AVWW: MineCon Giveaways, New Starting Guide, And Beta Trailer #2

Arcen Games is downright ecstatic to share the latest information regarding their procedurally-generated sidescrolling action adventure title of infinite proportions, A Valley Without Wind.



AVWW's beta will be on display at MineCon this weekend (Nov. 18-19), and to celebrate we'll be raffling off over 100 prizes Friday and Saturday during floor hours including copies of the game, along with our other titles. For those in attendance, all you have to do is stop by our booth in the indie kiosk area of the convention hall and sign-up to be included in every raffle drawing all weekend.



For those not in attendance, you have not been forgotten! Stop by A Valley Without Wind's Facebook, Reddit, and/or Twitter throughout the event for several chances to win a copy of one of our titles.*



To mark the special occasion further, we have an updated AVWW Getting Started Guide, along with a brand spanking new beta trailer for all to view (at its best in 1080p.)



The full version of A Valley Without Wind is available for pre-order at 50% off the launch price during early beta, with customers gaining instant access to the latest available build and all subsequent releases. The game can be purchased and downloaded directly through the developer as well as GamersGate, Impulse, and MacGamesStore.



The game is currently in beta and as such is still very much in development. It continues to evolve at a rapid pace, with new content and improvements added nearly every weekday as it progresses toward official launch in 2012.



About Arcen Games



Arcen Games entered the PC indie scene in 2009 with their cult classic AI War: Fleet Command, which was named the 40th best-reviewed PC game of the year by MetaCritic. Their second year was a busy one, seeing the release of The Zenith Remnant, the first full expansion for AI War; Tidalis, an innovative block-based puzzle with casual appeal and hardcore depth; and Children of Neinzul, a micro-expansion for AI War with all profits benefiting the Child's Play charity, of which Arcen is a platinum sponsor.



AI War's third and largest expansion Light of the Spire marked Arcen's first release of 2011, and now the company has shifted its focus and excitement to the development of A Valley Without Wind. Originally a one-man shop, Arcen Games has grown to have half a dozen part-time or fulltime contributors to its various titles. For all the latest news, media coverage, and some of our other musings, follow us on our developer and individual game pages on Facebook or on Twitter: @ArcenGames.



*Limit 1 prize per person during the event for both onsite and online contests. Name and valid email required to receive prize.

AVWW: New Intro Mission, MineCon Exhibiting, And IGF

Arcen Games is excited to pass along new information and details surrounding A Valley Without Wind, the game of infinite procedurally-generated 2D sidescrolling and so much more. The title has reached a sizable milestone, wrapping up series one of the beta patch releases. During the period the game saw 40 individual updates over 43 days, with 640 distinct changes made in all. Check out all the beta series one statistics for a full picture of what's been added since the game's public arrival six weeks back. Special thanks goes out to AVWW's community for all the feedback and help to get us to this point.



The conclusion of the beta's first phase is marked by the release of an all new Intro Mission for the game. The goal of the mission is to give new players a linear way to get acclimated with the game before they ever encounter the world map, take on broader decisions, etc.  It offers a more traditional intro for any sort of platformer, with players starting out with no ability to do anything except run and jump, and rapidly gaining new abilities that have to be used immediately. The new addition should allow players to be more comfortable navigating around the world in the side view, become familiar with how buildings, surface areas, and undergrounds all work, and have the confidence to head out onto the world map on their own.



In other news, AVWW has been entered into IGF 2012, along with the upcoming Indie Games Challenge. We're very excited to be competing in both, and wish the best of luck to all those who entered. Also, we're heading to MineCon! We'll be in Las Vegas November 18th and 19th to exhibit at Mojang's event, and are extremely excited to have a chance to share our game with some 4,500 attendees. Those who are making the trek are encouraged to stop by for a hands-on session, enter our game giveaways, and participate in some other fun stuff we're still currently cooking up.



The full version of A Valley Without Wind is available for pre-order at 50% off the launch price during early beta, with customers gaining instant access to the latest available build and all subsequent releases. An updated demo--complete with the aforementioned intro mission--is out now for download, and a huge batch of screenshots showing off what's new have been released as well.



AVWW is currently in beta and as such is still very much in development. The game continues to evolve, with new content and improvements added nearly every weekday as it progresses toward official launch in 2012. Follow the game and its updates/discussions on Facebook, Reddit, and Twitter.



About Arcen Games



Arcen Games entered the PC indie scene in 2009 with their cult classic AI War: Fleet Command, which was named the 40th best-reviewed PC game of the year by MetaCritic. Their second year was a busy one, seeing the release of The Zenith Remnant, the first full expansion for AI War; Tidalis, an innovative block-based puzzle with casual appeal and hardcore depth; and Children of Neinzul, a micro-expansion for AI War with all profits benefiting the Child's Play charity, of which Arcen is a platinum sponsor.



AI War's third and largest expansion Light of the Spire marked Arcen's first release of 2011, and now the company has shifted its focus and excitement to the development of A Valley Without Wind. Originally a one-man shop, Arcen Games has grown to have half a dozen part-time or fulltime contributors to its various titles. For all the latest news, media coverage, and some of our other musings, follow us on our developer and individual game pages on Facebook or on Twitter: @ArcenGames.

AVWW Beta: Week One At A Glance

We're not even a week into beta for A Valley Without Wind, and already a whopping 12 patches have been released for the game thanks in great part to all the community feedback. It's been an amazing start!



Beta Updates 5.001-5.012 Released (What A Week!)



We've compiled some interesting stats and notes across those dozen updates. Here's what's been added to the game over the past seven days:



Total Words in Change Logs: 9,121

Total Changes: 176



Our programmers have summed up a few favorites:



* Fixed a bug where the large floating rocks were eating the stockpiled wheat while the other npcs weren't looking.



* Fixed a bug where the settlement npcs were being forced to keep working their assigned buildings even after they were _dead_.



* Responded to complaints that normal monsters dropped no shinys. They now drop shinys. In unrelated news, 90% of monster species are now on the endangered list.



* Discovered a player item duplication racket where they were repeatedly dropping their warp scrolls on the ground to trick the naive guardians into giving them more. Fixed by making guardians give non-droppable warp potions instead. We've been very concerned about subsequent reports of players reverting to college behavior. Apparently it doesn't matter what the stuff's made of, as long as when you drink it you wind up somewhere without knowing how.



* Decreased the cooldown on the double-jump spell because it was too long to use on every jump. Then increased it again when we realized players had taken a novel interpretation of "double": they were simply flying by repeated midair jumps.



* Taught the Giant Skelebot boss how to kick field goals. They always miss, but how the players fly.



* Put in some memory workarounds after psychological analysis confirmed that the garbage collector is prone to look at a lack of heap space and decide "why not just let it happen?".



Early Coverage



The game has received a good amount of attention during this past week from the press. Special thanks to all those who have tried out and written/talked about the game! Here's what some of them are saying:



"I can imagine this game opening up under continued exploration to be one of those all-encompassing experiences that you can’t help sinking an unhealthy tract of time into." - Rock, Paper, Shotgun



"But really, at the heart of what A Valley Without Wind is about, at least for me, is exploration and it does it phenomenally." - DIYGamer



"The thing that struck me first about A Valley Without Wind is that it is absolutely vast. This is a game that you can sink hours and hours into, and still feel as though you’ve only started." - Brutal Gamer

Videos



Make sure to check out Quill18's and WelshPixie's excellent introductory LP videos for AVWW. They both do a fantastic job of showing off the game while teaching you the basics as well.

A Valley Without Wind Early Beta Coverage

A Valley Without Wind has been out in beta for less than 48 hours, and already there are some great previews and other coverage coming in!

We definitely suggest you check out Quill18's super informative and captivating two-part LP preview of the game, which in lieu of our getting started guide is a great way to discover the basics of the game.

On the games blogs, IndieGames.com has posted the start of their preview with just an hour under their belt. DIYGamer has some extremely nice words on the game as well. More previews to come from these sources as well as many others!

Here's some of the other awesome coverage on the beta release:

Rock, Paper, Shotgun: A Valley Without Wind Demo And Beta Launch

VG247: A Valley Without Wind offers first public beta client – go get ‘em!

Gnome's Lair: Time to enter A Valley Without Wind

Co-Optimus: A Valley Without Wind Enters Public Beta

UnitLost.com: A Valley Without Wind (Blind Video Preview)

Games.on.net: A Valley Without Wind Goes Into Beta

BNBGaming: The Indie Fix: A Valley Without Wind Now Available

Anjel Syndicate: A Valley Without Wind Public Beta and Demo Now Available

Space Game Junkie: Off-Topic – A Valley Without Wind Released

WorthPlaying.com: 'A Valley Without Wind' Demo Available NOW

IndieGameMagazine: A VALLEY WITHOUT WINDS PUBLIC BETA BEGINS

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.

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.

Update On Children Of Neinzul Donations For Child's Play: $18K And Counting!

As of April 4th, 2011, we have so far raised and donated $18,329.33! A substantial $3,350.91 has come in for the CoN expansion since our previous update in February, 100% of which goes to Child's Play.






We'll continue to post monthly updates on how the donations are doing. We're so proud to have been able to contribute to such a worthy cause in a significant way! Check us out on the platinum sponsors list on the Child's Play site.






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.

Update On Children Of Neinzul Donations For Child's Play: We Hit Our Goal!

As of February 3rd, 2011, we have so far raised and donated $14,798.42! 
We missed our 2010 goal by about $4,000, but less than a month later
we made it!  Most of the money earned by our games is actually paid on
"net 30" or "net 60" terms to us, meaning that the money that pushed us
over the top was actually earned in 2010. So that's something! 



We'll post monthly updates on how the donations are doing, so you can
always see the updated number.  We're so proud to have been able to
contribute to such a worthy cause in a substantial way!  Check us out on the platinum sponsors list on the Child's Play site.



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.

Update On Children Of Neinzul Donations For Child's Play

As of December 30th, 2010, we have so far raised and donated $10,529.71!

We didn't quite hit our goal for the year, but we did raise a substantial amount of money -- and also, bear in mind that a lot
of the money generated in 2010 is actually paid on
"net 30" or "net 60" terms to us, meaning that money generated in 2010
will still be arriving as late as February 2011.



Given that foreknowledge, it looks like we will be very close to our goal by the end
of January or February. We'll keep posting monthly
updates on how the donations are doing, so check back even in 2011!



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 was to raise $14,000.00 USD for Child's Play in 2010, but even after 2010 all of the proceeds from this micro-expansion
will continue 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.

Update On Children Of Neinzul Donations For Child's Play

Progress, progress, progress!  As of December 14th, 2010, we have so far raised and donated $8,097.29!
Bear in mind that the money that was generated in November via
distributors like Steam and Impulse
won't reach us until the end of December, and we can already tell that
our total donated is going to increase substantially
again at that time.



We look like we'll be close to hitting our goal for
the year at this rate, but even if we don't hit the goal
by the end of December, it looks like we will by the end of January.
We'll post monthly
updates on how we're doing towards our goal, so check back!



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 is to raise $14,000.00 USD for Child's Play in 2010, but even after 2010 all of the proceeds from this micro-expansion
will continue 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.

It Rocks When Indies Cooperate

The article UK Dev Gets Off Arse - Makes Indie Portal on Spong talks about showmethegames.com, something that Arcen -- and 19 other indie developers, including Positech, 2D Boy, and many others -- have been quietly working on for the last month or two.  Time flies, I forget exactly how long it's been.



And I really shouldn't say we've all been working on it, as it's mostly been Cliff Harris, whose idea it was in the first place.  The rest of us made our contributions, fiscally and otherwise, but Cliff did all the heavy lifting and he blogs here about why he created the site and what he hopes to eventually accomplish with it.



Quoth Cliff:

Now I know what you are thinking, “why haven’t I heard about it then?” isn’t it usual form for me to go on a publicity blitz? When am I going to punch Keith Vaz on live TV? The whole point of SMTG was to prove 2 basic concepts:

• You can get almost 20 indie game developers to co-operate, and actually pay money into a mutual project


• You can make advertising work for indie developers, it we club together. (this is why we tested it as an ad-driven site at first)

I think the amount of success for the various indies in the first run of this probably varied, but it's early days yet.  I also think that the amount of success for most of us with this made it close enough to cost-neutral (if not generating a return for some of us) that it's worth future investment and investigation.  I don't share the anti-big-portals sentiments that some indies do, but that doesn't mean that an indie collective that is controlled by indies isn't attractive.



As an early experiment, Show Me The Games has been a success, I think.  We -- that is to say, Cliff -- has in my mind proved out that the basic concept can work.  And we had 20 indies buying into this without squabbling of any sort, which is another miracle.  It's a really good group of folks with games on that list, so that's certainly part of it.  Now all that remains to be seen is where we take it from here!

Update On Donations For Child's Play, Arcen Financials, Light of the Spire, Alden Ridge News

It's that time again!  As of October 31st, 2010, we have so far raised and donated $1,640.80
for the Child's Play charity via sales of our Children of Neinzul micro-expansion for AI War --
and that's just with preorders! Bear in mind that the money that was generated in October via distributors like Steam and Impulse
won't reach us until the end of November, and we can already tell that our total donated is going to massively increase
at that time.



We look to be well on our way to
hitting our goal of $14,000.00 for the year at this rate (just with what's already been generated, but not yet made it to us, we look to be around 2/3 of the way there!). We'll post monthly
updates on how we're doing towards our goal, so check back!



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 is to raise $14,000.00 USD for Child's Play in 2010, but even after 2010 all of the proceeds from this micro-expansion
will continue 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.



A Quick Note On Our Finances

It's true that there was recently a lot of press about our financial difficulties, and it's also true that while the release of 4.0 has been a solid step in the right direction for us, that doesn't solve everything.  We've had loads of people telling us we should "put an end to that charity thing" and look after our own finances first.  If we go out of business we won't be able to help the charity any longer, whereas if we get stronger and bigger we later can do more for charity.  Our answer is, simply: no.



On the surface that seems like solid advice, but we're not keen to start going back on our word just when things get rough.  The charity micro-expansion has been a boost to us in terms of visibility and press, so it's not like it's completely selfless at this stage, if that makes those worried about this feel any better.  But even if that wasn't true, we wouldn't want to cut this off, as we deliver on what we promise and we're not about to start taking money promised to sick kids just to help ourselves.  I'd rather go out of business.



And To Address A Couple of Misconceptions About Our Finances

First of all, some folks seem to think that our financial troubles were because of the Child's Play expansion.  Others think that it's because AI War was a failure.  Neither of these are true.

The whole point of the Child's Play expansion was that it took maybe a man-month to create, and then the result of that generates a lot of money for charity.  So far so good, and a man-month of time, while nontrivial, also isn't the cause of our problems.  And having that month back, or having the revenue from Child's Play for ourselves, while it certainly wouldn't be unhelpful, also wouldn't solve our problems.  The gap between prosperity and financial ruin is not nearly so narrow as this.



Regarding AI War itself, some folks feel like it was a failure and thus recommend ways for us to change it or whatever based on that belief.  I assume those same folks haven't seen the financial numbers that were at PC Gamer: fact is, AI War is one of the most successful indie games of the last year.  It's not Minecraft, but it's still in the top 1% financially for the indie scene.  I wish AI War was better-known, of course, and the version 4.0 has gone a long way to make it more accessible, but at the same time AI War is not really related to our troubles, either.



So What Were The Problems?

Only a few people have really understood what the problems were that led to our financial issues.  I think my posts were a bit over-long on the subject.  They boil down to four things: 1) trying to do too much; 2) jumping into an unfamiliar, overcrowded genre; 3) the worst slump in indie game sales in a decade, apparently; 4) my own poor marketing for Tidalis.



In other words, we spent a lot of money to make Tidalis, and had a much larger staff than in the past (a whole five people).  Assuming that Tidalis did remotely close to AI War, this would have been fine.  The problem was, we released it right during a huge slump for the industry in general, and the PC indie scene in particular.  Bad timing for us.  I keep up with a number of indies, and a lot of them that have been in the business for a long time talk about it being the worst few months for sales that they've seen in literally a decade.  It's not just us that's hurting.



But, our big mistake was having quite so much riding on Tidalis.  We tried to do too much, we packed so much awesome into it that it took us a lot more time and manpower than we'd initially expected (and the porting between engines in the middle, while necessary, also didn't help).  Given the largely glowing reviews that touch on only a fraction of the content in Tidalis, it's clear we could have put in 1/4 of the content or even less, and it still would have been very well received.  For the casual genre, it's clear we went overboard to the point that it's actually overwhelming some of the casual audience with how much is in there.



Not that I wish we had done less on Tidalis, but perhaps for launch we should have done less, and then built upwards from there if the game caught on.  If it didn't catch on, the loss would have been smaller.  That's what we've done with AI War (and, heck, that's what's going on with Minecraft), and it's worked very well for us.  This build-a-big-thing-and-then-pray strategy was a really bad idea (and my messing up the marketing didn't help).



Lessons Learned / Plan of Action

1. We're still working to promote Tidalis, and we think that it can be successful over time.  That hasn't changed.



2. We're working on a new for-pay full expansion to AI War, called Light of the Spire, to be released in the first week of December.  It's using a lot of the groundwork that we put in for 4.0, which is why we're able to do a full expansion in such a short period of time; we've been thinking on this for a while, and getting things ready.  Clearly there's still a big appetite for AI War stuff, and we've got some seriously cool ideas for this one, too.



3. Alden Ridge Arcade is dead, and we're going to reinvent Alden Ridge itself from what it was going to be.  No more hand-crafted story or levels -- instead, we'll be going procedural, which is something that we're very good at from AI War.  We're also going to be releasing an public alpha of Alden Ridge in the first quarter of next year, which we're pretty sure the finances will let us do, and then if that takes off we'll build that game upwards from there.  If it really takes off, which we suspect it might (that's a seriously cool game, and a lot of people are waiting for it), then we'll probably develop it over a span of years, with lots of free updates as well as paid expansions, essentially like we've been doing for AI War.



4. Cayenne and A Valley Without Wind are also off the table for now, as both of them are huge projects with a lot of hand-crafted content.  It's just not a good idea for us at this time, and we just don't know how to go about that sort of thing in a successful manner yet, it seems.  We'd need an enormous cash buffer before I'd be comfortable taking on a project like either of those.  All that said, we're instead planning to wrap a lot of the gameplay ideas from both of those into Alden Ridge, possibly as expansions to that core game, possibly as just part of other core experience over time.  There's a ton we'll be able to do with the Alden Ridge engine, if people are interested, like what we've done with AI War.  And if people aren't... we'll do something else.



5. We're also going to be working with a smaller team for a while.  Right now, it's just Pablo (music), Keith (programming/design), and myself (programming and design, as well as everything else, including art).  Phil is currently working on other projects, and Lars has a demanding day job anyway, so fortunately that works out, but we do hope to be able to work with them (and get me off of art) in the future.  Though, if AI War 4.0 is any indication, people have been really happy with the art I've been doing, as the 4.0 changes were all me.

In short, we aren't out of the woods yet, but this past week has been hugely positive for us and things are definitely moving in the right direction at long last.  And we've managed to do that while still supporting charity in a major way, which is the best part of all.

Update On Children Of Neinzul Donations For Child's Play

It's that time again!  As of September 31st, 2010, we have so far raised and donated $1090.38
for the Child's Play charity via sales of our Children of Neinzul micro-expansion for AI War --
and that's just with preorders! We look to be well on our way to
hitting our goal of $14,000.00 for the year at this rate (for those who are skeptical, typically sales of an expansion after release are vastly higher than just from preorders, so it's not a linear thing). We'll post monthly
updates on how we're doing towards our goal, so check back!



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 is to raise $14,000.00 USD for Child's Play in 2010, but even after 2010 all of the proceeds from this micro-expansion
will continue to be donated to the charity.



At the moment, this micro-expansion is only available directly through the Arcen Online Store ($3.99 USD), which gets you full access to the beta.  However, at the time of official release (expected to be mid-October at the moment) we expect it to be available through all of the major distributors that currently carry AI War; those we've spoken to about it are as excited about it as we are.

Punchbag Artists

In this recent article at Resolution Magazine, Joel Goodwin discusses the effect of destructive criticism on game developers.  Yours truly is one of a handful of developers quoted in there a couple of times, which is cool, but it's a rather important article regardless of my ties to it.  In the end, I think Gabe Newell had the most interesting points to make (I never though of it that way), but I enjoyed reading how all the developers quoted deal with the abusive comments that are endemic to publishing anything on the Internet.  Definitely worth a read!

AI War and the hidden cost of indie games

We're still hard at work on the AI War 4.0 work, which should be hitting the initial public beta today or tomorrow (for real this time).  In the meantime, if you're interested in facts and figures about the costs of indie game development, you might enjoy this article that came out on PC Gamer's website today:



"Earlier this month Chris Park revealed that his company could be bankrupt by November. His company is Arcen Games, the developer of popular space strategy game AI War. Despite that game’s excellence, it wasn’t a surprise to find he was struggling: most indie games developers do.  Prompted by the tale of trouble on his site, I sent him an email asking for more information."

AI War and the hidden cost of indie games, by Graham Smith (PC Gamer)

The Reticule: The Rise of Mac (and Linux) Gaming

Chris Evans from The Reticule recently wrote a rather interesting article about how Mac (and Linux) gaming is on the rise lately.  He interviewed Doug Lombardi from Valve, as well as a number of indie developers, including Chris Park from Arcen.  Particularly interesting is the discrepancy in opinions between long-term Mac-only developers (who seemed rather jaded on the platform), and developers more recently supporting the Mac in addition to their prior platforms (who were really feeling more positive). 



For those interested, the full article: The Rise of Mac (and Linux) Gaming

Two Articles About Arcen In the Chapel Hill Herald-Sun!

There was an article just yesterday in the Chapel Hill Herald-Sun about the upcoming for-charity micro expansion that we're doing for AI War. I didn't even know that article was going to be coming out!



Charity accesses games for children's hospitals



This is the main article that was in the Chapel Hill Herald-Sun yesterday, discussing Arcen a bit in general but mainly Tidalis. That was pretty exciting to see in the news stands.




A video game for all ages

Independent Gaming Article At Gaming Daily

David from Gaming Daily has
written a nice article about the state of independent gaming. The
discussion is on how and why indie games differ from their AAA
counterparts, and cites AI War as an example in several spots: Independent
Gaming

AI War on Co-Optimus.

From the post:

I checked out the demo last week and came away
surprised just how deep this game is.  The game isn't for the faint of
heart when it comes to strategy.  Thankfully there's a full tutorial
available to walk you through the game.  The cooperative mode feels very
robust, but you'll definitely want to use some sort of voice chat
software because there's so much stuff to communicate.

Head
over to Co-Optimus
for the full post.