AI War Beta 5.012, "Efficient Invincibility," Released!

This one has the usual variety of tweaks and fixes requested by players.  Of particular note are some optional keybindings for turning on/off your highest/lowest efficiency reactors (micromanagers rejoice), and some options for multiplayer in terms of auto-building on allied planets.

Astro Trains also now actually shoot their guns again, after having been accidentally muzzled for the last six months, and ships with "temporary invincibility" now show up with an angry-looking red/yellow force field effect to make it more clear that they have that status effect.

Enjoy!

This is a standard update that you can download through the in-game updater itself, if you already have 4.000 or later. When you launch the game, you'll see the notice of the update having been found if you're connected to the Internet at the time. If you don't have 4.000 or later, you can download that here.

Arcen Games on The Grey Area Podcast

Chris Park and I sat down with Jenesee of The Grey Area Podcast for an in-depth chat on A Valley Without Wind, gaming in general, indie development, and of course all things Arcen Games as well. You should definitely set aside the 90 minutes for a listen; it was a wonderfully casual conversation with such a prepared and professional host guiding the ship!

The show's 26th episode "An Interview Without Wind" is available to listen to right now. Follow The Grey Area Podcast on Twitter and Facebook as well.

Tidalis Beta 1.017: Improvements To Combo Scoring At Game Over

This release fixes a single logic issue which some players had been running into thanks to the Steam Summer Camp achievement for Tidalis. Essentially, if you won a game board with a combo, then it would not score that combo or give you achievements, because by definition it was waiting around half a second to score combos to make sure that they were really done. That logic makes perfect sense during actual gameplay, but when a game over (victory or loss) is reached it can easily be assumed that the combo is definitely done! So that's what the game now does. Enjoy!

This is a standard update that you can download through the in-game updater itself, if you already have 1.000 or later. When you launch the game, you'll see the notice of the update having been found if you're connected to the Internet at the time. If you don't have 1.000 or later, you can download that here.

Update On Children Of Neinzul Donations For Child's Play: $20,680.30

As of July 1st, 2011, we have so far raised and donated $20,680.30 for Child's Play! That's $2350.97 since our April update, all of which is going directly to the charity.

We'll keep everyone posted on how the donations are doing. Once again, we're ecstatic to continue our on-going contribution! Especially pleased to be considered a platinum sponsor for such a worthy cause.

More About AI War: Children of Neinzul and Child's Play

When you purchase AI War: Children Of Neinzul, you're not only getting an exciting new expansion, you're also supporting an important cause. Arcen Games has partnered with the Child's Play charity, pledging 100% of the profits from sale of Children of Neinzul (excepting any taxes and distributor fees) to helping sick kids in need.

The staff at Arcen has long admired the work done by Child's Play, and we're very excited to finally be able to contribute in a substantial manner. Our goal for 2010 was to raise $14,000.00 USD for Child's Play, but even after 2010 all of the proceeds from this micro-expansion are continuing to be donated to the charity.

At the moment, this micro-expansion is available directly through the Arcen Online Store ($3.99 USD), as well as through Steam, Impulse, and GamersGate.