the-behemoth posts (Subscribe to this feed)

Super Meat Boy character select screen reveals playable Alien Hominid [update]

by Ben Gilbert { Jul 5th 2009 at 7:00PM }

Things are on the up and up for Super Meat Boy developer Edmund McMillen. After releasing This is a Cry for Help last year and subsequently announcing SMB for WiiWare, he put his indie cred on display for the world in adding Braid's Tim to his upcoming game. And now, during a live video interview with Bytejacker, McMillen ~~revealed~~ The Behemoth's Alien Hominid as another playable character!

Quickly panning to his computer screen during the interview and teasing it, one of our wonderful readers snagged a screen grab so we could share it with the world. Now the real question: Castle Crashers characters playable as well? Hmmmm, McMillen? Hmmm?

(We love you. Please?)

Update: It was pointed out by a few astute Game Informer readers in the comments section that Alien Hominid was actually revealed as a playable character in a recent issue. Sorry, folks!

(Thanks, Zack!)

Castle Crashers reached one million players today

by Majed Athab { Jun 22nd 2009 at 6:00PM }

The developers of Castle Crashers must have been ecstatic when its XBLA baby grew to house over 900,000 users last month, but this probably doesn't compare to the excitement felt today. At 12:57pm, The Behemoth diligently verified via its Leaderboard numbers that its behemoth of a game has broken the seven-digit barrier, becoming host to exactly 1 million players.

Castle Crashers has reached this momentous milestone rather quickly, having been out on the market for only 10 months (hey, that's an average of 100,000 new players a month) and to celebrate, The Behemoth gave away a set of uber-fantastic stuff. If you signed up previously, you could've won a bag of prizes which included a custom Castle Crashers Xbox 360 Elite. Congrats to whoever won, and to The Behemoth!

Castle Crashers hits 900,000 players, Behemoth offers prize for guessing date of millionth

by Alexander Sliwinski { May 13th 2009 at 8:10AM }

The Behemoth took the time out of its busy Crying Sugar Cube Leprechaun (not real title) development to reveal that the Castle Crashers leaderboards have passed 900,000 users. That does not mean there have been nearly a million sales of the game, but it does mean that Castle Crashers has been doing well on XBLA, a mere 8 months after launch.

The company's site is now challenging users to guess the exact date and time that the main Castle Crashers leaderboard will hit one million players. The winner will receive something "SPECTACULAR." Best of luck, but don't get The Behemoth too distracted with your entry on the company's forum, it has another game to finish.

The Behemoth promises new game info in July, shows off artistic bento

by Alexander Sliwinski { Apr 13th 2009 at 10:00AM }

Feeling obligated to update its blog, developer The Behemoth showed off some Castle Crashers bento (above), created by Anna the red, and stated that it would have more information to share about its third game in July.

The Behemoth is teasing that its (currently untitled) third game will makes an appearance at San Diego's Comic-Con, taking place July 23-26. That's too bad -- we were hoping to see more of the Crying Sugar Cube Leprechaun at E3 in June.

Reminder: Alien Hominid HD for 400 MS points this week

by Alexander Sliwinski { Mar 30th 2009 at 12:00PM }

Major Nelson reminds us that Alien Hominid HD is only 400

($5) this week for Xbox Live gold members. The Behemoth's first XBLA title is normally priced 800

($10). If this is somehow your first time ever hearing about Alien Hominid, the title received generally favorable reviews -- and we'd also like to welcome you back from your troglodytic lifestyle of the last three years.

The Behemoth is currently working on ~~The Crying Sugar Cube Leprechaun~~ its third as-yet untitled project, which the developer recently showed off in trailer form.

XBLA Awards: Braid can't rewind loss to Castle Crashers

by James Ransom-Wiley { Mar 23rd 2009 at 6:52PM }

Castle Crashers recovered from a 4-month gimp to be crowned the Xbox Live Arcade "Game of the Year" in the second annual community voting awards. Somewhat surprisingly, Castle Crashers also managed to nab "Best Co-op Mode" despite being virtually unplayable online for four out of its seven months in release. On its way to top honors, The Behemoth's beat-em-up notably beat out its fellow indie nominee, Braid, which was famously dismissed by an American youth spokesperson.

Braid's losing streak continued in the "Best Single Player Game" category, which was claimed by Orange Box cutout Portal: Still Alive (oh right, it has "exclusive" challenge maps), but Jonathan Blow's timeless effort did mange to win "Best Innovation" amid stiff competition. (We were certain Kefling's innovative "use of Avatars" was a shoo-in.)

The complete list of awards and recipients is posted after the break.

Continued →

The Behemoth reveals trailer for third game

by Alexander Sliwinski { Mar 17th 2009 at 11:31AM }

Developer The Behemoth has released its first trailer for The Crying Sugar Cube Leprechaun -- OK, that's not the real title, but the game doesn't have a name yet ... so deal. Actual details on the unnamed party platformer are pretty scarce at the moment, with no price, console nor game details announced. What we do know is that the game is expected in 2010, but considering what happened with Castle Crashers, let's just put 2010 in the category of hopeful dreaming for now. Let's also pray that any online play actually works on day one this time.

All The Behemoth would say is that the game is in the "very super early development stage right now." Check out the video after the break for an idea of what to expect from The Crying ... we gotta stop, that's how fake rumors about titles get started.

[Thanks, RazorD]

Continued →

SXSW 2009: Being Indie and Successful in the Video Game Industry

by Kevin Kelly { Mar 17th 2009 at 12:15AM }

There's a wealth of indie-related gaming panels and goings on at SXSW this year, ranging from the previous "Games By The People, For The People" panel, the GameSalad folks, and the retro-cool Get Outta My Face arcade cabinet. Heck, there's even a company that wants to bring back Hypercard stack games. So we went back for more indie gaming panel goodness, just because we could.

This was a panel by the game developers this time, rather than the people who run the companies ... so what did we learn? A lot of the same from the previous panel. Sadly Jonathan Blow couldn't make it, and was replaced by the above inflatable doll with the Freddie Mercury mug. Although covering his absence nicely were panelists Kellee Santiago from thatgamecompany, John Baez of The Behemoth, Ron Carmel of 2D BOY, and Joel DeYoung from Hothead Games who moderated. Check out the highlights after the break.

Continued →

Fable, Alien Hominid HD get slashed for March Deals of the Week

by Xav de Matos { Mar 13th 2009 at 5:41PM }

Before Peter Molyneux and Co. captured our GOTY hearts with Fable II, Lionhead introduced the world to Albion in Fable -- on the original Xbox. Next week -- billed as the figurative pot of gold for St. Paddy's Day -- the Xbox Originals release of Fable will be discounted to 800

($10) on March 16, down one third the standard (Read: Overpriced) tag of 1200

.

March 23's Deal of the Week isn't nearly exciting, discounting the Iowa Mission Pack for Battlestations Midway by 20%. Finally, to put an Irish kiss on the end of the month, the Deal of the Week beginning March 30 will be the XBLA title Alien Hominid HD, discounted by 50% to 400

($5). Those are some quality price drops... Irish I had some more MS Points.

The Behemoth revealing trailer for third game next week

by Alexander Sliwinski { Mar 10th 2009 at 10:09AM }

The Behemoth has announced that it's ready to unveil a trailer for its third game on March 18, "just a few days before" the Tokyo Anime Fair. The latest post on the company blog informs that several of the developers are going to the Tokyo Anime Fair on March 20-21 and will showcase Alien Hominid, Castle Crashers and "an uber-early version of Game #3." So, if you're in Tokyo, would you kindly upload any gameplay video you capture to YouTube?

As an amuse bouche, The Behemoth also showed off an image from the new game (pictured). Early idea on a name: The Crying Sugar Cube Leprechaun vs. The Helghast.

[Thanks, Adam M O'Neill]

Castle Crashers dev's third game closer to unveiling

by Randy Nelson { Mar 9th 2009 at 8:10PM }

The Behemoth, developer of Xbox Live Arcade favorites Alien Hominid and Castle Crashers is preparing to reveal its third -- as of yet unnamed -- title. The dev has been teasing "Game #3" on its blog and Twitter feed for some time, updating the latter today with, "Trailer for game #3 is complete!"

Given that the 2009 Game Developers Conference kicks off in San Francisco in only two weeks' time, we'd say the odds are good that Game #3 will get a proper unveiling -- and title -- during the event. Predictions? Let's hear 'em in comments.

[Via Primotech]

Virtually tour Behemoth and get a peek at new project

by Justin McElroy { Mar 3rd 2009 at 2:32PM }

OK, so maybe the tour video of indie dev The Behemoth's new San Diego office isn't exactly newsworthy. In fact, the video we've posted after the break is basically just Dan Paladin pretending that he's different people from the staff before (in most cases) admitting that he doesn't really know what they do.

But we thought you might be interested to see the sculptures of animal orbs at this same link, which is supposedly from a "secret project." Animal Orbs Pinball? We can only hope.

Continued →

The creation of Castle Crashers' chilly Frost King

by Dustin Burg { Feb 3rd 2009 at 6:00PM }

The crew behind Castle Crashers, artist to the stars Dan Paladin and programmer elite Tom Fulp, just willingly pulled the curtain back from their super secret design process. With the curtain removed, we get an insider's look into the creation process and how the evil Frost King came to be. As you can see per the art above, Mr. Paladin puts a heavy coat of "artistic magic" over the placeholder designs which sort of remind us of some sort of third grade school art project. View the creation of the Frost King in the 650% normal speed video that's embedded after the break. That Paladin has talent!

Continued →

World at War and Castle Crashers top Live charts

by Dustin Burg { Jan 20th 2009 at 1:30PM }

New Xbox Live activity figures for the week of January 12th have just made their way online thanks to one Major Nelson and claiming the number one spot is Treyarch's Call of Duty: World at War. That zombified weekend must have helped. Halo 3, CoD4, Gears 2 and Left 4 Dead round out the top five. As far as Xbox Live Arcade games go, Castle Crashers sits on top, partly due to the fact that new DLC just released. Full list of Live rankings for retail, XBLA and Community Games is viewable after the jump.

The Behemoth begins work on new game

by Richard Mitchell { Jan 16th 2009 at 3:00PM }

On the Behemoth developer blog, resident artist Dan Paladin announced that the company is already prototyping its next project now that Castle Crashers is out the door. Paladin had little to say about the game apart from the fact that the company is "off to a very strong & solid start" and that those who have played the game seem to enjoy it. We suppose that's a good sign, right? Paladin added that the Behemoth might start posting images from the new game and see if the community can guess what the game is all about. Then again, he might just tell us.

Our guess? An epic, episodic, massively multiplayer online first-person shooter real time strategy role-playing game. That's right, an MMOFPSRTSRPG. For Xbox Live Arcade, of course.