If you live in/around/out/up London and you like games and festivals, you may have heard of the London Games Festival, which takes place in late October! And if you were thinking of being all blasé about it, then you might want to reconsider because WE’LL BE THERE!

Between the 28th and 29th of October you’ll be able to find us at the Indie Arcade section of the Eurogamer Expo, unified with our fellow-indies and ready to steal you away into our soft non-corporate embrace.

You won’t know what hit you.

After Lawrence has fastened your limbs together with daisy chains, Robin will strap you to a maypole and prance about like a fawn, cocooning you in long strips of Monopoly money. About 25 minutes of solitary confinement should have you emerging dizzy and bewildered, but gloriously secure in the world of independent gaming.

After these preliminaries, of course, we’ll always be ready to become appropriate friends. Luckily, the only quality we demand from our loved ones is validation, so all you need to do is play our game and go on and on about how much you like it, and we’ll follow you anywhere like an old arthritic dog.

Well, we’re back.

No longer are Alex and I battling scorpions and rednecks in the horrific dustbowls of Arizona and Nevada. We’re back inside the smog-ridden rain-pit of London.

Anyway, a few bits of great news for y’all:

Firstly, we’re very proud to announce that we’re working alongside The Audio Guys for the sounds of Plain Sight. You may not have heard of these chaps but you’ve no doubt heard their work. Check out this list of their past projects. My two personal favourites are the Dizzy games and the truly awesome Overlord.

Thank you again to everyone who took part in the competition. There was a fantastic response with some truly great (and often crazy) suggestions. We’re currently racking our brains for an idea for the next competition – perhaps we should have a competition on what the next competition will be? Check back soon for more free diamonds junk.

Also, I don’t know if you guys have noticed it, but we’ve been cropping up on the press radar a bit recently. If you’re a Brit you may have seen us on the Guardian website or on the Telegraph games section. Frankly I’m really flattered that those guys reported on us – thank you!

On a side note, if you spot any press coverage please let us know. I’ve noticed that some sites have been reporting on us (which is fantastic!) without giving us a heads up. It’s a real shame to not read what people are saying about us, so, if you see anything, post it on the forums!

Finally, although it’s not confirmed, we may also be demonstrating Plain Sight at an upcoming games festival. As it’s not confirmed, I don’t want to jinx it by giving away all the details. However I will let you all know when I do – It’d be great to see some of you there...

I’ve been assured by Alex that there’s currently not one place on this earth that is still Friday the 19th of September.

Sod…. Just a little late.

Anyway, I do have a good excuse, for the last 24 hours I’ve been boozing and gambling giving puppies to sick children in Vegas.

Without further ado, here are our votes:

Sam – I/O
Hin – Rodney
Me – El Mono
Lawrence – Eke
Damien – T.Bot
Alex – El Mono

So, the winner is El Mono! Congratulations Resurrection, we’ll drop you an email.
The runner up, by general discussion, is Eke. So, if Bushofgoats (nice nickname) can track down and murder Resurrection in the next 12 hours he/she/it will win by right of conquest. Happy hunting.

As for the prize, because Alex and I are in an airport many millions of miles away, we can’t provide photo evidence. Needless to say, it is awesome, fantastic, amazing and probably has the net value of $5.

As a sign off, in an effort to be vaguely amusing, we searched for 'drunken whore' on google images and somewhat startled to find this on the front page. Enjoy.

The windswept traveller has found a few moments from his busy schedule of schmoozing and cigarette smoking to put a few well thought out words into blog format.

Right, lots of things are thoroughly enjoyable about Austin. First and foremostly, the fact that it’s not in New Mexico is a real plus. Secondly, the people are insanely nice. Even the hobos (especially the ones on meth).

Alex and I are riding the crest of the much talked about high and beautiful wave. This is made more beautiful by beer and the fact that the Austin GDC is fantastic. Okay, it’s not like a circus or a sea otter or some kind of revolting Victorian freak show, it’s not that kind of fantastic – but it’s damn good. Like not tipping at a lousy restaurant.

What we’re most impressed about, however, is (of course) the indie games being shown and the indie developers who gave us some good chat. A few specific shaaat aatz go to

Tom at Pillowfort Games – we had a play on his new game Goo – it rules.
And… Adam at Last Chance Media – made more games than us, all good, so lots of kudos.

Right, Im off- to leave, here’s a picture of me looking stern after I’d found a phoney London hidden in the fields of Texas.

The ritualistic nature of airport checkins are hard enough to tolerate without having to do two in one morning. Turns out that our flight to Texas was cancelled due to obstructions on the runway, mainly one of these:



But, of course, we weren’t told this until AFTER we had entered the airport and been subjected to all the humiliation that a bored security team demands. With a little whelping and sniffling, we attracted the pity of staff and managed to get our flights rerouted to Los Angeles with the idea of driving to Austin from there.
I feel so god damn adventurous right now. A genuine all-American road trip! I’m half giddy about living the dream of Sam and Max Hit The Road; a game I grew up on.

Lesser men would sink in despair, clutch each other and weep passionately, while the corpse of their pre-paid travel itinerary lies on the operating table, slowly cooling and greasy. Not in the ranks of Beatnik Games, though, oh no. We keep pumping that chest cavity until the ribs crack.

How this vague stubbornness translated into us bombing across the state of Arizona in a Dodge SUV the size of a small guest room, I’m not quite sure. Add that to the fact that we’re working our way through bags of prime beef jerky and Camel Lights (I favour one, Robin the other) and we’ve somehow managed to assimilate ourselves into the stereotypical southern lifestyle.

I can completely understand how they fall in love with it; some of the landscapes around here are truly breath taking in ways that you would never find in England. I knew I was hooked by desert country when I looked out of the window and immediately yelled at Robin: “holy crap, did you see that rock? It was awesome”. Slightly anti-climatic, perhaps, but classier than when he giggled saucily and informed me that he’d just seen a cactus that looked like a penis.

As for the title of this post, it was the rather cheerful verdict of our electronic sat-nav lady about an hour ago. America is big. I think I can see Mexico.

Look up a little bit. Up this web page, in the Plain Sight banner. Now focus on the silhouette of the robot. When you pick up our game, you will BECOME that robot.

Oh sure, he may look all contented and wishy-washy, but deep inside lies an unending source of pain; a whirling maelstrom of bitterness and confusion just begging to be dispersed. But no one has.

You see, that little robot has no name, no identity; it drifts aimlessly through life carrying with it a little bindle of shame, lonely and exploding.

Doesn't that make you angry? Doesn't it make you MAD (if you're American)? Doesn't it make you want to cry: "Dear God, Beatnik Games Ltd., make it stop! Can't you see he's already dead!"?

Keep that chin up, brave little Internet. We may be too uncaring and talentless to give the little critter a name, but we know you'll be able to do better. In fact, we're so sure that you'll be able to come up with something 100% satisfactory, that we will be sending out a special limited edition prize for the best suggestion received by the end of next Friday (19th September). It will be super awesome and made by us, and you know what that means, right? Give it a few years and eBay will be your friend!

Do it, do it now.

Wow! Everyone seems to have taken a real shine to Plain Sight. Fantastic!

Thank you Rock Paper Shotgun, IGN, Gamerbytes, Destructoid, Eurogamer and Kotaku (and any I forgot to mention)

Welcome (again) to everyone who has signed up, especially those who’ve got stuck into the forums – it’s great to meet you all!

I think it’s probably a good idea to point out that the trailer and screenshots only show one level. We currently have eight - all look very different, some even use a different gravity system (if you’ve played Mario Galaxy, you’ll feel right at home). Here’s a quick screen grab of something we're working on. Also, to answer a pretty common question, yes, there will be different gameplay types and power-ups!

Cheers


Robin

PS: Alex and I are crossing the pond for GDC Austin - anyone else going?

Welcome to everyone who has just found us! Thanks very much to all the websites that have reported on Plain Sight.

To commemorate the occasion, Declan Shalvey has done a new drawing for the Beatnik Games website. It’s fantastic, and you can see it here.

We’ll be updating this site very regularly with development news, screenshots and gameplay footage. In the meantime let us know your thoughts on Plain Sight – we can’t wait to hear what you think ..

Cheers

Robin

Trailer up! Finally! Find it here (if that doesnt work - click here)

A very big thank you to Alice for giving us a glowing write up on her blog Wonderland . We appear to have our first random forum posts and new users. (before we've even launched - a good sign!)

more soon

Robin