Alientrap's new game: Apotheon

Here are the first screenshots of Apotheon. We’ve been working on Apotheon since Capsized was released – it’s still early in development but we are making great progress and are beginning to playtest the game with friends and other developers.

Apotheon is a 2D platform action-rpg set on the rich stage of ancient Greek mythology. Hera, the queen of Olympus, has overthrown her husband Zeus, and taken his throne as ruler of the Gods. Bitter and scornful towards the race of mortals, she launches a murderous campaign to scour them from the earth. As humanity’s last champion, you must pass through the land of the dead, infiltrate Mount Olympus, and end the wrath of the Gods. With sword, spear, and shield in hand, you will sneak, conspire, loot, and battle your way through majestic palaces and chthonic depths as you climb towards godhood. Only by stripping the old gods of their powers, and taking control of the elements as your own, can humanity hope to survive the coming oblivion.

Apotheon will have both a sprawling, open-world singleplayer campaign where you climb your way to the top of Mount Olympus, gaining divine power and deadly enemies along the way,  and online multiplayer battles with tactical bronze-age combat (spears and arrows!).

Final platforms and release date are still unknown, but the game will be a PC release first.

Both me (Lee) and Jesse will be at GDC next month – let us know if you’d like to meet!
If you’d like to keep up with development you can follow our twitter accounts at AlientrapGames and JesseMcGibs

Nexuiz to be released in 2012, published by THQ

Illfonic has released the first trailer of the new Nexuiz – to now be published by THQ for XBLA / PSN / and Steam in early 2012.

News on the announcement trailer and the publishing agreement can be found on RockPaperShotgun and Joystiq

In other news, me and Jesse are currently working on a new project. Hopefully we can announce something soon, but right now we are still just focused on planning out development and the depth of the game. At the moment the game is just multiplayer only (PC networking is working, with master-server listings and such), and the reason that’s the focus right now is so we can refine the gameplay and mechanics by fighting each other before getting into the single player AI and world. The new game will be a sidescrolling 2d game like Capsized, but with RPG elements and a focus on an open world environment. Development is still early but we’ve made a lot of progress, and our focus is on a PC release with other platforms to follow.

Capsized is still in development for an XBLA release, with new content developed by Koolhaus Games, and we are hoping to do a large update for the PC version to go alongside that as well (with PC exclusive content, developed by us).

Capsized coming to XBLA in December! Published by Indiepub

The announcement and more information on the Capsized XBLA release can be seen here.

Currently it’s being developed by Koolhaus Games, published by Indiepub, and will feature new levels, XBLA achievements and leaderboards, and a new focus on local multiplayer.

Capsized was originally designed with XBLA in mind but was released on PC first to make development easier for us. So this is a bit of a dream come for us, thanks to Indiepub and the KoolHaus Games developers

Capsized announcement.. soon! AT news, NEXUIZ, and etc

We may have some important Capsized news to announce tomorrow!

But until then I just wanted to give a general Alientrap update. Jesse and I are working on a new project in the hopes of getting a prototype done for the IGF awards in mid October. We are trying some insane stuff with this new project, so it’s been a learning experience getting things together. The new project is a side scroller 2d game alike to Capsized in some ways, since we wanted to use everything we’ve learnt from Capsized playtesting and development, but it’s a very different game. Hopefully we can start showing stuff soon.

Capsized was recently selected in the Fantastic Arcade – where it won the “The Bionic Commando Award for Grappling Hook Excellence Award”. Unfortunately we weren’t there to except the award or take part in the festival, but it looked awesome enough that there is no way we are not going next year.

I am really wanting to give some updates on recent Nexuiz development from Illfonic, but I’ll leave any announcements to them. I’ll just say from what I’ve seen/played the game is turning out amazing, while keeping the Nexuiz intensity and really taking standard deathmatch to a new level. Hopefully there will be some news with that soon also…

Alientrap has yet another project in the works: Indievania. An indie game marketplace developed with indie devs in mind, where 100% of the costs of the game go to developers. We are still developing it, it’s in open beta right now, but we hope to launch it within the next 2 months or so.

Jesse and I also did a interview with 8BitHorse, which you can see here. We briefly talked about our new project but mostly it had to due with development. I also did a interview with ThreeQuaterdpad and GameSideStory, and EpicBrew.net

And lastly – reviews for Capsized keep coming in, we are now at 80% on metacritic! Here is another list of reviews since our last post:
Gamezebo Gamer.nlkillscreendaily.comvgnetwork.itgamestar.pltitel-magazin.depressxordie.comnightmaremode.netcpugamer.combulletproofpixel.comaagames.co.uk

Capsized reviews, responses, and some videos

Capsized was released over 2 weeks ago now and the response has been awesome – both from players and reviewers. Currently has a 76 on Metacritic, had a great video review from GameSpot, and just today another review from Bytejacker. We also did an interview with ArsTechnica that was posted on their site today.

Here is a complete list of reviews and scores: (if no score I just quoted a part of the conclusion)

Gamespot.com – 8/10
Jayisgames.com – “Capsized is a great-looking action game that gives “intense” a new meaning.”
Edge Network – Next-gen.biz/ 8/10
Techflaws2011 8/10
Gameblog.fr 3/5
Cheatcc.com 3.4/5
Gamechronicles.com 7.5/10
Pigames.pl/ (Polish)
Multiplayer.it 8.5/10
Xboxplus.netCapsized is one of the best indie games of recent times. Addictive, beautiful, cheap and full of details that fill the eyes.”
Malaysiangamer.com “Capsized is a really good 2D platformer with amazing combat that is frantic, intense, and ultimately satisfying”
Mashthosebuttons.com 4.6/5
Eurogamer.net 8/10
Invisioncommunity.co.uk 8/10
Gamesidestory.com “Capsized less than perfect, it just comes close”
Games.tiscali.cz 9/10
Livingwithanerd.com “This one is worth more than twice the price of admission”
Technoid.nl 3.5/5
8bithorse (Summary of game)
IndytalGames 6/10
Brainlazy.com 82/100
Trgamer.comg 8.2/10
Thunderboltgames.com 7/10
Arenaturbo.ig.com.br (Portuguese)
Desconsolados.com (Spanish)