Here's a new album from Dj CUTMAN and Sammus, a collection of Metroid beats, remastered from Sammus' critically acclaimed ANOTHER M which released back in June. The album is now available as name-your-price on Bandcamp.

http://music.djcutman.com/album/nerdcore-instrumentals-2
 

Submitted by: E. Thomas

Mobile title available in Europe now for Android and iOS devices

Karlsruhe, 21.08.2014 – Gameforge Mobile and Japanese Publisher DeNA Co., Ltd. are jointly announcing the release of multiplayer physics artillery game King of Castles. Gameforge will be responsible for marketing within Europe and South America, whilst DeNA Co., Ltd. publish the game in Japan and North America. King of Castles was developed by the Core X Group and financed by Altaris Games Portfolio 2. The title is already available for iOS and Android in European and South American stores; the Japanese and North American release will follow in October. A version for Windows Phone is currently in the works.

The iOS version can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/ocfantp; Android users can follow this link: http://tinyurl.com/ouvdltm.

Mobile Castle Builder
The free-to-play title allows players to build castles which must be defended from virtual or human opponents. A wide arsenal of upgradeable weapons is at hand for reducing enemy castles to mounds of rubble. The high-speed battles in PvP mode require the player to make the most of cunning defensive strategies, precision aiming and to upgrade their weapons intelligently. King of Castles is designed for quick and easy gameplay in which competition with friends and family can take place in both real-time and turn-based modes. In addition to the construction phases and exciting castle battles, high score lists provide extra motivation for aspiring castle lords.

“King of Castles is a very entertaining physics artillery game with an addictive multiplayer mode. Our collaboration with DeNA Co., Ltd. puts us together with a publishing partner with lots of expertise in mobile games,” enthuses Andre Potgeter, CEO Gameforge Mobile GmbH. “So there’s nothing standing in the way of a successful product launch.”

Yasufumi Urata in Japan, Vice President of co-developers DeNA Co., Ltd., shows similar confidence: “King of Castles is an enchanting mobile game featuring an intuitive interface and innovative game design. DeNA Co., Ltd. is confident that a large number of Japanese gamers will enjoy playing King of Castles on their smartphones.”

Overview of features in King of Castles:

·       Multiplayer physics artillery game for smartphones and tablets

·       Free download

·       Real-time and turn-based battles between players

·       Quick and accessible gameplay

·       High score tables

·       Enormous arsenal of weapons

About Gameforge
With a portfolio of over 20 titles and over 450 million registered players, Gameforge is one of the leading providers of Massively Multiplayer Online games (MMOs) in the western hemisphere. Based in Karlsruhe, the internationally active group of companies offer their games in more than 75 countries. Their portfolio contains client-based games such as the award-winning AION, TERA: Rising, Metin2 (Europe's most successful MMO), HEX: Shards of Fate, Orcs Must Die! Unchained, Sigils: Battle for Raios, Runes of Magic, Elsword and Wizard101. They also offer browser-based online games such as the popular classics OGame and Ikariam, and a growing selection of mobile games. The company has around 450 employees. You can find more information at http://corporate.gameforge.com/.

About Core X Group
Specialising in entertainment, Core X Group develops mobile games from various offices, including Frankfurt. Aside from King of Castles they are currently developing a strategy game and a Hollywood time-in title. More info at www.likedynamite.com.

Submitted by: E. Thomas

EMP’S NEW EXHIBITION EXPLORES THE PHENOMENON OF INDEPENDENT VIDEO GAMES

Indie Game Revolution Opens November 8

SEATTLE – The most exciting and creative work in contemporary game culture will be featured in EMP Museum’s upcoming exhibition, Indie Game Revolution. Opening November 8, this new exhibit will explore how the independent video game community is pushing past conventional boundaries and in the process expanding the definition and cultural impact of this fast growing medium.

“Independent developers have been releasing games for more than 60 years, but in the last decade the indie game space has exploded. This is primarily due to the proliferation of easy-to-use game making software, plentiful digital distribution outlets, and new avenues of funding, but also from a desire on the part of many game developers to create new and impactful experiences,” says Jacob McMurray, Senior Curator, EMP. “Games can be, and often are, as powerful an experience as the best of film, literature, or music. It’s a story that is constantly changing, and this exhibition will detail that evolution as it unfolds.”

Within a dynamic and immersive space, the exhibition will feature stories of more than 40 game developers, designers, coders, composers, critics, and others active in the indie game scene. 20 single and multiplayer playable games, several multimedia installations highlighting major gaming milestones, and additional experiences will also allow visitors to witness the present and future of gaming.

One of the games showcased in the exhibit is GALAK-Z: THE DIMENSIONAL, a sci-fi space shooter created by Seattle-based 17-BIT, an independent video game developer specializing in revitalizing classic genres with cutting-edge gaming experiences. 

“Video games had been falling into the rut of limiting innovation and forcing products to adhere to a few popular genres,” says Raj Joshi, Studio Director, 17-BIT.   “Now you are seeing a renaissance of new and amazing gameplay and sociological experiments that are shaping our understanding of what interactive entertainment could be.  Anyone with a compelling idea can invest their own time to make it a reality and bring it to audiences worldwide.” 

Throughout the gallery, visitors will be able to play games released within the last year as well as several highly anticipated, but currently unreleased titles. Developed in cities across the globe including Tokyo, London, Toronto, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle, the games represent myriad genres, cultures, and vary from casual puzzle games, interactive fiction experiences, and action role-playing games, to platformers, 3D exploration games, and shoot-‘em-ups (shmups). A dozen new titles will be added to the exhibit every two months.      

Featured games include:

Lovers In a Dangerous Spacetime is a colorful cooperative action game that takes place in a neon spaceship where players triumph over evil robots and rescue kidnapped space bunnies.

Tenya Wanya Teens is a coming of age tale about love, hygiene, monsters and overcoming the awkwardness of being a teen. Co-created by Uvula (Keita Takahashi and Asuka Sakai), Venus Patrol, and Wild Rumpus, Tenya Wanya Teens uses a pair of 16 button controllers custom-made for the exhibit.

GALAK-Z: THE DIMENSIONAL is a modern sci-fi action game inspired by 70s and 80s anime like Macross and Robotech. Created by Seattle-based developer 17-BIT, Galak-Z is a colorful 2D shooter where Newtonian physics take center stage.

Never Alone is an atmospheric adventure that draws upon Alaskan indigenous folklore. The player’s character is Nuna, an Iñupiat girl who along with her fox companion embark on a quest throughout the Arctic and beyond. Created by Upper One Games, Never Alone is narrated in the Native Iñupiat tongue with English subtitles.

Quadrilateral Cowboy is a 3D adventure puzzle game set in the 80s in which the player takes on the role of a cyberpunk computer hacker. Created by Blendo Games’ Brendon Chung, the high-tech espionage adventure/hacking simulator allows the player to oversee one or more agents that have missions to infiltrate buildings and steal documents. 

Papers, Please was created by Tokyo-based game developer Lucas Pope. A dystopian document thriller, Papers, Please simulates the mundane, stressful, and life-altering experiences of a border control officer in a fictional Cold War-era Eastern Bloc state, while managing to engender empathy within its complex and uncaring bureaucracy. 

Gone Home is a first person, 3D exploration game that urges the player to examine details of a seemingly normal house to learn about the people who live there. Players can uncover the events of one family’s lives by investigating what they’ve left behind. Developed by Portland, Oregon’s The Fullbright Company, Gone Home takes place in a Pacific Northwest home during the mid-90s Riot Grrrl era.

Submitted by: E. Thomas

First 4 Figures has had a long history with Nintendo, bringing numerous franchises from one of gaming’s biggest companies to life, including Super Mario, Metroid and The Legend of Zelda. Today, we’re excited to bring the news that we’re bringing yet another one of Nintendo’s iconic series to the high-end collectible market in another brand new range of collectibles: Kirby! Kicking off this brand new range is Sword Kirby.

Kirby’s sword persona debuted in the 1993 game Kirby’s Adventure, and has since become one of his most popular of his many, many personas he’s had throughout his history. In our statue, Kirby is swinging his sword upwards in a vertical swipe, leaving a bright streak behind in its wake. This means the statues reaches a height of 16” tall at the tip of the sword. Like many other of our statues, we have an exclusive variant of Sword Kirby, where we’ve been able to illuminate the blue sword streak through use of LED lighting.

We anticipate that Sword Kirby will be ready for release in Q1 2015. The Exclusive edition of Sword Kirby can only be pre-ordered from our website, and is very limited to only 850 pieces worldwide. It costs $239.99, and can be pre-ordered here. The regular edition will be more widely available, but will still be limited to 2000 pieces worldwide. This version has an RRP of $219.99, and be pre-ordered from us here.

For more information about First 4 Figures, or to order any of our products please visit http://www.first4figures.com or contact press@first4figures.com.

Submitted by: E. Thomas

YouTube music producer Dj Jo teams up with record label GameChops to release a dance music tribute to Katamari Damacy.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - August 18th 2014 - GameChops is excited to announce its latest in a series of high-production video game remix albums, Dj Jo's  Katamari Dance With Me. This album has been in the works for over a year, and it is the third GameChops release from the video game remixer who got his start on YouTube.

Katamari Dance With Me features five remixes of memorable tracks from the Katamari Damacy series, including fan favorites Lonely Rolling Star and Cherry Blossom Color Season. The album features polished production and upbeat Japanese vocals from Vocaloid, the Japanese voice synthesizer best known for creating virtual pop star Hatsune Miku. 

As enjoyable as it is weird, Katamari Damacy revolves around the young Prince of the Cosmos, tasked with cleaning up the entire world using only a sticky, rolling ball known as a Katamari. The object of the game, to grow one’s Katamari as large as possible, exploits one of the most basic and rewarding concepts of video games, acquiring items. As the player rolls up small items like thumbtacks and pencils, the Katamari grows, allowing the rolling up of larger items like shoes and telephones. By the end of the adventure, player will be plucking trees and buildings from the Earth, all to fill the sky with stars and appease the great King of the Cosmos.

The Katamari soundtrack is as fun and memorable as the gaming experience, with sparse tongue-in-cheek vocals like “Lonely Rolling Star” and “You Are Smart.”  Katamari Dance With Me builds off the charming music by combining synths, drums, and Vocaloid, the popular Japanese voice synthesizer. DJ Jo, who has amassed over 50,000 subscribers on YouTube, creates a nostalgic, but thoroughly modern take on this classic gaming soundtrack.

The album features five arrangements of the Katamari soundtrack, including:

Lonely Rolling Star
Katamari on the Rocks
Roll Me In
Cherry Blossom Color Season
You Are Smart

Katamari Dance With Me is currently available on Loudr, iTunes, and Google Play. Those who purchase the album on Loudr will be able to download a special remix by Grimecraft at a discount.

Download Katamari Dance With Me on Loudr (  http://loudr.fm/release/katamari-dance-with-me/nhE5x )

About GameChops
GameChops is a record label for video game remixes, founded by Dj CUTMAN. Founded in 2012, the label focuses on production quality and mechanical licensing to make video game music more  to casual listeners.

Learn more about GameChops: http://www.gamechops.com 

Submitted by: E. Thomas