Indie developer Arcen Games is excited to announce the inclusion of A Valley Without Wind in this year's Indiecade E3 Showcase, as well as details on the massive (and free) 1.1 update set to arrive for the game during the show next week.
Content additions and improvements abound across nearly 50 post-release beta updates set to make-up the first official AVWW post-launch release. Over 160 new room maps, 30 new enemies (such as the Nightmare Octopus and Dread Gazebo), seven new minibosses (such as the Giant Clockwork Wasp and Dark Dragon), new Freefall and Boss Delve missions, three new spells, five new enchants, five new music tracks, and over a dozen added or improved major features will be packed as part of next week's release.
It's not all about the numbers though. We've worked heavily with the game's player base to address some of the major issues that were taking away from the fun factor. A rebalanced, streamlined strategic flow to the game has been worked in, vastly improving how players can navigate and progress their individual world. The reworked gameplay also encourages spell variety and experimentation by the player.
Monster variety has also been tackled head on, not only with the aforementioned additions, but with the introduction of enemy elites and infestations/traps. Seeding of these dangers throughout all of the different regions has had yet another layer added to it, to make each chunk that much more of a unique area to the player. That goes for more than just monsters and infestations, there's better seeding in chunks regarding interior rooms, music tracks, puzzle rooms, NPCs, and more. Upgrade stones have been ditched for a reworked enchant slot system that adds flexibility to character creation/customization, with time-period bonus abilities and new options such as re-roll and rename offered for characters as well.
'What else' you say? The Opal Guardian Store is open for business and accepting your hard earned consciousness shards (which are now all the same color) collected in the wild as currency, the shopping list arrives as part of an improved planning menu, windstorms have been tweaked so that they're more fun and more of a threat to take on, exploration with the minimap is much better, and the game now offers support for texture packs.
It's truly an exhausting list of stuff, but it's all in effort to make huge refinements to the core concepts we've been building on. Almost everything you love as a player is still there and made better, and the major items annoying players have been addressed and majorly reworked.
All this will arrive during our showing of A Valley Without Wind at E3 2012. We're excited to join a slew of other indie developers to exhibit our game as part of IndieCade's Showcase booth. The booth will be open during exhibiting hours June 5-7 and is located in the Concourse Foyer at the Los Angeles Convention Center (on Level 1 in the West Hall entrance).
About A Valley Without Wind
A 2D sidescroller without a linear path. An action game with tactical combat and strategic planning. An adventure game that lets you free-roam a vast, procedurally-generated world. A Valley Without Wind defies genre stereotypes. Unlike other procedurally-generated games, you also get a logical progression in difficulty, plus helpful tips and checklists to guide your travels (should you need them).
Choose for yourself how to prepare to face the vastly stronger Overlord. Complete a variety of missions to earn arcane rewards, and/or roam the wilds to uncover secret missions and stashes of magical loot. Customize your characters with unique combinations of enchants and spells that change how you move, jump, and fight. Or rescue people and bring them back to your settlement, recruiting them to help you in return.
You choose how to play, and the world adapts around you.
The full version is available now on PC and Mac. A demo is also available, and grants full access to the game/multiplayer with only some tier restrictions. Even though AVWW has launched, it continues to grow with new content and improvements added nearly every weekday. Follow the game and its updates/discussions on Facebook, Google+, Reddit, and Twitter. To be a part of how AVWW evolves in any and/or all of its aspects join the ongoing discussion taking place within our forums.
For members of the media: review keys and press kits are available upon request.
About Arcen Games
Arcen Games entered the PC indie scene in 2009 with their cult classic AI War: Fleet Command, which was named the 40th best-reviewed PC game of the year by MetaCritic. Their second year was a busy one, seeing the release of The Zenith Remnant, the first full expansion for AI War; Tidalis, an innovative block-based puzzle with casual appeal and hardcore depth; and Children of Neinzul, a micro-expansion for AI War with all profits benefiting the Child's Play charity, of which Arcen is a platinum sponsor.
AI War's third and largest expansion Light of the Spire marked Arcen's first release of 2011, and now the company has shifted its focus and excitement to the development of A Valley Without Wind. Originally a one-man shop, Arcen Games has grown to have half a dozen part-time or fulltime contributors to its various titles. For all the latest news, media coverage, and some of our other musings, follow us on our developer and individual game pages on Facebook or on Twitter: @ArcenGames; as well as Arcen lead Chris Park's Games By Design blog.
Showing posts with label General Press. Show all posts
Showing posts with label General Press. Show all posts
Saturday, June 2, 2012
Thursday, May 31, 2012
A Valley Without Wind Selected For IndieCade E3 Showcase
Along with AVWW, 19 other excellent indies will be on display including The Binding of Isaac, J.S. Joust, Prom Week, and a bunch of games I'm just now discovering and look forward to checking out.
The booth will be located in the Concourse Foyer at the Los Angeles Convention Center (level 1 in the West Hall entrance). I'll be hanging around there all three days (June 5-7), so for those attending feel free to stop by for a chat, to check out the game, or both!
Check back next week, as we have some good stuff in store with the event coinciding with Valley's official 1.1 release.
Thursday, April 19, 2012
More PAX East 2012 Coverage For A Valley Without Wind
Just Press Start's Jeff Ortloff got the full tour of the Arcen Booth, posting audio interviews with both Chris and Pablo.
Gameinpublic posted the first ten minutes of the indie game talk I took part in. This was day two (we did a similar talk with different devs each day of the conference).
Andrew Whipple III of Gamer's guide to Life seems very pleased we're fleshing out a title in the sidescrolling action genre.
Patrick Lindsey put together a solid preview of the game over on BeefJack as well.
The Mash Those Buttons guys talk about the game for a decent chunk of their PAX East podcast.
Luigi Guarnuccio of Gamers Haven called AVWW 'a gem of a game' in his preview.
Matthew Jay discovers there's more to the game than what can be gathered at first glance in his preview over on Snackbar Games
OnLiveFans' Jeremy Burg mentioned us as one of the gems he got to play on the show floor in his round-up of the event.
Finally, GiantBomb snapped and posted a shot of the Arcen Games booth, check out those sweet banners. :)
Oh, one last item: 2nd Opinion Podcast's Chris Dunham will be live streaming A Valley Without Wind today at 3:45 PM ET for a good couple of hours. Tune in then to his Twitch.TV channel for a longer form, on-the-fly look at the game.
Friday, April 13, 2012
PAX East 2012 Coverage For A Valley Without Wind
Here's the coverage to come about from our trip to Boston thus far:
John Polson interviews Chris in an excellent piece on IndieGames.com entitled Indie Devs Weigh in on Imitating Versus Innovating.
Platform Nation's Gaming Hands On Quick Hits touches on AVWW's surprising amount of depth.
Nearly 15 minutes of Front Towards Gamer's latest Gametwerp Podcast is taken up by a live interview with Chris.
The intriguing Ditto Monster stopped by for an enjoyable and surprising interview with Chris.
Anthony of TryIndie was trying his backside off all weekend, providing a ton of coverage for us. He has written up interviews with both Chris and Pablo, plus recorded some video footage of the indie game dev panel I submitted and participated in.
Zach Martin of PikiGeek apparently enjoyed his time with AVWW on the first day. He went and published his preview just hours later. Awesome that we caught his attention!
We made Trouble Thinking's list of The Stuff You Should Have Checked Out.
The Gamer's Guide To Life Channel took a short test drive of the game, as well as recording a live interview with Chris on the show floor.
Thrifty Nerd's preview concludes that they can't wait for the April 23rd launch.
Lastly, we were also glad to finally meet Nick Puleo of Co-Optimus. We have several other interviews and coverage still in the works with other outlets—so keep your eyes peeled for those in the coming weeks.
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
AVWW Heading To PAX East And Steam In April
Arcen Games is excited to announce A Valley Without Wind, our upcoming co-op 2D sidescroller of near-infinite proportions, will be on display at PAX East April 6-8 in Boston. We're also thrilled to reveal AVWW 1.0 will coincide with the title's Steam release on April 23.
AVWW has heavily evolved since we began openly developing it back in January 2011; with elements of platforming, puzzle, shump, strategy, and other genres streamlined into the core game mechanics. The world of Environ is truly alive and now bursting with missions, mysteries, and so much more.
We invite attendees to stop by Booth #364 during the three day expo to play the game as it prepares to exit the beta phase later this month. Along with four demo stations, we've got plenty of swag to hand out including those all alluring buttons, cards, and other fancy items.
To get a taste of what the booth will look like, head over to our CEO/lead programmer Chris Park's Games By Design blog for a peak at the banners we've put together from the game's concept art. Those interested in the system requirements for the PC/Mac title can check them out on Arcen's news blog as well.
See you in Boston!
About A Valley Without Wind
The full beta version of A Valley Without Wind is available now on PC and Mac for pre-order at a 33% discount from the game's official launch price of $14.99. Customers gain instant access to the latest available build and all subsequent releases through 1.0 and beyond. The game can be purchased and downloaded directly through the developer as well as on GamersGate, Impulse, and MacGamesStore. The game's launch on Steam is set for April 23. A demo is also available, and grants full access to the game/multiplayer with the only some tier restrictions.
AVWW is currently in beta and as such is constantly in development. It continues to evolve, with new content and improvements added all the time as it progresses toward official launch (as well as long after its 1.0 release). Follow the game and its updates/discussions on Facebook, Reddit, and Twitter. To get more involved with how AVWW evolves in any and/or all of its aspects be sure to stop by our forums.
About Arcen Games
Arcen Games entered the PC indie scene in 2009 with their cult classic AI War: Fleet Command, which was named the 40th best-reviewed PC game of the year by MetaCritic. Their second year was a busy one, seeing the release of The Zenith Remnant, the first full expansion for AI War; Tidalis, an innovative block-based puzzle with casual appeal and hardcore depth; and Children of Neinzul, a micro-expansion for AI War with all profits benefiting the Child's Play charity, of which Arcen is a platinum sponsor.
AI War's third and largest expansion Light of the Spire marked Arcen's first release of 2011, and now the company has shifted its focus and excitement to the development of A Valley Without Wind. Originally a one-man shop, Arcen Games has grown to have half a dozen part-time or fulltime contributors to its various titles. For all the latest news, media coverage, and some of our other musings, follow us on our developer and individual game pages on Facebook, Google+ and/or on Twitter: @ArcenGames.
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
AVWW 1.0 Now To Launch On April 23rd
Just a couple of weeks ago, we announced that we'd be launch on April 16th on Steam, and that we were lowering the price of the game. All of that is still true, except that we've shifted the release date back a week to the 23rd instead of the 16th.
Why the shift? Well, to be perfectly frank: PAX East. We're super excited about finally having a booth at one of the PAXes (I've been a Penny Arcade reader since a few months after they started, actually), but the simple fact of the matter is that this is on a whole other scale than Minecon.
Our focus over the last few months has been on getting the game into the state it needs to be for both 1.0 and PAX East, and in getting everything all lined up with the press. That meant that Erik and I both found ourselves a bit flat-footed this past weekend in particular, and we've had to majorly scramble to get all the PAX stuff set up.
That's finally all resolved, but now PAX itself is about to actually start in a couple of days, and that's going to make 3/5 of our fulltime staff completely unavailable for the better part of a week. There's still enough polish and last-minute content additions that we want to cram into AVWW 1.0 that an April 16th release just didn't make sense anymore. That rash of memory leaks last week didn't help, although that wasn't the real cause by any stretch.
Anyway, we're still launching in April and we couldn't be more excited about the way the game is shaping up! If you're coming to PAX East, make sure and stop by to say "hi!"
Why the shift? Well, to be perfectly frank: PAX East. We're super excited about finally having a booth at one of the PAXes (I've been a Penny Arcade reader since a few months after they started, actually), but the simple fact of the matter is that this is on a whole other scale than Minecon.
Our focus over the last few months has been on getting the game into the state it needs to be for both 1.0 and PAX East, and in getting everything all lined up with the press. That meant that Erik and I both found ourselves a bit flat-footed this past weekend in particular, and we've had to majorly scramble to get all the PAX stuff set up.
That's finally all resolved, but now PAX itself is about to actually start in a couple of days, and that's going to make 3/5 of our fulltime staff completely unavailable for the better part of a week. There's still enough polish and last-minute content additions that we want to cram into AVWW 1.0 that an April 16th release just didn't make sense anymore. That rash of memory leaks last week didn't help, although that wasn't the real cause by any stretch.
Anyway, we're still launching in April and we couldn't be more excited about the way the game is shaping up! If you're coming to PAX East, make sure and stop by to say "hi!"
Final AVWW System Requirements Updated
Now that the game has been out in beta for months and months, we have the data to set our final system requirements. Here they are:
Operating System Changes
Previously we supported any version of Windows XP, but now you have to have XP SP2.
Also, we previously supported PowerPC and Mac OS X "Panther" 10.3.9. Unfortunately, due to the Unity 3D engine removing support for those platforms, that means that we're unable to continue supporting those platforms if we ever want to update to a later version of the game.
We apologize if the PowerPC/Panther changes in particular causes any hardship for anyone. But we suspect that the game would have run so poorly on that old of a computer anyhow that you wouldn't have liked the experience you got.
If anyone purchased the beta of game on the expectation of being able to play it solely on PowerPC and is now unable to do so, then please contact us and we'll be happy to offer a refund. But we also highly recommend the newer Intel-based Macs; they're awesome, and speaking for myself personally I was able to get a used one two years ago for $600 off of eBay.
Last note: you can technically still play AVWW on the older operating systems at the moment, because we are still running Unity 3.3. That is likely to still be the case at launch of 1.0, because we had lots of trouble with bugs in Unity 3.4 and we don't want to risk moving to Unity 3.5 right before a big release. But at some point after AVWW 1.0 comes out, we will be upgrading the game engine to a newer version of Unity, and then the game literally won't run on the older OSes.
RAM Requirements
The other thing that we've learned through the beta testing is that 1 GB of RAM really isn't going to give a good experience for anyone. Anyone already playing the game knows this, so I doubt this is going to impact anyone negatively. But we've increased our minimum requirements from 1 GB with a 2GB recommendation, to a flat 2GB minimum.
And of course more is always better if you're on an OS that uses a lot of RAM (Vista / Win7) or if you've got a lot of background tasks sucking up RAM. But even in those situations, so long as you haven't tweaked your windows settings to not have a swap/paging file, 2GB of RAM is plenty.
We've had a few beta players with only 2GB of RAM and a disabled swap/paging file that ran into occasional crashes due to lack of available memory, but simply re-enabling the swap/paging file (which is on by default in windows) solves the issue.
That's the news!
COMPATIBLE OPERATING SYSTEMSYou'll perhaps notice two changes:
----------------------------
Windows XP SP2 or later; Mac OSX Intel CPU and "Leopard" 10.5 or later.
Linux is not officially supported by Unity 3D, the engine AVWW runs on. However, we have heard it works under WINE.
HARDWARE
--------
2 GB RAM
1.6Ghz CPU (more is recommended for multiplayer servers)
1 GB Hard Disk Space
800x600 or greater desktop screen resolution (1024x768 recommended)
Graphics card must support 1024x1024 textures (most 32MB and up graphics cards do).
Broadband Internet Connection or LAN required for multiplayer
Operating System Changes
Previously we supported any version of Windows XP, but now you have to have XP SP2.
Also, we previously supported PowerPC and Mac OS X "Panther" 10.3.9. Unfortunately, due to the Unity 3D engine removing support for those platforms, that means that we're unable to continue supporting those platforms if we ever want to update to a later version of the game.
We apologize if the PowerPC/Panther changes in particular causes any hardship for anyone. But we suspect that the game would have run so poorly on that old of a computer anyhow that you wouldn't have liked the experience you got.
If anyone purchased the beta of game on the expectation of being able to play it solely on PowerPC and is now unable to do so, then please contact us and we'll be happy to offer a refund. But we also highly recommend the newer Intel-based Macs; they're awesome, and speaking for myself personally I was able to get a used one two years ago for $600 off of eBay.
Last note: you can technically still play AVWW on the older operating systems at the moment, because we are still running Unity 3.3. That is likely to still be the case at launch of 1.0, because we had lots of trouble with bugs in Unity 3.4 and we don't want to risk moving to Unity 3.5 right before a big release. But at some point after AVWW 1.0 comes out, we will be upgrading the game engine to a newer version of Unity, and then the game literally won't run on the older OSes.
RAM Requirements
The other thing that we've learned through the beta testing is that 1 GB of RAM really isn't going to give a good experience for anyone. Anyone already playing the game knows this, so I doubt this is going to impact anyone negatively. But we've increased our minimum requirements from 1 GB with a 2GB recommendation, to a flat 2GB minimum.
And of course more is always better if you're on an OS that uses a lot of RAM (Vista / Win7) or if you've got a lot of background tasks sucking up RAM. But even in those situations, so long as you haven't tweaked your windows settings to not have a swap/paging file, 2GB of RAM is plenty.
We've had a few beta players with only 2GB of RAM and a disabled swap/paging file that ran into occasional crashes due to lack of available memory, but simply re-enabling the swap/paging file (which is on by default in windows) solves the issue.
That's the news!
Thursday, March 22, 2012
AVWW 1.0 On April 16th, Confirmed On Steam -- Also Price Drop For Final Game
It was just two days ago that we gave you some general updates about A Valley Without Wind's launch coming the "week of April 16th," but there were a lot of specifics we couldn't give you at the time. Welp... now have the rest of the details for you!
Release Date -- And Steam!
The actual release date will be, specifically, Monday April 16th itself. The game will be going live on Steam on that day as 1.0, along with having its version updated to 1.0 with Impulse, GamersGate, MacGameStore, and our own site. All of the latter already carry the game at a preorder discount.
Steam Keys For Existing Preorders?
Any keys you buy from other sources should be able to have their CD keys imported into Steam for Steam keys. The final call on that is always up to Valve rather than us, so we can't make promises on their behalf. But all five of our existing games/expansions that are on Steam allow for CD key imports, so we don't have any reason to believe that this sixth title will suddenly be any different.
Final Pricing For 1.0
The preorder price has been $9.99, and will remain thus until April 16th. At launch, we'll be moving to a final price of $14.99 for the game instead of the previously-planned $19.99, however.
Insight Into The Pricing Thought Process, If You're Curious
This pricing change is something that we decided upon in consultation with our distributors, who strongly recommended it. Looking at the market for games vaguely similar to AVWW, we had to conclude that they were correct, and honestly we'd been getting antsy about the $20 price point for a game of this genre, anyhow.
Crazy, right? There's dozens of hours of content in here, hundreds if you really get into the game heavily, and that beats out a lot of AAA titles in terms of how much bang for your buck you get -- at $15, $20, or even $60. But that's not how the market works, and the market is always changing.
If you think about this as your game, and you're trying to figure out a fair price, that makes $20 seem like the right choice -- after all, AI War was $20 up until this past month, and it's done very well for us. So that's what we originally went with as our goal for the launch price. The thing is, if I step back and think about this as a consumer (which I am -- I still buy plenty of games myself), then $20 for most small-studio indie games seems a bit steep.
The exception are those that are in niche genres: strategy titles, visual novels, wargames, hardcore simulations, and so forth. I think that my friend Cliff has it right with his pricing for Gratuitous Tank Battles, for instance. And I think that $20 was the right price point for AI War for most of its life (though I always had people telling me it should be $30 like some other wargames, and others telling me it should be $10 like some other indie games).
For A Valley Without Wind, looking at anything that could be lumped into its general sort of genre, the pricing is more typically between $10-$15. Given the massive amount of playtime this game has, and the ongoing work we do post-release with titles like this, being at the higher end of that range -- but no higher -- seemed like the pragmatic move.
What's Left To Do?
Today we should have the first two mysteries released for you, which will mark the last of the overall "broad game mechanics" for the game. Then it's a focus on:
- Polish
- Bugfixes
- Player-requested tweaks and additions
- More enemies, including enemy elites and boss modifiers
- More spells
- More guardian power scrolls
- More mission activities
- Possibly a few more enchants, although there are already hundreds of thousands of permutations of these.
If you're curious how things are likely to go over the next month between now and 1.0, just take a look at what we've been up to lately. That's pretty representative.
And Now, Some Shameless Plugging Of Social Media
Be sure to like the game on facebook if you're into that sort of thing, follow the game on twitter if that's your bag, etc. This game is really important to us both personally and as a company, and word of mouth has been absolutely instrumental in the past success of AI War for us. If you like what we do and want to see more of it, be sure to tell your friends!
Thanks, as always, for your support! We really wouldn't be here without you all. Nor would AVWW be the same without all the extensive beta involvement it's seen. I mean, seriously.
Release Date -- And Steam!
The actual release date will be, specifically, Monday April 16th itself. The game will be going live on Steam on that day as 1.0, along with having its version updated to 1.0 with Impulse, GamersGate, MacGameStore, and our own site. All of the latter already carry the game at a preorder discount.
Steam Keys For Existing Preorders?
Any keys you buy from other sources should be able to have their CD keys imported into Steam for Steam keys. The final call on that is always up to Valve rather than us, so we can't make promises on their behalf. But all five of our existing games/expansions that are on Steam allow for CD key imports, so we don't have any reason to believe that this sixth title will suddenly be any different.
Final Pricing For 1.0
The preorder price has been $9.99, and will remain thus until April 16th. At launch, we'll be moving to a final price of $14.99 for the game instead of the previously-planned $19.99, however.
Insight Into The Pricing Thought Process, If You're Curious
This pricing change is something that we decided upon in consultation with our distributors, who strongly recommended it. Looking at the market for games vaguely similar to AVWW, we had to conclude that they were correct, and honestly we'd been getting antsy about the $20 price point for a game of this genre, anyhow.
Crazy, right? There's dozens of hours of content in here, hundreds if you really get into the game heavily, and that beats out a lot of AAA titles in terms of how much bang for your buck you get -- at $15, $20, or even $60. But that's not how the market works, and the market is always changing.
If you think about this as your game, and you're trying to figure out a fair price, that makes $20 seem like the right choice -- after all, AI War was $20 up until this past month, and it's done very well for us. So that's what we originally went with as our goal for the launch price. The thing is, if I step back and think about this as a consumer (which I am -- I still buy plenty of games myself), then $20 for most small-studio indie games seems a bit steep.
The exception are those that are in niche genres: strategy titles, visual novels, wargames, hardcore simulations, and so forth. I think that my friend Cliff has it right with his pricing for Gratuitous Tank Battles, for instance. And I think that $20 was the right price point for AI War for most of its life (though I always had people telling me it should be $30 like some other wargames, and others telling me it should be $10 like some other indie games).
For A Valley Without Wind, looking at anything that could be lumped into its general sort of genre, the pricing is more typically between $10-$15. Given the massive amount of playtime this game has, and the ongoing work we do post-release with titles like this, being at the higher end of that range -- but no higher -- seemed like the pragmatic move.
What's Left To Do?
Today we should have the first two mysteries released for you, which will mark the last of the overall "broad game mechanics" for the game. Then it's a focus on:
- Polish
- Bugfixes
- Player-requested tweaks and additions
- More enemies, including enemy elites and boss modifiers
- More spells
- More guardian power scrolls
- More mission activities
- Possibly a few more enchants, although there are already hundreds of thousands of permutations of these.
If you're curious how things are likely to go over the next month between now and 1.0, just take a look at what we've been up to lately. That's pretty representative.
And Now, Some Shameless Plugging Of Social Media
Be sure to like the game on facebook if you're into that sort of thing, follow the game on twitter if that's your bag, etc. This game is really important to us both personally and as a company, and word of mouth has been absolutely instrumental in the past success of AI War for us. If you like what we do and want to see more of it, be sure to tell your friends!
Thanks, as always, for your support! We really wouldn't be here without you all. Nor would AVWW be the same without all the extensive beta involvement it's seen. I mean, seriously.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
A Valley Without Wind 1.0 Version To Launch The Week Of April 16th
I know, I know, we've been saying it was going to be next week. And we could hit that target, if we wanted to launch just on our own site and not give reviewers any advance time with the very-near-final game before it releases.
But the game is now definitely coming to a large digital distributor that we all know and love (and who carries all of Arcen's other titles), and we have to coordinate our schedules not only with them but also with all the other vendors that already carry A Valley Without Wind.
I don't have a specific release day yet, but I will update you with that as soon as I do.
In the meantime, this gives us more time to pack in the polish, the bugfixes, and even more content prior to 1.0. We had a list of things that we had planned to do "just after 1.0," but now that list of things is instead going to be a list of things for "just before 1.0" instead.
We still have a huge commitment to getting the game into a final-except-for-content state in the next week or so, by the way, for two reasons: 1) being able to give this to reviewers so they have time to do their thing before the big 1.0 release; and 2) having an ultra-solid build to take with us to PAX East.
I'll share further news on this as I have it, but I literally just got the confirmation on some of this stuff in the last 30 minutes and so you're hearing it almost as soon as I am figuring it out myself.
Cheers!
But the game is now definitely coming to a large digital distributor that we all know and love (and who carries all of Arcen's other titles), and we have to coordinate our schedules not only with them but also with all the other vendors that already carry A Valley Without Wind.
I don't have a specific release day yet, but I will update you with that as soon as I do.
In the meantime, this gives us more time to pack in the polish, the bugfixes, and even more content prior to 1.0. We had a list of things that we had planned to do "just after 1.0," but now that list of things is instead going to be a list of things for "just before 1.0" instead.
We still have a huge commitment to getting the game into a final-except-for-content state in the next week or so, by the way, for two reasons: 1) being able to give this to reviewers so they have time to do their thing before the big 1.0 release; and 2) having an ultra-solid build to take with us to PAX East.
I'll share further news on this as I have it, but I literally just got the confirmation on some of this stuff in the last 30 minutes and so you're hearing it almost as soon as I am figuring it out myself.
Cheers!
Sunday, March 4, 2012
A Valley Without Wind (Unofficially) At GDC
If you're going to be at or around the conference during the week and would like to get together to chat, play AVWW, or just drink together in silence (weird, but hey I'm not here to judge), give me a shout. You can reach me on twitter @GameConnoisseur.
Also if you're around and looking for something amazingly fun to do on Tuesday evening, come by the DNA Lounge and join myself and a bunch of other indie devs and musicians for POW. It's going to be a crazy party with chip music performances and many indie games to play. Valley will be on display, and I'll be moving back and forth between there and wherever the food stuffs are located.
So come by and say hi! Tickets are cheap, and even cheaper if you're attending GDC ($8 in advance/$12 at the door/$5 with a badge).
Hope to see you there!
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
A Valley Without Wind Embarks On Final Beta Phase
Arcen Games is pleased to announce the downloadable PC/Mac title A Valley Without Wind -- our fast-paced, open world sidescroller of nearly limitless proportions -- has entered its final beta phase, with an official launch now in sight. To celebrate, a brand new trailer for the game has been released (best viewed in 1080p), along with 18 new screenshots and updated demos as well.
With the game's community heavily involved in the beta so far, the game has seen an astronomical number of changes and improvements added by our relentless programmers. Thankfully after a whirlwind of patching, the game's dust has settled, and we welcome everyone to take a look around at what the world of Environ has evolved into.
The mechanics have been streamlined, a fully fleshed-out player experience is now in place, and tons of new content has been packed in -- including a variety of new missions, spells, armor enchants, guardian powers, and more. Multiplayer has also come a long way, and players are having a blast running their own beta servers. There are a few multiplayer remaining bugs to iron out prior to 1.0, plus the need for a server browser, but it's already a satisfying experience.
Beyond all that, the game has become much more accessible to new players. A planning menu complete with handy 'supplies', 'things to do', and 'where to find stuff' sections; opt out popup tooltips; and other improvements to usability and clarity result in a newfound flow to the title. Players who are returning after a long absence are heartily encouraged to play through the game's intro mission, given how much has changed. If you'd like to know more before you play, or just have a fetish for external manuals, check out our Learning The Game section on the A Valley Without Wind Wiki.
There's still so much to come for AVWW, both prior to 1.0 and after! Our head designer Chris Park states his vision for the game going forward on his devblog:
"Our plan is to take the AI War route, and release tons of free DLC as well to do at least a couple of paid expansions. Hopefully in 2-3 years, we're still developing both AI War and AVWW -- that is the ideal scenario for me personally.”
About A Valley Without Wind
The full beta version of A Valley Without Wind is available now on PC and Mac for pre-order at a substantial discount from the game's official launch price. Customers gain instant access to the latest available build and all subsequent releases through 1.0 and beyond. The game can be purchased and downloaded directly through the developer as well as on GamersGate, Impulse, and MacGamesStore. A demo is also available, and grants full access to the game/multiplayer with the only some tier restrictions.
AVWW is currently in beta and as such is constantly in development. It continues to evolve at a rapid pace, with new content and improvements added nearly every weekday as it progresses toward official launch in late March. Follow the game and its updates/discussions on Facebook, Reddit, and Twitter. To get more involved with how AVWW evolves in any and/or all of its aspects, or to find populated multiplayer servers, be sure to stop by our forums.
About Arcen Games
Arcen Games entered the PC indie scene in 2009 with their cult classic AI War: Fleet Command, which was named the 40th best-reviewed PC game of the year by MetaCritic. Their second year was a busy one, seeing the release of The Zenith Remnant, the first full expansion for AI War; Tidalis, an innovative block-based puzzle with casual appeal and hardcore depth; and Children of Neinzul, a micro-expansion for AI War with all profits benefiting the Child's Play charity, of which Arcen is a platinum sponsor.
AI War's third and largest expansion Light of the Spire marked Arcen's first release of 2011, and now the company has shifted its focus and excitement to the development of A Valley Without Wind. Originally a one-man shop, Arcen Games has grown to have half a dozen part-time or fulltime contributors to its various titles. For all the latest news, media coverage, and some of our other musings, follow us on our developer and individual game pages on Facebook or on Twitter: @ArcenGames.
With the game's community heavily involved in the beta so far, the game has seen an astronomical number of changes and improvements added by our relentless programmers. Thankfully after a whirlwind of patching, the game's dust has settled, and we welcome everyone to take a look around at what the world of Environ has evolved into.
The mechanics have been streamlined, a fully fleshed-out player experience is now in place, and tons of new content has been packed in -- including a variety of new missions, spells, armor enchants, guardian powers, and more. Multiplayer has also come a long way, and players are having a blast running their own beta servers. There are a few multiplayer remaining bugs to iron out prior to 1.0, plus the need for a server browser, but it's already a satisfying experience.
Beyond all that, the game has become much more accessible to new players. A planning menu complete with handy 'supplies', 'things to do', and 'where to find stuff' sections; opt out popup tooltips; and other improvements to usability and clarity result in a newfound flow to the title. Players who are returning after a long absence are heartily encouraged to play through the game's intro mission, given how much has changed. If you'd like to know more before you play, or just have a fetish for external manuals, check out our Learning The Game section on the A Valley Without Wind Wiki.
There's still so much to come for AVWW, both prior to 1.0 and after! Our head designer Chris Park states his vision for the game going forward on his devblog:
"Our plan is to take the AI War route, and release tons of free DLC as well to do at least a couple of paid expansions. Hopefully in 2-3 years, we're still developing both AI War and AVWW -- that is the ideal scenario for me personally.”
About A Valley Without Wind
The full beta version of A Valley Without Wind is available now on PC and Mac for pre-order at a substantial discount from the game's official launch price. Customers gain instant access to the latest available build and all subsequent releases through 1.0 and beyond. The game can be purchased and downloaded directly through the developer as well as on GamersGate, Impulse, and MacGamesStore. A demo is also available, and grants full access to the game/multiplayer with the only some tier restrictions.
AVWW is currently in beta and as such is constantly in development. It continues to evolve at a rapid pace, with new content and improvements added nearly every weekday as it progresses toward official launch in late March. Follow the game and its updates/discussions on Facebook, Reddit, and Twitter. To get more involved with how AVWW evolves in any and/or all of its aspects, or to find populated multiplayer servers, be sure to stop by our forums.
About Arcen Games
Arcen Games entered the PC indie scene in 2009 with their cult classic AI War: Fleet Command, which was named the 40th best-reviewed PC game of the year by MetaCritic. Their second year was a busy one, seeing the release of The Zenith Remnant, the first full expansion for AI War; Tidalis, an innovative block-based puzzle with casual appeal and hardcore depth; and Children of Neinzul, a micro-expansion for AI War with all profits benefiting the Child's Play charity, of which Arcen is a platinum sponsor.
AI War's third and largest expansion Light of the Spire marked Arcen's first release of 2011, and now the company has shifted its focus and excitement to the development of A Valley Without Wind. Originally a one-man shop, Arcen Games has grown to have half a dozen part-time or fulltime contributors to its various titles. For all the latest news, media coverage, and some of our other musings, follow us on our developer and individual game pages on Facebook or on Twitter: @ArcenGames.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
A Valley Without Wind, Vol. 1 soundtrack on sale!
After a long year, the first soundtrack to our game "A Valley Without Wind, Vol. 1" is now on sale!
It's available through iTunes (search for "A Valley Without Wind" in the iTunes store).
It's also available for purchase at Band Camp: http://arcenmusic.bandcamp.com/
Or you can purchase it on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/
These are remastered high quality versions of the in-game tracks. Thank you all for your continued support, it means so much to us!
It's available through iTunes (search for "A Valley Without Wind" in the iTunes store).
It's also available for purchase at Band Camp: http://arcenmusic.bandcamp.com/
Or you can purchase it on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/
These are remastered high quality versions of the in-game tracks. Thank you all for your continued support, it means so much to us!
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Arcen Games Quoted in Game Developer Magazine
Chris is quoted in the opening of Soren Johnson's excellent game design article "Design success means knowing what to do with feedback." Johnson goes in depth on how taking in feedback properly from a development team, testers, and/or player community is critical toward reaching success in a game's design -- specifically touching on how important it is to develop the ability to pick out what feedback will and won't work for your design.
The piece was originally published in Game Developer Magazine and can be currently viewed online via Gamasutra.
Monday, December 26, 2011
Happy Holidays From Arcen Games!
I'm a bit late on posting this, but I just wanted to say thanks to all of our supporters who made this year our most successful yet as an indie developer. We're all hugely grateful, and hope that you have a happy, restful holiday season with your family. And that you have plenty of time to play some games, too, be they ours or otherwise. :)
To that end on our own side, every year between Christmas and New Years we're "closed." We still check the emails and forums, but we're slower to do so, and we're not doing any active development during that week-long period. This really helps us recharge to come into January with a bang.
Business will resume as normal for us on January 2nd. In the meantime, thanks again and happy holidays!
To that end on our own side, every year between Christmas and New Years we're "closed." We still check the emails and forums, but we're slower to do so, and we're not doing any active development during that week-long period. This really helps us recharge to come into January with a bang.
Business will resume as normal for us on January 2nd. In the meantime, thanks again and happy holidays!
Friday, December 23, 2011
AI War: Children of Neinzul donations to Child's Play reach $30,741.89
As of December 23rd, 2011, we have so far raised and donated $30,741.89 for Child's Play! That's $2,962.77 since our September update, all of which has already gone directly to the charity.
That closes out the year with $20,212.18 having been raised and donated in 2011 -- smashing our 2010 numbers, and well more than doubling our original goal of $14,000.00, which we could not be more pleased about.
And sales of Children of Neinzul are still going strong, so there's a chance we might be able to hit triple our goal by the time 2012 is over. We'll keep everyone posted on how the donations are doing. Once again, we're ecstatic to continue our on-going contributions!
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.
And sales of Children of Neinzul are still going strong, so there's a chance we might be able to hit triple our goal by the time 2012 is over. We'll keep everyone posted on how the donations are doing. Once again, we're ecstatic to continue our on-going contributions!
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.
Friday, November 18, 2011
AVWW: MineCon Giveaways, New Starting Guide, And Beta Trailer #2
Arcen Games is downright ecstatic to share the latest information regarding their procedurally-generated sidescrolling action adventure title of infinite proportions, A Valley Without Wind.
AVWW's beta will be on display at MineCon this weekend (Nov. 18-19), and to celebrate we'll be raffling off over 100 prizes Friday and Saturday during floor hours including copies of the game, along with our other titles. For those in attendance, all you have to do is stop by our booth in the indie kiosk area of the convention hall and sign-up to be included in every raffle drawing all weekend.
For those not in attendance, you have not been forgotten! Stop by A Valley Without Wind's Facebook, Reddit, and/or Twitter throughout the event for several chances to win a copy of one of our titles.*
To mark the special occasion further, we have an updated AVWW Getting Started Guide, along with a brand spanking new beta trailer for all to view (at its best in 1080p.)
The full version of A Valley Without Wind is available for pre-order at 50% off the launch price during early beta, with customers gaining instant access to the latest available build and all subsequent releases. The game can be purchased and downloaded directly through the developer as well as GamersGate, Impulse, and MacGamesStore.
The game is currently in beta and as such is still very much in development. It continues to evolve at a rapid pace, with new content and improvements added nearly every weekday as it progresses toward official launch in 2012.
About Arcen Games
Arcen Games entered the PC indie scene in 2009 with their cult classic AI War: Fleet Command, which was named the 40th best-reviewed PC game of the year by MetaCritic. Their second year was a busy one, seeing the release of The Zenith Remnant, the first full expansion for AI War; Tidalis, an innovative block-based puzzle with casual appeal and hardcore depth; and Children of Neinzul, a micro-expansion for AI War with all profits benefiting the Child's Play charity, of which Arcen is a platinum sponsor.
AI War's third and largest expansion Light of the Spire marked Arcen's first release of 2011, and now the company has shifted its focus and excitement to the development of A Valley Without Wind. Originally a one-man shop, Arcen Games has grown to have half a dozen part-time or fulltime contributors to its various titles. For all the latest news, media coverage, and some of our other musings, follow us on our developer and individual game pages on Facebook or on Twitter: @ArcenGames.
*Limit 1 prize per person during the event for both onsite and online contests. Name and valid email required to receive prize.
AVWW's beta will be on display at MineCon this weekend (Nov. 18-19), and to celebrate we'll be raffling off over 100 prizes Friday and Saturday during floor hours including copies of the game, along with our other titles. For those in attendance, all you have to do is stop by our booth in the indie kiosk area of the convention hall and sign-up to be included in every raffle drawing all weekend.
For those not in attendance, you have not been forgotten! Stop by A Valley Without Wind's Facebook, Reddit, and/or Twitter throughout the event for several chances to win a copy of one of our titles.*
To mark the special occasion further, we have an updated AVWW Getting Started Guide, along with a brand spanking new beta trailer for all to view (at its best in 1080p.)
The full version of A Valley Without Wind is available for pre-order at 50% off the launch price during early beta, with customers gaining instant access to the latest available build and all subsequent releases. The game can be purchased and downloaded directly through the developer as well as GamersGate, Impulse, and MacGamesStore.
The game is currently in beta and as such is still very much in development. It continues to evolve at a rapid pace, with new content and improvements added nearly every weekday as it progresses toward official launch in 2012.
About Arcen Games
Arcen Games entered the PC indie scene in 2009 with their cult classic AI War: Fleet Command, which was named the 40th best-reviewed PC game of the year by MetaCritic. Their second year was a busy one, seeing the release of The Zenith Remnant, the first full expansion for AI War; Tidalis, an innovative block-based puzzle with casual appeal and hardcore depth; and Children of Neinzul, a micro-expansion for AI War with all profits benefiting the Child's Play charity, of which Arcen is a platinum sponsor.
AI War's third and largest expansion Light of the Spire marked Arcen's first release of 2011, and now the company has shifted its focus and excitement to the development of A Valley Without Wind. Originally a one-man shop, Arcen Games has grown to have half a dozen part-time or fulltime contributors to its various titles. For all the latest news, media coverage, and some of our other musings, follow us on our developer and individual game pages on Facebook or on Twitter: @ArcenGames.
*Limit 1 prize per person during the event for both onsite and online contests. Name and valid email required to receive prize.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
AVWW: New Intro Mission, MineCon Exhibiting, And IGF
Arcen Games is excited to pass along new information and details surrounding A Valley Without Wind, the game of infinite procedurally-generated 2D sidescrolling and so much more. The title has reached a sizable milestone, wrapping up series one of the beta patch releases. During the period the game saw 40 individual updates over 43 days, with 640 distinct changes made in all. Check out all the beta series one statistics for a full picture of what's been added since the game's public arrival six weeks back. Special thanks goes out to AVWW's community for all the feedback and help to get us to this point.
The conclusion of the beta's first phase is marked by the release of an all new Intro Mission for the game. The goal of the mission is to give new players a linear way to get acclimated with the game before they ever encounter the world map, take on broader decisions, etc. It offers a more traditional intro for any sort of platformer, with players starting out with no ability to do anything except run and jump, and rapidly gaining new abilities that have to be used immediately. The new addition should allow players to be more comfortable navigating around the world in the side view, become familiar with how buildings, surface areas, and undergrounds all work, and have the confidence to head out onto the world map on their own.
In other news, AVWW has been entered into IGF 2012, along with the upcoming Indie Games Challenge. We're very excited to be competing in both, and wish the best of luck to all those who entered. Also, we're heading to MineCon! We'll be in Las Vegas November 18th and 19th to exhibit at Mojang's event, and are extremely excited to have a chance to share our game with some 4,500 attendees. Those who are making the trek are encouraged to stop by for a hands-on session, enter our game giveaways, and participate in some other fun stuff we're still currently cooking up.
The full version of A Valley Without Wind is available for pre-order at 50% off the launch price during early beta, with customers gaining instant access to the latest available build and all subsequent releases. An updated demo--complete with the aforementioned intro mission--is out now for download, and a huge batch of screenshots showing off what's new have been released as well.
AVWW is currently in beta and as such is still very much in development. The game continues to evolve, with new content and improvements added nearly every weekday as it progresses toward official launch in 2012. Follow the game and its updates/discussions on Facebook, Reddit, and Twitter.
About Arcen Games
Arcen Games entered the PC indie scene in 2009 with their cult classic AI War: Fleet Command, which was named the 40th best-reviewed PC game of the year by MetaCritic. Their second year was a busy one, seeing the release of The Zenith Remnant, the first full expansion for AI War; Tidalis, an innovative block-based puzzle with casual appeal and hardcore depth; and Children of Neinzul, a micro-expansion for AI War with all profits benefiting the Child's Play charity, of which Arcen is a platinum sponsor.
AI War's third and largest expansion Light of the Spire marked Arcen's first release of 2011, and now the company has shifted its focus and excitement to the development of A Valley Without Wind. Originally a one-man shop, Arcen Games has grown to have half a dozen part-time or fulltime contributors to its various titles. For all the latest news, media coverage, and some of our other musings, follow us on our developer and individual game pages on Facebook or on Twitter: @ArcenGames.
The conclusion of the beta's first phase is marked by the release of an all new Intro Mission for the game. The goal of the mission is to give new players a linear way to get acclimated with the game before they ever encounter the world map, take on broader decisions, etc. It offers a more traditional intro for any sort of platformer, with players starting out with no ability to do anything except run and jump, and rapidly gaining new abilities that have to be used immediately. The new addition should allow players to be more comfortable navigating around the world in the side view, become familiar with how buildings, surface areas, and undergrounds all work, and have the confidence to head out onto the world map on their own.
In other news, AVWW has been entered into IGF 2012, along with the upcoming Indie Games Challenge. We're very excited to be competing in both, and wish the best of luck to all those who entered. Also, we're heading to MineCon! We'll be in Las Vegas November 18th and 19th to exhibit at Mojang's event, and are extremely excited to have a chance to share our game with some 4,500 attendees. Those who are making the trek are encouraged to stop by for a hands-on session, enter our game giveaways, and participate in some other fun stuff we're still currently cooking up.
The full version of A Valley Without Wind is available for pre-order at 50% off the launch price during early beta, with customers gaining instant access to the latest available build and all subsequent releases. An updated demo--complete with the aforementioned intro mission--is out now for download, and a huge batch of screenshots showing off what's new have been released as well.
AVWW is currently in beta and as such is still very much in development. The game continues to evolve, with new content and improvements added nearly every weekday as it progresses toward official launch in 2012. Follow the game and its updates/discussions on Facebook, Reddit, and Twitter.
About Arcen Games
Arcen Games entered the PC indie scene in 2009 with their cult classic AI War: Fleet Command, which was named the 40th best-reviewed PC game of the year by MetaCritic. Their second year was a busy one, seeing the release of The Zenith Remnant, the first full expansion for AI War; Tidalis, an innovative block-based puzzle with casual appeal and hardcore depth; and Children of Neinzul, a micro-expansion for AI War with all profits benefiting the Child's Play charity, of which Arcen is a platinum sponsor.
AI War's third and largest expansion Light of the Spire marked Arcen's first release of 2011, and now the company has shifted its focus and excitement to the development of A Valley Without Wind. Originally a one-man shop, Arcen Games has grown to have half a dozen part-time or fulltime contributors to its various titles. For all the latest news, media coverage, and some of our other musings, follow us on our developer and individual game pages on Facebook or on Twitter: @ArcenGames.
Monday, October 3, 2011
AVWW Beta: Week One At A Glance
We're not even a week into beta for A Valley Without Wind, and already a whopping 12 patches have been released for the game thanks in great part to all the community feedback. It's been an amazing start!
Beta Updates 5.001-5.012 Released (What A Week!)
We've compiled some interesting stats and notes across those dozen updates. Here's what's been added to the game over the past seven days:
Total Words in Change Logs: 9,121
Total Changes: 176
Our programmers have summed up a few favorites:
* Fixed a bug where the large floating rocks were eating the stockpiled wheat while the other npcs weren't looking.
* Fixed a bug where the settlement npcs were being forced to keep working their assigned buildings even after they were _dead_.
* Responded to complaints that normal monsters dropped no shinys. They now drop shinys. In unrelated news, 90% of monster species are now on the endangered list.
* Discovered a player item duplication racket where they were repeatedly dropping their warp scrolls on the ground to trick the naive guardians into giving them more. Fixed by making guardians give non-droppable warp potions instead. We've been very concerned about subsequent reports of players reverting to college behavior. Apparently it doesn't matter what the stuff's made of, as long as when you drink it you wind up somewhere without knowing how.
* Decreased the cooldown on the double-jump spell because it was too long to use on every jump. Then increased it again when we realized players had taken a novel interpretation of "double": they were simply flying by repeated midair jumps.
* Taught the Giant Skelebot boss how to kick field goals. They always miss, but how the players fly.
* Put in some memory workarounds after psychological analysis confirmed that the garbage collector is prone to look at a lack of heap space and decide "why not just let it happen?".
Early Coverage
The game has received a good amount of attention during this past week from the press. Special thanks to all those who have tried out and written/talked about the game! Here's what some of them are saying:
"I can imagine this game opening up under continued exploration to be one of those all-encompassing experiences that you can’t help sinking an unhealthy tract of time into." - Rock, Paper, Shotgun
"But really, at the heart of what A Valley Without Wind is about, at least for me, is exploration and it does it phenomenally." - DIYGamer
"The thing that struck me first about A Valley Without Wind is that it is absolutely vast. This is a game that you can sink hours and hours into, and still feel as though you’ve only started." - Brutal Gamer
Beta Updates 5.001-5.012 Released (What A Week!)
We've compiled some interesting stats and notes across those dozen updates. Here's what's been added to the game over the past seven days:
Total Words in Change Logs: 9,121
Total Changes: 176
Our programmers have summed up a few favorites:
* Fixed a bug where the large floating rocks were eating the stockpiled wheat while the other npcs weren't looking.
* Fixed a bug where the settlement npcs were being forced to keep working their assigned buildings even after they were _dead_.
* Responded to complaints that normal monsters dropped no shinys. They now drop shinys. In unrelated news, 90% of monster species are now on the endangered list.
* Discovered a player item duplication racket where they were repeatedly dropping their warp scrolls on the ground to trick the naive guardians into giving them more. Fixed by making guardians give non-droppable warp potions instead. We've been very concerned about subsequent reports of players reverting to college behavior. Apparently it doesn't matter what the stuff's made of, as long as when you drink it you wind up somewhere without knowing how.
* Decreased the cooldown on the double-jump spell because it was too long to use on every jump. Then increased it again when we realized players had taken a novel interpretation of "double": they were simply flying by repeated midair jumps.
* Taught the Giant Skelebot boss how to kick field goals. They always miss, but how the players fly.
* Put in some memory workarounds after psychological analysis confirmed that the garbage collector is prone to look at a lack of heap space and decide "why not just let it happen?".
Early Coverage
The game has received a good amount of attention during this past week from the press. Special thanks to all those who have tried out and written/talked about the game! Here's what some of them are saying:
"I can imagine this game opening up under continued exploration to be one of those all-encompassing experiences that you can’t help sinking an unhealthy tract of time into." - Rock, Paper, Shotgun
"But really, at the heart of what A Valley Without Wind is about, at least for me, is exploration and it does it phenomenally." - DIYGamer
"The thing that struck me first about A Valley Without Wind is that it is absolutely vast. This is a game that you can sink hours and hours into, and still feel as though you’ve only started." - Brutal Gamer
Videos
Make sure to check out Quill18's and WelshPixie's excellent introductory LP videos for AVWW. They both do a fantastic job of showing off the game while teaching you the basics as well.
Make sure to check out Quill18's and WelshPixie's excellent introductory LP videos for AVWW. They both do a fantastic job of showing off the game while teaching you the basics as well.
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
A Valley Without Wind Early Beta Coverage
A Valley Without Wind has been out in beta for less than 48 hours, and already there are some great previews and other coverage coming in!
We definitely suggest you check out Quill18's super informative and captivating two-part LP preview of the game, which in lieu of our getting started guide is a great way to discover the basics of the game.
On the games blogs, IndieGames.com has posted the start of their preview with just an hour under their belt. DIYGamer has some extremely nice words on the game as well. More previews to come from these sources as well as many others!
Here's some of the other awesome coverage on the beta release:
Rock, Paper, Shotgun: A Valley Without Wind Demo And Beta Launch
VG247: A Valley Without Wind offers first public beta client – go get ‘em!
VG247: A Valley Without Wind offers first public beta client – go get ‘em!
Thursday, September 1, 2011
AI War: Children of Neinzul donations to Child's Play reach $27,779.12
As of September 1st, 2011, we have so far raised and donated $27,779.12 for Child's Play! That's $7,098.82 since our July update, all of which has already gone directly to the charity.
This means that we're just a hair away from doubling the original goal of $14,000.00 raised for Child's Play, which we could not be more pleased about.
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.
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.
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