The winner of Epic Games’ Make Something Unreal Live 2013 contest Epigenesis started their Early Access on Steam today. The game has also won the Swedish Game Awards’ Game of the Year prize for 2013. Developers Dead Shark Triplepunch describe their game as a “love letter to Quake and Unreal Tournament’s Bombing Run.” The non violent title pits two teams of five against each other in game that is a hybrid of domination and football. Players will need to run a ball into their opponent’s goal to gain the right to plant a seed on one of the towers that litter the playing field. The team that creates a string of towers connecting their goal post to the enemy goal is declared the winner.
To assist them, players will have access to a variety of force based abilities, equipment, and plants. Attacking opponents can be pushed off towers to whittle their numbers or slowed with smoke emitting plants.
Epigenesis is available now for $9.99 USD on Steam. The game currently only supports Windows and the full game is set to launch in early 2014. The developers are hosting weekly play with the team games on Sundays at 20:00 (UTC +2). They promise they won’t bite, but there is no guarantees that players won’t be Dead Shark Triplepunched, whatever that special ability may be…