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Well we all knew it was coming from the moment Microsoft bought Mojang – Microsoft have announced a storefront for players to purchase selected user-made content for Minecraft which will go live with the game’s 1.1 Discovery update this spring.
Before you get up in arms, hold on. It’s only for the mobile and Windows 10 versions – the “Bedrock Engine” editions of the game built with C++. The console versions and the original Java PC version won’t be getting this, so if you play using one of those this doesn’t apply to you. The store will also allow the users who made the content to make money off the sales too.
The store will contain user-made skins, maps and other assets which will all be priced in a virtual currency – Minecraft Coins. Obviously you will need to fork out some real money to get these coins – $1.99 for 300 coins, $4.99 for 840 coins and $9.99 for 1,720 coins – and you’ll need an Xbox account to purchase and store your coins. 30 percent of each sale goes to the store, with more than 50 percent of it going to the creator of the content which isn’t bad.
At first there will only be nine sellers on the store; Blockception, Blockworks, Eneija Silverleaf, Imagiverse, Noxcrew, Polyamps, Qwertyuiop The Pie, Razzelberry Fox and Sphax – if you’re a consumer of Minecraftian content you’ll probably recognise at least one of the names in here. As time goes on, more people will be added and anyone can apply to have their content added to the store but you’ll need to have a business license to apply in the first place.
At the moment each purchase can only be used on one device, but Microsoft have said that they are “working toward making content players buy available on multiple devices as well, enabled by a free Xbox Live account”.
As a long-term player the thought of monetizing Minecraft content like this does niggle at me a little bit, but as the creators are getting paid for their content being sold and this isn’t across every version (i.e. it’s not shutting off modded content for everyone, full stop) I don’t have a major problem with this development. We all knew it was coming.
It’s time for another Kickstarter gaming campaign update, bringing you a few different campaigns that look interesting.
Starting with our catch-up of previous campaigns, we don’t have any that have finished successful yet – but we do have campaigns close to conclusion that have reached their goals. These are Pine (which is now €18,000 over its goal) and Sacred Fire (which is $1,000 over its target right now). We also have another campaign that is getting close to reaching its goal, although time is running out on it; STARFIGHTER INC has 4 more days to make around $37,000 if it is to be a success.
Of course, we also have those campaigns that haven’t been so fortunate and one of those is Innocence; one I covered so long ago. It is far short of its target right now and has only 7 hours to go, making it extremely unlikely it will meet its target. With no updates since mid-March, it almost feels abandoned. We also have two campaigns that have closed unsuccessfully; one being Dragon Lore which ran out of time, and the other Lizard People which had its campaign cancelled. The team behind Dragon Lore have said they will go back to work on the game and release a new Kickstarter at some point with a playable demo available; meanwhile the Lizard People game has been cancelled purely because the team wanted to go back and restyle it as a game called FAKE NEWS! and a new campaign will be launching at the end of this month for it.
First up we have a co-operative board game for 1-6 players.
Maximum Apocalypse takes place in (you guessed it) the apocalypse, being described as a ‘roguelike’ in which the players simply have to survive the hostile landscape before them. You can scavenge, steal, kill and just generally do as you need to for your survival. Each player gets four actions a turn in which they can choose to explore the map, equip weapons, scavenge for resources or fight off monsters – whatever needs doing. There are unique player classes too that give you advantages in certain actions. A win condition requires enough fuel for the players’ shared vehicle to escape onwards.
Maximum Apocalypse has a $14,700 goal, which it has already bypassed. They are currently working on stretch goals, with 24 more days to run.
Hellpoint is an RPG set within a science-fiction world with occult overtones. The game takes place on a derelict space station orbiting a mysterious black hole, and you as the player must explore this place after waking up here. This world is living through the aftermath of an event called ‘The Merge’ in which for a moment every living being lost their minds and were merged with all of their selves from alternate worlds. This event has attracted beings of great power too from all other dimensions.
Hellpoint has a CA$ 50,000 goal with 29 more days to go to reach it. It has made CA$ 13,619 so far.
Next we have a 16-bit retro-inspired puzzle fighter game.
Taking inspirations from games like Tetris, Puzzle League, and Meteos; this game is trying to catch the spirit of them all while modelling their game in a 16-bit style in an attempt to recreate some SNES flair. This campaign is to try and fund the game on mobile platforms first, with Android being their first stop – then they aim to move onto other platforms including the Nintendo Switch.
Super Plexis has made $1,584 of its $6,000 target, with 25 more days to run.
Lastly we have another 16-bit game, this time a tactical RPG.
Using some classic JRPG elements, the game has grid-based movement and battles. The story sets us 200 years after a war between two countries at odds – Alta and Kovell. Alta’s outnumbered army won against the odds and a peace was formed. Now that peace is being threatened by a new army in the shadows, and a ranger named Arnen is getting wrapped up in proceedings and might have to face many odds in a bid to prevent another war.
War of Velana has 25 more days to run. It has made $2,102 of its $15,000 goal.
Un’Goro released properly a few days ago, and like last time an expansion was released, players could swear something’s not right with the new packs. Although it’s not quite as obvious as Gadgetzan’s tri-class replicas, players could have sworn that many cards they were getting with the new packs were duplicates – and there were far fewer legendaries than there should have been.
Blizzard have heard this and responded by saying… erm, that everything is actually working as intended.
Community manager Nik Gianozakos (aka Daxxarri) wrote on the forum about the issues: “We have seen a number of posts from our community today regarding Journey to Un’Goro packs and the possibility that they might be distributing an abnormally high amount of duplicate cards. We want to assure everyone that we have looked into this concern and have found that Journey to Un’Goro card distribution is working properly, both at a per card and per rarity basis, and is consistent with previous Hearthstone releases.”
As mentioned before, if it had turned out that the duplicate ratio was too high it wouldn’t have been the first time. Tri-class Gadgetzan cards were popping up extremely frequently last time, and Blizzard offered compensation that time. This time however it seems like Blizzard are satisfied everything’s working as it should. While some players have accepted Blizzard’s word and are glad that they will eventually be getting that new Epic or Legendary they want, some other players are disappointed that the amount of duplicates they got are considered ‘normal’.
There are also some people on the game’s subreddit talking about issues they’re having with the expansion, so maybe Un’Goro knocked something over when it entered the meta. It wouldn’t be unusual, given the size of some of the new beasts we’ve got to play with…
Warhammer 40,000: Space Wolf is a card-driven turn-based tactical game which features RPG elements, containing a single player campaign, survival and PvP modes. Win these battles using the arsenal of weapons, abilities and cunning of the sky warriors.
Now anyone who knows me, knows my love for the all father and being a loyal son of Russ, having played Space Wolves on the Table Top since the early 90’s, so with 25 years under my belt, I’m dubious about anything that uses Leman Russ’ Legion, not only in it’s title but also as the main bulk of the game.
Warhammer 40,000 Space Wolf was initially an iOS/Android release back in 2016, which got rave reviews on the iOS/Android stores and usually the game would be straight ported over to PC (like Fallout Shelter, of course that seemed to work, so if done right, hell, why not), however Herocraft, the Engineseers behind the game, decided to rebuild the game from the ground up for it’s PC (STEAM) release, not only by making the graphics better and more detailed, but making it a one off purchase for the incredibly reasonable £9 and removing all the ingame purchase options that mobile games are well known for.
What we have at heart here is a TCG based tactical turn based shooter, and it works perfectly, using your cards abilities to make your character move, shoot and melee attack the vile chaos scum of the Word Bearer Legion and it’s really as simple as that. Of course it is a TCG at heart, so in typical card game fashion, you build a deck for your main character, in three variations that give him different option, from the standard Power Armour option, which has everything from melee and jump pack abilities, all the way to heavy weapon and wolf companion summoning abilities, through to the Scout armour that gives you more sneaking and sniper abilities, to the Terminator Armour, where everything is heavy, from the melee weapons to the Cyclone Missile launcher. there are some cards that can be equipped on your character too, giving you more options and even Overwatch ability, meanign if an enemy comes into range, your character may take a shot at them (incredibly good if you’ve buffed yourself in the last turn too).
What really struck me early on is the apparent difficulty level, it’s hard, but actually in a good way, I enjoyed losing. As you can see in my first live stream of it below, I just kept going back for more and didn’t realise how long I had been trying just the first level.
As you progress through the levels, you unlock, not only new cards to use, but requisition to make new cards and you can even fuse cards together, for instance, fusing two level 1 cards of the same type into a level 2 of that card. You also unlock new battle brothers aswell, Space Wolves of different squads lost on the planet during planetfall and making there way back to each other.
We all really enjoyed Warhammer 40,000 Space Wolf here at Geek Towers adn would wholeheartedly reccomend it, not only to Warhammer 40k fans, but to other TCG and Tactical Shooter fans too, it melds two game genres together brilliantly and considering it is a massive upgrade from the mobile version, not a straight lackluster port also raises it to exceptional, keep it installed for fun, game levels.
I enjoy frantic games, even if I’m not great at them. Roguelike shooting games especially can be fun, because each play is different and making it past a level feels so damn good.
Steredenn is a pixel-art space shoot-’em-up game where the levels are never the same twice. You are basically a small ship whizzing forward after your main mother craft is attacked by space pirates, and now waves of pirates and other hazards are ahead of you. You are armed with a blaster but along the way if you destroy big transport ships new weapons will be dropped and you can pick them up for new ways to tackle hazards. These range from a giant blue laser to a circular saw that grows from around your ship when you hit the ‘fire’ button. Of course, you don’t have to grab these weapons if you want to stick with your blaster over whatever random weapon drop you get. Everyone’s playstyle will be able to handle weapons slightly differently; and while I didn’t get on with the shotgun weapon for example, someone else will probably sail through with it.
You have a set amount of health and it’s best to prioritize avoiding enemies over shooting them down if you can. The more health you have at the end of a level, the more chance you have of defeating the boss at the end. Each boss will have attack patterns chosen from a pool of patterns, and figuring them out might take a few runs of a level before you make it to the end of the fight and defeat a boss. Upon death each boss will spew out a few randomly chosen upgrades for your ship for you to choose from. You need to choose one to proceed to your next level, so choose the one you want and then watch as the others explode and an animation applies your upgrade before you hyperjump to the next level.
Steredenn was originally out on other platforms before it came to Steam, with both the Xbox One and Playstation 4 having their own versions too. Because of this, Steredenn is suited for controller play and in fact the game will recommend this upon the first time you start playing the game. Not that there’s a lot to remember if you go mouse and keyboard.
The things this game has going for it is the simple pixel art style which lets a lot happen onscreen at a time, sometimes too much, and the fact that after a few plays you will quickly learn what does and doesn’t work for you as far as your playstyle and what weapon pickups will compliment that. I personally prefer the giant laser even if it stops me moving as quickly. If I need to move fast I stop shooting and then resume when it’s convenient to do so. I still blow up a lot, but hey – at least now I’ve learned what not to do next time.
If you enjoy roguelike shoot-’em-ups and space shooter games you will enjoy this one. I would recommend it if you didn’t get to play it on consoles previously, as the game is only £9.99 in the UK and $12.99 in the US – so it’s really not that expensive and with randomly generated levels and weapon/upgrade pickups every time you’re going to get a lot of replay opportunities from it.
