Tripwire posts

A former Unreal Tournament 3 mod is one step closer to becoming a full fledged stand alone commercial title. Developer Teotl Studios has announced that the first person action-puzzle game The Ball has now "gone gold". The game is now set for release via download and in stores in mid-October from publisher Tripwire Interactive.

The web site has also posted up word about how the developers have been working with creating the look for the transparent ball in the game. You can play the game with an "always on" transparent ball or one where the ball is always solid. The default mode is for the ball to be solid by itself and will turn transparent when the ball is attached to the game's weapon.

Tripwire Interactive is beginning to make a name for itself as a true supporter of independent gaming. It has already published Zeno Clash to retail stores and will also be the publisher for the upcoming mod-turned-commercial title The Ball. Now Tripwire Interactive has revealed its plans to publish a very different indie game, the casual title Dwarfs.

Created by the two man dev team called, appropriately enough, Power of Two, Dwarfs is all about helping and guiding a group of, well, dwarfs, through randomly generated environments as they dig for gold and treasure while keeping them out of harm's way like having them hit water or lava pockets or dealing with monsters. Tripwire Interactive plans to release Dwarfs in retail stores and via Steam later this fall.

Developer Tripwire Interactive started out as a mod team and now the company says it plans to give mod makers a chance at developing a commercial title. This week the developer announced plans for Red Orchestra Heroes of Stalingrad: Rising Storm, an expansion to their still unreleased WWII shooter. The expansion will move away from the European theater of the war to the Pacific region with the US fighting Japanese forces. The game will let players play as both US and Japanese soldiers and there is the promise of co-op in the campaign as well as multiplayer modes.

What's interesting about this announcement is that Tripwire plans to work with "the best developers from the Red Orchestra modding community and the mod community at large" on this project. Tripwire will give the mod team early access to its development tools and will work with the team to create Rising Storm. The game's official web site is now looking to fill spots on the team and while they are not full time salaried positions the site states, "financial compensation is involved." The final product will be released as an expansion to Red Orchestra: Heroes of Staingrad sometime after that game is released.