You are being monitored, profiled and judged by a metrics-obsessed AI…

Somerville, MA – February 3, 2021 – Game development studio Chump Squad is excited to announce the demo for upcoming satirical puzzler, Lab Rat, will be available to play at the Steam Game Festival on February 3rd 2021.

Brought to you by the creator of Kine, Lab Rat is a hand-crafted narrative puzzler masquerading as a machine-generated video game. Players progress through over a hundred satisfying yet surprising puzzles in an AI-administered test. Over time, the AI will develop an understanding of humanity—albeit ludicrously misguided—based on your performance and survey response. 

• Maneuver objects, divert lasers and manipulate electricity to overcome 100+ genre-bending puzzles.
• Outwit a metrics-obsessed machine intent on heckling you for your humanity.
• View and contribute to in-game analytics that are updated in real-time with real player data.

Lead developer Gwen Frey comments, “I had this oppressive and absurd feeling in lockdown, cut off from much human interaction and only communicating with others through social media. I wanted to make a game that captured that, not in a way that’s negative or dark, but kind of light-hearted. I wanted to poke fun at the absurdity of our current situation.”

Lab Rat’s demo will launch in tandem with the Steam Game Festival on February 3rd. Expect to try out hand-on demos, chat with developers, watch live streams and learn about the best new games at this digital event, all from the comfort of home.

Human test subjects for this demo will be accepted on PC only. It’s up to you to avoid becoming just another data point for the next tester’s playthrough! Please note the direct transfer of electrons to test subjects may occur, but does not typically result in long term damage…

About Chump Squad 
Founded by industry veteran Gwen Frey – former CFO of Molasses Flood, where she helped develop ‘Flame in the Flood’ –  Chump Squad is a fully remote game development studio. Since its inception in 2018, Gwen has used the “Hollywood Model” starting each game with a small incubation team, with collaborators brought on as a project hires specifically to realize the vision of a single game. This has allowed her to leverage the expertise of specialists while keeping her studio low-cost and fully independent.

VERTIGO GAMES ACQUIRES VR ARCADE PLATFORM SPRINGBOARDVR

SpringboardVR staff joining Vertigo Games provide for continuity of service while acquisition will offer operators access to free-roam VR content and new tools for operators and game studios

Sydney, Australia (February 4th, 2021) – – Vertigo Games, the multi-platform VR publisher and developer best known for the platinum-selling VR shooter “Arizona Sunshine”, has today announced that it has completed the acquisition of SpringboardVR, a leading provider of VR venue management software and the largest content marketplace for location-based entertainment (LBE), for an undisclosed amount.

Several key customer-facing members of the SpringboardVR team will be joining Vertigo Games, which will ensure seamless service and operations for arcade operators and game studios around the world. The SpringboardVR brand and software platform will continue to operate under its current name but with the support and resources of the Vertigo Games team. This combination will provide operators with access to free-roam VR content via Vertigo’s HAZE VR distribution platform as well as giving both operators and game studios new tools to grow their LBE business. The roadmap for this new content and features will be released in the near future.

Vertigo Games has long been a supporter of location-based VR, with its portfolio of games accounting for roughly 25% of minutes played in Western LBE venues led by Arizona Sunshine, the perennial #1 most played title in VR arcades. Vertigo Games VR experiences are available in more than 700 arcades, family entertainment centers, and theme park venues globally through third-party services like SpringboardVR, as well as their own LBE VR distribution platform HAZE VR.

“Vertigo Games continues to believe in the power of location-based virtual reality to drive the growth of the medium,” noted John Coleman, Director of Business Development at Vertigo Games. “We’ve had a great relationship with the SpringboardVR team over the past four years, and we are excited to pick up the responsibility to carry forward the vision of SpringboardVR. They’ve done a great job building the largest VR content marketplace for LBE, and we look forward to leading SpringboardVR into the future in this exciting phase of accelerating growth in VR.”

SpringboardVR, which was founded in 2017, currently offers more than 400 virtual reality titles through its leading content marketplace that serves over 500 companies in more than 40 countries.

“Vertigo Games was our first choice to take over SpringboardVR because of their unwavering commitment to location-based VR. They are uniquely positioned to build on our successes as they have worked directly with VR arcades for years and they continue to be the single largest publisher on the platform,” noted Bradley Scoggin, former CEO and co-founder of SpringboardVR. “We are incredibly proud of what we built with SpringboardVR and are very thankful for our partner locations and the content studios that have distributed their games with us.”

The SpringboardVR founders and key senior members of their development, product, and services teams have moved to form the core of a new company called ArborXR, which manages devices, content, and users in the enterprise VR ecosystem.

“ArborXR is a natural evolution for us – we always saw the transformative power of VR beyond entertainment,” noted Jordan Williams, Co-Founder and COO of ArborXR. “Many companies today are trying to deliver XR training and experiences using consumer hardware and inadequate enterprise software. Consequently, as they transition from pilot projects to larger deployments, they face all kinds of problems. We’ve already built a commercial VR solution managing thousands of users, devices, and content titles and we translated that experience to ArborXR, which is purpose-built to make it easier for companies and content providers to deploy enterprise VR at scale.”

# # #

About SpringboardVR

Founded in 2017, SpringboardVR is a leading provider of VR venue management software and the largest content marketplace for LBE (location-based entertainment) that offers headset management, content distribution, and commercial licensing for LBE and education venues. The company currently serves more than 500 companies in more than 40 countries across the globe. SpringboardVR is a Vertigo Games company. springboardvr.com

About Vertigo Games

Vertigo Games is a multi-platform VR entertainment company with offices in Rotterdam, The Netherlands and Los Angeles, California. With teams in the areas of development, publishing and LBE (location-based entertainment) distribution, the company offers a growing portfolio of quality VR games that provide novel, powerful and full-featured gaming experiences both in- and outside of the home. Current games include Vertigo Studios’ evergreen brand Arizona Sunshine®, critically acclaimed VR titles such as A Fisherman’s Tale, and LBE-exclusive VR experiences like Ghost Patrol® VR. Vertigo Games has six releases in the 2021 publishing pipeline, including Vertigo Studios’ next VR action FPS game After the Fall®, the VR music game Unplugged and the tongue-in-cheek VR sim Traffic Jams. Vertigo Games is a Koch Media Group company.  vertigo-games.com

ABOUT ARBORXR

ArborXR is an enterprise-grade XR device management, content management, and content distribution solution for enterprise companies and XR solutions providers looking to scale. At launch, ArborXR is being used by Fortune 500 companies, Independent Software Vendors, educational institutions, and SMBs. ArborXR.com

NIS America is excited to announce that R-Type®️ Final 2 will be coming to Nintendo Switch™, PlayStation®4,  PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S on 30 April, 2021 in Australia and New Zealand!

The PlayStation®4,  PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S versions will be digital only.

About the game:

The legendary shoot-’em-up hit is back with unparalleled R-Type experience! As the latest installment of a series renowned for its colorful visuals and frenetic shooter action, R-Type Final 2 steps it up in its explosive debut on current platforms with 3D graphics and modernized gameplay features.

New and old players alike can shape their experience to their liking with the performance-based difficulty system and customizable ships and pilots, while experiencing classic R-Type trademarks such as the “Force” mechanic and an addictive gameplay loop. Navigate an entire universe of new and classic stages, face enemies that evolve with your performance, and blast the competition away with worldwide leaderboards in this successor to the acclaimed R-Type franchise.

Key Features:

Enhanced and Evolved: Experience R-Type’s explosive return on current platforms, where the frenetic action of the original games meets contemporary visuals and modern gameplay features such as evolving enemies.

Universal Challenge: The performance-based difficulty system adjusts to each player’s individual experience, making this game accessible to new and old pilots alike. When you’re done decimating the alien hordes, check out the worldwide leaderboard to see how you stack up against other pilots!

Customized Loadout: Personalize every element of your ship, including coloring, types of weapons, and decals. Additionally, choose among dozens of fighters that appeared in previous series installments, and even customize your pilot to your liking.

Attention Villagers! There Hast Been a Series of Murders in the Towne and Thou art all Suspects. Prithee Report to the Towne Square for Trial and Potential Execution!

DATTELN, GERMANY (February 3, 2021) — It’s murder most foul, and everyone is a suspect…including you! Today independent developer VestGames is thrilled to announce that their riveting, upcoming social deduction game, Eville is now available to demo during the Steam Winter Festival. Combining the best elements of games like Among Us and One Night Ultimate Werewolf with a hefty dose of RPG elements, Eville takes a familiar genre to new heights, all wrapped up in a (seemingly) friendly fantasy village aesthetic.

A series of brutal murders plague the once tranquil village of Eville, a cozy medieval village with a rather inauspicious name. Under the cover of night, hapless villagers have met their demise at the hands of vicious killers who must be stopped at all costs! With no suspects in sight, it is up to the residents of Eville to determine the culprits and put a stop to their villainy before they find themselves at the end of the assassin’s knife. Work together as townsfolk and use your unique special abilities and character roles to deduce the identity of the murderer and put them on trial — or as a Conspirator and sow dissent amongst the villagers, disarming pesky traps, or helping the murderer take down annoying barriers and clearing paths for the killer. Remember, murder is a team sport! Who knows, perhaps you’ll be the dastardly villain next! Keep an eye out for player “tells”, and spot the murderer, or as the killer, deceive those rural rubes until it’s bedtime for Boris and Betty.

“Eville’s the next step in the evolution of social deduction games, and it’s going to bring an incredible amount of new ideas to the table, or should I say, town,” said Hendrik Hollenborg VestGames Owner and Lead Developer on Eville. “We wanted to make a title with all the backstabbing and hilarity the genre is known for, but with a level of depth and strategy that we know players will really enjoy.”

In Eville, each game starts with players being assigned the designation of honorable Citizen or murderous Conspirator! Specialized roles are also assigned to each player, granting them special skills and abilities to support their investigation or aid their systematic slaughter. In real-time, Citizens must use their social abilities, unique role skills, and call upon the help of NPC villagers to look for clues and identify suspects throughout the day, while Conspirators do their best to throw them off their scent. Villagers can purchase special tools and tomes to help suss out the village’s villains, while Conspirators may break in, loot homes, and wipe out the defenseless denizens by night. But should these foul evildoers get sloppy and give away clues to their identities, they’ll be accused, tried, and executed in a totally fair and impartial trial by their fellow village-dwellers. Let’s just say it brings a whole new meaning to “Trial by Fire.”

Key Features:

• More Strategy than a Queen’s Gambit: The combination of character roles, items and upgrades, unique skills, and a multi-layered map adds a depth of strategy and replayability that other games in the genre don’t come close to.
   
• Magical and Maybe Murderous Medieval Aesthetic: Murder and mayhem might be afoot in Eville, but that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy a sunny stroll around town collecting herbs and chatting up vendors. You can even customize your avatar with different skins, outfits, and cosmetic items.
   
• The Wolves Come Out at Night: The day and night cycle isn’t just a gimmick, but a fundamental gameplay mechanic; during the day, villagers mill around town, going about their business before tucking in for a nice restful evening in their snuggly bed…Unless you’re the murderer, of course, where nighttime is the right time — to hack people to death while they sleep.
   
• Receive a Role, Play to Your Strengths: Eville casts players into different roles with every session, each with unique abilities and advantages. Enjoy flexing your voting power as the Mayor, or setting traps for the dastardly murderer as the Trapper, investigating suspicious villagers as the Detective, or cast doubts and aspersions by talking smack about the other players as the Slanderer.
   
• Let’s go to the (Medieval) Mall: When the sun is out, players can spend their hard-earned copper on items and upgrades to help them survive the night — or, conversely, survive the traps laid out by those tricky good-guys trying to prevent a blue-collar axe murderer from doing their thing!

Eville will be available for PC via Steam in Early Access in 2021. A multiplayer demo is now available starting today until February 9, 2021, during the Steam Winter Festival. 

You can play the demo on Steam here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1220170/Eville/. 

Keep up to date on all things Eville by joining the conversations on Discord and Reddit, and by following the game on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tik Tok, YouTube, and the official website: https://eville-game.com.

About VestGames

VestGames is an indie game studio located in the Ruhr area of Germany that was founded in June of 2020 to complete development on the social deduction title Eville. Initially a solo-project,  VestGames founder Hendrik Hollenborg worked on Eville for two years before founding VestGames to finalize development. The team began to expand in 2020, bringing on more programmers and artists with experience in multiple virtual reality projects spanning everything from emergency prevention to kitchen planning software. To learn more about VestGames, please visit the official website: https://eville-game.com/. 

Players and teams from all over the world will battle for a grand prize of $10,000 USD

SAN FRANCISCO – February 3rd, 2021 – KingsGroup, a global leader in the mobile gaming and entertainment industry, is proud to announce that the State of Survival Reservoir Raid Nations Cup has begun. State of Survival, a zombie-themed survival strategy mobile game, added a new competitive player versus player (PvP) game mode, Reservoir Raid, last year. With the introduction of the Nations Cup, alliances and players from all over the world now have the chance to play against each other, and crown their first Nations Cup Champion.

In Reservoir Raid, two players battle each other for State of Survival’s most valuable resource – water. In a similar style to a King of the Hill match, teams aim to control water reservoirs and water treatment centres in order to score points. Occupying other key points on the battlefield, such as workshops and power stations, will provide you with special bonuses and benefits which can help to turn the tide of battle. Reservoir Raids are lengthy, tactical battles of attrition, with up to 30 players from every alliance able to join. The winner is the team that has accumulated the most points through water reserves once the game has finished.

To celebrate the launch of the Reservoir Raid Nations Cup, players can take part in The Nations Cup, a global esports tournament where alliances from all across the world will face off against each other in Reservoir Raids. The winning alliance will not only be crowned World Champion but will also take home a $10,000 USD cash prize and $ 20,000 in-game rewards.

Currently, the tournament is in the registration stage, (January 25th until February 7th). The Points Race (qualifiers) will begin on February 13rd and end on March 1st in North America, Europe, East Asia and Southeast Asia & Middle East. The Points Race will last for two weeks, after which the top alliances from each region will battle it out in the Semi-finals and Final.

Players can download State of Survivalfor free on the App Store and Google Play and jump straight into the fight to survive.

For more information on State of Survival please visit the official site, and follow the game on Twitter and Facebook for all the latest updates.

About KingsGroup
Founded in September 2016, KingsGroup is a global digital interactive entertainment game studio specializing in strategy games. The studio employs above 500 people spread across 20 countries and regions. KingsGroup is the maker of King of Avalon which has topped the list of game bestsellers in 67 countries, as well as Guns of Glory which has achieved No.1 ranking in 45 countries, including the USA and most European markets. State of Survival is the studio’s most recent successful game that has been rapidly climbing the charts.

Run an interstellar diner with aliens on the menu, coming to early access on Steam in 2021. Try the Godlike Burger demo on Steam at 10am Pacific / 7pm CET today!

Hamburg, February 3rd 2021 – Order up! Publisher Daedalic Entertainment and Developer Liquid Pug LLC are pleased to announce Godlike Burger, a unique game where you run a restaurant and kill delicious aliens, will launch into Early Access in the first half of 2021. Godlike Burger is a delicious mix of cooking simulator and business management game, with a strong pinch of crime and dark humor. Make burgers, run a restaurant, find creative ways to turn your alien customers into tomorrow’s´ Special, and of course: don’t get caught! Godlike Burger will have a playable demo available as part of the Steam Games Festival from February 3rd through February 9th. 

Godlike Burger is a business simulation in the style of the classic Pizza Connection. As the player, you run a burger joint in outer space. Start by setting up the tables, equipment and decor, then get to serving your customers who rush into the restaurant in waves. Unknown to your patrons, the secret ingredient in your burgers is the customers themselves! As both manager and cook, you somehow have to kill your customers, whether you lure them into traps or simply stab them to death, and bring the “ingredients” into the kitchen. Make sure you avoid detection as the space police enjoy a good burger and always seem to be on the watch for missing aliens. Sound a little gruesome? Don’t worry! The game has a hilarious comic aesthetic that allows you to concentrate on the humour while making a great burger. 

Key features:

• Your Restaurant. Your space-diner has plenty of parking, lots of seating, bathrooms and everything you need to bring in customers.
• Your Food. It’s the tastiest in the galaxy because it’s made from the most delicious ingredients: the customers themselves! 
• Cooking. Different alien races want their burgers done their way. This means each race wants different meats and sauces. Cook to order and meet the demands of your exacting alien clientele.
• Daytime Gameplay. During the day, customers arrive in waves seeking delicious food, placing orders and demanding good service. Keep them happy or they’ll get annoyed and leave before you have the chance to turn them into burgers.
• Nighttime Gameplay. Each evening you spend time upgrading your restaurant, setting up the menu, managing the business or flying it to new parts of the galaxy.
• Harvest Ingredients. Hidden Traps allow you to kill your customers unnoticed and when the traps fail, pull out your cleaver and collect the tastiest cuts of meat you need to build burgers.
• Avoid Detection. Space cops are a suspicious bunch and can be alerted by escaped customers or may spot wrongdoings if they drop by for a burger. Don’t get caught or you’ll get closed down.

Godlike Burger is set to enter Early Access on Steam in the first half of 2021. Get more information on Steam.

About Liquid Pug LLC (Developer)

Liquid Pug is a developer of PC and mobile games created by a small team of professionals that dedicates their efforts and talent to create great products. Founded in 2017, we already have over 10 games already published and we’re eager to bring our next game, Godlike Burger, to gamers everywhere. 

About Daedalic Entertainment

Daedalic Entertainment publishes and develops high-quality games for all platforms. The company has a diverse line-up of high-quality titles, including classic adventures, RPGs, and strategy and multiplayer games.

Awin Games, the gaming division of Awin Capital, will cooperate with Badland Publishing with the aim of boosting the development of indie video games and innovating in the industry by supporting the release of indie titles.

Madrid, February 3rd, 2021.Badland Publishing and Awin Games have just signed a collaboration agreement between the two companies with the aim of boosting the development of indie titles on an international scale. 

Awin Games, together with Badland Publishing, promises to innovate in the industry and boost development through the synergy between the publisher’s know-how and Awin Capital funding.

After the successful experience of developing a title such as Agents: Biohunter in collaboration with PlayStark, Awin Capital has decided to enter fully into the indie development industry through this agreement.

The first title to benefit from the agreement signed between the two companies will be Alpaca Ball: All Stars, which will soon hit the market in digital format for both PS4 and Xbox One (already available on PC and Nintendo Switch) and will be released in physical format, both in standard and collector’s edition, on PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch and PC.

Alpaca Ball: Allstars will be the first title to benefit from the recent agreement between Awin Games and Badland Publishing.

About Awin Games: 
Awin Games is a business line of Awin Capital, in its gaming vertical, dedicated to the development and co-publishing of Indie video games on an international scale.

About Awin Capital: 
Awin Capital is a company that participates in the capital of several companies with the commercial and financial goal of carrying out various business strategies through our subsidiaries, affiliates, or investees, in order to contribute to their long-term value.

Awin Capital invest in start-ups and technology-based companies, with a strong innovative component and a vertically integrated business model.

Our objective is focused on selecting companies with a high profitability potential, taking a minority stake in the capital and generating business synergies to contribute to their development and competitiveness through their consolidation.

Official Release with Full Story and Additional Languages

Cologne, February 3, 2021 – Publisher Headup and the developer of popular “The Coma” series, Devespresso Games, have announced the new official release date for Scarlet Hood and the Wicked Wood. Formerly scheduled to launch in February on Steam Early Access, the game will be fully released on April 8.

Scarlet Hood and the Wicked Wood will release in its entirety at launch rather than several sections unveiled over time as was previously announced. The game will launch in seven languages; English, Korean, German, French, Russian, Simplified Chinese, and Spanish.

For those who are disappointed with the delay, head over to the Steam Game Festival (February 3 – 9) for the demo, and be the first to play the game!

Featuring Devespresso’s signature manhwa-style with hand-illustrated graphics by Minho Kim and a non-linear story written by T.L. Riven, Scarlet Hood and the Wicked Wood is a narrative adventure set within a vibrant Oz-esque fantasy world. The game features a recurring time loop (think Groundhog Day) with unique branching story paths and multiple endings

Scarlet, the protagonist and a diva in the making, awakes in the realm of Glome after being flung over by a rogue tornado. She discovers an electrifying world brimming with magic, beauty, and artifacts from a mysterious bygone culture. Her strange journey begins when she takes up the mantle of the Red Witch and leads a troupe of Munchkins through the forbidden Wicked Wood.

The fledgling witch soon discovers a Recursion Hex has her reliving the same day. However, each death presents new opportunities to branch the adventure in exciting new ways. The only way to get through the wood is by solving puzzles that require logic, or by finding clues that are scattered across the wood.

About Scarlet Hood and the Wicked Wood

Scarlet Hood and the Wicked Wood is a story-driven adventure game. As Scarlet, you must relive seven days of misfortune, and make a series of decisions to guide your Munchkin troupe safely out of the Wicked Wood. Experience branching outcomes based on your decisions. Most importantly, immerse yourself in a bewitching story of fantastic adventure!

Features:

▪ Survive a narrative time-loop
▪ Solve ridiculous puzzles
▪ Follow your own multi-path story
▪ Unlock multiple endings based on your decisions
▪ Ogle the hand-illustrated graphics
▪ Use Scarlet’s witching skills to avoid detection

About Headup
Headup is a hybrid games publishing and development company providing players worldwide with the best content in the independent gaming sector. Established in 2009, it is active on all major platforms such as consoles, mobile devices and PC, and was awarded as “Best Publisher” at the German Developers Awards in 2012, 2013, 2017 and 2019. With over 80 million customers served on mobile and further several million players on the PC and consoles, Headup is always looking to raise awareness and commercial success for developers thinking outside the box. More information can be found at headupgames.com,Twitter and Discord.

About Devespresso Games
Devespresso Games is an independent, four-man team based out of Seoul, South Korea and Honoruru, USA. The team focuses on crafting interactive stories, immersive worlds, and memorable characters through the medium of games. The guys followed up on the success of their console debut and cult hit, The Coma: Recut, with the fantasy roguelike adventure game – Vambrace: Cold Soul and the sequel to The Coma: Recut, The Coma 2: Vicious Sisters. More at www.devespressogames.com.

Break the Lockdown Blues and Create the Night of Your Dreams Without Leaving Your Room – Isolationist Nightclub Simulator Slated for Launch on Steam Soon

Create your own electronic music, play mini-games or just explore the various rooms of your nightclub in relaxing sandbox experience

Melbourne, Australia — February 3, 2021 — If lockdown is driving you stir crazy, escape to your very own nightclub in Isolationist Nightclub Simulator, coming to Steam next month. In a relaxing sandbox-meets-multimedia art experience, you can create, explore or simply relax in the lush vibes of this expansive virtual space all your own.

In a dark, yet all too familiar time, a plague has all but shut down life on Earth’s surface, driving you to the safety of your very own fallout shelter where you escape into the vivid simulation of a futuristic, neon lit and labyrinthine nightclub. Create your own music (no prior skill required!) using in-game instruments, including a synth keyboard, drum machine, bass loops and arpeggiator, or occupy yourself with an assortment of mini-games in your club’s Arcade. Feel like just relaxing instead? Explore a series of serpentine spaces, such as an art gallery, a forest-scale garden and a number of Chill Out rooms where you can sit back with a virtual drink and relax with soothing music – perhaps of your own making. You can also leave notes for other players with the in-game messaging system, which randomly populates items such as drink coasters or toilet wall graffiti with your messages.

“Following on from a project I released last year called Neon Cyborg Cat Club, I felt compelled to create a new world that was much more expansive and interactive,” said Edwin Montgomery, Composer and Developer. “As we’re all spending so much time at home these days, I wanted to build a virtual space that would offer a sense of discovery, play and creation. Isolationist Nightclub Simulator provides an experience that anyone can enter and make their own.”

Isolationist Nightclub Simulator is supported by Creative Victoria’s Sustaining Creative Workers grant and is designed to provide a relaxingly creative experience that offers a little something for everyone, no matter what mood you are in. Isolationist Nightclub Simulator is expected to launch on Steam soon for the price of $5USD with a 10% sale at launch.

About Edwin Montgomery

With a background in classical composition and a Masters Degree from AFTRS in composing for screen, Edwin Montgomery is a composer, musician and sound designer who works across film, games, immersive theatre, installations and mixed media artworks. Recently they scored the award-winning feature documentary Time, which won Best Documentary Directing at Sundance 2020, and created the cult hit game Sisyphus Reborn, as well as the unique sonic-driven interactive experience Neon Cyborg Cat Club.