The latest Nintendo Download update for North America has arrived, and it’s bringing new games galore to the eShop in your region. As always, be sure to drop a vote in our poll and comment down below with your potential picks for the week. Enjoy!

Nintendo Switch Retail

Trials Rising (Ubisoft, Tue 26th February, $24.99) Explore over-the-top action and physics-bending motorcycle racing in the latest entry in the Trials franchise. With over 125 new tracks, Trials Rising is easy to pick up and play, challenging to master, and offers the best multiplayer racing experience ever.

The LEGO Movie 2 Videogame (Warner Bros. Interactive, Tue 26th February, $39.99) The alien monster invaders have left Bricksburg in ruins and taken Emmet’s friends! It is now up to Emmet and a host of heroic characters to go beyond their world and save their friends from the strange inhabitants of the Systar System. Journey into outer space, discover new worlds, and test your Master Building skills.

Switch eShop

Alchemic Dungeons DX (Flyhigh Works, Thu 14th February, $7.99) Alchemic Dungeons DX is an expanded and improved entry in the series. This deluxe version includes new characters, items and dungeons; even the background music has been enhanced! Dungeons are randomly generated and you progress with turn-based action.

Almost There: The Platformer (The Quantum Astrophysicists Guild, Today, $9.99) Sprint between saw blades while dodging homing missiles. Duck under lasers while the floor crumbles beneath you. Almost There was designed specifically for hardcore platforming fans – you’ve been warned. 100% Dexterity Platforming Almost There provides uninterrupted platforming awesomeness.

Aragami: Shadow Edition (Merge Games, Today, $29.99) Aragami is a third person stealth game that casts you as an undead assassin with the power to control the shadows. Teleport to any shadow, become invisible, materialize weapons or even summon a shadow dragon to infiltrate the enemy ranks and dispose of your targets. Read our Aragami: Shadow Edition review.

Arcade Archives Front Line (HAMSTER, Thu 14th February, $7.99) “FRONT LINE” is an action game released by TAITO in 1983. All alone, you must use pistols and grenades to take out a group of hostiles. You can also combat the enemy by climbing into the blue tanks and armored vehicles on the battlefield.

Car Mechanic Simulator (ECC GAMES, Fri 15th February, $14.99) -Find classic cars inside old barns. -Repair engine, brakes, exhaust, gearbox and chassis. -Remove rust, apply putty and paint your car. -Sell rebuilt vehicles and become the best car mechanic!

Caterpillar Royale (Starsign, Tue 19th February, $4.99) Caterpillar Wars DX is an action game where you eat food, grow your caterpillars, and fight enemies to survive. Your caterpillars die if their heads touch obstacles or enemy-caterpillars. It’s a merciless caterpillar battle royale!

Daggerhood (Ratalaika Games, Fri 22nd February, $4.99) Every man should have a skill and for Vincent S. Daggerhood, that skill was thieving. Quick with his hands, there was no loot he couldn’t plunder and no treasure chest he couldn’t escape with.

Devil Engine (DANGEN Entertainment, Today, $19.99) Gameplay Devil Engine is a high octane, classic styled side scrolling shoot-em-up heavily influenced by the best in the genre from the 32-bit era, featuring a variety of incredible locations, hand drawn pixel art, and a blood-pumping soundtrack that brings the dark future to life.

Gigantic Army (Storybird, Today, $8.99) GIGANTIC ARMY is a heartfelt homage to 16-bit era mech shooters. It is the 21st century and Earth is at war with the Ramulons – an alien race determined to stop humanity’s advance into space.

Hell Warders (PQube, Today, $14.99) Hell is at our gates! Rise up as one of the mighty Hell Warders, an ancient order of heroes with unique powers and abilities, to resist the demon hordes head-on. Push back wave after wave of Hell-spawn with an arsenal of weapons, rip apart their fearsome commanders with powerful hero skills, and deploy your army of knights, archers, and mages to bring the fight back to Hell!

I wanna fly (Ultimate Games, Wed 20th February, $2.42) The life of the dreamer is hard – they said, dreams must be fulfilled – they said. Especially those seemingly impossible to meet. So there is nothing to wait for! Become a fulfilled dreamer and in your own way… start flying! Take on one of the dozens of characters who can only dream about flying and let them enjoy the moment!

Mindball Play (Interactive IP, Thu 14th February, $16.00) Challenge your family and friends to a fun action packed racing game for all ages. Gather around the TV for split screen, create an online party and race your friends, or play by yourself and take on the time trial leaderboards.

My Arctic Farm 2018 (Plug In Digital) At the beginning of the game, all you own is an empty field, a few pennies and a single little penguin… You need to feed your penguin, take care of it and improve its lifestyle. Well fed with fishes, your penguin will lay eggs which can then be sold to the Shopkeeper.

Pizza Parking (I.V.O GAMES, Tue 19th February, $5.99) Pizza Parking is a challenging arcade parking simulator. You are a pizza delivery driver, and your goal is to park precisely and fast! Time is running out and the road is winding and full of obstacles.

Q.U.B.E. 2 (TrappedNerveGames, Feb 21, 2019, $29.99) Q.U.B.E. 2 is the sequel to the hit first-person puzzle game Q.U.B.E. You are Amelia Cross, a stranded archaeologist who has awoken among the ruins of an ancient alien landscape. With the distant help of another survivor you must solve the puzzles of this mysterious world and find a way back home. Read our Q.U.B.E. 2 review.

Quest for the Golden Duck (Bigosaur, Fri 22nd February, $9.99) Inspired by a classic game from the golden age of arcades, Quest for the Golden Duck allows you to bring up to 3 more friends in a co-op game. Or take control of the monsters in PvP game and prevent the other team from stealing all the gold from the castle.

Rad Rodgers Radical Edition (Handy Games, Tue 26th February, $29.99) Rad is a rambunctious but spirited young boy who maybe plays too many video games. After dozing off at the tail end of a long night of gaming, Rad awakens to find his dusty old console has turned itself back on.

Raining Coins (Crazysoft, Today, $5.99) It’s raining gold coins! Come, Play & catch them! The skies have opened up but it’s not raining cats and dogs! It’s raining gold coins!

RemiLore (Nicalis, 2019, Tue 26th February, $39.99) RemiLore is a “rogue-lite” anime-style adventure set in a colorful fantasy world where players hack-and-slash their way through an army of mechanical monsters using a huge variety of unique melee weapons and devastating magic attacks!

Rotating Brave (Cosen, Today, $4.99) “Rotating Brave” for Nintendo Switch is an action game in which you control a pixel-art character and take on enemies while spinning. You start off holding the Nintendo Switch console vertically. Then, as you progress from one stage to the next, you play while spinning the Nintendo Switch console, sometimes holding the Nintendo Switch horizontally and sometimes holding it vertically.

Skyhill (Klabater, Tue 26th February, $14.99) World War III was an unexpected and cruel tragedy… You seemed to have a nice time, hidden in your fancy penthouse in Skyhill Hotel… Till the impact of a bio-weapon blew away the life and world you once knew.

Surfingers (Forever Entertainment, Today, $4.99) Surfingers – The game made by the creators of the cult Timberman. Surfingers is an arcade game with controls based on up-and-down movement.

The Golf (D3 Publisher, Thu 14th February, $9.99) A fun and simple golf game anyone can enjoy. Includes golf courses with up to 18 holes. With support for 1-4 players, enjoy at your pace by yourself or have an exciting competition with your friends and family. You can play with either the controller or by swinging the Joy-Con.

The Journey Down Trilogy (Blitworks, Today, $39.99) Join Bwana on a breathtaking point-and-click adventure saga, in the full The Journey Down Trilogy. Uncover secrets and reveal plots on a journey that spans from the sprawling metropolis of St. Armando to the ancient jungles and temples of the mythical Underland.

The Lost Light of Sisu (Solvarg, Wed 27th February, $9.99) Sisu is a forgiving yet challenging physics driven platformer. In this playful adventure you find yourself searching planets in pursuit of energy cubes that power your spaceship but also evolve your abilities. Use these new-found powers to traverse obstacles and overcome grumpy alien species.

Tyr : Chains of Valhalla (Ennui Studio, Fri 22nd February, $9.99) Tyr: Chains of Valhalla is inspired by Norse mythology, more precisely, the Ragnarök! In a technological world where humanity depends on mega-corporations like Yggdrasil, big companies know no limits, competing for the global monopoly, and foes are at the order of the day; someone has to put a balance in the city.

Warplanes: WW2 Dogfight (7Levels, Today, $9.99) In Warplanes: WW2 Dogfight players get the chance to take a seat at the controls of a historical airplane and feel the power of its engines and experience the rush of adrenaline flowing through their veins while facing an enemy plane up in the air.

X-Morph: Defense (EXOR Studios, Today, $19.99) You are the X-Morph – an alien species that invades Earth to harvest its resources and terraform the surface. Strategize in the build mode by carefully selecting various types of alien towers or throw yourself right into the heat of the battle.

YUMENIKKI -DREAM DIARY- (Playism Games, Today, $19.99) Play as a young girl as she explores the mysterious and unreal world of her dreams. Start off with no story or guide, as you experience the different worlds of her dreams, each one deeply shrouded in mystery. Run from the monsters that chase you, discover how to use the items you find, and solve the puzzles you come across to find clues to the mysteries scattered around you.

Demos

Nintendo eShop Sales

Check out the full list of deals available this week here.

So that’s your lot for this week’s North American Nintendo Download. Go on, be a sport and drop a vote in the poll above, and comment below with your hot picks!

In 1993, Satya Nadella—then a technical marketing manager—sat in front of a camera for a broadcast about how developers could use Microsoft server products.

The broadcast itself is a relic of its time: developers could call into a live hotline to inquire about Microsoft products (this was before customer support chatbots), Nadella chunked out code on a mechanical keyboard in front of an old CRT screen, and what we call servers today were still lovingly referred to as mainframes. The topic Nadella was talking about, wedged in the middle of the three-hour-long affair, was seemingly mundane: How to make custom inventory software using Excel and a local server.

Missing from the broadcast was any sign that Nadella would, 21 years later, become Microsoft’s CEO, or that the objective of this decades-old video—making it easy for companies to embed Microsoft into their most crucial processes—would become the bedrock of Microsoft’s success today.

Switch fighting fans will no doubt be delighted to hear that Arc System Works and PQube are pulling out all the stops with the release of Guilty Gear 20th Anniversary Edition, which lands on the Switch on 17th May.

The Anniversary Edition bundles up the original Guilty Gear and GUILTY GEAR XX ΛCORE PLUS R in one lovely package. The pack will be sold as a special Day One edition, which includes a personal letter from Guilty Gear creator Daisuke Ishiwatari and an artbook with unreleased works.

Both games included in the pack will also be available as separate digital versions for the Switch.

If all that wasn’t enough, a limited edition of only 500 pieces in Europe will be made available with a rather snazzy Nintendo Switch pouch as shown below. More details on this pre-order will be revealed soon.

Let us know if you’ll be picking up this guilty pleasure in May with a comment below.

Launching today on Switch, YUMENIKKI -DREAM DIARY- puts you in the shoes – and the dreams – of a young girl forced to deal with the monsters she encounters in the world of her own subconscious. It’s a surrealistic adventure from Playism Games with plenty of puzzle-solving to get stuck into as you explore the mysterious dream worlds and discover what’s behind the seven doors within.

The game is described as an ‘homage’ or ‘reboot’ of Yume Nikki, a similarly unusual adventure game made in RPG Maker and released on PC back in 2004. It became something of a cult favourite, with fans including indie game designer Derek Yu. The original creator, Kikiyama, is said to have provided ‘permission, cooperation, and supervision’ for this new version which retains ‘the feel of the original world and characters’ while updating the design with 3D graphics.

More details are highlighted in the official press release:

Wander through the elaborate and terrifyingly beautiful world expanding before your eyes as you pass through the door to your own dreams.

Experience a unique and alluring realm that stretches the bounds of imagination.

Utilize an eclectic variety of items and effects to venture deeper and deeper into the world of dreams.

As you can see from the trailer, the game appears to be filled with dream-logic geography and some evocative – if not hugely detailed – environments. One to keep an eye out for in the flood of games hitting the eShop this week. It’s available today for £17.99/$19.99.

Like the look of this psychological puzzler? Did you play the original on which it’s based? Share your impressions below.

Linux Foundation training has announced a new course designed to provide network engineers with the skills necessary to start applying DevOps practices and leverage their expertise in a DevOps environment.

In the new DevOps for Network Engineers course, you’ll learn how to navigate your role in the CI/CD cycle, find common ground, and use key tools to contribute effectively in areas like connectivity, network performance tuning, security, and other aspects of network management within a DevOps environment.

Network automation is becoming the standard in data centers, with major implications for network engineers. This online, self-paced course will help you become familiar with the tools needed to integrate your skills into the DevOps/Agile process.

Course highlights include:

• How to integrate into a DevOps/Agile environment

• Commonly used DevOps tools

• How DevOps teams collaborate on projects

• How to confidently work with software and configuration files in version control

• How to confidently apply Agile principles in an organization

Learn more about the DevOps for Network Engineers course now.

Andrew

In Visual Studio 2019 Preview 2, The Web Tools team made some changes to improve extensibility features for extension developers. To standardize interfaces, the CSS, HTML, JSON and CSHTML editors renamed their assemblies as per the following table:

To avoid potential parse issues, the JSON parse tree changed behavior. When you call JsonParserService.GetTreeAsync, you now get a snapshot of the JSON parse tree. As an extension developer, you can now request and maintain snapshots of the JSON parse tree.

As high concepts go, a text-based real-time strategy game might not sound like the most obvious of mash-ups. A Few Minutes of Glory may look like it dates back to the dawn of the computer age but it is still an intriguing proposition. First of all, you build a medieval army by gathering and spending resources. When you are confident that your army is strong enough, you send them into battle against the AI controlled opposing force. It may sound like Age of Empires without the graphics but each game only lasts for a maximum of four minutes, even less if you play in fast mode. The victor is the first side to earn ten glory points or to have the most glory when the time runs out.

There are four resource-generating buildings, which produce food, wood, gold and stone. Food is needed for basic military units, wood for ranged units, gold is required for advanced military units and stone can be used to construct defensive structures. You may also use wood to build new production buildings, the snag being that the cost increases with each new building. Each production building will produce one resource every second.

Players begin the game with access to five randomly determined military units. To construct one of these units simply tap the box next to it and pay the relevant resources. You will then need to deploy the new unit to either an offensive or defensive role. Constructing walls and towers can further enhance defensive capabilities. Units fall into one of three overriding categories; infantry, ranged and cavalry. There are a total of fifteen different units, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Some of the more eclectic types include camels that are great at giving enemy cavalry the hump and monks who have the ability to convert enemy units.

Before battle commences the attacking force has the opportunity to ransack the local countryside for some additional resources. Next up is the combat screen, which displays a breakdown of the opposing forces. In each round of combat, units attack in order of their initiative values and will target a randomly determined enemy unit. The chances of success are calculated by comparing attack strength against the defending unit’s armour rating. There is a handy reference list of all of the units and their initiative attack and defensive values. If the attacking side wins then they are awarded two glory points, whilst a defensive victory only earns one point of glory. After a battle, the attacker has to wait around thirty seconds before they are allowed to initiate another assault, which gives their opponent a bit of time to recover. If either side is vastly outnumbered then they will get a substantial fury bonus added to their attacks. As further consolation, the production buildings of the losing side will be increased by one level because a fear of further defeat makes the population work even harder.

If the timer runs down to zero before either side has managed to earn ten glory points then a final mass battle takes place. The defensive and offensive units on both sides join together, with the winning side earning between two to six points of glory. The potential to earn so much glory in a single confrontation can swing the entire battle.

As the saying goes, one battle does not win a war. The ultimate goal in A Few Minutes of Glory is to win the war by being victorious in ten consecutive battles. After every successful fight, you will have access to a new power; these include resource building upgrades and improved units. Beware though, because a single defeat will bring your civilization crashing down and you will have to start all over again.

I have regularly settled down for a game of A Few Minutes of Glory, hoping that something would click. Unfortunately, I always came away feeling that I was missing something. On paper, the interplay between the abilities of the different units sounds intriguing. However, it often feels like you are poking around in the dark, throwing your limited choice of troops into battle without any real idea of how things are going to turn out. The presentation is so sparse that I could not shake the feeling that I was just toying with a spreadsheet. It is a criticism that has been leveled at the Football Manager games, but at least then the smart presentation and licensing agreements managed to hide this from the player’s view.

In a world of endless sequels and thinly disguised copycat releases, I admire the developer for trying to create something different. I like how the rules try and give a thematic reason for the design decisions. For instance, the inflationary cost of production buildings is explained in terms of the increasing scarcity of available land. I like the variety of units, the fast pace and the tough challenge (even the game’s developer cannot beat the AI on the hardest difficulty level).

Unfortunately, A Few Minutes of Glory feels like an intriguing concept transformed into a pretty dull game. It amounts to watching your resources increase and then clicking on boxes to purchase units. The decisions never feel interesting or involved and it soon becomes repetitive. The heart of A Few Minutes of Glory is the battles and these really need to be represented in a more satisfying way than just a scrolling list. The results flash by so quickly that it fails to build any sense of tension. I don’t expect fancy graphics; a little atmospheric flavour text describing the flow of battle would have done the job. As it stands, the battles feel very anticlimactic. Calculations are made, numbers flash across the screen and then you are told whether you have won or lost. It is then back to gathering more resources, buying more units and doing the whole thing all over again.

A new game development related Humble Bundle, the Humble Fantasy GameDev Bundle has just gone live.  This bundle consists of thousands of art assets mostly with a fantasy RPG theme.  As always with Humble Bundles, a portion of your proceeds go to the creator, a portion go to the Humble team, a portion goes to charity and a portion can go to support this channel.

Humble Bundles are always split into pricing tiers, although in this case the content is heavily loaded toward the top price tier of $20 USD.  If you buy the top tier, you get all of the assets below it.  The Fantasy GameDev bundle consists of:

1$ Tier

• Potion Icons
• Game Chest
• SpellBook Page 01
• Wooden UI
• Fantasy Badges
• RPG Weapons Icons

17.31$ Tier

• TCG Card Design
• Armor Icon Pack
• Sci-Fi Skill Icon Pack
• Engineering Craft Icons
• Loot Icons
• Fishing Icons
• Flat Skills Icons
• Survival Armor Icons
• Resources Flat Icons
• Mobs Avatar Icons
• Character Avatar Icons
• Magic Badges

20$ Tier

• Fantasy Icon Megapack
• SpellBook Megapack
• TCG Cards Pack
• Action RPG Loot
• Action RPG Armor
• Fantasy Animate Avatars
• RPG Class Badges
• Western Icons
• GUI Megapack
• Monster Avatar Icons
• Fantasy Characters
• Fairytale Icons Megapack

The bundle is available here while you can see the contents of the Bundle in the video below.  Unfortunately the license is not clearly stated, however the Humble team made the following tweet:

GameDev News

© 2019 Valve Corporation. All rights reserved. All trademarks are property of their respective owners in the US and other countries.

The 2019 Game Developers Conference will feature an exhibition called Alt.Ctrl.GDC dedicated to games that use alternative control schemes and interactions.

Gamasutra will be talking to the developers of each of the games that have been selected for the showcase.

Coal Rush creates competition out of running a train, having players scoop coal, change tracks, and scare wildlife off the tracks with its locomotive controls

Gamasutra had a chat with Alec Bergström, Producer on Coal Rush, to hear about the challenges that came from designing the game’s huge controller, the difficulties in keeping things from getting too taxing with such a physically-demanding game, and capturing the appeal of being a train conductor in the Wild West.

The conductors

My name is Alec Bergström. I was the producer and scrum master for the project. I also worked on the physical build with our lead designer, Simon Ågren.

We’re students at Uppsala University Campus Gotland, and we’re studying game design currently, so in Team Moon Moon we have only created one other digital game. We are now in our second year of our Bachelor’s Degree, and we are working on two more digital games this spring. Most likely in separate teams this time, though.

Creating an engaging arcade game out of a train 

As a project at Uppsala University Campus Gotland, we were to create a concept for an arcade game, and then create said concept as a full game. The actual idea itself was a result of brainstorming, where we wanted to come up with a game that would make people really engaged in what they were doing. We also wanted it to gather people who weren’t playing and make them as engaged in the gameplay. Coal Rush was the result of one of the brainstorming sessions we had at the beginning of the project, and went through a ton of iterative cycles to develop into the final idea and booth.

A locomotive controller

It’s quite straightforward, really. The different controllers are based on classic actions you would associate with trains, or steam locomotives. The Shovel is used to shovel coal from the coal pile to the furnaces, which is done at a quick pace constantly to remain at a high speed. The Lever is used in the way you would imagine, just pulling it. It changes the direction of track intersections to either make you or your opponent switch tracks. As for the Horn, it is pulled down and will scare any animals on the tracks away from your horn.

Train-building equipment

Coal Rush is made entirely in Unity, except for graphics and animations, which were made in Adobe Photoshop. 

The first complete physical build was made with plywood and wooden beams. It stood on 6 wooden pallets, 3m high, 2.5 meters deep, and 2.5 meters wide. The new iteration for GDC will be different, as we will need to downsize in order to afford shipping it across the Atlantic, and will most likely stand at 2x2x2m and be made from lighter materials such as MDF.

On choosing which interactions to put into Coal Rush

We had shoveling coal as the only input in the beginning, but realized the player needed more to do. The lever and horn were just the first few things that came to mind that made sense. However, when it came to making the choice of which functions to include, we had to consider both the theme of the game and how much they contributed to the user experience. The shoveling of the coal would make the game quite hectic, which in a competitive scenario was something we really wanted. The lever and horn would become great tools of enhancing that competitive feeling by not only having control of your own train, but the game world around you so as to mess with your opponent.

Seeking that physical play experience

We wanted the player experience to be centered around the physical. When we thought of an arcade hall, we thought of the more physical games you can play, where you actually had tools to use rather than a joystick and some buttons. We wanted Coal Rush to fit firmly into that category, and so prioritizing the physical properties was, to us, the obvious choice.

As for how we designed it, we had quite a clear concept in terms of the aesthetics we wanted the player to feel, but we weren’t quite sure if it would be fun for the player. The amount of playtests we had helped us narrow down what made it a good experience for the player, and we pushed to create that. Quite honestly, the design of the game was not decided early on, but it only started with an idea that sounded good and narrowed down to be good through player feedback. All design decisions we made were evaluated on whether we perceived it to be thematically accurate, and whether it conformed to the aesthetics we wanted.

On making their train game competitive

It started with a “what if?” when we decided to implement the lever as a function. The simple idea was that the lever would change all tracks on the game screen. Once we realized the possibility to change the track for the opponent would enhance the competitive nature of the game, we decided that the horn should do this as well. The obstacles and animals spawn in parts of the level and so you are not always able to mess things up for your opponent, but when the possibility is there, we found that players really enjoy looking for it.

The challenges of Coal Rush‘s colossal controller

We wanted to create a steam locomotive that the player would stand in. Due to material restrictions, we were unfortunately not able to completely make it into this, but we think we created quite an industrial vibe.

The first difficulty that comes to mind is where we could even build it. It was eventually built on a team member’s front lawn at their parents’ house, which we are extremely thankful for! At the convention at the Gotland Game Conference, we also had to move the booth from the assigned spot, as we couldn’t fit the booth there.

In terms of development difficulties, we had some trouble creating such a large booth with regards to finding the correct materials without making the booth feel ridiculously oversized or cramped. 

Taking care when designing a physically demanding game

I think it creates a different aspect of gaming, as you receive physical feedback instead of visual. The challenge is making it fun and pushing the player without making it too tough or exhausting. It took a while to refine the game to where a game session was just the right time so the players could feel like they worked without being exhausted.

The appeal of becoming a train conductor

It’s not so much the profession itself that has the draw, but the theme of the wild west and the physical nature of the job makes for a great way to promote a competitive spirit! Capturing the appeal of the wild west theme, for us, was done by our graphics team, so big hats off to them for the great thematic backgrounds and models. The physical nature of the job was captured well, I think, by emulating the things you would think are done in a steam locomotive, but I guess the switching tracks is a bit of a stretch!