Tripwire Interactive started off as a modding team, taking its win in the Make Something Unreal contest for Red Orchestra and transforming themselves into a full-fledged developer and now a publisher. Tripwire has taken its own game, Killing Floor, to retail, and now they are doing the same thing with ACE Team's wildly popular Zeno Clash. Zeno Clash was released on Steam earlier this year, building up a rabid fan base relatively quickly. Now Atlus is bringing the game to Xbox Live Arcade, and Tripwire is bringing it to PC game resellers across North America.

Tripwire vice president Alan Wilson comments on the parallels between the two developers.

"Zeno Clash is one of those truly stand-out games that we are really proud to be associated with and to have as our first third-party title to publish. The game is genuinely memorable and has the best melee combat mechanics we've ever seen. What makes this deal even more memorable for us, is the fact that the ACE Team's history parallels our own – an ex-mod team that has funded themselves and succeeded in developing and releasing a great first title."

Zeno Clash should be hitting retail shelves "soon."

Zeno Clash: Ultimate Edition will is scheduled to release in March 2010. The first-person brawler will include a new cooperative mode in the game's Tower Challenges, Atlus said in a release. The game will also feature "new features, and added content combine with a series of tweaks and improvements based on fan feedback to deliver the definitive version of the critically-acclaimed game."

No price was named in the release. Atlus's announcement also teased an "as-of-yet-unannounced other new mode exclusive to the Ultimate Edition," plus other features.

Atlus Announces Zeno Clash: Ultimate Edition for Xbox Live Arcade [Atlus Forums]

Developers ACE Team have released the tools - which will allow users to mess around with items, characters and environments within the game - along with some paperwork on how to get the most out of them, on their wiki page. If anyone feels like giving the guns a little more heft, I'd be grateful.

SDK files & documentation [ACE Team, via Shacknews]

Chatting with That VideoGame Blog, ACE Team's Andres Bordeu hsa said, "The sequel will be developed from a different perspective than the first title. Zeno Clash is a short indie game, whereas with Zeno Clash 2 we want to build a larger title; a game that's big enough to go retail on the consoles."

"[It's] what we would have liked to do in Zeno Clash if we would have had the resources", he continues. "We really think that an open ended world is fit for the world of Zenozoik. Many games offer you the possibility to roam around freely, which is a great feature. But when you travel through those worlds many have very familiar and recognizable environments."

"In Zeno Clash the woods don't look like a regular forest with green trees and bushes. In Zeno Clash the cities are just plain insane. I think it will be extremely entertaining to explore a world where you a never quite sure what you will encounter next."

That lack of exploration, of a sense of really being in such a strange, strange place, is a big reason I didn't enjoy the first game. But if that's fixed...well, then this sounds interesting!

Zeno Clash 2 Aiming For PS3, 360 Retail Release [That VideoGame Blog, via VG247]

Anyone picking the game up over Steam this weekend won't pay the standard $20 asking price. They'll only pay $10. While I had my reservations about the game in our review, at $10, most of those go right out the window.

Click the vid to see a trailer for the DLC.

Carlos Bordeu, co-founder of developers ACE Team, has elaborated on his earlier comments that the game will be more "open-ended", telling Eurogamer:

We're looking at improving the melee and weapon combat and giving it something more in-depth - adding more attacks and doing something more dynamic, like playing with the environment and not having all levels as flat floors. We're also looking at the possibility of playing different characters. We still haven't decided completely, but it's an interesting idea. Stuff like that.

Bordeu also says that we can expect a more RPG-like experience next time around, with the team looking to introduce levelling-up, along with "attributes, an inventory, objectives, side-quests and several other bits that make RPGs popular".

So long as he doesn't mean "big-eyed, moppish-haired teenagers with giant swords", we should be OK.

Zeno Clash's ACE Team [Eurogamer]

Chatting with Eurogamer, Carlos Bordeu - co-founder of Zeno Clash devs ACE Team - says that they are "currently talking with a publisher" for a potential XBLA release of the game. And that's not all. He also says that, should it happen, this console version would ship with extra content not seen in the PC edition of the game.

Zeno Clash heading to console [Eurogamer]

According to the official ACE Team blog, consider Zeno Clash 2 officially official, with the second entry currently in the planning stages. ACE Team co-founder Carlos Bordeu writes that "he next installment to be much larger in scope, so the new game will feature open ended gameplay with large explorable environments and RPG elements."

The team also plans to revisit the Zeno Clash melee combat system for "even more brutal and engaging gameplay."

Hopefully, they'll address some of our concerns with the original title—specifically the gunplay, storytelling and the amount of game you get for your dollar—to make the visually unique world of Zeno Clash worth revisiting.

New Trailer & news about the sequel... [ACE Team]

That means the bizarre cast of characters from Zeno Clash is yours for the goofy manipulating in Garry's Mod, meaning even crazier machinima and screen caps await us. The Zeno Clash model pack includes 70 character, creature and weapon models from the independently developed game.

ACE Team says the downloadable content pack represents the first free DLC offering, hopefully implying they're following the Valve model to keep interest in the game beyond the first month. And hopefully, the inclusion of Zeno Clash meshes in future episode of Half-Life: Full Life Consequences!!

Developer Carlos Bordeu went to the comments of BitTorrent sites sharing Zeno Clash and posted the following:

I'm one of the developers of Zeno Clash. I would appreciate you read this if you are about to download this file.

Zeno Clash is an independently funded game by a very small and sacrificed group of people. The only way in which we can continue making games like this (or a sequel) is to have good sales.

I am aware that at this moment there is still no demo of the game, but we are working on one which will be available soon.

We cannot do anything to stop piracy of the game (and honestly don't intend to do so) but if you are downloading because you wish to try before you buy, I would ask that you purchase the game (and support the independent game development scene) if you enjoy it. We plan on updating Zeno Clash with DLC and continuing support for the game long after it's release.

Thanks for taking the time to read this… hopefully it will make a difference.

And the grinches stealing the game stopped, considered their actions, and vowed to buy Zeno Clash if they liked it. Or so they said, anyway. One typical comment: "I have not bought a game in 5 years, but the attitude of the developers has made me want to purchase their game. Fuck, if I like this game, I'm gonna buy it!"

TorrentFreak contacted Bordeu to ask about the unorthodox antipiracy measures, and was told "appealing to the conscience of people who download the game is the best we can do."

"Zeno Clash is not an expensive game," he said. "We don't believe in restrictive DRM. We honestly think that ‘converting' the people who download the game into buyers is a much better strategy than trying to fight them."

TorrentFreak says downloads for the game are, at the moment, comparatively low, but that could be attributable to anything. If nothing else, it consolidates ACE Team's position as a sympathetic victim, even to some avowed pirates. And of course, Zeno Clash's publisher, Valve, has made concillatory statements about piracy in the past, too. But how long the goodwill lasts, who knows.

Game Developer Flirts With Pirates on BitTorrent Sites [TorrentFreak, thanks Secret Agent Cow 3.14]

Why don't you go try it out! It's certainly...different. Despite admiring the game's unique look, I didn't like it much, but hey, plenty of people do, and that's what demos are best at! They help you make up your own mind.

The demo contains a few levels from the singleplayer campaign, as well as a taste of the game's challenge mode.

You couldn't login to Steam or go near a PC forum over the past month or so without running into talk about Zeno Clash, a game from tiny Chilean studio ACE Team that's built on Valve's Source engine. And most of that talk – and subsequent interest – seems to have stemmed from the games "unique" visual style, which is unlike, well, anything we've ever seen.

But is the rest of the game as memorable as its looks?

Loved
Look At Me – You can't fault the game's attempts at standing out from the crowd. Everything from the character design to the environment to the colour palette is fresh and original, as though Gaudi just finished Oblivion then went then went and read some Heavy Metal. If you're looking for a game that's as far removed from the dreary Gears of Wars and Killzones of the world, this is it.

Face-Punching – While there is shooting to be had in Zeno Clash, the bulk of the game takes place in contained "arenas", facing off against 2-4 opponents, where guns are a lot less useful than your fists. And here, everything about the game – from the little "vs" slide-in animation to the range of moves and combos available – changes. It stops being a linear, corridor-based shooter and becomes a first-person fighting game. Which, as an idea, is certainly different.

Hated
World To Let – The game world is just…empty. Lifeless. You only face a handful of characters over and over and over, while a fascinating world that could have been ripe for adventure and exploration is instead reduced to a handful of linear shoot-outs and fighting arenas. It really could have done with less brawling with the same handful of characters, more sequences involving peripheral characters and exposition.

Punched in the face – Just because it's different doesn't mean it's good (as in, I admire the idea, just not its execution). While a Zelda-like lock-on system helps you out in smaller tussles, during larger fights a lack of peripheral vision (a consequence of their decision to make the game first-person) means you'll often be ganged up on without you knowing, and collision detection – for both melee and ranged attacks – is woeful.

Poor Gunplay – The game has melee, yes, but also guns. There are corridor-based FPS sections to navigate before you reach a melee "arena", and even then, there'll normally be firearms around to use if you'd like. But you won't. Most only allow one or two shots before you need to reload, and reloading takes so long you'll often get punched in the face before you're done. Which knocks the weapon out of your hand. This would be OK if the melee combat worked, but, well, yes.

The Never-Starting Story – It's a shame that the game's narrative and dialogue don't match the impact of its visual design. The story jumps and skips seemingly important aspects, picking you up from point A and landing you at point F. Some flashback sequences help, but ultimately, like the world itself, the story feels a bit empty, while the conclusion is both a let-down and a teasing frustration at the same time.

Recycling - This game is short. You'll finish it in around 4-6 hours. Which would be OK if it were 4-6 hours of original content (it is $20, after all), but you end up fighting the same recycled characters over and over and over, which is both frustrating and a too-obvious attempt at padding the game out. I'd rather have played a shorter, less repetitive title than fight the same bad guy seven times.

Look, Zeno Clash deserves to be applauded on a number of fronts. Its bold style makes a pleasant change from the industry's general preoccupation with the browner end of the colour palette, and its attempts at bringing a degree of complexity and variety to first-person combat are a brave attempt at shaking up the nature of melee combat in the genre.

A discount price is also a plus, and at $20, many of you will overlook the game's shortcomings, if not because you're paying less for the game, then because you're aware that such a small development team can't afford the polish and extra bells and whistles you may be hoping for/expecting.

Zeno Clash was developed by ACE Studios, released April 21st for the PC. Retails for $20. Completed singleplayer campaign, played multiple challenge room skirmishes.

Confused by our reviews? Read our review FAQ.

In an interview with LagZero, ACE Team's Andres Bordeu says that the team "definitely...want to do" more Tower challenges, along with some "other things" they're not willing to discuss yet. He stresses that any and all DLC will be free.

Bordeu also says they're planning on "releasing a compatible SDK so users can edit levels and other assets", which given the assets on hand, should lead to some kooky, kooky stuff.

For those still on the fence about the game, our review will be up next week.

Las primeras 24 horas de Zeno Clash: ACE nos habla de un posible DLC y SDK [Audio Exclusivo] [LagZero, via Shacknews]