Added: 27.11.2013 23:11 | 16 views | 0 comments


Let's head back. The red soil crumbles gently as the drill burrows deeper, one level at a time, one mineral at a time. First a unit of bronze, then a unit of silver, or whatever the silver mineral equivalent is on the Martian planet. It's cold, and dark, and wet, and dead transmissions keep interrupting the comfort of silence with audible warnings that I'm not alone beneath the surface of Mars. My rover beeps, signaling the final drops of fuel burned up tunneling for bronze, silver, and gold to make the more valuable White Gold. The flight back to base keeps me on my toes and the finely dug out path leads me snaking left and right until I see red soil and the surface once more. In the same sunlight that bathes Earth millions of miles away, I refuel, repair, and sell my haul. Before returning underground to the thick vein of valuable minerals I discovered last, I stop by the shop for an upgrade. This is Super Motherload, an awesome blend of obsessive compulsive profiteering and addictive, satisfying gameplay. This is challenging 2D sci-fi Minecraft, multiplayer Dig Dug, and an amazing next-gen indie rolled into one package. XGen Studios first to Super Motherload at the Game Developers Conference earlier this year. At the time, four PS3 controllers let attendees group up and dig for cash in the shallow crust of Mars. This set up introduced me to one of the first mechanics that layer into a satisfying rhythm of digging, smelting, and cashing in: fuel. As you dig and fly about on Mars, a fuel gauge will tick down to empty at which point you can no longer drill, whether you've stuffed your rig full of valuable minerals or not. You and any co-op buddies have to collectively watch shared fuel and carrying capacity, though playing solo alleviates this by simplifying the group-think required by coop. Playing by myself at home, I didn’t have the same satisfaction in guiding a group of newbie excavators. I couldn’t bark orders, but I could dig deeper into the smelting mechanics by which intelligent mining reaps even greater cash rewards. That bronze, silver, gold combo to make White Gold I mentioned earlier? That barely breaks the surface as greater smelting variety unlocks at with each new upgrade. In the shop, you can increase your health, your carrying capacity, your drill and rotor speed, and your on-board smelter. The more money you pour into smelting, the more money you can make carefully carving a path between lesser-valued minerals to perfect combo chains and create valuable hybrids. These elements will be totally lost on cooperative dig teams who focus more on racing to the gold deposit or blowing up a chasm to open up the crowded flight path. In single-player, Super Motherload drills into gamer psyche in two distinct ways. The first is in the obsessive maximizing of profits, especially when it comes to extensive mineral chains offering cash bonuses. Every single mineral offers up a delightful ca-ching with combinations gradually increasing in value and audible joy. The second is the soul-crushing difficulty and despair you might get from playing the game in Hardcore mode. Hardcore places even greater focus on managing resources by killing you if you don’t make it back to base before your fuel runs dry. On Normal difficulty, you fly slowly at zero fuel, but on Hardcore you’ll be one unit of red sand away from a valuable combination when you blow up on the spot for running out of juice. The characters you choose might not say much beyond the pilot select screen at the beginning of the game, but you’ll remember how Karl Redden died every time you pass by the skull and crossbones marking his corpse on the map. Hardcore mode turns a fluffy, semi-shallow indie game into a resource-intense 2D adventure. Enemies won’t come bursting out of the silver deposits around your rover, but you might just drop a few hundred yards and bust your rig on a rock outcropping. Once you understand the systems in place, it can be impossible to watch your fuel closely enough to stay safe. You’ll want to reach a bit deeper to find the next base of operations or drill just a bit further to finish your combo, but you can kill several characters with eager or greedy behavior like that.

Added: 27.11.2013 10:17 | 7 views | 0 comments


Bahrain Game Developers will be hosting their next meeting at the Vortex Center, Budaiya, Bahrain. Unlike previous meetings which were just theory, this one will be a more hands on experience on developing a game using Unity.

Added: 19.11.2013 14:17 | 12 views | 0 comments


Square Enix has transformed considerably over the past years. Originally a very Japanese focused company (as SquareSoft), Square Enix has revamped its image to an internationally relevant developer/publisher. Much of the company's current status has to do with the efforts of Yoichi Wada, the Chairman of Square Enix. Wada is in India to inaugurate the fifth Nasscom Game Developers Conference in Pune, and iLLGaming gets a chance to interview him exclusively. Our Editor Ansh Patel takes up the responsibility.

Added: 30.10.2013 4:16 | 13 views | 0 comments




Earlier this year, I wandered the Game Developers Conference floor looking for something, anything to capture my attention in the fields of indie games ripening for release and Super Motherload did the trick. Now, I have even more reason to anticipate Sony's PlayStation 4 launch.

Added: 16.10.2013 4:17 | 16 views | 0 comments


It has been a little over a year since EA revealed the brand new SimCity title to the world at the Game Developers Conference 2012. And, yes, its been a long year. SimCity has been the subject of EAs PR nightmares for over a year, suffering from negative fan reception to a media that couldnt even review the game because there was no online service. Scrambling and saving face has been a part of the game since late last year; despite frank and near-unified resistance to many features of the game, EA did not budge. Whats even more unfortunate is that EA took captive one of the most accomplished development studiosa development studio that just so happened to have created the critically-acclaimed predecessors to SimCity 2013and forced them endure the prospect of ruining their game in the name of profit or of anti-piracy. That is absolutely unacceptable...

Added: 12.10.2013 14:18 | 2 views | 0 comments


In an FAQ Video Infinity Ward and Game Developers gives the answers of some questions about the Call of Duty: Ghosts Clan Rules Detail, this is about the early clan registration and new guidelines.

Added: 03.10.2013 19:00 | 14 views | 0 comments



This calls for two scoops of Double Rainbow ice cream.

GaymerX2, the second annual convention for GaymerX held on August 2013 in Japantown, is now slated for next year and will be taking over the Intercontinental Hotel in Downtown San Francisco on July 11-13. Only a block away from the Moscone Center, where the Game Developers Conference is held every year, the Intercontinental Hotel will allow for more guest accommodations, a larger convention space, and an extra day of scheduled events.

Added: 22.09.2013 5:18 | 15 views | 0 comments


With many games now taking the more cinematic route, Den of Geek looks at what developers should just make a movie already.