“Tidalis is, in short, stunning. It’s one of the most complex, yet easy to learn, games we have ever played. Just when you think you know everything, new blocks and modes are given to you to toy with, leading to tons of replayability. We would, in fact, say that this is one of the best […]
Archive for August, 2010
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Update On Children Of Neinzul Donations For Child’s Play
Posted by Chris Park on August 31st, 2010
Good news! As of August 31st, 2010, we have so far raised and donated $586.32 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 […]
GameShark and Appletell Reviews of Tidalis — Top Marks!
Posted by Chris Park on August 31st, 2010
“I can say with some authority that Tidalis stands apart… The bottom line is that Tidalis is a flexible, smart, refreshingly unique puzzle design, and it’s situated neatly into a large generous package. It’s far better than any mere puzzle game should be.” Tom Chick, GameShark (GameShark Editor’s Choice Award, “A” Score) “Usually, puzzle games […]
Tidalis Official 1.007 (Bugfixes)
Posted by Chris Park on August 30th, 2010
The full release notes are here. This update fixes some serious-but-rare bugs that a few players were encountering in specific circumstances. The next release with “free DLC” will be within the next 1-2 months, but for now we wanted to go ahead and get these fixes out the door in an official capacity even though […]
Tidalis Beta 1.006 (Monitor Resolution Support Improved)
Posted by Chris Park on August 29th, 2010
The full release notes are here. For many players, this will be an absolutely inconsequential update. For those players with 16:10 widescreen monitors, or other unusual monitor sizes, this update adds support for those resolutions in fullscreen mode, which should be very welcome.
AI War Prerelease 3.189, Porting To Unity 3D Begins
Posted by Chris Park on August 25th, 2010
The full release notes are on the Arcen forums. This update is mainly a maintenance release, with a variety of balance tweaks and bugfixes. Platform Porting Has Started: What Does This Mean For The Coming Schedule? In other news, as of a couple of days ago, work has now begun in earnest on the AI […]
The Wargamer Interview With Arcen Games
Posted by Chris Park on August 25th, 2010
The Wargamer’s Chris Beck recently caught up with Arcen Games’ founder, Chris Park to chat about where the company came from and where it’s going. Topics discussed include: The history and design goals behind AI War. The motivation for and results from the ongoing updates to AI War. The Children of Neinzul micro expansion, and […]
AI War Prerelease 3.188 (Minefields, Siege Starships, Fixes)
Posted by Chris Park on August 20th, 2010
The full release notes are on the Arcen forums. This release was actually done in the form of three releases throughout the day, two of which were made earlier than planned because of transient crash bugs that were found and fixed. Once again, with this release it’s mostly a lot of little things rather than […]
AI War Prerelease 3.184 (Cmd Stations+, Transport Nerf, Colored Planet Links, Fixes)
Posted by Chris Park on August 19th, 2010
The full release notes are on the Arcen forums. This release is basically dozens of little tweaks and bugfixes, rather than any particularly huge new features. However, that said, some of these smaller effects will have a pretty enormous effect on advanced play (as with most small tweaks in any strategy game). The first of […]
Tidalis “Design A Block” Contest
Posted by Chris Park on August 18th, 2010
For quite some time, Arcen Games has been committed to adding fan suggestions to AI War via general suggestions and our Community DLC poll in the AI War forums. In the case of Tidalis, today’s new official version 1.005 of the game continues that trend by including 12 new player-created levels, several bits of player-created […]
Tidalis Official 1.005 Released (First Official Free DLC and Bugfixes)
Posted by Chris Park on August 18th, 2010
This official release includes a lot of new stuff for players to enjoy, a lot of it suggested by fans. It adds the new VS – Race multiplayer ruleset for use against the AI or against other players, as well as a new Boarded Up block type. It has a lot more flexibility in what […]
Tidalis Reviewed At PC Games And Reviews
Posted by Chris Park on August 18th, 2010
“Tidalis is well produced in both the looks and sound departments and sports a puzzle mechanic I’ve not seen before. It has literally hours of stream-building puzzle action, plus it has a character called Humphrey and if that isn’t an excuse to buy this I don’t know what is! Puzzlers: Go Get!” Andy Yates, PC […]
AI War Prerelease 3.182/3 (Ship Type Buttons+, Balance+, Bugfixes, Lobby Code Revamp)
Posted by Chris Park on August 17th, 2010
The full release notes are on the Arcen forums. This release is actually a pair of releases, one released this morning and the other released tonight. This release pair has a lot of important stuff in it, but it’s nothing game-changingly exciting. The 3.181 release had an issue that would cause some long-running savegames to […]
Arcen Games Composer: Pablo Vega
Posted by Pablo Vega on August 17th, 2010
Hello everyone, my name is Pablo Vega, and I’m the Composer and Lead Sound Designer for Arcen Games. It’s been an absolute dream working for Arcen and getting the opportunity to share my music with you! In the coming weeks, I’m going to be blogging more and more about the music and general sound of […]
AI War Prerelease 3.181 (New CoN features, AI Ship Counts Down, 45 New Guard Posts)
Posted by Chris Park on August 16th, 2010
The full release notes are on the Arcen forums. This update has such a broad spectrum of new stuff that it’s difficult to summarize. First of all, on the Children of Neinzul expansion side we’re getting quite close to done with the initial feature set — though there’s still a long way to go with […]
AI War Prerelease 3.180 (Completely New Endgame)
Posted by Chris Park on August 13th, 2010
The full release notes are on the Arcen forums. This one is a HUGE and exciting change to the base game: the endgame has been completely overhauled for AI War. Previously, the home planets for the AI were always very similar to one another, and often they were something of a grind. The chief problem […]
AI War Prerelease 3.179 (Warheads+, Neinzul Silos, Transport II, Harvesters II and III)
Posted by Chris Park on August 12th, 2010
The full release notes are on the Arcen forums. This is another big mix of stuff for the CoN expansion and the base game. Overall, this release is a human-player-focused one, whereas a number of the recent updates could have been described as being more AI-favoring. There are six new warheads added in this version, […]
AI War Prerelease 3.178 (Neinzul Clusters/Nests/Bombers/Virals, New Ion Cannons, Starships Improvements)
Posted by Chris Park on August 11th, 2010
The full release notes are on the Arcen forums. This beta has a mix of new stuff for the base game, as well as specific to the Children of Neinzul micro-expansion. The biggest new addition for the CoN expansion are the new Neinzul Clusters and Neinzul Nests, and their related new ships. There are a […]
Release Schedule Updated, Alden Ridge Arcade
Posted by Chris Park on August 11th, 2010
The new schedule (also visible on the left sidebar of our main site): Oct ’10: AI War Unity/OSX Oct ’10: AIW: Children of Neinzul Dec ’10: Alden Ridge Arcade Q3 ’11: Alden Ridge Q2 ’11: AI War Expansion 3 Q3 ’12: A Valley Without Wind 2013: AI War Expansion 4 2013: Cayenne What is this […]
AI War Prerelease 3.177 (Knowledge Changes, Civilians, 3 Home Planet Outposts)
Posted by Chris Park on August 10th, 2010
The full release notes are on the Arcen forums. This is another impactful release, mainly for the base game (a lot of CoN work is in progress but not yet ready for even beta release quite yet). With this release, the knowledge-per-plant jumps from 2500 to 3000. It wasn’t all that long ago that the […]
More Great Tidalis Reviews!
Posted by Chris Park on August 10th, 2010
“Tidalis is a dream of a game, and more than worth the money paid for purchase. If you like Bejewelled, Tetris or any title that tests your brain, Tidalis is a must-buy.” Harry Balls (5/5 Stars) “Overall it’s a cracking puzzle game title – it looks great, is easy to pick up the basics but […]
AI War Prerelease 3.176 (Hybrid Hives+, 6 new Cmd Stations, new warheads and mercs)
Posted by Chris Park on August 10th, 2010
Perhaps the title of this release should be “too much stuff to list.” The full release notes are on the Arcen forums. One of the big groups of changes here are the Hybrid Hives. Their functionality has been tuned and extended quite a lot in general, and some new interface elements have been added to […]
Bytten Review Of Tidalis
Posted by Chris Park on August 6th, 2010
“Tidalis is the first game in recent memory that I can unreservedly recommend to everybody. If you’re a puzzle game fan then it’s a no-brainer. Tidalis is simply the best abstract puzzle game on the market, hands down. If you’re not much of a puzzle game fan, then prepare to be surprised.” Steve Blanch, Bytten […]
AI War Prerelease 3.174 (Bugfixes, Neinzul Regeneration Chambers)
Posted by Chris Park on August 6th, 2010
The full release notes are on the Arcen forums. This new prerelease includes a number of bugfixes including a couple of important tweaks to the new CoN expansion beta (which wasn’t installing completely correctly in the last release, although there was a simple workaround). This new version installs just fine, and additionally adds a new […]
AI War: Children Of Neinzul Beta Opens!
Posted by Chris Park on August 5th, 2010
The first beta release of Children of Neinzul, the new micro-expansion for AI War, is now available for demo or for preorder (only $3.99)! After the longest time ever between AI War releases, the new beta 3.173 version of the game is also now out with a few bugfixes aside from the new CoN micro-expansion […]
Tidalis Beta 1.004 (AI-Related Bugfixes)
Posted by Chris Park on August 5th, 2010
The current official version of Tidalis is still 1.000. These later beta versions are previews of content-to-come, and will later be “officially” released via Steam, Impulse, etc, once our vetting process is over with the new changes and features. Full release notes: http://arcengames.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=Tidalis_-_1.004_Beta_Release This is a pretty small release, simply dealing with a few bugfixes […]
Tidalis Beta 1.003 (VS Race, Boarded Up Blocks, Experimental Sound Subsystem)
Posted by Chris Park on August 4th, 2010
The current official version of Tidalis is still 1.000. These later beta versions are previews of content-to-come, and will later be “officially” released via Steam, Impulse, etc, once our vetting process is over with the new changes and features. Full release notes: http://arcengames.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=Tidalis_-_1.003_Beta_Release Well, it’s been just over a week since our last beta update […]
Why I’m Reluctant To Critique… Whatever You Created
Posted by Chris Park on August 3rd, 2010
How many here were raised under the rule from Bambi, “if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all?” I know I was. And hence an immediate conundrum when you’re out to critique a game that someone else has created. It’s especially challenging when an aspiring indie asks me to “take a look […]
