subversion posts

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:

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)

February was the shortest month of the year, as usual, but for some reason it was packed with news items of interest to PC gamers We saw the return of a legendary designer to PC gaming and the revival of a once thought dead MMO . We also saw the light at the end of the tunnel for a long awaited PC game but also heard about the consequences of a publisher's new way to fight PC game piracy

Today we look back at the past 28 days to pick the top 10 biggest PC game news stories and also pick a couple of honorable mentions.Let's start with the honorable mentions after the jump:

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.