As the year (perhaps the WORLD?!) draws to a close, we wanted to recap some of the latest news on what’s happening with Bastion and with us at Supergiant.
Bastion Announcer Pack for Dota 2
We’re very happy to reveal the Bastion Announcer Pack for Dota 2, Valve’s popular and incredibly deep team-based action strategy game!
Featuring more than 700 original lines of voiceover delivered by the voice of Bastion’s narrator, Logan Cunningham, the Bastion Announcer Pack for Dota 2 puts our special spin on one of the most complex and engaging competitive games we’ve ever played. A couple of us on team are huge fans of Dota 2 (the original DotA mod for Warcraft III is one of Supergiant cofounder Amir Rao’s all-time favorite games) so it was a real treat to contribute something to this game and collaborate with the amazing team at Valve. If you’d like to know more about Dota 2, visit the official web site.
Bastion for a Buck + More Stuff on Sale
For a limited time, Bastion is just $0.99 on the App Store! For good measure, this latest version of Bastion was just named iOS Game of the Year on Metacritic.com. Note: The iOS version of Bastion requires an iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPod touch 5th generation, or iPad 2 or newer.
Season’s Greetings from Supergiant
From all of us at Supergiant, we wish you a happy and safe holiday season, and best wishes for the year to come. Jen put the sentiment in the form of a wallpaper-sized visual here:
Thank you for your ongoing support. And a very special thanks to those of you who’ve been keeping tabs on us ever since before Bastion was released. This has been another great year for us — a year in which we got Bastion on Mac, Linux, the iPad, […]
In honor of the weather getting colder in the northern hemisphere, the Supergiant Store is having a HOLIDAY SALE, now through the end of the year! Every item is marked down by around 20% or more, so it’s a great time to stock up on items for any fans of Bastion on your holiday shopping list.
About the Supergiant Store: Every item in the Supergiant Store was designed by us, and we ship everything straight from our San Francisco headquarters.
Domestic & International Shipping: We guarantee shipping by Christmas in North America for purchases made between now and December 17. We ship to anywhere in the world, though we ask that international customers please order as early as possible to best ensure your order arrives in time for the holidays. […]
Today we’re rolling out the 1.1 update to Bastion for iPad, which adds support for the iPhone 5, iPhone 4S, and 5th generation iPod touch! As part of this, Bastion is now fully optimized for the iPhone 5′s Retina display — check out the screenshots in this post to get an impression — and we’ve also added iCloud support so your progress can transfer seamlessly from one device to another. (To transfer existing data to iCloud, please update the app and load each save slot you want to sync.)
This is a free update if you already own Bastion for iPad, and new players can get the game on any of these devices for $4.99. Either way, head over to Bastion’s page on the App Store to get the latest version, or read on for more info.
Bastion for iPad was our first foray into iOS gaming, and the response we got was amazing. The game earned Editors’ Choice on the App Store, very positive reviews from the press, as well as glowing reviews from thousands of players who took the time to rate it.
Then, a couple of months ago on September 12, Apple unveiled the iPhone 5. Now, we’d previously stated in our FAQ for the iPad version that we chose to focus exclusively on iPad both for technical reasons and because we “felt the game experience would not translate well to the iPhone’s smaller screen.” Well, the iPhone 5 added quite a bit of screen real estate, so we decided to take another look. And sure enough, we found that Bastion looked great and ran beautifully on the new device. Of course we still needed to update all the menu screens and re-tune the controls to fit the smaller form factor, not to mention implement iCloud support, so all that took a little while. But it’s finally ready!
While we were looking into getting the game on iPhone 5, we wanted to see which other iOS devices we could support. We found the game looked and played better than we expected on iPhone 4S, and also […]
Update 11/12/2012: Thank you to everyone who expressed interest in this job posting. At this time we’re no longer seeking new applicants. Should we have any additional job openings in the future, we’ll likely post about it here and via our Twitter feed.
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Supergiant Games is looking for a driven, experienced, multitalented 3D artist! 3D modeling and animation were essential in the making of our first game, so we want to bring this expertise to our studio for whatever we do next (which is too early for us to talk about in more detail as yet). Our 3D artist will collaborate with our art director Jen Zee and the rest of our team to help us bring to life memorable characters and experiences for players. The ideal candidate has a passion for creating and playing video games, is eager to collaborate closely with a small, tight-knit, cross-disciplinary team, and will have several if not all of the following skills.
SKILLS:
· Experience using industry standard 3D modeling packages (e.g. 3ds Max, Maya)
· Experience modeling in 3D (characters, creatures, objects)
· Experience rigging 3D models
· Experience creating 3D animation
· Experience creating 3D textures and materials
· Experience working with and/or creating visual FX
· Experience working with and creating 3D textures and materials
· Knowledge of rendering pipelines
· Ability to work well within an established art style
REQUIREMENTS:
· Bachelor’s degree
· Credit as an artist on one or more games
· Willing to relocate to San Francisco Bay Area if not local
PLUSES:
· Skill in traditional and digital art
· Skill in 2D animation
· Experience scripting in the above-mentioned 3D modeling packages
· Experience with Illustrator, Flash, or other vector graphics software
· Experience with UI design and implementation
· You like otters
Qualifying applicants will be subject to an art test. To apply for the position, please follow these instructions: Send an email to jobs@supergiantgames.com with the subject line “3D Artist”. Include your resume in the body of the email, as well as links to your portfolio, reel, and/or personal […]
We’re very excited to announce that Bastion for iPad is now available on the App Store! You can come try it for yourself this week at PAX Prime (we’re at booth 6019). Featuring all the narration, music, artwork, and action that made Bastion one of the most acclaimed games of 2011, this latest version reimagines the play experience to work intuitively using the iPad’s touch screen.
Have a look at our reveal trailer:
We’ve got a lot of little details to share about this version so we decided to share them by way of this Bastion for iPad FAQ!
UPDATE — November 14, 2012: Bastion is now a Universal App! We’ve updated the contents of this FAQ to reflect the latest changes in the 1.1 version.
What is Bastion for iOS?
Bastion for iOS is our award-winning game re-created to work with touch controls and feel right at home on the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch. If you’re not familiar with the original game, you can learn more about Bastion here. If you want to know more about Apple’s hardware, visit Apple’s web site.
Where can I get it?
Bastion for iOS is available on the App Store.
How much does it cost?
Bastion for iPad costs $4.99.
Which devices does the game support?
Here is a full list of devices supported by Bastion for iOS after the 1.1 update:
- iPad 2
- iPad 3rd Generation
- iPad 4th Generation
- iPad mini
- iPhone 4S
- iPhone 5
- iPod touch 5th Generation
Bastion will not run on older devices for technical reasons.
Does Bastion for iOS support the Retina display on the New iPad?
Yes. Bastion for iPad looks even sharper and more colorful on the New iPad. The screenshots in this blog post should give you an impression of how the game looks.
Is Bastion for iOS optimized for the iPhone 5′s Retina Display?
Yes. We reworked every screen type in the game to take advantage of the iPhone 5′s larger screen. Here is an example of one of the […]
Hey, this a quick note for our fellow game developers out there. As you may know, we originally released Bastion for Xbox LIVE Arcade and PC, but we’ve since shipped versions for Google’s Chrome browser as well as Mac and Linux. These more recent versions of Bastion used MonoGame, an open-source implementation of the Microsoft XNA 4 Framework. Given the spirit of open-source development, we’re happy to make our changes available:
Please note the Native Client version is least likely to work “out of the box” due to the proprietary nature of the work we had to do there. Also we cannot guarantee being able to provide support for these branches if you decide to use them.
MonoGame was essential to our ability to bring Bastion to new platforms so we hope our work can likewise help other developers. […]
On July 20 last year, Bastion launched on Xbox LIVE Arcade as the first title in the 2011 Summer of Arcade. This past weekend we figured we’d get our whole team together to mark the occasion at the house where Bastion was made, and reflect on the incredible show of support we’ve received from all you Bastion players out there during such an incredible year.
@ our Bastion anniversary party, feat. the Supergiants and close friends who helped along the way. Left to right: Atambir Rao, Logan Cunningham, Greg Kasavin, Chris Jurney, Amir Rao, Anna Lee, Gavin Simon, Jen Zee, Andre Mina, Darren Korb, Bret Denslow, Alex Ahad, Michael Ailshie, Ashley Barrett.
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These are some of the major things that happened for us in the last 12 months:
- We shipped Bastion on Xbox LIVE Arcade, PC, Google Chrome, Mac, and Linux as part of Humble Indie Bundle V
- We moved from a house in San Jose to a little studio space in San Francisco
- Our game sold more than 1.3 million copies, including Humble Bundle sales
- Our team grew from seven to nine people, with Michael and Chris joining
- We’ve been keeping busy supporting Bastion and figuring out what’s next
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We never could have expected this kind of success for our first game and love having such a high standard to live up to with whatever we do next — we appreciate your patience in the mean time, and we always look forward to hearing from you via email, Twitter, Facebook, even the occasional hand-written letter, and meeting you in person at places like PAX.
Thank you for a great and memorable year.
One last thing — for Bastion’s one-year anniversary we figured we’d make everything 25% off in our online store for one week. Use the discount code 1YEAR at checkout. We’ve got a new art print by Jen Zee up for grabs in there:
Update 6/15/2012: The Humble Indie Bundle V is officially over, with 598,980 bundles sold for a total of $5,106,887.23. This was just amazing and we’d like to thank everyone who purchased the bundle for their generous support, and are happy to have contributed with our game. Special thanks to the organizers and our fellow dev teams for being so great to work with on this! To all our new players, we hope you enjoy the game!
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Question: What do LIMBO, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP, Psychonauts, and Bastion have in common? If you answered, “Why, they’re costarring in the Humble Indie Bundle V, an amazing value where you can pay what you want to get these games in a cross-platform, DRM-free format, complete with full soundtrack downloads for each title… and help a charitable cause for good measure,” then you’re me. But at any rate, this news is true!
Among other things, Humble Indie Bundle V marks Bastion’s debut on Linux. We’ve received a lot of requests from Linux users for a Bastion version native to your preferred OS, so we hope you guys enjoy it…!
We’re honored to be included among such an inspiring group of games here. Each game has its own distinct identity and beautifully crafted atmosphere — from the pervasive sense of claustrophobic dread in Amnesia, to the haunting and otherworldly landscapes of LIMBO, to the soulful 8-bit homage of Sworcery, to the whimsical and memorable cast of Psychonauts. Head on over to www.humblebundle.com for more information and get the games for yourself! It’s a limited time offer so act fast.
Oh, and in case you’re not already familiar with the games in the lineup, we helped put together a little trailer to get you in the mood:
The Humble Indie Bundle V is the best deal on Bastion that’s ever been offered, to say nothing of the four other outstanding games included in the package. Check it out and tell all your friends!
One last thing! Our art director Jen Zee cooked […]
We’re very happy to announce that Bastion is now available for the Mac! Mac users can get it right now on the Mac App Store. Additionally, if you’ve purchased the PC version of the game through Steam, you’ll be getting a free SteamPlay update for Bastion, which means you’ll be able to play the game on Mac as well as PC (complete with cross-platform cloud saves). So the next time you find yourself with nothing but a Mac, the Internet, and your Steam account, you can always go back to Bastion!.
Bastion for the Mac is essentially identical to the PC version, so you can expect the same high-resolution 1080p hand-painted artwork, fully remappable controls, and smooth gameplay experience. Here’s an image:
We hope those of you who like a bit of Mac gaming enjoy this latest version of the game. Kudos to our own Andrew Wang for doing all the heavy lifting bringing Bastion to OSX. While we have no other versions of the game slated for the moment, we always appreciate the interest from folks who want to see Bastion for their favorite platforms. To all our new players, we hope you enjoy your adventures in Caelondia, and look forward to hearing your impressions! […]
Hey, here’s a quick rundown of the latest happenings at Supergiant HQ:
Return from PAX East: We just got back from PAX East in Boston, where we had an excellent time meeting with hundreds of fans and letting them get their hands on the old, old first playable prototype of Bastion. We’ve got dozens of photos up on Facebook if you want to take a look. Included are several folks who showed up in amazing Bastion-themed costumes — we were blown away!
We decided to bring our first prototype along since we figured folks would get a kick out of seeing (if not playing) such a crude and early version side-by-side with the finished game. This playable build was made just four weeks after Amir and Gavin founded the studio. In spite of its simplicity and placeholder art, the prototype does showcase some of the ideas and mechanics we ended up refining and using in the final game. We also like showing just how rough these things look when they start off. Take a peek, see if your eyes bleed:
Many thanks to everyone who took the time to stop by our booth at the show! It was great, and we look forward to many more PAXes in our future.
Welcome Chris! We’re also very pleased to welcome the ninth member of our team, Mr. Chris Jurney (@jurney on Twitter), a veteran engineer who’s worked on a variety of outstanding games, from Company of Heroes to Iron Brigade. His most recent work, however, is a game in which a bear struggles to avoid accidentally crushing people to death in its quest for love, acceptance, and oxygen. He made it in a couple of days with the help of a few friends. With Chris on board, our engineering team swells to a whopping size of three, so we’re very much looking forward to seeing what we can do with all this newfound power. You can learn more about Chris on our Team Page.
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That’s the latest from us for now! At PAX East we got tons […]
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