Sunday, April 28, 2024
HACKERS UPDATE SEVERAL GAMES WITH MALWARE ON STEAM PLATFORM
Valve has had to add extra security for developers on Steam after hackers updated several games with malware that allowed them to take control of their browser access tokens.
Valve quickly stopped the attack and notified affected users (less than 100.) The company is introducing new two-factor authentication methods for developer accounts on Steam to help prevent future attacks.
There’s been increased hacker malware activity on all platforms recently, so this is a necessary security upgrade.
Unity CEO steps down following runtime fee fiasco
John Riccitiello, CEO of Unity, has stepped down from his position effective immediately. James M. Whitehurst has been appointed interim chief executive officer and will serve until a replacement is found, according to a news release from the company.
Unity has backed down from its previous Runtime Fee policy. According to a letter sent out by Marc Whitten, leader of Unity Create, the cap on total sales is raised to $200,000. For games that are subject to the Runtime Fee, Unity will give you a choice of 2.5% revenue share, or an amount based on sales per month.
Most importantly, the new Runtime Fee will only apply to games made with the next LTS version of Unity, shipping in 2024 and beyond. The games currently being sent out or currently being worked on will not be affected, unless the developer chooses to upgrade them to the new version of Unity. Whitten says "No game with less than $1 million in trailing 12-month revenue will be subject to the fee."
There will be no Runtime Fee for games built on Unity Personal. The terms that apply to the version of Unity the game was built on will remain applicable.
This is good news, but developers still fear Unity may change its mind in the future, and they're not sure about the viability of the platform.
Read Whitten’s entire letter here: https://blog.unity.com/news/open-letter-on-runtime-fee
KILLER KLOWNS FROM OUTER SPACE – THE GAME!
BIG TOP. BIG SHOES. BIG TROUBLE.
Fans of the notorious B-movie “Killer Klowns from Outer Space” (1988) will be delighted to hear there’s a new game coming out based on the movie.
All the characters you know and love from the movie are in the game. Play as your choice of human citizen of Crescent Cove or Killer Klown. Gameplay is asymmetric, meaning there are three humans to seven Klowns. There are five character classes for either side. They all have unique abilities, so of course the key to winning the game is picking the right team for the job.
The Klowns are based upon the ones from the movie — including Shorty, my favorite. You’ll harvest humans with your cotton candy ray gun, your popcorn bazooka, and your scent-tracking balloon dog.
The five human character classes are inspired by the campy horror movie tropes — teens, punks, cops, rednecks, and bikers. You’ll fight the alien invasion with combinations of speed, strength, stealth, and if all else fails, a trusty shotgun or police department-issued firearm.
According to the game trailer website, “Each class comes with its own strengths and weaknesses; and players will need to use teamwork, stealth, and good old-fashioned resourcefulness to beat back the merry menace.”
The in-game maps are faithful recreations of the locations in the movie, but each match has randomly-generated objectives, which should provide a new experience for repeated playthroughs.
“Klowns win by capturing most — or all — of the human citizens of Crescent Cove, while humans win by either de-activating the Klowns' Big Top spaceship, escaping the map before time runs out, or keeping the majority of the townsfolk alive for the entire round,” the game trailer website explains.
Klowns from Outer Space: The Game is an asymmetrical multiplayer horror game based on the iconic 80s film developed by Teravision Games and published by Good Shepherd Entertainment. The game is for adults only with violent content, blood and graphical violence. Projected release date is some time in 2024. They’re currently accepting applications from beta testers, so if you’re interested, follow this link to the game page for more information: https://www.killerklownsthegame.com/
ANOTHER CRAB'S TREASURE
The latest release from Aggro Crab, Another Crab's Treasure follows the adventure of a little hermit crab named Kril who has lost his shell. You pick up trash along the way to protect your soft hermit body, upgrading to new and better shells. It's important to hide in your shell as much as possible. You can attack with a fork against enemies like crabs, and grapple to new locations with a fishhook. Limited swimming ability means you can swim to locations below, but not above.
I've played the free demo, and so far it's very cute. It's very easy to fall to your doom by backing up a little too far or not jumping far enough, so that's annoying. Expected release date is 2024 on the Steam platform.
The Crust
From the developer VEOM Studio: "In The Crust, you build a colony on the Moon — and lay the groundwork for the exploration of deep space! Mine valuable resources, automate production, manage scientific expeditions, and explore the lunar surface. From 400,000 kilometers away from Earth, you will see just how vast the cosmos really is, and how little we yet know about its mysteries. Get ready to face some tough choices — after all, the future of mankind may depend on your decisions..."
There's resource gathering, trading and influencing the world market, keeping your inhabitants happy, exploration of the moon to find new resources as well as unlock mysteries, and a research tree to guide your colony's development.
The demo starts out with a lot of talking/storybuilding. Gameplay is introduced through the building of solar panels, batteries and wires. Then there's an abrupt U-turn into a disaster, as an unidentified explosion on the far side of the moon causes the space elevator and the base's electrical systems to be deactivated. Now your task becomes to restore electricity to the elevator and get the systems running again.
This game feels very much like Starcraft. Instead of a team of humans or aliens harvesting resources, you have construction and mining drones.
At this point in the demo, it's hard to say whether I like this game or not. I'm still in tutorial mode. I think, like with all resource games, part of the challenge will be not to overbuild and use up all your available resources.
It also feels like this game doesn't know what it's going to be about. It starts out as a pretty typical corporate mining colony story, quickly devolves into a disaster recovery, all with resource gaming challenges. The storybuilding at the beginning of the story bogs it down.
It looks fantastic. It's visually very detailed. I can't tell whether the entirety of the moon terrain is available in the game, or just a limited section.
Available on SteamOS in the first quarter of 2024.
