demiurge-studios posts

While we are still waiting for developer Demiurge Studios to make up their minds about what platforms they wish to release Shoot Many Robots on (PC, please) the upcoming side-scroller like action-RPG is already looking for you to help design a new robot to blow up for the game.

Basically the team is looking for its fans to come up with some cool robot concepts that could fit in the Shoot Many Robots universe. You can submit your designs over at the game's official message boards. The winning design will be put into the first expansion pack for the game and the person who created it will also be flown to Demiurge's offices in Boston along with some "sweet swag".

It's interesting when a game's title is so straightforward that it's almost ridiculous. This indie title, Shoot Many Robots, is one of those games. As the title suggests - and as this trailer shows off very well - you must shoot many robots to complete the game. There's things like leveling up and money collection and such, but in the end, the only thing that matters is your quest for robot genocide. Well, and fighting a gigantic chomper robot in a scrapyard. This trailer doesn't really impress us, but it doesn't disappoint either.

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Shoot Many Robots was first revealed last year by developer Demiurge Studios. However aside from the title, the fact that it would be a downloadable game and the idea that the game involved shooting, well, robots, details of the game itself were not revealed. Today Demiurge finally released some screenshots from Shoot Many Robots along with some concrete details.

The game itself is a action-RPG with a side-scroller look. It will feature up to four players in co-op mode as the game's characters battle what looks like robots many out of spare and junked parts. Blowing up the robots allows the players to collect loot to upgrade their characters and weapons. Oh, and did we mention big boss battles? The game is still due for release sometime in 2011 but for some reason Demiurge is still not revealing the game's specific platforms.

[via email press release]

Lawmakers in the state of Massachusetts are currently debating whether or not to become the latest state to offer tax breaks to game development studios. The Boston Herald reports that a bill is still in its early stages and faces some opposition from other lawmakers who feel that specific industries should not be boosted above others.

Massachusetts is already a popular place for game development with teams like Irrational Games, Turbine, Demiurge Studios and others located in and around the Boston area. In 2010, another Boston-based game development team, 38 Studios, left the state and moved to Rhode Island thanks to a massive $75 million loan guarantee sponsored by that state's government.

[Via GamePolitics]

Demiurge Studios, the Boston-based game developer who has worked on a number of games many primarily by others for years, has announced its plans to release its first all-original game, Shoot Many Robots. Details about the game are sparse at this point but it will be a downloadable action-arcade title due out in 2011. The press release hints of co-op features as the player, presumably, shoots many robots.

The game's official web site has gone live along with a live action teaser trailer that you can check out after the jump. While platforms have yet to be announced we are hoping that the fact that it's a downloadable game combined with Demiurge's history with the PC platform (the company's first "game" was in fact a UT 2004 mod called Clone Bandits) will allow Shoot Many Robots to show up on the PC platform.

Earlier this month we reported that 38 Studios was considering moving its main headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts to Rhode Island in order to secure loans from that state's government. Today Boston.com reports that the Rhode Island Economic Development Corp. has indeed voted 8 to 1 to give 38 Studios a whopping $75 million in loan guarantees to move to the state. 38 Studios claims it will bring 450 jobs directly to Rhode Island by the end of 2012. If the developer shuts down operations, the state will have to repay the loans.

The game studio, founded by former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, just announced its first game last week, the fantasy RPG Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning, which is being developed by Maryland-based Big Huge Games. 38 Studios' main office is working on a fantasy MMO code named Copernicus.

Another Massachusetts-based game developer, Demiurge Studios, made the unusual move of emailing to the press an open letter written to Schilling. The letter, which is also available on Demiurge's web site, asks Schilling to reconsider moving 38 Studios out of the Boston area. Demiurge's CEO William Reed states, "As 38 Studios' in-development MMO grows, you will soon realize that although the capital you have secured will fund your endeavors, the most vital and necessary component to completing your project is the vast pool of talent and resources you are leaving behind." Reed adds that members of 38 Studios who don't want to move are "more than welcome to join the team at Demiurge Studios, the state's soon-to-be largest independent game studio."

Emotiv has supposedly shipped its first wave of its Epoc mind-based PC game controller products (some people on the company's forums report they have receive their packages). But the package does not contain any game applications in the box. Now Emotiv is offering a game demo on their web site that was made especially for the Epoc controller.

The Spirit Mountain demo appears to be the same game demo that was used to introduce the controller at the 2008 Game Developers Conference. The game from developer Demiurge Studios lets gamers use the headset to, among other things, lift in-game rocks and other objects with your mind. If anyone reading this has the headset let us know if it really works well with the demo.