Astro Bot might be all the rage right now, but Psychonauts 2 developer Double Fine has reiterated that it still isn’t working on something related to corporate owner Xbox’s now-massive slate of dormant platformers.”We love platformers here at Double Fine, so imagine our smiles playing Astro Bot and seeing what ~seems~ to be a familiar face,” the studio tweeted yesterday. “In 2013, we collaborated with Japan Studios on the Playroom’s ‘My Alien Buddy’ and it seems like a version of our green friend is still on a rampage.”For those not neck-deep in Astro Bot lore, the little guy was first assembled for free PS4 minigame marathon The Playroom, made by the now shut-down Japan Studios, and one of the DLC packs featuring a bobbly green alien came courtesy of Double Fine. A very similar-looking, UFO-riding green alien serves as the main antagonist of this year’s Astro Bot.We love platformers here at Double Fine, so imagine our smiles playing Astrobot and seeing what ~seems~ to be a familiar fa…

Overly chatty protagonists have become a staple in modern gaming. Most notably, Horizon: Forbidden West and God of War Ragnarok’s talkative characters will give hints for puzzles mere moments after entering a room.Indiana Jones and the Great Circle developer MachineGames has a simple solution to this problem using one of Indy’s trusted tools – his camera. Speaking to Edge magazine, Game director Jerk Gustafsson mentions, “Thanks to that, we’ve not shied away from doing medium-to-hard puzzles, which is one of my favorite features in the game. We don’t have to be afraid that we need to completely dumb it down because someone gets stuck, which is a prickly problem in many ways.”This allows players to decide when they want a hint while also giving MachineGames the leeway to create more challenging puzzles. It serves more than just a hint system, though. It also exists to promote exploration and discovery, which design director Jens Andersson points out: “You get adventure points…

Diablo 4 is bringing back the RPG series’ beloved mercenary system in Vessel of Hatred to help you “round out your build.”That comes from Diablo’s general manager Rod Fergusson, who says the team opted to bring the system back – as opposed to Diablo 3’s Auction House – as it’s been part of the franchise in one way or another for the past 21 years “at least.” That, and it was there to be done in a much more “robust way.””The fact is that it’s a companion system that helps you round out your build,” he says to CGM. “One of the things that our game director of the expansion, Brent Gibson, likes to say is that each class has a soft spot.”Fergusson points to the Sorcerer as an example. The Diablo 4 class works well when played with a glass canon build that prizes damage over defense. So why not hire Raheir – a blacksmith with a big shield who can “come in and protect you while you’re pushing enemies and putting in all that damage” – when Vessel of Hatred comes out? “That’s …