'We Happy Few' is One Part Pleasantville, One Part They Live

Compulsion Games has released one of the most intriguing (and terrifying) trailers of PAX East with the announcement of their next major game, We Happy Few. Little is known about the title aside from it taking place in an alternate-history 1960's Dystopia filled with crazed perma-smiling psychopaths, weapon crafting and open-world exploration.

But from the looks of the trailer, the game definitely looks like one part Pleasantville, one part They Live, with a generous amount of Invasion of The Body-snatchers just to round it out. We Happy Few has definitely left a favorable first-impression that could last them until its projected release sometime late next year(?).

And maybe a smidge of The Stepford Wives because, hey why not?

The theme of deceptive geniality of early 1960's Americana is one of the most alluring and well-traveled settings of modern gaming, with titles such as Bioshock, The Bureau: XCOM Declassified and the Fallout series blazing the trail.  We Happy Few appears to be another installment in this recurring aesthetic, a world of tie-dyed bell-bottoms and nightmarish cults of majority pulled straight out of a Shirley Jackson novel. The game is still early in development, but we here at Awesome-Robo HQ are anticipating it all the same!

Worth Checking Out - Strafe

It's sometimes a bit difficult for me to see clearly when I'm flooded with overwhelming nostalgia, but Strafe may have hit perfection with it's Kickstarter trailer. The amount of 90s cheese is amazing and already has me ordering a new fanny pack and a 20-year-old box of Ecto Cooler.

Strafe is a rogue-like with an FPS and resource gathering twist. With procedurally generated levels, players need to make the most out of gathered resources in order to survive the unknown levels. In a world with endless indie rogue-likes, it takes a lot to stand out, but Strafe definitely has the aesthetic to do so.

I'm really digging the art style, which sits somewhere between Doom and a voxel-style game with loads of bloody giblets. The dripping pixels of blood in the above gif really wraps it all up nicely.

The game, which currently has 28 days remaining in it's Kickstarter campaign, is sitting at a healthy $42,000 of it's $185,096 goal, but that doesn't mean it doesn't need your help. For more info and to help fund it's creation, check out the Kickstarter page over here. This game is looking totally radical.

Infinite Fall End The Year Off Right With 'Lost Constellation'

You might remember us writing up Scott Benson's charming indie-adventure Night In The Woods way back in October. With the successfully kick-started project tentatively slated for release some time mid-2015 on PC and PS4, the lovely folks at Infinite Fall decided to tie off the year right by releasing a thematic side-project to wet our appetites for the game's proper release.

Lost Constellation is a Longest Night ghost story. Travel into the frozen woods in a folktale from the world of Night In The Woods.

This is a supplemental game, which is to say it's not a demo or a preview of Night In The Woods. In some ways Lost Constellation is a lot like NITW, but in a lot of ways it's not. It's a tangent, a side-story, a way for us to explore a bit in a more off-the-cuff manner. We hope you love it! 

After playing through a bit, I can definitely say that retains the same whimsical vibe of inventiveness, minimalistic charm, and dead-pan sincerity of its older sibling. More developers should take a page from Infinite Fall in crafting such wonderful one-off titles.

Download the game here, though as a courtesy, I'd recommend tossing a few extra bucks their way to say 'thank you' for such a nice gesture.

No Man's Sky's Latest 'Game Awards' Trailer is a Feast for The Senses

Last Week's The Game Awards ceremony premiered a buffet table of game-play trailers and announcements. Among them was a new trailer for No Man's Sky, the procedurally-generated sci-fi exploration indie-darling that stole so many a gamer's heart at last year's VGX awards. We've already given Hello Games' sci-fi opus props numerous times in the past, but this game just can't help looking better and better as time goes on.

I'm getting a major Roger Dean vibe off of this trailer

Take the clean and charming simplicity of procedural games like Minecraft and Cube World, the pastel-rich saturation of Eskil Steenberg's expermimental MMO Love, and combine it with the fine-aged game-play of Lucas Arts' Tie-Fighter and you've got one of the most visually-provocative titles that's come along in a long while. If someone could have recorded a video of my face while watching this, I'd probably look like David Bowman entering the star-gate in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Gobsmacked.

Best of PAX 2014 - Upsilion Circuit

After a long weekend at PAX followed by a long string of days battling whatever monstrosity decided to overtake my immune system, I've returned to showcase some of the best titles of PAX. Unlike the past few years, I was actually able to play games at PAX (who would have thought?), and I'm happy to say that I couldn't be more excited for the next couple couple of years. To kick things off, I felt it was important to introduce possibly the most intriguing title on the show floor, Upsilion Circuit.

Upon first glance, Upsilion Circuit appears to be a flashy action RPG with a relatively modest combat system, fortunately there's a lot more going on behind the scenes than you would expect. First and foremost,  Upsilion Circuit is an MMO, but not in the same vein as you would expect. Rather than interacting with thousands of players, a maximum of 8 people will be given the opportunity to play at once, while the rest of those logged-in participate as an audience member. The mixture of players and viewers is where the game starts to get pretty damn insane.

Upsilion Circuit takes the idea of death in video games and makes it a very serious consequence, when you die in the game, you die for good. No, you can't jump out and create a new file, your time within the game is up for good, forcing you into the audience while the game gives another player a chance. I wasn't quite sure how being an audience member would be an interesting experience, but as one of developers at Robot Loves Kitty, Alix Stolzer, explained, Upsilion Circuit plays more like a game show than anything else. At this point I absolutely fell in love with the game.

Audience members are asked to take control of the player's experience. By voting on enemy spawns, experience gained and power ups found, Upsilion Circuit creates a constant interaction for those tuning in. In many ways it felt like a logical evolution from the insanely popular Twitch Plays Pokémon, but in a way I many players may not have expected.

Of course, no game show would be complete without a co-host, which is where the incredibly creepy Ronnie Raygun steps into play. With a personality similar to the "digital" host Max Headroom and an appearance similar to Ronald Reagan, Ronnie interacts with viewers like any normal host would while antagonizing players to do better. It's a really awesome experience that I'm excited to see fleshed out.

Uspilion Circuit still has a ways to go with a ton of hurdles to overcome (all of which the developers at Robot Loves Kitty seem to be aware of), but if it pans out I can see Upsilion Circuit making huge waves with those who enjoy that interactive experience that many streamers provide.

Robo Reminder - Play Shovel Knight!

In our darkest hour of unfinished early access titles, half baked gimmick games (I'm looking at you Goat Simulator), every once in a while we get some amazing, polished games like Yacht Clubs' Shovel Knight. Which I'd describe as a finely tuned mixture of Ghosts and Ghoblins, Demon's Souls and Mr. Driller while we're at it.

The game captures that satisfying old school difficulty with an absolutely amazing old school aesthetic that beckons back to NES era visuals and sound (With those extra unlocked sound channels of course). And just like Demon's Souls it uses similar 'drop on death' mechanics, making for some true nail biting moments while you try and recover your dropped gold.

This is probably one of the funnest experiences I've had with an indie game in recent memory, so I'd highly recommend giving this game a spin if you happen to have a 3DS/WiiU or Steam. Go for it.

You play as the eponymous Shovel Knight, a small knight with a huge quest. Shovel Knight has come to this valley with two goals: to defeat the evil Enchantress and save his lost beloved. He wields a Shovel Blade; a multipurpose weapon whose techniques have now been lost to the ages. Always honest and helpful, Shovel Knight is a shining example of the code of Shovelry: Slash Mercilessly and Dig Tirelessly!

"BEACON" - A Sci-fi Roguelike With Body Horror?

(Via)

I've been an avid admirer of indie developer Monothetic ever since they released their first non-commercial mod project Black Snow in 2012. With its hope-crippling atmosphere and Carpenter-esque horror aesthetic, I've been patiently chomping at the bit to see what this young studio has to offer for their first commercial title. It looks I won't have to wait much longer as Beacon, a sci-fi horror Roguelike, is tentatively slated for release later this year. The game sounds like your average top-down action RPG, with one exception...

As in all Roguelikes, when you die in Beacon, you’ll be sent back to the beginning of the game, losing any weaponry and items you might have picked up along the way. However, rather than losing it, the DNA you harvested in that life is sent back to your personal clone bay (one of the few pieces of your ship still functioning), and spliced together with your own for your next life. This adds a level of  permanence to Beacon, as each subsequent life will stack more harvested DNA on top of what you had before, resulting in stat augmentations and (in extreme cases) full-fledged physical mutations. Be warned, however; not every mutation will be a positive thing.

If implemented correctly, this DNA element could result in a slew of compelling gameplay variations. A top-down action game that rewards trial-by-fire tenacity à la Diablo and Hotline Miami, balanced with a permanent trait bonus system that becomes deadly if left unchecked? Sign me up. Check out more of the mock-up concept art after the break!

"The Game That Time Forgot" - A Thirteen Year Journey

Indie filmmaker and game developer Adam Butcher was awesome enough to put together a little retrospective on a title called Tobias and the Dark Sceptres, an indie title that consumed his life for 13 years. In The Game That Time Forgot, Adam Butcher does an in depth analysis of all the mistakes that snowballed a little game project into a mind blowing endeavor.

It's a trap that some fledgling developers fall into, consumed by the metaphorical albatross that prevents one from giving up even though there's no end in sight. Butcher created this video to coincide with the release of his game (Which actually is free to play), and to serve as a warning as to what not to do if you're venturing forth into the seemingly limitless realm of indie game development.

The fun thing is, I've even had the chance to see bigger gaming companies fall into this same trap..Unrealistic scope, overblown budgets, infinite reworks, missed deadlines. Wish I could share some stories from some of my latest stints with you guys.

"Lumino City" - An Incredible Handcrafted Indie Game

Three years in the making, Lumino City is an upcoming game from State Of Play that chose a very unique, and exciting approach to their visual style. Crafting the entire game analog style using paper, cards, miniature lights and motors and then digitizing it, the end result ends up feeling like something Wes Anderson would come up with if he ever took up creating videogames.

The last game that attempted a similar feat mixed a handcrafted environment with the same premise that made Moon compelling- Facepalm games' The Swapper. And let's not forget The Neverhood, for you old school gamers out there.

Sequel to the award-winning game Lume, Lumino City begins where that game left off. Begin by exploring the city, and using your ingenuity piece together all sorts of puzzling mechanisms to help the people who live in its unique world. Discover gardens in the sky, towers marooned high on an immense waterwheel, and houses dug precariously into cliffs. To create the environment, a ten foot high model city was built by hand and by laser cutter, with each motor and light wired up individually, bringing the scenes to luminous life.

E3 2014 - "No Man's Sky" Is An Indie That Puts AAA Games To Shame

Seven employees. Seven employees. After watching this trailer I felt nothing but disbelief at seeing the execution of an impossibly ambitious vision with such a small team. It made me realize that there's no longer a need for hundreds of millions of dollars in budget, AAA level marketing to create a title that blows away traditional scope as we know it.

Out of all the titles shown at E3, No Man's Sky probably had the most impressive visual impact, simply because of how much they accomplished with less. They also managed to execute a concept that many AAA games have failed time and time again to accomplish: The ability to seamlessly take off from a planet into space, mixed with elements of Minecraft and an infinite, procedural universe for players to explore. And all this with fluid looking multiplayer.

No more artificial barriers or boundaries, any place you see is a place you can visit. If the team at Hello Games is able to make the gameplay compelling with the current visual fidelity they've been able to execute thanks to some very smart procedural generation - I get the feeling we'll have a game on our hands that might shake the foundation of the industry in terms of what's possible with smaller teams. With game budgets ballooning into the hundreds of millions this generation, perhaps it's time to reconsider whether celebrity cameos and bloated marketing budgets are necessary to make a better game.

No Man's Sky will be hitting Playstation 4 and PC at an unspecified date in the future, and I'm honestly very hopeful that this title will offer an experience unlike anything we've seen yet out of the indie scene.

E3 2014 - "Valiant Hearts" : Crossed Destinies, Broken Love And A Neverending War

Ubisoft revealed a new trailer for Valiant Hearts, the latest project to be built on the same 2D engine that brought us the likes of Rayman Legends and the stunning Child Of Light recently. Telling the tale of four unsung heroes from World War I, their stories are all linked by a trusty companion dog called Walt. This game feels like it will be heavy on the narrative, but I don't mind as the stories being told are based off of real letters gathered from people on the front between 1914-1918.

The art style looks absolutely amazing as well, emulating a stylized bande desinee look mixed with some subtle, atmospheric lighting effects to truly deliver the emotional impact that a narrative set in such a grim setting is set to drop on us. Look forward to playing this artsy puzzle adventure hybrid when it's released later this month (June 25).

Four unsung heroes will try to rise above the tragedies strewn across Europe and band together with their dog, Walt, in search of their loved ones. In Valiant Hearts, the lives of these characters are inextricably drawn together over the course of the story. Friendship, love, sacrifice and tragedy befall each one as they help each other to retain their humanity against the horrors of war

Hotline Fortress 2 - Wrong Number

Youtube user Nonamesleft was so inspired by the slick Hotline Miami 2 trailer that he set out to recreate it in an unlikely format- Valve's Source Filmmaker. The filmmaking engine is the same one used internally by the Team Fortress and Dota 2 teams to create the stunning cinematics to promote the game, and Nonamesleft seems to be one of the community users who's mastered the usage of the format.

Using a bunch of Team Fortress 2 models, a few custom made chainsaws and some really slick cinematography, Nonames left faithfully translated the top down trailer into the 3D realm with some amazing results. In lesser hands this would have been a cool fan film, but this legitimately looks like a professional effort for a Valve game I'd love to see. In the meanwhile I'll stick to anticipating Hotline Miami 2, which should be released sometime later this year. Check out the trailer that inspired the homage after the break.

Super Giant's "Transistor" Launch Trailer

Close to three years since the release of the critically acclaimed Bastion, a title that helped put indie developer Super Giant games on the map we're finally close to getting a taste of their next project, Transistor. Ever since meeting the humble devs at E3 last year, we've been anticipating the release of the new title, which seems like it'll follow a similar isometric ARPG approach that Bastion brought to the table, but in a more scifi setting. The title is going to be hitting Steam and PS4 on May 20.

North Korea's Kim Jong Un Stars In "Glorious Leader!" Indie Game

Supreme ultra combo god leader Kim Jong Un will be starring in his own videogame soon, courtesy of the folks at Moneyhorse, an indie outfit seeking to capitalize on the quirky infamy of North Korea's eccentric ruler. Taking a page from the likes of Contra and Metal Slug, Glorious Leader will feature a total of seven levels chock full of the portly leader unleashing divine justice on foot and on flaming unicorn. With cameos including Dennis Rodman as Un's sidekick, this title will allow you to live out the great leader's fantasy of annihilating the capitalist western menace.

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea commands you to know that the capitalistic pigs at Moneyhorse LLC, are developing Glorious Leader! , an epic tale about the triumph of Kim Jong Un over the entire American army. Battle through 7 unique levels as you defeat waves of imperialists, combat over-the-top bosses, and ride unicorns!

Glorious Leader! is coming soon to PC and something called a mobile device. Finally, you will know why North Korea truly is the best Korea.

Worth Checking Out - The Chainsaw Incident

After the success of the recent Skullgirls Kickstarter and the massive popularity of Divekick, it's time for another indie fighting game to step in and pull some attention. The Chainsaw Incident is a one-on-one fighter developed by the folks at ORiGO GAMES, composed of talent from the likes of Soul Calibur, Tekken and Virtua Fighter.

I'm always envious of an Indie studio's ambition to create an original IP in the fighting game genre, the amount of QA is enough to make a person's eyes bleed let alone the difficulty of breaking the game into the fighting community. The video does a decent job at showing a brief look at the game's fighting, but probably the most standout feature of the project is the game's art direction, featuring a style very reminiscent of artist Jamie Hewlett (Tank Girl, Gorillaz). 

While not a lot has been shown in-terms of the game's mechanics (outside of the 5-button layout for the game), the studio seems very keen on providing a top-notch fighter while maintaining a solid story. We can all agree that stories in fighting games have never been a strong suit, but ORiGO GAMES seems committed to the idea.

Clocking in a total at just under $20,000 of the $275,000 goal, the game is far bellow the required amount (fighting games are expensive, yo). Luckily 21 days remain, giving plenty of time to boost the game's chance of success. If you're interested in seeing more/donating to the game's development head to their Kickstarer page for more! 

What Lies Below? A New Glimpse At Capybara's Upcoming Roguelike

What lies Below? That is the question that the folks at Capybara games have been asking for a few months now, ever since their triumphant reveal at last years E3. The same company behind the beautiful Sword And Sorcery adventure game and the upcoming Super Time Force action puzzle shooter, it looks like we'll be getting more atmospheric exploration with rogue like elements this time around.



This latest trailer for Beyond, the first one since it's unveiling close to a year ago is more of a musical one- Giving us a taste of Jim Guthrie's original score while offering us a glance at some of the environments. What I found really curious was the ultra zoomed out perspective that the game will use, offering players a nearly god like view of the action. If death lurks around every corner, I don't mind this design choice..Zooming out the camera nearly seems like it might end up ramping up the tension significantly. Below will be releasing sometime this year on PC and Xbox One.

Rust In A Nutshell

Of all the videogame parody videos I've seen in latest years, few have left a lasting impression or warranted multiple viewings (Mega64's Hotline Miami was one of those notable exceptions). Andrew M Films' take on the indie hit Rust (A funner version of DayZ with crafting) however absolutely blew it out of the water, perfectly capturing the silly nuances of the Facepunch developed online survival title.

Naked men galore, crafting pants out of pork, chopping down trees with rocks..While in game we suspend our disbelief a plenty, putting these scenarios in real life ups the banality ten fold. If you haven't had a chance to play it yet, it was probably one of the funnest experiences I've had online in recent memory, especially compared to DayZ/Jogging Simulator 2014. The game's available on Steam if you're interested in taking it for a spin.

Mercenary Kings Is Now Out On Steam!

Enjoy yourselves a fantastic new trailer for Tribute's Mercenary Kings, an awesome mega collab between the studio and pixel-god-amongst-men Paul Robertson. The Kickstarted title is finally out on Steam, and offers a visual style similar to Metal Slug, sidescrolling gameplay with hints of Borderlands and over 100 missions to tackle solo or with a friend. The Borderlands comparison came from their deep crafting system, with countless parts and over 300 items to mix and match to create the best weapon possible.

We had a chance to play the beta extensively and had a blast, especially getting the chance to see Paul Robertson finally put his excellent sprite animation skills towards a videogame. If you've ever played retro Neo-Geo shmups, this title will be right up your alley. Mercenary Kings is currently on Steam for $15, get on it!



You are part of the Mercenary Kings, the most skilled team of warriors-for-hire on Earth, but when your comrades have fallen and the fearsome forces of CLAW have seized an island-wide top secret Laboratory Base, you must do what it takes to stop them.

But you're not going in unprepared! Your back-up is made of a crew of rogue geniuses and experts of their field! Able to craft & customize guns'n'blades or upgrading body armor, you've never been this ready to join the fight.

Frog Fractions 2 Is A Thing You Can Fund And You Won't Know What It Is

Never played Frog Fractions? Get on it, right here and right now. For those unfamiliar with Frog Fractions, it's a simple mathematics game intended to teach kids fractions, for those familiar you'll know I'm full of sh*t. I'm really not going to go out of my way to spoil the experience, just know the more you play the better it gets. Trust me.

After nearly 2 years, the crew behind Frog Fractions are back with intents of making the sequel we never knew we needed. The catch is, after the game is funded no one will know what it is until the "jig" is up. Yes that means the title Frog Fractions 2 probably isn't the game's title, instead it's up to gamers to solve the "jig" in order for the development team to reveal the game's true identity. What does that mean for backers? Sounds strange, but they won't receive the game until it's released and revealed.

It sounds absolutely crazy, but so crazy that it needs to happen. The above Kickstarter video doesn't really give any information as to what the game could possibly be, although it does drop a few important keys to solving the "jig" once the game is released. The only issue is, we don't even know when the game will be released, in fact it could already be out (I totally doubt it).

If you'd like to fund this insane social-experiment/game go right ahead over here, I know I'm planning to. 

Worth Checking Out - Towerfall: Ascension

Towerfall has built up a sort of cult following since it's release on the rather underwhelming Ouya last year. It's fast, frantic, and incredibly fun gameplay was only dragged down by it's limited availability - being exclusive to the Ouya at that time. Some people (Including us) dubbed it as probably one of the best titles on the platform at the time, as well as it being a favorite indie pick from last year's E3. Thankfully this exclusivity did not last forever and the game is now available for purchase on both PC and PS4.

In addition to the addictive Super Smash Brothers styled gameplay of the original title, they've added a wealth of new features and content such as 50 new versus arenas, a new single player/co-op quest mode, unlockable archers, and a bunch of new power ups to modify gameplay and keep things interesting. The game is already a popular pick for multiplayer brawlers and now with more options and variety (not to mention being on additional platforms) it's going to be a fan favorite for a long, long time.

Towerfall: Ascension is now available on Steam or the Playstation Store on your PS4.