Category: Game Releases

New game releases.

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Here’s when Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent launches in Japan

Square Enix has announced the Japanese release date for the highly anticipated free-to-play mobile JRPG Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent. Pre-registration is now live in Japan for Android and iOS, and the game will be available to play from October 28, 2020. A localisation and international release date are yet to be announced.

We don’t know much about Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent as of yet, though Square Enix has revealed the combat features a command battle system with parties consisting of up to eight members. It is a prequel to the much-beloved Octopath Traveler and set in the same locale of Osterra. The original Octopath Traveler is a turn-based role-playing game, which initially released on Nintendo Switch in 2018 followed by PC, and Google Stadia in later years.

Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent is already proving to be extremely popular, and as of now has surpassed 500,000 pre-registered accounts. To commemorate this milestone, composer Yasunori Nishiki, best known for his work on the original Octopath Traveler soundtrack, has released a brand new song.

Check out the new trailer below:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IgnLXSBRWk?modestbranding=1&rel=0&feature=oembed]

Be sure to check back here to be updated on the international release date when we get it!

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VPainter For Godot

VPainter is an open source free add-on for the Godot game engine that enables you to paint directly on 3D models. There are two modes of operation, one is to paint on the vertices of the mesh, while the second involves blending up to 4 different textures into one seamless material.

VPainter is open source MIT licensed and hosted on GitHub. To get started, merely clone (git clone _____) the repository https://github.com/tomankirilov/VPainter.git.

Next, copy the addons folder into your Godot project, merging it if you already have an addons directory.

Next, fire up the Godot Engine, go to Project->Project Settings, then select the Plugins tab and click enable:

Enabling an Add-on in Godot.

VPainter is now enabled and will appear in the editor window when a MeshInstance is selected. For further details on how to use VPainter or to simply see it in action, check out the video below.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVxemrkB3Mg?feature=oembed&w=1500&h=844]
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Nintendo Direct Mini: Partner Showcase September round-up

The Nintendo Direct Mini: Partner Showcase has now ended! Some amazing upcoming games, including Monster Hunter Rise and Disgaea 6 have been revealed, along with some re-releases of fan favourites. You can find release dates, information, and trailers for all the announcements below.

The September Nintendo Direct Mini: Partner Showcase was the first since July. In the previous two, we learned more about games like Shin Megami Tensei and Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memory, so we knew not to expect anything new from Nintendo itself. The previous instalments ran for approximately 10 minutes each, so we can assume this is the normal length we can expect from a Direct Mini from now on.

The last substantial Nintendo Direct was broadcast over a year ago in early September, and many fans are desperate for a Nintendo Direct on a larger scale, so we can see how our wallets will fare in the coming months, and book our days off. Find out all of the news from the Nintendo Direct Mini: Partner Showcase below!

Here’s everything that was announced during the September Nintendo Direct Mini: Partner Showcase

Monster Hunter Rise

Monster Hunter Rise is a fresh take on the series, with brand new monsters, cute buddies, and 4 player co-op. Available for preorder is a standard, deluxe, collectors edition, and amiibo. Monster Hunter Rise will be making its way to Switch March 26 2021.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6C5lH5b-f4?modestbranding=1&rel=0&feature=oembed]

Monster Hunter Stories 2

Monster Hunter Stories 2 is a story-driven RPG, in which you play as a monster rider. It includes some fan favourite monsters, such as Rathalos and Anjanath. You can expect to see Monster Hunter Stories 2 on Switch in summer 2021.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yu8J-J-Iz4?modestbranding=1&rel=0&feature=oembed]

Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm & Exercise

Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm & Exercise is a sequel to Fitness Boxing. Use your Joy-Con to participate in various courses, and boxing exercises led by one of nine instructors, each with their own distinctive personality. Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm & Exercise is available December 4 2020.

Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny

Disgaea 6; Defiance of Destiny is a strategy RPG, and will be the first game in the series to use 3D-models. Expect some brand new gameplay elements to be expanded on before its release in Summer 2021.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfCO_x7rPLg?modestbranding=1&rel=0&feature=oembed]

Empire of Sin

Empire of Sin is a strategy game set in the heart of the ruthless criminal underworld of 1920. Choose from a roster of fictional and real-world gangsters, then set out to build your empire. Empire of Sin is available December 1 2020.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poGsY_t4pek?modestbranding=1&rel=0&feature=oembed]

Sniper Elite 4

Sniper Elite 4 was originally released for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in 2017. You can look forward to stealth and unparalleled sniping action when Sniper Elite 4 comes to Switch this winter.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRdhKE2n2wk?modestbranding=1&rel=0&feature=oembed]

Rune Factory 5

Rune Factory is the newest instalment in the RPG series. Originally scheduled for 2020, Nintendo has revealed the game will now arrive on Switch in 2021.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MV8nQW5s6A?modestbranding=1&rel=0&feature=oembed]

Ori and the will of the wisps

The last-minute surprise that came with this month’s Nintendo Direct Mini is Ori and the Will of the Wisps, the platform-adventure style game is out now!

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1YAGLLVBTY?modestbranding=1&rel=0&feature=oembed]

coming this month

The Nintendo Direct Mini: Partner Showcase also filled us in on some titles coming this month. The indie, adventure game Hades, and survival game The Long Dark are both available now, while PGA Tour 2K21 arrives on September 25.

That’s it for the September Nintendo Direct Mini: Partner Showcase! You can check out the full below.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0Q3FdosFBo?modestbranding=1&rel=0&feature=oembed]
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Unity 2020.2 Beta Released

Unity 2020.2 beta is here and given the released number of releases that Unity are going to do annually, that makes this a more significant release than in the past. This beta release includes several system level and quality of life improvements including:

  • Support for C# 8
  • Dark Mode IDE support (this was actually added to previous versions as well)
  • C# compiler and IL2CPP compiler improvements
  • EIP, or Editor Iteration Profiler, to help identify bottlenecks during domain reloads
  • Unity Safe Mode for troubleshooting script errors on startup
  • Profiler improvements
  • New localization and UI design packages
  • URP and HDRP pipelines both improved
  • VFX Graph output events (lights, sounds, physics and custom C# code call-outs)
  • Shader Graph
  • New UI designer tools
  • 2D tools streamlined, repackaged and improved
  • Support for Apple ARM on desktop architecture
  • Much, much more.

Be sure to check out the complete release notes for more details on the changes in Unity 2020.2. You can also learn more about the release in the video below, including a small rant about one of the biggest problems facing Unity these days… fragmentation and stability.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZ2GM5JfwEA?feature=oembed&w=1500&h=844]
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Clayxels — Bringing Clay Modelling and Claymation to Unity

Currently featured in the Unity Game Dev Humble Bundle as well as being 50% off on the Unity Asset Store, Clayxel is an asset that extends Unity to add support for modelling then animating clay-like 3D objects.

Clayxels is described on the Store page as:

Clayxels is an interactive volumetric toolkit to sculpt models in editor and in game. It uses voxels to generate a lightweight point-cloud that can be changed in real-time and used in a whole bunch of different ways, all without any heavy pixel ray-marching. Works both in editor and in game, everything made with clayxels can be changed interactively at any time.

Works with all render pipelines, built-in, URP, HDRP.

It is important to note that Clayxel currently *does not* support the WebGL targets. In the video below we go hands-on with Clayxel, give you an overview of it’s capabilities and show you a simple tutorial on how to get up and running creation clay objects in your Unity game. The Unity Humble Bundle runs until the end of September, so don’t miss out if Clayxel looks interesting to you. Another asset in the bundle, UModeler, was covered in an earlier GFS post. The above links contain an affiliate code that pays a small commission to GameFromScratch if used to purchase (and thanks so much if you do!).

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYJGOVWb628?feature=oembed&w=1500&h=844]
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Super Mario Galaxy touchscreen controls revealed

Ahead of Super Mario 3D All-Star’s Switch launch this coming Friday, the Mario 35th anniversary Twitter account has tweeted a video to showcase Mario Galaxy’s new touchscreen controls, so you will know what to expect whilst playing handheld mode, or on the Switch Lite. Motion controls have also been shown for those of you playing while your Switch is docked.

As the video shows, you can use the gyro aiming built into the Switch Joy-Con, or the touchscreen to collect and release star pieces. It is still unclear as to how the Pro Controller will work with Mario Galaxy, but as it also has gyro controls built-in, it will likely work similarly to the Joy-Con.

Super Mario 3D All-Stars was a surprise announcement towards the end of the Mario 35th anniversary-themed direct at the start of September. It will include Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, and Super Mario Galaxy; all optimised for Switch with HD graphics, as well as a music player, so you can keep grooving upon completion.

Check out the tweet and video below:

This highly anticipated title has been marred by some backlash due to the limited run of its physical and digital releases, which has led some fans scrambling to secure a copy. According to a Resetera user, the online UK retailer, Base.com, has recently cancelled all of its pre-orders due to “woefully short” stock allocation. Nintendo is yet to comment on the reasoning behind its limited run.

Despite the pre-order issues, Amazon US has recently announced Mario 3D All-Stars has become one of its highest selling games of 2020 to date, behind only Animal Crossing: New Horizons, while beating out The Last of Us Part 2 and Minecraft.

The game will be priced at $59.99/£49.99, and will be available as a limited digital and physical release from September 18, until March 31, 2021.

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Echo Engine Hands-On

Today we are taking a look at the open source cross platform 2D/3D C++ based Lua-powered game engine Echo. While Echo is very much it’s own engine, it has a very Godot vibe in the way your game scene is organised, taking a node based approach to game development. The engine is released under the very permissive MIT open source license.

From the project GitHub page, Echo is described as:

Echo is a new game engine, which used more industry-standard of nowadays for game development. The new design concept makes the engine simplicity to use. but more powerful. Scene manager is easy, No Entiy, No GameObject, No Component, No Prefab. Only Node and NodeTree.

In the video below we go hands-on with this active open source project. In the later half of the video we show how you can build the engine on Windows, before you begin however you will need to have Visual Studio 2019 with C++ support and CMake installed on your machine.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFlUkzqf030?feature=oembed&w=1500&h=844]
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Make Games Play Games By Raspberry Pi Humble Bundle

There is a Humble Bundle of interest to game developers running now, the Make Games, Play Games by Raspberry Pi bundle. The heart of this bundle are three e-books on the topic of retro game development, as well as one e-book on the topic of building your own FPS in Unity. Additionally the bundle consists of several issues in PDF format of Wireframe and Custom PC magazines.

It should be noted that you can already download PDF versions of the Wireframe magazine here. It is one of the only magazines out there that covers the programming side of game development so it is definetly worth a look, especially considering the free price tag. You can learn more about the rest of this bundle in the video below.

The bundle is organised into tiers, and if you buy a higher dollar value tiers, you get all of the tiers below it as well. As with all Humble Bundles, you decide how your money is allocated, between the Publisher, Humble, charity and if you so choose (and thanks if you do!) to support GFS by purchasing using this link.

EDIT: It seems that two of the books are also available for free download on the Raspberry Pi site, Build your own FPS and Code the Classics Volume 1 are both available here. That makes this bundle mostly about supporting the Raspberry Pi group it would seem.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSdlLpRNDZg?feature=oembed&w=1500&h=844]
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Free Books From Fanatical Celebrating the Day of the Programmer

I didn’t even realize this was a thing, but as a programmer, I’m not going to complain. Apparently September the 12th, the 28 th day, or 0x100 in Hexadecimal is the Day of the Programmer, at least in Russia where it is formally recognized.

To celebrate this someone… arbitrary day, Fanatical are giving away a couple of ebooks of interest to developers, Learn Java 12 Programming, Expert Python Programming and Beginning C++ Programming. Additionally they are giving a 20% off discount code for their long running Packt Book Bundles, that we previously covered in more depth here and here. Simply log into (or create) a Fanatical account and “buy” the three books for free. Be sure to get them before this expires Sept 18th!

You can learn more about the bundle in the video below.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPjvjetXB2A?feature=oembed&w=1500&h=844]