Show Me The Games Indie Sale

Our friend Cliff Harris has launched an awesome sale over on Show Me The Games. Aptly titled Show Me The Sales, you'll find Tidalis, AI War, and over a dozen other excellent indie games for a fraction of their standard price tag.



The cool thing about the sale, other than the nice discounts, is that 100% of all sales go directly to the developers. SMTG doesn't take a dime.



The sale only last 14 days, so if you're interested in supporting indie developers to the fullest and picking up some awesome titles (Frozen Synapse, Gratuitous Space Battles, VVVVVV, and many more), best take advantage of the offers soon.

Steam Daily Deal: AI War, Alien Bundle, And All DLC 75% Off

A quick note that our massive co-op space strategy title AI War is 75% off as Steam's Daily Deal. That means today only the base game runs just $5 instead of $20, expansions run just $2.50/$1.00 instead of $10/$4 each, and the Alien Bundle (which contains all of the aforementioned) goes for a paltry $7.50 instead of the standard $30 tag. A great deal, and as good a time as any to jump into the fight.



Offer ends tomorrow, November 9 at 10 AM PT.

AI War Beta 5.020, "Nanoswarm Fortress," Released!

This one has a couple of pretty significant balance tweaks that folks should really appreciate.  Firstly, the Fallen Spire exogalactic strike forces are a bit better tuned.  Secondly, the youngling nanoswarms now really are better at their job of hitting a lot of targets.  And thirdly, the AI fortress health has been halved, making them not remotely such a grind as they were.



Enjoy!



This is a standard update that you can download through the
in-game updater itself, if you already have 4.000 or later. When you
launch the game, you'll see the notice of the update having been found
if you're connected to the Internet at the time. If you don't have 4.000 or later, you can download that here.

New AI War Reviews and LP Videos

Several reviews and Let's Play videos have hit the net for AI War: Fleet Command 5.0 over this past year that we've been meaning to pass along. They all have some very nice words on the game, which is always rewarding for us to hear.



They're also a great reference point to have as a developer, especially with a unique title like AI War that has undergone as much change as it has over these first couple of years. So we're very appreciative of these journalists and reviewers to take the time to review a game originally released in 2009.



Reviews



"I was intimidated, even frustrated at first, but once I took it upon myself to learn the ropes, I discovered a deep strategy game that will keep me entertained for a good, long time."- GameRanx



"An elaborate back-and-forth game of action vs. reaction, patient wit vs. volatile force -- that’s what AI War is, for those who can play it well. It’s a game of manipulation, as you balance the AI’s sensitivity, tricking it into allowing you to cut a line straight to its heart, making it think of you as a trivial pest, while in reality you’re more like a hive of termites: an annoyance, as easily crushed as you are forgotten... until you bring their house crumbling down when they least expect it." - digital hippos



"Intimidating: Check.  Difficult to learn: Check.  Worth your money: You bet.  AI War is many things (and game types) in one, and fortunately they are all good.  You may have to dig a little (lot) to find it, but no one can accuse this game of being light on content.  The dynamic AI makes for a different game each and every time you play, and the fact that you’re under the constant pressure of expanding without raising the alarm adds a level of complexity (and tension) to the genre that will make it hard for me to go back to traditional RTS games." - Platform Nation



ExtremeMMOGamer: A.I. War Fleet Commander Review

Gaming Shogun: AI War Alien Bundle Review

Three Point Games: AI War Review



Videos



JaviLQ Let's Play Video

10MMulti Let's Play Video

AI War Beta 5.019 (Minor Bugfix) Released!

This one is too small to warrant a name for the release.  However, it does fix on divide by zero error that is well worth getting a fix into your hands for post-haste.



Enjoy!



This is a standard update that you can download through the
in-game updater itself, if you already have 4.000 or later. When you
launch the game, you'll see the notice of the update having been found
if you're connected to the Internet at the time. If you don't have 4.000 or later, you can download that here.

AI War Beta 5.018, "Ions And Attritioners," Released!

This one has a number of balance tweaks most specifically centered around the various ion-based units and the spirecraft attritioner.  These should now be a lot more fearsome in AI hands, but even more notably a lot more attractive for players to actually build and use themselves.  There are a couple of other minor tweaks and fixes in there, too.



Enjoy!



This is a standard update that you can download through the
in-game updater itself, if you already have 4.000 or later. When you
launch the game, you'll see the notice of the update having been found
if you're connected to the Internet at the time. If you don't have 4.000 or later, you can download that here.

AI War Beta 5.017, "Return of the Hunter/Killers," Released!

This one has the lately-omitted AI Hunter/Killer ships returning to take up a role in exo-galactic strike forces.  Perhaps more interesting to more people are the forcefield changes: the blocking effect that was removed in the last patch is now back, but the various other forcefield improvements from the last patch have been retained: regarding teleporting enemy ships, etc.



Also fixed a couple of rare-ish bugs, and tweaked the hardened forcefields as well as the high-armor-piercing ships.



Enjoy!



This is a standard update that you can download through the
in-game updater itself, if you already have 4.000 or later. When you
launch the game, you'll see the notice of the update having been found
if you're connected to the Internet at the time. If you don't have 4.000 or later, you can download that here.

AI War Beta 5.016, "Hardened Forcefields," Released!

This one has some really substantial changes to forcefield balance.  First of all, the player forcefields are buffed and increased in ship cap.  Then players also get a new line of mark I-III hardened forcefields, which are high-armor but lower-heath alternatives to regular forcefields.



Next, the way that enemy ships collide at the edge of forcefields has been radically changed.  This is a complex one to explain, so I'll just point you to the full release notes link above, which does the best job of explaining it.  Feedback welcome on this in particular!



Oh, also ion cannons/blasters have been buffed about 4x, and preservation wardens now scale properly in multiplayer.



Enjoy!



This is a standard update that you can download through the
in-game updater itself, if you already have 4.000 or later. When you
launch the game, you'll see the notice of the update having been found
if you're connected to the Internet at the time. If you don't have 4.000 or later, you can download that here.

AI War: Children of Neinzul donations to Child's Play reach $27,779.12

As of September 1st, 2011, we have so far raised and donated $27,779.12 for Child's Play! That's $7,098.82 since our July update, all of which has already gone directly to the charity. 
This means that we're just a hair away from doubling the original goal of $14,000.00 raised for Child's Play, which we could not be more pleased about.






We'll keep everyone posted on how the donations are doing. Once again, we're ecstatic to continue our on-going contribution! Especially pleased to be considered a platinum sponsor for such a worthy cause.






More About AI War: Children of Neinzul and Child's Play



When you purchase AI War: Children Of Neinzul, you're not only getting an exciting new expansion, you're also supporting an important cause. Arcen Games has partnered with the Child's Play charity, pledging 100% of the profits from sale of Children of Neinzul (excepting any taxes and distributor fees) to helping sick kids in need.




The staff at Arcen has long admired the work done by Child's Play, and we're very excited to finally be able to contribute in a substantial manner. Our goal for 2010 was to raise $14,000.00 USD for Child's Play, but even after 2010 all of the proceeds from this micro-expansion are continuing to be donated to the charity.




At the moment, this micro-expansion is available directly through the Arcen Online Store ($3.99 USD), as well as through Steam, Impulse, and GamersGate.

AI War Beta 5.015, "Martyred Forcefields," Released!

This one has a number of balanced tweaks that are notable, as well as one performance tweak that may or may not actually do anything.  We'll be curious to hear more feedback on the performance thing a wider variety of scenarios and machine setups.



In terms of the balance changes:

1. The Spirecraft Martyrs have been hit with the nerf bat really hard, thanks to player urging.

2. The Zenith Virtal Shredders have as well, but in general their swarm mechanics have also been simplified.

3. And lastly, super-stacked forcefields have also been heavily nerfed.  Stacking forcefields is still a smart thing to do, but you can no longer set up a chain of them where one is being repaired under the next in an endless rotation.



There was also a bugfix to the recently-added ActivateHighestEfficiencyLowPowerEnergyReactor and PutLowestEfficiencyActiveEnergyReactorIntoLowPower keybinds.



Enjoy!



This is a standard update that you can download through the
in-game updater itself, if you already have 4.000 or later. When you
launch the game, you'll see the notice of the update having been found
if you're connected to the Internet at the time. If you don't have 4.000 or later, you can download that here.

Track Us/DIYGamer Down At PAX Prime, Get A Free Game Or Expansion!

With the last day of PAX Prime several hours away, it may seem a bit late to mention that Arcen Games is in fact represented at the expo! While, unfortunately, we're boothless as the timing didn't work out for us to present a build of A Valley Without Wind; we still want to be a part of the festivities in some way.

So we racked our brains over the past two days; and when that didn't help, we decided to throw this idea together late tonight instead:

If you are attending PAX and would like a free game key for AI War or Tidalis, all you have to do is stop by the 6th floor lobby--just outside the indie/PAX 10 focused area--and say hi to us (you can say more if you like.) We'll be hanging out with the folks from indie games blog DIYGamer, who will be there to take down your game request and email to send you over a game/expansion of your choosing.

Just look for the guy with the "Ask Me About A Valley Without Wind" sign taped to the back of his laptop. We'll be up there from 1:30-3:30 PM, but if you can't make it up during that time frame no worries. We'll be around most of the day so throw a tweet to @GameConnoisseur letting us know you're around and where we can meet up so you can get a key.

Sound good? Great! A preemptive thanks for tracking us down, we look forward to chatting with some of you in attendance.

AI War LP Videos

Several "Let's Play" video series for AI War have been popping up and we wanted to share! A big thanks goes out to these guys for taking the time to put all this good stuff together.




YT User TheBlackworth 28-Part Let's Play Series (Over 7 hours of footage!)

YT User Upuauta's 7-Part SMPTG Series

YT User JaviLQ's 6-Part Let's Play Series

YT User 10MMulti's 3-Part Let's Play Series

YT User isver's Blind Let's Play

AI War Beta 5.014, "Bulk Rate Starships," Released!

This one is a much smaller release than the last, but I predict that its effect on gameplay will actually be just as large.  The main change here is that starship costs have been driven down substantially -- reduced about 33%, in most but not all cases.  This makes the average combined metal/crystal costs of mark I starships closer to 80k rather than 120k, meaning that players can deploy more of them earlier in the game, more of them overall, and that they build faster.



Given the role that siege starships are intended to play against large aggressors, that's important.  Excuse me -- antimatter starships.  After running our poll for a while, that became the clear winner for a new name for sieges that would be more descriptive and less misleading.  The description text for the animatter starship also makes it abundantly clear right from the start that their role is "capital killer," rather than their former (long ago) role as a siege cannon.



Enjoy!



This is a standard update that you can download through the
in-game updater itself, if you already have 4.000 or later. When you
launch the game, you'll see the notice of the update having been found
if you're connected to the Internet at the time. If you don't have 4.000 or later, you can download that here.

AI War Beta 5.013, "Resurgent Underdogs," Released!

This one
has quite a bit of stuff, actually.  Many various "underdog" units have been made more attractive in various ways:



Things that can now be scrapped that could not be before:

gravity drills



Cheaper knowledge costs or AI Progress costs:

riot control starships

scout starships

gravity turrets

Zenith spacetime manipulators

mark II scouts

armored warheads

cloaker starships

neinzul enclave starships



Now knowledge-free:

mark I riot control, cloaker, and neinzul enclave starships



Improved function:

mark III lightning/armored warheads

siege starships

mercentary neinzul enclave starships



Other Changes

But that's not it!  Starfields actually got a bit more attractive and a bit lighter on the GPU (they were already trivially light anyhow, though).  And even more importantly, fixed a longstanding bug that has been mucking with AI retreats, and which recently has been causing astro trains to stall out on player planets.



So expect a more dynamic, responsive foe when you spring a trap that the AI recognizes and wants to run away from.  Previously the AI was issuing retreat orders that a good portion of its ships were simply ignoring to stay and shoot at stuff!  Now they'll shoot stuff as they flee, then come back when it's inconvenient for you.




What's the deal with all the balance changes above?

Well, these are all ships that players seem to ignore as not being useful, because their cost-to-benefit ratio was just slightly off (or, in the case of riot control starships, it was too big a gamble to unlock the mark I version and then see if you need them or not).



The tweaks overall are fairly slight, but they should help bring the difficulty of the expansions (sans minor factions and other special features) back down at least a little bit closer to that of the base game alone, while at the same time encouraging experimentation and use of more of the ships that are there.



I also changed around the knowledge costs of a few of the lesser-used techs to make them more attractive.  Several new things now fall into the "candy tech" realm, where they are attractive to take but start to "rot your teeth" if you take them too much.  I think the same will now be true of the armored warheads when it comes to AI Progress costs, too, actually.  We used to have that dynamic with lightning warheads back in the 2.0-3.0 days, and this will hopefully bring elements of that back.



Enjoy!



This is a standard update that you can download through the
in-game updater itself, if you already have 4.000 or later. When you
launch the game, you'll see the notice of the update having been found
if you're connected to the Internet at the time. If you don't have 4.000 or later, you can download that here.

AI War Beta 5.012, "Efficient Invincibility," Released!

This one
has the usual variety of tweaks and fixes requested by players.  Of particular note are some optional keybindings for turning on/off your highest/lowest efficiency reactors (micromanagers rejoice), and some options for multiplayer in terms of auto-building on allied planets.



Astro Trains also now actually shoot their guns again, after having been accidentally muzzled for the last six months, and ships with "temporary invincibility" now show up with an angry-looking red/yellow force field effect to make it more clear that they have that status effect.



Enjoy!



This is a standard update that you can download through the
in-game updater itself, if you already have 4.000 or later. When you
launch the game, you'll see the notice of the update having been found
if you're connected to the Internet at the time. If you don't have 4.000 or later, you can download that here.

Arcen Games on The Grey Area Podcast

Chris Park and I sat down with Jenesee of The Grey Area Podcast for an in-depth chat on A Valley Without Wind, gaming in general, indie development, and of course all things Arcen Games as well. You should definitely set aside the 90 minutes for a listen; it was a wonderfully casual conversation with such a prepared and professional host guiding the ship!

The show's 26th episode "An Interview Without Wind" is available to listen to right now. Follow The Grey Area Podcast on Twitter and Facebook as well.

Update On Children Of Neinzul Donations For Child's Play: $20,680.30

As of July 1st, 2011, we have so far raised and donated $20,680.30 for Child's Play! That's $2350.97 since our April update, all of which is going directly to the charity.






We'll keep everyone posted on how the donations are doing. Once again, we're ecstatic to continue our on-going contribution! Especially pleased to be considered a platinum sponsor for such a worthy cause.






More About AI War: Children of Neinzul and Child's Play



When you purchase AI War: Children Of Neinzul, you're not only getting an exciting new expansion, you're also supporting an important cause. Arcen Games has partnered with the Child's Play charity, pledging 100% of the profits from sale of Children of Neinzul (excepting any taxes and distributor fees) to helping sick kids in need.




The staff at Arcen has long admired the work done by Child's Play, and we're very excited to finally be able to contribute in a substantial manner. Our goal for 2010 was to raise $14,000.00 USD for Child's Play, but even after 2010 all of the proceeds from this micro-expansion are continuing to be donated to the charity.




At the moment, this micro-expansion is available directly through the Arcen Online Store ($3.99 USD), as well as through Steam, Impulse, and GamersGate.

AI War Beta 5.011, "Nuclear Science," Released!

This one has kind of a hodgepodge of fixes and tweaks that players have requested.  Several of them deal with warheads, and there's also an added interface for finding science labs in the galaxy map, so hence the nametag of the release.  This also fixes a scoreboard issue with defender mode games always showing up as losses, and a couple of exploits that clever players found.  Enjoy!



This is a standard update that you can download through the
in-game updater itself, if you already have 4.000 or later. When you
launch the game, you'll see the notice of the update having been found
if you're connected to the Internet at the time. If you don't have 4.000 or later, you can download that here.

Announcing The AI War Alien Bundle And AI War Two Year Anniversary Sale!

Has It Really Been Two Years!?

It seems like just yesterday that AI War 1.0 made it's public debut, but it's actually been two years.  And what a busy two years!  In that time we've released three new expansions, changed the game to the Unity 3D engine, added Mac OSX support, created our puzzle game Tidalis, and released version 5.0 of the base game free to anyone who bought 1.0 of the game or higher.



In celebration, of the two-year anniversary of AI War's public debut, we're running a big sale on the entire Arcen Store from today through May 24th.  All of the individual titles are 50% off, and the bundle (see below) is 30% off its regular reduced price.



Two years later and AI War is more popular than ever, with more
expansions planned, and with us still making the games we always wanted to make.  We couldn't be more grateful for the support of our
players!



Alien Bundle: The AI Isn't Your Only Adversary...

Right from the start, the universe of AI War has always included a
few alien craft.  However, it wasn't until each of the first three
expansions were released that the three alien races from AI War were
fully explored: from the ancient, venerable Zenith; to the short-lived,
vicious Neinzul; to the massive Spire.



These first expansions represent something of a watershed for AI War,
because these are the only expansions that will be focused on
individual alien races.  Future expansions to the game will focus on
other aspects of the AI War universe, as well as pulling in a few ships
here and there from all three of the races.



That makes these three something of a matched set; and for the first
time ever, we're bundling them all together with the base game at more
than a 30% discount off their combined total price (and during the two-year anniversary sale, there's another 30% off applied on top of that regular 30% discount).




What's Included In The Alien Bundle?

* AI War: Fleet Command (standalone base game)

* AI War: The Zenith Remnant (expansion 1)

* AI War: Children of Neinzul (expansion 2)

* AI War: Light of the Spire (expansion 3)




Child's Play

When you purchase the AI War Alien Bundle, you're not only getting a
great game and three huge expansions, you're also supporting an
important cause. Arcen Games is a platinum sponsor of the Child's Play charity, pledging 100% of the profits from sale of Children of Neinzul
(excepting any taxes and distributor fees) to helping sick kids in
need.  That works out to 9% of the purchase price of the AI War Alien
Bundle.

Brutal Gamer Interviews Arcen Games

Brutal Gamer's Amy Nelson followed up her Tidalis review by interviewing us on all things Arcen and indie games. We discuss several topics including potential consoles/handheld devices we've considered for our games, as well as our selling points for A Valley Without Wind.

Here's one of the questions and responses from the piece:

"AI War: Fleet Command is a RTS, Tidalis is a puzzle game, and A Valley Without Wind is an action adventure. You seem to be hitting on all the popular genres. What do you have in store for us next?

Chris: Well, these are the genres that I have a lot of personal interest in — my goal was to never be thought of us “just a strategy game developer.” Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but I have broader interests than just strategy games, and part of the freedom of being an indie is getting to pursue your interests. I think we’re going to be busy with AVWW, and expansions and free DLC for both it and AI War for another year or two — ideally, anyway. Beyond that it’s hard to say with any clarity, but we’ve got a lot of game designs floating around the team. If there’s one thing we never have a shortage of, it’s ideas! I think perhaps the most popular next project idea at the moment is a very streamlined turn-based tactics game built partly on the AVWW engine."

Read the full interview over on Brutal Gamer.