Work on The Zenith Remnant is finally coming to a close, and the game will be officially released tomorrow --
it extends the base game even more than we had planned when we set out to create it. Thanks so much
to all of the AI War players whose suggestions really helped take things to the next level! For the first
preview of the new music that is in the expansion, check out the trailer:
View On Youtube
Monday, January 11, 2010
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Holiday Roundup
It's been an incredibly busy time here at Arcen in the last two months,
what with Pablo and Chris coming on fulltime and all the paperwork and
business stuff that entails, the ongoing development of The Zenith
Remnant, our further pre-development of art and design for our next two
titles (the first two previews for both of those will be out today), and
our ongoing work with publicity, new upcoming digital partners, and our
upcoming retail deals. Actually, this has been about as busy as time
as we've ever had. So, more than a few things have fallen through the
cracks on the announcements front, so our apologies for that. Here's a
catchup post with a variety of stuff:
Recent Press
- Rock, Paper, Shotgun recently featured AI War as their December 18th entry for their "Games of 2009" list.
- Sugar Free Gamer recently selected AI War as the "top indie game that you should play this year."
- A.J. Hess from Diehard GameFAN picks AI War as his #7 game for 2009.
- DIY Gamer gave an honorable mention to AI War was one of the best indie games of 2009.
- Sandy Warnstaff over at Reclaim Your Game recently did a review of AI War: "One of the most methodical, challenging and unrestricted games I have ever played, AI War is the embodiment of nearly everything that can go right in an RTS game with few drawbacks... I've seen some good developer support, but Arcen Games really takes the cake... I hold Arcen Games up as the standard that all developers and publishers should be held to."
Expansion Update
Work on the expansion has been proceeding as we had hoped, and the current prerelease of the game (2.001ZE today) has 117 new ships for the expansion. That's considerably more than we'd been expecting to add (having previously promised "between 80-100" new ships), and there are still about 6 or so more ships that are going to make it into the expansion before our release in the second week of January (which we are presently on schedule for). We also have over 44 minutes of new music so far completed, with more on the way -- it's some really great stuff, and we're holding it until our official release day as something of a surprise. If you liked the soundtrack to the base game, you'll love this one even more.
So, what's not in the expansion yet? Well, the big thing is that there is still a lot of QA work to do, and many of the ships still need balance tweaks or various little fixes to them. There are also still more map styles to be added beyond the two new ones that are already in place, and the new neutral AI is something we're still working with along with the last player-controllable golem. The new expansion-specific achievements also aren't yet in place. And that's about it! This product has come an amazing way since October when we started on it, and honestly I think we're all a bit surprised at just how much we have been able to accomplish in such a short period of time. It's shaping up to be a really notable expansion, to be sure.
December/November Free DLC
One other thing that we've learned in the last couple of months is that it's pretty much impossible to release free DLC while we're actively developing an expansion to a game -- at least when the turnaround on the deadline is so short. Make no mistake, we've been absolutely packing the DLC into the beta patches all through November and December, and those are free to anyone who has the base game. However, we didn't do an official release of any of that DLC in November, and now it's become clear that we can't do one in December, either.
There is simply too much risk of introducing bugs into the official release from the beta work when things are changing constantly; generally we prefer to have a week where no major features are added before we do a release, so that that week can be spent on final QA and bugtesting. With the expansion in full swing, we just have not had an opportunity for that sort of downtime. Hopefully that makes sense -- we've promised monthly free DLC, but our first priority is to make sure that we always give you a quality product, not one riddled with bugs (not that the beta versions are riddled with bugs, but there are a lot of outstanding issues that we'd strongly prefer to resolve before making an official release).
But! Don't worry that you're losing out on anything DLC-wise, in the grand scheme of things. Our next DLC release will be by January 8th at the latest, and it will have 3x as much content as a normal one -- basically, all that queued-up content from the betas in November, December, and early January. There's a lot of cool stuff in that one, so it should be very exciting even for those who aren't ready to move up to the expansion just yet. And, if you want it sooner than later, you can always download the beta DLC at any time you please.
Lastly... Happy Holidays!
It's a great time of year to be a gamer, with games of all sorts having come out in the last month or two, and with lots of discounts all over the place. Look for discounts with all of our distribution partners in the coming weeks. Here at Arcen, we're largely going to be out of the office from December 24th through January 3rd, though Chris we'll be around for critical support issues, and probably some smaller balance/bugfix work on the expansion, along with some last work on the neutral AIs, etc, so that we're sure to be on schedule for our release in January. But, we're going to be around a lot less in general during that timeframe, anyway, so that we can spend time with our families and enjoy the holidays. We hope that you have a chance to do the same! It's been a really great year for us, with the company being founded and then amazingly growing large enough to actually support us fulltime, and we owe great thanks to all our fans for making that possible. In more senses than one, we couldn't have done it without you!
Recent Press
- Rock, Paper, Shotgun recently featured AI War as their December 18th entry for their "Games of 2009" list.
- Sugar Free Gamer recently selected AI War as the "top indie game that you should play this year."
- A.J. Hess from Diehard GameFAN picks AI War as his #7 game for 2009.
- DIY Gamer gave an honorable mention to AI War was one of the best indie games of 2009.
- Sandy Warnstaff over at Reclaim Your Game recently did a review of AI War: "One of the most methodical, challenging and unrestricted games I have ever played, AI War is the embodiment of nearly everything that can go right in an RTS game with few drawbacks... I've seen some good developer support, but Arcen Games really takes the cake... I hold Arcen Games up as the standard that all developers and publishers should be held to."
Expansion Update
Work on the expansion has been proceeding as we had hoped, and the current prerelease of the game (2.001ZE today) has 117 new ships for the expansion. That's considerably more than we'd been expecting to add (having previously promised "between 80-100" new ships), and there are still about 6 or so more ships that are going to make it into the expansion before our release in the second week of January (which we are presently on schedule for). We also have over 44 minutes of new music so far completed, with more on the way -- it's some really great stuff, and we're holding it until our official release day as something of a surprise. If you liked the soundtrack to the base game, you'll love this one even more.
So, what's not in the expansion yet? Well, the big thing is that there is still a lot of QA work to do, and many of the ships still need balance tweaks or various little fixes to them. There are also still more map styles to be added beyond the two new ones that are already in place, and the new neutral AI is something we're still working with along with the last player-controllable golem. The new expansion-specific achievements also aren't yet in place. And that's about it! This product has come an amazing way since October when we started on it, and honestly I think we're all a bit surprised at just how much we have been able to accomplish in such a short period of time. It's shaping up to be a really notable expansion, to be sure.
December/November Free DLC
One other thing that we've learned in the last couple of months is that it's pretty much impossible to release free DLC while we're actively developing an expansion to a game -- at least when the turnaround on the deadline is so short. Make no mistake, we've been absolutely packing the DLC into the beta patches all through November and December, and those are free to anyone who has the base game. However, we didn't do an official release of any of that DLC in November, and now it's become clear that we can't do one in December, either.
There is simply too much risk of introducing bugs into the official release from the beta work when things are changing constantly; generally we prefer to have a week where no major features are added before we do a release, so that that week can be spent on final QA and bugtesting. With the expansion in full swing, we just have not had an opportunity for that sort of downtime. Hopefully that makes sense -- we've promised monthly free DLC, but our first priority is to make sure that we always give you a quality product, not one riddled with bugs (not that the beta versions are riddled with bugs, but there are a lot of outstanding issues that we'd strongly prefer to resolve before making an official release).
But! Don't worry that you're losing out on anything DLC-wise, in the grand scheme of things. Our next DLC release will be by January 8th at the latest, and it will have 3x as much content as a normal one -- basically, all that queued-up content from the betas in November, December, and early January. There's a lot of cool stuff in that one, so it should be very exciting even for those who aren't ready to move up to the expansion just yet. And, if you want it sooner than later, you can always download the beta DLC at any time you please.
Lastly... Happy Holidays!
It's a great time of year to be a gamer, with games of all sorts having come out in the last month or two, and with lots of discounts all over the place. Look for discounts with all of our distribution partners in the coming weeks. Here at Arcen, we're largely going to be out of the office from December 24th through January 3rd, though Chris we'll be around for critical support issues, and probably some smaller balance/bugfix work on the expansion, along with some last work on the neutral AIs, etc, so that we're sure to be on schedule for our release in January. But, we're going to be around a lot less in general during that timeframe, anyway, so that we can spend time with our families and enjoy the holidays. We hope that you have a chance to do the same! It's been a really great year for us, with the company being founded and then amazingly growing large enough to actually support us fulltime, and we owe great thanks to all our fans for making that possible. In more senses than one, we couldn't have done it without you!
Previews Of Upcoming Arcen Titles
Work is still in progress on The Zenith Remnant, AI War's first
expansion (due out in the second week of January), but Arcen is finally
ready to show some previews of their upcoming projects for 2010.
The first preview is a bit brief, but gives you a sneak peek mainly at the art of the very next Arcen title, a currently-untitled puzzle game (formerly called "Feedback"). The basic premise on this one is that it's a new, as yet undisclosed, block-based mechanic that is fun and easy to pick up; miles away from the glut of match-3 clones. Arcen will have a lot more information on this one starting in January and February, and most likely a playable beta in February or March (demo for free, or full thing for people who preorder, same as with The Zenith Remnant).
The second preview is for Arcen's next next game, a tower defense game called A Valley Without Wind. Even if you turn your nose up at the casualness that is generally the tower defense genre, if you're a fan of Arcen titles this is a preview to check out. True to Arcen's growing reputation, this will be a title that doesn't sit neatly in a single genre, and which pushes the boundaries of what that genre is supposed to be (see preview for details). Most likely development for this title will not begin until somewhere between April and June (right after the puzzle game is released), with a release likely in Q4 of 2010.
As is always the case for Arcen, these titles will include co-op as a primary feature right alongside their single-player experience. The puzzle game will also have competitive multiplayer, a first for Arcen. Compared to AI War, both of these games have a more vastly casual veneer to them in terms of art and how accessible they are on the surface, but they'll also both have the same level of hardcore depth that fans of AI War have come to expect. More information to come on these exciting new games starting in January! And, don't forget -- the second expansion for AI War is still planned for late 2010, and free DLC for AI War is going to continue all throughout the year!
The first preview is a bit brief, but gives you a sneak peek mainly at the art of the very next Arcen title, a currently-untitled puzzle game (formerly called "Feedback"). The basic premise on this one is that it's a new, as yet undisclosed, block-based mechanic that is fun and easy to pick up; miles away from the glut of match-3 clones. Arcen will have a lot more information on this one starting in January and February, and most likely a playable beta in February or March (demo for free, or full thing for people who preorder, same as with The Zenith Remnant).
The second preview is for Arcen's next next game, a tower defense game called A Valley Without Wind. Even if you turn your nose up at the casualness that is generally the tower defense genre, if you're a fan of Arcen titles this is a preview to check out. True to Arcen's growing reputation, this will be a title that doesn't sit neatly in a single genre, and which pushes the boundaries of what that genre is supposed to be (see preview for details). Most likely development for this title will not begin until somewhere between April and June (right after the puzzle game is released), with a release likely in Q4 of 2010.
As is always the case for Arcen, these titles will include co-op as a primary feature right alongside their single-player experience. The puzzle game will also have competitive multiplayer, a first for Arcen. Compared to AI War, both of these games have a more vastly casual veneer to them in terms of art and how accessible they are on the surface, but they'll also both have the same level of hardcore depth that fans of AI War have come to expect. More information to come on these exciting new games starting in January! And, don't forget -- the second expansion for AI War is still planned for late 2010, and free DLC for AI War is going to continue all throughout the year!
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Gaming Dead: Chris Park Talks AI War, Indie Strategy and Post-Launch Support
Gaming Dead: "In a recent interview
with Gaming Dead, Arcen Games' Chris Park, developer of the eight
player co-op massive RTS title AI War: Fleet Command elaborated on how
he's implementing a post-launch support model in the form of free
monthly DLC updates in the interest of seeing the game become the
largest strategy title out there."
Read The Interview
Read The Interview
Gaming Nexus: Chris Park Interviewed About Design And Development of AI War
Gaming Nexus recently
conducted an interview with Chris Park about AI War, the Arcen Games
design philosophy, and a lot of interesting questions about the
development/distribution/support of the game itself.
Read The Interview
Read The Interview
Design Mostly Right: Co-Op In New Super Mario Bros. Wii
ABSTRACT
Chris Park discusses his reactions to the co-op in the popular NSMBW game, and responds to the co-op review of the game in Co-Optimus. NSMBW is not without its design flaws as far as co-op goes, but those who write it off too easily are perhaps making a mistake.
Design Mostly Right: Co-Op In New Super Mario Bros. Wii
Chris Park discusses his reactions to the co-op in the popular NSMBW game, and responds to the co-op review of the game in Co-Optimus. NSMBW is not without its design flaws as far as co-op goes, but those who write it off too easily are perhaps making a mistake.
Design Mostly Right: Co-Op In New Super Mario Bros. Wii
Encapsulated Businesses For Indie Development
ABSTRACT
Chris Park discusses his thoughts on the ideal ecosystem for indie games development -- not for using indie games as a means to launch indie developers into AAA development, but rather to keep them secure and producing innovative, commercially-viable games as independent small businesses.
Encapsulated Businesses For Indie Development
Chris Park discusses his thoughts on the ideal ecosystem for indie games development -- not for using indie games as a means to launch indie developers into AAA development, but rather to keep them secure and producing innovative, commercially-viable games as independent small businesses.
Encapsulated Businesses For Indie Development
Monday, November 30, 2009
DarkZero Review of AI War
My views of indie games have forever been altered. When was the last
time you played an indie game that contained the amount of content of
several retail games? If you have ever played and enjoyed Sins of a
Solar Empire but cried because you couldn’t play it on a laptop or that
the scale just wasn’t grand enough for you, then you should pick up AI
War – Fleet Command right now.
- Derek Duncan, DarkZero
- Derek Duncan, DarkZero
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Thanksgiving Special! 25% Off Arcen Titles
In celebration of the Thanksgiving holiday here in the US, we're having
our first multi-product discount sale on our site! Enter code BLLR0018P to get a 25% discount on all games
bought directly from Arcen through 11/30/2009. This means that you can
pick up AI War: Fleet
Command for $14.99 USD, and/or preorder AI War: The
Zenith Remnant for $7.49 USD! If you live outside the US, never
fear, the discount is equivalent in every currency. Note: If you want
to buy both together, simply click the purchase
link on the first page, then go to the second
page and click the purchase link, and both will be in your shopping
cart together.
The Zenith Remnant is the first expansion pack to Arcen's hit space-based "grand strategic 4X tower defense RTS" game, and is currently in beta. The full version of the expansion is expected to be released in the second week of January, but players who who preorder and want early access are free to download the beta from our forums at any time. Players who want to first try a demo of the expansion beta can also download that from the forums. The Zenith Remnant will include around 115 new ships, at least four new map styles, a new neutral AI faction (the Zenith aliens), and lots and lots of gameplay-expanding new mechanics and content.
You can also preorder the expansion at Stardock's Impulse, although people who preorder via Impulse will not have access to the beta until next week -- our fault on that, not Stardock's. Mea culpa! Preorders are also planned with many of our other distribution partners, but those will mostly not kick off until closer to official release on those platforms (so, early January, most likely). We are aiming to have a simultaneous official release of the expansion on all outlets that currently carry AI War.
In the coming month, also keep your eyes out for more information, including screenshots and/or concept art, about Arcen's next two titles. The first is an untitled casual puzzle game with a fresh and fun new mechanic, and the second is a tower defense game called A Valley Without Wind (yes, the tower defense genre is super crowded, but we have our own take on the whole affair that we think you'll find quite different from the glut of others out there -- more info on that within the next month, but it's very exciting!). For those who have been eagerly awaiting our puzzle/adventure/zombie survival game Alden Ridge, please note that that title is now slated for 2011. It's still coming, and we're still excited about it, but that one needs more time in the cooker to really do it justice.
Stay tuned for more information in the coming weeks!
The Zenith Remnant is the first expansion pack to Arcen's hit space-based "grand strategic 4X tower defense RTS" game, and is currently in beta. The full version of the expansion is expected to be released in the second week of January, but players who who preorder and want early access are free to download the beta from our forums at any time. Players who want to first try a demo of the expansion beta can also download that from the forums. The Zenith Remnant will include around 115 new ships, at least four new map styles, a new neutral AI faction (the Zenith aliens), and lots and lots of gameplay-expanding new mechanics and content.
You can also preorder the expansion at Stardock's Impulse, although people who preorder via Impulse will not have access to the beta until next week -- our fault on that, not Stardock's. Mea culpa! Preorders are also planned with many of our other distribution partners, but those will mostly not kick off until closer to official release on those platforms (so, early January, most likely). We are aiming to have a simultaneous official release of the expansion on all outlets that currently carry AI War.
In the coming month, also keep your eyes out for more information, including screenshots and/or concept art, about Arcen's next two titles. The first is an untitled casual puzzle game with a fresh and fun new mechanic, and the second is a tower defense game called A Valley Without Wind (yes, the tower defense genre is super crowded, but we have our own take on the whole affair that we think you'll find quite different from the glut of others out there -- more info on that within the next month, but it's very exciting!). For those who have been eagerly awaiting our puzzle/adventure/zombie survival game Alden Ridge, please note that that title is now slated for 2011. It's still coming, and we're still excited about it, but that one needs more time in the cooker to really do it justice.
Stay tuned for more information in the coming weeks!
Monday, November 16, 2009
AceGamez Review of AI War
[I]f you love realistic, complex and thorough space-based real time
strategies, purchase this game
right now as it is an aspiring space commander's dream.
- Tom Clark, AceGamez
- Tom Clark, AceGamez
Thursday, November 12, 2009
The Claw - Google Wave with Chris Park
The Claw
has recently conducted a massive Google
Wave interview
with Chris Park about AI War, other upcoming Arcen titles, Chris's
design philosphy and
inspirations, and the future for Arcen Games in general.
Read The Interview
Read The Interview
Design Right: Demon's Souls
ABSTRACT
AI War designer/programmer Chris Park takes a look at games other than his own in his new feature "Design Right." The goal of this new feature is not to review games, but rather to look at other game designs and what they do right. First up is the surprisingly popular PS3 game Demon's Souls. DS has gotten almost universal praise from reviewers, has sold well and has been popular with a good number of players, and has drawn criticism and disbelief from a smaller group of players. Chris takes a look at the mechanics to analyze why those people who like it do, since it seems like such an unlikely candidate to be so massively popular on the surface -- brutal difficulty and simple combat do not often a great game make, but there's something special here.
Design Right: Demon's Souls
AI War designer/programmer Chris Park takes a look at games other than his own in his new feature "Design Right." The goal of this new feature is not to review games, but rather to look at other game designs and what they do right. First up is the surprisingly popular PS3 game Demon's Souls. DS has gotten almost universal praise from reviewers, has sold well and has been popular with a good number of players, and has drawn criticism and disbelief from a smaller group of players. Chris takes a look at the mechanics to analyze why those people who like it do, since it seems like such an unlikely candidate to be so massively popular on the surface -- brutal difficulty and simple combat do not often a great game make, but there's something special here.
Design Right: Demon's Souls
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Gaming Nexus Review of AI War
For me, it’s a rare thing indeed for a game to move from total
obscurity to a fixed place on my hard drive in
the course of a handful of days... [AI War] is just brimming with
innovative twists on the 4X-style RTS.
- Tyler Sager, Gaming Nexus
- Tyler Sager, Gaming Nexus
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Three Moves Ahead Episode 37 -- Chris Park and AI War: Fleet Command
Three Moves Ahead is the official podcast of Flash of Steel, and
commonly features really high quality discussion of strategy games for
hardcore gamers, and interviews with industry giants -- Brad Wardell,
Soren Johnson, and others. Episode 37 features Troy Goodfellow and Tom
Chick talking with Chris Park, the lead designer of AI War about the
state of the game, how some of its more unique aspects came about, and
what is planned for the future. There's also a fairly good bit of
discussion of launching a new indie game and how that went for AI War,
in addition to the more design-related discussions.
Listen To the Podcast
Listen To the Podcast
Big Download Review of AI War
AI War is, quite simply, the best experience you could have with
co-op or single-player real-time strategy in this or any year. It
combines grand strategy with emergent AI to form an excellent game
perfect for parties and multiplayer. It is easily worth double the price
that the developer is selling it at, and anyone with any affinity or
taste for strategy games should not miss it. It may be daunting at
first, but an excellent tutorial and amazing gameplay mechanics
alleviate this into a game that almost anyone can - and should - play.
- James Murff, Big Download
- James Murff, Big Download
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