Stone Marshall's Blog, page 57

Hytale is a brand new game from giants of the Minecraft community, backed by Riot

If you're into your Minecraft you may have heard of Hypixel – it's one of the biggest Minecraft servers in the world and home to some seriously dedicated creators.

Today brings the announcement of Hypixel Studios, a new indie team made up by the Minecraft server's co-founders to develop an entirely separate game, and backed by League of Legends maker Riot Games, among others.

The game is named Hytale – and here's a trailer:

It looks hugely ambitious, with several modes planned aping Minecraft's own. There's a creation-focused mode designed to encourage the building of new mini-games, and an adventure mode with hand-crafted dungeons and bosses.

Alongside those are a suite of tools to help code new things in the game, create cinematics and design/edit 3D models.

More than 40 people are currently working on Hytale, and development has been ongoing since 2015.

The project has attracted some serious backing. Riot Games and a group of industry veterans including ex-Blizzard senior designer and producer Rob Pardo, have all invested in it.

“Since meeting the Hypixel team in 2016, we've been blown away by their support for their community, vision for the future of sandbox gaming, and belief in individual contributors working toward a common goal,” Riot Games boss Dylan Jadeja said. “Their ambition and commitment to quality gives us a ton of confidence, and from everything we've seen of Hytale, we haven't been let down.

“Supporting Hypixel is also an opportunity to support a game that will reach players at multiple stages in their gaming journeys, across age groups, genres, and play styles. We can't wait to dive into the world of Hytale.”

Which is all good news for Hypixel, its founders conclude:

“This investment means that we're able to level up our production values across many disciplines, and to provide stability for our team. It also allows us to avoid many common pitfalls of game development, like feeling pressure to release too early or over-reliance on crowdfunding. This is our first game as a newly-formed studio, but we're excited to embrace the challenges that lie ahead.”

Creators of Popular ‘Minecraft’ Server Announce New Game ‘Hytale’

Hypixel Studios is creating a new game called “Hytale” with some help from “League of Legends” developer Riot Games, it announced in a blog post on Thursday.

“Hytale” is a sandbox RPG with procedurally generated environments and a “Minecraft”-inspired art style. It also boasts a number of interesting features like community servers, minigames, modding tools, and the ability to watch movies together.

“Hytale’s” similarity to “Minecraft” is no accident. Hypixel is the studio behind one of “Minecraft’s” most popular player-made servers, which has reportedly hosted more than 14 million players and won four Guinness World Records, including “most popular independent server for a video game.” The studio said the server’s success allowed it to self-fund development of “Hytale,” but it’s also secured outside funding from investors like Riot Games and former Blizzard Entertainment executive Rob Pardo.

“It’s humbling and exciting to be learning from these veteran game developers and industry experts,” Hypixel said. “Many of us on the team grew up playing their games, and it’s incredible to think that some of their sons and daughters are now playing Hypixel.”

Hypixel said its “Minecraft” server will continue to be actively developed by its own dedicated team. It also said it’s grateful to Mojang and Microsoft, “whose forward-thinking support for content creators from day one has allowed us to produce work that we’re proud of.”

Hypixel plans to launch “Hytale” on PC and Mac, but said it will explore the possibility of releasing on other platforms during development.

Minecraft still has 91 million monthly active players, beating out Fortnite

Just in case you thought it wasn't popular anymore

At this point people who refer to Minecraft as a fad are just as ridiculous as the folks who said the same thing about Pokemon in the early 2000s. It's just as popular as ever, appeals to pretty much all ages and skill levels, and is now universally playable across pretty much every platform on the planet (even VR!), most of which are connected with cross-play. It's one of the most accessible games of all time.

That accessibility has translated to sales and a still-active playerbase. Speaking to Business Insider, Minecraft Studio Head Helen Chiang confirmed that Minecraft currently boasts over 91 million active players monthly, which beats out the 78 million Fortnite numbers. A lot of those players not only purchased the base game, but additional platforms for family members, skins, texture packs, and possibly monthly server subscriptions. That's a lot of revenue streams to rely on. And with over 150 million sold they're the second-best selling game ever: only behind Tetris.

While people are quick to point to Twitch to showcase Fortnite's popularity, it just goes to show that streaming isn't everything: Fortnite generally breaks over 100,000 concurrent viewers daily and at the time of this post Minecraft is at 4,000. A lot of people still don't watch streams, spend their days on YouTube, or spend it playing Minecraft.

New Minecraft initiative aims to raise money for The World Wildlife Fund

Panda-Moneyium

Microsoft has announced a new costume pack for hugely-successful build 'em up title Minecraft, with aims of raising cash for animal-friendly charity The World Wildlife Fund.

The “Paws and Claws” pack will be the first of the WWF-themed charitable initiatives to feature in Minecraft, containing a selection of cat and panda-themed skins. All net proceeds from every pack sold between launch and December 11, 2021 will be donated to the WWF.

As an added incentive, Microsoft will donate a further $100,000 once 10 million “Bamboo Blocks” – which were added to Minecraft in the latest update – have been placed in-game, so better get building! You can check out a trailer about the new promotion below. It's important to note that this promotion only applies to the Bedrock Edition of Minecraft.

Minecraft – Bedrock Edition is available now on Xbox One, PC, Nintendo Switch and iOS and Android devices.

Minecraft modders form Hypixel Studios

A team of community modders for Minecraft have banded together to form a fully-fledged games studio.

Hypixel Studio is the new company from the team behind the Hypixel server network, one of the most popular independent Minecraft servers.

The developer was founded with the help of an investor group thast includes Riot Games, ex-Blizzard exec Rob Pardo, Pardo's fellow Bonfire co-founder Min Kim, pro-gamer Dennis ‘Thresh' Fong, university professor Anthony Borquez, and investors Peter Levin and Jeff Lo.

Some of these investors have formed an advisory group to guide the studio forward.

Hypixel is already hard at work on its first project, Hytale. This will be a sandbox roleplaying game complimented by a mini-games platform and a variety of accessible tools enabling users to create and customise their own content for the game.

Work on Hytale actually began in 2015 — two years after the Hypixel server network was established — and was initially funded by the success of the servers, before the team sought the investment needed for the transition from modders to development studio.

“Founding Hypizel Studios is a huge step forward for our team, and it wouldn't have been possible without the support of Riot Games and our advisory group of investors,” said co-founder Simon Collins-Laflamme.

“We feel very lucky to have built relationships that not only fund the development of Hytale, but provide us with insight and advice that will be instrumental in making Hytale as good as it possibly can be.”

Battlefield V Unsung Heroes – take to the skies with a flying ace

The green fields of France frame our latest Battlefield V: Unsung Heroes episode – or, to be more accurate, the airspace above them does. Here, brave pilots weave between the clouds in breakneck dogfights for air supremacy. Soaring fighters duck and dive as they trade cannon fire before finally landing the decisive burst that sends targets spiralling back to Earth.

You needn’t be a fully trained aviator to hop in the cockpit – in Battlefield V, any class can spawn inside an aircraft. If there’s one going spare, simply select it from the spawn screen, and you’re instantly ready to command the skies in one of DICE’s authentic single-seater planes. On the Allies side are manoeuvrable but fragile machines such as the Spitfire, while the Axis wields the equally fearsome Messerschmitt.

The biggest clash between RAF and Luftwaffe forces happened in Battle of Britain (July 1940 to June 1941), the first military campaign fought entirely by aircraft. In it, Hitler attempted to cripple the RAF before launching his land invasion, Operation Sea Lion. Of course, this particular episode takes place before all that, with the Germans still contesting France. There was plenty of aerial fighting to be done in and around the Low Countries, and if you happened to lose your plane, lots of scraps to join in on the ground, too.

You can experience the thrill of air combat by playing Battlefield V, available now on PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4. Simply hop into the War Stories mode to learn of brave missions previously unexplored by other World War II videogames. Or, should you be more about online action, up to 64 players can fight for victory on some of gaming’s largest, most detailed multiplayer maps.

Let’s look at cool Minecraft cities and judge their realism

Nearly a decade on, Minecraft is still bringing us jaw-dropping creations, including massive cities of such scope and scale that they shouldn’t be possible inside a humble block builder. But they are, and in an effort to justify the time we’ve spent browsing these creations on the clock we’re going to share some of the coolest things we’ve found with you.

The image at the top comes from the Sayama City Project, which Kotaku shared back in August – though the project itself has been going on for years. Every time it comes back up, it’s astounding, and as everyone has repeatedly remarked, it’s tough to tell the difference between this Japan-inspired Minecraft city and a real-world photo. You can download the town for yourself via Planet Minecraft, or check out a video if you prefer to admire from afar.

Now you’re probably thinking ‘sure, this all looks pretty, but how realistic can a Minecraft city be?’ Luckily, YouTube’s City Beautiful has us covered there. The channel breaks down urban planning in digestible ways, and its biggest hit came a few months ago with a quick let’s play of SimCity 2000. Now we’ve got a set of reviews on Minecraft cities.

Those projects include the Vancouver-inspired Mattuopolis, the self-proclaimed “largest city in Minecraft,” Greenfield, and perhaps most intriguing, the GDMC Competition, which aims to build Minecraft settlements through AI generation. You can follow those links to mess around with them yourself, or you can watch the video below to get some walkthroughs with a dose of education on real-life city building.

Check out the best Minecraft maps if you’re looking for more cool creations – whether those be cities, castles, adventure maps, or horror excursions. Be prepared to lose your weekend amid this reminders that Minecraft is very cool.

Sonic’s looking slightly terrifying in first teaser image for next year’s movie

Sega and Paramount Pictures have released the first teaser image for the new Sonic the Hedgehog movie, due to arrive next year – and, well, Sonic's weirdly lithe new look will certainly be haunting my dreams tonight.

Inexplicably, the production team has opted to transform Sonic's smooth, slightly rotund classic look, into something resembling an excessively hirsute human with a bulbous Sonic-shaped head and a punishing anaerobic fitness regime. Who is also blue. The overall effect, I'd argue, is more ‘limbering up for a sweaty night out down at the fetish bar' than ‘endearing reimagining of a beloved video game character for a new family friendly movie franchise'.

Sonic's teaser reveal comes via IGN, and is accompanied by a few words from executive producer Tim Miller. On the subject of Sonic's top-to-toe fur makeover, Miller suggested, “It would be weird and it would feel like he was running around nude if he was some sort of otter-like thing. It was always, for us, fur, and we never considered anything different. It's part of what integrates him into the real world and makes him a real creature.”

More fascinating still is Miller's brief mention of Sonic's eyes, not shown in the reveal image. “I don't think Sega was entirely happy with the eye decision, but these sorts of things you go, ‘It's going to look weird if we don't do this'”, he explained. So goodness knows what nightmare-inducing ocular monstrosities could be lurking among the shadows.

Sonic The Hedgehog is being directed by Jeff Fowler, and stars Parks and Recreation's Ben Schwartz in the lead role. The movie is currently scheduled to launch in the US on November 8th next year and on December 26th in the UK.

Final Fantasy 15’s multiplayer mode Comrades goes standalone from today

Square Enix has announced that Final Fantasy 15's multiplayer expansion, known as Comrades, will finally get its previously announced standalone release today, December 12th, in the US, and tomorrow in the UK.

Comrades, which originally launched at the tail-end of last year, unfolds six months after the concluding events of the main game. Players take on the role of a Kinsglaive soldier (conjured into being via a flexible character creation tool), and, starting at their base in Lestallum, must collect meteor shards to restore power to the kingdom of Lucis.

Meteor shards (as well as money for upgrading weapons and the like) can be acquired through missions, all playable co-operatively with up to three friends. Missions are predominantly focussed around monster hunting, using a modified version of the core game's combat system, and turning in meteor shards will unlock new missions and more areas of the map.

When Comrades originally launched, it was available as part of Final Fantasy 15's season pass on PS4 and Xbox One, or on its own for £15.49. Those that played it seemed to quite enjoy its distinctive take on brisk co-operative questing, despite its fairly unintuitive demands when attempting to gather friends together in order to actually start a multiplayer session.

Although Comrades previously required a copy of Final Fantasy 15's base game to run, its new, completely standalone version on Xbox One and PS4 won't. Square previously announced that this separate version will add new creatures, such as the powerful Daemon Melusine, and that all new features will be available as a free update for those that already own Comrades.

Last month, Square Enix announced the departure of Final Fantasy 15 creator Hajime Tabata, resulting in the cancellation of the majority of DLC episodes planned for 2019.

Minecraft launches Paws and Claws costume pack to raise money for World Wildlife Fund

Microsoft has announced a new initiative to raise money for the World Wildlife Fund through Minecraft, starting with the launch of the new Paws and Claws costume pack.

Paws and Claws' release follows the recent arrival Minecraft's latest update, which adds bamboo blocks, scaffolding, and, more importantly, pandas and redesigned cats. The costume pack (or “Cosplay Pack”, as Microsoft would have it) features 17 cat and panda skin, and all net proceeds on every sale – that's 62.5% – will be donated to the WWF until December 11th, 2021.

Additionally, Microsoft has pledged to donate another $100,000 USD to the World Wildlife Fund once players have managed to place a total of 10 million bamboo blocks in Minecraft. This follows a similar event last year, in which a donation was made to The Nature Conservancy after Minecraft players laid down 10 million coral blocks.

In order to get involved in Microsoft's charity initiative, either via some dedicated block placing or by purchasing the Paws and Claws pack, players will need to be using Minecraft's Bedrock Edition, which is available on Windows 10, Xbox One, Switch, iOS, and Android.