Last year’s hit sidescrolling skateboarding game, OlliOlli, which had already made waves on PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 4, and PC, had been announced to be coming to Xbox One, Wii U, and Nintendo 3DS this year. But if you have been eagerly waiting for it to show up already so you can start enjoying some skateboarding action, we finally have a better idea of its release date- OlliOlli will be launching on these platforms sometime in mid-March.

Roll7’s Simon Bennett commented, “We’re really glad that Xbox and Nintendo players finally have a version of OlliOlli to call their own. We’ve always seen OlliOlli as a game for everyone and with Curve’s versions, now it totally can be.”

For more on OlliOlli, check out GamingBolt’s past coverage of the game, including our official review for it. We enjoyed it then, and we have a feeling we will enjoy it now when it goes live on Xbox and Nintendo.

GamingBolt recently caught up with Mike Bithell to know more about his inspiration behind developing the original game, the indie development scene, thoughts on the new consoles, and much more. Check out the full interview below.

For those who are not aware, can you please tell us a bit about yourself and how you got into the games business?

My name is Mike Bithell, and I’m a game designer. I started in the games industry fresh out of University, working as a junior designer at a company called Blitz Games about seven years back. I worked my way up the ranks, while fiddling with hobby games in my spare time. Thomas Was Alone was one of those projects, one that got a little out of hand.

Although the game is available for almost two years now, can you tell our readers what was the inspiration behind bringing Thomas Was Alone to new consoles?

The most surprising aspect of the game’s ongoing success is how it keeps finding new audiences with each new platform we bring it to. Each time it finds a bunch of players who’ve not tried it before, and that’s exciting to see. Bringing the game to WiiU and XB1 certainly aims to find new players who maybe don’t own the Sony consoles, and the PS4 release is a way of letting players who already own the game on PS3 take it on to their new system. It’s fun to be able to deliver the game to players this way.

"Thomas Was Alone was the natural outcome of me looking at the last thousand pounds in my bank account and making the game I could afford."

Having said that, do you think players who have already played it, will they feel intrigued enough to pick it up again on the new consoles?

I get a lot of tweets from folks saying they’ve bought it a few times. That baffles me, but I’m immensely grateful. It seems that folks want the game on their system of choice, and also like gifting it to friends, we see a lot of people gifting it at Christmas. All that support just empowers us to keep bringing the game to new audiences, while funding Volume’s dev.

I found the game’s baseline to be pretty strong. A game that takes place in a computer mainframe, wherein artificial intelligence routines have run out of control. How much brainstorming did you do to think something out the box like that?

I went through a bunch of story context ideas for the game. I knew it was about friends, but I didn’t know where they were for a very long. When I decided on the abstract aesthetic, really went for that rectangle stuff, it felt like AI was a nice justification for those in the audience who didn’t share my love of minimalism. I also liked the idea of an AI origin story which felt more human than skynet.

Looking back now, if you had the funding of a AAA game how much different do you think Thomas Was Along would have been?

I wouldn’t have made it! Thomas Was Alone was the natural outcome of me looking at the last thousand pounds in my bank account and making the game I could afford. It has, well, it’s been a pretty fantastic return on that investment.

"If you already own the game on PS3 or Vita, you can absolutely pick it up from where you left off on your PS4."

Can you describe some of the other graphical and content updates that new versions will have?

It’s pretty much identical to previous versions. Slapping a bunch of new effects on the game would not really improve it, and would likely do damage to the simplicity we created.

Are there any plans to support cross buy and cross save across the PlayStation platforms?

Not just plans, actual, awesome reality. Yes, we wanted to deliver that for our players, and we have. If you already own the game on PS3 or Vita, you can absolutely pick it up from where you left off on your PS4.

How difficult is to be an indie developer compared to AAA? What kind of challenges does an indie comes across?

All game dev is difficult, and honestly, I’ve found indie much freer than working within big companies. The numbers just have a couple less zeroes. I love the wearing of many hats, the variety in my working days. It’s all a lot of fun.

From an indie support point of view, what are your thoughts on Sony’s indie policy against Microsoft’s?

I think both MS and Sony are doing a great deal to improve their routes to platform.. knocking down walls. I’m incredibly excited to see TWA spreading across both platforms.

"[On a possible sequel] I'll definitely do it if I ever think of a story or gameplay idea that suits it."

Having worked on both the new consoles, what is your opinion on them? Are they pretty close to each other?

We’re at a point where we’re talking about, effectively, two PCs plugged into TVs. The spec differ in a bunch of ways, but yeah, they’re in the same ballpark. Thanks to the rise of middleware like Unity, cross platform dev means not having to worry too much about the little differences.

Can you tell us how is the Wii U version shaping up and how are you using the GamePad?

Yeah, it looks great on WiiU, works really well. We’re not doing too much platform specific gimmickry, but it’s fun to play on the gamepad, that’s a nice screen to play on, with those tactile controls.

Are there any plans to release a sequel? Given the game’s success I am sure you must have at least given a thought about it.

I’ll definitely do it if I ever think of a story or gameplay idea that suits it. I think a simple rehash would be a waste of everyone’s time, but if something comes to mind, sure.

Is there anything else you want to tell our readers before we take off?

Only to please, keep buying my games. They are fun, and rectangley. And next year, Volume is out.. which should be.. fun.

Since then the game has since gone on to be developed for other platforms. That now mostly complete development cycle is being headed up by Curve Studios (Stealth Bastard and Proteus) and involved porting the game from its computer based operating systems to the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 and PS Vita. Curve Studios are also responsible for porting the game over to Nintendo’s Wii U which is soon to be released in November of 2014. .

The game was originally launched on May 20th before being ported. Post-port the game was released across other platforms on August 5th. November will bring the game to Wii U.

• 1. Development
• 2. Gameplay
• 3. Story

Development

The swapper is not only somewhat singular in its near universal acclaim from critics and gamers alike, it’s also somewhat special in how it came to be such a well received hit.

The game wasn’t created as an indie targeted, massively funded game. The Swapper was actually a project that was being worked on by two students from the University of Helsinki, in their spare time no less.

With the game showing such promise despite the small development team, which consisted of only Olli Harjola and Otto Hantula, The Swapper received backing from the Indie Fund. An organization created by independent developers designed to help fund indie dev’s.
At the time, The Swapper was the 6th game to be funded and backed by the Indie Fund, alongside other hits like Monaco: What’s yours is mine and Antichamber.

The games art assets are particularly worthy of note, they aren’t the typical texture that you would find in 99% of games, the various stages and backgrounds in The Swapper are made up out of hand crafted objects that were modelled in clay before being digitized. This is one of the features that not only drew the attention of indie devs, but helped give the game its stunning visual appeal. This, when combined with the soft glowing lighting in the game give it a unique and atmospheric feel.

The Swapper first launched on the 30th of May 2013 on Microsoft Windows and later on February 18th on Linux and Mac OS X, but following its success the game was set up to be ported to the home consoles as well as Sony’s struggling handheld, the PS Vita.

The port was to be handled by Curve Studios wo have had prior experience in porting Thomas Was Alone and Proteus to the PlayStation 3 and PS Vita from its native PC platform. Development went ahead as planned with on short delay that was enacted to ensure the port was “up to scratch”. Following the delay, the game successfully launched on August 5th 2014 in North America and August 6th 2014 in Europe.

Since then, Curve Studios have announced plans to launch The Swapper on the Nintendo Wii U at some time in November of 2014. They’ve since stated that the games graphical fidelity will be on par with that of its original PC counterpart.

Gameplay

The swapper is a platforming puzzle game set in a sidescrolling world where it uses established video game mechanics and tropes to great effect than then improves upon them to make the game feel truly special and rewarding to play.

Despite being limited to a 2D plane, the simple mechanics of the gameplay are a perfect representation of the easy to learn but difficult to master nature of competent platformers.

The player must solve puzzles in order to progress further into the game, this si done through the process of self cloning, an ability give to you thanks to a handheld mechanism that allows the player to replicate themselves four times.

This device is further augmented with the ability to swap between any of the four clones at any one given time, hence the games name. When beginning the cloning process, time is slowed down, giving the player adequate time to properly plan out their strategy.

The twist on the cloning procedure is that it’s context sensitive. Not all maneouvers can be executed at the same time or in specific areas. For example, standing in a a specific type of blue light will stop you from being able to clone at all. Red lights allow you to clone yourself as per usual, but will stop you from swapping. Purple lights will however block both of these abilities.

The player is tasked with using these clones and their synchronised movement (when you move, they do so in the same corresponding direction) to collect orbs that allow for progression further into the game.

The clones aren’t immune to damage however, if the player would normally die from a large fall or an environmental hazard, then rest assured that your clone will most certainly be destroyed as well. White light sources will destroy your clones, as will having them walk off the screen area or by having them touch another clone.

Story

You would be forgiven for thinking that The Swapper would feature a flat and pointless narrative, as is often the case with most platforming games.
To save you from spoilers, this will be informative but vague.

Humanity has, as if often the case in games, finally exhausted its natural resources and is forced to expand into the stars to mine other planets of their materials in an attempt to synthesise something useful. To this end we establish outposts on a number of remote worlds where we are likely to find something of use.

On one of these worlds, scientists discover a strange rock with odd electro chemical activities that are quite out of place with most other discoveries. Not long after the discovery of these rocks, researchers learn how to create a device that they called The Swapper, they believe this information was passed onto them from the rocks, believing them to be a telepathic entity.

From here on, the story takes a dive into humanitarian ethics and what is morally right but fundamentally wrong and it’s discovered that these telepathic rocks are in fact much more sinister than they would first appear. But by the time the crew discover this it’s already to late.

Note: This wiki will be updated once we have more information about the game.

Mike Bithell’s Thomas Was Alone, a flash game turned PC game turned PS3/Vita game, is now going to be on the Wii U and Xbox One alongwith the PS4. Curve Digital will be bringing the game out on the two extra consoles and they’ll release in November. A rather odd “Making of” video has been released by the studio explaining the process behind convincing Bithell to create a Thomas Was Alone for Wii U and Xbox One. Check it out above.

Thomas Was Alone was also handled by Curve Studios on the PS3 and Vita, witnessing a moderate amount of success. It supports cross-buy across all PlayStation platforms, so if you own it on either the PS3 or Vita, you’ll be able to play it on the PS4 as well.

Bithell is also currently working on Volume, a “Metal Gear Solid meets LEGO” game scheduled for Mac OS X, PC, PS4 and Vita in 2015.

Another day, another indie game confirmed for the PlayStation 4. Puzzle platformer Thomas Was Alone is being ported to PlayStation 4 courtesy of Curve Digital, it was confirmed today, with a release date of some time later this year being targeted.

The game will also support Cross Buy, so if you already own this game on any of the other two Playstation platforms- PS3 or PS Vita- you get the PS4 edition for free. Conversely, if you buy it now on the PS4, you also get it for free on the PS Vita and PS3.

Of course, the PS4 isn’t the only next generation console getting this game, as listings have repeatedly cropped up for Thomas Was Alone on the Wii U and the Xbox One. Presumably, all three next generation console versions of the game will hit at once, owing to the parity clause that ID@Xbox mandates for all indie games.

We’ll keep you posted.

Curve Studios’ Stealth Inc 2, a follow-up to its successful indie stealth game, will be heading to the Nintendo Wii U on October 23rd courtesy of the Nintendo eShop. This release date is applicable for both the US and UK so there won’t be any waiting in between.

Stealth Inc 2 will be a 2D stealth platfomer like its predecessor but will only be available on the Wii U versus the original which was first a free PC title and eventually released for PS3, PS Vita and PS4. It’s also available on iOS and Android mobile devices. This time around, the game will be exclusive to Nintendo’s console since there isn’t a whole of competition, especially when it comes to bigger AAA titles, for Curve Studios to worry about.

Will you be picking up Stealth Inc 2 this October on the Nintendo eShop? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below and stay tuned for more information.

What is The Swapper, you ask? It’s an indie game, a puzzle platformer video game that was originally released for PC, Mac, and Linux, developed by a studio called Facepalm Games (no, really, that’s their name). The game has now also been ported to the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation Vita by Curve Studios. It is available for these platforms in both North American and European territories starting now.

The game sees the player stuck on a stranded spaceship in space, and tasks them with exploring the station, solving the environmental puzzles to find your way out. Think of it as a sort of less Portal-themed, more Dead Space-themed Stealth Inc., and you get the picture.

The game’s out now on PlayStation, so be sure to check it out. And for all you Nintendo owning people out there, don’t worry. The game is due out on the Wii U later this year as well, so hang on tight for that release, and stay tuned to GamingBolt for more coverage.

Curve Studios surprised us all when it announced that Stealth Inc. 2 would be arriving exclusively for the Wii U. After all, the developer saw success on the PS Vita and PS3, and even released the game recently for PS4.

Speaking to VG247, Curve’s Rob Clarke explained the reason behind the exclusivity. “We’ve always loved working with Nintendo. They gave us the opportunity to work on our first original IP as Curve, and while that was published by Nintendo rather than us – self-publishing wasn’t really done on consoles back then – it was a really great experience and we’ve been looking at a game we could work with Nintendo on ever since.

“The obvious expected result from the non-Nintendo press is shock, especially as so many people see us a PlayStation publisher after releasing 4 PlayStation games last year. We’ve always been platform agnostic though, and always interested in finding new fans and new audiences. Of course those audiences all smaller on the Wii-U, but there’s also a great deal less competition.”

The main reason for not releasing Stealth Inc. 2 on PlayStation platforms is simply because the market is becoming extremely crowded. “The same week we announced Stealth Inc 2, Sony announced 12 new big exciting indie titles coming to PlayStation 4, and all of those are going to be competing for that same audience.

“We’re not looking at other formats right now. The game is quite heavily designed around the hardware, which is one of the perks of working on an exclusive title, so for us it’s about making the best Wii-U game we possibly can.”

Make sense? We’ll find out just how well Stealth Inc. 2 fits the Wii U when it releases.

Indie development team Curve Studios has announced that you can now download its tribute to ’80s arcade platformers, Titan Attacks! for the PS3, PS4 and PS Vita via the PlayStation Network for $11.99. “You can spell it with or without the exclamation mark,” Curve Studios PR and Marketing Manager Rob Clarke jokingly writes on the PS Blog, “but we think it adds that extra level of excitement if you keep it in.”

“We’ve been working on Titan Attacks! here at Curve since the holiday,” Clarke further said. “It’s our very first PS4, PS3, and PS Vita cross buy game. One of the cool things we’ve seen with Titan Attacks! during development has been just watching people play the game.”

Clarke goes on to talk about what he thinks makes Titan Attacks! (with an exclamation mark, yes) so special.

“Part of the appeal is the fact Titan Attacks! is instantly accessible and understandable to anyone who has played arcade games before,” Clarke wrote. “But while the game may look simple on the surface and very “retro” in its style, there’s actually a lot going on that keeps the game interesting, fresh, and addictive through all one hundred levels of the campaign.”

Are you going to purchase Titan Attacks? Tell us in your comments.

Curve Studios has announced that it will be releasing a port of its 2D stealth platformer called Stealth Inc for the PS4, and it will be coming out early in March of this year.

The PS4 port of the game will include, of course, the game itself, along with A Clone in the Dark and the two DLC expansions The Teleporter Chambers and The Lost Clones.

“The Ultimate Edition will be available from early March on the PlayStation 4, but we currently have no plans to bring out this version on any other system right now,” the developer said over at its blog in its official announcement. “It will not be a Cross-buy title, but we are looking into ways we can offer a very significant discount to people who already own Stealth Inc – we’ll have some more news on that in the next few weeks, though it’s ultimately up to the options available for us on the PSN store.”

Curve also said that while there are no current plans for any other of their PS3 games to be ported to the PS4, that that could still change, and also that they will also continue to support the PS Vita and will be announcing more titles for the PS4 in the near future.