Monthly Archives: March 2015

Outcast Odyssey: DeviantArt Contest Winners Announced

Outcast Odyssey

BANDAI NAMCO Games America Inc. and DeviantArt today announced the grand prize winners of their worldwide search for new card designs to be featured in the wildly popular mobile collectible card battler, Outcast Odyssey.

The Outcast Odyssey Card Master Challenge tapped into DeviantArt’s global community of independent artists, many of whom have already produced incredible portfolios incorporating fantastical elements from their favorite games and more. Participants were asked to create original artwork depicting one of three classes in the game – Steampunk Warrior, Witch/Warlock or Dragon/Monster. Over 2,500 submissions from around the world were considered. From there, 25 semi-finalists were judged by a panel that included Joe Riego, Mobile Games Producer at BANDAI NAMCO Games America, Jonathan Durr, Senior Designer at Magic Pixel Games, and Outcast Odyssey artist and DeviantArt member Warren Louw.

“We knew the game was received well, but to see so much passion and enthusiasm from our fans across the globe really touched us,” said Joe Riego. “I wish we could feature every design submitted – perhaps we’ll have to run another contest in the future!”

The full list of grand prize winners can be viewed online at http://www.deviantart.com/outcastodysseywinners. They are:

Entry: Say Tchiiiiz !!!!
DA Name: DoganOztel
Name: Dogan Oztel
Country: France

Entry: Witch
DA Name: NikitaBolyakov
Name: Nick Bolyakov
Country: Ukraine

Entry: lady snake
DA Name: Igor-Grechany-Ostrov
Name: Igor Grechany
Country: Russia

For more information on BANDAI NAMCO Games’ titles, please visit http://www.bandainamcogames.com.

Worlds of Magic: Now Using Unity 5 Engine

Worlds of Magic

GDC this year is bursting with great news for independent developers especially. One of the most exciting is probably Unity Technologies announcing Unity 5 – the next generation of a well-known engine, bringing a whole bunch of new features. Wastelands Interactive developers decided to use this opportunity and move their 4X turn-based strategy game – Worlds of Magic, to a whole new level. The game will be launched on Unity 5 on March 19th this year.

Watch the new gameplay trailer video HERE. You can also buy the PC version of the game now via Steam Early Access visiting Worlds of Magic product page HERE or support developers directly and buy the game from their store HERE.

Worlds of Magic will be the first 4X game of such a scale released on Unity 5 and Wastelands Interactive developers are most excited about the features the new edition of the engine brought to the table.

The new generation of Unity 3D gives us more control over the creation of out game. With the new, just released Unity 5.0 we will be able to greatly increase the stability and overall performance of Worlds of Magic. The new audio mixer will make the game sound better. We will also be able to illuminate the objects in many more ways and make all the materials look more realistic, which will lead to the whole game looking way better visually. Thus new Unity 5.0 is not only a much better tool for developers, making our jobs more efficient, but what is most important, this will give players a much more stable, smoother running, better looking and sounding games. We are very happy that such a large project as Worlds of Magic  will be released in just two weeks after making Unity 5.0 available for developers. – said Leszek Lisowski, Wastelands Interactive CEO.

Worlds of Magic, unlike many other games out there, has not only went through Kickstarter campaign successfully and appeared on Steam Early Access, but will also be published across platforms including launching on PC, Mac, Linux on March 19th and on PS4 in Q3 this year.

For more info, visit  http://myworldsofmagic.com/

Guild Wars 2: ArenaNet Announces PAX East Activities for Fans

GW2

ArenaNet™, publisher and developer of the acclaimed Guild Wars franchise, today announced activities at PAX East that are sure to fire up Guild Wars 2 fans, whether they’re braving the cold in Boston or catching the show from afar. The studio is using PAX East to premiere the first playable demo of Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns, the upcoming expansion to Guild Wars 2. ArenaNet is also holding the Guild Wars 2 World Tournament Series (WTS) Finals at the show in partnership with ESL.  PvP teams from North America, Europe and China who qualified through multiple online tournaments will come face-to-face on the show floor on Saturday, March 7, as they vie for $50,000 in cash prizes and the title of Guild Wars 2 global PvP champions.

ArenaNet will be at PAX East booth #5116 March 6-8 in Boston. The WTS Finals take place at the ESL Arena on the show floor on March 7. The official Guild Wars 2 Twitch channel will be streaming all three days during show hours and will provide full coverage of the WTS Finals on Saturday.

ArenaNet is bringing the Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns demo to fans at PAX East after announcing it as the first expansion to Guild Wars 2 in January at PAX South.  Fans should line up early at ArenaNet’s booth #5116 to get their hands on two different demos. There is a PvE demo that takes players on the first steps of the journey into the new Heart of Maguuma jungle, where they can experience the revenant, the entirely new playable profession coming with the expansion. They can also get a glimpse of the Mastery system, ArenaNet’s new approach to introducing endgame progression in an MMO. There is also a PvP demo of the all-new Stronghold game mode. Stronghold introduces new strategy and role-play into PvP with a mode where teams become either pirates or knights who must infiltrate and defend ground to kill the enemy lord. In addition to the opportunity to get hands-on with Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns, ArenaNet will have a stage at its booth running developer-hosted demos, guest play sessions with popular online Guild Wars 2 streamers and trivia contests with prizes.

The WTS Finals at PAX East mark the North American leg of Guild Wars 2’s global PvP championships.  In December 2014, ArenaNet crowned the first ever WTS champs, North America’s Abjured, at a tournament held in Beijing. Now, the Abjured must fight to retain their title as they collide with new foes in Boston. The winners will take their lion’s share of the $50,000 cash prize and be among the first to have their names engraved on the official WTS championship trophy being unveiled during closing ceremonies.  The WTS Finals takes place from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. EST (15:00-23:00 UTC) on March 7, at the ESL Arena on the PAX East show floor and streamed live on Twitch.

Joining ArenaNet at PAX East are popular Twitch streamers Shinryuku_ku, DocGotGame, Donna Berry and Reyana ATac. They will be part of Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns guest play sessions at ArenaNet’s booth, and streamed online at Twitch, at the following times:

Friday, March 6 – PvE Demo

Sunday, March 8 – PvP Stronghold

  • ·         11:30 a.m. Eastern Time (15:30 UTC) with Shinryuku_ku
  • ·         1:00 p.m. Eastern Time (17:00 UTC) with Donna Berry
  • ·         3:00 p.m. Eastern Time (19:00 UTC) with DocGotGame

To follow all of the latest updates on Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns and learn more about Guild Wars 2, please visit www.guildwars2.com.

Tribal Wars: New Mentor System Available

Tribal Wars

Today InnoGames has introduced a new feature to its classic strategy MMO Tribal Wars. The new game component, named the “Mentoring System” aims to help new players rapidly learn and assimilate into competitive play by assigning a veteran of the game to them. Through quests and personal guidance, they help them get the important first steps right. The company has also released an accompanying video explaining the process.

Through this brand-new system potential mentors and apprentices are determined and matched based on their achievements. This means experienced players can coach novices by assigning tasks in the form of quests. While this helps beginners, mentors also benefit by being recognized as valuable members of the community. A mentor rating is included into this element to guarantee mutual satisfaction. Qualifying and interested members can access the Mentoring System via their profile menu.