Bundle Stars is known for their themed bundles of PC games. You can grab a boatload of titles for just a few bucks that vary depending on their theme - Action Games, Horror Games, War Games, and many others. The latest bundle is based on something near and dear to our hearts - Co-Op Games, specifically co-op indies.
There's a lot of "bundle" sites out there now, but there are a few that have been there since the beginning. One of the biggest is the indie game focused Indie Gala, which runs bundles both thematically and on a time basis. The latest Friday bundle deal is out, giving folks 24 hours to snag twelve great games at a solid price. After the timer expires the rate goes up and runs until June 5th. Included in the bundle is the four player co-op shooter - SCHAR: Blue Shield Alliance.
Many of the users on this site likely recognize Nick Puleo as our former managing editor/Co-Optimus founder. A few may also recognize him as one of the two gentlemen, the other being Dave Paul, behind Brain Shape Games. This month in Indie-Ana Co-Op, Nick and Dave give breakdown for us how they went about developing the co-op for SCHAR: Blue Shield...
SCHAR: Blue Shield Alliance, a co-op focused shooter from Co-Optimus founder Nicholas Puleo and Brainshape Games, is available now on Steam for the first time, boasting an array of gameplay tweaks and remastered graphical effects.
Amazon has jumped fully into the independent game revolution. They've launched a dedicated section on their website to feature some of the best indie games available on PC and Mac. The good news for you? Lots of indie games at even cheaper prices.
As indie gaming continues to grow, especially in the PC space, it's starting to run into a bit of a problem - namely it's becoming difficult to find the type of indie game you'd enjoy. Sites like Desura and GoG.com are a good place to find games but sometimes there's just too many to casually browse. Indie developers have their own problem, while Steam Greenlight gives them a path to the promised land, there's still stiff competition to get on the service. This means indies are fighting to get noticed by the exact people they want to play their games. This is where ShinyLoot comes in, a new store front launching in beta today for indie PC games.
Pay what you want is all the rage these days among indie developers. It gives developers a chance to offer their game directly to their fans and cut out the middle man. And it gives fans a chance to give back to indie devs and reward them by showing their appreciation and getting a game for any price they want.
Today I'm proud to say the Indie game I helped create is now available to purchase via Amazon. SCHAR Blue Shield Alliance is available in standard and deluxe editions via digital download. While not a full retail release, to be listed on a major retailer is quite a milestone in my opinion. We released the game in late August via Desura and had high hopes of getting it on Steam, but even with a Greenlight page I just don't see that happening.
The first patch for the Xbox 360 version of SCHAR: Blue Shield Alliance is now available. The update brings a host of improvements including difficulty balancing, AI enhancements, control tweaks, and general bug fixes. It's taken quite some time for this patch to finally be available, and your patience is appreciated. All of these enhancements have been available on the PC version now since release.
Valve launched their Steam Greenlight service last week to the masses with the goal of getting a spotlight on promising indie titles. Once it launched though, the unmoderated service quickly filled with spam type postings and the good content started to get lost in the shuffle. Valve has since implemented a $100 barrier of entry which should help a bit, but indie developers like Brain Shape Games still need your help to get noticed.
Oh thank goodness! This week marks the end of August. September is upon us. Kids go back to school, the summer lull is over, and one of the biggest co-op games of the year is only a few weeks away. This week isn't really offering up too much in the way of new releases but we do have some quality titles expanding their availability.
As of right now you can pre-order SCHAR: Blue Shield Alliance on PC digital distribution service Desura. The game is available in two flavors - Standard Edition and Digital Special Edition. The Special Edition of the game includes the soundtrack, printable manual, ship blue prints, crew logs, and concept art. SCHAR: BSA is a co-op twin stick shooter created with involvement from current and former Co-Optimus staff members. It's also available on Xbox Live Indie Games.
