Tagged: Steam

01Aug

Drattzy Games Provides Update on “Alterium Shift” Amid Significant Company Changes

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Drattzy Games LLC, the indie studio behind retro-inspired JRPGs, has released a crucial update on the development of their highly-anticipated game, Alterium Shift. The announcement addresses recent internal changes and reaffirms the studio’s commitment to delivering a top-quality gaming experience.

Current Status and Challenges

The studio acknowledged the delay in their project timeline. Originally aiming for a full release shortly after the Early Access launch in July 2023, they have now encountered several unanticipated challenges. Feedback from Early Access revealed critical features that necessitated a reassessment of the development focus, resulting in a delay.

Major Change in Publishing Partnership

In a noteworthy shift, Drattzy Games and their publisher ended their agreement amicably as of July 2024. This decision, influenced by ongoing discussions since early 2024, has impacted the game’s timeline and development focus. The studio expressed gratitude towards their former publisher and wished them success in future projects.

Implications and Moving Forward

The termination of the publishing partnership has several implications:

Project Delay: The full version of Alterium Shift will not release this year as initially planned. However, a significant content update aiming for 75% completion is expected by the end of the year.
Localization Removal: Localization, previously handled by the publisher, has been temporarily removed. Drattzy Games is actively seeking solutions to reinstate this feature.
Development Focus: With all responsibilities now on their shoulders, the studio asks for patience as they refine their roadmap and manage all aspects of the project internally.

Future Plans and Community Engagement

Drattzy Games plans to share a high-level roadmap with the community, highlighting tentative timelines and upcoming features. They also announced their participation in upcoming events, including 2D Con in Minnesota and PAX West in Seattle, where they will provide more updates post-event.

Team Commitment

Despite recent setbacks, Drattzy Games states that it, is committed to Alterium Shift. The studio assures fans of frequent and transparent updates, appreciating the community’s support and feedback.

About Drattzy Games

Drattzy Games is an indie studio known for retro-inspired games with rich storytelling. Founded by Mottzy and DrassRay, the studio merges classic aesthetics with modern gameplay mechanics, exemplified in their latest project, Alterium Shift.

About Alterium Shift

Alterium Shift is a JRPG inspired by classic SNES-era games, featuring a unique 2.5D visual style, branching storylines, and dynamic quests. For more information, visit alteriumshift.com.

11Apr

MONSTER JAM® Release Date Revealed

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MONSTER JAM® Release Date Revealed – August 29, 2024. Early Access available from August 26, 2024

Following last month’s announcement in the Xbox Partner Preview showcase, Milestone and Feld Motor Sports, Inc. have today revealed Monster Jam® Showdown key art and release date. The brand-new official Monster Jam video game will be available on August 29, 2024, for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch™, and PC via Steam and Epic Games Store. Early Access will unlock on August 26, 2024.

Grave Digger® and Megalodon®, two of the most fan-favorite trucks, have been chosen to introduce the newest entry in Milestone’s catalog. The black and green wrecking machine with its spooky-themed design and the powerful predator from pre-historic oceans are featured in a high-octane chase across Colorado‘s breathtaking landscapes, conveying all the four-wheeled frenzy action awaiting fans worldwide. Importantly, Colorado is only one of the three original environments inspired by the American great outdoors where players will be unleashing all the power of the 66* official Monster Jam trucks they will find. In fact, beyond experiencing the official competitions in all three categories of stadium locations inspired by real venues, Monster Jam Showdown will take players to race also in Death Valley and Alaska, offering a vast arcade package with a total of 10 different game modes featured.

Monster Jam Showdown will be released on all major gaming platforms on August 29, 2024, with Early Access available from August 26, 2024.

For more information, please visit https://monsterjamvideogame.com/
*40 trucks will be included in the base game and 26 will be available through free or premium DLCs.

About Milestone
Founded in Milan in 1996, Milestone S.r.l. is one of the leading and longest-established racing game developers in the world. The 290+ people team is responsible for hit series like MotoGP™, MXGP, and Monster Energy Supercross – The Official Videogame, the acclaimed Hot Wheels™ Unleashed, as well as own IPs RIDE and Gravel. For more information please visit https://milestone.it/

About PLAION
PLAION is a dynamic and diversified business in the global entertainment sector, masterfully crafting franchises that captivate audiences worldwide. Boasting a vast network of eight game development studios, sixteen regional publishing offices, three game publishing labels including Deep Silver, and PLAION PICTURES as an independent film publisher and distributor, the company extends its influence with merchandise production and expansive distribution capabilities across the globe.

Founded nearly three decades ago, PLAION has firmly established itself within the entertainment arena. With a diverse range of services and solutions, PLAION stands as the premier publishing partner for console and PC games across both physical and digital channels. Moreover, its strong foothold in the Virtual Reality (VR) domain highlights the company’s commitment to varied gaming experiences.

PLAION is an Embracer Group company.

16Aug

1950s LA Tycoon Management Game, City Block Builder, is Available Now on Steam Early Access

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Create your own slice of Tinseltown heaven!

Tentworks Interactive has release its multi-business management game, City Block Builder, on Steam Early Access and via Xsolla today. Finally, you can construct the Tinseltown empire of their dreams!

City Block Builder is a mashup of deep tycoon management games with large-scale city building elements. Set in Los Angeles during the 1950s, the game puts you in the shoes of a young, budding entrepreneur who is determined to build their own business empire. Fresh off the victory of WWII, Los Angeles is the pop culture capital of the world. With the glitz and glamour of Hollywood, designer shops, and the finest cuisine money can buy, all under a canopy of clear blue skies, the City of Angels represents the “American Dream” at its most ideal.

City Block Builder – Vlog with Concept Artists

As the owner of several establishments, it’s up to you to make every decision, both large and small, about how your enterprise operates. Choose which tiles, wallpapers, and furniture to decorate with. Set the cuisines and menu items for your restaurant. Hire and fire staff. Nobody said building an empire was going to be easy!

The full version of City Block Builder will allow you to erect all manner of trades from cinema theatres, to bowling alleys, to jazz clubs, to drive-in theaters, parlors and more. This Early Access launch focuses entirely on the restaurant building portion of the game, but new businesses will be added as free updates between now and the full launch. A future update will add cinemas, allowing you to decide what movies to show and when, as well as the Story/Campaign Mode.

City Block Builder lets you micromanage each business down to every detail, from its layout, to its lighting, to ensuring the entrance makes optimal use of foot traffic in your bustling borough! City Block Builder encourages players to find creative solutions to complex problems. Setting up the L.A.’s entertainment hub has never been so immersive!

Each detail of City Block Builder is brought to life in glorious detail through hand-drawn art paying homage to the incredible culture of the era. Movies, posters, comic books, and advertisements capture the look and feel of the 1950s with their bold, technicolor palette, dapper outfits, and neat slogans. Even the foliage has been extensively researched to be accurate to the time, changing dynamically with the seasons.

While City Block Builder’s campaign mode will take you from rags to riches as you micro and macro manage each monetary decision, there will also be a Sandbox Mode offering full freedom to create the Los Angeles of your dreams with no expense spared! Every decision you make will set you on a different path giving different players varying outcomes.

“With City Block Builder we aim to make an extremely in-depth empire builder that’s still accessible to anyone with an interest in the golden age of Hollywood,” said Jay Basani, CEO of Tentworks Interactive. “This Early Access launch is only the beginning, as we have so many more businesses coming to the game over the next several months. As an independent game developer based in India, we want to show off our homeland’s talent on a global scale.”

For a more in-depth look at City Block Builder, Tentworks has released a new vlog post showcasing the game’s rich feature set below:

Add City Block Builder to your Steam Wishlist:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1191800/City_Block_Builder/
For more information about City Block Builder visit: https://www.tentworks.io/

About Tentworks Interactive
Founded in 2018 by Jay Basani in Bangalore, India, Tentworks Interactive is a rag tag crew of passionate developers specializing in tycoon and strategy games, with the goal of making India a serious contender on the world stage of video game development with its high quality titles. Having expanded to opening a second branch in California, Tentworks is working on its most ambitious enterprise yet with the 1950s LA empire-building tycoon game City Block Builder.

16Aug

Paintbucket Games Announces the Arrival of “The Darkest Files”

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In this historical investigation game set in the immediate postwar period, players expose the crimes of the Nazi era and ensure justice.

Berlin-based developer studio Paintbucket Games announces the arrival of “The Darkest Files,” the spiritual successor of their award-winning Nazi resistance game “Through the Darkest of Times.” The game is currently under development and is expected to be released in 2023 for PC, Mac, PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch. A demo version will be available to play at this year’s gamescom in the Indie Arena.

In “The Darkest Files,” players take on the role of Esther Katz, a young prosecutor living in West Germany in the 1950s. She is part of the team around the Frankfurt Attorney General Fritz Bauer. As Esther, players investigate crimes committed by former Nazi officials, collect evidence, question witnesses and ultimately bring the perpetrators to justice. The game leads players on a gripping, emotional journey through the crimes and dark times of the Nazi era.

“After Through the Darkest of Times, we decided to stay in the realm of history for one of our next games — especially since current events continue to concern us deeply. We decided to move chronologically to the period after World War II, when many former Nazis were still active in high-ranking posiitions all over West Germany,” explains Jörg Friedrich of Paintbucket Games. “Fritz Bauer and his team did immensely important work during this difficult time by pressing charges against numerous criminals and publicly trying them for their crimes. Through their work, they made a lasting impact on how Germans understand the National Socialist period and the Holocaust and helped create the social consensus of: “Never again!” We want to give our players a view into this difficult and fascinating work with The Darkest Files.”

Some features of The Darkest Files:

Players search investigative files from the Nazi era for clues, and interrogate relatives, witnesses, and suspects to find out the truth.
Players draw conclusions, evaluate evidence, and reconstruct the crime in real time.
Players interview witnesses and suspects, diving into the statements in immersive-mode to better understand the actions of the perpetrators and uncover any clues and contradictions.
Then, players discuss their findings with their team of investigative experts in order to build an air-tight case.
Players must determine and press the correct charges and have the criminals arrested.
Finally, they need to convince the judiciary to reveal the truth and bring the perpetrators to justice.

Historical Background
With a team of young prosecutors without ties to the old regime, Frankfurt Attorney General Fritz Bauer founded a taskforce to investigate Nazi-era crimes and to prosecute the perpetrators. He became known, among other things, for being instrumental in the search for Adolf Eichmann, one of the central organizers of the Holocaust, and for prosecuting the Frankfurt Auschwitz trials in the 1960s.
“Nothing belongs to the past, everything is still present and can become the future again.” – Fritz Bauer

In “Through the Darkest of Times,” the spiritual predecessor of “The Darkest Files,” players lead a small anti-Nazi resistance group in Berlin. The game was nominated for numerous awards, including in the “Game for Impact” category at “The Games Awards,” as well as winning the German
Developer Award 2020 for “Best Indie Game” and “Best Serious Game,” among others.

Paintbucket Games will also show The Darkest Files at this year’s gamescom from August 24 – 28. In the Indie Arena in hall 10.2.

The Darkest Files can already be wishlisted on Steam here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2058730/The_Darkest_Files/

More Information about The Darkest Files is available here https://paintbucket.de/en/game/the-darkest-files

16Aug

MicroProse Regiments Released on Steam

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Grab it on Steam for 15% off today

MicroProse has released Regiments, its new Cold War RTS, on Steam and is celebrating the release with a 15 % launch discount.

Regiments is now available on Steam

What is Regiments?

Regiments is a Real-Time Tactics set in Germany 1989. The Cold War has gone hot, and the inferno is raging. Lead your Regiment through the fires of conflict and the fog of war. Break through the lines, call in artillery, maneuver, feign retreats, stage defenses, counter-attack. Do not relent.
What is the Regiments experience?

It’s 1989 and the flames of a New War are flaring up. Thousands of square miles of German landscape will become a stage for sweeping battles between the best NATO and Warsaw Pact has to offer.

Lead your Regiment through the inferno of a wide-scale Cold War conflict in this new Real-Time Tactics game. Break through the lines, call in artillery and air support, maneuver, feign retreats, and stage mobile defenses. Do not relent.

The Platoon Command system lets you orchestrate battles with unprecedented precision and ease. No need to micromanage every infantryman – you’re a Commanding Officer, not a sergeant.

Form your force on the fly. Selecting the main Regiment is just a start. You can expand your army during the game by calling in unique Task Forces, each bringing its own equipment and off-map support options.

Main features

Several dynamic operations, encompassing warfare around the Inner German border
Three distinct skirmish modes with varied, dynamic objectives
Aggressive, competent AI that can challenge experienced RTS players
On-the-fly force customization, rewarding adaptability, and creativity
Deep game mechanics, simulating the Cold War era mechanized fight with great detail
Four key Cold War Factions: Soviet Union, USA, West Germany, and East Germany
Visceral visual effects, bringing the WWIII to your screen in all its terrifying glory
Over 60 authentic vehicles modeled, combined into a multitude of different formations. Deploy such iconic vehicles as Leopard 2, T-72M or M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicle
Smooth learning curve and high accessibility even to novice RTS players
Refined controls that make commanding hundreds of soldiers a breeze

MicroProse, founded in 1982, is a world-famous simulation software company known for developing groundbreaking, classics and cult titles like, the Falcon, F15 Strike Eagle, Silent Service, Gunship, Grand Prix, Civilization, B-17 The Mighty Eighth, and X-COM series and many more simulation products that sold millions of copies each at retail.

Today, MicroProse is not only remaking select classics from its past but also paving the road to next-generation, state of the art games that will create the memories and experiences of the demanding new generations of gamers.

Bird’s Eye Games is a small development team that has been developing Regiments since 2016, a step-up from previous RTS modding work.

Standing on the shoulders of RTS genre giants, Bird’s Eye Games strives to combine the best ideas classics has to offer and give them a fresh spin.

14Jul

PUBG Celebrates 70 Million Units Sold with the Newly Remastered Sanhok Map for Season 8

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Update 8.1 welcomes players back to the jungle with a reimagined map, the Loot Truck, a new Ranked Mode season, and more

AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS – July 14, 2020 – PUBG Corporation, pioneer of the battle royale genre, today announced that its trailblazing title, PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS (PUBG), has sold over 70 million units to date. To commemorate this milestone, the latest update will return to the jungles of Sanhok with PUBG Season 8. The once familiar jungle destination is now an overgrown abandoned paradise that has been remastered to be leaner, meaner, and more deadly than ever before! Season 8 will release for PC via Steam on 22 July and 30 July for Xbox One, PlayStation®4, and Stadia, the new generation gaming platform from Google.

When survivors drop into Sanhok, they’ll discover that almost every structure, tree, rock, and material in the map has been rebuilt from the ground up. Using data and player feedback, many locations have had extensive design and art upgrades. Popular locations, such as Boot Camp, Ruins, Pai Nan, Khao, and Quarry have all received major updates. For those keen on exploring, new locations and hidden gems can be found around the island, including a new tourist town “Getaway”, and bootcamp “Airfield.” From the Ruins to the Cave, Sanhok has been updated to increase its visual fidelity, balance, and performance.

Alongside the Sanhok Remaster, Update 8.1 is full of new and thrilling additions, including:

The Loot Truck: Driving the roads of Sanhok are autonomous cargo transports that offer players a brand-new way to gear up. As these trucks take damage, they will drop some loot and continue on their way. Players persistent enough to destroy the truck will be rewarded with an even bigger cache of weapons and gear for their squad.
Confiscated Weapons: Players who take down the Loot Truck will be rewarded with fully customised weapons. For the first time ever in PUBG, players can pick-up weapons that come with pre-installed attachments and unique skins.
Improved Jerry Cans: These explosive bundles of joy are making their revised debut. Pour gas on the ground to set a fiery trap or toss the whole thing at an enemy and light it up.
New Ranked Season: A new Ranked season begins with Update 8.1. The season brings a much-requested change to scoring, with Ranked Point acquisition now taking team placement into account. Additionally, Vikendi has been added to the Ranked map pool.
Survivor Pass: Payback: Accompanying the latest season is the newest Survivor Pass, which gives players a large amount of new skins to earn as they explore the forgotten paradise of Sanhok.

Survivors can preview Update 8.1 with the PC test server on 15 July and the console test server on 20 July, prior to Season 8’s official launch on 22 July for PC via Steam and 30 July for Xbox One, PS4, and Stadia. For more information on Update 8.1, please view the full patch notes here.

For the latest information on PUBG, please visit https://www.pubg.com/ or follow us on social media (Twitter/Instagram/Facebook).
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About PUBG Corporation
PUBG Corporation, a member of KRAFTON, is the developer and publisher of the 2017 blockbuster battle royale video game, PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS (PUBG). Since its release, PUBG has sold over 70 million copies to date and achieved worldwide acclaim, including seven Guinness World Records and multiple game awards.

Headquartered in Korea, PUBG Corporation has multiple operational offices globally across North America, Latin America, Europe, Japan, and China. With the goal of developing PUBG as a global franchise, the company is currently undertaking a number of projects in esports, product licensing, and more. For more information about PUBG, please visit www.pubg.com.