The Evening Report, April 16th, 2013: Funding Physics and Suspending Titans

The Evening Report, April 16th, 2013: Funding Physics and Suspending Titans

Indie Fund backing Ben Esposito’s Kachina, a “whimsical physics toy”

b600b981Ben Esposito, a man previously involved with Giant Sparrow’s The Unfinished Swan, seems to be moving on to even stranger and more abstract games than an indie title where you throw balls of paint in a whitewashed world. Kachina serves as his first independent production where the player takes the form of a hole in the ground, moving around to swallow things up. It also happens to be the next thing the Indie Fund is backing, as reported by Joystiq. This backing should help the game come to fruition on PC, Mac and iOS devices.

While I haven’t gotten a chance to play The Unfinished Swan and see Esposito’s level design first hand, I can say that this “toy” seems to be a very interesting production, and I’m very much looking forward to seeing what sorts of experiences can be gained from stepping into the shoes of a hole in the ground. Esposito cites no specific release date yet, but this is definitely something to keep your eyes on.

[Source: Joystiq]

“Titan” trademark filed by Respawn Entertainment, might just be the name of their game

f0a5a9b9fc7faeddb2e076b8670c467aAs we inch ever closer to figuring out just what the hell Respawn’s been up to for the past few years, it seems Polygon has noticed (via a NeoGAF thread) that they might’ve finally settled on a name. A trademark for “Titan” was filed last week, pointing towards “video and computer games.”

We still don’t know what it’s pointing to, nor what the final product will actually resemble beyond the very blurry screenshots they posted months ago, but this trademark is likely the start of a very long media campaign. Let’s just hope it has nothing to do with Blizzard’s next MMO, which happens to bear the same codename as this particular trademark.

[Source: Polygon]

Entirety of a Dota 2 league gets suspended after DDoS attacks

DOTA21I’ve had myself a serious case of Dota-lust for the past few weeks, an epidemic that shows no signs of slowing down. Watching it is almost as exciting as playing it, but it looks like there will be one less tournament to watch for a little while, as PC Gamer is reporting that the Chinese G-1 league has been suspended as a result of DDoS (direct denial of service) attacks. Until they get the unfortunate turn of events under control, an ongoing process directly involving Valve, it doesn’t look like the tournament will continue.

It’s unfortunate to see things like this happen, especially when so much money is on the line: the first place team takes home just over $40,000. Here’s hoping that Valve and G-1 organizers will be able to quash the unruly folk trying to stop these pro-gamers from playing their hearts out. If not, who knows when – or if? – the G-1 league will be able to continue.

[Source: PC Gamer]

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Dyl-Questing: This Mass Effect Critical Reading Sounds Great

mass_effect___extended_illustrations_cut___by_facuam-d5bo3phIt’s interesting to see the path video game criticism is taking as time moves on. After the success of Brendan Koegh’s Killing is Harmless (something I’ve previously mentioned on the Evening Report), game critic Rowan Kaiser is taking a stab at an even bigger fish: a book-length critique and analysis of the Mass Effect series. He’s a great writer with loads of WRPG experience and I’m quite interested to see his extensive take on the adventures of Dudebro Shepard.

[Source: GoFundMe]