Hi. Remember me? Yeah, I used to write for this site, sometimes 2-3 articles a day. Seems like it’s shifted to 1-2 articles/month which is a bit, what’s the word…suboptimal. This reminds me of another site from many years ago where our Dear Leader went on a sabbatical and the site–under my guidance–started to go in the toilet. <shrug>
Hey! Speaking of Dear Leader, that brings up a little news tidbit. Turns out Owen’s back and started a game publishing house. Weird, huh?
Owen (whose real name is Fernando Rizo but Owen is far easier to type) contacted me a week or so ago with some interesting news. No, he’s not going to start writing for Stately Play (much to my chagrin), but instead, he’s been busy starting businesses and doing all sorts of grown-up, mature things.
The company is called Modern Wolf and their schtick is focusing on indie gaming AND keeping it ethical. What does that mean? No crunch, for example.
… establish its commitment to ethical game development practices. From zero tolerance on crunch, to an acute sensitivity to mental health wellbeing,
Modern Wolf currently has five games loaded in their upcoming release chamber and all of them sound like games Owen used to drool over, which usually means we drool over them as well. Take a look:
Necronator: Dead Wrong | Toge Productions Deck-building meets lane defense from the creators of Infectonator 3: Apocalypse. Release: Early Access Q4 2019 Platforms: PC, console, mobile
Ostranauts | Blue Bottle Games A starship captain sim in a gritty blue-collar sci-fi solar system, from the makers of NEO Scavenger. Release: Early Access soon Platforms: PC
Skeleton Crew | Cinder Cone Pinball-like and physics-based dungeon brawler from the creative director of Smoke & Sacrifice. Release: Autumn 2020 Platforms: PC, console
Out There: Oceans of Time | Mi-Clos Studio Space exploration adventure on an epic scale, from the creators of Out There: Ω Edition and Sigma Theory. Release: Winter 2020 Platforms: PC
Rogue State Revolution | LRDG The first geo-political roguelike: you’re the democratically elected president of a Middle Eastern republic, but how long can you stay in power? Release: 2021 Platforms: PC
Looks like Owen will be keeping in touch and as these releases creep closer we’ll see if we can’t coerce a bit more information out of him. Who knows, maybe I’ll even convince him to write a post or two. (Probably not, though.)
These all sound great!
Glad to hear Owen made good.
We miss him (and that Dave guy, too … “Dave?”, “Yeah, Dave”, “Dave’s not here”).
If we’re going to pump him for information, I’m curious as to the reasons for Out There: Oceans of Time on PC but not announced for iOS? I’m sure they know their customers better than I, but iOS is how I play(ed) Out There, personally, don’t see it making it out of my PC backlog, alas.
Also, that Skeleton Crew dungeon-brawling does look like something I’d want to iPad in the La-Z-Boy.
I’m imagining Captain Barnacles, but voiced by the captain from Sealab 2021, and I am on board.
Do conspiracy theories start off as this sort of headcanon for news?
Oh I was contacted about Modern Wolf as well- I didn’t realise he was involved. Didn’t get a chance to see them at GamesCom which is a shame.
Good for him, I’m glad he’s ok. Now if only he could release control of the YouTube channels…
Wow, Ostranauts looks cool as hell. Wishlisted.
He looks pretty serious in the photo here:
https://www.mcvuk.com/modern-wolf-wants-to-make-game-publishing-more-ethical-a-lot-of-these-publishing-deals-are-pretty-predatory/
Looks like the press release announcement for Out There: Oceans of Time does indeed include mobile now.
https://www.gamasutra.com/view/pressreleases/349927/Announcing_Out_There_Oceans_of_Time.php
Saw that on TA too, but they didn’t cite any sources. Hoping it comes to pass!
When asked after announcing the release on Twitter if the game was PC-only a couple of weeks ago, the devs responded with, “On mobile too.” That’s good enough for me …