided us with endless joy,” said Katie Stern, the General Manager of the Game Developers Conference. “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild helped us rediscover a childlike sense of adventure and discovery. Titles like Gorogoa and What Remains of Edith Finch offered us distinct creative visions that can only be experienced in games, and games like Cuphead and Horizon: Zero Dawn crafted worlds we could lose ourselves in. Congratulations to all of tonight’s nominees and winners and thank you for your creativity and dedication.”
A replay of the 2018 GDC Awards ceremony can be viewed at the Twitch channel for the Game Developers Conference. And a complete list of the winners can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in Mobile, News, PC, PS4, Switch, Wii U, Xbox One
Tagged Cuphead, GDC 2018, Gorogoa, Horizon: Zero Dawn, Nier: Automata, Night in the Woods, Superhot, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Night in the Woods wins the Seumas McNally Grand Prize at the 2018 IGF Awards
Indie developers from around the world got dressed up last night to fit in with the pomp and circumstance of the the Independent Games Festival’s 2018 IGF Awards ceremony. But it was Infinite Fall’s Night in the Woods that took home the top prize, the Seumas McNally Grand Prize, as well as the IGF Award for “Excellence In Narrative.”
Night in the Woods had plenty of company on the big stage, as Amanita Design’s Chuchel (“Excellence In Visual Art”), Hempuli’s Baba Is You (“Excellence In Design” and “Best Student Game”), Nifflas Game’s Uurnog Uurnlimited (“Excellence In Audio”), and Bennett Foddy’s Getting Over It With Bennett Foddy (the “Nuovo Award”) all took home at least one IGF Award of their own.
A replay of the 2018 IGF Awards ceremony can be viewed at the Twitch channel for the Game Developers Conference.
Congratulations to all the winners, and don’t forget, GDC attendees will be able to try out all the winner and nominees at the IGF Pavilion on the expo floor through Friday, March 23. A complete list is available after the break. (more…)
Atari’s “Ataribox” microconsole will be known as the Atari VCS
Yesterday, Atari confirmed that its “Ataribox” microconsole will officially be known as the Atari VCS. The name is meant to stir up fond memories of Atari’s first console, the Atari 2600 Video Computer System, but even with its name out in the wild, the microconsole is still shrouded in mystery.
We know the Atari VCS will come packed with classic Atari games, but the company is also planning to make newer games available for the microconsole through an Internet connection. These games are said to be “designed for today’s living room,” but as of now, we have no idea what the Atari VCS’s game lineup (retro or modern) will actually look like.
That said, Atari did give us a sneak peek at the VCS’s wood-paneled console design, as well as prototypes for its Classic Joystick and Modern Controller:
Inspired by the iconic silhouette of the original Atari 2600 Video Computer System, the new Atari VCS has already generated considerable excitement within the gaming community. Its skillful blend of modern lines and reverential details, combined with contemporary content technology and new innovation, has evoked positive reactions from Atari fans both new and old. The Atari VCS will of course serve up lots of classic content, but it is so much more than a “retro-box.” It is a completely new Atari connected device designed for today’s living room.
The Atari VCS will be available for hands-on testing (by appointment only) during this week’s Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, so hopefully we’ll learn more about it soon.
The Arcade Crew will publish Joymasher’s side-scrolling shooter Blazing Chrome this year
Brazilian developer Joymasher will team up with The Arcade Crew, a new publishing label from DotEmu, to release Blazing Chrome, a side-scrolling shooter with a look and feel inspired by several classics of the genre (such as Contra III: The Alien Wars, Conra: Hard Corps, and Metal Slug):
In Blazing Chrome, militant AI-fueled computers rule the Earth while humans are expendable, lacking power, prestige or status among their machine overlords. Choose to play as Mavra, a super badass human resistance soldier, or Doyle, the equally groovy and deadly insurgent robot. When a small group of rebels decide to overthrow their oppressors, it results in heavy casualties and a ton of lock-and-load fast-paced action where scrapping robots and blazing chrome with your powerful weapons is the only thing standing between you and your freedom.
The Arcade Crew and Joymasher will bring a playable demo of Blazing Chrome to this year’s Game Developers Conference (March 19-23) and PAX East (April 5-8). For the rest of us, a brand new Announcement Trailer, which has been embedded above, will have to suffice.
Blazing Chrome is currently in development for the PC, and will be available sometime this year.
Posted in News, PC
Tagged Blazing Chrome, GDC 2018, PAX East 2018
Fragile Equilibrium is a side-scrolling shooter that also asks players to rebuild the world
MAGIC Spell Studios, one of the only publishing labels to publish student-created games, has announced they’re bringing Fragile Equilibrium to this year’s Game Developers Conference. Students from the Rochester Institute of Technology are developing the side-scrolling shooter, but players will also need to balance their attacks with rebuilding the decaying game world:
Fragile Equilibrium is a game about the imperfection and impermanence of life. It is a reflection on transience, a balancing act between progress and regrowth, and a reminder to find beauty in decay and inevitable destruction.
Using old-school shmup mechanics and form, Fragile Equilibrium invites the player to explore a world of quick actions, forced decisions, and subtle strategy: will you engage every enemy you can? Will you pass over a difficult encounter? Will you fire or dodge? But with each action or inaction, the player falls ever out of balance – too aggressive, too passive, too quick, too slow. And as balance decays so does the world, eroding over time and out of space, compressing the player to a smaller and smaller area, pressing in upon the mind. Built upon layered interactions, a Wabi Sabi aesthetic idealism, and a rich, broken world of times long past, Fragile Equilibrium invites the player to reflect on their play, their world, their nostalgia, and themselves.
Fragile Equilibrium is currently in development for the PC, and a playable demo will be available for attendees of GDC 2018.
Posted in News, PC
Tagged Fragile Equilibrium, GDC 2018
Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Horizon: Zero Dawn lead all nominees at 2018 GDC Awards
The organizers of the Game Developers Conference have announced the nominees for this year’s Game Developers Choice Awards.
Nintendo and Sony have a lot to celebrate this year as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Horizon: Zero Dawn tied for the most nominations, with six apiece. Both games are in the running for “Game of the Year,” and both were also nominated in the “Best Audio,” “Best Design,” “Best Technology,” and “Best Visual Art” categories. Breath of the Wild tacked on one more nominations for the “Innovation Award,” while Horizon nabbed a nomination for “Best Narrative.”
Both games should probably be considered the frontrunners for the “Game of the Year” award, but they’ll also have to compete with PUBG Corporation’s PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, Platinum Games’s Nier: Automata, and Nintendo’s Super Mario Odyssey for the coveted honor.
Outside of the “Game of the Year” competition, Studio MDHR’s Cuphead captured three nominations for “Best Audio,” “Best Debut,” and “Best Visual Art.”
The 2018 GDC Awards ceremony will take place on on Wednesday, March 21, at 6:30 PM (Pacific Time). The full list of nominees, and all the Honorable Mentions, can be found after the break. (more…)
Baba Is You, Night in the Woods, Getting Over It lead all nominees for the 2018 IGF Awards
The organizers of the Independent Games Festival have announced the finalists for this year’s IGF Awards ceremony.
Six games will compete for the “Seumas McNally Grand Prize” including Getting Over It With Bennett Foddy (Bennett Foddy), Night in the Woods (Infinite Fall), West of Loathing (Asymmetric Publications), Into the Breach (Subset Games), Heat Signature (Suspicious Developments), and Baba Is You (Hempuli).
Baba Is You earned four total nominations, and will also be in the running for “Excellence In Design,” the “Nuovo Award,” and “Best Student Game.” Getting Over It With Bennett Foddy captured two additional nominations (“Excellence In Design” and the “Nuovo Award”), while Night in the Woods was also nominated for two other awards (“Excellence In Visual Art” and “Excellence In Narrative”).
Finally, Cuphead was a big winner at this year’s Game Awards, and the side-scroller is in line for more honors at the IGF Awards including an Honorable Mention for the “Seumas McNally Grand Prize,” as well as nominations in the “Excellence In Visual Art” and “Excellence In Audio” categories.
The IGF Awards will be held on March 21 during this year’s Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.
A complete list of the nominees and honorable mentions for the 2018 Independent Games Festival Awards can be found after the break. (more…)