If you’re unfamiliar with this one, it’s a 3D take on a platformer that went pretty hard back in the day. It stars Meat Boy, who was (and still is) on a desperate mission to save his beloved from a grisly fate. Unfortunately, the game’s challenging platforming loop will likely have you meeting your demise more often than not, although those who like their games to fight back are certainly going to welcome this one with open arms.

Super Meat Boy 3D appears to retain everything that made the original so endearing many years ago. Of course, there are plenty of touches to ensure it continues to frustrate its players while being very rewarding for those who persevere. The trailer shows off some of that gameplay, and you can see that Meat Boy is clearly in over his head as he navigates some very dangerous levels and takes on imposing bosses.

Super Meat Boy 3D is available for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PC, and Nintendo Switch 2.

The gameplay parts of the trailer largely focus on showing off all the different ways that players can die as they explore the 3D levels of the fast-paced platformer. As had been evident from the original announcement trailer, Super Meat Boy 3D has maintained much of the frantic gameplay that made the original 2D side-scroller such a hit when it first came out all the way back in 2010.

The announcement trailer focused quite a bit on the new 3D gameplay, emphasizing just how different it will be, while still maintaining the core identity behind the Super Meat Boy franchise. Among the many aspects of the franchise that we will get to see in the upcoming game include the spectacular post-level screens where we get to observe and appreciate all of our attempts through the levels, including the ones that end in the gruesome death of Meat Boy, before we eventually make it through to the end.

Super Meat Boy 3D is being developed by Sluggerfly collaborating with original developer Team Meat. It’s published by Headup and GCORES Publishing.

It’s been announced that indie publisher Headup – known for the likes of Bridge Constructor, Industria, White Shadows, and more – is splitting from Thunderful Group and being sold to Microcuts Holding, a holding company established by Headup founder Dieter Schoeller for the purposes of this transaction. The deal will entail a purchase price of €500,000. In 2021, Thunderful Group acquired Headup in a deal worth up to €11 million.

With Headup going independent, it will also be taking with it the rights to “approximately” 80 catalog titles, as well as five upcoming ones that are currently in development. Meanwhile, Thunderful Group will retain control of “select assets and IP”, and will also receive a revenue share of up to €300,000 for a future unannounced title.

Set in the late 1980s just before the end of the Cold War, Industria sees you playing as a woman named Nora. Awoken by a call from her close friend and colleague Walter, she is informed that ATLAS – a hive mind AI that the two of them have worked on together – has gone haywire somehow. Instantly, she sets off to their place of work to find and help Walter, but upon arriving, she quickly realizes that things are worse than expected. One thing leads to another, and Nora soon finds herself in a parallel world, separated from her own in ways she doesn’t understand. This world, she quickly realizes, is decrepit and abandoned, inhabited by almost no one and nothing except creepy machines and automatons who are hostile to the point of attacking anyone they lay eyes on.

"As flawed and rough around the edges as it is, it feels ambitious and unique, in a way that I feel deserves praise, not least because this is a game made by just two people, and because it’s a breed of first person shooter that has become increasingly rare as time has gone by."

Industria’s world and story are easily its biggest strengths. The vibe and aesthetic are excellently realized, combining 1980s lo-fi with steampunk and new weird aesthetics, to concoct something that feels wholly unique. From the very first second, Industria pulled me right into its setting, and the more I played it, the more I was drawn in. It’s also a game that’s very good at raising questions and presenting tantalizing mysteries, and encouraging you to slowly piece things together by dropping bits and pieces of lore and story. It’s all done very well, and it helps immensely that the narrative-related discoveries you do make are interesting to varying degrees. Even if the stuff you’re uncovering can be generic at times for the kind of story this is, it’s the way you discover it and the way Industria presents its story and its world that makes it all so interesting.

Visually, too, this is an impressive game. Obviously, this is a small production, made by a small team on what is clearly a tight budget, so you absolutely shouldn’t go in expecting anything close to a technical masterpiece. What this is, however, is a visually crisp game. Environments are surprisingly detailed, the art style is excellent and contributes significantly to bringing the game’s world to life, and the locations you traverse and explore and the enemies you fight are brought to life to great effect. Serviceable on a technical level and impressive on an artistic one- that seems to be the best way to describe Industria’s visuals.

Sadly, while there’s plenty to be impressed by when it comes to Industria’s world, narrative, and storytelling, when it comes to actually playing the game, the bad outweighs the good by quite some margin. Structurally, Industria takes a page out of the original Half-Life’s book, combining deliberately paced exploration with puzzle-solving and some combat, along with a few survival horror elements thrown in for good measure. Almost none of those many disparate elements is very well implemented in practice though.

"Industria’s world and story are easily its biggest strengths."

Combat feels sloppy and unimpactful. None of Industria’s weapons have too much weight to them, the feedback after firing a shot feels almost non-existent, and it doesn’t help that enemies don’t react too satisfyingly to being hit, even if it’s a lethal shot. Puzzles, meanwhile, fare far better, and simply walking about the environments and figuring out where to head next, what to do next, or how to do what you’re supposed to do next can occasionally be fun- but a lot of the time, the stuff you’re supposed to do is pretty straightforward, while every once in a while, it feels a bit too obtuse, especially when the game frustratingly decides to give you next to no assistance.

Where Industria really stumbles, however, is its movement. The simple act of moving around and interacting with the environment feels like a chore- and that’s never good. Movement feels clunky and cumbersome, which is exacerbated by the fact that, for some reason, you can’t move diagonally in this game. It’s just four directions, and that’s something that quickly gets grating, especially in combat encounters. Often, you’re required to jump up over obstacles or across ledges to move forward, and that, too, can feel incredibly frustrating, because the height of your jump in Industria is pathetically minute, which means you often have to get weirdly precise with the placement of things that you’re using as steps to move upward and forward.

A lot of the game also revolves around looking at specific things and interacting with them by pressing a button, but the game demands very precise and specific aiming, which just doesn’t gel well with its sluggish controls and movement at all. Then there’s crouching, which is done by holding the stick that is also used for movement. As you might image, crouching while moving (which you do every once in a while) becomes quite unwieldy. That’s doubly true for occasions where you have to to interact with something while crouching. Movement and moment-to-moment gameplay feels sluggish and awkward in Industria, then, and that impacts nearly every aspect of the game. It’s a big issue, to say the very least.

"Movement and moment-to-moment gameplay feels sluggish and awkward in Industria, then, and that impacts nearly every aspect of the game. It’s a big issue, to say the very least."

Industria has some technical issues as well. In the time I spent with the game, I ran into a few audio and graphical bugs, like dialogue lines cutting out before they could be finished, some wonky physics for objects, and one crash that froze my game and forced me to restart it. I was playing the game on Normal difficulty, which means I had autosaves enabled, so thankfully I didn’t lose a great deal of progress- but if you play on Hardcore, where manual saving is the only way to save your progress, crashes could be a bigger issue.

Industria is a wildly imperfect game. It has significant issues in areas that affect nearly the entire experience, and get in the way of enjoyment in ways that aren’t easy to ignore. When the simple act of moving around isn’t fun and the core gameplay pillars are serviceable at best and dull at worst, you know the game has issues. And yet, even so, I have enjoyed my time with this game. Industria is fairly short at around four hours in length, and though I have been left frustrated with its gameplay deficiencies more than a few times, I can’t help but acknowledge its obvious strengths in atmosphere, storytelling, and world-building. My recommendation here comes with some clear and very significant caveats- but it is still a recommendation. As it exists right now, Industria is a very rough but solid experience. With a bit more polish and time in the oven, it could have been so much more.

This game was reviewed on the Xbox Series X.

Industry heavyweights such as Xbox, Bethesda, Activision, EA, and Ubisoft have all been confirmed. Meanwhile, you can also expect to see the likes of Bandai Namco, 505 Games, Koch Media, Headup, Thunderful Games, and more at the show at least in some capacity. More are likely to follow in the coming weeks. The full list of confirmed partners so far is as follows:

• 505 Games
• Activision
• Aerosoft
• Assemble Entertainment
• astragon Entertainment
• BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment
• Bethesda Softworks
• Electronic Arts
• GAMEVIL COM2US Europe
• Headup
• Indie Arena Booth
• Koch Media
• NExT Studios (Tencent Games)
• SEGA Europe
• Team17
• Thunderful Games
• Ubisoft
• Wargaming
• Xbox

“Especially in view of the challenges for game production during the Corona pandemic and the much shorter preparation times of a digital event, we’re very delighted about the very impressive list of gamescom partners who are already confirmed,” says Oliver Frese, COO of organizer Koelnmesse. “With this, the purely digital gamescom with its shows and innovations underlines its great value for the industry and the worldwide gaming community.

“Together with already confirmed and continuously joining partners, we will continue to bring an exciting and eventful program to millions of gaming fans worldwide in 2021.”

Meanwhile, as previously confirmed, the event will once again be kicked off by Gamescom Opening Night Live, on August 25, hosted by Geoff Keighley.

"Outbuddies’ backstory involves the fate of the Wozan, an enslaved folk of mining people, as well as your obscure role in a conspiracy, that were left behind to guard what remains of the sunken civilization."

The sunken city of Bahlam is looking like a very intriguing setting for the game. How much can we expect to learn about it and its history through the experience? Are lore and storytelling quite important in the game?

Something I else I wanted to talk about is- Metroidvania titles often adopt a more passing form of storytelling, told through item descriptions or vague dialogue or the environment itself- is that something Outbuddies is doing as well, or are you taking a more direct approach?

I’m the dialogue-skipper kind of player, so the game reflects that with a strong focus on environmental storytelling, using as little dialogue as possible to craft an intriguing world and memorable characters. You play as Nicolay Bernstein, a marine archaeologist and adventurer obsessed by the idea of an unknown alien civilization that suddenly vanished before the rise of ancient human high cultures. Outbuddies’ backstory involves the fate of the Wozan, an enslaved folk of mining people, as well as your obscure role in a conspiracy, that were left behind to guard what remains of the sunken civilization. There’s some dialogue in the game, especially in the village sections and before major boss encounters, but a lot of things will be left for the player’s imagination.

About how long is an average playthrough of Outbuddies?

Like with every MV, this will highly depend on playstyle and the player’s experience with the genre. Our beta testers needed around 15 – 20 hours to complete the game in their first run. A 100% run for me as the developer will be 7-8 hours. An unconventional thing for the genre to keep in mind is that Outbuddies has no throwback-penalty when dying; you instantly respawn in the current room without any major losses. On the other hand, it features a higher difficulty when it comes to bosses or platforming obstacles than usually seen in the genre. I’m curious about the speedrun-time though, we’ve no data here.

"The map size can be compared to titles like Super Metroid and Axiom Verge. The game has four main areas, all divided into two sub-areas, as well as various bridging zones and three Wozan colonies, where you can talk to NPC and gather some additional information about the game’s world. In general, Outbuddies follows a very classic MV design that is much more on the “Metroid” than on the “Vania” side of things."

Can you speak to us about the Buddy unit and its capabilities, and how those function in terms of gameplay mechanics?

At the beginning of the game, our main protagonist Nikolay is resurrected by the Buddy unit; a flying biomechanical droid that will stay hooked to Nikolay’s brain tissues and can be controlled at will. Buddy has three basic abilities: Scanning, Telekinesis and Hacking. Scanning is a QoL tool that helps to find secret pathways and provides icon-based clues how to interact with unknown objects and facilities. Telekinesis is used to move physical objects to modify platforming obstacles or even crush enemies. Hacking is an upgradable ability to modify enemy behavior or functionality to your advantage, a bit like the glitch ray in Axiom Verge. The idea of local co-op emerged around the Buddy droid leaving his gimmick-status behind and becoming a fully-fleshed character. Local co-op games were a big part of my childhood and I hope the experience will be valued by our players, providing a possibility of team-speedrunning as a new take on the scene.

Map design is something that can make or break a metroidvania title- what can players expect from Outbuddies’ map, in terms of both size and variety?

The map size can be compared to titles like Super Metroid and Axiom Verge. The game has four main areas, all divided into two sub-areas, as well as various bridging zones and three Wozan colonies, where you can talk to NPC and gather some additional information about the game’s world. In general, Outbuddies follows a very classic MV design that is much more on the “Metroid” than on the “Vania” side of things. Most of the areas are constructed as loops to minimize backtracking as much as possible. Also, some essential sequence breaks are possible to execute for experienced players and I implemented various secret pipes as well as portals that can be unlocked to speed up traversal a lot. Next to the essential part of finding crucial gear and weapon upgrades, you’ll be begged to rescue enslaved Wozan miners that are exploited by Bahlam’s hostile creatures.

How much variety can we expect in the design of enemies and bosses?

Outbuddies‘ nine bosses are very varied and will require strong reflexes, profound memorization of attack patterns, or even out-of-the-box thinking to stand a chance. I would consider the boss designs one of the strongest points of the game and on par with titles like Hollow Knight. Next to being an MV fanboy, I’m rooted in the 90s fighting game scene; I wanted every boss encounter to feel like an epic duel and something you cannot cheat around by simple exploits. Some MV protagonists tend to become quite overpowered towards the endgame, something I really wanted to avoid for Outbuddies. Leveling and grinding mechanics are skipped in total, even health tanks are missing, so players will have to rely on their bare skills and select gear wisely to overcome those challenges. Each biome offers a unique set of enemies that need to be approached in specific ways; the game even has an optional stealth system. Outbuddies uses ranged weapons, but the core loop also borrows from melee combat-focused titles like Hollow Knight and Dead Cells. Even standard enemies can be very aggressive and have multiple attack options, so statically shooting them likely won’t cut it.

"I think platforming mechanics are, in general, not the strong point of the MV genre and many games tend to focus on RPG mechanics and lore. That’s quite different with Outbuddies. Bahlam can be explored with a high freedom of movement like climbing, wall-jumping, crawling and even diving right from the start."

Platforming is almost as vital in a metroidvania experience as exploration is- can you speak to us a bit about the platforming and traversal mechanics of Outbuddies?

I think platforming mechanics are, in general, not the strong point of the MV genre and many games tend to focus on RPG mechanics and lore. That’s quite different with Outbuddies. Bahlam can be explored with a high freedom of movement like climbing, wall-jumping, crawling and even diving right from the start. As you progress, your set of options will expand even more by discovering ancient weapon systems and suit upgrades. All gear was carefully balanced in terms of combat abilities and has to be used selectively to overcome specific hazards and puzzles. I put a lot of effort in the various movement abilities and combat interactions to make them feel natural and satisfying.

The metroidvania genre has seen a massive resurgence in recent years; thanks to the efforts of some excellent indie games- what is it about this genre that Outbuddies does differently, which will help it stand out to players?

Fortunately, we already see a significant interest in the title and feedback from our Beta-testers is hugely positive. Outbuddies has a special game-feel to it by delivering a certain Nintendo-fanboy cuteness paired with an edgy protagonist and a mature horror vibe. I think a Metroidvania should aim to foster the whole palette of human emotions by delivering daunting challenges, experiencing the wonder of exploration and making memorable NPC contacts at the same time. The core gameplay was crafted to live up to the standards of the genre’s most excellent titles and the unique Buddy-feature offers a nice touch without questioning the loved core elements of a classic MV title. I also hope having a title that is very close to the Metroid series is something many players will actually dig.

"When we were first throwing around ideas for the art style my only direction to Joe (the lead artist) was “I want it to be colourful, eye-catching, and not pixel art”. Not that I have anything against pixels, I just felt that a lot of similar style of indie shooters were using that style and it would be hard to do something that felt fresh."

To begin with, can you introduce yourself to our readers?

Hi, I’m Tony! I’ve been a game developer for about 19 years now, at some companies you’ve never heard of, and some (Rockstar and Activision) that you have.

You have worked on Red Dead Redemption and Grand Theft Auto, which are arguably two of the biggest gaming properties out there. Can you share your experience working with those two titles?

It was great work on those games. I was at University when the first GTA came out, and San Andreas came out literally days after the company I’d been working at ran out of money and made us all redundant. My pre-ordered copy of SA got delivered the same week I interviewed at Rockstar Leeds and found out I’d got the job. Overall I’d say Chinatown Wars was my favourite Rockstar title to work on though, it was just a blast from start to finish.

Out of curiosity, what is your take on the recently released Red Dead Redemption 2?

Honestly I’ve been working so much on getting Dead End Job finished I haven’t really had time to dive in to RDR 2. I want to make sure I have enough spare time to give it the room it deserves without other things distracting me because I’ve heard that’s the best way to experience it. I did buy an Xbox One X just to play it on though!

You are now working as an independent game developer at Ant Workshop. Can you describe your day to day workings with the studio and Dead End Job?

Well, Ant Workshop is still a tiny little company – the Dead End Job team at its largest was five of us working full time on it – so my day to day changes a lot depending on what is happening at the time. I do most of the coding and design on the game, so a lot of my time is spent reviewing what’s going in and tweaking things. Also replying to emails – you might think indie game development is glamorous, but it’s 90% replying to emails. Oh, and probably 5% coming up with puns.

Dead End Job features a pretty distinctive an eye-catching art style. Was there anything in particular you looked at that served as an inspiration for it?

When we were first throwing around ideas for the art style my only direction to Joe (the lead artist) was “I want it to be colourful, eye-catching, and not pixel art”. Not that I have anything against pixels, I just felt that a lot of similar style of indie shooters were using that style and it would be hard to do something that felt fresh. Pretty quickly we latched on to the cartoon style of things like Ren & Stimpy and Spongebob, and it’s been great to see people react really positively to that – we get lots of people at conventions and shows coming up to our stand because they’ve seen the artwork from across the room and want to know more!

"The player’s main way of customizing their character is through the perks that you get when you do well enough to get promoted by your boss. We didn’t want to lay out a full skill graph because we wanted to keep choices very quick, but did want to give the player some control over their build so the game picks three random perks for you to choose between."

Can players apply mods or customizations to their weapons?

The player’s main way of customizing their character is through the perks that you get when you do well enough to get promoted by your boss. We didn’t want to lay out a full skill graph because we wanted to keep choices very quick, but did want to give the player some control over their build so the game picks three random perks for you to choose between. Perks are split in to three groups – things that affect you, things that affect your weapon, and things that change your scoring. Weapon perks might increase your firing rate, or make your shots have a chance of bouncing or going through enemies. Some effects are also exclusive, so you’ll have to choose between shots that poison or slow down enemies, for example.

Can you speak to us a bit about the supernatural items players will be using in the game?

We have loads of these – 100 in total – and their effects range from simple health boosts with the burger and pizza, to a vortex that sucks up enemy attacks, a glitterball that attacks ghosts with disco music, a magic 8 ball that gives random effects, and a sentry gun that’ll help you out. We’ve even got the Ark of the Covenant in there (it’s not really a good idea to use that one). We had a lot of fun thinking up weird stuff for players to find, and there’s a sticker book in the game keeping track of each one you’ve discovered.

How does our mentor and her soul factor into the game?

Hector’s mentor, Beryl Ware, has recently been killed and come back as a ghost and Hector has until the end of the month to rescue her soul or she’ll be trapped that way forever (this is officially the worst thing that can happen to a ghost hunter). That means you’ve got just 30 nights to earn enough money to buy a device that’ll punch a whole in space and time and let you in to the ghost dimension. Beryl also appears as the couch co-op player character. We didn’t want the second player to just be a copy of player 1, so being a ghost she has different abilities to help out.

Will Dead End Job feature any competitive online modes?

There isn’t any online in the game on release.

Why did you decide to go with procedurally generated levels for this game?

Our last game, Binaries, had 101 hand created levels of tricky puzzles, so we thought we’d take the easy route this time around and just let computers randomly pick everything. Not really- making really nice procedural generation levels that play well is pretty hard, but we wanted to make a game that would feel fresh and fun to play over and over again for a very long time, and couldn’t see a way to make entirely hand-created levels do that.

What can we expect to see by way of enemy variety? For instance, are there any enemies that are stronger or weaker than the others? Like boss fights?

The entire month is leading up to one epic boss fight for Beryl’s soul, so definitely check that “boss fight” box on the feature list. We also have mini-bosses spread throughout the levels that introduce themselves with very brief animated screens so you know you’re in for a fight. Having the enemies as ghosts and possessed things has really let us go to town on enemy types. I think my favourite is in the park, and it’s the bin that acts like a dog – it chases after you and then sicks up bags of dog poo at you. Or possibly the chicken in the restaurant that fires eggy grenades out of its bum.

"Our last game, Binaries, had 101 hand created levels of tricky puzzles, so we thought we’d take the easy route this time around and just let computers randomly pick everything. Not really- making really nice procedural generation levels that play well is pretty hard, but we wanted to make a game that would feel fresh and fun to play over and over again for a very long time, and couldn’t see a way to make entirely hand-created levels do that."

Can you elaborate on how Twitch and Mixer integration functions within the game?

This is a cool feature we wanted to get in right from the start, and I was so happy when it actually worked! Basically if you’re streaming the game you can set it to hook up with your channel and then at the point you get promoted your viewers get to vote on which of the three promotion perks you receive, rather than you getting to choose. But also the game adds negative perks that just make it harder. So if they want to your viewers can really screw you over. Sorry to any streamers reading – I really hope your viewers like you!

What is your take on the Nintendo Switch, which seems to have become a haven for ambitious indie titles?

Both Ant Workshop as a company, and me as a human man love the Switch. It’s an awesome little machine that just seems to have slotted perfectly in to a whole in my gaming life that I didn’t even realize was there – I guess that’s the sort of thing Nintendo is good at? We’ve released a few games on Switch now as we’ve helped other indies put there titles on it, and it’s just been a pleasure from start to finish. Switch was the first console we got Dead End Job running on and I’ve got to say that although I might be biased, I think the art looks incredible on that crisp little screen.

Next gen is coming sooner or later. From a development perspective, what is your biggest expectation from PS5 and Xbox Scarlett?

Honestly I think those consoles are pretty locked on to a path of just doing the same kind of thing but bigger – it’s what their audiences want. I’m not really one for hardware specs and pixel counting and that sort of thing so I just hope they keep letting people do really cool stuff on normal HDTVs so I don’t have to buy a 4K one!

What is your take on Sony’s reluctant policy on cross-play with Xbox and Switch?

I don’t really play much online multiplayer so it doesn’t really affect me at all. I think I vaguely remember Microsoft having a similar policy at the start of the 360, whereas Sony who was on the back foot a bit were allowing it. Just seems like whoever’s the market leader at the time will drag their feet on it.

Do you think cross platform will be one of the defining features of next-gen consoles?

I think it entirely comes down to games. Fortnite surprised everyone recently with how huge it became, and it’s 3^rd party so everyone’s scrambling to try and make sure it’s attractive to play that game on their own console ecosystem. You can guarantee that if it had come out of a first party studio they wouldn’t be so keen to allow cross play!

What is your take on the ongoing drama of loot boxes and microtransactions?

It’s tricky, having a AAA background I know how much time and money those games take to make, and it’s very hard to recover those costs with just a £50 game purchase. When you look at the really big games trying to do that, the developer often has some other kind of deal going on to cover their costs (or they’re 1^st party, and it’s about selling consoles not just games). I do think there are “right” ways to do these things that makes fewer people angry, but what you also have to remember is that in the majority of these cases the developers that people are getting angry at aren’t the ones ultimately deciding how their game will implement them.

Do you have any plans to launch on Stadia?

Not currently, but I guess never say never!

"Both Ant Workshop as a company, and me as a human man love the Switch. It’s an awesome little machine that just seems to have slotted perfectly in to a whole in my gaming life that I didn’t even realize was there – I guess that’s the sort of thing Nintendo is good at?"

As an independent developer, what is your take on the platform-war between Epic Games and Steam?

For exclusives, again it comes back to the cost of developing games really, I can totally see how a guaranteed payment up-front is very attractive compared to just gambling on your sales figures being high enough. Steam has been sitting pretty for a while and I’m hoping that some of the Epic attention will galvanize Valve to improve some of their way of doing things – both for developers and players.

Do you think Google’s Stadia has a future especially given the infrastructural issues?

Infrastructure will always keep improving, for me the tech thing is really down to how long Google stay interested in the space – if they’re around for the long haul then the internet stuff will catch them up. I wonder more about the market for what they’re offering, to be honest – so far they’re showing off very “gamer” games like DOOM and Assassin’s Creed. I’m not sure if people who want to play those titles wouldn’t already have a console or PC, I think the audience there are enthusiasts who actively enjoy buying and owning their hardware. I think something much more mass market like the Nintendo Wii would be more of an obvious fit.

About Terraria :

Game Overview :
With a vast array of materials and items to collect, Terraria is far more than a mere block building game, gamers experience is limited only by their own imaginations; the world really is yours to shape and explore.

Publisher : Headup
RE-LOGIC

Developer : RE-LOGIC

Platforms : PC

Release Date : Available now

Stay tuned to Gamingbolt.com for more news and updates.