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All Articles: GDC 2019
Cuphead is coming to the Nintendo Switch on April 18
Nintendo uploaded their first Nindies Showcase of 2019 earlier today and they kicked things off with an absolutely huge announcement. Studio MDHR will bring their side-scrolling platformer, Cuphead, to the Switch on April 18. Featuring gameplay that pays homage to the Contra franchise, as well as a hand-drawn animation style inspired by cartoons from the 1930s, and a jazzy original soundtrack, Cuphead was originally released to great acclaim in 2017:
Cuphead, the all-cartoon Magical Wondergame, is coming to Nintendo Switch! Play as Cuphead or Mugman (in single player or local co-op) as you traverse strange worlds, acquire new weapons, learn powerful super moves, and discover hidden secrets while you try to pay your debt back to the devil!
Cuphead’s Switch debut was partly made possible with an assist from Microsoft, and the they confirmed on the Xbox Wire that a variety of Xbox Live features will soon be accessible on the Switch through Studio MDHR’s ultra-hard shooter:
We are partnering with Studio MDHR to investigate bringing Xbox Live features beyond Xbox and PC to Nintendo Switch. Yes, this means that fans will now have the opportunity to experience Studio MDHR’s award-winning debut game on Nintendo Switch with Xbox Live! We’ll be working with Studio MDHR to implement Xbox Live features into Cuphead on the Nintendo Switch in the coming months. Given the early stage of our work with Studio MDHR, the Xbox Live features will appear in a post-launch update to Cuphead on Nintendo Switch. We’d like to thank Studio MDHR and Nintendo for their help in this investigation!
In addition to bringing the game to Nintendo’s newest console, Studio MDHR is also hard at work on The Delicious Last Course, a new expansion for Cuphead that’ll launch for the PC and Xbox One (and presumably, the Switch) later this year.
Google’s game streaming service will be known as Google Stadia
While Google tried to play it off as a big secret, the search giant finally unveiled their long-awaited game streaming service today at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. Officially known as Google Stadia, the service won’t require a console of any kind, and will instead offer game streaming through a large number of devices, including laptops, desktops, Chromecast dongles, and select phones and tablets.
According to Stadia’s official website, Google is promising the service will offer 4K resolution gaming with no lag, provided your Internet connection is powerful enough. Stadia will also hook up with the YouTube Gaming livestreaming platform, and players will theoretically be able to jump from watching a stream right into playing that same game “in seconds”:
- Game where you want, when you want – Play across multiple devices, including laptops, desktops, and select phones and tablets. (High speed internet connection required)
- New ways to play through YouTube and beyond – Go from watching a video to playing a game in seconds, with even more innovative experiences to come for select games.
- Up to 4K HDR at 60 FPS – Enjoy gaming the way you love, with beautiful HDR graphics and smooth frame rates. (4K HDR at 60 FPS are dependent on your bandwidth. Gameplay experience may vary based on quality of internet connection.)
- Play instantly – No updates, no downloads. Jump right into the game.
- Always getting better – Stadia’s cloud based infrastructure evolves to meet the demands of players, developers, and YouTube creators.
On the surface, Google Stadia will offer a lot of the same features as Sony’s PlayStation Now streaming service, but it’ll have its own unique set of bells and whistles to make it stand out.
Google Stadia will be controllable with compatible third-party controllers on a PC, but players will also have the option of using the official Stadia Controller. Closely resembling a standard Xbox One controller, Google’s gadget will include an Instant Capture button for streaming to YouTube, a Google Assistant button powered by a built-in microphone, and a direct wi-fi connection to whatever device you’re using.
But what games will you be able to play on Google Stadia? That’s a bit of a question mark. So far, only Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey and id Software’s Doom Eternal are confirmed to be coming to the platform. Additional games, which will be exclusive to the platform, will be produced by the company’s new Stadia Games & Entertainment division, which will be lead by Jade Raymond.
It’s currently unknown if Google will sell individual games through Stadia or offer a monthly subscription to access the service’s entire library or some combination of both. But we do know that it’s currently scheduled to launch sometime in 2019.
Posted in News, PC
Tagged Assassin's Creed: Odyssey, Doom Eternal, GDC 2019
Activision and Tencent will launch free-to-play Call of Duty Mobile this Summer
Way back in 2017, Activision announced that Candy Crush developer King was hard on a new game in the Call of Duty franchise for mobile platforms. We still don’t know when we’ll learn more about that game, but late last night the publisher revealed an entirely different Call of Duty mobile experience from Tencent’s Timi studio.
Call of Duty Mobile is currently in development for Android and iOS devices, and will be available to download throughout the world as a free-to-play Public Beta this Summer:
In Call of Duty: Mobile, players will experience the fluid, first-person combat of Call of Duty, fighting head-to-head in fan-favorite modes such as Team Deathmatch, Search and Destroy and Free-For-All, in iconic maps from the series such as Nuketown, Crash, Hijacked and more. Along the way, players will earn and unlock classic Call of Duty characters, weapons, scorestreaks and other gear to equip and customize their loadouts as they battle to be among the best in the world.
Fans can pre-register to receive updates about Call of Duty Mobile’s progress at the game’s official website, and Activision has promised that “more modes of play” will be announced soon.
The Announcement Trailer for Call of Duty Mobile has been embedded above.
Princeton Review names University of Southern California the Best Game Design School for 2019
The 2019 Game Developers Conference kicks off in just a few days, and like clockwork, The Princeton Review has used this opportunity to roll out their ranking of the Top Schools For Game Design in 2019.
Once again, the University of Southern California topped all undergraduate programs and was ranked #3 on the list of graduate programs. Meanwhile, New York University climbed atop the list of graduate programs for the first time ever and held onto its #2 ranking among undergraduate programs.
“The schools that made our lists this year have stellar programs for aspiring game designers and developers,” said Robert Franek, the Editor-in-Chief of The Princeton Review. “Their faculties are outstanding and their facilities are awesome. Just as impressive: their alumni include many of the video game industry’s most prominent artists, designers, developers, and entrepreneurs.”
A large number of schools retained their place among the top Game Design programs for 2019 including Becker College in Worcester (#3 in undergraduate and #11 in graduate), DigiPen Institute of Technology in Redmond (#4 and #6), Drexel University in Philadelphia (#6 and #10), and the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester (#8 and #7).
You can find the Princeton Review’s full ranking of Game Design programs for 2019 after the break. (more…)
Red Dead Redemption 2 leads the way with 7 nominations at 2019 GDC Awards
It looks like Red Dead Redemption 2, Spider-Man, and God of War will be taking over another awards show, as the three games lead the way at the 2019 Game Developers Choice Awards. Rockstar’s “Cowboy Game” secured the most nominations with seven, but Sony’s Spider-Man and God of War were close behind with six apiece.
As you might have guessed, all three games are in the running for the coveted “Game of the Year” trophy, and they’ll be competing against Lucas Pope’s Return of the Obra Dinn and Matt Makes Games’s Celeste.
A handful of other games will attempt to push their way into the spotlight at this year’s GDC Awards, including Mountains’s Florence (four nominations), Enhance’s Tetris Effect (three nominations), and Nomada Studio’s Gris (two nominations).
In addition to the main awards ceremony, the GDC Awards will also present a Lifetime Achievement Award to Amy Hennig, the creator of Naughty Dog’s Uncharted franchise.
The 2019 GDC Awards ceremony will take place on on Wednesday, March 20, at 6:30 PM (Pacific Time). The full list of nominees, and all the Honorable Mentions, can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in Mobile, News, PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One
Tagged Celeste, GDC 2019, God of War 4, Red Dead Redemption 2, Return of the Obra Dinn, Spider-Man
Return of the Obra Dinn was nominated in five categories at 2019 IGF Awards
Papers Please, Lucas Pope’s puzzle game about censorship in a dystopian dictatorship, was a huge hit when it was released for the PC all the way back in 2013. And thanks to today’s announcement of the finalists for the Independent Games Festival Awards, it looks like his latest project, Return of the Obra Dinn, will reach similar heights.
Return of the Obra Dinn is an “innovative and uniquely stylized murder mystery” set aboard an abandoned ship in the early 1800s. Using “1-Bit” graphics reminiscent of early Macintosh games, players had to explore the ship and discover what happened to the crew. These elements helped Obra Dinn receive nominations for the “Seumas McNally Grand Prize,” as well as “Excellence In Audio,” “Excellence In Design,” “Excellence In Visual Art,” and “Excellence In Narrative.”
Return of the Obra Dinn will be competing against five other games for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize, including Zachtronics’s Opus Magnum, Nolla Games’s Noita, Fictiorama Studios’s Do Not Feed the Monkeys, Hypnospace Outlaw (developed by Jay Tholen, Mike Lasch, Xalavier Nelson Jr., and Corey Cochran), and Minit (developed by Kitty Calis, Jan Willem Nijman, Jukio Kallio, and Dominik Johann).
A complete list of the nominees and honorable mentions from the 2019 Independent Games Festival Awards can be found after the break. (more…)