It began as a free demo to show off the use of Epic Games‘ Unreal Developer Kit tools but now it’s being reworked as a full commercial game title. Developer Trendy Entertainment has announced its plans to release Dungeon Defenders, a action-RPG-tower defense hybrid title, via download this fall.

The game was previously released last February as a free UDK demo under the title Dungeon Defense. The UDK demo reportedly only took four weeks to develop. The full version of the title under its slightly changed name will feature 15 levels and a “watercolor art style” in its depiction of a fantasy-themed tower defense game with a number of action and RPG elements including “character leveling and customization, awesome loot drops and plenty of team-oriented defensive strategy.” There’s also support planned for four player multiplayer via online and LAN. The title is now available for pre-order at GamersGate and Impulse and both are giving a pre-order discount of 10 percent off its regular $9.99 price.

Download HD Dungeon Defenders Announcement Trailer (248 MB)
Download Dungeon Defense UDK demo (185 MB)
Download the Unreal Development Kit (530 MB)

UDK demo Dungeon Defense to morph into full game Dungeon Defenders originally appeared on Big Download Blog on Wed, 25 Aug 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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When id Software first announced its plans for its next first person shooter Rage back in 2007 it also marked the debut of its all new id Tech 5 graphics engine. In the past all of id’ Software’s graphics engines have been available for license by third party developers. Indeed, in May 2009 id’s head man Todd Hollenshead said that they had “seeded tech out to a few licensees” for id Tech 5 already.

Now it looks like there’s been an about face on those plans in the wake of id’s acquisition by ZeniMax Media later in 2009. Eurogamer reports from QuakeCon 2010 that Hollenshead has confirmed that id Tech 5 will “be used within ZeniMax, so we’re not going to license it to external parties.” It looks like the only way a third party developer will gain access to the technology will be if its game is published by ZeniMax’s publishing arm Bethesda Softworks. Besides Rage, the id Tech 5 engine will be used for id’s other big upcoming game Doom IV.

id Tech 5 graphics engine being kept just for Bethesda-published games originally appeared on Big Download Blog on Thu, 12 Aug 2010 22:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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One of the cool things about Games For Windows Live is being able to link your Xbox 360 Gamertag to your Games For Windows Live account That means you can play a Games For Windows Live game and add to your Achievements score. Indeed you can play a Computer port of an Xbox 360 game and gain new achievements that are not in the Xbox 360 version.

But how did the whole Achievement idea come about in the first place? The Xbox.com web site has the answer in a new Xbox Engineering Blog post written by Microsoft’s Vince Curley, the first programmer for the Achievements system. He goes into detail on how Achievements are programmed as well as other inside info. The creation of Achievements for the Xbox 360 has certainly influenced Valve when they put in achievements into its Steamworks tools.

How are Xbox/Games For Windows Live Achievements made? originally appeared on Big Download Blog on Sun, 18 Jul 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The OnLive streaming Computer game service has been live to the public for just over a month. Just before its launch the company announced that it would allow people to sign up to use the service free for one year with an option to continue for a second year for $4.95 a month. That deal was supposed to expire on July 15. Now the official OnLive Twitter page has announced that the Founding Members deal has been extended to Labor Day (September 6).

There is still a Waiting List to be accepted into the Founding members deal but its clear that OnLive wants to get as many people as possible to try out the service. One other bit of news is that the full version of Frozenbyte’s puzzle-platformer game Trine is available to purchase and play on OnLive. Previously only the free demo version of the game was available to play on OnLive.

OnLive extends free Founding Members program to Labor Day originally appeared on Big Download Blog on Sun, 18 Jul 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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View full post on Softpedia News – Global

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There’s been a lot of talk about different interfaces for playing games. One of them is something that you can get right now; the ability to touch a screen to manipulate units, give commands and more. Now gaming Computer maker iBUYPOWER has created a special software tool that, if you have the right hardware, will allow you to turn any game into one that supports touch screen manipulation.

The software, called MAGIC, allows players to create profiles for each game and then play them with any multi-touch supported monitor or laptop. The software can be downloaded for free at the iBUYPOWER web site. It does require Windows 7 and of course you have to have a multi-touch product for it to work (which, not so oddly, iBUYPOWER sells). You can check out a video of the software being used to play a game of Supreme Commander 2 after the jump:

Continue reading iBUYPOWER’s MAGIC software turns any Computer game into a multi-touch title

iBUYPOWER’s MAGIC software turns any Computer game into a multi-touch title originally appeared on Big Download Blog on Sat, 03 Jul 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As we reported in our E3 2010 Civilization V impressions article, the upcoming strategy game from Firaxis Games will come with mod and editing tools to allow players to make their own maps and mods for the title. But what if you really love a map that was made for the previous game in the series, Civilization IV?

Thankfully it looks like people won’t have to remake those maps from stratch for the new entry in the series. BitMob quotes the game’s lead designer Jon Shafer as saying, “You can import Civ 4 maps into the world builder and convert them into Civ 5 maps, including all the units and cities and stuff on it.” While you won’t be able to do the same with Civ IV total conversion mods like the popular Fall from Heaven that have custom art and designs, we should see a flood of old Civ 4 maps remade for the new game when Civilization V is released this September.

Civilization V to allow imports of Civilization IV maps originally appeared on Big Download Blog on Thu, 24 Jun 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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