Welcome to the Nano Gaming News Weekly Rewind for May 22, 2021 where we cover gaming news stories and events that we missed out on covering over this past week. Note that with the upcoming Memorial Day holiday weekend in the United States the Weekly Rewind will be taking the weekend off on May 29, 2021 and will return on June 5, 2021.
Game releases was the theme of this past week. From Capricia Productions and All in! Games story rich metal music album Of Bird and Cage to Valkyrie Initiative and Texelworks 3D time manipulating FPS 41 Hours, there were a lot of game releases. With so many unfortunately two slipped by us at Nano Gaming News. The first game is Lacuna – A Sci-Fi Noir Adventure set in a pixel art world with a mystery begging to be solved from Assemble Entertainment and DigiTales Interactive. Grindstone is the other game, a unique puzzler featuring swords and dungeons from Capybara Games.
Court was in session for week three of the Epic Game’s antitrust lawsuit against Apple. The big event of the week was Apple CEO Tim Cook’s questioning on Friday from Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers.
Lacuna – A Sci-Fi Noir Adventure Released
Assemble Entertainment and independent game development studio DigiTales Interactive released their dialog-driven 2D sci-fi noir adventure Lacuna on PC. The pixel art game utilizes an extensive branching dialogue system and dynamic conversations to present an epic mystery.
Neil Conrad, a trenchcoat wearing member of the Central Department of Investigation (CDI), seeks out to unravel a mystery with potentially dire consequences. From shifty NPCs to multiple unique endings, players will be guessing right until the very end. No one is to be trusted, the questions are many, and a keen eye for clues is a must in the search for answers in this very unorthodox quest for truth in this conspiracy.
Lacuna – A Sci-Fi Noir Adventure is available on Windows PC through Steam for $15.99 USD. A Save the World Edition of the game is also available that includes the game’s soundtrack plus 10% pf the revenues from this edition goes to Go Give One a WHO initiative to provide vaccines for the recent pandemic. For more information about Lacuna visit the game’s Steam page.
Grindstone Indie Puzzler Comes to PC
Canadian independent game developer Capybara Games has released their colorful puzzler Grindstone on PC. Previously the puzzler was released on Apple Arcade and the Nintendo Switch eShop.
Featuring sword-slashing puzzle battles, Grindstone puts gamer’s puzzle skills to the test. Grindstone Mountain has been overrun with vicious Creeps. Within the mountain’s dungeons are bosses to battle, resources to loot, long-lost blueprints for powerful gear, and loads of baddies to eradicate. There are over 250 levels of puzzle-battling madness.
The only way to stop the Creeps is to slay one’s way up to the treacherous peak where not only fortune, but glory, maybe death, awaits!
Grindstone is available on Windows PC through the Epic Games Store for $19.99 USD. A 25% off release sale on the Epic Games Store runs until June 17, 2021. More information about Grindstone can be found on the game’s website at grindstonegame.com.
Trial Notes for Week Two of Epic Games vs. Apple
Week three of the Epic Games v. Apple trial is in the books. The biggest event of the week was on Friday when Apple CEO Tim Cook faced a barrages of questioning from Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers. Specifically the questioning was about Apple’s in-app purchase business model at the end of his testimony.
Rodgers had asked Cook what was the problem with allowing iPhone users the choice of lower fees, specifically for games. Cook’s response was they did, Apple or Android devices. A follow-up question asked about if Apple had a problem with users having access to get same in-app purchases through a web browser which would also bypass Apple’s 30% fee. This line of thought might be a potential preview of where Rodger’s final ruling on the case may be heading when the trial concludes in the future.
Other takeaways include Rodger’s expressing doubt that Apple’s Small Business Program, a program that cut App Store fees in half for small developers, was created over concern of small businesses during the pandemic. The judge even brought up a survey she had seen that 39% of Apple developers are dissatisfied with the App Store and Apple appeared to not be under any pressure or competition to change how they address the concerns of developers.
Next week the trial is expected to conclude on Monday, however there is no telling what interesting developments will happen. It is expected that Rodger’s decision on the trial may take weeks if not months. Elsewhere, Epic Games is still taking legal action in Australia against Apple plus there is the previously discussed in this column filing of a complaint in the UK.
Thank you for reading the May 22, 2021 Edition of the Nano Gaming News Weekly Rewind. Be sure to check back on Saturday, June 5 for a brand new edition of Nano Gaming News Weekly Rewind and until then, keep on gaming.
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