bastion posts

Bastion, the promising fantasy action-RPG from small indie developer SuperGiant Games, just got a big supporter. The developer announced today that Warner Brothers Interactive will publish Bastion where it will debut on the Xbox 360 console this summer and "later this year" for the PC.

SuperGiant Games emphasized that this deal doesn't mean that the game or the development team has been acquired by Warner Bros Interactive, saying, "We're still an independently owned game studio creating our first game and, with it, our own original IP." The deal with Warner Bros will allow Bastion to get "heavy-duty promotional support for events like PAX East and E3."

Audio is perhaps the most underappreciated section of a game. After all, many gamers turn off their sound effects to talk to their friends, or turn off the music to turn on their own. The games in the IGF's Audio Excellence category, however, fit solidly into the camp of games that you should never ever do that for. These are stellar games that manage to take audio and turn it into an essential part of the experience. In short, you have to listen, not just play, these games.

While technical aspects and game design are all well and good, there does need to be a bit of enjoyment to be had with the eyes. That's why there's the visual excellence category, and this year happens to be the most varied we've ever seen in the IGF. Pixel art, paintings, demoscene color-splosions, and claymation are all represented this year in the category, making it a tough call. After all, everyone expects pixel art to win, but the truth is that indie games are less about the pixels and more about the expressive. And each of these five games is expressive like none other in this competition.

The finalists for the 2011 Independent Games Festival have been announced and fans of two of 2010's most acclaimed and popular indie games, the sandbox title Minecraft and the horror adventure game Amnesia The Dark Descent, have a lot to celebrate. Both games received three nominations each including one for the $20,000 Seumas McNally Grand Prize.

The action-RPG Bastion, which hasn't even been released yet, also scored two nominations for the 2011 IGF awards. The full list of catagories and nominated games can be seen after the jump. The winners will be revealed in a ceremony during the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco on March 2.

Earlier this year we first reported on the formation of SuperGiant Games, a new indie game developer made up primarily of former team members of Electronic Arts' Los Angeles studio. In September at the Penny Arcade Expo the studio announced its first game, a downloadable action-RPG with an anime-like art style called Bastion.

But just what is Bastion all about, anyway? How did the company come to formed? And what's the deal with the trailer from Bastion showing the game's levels forming and also disassembling? To get some answers we got Greg Kasavin, the company's creative director (and one time editor-in-chief at GameSpot). to fill us in.

It may no longer be the only indie game competition in town, or even the one that has the biggest cash prize, but the annual Independent Games Festival is still the one that all the indie game developers want to win. The 13th annual IGF will be held as part of the Game Developers Conference in San Fransisco in early March and this week the IGF revealed all of the games that have been submitted to this year's event.

Over 400 games were submitted which is a new record. As usual it was a mix of previously released titles (such as Minecraft) and games that have yet to be released to the public such as Bastion, Skulls of the Shogun and Spy Party. The finalists for the IGF's various awards will be named in January.

A few months ago we reported on the launch of Supergiant Games, a new game developer founded by former members of EA's Command and Conquer team. This week the company announced its first title, a action-RPG game titled Bastion. The game is one of the 10 indie developed titles that were picked to be displayed at PAX Prime this weekend under the PAX 10 display.

Little has been revealed about the game at this point although you can tell from the screenshots that Bastion has a anime-style art influence. There's also a Flash trailer that you can check out on the Supergiant Games web site that shows some gameplay. Bastion is currently scheduled for a 2011 release.