Fantastic Fest has announced an exciting partnership with Day of the Devs. From September 20 to 22, 2024, Fantastic Games: Presented by Day of the Devs will be hosted by Fantastic Fest!

Fantastic Fest, the largest genre film festival in the U.S. specializing in horror, fantasy, sci-fi, and action, will partner with Day of the Devs, a non-profit that celebrates the creativity, diversity, and magic of video games, to host Fantastic Games: Presented by Day of the Devs. The partnership will feature many exciting video game showcases from September 20 to 22, 2024. 

Fantastic Games: Presented by Day of the Devs is a video game showcase that will be taking place during the 9th edition of Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas. The showcase will feature 12 horror games the attendees can play, with some being playable for the first time. Fans of the exciting festival and horror games can purchase various badges now to access the festival and the video game showcase!  

Game developers interested in submitting their games for consideration to be part of the Day of the Devs showcase will have until today, August 5th, to apply through this form. Developers from diverse backgrounds are encouraged to apply, but only games or projects in the horror, fantasy, sci-fi, and action genres will be considered to fit this year’s Carnival themes. 

As the attendees enjoy the Fantastic Fest and play games at the Fantastic Games: Presented by Day of the Devs, the event will be sponsored by five gaming brands. The sponsorships included are:

• Blumhouse Games – Releasing Fear The Spotlight later this year.
• Devolver – Released the Hotline Miami series, Katana ZERO, Human Fall Flat, and many more. 
• Double Fine – Released the Psychonauts series, Headlander, Grim Fandango Remaster, and many more. 
• Iam8bit – Selling physical copies of games that are digital only such as The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe, Neon White, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, and many more. 
• Raw Fury – Released Regions of Ruin, Blue Prince, Zet Zillions, and many more. 

Are you looking forward to the Fantastic Fest and Fantastic Games Presented by Day of the Devs? If so, be sure to keep up to date with the Fantastic Fest and purchase your badges by visiting the website! 

Remember Braid? It was all the rage back in 2008 when it was originally released on other consoles, quickly making its mark as a unique indie platformer. Now, like so many titles before it, a special edition of this older game comes to the Switch. Let’s welcome Braid, Anniversary Edition to the fold.

The Switch’s success has given rise to many such re-releases. Don’t get me wrong, I think cross-pollination across platforms is great, giving classic titles another go at reaching an audience. For anyone who missed out on games like Braid the first time around, re-releases are terrific. Especially when as much effort is put into proceedings as with this edition.

Let’s start with the gameplay basics. Braid is a puzzle platformer that follows the adventures of a young man on a mission to rescue his beloved. Throughout his journey are rooms, each presenting a problem to solve. Typically, the goal is to access various jigsaw pieces dotted about the room. They’re often hard to reach, with a clever solution required to get you there.

Apart from the usual running and jumping, this little platformer adds a unique time mechanic. While death may occur frequently, whether from falling into a pit or landing on spikes, a quick tap of the rewind button lets you travel back through time to try again. Not only that, some objects respond differently to this reverse flow of time. This opens the way for some creative tricks to get you to those hard-to-reach jigsaw pieces. 

From the very beginning, it’s clear Braid was developed with care. While there are some head-scratching traps in there for sure, one of the goals of the original development was to create something that felt rewarding to solve. And it does. But that attention to detail extends beyond the puzzles. Everything has been curated to create something unique, especially in 2008. Even the game’s intro is unique; instead of the typical menu screen with options, the title screen is the game. You control things from the very beginning.

Let’s talk about the key differences between this edition and the original. One thing we don’t always see with revamped releases is the ability to switch between old and new graphics. Braid has you covered here, allowing players to quickly flick from classic to updated styles at the touch of a button. It’s seamless. It’s a treat for fans who remember the way things were, or for anyone with an interest in gaming history.

Speaking of visuals, they’re simply lovely. They were already nice back in 2008, but now they’re even better, with colorful backdrops that really pop. Character pixels have been enhanced, as have their animations. There’s much more detail in each room, too. In short, a good-looking game has been enhanced to become quite splendid.

Now, if you have played the original Braid, this leaves less room for a Switch purchase. If you were already a fan, perhaps the updated visuals are enough to tempt you. However, this Anniversary Edition offers a comprehensive amount of commentary to give you yet another excuse to double dip.

And I mean comprehensive. The developers have gone above and beyond, integrating hours of detailed audio while you’re playing. Yes, while you’re playing. There are special switches within the game that allow you to access commentary for the room you’re in. It accompanies you while you continue playing, akin to watching a director’s commentary during a movie. There’s hours worth of content, which is interesting to fans and, again, gaming enthusiasts who are interested in how it all came together at the time. It’s quite a work of art.

So, any downsides? Not really, though with the original gameplay remaining intact, it means any flaws come along for the ride. The only such issue I noticed was when I first played. As mentioned, there are many rooms to explore, however it’s not clear initially what you’re meant to do in them; the instructions are deliberately unclear. This makes for a slightly shaky start until you work out what’s going on. Once you get a feel for it, though, Braid truly shines.

Overall, Braid, Anniversary Edition is the definitive version of a terrific platformer. Not only has this classic title been enhanced with improved graphics, but a detailed commentary has been integrated into the game itself. The original developers put a lot of effort into building something unique in 2008. Now, they’ve enhanced their creation into something special and detailed.

The post Review: Braid, Anniversary Edition (Nintendo Switch) appeared first on Pure Nintendo.

A new report featuring quotes from anonymous developers who have worked with Apple Arcade claims the subscription gaming service has no real goals, barely communicates with studios, and treats teams poorly, making them jump through hoops and wait for months to get paid. One developer even claimed that working with…

Read more...

This year’s Day Of The Devs boasted an entire seven exclusives, plus a load of other nifty features and previews for exciting indies we already knew about, but are no less excited to be reminded of. It’s been over ten years now since Tim Schafer and the folks at Double Fine kicked off the non-profit initiative to help shine a spotlight on games what they thought were nice. No way! I love games what I think are nice! Here’s everything from Day Of The Devs 2024, dutifully arranged for your clicking pleasure.

Read more

Are Tamagotchis a thing now again? I’m getting a sense they might be, but I’ll always associate them with the nineties. Ah, to return to a simpler time, where kids tripped each other up in the school hallways to steal toys , before Pokémon cards came along and everyone leveled up to stabbings. Sorry, Petal Runner devs, for opening a news article about your lovely wholesome game talking about stabbings. This gorgeous, fuschia-splashed, slice-of-life RPG is, if anything, the antidote to stabbings. In terms of game fatigue, anyway. It won’t cure tetanus, at least I don’t think so.

Read more

Grid-based puzzler Grindstone was a favourite of Katharine’s, who found it to be her go-to during regularly scheduled moments of “cat-based paralysis”. I didn’t spent quite so many hours of feline enforced stasis with it, but I too was drawn in for a respectable time chunk. It’s those detail-stuffed visuals and caffeinated animations that tipped it for me, and it’s the same art that have me excited for Capybara’s follow-up. Battle Vision Network is an online puzzle battler that pits you head to head against real-life humans (boo those guys). The conceit here is its a televised space sport, in which you’ll steer the fate of its ongoing story arcs by winning or losing as your chosen team.

Read more

A French game about mountain climbing? No, not that one. This is Cairn, not Jusant, and it’s actually a very different beast. Jusant could be tricky, but climbing was more the way you experienced its story. In survival climber Cairn, the ascent is the story. It seem to mainly be a story about how bad you are at climbing.

Read more

Third-person shooter sensation Helldivers 2 reached an extraordinary 409,337 concurrent players over the weekend. That makes it the fifth most popular game on Steam, a fact made all the more impressive when you factor in that three of those five games are free, compared to Helldivers 2's $40 pricetag.

Read more...

As 2024's big bad—Late Stage Capitalism—continues its grim rampage, some developers are looking to more innovative approaches to avoid the publishing industry’s self-sabotaging need for impossibly endless growth. Stormgate creator Frost Giant—a studio created by former StarCraft 2 devs—is following up on its recent…

Read more...