Hasbro wants to crowdfund your party game ideas on Indiegogo

Hasbro is hoping you’d be willing to share your best party game idea ever(!) with the company and has launched a search for the “Next Great Game.” The mechanics are simple: just go to the project website and submit an entry — along the same lines as Monopoly, some variants of Trivial Pursuit and Funny or Die — until September 30th, 2015. After that, sit back, cross your fingers and hope that you’re among the five finalists announced on October 30th. Now, here’s the twist: you’re not getting any prize money even if you end up as one of the five. Instead, you’ll be invited to launch an Indiegogo campaign to raise funds for your concept.

While you can very well do that on your own, Hasbro promises to use its web presence to promote your project. Both the toy company and Indiegogo will also work with you to build the crowdfunding campaign page. The fundraising phase will end on December 1st, 2015, after which a team of Hasbro game developers will scrutinize every finalist and announce one grand winner later that month. If you get the top prize, that’s when the company will part with $10,000 to go straight to your pocket. More importantly, it will fly you to Rhode Island between December 5th, 2015 and January 31st, 2016 to make your idea a reality.

This isn’t Hasbro’s first attempt at getting the public involved with its game development — just earlier this year, it asked people for help in deciding on a new Monopoly board design and adding a new word to Scrabble’s dictionary. If you’re wondering, the contest website’s ToS says “you retain ownership of all intellectual property rights in the Submission… including any associated copyrights, trademarks and/or patents.” It’s still best to read the whole thing, though, just to make sure you’re down with how Hasbro plans to treat your winning game.

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Tags: crowdfunding, hasbro, indiegogo, nextgreatgame, partygame

Playdate: We’re screaming through the teen-horror of ‘Until Dawn’

By now you’ve (hopefully!) read our review of Sony’s latest PlayStation 4 exclusive, Until Dawn. I’d also like to think that you’ve gazed upon its faces and gorgeous cinematography too. If you’re still on the fence about buying it though, well, maybe our Twitch stream starting at 6 pm ET / 3 pm PT will change that. We’ll be broadcasting two hours of the teen fright-fest today and I’d like to you join Sean Buckley and myself because the decisions we make in the game will be entirely up to you. That’s right: You’ll choose who lives and who dies, the paths we take through a Canadian mountainside and a whole lot more this afternoon. Are you ready for that kind of responsibility? Perhaps the better question is if you’re ready to hear my shrill screams. Let’s find out. Together.

So, join us here on this post, twitch.tv/joystiq or the Engadget Gaming homepage and follow along as we try to not lead a group of randy high schoolers to their untimely demises.

http://www.twitch.tv/joystiq/embedWatch live video from Joystiq on www.twitch.tv

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[We’re streaming Until Dawn at 720p through OBS, so rest assured this game will look dramatically better on your TV, through your PlayStation 4 at home.]

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Tags: gaming, HaydenPanettiere, hd, hdpostcross, horror, peterstormare, playstation, playstation4, ps4, sony, supermassivegames, twitch, untildawn

‘Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5’: something new, something borrowed

“It’s like making a new Star Wars movie,” says Patrick Dwyer, lead designer on developer Robomodo’s upcoming Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5. “The originals are great and then the rest weren’t as good.” He’s referring, of course, to the high bar set by the first four games in the storied extreme sports franchise as compared to the middling releases that followed. The idea, as Dwyer explains it, is to treat anything that released past 2002’s Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4 as if it never existed. And that’s including the horrible pair of plastic skateboard peripheral-based games he worked on: Tony Hawk Ride and its follow up, Shred.

The first Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater debuted in 1999 on the original PlayStation and was a runaway hit: Nine tightly designed levels each with a handful of goals (e.g., hit a high score; collect the five letters that spell out “S-K-A-T-E”; find a hidden VHS tape). Oh, and each run lasted a grand total of two minutes. The addictive, arcade-like pursuit of getting a perfect run led to massive sales and publisher Activision ordering a raft of sequels. The two releases that followed changed the formula slightly with added tricks to string out combos even further and take scores even higher, but it was the fourth entry that significantly altered the series.

An example of the objectives from Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4 featured huge levels you could combo all the way across, a timer that only kicked in once you started a mission and end-game challenges designed to test the most hardcore of players. In the years that followed, the franchise went through a handful of name changes and became bloated with features that made no sense, like racing around in tuner cars and the ability to jump off your skateboard to climb onto rooftops. Pro Skater 5, despite its nomenclature, is not a direct sequel to what came before it.

“With the later games, [developers] had to keep adding stuff to justify the yearly release,” says Robomodo President Josh Tsui. “We don’t have that burden here so that’s really freed us up a lot.”

A quick tour of Robomodo’s Chicago office reveals the latest game’s back-to-basics inspiration. A hot pink Mattel hoverboard is propped up against one wall; a copy of Electronic Arts’ 2007 physics-based skateboarding sim Skate lies on one desk; while a strategy guide for the Xbox launch title Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2x is on another. Tsui’s workstation even has an Xbox and a copy of Pro Skater 4 at it, which should help allay fan fears instilled by the lesser, later games. And that’s where Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5 comes in.

“A lot of the decisions we made about the game were [about] making it more approachable.”

— Patrick Dwyer, Robomodo

The game is pick-up-and-play by design: Balancing while doing a “manual” (a wheelie that lets you continue a combo after landing a jump) or while sliding across a handrail is incredibly easy to do even with a non-upgraded character. Whereas before you’d have to constantly adjust balance so you wouldn’t bail (read: crash, breaking your combo and losing any accrued points), that isn’t the case here. You don’t have to move directly through the “SKATE” letters anymore either; get close enough and you’ll sort of suck them in. It’s these small tweaks that smooth out rough edges the series has suffered from for years and make the game less frustrating to play from the outset.

“A lot of the decisions we made about the game were [about] making it more approachable for people who don’t have 12 – 15 years experience [with the franchise],” Dwyer says. “It was one of those unspoken things that everyone knew had to happen. If you hand an old game like Pro Skater 4 to somebody, they’ll bail like 20 times in five minutes.”

But don’t take this focus on accessibility as Robomodo alienating the hardcore. In fact, it means they can be even more brutal to those folks. Each level has 10 normal challenges (e.g., find the hidden DVD; collect “S-K-A-T-E;” grab the letters spelling “combo” in one combo — those sorts of things), and completing those opens up pro-level challenges. Just how hard are those? Try pulling off a 150,000-point combo when you can’t manual and your starting point is a huge ramp overlooking a particular level. This is where Robomodo’s actively taunting dedicated players.

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5 features a saturated graphical look.

Dwyer says this is something they experimented with a lot. He’s watched me go from being rusty and squandering hundreds of thousands of points by crashing, to having my muscle memory kick in, resulting in 200,000-point combos, to me once again struggling to land combos. “Those are bastards,” he says with a barely suppressed glee. “There’s no better way to explain it than that.”

After a few hours of playtime with an admittedly small portion of the game, it appears as if Dwyer and the Pro Skater 5 team at Robomodo may have succeeded in their mission. The gameplay feels fun and balanced, but it also feels familiar — maybe a little too familiar. The level goals Dwyer demoed were akin to those in previous Pro Skater releases. A few maps are even spiritual successors (replete with similar trick lines) to the best ones from games past including “Bunker,” an amalgamation of “Hangar” from Pro Skater 2 and “Warehouse” from the series debut.

“We’re aware that people might say something like that,” Dwyer says of Pro Skater 5‘s familiarity, “But really, it’s not a deterrent because with ‘School 3,’ a couple of lines are similar, but all the stuff we’ve added to it help flesh it out more.”

“We kept the direct callbacks to ‘School 3’ and ‘Bunker,’” Tsui says.

“It’s almost like we’re stepping back in time a bit and shaking stuff up.”

— Josh Tsui, Robomodo

Of course, in the context of the full game, the similarities might not be as glaring. In fact, there were a number of original levels in Pro Skater 5‘s menu, including a moon-physics-based “Asteroid Belt.” It’s hard to fault Robomodo for mining the past, though. The team wants new players to experience the franchise’s best moments and what better way to do that than by recreating some of the series’ most iconic areas?

Pro Skater 5, unlike any of the more recent games in the franchise (including Robomodo’s fan-service remaster Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD from 2012) finally feels like a true sequel and a return to form for the series — not a diversion.

“It’s not a natural progression from Ride or Shred,” Tsui says. “It’s almost like we’re stepping back in time a bit and shaking stuff up.”

[Image credit: Robomodo/Activision]

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Tags: gaming, hd, hdpostcross, joshtsui, patrickdwyer, playstation, playstation4, skateboarding, TonyHawk, tonyhawksproskater, tonyhawksproskater5, xbox, xboxone

‘Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5’ was designed with YouTube in mind

Secrets have always been a big part of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. However, when players get stuck trying to find Easter eggs in any game now, they don’t turn to glossy strategy guides like they did in the 1990s and early 2000s — they open Twitch or YouTube on their smartphone. Developer Robomodo had this in mind when creating Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5. Lead designer Patrick Dwyer says that his team’s tucked away the hidden skateboarding DVD — a series staple — pretty well this time around and that’s a direct result of how the community responded when the studio released Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD back in 2012. “The day it came out there were videos of how to beat all of our missions,” he says. “How’s that possible? It’s weird hiding stuff knowing that.”

Dwyer says that there are aspects of the modern tech landscape that they’re taking advantage of in order to make the game a bit more punishing.

“We’ve made challenges that are like Pac-Man: There’s a certain set path to reaching a few goals,” he says. “The only reason that’d fly nowadays is because people would be able to find out how to do it.

He continues: “The hidden combos? We’re not telling you anywhere in the game that you can do them. It’s one of those things that, the first day, the community’s going to share.”

In a way, Robomodo’s taking the game beyond just playing it on your PlayStation 4 or Xbox One, and extending it into the real world. Now part of the game is finding the secrets first and getting them up on YouTube or Twitch before anyone else.

“[Hidden combos] are one of those things we can put in the pause menu,” Dwyer says. “But isn’t it cooler to let the community discover it together?”

Image: Robomodo/Activision

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Tags: activision, gaming, hd, hdpostcross, patrickdwyer, robomodo, tonyhawksproskater, tonyhawksproskater5, tonyhawksproskaterhd, twitch, youtube

‘Rapture’ game soundtrack pulled from out-of-touch UK charts

Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture is a post-apocalyptic game with a difference. Instead of a nuclear wasteland, you’re tasked with exploring an idyllic, but empty town in the middle of the English countryside. There’s little dialogue, but the sweeping soundtrack sets a wonderfully melancholic tone. Composed by the game’s director Jessica Curry, these original tracks are excellent examples of modern classical music. And clearly they’ve resonated with people — earlier this month, the soundtrack placed eighth in the UK’s “Official Classical Artist Albums Chart.” Curry and the rest of her studio, The Chinese Room, were delighted. That is, until it disappeared from the chart the following week.

Very sad that the UK official charts have withdrawn my Rapture score from the classical charts- think it would have hit no. 1 this week

— Jessica Curry (@jessicacurry2) August 25, 2015

According to the UK’s Official Charts Company, its inclusion was a mistake. The rules for this particular chart, which were drawn up in partnership with the classical music industry, state that original soundtracks performed by single and various artists are ineligible. The decision applies not just to Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, but to all video games and movies. Curry and The Chinese Room have been voicing their disapproval on Twitter — the developer has called it “bullshit” and “snobbery in action.” Fans of the game have, understandably, leapt to their defence and even Shuhei Yoshida, president of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios, has called the decision “unfortunate.”

So @officialcharts denied the Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture OST by @jessicacurry2 it’s rightful chart placement. Just snobbery in action.

— The Chinese Room (@ChineseRoom) August 25, 2015

To make matters worse, the Official Charts Company has made another blunder in the Official Classical Artist Albums Chart. In this week’s listings, The Complete Harry Potter Film Music by The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra is ranked 29th. Just like Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, this is an original soundtrack. A spokesperson for the Official Charts Company told us: “It’s an error. It shouldn’t be in there either and will be corrected (taken out) this Friday. We’re already aware of it.” For fans of the game and Curry’s music, however, its inclusion has only added to their sense of anger and frustration.

@ChineseRoom @officialcharts That’s ridiculous. How is original music composed for a game any different from music composed for a film?

— Foucauld Escaillet (@MisterFooks) August 25, 2015

But even once the Harry Potter soundtrack is removed, the greater question remains: why are original scores ineligible? We’re yet to hear a definitive answer. Whatever the reason, it means these albums are represented elsewhere; in the Official Soundtrack Albums Chart and the Official Classic FM Chart, which is a combined classical chart published on the radio station’s website. Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture features in both, but you could argue that the level of recognition they offer isn’t quite the same. To confuse matters further, the Official Charts Company has told Eurogamer that it considers Curry’s record “a bona fide classical album.” That’s why it features prominently in the Classic FM Chart — but again, this doesn’t explain its ineligibility for the Official Classical Artist Albums Chart.

No matter where you stand, the reality is that this decision doesn’t affect the quality of our favourite soundtracks. It’s just a shame all classical music can’t be treated equal — whether it’s written specifically for an album, or to accompany a movie, TV show or video game, it either fits the genre or it doesn’t. If you think these composers are being treated unfairly, the best course of action — as always — is to support their work with your wallet.

https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/182090636&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=falsehttps://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/154085103&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false

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Tags: classicalmusic, EverybodysGoneToTheRapture, jessicacurry, OfficialChartsCompany, OriginalSoundTrack, ost, soundtrack, thechineseroom

‘Assassin’s Creed Syndicate’ hits PCs on November 19th

If you’re determined to play Assassin’s Creed Syndicate on your sweet PC gaming rig, you’re going to have to wait a while longer than everyone else. Ubisoft has announced that the Windows version of its Victorian stealth action game will arrive on November 19th, or nearly a month after the console edition’s October 23rd debut. This is to make sure PC players get a “stable, optimized” version of Syndicate right from the start, the developer says — clearly, Ubisoft is still feeling the sting of Unity‘s botched launch.

The move isn’t all that alarming if you know Ubisoft well. You see, the company has a history of delaying PC versions, whether it’s due to copy protection or just the added complexity of testing a wider range of hardware. While this isn’t technically a delay (the company had warned that the Windows copy would come later), it’s clear that the creators were anticipating some snags. Still, we’ll take a later release if it avoids the high-profile fiascoes that often come with rushing out PC games at the same time as their console counterparts.

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Tags: assassinscreed, assassinscreedsyndicate, gaming, pc, ubisoft, windows