Gaming

GAMING NEWS | Interview with the CEO & Founder of Utomik, Doki Tops!

I got a chance to share a few emails with the CEO of this fun gaming service.

Utomik

As some of you may know, I dropped some news that Utomik, a gaming subscription service, partnered with Curve Digital - a pretty awesome indie developer. While the platform isn't perfect yet, it definitely has an interesting selection of games that seems to be growing more and more each passing week. And while it doesn't give us an unlimited Netflix-esque experience yet - I feel like it's definitely on it's way. So, I emailed with CEO, Doki Tops, to figure just what makes this service special. 1

First off, tell me about your service, Utomik, in your own words.

In short, we serve people an 'all-you-can-eat' unlimited gaming buffet for a monthly subscription fee. What that means, is that with Utomik people get to play anything they want on our service, as much as they want. With a weekly growing library there's always something new for you to give a try. The beauty of a subscription service like ours is that you're not spending a cent more than the monthly fee. It enables people to go outside their comfort zone and discover something new, something they otherwise probably never have bought in a traditional digital store.

If there's something that appeals to you, you only have to press the 'Play' button and you're usually playing the game within a minute, depending on your internet connection. That's also a thing that no digital store currently offers! With our smart download tech you never have to wait hours for your game to download. Our tech calculates how much of the game you need to start playing, based on your internet connection, so you get to jump in the game really quick. The rest downloads in the background to your PC while you're playing! You can also say goodbye to updating and patching games every week!

We offer a wide variety of genres, so there's something for every type of player. We have AAA classics, retro titles, indie gems, and family-friendly games. Whether you want to play Batman: Arkham Asylum, Saints Row IV, the old Star Wars games, high-quality indies, or a casual time management title, we've got you covered!

Arkham Asylum is one of few AAA titles in the servicemedia.giphy.com

What are your goals for Utomik?

Our mission is to "Unleash Gaming". For us that means giving more people easy access to a big variety of games. That feeling when you discover something cool on Netflix is what we want to bring to gaming. So far with more than 700 games we've come a long way, but we've just started. We want to become a big player in this space. Currently we've been compared to all the big names and have come out on top quite a few times. As a small start-up that makes us really proud.

We will get more and newer content to the platform and will be expanding on our day one release strategy, we recently launched another one of those and the content we release is fresher every week. Also currently we are doing this in the realm of PC but we are looking into other platforms for the future.

What would you say separates Utomik from other game streaming platforms like Jump?

Our diversity, technology and personal approach certainly makes us stand out from the crowd. Our variety lets you play a big open world game, while the next day you want to get a little more philosophical with a deep indie title or play a hidden object game. In a family account, which we support, this becomes even more valuable.

We release a minimum of 5 titles every week to expand our portfolio, and we try to keep in mind different kinds of players. That makes it more exciting to start up Utomik and seeing what's new for you! Our technology lets you get into the game after only downloading a small part of the game. Start playing in a minute, no long downloads or patches.

And finally, unlike many platforms we have a very personal approach. We take our time to talk to every single person that wants to engage with us. Next to our main Facebook page and Twitter account, we have our Facebook Community group, a public Discord channel, four days that we livestream on Twitch, YouTube and Facebook, at two different times a day, and we make YouTube videos in which we recommend games from our library. We also interview indie developers once a week on our livestream, so people can jump in and ask them all their questions and occasionally get a sneak peek of a new project they're working on! We want to share our love of games with everybody that wants to listen. :D

Do you think that a service like Utomik is where gaming is headed?

Definitely! Otherwise we wouldn't be doing this. ;) With so many games nowadays needing very big downloads, updates and patches before you can even start playing, we see a growing request for a service like ours. You just want to click 'Play' and get into a game, not having to wait an hour.

Then there's the trend of on demand in every other entertainment industry. Netflix and Spotify let users engage with content without friction. This lets people listen to new music or unknown films without friction. This is missing in gaming and we believe it is definitely the future.

In this world it's getting harder and harder for gamers to stay up-to-date with every new game getting released. A big chunk of gamers are people with a full time job, maybe a family, and they might have other hobbies next to gaming too. They don't have the time to read every gaming website, watch Let's Plays or livestreams. They just want to sit down and play something like they do with all their other media! We take away the overload of information and let them enjoy themselves for the limited time they might have. And you can be certain that every game that we have on our platform is up to standard due to our curation. Something that can't be said for regular storefronts.

You say you hand pick your titles - how do you decide what kind of games get a spot on your service?

Every game that gets added needs to either be critically acclaimed, loved by players from that genre or niche, or have won awards. Besides that we also look if a certain game fits our audience or if we need to add titles within a certain genre to give our players more choice there. But before a game gets released on Utomik it needs to take one final hurdle: our Ninjas. They're a group of Utomik subscribers that help us curate the titles that get added. Everybody with a Utomik subscription can apply for this program but we try to keep this group as varied as possible so that every type of player is represented. We ask them to play the games we want to add and let us know what they think of them. They don't like it? Then we don't add it! Who knows better what they want to play than your own users, right? We always want to keep that human factor in our selection process. We're very proud and thankful for the group of people we have in our Ninja Squad at the moment.

This partnership with Curve Media is great! Do you want to have more of an independent presence on Utomik? Like, are you going to try for more indie games, or do you want a good mix of both indie and AAA titles?

We keep aiming for a good mix of both but a partnership like the one with Curve definitely helps us cement our position as the leading indie platform. We're being supported by a lot of indie developers and publishers at the moment already. You'll only see this number grow in the future. We push hard to get the best indie titles on our service! I can't wait to show you our upcoming games.

Everybody at Utomik is a big fan of indie games! We're very excited to give them a platform where they can reach a completely new audience, or get rediscovered by people that didn't get to play their game when it originally released.

And lastly, what would you say is the best part of Utomik?

For me it's the great games that I got to discover and play on Utomik. That, together with our staff and the community make it the best. We are lucky to have a very passionate staff and community that helps and supports us in making Utomik the best it can be. Without them we wouldn't be where we are today and I am very thankful for that.

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Gaming

GAMING NEWS | What does Curve Digital add to gaming service, Utomik's, library?

Up-and-coming subscription service, Utomik, has just partnered with Curve Digital, adding some pretty sweet titles to their ever expanding selection of games.

Utomik is a PC-based gaming subscription service that offers an ever-expanding collection of indie and AAA titles. This 600+ collection includes well-known titles like Borderlands and Batman: Arkham Asylum, and more independent games like Yono and the Celestial Elephants, and Deponia. How they operate is simple - they get rid of the hassle of long installations but downloading just enough of the game to your hard disk and allowing you to play as it finishes! It's a simple concept, and honestly, I don't know how sold I am on them, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

The beauty of the service is supposed to be its unlimited gaming with a low price, and thanks to their partnership with Curve Digital, they are one step closer to making that statement a reality. Since I last got their press release, I was given the opportunity to try the service for myself. I admit, I am not a huge fan of subscription services - I find the lack of ownership of things to a little too loose for me. Still, I decided to give them a chance, because they definitely seemed to be more robust than other services.

When I booted them up for the first time, I was impressed by their Netflix-like front page. The design felt easy to navigate. I decided to try one of the Curve Digital games first, Hue. Downloading the game was a simple enough experience - it took a few moments for a sufficient chunk of the game to finish installing before I could play - and it went off without a hitch. I played for about an hour and had no real issue. There were no freezes or bugs - everything ran smoothly.

Of course, Hue is just a 2D platformer - and it's not like I was trying to run Fallout 4 or Witch III. So, I decided to try a larger game, Borderlands, and again - it went off without a hitch. It took a little longer to download, needing 828mb before starting. But the game ran smoothly, and I never had a moment that threw me for a loop.

I think the main issue I have with the service is the phrase, "unlimited gaming," because it is very limited. They do have a lot of titles, but they don't have a lot of major titles. Of course, this is unfair to say, because it's hard - and they do seem to be getting a steady of flow of new content. And, they it's not like they don't have a large selection, they definitely have some games worth playing - and that's to their new partnership, they've got even more.

Games like Hue, Manual Samual, Serial Cleaner, Hue, Human: Fall Flat, and Skitbold: A Dodgeball Adventure are fun titles and I hope that the service experiences more growth as they expand. And while it doesn't have quite off an unlimited gaming experience, the experience it does offer is well worth the low price of $10. If you want to experience the service for yourself, you can check out the website here.

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Gaming

VIDEO GAY-MER | Butterfly Soup is the Fun Portrayal of Queer Teendom We All Need

It's so hard to find queer games that are not only accurate portrayals of gay teens, but are also hella fun. This is one of them.

Oh man.

Not going to lie guys, I'm kicking myself in the head for not getting to this title sooner. Most of you have probably heard of Brianna Lei's Butterfly Soup, a visual novel that took the gaming world by storm last year. For those that haven't, it's about four queer Asian-American teens attending their first year of high school in California.

It's astounding writing, characters, and overall depiction of Asian American queer teens have led to other sites like Polygon, PC Gamer, and Kotaku calling it a stand out game of the year. And, after playing through most of it, I can see why.

Listen. I don't like visual novels half the time. Even something like Dream Daddy, which I loved, gets incredibly boring. I suffer through them, because it's where a lot of queer content gets produced It's not because they're bad, I just have a specific taste and I don't want to spend three or four or ten hours just reading text on a screen. But, I was happy to do it with Butterfly Soup, because it's just so fun.

And that should be a given, right? Dream Daddy was fun, wasn't it? And so was Gone Home (which isn't necessarily a visual novel, but close enough)? And Life is Strange (which also isn't necessarily a visual novel, but again, close enough)? That's true, but I think what separates Butterfly Soup from them is that has a sense of honesty without taking away the humor and light-heartedness at all and making it either super campy or super depressing.

As much as I love Gone Home, it focused a lot on the negative experiences of queer youth. You hear a lot about how it's main character struggled with both her identity and helping her partner. While this is a very honest representation of what a lot of young gay folks through - it's not the only experience that we have.

We have a community and we have a lot of queer friends, and often times we surround ourselves with other queer people. That's what happens during the entirety of this game. You are dropped in on the life of a young queer girl and her other queer friends. You see how they interact, and how they find love - and while it does have moments that can be on the serious side - it never gets sad or weepy. We never see these characters go on long monologues about how they can't accept themselves and how they'll never be happy.

This is accomplished through Lei's decision to give the player no control over the story. You occasionally get a few dialogue options, but in the end, you see what Lei wants you to see. You are on a guided tour of the story - not a participant in it. So, you aren't mired in finding extra stuff here or there (although, there are some extra observations you can make when prompted). So, while I did find myself getting bored, Lei managed to reel me back in with some pretty choice story-telling techniques that even AAA titles can learn from.

Throughout the game, you are treated to flashbacks, which show the four main characters' friendship through the years, instead of just one specific point of time. Each one makes the characters more dynamic and provides and insight that informs previous scenes. It's not disjointed and it's all connected.

And aside from the main cast, we are treated to actual diverse characters of different races and sexualities. You have people of color, you have a trans character, bisexual characters - and even if they aren't big, they're still real. Even in a lot of queer-themed visual novels, you usually only get a lesbian or a gay man's story - and while this story does focus mainly on a relationship between two women - we still get a solid cast of fleshed out characters that are not exclusively gay and cisgender.

As I play through - I'm just smiling and relating. I don't feel sad and I don't feel that same sense of, "Man it's so hard being gay," that so much media gives me. That kind of media is important, we should always remember/be reminded of the struggle that people - especially young people - in the community deal with. But it's also important to show that it doesn't always have to be that way. It is possible to be young and happy - even if you're struggling, you can find people who loves and accepts you.

Butterfly Soup is a special game - it uses fun characters and brilliant storytelling to give you an honest and non-sad portrayal of a diverse group of young, queer women in a time where it's very difficult to be a young, queer woman. While it doesn't offer a huge variety in terms of gameplay, it weaves something that leaves you smiling and cheering and laughing.

Please, please, please go play it. You can get it for free right here - and make sure you leave Brianna Lei a damn good review when you're done.

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ROLE PLAYGROUND | Frauki's Adventure is a promising new indie game!

It's only it's alpha stage, but this combat-platformer shows a lot potential.

There's really nothing like a good, classic-inspired platformer.

Early last week, whilst strolling through my tumblr - I came across a photoset that intrigued me. I always try and keep an eye out for new games - especially games in early development for a bunch of reasons. I like seeing games grow from their humble beginnings to their grand endings, and it never hurts to give a promising indie developer the attention they deserve. And I after seeing Preece's work on their game Frauki's Adventure (currently in it's Alpha stage), they definitely deserve some good press.

THE GAME

Frauki's Adventure is pretty simple. Preece describes on their tumblr page that it is a "melee platformer where you journey to the bottom of a strange and mysterious world." They also claim that they drew inspiration from Mega Man X and Dark Souls. It's difficult, and it's visuals are charming and harken back to the fun platformers of the SNES era. It's quite the package for a game that's technically not even finished yet.

THE GOOD

This game has a lot going for it. It's simplicity is probably it's biggest strength. It doesn't mire itself with too many obnoxious story elements, and instead focuses on exploration and combat. The world is crafted beautifully, and Preece does a good job in giving the game this oddly nostalgic, dream-like quality as you journey deeper and deeper. You get to really notice the little things that Preece does to make this game fun and dynamic - and that's really all you could ask for in a game like this.

The combat is equal parts difficult and fun. I haven't progressed as far into the game as I would like, because admittedly, I'm pretty bad at platformers - but I can say that what I've had a good time so far. The enemies are appropriately hard, and their patterns are easy to learn, so it's not like you're going to be stuck screaming at your computer screen for hours and hours on end.

And the little upgrades that you can find to both your health and attacks made me smile, because it gives me that same sense of accomplishment that I always got playing Mega Man X in my youth.

This game is an all around good time, but there are some issues that I couldn't get over throughout my play through.

THE BAD

So, as fun as the world is, I feel like there were parts that clearly showed how unfinished the game was. There were moments when I could fight through walls, which isn't the worst bug, but it definitely pulls me out of the rest of the game. It's small, but I think that it matters when a game focuses so heavily on combat. It also makes it very easy to cheat. For example, I was able to get a health upgrade way before I was supposed to - so my reward for completing a task wounded up being nothing but an apple.

Apples are great, but it would have been nicer to earn the health upgrade.

The only other problems I have are simple nitpicks - little issues here and there. Some of the movement can be a little choppy, and there is a mechanic that let's you grapple onto walls that I found particularly difficult to use. This could also just be my ineptitude when playing platformers! You'll have to tell me when you play through.

THE BOTTOM LINE

This is a solid game, and I can't wait to see the finished product. It works well, and aside from some minor hiccups, holds up as a difficult combat-oriented platformer. The design evokes a dreamlike quality that fits with the strange and mysterious nature that Preece wants to give it, and it's not bogged down by an overcomplicated plot. I really can't wait to see this game's final form - and if you want to play it...

You can download it's Alpha right here. And you totally, totally should!

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