The Rezzed Report 2013

In an industry such as gaming, it’s surprising how often things can change and surprise you. In the past few years we have seen whole segments of the gaming industry rise and fall, with indie gaming most notably emerging as a dominant force. At no other point since the twilight of games development in the 70’s, have we seen such a prominence of “bedroom coders”. Is it any wonder when titles such as Minecraft (which recently hit 11 million sales) and Super Meat Boy (which has sold over a million copies) have captured the gamer’s attention, even managing to outperform some publisher backed blockbusters?

So if indie games are really such a big thing why don’t we see more at expos? Better yet, why don’t they have their own specialised events? This is what RockPaperShotgun and Eurogamer aims to address with the follow up to their indie focused event – Rezzed 2013.

Taking place on the 22nd – 23rd of June at the Birmingham NEC, the largest exhibition centre in the UK, the weekend event played host to around 5000 gamers. Among those gamers was the Crash To Desktop staff peering into every nook and cranny, hunting for what could be the next big hit. We saw lines of gamers of all sizes, shapes and denominations cram themselves into Hall 9, queuing up for their first look at indie titles such as Space Hulk and Tengami, alongside AAA games Splinter Cell: Blacklist and Company of Heroes 2.

Apparently the new Splinter Cell comes with a new nipple tweaking feature in an attempt to capture the fetish market. 

Of the exhibitors that appeared at Rezzed, one of the most prominent would have to be Futurlab with Coconut Dodge Revitilised, Surge and Velocity Ultra on show. The latter game being a quirky 2D Shoot ‘Em Up that I have recently been blasting quite happily through. Available from the PlayStation Store on the PlayStation Vita, I recommend downloading it if you have PlayStation Plus, as it’s currently on the “My Instant Game Collection” promotion. Having 3 games on display at Rezzed gave them one of the wider reaches at the convention, it’s just a shame that the games have already been out on the market for some time.

Another very noticeable presence at the show was Team 17 who were displaying their latest Worms game Worms: Clan Wars, and (for the nostalgic) the HD remake of their well-loved platformer Superfrog. Clan wars hopes to improve on the classic worms formula, with a PC exclusive iteration that combines improved physics, with an expanded online multiplayer system. Alongside their game offerings, they also had a merchandise store, (where Krem finally managed to grab himself one of the last Super Sheep plushies) and a costumed Worm which spent much of the show accosting the crowd. It was this sense of humour (many members of the attending development team went round in the suit), the crowd interaction and a genuine passion for their games that really made Team 17 stand out.

May I introduce Team 17's lead designer, the shining beacon of gaming professionalism

There were ample opportunities to play the well-received paid alpha game, Prisoner Architect by Introversion Software; enabling punters to observe the progress the game has made since it’s “release” in September 2012. The game is a top down construction sim akin to Dungeon Keeper and Theme Hospital, which allows you to create your very own prison replete with cells, wardens and solitary confinement blocks. The game follows a business model similar to Minecraft, with gamers buying into the games development through Kickstarter-esque reward tiers. One of my favourite reward tiers is the ability for players to put their very own prisoner into the game, complete with a custom bio, as well as a T-Shirt with their prisoner’s unique mug shot. It’s enjoyed huge success already, selling over 96,000 copies and producing over £1.9 million in revenue for the creators; not too shabby for a game that isn’t in beta yet!

The Shadow Warrior reboot by Flying Wild Hog made its first playable appearance, and seems to be in good violent form. The game retains its simple blood gushing gameplay, but according to the developers has reduced its crude 90’s misogyny and racial stereotyping. Despite all the wonderful action and over the top violence; I couldn’t help but feel disappointed that the shooter hasn’t retained its innovative multiplayer, which was shamefully overlooked the first time round. The game definitely looks slick, but whether the game retains its replayability without any multiplayer is to be seen.

One of my most awaited games going into the show was Space Hulk, and whilst I stood waiting for my chance to get some hands on time with the game, something hit me. This game was a true fully featured rendition of the original board game, not a crudely misshapen reimagining of the IP but a true realisation of the game. I couldn’t believe it, in some way I didn’t WANT to believe it; maybe it was the worry that it couldn’t live up to expectations, or maybe I was just scared that it could be the game every Space Hulk fan has been waiting for. The moment finally came for me to be one of the first players to see the game outside of Full Control’s Copenhagen offices in Denmark.

I spawned in my elite squad of Terminators with Sgt Lorenzo taking point, and I set off into the dank, claustrophobic corridors of the space hulk. The gene stealers poured in thick and fast, approaching from multiple attack paths, luckily this was turn based so I didn’t have to worry…yet. I set up my marines at several key points, ensuring I could bottleneck any potential genestealers who wanted to remove my limbs in a variety of creative ways. Call me a prude, but I’m rather fond of keeping all my limbs firmly attached and functional, sorry about that. Unfortunately the genestealer attacks came in swarms, reducing my 6 strong squad down to only Sgt Lorenzo, and a Terminator equipped with an assault cannon. Lorenzo didn’t last long, as he was surrounded quickly and (with my horrendous mistake of not enabling Overwatch) soon died a hero. That just left my assault cannon guy, a badass with a gun so big and powerful it could tear through whole armies…in theory. The issue remained that in order to win; I would have to kill 15+ genestealers with a weapon that could only shoot in a straight line. I prepared by setting up in a long corridor; one way in, one way out. This was my last stand, the only one from a team of 6 elite warriors left to fight a swarm of ferocious predators. They drew closer ready to pounce, knowing it was now or never, I clicked on the attack command and watched my fate unfold.

Well I would of, if the game hadn’t frozen midway through the assault cannon animation. “It’s a known bug, sorry” the booth attendant, and PR Manager for Full Control said. Damn.

I tried another mission (of the 2 that were available at Rezzed), but unfortunately I was outflanked and died within 2 turns to the genestealer horde, despite having the awesome flamer at my disposal. Somehow I don’t think I’m very good at the game, but regardless I’ll be watching this one closely.

Nyamyam had a strong showing with iPad’s set up to show off the artistic “point and click” adventure Tengami. The game features a strong Asian aesthetic with beautiful flowing hand drawn art and landscape flush with a diverse colour palette. You navigate a nameless and voiceless protagonist through a world that emulates a pop-up book. Through the use of gesture controls and lateral thinking the adventures many “pop up”-style puzzles can be solved, sending you deeper into the dark Japanese fairy tale world. It was a wonderfully immersive game with a truly epic hook; this is a game that cannot be imitated – a rarity within a stagnating industry. A lot has been made of the Japanese art but I feel not enough credit has been given to the haunting soundtrack, which features almost discordant Koto string plucks, that create an unsettling atmosphere. Of the two demos that were available I played the Rezzed exclusive Ocean level, which featured hidden clues between the folding layers, to a puzzle later in the level. The game is set to be released this summer, which I await with bated breath.

WildStar could very well be the WoW killer we've all been waiting for.

The last game we will be covering in our report will be WildStar, an upcoming sci-fi MMO from Contagion Studios that looks like it could revolutionise the genre. The action takes place on the planet Nexus where an ancient and powerful race, (think Halo’s Forerunners) have disappeared and left a glut of technology for players to discover. The thing that sets this apart from your average WoW clone however, are the numerous options afforded to you in movement and gameplay style. You can double jump, sprint, dash and roll all over the map giving you a freedom of movement rarely seen in games like this.

The character creation seems standard enough except for the unique option to choose how you play; do you prefer beating up the numerous mobs in the game? Then choose Soldier, or do you prefer to dive into every corner of the world finding previously undiscovered treasures? If so then pick explorer. This flexibility extends into everything the game offers, from combat to questing, and damn it’s refreshing. The most unique and enjoyable aspects of the game so far is the combat, whereby enemies you face “telegraph” their attacks through danger zones on the floor. The mobility features along with this simple adjustment to the MMO dynamic gives the player more tactical options, “Should I attack now? No wait, he’s about to do a huge spell, I’ll dodge it then counter attack”.

The art style while cartoony certainly has a particular charm, and the build we played had fairly fancy effects as MMO’s go. The frame rate was solid and didn’t seem to drop at all during the play test, although that’s hardly surprising considering the machines were packing Nvidia GTX 680 graphics cards, and top end Intel i7 processors.

We caught up with the Contagion Studios developers who were humble enough to run their own booth, (rather than hiring reps like Ubisoft and other big publishers do) where they told us that the Rezzed build was actually 5 months old with many new features missing. Safe to say, our time with WildStar blew us away and was easily the most exciting game of the show. We also managed to grab some time with the combat animator to talk us through the thought process behind the innovative combat system, which we’ll be bringing to you soon.

One thing that captured my attention is how the organisers attempted to differentiate the days of the event, by hosting developer sessions in a separate conference room. It was here that we got an exclusive first look at the gameplay of Total War: Rome 2, (the sequel to The Creative Assembly’s critically acclaimed Rome: Total War) and Dreamfall Chapters. Don’t worry if you missed most of the talks from concentrating on the main event, as these were live streamed from the expo and are now available on the Eurogamer YouTube channel.

King of Tokyo anyone?

Rezzed wasn’t all fun and games though; as there was also a stand devoted to board games! The section was fully manned by very attentive staff running demo games, giving gamers of all ages the chance to learn how to play board games ranging from Star Trek Catan to Batman Arkham City Escape. Krem and I spent a good deal of time trying to destroy each other on King of Tokyo, which only resulted in his premature death…naturally. Despite the drawback of only having 3 health points left, my Kung Fu Panda imitation managed to almost win the game (just 2 victory points short!), falling at the last hurdle as my fellow monsters teamed up to end my tyrannous reign. Treacherous bastards…

Obviously where there are good points there must be bad, and Rezzed was no different. I found the lighting to be a little too dark, which played havoc with the SLR that I took to the event and could sometimes cause eye strain with the bright LCD monitors glaring at me. Another downside was that I felt the event was a little small in comparison to the last show we attended at the NEC (GAMEfest), with many booths slightly too close for my liking which caused collisions with other similarly inattentive gamers. This alongside with the limited catering options; (subway and the uninspiring cafeteria were the only places to eat) colluded to undermine what was otherwise a very impressive and inspiring event.

Overall Rezzed was a hugely enjoyable event that the RockPaperShotgun and Eurogamer staff should be very proud of. It celebrated an often underappreciated population of game developers, and seems to be well timed considering the meteoric rise of indie gaming over the past few years. I’m hoping this offering will inspire others to create their own events, and possibly even popularise the various underground “hack-a-thons” that happen more often than people realise. Whatever happens to gaming you can be sure to have a great time at Rezzed, whether you’re a gamer, a board game fanatic, or just someone looking for that undiscovered gem.

What did you think of the event? Let us know in the comments below or on our Facebook and Twitter. Also make sure to check out our YouTube in the coming weeks, to see some of the gameplay footage we captured whilst we were there.

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