Så bom! Tillykke til begge! Game Swing og Ghost Ship.
Ghost Ship Games rammer guldåre – investerer kæmpeoverskud i andre spilfirmaer
Med over 70 mio. kr. på bundlinjen har Ghost Ship Games for alvor ramt plet. Men en del af pengene skal bruges til at hjælpe andre på vej, og første investering er nu på plads.
Woop woop! Sounds like great news from Invisible Walls!
Also they are not completely in the green zone yet it seems? Currently 60% funded.
(Also I don't know enough about the platform. But I assume it is equal to the usual crowdfunding campaigns if the goal is not met, the campaign will not go through,. But for equity instead)
Fravælger First North-børsen: Dansk spilfirma rejser millioner gennem ’crowdfunding-aktier’
Det er for bøvlet med en børsnotering, så spilfirmaet Invisible Walls er i stedet endt med en kombination af crowdfunding og aktier – i Estland.
(Paywalled) https://finans.dk/tech/ECE13038068/frav ... ctxref=ext
So I guess Funderbeam is a viable alternative to Fig.co Also it's probably easier to get your company funded on Funderbeam when you have an already great selling game.
Awesome news and crossing fingers! Placing my bets on the campaign will go through.
**Adding!
Oh also their next game has been revealed. It's called 'Just Perfect'
Just Perfect is a fun 3rd person collaborative multiplayer game where you work together with your partner to best your neighbours in a strategic and hectic race towards the local neighbourhood's renowned award. Core to the game is a sandbox social experience, with an added twist where players can deceive their partners by initiating affairs.
With these two original IPs in the works and more to come, we want to capitalise on the increasing social strategy player base while creating fun social experiences across the world. At Invisible Walls, we believe in keeping our games fresh meaning that we will be continually updating our games with new content and experiences, which will be offered on a seasonal basis. With players returning for these updates, we expect the games to have long lifespans.
Oh yeah forgot to post the Rubber Bandits announcement trailer from FlashBulb Games, (DK).
Turns out the CG intro part was made by one of my old colleagues, his wifu and a few freelancers. We (Jonas and Jonas among many others) was working on some of the in-house Agent Hugo PS2 games and TV animation systems back in the days.
In this one it's 3D stuff by Jonas Ussing (the totally fake Jonas!) and animation by Stine I presume?! Nice work yo! Stine also did animation on Limbo.
They are running their own little vfx shop now Space Office VFX. https://spaceoffice.dk
Actually it's a co-production between MP2 Games (DK) and the dutch developers Blastmode.
Usually MP2 Games has been mostly a porting studio. Porting games in Fusion and Construct to other platforms. Nice to see they are getting down to business of their own creation.
Portfolio includes Baba Is You, Cyber Shadow, Iconoclasts, Freedom Planet, The Escapists, Heart Forth Alicia, NOT A HERO.
And Mighty Goose looks mighty fine! Very Positive reviews and quite of them a lot already indicating health sales. And pickup by this sort of mid tier publisher I have never heard about. Playism. Looks like it will go pretty well for the project! Not projecting a super hit or anything. But looks pretty solid so far! And judging on comments there are some issues to root out still.
For a small indie 2 employee indie dev studio in Viborg in general. MP2 Games is just blasting away since 2015 and doing really well. So nice to see!
It's out on a ton of platforms it seems. Might even pick it up at some point.
Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, Linux, macOS, PlayStation 5.
Also it's always fun to see what some my old former Swedish colleagues in various companies are up to.
So let's do a recent Sweden games news round!
The tile for SharkMob's vampire game has been revealed. Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodhunt (Unreal project)
with a nice looking realtime cinematic. Judging on comments and dislike ratio it seems my prior concerns for the IP use of Vampire the Masquerade seems to be still founded to an extent. Where Bloodhunt seems very action oriented and pretty far detached from genre conventions with over the top action and guns all over the place. But I will give them the benefit of the doubt. As a vampire focused online multiplayer game is a very unique offering on the market. Though the Blade IP (with some expansion) would probably have been a much better fit tonally. But there might have been some issues around licensing (like expensive) or they just thought Masquerade was as better choice for them. Only they know!
**Also as a startup they really knew how to push all the right buttons at the right time in their pitch to get funded.
* Veteran founders.
* Free to Play.
* Battle Royale.
* Known and loved IP.
* Vampire themed MP hole in the market.
That certainly made big dog Tencent all wet and mushy. So good call Sharkmob! Cleaver lads!
**Adding a bit more speculation.
I would expect feeding on NPC civilians in the city to be integrated into the gameplay and be acting as a feeding points for charging of vampire magic powers to unleash the more fanzy vampire magic abilities.
They could also implement more vampire themed kills. Where you use normal bullets to essentially stun the vampire enemy and you will have to do vampire bite attack or a rare silver bullet attack to fully kill the vampire opponent. It's not entirely conclusive from the trailer.. the trailer features a range of killing methodology. The pedestrian way would just be to lower opponents hitpoints to zero. Done! That would be a bit wasted potential. So I think they might integrate vampire mechanics to some extent. Could also be that special take downs just gives vampire magic points or perhaps leaches abilities with a proper vampyrical take down. Where a ranged kill would just be that without much fuzz.
Also I think we will see a lot of vertical gameplay with wall running and having a lot of the time spent running on roofs.
But let's see what they come up with!
**Oh there is a Steam page! Free to play.. third person. Battle Royale.
And another Battlefield game from the DICE peeps! Battlefield 2042! (Frostbite) Or is it 6..000?!, I have given up counting Battlefield games.
And holy shit do they know how to make cinematic CG boosted presentation! It just looks amazing as usual from anything DICE. Love the Battlefield moments in the trailer. Good call! In-game stuff will look more standard Battlefield naturally.
128 players on PC/nextgen.. though no SP campaign and lots of other additions will make it seem like a worthwhile thing for a lot of people I'm sure. Though I'm not really sure spreading out 128 players out on a large map will add that much more to the game itself. Let's hope they have gameplay systems to handle that (they probably do). Could potentially just make it even more impersonal.
(Also I don't really play online competitive games. LAN with friends is the absolute best PVP for me. But rare in my current life) So I'm not the one to listen to.
Let's hope they don't step in too much spinach this time around with the new release. They are blessed (and cursed if they fuck it up) with a very passionate and verbal audience and there is no satisfying everybody.
Strategically DICE has yet to respond to Call of Duty's (Free2Play) Warzone. I could imagine they would go down that route eventually. Just from a pure competitive standpoint (They did the more casual F2P Battlefield Heroes years ago but it closed down eventually). They have yet to match Call Of Duty: Mobile. Something they seem to respond to in 2022 with a Battlefield for mobile.
It's like they are resting a little bit on their laurels and are forced to play catch up. Surely COD is the bigger dog in the house and will continue to dominate. Otherwise I'm sure Battlefield will be just fine for many years to come.
And some more footage with dev commentary from Neon Giant's The Ascent. (Unreal)
Looks nice! Might just pick it up sooner or later!
Dropping 29th of July
**Adding.. totally forgot! Warhammer: 40,000 Darktide from Fatshark. Looks nice!
That little boy inside me wants to see a Masters of the Universe: Revelation series.
A huge fan of the toys as a small kid! Didn't play a single game even though there was flipping three C64 games (+other platforms) out and I didn't even knew.. information traveled much slower then. Only through word of mouth and monthly gaming magazines if you had the money and the shop to actually purchase such magazines nearby.
And I bought my first Commodore 64 rather late.. had to save up a lot of money! Can't remember the exact year but it was the 1987 C64c beige version with cassette, so after that. Where the original launched in 1982. Most of my gaming friends had cassettes for their C64s. Diskettes was this rare and too expensive tech for me back then.
Only saw very few episodes of old animated series back then at a friends house. We only had DR and SVT1+2 channels and no VHS at home. I did see the Dolph Lundgren movie from 1987. It was fairly entertaining at the time but not really hitting the IP for me.
Wondering if anyone has done a more contemporary realistic representation of the IP?!? I mean... I have never seen the characters working out?! Besides a bit of fighting. A contemporary realistic He-Man episode would be minimum be 50% in the gym, drinking protein powder, talking about diets, doing reps and having to cancel an playdate with Skeletor because leg day.
**Update.. Audience reviews lands on a 28% on rotten tomates. Havne't watched it yet. But going in MUCH more sceptical if ever and probably never.
A He-Man gaming overview through the years. Nearly all flying under my radar.
So a lot of money is rolling in for the (DK) Ember Sword team at Bright Star Studios Limited (Not a registered company in Denmark). Great stuff! From a combined land sale of the crypto based land plots and a bunch of private investors. So far the crypto route has been a good idea for them! I really don't think they would have gotten the same traction without it. So in that sense it certainly has value. Though some might concern that the actual player value of using crypto tech is very limited in the game. And in that sense I agree.
Owning a tiny bit of data in a game that is useless outside the game is completely worthless in essence. The true value for the player would lie in being able to resell that land plot for a higher price at a later date as an investment object. Providing they are able to deliver a popular game with a nice prolonged playerbase. Otherwise it would just be a regular stats booster if it was implemented using standard centralized techniques on a database server.
Currently it's a bit of crypto dream they are selling. As the game has yet to launch and prove it's worth in the market. And a new team launching any sort of MMO will be facing a >daunting< task. So caution is advised. Hats off if they pull off! That would be incredible! But I would be on the skeptical side until anything else is proven.
The land sales should only be for the most risk willing, more land sales are incoming.
** Adding: I would most certainly advice against putting money into anything like this you can't afford to loose.**
(They have a lot to prove besides making some flashy trailer, mockups and a website.)
Also I spotted people trying to get in on the land sale had technical issues with the setup somewhere and some lost their money as far as I can see on comments. Correct me if wrong!
Some other issues concerns me of the overarching concept. As for sure there is lots of hype and 20.000+ discord members. That's all good! But the concern is how much beyond crypto nerds/speculators will the game be able to expand?
As would be needed for having a thriving multiplayer community that is actually playing the game and not just there to throw some money at an investment object. There are some unknowns as to how much value and how the balancing will be in the game if you are not a land owner, potentially leading to long term stagnation in the player base if not finely tuned.
But they do have a nice runway to work on these things for now. With very possible extension hereof.
It will be interesting how many plots they are able to presell in the next batches. The last time I checked they had sold about 2100 out of 12000 in the first batch. So that's something.
Equally they 'could' start selling in game items before launch. I'm quite sure some people would bite the hook (perhaps not the smartest choice for players).
But all remains to be seen. It's a new thing so it can go in a few directions. Only time will tell!
Hoping things will turn out for the best!
The best approach on the current route is to create an >awesome< game (+ everything else) that appeals to players for many years and expand through regular updates. So just do that!
The current visuals for the game looks nice! Good job team! Not much info on the game itself. Pre-alpha footage here.
Older 2020 article from Dania Games. Videre-uddannelse kickstarter spilfirma
Efteruddannelsesfag blev starten på et vildt spileventyr for underviser og datamatikere fra Dania Games i Grenaa. Multiplayer-spillet Ember Sword er allerede nu hypet, og verdenskendt investor er hoppet ombord https://eadania.dk/nyheder-og-presse/ny ... spilfirma/
(DK) Northplay's Headland is now heading to the Switch. Good call!
Also I just gave the Android version a quick look again. And it seems like they have fixed combat and controls. Big props for that! It was super simple fixes that was required with so much impact on game feel. Good call!
Now it's actually much more playable on mobile.
So give it a shot!
Avatar - Frontiers of Pandora trailer just dropped.
That was unexpected already! Launching in 2022. So far a pretty looking animated trailer with no actual gameplay. At least some of my earlier speculation seems to be correct from what I can see. At least the easy pickings and my interpretation of the things at display.
Also there is nothing in the presentation that strongly indicates online play. Could be a big SP world?! guess we'll know more sooner or later!
Looks nice! Good job Massive!
It cleary looks captured in-engine. As there are the usual RTX artifacts. If it actually looks like this in-game is a different matter. Ubisoft has a long history of pimping up games when they shown to the world for the first time.
But it is a nextgen only (+stadia/luna) game and it 'could' actually be running like that. It is increasingly hard to differ with new hardware generations.
Almost can't keep up with all the amazing games showcased at E3 2021. And my laptop just went black screen of death (again).
On my old emergency laptop here.
But just spotted one game with a small DK footprint. Besides the few DK peeps I know on the Avatar game. Not sure if any full DK games has been shown on E3 so far?! But a whole lot of stuff from Sweden.
SOMERVILLE by Jumpship (UK).
The post-Playdead studio, Dino Patti founded with the talented Chris Olsen following a harder divorce from Playdead. There are also a few DK names in the credits working on the project it seems.
Also Dino is CEO of https://coherence.io/ an online multiplayer gaming tech startup. Not much news from them in 2021 so far. Guess they are hard at work on the tech after receiving a couple of investments. With the mission to democratize online multiplayer development.
Hard to tell how it will go?! The mission is great but there are already some pretty established players on the field with proven technology and developers might be a little hesitant to give new tech a go, especially with something as sensitive as netcode. But it's not like there is a million companies making multiplayer tech so it's limited competition. One of the main goals of Coherence is to making implementing multiplayer in games SUPER easy. So that is always a welcome! Fingers crossed it will be awesome!
It's a bit peculiar that is looks so very INSIDE in many ways. I can live with that! It's also very pretty!
Also it looks like it's own thing regardless of some similarities and I'm positive the game will find an audience.
Super nice E3 2021 recap site.. missed a lot of the (already known Ynglet (semi DK), Headland, Vokabulantis) DK games but they can be found here! Among all the others.
Also Vokabulantis is on indiegogo with a post Kickstarter campaign quest for additional funding. https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/vokabulantis#/
So the Steam NEXTFEST is on.. tons of time limited demos of upcoming games.
Grabbed a bunch (around 25'ish) Far from through them all. Gee thanks for sabotaging my devtime.
The one that stood out so far has been Hyper Echelon. Great little schmup built on design inspiration from Sky Force.
So if you are into that kinda stuff you should give it a go!
I was also really looking forward to Sable... buuuut... muahhh I don't know?! Stuttering, really annoying line art flickering, boring talky talky quests with characters you don't relate to. A general jankiness. Camera clipping through walls sometimes. (Also this is a crime Journey did for something sort of related... but I can forgive Journey it's really something!). Visually it doesn't work that well with the styling. I get more pulled out of the game in general.
Haven't finished the demo so far. Bore quit for now.
I'll post more if I find something of interest.
You are encouraged to do the same.
**Adding Okinawa Rush! Just a really great Ninja/demon smashing platform brawler!
Quick summer sale recommendation. (Played a few levels)
If you are into cheap small bite sized mechanical puzzle games I would indeed recommend #AkiRobots from out local Cph studio FlatPonies.
Their other game, Rebots (demo) was not really my thing but #AkiRobots is just a nice little puzzle bite to enjoy.
The amount of reviews across sales channels indicates low sales for #AkiRobots. So that's sad. It's a good game!
Protip: turn off the music in game. It's pretty annoying to my old-fart ears. But the game is solid!
Translation
and animation by Stine I presume?! Nice work yo! Stine also did animation on Limbo.
(+other platforms) out and I didn't even knew.. information traveled much slower then. 
Only through word of mouth and monthly gaming magazines if you had the money and the shop to actually purchase such magazines nearby.
(DK) Sun Creature Studio has a creative hand in the upcoming animated Splinter Cell series.
guess we'll know more sooner or later!