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1 CommentFull Indie Summit to feature Mass Effect and Mark of the Ninja devs on April 10
By Emily Gera on Apr 11, 2013 04.11.13
The Full Indie Summit, a new game developers conference set to take place in Vancouver, Canada, is scheduled to run April 20 on a shoestring budget. In response to GDC Canada, a game developers conference that took place in the Canadian city several years ago but failed to be successful enough to continue operation, The Full Indie Summit is a not-for-profit event designed to avoid the traditional overhead costs of running large conferences. Tickets — which can be purchased here — are available for $10. This will be put toward costs of a 400-seat venue, as well as to food and beverages for attendees. In addition to developers from Nintendo and Sony who will describe the process of getting games onto consoles, speakers will include: Nels Anderson (Klei) - Mark of the Ninja,...
Human Angle
60 CommentsWe Built a Booth
By Jeff Dunn on Apr 03, 2013 04.03.13
Human Angle: Megabooth Human Angle: Megabooth Logistics Logistics Kelly Wallick is "Overlord" of the Indie Megabooth, which has been a featured destination at the last three Penny Arcade Expo conventions. Indie Megabooth combines the forces of an ever-growing stable of independent game developers, allowing them to show their games, attract massive crowds and spread the word about the growing indie games movement. Its most recent iteration measured in at more than 5,400 square feet of space — making it the single largest area of the show. Bigger than any of the major game publishers. Last month's Indie Megabooth herded together 50 separate independent studios and at least 62 games. It wasn’t so much a "booth" as it was one impossible-to-miss entity emerging...
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9 CommentsMortal Kombat, Skulls of the Shogun, Strider and more spotted in Steam database
By Michael McWhertor on Mar 18, 2013 03.18.13
Apparent listings cultivated from Steam's Content Description Record database show a handful of unannounced titles and PC ports bound for Steam, including versions of Mortal Kombat, Skulls of the Shogun and Pinball FX 2. While the Steam CDR database manages to keep titles of unannounced titles well-hidden (with names like "ValveTestApp217140"), achievement data and images scraped from Steam and SteamDB — unearthed by a handful of NeoGAF forum members — reveals content for certain Steam games not currently listed for Valve's platform: Deadpool, Mortal Kombat, and Skulls of the Shogun. Other listings point to more speculative but surprising releases, including possible listings for The King of Fighters XIII, Castle of Illusion and Strider. Art for a rumored Strider game was d...
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5 CommentsSkulls of the Shogun gets new, reduced pricing on XBLA, Windows PC and Surface
By Tracey Lien on Mar 01, 2013 03.01.13
Indie developer 17-Bit announced today that its asynchronous strategy game for Microsoft gaming systems, Skulls of the Shogun, is receiving a price drop. On Xbox Live Arcade, the game is now priced at 800 Microsoft Points, down from its previous 1,200 Microsoft Points. The game will be sold at $6.99 for the Microsoft Surface, previously priced at $9.99, while the Windows Phone version will remain at $4.99. Polygon's review of Skills of the Shogun can be read here.
Review
38 CommentsSkulls of the Shogun review: dealing with death
By Dave Tach on Jan 30, 2013 01.30.13
Skulls of the Shogun follows legendary samurai General Akamoto into the afterlife. Murdered on the eve of his greatest battle and washed up on the Shores of the Dead, Akamoto vows to achieve the victory in death that he was robbed of in life. The first few levels disguise tutorials within simple battles, but they teach strategies that remain in play through the game's final stages. Developer 17-Bit designed the basic infantry, cavalry and archer classes to rely upon each other. This buddy system's basic building block is the Spirit Wall, which allows you to arrange your troops side-by-side and create a nearly impenetrable barrier. Spirit Walls protect your archers, whose weak defensive abilities make them paper-thin on the front lines. Behind a Spirit Wall, their powerful...
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3 CommentsSkulls of the Shogun to launch with discount pricing for Windows devices
By Dave Tach on Jan 23, 2013 01.23.13
Skulls of the Shogun, developer 17-bit's strategy game set in the samurai afterlife, will launch Jan. 30 at discounted prices "for a limited time" on Windows platforms, according to a press release from the developer. The Windows 8 and Surface versions will launch for $9.99 (regularly $14.99) in the Microsoft Store, while the Windows Phone version will launch at $4.99 (regularly $6.99). Skulls of the Shogun will also be available for 1200 Microsoft Points ($15) on Xbox 360. "We've heard from the community that they want to get Skulls of the Shogun not only on their Xbox 360, but on all of their Microsoft devices," said 17-BIT founder and CEO, Jake Kazdal. "By discounting the Windows 8, Windows Surface, and Windows Phone versions of Skulls, we hope everyone can dive into the Skulls...
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3 CommentsSkulls of the Shogun coming to XBLA, Windows 8, Windows Phone and Surface Jan. 30
By Dave Tach on Jan 10, 2013 01.10.13
Skulls of the Shogun, 17-Bit's long-in-development samurai-infused strategy game, will launch Jan. 30, according to a press release from the developer. As the first game to feature asynchronous Xbox Live Arcade and cross-platform play, launch day will bring the game simultaneously to Xbox 360 via XBLA, Windows 8, Windows Surface tablets running Windows RT and Windows Phone. "After three and a half years, Skulls of the Shogun is finally ready to be released," said 17-Bit CEO Jake Kazdal. "We're ecstatic we could bring Skulls to all four of Microsoft's platforms, and bring them all together with cross-platform functionality. We appreciate the excitement and patience by all the Skulls of the Shogun fans, and we here at 17-Bit believe the wait will be well worth it." The multi-platform...
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11 CommentsSkulls of the Shogun devs interested in cross-platform purchase promotion, but Microsoft can't yet do it
By Samit Sarkar on Dec 31, 2012 12.31.12
Developer 17-Bit would like to make that happen, but CEO Jake Kazdal told Polygon that the indie studio is hamstrung by Microsoft — the company doesn't have anything like Sony's PlayStation 3/PlayStation Vita Cross Buy promotion set up across Windows 8, Windows Phone, Windows RT or Xbox Live Arcade titles. "They don't really have the pipeline in place to do it, but they're continuing to look into it," he said, referring to Microsoft. Kazdal added, "It's a little difficult because they don't support token stuff with mobile platforms." Without download codes, it would be a hassle for 17-Bit to give players free copies of mobile versions of Skulls of the Shogun. "It might happen in the future, and if it does, we would definitely want to support that," he said. Through Sony's Cross...
Report
12 CommentsBlazing trails in cross-platform development with 17-Bit's Skulls of the Shogun
By Samit Sarkar on Dec 12, 2012 12.12.12
"We're certifying four versions of a game with two engineers," he told Polygon during a recent hands-on session with the title. Skulls of the Shogun will be available on Xbox Live Arcade and Windows Phone, and in the Windows Store on Windows 8 PCs and Microsoft Surface tablets. It's essentially the same game across all four platforms, and 17-Bit considers itself "lucky that [it] works so well as a multiplatform game." The turn-based experience is equally suited to controllers, touchscreens and keyboard/mouse, and because it supports asynchronous cross-platform play, the developers had to design it to account for "three completely different [user interfaces], and the interactions therein," said Kazdal. Programmer and engineer Ben Vance showed us Skulls of the Shogun running on Windows...
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7 CommentsSkulls of the Shogun to be first game to have asynchronous XBLA play and cross-platform play
By Tracey Lien on Jun 28, 2012 06.28.12
17-Bit's adorably quirky, undead samurai strategy game, Skulls of the Shogun, will be the first game on Xbox Live Arcade to ever feature asynchronous play and also have cross-platform play. Speaking to Polygon, the team behind Skulls of the Shogun showed off a polished turn-based strategy where players lead a zombie samurai warrior through the underworld. The creative and art director of the game, Jake Kazdal, said that the team of three behind Skulls of the Shogun wanted to bring a meaty strategy game to platforms like Xbox Live, mobile phones and tablets, but in a way that is accessible to all players. "Most strategy games are a bit dry and very serious," Kazdal told Polygon. "They look very complicated, whereas Skulls of the Shogun is meant to be cute and goofy. They're cool...
