Rogue Trooper Redux is Now Available on Steam!

A pioneering tactical shooter and landmark comic book adaptation, Rogue Trooper is back, remastered and revitalised in true high definition. Experience acclaimed third-person action in this BAFTA-nominated tale of betrayal and revenge at the far reaches of the galaxy!

Many indie devs feel like they’re under pressure to make high-quality art that rivals that of big-budget studios — with the smallest team size and budget possible.

At GDC 2017 The Molasses Flood’s Gwen Frey, self-described sole animator and over-tasked generalist on The Flame in The Flood, discussed how to rapidly generate triple-A quadruped locomotion as an indie dev.

It was a video-heavy talk that focused on animation authoring and state blending for quadruped characters. According to Frey, these characters have unique foot sliding challenges and traditional solutions result in either poor fidelity motion or a bloated animator workload.

Frey shared some techniques for illustrating high-quality quadruped locomotion without the need for transition animations, using two different quadruped characters as examples – a boar with a rigid spine, and a large, gangling wolf with a procedural spine. 

It was a fascinating talk, one that you can now watch for free over on the official GDC YouTube channel!

In addition to this presentation, the GDC Vault and its new YouTube channel offers numerous other free videos, audio recordings, and slides from many of the recent Game Developers Conference events, and the service offers even more members-only content for GDC Vault subscribers.

Those who purchased All Access passes to recent events like GDC, GDC Europe, and GDC Next already have full access to GDC Vault, and interested parties can apply for the individual subscription via a GDC Vault subscription page. Group subscriptions are also available: game-related schools and development studios who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company by contacting staff via the GDC Vault group subscription page. Finally, current subscribers with access issues can contact GDC Vault technical support.

Gamasutra and GDC are sibling organizations under parent UBM Americas

Media giant IGN announced today that it has acquired Humble Bundle, the company best known for selling packs of indie games at pay-what-you-want prices. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

This is potentially a big deal for game developers, since Humble has expanded beyond its bundling business to publish games, pay devs to make games for its subscription-based monthly game club, maintain a subscription-based online game trove, and operate an online game storefront.

However, a press release confirming the deal also noted that Humble will continue to operate independently in the wake of the acquisition, with no significant business or staffing changes. It will have some degree of support from IGN (which is itself owned by digital media giant J2 Global), specifically in terms of accelerating growth and raising more money for charity.

Humble grew out of a bundle of indie games sold to raise money for charity in 2010, and in the seven years since it has raised over $100 million for charity. In a conversation today with Gamasutra, Humble cofounder John Graham and IGN executive VP Mitch Galbraith reiterated that IGN does not intend to change the way Humble does business.

“If it’s not broken, don’t fix it,” said Galbraith, who explained that IGN started looking to make a deal like this nearly a year ago. “The idea is just to feed them with the resources they need to keep doing what they’re doing.”

“We want to stick to the fundamentals in the short term. We don’t want to disrupt anything we’re doing right already,” added Graham. “Because of the shared vision and overlap of our customer bases, there’s going to be a lot of opportunities.”

Hey, Xbox gamers!

The Tips & Tricks team is here with 5 tips for Cuphead, from Studio MDHR. This cartoon-style, contra-like action game features the lovable characters, Cuphead and Mugman. These two mischief-makers were high on their luck at the local casino when they were made an offer they couldn’t refuse. Like good boys and girls know, talking to strangers typically leads to trouble – but they disobeyed their elders and lost a bet with the devil himself. Now they’re on an adventure to pay off their debts…

With these 5 tips, we’ll teach you things like how to make the controls work for you, and help you prepare for the nonstop, crazy-hard boss battles! For even more strategies and tactics on today’s hottest games, plus plenty of other gaming-related fun, tune in to Tips and Tricks live every Tuesday at 3 p.m. PT on Mixer.com/TipsAndTricks!

Damien has over a decade of professional writing experience under his belt, as well as a repulsively hairy belly. Rumours that he turned down a role in The Hobbit to work on Nintendo Life are, to the best of our knowledge, completely and utterly unfounded.