New game releases.
© 2020 Valve Corporation. All rights reserved. All trademarks are property of their respective owners in the US and other countries.
View mobile website
The Ursina Engine is a recently released open source Python based 3D game engine. The Ursina Engine is built on top of the well established Panda3D game engine (learn more here). Key features of the Ursina Engine include:
* hotreload code/textures/models while in-game
* automatic import of .psd and .blend files
* play in fullscreen while developing
* easy to use mesh class for making procedural geometry
* lots of included procedural 3D primitives
The Ursina Engine is available for Windows, Mac and Linux with the source code available on GitHub under the MIT license. To get started with the Ursina Engine you need to have Python 3.6 or later installed as well as the pip package manger and git. Once installed, simply run the command:
pip install git+https://github.com/pokepetter/ursina.git
If you encounter a permissions error, add the –user parameter to the above line. From the examples, here is the code required to create an application and display a grid:
from ursina import * app = Ursina() r = 8 for i in range(1, r): t = i/r s = 4*i print(s) grid = Entity(model=Grid(s,s), scale=s, color=color.color(0,0,.8,lerp(.8,0,t)), rotation_x=90, position=(-s/2, i/1000, -s/2)) subgrid = duplicate(grid) subgrid.model = Grid(s*4, s*4) subgrid.color = color.color(0,0,.4,lerp(.8,0,t)) EditorCamera() app.run()
You can learn more about the Ursina Engine in the video below.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCpBzdciU0o&w=853&h=480]
<!–
–>
Today’s Deal: Save 53% on Atmospheric Adventure Bundle!*
This bundle contains three games presenting atmospheric experiences in worlds with an exceptional art style!
Look for the deals each day on the front page of Steam. Or follow us on twitter or Facebook for instant notifications wherever you are!
*Offer ends Wednesday at 10AM Pacific Time
27 Jan 2020
As one card game closes its doors, another one sets to throw them wide open. Star Realms is a pretty popular deck-building card game in both physical and digital forms, and the same development company is currently working on a digital successor – Epic. It’s framed more as a traditional TCG than Star Realms ‘build-as-you-go’ mentality but you can see some similarities in terms of the design.
Successfully Kickstarted way back in 2017, this fantasy-style TCG will be releasing on February 18th, 2020.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2mpjyMn1ow?controls=0]
What’s more, it will be completely free, up to a point. The principle activities you can do without needing to pay anything are:
The only thing you will need to pay for are cosmetics, extras (like extra deck slots) and competitive play.
Existing players will be able to keep their username and any decks they’ve built, but they won’t be able Gold, Gems or Foil cards from their Alpha accounts.
Also, anyone who backed the game during the Kickstarter will be given extra stuff for free as compensation for the game going free-to-play. You can read the full details further down the announcement post here.
Epic Digital will be coming to iOS and Android.
27 Jan 2020
I remember when I first took over Pocket Tactics back in 2016 and was trying to understand the various niches our audience enjoyed; Duelyst came up a lot in the context of CCGs on mobile. Combining elements from both traditional card games and throwing in a tactical battlefield, at the time it seemed like a very welcome breath of fresh air, and one that mobile gamers were very keen to experience for themselves.
A mobile version of Duelyst never formally released, although there were some betas running through 2017 that got suspended. Now, those prototypes will never see the light of day because the game itself is closing up shop. Official servers and services will cease come February 27th, 2020. Duelyst is dead.
Admittedly, despite how much it was a part of the CCG conversation a few years ago, I’d actually forgotten about the game this past year. It launched in 2016, but according to Steam Charts it had dropped to under 1,000 peak concurrent players by the start of 2017, and slowly bled away its playerbase over time.
This is yet another CCG that couldn’t seem to keep up momentum, even with a unique hybrid mechanic. You can read more about what will happen to Duelyst in the last month of its life here.
Did you ever play Duelyst? What do you think could have saved it from oblivion? Let us know in the comments!
Over on the Unity blog there is a discussion of the upcoming changes to VR and AR support in Unity 2019.3. The Unity engine is migrating to a new plugin based framework called the Unity XR SDK.
We have been working to improve our multi-platform offering, enabling direct integrations through a unified plugin framework. The resulting tech stack consists of an API that exposes common functionalities across our supported platforms in a frictionless way for creators while enabling XR hardware and software providers to develop their own Unity plugins. This architecture offers the following benefits:
- Multi-platform developer tools such as AR Foundation and the XR Interaction Toolkit
- Faster partner updates from supported plugins via the Unity Package Manager
- More platforms have access to an interface to leverage Unity’s XR rendering optimizations and developer tools
Unity has developed new XR plugins for our supported platforms as part of this shift. Additionally, we have deprecated our built-in platform implementations in 2019.3.
With the move to a plugin architecture future support for OpenXR will be handled by Valve in the future. From version 2019.3 onward, GearVR, Daydream and Vuforia will no longer be supported, forcing you to use the Unity 2018 LTS release if you wish to support those platforms. Additionally Google Cardboard support is ultimately going to be provided by this Google open source project.
In comments there was further details about VR/AR support improvements in the Unity 2019.3:
Hi Felix, Unity’s 2019.3 release is coming soon, and there are new features in XR that will roll out in that update. In 2019.3, we have enabled Vulkan for Oculus Quest, using multiview fixed foveated rendering (FFR). Additionally, the Universal Rendering Pipeline (URP) and High-Definition Rendering Pipeline (HDRP) are both supported in our XR SDK, and will continue to be supported. Lastly, our new XR Plugins are compatible with the new input system. That means if you add the Magic Leap XR Plugin and Input System packages, for example, you will get the controller layouts for Magic Leap devices.
You can learn more about the changes in the video below.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=st7vFrogWWc&w=853&h=480]
<!–
–>
* As a result of the experimental dota_camera_alternative option that has been in testing since summer, we’ve adjusted the default camera position. The console command “dota_camera_legacy 1” will adjust your settings to match the old camera if you prefer it.
Tiled, the open source map editing software, just released version 1.3.2. Along side that release was a development snapshot with new features that will be available in the next release. If you want learn Tiled we have an in-depth tutorial series available here.
Details of the 1.3.2 release:
- Fixed initialization of selected layers (#2719)
- Fixed stamp action shortcuts not being configurable (#2684)
- Fixed the tileset view to respect the ‘wheel zooms by default’ preference
- Fixed insertion position when using drag-n-drop to rearrange layers
- Fixed displayed layer data format in Properties
- Fixed repeating of export when map is saved by a custom command (#2709)
- Fixed issue when multiple worlds are loaded that use pattern matching
- Issues view can now be hidden by clicking the status bar counters
- macOS: Fixed black toolbar when enabling OpenGL rendering (#1839)
- Windows: Fixed context menus activating first item on release (#2693)
- Windows installer: Include the ‘defoldcollection’ plugin (#2677)
- Windows installer: Signed by SignPath
- libtiled: Avoid inheriting Properties from QVariantMap (#2679)
- docs: Added some notes to Python and JavaScript pages (#2725)
- Updated Qt from 5.12.5 to 5.12.6
- Updated Finnish translation (by Tuomas Lähteenmäki and odamite)
- Updated part of Italian translation (by Katia Piazza)
As well as details from the developmental release:
Tinting Layers
Layers can now be tinted by multiplying their pixels with a color. This way you can darken or colorize your graphics in various ways without needing to set up separate images for it! The new “Tint Color” property is supported on tile layers, object layers and image layers, and is inherited from group layers.
Object Alignment
Ever since tile objects were added as a feature, their alignment has been inconsistent with the other shapes. Whereas a rectangle had its origin in the top-left, tile objects had their origin in the bottom-left (or even bottom-center, on isometric maps). While useful in some contexts, this inconsistency has annoyed many people over the years.
Now, a new tileset property specifies which alignment to use for tile objects using that tileset. If you set it to top-left, the tile objects will align consistently with the other objects. But of course you could also choose for bottom-center or center alignment depending on your needs.
Object Reference Properties
This change is a big step towards the Connecting Objects feature, which is planned for Tiled 1.4. You can now choose “object” as the type when adding a custom property, and the property will be interpreted as a reference to an object on the map, referring to it by its unique ID. A special dialog makes it easy to search for the object you want to refer to and the name of the referenced object will be displayed.
Tiled is available as a free download for Mac, Windows and Linux here. The source code for Tiled is available on GitHub.
<!–
–>
I thought this week might turn out to be quite interesting after the explosive news regarding Carcassonne (see below), but things seemed to settle down quite quickly. As you’ll read below though, that wasn’t the only franchise that will be changing the guard!
We’ve also caught up on a few reviews this week and then I had a bit of a moment regarding Black Desert Mobile. I’m sorry.
Meanwhile, in the world of mobile games…
It’s another dud weak in terms of releases, however a couple of things caught our eye…
We didn’t spot this in time last week, but we wanted to give a quick shout out to Retro Bowl. It’s from the developers of New Star Soccer and is themed around the American NFL. You pick your favourite team and manage all aspects of their existence both on and off the pitch.
It’s a ‘free-to-try’ game in the sense that you get to play five games for free before being prompted to pay for the full game, which costs $0.99/£0.99.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kf7DIBfD54U]
Echoing the news we heard about Carcassonne earlier in the week, it seems EA’s stable of mobile Tetris games are also being replaced by a new upstart. The AAA games publisher was responsible for Tetris 2011, Tetris Premium and Tetris Blitz – these games are still available on iOS but have vanished from Google Play.
We’re unsure at this time if Android users are still able to download the game if they’ve had it downloaded previously, or whether existing downloads still work. The developers have stated officially the games will be retired on April 20th, 2020. At this point even iOS users won’t be able to play them, regardless if they’ve got them on a device or not.
This is where the new challenger comes in. A company called N3TWORK INC. has now released a new free Tetris app on both iOS and Android.
They’ve only done one game before – a free-to-play fantasy match-3 puzzle/RPG called Legendary: Game of Heroes RPG, as well as an Apple Watch game called Mafia Watch. That’s nice, I guess? It’s a shame this latest shut-down is more draconian than Carcarsonne but it depends on the terms of the license deal they have.
On the bright side, there’s a couple of cool and interesting app updates to cover this week. Let’s take a look…
Our 2019 GOTY Winner is still proving it’s worth with another sizable update this week. The main focus is improving how Interdictors fare in battles, as well as adding in three new specialist ships that specialise in anti-craft warfare (‘crafts’ are fighters, bombers etc…)
There’s also been some further tweaks to various talents, as well as an overhaul of the Frontier Liner starting ship. Lovely stuff.
When Out There launched on Nintendo Switch it did so as Out There: Omega The Alliance, an exclusive version of the game that came with goodies like a new ending, new spaceships and achievements. Developer Mi-Clos did reassure everyone though back in November that this content would be coming to other platforms, and now it’s finally out as a free update on mobile. If you haven’t played in a while now might be a great chance to dive back in. We’ve included the Nintendo Switch trailer so you can see what the new edition will look like.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M14lmV_XEL0?controls=0]
Seen anything else you liked? Played any of the above? Let us know in the comments!
There’s two flavors of space fiction. One has the sweet taste of optimism and adventure. The other is bitter and sprinkled with existential fear. Many works dabble in a bit of both. Kyle Barrett’s End of the Universe most certainly doesn’t. His follow up to Immortal Rogue takes a spoonful of the gloom of last year’s vampire slasher, and simmers it down to concentrated grimdark. The game this spooky sauce covers is a curious, if not ultimately disappointing taste.
You wake up in the cockpit of a floating ship. You don’t know how you got there, but you know you need to go. Now. There’s a handful of options to choose from as far as where, but they all take you to a place where you will be shooting whatever is nearby. These options, one being following a blinking light, for example, promise a bit of a mystery. If you survive long enough down a path, you’ll eventually get another set of options, branching you down another path of a loosely knit story.
Each path doesn’t seem to have any obvious benefits over one another. In fact, the only real significant difference between them is that they seem to determine what sorts of enemies you’ll see the most during the next set of screens. If there are more consequential story elements deeper in space, then I just haven’t found them yet. Some choices seem pretty dramatic, but don’t lead to anything more than just shooting more people.
End of the Universe has shoot-em up in its haunted, black blood. From very early stages, enemies begin to crowd the limited space provided. They mostly either sit stationary and fire like a turret, or swarm you in a constant, relentless dog fight. The amount of ships and bullets on screen can get downright oppressive at times, thanks to the very limited hit points you have to work with. The learning curve for how to identify the best ways to stick and move is steep, and will require many deaths before any feeling of confidence can be gained.
Some design choices seem inconsistent, though. Each arena is surrounded by a yellow box that acts like an electric fence to keep the action in. Well, your action at least. Enemies pass in and out of it at will, while you take damage when colliding into it. The size of this box grows and shrinks per stage, which in and of itself isn’t an issue. Combined with the debris that fills the field, however, and any given stage can feel like an unfair death trap.
Procedural generation is a design concept that is supposed to algorithmically place objects and enemies in a way that still feels winnable by a player. Many maps in End of the Universe feel completely random. This is a problem because it can often create zones that feel boxed off and impossible to traverse safely. Maybe enemies are tucked behind two big chunks of ship debris, meaning you have to slither into a narrow space in order to destroy them, and move on to the next stage. Random encounters shouldn’t feel like Luke blowing up the Death Star.
Sometimes, enemies spawn under obstacles. Sometimes that seems deliberate. Big purple chomping aliens pop out from asteroids you’ve gotten too close to and take you by surprise. The overwhelming occasion features ships that would be moving around if they could clip through the walls that spawned on top of them, but instead just kind of spin aimlessly until you put them out of their misery. Some creatures will spawn, but linger just outside of the aforementioned yellow box, which means you have to make several fly bys in hopes to hit with some long range shots. These out of place enemies sometimes self-reset if you let them linger off screen for awhile. Count yourself lucky when they do.
The controls can be tough to navigate, as well. With one touch, you can change directions, slow down, and dash forward. Time, and possible experimentation with the sensitivity controls, will be enough to make you at least a serviceable pilot. Even now, with hours under my belt, I clip debris and passing hostiles accidentally. It feels like slipping accidentally is just a part of playing any given round.
The stages seem well suited for dropping in and playing a small chunk quickly. Ironically, for a game that fills every available space with things that will kill you, moment to moment gameplay is pretty passive. This is because light weapons auto fire, and heavy weapons take time to charge. You spend much of the game just watching your ship do things while you attempt to navigate it around obstacles. It’s an interesting undercutting of the Gradius-like button mash/hold designs that you see all over the genre already.
But it doesn’t always make for an interesting session. Once you start unlocking new ships and new potential weapons, the sort of combinations you can slap on your moving space turret really ties the whole thing together. It just requires real dedication to push through the initial hump to get to the gameplay loop you can really get behind.
Aesthetically, End of the Universe is also pretty inconsistent. On one hand, many of the enemy sprites are well designed and animated. Especially the bug/tentacle beast space aliens and the metro cyber cops. Some of the other space enemies just look and feel generic. Even though two sets of enemies look remarkably different, they’re identities don’t hold up past ‘blue space guys’ and ‘orange space guys’ when next to the really inspired stuff.
The backgrounds are often just washed out and hard to see with all the bigger obstacles on top. Some of this space junk is also pretty cool. The Broken World and Spaceway sections are particular standouts. The rest never really pop. The Hive Worlds are interesting the first time, but they don’t really stay with you.
Immortal Rogue fans will need to temper their expectations when approaching End of the Universe. They feature some similarities – rogue-like nature, some visual elements and decision tree concepts – but these are wholly different games. Like Rogue, Universe is better than the sum of its parts, but this space adventure is far tougher to get into early on. Dedication may reveal a game you can sink your teeth into. You wouldn’t be faulted for finding the mostly passive-feeling combat, mixed with the limited progression and unsatisfying narrative, to be too dark a frontier to travel.
