Hamsterdam Heading to Kickstarter
HI EVERYONE!
As you might have heard, there have been news about a Hamster running around Muse Games’ social media lately. The rumours are true: We’re making a kung-fu fighting Hamster game. Muses Derek, Vic & CS, with the help of some very talented artists, have been working on a new brawler called Hamsterdam!
SO WHAT IS HAMSTERDAM?
Hamsterdam will be a Nintendo Switch game, also available for PC, iOS, Android, and PS Vita!
It features Pimm a small hamster, who’s grandpa gets kidnapped as Hamsterdam gets overrun by an evil Chinchilla. But don’t worry, you got a scooter, and a black belt in hamster-fu! The game is a mix of fighting, rhythm, precision, combos, Chinchilla boss battles, and some furious button / screen mashing.
We’re so excited to finally show it to you!
To support our collaborators, and to invite you all to help us test this game, we’re starting a small Kickstarter Campaign.
WHY KICKSTARTER?
Kickstarter enables us to not only assure that you get Hamsterdam on all the platforms we are releasing on, but it also lets us do more fun stuff like exclusive Hamster costumes for Guns of Icarus, and, oh, A HAMSTER PLUSHIE?!
You’ve been our biggest supporters, and we are so incredibly honored to show you what we’ve been up to. We’ve grown so much as developers, and it’s been greatly thanks to you. With any luck, you will show Hamsterdam as much love, as you’ve done for Guns of Icarus.
WHAT ABOUT GUNS OF ICARUS?
Don’t worry, we are working on some truly amazing things behind the scenes, including new Maps, Discord Integration, Mixer Support, and a certain Microsoft cross-platform might be on the way (hint hint, nudge nudge..) We can’t say anymore, but stay tuned!
Hamsterdam hasn’t slowed us down in any way, but it has given us a new drive, and we are so thrilled to share this new venture with you.
Thanks so much again for your support!
Clear Skies,
Bubbles for Team Muse
Farewell, Ayetach!
Posted up on behalf of one of the greatest people I had the pleasure working alongside of:
To my colleagues, friends and everyone who has made the fabric of our community,
So as some of you may or may not be aware I have decided to hang up the Community Manager hat for the final time. It has not been an easy decision to make but one i feel more confident in now that i can look back at the fruits of our labour.
Contrary to many of our staff members I started out in this game community as a new player and became a CA before I was eventually offered the opportunity to join the team which is something I will always appreciate having done, and it is because of these moves I had forged far more friendships, developed more aspects of the game I love and surrounded myself with a community of creative, passionate, outspoken, philosophical and highly talented people.
Having done QA, visual design and animation for earlier game projects in the past, engaging myself with community management was a whole new beast and I can certainly say I’ve grown all the wiser in the years, especially having learned from case studies and real-time experience. Working to make a business succeed is hard work so as an Indy studio it is certainly much more the case. My passion was woven in with the Guns of Icarus project and having worked tirelessly over the years to help players solve problems, note suggestions, log bugs, cooperate in community events and develop player experiences the rollercoaster of duties has very much elevated my understanding of the player and developer perspectives in the industry.
Before I digress too much I wanted to get back on point in saying that my passion to see Guns of Icarus: Alliance, and the PS4 version, successfully launch has been realised and my work, having completed an extensive period of additional support, is complete to my personal satisfaction. I have done many of the tasks and milestones I was privileged enough to work towards and have gone as far as I could ever have managed in this area of game development. Every good adventure does have its conclusion and as such I will be passing on the torch. This game has truly touched the lives of more people than I can count, myself being no exception to this. So thank you for being amazing co-captains, friends and community members in these incredibly fruitful six years of airships and steampunk warfare.
tl;dr – Thanks for being awesome & see you all around!
Signing off,
Mikko (Ayetach)
Muse Games Community Manager
EGX Rezzed 2018 – Tobacco Dock, London
This year, just as last, we jumped at the chance to exhibit at EGX Rezzed at the Tobacco Docks in London. The charming steampunk aesthetic of the surroundings truly resonates with Guns of Icarus Alliance. Last year we had the absolute honour to announce the game’s release, and Guns of Icarus Online’s integration into the Guns of Icarus Alliance PVP aspect as a Thank You for all the support and dedication you guys have shown us over the years. We full heartedly believe that the people surrounding our game form one of the best online communities out there, so when we prepared for the dawning of the PlayStation 4 edition, we knew that we couldn’t bring ourselves to split this playerbase. Although Windows and PlayStation tend to rarely function as a unit, we set ourselves the goal to form an Alliance, if you will.
Pax East 2018 – Boston
“PS4, PC, PS4, PC, PS4!” -Cameron “Kirk” Bajus
We had a blast at Pax East this year showing off Guns of Icarus Alliance ahead of the PS4 launch on May 1st! But for long time fans and new crew alike, we had an exciting twist. At every seat in our booth, we sat PC next to PS4 in the same match, on the same ships. Our setup was so seamless that many of our lovely convention guests didn’t even realize it till we pointed out the controllers and keyboards in their friend’s hands! Voice chat will also be working cross-platform between Steam and PS4, but with people sitting next to each other, people opted for real life voice chat 😀 There’s a saying in game development, that the best features feel so natural players won’t even notice them.
A New Look For A New Audience
Wow. Guns of Icarus has come a long way just by looking at the website redesigns over the years. I remember implementing the longest running version (right) but never intended it to stick around for quite this long. Good thing this new design has finally launched. A new look for a new time, and a new audience!