Gone Home was one of the first games upon which the term ‘walking simulator’ was bestowed, games in which you move around an environment, seeking out interactive artefacts and/or triggering audio and video logs that, together, tell a story - the interaction and player agency coming from the order and pacing through which you uncover moments of interest.
Your resultant depth of understanding is determined by how far you're willing to explore both the world around you and how you decide to interpret what you've seen, heard and ingested.
Here Steve Gaynor of The Fullbright Company (Gone Home, Tacoma) talks to Indie By Design's John Robertson about the progress he and his studio has made since Gone Home, what is the core nature of his games and how he goes about constructing and designing them. We also discuss his work on the Bioshock series and where games as a whole sit within wider culture and why they find themselves in their current position.
XCOM and Marvel's Midnight Suns director Jake Solomon has founded a new studio to make a life sim game. Here's a new interview with him.
One of the big Xbox releases heading our way in May 2024 is the long-awaited Hypercharge Unboxed, which is finally bringing its "first and third-person shooter action figure game" to Xbox consoles on Friday, May 31st.
Sadly, ahead of launch, the game's official Twitter (or "X") account has been highlighting the "trolls" who are claiming that because it's not launching on Game Pass, Hypercharge Unboxed is already set up for failure on Xbox.
Just because our indie game isn't on game pass, doesn't mean it's "dead on arrival".
— Hypercharge | Pre-order now on Xbox! (@HyperchargeGame) May 12, 2024
We hope you still give our action figure game a try. 💚 #xbox pic.twitter.com/3D8dhlWOvZ
It's horrible what people will say, but the truth might be harsh. There is a good chance it might not do well on Xbox if it's not on GamePass. There is a strong possibility that is the case. We'll see.
When it launches on Playstation in the future you can rest assured it will sell much better. The devs have confirmed it's coming to Playstation in the future.
"It is built in the Unreal Engine 4. The game was released on the Nintendo eShop on January 31, 2020 and on Steam on April 27, 2020. The development of Hypercharge: Unboxed for the Xbox platform was officially announced on July 16, 2022, with the developers also confirming future support for the PlayStation."
I remember having this on my radar years ago for the Switch but never pulled the trigger on it. Crazy it's still not on PlayStation yet.
Unfortunately once people are conditioned to expect to get something as part of a subscription they already pay for, they are unlikely to buy it a la carte. Some games, including this one, now look like "Gamepass Games" to a huge chunk of the Xbox audience. Maybe this game will buck that trend, and I wish them luck, but I'd imagine they'll have a rough go trying to sell this game on Xbox.
Hopefully their game not selling on Xbox doesn't stop them from bringing it to ps. I can't imagine why a developer would go Xbox first if their not on gamepass. Good luck to them though.
Yeah I can't figure that out either. I mean I understand why you go there first if you get a Gamepass payday, but if you are just trying to sell copies it doesn't make sense. Fewer users overall, and a smaller percentage of those users are willing to buy indie games a la carte.
Yeah, I can't understand it either unless there is some deep routed fan-boyism from the developer, which isn't very clever if you are trying to make a living. Fatshark is a perfect example of a developer sending their games to die on Xbox and they kept doing it.
British guy saying Xbox is his dream console doesn't really sit right does it. 5 generations of PlayStation in the UK and you haven't figured out what console is going to make you the most money. That is the mistake you've made.
Epic Games is facing a $1.2 million fine by the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets over "unfair practices" in the Fortnite shop.
It might be cheaper to simply pay the fine. Fighting said fine could cost millions due to court and lawyer fees. Fortnite generates well over a 100 million in each month, so Epic has plenty of cash.
But if they did pay it, then they are basically admitting that they did something they weren’t supposed to be doing. If they fight it, they may win and continue to have a sense of urgency for their micro transactions thus making more money long term.
Meaning more suits to follow from others if they don't fight as well.
Not a fan of Epic nor fortnite and their micro transactions. But the game is heavily supported and is free to play, all store items are completely cosmetic.
I'd fight back too. These are kinda meaningless reasons to fine someone like really for THAT. It's like they just wanted to make money or something.
There is a law for something, but even if its stupid follow it because if you break it you pay for it; if they knew they cant place a “buy now” in NL then just dont do it!
