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I figured I'd take a break from our regularly scheduled programming to discuss a game that completely changed the way I look at free to play games: League of Legends. Originally released in late 2009 by Riot Games, League of Legends is a free to play game available for the PC. (There's also a very beta OSX client that takes a considerable amount of witchcraft and wizardry to get running.) Gameplay is very similar to Defense of the Ancients in that you play in teams, either 3v3 or 5v5, and have control of a single champion unit that behaves a lot like the hero units in Warcraft III. You can level up various abilities, buy items in a shop to enhance your character, and engage in some pretty wicked player vs player combat as each team attempts to destroy the opposing team's base. It's a ton of fun, and with 76 available champions (as of this posting, more are added constantly), each game is always vastly different.

But what does a PC game have to do with the App Store? Well, in October of 2009, Apple changed the way in-app purchases worked on the App Store. Previously, only apps that customers paid for were able to have in-app purchase. With this shift, Apple effectively opened the flood gates for freemium games on the App Store. The first major title to employ this purchase model was Eliminate, followed by a tidal wave of others.

The vast majority of these freemium iOS games all focus around the same style of gameplay, although some hide it substantially better than others. Developers craft a game world, and put you in charge of a farm, an office, or other settings where you're able to slowly build up a customized representation of yourself within the game. These types of games have had an (understandbly) terrible reputation among our community because often they don't feel like games as much as they feel like potentially costly time sinks.

Why League of Legends is important is because of how differently it presents the free to play model. Each week you're given a selection of 10 of the 76 champions which you can play for free. From there, you have full access to the game and are at no advantage or disadvantage regardless of whether you've spent nothing or you've paid to unlock absolutely everything. The only restriction is the limitation of playing as one of those ten champions.

It's absolutely incredible how much this shifts the player's spending compulsion. For instance, in Smurfs' Village [Free], or other similar games, I begrudgingly buy Smurfberries to bypass irritating time sinks, essentially exchanging my money for a feeling of progression in a game that I have very little personal investment in because the endless limitations never make me feel like I have any kind of ownership.

Alternatively, League of Legends has no time sinks, or limitations. Instead, you're essentially given a weekly free and unlimited test drive of a selection of champions. If you find yourself really enjoying one, you can permanently unlock it, as well as buy customized skins for it. It's just incredible how much more fun I have playing a game like this, and how much more willing I am to spend my money on microtransactions. Instead of plunking money down on something I feel obligated to buy to progress, I'm buying something I want to because I like it.

It gets better though, as these items you're buying can either be unlocked with Riot Points which are purchased with money or Influence Points, which are earned by simply playing the game– Although at a substantially slower rate. This freemium model has been ridiculously successful for Riot as well, who is scrambling to find additional employees to ramp up all aspects of their company as League of Legends becomes more and more successful by the day.

I would absolutely love it if iOS developers looked to Riot's League of Legends for inspiration on how to build their future free to play titles. I think the caustic attitude that many members of our community have towards freemium games would vanish if they employed a similar free to play model where players feel like they're buying something they want, instead of just a in-game currency that is slowly drained by skipping time sinks which only exist to give players a reason to buy said in-game currency.

I doubt League of Legends will ever make it to iOS, as the interface is simply far too complex. However, nothing is stopping iOS developers from taking a good hard look at League of Legends and applying what they learn to future iOS titles. In fact, if you're an iOS developer who is even remotely debating dabbling in freemium, you owe it to yourself to at least give League of Legends a shot. Similarly, if you're the kind of person who incessantly posts about how much you dislike freemium games, you really need to try a game that nails the business model perfectly just to see what's possible if developers break free of farming games.

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It's Wednesday again, which for me means another week where I debate drafting up a template to use for these weekly New Zealand release posts instead of coming up with something new each week. Work smarter, not harder like Scrooge McDuck always says… But, I digress. This week's releases include a couple highly anticipated HD versions of iPhone games, as well as Army of Darkness Defense which, like all things to do with Bruce Campbell, seems almost too awesome for words.

If this is your first Wednesday with an iOS device, or if this is the first Wednesday that has come since you discovered TouchArcade, the App Store works a little something like this: Developers can set a specific release date for those apps, and they then get released worldwide in each region as it becomes that day in that particular region. New Zealand is the region nearest to the international date line, so they get their games first. What does this mean for us Americans? All of these games should be available at 11:00 PM Eastern tonight:

Army of Darkness Defense, 99¢ / HD – Forum Thread – I've had a preview version of this game on my iPad 2 for a couple weeks now, and if you're even close to being an Army of Darkness fan, or just a general Bruce Campbell fan, you need to buy this game the instant it appears. It's a hero-based castle battle game, and while the gameplay is fairly run of the mill for the genre, Backflip Studios have basically redefined fan service in an iPhone game. It wouldn't surprise me to find out that a good 90MB of the 100MB file size consists of movie quotes and other official sound effects.

Bee Farm, 99¢ – Forum Thread – There have been line drawing games that put you in charge of managing all kinds of things from planes, to boats, and now bees. Even though it seems like there's a million of these games out there now, I still like trying out new ones to see if they've managed to add anything new or exciting to the genre. And hey, who doesn't like honey?

Bohnanza, $3.99 / HD – Forum Thread – I'm woefully naive of a lot of crazy board and card games, so it didn't really surprise me to find out just how popular Bohnanza actually is. There's an entire Wikipedia article on the game which details the ridiculous amount of expansions it has had. I'm not sure Bohnanza will be a mass-market success on the App Store, but like most of these semi-obscure board and card games, I'm sure it's release will make some people very happy.

Catch The Candy, 99¢ / HD – A fun little physics game we got a sneak peak of a while ago puts you in charge of a curious little purple creature with a long tongue that's used to reach candy. 53 levels are included, with more on the way via updates.

Chromanoids, 99¢ – [Forum Thread] – The iTunes description of Chromanoids is fairly vague, but I'm intrigued by the screenshots. I'm making an educated guess here in that the gameplay might involve some kind of color-coded Missile Defense-like gameplay. Am I wrong? Am I right? I suppose we'll know in a few hours.

Golden Axe 3, $2.99 – Forum Thread – Same old song and dance here from Sega. Golden Axe 3's release makes for an App Store trilogy of Golden Axe games, which is great if you're just mad about Golden Axe. Hopefully once Sega gets releasing all of these arcade-style games out of their system they get back to releasing some more RPG's from their insanely massive back-catalog.

HECTOR: Ep1 HD – We Negotiate with Terrorists, $6.99 – Forum Thread – We like the iPhone version a lot in our review, and this seems to be the same game, just up-scaled to the iPad. I've greatly preferred these kind of point and click games on the iPad, and Hector is a great one. Hopefully this leads to those followup episodes fans of the iPhone game have been waiting on…

Spoing, 99¢ / HD – Forum Thread – This game looks a lot like Parachute Ninja, except you can control where you put the various slingshots to shoot your dude around. The trailer has definitely piqued my interest, and I look forward to giving this game a spin.

StarFront: Collision HD, $6.99 – Forum Thread – We had positive first impressions of the iPhone version of StarFront, and we're expecting the iPad version to be even better since the increased screen real estate really lends itself to an RTS game. As an aside, am I the only one who is amused by the fact that Gameloft not only has cloned StarCraft, but they're also duplicating the commentary-laden game replays like the above video? Alright, I admit, I'm totally stoked to fire this game up on my iPad 2.

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The indie house that created Tilt To Live [$2.99 / HD] has been teasing a brand new project for some time. Until this afternoon, we only had this little nugget to go on: it was a multiplayer-focused, turn-based strategy game. Now, we’ve received our first in-game peek of the new IP, which has been dubbed “Outwitters.”

According to One Man Left, the vision of Outwitters is to strip strategy to the bone and package it as something fun and inviting. It even hopes to capture a few casual hearts out there with Outwitter’s tedium-snipping tweaks and simplicity.

In a nutshell, Outwitters is a class-based, defend-the-castle kind of joint. The twist here is that movement is turn-based, so the action isn't simply a rush and defend free-for-all. As of now, there are six different character classes to choose from, each with its own respective duty on the field. And like Rock, Paper, Scissors, I’d imagine each has a weakness to the other. The end goal is to, of course, pummel your opponent’s base.

“The phrase ‘I don’t usually like this type of game, but…’ has already come up in testing, which is definitely what we’re aiming for,” One Man Left said on its blog. “But how do we know if we’re on the right track? We’re recruiting testers that don’t like strategy games AND testers that love them, and we’re listening,” it explained. “And then we’re thinking really hard.”

Outwitters is still in development, and as the blog cautions constantly, the things we mention in this post could change, be tweaked, or be removed. But, still, this sounds like an intriguing game from a superstar indie development house. We’ll be keeping our eyes on it, for sure.

"Our goal is to boil the strategy experience down to what’s most fun about it in our opinion, and to make a strategy game people can enjoy without having to take a class," One Man said in an e-mail. "My personal side-goal, as the artist, was to stop using dots before I forgot how to draw completely."

Outwitters is due out later this year at an unannounced price for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad.

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It’s official: Cthulhu is about to get its tentacles all up in your mobile devices. Indie developer Red Wasp Design has just announced that it's behind Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land, an upcoming 3D turn-based strategy RPG for the iPod Touch, iPhone, and Android.

I suppose at this point, Cthulhu is more notorious as an Internet meme than it is as an object of author H.P. Lovecraft’s tortured mind, but just as a refresher, the hulking, tentacle-faced monster first appeared in a short story published in 1928. The monster has been used in many a video game since. I’m thinking his most famous usage was in Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth, a Bethesda joint.

Of course, there’s also a paper RPG and it’s still a big deal. Red Wasp actually inked an agreement with the paper makers, Chaosium, in order to get this game done. As far as crossover, there’s a fair bit: “It is directly related to the paper RPG, not totally the same, but there is lots of cross-over,” a representative told me.

The Wasted Land takes place in an alternate World War I where our fair soldiers find a more impressive foe to face: an undead army that is ravaging Europe. It's up to you to find a way to stop the corpse advance through a mix of turn-based action.

If you’re like me, you’re probably scratching your head about how exactly this game will play. The TBS / RPG genre is cluttered with a bunch of different styles of games, so it’s kind of a nebulous branding. I didn’t get much more from the developers when I pressed.

“We're doing our own thing — but in terms of gameplay, players of games like X-COM or Fire Emblem would understand where we are getting inspiration from,” the representative said.

“As in the core game is turn-based in movement and combat (as is the RPG) and there is a strong narrative that drives the levels forward. There is also a strong role-play element is how you develop your characters from level to level.”

Tight lips! More, including a release date and price, will be announced after this summer. Members of Red Wasp were previously behind Star Wars: The Battle For Hoth [$1.99 / Lite] and Filth Fair [Free] for iOS devices.

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Earlier this week we took a look at the upcoming multiplayer dual-stick shooter Deadlock from Crescent Moon and Invulse Games, and today we have the first trailer which shows the game in action. Deadlock will feature matches that can be played with up to 8 players online using Game Center in modes such as Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, and Capture & Hold.

In addition, there will be a fairly extensive upgrading system for your player. The 30 different weapons in the game will have various unlockable attachments which can alter their performance, and your character can equip armor pieces that offer different attributes and abilities. Many of these items and weapons will unlock as you achieve the 30 available ranks in the game through play.

Take a look at the first teaser trailer for Deadlock, which actually is quite a tease but does show off a good bit of gameplay:

Crescent Moon and Invulse are aiming to have Deadlock out by late June, and based on my time with a preview version of the game it’s definitely one to keep your eye out for if you enjoy dual-stick shooters and competitive online play. There’s a lengthy discussion thread in our forums where both developers have been chiming in with additional details, and we’ll have more on Deadlock as it nears its release sometime next month.

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Pulse: Volume One [$4.99] is a new iPad-exclusive game by Cipher Prime, the developers who created the award-winning Auditorium [Free]. Like Auditorium, Pulse is a simple and elegant music game. This time around, Cipher Prime has moved away from puzzles and into the rhythm game genre.

Pulse is an immersive experience right from the start. Even in the tutorial, the game provides no external feedback. You can learn by experimentation, noting what works and what doesn't with the game's visuals to guide you. You're presented with a series of concentric circles and a musical beat. Glowing rings pulse outwards from the center in time with the music, and dots appear with the beat. Tap the dots as they're hit by the pulse and you'll be rewarded with explosive visuals and the next musical note.

Hit them too soon or too late, and that note is marred with dissonant noise, and the color and beauty leech out of the game. Played successfully, Pulse is a visually exciting experience. Birds and butterflies fly from under your fingertips with each successful tap, and colors light up the screen. It's a game that really shows off the elegance of the iPad's touch interface, an impressive feat for the developer's first time self-publishing on iOS.

Pulse includes eight levels that showcase original music composed by the Cipher Prime team. The music is atmospheric, and ranges from slow ambient tracks to upbeat electronica. As the music gets faster the game gets more difficult, and you'll need to use both your hands and have incredibly nimble fingers to keep up with some of the later tracks. Getting 100% on each level is a challenge, but the music is enjoyable enough to stay fresh through repeat plays.

Unfortunately, eight tracks are all that the game currently has to offer. In total, a single play-through of all the tracks makes up less than twenty minutes of play time. The game doesn't include leaderboards, achievements, or any other way to share your progress, so once you're satisfied with your performance, you're done. That's not great news, but Cipher Prime has at least six months of regular free updates planned, with original music that will showcase independent musicians from Philadelphia. It's also taking music submissions on its website. Upcoming content includes songs from an eclectic mix of genres, including chip-tune, nerdcore and death metal, so there should be plenty to look forward to if you decide to jump in now.

Ultimately, if you're looking for strong gameplay hooks and replayability, Pulse:Volume One won't hit those notes for you. But if you're interested in elegant rhythm gameplay and an immersive audio-visual experience, you'll find lots to enjoy.

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Noel Llopis of Snappy Touch and Miguel Friginal of Mystery Coconut Games have teamed up on an upcoming project called Casey’s Contraptions, a colorful physics-based puzzle game. 8-year old Casey must build crazy Rube Goldberg-like contraptions in order to solve the more than 70 levels in the game. Solving puzzles will unlock over 30 different items which can then be used in a level editor to create your own puzzles.

Casey’s Contraptions will also feature Game Center integration which allows you to see replays of how your friends solved the puzzles in the game, and they can see your solutions as well. Also, created levels can be shared via email so you can send out your creations for other people to take a crack at.

The developers have just released the official trailer for Casey’s Contraptions that shows off the many possibilities of the physics gameplay:

I’ve been a big fan of these types of physics creation puzzle games ever since The Incredible Machine way back in that long-forgotten era known as the 1990s, and Casey’s Contraption looks to be a solid take on the formula. The game is slated to launch on May 19th, and we’ll take another look at it then. Until that time, swing on by the upcoming thread in our forums for a discussion on Casey’s Contraptions.

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It's Wednesday again, which doesn't mean a whole lot other than we're that much closer to Thor being released in theaters this Friday. I've heard good things about it, but I'm always a sucker for comic book movies. If you don't care about Thor, chances are you care about the bucket full of iOS games that are being released this evening.

The way this works is that developers can set a specific release date for their games on the App Store, but since it's a global market, games are released on that date in each region. Fellow sorcerers who have unlocked the mysteries of time zones will know that this means since it's Thursday in New Zealand first, games are released there nearly a day ahead of the US market. All of these games should be available tonight on the American App Store at 11:00 PM EST:

Enduro, 99¢ / Lite – Forum Thread – We previewed this game a few days ago, and interestingly enough, the developers don't have any of the rights for the game. Who knows whether or not it will get pulled, but if you were intrigued by our preview, you better not wait too long before downloading it.

Frisbee Forever, Free – Forum Thread – Judging by the response on our forums, I'm not the only one surprised to see that this game is free. We were impressed by its feature list a while back, and I can't wait to give it a spin. 100 tracks to play and 100 frisbees to connect? I'm in.

Imaginary Range, Free / HD – Forum Thread – An odd hybrid by Square Enix that seems to take a comic book and add mini-games to it. Regardless, it's free, so as skeptical as you may be regarding Squeenix's new project, it at least seems worth checking out.

iOOTP Baseball 2011, $4.99 – Forum Thread – Another game that we previewed not long ago! iOOTP brings a similar simulation-style management game that soccer fans have been enjoying for quite a while in other similar games. There's no actual baseball gameplay here, instead you just manage the teams and focus on the stats. Sounds neat.

Piclings, 99¢ – Forum Thread – I love games that use the iPhone camera in clever ways. Piclings allows you to take photos, then play those photos as a platformer. I can't wait to see how photos of my cat turns into levels in the game.

Pulse: Volume One, $4.99 – Forum Thread – Auditorium [Free] was a really clever music game, and Pulse is by the same developers, so I'm expecting good things. Eight levels are included, and there's even talk of free updates.

Spider Jack, 99¢ / HD – Forum Thread – With gameplay that seems to be fairly obviously inspired by Cut the Rope, Spider Jack puts you in charge of, well, Spider Jack who has an appetite for bugs instead of candy. I had a lot of fun with Cut the Rope, so if Spider Jack provides more of the same, I'm OK with that.

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100 Rogues [Free] had had a torrid history of updates, bug fix updates for those updates, then bug fix updates for those bug fix updates (which also often introduce bugs). Regardless, it's a super-fun roguelike, and even though things get broken, they've added a ton of cool things in the life of the game both for free through updates and via in-app purchase.

Video by AppBank!

The developers also have a great blog that's a really entertaining read if you like seeing what game developers think of other games, as it can provide a lot of insight on design choices in their own projects. We reviewed 100 Rogues a year ago (to the day, actually) if you want to know what you're getting into before you download it. But really, despite its problems, I've still had a bunch of fun playing it, and totally recommend giving it a shot while it's free. It's even universal!

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Cipher Prime, the Philadelphia-based developer of the award winning, multi-platform title Auditorium [Free], is getting set to release their newest rhythm-based music game exclusively (for now) on the iPad. Called Pulse, the gameplay will have you tapping and sometimes sliding a series of dots in time with a circle that pulses from the center of the screen in rhythm with the music. It’s certainly not easy to explain, so it might be best to check out this gameplay video from IndieGameMag:

Pulse is looking like an interesting new entry in the rhythm-based music game genre. I think one of the strong points will be that the gameplay seems to have been built around the included songs in the game, with a range of genres covered from electronica to heavy metal to chip-tunes. Cipher Prime has also stated that Pulse would only be possible on a device with a large multitouch screen, hence the game only currently coming to the iPad, but they haven’t entirely ruled out an Android version sometime in the future either. No word yet on if an iPhone or iPod touch version could be possible.

According to the Cipher Prime blog, Pulse is already approved by Apple and will be releasing this Thursday. We’ll take a closer look at the game then.

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