TouchArcade.ru

We've posted a few times about the Fighting Fantasy, Gamebook Adventures, and Sorcery! series of interactive fiction and have gotten a surprisingly positive response every time. Those books are like the Choose Your Own Adventure novels you may remember reading as a child, with an element of randomization thrown in by needing to complete various dice challenges throughout the books to determine which way the story forks. Choice of Games abandons this dice-based gameplay model for a much more traditional (and in depth) multiple choice system for each decision that I actually enjoyed quite a bit.

Under the hood of all these games is something Choice of Games calls "ChoiceScript". ChoiceScript allows for works that are much more complicated than your typical two decision fork that leads off to two different pages as it supports things like variables in the story. These variables not only allow you to sometimes name characters yourself, but are often used as character statistics, with some decisions leading to gaining a particular stat which could potentially open up areas later in the book.

Choice of the Dragon in Mobile Safari on the left, Choice of Broadsides app on the right.

The coolest part about all this is that Choice of Games has a guide on how to use ChoiceScript, and it's actually quite simple. If you've got the time to invest in to building a piece of interactive fiction in ChoiceScript, they'll even host it for you on their online game portal and App Store listing, sharing 75% of the profits.

The presentation of these games is very bare bones, and are little more than black text on a white background with UI elements that just consist of basic form components. They play the same both in the browser on ChoiceOfGames.com as they do in app form, so if you've got constant internet connectivity you can just make a home screen bookmark for the game you're playing. If you've got an iPod touch or a non-3G iPad, the apps are totally worth downloading if you find yourself getting in to them.

Just like the other interactive fiction we've posted about, these works are completely independent of each other and reading one isn't required to enjoy the rest:

Choice of the Vampire, $1.99 Begin your two-hundred year journey as a vampire in New Orleans, 1814; choose whether you will seek love, power or redemption as you negotiate the growing-pains of the young Republic.

Choice of Romance, $1.99 Play as a young courtier who catches the monarch’s eye. Will you find true love? Gain a crown? Lose your head? A text-based multiple-choice game of romance, deception and court intrigue.

Choice of Broadsides, Free Multiple-choice swashbuckling naval adventure, in the spirit of C. S. Forester’s Hornblower or Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey/Maturin books, with a dash of Jane Austen.

Choice of the Dragon, Free Play as a fire-breathing dragon who sleeps on gold and kidnaps princesses for fun. Dominate the local kingdom, loot and pillage, and inspire terror in the hearts of your enemies!

Paranoia, Free By Kie Brooks. When you think your doctor may be trying to kill you, life gets complicated. Survive this multiple-choice game if you can.

What Happened Last Night?, Free By Kie Brooks. “What Happened Last Night?” is a dark but occasionally humorous action murder mystery multiple-choice text-based game.

The Nightmare Maze, Free By Alex Livingston. “The Nightmare Maze” is the story of a 19th-century Bostonian plagued by strange nightmares. Lose yourself in the depths of a tormented psyche and try to find the logic to the night terrors in this haunting text-based multiple-choice game.

Popcorn, Soda … Murder?, Free By Pauzle. “Popcorn, Soda … Murder?” is a thrilling text-based multiple-choice murder mystery. Can you find all the clues at the murder scene and piece together who must have done it and how?

[source]

It's Labor Day Weekend in the U.S. and most every retail sector in the land is offering major product sales — and the App Store is no exception. So, without further ado, the following games are available for a reduced price through this three-day, holiday weekend.

Namco

• BurgerTime Deluxe $1.99 → 99¢
• Garters & Ghouls $1.99 → 99¢
• Ms. PAC-MAN $4.99 → 99¢
• PAC-MAN $4.99 → 99¢
• PAC-MAN Remix $2.99 → 99¢
• PAC-MAN (iPad) $4.99 → 99¢
• Pole Position: Remix $2.99 → 99¢
• Pool Pro Online 3 $1.99 → 99¢
• Rolling 5 Dice Poker $4.99 → 99¢
• Solitaire: Deck of Cods $4.99 → 99¢
• Star Trigon $1.99 → 99¢
• Tamagotchi: 'Round the World $4.99 → 99¢
• Lt. Fly Rise of the Arachnids $1.99 → 99¢
• Brain Exercise with Dr. Kawashima $4.99 → 99¢
• Galaga REMIX $2.99 → 99¢
• Dig Dug REMIX $2.99 → 99¢
• PAC-MAN Championship Edition $2.99 → 99¢
• I Love Katamari $4.99 → 2.99
• Ridge Racer Accelerated $4.99 → 2.99
• …among others

Sky Burger, Free (down from $1.99) NimbleBit’s Sky Burger is a fun exercise in burger stacking that’s seen a great deal of success since it recently went free; presently it’s sitting at #6 free title in the App Store. Now’s the time to grab it.

Glu Mobile

• Build-a-lot $1.99 → 99¢
• Transformers $1.99 → 99¢
• Build-a-lot 2 $2.99 → 99¢
• Mini Golf $1.99 → 99¢
• Transformers G1 $1.99 → 99¢
• Deer Hunter: African Safari $6.99 → $2.99
• Jump O'Clock $1.99 → 99¢
• Stranded: Mysteries of Time $1.99 → 99¢
• Deer Hunter 3D for iPad $4.99 → 99¢
• Glyder 2 for iPad $1.99 → 99¢
• Super KO Boing 2 for iPad $2.99 → 99¢

Robot Unicorn Attack, $0.99 (down from $2.99) If there’s any game in the App Store that is double rainbow all the way, it is without question Adult Swim’s Robot Unicorn Attack. It’s got unicorns!!

Electronic Arts

• Boggle $1.99 → 99¢
• CLUE $1.99 → 99¢
• Littlest Pet Shop $2.99 → 99¢
• MONOPOLY $2.99 → 99¢
• MONOPOLY Here & Now: The World Edition $2.99 → 99¢
• RISK: The Official Game $4.99 → $1.99
• THE GAME OF LIFE Classic Edition $2.99 → 99¢
• Trivial Pursuit $2.99 → 99¢
• YAHTZEE Adventures $2.99 → 99¢

I Dig It HD, $4.99 (down from $9.99) InMotion Software’s I Dig It HD is an iPad take on the iPhone original that we — and most everybody else — loved. On the bigger screen, it’s bigger action and all the fun of the iPhone version.

The titles listed here represent a pretty good highlight of what's out there for less this weekend, and additional deals are being discussed in an active forum thread.

[source]

Rimelands: Hammer of Thor [$4.99] is a new tactical turn-based RPG from developers Dicework and Crescent Moon Games (of Ravensword [$3.99/Lite] fame). We previewed a hands-on video of the game about a month ago that explained how the turn-based combat worked as well as showcasing some of the games many items and weapons. With Rimelands now available, we've been able to experience these first hand, and came away impressed with how well the different elements of the game come together. The dice-rolling combat mechanic gives it an old school pen-and-paper feel, while the dungeon crawling and loot collection offers plenty to discover in the game. Couple that with an interesting story and top-notch visuals, and Rimelands is one of the best RPG experiences you can have on the iPhone.

Humans have squandered the resources of the world, throwing off the balance of the ecosystem and turning their once beautiful lands into an uninhabitable frozen wasteland. They are forced to move into underground vaults for a thousand years, and when they finally emerge they find that a new race called the Fair Folk have taken over the dominant role above ground. Humans try to reclaim their territory, and war ensues. An uneasy peace is finally reached between the two sides, and they are able to precariously coexist together above ground. This leaves countless underground vaults filled with treasures of the last millennium, ready to be explored and exacted by you, treasure hunter Rose Cristo.

The story in Rimelands sets the stage perfectly for a dungeon crawling adventure. You'll play the role of Rose as she travels to the many towns and vaults in Rimelands discovering treasures, completing quests, and evolving her character with the multitude of items and abilities available. The game is played from an isometric viewpoint and combat and movement are grid-based. This can take some getting used to as you're only able to move in four directions rather than being able to move around the world freely. Coming within striking distance of an enemy allows you to engage in the turn-based combat which is a mixture of long-ranged and melee attacks. An interesting dice mechanic determines your offensive and defensive effectiveness, and playing Rimelands feels like an interactive board game where all of the dull pen-and-paper stuff has been automated for you.

An overhead map lets you travel to the towns and vaults that you discover during the game. Quests are obtained by talking with characters around the world much like your typical RPG. There is a main storyline to follow as well as many side quests to pick up and complete. The dungeons in Rimelands are full of dangerous enemies, as well as many unique treasures. Traversing these dungeons feels very Diablo-esque, as there are many rooms to explore and a ton of loot to obtain, although with strategic turn-based combat instead of the hack 'n slash variety. Making your way through the dungeons is incredibly fun, and I found it hard to stop playing until I was sure I'd explored every nook and cranny of each in order not to miss any lucrative treasure chests.

One of the high points of Rimelands is the extensive variety of items and weapons in the game, as well as the various skill trees for your character. Defeating enemies earns you gold and experience points, and upon leveling up you can choose a new ability from one of three skill trees. Barbarian brings melee effects, Assassin boosts your ranged abilities, and Shaman covers magical abilities. There's quite a bit of diversity with how you want to build your character, and good reason to play through the game multiple times focusing in different areas each time. An engineering dynamic is in the game as well, allowing you to build different weapons with blueprints that you find. It's an interesting idea, but not totally necessary due to the many excellent weapons you're bound to come across in the game anyway.

Graphically Rimelands is a beautiful game. The characters and enemies are fairly detailed, and their animations are excellent. The environments are also very attractive, with snowy terrain when you are in the above ground areas and dark dungeons with nice lighting effects when you go underground. The in-game graphics do have a slightly jagged look to them, but nothing overly detracting. Retina Display support is a possibility down the road, as is a native iPad version, although nothing has been finalized. Rimelands runs just fine in 2x mode on the iPad, and players in our forums are definitely enjoying the game this way. The story is told via static illustrations and text, and by in-game dialogue between characters as well. There isn't any full motion video or animated cutscenes, but the story is engaging and the illustrated bits look great.

There are plenty of other nuances to Rimelands, and it really is a game with a grand scope. You can expect to get about 8-10 hours out of one playthrough, and there is good incentive to go through multiple times and try out different character builds. Plus, this should only be the first chapter in the Rimelands universe, as more content will be coming down the line via updates as well as planned sequels. Dicework and Crescent Moon have a winner on their hands here, and I'll be looking forward to seeing more from this series. I don't typically love turn-based strategy games, but Rimelands had me hooked almost instantly. It's easy enough to get into whether you enjoy the strategic combat, loot collecting, character leveling, or just want to uncover the story in the unique steampunk universe. For fans of these elements, or any gamer in general, Rimelands: Hammer of Thor is a solid choice.

[source]

Anticipation has been building on our forums for months now around Crescent Moon Games' Rimelands: Hammer of Thor [$4.99] since it was first announced. Due to an approval SNAFU, Rimelands took a little bit longer to be released than expected, but it just appeared for downloads mere moments ago.

In Rimelands, you follow the treasure hunter Rose Cristo through an epic steampunk fantasy adventure. The entire game is turn based, and features tons of customization options through talent trees and skill boosts. We're still working on our review which we will have posted soon, but if you've been chomping at the bit for Rimelands after following the threads in our upcoming games forum… It is finally here.

[source]

A couple of weeks ago, we had a chance to get some hands-on time with the iPhone and iPad version of Puzzle Agent from Telltale Games. The story of FBI puzzle detective Nelson Tethers was coming together nicely for the iOS devices, and now the game is finally available. Puzzle Agent succeeds beautifully in the art style and story departments, but falls a little flat with the actual gameplay offered. If you go into Puzzle Agent expecting a robust puzzle game with a lot of content and replayability, you'll likely be disappointed. However, if you're looking for an excellent mystery to solve with humorous characters and an interesting plot, you'll find a lot to enjoy about the overall experience of Puzzle Agent.

The game starts with Nelson sitting at his desk in the FBI headquarters. You can tell he doesn't see a whole lot of action, as he is surprised to receive a phone call asking him to go on an assignment in the field. The eraser factory in Scoggins, Minnesota has ceased production, and thus been unable to supply the White House with their required allotment of erasers. All inquiries as to what the problem is at the eraser factory have resulted in odd puzzle-related responses from the townsfolk in Scoggins, making Nelson the perfect candidate to have investigate the situation. You'll travel to Scoggins to question people, solve puzzles, and uncover a twisted tale of what has gone awry at the eraser factory.

Puzzle Agent functions similar to other point-and-click adventure games, giving you a scene with various interactive elements to investigate. A circle will emanate from wherever you touch on the screen, and an icon will show up within that circle if something can be interacted with. I love this mechanic as it allows me to easily check an entire area for clues without tapping on every square inch of the screen. Talking with characters in the game is definitely the high point of Puzzle Agent. Each character is fully voiced and has multiple points of conversation to engage in. The amount of personality and humor that the characters exude through the dialogue is phenomenal, and playing through Puzzle Agent is analogous to watching a well crafted animated film. The art style is also very pleasing, featuring the minimalist hand drawn style of Graham Annable who created the Grickle comics and animated shorts.

iPad screenshots (click to enlarge):

The actual puzzles you'll be solving in Puzzle Agent are a mixed bag. Some are interesting, intuitive, and fun while others are just plain awkward and frustrating. Many times it's just not clear what you are supposed to be doing in a given puzzle. A hint system is in place in case you get stuck, so it never really prevents you from progressing, but it can be annoying to spend time trying to solve a difficult puzzle with trial and error when you are immersed in the story. Another frustration with Puzzle Agent is the controls. The game is designed very well for touch screen, but the actual responsiveness when touching or dragging items is not so great. It feels like the game is optimized for the mouse and cursor of the Mac/PC version, and using the larger surface of a fingertip doesn't afford the precision needed to perform some of the basic actions in the game.

There also isn't much reason to go back and play the game once you've beaten it, as the puzzles and story don't change. One important point to bring up is that Puzzle Agent looks far better on the iPad than it does on the iPhone. Many of the textures are blurry and show signs of artifacting, and are a far cry from the App Store screen shots that look like they are optimized for Retina Display.  This leads me to believe that it's just a bug with the release version that doesn't allow it to display the game in the proper resolution, although I have yet to confirm this. It doesn't completely ruin the game, but it is a significant distraction. The iPad version doesn't seem to exhibit this problem, and hopefully the issue gets rectified with the iPhone version soon.

Even with these issues, Puzzle Agent is still a really enjoyable experience. And that's what it really boils down to – it's better served as an exceptional entertainment experience rather than an exceptional game. The art style, music, voice acting, and story are incredibly well done, but the controls and puzzles are pretty hit and miss. If you're looking for something akin to an enjoyable interactive movie, Puzzle Agent serves this purpose really well.

[source]

A little over a month ago I first posted my review of Godville [Free] and was entirely amused by the concept behind the game. In essence, Godville is barely a game at all, as your interaction with the world is limited to either encouraging or punishing your hero who otherwise just goes about his business. You play as your hero's god, and the "game" basically consists of you reading the events that transpire in your hero's life. Depending on how you treat your hero either through punishment or encouragement, your hero will either be a cold hearted bastard killing everything in its path or a happy go lucky lover of all things living… Or something in between.

Godville is a community driven game, and once your hero reaches level 10 you're able to participate in the idea box. You can submit ideas for items, equipment, quests, enemies, combat actions, and tons of other things. Users then vote on these entries, which are eventually implemented in the game. Initially, the adventures of your hero in Godville when the game first launched were fairly repetitive, but after a month of idea box submissions from users, the game has only grown more amazing.

Not only is Godville getting better from user submissions, but the developers have been hard at work releasing updates both to the Godville client itself, and the web-based backend that powers the whole game. Special artifacts are one of my new favorite inclusions. These are new items that your character will loot from monsters or win from duels that have special abilities. Of course your hero is entirely too stupid to operate said artifacts themselves, but you can spend your god power (otherwise used for punishing and encouraging) to have them operate the item. These items can teleport them back to town, put a gold brick in their inventory, strike a death from their records, and many other things.

The amusing part of all this is that if you don't catch that your hero has one of these special artifacts in their inventory, chances are they'll just give it away, sell it, or otherwise get swindled out of it before you even have a chance to use it. Even if you do use it and it has some marvelous effect, they'll usually just hawk it for beer money anyway. How little control you have over your hero is part of what makes Godville so much fun for me, as my hero almost never does what I want him to do, but seemingly has developed his own (fairly stupid but evil) personality of his own.

Previous to the recent update, your character would randomly find themselves in duels with the heroes of other players. Now, every few hours, you can send your hero off to an arena to immediately participate in these duels. Aside from potentially humiliating another god with defeat, winning a duel also awards you all the coins that the opponent is holding along with some other swag… This is often lost anyway as your hero's ego grows and he bites off more than he can chew in combat, then endlessly begs you to be resurrected.

I decided to post about this game again not only because it has had significant updates since our initial review, but also because I'm downright amazed that a game that isn't really even technically a game has held my attention for so long. Checking up on what my Godville dude is doing has somehow managed to slip in between checking my email and checking my Twitter feed on my phone. Admittedly, when I first tried the game I thought Godville had sky-high novelty value, but I didn't see it lasting for me as most novelty-heavy games are only amusing until said novelty runs out.

The buckets of creativity being dumped in to Godville seems to always make loading up the game amusing. Initially I only saw Godville as a clever jab at the grind of RPG's as instead of you spending your time grinding, your hero does it for you. After spending an immense amount of time with the game over the last month, Godville seems to be the most captivating virtual per experience I've had so far on the iPhone. If you haven't yet, you really need to give this game a try to see if it grows on you just as much as it has grown on me.

[source]

Back in June at Apple's WWDC 2010 in San Francisco, we had a chance to sit down with Natalia Luckyanova of Imangi Studios, the folks who most recently brought us Harbor Master HD [free], to take a look at their upcoming dual-stick shooter Max Adventure, which we first previewed earlier in the year.

Max Adventure paints a friendly end-of-the-world scenario where all the adults have been abducted by aliens. That leaves you, young Max, as the only one who can save the other children and the world, in general.

We recently checked in with developer Keith Shepherd to find out how the game is coming along. As it turns out, a lot of progress has been made on the title since we saw it back in June. The game engine is now basically complete and the focus is currently on levels and content. Imangi is shooting for around 20 levels in Story Mode, with a handful of Survival maps available at launch. According to Keith, they're halfway there, with a mix of mission types currently in place:

• Rescue missions, where you go around saving kids trapped in the neighborhoods
• Escort missions, where you have a lead a particularly scared friend to safety while battling off enemies
• Area clearing missions, where you have to get rid of all the enemies in the area
• Bonus levels, where you get to run around and collect as much treasure as you can in a limited time
• Survival missions, where you have to fend off waves of enemies
• Boss battles

To give gamers an idea of what goes into putting a Max Adventure level together, Imangi recently released a time-lapse video that condenses four hours of level building footage into just three minutes. The video shows progress from a blank slate to a rough, playable draft, all within their own, custom-built, Mac OS X-based level editor. The accompanying score is taken from original, in-game music that Natalia is presently working on.

[ See our WWDC Max Adventure interview / hands-on footage. ]

Keith stresses that four hours to build a level may seem short, but it doesn't factor in the work put into the art assets by designer Kiril Tchangov, programming time, and play testing and tweaking time, which can take up to days for a single level.

And the latest addition to the game? Keith tells us that, recently added, is Max's ability to take over the flying pods of groups of aliens that attack on the wing, giving him the ability to take advantage of a pod's powerful weapons and to fly over low obstacles.

We'll post a close look at Max Adventure when it goes live in the App Store. Stay tuned.

[source]

The interactive fiction section of the App Store has grown quite a bit since our original post on both the Fighting Fantasy and Gamebook Adventures series of RPG eBook apps. If this is the first you've heard of them, these game books are an evolution of sorts on choose your own adventure books that you may or may not have read as a kid. Instead of simply choosing between two forks in a book and turning to that page, they have you roll dice to determine the outcome of the story. For instance, the main character might lose his footing, at which point you're faced with a dice challenge to see whether or not you fall in to some treacherous pit or manage to grab on to something and pull yourself out. The random nature of these game books make them a lot of fun, and give them quite a bit of replay (reread?) value as the story forks a different way with each reading.

These game books all play similarly, but I've found myself leaning towards Big Blue Bubble's adaptation of the Fighting Fantasy series, as they're universal and look great on the iPad as well as existing previously as published game books. Definitely look in to Fighting Fantasy if you're planning on playing the books on an iPad, as pixel doubling works on the others, but isn't a very good experience.

Fighting Fantasy: The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, $2.99 Deep in the caverns beneath Firetop Mountain lies an untold wealth of treasure, guarded by a powerful Warlock – or so the rumor goes. Several adventurers like yourself have set off for Firetop Mountain in search of the Warlocks hoard. None has ever returned. Do you dare follow them?

Fighting Fantasy: Citadel of Chaos, $2.99 The Citadel holds a dark and dangerous peril for anyone foolhardy enough to venture through its gruesome gates. And yet venture you must for your mission lies at the heart of the Citadel, with the dread sorcerer, Balthus Dire!

Fighting Fantasy: Deathtrap Dungeon, $2.99 Countless adventurers before you have taken up thee challenge of the Trial of Champions, but not one has survived. Devised by the devilish mind of Baron Sukumvit, the labyrinth is riddled with fiendish traps and hideous creatures of darkness to trick and test you almost beyond the limits of endurance!

Fighting Fantasy: Creature of Havok, $2.99 You begin this adventure not knowing where you are or who you are. All you know is that you are some kind of creature of instinct, understanding little. During the course of the adventure, it may be possible for you to begin to control your bestial nature, to find out more about yourself, and even to learn your destiny. But even if you know all this, success is by no means certain, for the traps and terrors of Trolltooth Pass are many … Are you ready — to become the Creature of Havoc?

Next are Gamebook Adventures by Tin Man Games, a completely original series written by S.P. Osborne and illustrated by Pirkka Harvala. I like the presentation of the Gamebook Adventures series a lot, and I really hope they're eventually updated to be universal.

Gamebook Adventures 1: An Assassin in Orlandes, $4.99 Set within Orlandes City, nobles are being systematically murdered by a ruthless assassin no-one seems able to catch. Finding yourself thrust in the middle of a large conspiracy, you must make decisions that may put yourself and one other most precious to you in great danger. Can you locate the Assassin in Orlandes before it is too late?

Gamebook Adventures 2: The Siege of the Necromancer, $4.99 Set in the coastal town of Myr, you have returned home after a long Summer in the mines of Durath Tor to find your hometown besieged by strange creatures. A dark presence has taken over the town and you are the only one who can rid the stronghold of Erid Buul, the mysterious new Lord and his ghastly cohorts.

And last but not least, Bright AI brought the first installment Steve Jackson's Sorcery! series to the App Store. Jackson is one of the original authors of the Fighting Fantasy books, and wrote the Sorcery! series along side them targeted at an older audience as they're much longer and more complex, even offering a choice of class to play while reading the book. Unfortunately, this isn't universal either.

Steve Jackson’s Sorcery! The Shamutanti Hills, $2.99 The Shamutanti Hills is Book One in Steve Jackson’s Sorcery! series. Your epic quest will take you across the mysterious hills to the cityport of Kharé, but only if you outwit the creatures, traps and wizardry you encounter along the way.

Since all of these game books basically play the same, you can pretty much just choose whichever one(s) sound interesting to you based on their description as reading previous installments in the series to enjoy later ones isn't required either. As mentioned, if you intend on reading them on an iPad, I'd gravitate towards the Fighting Fantasy books, but any of them will be highly enjoyable to any fan of fantasy fiction.

[source]

In May of last year Cyan Worlds released an iPhone version of their groundbreaking (in its day) point and click adventure Myst [App Store]. Earlier this year we got word that Riven: The Sequel to Myst would be arriving on the iPhone by early summer. And, while it's obviously not here yet, we do have an update for those who've been waiting anxiously for Riven's arrival.

Early this month, Cyan's Mark DeForest (or 'Chogon') made a post on the Myst online forums indicating that they are expecting Riven to be available in early Fall, with Riven HD for the iPod following sometime after that. What's more, Cyan today launched a simple Riven for iOS website that reveals certain details about the forthcoming iPhone version along with a screenshot gallery.

The original Riven sights and sounds have been meticulously re-assembled for a remarkable experience on the iPhone and iPod touch. Everything that you remember from the original Riven in a format where a simple touch or swipe moves you through the world.

According to the website, the install of Riven for the iPhone is huge — and it's not surprising; Riven for the Mac and PC was initially distributed as a set of five CD-ROMs. Cyan has worked to optimize the original game data for the iOS platform but, even so, the game is about a gig and a half in size (probably the largest iOS application out there) and requires over 2 gigabytes of free storage for a successful install.

Riven for iPhone features, as listed by Cyan:

• All the original Ages & gameplay
• High quality images
• Full music & sound effects
• Movies & animations
• Auto-save (when quitting or phone call)
• "Bookmark" system to save & restore progress
• Swipe to turn
• Zoom in anywhere for more detail
• “Hot Spot” hints
• Works with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad

We'll take a close look at Riven when it arrives and share our experiences with our readers. But, that's not the end of the Cyan news…

A small ad banner has recently appeared on the Cyan Worlds website that reads, "never let your timbers be shivered!" A click on the banner takes you to a rather spartan "preview" page that shows a screenshot of a new iOS game entitled Stoneship. Now, the savvy Myst fan will recall that "Stoneship" is the name of one of the ages in Myst, and this forthcoming title, which looks as if it may be some sort of top-down naval combat / tower defense / puzzle game, was surely inspired by it.

Unfortunately, that's about all the details we've got at the moment on this forthcoming, new title from Cyan. We'll share additional news on this one as we get it.

[ Thanks Jordan ]

[source]