Nimbatus is the latest in a long line of projects to put the tools of creation into the hands of users. In this case, those tools range from weapons and thrusters to sensors and hinges, with the end goal being to build drones. Players then take those drones on fairly straightforward missions, with success being rewarded with an expansion of the procedurally-generated universe.
The game has been tearing up Kickstarter since the launch of the crowdfunding campaign last month, earning almost three times its initial funding goal with three days remaining at the time of publication. Understanding this overwhelmingly strong reception is simple. The developers at Stray Fawn Studio have made all the right moves in providing a reasonable funding goal, a plethora of work examples, and a playable demo. However, supplanting all of these positives, the game itself speaks volumes in the strength of its ideas and execution.
As with many of the most rewarding gaming experiences, Nimbatus is easy to learn, but difficult to master. Building a player-controlled drone capable of completing objectives is as simple as joining together a series of thrusters, fuel tanks, batteries, and weapons, which can be done in under a minute. The challenge within the game stems from the ever-increasing swarms of enemies, defence against which requires more complex designs that make use of autonomy. To that end, the developers have included a series of sensors that can detect foes and terrain and force the drone to respond accordingly. While the purpose of most parts is fairly straightforward, getting them to work correctly can be a distressingly fiddly process, as adjusting variables can produce unexpected results.
Games such as LittleBigPlanet, Minecraft, Planet Coaster, and Kerbal Space Program have enabled users to flex their creativity and build remarkable things. Nimbatus is designed with a similar mindset, and some crafty gamers have appropriated the existing parts to make speedometers, rovers, and other constructions that the developers have taken as inspiration to guide updates for the alpha build. Community feedback has also guided some of the crowdfunding campaign’s stretch goals, including more parts for land exploration and environmental events. Those additional financial targets promise significant expansions upon the fairly barebones structure of the game found within the demo.
As aforementioned, most missions involve either circumnavigating or drilling through a planet to locate and destroy an objective. While initially invigorating, the repetitive mission structure becomes rote after only a handful of quests. Thankfully, the developers have included challenges in the form of sumo arenas, where autonomous drones go head-to-head in an effort to push each other out of a circle. The technical dexterity and design iteration required for success in these arenas set them apart from the remainder of the game. Building fully autonomous drones is more difficult than player-controlled ones, but also more rewarding. Therefore, Stray Fawn’s decision to expand on this area with drone races and weaponised combat in the final release should prove to be rousing.
The brilliant design philosophy of Nimbatus is supported by a colourful 2D visual style that reduces the complexity of engineering and mechanics to an interface that is easy to understand. Supporting the engaging graphics is a suitably synth-based soundtrack honed to the perfect pitch to facilitate concentration rather than being distracting. The presentation adds up to a project that is stunningly videogenic, as even the most basic creations can put on a spectacular lightshow.
Nimbatus remains in a very early stage of development, and Stray Fawn anticipates not being able to release a final product until 2019, although alpha and Steam Early Access launches are scheduled to take place next year. The barebones mission structure and sometimes obscurely defined autonomy-based drone parts make the wait bearable, but those flaws are minor in the face of the whole game. Nimbatus is simple and engaging enough to be the next Minecraft and is sure to sit comfortably alongside Media Molecule’s Dreams as a new standard bearer for the play, create, share model.
BattleTech, the grandfather of mech combat games, turns 34-years old next year. Since 1984, rights to that universe have traded hands several times, from the original creators at FASA Corporation to the current home with three different developers: Piranha Games, Catalyst Game Labs and Harebrained Schemes.
Next year, all three studios will launch new entries of the iconic franchise. For our latest cover story, Polygon talked with each of them, spending nearly a year piecing together four features about the BattleTech universe.
In part one, we traveled to an abandoned mall in Vancouver, British Columbia to lay hands on the first playable demo of MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries. It’s the first single-player, first-person action game to be published in the BattleTech universe in 15 years. You’ll hear from the team about their design goals, and watch the first 10 minutes of gameplay footage released to the public. Check it out below.
Publisher Nexon is taking its Counter-Strike mod that added zombies to the first-person shooter and throwing a little Minecraft into the mix. Players will be able to build their own blocky custom maps in Counter-Strike Nexon: Zombies thanks to the free-to-play game’s new Studio Mode.
Studio Mode lets players create, play and share their creations in Counter-Strike Nexon: Zombies. Players can add traps, obstacles and hide outs, while laying out friendly and enemy NPCs, to build their own custom levels. A brief trailer, posted above, shows what Studio Mode is capable of.
Building requires some specific items — confusingly named the Build Scanner License Item and Build Minigun License Item — and Nexon says it’s holding a “fan event” from Nov. 29 to Dec. 6 where players can receive one of those for free.
You can grab the Studio Mode update (and Counter-Strike Nexon: Zombies) for free from Steam, if you’re curious.
Counter-Strike Nexon: Zombies launched in 2014. The game is based on a modified version of Counter-Strike 1.6 and includes content from the original game plus zombies and zombie-related game modes. The game is free-to-play and can get very weird if you’d like to give it a try.
When someone mentions Aquaman these days, your first thought is probably of a bearded, tattooed badass you definitely wouldn’t want to get on the wrong side of. It wasn’t always like that, though.
As Jason Momoa explains in the BBC Radio 1 interview above, Aquaman used to be sort of a nerd. And Momoa was the one brought in to change all that.
In the clip, Momoa says that he originally auditioned for Batman, but quickly realised it wasn’t right for him.
“I almost threw away the audition and went, like ‘this is silly’,” he explains. “And then my agent said: ‘Zach really wants to have you on tape.'”
Momoa went on tape, came back for another meeting with Snyder, and the rest was history.
Minecraft mightn’t be the sort of game that inspires song and dance, but Melissa Benoist from Supergirl and Glee is here to prove that assumption wrong.
In an ad for the game’s Super Duper Graphics Pack set to release next year, Benoist sings about Minecraft and all the possibilities there are to be had…from an optional DLC graphics pack.
