GamerBytes

XNA Roundup #25 - Kodu Game Lab

editors@gamerbytes.com (Ryan Langley) — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 16:13:10 +0000

This week on XNA Roundup Nick takes a look at Kodu Game Lab, a product from Microsoft Research Labs. Kodu is a programming environment that allows players to easily create, edit and share games with friends, without learning a written programming language.

Click here to download Kodu Game Lab via XboxIndies.com

Fez Finally Confirmed For Xbox Live Arcade

editors@gamerbytes.com (Ryan Langley) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:26:36 +0000

After over a year of speculation, Polytron have finally revealed that Fez will be coming to the Xbox Live Arcade in early 2010.

Don't know what Fez is? It's the media darling indie game which breaks our brains with perspective. Check out the latest trailer here.

Get Your Qix++ From Taito On XBLA

editors@gamerbytes.com (Ryan Langley) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 07:45:37 +0000

Bubble Bobble, Puzzle Bobble, Arkanoid, and Space Invaders have all made their way to digital release on Xbox Live Arcade and WiiWare in some form or another, but where can Taito go from there? Clearly, the answer was Qix.

Qix++ has appeared on the German USK rating board, as have many of Taito's unannounced titles in the past. This rating defines the platform as Xbox 360, but I would expect this to be coming to WiiWare as well, like every other release.

QIX is a very simple title where you simply need to take over a majority stake of the playfield. If you ever played Jezzball back on Windows 3.1 this game will instantly bring back memories. For everyone else, check out this youtube video to understand the concept a little better.

But what of the "++" addition to the name? Sure it goes along with the "Plus!" naming of the WiiWare titles, but it's more reminiscent of C programming conventions. Could we see a trippy version of Qix in a similar fashion to Jeff Minter's Gridrunner++?

Source: German USK rating board

Round Up: Gamasutra Network Jobs, Week of July 3

editors@gamerbytes.com (Simon Carless) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 06:42:43 +0000

In this round-up, we highlight some of the notable jobs posted in big sister site Gamasutra's industry-leading game jobs section this week, including positions from Blizzard, Microsoft Game Studios and more.

Each position posted by employers will appear on the main Gamasutra job board, and appear in the site's daily and weekly newsletters, reaching our readers directly.

It will also be cross-posted for free across its network of submarket sites, which includes content sites focused on online worlds, cellphone games, 'serious games', independent games and more.

Some of the notable jobs posted in each market area this week include:

Gamasutra.com - Game Industry Jobs

Volition Programmer
"Volition, Inc., a video game development studio in Champaign, IL, is seeking experienced C/C++ programmers to work on games for the Xbox 360 & PS3. Volition is one of THQ’s premier internal game development studios. We are the creators of such franchises as Saints Row, Red Faction, and the Descent/Freespace series."

2K Sports: UI Artist
"At 2K Sports our goal is simple: Make AAA games that are the best in the genre and have fun doing it. 2K Sports is proudly developing the critically acclaimed NHL 2K and MLB 2K series of games. Owned by Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO), 2K Games is a successful, stable company that produces high-quality titles every year."

Harmonix Music Systems: Senior Producer
"Harmonix is seeking an experienced Senior Producer for a large, internally-developed project. We are looking for a creative, flexible, and resourceful project driver who will understand the vision for the game and distill it into a sensible, prioritized schedule, ensuring both title quality and timely delivery."

Microsoft Game Studios: Senior Level Designer
"No Strings or Controllers Attached. Introducing Project Natal, a revolutionary new way to play: no controller required. See a ball? Kick it, hit it, trap it or catch it. If you know how to move your hands, shake your hips or speak you and your friends can jump into the fun -- the only experience needed is life experience."

WorldsInMotion - Online Games

Tencent Boston: Environment Artist
"We are looking for outstanding individuals with passion, talent and a team focused mindset. We are located in the Boston area and offer competitive salaries, superb benefits and profit sharing. This is your chance to get in on the ground floor of a great new development studio, a studio that can produce top tier quality games and bring them to market worldwide."

Blizzard Entertainment: Software Engineer, Tools
"Blizzard Entertainment's corporate applications team is currently looking for an experienced software engineer to join our corporate applications engineering team. This person will design and develop internal applications that aid the company and our players. The ideal candidate is a .NET expert, has successfully delivered robust solutions that can handle high-load situations, and isn't scared of ambiguity or tight deadlines."

To browse hundreds of similar jobs, and for more information on searching, responding to, or posting game industry-relevant jobs to the top source for jobs in the business, please visit Gamasutra's job board now.

EU Nintendo Update - Gradius Rebirth, Bit Boy!!, Pulseman, Ogre Battle

editors@gamerbytes.com (Ryan Langley) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 02:22:52 +0000

Gradius ReBirth

Wii Points: 600
Game Type: Arcade, Shooter
Control Type: Wii Remote, Nunchuk, Classic, or GameCube
Players: 1
Publisher:, Konami

"Blast your way through levels filled with alien spaceships and otherworldly creatures in this retro side-scrolling shooter. Pick your weapons carefully and upgrade them to create a devastating arsenal of space-aged weapons that will aid you in your challenging mission. Players can post their high scores to worldwide leader boards via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection and see where they rank against all the other Gradius ReBirth players. Test your skills with Gradius ReBirth and see if you have what it takes to beat this action-packed arcade shooter."

Bit Boy!!

Wii Points: 600
Game Type: Arcade
Control Type: Wii Remote, Nunchuk, Classic, or GameCube
Players: 1
Publisher: Bplus

"Bit Boy!!, is a totally new kind of game mix in which one-pixel-hero Kubi rushes through the whole history of videogames in order to save his pixel pals. Players accompany Kubi in this totally crazy-pixellated retro journey and battle hordes of nasty monsters in 4-bit dungeons, 8-bit caves, 16-bit strongholds, 32-bit mazes, 64-bit arenas and 128-bit worlds."

Ogre Battle™: The March of the Black Queen™
Original platform: Super Nintendo (Import)
Publisher: Square Enix
Players: 1
Price: 900 Wii Points

"It's up to you to defeat the Empire! It's been nearly a quarter of a century since the Zetegenian Empire first conquered the Kingdoms of Zenobia with a wrath of fear and bloodshed. You are the leader of a band of rebels who have fought to preserve the last shred of honor in this desperate time of treachery. Manage the ranks of a full-blown rebel army, complete with hundreds of characters, magic items, weapons, and mystical Tarot cards. You must succeed in ousting the evil usurpers, as your fate, and that of the entire population, depends on it!"

Pulseman
Original platform: Sega Megadrive (Import)
Publisher: Sega
Players: 1
Price: 900 Wii Points

(via Wikipedia) "In the 21st century, noted scientist and computer engineer Doc Yoshiyama had succeeded in creating the world's most advanced Artificial Intelligence. He called his creation "C-Life" and managed to make her aware, thinking, and feeling. However, he soon found himself in love with this C-Life girl and wanted to be closer to her, so he digitized and uploaded himself into his computer core, where the two "made love" by combining his DNA and her program core. The end result of their love was the birth of a half-human, half C-Life boy named "Pulseman". Pulseman was unique in that he didn't need to remain inside a computer to survive, and had the power to channel electricity through his body, using it both as a weapon and as a means of quick transport through the power of "Volteccer".

"Unfortunately, living in the computer world for so long twisted Doc Yoshiyama's mind, corrupting his brainwaves and his body. Doc Yoshiyama emerged back into the human world, but twisted and changed into the evil Doc Waruyama. Now, Doc Waruyama establishes the Galaxy Gang, spreading a new wave of cyber-terrorism across the world, and Pulseman must fight his own father and put an end to his gang for the sake of the free world."

NA PSN Store Update - Punisher: No Mercy, Bowling DLC

editors@gamerbytes.com (Ryan Langley) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 01:02:38 +0000

Punisher: No Mercy
Punisher: No Mercy (Full Game)

Price: £6.99 / €7.99 / $12.95AUD

"The Punisher comes straight from the Marvel Universe to the PlayStation Network in this exclusive game – Offering frantic, arcade-style shooting action, with a heavy emphasis on multiplayer (supports eight players online), the goal is simple – survive!"

High Velocity Bowling
High Velocity Bowling Ball Pack 6 - 4th of July Americana

Price: $0.99

"It’s time to bowl – High Velocity style! Spice up your bowling game with this cool pack of six custom “4th of July Americana” theme bowling balls."

High Velocity Bowling Ball Pack 7 - Route 66 Americana

Price: $0.99

It’s time to bowl – High Velocity style! Spice up your bowling game with this cool pack of six custom “Route 66 Americana” theme bowling balls."

EU PSN Store Update - Topatoi, Punisher, Numblast, Red Baron Arcade, James Pond 2

editors@gamerbytes.com (Ryan Langley) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 22:52:20 +0000

topatoi: The Great Tree Story
topatoi: The Great Tree Story (Full Game)

Price: £7.99 / €9.99 / Not Available In Australia

"You may have already read the post by Natalia from the Boolat team on the blog yesterday about topatoi - this unique puzzle/platform game allows you to control a gyroscopic vehicle and offers varied and inventive ways to control, and make your way round, the 3D environments."

Punisher: No Mercy
Punisher: No Mercy (Full Game)

Price: £6.99 / €7.99 / $12.95AUD

Price: £3.99 / €4.99 / $8.45AUD

"To play Numblast, move the cursor around the board and swap the positions of numeric cells to create combos of identical numbers aligned in 2×2 squares. These combos trigger explosions and as your skills improve so will the size of your combos."

Red Baron Arcade
Red Baron Arcade

Price: Trial free – unlock key £6.29 / €7.99

"Engage in the ultimate World War I arcade flight-shooter Red Baron Arcade. Grab the flight stick of 20 historic WWI planes and battle countless enemies including huge zeppelins, powerful battleships and authentic WWI aircraft in over 36 varied levels. Fight against intense computer AI in the single player missions or wage war against 7 other aspiring “Aces” online."

PSOne Classics
James Pond 2: Codename Robocod

Price: £3.99 / €4.99

"Join James Pond as he jumps and stretches his way around some truly memorable levels. This is a true platforming classic."

1UP's Game Night Check Out TMNT: Turtles In Time Reshelled

editors@gamerbytes.com (Ryan Langley) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:28:00 +0000

On Tuesday the 1UP.com gang got together for their weekly Game Night, where they do a live stream of an upcoming game. This week was for the Wii title TMNT: Smash Up, but the crew also got a chance to play XBLA's beat'em up TMNT: Turtles In Time Reshelled too.

Check it out in the embedded video above. What do you think of this revitalization of the classic Arcade title?

Source: Gamevideos - TMNT Turtles In Time Reshelled - Game Night

Battlefield 1943 Finally Gets A Date

editors@gamerbytes.com (Ryan Langley) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:48:27 +0000

You've been pining for it for week now, with all the fake release dates constantly being thrown around, but no more! Battlefield 1943 will be out next week - July 8th on Xbox Live Arcade, and July 9th on the PlayStation Network.

The game will sell for 1200 Microsoft Points or $14.99. In the meantime, check out the new trailer embedded above and revisit our chat with the developers here.

Preview: Shatter Remoulds The Breakout Formula

editors@gamerbytes.com (Ryan Langley) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:00:40 +0000

Sidhe's Shatter was on display at E3, though not particularly in a widely acknowledged spot. The developers were unfortunately shoved in a corner of an art exhibit outside of the show, quite far away from the rest of the populace. Thankfully I was able to find them and got a chance to play this remarkable reinvention of the brick breaking game.

Shatter alternates between a vertical Breakout style board and horizontal Pong style board, but what makes it stand out is your gravity beam. During gameplay you can push or pull objects using Sonic waves, which also allows you to alter the path of your ball, pushing it back to destroy even more blocks, or sucking in the point shards.

One of the most interesting mechanics was the use of multi-ball - unlike most Breakout games, you can launch a second or third ball at anytime - but it will remove one of your lives. It's the sort of risk-reward system that has been missing from these kind of games in the past few years.

Shatter is set to come out by the end of the year. In the meantime you can check out new footage of the game over at 1UP.com

New Screens Of Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment

editors@gamerbytes.com (Ryan Langley) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 14:24:05 +0000

At E3 Konami were showing off a new version of Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment, but strangely did not reveal any screenshots of it. Now that's been rectified, with a new selection of captures from the playable E3 arena.

You can check out all the new screens here. As someone who doesn't have any knowledge of the Vandal Hearts franchise, I think it both looks good and certainly played well at E3. Turn based strategy is something that has been attempted several times before on Xbox Live Arcade but its never been quite compelling enough - hopefully this is the answer.

Konami have also revealed that Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment will be released for Xbox Live Arcade during August and on the PlayStation Network during September. That puts the game smack-dab in the middle of the XBLA's Summer of Arcade, making it one crazy, crazy August.

Band Of Bugs Gets Avatar Support, Outpost Kaloki Based Expansion

editors@gamerbytes.com (Ryan Langley) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 12:36:10 +0000

NinjaBee have been very quiet since the release of Kingdom Of Keflings last year, but they have finally lifted the veil on a substantial update to one of their classic games - Band Of Bugs is getting Avatar support, and a giant expansion pack.

For the main Band Of Bugs campaign your Avatar will take over for the main character Maal, so you will now see yourself fight in hand-to-hand combat against various bug enemies.

While it seems quite bizarre to plug your Avatar into a bug-based game, if Keflings has taught them anything it's Avatar support will absolutely help your game sales. Band Of Bugs didn't sell as well as other NinjaBee's titles so this addition could bring Band Of Bugs some additional sales.

The new expansion pack actually has little to do with Band Of Bugs, but instead is more about Outpost Kaloki, their first Xbox Live Arcade game. The Tales Of Kaloki expansion will contain a 10-level campaign with characters from both games, and all new skills and strategies.

Both the update and expansion will be available next week, on July 8th. This is nice and all, but where's the Kingdom of Keflings DLC?

XBL Community Watch - Kodu Now Available, Make Your Own Games

editors@gamerbytes.com (Ryan Langley) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 12:12:13 +0000

Kodu, the "visual programming language" made by Microsoft Research specifically for the Xbox Live Community / Indie games, is now available.

For just 400 Microsoft points you can make your own game with its own challenges and then share them over Xbox Live.

Click here to add the trial version of Kodu Game Lab via Xbox web marketplace.

XBLA Update - Worms 2: Armageddon, King Of Fighters '98 UM

editors@gamerbytes.com (Ryan Langley) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 11:09:39 +0000

Worms 2: Armageddon

Developer: Team17 Software Ltd
Publisher: Team17 Software Ltd
Genre: Strategy and Sims
Price: 800 Microsoft Points
Availability: All Xbox LIVE regions
File Size: 176 MB

Click here for the official Xbox.com splash page.

Click here to add the game to your queue via Xbox web marketplace.

The King of Fighters '98 Ultimate Match

Developer: SNK PLAYMORE CORPORATION
Publisher: SNK PLAYMORE CORPORATION
Genre: Action
Price: 800 Microsoft Points
Availability: All Xbox LIVE regions
File Size: 197 MB

Click here for the official Xbox.com splash page.

Click here to add the game to your queue via Xbox web marketplace.

First Screenshot Of Quake Arena Arcade, Reveals New Levels [Updated]

editors@gamerbytes.com (Ryan Langley) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 00:35:00 +0000

[Update: The developers have told me that all levels outside of Arena gate are actually new, not just Cliffside]

It's been nearly two years since Quake Arena Arcade was announced at QuakeCon, and since then we've not heard a peep out of either Pi studios - until now.

Through the official QuakeXBLA twitter Pi Studios have revealed the first screenshot... of a level select menu. While not amazing itself it does reveal one thing - Quake Arena Arcade will include new levels, as seen by the inclusion of "Cliffside".

Pi Studios' website has also been updated with a few new tidbits - the game will allow up to 16 players to battle it out at once, the original 40 maps from Arena and Team Arena, and all the bells and whistles that come with Xbox Live Arcade games.

We expect that we'll see more about Quake Arena Arcade at this August during QuakeCon, so keep a lookout until then.