Irish indie game bundle

Five Irish games are up for grabs on Towerbundle.com this week with fifty per cent of the profits going to the charity, Concern Worldwide.

The Irish Week bundle includes platformer Goldbeard, recent Steam release Ku: Shourd of the Morrigan, brawler mini-game Battle of Clontarf, Batcat Games excellent twin-stick shooter P-3 Biotic, and iOS platformer Jellyflug.

You'll get codes for Steam, Desura and the App Store while Battle of Clontarf is a direct download link.

Keep an eye out for video of some of these games on Hackett Out soon.

bitSmith release new FranknJohn footage

Some of the team from Dublin-based indie studio bitSmith are at GDC in San Francisco this week - but that hasn't stopped them pushing out a trailer showing early pre-alpha footage of their upcoming game FranknJohn.

The top-down, rouge-like-like brawler should be getting a Kickstarter soon, but in the meantime you can take a quick look at the gameplay and some of the environments that you can look forward to in the final game.



In a statement via their newsletter today the developers said they'll be streaming sections of the game on their Twitch channel.

Games Fleadh 2014 video round-up

Games Fleadh 2014 took place at LIT Thurles in County Tipperary on Wednesday. This year's event wasn't without it's problems as it conincided this year with GDC which runs over the weekend.

 Many of the Irish development teams who were expected to speak couldn't make it as they prepared to fly to San Francisco.

 The annual Games Fleadh awards, in conjunction with Engineers Ireland, was posponed as a result but the student competition and industry talks went ahead as planned. And some of what was on offer was impressive.

Last year's Game Studio Ireland Challenge College Cup Champions Joseph Bentley & Ger Stone, or Alt Tab, won this year's Imagine Cup in Dublin last week. They were on site to show off their game CavernNauts. Other established developers like Exgamers Studio, with Source Control, and Atom Split Games with The Power Game were on site.

 Here's what else I saw on my travels.

Games Fleadh 2014

 

Kú goes live on Steam this St. Patrick's Day

Bit Smith Games today announced that Kú: Shroud of the Morrigan will be released on Steam on 17 March.

Kú is a top-down 2D game with action-rpg elements. Bit Smith released the game on iPad last year but now, after a protracted Steam Greenlight campaign, it's finally getting a full re-release for PC.

Versions of the game are already available on the developer's website for Android, PC and Mac.

The game is a twist on the Táin, the story of Cúchulainn, set in a future Ireland.

In a statement on their Steam page today the developers said: "What better way to celebrate St. Patricks [sic] Day than to consume yourself in some ancient Irish history."

Kú was not without its problems on iPad - but a lot of my frustrations came from the controls. The game has full controller support on PC. There's no detail on pricing yet but I'll keep you informed.

Video game start-ups shine at Enterprise Ireland event

Dublin Castle CC via [Dicky]

Ten Irish games companies were among the 103 businesses showcased by Enterprise Ireland this morning at Dublin Castle. Speaking on Morning Ireland, Enterprise Ireland's Chief Executive Julie Sinnamon said that there was a really high callibre of companies to showcase.

Enterprise Ireland is the government body tasked with developing Irish industries for international markets. The High Potential Start-Up Class of 2013 event is used by Enterprise Ireland to introduce companies that it has supported during the previous year.

Ms Sinnamon told RTE that technology companies were leading the pack over the past year.

"The biggest sector of all was really the technology, software, internet, games area... really dynamic, young companies and very enthusiastic and full of energy."

She said these companies were driven by really big ambitions.

The full report released by Enterprise Ireland divides the companies into two groups - 'High Potential Start-ups' that have sucessfully raised seed capital and 'Competetive Start-ups' or early stage companies. 

The list of games-specific companies includes Simteractive, a developer headed up by Elaine Reynolds, formerly of Lionhead and Sixminute - a team formed from the ashes of PopCap's Dublin office.

Here's a list of the games companies involved:

High Potential Start-ups
Gamesparks
Sixminute

Competitive Start-ups
Beat Your Manager
English Bubble
Hail Studios
Rainbow Rocket Studios
Sighter
Simteractive
Powwow
Thoughtbox

Irish indie devs on twitter

Ireland's independent videogame scene is a fast-growing creative industry, full of interesting people and new ideas. You can follow along with the latest news, or join the conversation, with the new Hackett Out 'IndieIRL' list on twitter.

If you have any questions or want to get added to the list you can get in touch with me @padrg.

I'll be posting a permanent link to the list on the navigation pane on the top-right hand side of this site. For now, here's the latest from Ireland's established and up and coming game developers:


Tweets from https://twitter.com/padrg/indieirl

Irish Dev Terry Cavanagh on Flappy Bird

Image via: terrycavanaghgames.com

Irish indie developer Terry Cavanagh has made his Flappy Bird tribute, Maverick Bird, available for free on his website.

The two-button, PC-only game is built using the same tools as Cavanagh's 2012 hit - Super Hexagon. It expands on Flappy Bird's simplistic game play by allowing players to fly down as well as up to avoid obstacles.

Flappy Bird was a mobile game on iOS and Android developed by Vietmanese developer Dong Nguyen. The game was releasde last summer but rose to prominance in recent weeks. The developer has since pulled the game from the App Store and Google Play saying that its success, and the backlash from gamers, was negatively impacting on his life.

I can call 'Flappy Bird' is a success of mine. But it also ruins my simple life. So now I hate it.
— Dong Nguyen (@dongatory) February 8, 2014

Terry Cavanagh, on his twitter account, said that his game is intended as a tribute and not a clone. He is resisting calls to release the game for mobile devices.

Getting asked this lots, so here's an answer: I'm sorry, I'm not porting Maverick Bird to iOS or making a Super version. It's a fan game!
— Terry (@terrycavanagh) February 13, 2014

I'm glad people like it, but understand why I made it. I didn't want the only response to Flappy Bird to be anger and jealousy.
— Terry (@terrycavanagh) February 13, 2014

For a while, in my feed at least, that was the only voice I was hearing. I wanted to express something else. I wanted to celebrate it.
— Terry (@terrycavanagh) February 13, 2014

Outerlands video game documentary enters final days on Kickstarter

Outerlands is a new, high-quality video game culture documentary series made by the team behind Co-op, The 1Up Show and Capcom's 'I Am Street Fighter.'

The five-person Area 5 team are asking for $210,000 on Kickstarter to produce a six episode documentary series focusing on the people who make video game culture dictinct. This morning, while the team are broadcasting a 24-hour livestream on Twitch.tv, the total pledged is approaching $200,000.

You'll need to hand over at least $25 to get the digital edition of the documentary, with Area 5 also promising to produce a new six episode series of their video-podcast series, Co-Op, if they meet their target during the live stream.

Watch it - Tom Francis on Heat Signiture

Rohrer's Passage - 'play' it!

There was a time when it seemed Jason Rohrer was the only interesting name in indie gaming. Just the fact that he existed was interesting - living off the kindness of strangers and making games that were actually about something.

That time was only about five years ago actually. Now we're openly criticising his work, and Roher is just one of many indie luminaries. Some are loved, some loathed, some don't kick up too much of a fuss.

One interesting voice is that of Tom Francis. That's the man behind last year's excellent stealth-action game Gunpoint. More interestingly he has a long history in games journalism and as a result he knows how to communicate his passion. He could be just what indie gaming needs.

Gunpoint by Tom Francis

Tom Francis used to write for PC Gamer magazine. During development of Gunpoint he blogged about the process. Now he's working on the follow-up, Heat Signiture and he's doing more of the same, although Heat Signiture is still in the very early stages of development.

I heard about Francis when Gunpoint came out. Since then he's quit his job and gone into development full time. You can listen to a great intereview with him on Tone Control.

But Francis's Youtube channel is even more interesting. There you can see early footage of the game up and running. What's really got me excited though is his ability to talk. In the video below Tom Francis talks about his ideas and the prosess of turning those ideas into something real, without prompt or pause, for twenty minutes.

And all 20 of those minutes are interesting.

State of Play 2013

Prison Architect producer Mark Morris will be giving the keynote speech at tonight's State of Play at DIT Angier Street. He works with Introversion Software in the UK.

A satirical twist on business-sim games like Theme Hospital, Prison Architect tasks players with running the most efficient privatley owned prison possible. It's currently in open alpha (an early test version) for people who want to preorder the game.

State of Play is an annual event looking at the Irish game development scene. There'll be games to play from a host of Irish indies from 5PM and a range of Irish and International speakers on stage. Coverage of last years event is available here on HackettOut.

You can still register for the event on stateofplay.ie.

Here's a terrible trailer for the Alpha version of Prison Architect.

Put yourself in someone else's shoes with Auti-sim

Can videogames help us understand the experience of others? A new first-person game from Canadian Taylan Kay is trying to answer that question.

Auti-sim (Photograph: Toughcellgames.com)

Videogames have come a long way. From shooting space invaders to experiencing the simulated life of a single mother fighting for custody of her daughter in Richard Hofmier's Cart Life. But a game that directly puts us in the shoes of someone else, seeing and feeling what another person sees and feels is something different.

Auti-Sim is a short first-person experience that tries to simulate auditory-hypersensitivity, which impacts the cognitive functions of some children with autism.

It's a terrifying experience, one well worth experiencing. You can play it in your browser and it will only take you a couple of minutes.

Find out more about the developer on his twitter account.
Play the game on GameJolt here. 

State of Play 2012 Round-Up

Growth in the Irish games industry is creating opportunities for artist, designers and programmers. Last night’s State of Play conference heard that the Irish industry has almost quadrupled in size in the last three years.

• The 'Hackett Out' live blog captured the evening: Read along with State of Play here. 
• Get the data: Jamie McCormick’s report on the state of the industry can be found here. 
• Who’s funding indie development in Ireland? See Wayra Ireland and NDRC
• Got some free time? @seriousgamesIRL live-streamed the whole event. Find it here.

Ku from Bit Smith Games
Source: Bit Smith Games

The call for new talent came again and again from speakers at the 2012 State of Play indie-game showcase in Dublin last night.

From artists to coders, new blood is in short supply in this growing industry. The number of companies working in video-games here has jumped from 21 in 2009 to over 83 this year.

Jamie McCormick, Marketing Systems Manager at Gala Networks Europe, published his report on the state of the industry in Ireland last week. He said video-games are now worth €210m to the Irish economy every year.

His study, “Games Industry Ireland 2012”, is available online on gamedevelopers.ie. McCormick said that the study highlighted skills shortages in in Ireland, especially in the area of animation.

And he proposed solutions. He’s trying to bring together the Irish Film Board and the game’s industry to pool their talents.

State of Play 2012 Live Blog

Live blogging from tonight's DIT indiegame event in Dublin.