Achtung! Cthulhu Tactics hits Console
I’m extremely happy to say that Achtung! Cthulhu Tactics is now out on Xbox and PS4!
If sounds interesting, we did a three part podcast about the game, which you can find here.
There is a Stream on Mixer of us playing Xbox game too! You can re-watch it here.
Achtung! Cthulhu Tactics Launches NOW!
After long hard work by an amazing team, we’re really proud to say that Achtung! Cthulhu Tactics is now live on Steam!
My ‘Steampocalypse’ Develop 2018 Talk Notes
So just completed my talk on the Steampocalypse!
Seemed to go well. Thanks for coming if you did!Ā Develop Steampocalypse 2018 notes & links are here…
Chainsaw Warrior Screenshot
The above link has all the videos etc I mentioned in so please do check it out.
Oh and there is an article on it from MCV…Ā Thanks!
I’m speaking at Develop – ‘The Steampocalypse – A Survival Guide’ Tuesday 10th July 11am in Room 4
Super happy to be back there this year, having missed 2017 (for various major reasons)…
For the last couple of years Steam has become a competitive space. In the last few months, since Steam Direct launched, that has got even harder. The number of new games on Steam has gone from a handful per day back in 2015 to over 200 per week in March 2018. Can this rise continue? What do these dark omens tell us of what Steam may do in response? Is this a āSteampocalypseā or simply the next iteration in the ongoing story of games development? Should you give up? Move to console? Pivot to mobile? Jack it all in and go work in another industry? Tomas Rawlings – indie developer running Auroh Digital and a co-director of Bristol Games Hub shares with you some of the survival strategies that he and other indies are using to attempt to ensure that they survive the Steampocalypse.
Hope to see you there!
Hey all. As well as being a developer of strategy games (you can find out about our offering here) I’m also a huge player of them! I recently got hold of a Switch to play some games on for research and the like, so I have obviously been checking out Strategy games to play. Here’s my list so far of what is worth your money, on Switch…
Steamworld Heist – So I first came across this gem of a game on PS Vita. It’s a super-smart take on a turn-based strategy. First twist is that it is done 2D rather than 3D, but in a way that less is more, focusing the combat on the 2 planes really works well, making it close quarters and rapid. Second it has this great mechanic of ricochet for some types of attack, that makes the 2D space into a more dynamic combat zone. Layered in to that it uses a more traditional action points system, a cover system and different weapon and attack types. Then there is an RPG layer of character development and equipment selection that also adds skills and the like. Great fun! (Fun fact; this game was developed in part with a grant from the EU Media fund.)
Darkest Dungeon – Another 2D turn-based strategy and again it uses the 2D nature of the game-space really well. It has this neat system where by the order your characters relative to the enemy and each other has major tactical implications, for example your big fighters prefer to be at the front hitting and taking damage, whereas a magic user may prefer to be at the back. Layered on to this is an amazing ‘sanity’ system (as the game is about the mental attrition of the horror and darkness the characters face). The controls here are much better than the PS Vita version, though I’d say not quite as good as PC. However it’s a great game, provided you are prepartered for the grind of characters and missions.
Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle – Cute but strategically satisfying. Best thing to check out about this game is the creative director of XCOM talking about how the game expands the turn-based strategy space; “In Kingdom Battle, the stress comes from knowing there is only a narrow band of choices that will lead to victory. Every choice you make could set you down the wrong path, and in later missions, the band of choices narrows even further. Yet the stress of combat is also offset by powerful new innovations to the tactics genre. Movement is surprisingly fun and kinetic, with allies leaping off of each other, sliding through nearby enemies or traveling through pipes to completely different areas of the battlefield.”
I’ll be updating this list as I go along, and feel free to suggest new ones for me to check out!
He who controls the spice controls the universe.
That title quote is from the amazing novel of Dune. And I recently wrote an article on why I love (and I mean Loooove) the game Dune II:
Dune II took this setting as the inspiration for one of the first real-time strategy titles. It pioneered many of the forms and conventions that RTS games (indeed strategy games!) use in ways we still see today. Lest we forget that the children of Dune II have gone on to conquer the world, League of Legends, Dota 2, Clash Royale, Starcraft, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War, Total War and many, many others still have some DNA from this gem of a game. From the player’s direct control of resources, to tech-trees, to building units, to commanding an emergent army – and doing all of this in the same screen was mind blowing.
And here’s a video of that game:
Its #CthulhuThursday As the War Gets Apocalyptic
We’re into the final week of our Achtung! Cthulhu Tactics kicksrater campaign. So this week I’m going to be looking at that (ovs).
First we had a visitor to the studio to show off the game š
I’ve also been thinking a lot about Cthulhu in the run-up to the game development and beyond and so from this I wrote this about how mainstream Cthulhu has become…
Lovecraft himself would never know the success and cultural impact this or any of his other works would have. When he died in 1937 he would only know that his works had reached a limited audience, never having made enough from his works to make a living as a writer.
Yet over 90 years since he set out the plot of The Call of Cthulhu, the idea, themes, and the eponymous creature has finally reached the mainstream. The majority of us have heard of āThe Call of Cthulhuā in one form or another.
We’ve also shown off our Shoggoth tech!
So please do check out the campaign and join the fight for humanity!
(Cthulhu ThursdayĀ is a dose of Mythos toĀ brightenĀ darken your week.Ā More on the idea can be found hereĀ andĀ a list of posts thus far, here. Also some upcomingĀ Cthulhu news, sign up to theĀ Auroch Digital’s newsletter. Enjoy!)
