This is the last podcast of 2018, and the next episode will be our Games of the Year announcement. Until then, we snark at Pewdiepie, and check some of the news ending the year.
This week’s news includes:
Let us know what your Game of the Year is.
Find out why you couldn’t shoot your sword again in Deadly Towers in this episode of the gaming podcast. This week we’re getting some community feedback on what they think should go in a collectors edition game pack. For news this week, we’re tackling:
This weeks Question of the Week: Would a full destructible game environment effect the game industry, breed new experiences and create new genre’s of games? Or just be yet another feature.
After four years of development, Popcap lit up Seattle Monday night with the launch of Bejeweled Twist sparing no expense to show off their new casual game. It took four years to complete but Popcap isn’t going to release a game until it’s perfect. You won’t play it until they believe it is a game their mom would love.
“Popcap builds games for people, not demographics,” says CEO David Roberts. At the launch the founders, John Vechey, Brian Fiete and Jason Kapalka talked about the casual game market while the “Gem Girls” walked around looking sexy and flashy. Roberts talked about the casual game industry and forecasts it growing to become an $8 billion market — not too shabby for USD $19.99 games.
Downloads of Bejeweled, of course, show no signs of stopping and Popcap explained that 40% of their revenue comes from the old concepts of “Diamond Mine.” Phil Spencer, Microsoft Game Studios’ General Manager, hopped on stage and explained how Microsoft saw Popcap’s vision in their Diamond Mine flash game and suggested a rename to Bejeweled, the founders hated the name but took the big companies suggestion on the change.
Since then, we’ve had many folks attempt to clone and replicate the success in Popcap’s flagship product. Complete with open bar, Gem Girls, camera flashes and glitter this game launch shows the growing casual games industry the great power and momentum of “simple” casual games.
Nothing about Bejeweled Twist is simple. The game play of Bejeweled Twist aggregates all the knowledge Popcap has acquired over the last seven years to design one blockbuster title. From classic Bejeweled to Chuzzle to Peggle, the game takes pieces of each successful title and combines the game play, sounds, graphics and modes into a product that will bring casual gaming to a new level. Bejeweled Twist is going to be the new bar to reach in the industry in terms of addictive game play and a unified casual vision.
Stay tuned for the full review as we get deep into the full features of Bejeweled Twist. Special thanks to Dale North from Destructoid for hanging out for some drinks during the after party.
This week, the gang ponder about the games that are coming in 2017, thinking about what they’re really interested in. The games range from Mass Effect: Andromeda to Injustice 2, among other titles. It’s a long rambling conversation, but at least it’s hope. The Gaming History focuses on the folly that was The Capcom 5.
The news items this week include:
The Question of the Week is “What game are you looking forward to in 2017?”
Hi guys.
Thanks again for this nice episode. Sorry that I was a little bit lazy writing comments under the last episodes, but I had to much thing going on :/
Regarding the topic of this thousand crappy small games on steam: I totally agree. There is so many useless shit there, it’s hard to find the good ones (and I bet there are many we will never find). On the other side, I don’t like that every company tries to run their own shop, because so you have to search / look through so many platforms that it feels like work :/
Best games of the year: i did not really played many actual games, because most of the time I played Magic The Gathering Arena and Hearthstone. Some Overwatch and Battlefield 5 the last weeks. BF makes fun because I play it with my friends, I would not have bought it to play it on my own 🙂
I bought some games, but did not find the way play it. These were Mega Man 11, Detroit become Human, Toki (the new Switch Version) and some shmups for the PS4. I think the only actual title I played so far is Life is Strange 2 (episode 1). Hollow Knight was released 2017, but I bought it some months ago. I love those metroidvania games and I am playing hollow knight a lot during the last weeks 🙂 I Stimm want to play God of War and Red Dead Redemption 2, but there are so many games I wanna play, I will wait with these two until they get a little bit cheaper 🙂
I hope all of you had a great New Year’s Eve and celebrated it with your friends and family. I am looking forward to a good 2019 with a lot of good games and many episodes of your podcast. Stay healthy and the way you are.
Greetings from your loyal listener,
Ralf