introversion posts

Minecraft continues to be the hot PC indie game and the sandbox title is already inspiring other game developers. One of them is Chris Delay, the co-founder of Introversion Software (Darwinia, Defcon). Today he posted up word on the developer's forums that he has been working on a hobby project that owes a lot to Minecraft.

Basically Delay created a voxel-based engine and made a building that would look right at home in Minecraft's square block-based world. Then he combined it with a rigid body physics system. The result? A building that has some very realistic destructible properties. You can see the video showing just how destructible it can be after the jump. Delay writes, "This is just a prototype, just a tuesday afternoon hobby project, but wouldn't it be awesome to play an FPS or a wargame with this kind of totally destructible environment?" Why yes it would, Chris. Yes it would. How about making this as more than just a hobby project? We know you are still working on Subversion but hey, this looks cool too,

[Via Kotaku]

Want to get a really cool real-time strategy game for free? Of course you do. Now the Green Man Gaming web site is offering the opportunity to get one of the best indie strategy PC games ever made. It's Defcon, the global war game with a WarGames--like art style from developer Introversion Software that first came out in 2006.

From now until December 27, you can download the full version of Defcon from the Green Man Gaming web site by heading to this link and putting in the promo code DEFC0-N4GMG-FUTU4. Then you can start playing your own version of Global Thermonuclear War.

[Via Computer and Video Games]

Subversion is the next game from indie games innovator Introversion Software and has been in development for a while. The first screenshots and the first concrete info on the game was first revealed earlier this year. However we haven't see the game in action before.

That is, until this week when some demo footage from a London-based indie game event from last June popped up on the interwebs. Now we get to see this tactical action game in, well, action as players enter a security-filled building and attempt to accomplish their mission. It's still a long ways away from being completed but based on the video presentation it's looking like it will be worth it. Hey, they did make Defcon. You can check out the video after the break:

Sometimes you just need to sit down, slide a floppy into your A: drive, and enjoy gaming retro style. We know this all too well! That's why we have a list of the best and brightest from days long gone. These are some of our favorite games of all time, and we're sure that you'll love them as much as we do, if not more. Welcome to Boot Disk, and enjoy the retro ride!

We haven't covered many indie games on Boot Disk before. This is for two primary reasons. First, the definition of indie games has changed over the years. What was once common practice in the mainstream business two decades ago (very small development teams) is now the domain of hobbyists and visionaries. Second, the indies of yesteryear are folks like John Carmack and Cliff Blezsinski. The little guys that ended up making it big. Granted, there's plenty that started big, but more of the most famous names in gaming started out small, from Tim Schafer to Ken Levine. The modern indie movement has no room for these success stories, however. The internet was busy churning ahead to create a new darling studio: Introversion. While they are perhaps better known for Darwinia and DEFCON at this point, their first game was a small hacking "simulation" called Uplink. Thanks in part to its goofy interface and simple mechanics, it still endures as a beautiful, and altogether playable, game. One can't truly be engrossed in the new indie community without playing it at least once.

UK-based Introversion Software is looked upon by many as a leader in the indie games scene but like many small game development companies keeping the lights on is a constant struggle. In a new interview at Gamesindustry.biz (free registration required) the company's co-founder Mark Morris states that due to low sales of its Xbox Live Arcade release Darwinia+ earlier this year the company laid off all of its staff, shut down its offices, "and kind of crawled back into the core Introversion team of just myself, Chris, Tom and Johnny... the original four directors, back in our bedrooms again."

However Introversion recently got a big cash infusion thanks to a sale earlier this summer of its world strategy game Defcon on Steam. Morris states, "The sale did in the ball park of $250,000 - so when you're back to being a team of four people, that's a lot of revenue." Morris said the cash flow from the Steam Defcon sale "extends out for two years at our size, which is nice." In fact Morris states that in his opinion, "if you're not on Steam, then you're not an indie game developer of any note. You absolutely have to be on that platform at the moment." Introversion is currently working on its next PC game, the (kind of) spy-themed Subversion.

Download the Defcon demo at Big Download (50 MB)

Developer Introversion Software got a lot of attention with their releases of the strategy-sim games Darwinia and its multiplayer-based companion game Multiwinia. Now the developer is giving anyone a chance to play with the source code behind both titles but there is a pretty big catch involved.

The source code for both games has been released on Introversion's web site but unlike other developers who have done similar things for free Introversion is charging to download its code. You can get the source code for $45 via Introversion's online store.The codes come with passwords to Introversion's development forums where people can chat with others on how to modify the game's programming.

[Via Blue's News]

Introversion Software's next big game got a big reveal over the weekend with the first real gameplay details on Subversion. Now the developer has released the first true in-game screenshots from the tactical spy-action game. The development of the game itself is still in its early stages but what has been revealed is most promising.

According to a post on the game's official blog site, the game will have players control "a team of skilled operatives" as they attempt to infiltrate a building with tons of security measures. Sometimes players will be able to accomplish missions without any alerts. Other times the alarms will be tripped and then a plan of escape will have to be made. While the screenshots released so far are not the game's final look, it will be designed to look like 3D blueprints. Overall it looks like Subversion, even in this early stage, is going to be a game to look forward to playing.

Gallery: Subversion Screenshots

Introversion Software was one of the first small innovative indie game development teams to emerge in the new digital download era. Games like Uplink, Defcon, and Darwinia showed a preference for simple graphics but terrific gameplay. For some time the company has been working on their next big project called Subversion. Now Rock Paper Shotgun reports on a brief gameplay demo of the title that was shown at a BAFTA event in London.

While the dev team said the demo is very early, the report describes the game as using a procedural system to generate a virtual city. Then the action shift to one floor in one building in the city where the objective is to take out a server room. From what is described, Subversion seems to be about spies, infiltration and sabotage. The game is still a long way off (indeed the developer hints that a proper demo for the game is still a year away) but it certainly seems to fit in what Introversion has done in the past.

UK-based Introversion Software had had a number of major successes for a small indie developer, releasing acclaimed PC games like Darwinia and Defcon. However the year 2008 did not turn out the way the company thought it would. In a rather extensive three part article on the company's blog site, Introversion's Chris Delay goes into detail on what went wrong in 2008.

In summary, Introversion had a number of projects either be delayed or fall by the wayside in 2008, including a planned DS port of Defcon, a game called Chronometer for the UK-based TV network Channel 4 and Darwinia +, a still-unreleased merger of Darwinia and Multiwinia for Xbox Live Arcade. Even the release of Multiwinia for the PC this year generated poor sales.

In the end, Delay states, "By all accounts, 2008 was a disastrous year for Introversion, characterised by an incredibly positive start and a noticeable increase in ambition, but not a single genuine success throughout the whole year." The good news? Introversion managed to stay alive and kept everyone on the team employed even though it had to cut costs considerably to do so. Delay also stated that the beginning of 2009 has seen "alternative funding through grant schemes". Their main project now is to finish Darwinia + and while Delay admits "This is not a situation we would ever deliberately put ourselves in – all eggs in one Microsoft shaped basket," he adds that "the first time in a long while, I'm feeling confident."

Download the Multiwinia demo at Big Download

Introversion, developers of the award-winning independent game Darwinia, released brand-new updates to the Multiwinia demo. This time, the demo makes up for what it lacked the first time around - namely multiplayer. Players will be able to battle it out against one another using the new demo and can even join games hosted by fully paid versions over LAN. Game modes include King of the Hill, Capture the Statue and Rocket Riot. Rocket Riot was previously only available in the full version of the game. Installing and running the demo will automatically update it to the latest version. Internet connection is required for update.

Purchasing an authentication key unlocks the demo into the full version of the game.

Download Multiwinia: Survival of the Flattest Demo (48.9 MB)
Check out all Mutliwinia downloads
Read the review for Multiwinia: Survival of the Flattest