GDC 2013: Towerfall brings all the boys to the yard

013 is the year for the local-couch co-op play renaissance. Developers are embracing the personal open forum of pummeling their friends within inches of each other. Matt Thornsen has been developing a title that’s poised to lead the charge out of the pack with his work on Towerfall, a four-player arena fighting game that takes elements from a variable palate of ideas and makes for an indefinable label but potentially excellent slobber knocker. We had the pleasure to hang out and play Matt’s display at the Indie Mixer, and here are our thoughts.

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GDC 2013: Prepare Your Technologic Devices for Jazzpunk

ust keep your cool, prepare your videographic terminal, and take some pills before the next mission. We’re not talking about the Matrix here -- this is the real deal.

Jazzpunk, which developer Necrophone Games describes as a cartoon styled retro cyperpunk comedy, puts you in command of the wacky adventures of Agent Polyblank as he searches for only God knows what while throwing some “Comrade Crunch” cereal in the process. Delicious.

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GDC 2013: Peeking into PixelJunk Inc.

f you ever wanted to build your own secret underground Bond-like installation, or... you know, a soup company with robots, Q-Games and the PixelJunk team have the title for you.

Among the many other wonders at this year’s GDC, we also received more details regarding a new PixelJunk game titled PixelJunk Inc. The game features robots, underground facilities, and co-op galore.

In fact, you could say it’s “totally co-op.”

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GDC 2013: Big Storytelling, Small Budgets

et’s face it you guys, video games are expensive as all hell. They’re pricey to buy, pricey to market, and even pricier to develop; it’s destined to be a constant in this industry. Regardless of these daunting budget trends, there seems to be this misconception that enthralling experiences can’t be done without Scrooge McDuck Money Bins-worth of funding to produce it. George Backer of Hotsauce Interactive approaches GDC with the philosophy that experiences are produced from the skillful heart and not the wallet.

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GDC 2013: The Best of the IGF Finalists Pavillion

he GDC floor expo has kicked off into full effect, and one of the highlights of this intimidating platform is the pavilion booth showcasing all of the finalists nominated for the annual Independent Games Festival awards. Sean and I had the pleasure of roaming through the aisles of all these favorable titles, and we highlighted some of our favorites. While some debuted to the public during our attendance to the show, others are still awaiting completion to go gold. Thanks to the partnership with Valve this year, each game will be available on Steam.

Here are our picks to look out for.

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GDC 2013: Expanding The Future of Storytelling With Forward Thinking

he art of an engaging story is constantly explored when it comes to the realm of video games, and still has an exponential amount to expand regardless of the advances that we have made so far. Storytelling is a factor that’s gained more and more focus in elevating the video game experience to another level. Jesse Schell, author of The Art of Games, takes the stage and talks about the likelihood that we will have the Shakespeare of games. The crowd gradually quiets down the excitement of his session introduction, and takes notice to what the luminary has to say for the future of the medium.

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GDC 2013: Videogame History Museum Highlights

All photos in this interview were courtesy of our friend John Celentano of Unwinnable.com, be sure to check their coverage of GDC too!

ideo game historians and Classic Gaming Expo founders John Hardie, Sean Kelly and Joe Santulli started collecting videogames and related memorabilia before it was cool.

No, seriously. They’ve been at this since the 1980s, way before the thought of “collecting” these products occurred to anyone else. These and other individuals like them searched for every obscure product they could find. No eBay stores. No Craigslist. Just patience, timing, and a constant interest in finding something neat and ever so obscure. Think thrift shop hunting even, only with a few more closed environments and “garbage” nobody wanted anymore. Hell, in once case, another person’s trash became everyone else’s most coveted prototype console: the Sega Neptune.

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GDC 2013: Kickstarter Get's Bigger-Tips for Success for Indie Devs

t’s an old joke that just never quite stops being funny, but there are people who loyally follow the work of another individual or entity and can’t help but shout out the words “Here! Take my money!” at the prospect of being able to get more content from their said heroes. Crowd funding was once a humorous anecdote whenever the concept came up, but has now flourished into a million-dollar industry thanks to an outlet named Kickstarter. Hundreds of thousands of fledgling independent game developers have fully realized their vision with Kickstarter’s assistance, and with an avenue it offers to those who have need of financial support, more and more people try to get in on that piece of the pie with every passing day.

Though contemporaries like Indiegogo exist to give options for crowd funding without all of the red tape included with Kickstarter, Indiegogo has amassed a total $2.4 million in successful projects while Kickstarter has reached $45 million — that's the same budget for development on most of Ubisoft’s AAA titles.

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