TouchArcade.ru

This morning Subatomic Studios unveiled that it has been doing something other than pounding out updates for Fieldrunners on iPhone and iPad. It’s been working on a big budget sequel to that 2008 original. In fact, Subatomic has been building Fieldrunners 2 since Fieldrunner’s initial release, carefully toying around with new concepts while also playing around with other prototypes. So, yeah, this one did take awhile.

It’s true that this sequel ushers in the usual, not-so-exciting follow-up fare: new enemies, new towers, new modes, new progression systems, and new maps. But it’s also doing something great and pure. It’s introducing new mechanics that change up the core experience. These tweaks and changes are radical enough that they had Subatomic floating the idea of calling the game something else.

Jamie Gotch, the CEO of Subatomic Studios, chatted with us this afternoon about some of the game’s biggest changes. He also gave us a brief history lesson on how Subatomic got its start, and how important Fieldrunners is to the studio.

“We formed back in 2008. When we first established, we were virtual. We were just some dudes who were working on this game part-time on the side,” Gotch says. “We saw an opportunity on the iPhone and we went for it. We had this game idea, which was Fieldrunners, and we figured that — this was before any games were released when the iPhone was in its beta phase and we thought tower defense game would be great to put on a mobile device. There wasn’t much of that out at the time. I don’t know if there were any games that were in that genre. We saw it as a great opportunity. We worked really hard and got the game out and it did really, really well.”

Gotch paints an overall picture that has us thinking that Subatomic wouldn’t exist in its current full-time staffed form without Fieldrunners. Subatomic almost … owes that game, and it needs to produce a sequel that feels as honest and hip, but also just as new as Fieldrunners felt at the time.

“We were really fortunate,” Gotch tell us when we ask about how many people were buying into the original. “As you know, there’s so many iPhone games out there. It’s very hard to release a game on a huge budget because it’s a huge risk. Fieldrunners has done well and it allowed us the ability to build this team and the game we wanted to build.”

One of the things the studio wanted to build for Fieldrunners 2 is better AI. It did, and it’s a game-changer. It’s smarter. It’s now aware of itself and the world it inhabits. Enemies can bump into each other at choke points and push to find safer pathways. They can also scramble over and under each other. The original game was as mechanical as other tower defense games. Enemies just plowed straight ahead, totally oblivious to everything around them — no behaviors, no awareness, no brains.

“In Fieldrunners 2 what we did, we actually have this very elaborate swarming behavior,” Gotch says. “Units behave like they would on a real battlefield. If you were to throw hundreds of units on-screen they would all swarm in and take control of the battlefield. Like an army you would see in Braveheart … They actually influence one another. You can build mazes and congest the [pipes you build]. And the guys behind [other enemies] are affected by the guys in the forefront.

Gotch excitedly tells us about other new stuff. Bridges and tunnels are being introduced in addition to environmental hazards and mini-bosses. A really neat sounding collectible card mini-game is in the works, too. As you earn achievements in the game’s modes, you receive cards.

Several of you noted earlier today that the game looks great. It does, and that’s thanks to Fieldrunner 2’s re-written engine, which is what makes all of the game’s new, much more unpredictable action possible. We’ve got a couple of new screens in the article, so give the game a look as you’re reading.

The new engine and the new AI behaviors combine to make a pretty different game, which is what prompted the debate Subatomic had about the Fieldrunner 2’s name. In the App Store world, putting a number instead of a subtitle in a sequel’s name is often said to be sales suicide because people quit buying the original game. Subatomic doesn’t care about this. It thinks it created a better game and if it loses sales, whatever. It wants this to stand proudly on its own.

Fieldrunners 2 is due out this June on iPhone and an iPad version will then follow. We talked with Gotch and the game’s lead designer Sergei Gourski on this week’s episode of our bonus podcast. We’ll blast the audio to your earholes tomorrow.

[source]

The TouchArcade App [ Free ] has been out for a couple weeks now, and it seems like everyone is really digging it. Currently we’re working on a quick 1.1 update which will address some tweaks, fixes, and suggestions that have been posted in our forums. After that, it’s full-steam ahead on releasing a universal update. Spoilers: I’ve already got a beta version of it on my iPad, and it’s going to be really nice.

But anyway, one of the best features you might not be using in the TouchArcade app is setting up watch lists to stay on top of upcoming games we’ve posted about. Flipping the little binoculars switch on these games will add them to your watch list, and you’ll be notified when we post additional articles on them as well as when they’re actually released. Going back through historical stories to fill up your watch list is a bit of a hassle, so here’s a list of games I’m looking forward to that you could think about adding.

All you’ve got to do is tap each link, and then flip the binocular toggle on top:

Audiosuft Air – The Audiosurf series of games were a huge hit on the PC, and it seems like a natural fit on the iPhone. It’s currently scheduled to be released sometime this year.

Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition – If you listen to the podcast, you’ll know we’re always going on about how much we want old school RPGs on our iPads, and there’s few finer old school RPGs than Baldur’s Gate- Especially a totally touch-centric port.

Bladeslinger – A “western-themed Infinity Blade” as it’s known around my house. The game has been delayed like crazy, but last we heard is still supposed to be released this month.

Defender Chronicles II – The original Defender Chronicles was a huge hit in our community, so naturally, folks are incredibly excited about the upcoming sequel. (Including me, I can’t wait.)

Drifter – Space trading games and me go together like peas and carrots. Drifter is looking really promising.

Galactic Keep – I feel like Gilded Skull Games has been teasing us with this game for eternity, and last we heard, it’s still coming. I’m still loving the art style and dice-centric gameplay ideas.

Infinity Blade Dungeons – It’s the new Infinity Blade, there’s no way this game won’t be huge, especially with the recent release of Diablo III and Dungeons’ dungeon crawling gameplay.

Linux Tycoon – There have been tons of “tycoon” style games released over the years, but none are as delightfully nerdy as Linux Tycoon. Last we heard, it’s coming very soon.

Penny Arcade On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness Episode Three – Sadly, I don’t hold out much hope for the first two episodes, but I’m more than happy for the third installment to be hitting iOS devices.

Pocket Heroes – Dungeons and Dragons combined with Words With Friends style asynchronous multiplayer? That “Take My Money” meme is totally appropriate here.

RealMyst – I’m still blown away that this exists. 20-ish years ago, my computer could barely play the pre-rendered version of Myst. Soon we’ll be playing it rendered in real time on our phones.

Star Command – Kairosoft-style simulation combined with a gloriously Star-Trek-y setting. They’ve also released the best trailer I’ve seen recently, which is embedded above.

The Other Brothers – An adventure game with platforming elements and some really awesome pixel art. We can’t wait.

WarGames – I’m a massive fan of Dungeon Raid [$2.99 / Free ] and WarGames is designed with vaguely similar gameplay in mind. Oh, and it’s dripping with WarGames style from the actual movie.

[source]

In an age where game studios are talking to behavioral psychologists and hiring retention experts and monetization specialists in a rush to juice the most out of free-to-player gamers, there’s at least one studio developing free-to-play games that doesn’t care about metrics, compulsion loops, and user acquisition. Game business never informs game design at NimbleBit. Fun is first, the mechanics of free-to-play are secondary.

Pocket Planes is the next big thing from the two-man studio, and it’s philosophically linked with its other titles. Without shaking a virtual change cup in your face, Pocket Planes gives you a vibrant and customizable world and ownership over it as you ferry a fleet of planes from one airport to the next. Designers David and Ian Marsh believe that these components will be enough to organically drive the free-to-play aspect. No business trickery is required.

The Art Of Good Free-To-Play

“[Our] philosophy is to consider monetization as little as possible during the design of the game,” Ian tells TouchArcade. “The in-game currencies are balanced to be a natural part of the game without the option to even purchase more during design and beta,” he points out. “Adding IAP and deciding how much to charge is always one of the last things we do before launch. We take care to make sure that everything in the game is accessible and achievable without every purchasing IAP.”

Ian and David proved that this approach works with Tiny Tower. The game made money even though monetization aspects weren’t a focal point. The game also did well with critics, earning all sorts of amazing reviews and even a Game of the Year nod in 2011 from the editorial team at Apple. Millions of people played Tiny Tower, too.

Pocket Planes is still deeply in beta, but I’m as hopelessly … hooked on it as I was Tiny Tower. Every ten or so minutes I pick up my phone and plan more flights. When I’m not playing, I spend time thinking about new planes and creative ways to expand my cash and transport flow. Should I grind in my current selection of airports until I can buy New York’s airport? Or should I keep expanding with much smaller airports to broaden my empire, and slowly build up the necessary resources to acquire international hubs? What if I converted all my fleet to four-seat airplanes? How much could I earn then?

These are the questions running through my head, in part because the simulation aspect of the experience is so good. But I’m also just straight-up invested in the world that I’m creating, and I want to keep making it bigger and better. There are so many small, yet beautiful touches in Pocket Planes that drive my mania. I can name all my planes and customize each of my pilots. My passengers post their thoughts on an in-app Facebook client called “BitBook.” I can buy any airport that I can afford, and I can also upgrade it to make it bigger and better. I can build my planes and when I watch them fly, I can collect the game’s two currencies randomly floating in the air. Pocket Planes also knows when I’m flying. The day and night cycle is synced to the real world. When I receive a Push notification, my phone emits a soft airplane cabin ding.

These are the aspects that David and Ian believe drive users to spend. These are the things it spends all of its time developing. There is no conversation about loops or feedback. The duo spend their time making games with character, real progression, and meaningful stuff. Their games have a soul.

“I’m not sure if there is some kind of secret sauce, but we definitely focus a lot of time on adding lots of things to our simulation games that make them feel like a functional little world inside,” David tells us. “I think the stronger the feeling that there is a buzzing simulation going on inside the game, the more fun it is to influence it and use your actions to mould and direct it.”

“I agree with Dave completely,” Ian says. “The more detail and emotion you put into these little worlds the more immersed players become and the more they enjoy spending time with it.”

“I think the customization has a lot to do with it as well,” he continues. “That isn’t just a plane flying in the game, it is your plane that you named yourself and spent time finding the perfect paint job for. In Tiny Tower, it isn’t just a generic bakery, it’s Brad’s Bread with interior decoration of his choosing and hand picked employees that took work for him to recruit.”

David explains that Tiny Tower and the feedback blowing up NimbleBit’s inbox is actively informing the development of Pocket Planes. Users are lauding their game design ideals and are actually thanking David and Ian for making a fun game first.

“I think we definitely are trying to strike the same balance and attitude in all our future free-to-play games because it resonates with players and matches the type of games we prefer to play ourselves,” David says. “The other thing we have learned from Tiny Tower and also Pocket Frogs is that the more we can stimulate players imaginations the better. The kind of fan art and fan communities that have grown around those games is amazing and that is a target we are always aiming for.”

Pocket Planes is shaping up to be a tremendous game and my praise is coming at a time when more and more new free-to-play games continue to feel like skinner boxes instead of fun things to play with. Ian and David are doing important work here, proving that free-to-play doesn’t need to inform fundamental game design.

“Even without spending a dime, players become heavily invested in these worlds because of their character and charm — not some carefully crafted compulsion loop. That is what keeps them coming back,” Ian says.

Fun doesn’t need to cost a penny, and that’s what NimbleBit strives to make a reality with each release.

[source]

Nearly a month ago we got into all the nitty gritty details of what the upcoming TouchArcade app was going to do. Our initial plan involved launching the following Monday, but some unfortunate events put that in limbo. We’ve since gathered our forces, and are completely prepared for a Tuesday launch of the app.

We’ll be pulling the level manually early Tuesday morning, so keep an eye on the site and/or our Twitter to know the second it’s available. I’ve been using the app daily for quite a while now. I love it, our beta testers have loved it, and I can’t wait to get it into everyone’s respective hands.

Strap in for Tuesday! Oh, and here is the iTunes link, if you want to bookmark it to obsessively mash over the weekend like hitting the refresh button on a package you’re tracking even though you know it won’t arrive for a few days.

[source]

The original Defender Chronicles [ $1.99 ] launched in the summer of 2009 and offered a unique take on tower defense with its vertically designed levels and inclusion of RPG elements. We thought it was great in our review and we even picked it as a top strategy game of 2009. Since that time Defender Chronicles developer Gimka has been hard at work on a sequel, and at long last the game is nearly upon us.

Gimka has recently posted some information about Defender Chronicles 2 in our forums, and based on some comments there from beta testers the sequel is even better than the original. It’s set to include 4 new heroes, 32 new abilities, 4 factions and 57 different units. There will also be a whole slew of new items and equipment to play around with, and the maps in Defender Chronicles 2 will be bigger and longer than in the previous game. Finally, it will be a Universal app with Retina Display support.

Click through the following screens provided by Gimka that introduce some of the characters in the game.

Unfortunately, one thing we don’t know about Defender Chronicles 2 just yet is a specific release date, but we’ve been assured that it’s coming relatively soon. Next week some additional information as well as a new trailer will be released, and we’ll be looking to get our hands on the game early to check it out. Keep your eyes peeled for more on Defender Chronicles 2 in the very near future.

[source]

Ladies and Gentlemen, start your engines. As Nimblebit’s Pocket Planes continues to barrel through its beta period, we’ve had a chance to try out one of its new features. It’s been added since our GDC preview and we’re pretty sure you’re going to like it.

You know how Tiny Tower [Free] and Pocket Frogs [Free] have missions you can complete—stock this much of certain items, or breed certain colors and patterns of frogs? Pocket Planes is going to have missions, too, but they’re competitive. For these ones, you’re going to need a little help from your friends. Or rather, your flight crew.

A new Flight Crew challenge will be posted every so often—maybe twice a week. The challenges look to be pretty simple: deliver as many jobs (pieces of cargo and passengers) to a certain city somewhere in the world. You can’t just take any old thing, though. Everything in the game has a destination, and the destination needs to match the city for this to work.

Your Flight Crew can have as many or as few people as you can muster, but the more the better: the crews who manage to bring in the most jobs will win some very cool in-game prizes. Like, say, the bad boy below. Look familiar? Nimblebit is hard at work making up some very cool secret planes as we speak—here’s hoping for a good ol’ fashioned airship. And on top of the cosmetics, it sounds like there will be a Bux reward to boot.

Now Pocket Planes is still a work in progress, so none of this is set in stone. But currently, the only thing you need to join a Flight Crew is a Game Center account (which you don’t need to share with your crewmates) and a common Flight Crew name. If I were the sort of person who wanted to get a leg up on the competition, I might use that information to hit the forums and start drumming up a good team of people. While I was at it, I might try to recruit a few of the folks who have put 2323 pages of forum posts into trading frogs in Pocket Frogs. Those dudes seem like they might have the dedication for the job.

The rest of the game is coming along nicely, from what we’ve seen, and it looks like Zynga hasn’t caught on to it so far (fingers crossed!). Nimblebit isn’t ready to commit to a release window yet, but it can’t be too far over the horizon at this point. So stick around—we’ll have much more to show you as Pocket Planes gets ready to touch down.

[source]

Need more CCG action in your life? Great! You and Ubisoft are on level. Earlier this morning, the publisher finally popped the lid off of Might & Magic Duel of Champions, a free-to-play card game set in the Might & Magic universe.

Ubisoft didn’t divulge hard mechanical details in today’s announcement materials for whatever reason, but it has confirmed the following about the game: (a) Duel of Champions will have collectible cards, (b) players will fight each other with these cards, and (c) users will also be able to buy these cards. So, yeah… this sure is card game.

More information will be coming to the game’s official web site, and apparently a beta is open right now in France. We’re doing our best to dig up some more substantial details so stick with us. If the Assassin’s Creed card game proved anything, it’s that Ubisoft knows how to fund decent tabletop experiences.

[images via PocketGamer]

[source]

Fans of 2D Minecraft-ing on iOS have had it pretty good with the excellent Junk Jack [$2.99/Lite], but the developers at Bytebin Studios want to know what would happen if you take a similar Terraria/Minecraft sandbox idea, placed it in a steampunk setting, and let everyone connect to one giant persistent world together online MMO style. The result is Deepworld, and you can get a pretty good idea of what it’s like in this new gameplay trailer.

Deepworld is in an alpha state but is close to entering beta, and as the game stands right now it contains procedurally generated worlds, a robust crafting system, a day/night cycle and weather effects, and a limited number of enemies. It will also be coming out for Mac, and since the game world is stored in the cloud, there will be cross-platform play between the iOS and Mac versions.

Longer-term goals for Deepworld are a dynamic ecosystem that can be dilapidated and brought back to health, a steam-based power source for creating vehicles and machines, and social game types like Capture the Flag and Freeze Tag. While the idea of something like Deepworld is certainly intriguing, it’s also incredibly ambitious for an iOS title. I’ll feel much better once the initial product gets released and I can actually try it out, and much like Junk Jack or Minecraft itself, Deepworld will likely evolve over time.

It sounds like Deepworld is set to initially launch pretty soon, and we’ll keep an eye out for a specific release date. Until then you can swing by our forums to talk about the game.

[source]

Linux Tycoon, in case you’ve never heard of it, bills itself as “the world’s premiere Linux Distribution Building Simulation Game.” It’s got similar gameplay to the many other Tycoon-style games out there, with one gloriously nerdy twist. In Linux Tycoon, you’re not building railroads, managing hospitals, or anything like that, you’re trying to build the world’s greatest Linux distro.

You’ll analyze and select the software packages included in your distro, fix bugs, and manage both your volunteers and paid staff while trying to keep the file size of your distro reasonable… And much more. There’s even an online component, which will turn Linux Tycoon into the world’s first MMOLDBSG, or, for those of you playing along at home, that’s a “Massively Multiplayer Online Linux Distro Building Simulation Game.”

If all goes as planned, Linux Tycoon will be submitted to the App Store for approval sometime next week, and released as soon as Apple gives the thumbs up. Pricing is yet to be announced, but it sounds like it’ll be in line with what you’d expect.

[source]

Before I get started here, let me offer two disclaimers: First off, the guys from NimbleBit asked me to make it very clear that this game is a work in progress and absolutely everything is subject to change. Traditionally, NimbleBit does extensive beta testing and implements tons of user feedback, Pocket Planes is nowhere near that stage left. Secondly, this is a very difficult game to describe, as I’m really not sure what to compare it to or what genre to classify it in. It definitely has elements of time management, but seems substantially more strategic than your typical time management game. Pocket Planes is definitely a much more “gamery” game, which even has NimbleBit a little worried with how the game will do as free to play games typically require a very large mainstream casual player base to be successful.

With that out of the way, let’s chat Pocket Planes.

At the highest level, Pocket Planes is a game of ferrying people and cargo around the world. Each city is home to its own airport, where players will find anxious passengers and cargo waiting to go somewhere else. You must manage your own budding airline, starting at the very small regional level and eventually expanding into a global empire of complete air superiority with planes flying to even the most exotic of locations.

You increase your fleet of planes using what we’ll call “Plane Bucks” for the sake of this article, although NimbleBit admits they’ve yet to decide on a witty name for the IAP currency. Also, since IAP is a bit of a sore subject around here for some of our readers, keep in mind that NimbleBit intends to balance the game just like Tiny Tower and Pocket Frogs, in that they aim to make the game fun, even if you never buy a single IAP item. Just like Tower Bucks, players will have plenty of opportunities to rack up Plane Bucks via various in-game goals, promotions, and other things.

The in-game planes are not only totally customizable via various options (such as color) but they’re also all based on real-world statistics when it comes to range, speed, capacity, and the other values under that make the whole simulation work under the hood. Of course they’re named something different, but aviation fans should find lots of very familiar planes to load their fleet up with.

With your planes, you’ll initially have access to a small pool of local airports. The world map is still in flux, but say for instance you could start off in Los Angeles, where you might initially have access to a few airports in the area, let’s say Tucson, Phoenix, and San Francisco. (Keep in mind these cities might not be in the final game, I’m just using this as an example.)

Starting in Los Angeles, you’ll have people and cargo that want to go to these different airports, the strategy of the game comes in with how you do this, as flying your planes cost coins the farther you go. So, you could potentially load your plane up with people who want to go to Phoenix and Tucson, potentially making the flight a better bang for the buck since you fly from Los Angeles with tons of people, then dump them off at two very nearby airports. Doing this would net more profit than just flying a couple people up to San Francisco, which is farther away.

As you earn more coins, you’re able to buy access to additional airports. Doing so not only unlocks additional destinations to pick up (and drop off) people and cargo, but will also open new flight routes through that airport. With this example we’ve been using, you’d eventually unlock cities across the southwest towards the east, then eventually get a flight path to Europe, where you’ll be able to start unlocking airports over there.

With each new airport, you’re potentially unlocking much more efficient and direct flight routes, allowing you to turn even greater profits by offering much more direct flights to destinations. It seems like you can get really obsessive too about your strategy with buying both planes with Plane Bucks and unlocking airports with coins. Also, the game will totally let you lose coins if you’re not playing smart and efficiently using your fleet. But, don’t worry, you can never go negative.

NimbleBit explained several different viable play styles, such as investing in large and slow planes and doing long haul flights trying to carve your niche in the world as an international airline. Alternatively (or additionally) you could have a fleet of small fast planes to carry passengers that want to go on a long-haul flight to a central “hub” of sorts, where you keep your huge slow planes to do a long-haul flight for tons of coins.

It’s surprising how deep this game feels, even at this post-prototype pre-beta phase. I’m sure it won’t be long before NimbleBit starts engaging the community and more information on Pocket Planes comes flowing out. If all goes as planned, Pocket Planes will be released sometime this summer.

[source]