Introversion’s Mark Morris Drinks Responsibly

By: Derek Yu

On: August 29th, 2007

Introversion‘s Mark Morris participated in a discussion at GCDC called “”http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=15202">Against the Big Boys," during which he talked about Introversion’s troubled starts (and eventual success), and what publishers can and can’t do for you.

He also revealed how getting drunk can lead to vagrancy and/or distribution deals:

…

I guess the “”http://tigsource.com/articles/2007/05/25/introversion-the-first-of-the-last-of-the-slogan">first of the children" have to be 21 or older. Zing!

(Thanks to Alec for the news!)

Defcon Interview

By: Derek Yu

On: June 4th, 2007

Game journalist extraordinaire Kieron Gillen (or Keer-eon Gill-eon as I like to call him), sits down for a chat and a spot of tea with Introversion’s Chris Delay.

“Comparing DEFCON to our other games is difficult. Uplink is rugged and buggy and ugly and still sells more than Darwinia every day. Darwinia is our oddball second album, our very own love letter to the Amiga and the soul of great videogames, and the game I’m most proud of. DEFCON is a relatively simple multiplayer game idea and I think that’s probably the key to its success.”

(Source: GameSetWatch)

Introversion: the first of the last of the slogans

By: Derek Yu

On: May 25th, 2007

Apparently, the full slogan is “the last of the bedroom programmers… the first of the children!”

In other news, mobile Defcon.

Multiwinia

By: Derek Yu

On: April 16th, 2007

Old news, but first I’ve heard of it: Introversion is working on a multiplayer version of Darwinia, called Multiwinia, which is slated to be released in 2008. This will be a standalone product that will include the single player game. It’s being headed by John Knottenbelt, who was reponsible for the Mac and Linux ports of Darwinia. No word yet on a price.

Cute lil’ Darwinians courtesy of Rarok from the Introversion forums.

Defcon Going Retail in the U.S.

By: Derek Yu

On: April 9th, 2007

NextGen is reporting that Defcon, Introversion’s multiplayer nuclear war game, is heading to U.S. retail:

“US publisher Encore will be responsible for bringing the well-reviewed title stateside, and has ordered an initial 50K copies of the game for retail. It will sell for $29.99.

The game, branded as “the world’s first genocide-’em-up,” is also currently available to download on Valve’s Steam digital distribution service for $14.95."

And as much as I respect Introversion for what they do, I wish they’d stop marketing themselves as “the first” and “the last” of things. Because when you hear that “the last of the bedroom programmers” has created “the world’s first genocide-’em-up,” it is slightly disrespectful to 1. all the bedroom programmers that come after them, and 2. Nuclear War!

IGF Winners

By: Tim

On: March 7th, 2007

(Source: Kotaku, Joystiq)

Winners in bold.

Student Showcase finalists are:
Base invaders, Invalid Tangram, Opera Slinger, Gelatin Joe, And Yet it Moves, Toblo, Euclidean Crisis, The Ball of Bastards, The Blob

Excellence in Audio finalists:
Aquaria, Bone: The Great Cow Race, Everyday Shooter, Fizzball, Racing Pitch

Finalists for Excellence in Visual Arts:
Aquaria, Golf?, Samorost 2, Castle Crashers, Roboblitz

The finalists for Design Innovation Awards:
Aquaria, Everyday Shooter, Armadillo Run, Toblo

Finalists for Technical Excellence:
Arcane Legions: A Rising Shadow, Armada Online, Bang! Howdy, Blast Miner, Band of Bugs

Best Web Browser Game finalists:
Bubble Islands, Gamma Bros., Samorost 2

Indie GameTap award. The three winners of this prize will share $50,000 and have their game published on the service.

First runner up: Blast Miner
Winner: Everyday Shooter

The Audience Award winner is Castle Crashers.

The Darwinia team introduces the finalists for this year’s SMAs:
Aquaria
Armadillo Run
Bang! Howdy
Roboblitz
Everyday Shooter

And the winner this year is: Aquaria.

Quote Gamespot:

The 2007 Game of the Year prize went to Aquaria, the previously unhonored 2D fantasy game from indie shop Bit Blot. After stumbling verbally, one of its designers admitted, “This is a terrible speech.” But the massive applause proved the audience didn’t really care.

Introversion Hitting the Consoles

By: Derek Yu

On: February 21st, 2007

Introversion, the developers behind the award-winning Darwinia (and other popular games that use lots of bright, neon lines), revealed to Next Generation that they are planning on releasing their games on consoles in the next 12 months.

The boys seek to continue circumventing the money-grubbing publishers by working directly with console makers, and will make their games available via download.

Subversion/Updefwinia Preview

By: Tim

On: January 5th, 2007

You are but a single Darwinian in a city of millions (things have evolved a long way since the virus outbreak of Darwinia). You have to use your hacking skills moving between office buildings in order to prevent a nuclear war. – Montyphy

Right-click here to save video.

(Edit) Chris Matthews said about 17 hours later:

From Introversion’s site:

“Nevertheless, despite our best efforts, some readers or journalists may be tempted to view these screenshots as some kind of visual indication of the final game. Some may even go so far as to infer suggested gameplay from said media. Worst of all, websites that should know better may decide to publish these images as the “first screenshots of Introversion’s new game”.

If you feel any of the above happening to you, please listen very carefully. You are mistaken.”

Tell that to Montyphy.

There’s a short preview article over at GameSetWatch as well.

Awards, Download This Now!

By: Tim

On: December 17th, 2006

There’s a new Download This edition, trumpeting the arrival of Really Rather Good Battles in Space (a space sim), Tasty Planet and Cloud (rather old).

Tasty Planet is an interesting production by the developers of Laser Dolphin. Sort of a 2D Katamari Damacy rip-off – I mean, tribute… but it’s not the first as Grubby Games also released one which made it into the IGF finals.

GameTunnel is publishing a Game of the Year article, though it’s going to be a long wait to find out if your multiplayer game made it into their top five list. Gold Awards can be traded in for christmas socks, I’ve heard (just jesting).

Defcon, fifth? How app. You can grab patch version 1.2 from Introversion’s web site, or sign up for the upcoming Darwinina update test which should include lots of new features.

Also on the plate are fifty other releases to write about, but I’m pretty much in a holiday mood by now…

Raiden Reviews DEFCON

By: Tim

On: November 3rd, 2006

…because (apparently) it does seem like none of the twenty-odd TIGSource editors are playing the game. So I’ll just post the entire comment instead of selective quotes.

“Uplink: looks rubbish, but is a great idea, and executed well. This is what indie games should be about – putting concept over content.

Darwinia: I didn’t go for the ‘It’s all wireframes, because you are in a computer’ excuse for graphics, but, I did go for the game, which was fun. More points to Introversion.

Defcon: This is like the opposite of Uplink – zero content, style over substance. There’s no game here. Mainstream reviewers are idiots, they want to make people think they are cool and hip, so they bang on about this game, which just isn’t very good at the end of the day. It’s too late for the reviewers won’t admit they’ve been sold a turkey. Still, respect to Introversion because they seem to be able to sell it pretty well. I agree it’s good for other indies as Introversion’s exposure casts a small light on the scene."

“That’s just one opinion though, and I seem to be in the minority.”

Raiden said it, so it must be true. Plus, it’s fatal to argue with the god of thunder.