RIOT: Civil Unrest is Now Available on Steam and is 15% off!*

As civil crisis deepens and inequality tears the very fabric of society the discontentment of the masses manifests itself in violent public disturbances and civil disorder. Play as the police or the angry horde as RIOT – Civil Unrest places you in some of the world’s most fractious disputes.

*Offer ends February 19 at 10AM Pacific Time

This interview is part of our Road to the IGF series. You can find the rest by clicking here.

Unavowed, which has been nominated for Excellence in Narrative, sees the player returning to their life after being possessed by a demon, and follows their decisions as they face a greater imminent darkness.

Gamasutra spoke with Dave Gilbert, writer, developer, and programmer for Unavowed, to talk about the nuances of drawing the player into your characters and stories, how control over the narrative can grant a greater sense of immersion, and the thoughts that go into making player decisions that truly matter.

Years of weaving stories

My name is Dave Gilbert, and my primary role on the game was as a writer, developer, and programmer.

I downloaded Adventure Game Studio waayyyy back in 2001. After spending about 5 years making freeware games, I decided to give the full-time commercial developer thing a whirl, and haven’t looked back since. We’ve published over fifteen games, including the Blackwell series, Primordia, Gemini Rue, Technobabylon and most recently, Unavowed.

Branching party-based narratives brought to adventure games

Back in 2013, I read an interview with a former BioWare writer about how she longed for the ability to skip the combat sections in narrative-based RPGs. The logic was that action-based games let you skip the narrative, so why not the reverse? This sounded like the point-and-click game of my dreams – the classic party-based branching narrative of an RPG, but in a point-and-click adventure game? Sign me up.

Someone was bound to make that game sooner or later, but nobody ever did. So in a fit of hubris I decided to make that game myself! Unavowed was the result.

Handy story tools

We primarily used Adventure Game Studio, a freeware tool that is used to make point and clickers. The engine is a bit dated these days, but it handles so much of the grunt work and does everything we need right out of the box. 

On beginning with a demon possession

I wanted to start the game off with a bang, and the visual of starting the game in the middle of an exorcism was too good to pass up. And, after playing around with the idea, it fit the themes of the game perfectly. It gets the players invested, it gives you a reason to enter this supernatural world, and it gives you a clear goal to achieve.

 As for why that idea specifically… I don’t know! It just came to me from that place that all ideas come from. When it came to me, it just felt right. So I went with it. Sometimes that happens.

How to connect the player with your characters and narrative

There are no hard and fast rules for this kind of thing. Any rules or theories I come up for myself I tend to set on fire whenever I start a new project. That said, the key thing for me is to make it personal. I try to make an emotional connection to the characters and stories I am creating, because that’s the only way I can build that same connection with the audience. You can’t fake that kind of connection, so building that within myself is what I spend a lot of time doing. Without it, the spark just isn’t there.

Making decisions that matter

I mentioned earlier that I try and create a connection to the characters and stories I create. If I am successful in doing that, then it gives me unique insight into what a difficult choice could be. If *I* am torn on a particular choice that my characters are faced with, then most likely the players will be as well.

For Unavowed, I am particularly proud of how the Big Decision at the end of the Brooklyn mission turned out. I still don’t know what the correct choice would be, and many players have said the same thing. 

The appeal of choosing party members

As I said, I was very inspired by that 2013 BioWare interview. My favorite part of the mid-era BioWare games (which I define as from the original Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic to the first Mass Effect, before EA took over) was the party companions. You make a deliberate choice about who to take with you, and your choices get rewarded in many small and subtle ways. Your party members will react to the world, other characters, and your choices in different ways. And often, I would go back and replay old sections with a different party to see what changed.

It’s a style of narrative design that isn’t made much anymore (even BioWare seems to have given it up), so I wanted to recreate something similar. But instead of your party members changing your tactics in combat situations, it would instead change how you solved various puzzles. 

Immersion through control

It’s just that. Give the player control whenever possible. I tend to put more emphasis on immersion and interactivity than puzzles (much to puzzle fans’ dismay), but I really want to put you within the experience. Nothing takes that illusion away more than taking away control, so I try to avoid that. I am not always successful (the climax of the Unavowed‘s Wall Street mission is Exhibit A), but I do try.

The flaws of multiple endings

As for conclusions, I think designing a game with multiple endings in mind is a bad idea. Inevitably, one of them will be less satisfying than the other, and I didn’t want to ever tell the player that they played my game “wrong.” Any choice you make is valid, and the reward comes from seeing the results of that choice play out in small ways over the course of the game. I never want to cut the player out of content just because they made a particular choice. 

Okay, now we’re straying into familiar territory. With tonight’s Nintendo Direct getting everyone’s pulse racing, it seems the old rumour about a Star Fox racing game from Retro Studios is doing the rounds once more.

According to a post from GameFAQs user Vergeben, the long-rumoured Star Fox: Grand Prix will finally be revealed this evening. He’s got form with Smash Bros. character information and his original claims for the barrel-rolling racer were backed up by other websites; we, too, heard things on the grapevine.

From Vergeben’s post:

From what I hear you won’t be waiting too long for it to release as I am hearing spring & there is even a beta scheduled to happen soon after its announcement tomorrow.

That last line sounds interesting – Nintendo is hardly famous for its pre-release betas, although the Splatoon 2 Testfires and Global Testpunches for ARMS arguably set precedent, especially if the company is looking to push a theoretical online component. With Retro now taking on Metroid Prime 4 development duties, perhaps the company was simply too busy with this until just recently.

Do you think this holds any water? With the rumour mill in full swing, can tonight’s Direct possibly please everyone? Let us know in the comments.

Frozenbyte has revealed that its super tasty ‘Trine Series 1 – 3‘ bundle, which unsurprisingly contains all three previously-released Trine games, will be getting a physical release. The best news is that all three will be available on one cartridge – so no pesky downloads required!

Combining puzzle, platforming, and action gameplay set in a beautiful fantasy world, the Trine series has seen a number of releases across Nintendo platforms over the last few years. The original is actually already available on Switch now under the name Trine Enchanted Edition, and Trine 2: Director’s Cut launched on Wii U back in 2012. The third entry, Trine 3: The Artifacts of Power, will come to a Nintendo platform for the first time with this release.

Those second and third instalments will be available as individual downloads, too, meaning you can pick and choose whichever titles you like from the series. You might remember that Trine 4 has also already been confirmed for a Switch release at a later date, so this would be a great chance to experience the whole collection.

The bundle is set to become available this spring, as you can see in the trailer above, and is available to pre-order today exclusively at GameStop stores and online for $39.99. Trine 2: Complete Story will launch digitally on Switch on 18th February for $16.99 / 16.99€ / £15.29.

Are you a fan of the Trine games? Will you be picking up this physical pack? Tell us below.

The 2019 Lunar New Year Sale has begun, bringing big savings on thousands of titles across Steam in celebration of the Year of the Pig!

During this year’s Lunar New Year Sale, players will receive a one-time automatic $5 (or equivalent currency) discount on qualifying purchases over $30 — this is limited to one cart purchase per account.

On top of that, buying games during the sale will earn you tokens that may be redeemed for Steam rewards at the Rewards Booth. You can exchange your tokens for a shiny profile page, emotes, badges, and more instant discount coupons! These tokens will expire once the Lunar New Year Sale ends.

For more information about how the Rewards Booth works, check out the FAQ: Rewards Booth FAQ

Throughout the 2018 Steam Winter Sale, millions of you cast your votes in the third-annual Steam Awards. The results are in, and on February 8th at 10am Pacific, the winners will be announced via broadcast at https://steam.tv/SteamAwards.

This is the first time we’ve announced the results of the Steam Awards via broadcast, and the show will include special messages from the winners. Don’t forget to tune in!

What’s orange and white and sleeps all day? Jens, but Mojang still managed to finish another Java Snapshot this week. Enjoy!

A full summary of the content available in this snapshot can be found in the changelog on Minecraft.net, the following is a short summary:

• Added Fox
• Narrator is now available in menus (“Ctrl + B” to activate it)
• Paintings are now broken up into individual textures
• Fixed bugs

FOX

What do they say?

• Foxes are nocturnal
• Foxes are nimble and quick, so sneak up on them carefully!
• Breed foxes with berries
• If you breed two foxes, their offspring will trust you forever
• Foxes like to eat any and every food item they find on the ground
• You may find a fox exploring a nearby village at night

To get snapshots, open your launcher and go to the “launch options” tab. Check the box saying “Enable snapshots” and save. To switch between the snapshot and normal version, you can find a new dropdown menu next to the “Play” button. Back up your world first or run the game on in a different folder (In the “launch options” page).

Please report any and all bugs you find in Minecraft to bugs.mojang.com.

Snapshots can corrupt your world, please backup and/or run them in a different folder from your main worlds. 

Share your thoughts on how 1.14 is shaping up in the comments below!

Like life itself, software wants to be free. In our increasingly open source era, software can more easily disperse into new ecosystems. From open source hackers fearlessly planting the Linux flag on the Sony Playstation back in the aughts to standard Linux apps appearing on Chromebooks and on Android-based Galaxy smartphones (Samsung’s DeX), Linux continues to break down barriers.

The latest Linux-related ports include an AArch64-Laptops project that enables owners of Windows-equipped Arm laptops and tablets to load Ubuntu. There’s also a Kickstarter project to develop a Raspberry Pi friendly version of Google’s low-end Android 9 Pi Go stack. Even Windows is spreading its wings. A third-party project has released a WoA installer that enables a full Windows 10 image to run on the Pi.

Ubuntu to Arm laptops

The practice of replacing Windows with Linux on Intel-based computers has been around for decades, but the arrival of Arm-based laptops has complicated matters. Last year, Microsoft partnered with Qualcomm and to release the lightweight Windows 10 S on the Asus NovaGo convertible laptop and the HP Envy x2 and Lenovo Miix 630 2-in-1 tablets, all powered by a Snapdragon 835 SoC.

Reviews have been mixed, with praise for the longer battery life, but criticism about sluggish performance. Since the octa-core, 10nm fabricated Snapdragon 835 is designed to run on the Linux-based Android — it also supports embedded Linux — Linux hackers naturally decided that they could do better.

As reported by Phoronix, AArch64-Laptops has posted Ubuntu 18.04 LTS images for all three of the above systems. As noted by Liliputing, the early release lacks support for WiFi, on-board storage, or hardware-accelerated graphics, and the touchpad doesn’t work on the Asus NovaGo.

The WiFi and storage issues should be solved in the coming months and accelerated graphics should be theoretically possible thanks to the open source Freedreno GPU driver project, says Phoronix. It’s unclear if AArch64-Laptops can whip up Ubuntu builds for more powerful Arm Linux systems like the Snapdragon 850 based Samsung Galaxy Book 2 and Lenovo Yoga C630.

Liliputing notes that Arm Linux lovers can also try out the Linux-driven, Rockchip RK3399 based Pinebook laptop. Later this year, Pine64 will release a consumer-grade Pinebook Pro.

Android Go to Raspberry Pie

If you like a double helping of pie, have we got a Kickstarter project for you. As reported by Geeky Gadgets, an independent group called RaspberryPi DevTeam has launched a Kickstarter campaign to develop a version of Google’s new Android 9 Pie Go stack for entry-level smartphones that can to run on the Raspberry Pi 3.

Assuming the campaign meets its modest $3,382 goal by April 10, there are plans to deliver a usable build by the end of the year. Pledges range from 1 to 499 Euros.

The project will use AOSP-based code from Android 9 Pie Go, which was released last August. Go is designed for low-end phones with only 1GB RAM.

RaspberryPi DevTeam was motivated to launch the project because current Android stacks for the Raspberry Pi “normally have bugs, are unstable and run slow,” says the group. That has largely been true since hackers began attempting the feat four years ago with the quad-core, Cortex-A7 Raspberry Pi 2. Early attempts have struggled to give Android its due on 1GB RAM SBC, even with the RPi 3B and 3+.

The real-time focused RTAndroid has had the most success, and there have been other efforts like the unofficial, Android 7.1.2 based LineageOS 14.1 for the RPi 3. Last year, an RTAndroid-based, industrial focused emteria.OS stack arrived with more impressive performance.

A MagPi hands-on last summer was impressed with the stack, which it called “the first proper Android release running on a Raspberry Pi 3B+.” MagPi continues: “Finally there’s a proper way to install full Android on your Raspberry Pi.”

Available in free evaluation (registration required) and commercial versions, emteria.OS uses F-Droid as an open source stand-in for Google Play. The MagPi hands-on runs through an installation of Netflix and notes the availability of apps including NewPipe (YouTube), Face Slim (Facebook), and Terminal Emulator.

All these solutions should find it easier to run on next year’s Raspberry Pi 4. Its SoC will move from the current 40nm process to something larger than 7nm, but no larger than 28nm, according to RPi Trading CEO Eben Upton in a Feb. 11 Tom’s Hardware post. The SBC will have “more RAM, a faster processor, and faster I/O,” but will be the same size and price as the RPi 3B+, says the story. Interestingly, it was former Google CEO Eric Schmidt who convinced Upton and his crew to retain the $35 price for the RPi 2. The lesson seems to have stuck.

Windows 10 on RPi 3

As far back as the Raspberry Pi 2, Microsoft announced it would support the platform with its slimmed down Windows 10 IoT, which works better on the new 64-bit RPi 3 models. But why use a crippled version of Windows for low-power IoT when you could use Raspbian?

The full Windows 10 should draw more interest, and that’s what’s promised by the WOA-Project with its new WoA-Installer for the RPi 3 or 3B+. According to Windows Latest, the open source WoA (Windows on Arm) Installer was announced in January following an earlier WoA release for the Lumia 950 phones.

The WoA Installer lets you run Windows 10 Arm 64 on the Pi but comes with no performance promises. The GitHub page notes: “WoA Installer needs a set of binaries, AKA the Core Package, to do its job. These binaries are not not mine and are bundled and offered just for convenience…” Good luck!

There is something incredibly synergetic about prison and videogames. While in real life incarceration is a punishment most wish to avoid, its inherent nature and location in places meant to be inescapable goes in direct contrast to players’ instincts to solve a puzzle — you put a player in a prison facility in a game, and you can expect them to try to break free almost immediately. The genius of The Escapists is recognising that urge and building a whole game about it, providing players with all the tools, opportunities, and mechanics to crack the hardest joints.

From lax holding facilities to maximum security prisons, The Escapists 2: Pocket Breakout includes five different levels, including the tutorial, two easy prisons, a medium and a hard. Each has a different layout and number of characters, providing a variety of situations to keep gameplay fresh, further compounded by the completely randomised rosters (that can also be customised by the player before the start of each scenario).

As a game, The Escapists 2 rotates around following a stringent set of rules to cover up the continuous rule-breaking. A daily routine consisting of roll calls, meal times, gym and shower breaks, and even work must be adhered to, lest the guards get suspicious and start keeping an eye on you more often. You don’t really need to do the things they expect you to do — being on the mess hall networking will fool them even if you don’t properly eat — but the balance between legal and illegal activities makes up the biggest part of the game’s loop.

The other facet of the game comes in the planning and execution of the actual breaking out of prison, which requires you to decide by yourself — with very little assistance — the who, the what, the why, the when, and the where. Digging under the wall, cutting fences, hiding in a shipping crate, and even disguising yourself as part of a video crew can be used to attain freedom, and you will need to not only mentally keep track of all the moving pieces, but also get them in place.

Besides straight up snatching the items from their relevant locations, the best way of gathering materials for your escape is from other prisoners. By doing favours to other inmates, players can get money with which to buy supplies from other fellows dabbling in contraband, presenting a wide array of items to create anything from makeshift tools to a dummy prisoner to fool the guards who look at your cell bed.

Performing those actions can be a bit of a chore at times, thanks to the game somewhat finicky system when it comes to targeting people and items for use. The context buttons sometimes feel arbitrary in their placement and prompting, leading to some puzzling moments of thrashing about something or someone to get it to do what you want to get done. That is further compounded by a save system that only saves when you are at bed or at the end of specific routines, meaning that The Escapists 2 can be slightly inconvenient at times, especially for a mobile game.

In terms of comparison to The Escapists 1, the sequel takes everything that worked on the first instalment and expands it. The game is virtually the same as the original but bigger, which coupled with the 8-bit graphics and great music and sound design should provide plenty of fun to fans of the franchise — and provide a great starting point to newcomers.

The most important thing for this edition, arguably, is how well The Escapist 2 performs on mobile. The game has been out on Steam since mid-2017, but Team 17 went all out on this port. Aside from graphics and audio quality equal to the PC version, Pocket Breakout enjoys wonderfully touch-responsive rolling menus and three different control systems: an on-screen dynamic or fixed joystick, a click and hold movement system, or a click-only method similar to RPGs of old like Diablo. All work equally well and have their strengths and weakness, meaning the only factor that dictates their use is a user’s personal preference.

Just because a game is premium doesn’t automatically make it good – there are plenty of titles out there that fall short in one way or another. The Escapists 2: Pocket Breakout is not one of those games; featuring an interesting premise, a fun and versatile gameplay loop, and a number of mobile features that put several lesser ports to shame. Given its replayability and execution, The Escapists 2 is an easy recommendation if you feel at all attracted to its core premise.