This week I'm back with a new retrospective of "The Tone Rebellion," aka "Leviathan." This little gem from Jason and Todd Templeman is a real-time strategy game set in an abstract, surreal sci-fi universe. You control a tribe of mysterious "floaters" that work the mystical "tone" to erect structures and outfit troops. You must defeat the evil Leviathan by collecting and applying artifacts, thereby recovering the lost knowledge needed to secure victory. Unlike most RTS games with a big map, this one only goes left and right, simplifying navigation and allowing you to focus on maintaining a supply line.

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Sweeeet! There's yet another must-pledge Kickstarter out now: Project Eternity. This is another REALLY exciting one--they've got Tim Cain and Josh Sawyer working on this. In a nutshell, they want to make a new game in the style of Icewind Dale, which, if you'll remember, was a party-based isometric CRPG with RTWP (real-time with pause) combat. What happens when you put the creator of Fallout and Planescape: Torment together, then turn them loose with a Kickstarter-funded, no-publisher bullshit budget of a million dollars? I don't know about you, but I CAN'T WAIT TO FIND OUT. I went and pledged $65 to get the boxed copy. Knowing Tim, it'll be an awesome box with pack-ins well worth the price of admission.

Pledging ends October 16th, so you better get over there now. I seriously doubt they're going to have funding issues with this one, so you might as well grab all the freebies you can.

I'm back this week with the final installment of my interview with Trilobyte founder Graeme Devine, the programmer behind the hit game The 7th Guest and lead designer of Halo Wars. After The 7th Guest, Graeme and Rob were superstars, but their inflated egos led to one of the biggest disasters of their career--The 11th Hour, the long-anticipated and long-detested sequel. The big squabble was Graeme's reluctance to do anything that wasn't "Scooby Do," and Rob's desire to make cheesy soft porn.

Download the video here.

Kindle Fire HDIf you don't have a tablet yet, you might want to look more into the Kindle Fire HD.
Kindle Fire HD 7", Dolby Audio, Dual-Band Wi-Fi, 16 GB

Amazon has announced it on their website today. The 8.9" 4G is selling for $499 with a Wi-Fi only model at $299. The Kindle Fire HD has a 7" screen going for $199.

Matt Chat fans, you are in for a great episode this week: It's Graeme Devine on the amazing story of The 7th Guest, a bestselling, groundbreaking adventure game that helped launch the CD-ROM as a storage medium. It was so ambitious that it actually got Graeme and his partner fired from Mastertronic, only to re-form as their own company and release this beast upon the world. It made them overnight sensations. Grab some popcorn and hear what all the fuss was about!

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Tales of IllyriaI have a special treat this week for all of you indie CRPG fans! Chad Mannicia, programmer/designer of the upcoming Tales of Illyria game, was kind enough to sit down for over an hour to chat about the new game. Bill Loguidice and I have already pledged, but you guys need to step up! We're talking turn-based party combat, an epic story, and, best of all, an Oregon Trail-inspired resource management component! The minimum pledge is eight bucks, so get your butt over there and pledge pronto! We can't let talented people like Chad go un-funded, especially when they have such a promising yet modest Kickstarter.
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I'm back this week with a new interview series with Graeme Devine, the coding wizard best known for The 7th Guest and The 11th Hour. However, Graeme also did important work for id and goes back much earlier, developing some very impressive games for the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, and PC Jr./Tandy 1000. In this segment, we chat about his early days on those systems, wrapping up with his games Silver Surfer and Spot for the NES. Lots of good stuff here, particularly for fans of the UK's game development scene of the 80s.

Download the video here.

I just saw on Facebook that Her Interactive is launching a Kickstarter. Why, you ask? Isn't that company raking it in already? Well, they're doing great on PC and MAC, but looking to port their full-fledged adventure games to iOS and Android. I say "full fledged," because they're already done some stripped down "casual" versions of some games for iOS, but this is the real deal.

Adventure games, particularly of the point-and-click variety, have always been my second favorite genre, just after computer role-playing games. Unfortunately, the genre's popularity declined sharply after the collapse of LucasArts' adventure game division and, of course, Sierra On-Line's adventures. About the closest you can get nowadays to this "golden age" experience is the episodic games from Telltale Games. But what about folks looking for that classic point-and-click experience? I've been fortunate to review games for Adventure Classic Gaming, a site that specializes in new adventure games with the classic feel. The majority of the games I've reviewed are imports, usually German, and games from independent studios.

I thought it would be fun to talk about three or four of the best ones I've played recently and let you know where to get them. I'll also link each one to my full review of the title on Adventure Classic Gaming.