Julie Uhrman, CEO of Ouya, took the Eurogamer stage at 3pm today in the fourth day of the Expo, to talk about how the Ouya console has a future and plans for it going forward. If you’re one of those people who believes the success of a console depends on how well it sells, or how many games it has, then like much of the internet, by now you might be calling the Ouya a colossal failure and wondering how long it will take before it disappears from the market. You’d also be missing the point. Sure, Ouya may not have the same catalogue of games as major consoles like those from Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo; nor is it as widespread. But Ouya was never intended to compete with those.

The REAL focus of Ouya, Julie explained, is to open up the television and free up developers to build their indie games on the TV, rather than on devices that don’t have the presence of a traditional games console, in order to bring those games to wider attention. What’s more, Ouya is designed to allow anyone to become a game developer, regardless of the size of their team or whether they’re a big studio or just one person in their bedroom. “Ouya is the only console that’s open to everyone. It’s great that the price point is coming down and the barriers to entry are simplifying; but the important thing is with Ouya, anyone can develop and get involved.”

The future of Ouya truly lies in the 24,000-plus developers developing for the console, all of which are supported through advice and tools by Ouya. With the Free The games campaign, Ouya is taking steps to support these developers even more. Any game project for Ouya that uses Kickstarter to raise funds, can get extra financial support from Ouya if there’s clear support for the game. With a fund of $1 million to give away in a year, Kickstarted Ouya games that raise over $10,000 can apply to have their funds matched by Ouya themselves, thus doubling the cash available for them to take the game further and get it out on the Ouya – with the caveat that there has to be 100 or more backers providing the funds. This caveat is to prevent cheating, which occurred in the early part of the campaign’s life; and because Ouya want to see the community truly get behind the games they care about. What’s more, Ouya have no intention to act as gatekeepers for their own console. “We believe in being open. We don’t want to lock you into developing for just our console … nor do we want to say, ‘only these games are getting on the Ouya’.”

With every Ouya console being its own development kit; and tools being available for free online to further help develop Ouya games, developers can get their games to the public easier and quicker as well. “We want your game live just as soon as you get it live. So we have a fast review process – most games take just 24 to 48 hours to be accepted or rejected.” Julie was joined by a group of developers from Fayju games – one of the Ouya’s “Elite” backers – who themselves added: “Holding your newly-developed game in your hand and realising the means are right there to release it is empowering.”

Fayju also explained how they found the console’s Tegra 3 processor surprisingly powerful; and how the compact size and better cooling of the console – with fans right over the processor – allowed them to utilise more of the processor’s power without worrying about the overheating problems that plague other devices. The company presented two of their own games – “The Awesome Frog?” and “Cascade” – as examples of what they could do with the console, even going as far to add that Ouya was the catalyst that finally allowed Cascade – a game based on the Analogue Cascade Hypothesis and research into Alzheimer’s effects on the brain; and designed to raise awareness of brain diseases – to happen.

Julie also revealed that the Ouya itself will not be standing still. First of all, the console is about to hit new markets, with an expanded distribution network in Europe. As part of this, Ouya consoles will soon be updated “with localisations to support French, Spanish and German languages … and Pound and Euro currencies.” Additionally, next year, new builds of the Ouya console are planned to be developed and sold, with “faster, better, more up-to-date chip sets” for even more powerful gaming.

So what are the final words on Ouya’s future? “For us to be successful, we need you guys. Your time is now.”

“Ouya is still the only fully open console on the market. That’s why we win.”

Another indie game coming to the Playstation 4 was shown off today in a developer’s session at Eurogamer Expo. Resogun, an exclusive to Sony’s new-gen console, is the latest game from studio Housemarque, previously known for titles such as Super Stardust HD and Super Stardust Delta. Indeed some have called this Resogun the spiritual successor to those earlier games.

Set in a futuristic space setting, Resogun sets the gameplay in cylindrical levels where you as a small spaceship blast away from the left and right directions at oncoming enemy vehicles and eventually at the end of the stage, boss characters. Wonderfully colourful and very light-filled, it looks to be a game that will be very fast paced and shall require great reflexes on the part of the player. Power-ups are available in the game (for things such as upgrading weapons and a shield) and there are special weapons too besides the generic laser weapon that just shoots. Boost can be used to flee tighter situations or to ram through lines of enemies, Bomb can be used to clear the entire stage and Overdrive triggers a massive laser light show that seems to incinerate anything unlucky enough to get caught in its path. The weapon upgrade can also be applied to that third one by the way. There will be a choice of ships available for playing the game with and different levels of difficulties so those experienced with shooters can be happy as well as those who are less experienced. Each ship will have different strengths and weaknesses that will suit different playstyles.

There was also a little discussion about future plans for the game after the release and we were told there was a list of things Housemarque wanted to do with the game, with 3D and potential DLC being mentioned.

Resogun is released for Playstation 4 on November 29th as a launch title and is also being included free in the Instant Game Collection for Playstation Plus.

Some of the biggest news this week in the gaming world has come from Valve, well known for their digital gaming client Steam as well as games such as Team Fortress 2. Over the course of five days they made three big announcements related to their long teasing of opening up gaming and revolutionising the console market. One of the central parts of this is their entry into the console market: the Steam Box. Or rather as they are now, Steam Machines.

Valve had previously released some details on their console offering, but Wednesday saw a lot more detail being revealed to the public. Valve plan to make the console very flexible, you can hack it, run operating systems other than Valve’s own Steam OS upon it, there are many different manufacturers creating their own version of the console, there’s even been talk of using it to build little robots (seriously, it’s in the Steam Machine Q and A). However the big surprise was Valve’s announcement that they plan to make available 300 prototypes for testing, which will be sent out… to the public. It’s a bold move given that most companies don’t make their new hardware available to the wider-audiences until it’s time to start selling it to them, but one that could work out and certainly fits into Valve’s ‘open gaming’ strategy.

The lucky participants will be (mostly) chosen at random, although Valve say a few spaces (about 30) have been reserved for community members who have contributed the most to Steam in some way. There is a beta ‘quest’ available to enter Steam accounts into the draw for the prototypes which mostly requires completing a set of tasks that make use of Steam’s many functions (for example, one condition is you need at least 10 people on your friend list). The ‘beta quest’ will be open until October 25th.

Friday saw the final of the promised three announcements of the week with the link between Monday’s Steam OS software and Wednesday’s Steam Machine hardware: a hackable, programmable controller. Beta versions were shown off and a few working prototypes made so invited game developers could get hands-on with the new hardware and test its functionality with their own games in mind. The controller’s main selling point is its lack of the traditional double joystick, replacing these with two trackpads as well as a touchscreen in the centre (although the latter was missing from the tester prototypes). There are buttons too but not where you’d expect to find them. Numbering sixteen at all, two flank the inner side of each trackpad and another two are on the back of the controller.

Customers can set up the buttons to work any way they want however and the controller is also supposed to feature a mode that allows it to function as a mouse and keyboard for those games in the Steam library that require it. The general view from those who have tested it seems to be it works well, even if it take a little getting used to at first.

Both pieces of hardware are said to be planned for retail next year, but depending on how much the selected beta testers share online (which Valve encourages them to do by the way) we could know a bit more about both before the release.

This was the week of Steam, with company Valve making three big announcements relating to it and their plan for a new open gaming revolution over the week, the first being the reveal of the company’s new operating system named simply Steam OS on the 23rd.

The Linux-based system has been introduced according to the website as part of Valve’s bid to bring Steam into the living room and that this operating system has been built around that idea in a bid to make it as simple as possible. It will provide access to all the games and features that the Steam client does now, only improved in some ways. Already the website for Steam OS claims that the graphics processing of the system has achieved ‘significant performance increases’ and that better audio and reductions in input latency are also on the table of improvements Valve hopes to make with Steam OS.

Valve have been talking about bringing Steam ‘to the big screen’ (the television one that is) for a while now. Along with the announcement of this new operating system, there are many titles being planned for release for Steam OS, with a number of games being ported over, and Valve plan to make the entire Steam library accessible through something called ‘in-home streaming’. Valve also lists a number of new features to be included with Steam OS among them streaming, parental restriction options and even provision for other forms of media such as music to be used with the system.

Steam OS will be available as a free download for users and a ‘freely licensable operating system for manufacturers’. It will also be the operating system for Valve’s offering for the home console market – the Steam Machine.

the hardest murder to solve is your own

When Ronan O’Connor, a detective with a chequered past, gets caught up in a burglary, his life is brought to an untimely end by a brutal and relentless killer.

Shocked to find himself in the afterlife, his only escape from the limbo world of ‘Dusk’ is to uncover the truth behind his killer, track him down and bring him to justice using new-found supernatural abilities.

As Ronan, you have freedom to explore the town of Salem: its wooden houses, narrow streets, gothic churches and mental asylum for clues. Battle demonic spirits to save your soul and uncover the shocking revelations about who is responsible for your death.

During the dev chat, the developer played the first “mission” and commented over the top of the gameplay

The game looks great, and the idea is amazing (I wish I’d had time to check out the booth at the expo)
Basically, you start off having to solve your own murder. Going through the evidence and crime scene as a ghost. Which has upsides and downsides of course. Downsides, you can’t pick up and touch evidence and actually get a sense of it, upside, you can possess people, see through their eyes, hear through their ears and generally get a sense of the world and things around you

The game is set in Salem, Massachusetts, so every building is warded against ghosts (as you do), so outside Ronan can walk through people and objects, however to get into buildings, a door or window needs to be open to allow entry/exit (useful for loading areas huh? very clever)
Being a Ghost, you have a number of talents that will be upgraded as the game progresses…
– You can see flashbacks of scenes that happened, playback the scene to get insight into what happened, these are called memory residue, to aid the investigation “Real World”, like turning on a cooker hob to distract people, this allows for puzzle elements later on in the game
– Possession can also be used as a tactic against the Demons, human spirits that are tormented and think that devouring other human spirits will turn them into regular spirits again so they can lay to rest, like possessing a cop so you can get close without being noticed and jumping into the demon to rip it apart
– Also ghost side quests and investigations will unlock new info and generally make you feel better about yourself, like helping a young lady who was murdered and buried by an old couple in the block

The game is shaping up very nicely, it looks great on current gen (it’s due for release early 2014 on PC, PS3 and XBox 360)