Stay on top of all our E3 2013 coverage here.

LOS ANGELES — Greg Kasavin and Amir Rao from Supergiant Games hit the stage during Sony’s 2013 pre-Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) press briefing to show off their latest title, Transistor. The duo introduced a new trailer for the game, which featured intricate, hand-drawn visuals that are reminiscent of Supergiant’s previous release, Bastion.

Transistor takes place in the futuristic city of Cloudbank, where people are losing their voices. You play as a powerful female character who’s fighting back evil forces. The footage highlighted the game’s stylish, isometric combat. As part of the presentation, Supergiant announced that the game will come to PlayStation next year.

Check out GamesBeat’s E3 2013 coverage at our hub page.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Red was a star. Now she’s a target. Five assassins came at her and missed with the ultimate weapon, the Transistor. The one and only. It’s hers, now. All she has to do is pull it from the body of her dead friend like Excalibur from the stone.

“Hey, Red,” says the sword in her dead friend’s voice, “That’s not me. Not anymore. I’m safe now in here. Safer than you. So please … let’s go.”

Transistor is Supergiant Games’ follow-up to their hit 2011 debut, Bastion, and the early impression is they’ve skipped the sophomore slump. The entire Bastion team is back on board, right down to vocal talent Logan Cunningham (Bastion’s narrator), artist Jen Zee, composer Darren Korb, and writer Greg Kasavin, now Supergiant’s creative director. He’s got to hold details back, but Kasavin really, really wants to talk Transistor. His enthusiasm is palpably high.

“The relationship between these two characters is important to the story,” says Kasavin, even though he can’t divulge the real name of Red’s friend. “It’s not spoilery,” he adds. But unlike the central hub in Bastion, Transistor is very much a road movie, with Red and her talking sword on a dangerous journey in search of answers … and revenge.

You see, Red’s a famous lounge singer. The price for survival was her voice.

She might not care much at the moment, but bigger-picture issues exist, too. Transistor takes place in the city of Cloudbank, a misty, almost jazz-era smash of wooden A-frame houses and ultramodern skyscrapers. A hundred of its most influential citizens have vanished in the last year, taken by machines called The Process. The Process has a plan. Red was supposed to be its latest victim. Now it wants her more than ever, and it wants the Transistor back.

All that sets up an interesting dynamic. Red can’t say a word. All her feelings, emotions, and motives come through what the dead man in the Transistor says to her.

Kasavin describes that as “part of the fun of having a silent protagonist. It’s not just a video game trope. It’s part of the story. She’s a reflection of how this world is different and the kind of values that exist there.”

“You may have some amount of sympathy with her desire for revenge, but nothing was done to you personally. We want to set up a situation where you have a good sense of what her motivations are, but as the story unfolds, you get to reflect. Your goals become more aligned.”

Red’s immediate goal: survive. Process robots — tiny Creeps and big, ground-pounding Jerks — find her easy enough. Destroyed Creeps drop cells that figure into the upgrade system, but Red has to collect them before they rebuild themselves back into functioning Creeps.

Lucky thing the Transistor’s not just for show. Red starts with a slow, overhead swing, but they find half-processed souls from other Process victims, and those disembodied spirits want to tag along. Integrating them into the Transistor adds new attacks; a powerful beam weapon, a cluster bomb, a high-speed dash.

They all come together with Turn, a time-freezing move that you can use to stack up attacks — and then unleash them all in one blindingly fast moment. A meter tracks how much you can do during Turn, including just moving around. It plays into Transistor’s puzzles, but mainly Turn is for whomping on robots. It didn’t take long before I’d activate Turn, pour two big swings into a Jerk, dash out of range, spin, and tag him with an energy beam before hitting the “go” button to watch all the damage pile on at once. It makes the combat feel deliberate, tactical, and entirely satisfying.

I’m not the only one who feels that satisfaction, either. Red has a clear opportunity to get the hell out of Dodge. To escape. She steers her motorcycle right for The Process instead. The Transistor pleads with her to reconsider. “You’ve met these things,” it says, “They do not have a sense of humor. You’re more than just a name to them now. They will track you down, wipe you out, and take the Transistor.”

Red can’t answer. You get the sense she’s not even listening. “Revenge is a very powerful motivator,” says Kasavin.

He can’t say more. But he can talk about his motivations for Transistor and what he wants to accomplish with it. “People invest a lot of time to play through a game,” he says. “They should feel like their time was time well spent. The narrative isn’t solely responsible for that, but it bears some of the burden. You don’t feel like we’re stringing you along, like you have no idea where you’re going. And then hopefully it goes to a place that is unexpected and yet feels rewarding.”

Which brings us back to Bastion’s themes of revenge … and forgiveness. Supergiant’s first game proved a master manipulator, guiding players to align and separate from its characters based on their own feelings and opinions. So what will Transistor add to that conversation?

“I don’t want to say anything with Transistor in the same way I didn’t want to say anything with Bastion,” Kasavin insists. “These stories are not meant to have a message. They’re meant to leave you to reflect on something, even in the context of these kinda fantastical, weird worlds. I think that’s what just about any good story should aspire to.”

And it’s hard to bite back on aspiration. Kasavin’s got so much behind the curtain right now. Ideas he’s excited about. Stories he wants to tell. He’s been on the other side of the table, too, working as a game journalist interviewing developers and hoping to hear, see, and do something incredibly cool.

“Man,” he says, “I would love to talk about this.”

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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This sponsored post is produced by Dealzon.

It’s official. You really shouldn’t bother buying a Triple-A game on release date because the publisher is just going to slash prices by 50% the following month. Amidst all the SimCity drama and CEO resignation, EA launched a new deal this week, funnily enough calling it a “Player Appreciation Sale.” There are some decent titles in the mix for EA’s sale, but two titles that immediately stand out are Crysis 3 and Dead Space 3, both now at $30 with free shipping across all platforms.

Fans of action RPGs should really check out this week’s just-introduced “Humble Bundle Weekly Sale,” where individual titles are up for grabs at the $1 minimum price. For this week, the popular indie game Bastion is on sale. Pay more than the current average and you’ll receive additional goodies such as the soundtrack, art pack, sheet music, and cell phone ringtones.

Since last Thursday, Gamefly rolled out a “Spring Break PC Sale,” which will have new titles on sale each day until Friday. Titles of choice for the day are Deus Ex Human Revolution for $5 and Hitman Absolution at $12.50.

Note: We update our GamesBeat weekly deal post every Tuesday with the latest deals. For last week’s deals, check below the “Last Thursday” headline.

Tuesday New Deals

Crysis 3 (PC, 360, PS3) — $29.99 at Origin. For the price, the console versions are decidedly good deals, considering physical copies of the game are rarely on sale.
 

Dead Space 3 (PC, 360, PS3) — $29.99 at Origin. While we prefer the first and second Dead Space installments over the latest, this is a solid price for a recent release.
 

Bastion: Humble Bundle Weekly Sale — Pay What You Want. Pay more than the current average of $2.65 to receive additional digital goodies such as the soundtrack, or pay the $25 flat rate to get the game along with physical merchandise.
 

GameFly Spring Break PC Sale. Titles of choice: Deus Ex: Human Revolution for $5 and Hitman: Absolution for $12.50.
 

Last Thursday

If you think you’re done playing Assassin’s Creed 3, you’re not thinking like a game publishing executive. (Fact: DLCs will never end.) Happily for those looking for more content on AC3, the Season Pass is on sale this week at Gamefly for $24 after coupon. Five DLCs are planned with two released thus far: “The Hidden Secrets Pack” and “The Battle Hardened Pack.” Next week we’ll see the release of some actual gaming add-ons (in our opinion) with the first installment of the episodic The Tyranny of King Washington. If you plan to play through the entire 3 episodes and didn’t pre-order AC3, the Season Pass is worth considering.

On the console front, PS3 exclusive God of War: Ascension was released earlier this week. The only “deal” we’ve seen thus far is strangely at Gamestop for $5 off. While the $5 discount isn’t much to write home about, you’ll find that PS3 exclusives are rarely on sale so soon after release, with Newegg previous-year pre-orders being the only real savings we’ve seen. So if you didn’t pre-order 6 months ago at Newegg and you’re thinking about getting Ascension, Gamestop is the place to go (did we seriously just recommended buying something at Gamestop?!).

Recent Releases

This Tuesday’s release: God of War: Ascension (PS3) — $54.99 at GameStop after coupon. Yes we know $55 is just $5 off MSRP but everywhere else legitimate is selling this PS3 exclusive at full price. So it goes for console gaming deals.
 

This Tuesday’s release: Dead Space 3: Awakened (PC DLC) — $8 at Green Man Gaming after coupon. Reviews so far are a mixed bag. List is $10 so at least you’re not paying full price here.
 

Upcoming Releases

Assassin’s Creed 3 Season Pass (PC Download) — $23.99 at GameFly after coupon. The season pass will give you access to all 5 DLCs (3 already released), the latest being the upcoming Tyranny of King Washington.
 

March 19th: Gears of War: Judgment (Xbox 360) — $59.99 at Microsoft. Yes that’s full price but it comes with pre-order bonuses: free Xbox LIVE 1600 points ($20 value), the Alex Brand playable character, and the Hammerburst weapon.
 

March 19th: The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct (Xbox 360, PS3) — $37.49 at Amazon. The comic-based game is excellent. We’re slightly iffy about this TV-based one. Everyone loves Daryl, but Merle? Meh.
 

PC Download Deals

Battlefield 3 Premium Edition (PC Download) — $24 at Green Man Gaming after coupon. Activates on Origin. Usually around $40 to $50 at most places. Comes with base game, Premium Service, and Head Start Kit.
 

Crusader Kings 2 (PC Download) — $7.99 at GameFly after coupon. Steam activated. Fans of grand strategy titles will want to check this one out.
 

Saints Row The Third (PC Download) — $7.49 at GamersGate. Next best is $32 at Green Man Gaming. Steam activated. The industry is wack when you have studios that can produce solid titles like these and still have the publisher go kaput.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning (PC Download) — $6 at Green Man Gaming after coupon. Activates on Origin. Usually around $20. Another decent title from a now defunct studio. Sorry for your loss, Rhode Island.
 

Combo Buying Deals

Best Buy:Buy 2 Pre-Owned Video Games, Get a 3rd FREE. Your average buy two get 1 free. All those pre-owned titles people trade in to Best Buy? They gotta offload them somehow.
 

GOG.com: Pick 5 Games, Save 80%. 20 games to choose from for this Good Old Game deals. Some decent titles including Alan Wake and King’s Bounty: Crossworlds.
 

If you enjoyed this week’s GamesBeat gaming deals, check back next Thursday, same bat-time, same bat-channel for more gaming deals.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Supergiant Games, the studio behind the award-winning downloadable game Bastion, just announced its latest project, and it looks gorgeous.

Debuting next week at PAX East, Transistor follows in Bastion’s footsteps as an isomorphic combat game, but it comes with a new art design, a new setting, and a young female protagonist named Red.

Set in the high-tech city of Cloudbank, Transistor kicks off when Red survives an attack from a mysterious assailant and takes up the same powerful weapon that almost killed her. Red finds herself fighting off enemies who want to reclaim the blade as she unravels the truth behind their motives and the sword she now carries. As you can see from Transistor’s first trailer, she puts it to good use;

In a statement on their website, Supergiant Games says, “We’re designing our next game to seamlessly integrate thoughtful strategic planning into a fast-paced action experience, complete with our studio’s signature melding of responsive gameplay and rich atmospheric storytelling.”

Supergiant also announced an “early 2014″ release window, with platforms to be announced.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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The Walking Dead
Released: July
Platforms: iOS
Developer: Telltale Games

Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead is groundbreaking in more than one way. An episodic adventure game in the classic style, today? Turns out, it’s a winner due to brilliant storytelling, solid controls, and, well, zombies. It’s based on the award-winning The Walking Dead comic book and television series, and by making this into a video game, it allowed for the introduction a new lead and set of supporting characters — a brilliant move. This enabled its authors to explore the same themes and ideas as the TV show and the comic book, but with a different emotional tone. Lee Everett and his young charge, Clementine, fill the emotional heart of the story in a way that Rick and his wife never quite do.

Curiosity
Released: November
Platforms: iOS
Developer: 22cans

The first release from Peter Molyneaux and 22cans is an experiment in massively multiplayer gaming with a simple yet compelling premise: “What’s in the center of the cube?” Like a huge virtual Tootsie Pop, the curiosity cube has layers upon layers of colored squares. You simply tap squares to remove them from the top layer of the world-sized cube — you and half a million players others using their iOS devices. Curiosity distills the very essence of its namesake, with teasing lines of prose scrolling across layers, various pictures buried in the skin of each cube layer, and some random coin earning mechanics. All of this seems to add up to one very innovative tapping experience that’s of a less game and more of a participatory experience.

Draw Something
Released: February
Platforms: iOS, Android
Developer: OMGPOP, Inc.
Draw Something was Zynga’s big gamble. Developed by indie team OMGPOP, Draw Something went viral and became as well known as Words With Friends or even Angry Birds. Why did this game become so popular? On the face of it, it’s a simple concept: This is nothing more than multiplayer Pictionary. Get a word and draw a picture that a friend attempts to guess. If they choose the correct word, you both get more points. Playing Draw Something is a lot more compelling, however. Artistic individuals challenge themselves to illustrate more and more abstract words with more and more elaborate, even painterly, images. Unfortunately, the Draw Something bubble burst soon after Zynga spent an obscene amount of money to acquire it. Still, the game continues to have a loyal following, with folks spending real money to buy new colors, word lists, and the like.

Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition
Released: December
Platforms: iOS
Developer: Overhaul Games
One of the pillars of RPG gaming from BioWare recently showed up on iOS, and it still made a huge splash with retro enthusiasts and hardcore RPG fans alike. While the enhancements include new playable characters with new backstories and touch-appropriate controls, this is essentially the same game as came out for PC 14 years ago. The game uses Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rules, making it as hardcore and difficult as the original PC game. While RPG games continue to streamline and simplify to interest new players, this 1998 gem remains as true to the form as ever, which is a powerful draw.

The World Ends With You
Released: August
Developer: Square Enix
The World Ends With You made me sit up and take notice when it first released in North America in 2008. The J-Pop flavor of the score; the quirky angst of protagonist Neku and his spunky, optimistic partners, Shiki, Joshua, and Beat; the fun mechanics of searching for and then fighting demons; the overarching storyline of The Game and its Reapers — this is not a typical handheld game. When it came to iOS this year, the loss of the dual-screen combat mechanic proved to have less of an impact than I feared. It’s still a ton of fun to play, with an irreverent wit and unique gameplay mechanics I’ve not seen anywhere else.

Bastion
Released: August
Platforms: iOS
Developer: Supergiant Games
Supergiant Games had a monster hit on its hands with Bastion, one of the best downloadable console games of the last several years. That it’s now available on an iPad or iPhone for five bucks is a revelation. Players follow The Kid through a dying world that somehow re-assembles itself ahead of the main character. The soundtrack is an oddly joyous combination of future-Western loops, guitar work, and haunting vocals — be sure to get the soundtrack if nothing else. The narration makes it all come together, as it tells its simple but compelling story about saving the world, one hammered monster at a time. It works exceedingly well on the touchscreen, too.

Plague Inc.
Released: May
Platforms: iOS, Android
Developer: Ndemic Creations
You’d think that a game featuring the travel paths of a viral plague would be dead boring, but Ndemic Creations proves that a game that’s essentially a spreadsheet simulation of a deadly viral plague across the globe is compelling entertainment. It has no fancy 3D graphics, cutscenes, or voice work, just a map of the world, several choices about how to best spread the disease most effectively (rats? air travel? mosquitos?), and a well-built simulation of how the world responds to your pandemic infection. It’s a chilling and realistic look at how disease can and does spread from place to place.

Angry Birds Star Wars
Released: November
Platforms: iOS, Android
Developer: Rovio Entertainment
Rovio somehow put two of the strongest intellectual properties together into one incredibly lust-worthy combination. Star Wars plus Angry Birds seems like an odd match, but it hit number one in the iTunes app charts within the first two and a half hours of release. It likely sold a huge number of copies via the Google Play store as well: Who can resist Angry Birds with lightsabers and officially sanctioned Star Wars sound effects? No one, that’s who.

Letterpress
Released: October
Platforms: iOS
Developer: atebits
Letterpress is like Boggle with friends with a particularly nasty twist: When you tap out words using the letters provided in the grid, they turn blue, taking points and potential victory from your opponent, chosen at random or from your Game Center friends list. The longer the word, the more points you get, and the less your opponent can rack up. It’s Othello or Go with letters and words, all built with care and a clean, modern design aesthetic.

Fieldrunners 2
Released: July
Platforms: iOS
Developer: Subatomic Studios
Tower defense games are all over the various mobile platforms, perhaps more than any other type of game. The opportunity for deep strategy exists with the tower defense genre, as does quick, pick-up-and-play instant gratification. Fieldrunners 2 is the apogee of tower defense games, as it boasts a variety of sub-genres, like open fields, fixed path, and survival wave modes. It has plenty of towers for you to buy and upgrade, more enemy types, and three levels of difficulty to try your patience and skill.

Infinity Blade II
Released: November 2011
Platforms: iOS
Developer: Chair Entertainment Group
Infinity Blade II came out in November of 2011, so it just missed our top iOS games post last year. Let’s rectify that now. This is a showcase title on any mobile device, though it does only exist on iOS at this point.  Infinity Blade II is a must-own title for iPad an iPhone gamers wanting to see the cutting edge of mobile gaming and visual design, due to the combination of console-level graphical quality and surprisingly tactile combat. It makes good on the promise of the first title, adding more story, more giant beasts to slay, and a continually satisfying challenge throughout.

Horn
Released: August
Platforms: iOS, Android
Developer: Phosphor Games
Horn surprises with a well-developed fantasy world, solid controls, and a quirky sense of humor that permeates across encounters, levels, and character design. Horn is a delight to play; it’s also farther away from Zynga’s core casual business as I thought was even possible. The platforming is well done, the three-dimensional environments are fun to explore and play through, and the enemies are a striking mix of science and magic.

Super Hexagon
Released: August
Platforms: iOS
Developer: Terry Cavanagh
Those who like punishing, tough retro arcade games are bound to thrill to Super Hexagon, developed by indie darling Terry Cavanagh. The point is to rotate your triangle-shaped avatar around a pulsating, spinning, chip-tune spewing hexagon, avoiding the walls that close in on the center in wave after endless wave. Survival is the point of Super Hexagon, moving minimally and staying one step ahead of things as they spin, flash, and pound like a bad trip at a rave.

Waking Mars
Released: February
Platforms: iOS, Android
Developer: Tiger Style Games
Waking Mars takes you on a trip to the red planet to explore, trapping you underneath the surface. You’ll need to navigate a maze-like system of caves, teeming with varieties of plant life that you’ll need to harness to survive, and, eventually, terraform Mars with. If you liked Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor, you’ll enjoy Waking Mars for the story, the gorgeous artwork, and a compelling science fictional storyline set on one of our favorite planets to dream about.

Rayman Jungle Run
Released: September
Platforms: iOS, Android
Developer: Ubisoft
The smartest thing Ubisoft could have done with its popular Rayman franchise was to release it to iOS and Android, not as a copycat game full of poorly translated controls schemes, but as a mobile title built specifically for the platform’s touch-based control systems. Rayman Jungle Run is an endless runner, like Canabalt or Jetpack Joyride, but it trades on the glorious cel-shaded illustration, cartoony animation, and delightful ukulele-infused soundtrack that made the console version of Rayman: Origins such fun to play. That joy translates well to the mobile version of Rayman as you jump, swing, and soar across several well designed levels with smooth touch controls.

The Humble Indie Bundle, the pay-what-you-want indie-gamestravaganza, is back with its fifth offering, and this one includes the highest-profile titles to date.

Through June 14, gamers can pick up first-person frightfest Amnesia: The Dark Descent, developer Double Fine’s sequel-deficient Psychonauts, Playdead’s creepy puzzle-platformer Limbo, and Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP (the game that invaded everyone’s Twitter feeds when it came out) for any price they see fit. Those who pay more than the average ($7.13, as of this writing) will also receive Supergiant Games’ action-role-playing game Bastion. Everything is playable on Mac, Windows, and Linux.

All of the games arrive free of any digital rights management, so they’ll be yours to do with as you wish. Your purchase also includes soundtracks for all five games in both MP3 and Free Lossless Audio Codec format.

As usual, bundle purchasers can decide how to distribute their money between the games’ developers, Humble itself, and charities The Electronic Frontier Foundation and Child’s Play.

You can learn more and pick up the bundle here.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Facebook’s Timeline lets you place an image at the top of your profile. Sure, you could add a crummy, awkwardly cropped family photo — or you can use a kick-ass cover from your favorite video game.

We’re releasing seven days’ worth of artwork, each with a different theme, that you can use to decorate your Facebook profile:

• Sunday: The Modern Era
• Monday: Modern-Retro
  
• Tuesday: The Indies
  
• Wednesday: The 8/16-bit Era
  
• Thursday: Social and Mobile
• Friday: Arcade
• Saturday: Future Games

Today’s batch of covers features 10 popular titles from independent game developers. Click on the thumbnails to enlarge the pictures, then right-click (or ctrl-click for Macs) them and hit “save image as” to save to your computer.

Limbo

PixelJunk Monsters

Super Meat Boy

Fez

Braid

Cave Story

Minecraft

Bastion

World of Goo

Journey

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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It’s called a “PAX moment.” A journalist walks across the show floor from one big-game appointment to another when something catches his eye. The next thing he knows, he’s playing a small game no one’s ever heard of before and is late for his next appointment. This process favors the flashy and the colorful, which is exactly how to describe Hell Yeah!.

Hell Yeah!, which is being developed by Arkedo and will be published by Sega, doesn’t hold back in its all-out assault on corneas. The 2D platformer employs a deep color palette and shockingly smooth framerate that turned the heads of many passing PAX East 2012 attendees.

The action of Hell Yeah! takes place in the realm of Hell. The French developer paints the biblical inferno with sugary magentas and crimsons that coat the eyes in pleasure. When people talk about how games could look as good as a Pixar movie, it’s because games like this make it clear that the medium has already surpassed the best hand-drawn animated films. It’s a color set that is rarely seen in big-budget productions and is only ever used in indy titles like Bastion.

While the art style is what has stuck with me, I know that what truly drew my attention was the 60 frames-per-second. The buttery smooth motion of the animation coupled with the cartoon design creates a weird sense of hyper-reality. It can actually be disorienting, and when the camera panned to reveal a destination further down the map, it made me dizzy.

Arkedo peppers the experience with its French humor. For example, a dead rabbit has no use for a life meter. Instead of hearts or a red health-point bar, the prince’s wellness is measured in blood. If a Hell-monster damages the character, one of the ways to return to full strength is to get some of that sweet hemoglobin from a literal blood bath.

Ultimately, Hell Yeah! is a game about crisis management. It puts players in control of a dead rabbit who is the prince of Hell and embroiled in an Internet scandal. Photos of his highness in a bathtub with his rubber ducky have appeared online. Embarrassed, the prince is forced to prove he isn’t soft to his fellow denizens. We’ve all been in that situation.

The prince shouldn’t have difficulty proving that he maintains a high level of badassing to players. The standard weapon is a chainsaw/circular-saw hybrid that is larger than the main character. Killing enemies is fairly standard. Holding R-trigger on a 360 controller activates the deadly buzzing, and it doesn’t require much skill to bring the enemies’ health to zero.

But when a target’s HP does hit zero, a custom “finish him” minigame begins. These moments can range from tapping A to squeeze a ball-shaped monster to splitting another baddie into strips of steak with a comically enlarged version of the saw.

These special kills are different for each enemy type of which the game has over 100.

Hell Yeah! has style coming out its dead-rabbit ears. I laughed out loud at some of the over-the-top sight gags, and this is possibly the most visually arresting game on the PAX East show floor.

Hell Yeah! will be available on Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, and PC. It is currently slated for a summer release.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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1. Bastion
Developer: Supergiant Games
Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Platforms: July 20, 2011
Release Date: Xbox 360, PC, Chrome Web Store

The Xbox Live Arcade game Bastion has consistently been the talk of the indie game world all year. Supergiant Games‘ first release turned heads at E3, receiving praise from every outlet under the sun, hyping up its release just over a month later. This isometric action game revolves around the Kid, the player character who must restore his world after the terrible Calamity that befell it. The Kid has a whole host of items at his disposal with which to tear apart foes and complete challenging obstacle courses that hone the player’s use of each weapon. One feature that cannot go without a mention is the stirring performance of Logan Cunningham, the voice of the dynamic narrator who follows the Kid throughout his entire journey, both berating and extolling the protagonist without end.

It topped charts, broke hearts, and proved just how successful a well made, original indie game could be on XBLA. In fact, the game has become popular enough to not only be ported to the PC via Steam, but Bastion is also one of the first games of its scope and size to make its way to Google’s Chrome browser.

2. Terraria
Developer: Re-Logic
Publisher: Re-Logic
Platforms: PC
Release Date: May 16, 2011

It’s hard to imagine any indie game-related list any more without including the ultimate sandbox game, Minecraft. Luckily, the fine folks at Re-Logic have given us a 2D world much like Minecraft to stick on this 2011 list. The similarities are impossible to avoid: players are set loose on a randomly generated world with nothing but a few tools at their disposal, and then must collect materials in order to create shelter, clothing, weapons, and hundreds of other doodads in order to survive in the hostile environment.

As players progress, the “Minecraft-clone” mentality begins to wear off rather quickly. The sheer amount of craftable items, terrifying enemies (including enormous bosses), random events that can change the entire game, and useful NPCs(!) should be enough to prove that Terraria has its own slew of features worth investing hours of gameplay into. Plus, the recent 1.1 patch seems to have almost doubled the amount of content in the game.

3. The Binding of Isaac
Developer: Edmund McMillen
Publisher: Edmund McMillen
Platforms: PC
Release Date: September 28, 2011

Edmund McMillan‘s The Binding of Isaac might be one of the strangest and most polarizing indie games to ever gain this much popularity. Isaac, the titular child, is threatened to be sacrificed by his crazy mother on one terrible day, forcing him to hide out in the basement, where he goes on disgusting adventures using his tears as bullets to fend off monsters. It’s even more disturbing than it sounds.

The gameplay is similar to the original Legend of Zelda. Each level is made up of several rooms full of baddies and bonuses and keys, the latter of which are necessary to progress. As Isaac goes deeper into the basement, he can upgrade his weaponry and defenses by finding the items scattered around. The story is told through flashbacks to past events in Isaac’s childhood, all equally terrifying. It’s not just worth sticking with this dungeon crawler for the fun of it, it’s worth discovering a few of the multiple endings to see just what ends up happening to this sad little boy.

4. Serious Sam Double D
Developer: Mommy’s Best Games
Publisher: Croteam, Devolver Digital
Platforms: PC
Release Date: August 30, 2011

Double D is one third of the Serious Sam Indie Series, a triplet of indie games from three different developers released in the weeks and months before Serious Sam 3: BFE. It was hard to pick just one, as each are markedly different experiences, and certainly worth your time if you haven’t picked them up yet. Double D is a side-scrolling shooter with hordes of enemies ranging from the typical headless mobs to giant robots, and even dinosaurs (if you survive for that long). Of course, the main draw of Double D is its unique Gunstacking feature, in which up to four different weapons can be stacked on top of one another in order to create an unholy amalgamation of mechanical warfare.

There is always a place for thought-provoking and well-written titles like Bastion and Binding of Isaac, but the pure dumb fun of Serious Sam translated this perfectly to a 2D side-scroller deserves a mention as one of the most fun indie games of 2011. And remember, both Kamikaze Attack! and The Random Encounter (the other games in the Indie Series) deserve your attention as well…once you’re done stacking four chainsaws and charging through Tyrannosaurus rexes.

5. Frozen Synapse
Developer: Mode 7 Games
Publisher: Mode 7 Games
Platforms: PC
Release Date: May 26, 2011

Every step of every unit counts in Frozen Synapse, the most fist-clenchingly intense online turn-based tactical shooter of 2011. Both in its thorough and entertaining campaign and asynchronous online multiplayer, Frozen Synapse gives you control of the most minute decisions to best take out the opposing force. The matches are played from a top-down view, and each turn is only a few seconds of deciding on the best positioning of each unit in preparation of an attack.

Offense and defense must be balanced carefully, because holding out in a building too long could lead to an ambush, whereas rushing in to the field of battle could leave your units completely unprotected from a more cautious foe. The pressure of having to keep up with each of your own troops and the movement of the opponent’s fleet can be overwhelming, but it makes the victory all the more sweet. Sneaking up behind a sniper has never been more satisfying than in Frozen Synapse.

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Rao’s small startup, Supergiant Games, managed to create an original game called Bastion that is going to be published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, the video game arm of the big movie company, on Xbox Live Arcade this summer and on the PC later this year.

Bastion is one of the truly imaginative role-playing games I’ve seen, a rarity among the fantasy-themed video games that come and go by the dozen. With lush hand-painted two-dimensional art, Bastion takes you away into a destroyed world populated by a silent hero known as the Kid. He wants to recreate a safe haven, The Bastion, where he and others can go in case of an emergency. An event known as “the Calamity” divides the world into a series of floating islands. The Kid has to move carefully about as the ground reassembles itself or disappears in front of him.

The Kid finds weapons that he uses to dispatch gas-based monsters, and he builds a hub where he can restore the Bastion. One of the cool parts of the game is that it has a narrator who recounts all of the Kid’s actions as they happen.

The narration appears to be dynamic, almost as if it were created in reaction to the events that have just unfolded in the game. Logan Cunningham, the voice actor, recorded 3,000 lines of narration.

The difficulty of the game is also dynamic. You can deliberately make it harder to play and then receive rewards for that later in the title.

Bastion is the first game created by Supergiant Games, which Rao founded in 2009. He previously worked at Electronic Arts on the Command & Conquer series with his friend, Gavin Simon. They left to start their own company and began work on the title 20 months ago. They assembled a team of seven developers — including former GameSpot executive editor Greg Kasavin — who worked for the past 20 months on the game.

“I got all of my friends together to start the company, so I’m not sure why they tell you not to do that,” Rao said.

They had no place to work so Rao’s father let him use his house in San Jose, Calif. His father suggested that Rao go ahead and start the company because he was young enough where failure wouldn’t harm his career. They showed the game off at the PAX Prime event where the game was selected as one of the top 10 independent games of the show. It also received two nominations at the 2011 Independent Games Festival. The team took some of the feedback from the shows and worked it into the game, tearing up narrated lines and adding more to replace them.

The team is putting the finishing touches on the downloadable game, which will last for around eight hours or so, Kasavin said. That’s a pretty long experience for a team of just seven people. And the company can publish the title quickly and easily online thanks to the online game services on the consoles.

Check out our video interview with Rao below. And for more on the company go to BuildtheBastion, which is a series of videos that the team shot itself with the help of Giant Bomb as it made the game.

We’ll be exploring the most disruptive game technologies and business models at our third annual GamesBeat 2011 conference, on July 12-13 at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco. It will focus on the disruptive trends in the mobile games market. GamesBeat is co-located with our MobileBeat 2011 conference this year. To register, click on this link. Sponsors can message us at sponsors@venturebeat.com. To pitch a startup at the Who’s Got Game contest at GamesBeat 2011, click here.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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