Hello! Jamestown+ is finally out on Steam. You can get it here ! Before we dig into what's new in the remaster: if you own Jamestown, Jamestown+ is only $5 this week. We hear your concerns about having to rebuy being lame - so for owners of the original game, we've priced the ful
Hello! Jamestown+ is finally out on Steam. You can get it here!
Before we dig into what's new in the remaster: if you own Jamestown, Jamestown+ is only $5 this week. We hear your concerns about having to rebuy being lame - so for owners of the original game, we've priced the full Jamestown+ as though it's a DLC (by discounting the base price by 73%). Thanks for your patience - we'd've loved to have this out earlier, too!
Here's what's new in Jamestown+:
Two all-new, handcrafted levels set on Phobos & Deimos, the moons of Mars.
New ships: Master The Armada, three new configurable conveyances that allow for 36 possible weapon loadouts, letting you play your way. (Also one clown fiesta ship, that gives you random loadouts every time you die.)
New background & enemy artwork, level layout adjustments, bullet pattern tweaks, and a completely scratch-built user interface.
The original soundtrack and sound effects have been carefully remastered for 5.1 surround sound, powered by the all-new Gorilla Audio engine.
We're glad to have the best version of Jamestown back on Steam where it belongs! Thanks for your support.
Hello! Today's Jamestown patch (when was the last time you saw those words together?) fixes a few old issues with the current Windows version of Jamestown as we get ready for the release of the game's enhanced edition. If any other major issues still exist, please let us know! Po
Hello! Today's Jamestown patch (when was the last time you saw those words together?) fixes a few old issues with the current Windows version of Jamestown as we get ready for the release of the game's enhanced edition.
If any other major issues still exist, please let us know! Posts on the Steam Community or messages in our Discord are the best way to get in touch.
The game will also be on sale this week (50% off) for the first time in four years!
Thanks for playing! PS - A similar fix for the Mac build of the game will be coming shortly - it's not ready quite yet.
ICYMI - Jamestown+ (enhanced re-release) is coming to Steam later this year! Owners of the original version of Jamestown will be cut in on a sweet deal - we can't announce the details just yet, but we'll be offering Jamestown+ at a sharp discount for owners of the original game.
Hi there! If you're reading this, you're one of the hundreds of thousands of players who've enjoyed Jamestown's original release on Steam over the years. (2011 was a long time ago - especially in video game years.) You might also be one of the thousands who saw Jamestown+ come ou
Hi there!
If you're reading this, you're one of the hundreds of thousands of players who've enjoyed Jamestown's original release on Steam over the years. (2011 was a long time ago - especially in video game years.) You might also be one of the thousands who saw Jamestown+ come out on PS4 in 2015, and asked, "hey, can we have Jamestown+ stuff?"
Yes. Yes, you can.
We'll be re-releasing Jamestown this fall (2019) as Jamestown+: a standalone, all-inclusive package, complete with all of the game's new ships, new levels, and eight years of engine improvements and art refinements. We've got something special in store for current owners of Jamestown on Steam when Jamestown+ becomes available for purchase - we'll reveal more details as we're able. We're sure you'll be happy with the result.
In the meantime - if you want to keep up to date on the release or just chat about either version of Jamestown, come join us on our (very new) Discord server!
We're super stoked to finally be bringing all our hard work on Jamestown back to Steam - we hope you are, too!
By the late ‘90s, with Street Fighter 2’s impact on arcades receding in the West, the beautiful rows of wooden cabinets and the glow of their CRTs suffered a commercial deforestation. With their dwindling ranks went the heyday for genres built around a quick play and immediate gr
By the late ‘90s, with Street Fighter 2’s impact on arcades receding in the West, the beautiful rows of wooden cabinets and the glow of their CRTs suffered a commercial deforestation. With their dwindling ranks went the heyday for genres built around a quick play and immediate gratification. Genres like the shoot-em-up, which predates all the rest with links back to 1962’s pioneering Spacewar!
In its prime, the shoot-em-up genre swelled with a distinctly Japanese form of game design, screens covered by hellish bullet patterns and anime girls—plus notable domestic off-shoots. Post-arcade, the shoot-em-up, the shooter, the shmup, or the STG (pick your acronym preference) receded into an enthusiast bubble, hidden from view after first and third-person action games captured the designation of 'shooter.'
In those dark years, shmup enthusiasts either contended with pricey, obscure late releases on the Dreamcast and Neo Geo, or by sheer will, discovered alternate venues, corners of the internet where potential classics like the enemy pile-on Cho Ren Sha resided prior to common digital distribution and Steam.
"I found an online resource of Japanese people, just basement devs, who would be posting shmups and posting updates every day online. Some of them were crap. Some of them were unbelievably cool," remembered Don Thacker, founder of Imagos Softworks, developers of the Kickstarted genre cross-over Starr Mazer.
Discovery comes easy when wandering a hall of video games, each churning attract screens. Without arcades, those random hubs found by curious Google hunters such as Thacker were it for the shmup’s exposure, outside of certain studios aiming at the die-hard audience. The genre, and with it the shmup’s myriad of sci-fi, fantasy, and military fetishism, fell into disrepair. The mainstream gaming public chewed on ever increasing polygon counts; the dedicated shmup fan sifted through what amounted to back alley digital dumpsters seeking anything of merit still made with scrappy 2D sprites, subwoofer crushing explosions, and mountainous end level bosses.
Then, a visible indie game movement, and more so, Steam. Consider the timing as the calendar turned to the 2010s: Kids who mastered joystick controls in front of CRTs burning phosphors, expertly navigating games at the height of shmup popularity—from Namco’s ageless Galaga to Capcom’s beautifully exaggerated, WWII "inspired" 194X series—plug into their nostalgia as developers. Thus a flurry of Steam activity, sizable enough to wear down even the hardened genre devotees, but also a sign of regeneration and visibility.
Now developers like Mommy’s Best Games, developer of the neon obsessed heavy metal shmup Shoot 1UP, can find a home for their uniquely textured throwbacks.
"Steam has been great to release Shoot 1UP to, as it was very successful on Xbox 360 and now we can reach even more people. I love consoles but not everyone has one. With PCs, nearly every gamer has a machine that can run our 1990s style shooters," said Nathan Fouts of Mommy’s Best Games.
It’s a gold rush on Steam compared to the genre’s low point. The service afforded a substantial kick to the shmup, which at the turn of the decade saw a fleet of indies in such numbers, Don Thacker amusingly stated that for developers, "Steam is bullet hell."
The slow resurgence
Throughout the early 2000s, a few notable studios entered the space, some earning wide acclaim, including Treasure’s polarity swapping Ikaruga (no article on shmups is free from Ikaruga’s notable grasp). Aside from Treasure, popular Japanese developer Psikyo (notable for their raucous Strikers 1945 and the perky, daydream-like Gunbird) died off by 2003, vacating the space. Enter Japanese developer Cave.
Founded in 1994 but finding their footing as Psikyo neared shutdown, Cave’s numerous early entries include tongue twisting titles DoDonPachi, Espagaluda, and Guwange, the latter boasting a genre-exotic medieval Japan setting. Further efforts in the later 2000s brought on bullets in droves from Mushihimesama, Espagaluda II, and Deathsmiles, the latter fitted with anime witches and anime fantasy and anime tropes to saturated extremes. Each of Cave’s entries fell into a contemporary sub-genre affectionately coined 'bullet hell,' partly unsurprising since the studio’s formation is owed to former employees of the bankrupt Toaplan, arguably where the designation came from following Toaplan’s sci-fi dazzler Batsugun.
Bullet hell came to define the zest of a shmup, balancing an elegant ballet of colored weaponry and a playable protagonist with a single weak point, mere pixels (or even pixel) wide. They’re peak shmup, where pressure-driven, graceful movement meets a handsome (and ceaseless) display of enemy attack patterns. Steam is full of these gripping yet punishing games, including a back library of Cave’s work.
"There's a strong support for Cave and the bullet hell genre itself… The shooting game developers catered more to a dwindling audience who were demanding harder and harder games," noted James Wragg, Director of Publishing at Degica, responsible for bringing some of those Cave classics to Steam.
"Steam fills that gap and enables companies. They don't need to go through a publisher like us. They can publish independently," began Wragg. "It basically allows them to publish without all of the red tape of the platforms like PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo. In theory, it opens it up to a much wider audience because Steam's got such a huge user base."
"It's very encouraging to see a lot of indie circles start to release stuff on Steam. Back in my day, you wouldn't see that. But now you're seeing stuff like Crimzon Clover [and] Mecha Ritz [Steel Rondo]," said Danny 'danbo' Baxter of Stellar Circle, developer of 2016’s Blue Revolver, a suitably low-fi gem owing much to Cave’s turn-of-the-century design philosophy.
Influenced
Nostalgic influence feeds the listings on Steam, cultivating a collection of shmups which hit every classification in a varied genre—vertical, horizontal, traditional, even twin stick (although the hardcore community may find the inclusion dubious). Shmups even interject themselves elsewhere.
"If you click the bullet hell tab on Steam, you'll see a lot of games that bear no resemblance to something that I've been playing. Undertale had bullet patterns, Neir Automata is going to have them," said danbo a few weeks before Nier's release.
The rush of games—and those borrowing elements—has caused a touch of in-fighting between those passionate for the striking difficulty of bullet hell and those seeking something more passive. Like Degica’s Dariusburst, the continuation of a decades old franchise set in deep space as players set ablaze robotic, oceanic inspired creatures. In a genre of familiar routines, Darius is (and forgive the pun) in a sea of its own.
"There's a certain generation where their first encounter with shooting games was bullet hell. For them, bullet hell equals shooting games. We came across this when we released Dariusburst. Some of the reviews from users saying there's not enough bullets on screen, but it's like comparing Virtua Fighter to Street Fighter," said Wragg, noting the wide separation in shmup styles.
Steaming
Paging the community on hangout Shmupsforum, users expressed dismay surrounding imperfect ports, brought up fandom punching bag Sine Mora for a laugh, and tossed positive sentiments at the modern accessibility of the genre. "The recent deluge of shmups on Steam has been a great thing… The genre is finding a wider audience and there have been some great indie efforts. Shmups are alive and kicking and I hope it continues forever," noted one user.
"At the same time, especially in recent years, it also allows for a boatload of shovelware to gum up the works," countered one forum regular.
As with Steam in general, the visibility problem grows with each new game added to the service. "I think Steam is brilliant at making things accessible. I also think Steam added more games last year than Steam had previous," stated Thacker. "If you look at our little pie slice on Steam and you fill it 80% with Cave games, I think it's going to be hard for us to have the discussion about a genre a lot of indies are trying to put back together."
Wragg, however, welcomed the influx. "I'm happy to see competition in the market because competition is good for everybody. It makes people push harder and I'd rather see the shooting genre go somewhere other than just bullet hell and have somebody come up with crazy mechanics that push things in other directions. The only way that can happen is through new people with new ideas coming in."
I'd rather see the shooting genre go somewhere other than just bullet hell and have somebody come up with crazy mechanics that push things in other directions.
James Wragg
Bullet hell continues to dominate on Steam. Of the 15 pages of games listing themselves under shoot-em-up, nearly half pin themselves to bullet hell. "There's definitely a lot of games you could play, but I'm not sure how many of those are really geared to getting people into games like bullet hell," said danbo.
"For the beginner coming in, it is a very difficult place to start. But Steam again on that front allows people to, without much of a financial investment, pick up couple of shooting games in the sale or a couple of really well priced indies," said Wragg.
Games like Thacker’s gorgeous Starr Mazer, mixing horizontal shooting and point-and-click gameplay, come pre-designed for entry level play. "I've had 45, 50 year old guys come up and they'll be like, 'Oh, it's Galaga.' It's super not, but I understand that's all you can link it to so let's use that as a stepping stone."
Those looking to jump in on Steam might be turned away by Cave’s kinetic, even exuberant style, but can find solace elsewhere. "[Jamestown is] pretty simple to pick up. You can sit around with two, three, four players locally, enjoy it with your friends and the mechanics work very well for multiple players," said Wragg. He’s right: Jamestown’s friendly H.G. Wells-meets-American-Western aesthetic marries to a charming entry level pixel adventure without being first baptized by Cave.
If nothing else, the genre remains alive, and in good hands. The indie surge brought on by Steam, for its inevitable faults in saturation, allows developers to find a home. “If you haven't gone to the shmup section on Steam, check out some indies. You're missing a lot," began Thacker. "Also if you grew up in the ‘80s and ‘90s and you liked shmups, they're there. They exist. It didn't go away with arcades. They survived."
We've seen our share of Humble Indie Bundles over the past year or two—independent developers who gather under the " Humble " brand and release a bunch of their games priced at whatever people want to pay. The latest one, Humble Bundle #4, might be the best one yet—for any price
We've seen our share of Humble Indie Bundles over the past year or two—independent developers who gather under the "Humble" brand and release a bunch of their games priced at whatever people want to pay.
The latest one, Humble Bundle #4, might be the best one yet—for any price you want, you can get Super Meat Boy, Bit. Trip Runner, Jamestown, Shank and Nightsky. Pay more than the average price (currently tracking at $4.61 on the Humble Bundle site), you get Cave Story + and Gratuitous Space Battles as well.
There's no shortage of gaming to be done this December, but these are all great games, for a great price. And not only will you be supporting indie devs, you'll have the option to give money to either the American Red Cross or Child's Play.
Check out their (endearingly cheesy and reference-laden) trailer above. It's funny, I was quoting that bit from The Rock all last weekend for some reason.
Details of the next Humble Indie Bundle have once more leaked, because Steam’s Content Description Record Viewer Thingamie is so ludicrously easy for people to spy. And it looks like it’s going to be a bit of a corker, as spotted by DIY Gamer . In the pay-what-you-want collection
Details of the next Humble Indie Bundle have once more leaked, because Steam’s Content Description Record Viewer Thingamie is so ludicrously easy for people to spy. And it looks like it’s going to be a bit of a corker, as spotted by DIY Gamer. In the pay-what-you-want collection it seems there will be Super Meat Boy, BIT.TRIP.RUNNER, Jamestown, Nightsky and Shank. That’s the first wave, and then there’s even better to get added in.
* Fixed a crash that could occur when plugging in certain controllers while the game was running. (e.g. XBOX 360 controllers) * Fixed unexpected cursor behavior when alt-tabbing out of Jamestown. * Jamestown window icon now appears correctly when the game is running in windowed m
* Fixed a crash that could occur when plugging in certain controllers while the game was running. (e.g. XBOX 360 controllers) * Fixed unexpected cursor behavior when alt-tabbing out of Jamestown. * Jamestown window icon now appears correctly when the game is running in windowed mode * Fixed a bug where certain weapon sounds would play at high volume when returning from the continue screen * Trains in New Madrid (and challenge levels) award the correct number of points again * Selecting ‘START OVER’ from the pause menu or game over screens will now restart you at the correct level in the same game mode you were playing previously * Fixed inaccurate descriptions of challenge levels and their unlock conditions in the shoppe * Players now resume firing correctly when returning from the continue screen (e.g. no need to re-press fire button) * Ghost ship sounds now pan correctly * Soundtrack cover image added
Product Update
Jamestown Update Released
Updates to Jamestown have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include: - Fixed a bug where the game was crashing at the beginning of levels for players with certain audio configurations - Fixed a bug wher
Updates to Jamestown have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:
- Fixed a bug where the game was crashing at the beginning of levels for players with certain audio configurations - Fixed a bug where some users weren’t hearing any music at all - Fixed a bug where trying to play the game caused some users to hear dark whispers from beyond space and time never meant for mortal ears - Fixed a crash bug that cropped up sometimes when defeating the Lady of the Lake - Treason and Ghost DLC ships can now properly target and kill Jack-In-A-Box enemies in New Madrid - Added a ‘Try Again’ button to Gauntlet Mode for quickly getting back into the action. - Fixed bug where gauntlet moon extends were not being given - Blocks in Croatoa are now much less likely to crush you erroneously - Fixed small timing issues on some sounds - XBOX 360 triggers now correctly bind again - Keyboard bindings now persist between rounds again - Attempted fix for users needing to set CPU affinity to 1 - Restored OpenGL 1.5 provisional support - Fixed audio skip in one of the tracks on the soundtrack
They grew corn and tobacco in colonial Jamestown on Mars back in the 1600s. Sir Walter Raleigh took up arms, via a spaceship, to fight the Spanish-Martian alliance. I don't think any of this is true, but this was history as described to me by Tim Ambrogi, one of the developers of
They grew corn and tobacco in colonial Jamestown on Mars back in the 1600s. Sir Walter Raleigh took up arms, via a spaceship, to fight the Spanish-Martian alliance.
I don't think any of this is true, but this was history as described to me by Tim Ambrogi, one of the developers of the four-player shoot-em-up called Jamestown that chronicles these events.
If you want to check the authenticity of the game, to see if it matches with history as you know it, check out the $10 game, which is out now on Steam. It actually came out during E3 in June, which is how I missed our own item about it finally launching. Maybe I should read more of the stories we run on Kotaku from our own Luke Plunkett who has heretofore monopolized coverage of this game around here. Not any more, Luke!
Jamestown was one of the PAX 10, a batch of stellar indie games showcased at this past weekend's Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle.
You can contact Stephen Totilo, the author of this post, at [email protected]. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and lurking around our #tips page.
Today's Deal: Save 50% off Jamestown ! Look for the deals each day on the front page of Steam. Or follow us on twitter or Facebook for instant notifications wherever you are!
Today's Deal: Save 50% off Jamestown!
Look for the deals each day on the front page of Steam. Or follow us on twitter or Facebook for instant notifications wherever you are!
Product Update
Jamestown Updated
Triggers on 360 controllers can now be bound as buttons Triggers are no longer 'sticky' for certain controllers Implemented gauntlet extends Implemented provisional support for some OpenGL 1.5 video cards Fixed a crash on machines with alternative "My Documents" directory paths F
Triggers on 360 controllers can now be bound as buttons
Triggers are no longer 'sticky' for certain controllers
Implemented gauntlet extends
Implemented provisional support for some OpenGL 1.5 video cards
Fixed a crash on machines with alternative "My Documents" directory paths
Fix crash when paging through leaderboards
Fixed a rare crash bug in Dark Sector
Fixed a bug where directional keyboard bindings were not persisting between rounds
I was cheering excitedly about beautiful indie shmup Jamestown last week, and the title’s tagline of “Mars is waiting! Bring your friends!” must be the finest piece of video game marketing of the last ten years. But a philosopher once said that a video speaks a thousand words, so
I was cheering excitedly about beautiful indie shmup Jamestown last week, and the title’s tagline of “Mars is waiting! Bring your friends!” must be the finest piece of video game marketing of the last ten years.
But a philosopher once said that a video speaks a thousand words, so here’s games commenter Total Biscuit talking you through the game in an even more agitable manner than usual. I’m serious- if you watch up to him reaching the first boss you will hear the actual sound of a man having a nervous breakdown. (more…)
Fixed a common crash when killing turrets while going to Game Over screen Fixed Centurion Card achievement Mouse no longer moves very slowly for mice with high polling rates Difficulty curve smoothed out slightly High score entries now record missing metadata about play sessions
Fixed a common crash when killing turrets while going to Game Over screen
Fixed Centurion Card achievement
Mouse no longer moves very slowly for mice with high polling rates
Difficulty curve smoothed out slightly
High score entries now record missing metadata about play sessions
Updated credits
Fixed rare bug where players died on respawn in Croatoa
Product Update
Jamestown Updated
Changes: Lives/credits now behave consistently during gauntlet runs F9 no longer crashes game when attempting to record using FRAPS Lightning Bug crash fixed on Dark Sector Leaderboards now correctly save/display selected ships Final boss music replaced with fully-mastered versio
Changes:
Lives/credits now behave consistently during gauntlet runs
F9 no longer crashes game when attempting to record using FRAPS
Lightning Bug crash fixed on Dark Sector
Leaderboards now correctly save/display selected ships
Final boss music replaced with fully-mastered version
Fullscreen-related crashes should be fixed
Bomber vulcan damage increased by 1.5
Attempted fix for analog/hat input conflict on certain controllers
Challenge level and gauntlet achievements should now award correctly (apologies to our first first 1CC gauntlet players!)
The next time a challenge is completed (win or lose), all missing challenge achievements will be awarded
Enemies that weren’t damage-flashing correctly should now be, with a few minor exceptions
Misc other crash bugs resolved
Known Issues:
Very-high-sensitivity mice move very slowly WORKAROUND: Lower mouse sensitivity settings through Windows
Some integrated video cards crash due to lack of proper OpenGL 2.0 support
Audio mixer occasionally enters a state where sounds play incorrectly WORKAROUND: Quit and restart the program
Menu music sometimes cuts out after a couple loops
“Mars is waiting! Bring your friends!” We don’t get a great deal of scrolling shmups or top-notch pixel art here on the PC, so I’m very excited about indie title Jamestown: The Lost Colony, which came out just yesterday ( Steam , Direct2Drive , GamersGate ). It’s set in a 17th ce
“Mars is waiting! Bring your friends!”
We don’t get a great deal of scrolling shmups or top-notch pixel art here on the PC, so I’m very excited about indie title Jamestown: The Lost Colony, which came out just yesterday (Steam, Direct2Drive, GamersGate). It’s set in a 17th century colony on Mars. Your enemies are an alliance of Martians and Spanish Conquistadors. It has up to four player co-op (on the same PC). Do you know, I could only be more excited if it had a soundtrack by a classically trained composer from Santiago, Chile. Oh wait! It does! Tell you what, I’m gonna have a bit of a play and post some impressions after the jump. Half an hour later…
Jamestown , an indie shooter we've been keeping an eye-and-a-half on for a while now, is finally out. Yes, released right in the middle of E3. I got a chance to play it this morning, and it's pretty good! You can grab it for $9 from Steam, D2D and GamersGate.
Jamestown, an indie shooter we've been keeping an eye-and-a-half on for a while now, is finally out. Yes, released right in the middle of E3.
I got a chance to play it this morning, and it's pretty good!
You can grab it for $9 from Steam, D2D and GamersGate.
Jamestown is now available on Steam and 10% off until June 15th 10AM PST. A neo-classical top-down shooter for up to 4 players, set on 17th-century British Colonial Mars. It features all the intensity, depth, and lovingly handcrafted pixels of a classic arcade shooter, with a mod
Jamestown is now available on Steam and 10% off until June 15th 10AM PST.
A neo-classical top-down shooter for up to 4 players, set on 17th-century British Colonial Mars. It features all the intensity, depth, and lovingly handcrafted pixels of a classic arcade shooter, with a modern twist: deeply-integrated cooperative gameplay.
