Originally released in 2009 by Amanita Design, a version of Machinarium for Android devices is now available.

The 2D puzzle platformer has won numerous awards including the Excellence in Visual Art award at the Independent Games Festival in 2009 for Machinarium’s hand-drawn graphics. Machinarium also holds an 85 on metacritic.

For $3.99 Machinarium is yours, but only if you own a tablet. The official word on compatibility is as follows:

“Version 1.0 is designed to give the best experience on devices such as tablets with 1024×600 or 1280×800 and higher screens. While the newest phones with larger screens and 1280×720+ resolution are capable of playing the game, some users have found some puzzles more difficult than they were designed to be due to small touch zones. We will look to improve this issue with future updates.”

Check out Machinarium in the Google Play store.

Darkside of the Pixel has turned to the gaming community for help with funding for the development of their game, Hero-Arena. Using IndieGoGo to facilitate the money-raising campaign, Darkside developers hope to raise $10,000 by June 27th.

I recently talked to David R. a developer from Darkside of the Pixel, and talked to him about Hero-Arena and why the game deserves your support.

Visit Hero-Arena on IndieGoGo

Hey David, how long have you been a game developer, and what projects have you worked on in the past?

Hey Tom! I’ve been an indie game developer for a few years, and before that I would work on mods for various games such as the Source and Unreal engines. Some games I’ve had my hand in are Monster Truck Racing Extreme Offroad, PaintBallGame ( coming soon ) and Master Of The Freaks on iOS.

Hero-Arena will be free to play, when it’s released. How do you plan on monetizing the game to ensure long-term development as promised in the pitch video?

Hero-Arena will thrive on basic in-game Freemium content. Things such as purchasing bundles of coins, resurrection potions, and other non game-breaking additions like character styles and new arenas. Also the addition of expansion packs is definitely something important we plan to add at a very minimal cost for lots of new content !

Who else will be working on Hero-Arena with you? How did you meet these other developers?

Hero-Arena is being worked on by a whole slew of talented people. Danick, Vince, Tom, Hannah, Elise, Nic and David. While I developed the initial concept for Hero-Arena I was looking for a programmer to help me get the game going, that’s how I met Danick. Through him I met our Lead Animator, Vince. All the other team members I know in person and are all respected members in their fields of Art, Music, Illustration, and Modelling.

Will Hero-Arena be just for Wizards? Or will Warriors and Archers or other player “classes” find use?

In total for the initial game release we will have 6 playable classes and slowly begin adding more. Hero-Arena will have a wide variety of classes all with their own unique abilities, weapons, and play-styles. The 6 classes you can get from the start are : Guardian, Monk, Magician, Archer, Assassin and Reaper.

You mentioned in the pitch video that with the money you raise from the Indie GoGo funding, you plan on buying a game engine? For readers unfamiliar with the development process, could you explain what this means? Why do you need to buy the game engine?

The game engine which we are using is Unity3d to develop our game. The reason people buy game engines is to avoid a lot of the basic startup coding of a game, a lot of features that also enhance gameplay are pre-built into the engine, making the process simpler with less flaws and allowing the team to focus on creating a better game. The Unity3d basic engine which the game is built on has taken us a long way, but the Pro edition which we plan to purchase will help us develop and expand the graphics, loading, connections and make our multiplayer features come to life!

What sort of realistic long-term goals do you have in mind for Hero-Arena?

From the start of writing the design document until now, we have refined Hero-Arena to have very attainable goals. During our time we’d like to see Hero-Arena rise and expand to various platforms, include new single player and multiplayer game modes, and of course to have a wide variety of new classes and items.

How will Hero-Arena appeal to different types of gamers?

Hero-Arena‘s casual gameplay is built into it’s core design. We make it easy to register, create a new character and directly hop into the single player content within minutes. The games core fighting mechanics have players attacking, using abilities, dodging, countering and blocking against enemy attacks. These mechanics are simple at their core but require a keen eye for pattern recognition and timing to use effectively. The competitive players will have to spend their time not only mastering their classes abilities, but get a good sense of how other players are using their abilities as well !

A single-player mode is mentioned in the video. Will the game be more difficult for one person to play alone? How do you plan on balancing both the multiplayer mode and the single-player mode to ensure a fair experience?

The game difficulty depends on how well you can learn the mechanics and the patterns that enemies utilize. We promise a very small learning curve so that players can quickly learn and adapt to situations in both single and multiplayer. We balance online matches by matching players levels as best as possible so you’ll never face off against someone who is much more powerful then yourself. We plan to tweak and balance the game so that anytime you die, you can learn from it and overcome any obstacle.

On the Indie GoGo page, you promised weekly updates. Where can people interested in keeping up with the project find these updates, and will they be simply posts or weekly development video logs?

During the Indiegogo campaign we will be updating directly on the Indiegogo website and on our own temporary website www.hero-arena.com for your convenience !

Thanks David, any final words you’d like to say to the readers who may be interested in helping out with the funding process?

I’d just like to thank everyone for their interest. If you can’t donate, helping us spread the word about the project is more then enough help. We’re looking to create a fun and free experience for everyone to enjoy so I hope you show your support.

Visit Hero Arena on IndieGoGo and pledge your support, today!

Early last Fall, Edmund McMillen and Florian Himsl  released The Binding of Isaac. The top-down dungeon crawler RPG, with its twisted sense of humor, pleased both critics and fans. Now, a little over seven months later, the development duo have returned with the announcement of an expansion to The Binding of Isaac, entitled Wrath of the Lamb.

Wrath is due out near the end of May.

Bringing over a hundred new items, along with new chapters, enemies, achievements, bosses, room types, item drops, music tracks, and a challenge mode with unlockable “Beserker” character…for $3, you can’t go wrong picking up this one.

I’ve put some time into The Binding of Isaac, and it’s a great game for some brief downtime. Binding offers no save points, so it’s all a one-time play-through each time you boot it up, but that’s fine as it is not exactly the kind of game that you would sit down and play for hours at a time.

An announcement trailer was released for the Wrath of the Lamb, which you can watch here, but because it is just a hype trailer, I’ve included a gameplay trailer for the original game, below, so readers new to the title can get an idea how the game works.

Also, there is a demo version of The Binding of Isaac available to play for free on NewGrounds: Play the demo.

Hey Jeremy, thanks for doing this interview with us. Many people would say that 3079 looks a lot like Minecraft. What are some of the major differences between 3079 and Minecraft?
3079 does look like Minecraft at first glance, I agree. However, if you look a little closer, there are some visual differences. The terrain isn’t completely blocky — slopes are generated to give it a more refined look. The same goes for the characters, who are a bit more rounded and filled in with higher resolution textures.
Gameplay in 3079 is completely different. 3079 isn’t about mining or crafting, but instead, action and war. In 3079, you equip your character with randomly generated weapons and utilities in a futuristic setting and go blasting. If guns-a-blazing isn’t your style, you can sneak around and back-stab with strong melee weapons. There is much more to see, like mini-ships and with quests.

3079 has a storyline, too, right?
3079 does have a storyline, and you can actually “beat” 3079. There are a few factions in the game, the Neanders, Humoids, and Demons. There are also large Capital Ships that are trying to stop the war by destroying everything they can find. It is your job to try and find out why the Neaders and Humoids can’t stop fighting, and hopefully restore peace…

With that being said, does 3079 and Minecraft share any similarities?
3079 and Minecraft share looks, and that is about it. I went with the mostly “blocky” terrain because it is flexible and easy to work with, not because “Minecraft did it.” There is some building and mining in 3079, but it is an option, and not a primary feature.

What made you decide to use the jMonkeyEngine in the development of 3079?
I’m glad you brought up jMonkeyEngine, because they deserve publicity. First and foremost, I wanted cross-platform compatibility, and no other development environment does it easier than Java. Not only was jMonkeyEngine completely built on Java (and free), but it is full of cool features to make 3D development much smoother. Performance is pretty good too

For the readers interested in the game development process, what were the pros and cons of working with the jMonkeyEngine?
Along with many of the “pros” above: it is done in Java, it’s relatively easy to use, comes with great tutorials, it’s free, and has a great community. The only “con” I can think of it is currently in beta. However, it is very stable and as you can see, production-quality games can be made with it now.

In the trailer for 3079 we see that there are “thousands” of items available in-game. What are some of your favorite items in the game?
I’m a fan of the sniper rifles because I like to sneak around and take out enemies from a distance. The radar & grappling hook are invaluable utilities too

Is the Multiplayer in 3079 cooperative? or deathmatch-based?
Multiplayer is open-ended. You can kill each other if you like, or work together to kill some baddies and get some loot. Some players have built bases together for operations & sniping.

What does the future hold for 3079? More content? Maybe even 3089?
I would like to get to a few more features for 3079, like energy shields and maybe some kind of big rare event, like asteroid strikes! Maybe some day 3089 will come out… but I’ve got another exciting game I’m starting to work on

Thanks again to Jeremy.

Follow the latest news on 3079 by visiting his blog.

Pick up a copy of 3079 on Desura!

Previously seen as a locked room within the world-hub, the level editor allows anyone who owns Dustforce to create playable levels for themselves and friends and post the results on the Atlas website.

In their blog, Hitbox Team lists a few other tweaks they have made to the game, mostly centering on making the game more accessible to more players. In my review for Dustforce I commented that the game is very punishing, and forces you to be nearly perfect through the levels. Now, according to Hotbox Team, things won’t be so demanding.

Pick up Dustforce on Steam, and design your own level, today!

Through Thursday, you can pick up copies of Bastion and Dustforce in the Steam Store for marked down prices.

Bastion has been reduced to $5.99.

Dustforce has been reduced to $4.99.

Earlier this year I reviewed Dustforce, and while I don’t have a review for Bastion, I have played the game and will easily recommend it.

The following interview is with Raymond Teo, developer for Secret Base.

Hey Raymond, thanks for doing this interview with us. Why don’t you tell
the readers a bit about how you got started as a developer?

Thanks for having me. I started making flash advertising games, back when I was in a start-up design firm partnership. It wasn’t our key service, but as a hardcore gamer, it’s the kind of project I enjoy the most. About 2 years later when I left the company, Singapore was also pushing the industry, calling for proposals to fund local developers. I was lucky enough to get in and created my first game. It was a horrible game as I know nothing about game design then, but the fact that I finished the game from beginning to end was an extremely important step.

What is it like being a game developer in Singapore? How is the gaming community there?

The government has been pushing the local game industry since 5-6 years ago. Today, we have AAA studio like Ubisoft, Lucasarts, EA, etc. all 30 minutes away from where I live. It’s amazing and I’d never imagine it 10 years ago. Unfortunately, the indie scene is not as active in comparison. There’s quite a few making Facebook games, and a few indie developers that try to make 1-2 iOS games and give up. It might have to do with the Asian culture’s need for stability, hence individuals here tend to be less adventurous.

With that said, I did see a few promising titles in the work, so hopefully, we get to see them soon.

Independently developed games are catching on in the mobile gaming market,
how do your mobile games do compared to your traditionally distributed
titles, through Steam/Desura?

There’s pros and cons to both. The mobile platform is obviously a lot easier to access, but equally easy to get lost in. There’s plenty of apps, experienced publishers, price wars, and things get outdated really fast with no chance of a comeback. Of course, there’s always the chance you strike it big with the huge userbase, but I’m not sure if you can do that with just a good game alone. With the intense competition, the knowledge of how the business runs, and how to market, becomes much more important.

As for Steam/Desura, the “down side” is that the game usually needs to be much bigger. Afterall, it’s a game meant to be played when you’re well seated in front of your PC, and you’re probably going to sell it for more than $5. If you’re going for Steam, it gets a little more tricky, as you need Valve’s team to actually play and like your game to put it up. They get tons of requests a day and you really need a solid game to make your way in. The upside is that things are a lot easier once you’re past that. You get quite a bit of exposure by default, and you don’t get completely forgotten after you move out of the “top 25″ chart.

Recently your game, Tobe’s Vertical Adventure, was featured as one of the
titles in the Indie Royal Spring Bundle. With nearly 20,000 bundles being
sold, it is safe to call the Spring Bundle a success.
For readers who may have missed out on the bundle, are there any plans to
feature Tobe games in upcoming bundles?

We do get quite a few request for bundles every now and then, so it’s possible. But I do try to hold things back, to be fair to players that support us at full price, too.

The Tobe games seem to be your main franchise, are there any plans to add
to the series in the future?

Well, I imagine Tobe to be my mascot as Mario is to Nintendo. So yes, I hope to make sequels and spin off for the series. It doesn’t mean that I won’t be making something else, I’m not sure at the moment, but I’ll definitely come back to Tobe every now and then.

In the credits of Tobe’s Vertical Adventures, LUT! is listed as the
co-producer of the original version and Soh Yi Heng and Nicholas Sim are
listed as original version programmers. What is this original version that is mentioned?

The original version was really just the Xbox Live Indie version. When we ported to PC, we reworked on quite a bit of stuff, so to be fair, we had a separate list of credits.

As for the extra members in the credits, LUT! was my partner then and co-produced the game at an early stage. Eventually, he went off to work on Explosive Barrel, and I founded Secret Base. He’s actually really famous for the flash game, Straw Hat Samurai and a few others. If you haven’t tried it out, you should.

Another one of your games, BiteJacker, is a parody of indie-game show
Bytejacker, featuring the two hosts of Bytejacker, Anthony Carboni and Jon
Rivera. How did this game come into being? Did the Bytejacker guys come to
you for this game?

I was a big fan of the Bytejacker show then and often play it by the side while I worked on Tobe’s Vertical Adventure. Anthony and Jon have amazing personalities on the show, and it just makes sense to star them in a bizarre zombie game. I came up with a screen mock, sent it to Anthony and Jon, and all hell broke loose.

Finally, just for fun, do you have any favorite indie games you find
yourself playing in your free time?

Not as much these days, but the indie games which I spent the most amount of time on was Spelunky and Super Meat Boy. Too much awesome.

Thanks again, Raymond.
Thanks again for having me

The following video is from Curse‘s Indie Game Cave.
 

From the Skulls of the Shogun website: “With its roots in classic turn-based strategy gaming, Skulls of the Shogun retains depth and adds a smooth, simple interface that makes it accessible and enjoyable even to players new to the genre.”

Expect Skulls of the Shogun to be released later this year, on Windows, Windows phone, and Xbox Live.

After Insane Zombie Carnage was accused of borrowing too much from another indie game, Super Crate Box, Carnage‘s developer, Geex Games, have decided to make Carnage free-to-play via Desura.

Geex Games claims that they now wish for feedback for Carnage, as they now want to “make it evolve.”

Possible ill-intent aside, I think that the games are different enough visually, to be considered fair. Regardless, we now get the game for free. Whether you protest it completely, or try it out, is up to you.

Download via Desura.

Since launching on April 11th, Legend of Grimrock has corralled a league of relatively positive reviews from reviewers and players alike.

Grimrock, a 3-d dungeon crawler from Finnish game developer Almost Human Ltd., a company founded in early 2011 by developers who have collectively worked on games such as Max Payne 2, Alan Wake, and Shattered Horizons, has players battling monsters, avoiding traps and discovering secrets throughout Grimrock‘s labyrinthine layouts.

The story is straightforward; a group of prisoners are pardoned of their crimes, but in order to actually escape to freedom, they must survive the hellish gauntlet that has been constructed within Mount Grimrock. Of course, no one has ever survived through to the end.

One of Grimrock’s post-release reviews is Patrick Hancock’s review from Destructoid: “I have to give Almost Human a lot of credit. The level design, enemy placement, and especially the puzzles are all, by and large, wonderfully crafted.”

However, Hancock did have some issues with the magic system, particularly how Grimrock never explains how to utilize the feature, saying that, “…[magic's] not explained in the game at all. In order to figure out how to use the magic casting system, you’ll have to open up the digital manual that comes with the game,” but he quickly counters this negative remark, “Once you master the system, casting spells mid-fight is incredibly satisfying.”

Another review, from Justin Clouse on The Escapist: “Even if you’re utterly new to this specific type of RPG, there’s a lot of dungeon delving to enjoy in Legend of Grimrock.”

Clouse had a few issues with the enemy artificial intelligence. He explained how he was able to break away from enemy attacks by simple back-peddling down a corridor or around a corner, which left him feeling bad about so easily exploiting the game. But, Clouse back-peddles his A.I. comment by theorizing that this apparent flaw, could just be part of the game, “As you progress through into deeper and more difficult levels, this abusing of the movement becomes all but a requirement as well. With the party’s limited resources, you really can’t afford to risk being struck with a status effect like poisoning.”

Overall, Grimrock stands with a solid above-average score on Metacritic from critics, and a slightly higher score from the player-base.

Visit the official Legend of Grimrock website to buy or read more about the game, or buy the game from Steam or GOG.