AI War and Zenith Remnant Bundle 50% Off This Weekend At Impulse

If you or someone you know is looking for a great deal on AI War and its expansion... here's your chance! Today is the start of a Weekend Impulse Buys promotion at Stardock's Impulse on the AI War / Zenith Remnant Pack. The promotion runs through April 25th.

Tidalis 0.402 Released, OSX Updater Issues Resolved

The early days of the Tidalis beta have been a bit interesting, as one of the first things we discovered was that our updater would actually kill the OSX version of Tidalis during updates.  It was a Unix permissions thing that we somehow didn't encounter in our prerelease testing.  This took us days to solve in the end (more technical details here and here for those curious), and so there have been fewer gameplay updates than we would normally hope for during that period.

Even so, there have been a number of notable updates since the initial 0.400 launch, including:
* Adjustable keyboard bindings in the settings screen.
* New and updated advanced tutorials based on player feedback.
* Scoring tweaks, HUD improvements, and other bugfixes.
* More objective types and features for the level editor.
* Six new adventure levels, and tweaks to a number of existing adventure levels.
* Revamped trial mode restrictions based on early player feedback (no more overall time limit).

For the full release notes, please see the 0.401 and 0.402 topics. Normally we don't post about minor releases in the main news forum (to keep up with minor releases, see the Tidalis forum), but because of the automatic-update-breaking nature of this particular release we wanted to make sure that people knew about it.

A big thank-you, as always, is due to all of our early supporters and those who have stopped by the forums to report bugs, provide feedback, and so on.  We're really learning a lot from you all, including that the most popular secondary gameplay modes seem not to be what we expected they would be, for instance.  Despite the problems with the first round of patches, the game itself has had surprisingly few issues for being so early in beta, so we're really pleased about that.

Lots more exciting stuff is in the works!  Stay tuned tomorrow and Friday (in the Tidalis forum) for more Tidalis releases that will come out through the normal game-integrated channel.

If you don't yet have Tidalis:
You can download the demo (which alternately turns into the full game with a preordered license key) from the Tidalis download page.

If you already have Tidalis 0.400 or 0.401, full or demo:
You can download the Tidalis 0.402 manual windows patch.
You can download the Tidalis 0.402 manual mac osx patch.

Please note that if you changed the installation folder for Tidalis away from the default, then you'll need to point the manual patch to the custom location you previously chose.  It will simply point to the same default location that the original Tidalis installer was pointing to.

Playing Well With Others

ABSTRACT
Chris Park discusses the motivations behind the Indie Strategy Bundle, and his feelings on indie collaboration in general.

Playing Well With Others

Q&A: PC Indie Game Sales Numbers

ABSTRACT
Chris Park discusses the sales numbers for PC indie games based on his experience, as well as other sources that he has read over the last few years.  Digital sales numbers for AI War as of the time of the article are also discussed.

Q&A: PC Indie Game Sales Numbers

A Quick Guide: How To Recognize An Arcen Title

ABSTRACT
Chris Park discusses the "serious departure" that Tidalis represents from the pattern that some fans were expecting of Arcen based on the sole data point of AI War.  And, in general, discusses why this isn't a departure at all for Arcen, and what the overall roadmap for the future of Arcen looks like, genre-wise.  It's not puzzle games or strategy games, specifically, but something much broader.

A Quick Guide: How To Recognize An Arcen Title

Tidalis Adventure Gameplay Video 1

As you can read all about on the post below, Tidalis is now in beta and available for preorder.  If you'd prefer a video introduction to the mechanics of the game before you download the demo, then this video covers the high points.  Enjoy!


View On Youtube

Tidalis Beta Begins, Now Available For Preorder!

What happens when a notable indie strategy developer makes a puzzle game?  We have no idea.  Our first game happened to be a notable indie strategy game, but we’ve never considered ourselves tied to any particular genre. Truth is, we made Tidalis because we like puzzle games and we wanted to take our opportunity to innovate in that space.

The "streams" mechanic employed by Tidalis is what makes it so unique -- chain reactions with a dozen blocks are trivially easy to create.  This makes the game really easy to get into, but also makes the creation of advanced multi-stage combos more challenging than in other block-based puzzlers.  At an advanced level of play, it’s the difference between Chess and Checkers; with Tidalis in the hands of an expert, there are more variables to keep in mind as you set up truly elegant interactions.

But never fear:  the easier difficulty levels are quite relaxed, and our Zen mode provides a particularly no-rush style of gameplay.  The core mechanics are so simple that the two-year-old daughter of one of our staff enjoys playing along with him.  And we suppose it goes without saying that many of our mothers are hooked on it, too.

Whether you’re just looking for a casual fun time,  a deep and strategic puzzle experience, or a series of brain-bending puzzles, we’ve got you covered.  About half of the five staff members working on this game are the hardcore puzzle types, and the other half have completely casual tastes.  We’ve approached this with our usual attention to detail: the mechanics of the timing, chain merging, and other mechanics have been refined to a ridiculous degree to provide an optimal experience in all play styles.

THE CURRENT VERSIONS ARE STILL BETA!  Sorry for the caps there, but it’s that important. This game is not nearly complete, content-wise.  We have so many more levels, puzzles, game modes, and so forth to implement -- not to mention network play.   But the core gameplay, and the first 30% or so of the content, has been polished to the point where we’re excited to finally be able to share it with folks.  We hope you enjoy playing it as much as we’re enjoying making it!

What Do I Need To Know?
If you're potentially interested in the game, and potentially being part of the beta, you'll want to first take a look at our newly expanded Tidalis section of the website.  That first page has information on the beta, including what is currently available in the initial release, and what our upcoming roadmap is for hitting final release in a couple of months.

If you want to try before you buy (which we always strongly recommend), you'll particularly be interested in the Tidalis download page.  Both the Windows and Mac OSX versions of the game are now available.  If anyone is interested in trying to run one or the other of those on Linux, we'd be curious to hear how it works -- we're also still looking for feedback on what the minimum system requirements seem to be.  At present the game does great at 60 fps on the lowest-powered hardware we have around (around 1.6 Ghz), so we know it's somewhere south of that, but we don't know precisely where.

If you're looking to create and share puzzles, or to download puzzles from other players, we've set up a Tidalis Custom Puzzles forum.  Actually, there's a whole set of forums for the game here that you should check out if you're wanting to be active in the early Tidalis community.

Please visit the Tidalis tech support forum if you need any tech support.  Unlike AI War, Tidalis does not have any prerequisites, though it helps if your graphics card drivers are functional.

The Beta Begins!
If you were around for the Zenith Remnant beta, this process will be quite familiar.  We'll post updates several times a week (sometimes several times per day), and you can download them at your leisure.  The Tidalis engine includes a built-in patching system that is multiplatform and is even superior to the one currently being used by AI War (AI War's patching system will get an upgrade to this model soon).  For the latest beta update news and release notes, be sure to check or subscribe to the main Tidalis forum.  The first beta update will be out sometime tomorrow, and they will follow regularly from then on.

We at Arcen would like to extend our heartfelt thanks for all your ongoing support.  Even as this post was being typed out, a few preorders have already gone in for the game based on players who were actively waiting for it.  We couldn't do this without our wonderful community, and we're really excited not only to see AI War continue to grow, but to see Arcen grow as a company as we explore the first of what will hopefully be many genres in our portfolio.

Tidalis Teaser Trailer 1, Tidalis Beta Coming April 15th

Tidalis is the second standalone game from indie developer Arcen Games, known originally for their hardcore RTS/4X hybrid, AI War: Fleet Command.  Not wishing to be typecast, and having game and level design backgrounds in a wide variety of genres, Arcen chose pretty much the exact opposite genre for their second game.  The final game will be complete with Arcen staples such as co-op, huge amounts of content, and attention to depth and detail -- Tidalis is extremely easy for casual players to pick up, but it will also keep hardcore puzzle fans entertained for months.  

Also: it's coming to both Windows and Mac OSX!  Beta will begin on April 15th, 2010 for both platforms.  Beta means that people who want to demo the prerelease versions of the game can do so, and customers who preorder will be able to play the whole thing as soon as each new feature and component becomes available.  This should be a pretty familiar arrangement to anyone who was around for the beta phase of The Zenith Remnant -- though instead of soliciting feature suggestions, we'll be interested in fan-created levels and puzzles, some of which may make it into the official game (with permission, and with full credit given, of course).  Full digital release is expected in late June.


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AI War takes Best Overall Game in the 2010 Bytten Ernie Awards

Indie review site Bytten was among the first three sites to review AI War last year.  Today the 2010 iteration of their annual Ernie awards has come out, and (spoiler alert) AI War: Fleet Command received the Best Overall Game award from them.  We're couldn't be more pleased, as they were one of Arcen's earliest supporters, and from the general spread of scores they've historically given out, it actually means something for AI War to have done so well.

Week-Long Steam Sale: AI War and Zenith Remnant 50% Off!

If you or someone you know hasn't yet taken the plunge into AI War or its first expansion, now's a great time to pick it up! Today is the start of a week-long sale at Steam on both AI War: Fleet Command and AI War: The Zenith Remnant.

If you're already an AI War player, and have been away for a while, be sure to check out the latest official version, 3.060 (currently on Steam and all other partner platforms). The amount of updates in that if you haven't played since 3.0 (the first version to support The Zenith Remnant) is pretty tremendous. And if you haven't played since 2.0 (the first version released on Steam and Direct2Drive)... well, you're in for a real treat.

Remember: all of the patches are always free for all customers of AI War (whether you buy any current or future expansions or not), and between our various updates there is a ton of player-requested free DLC content in them. Now's the perfect time to grab up some friends and launch into a new campaign -- or go it solo, if that's your style. AI War is an ever-evolving game, and you'll need all your wits to best this AI!

Indie Game News: Exclusive Screenshots: Tidalis now on Unity3D

Over at Indie Game News, where Arcen's Chris Park is a contributing writer, we've revealed a new screenshot of our upcoming puzzle game Tidalis, along with major news: Arcen is going cross-platform with a move to Unity 3D. It is not yet certain whether or not that will affect AI War down the road, but for the moment AI War is staying with its existing platform. More details in the article.

Announcing... The Indie Strategy Bundle!

Indie developers Arcen Games, Cryptic Comet, and Positech Games have joined forces to bring strategy fans the ultimate bundle: Gratuitous Space Battles + The Tribe Expansion, Solium Infernum, and AI War + The Zenith Remnant Expansion. This weekend only, the three companies are offering this special package for a mere $49.99 (for the math impaired, it would normally be $90).

"It’s a jungle out there for a lone indie dev: tired, hungry, low on ammunition and surrounded on all sides by AAA monsters and flesh eating zombies, and that’s why I want Cliff and Chris on my side," says Vic Davis, founder of Cryptic Comet. "I think all three of us share the desire to prove that the little guys can really create some unique games. It’s our business... and business is good."

"If we were larger companies, and profit-focused, I think we’d view each other as the enemy," says Chris Park, founder of Arcen Games. "But as tiny indies, that’s just not productive -- time has already shown that there are plenty of fans to go around. We're here to make innovative games, not corner markets. There’s a lot more for us to gain by working together instead of by being antagonistic."

"I can't think of three games that go together better, or which appeal to a more distinct group of gamers, than these three,” says Cliff Harris, founder of Positech Games. “The reason for this bundle is clear. We are like the Judean People’s Front from Monty Python. We need to unite against the common enemy, and that enemy is obscurity, not each other."

Each game in the bundle is a fan favorite, having carved out a unique niche in the strategy genre. Inspired by Milton’s Paradise Lost, Solium Infernum is a turn-based strategy game that pits you against other players as you use diplomacy, deceit and force to claim the Infernal Thrones of Hell. Gratuitous Space Battles turns real time strategy on its head, making the deployment phase of battle into the game itself. AI War is built around a completely unique AI concept, with gameplay best described as grand strategic 4X tower defense RTS (say that five times fast).

Suffice it to say that none of these concepts would have seen the light of day at larger companies, but each expands the genre in novel ways that will likely influence more mainstream strategy titles to come. But most of all, if you’re into strategy these games are fun (and they scratch that special itch in the brains of grognards). The Indie Strategy Bundle is designed to help strategy fans support the originals, while giving themselves a treat if they haven’t yet played these genre-bending gems!

This bundle will be available from March 4th until March 9th, 2010 at IndieStrategyGames.com

AI War 3.060 Released!

Since January, Arcen’s focus has shifted from large-scale development of AI War to our other upcoming titles -- with AI War, our intent had been to simply maintain and refine the existing game, while adding a handful of exciting new features every month as free DLC.  As you may imagine, therefore, we were quite surprised to realize that this new version, 3.060, is the largest monthly update we’ve ever done.

There aren’t many huge single features here aside from the new Riot Control Starships (which introduce modular ship design to the game).  However, the number of small refinements are just staggering (the release notes are over 10,000 words), and we’ve made a number of significant performance improvements, too.

Here’s the list of particularly notable features out of the hundreds of changes:
- Simple Formation movement, as well as arc-movement.
- New, modular, riot control starships.
- Many various performance improvements.
- Manufactories now auto-manage themselves by default.
- Transports are now extremely more useful.
- Astro Trains are now much less fearsome.
- Cleanup drones can now remove mines (even perma-mines).
- Gate-raiding is now cheaper in terms of AI Progress.
- Hit chance logic is slightly simplified to avoid player confusion.
- New screenshot key (F12).
- Control nodes and rally points now knowledge-free.
- Option for historical autosaves.
- Dozens and dozens of balance tweaks.
- Other various bugfixes and small changes.
A big part of the reason for the impressiveness of this update is Keith LaMothe, Arcen’s new part-time programmer, who joined the team in January.  Keith is tasked with keeping AI War growing and improving while Chris Park, AI War’s lead designer and (previously sole) programmer is working on Arcen’s other upcoming titles.  Of course, Chris still plays AI War several hours per week and so can’t help but make some weekly changes to the game himself, and is still very much involved in Arcen’s ever-growing forum community, and overall design of AI War.

Arcen is quite pleased to see that AI War’s playerbase continues to grow so steadily ten months after the base game’s initial release -- we’ve seen a 300% increase in total customers since AI War 2.0 -- and in turn we’re making the continual refinement and feature-growth of the game an ongoing priority beyond the smaller monthly DLC releases that had been planned.  A second paid expansion for the game is also still planned for late this year.

Next month’s free DLC will include more player-requested changes, as well as our first work on new endgame scenarios and auto-created epilogues, both of which should really take the late stages of the game to new heights.

New to the game?  You can download a trial version of the game, or purchase a license key to unlock the full version.  If you already have the game or demo installed, just use the “Updates” button inside the game to get the latest patch.  For complete release notes, please see the “Updates” button inside the game, or visit the Arcen forums.

Files:
- The official installer can be found via one of our mirrors.
- The raw full files of 3.060 in a zip can be found here: http://www.arcengames.com/share/AIWar3060Full.zip
- The manual patch of 3.0 to 3.060 can be downloaded from here: http://www.arcengames.com/share/AIWar3060Patch.zip

 

Full release notes

Fanboyism And The Cycle Of Perceived Inferiority

ABSTRACT
Chris Park takes a look at "fanboyism" and the ways in which people tend to incorrectly view "fame."  His contention is that people, as a whole, tend to think that others are more famous than they really are, and that this sort of belief can cause a variety of problems all around.

Fanboyism And The Cycle Of Perceived Inferiority

Choosing A Network Library in C#

ABSTRACT
Chris Park recounts his experiences with setting up networking in AI War, and how and why a solution like the Lidgren Network Library became the obvious choice past a certain point.

Choosing A Network Library in C#