Archive for the ‘Droid’ tag
‘Cthulu’ Coming to The App Store
It’s official: Cthulhu is about to get its tentacles all up in your mobile devices. Indie developer 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 , 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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Rhythm-Based ‘Pulse’ Releasing this Thursday from the Developers of ‘Auditorium’
, 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 :
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 , 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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‘Pocket Legends’ Freebies To Remain Free, New Pay Area Announced
Sometimes promotions never end. At least, that’s the case with Pocket Legends. In April, developer kicked off an anniversary celebration that dished out free access to six areas for the generous asking price of $0. Now, the studio is announcing that those areas will remain free FOREVER — or until , one or the other.
That’s a deal, but you have to wonder how Space Time plans to make money while a large swathe of its instance-based content is free. That’s where this comes in: the studio has just announced a brand new “premium” area called the “Sandstone Caves.”
It’s made for players around level 20 to 25 and includes what you want: a new town, a new series of quests, new enemies, new bosses, and new weapons, armor and items.
The price? 10 in-game Platinums, which should help satisfy the need for Space Time to fill its coffers. The lowest amount of Platinums that you can buy at the moment is 30 for $4.95, which is likely the catch here.
It’s also possible to earn free in-game cash in exchange for taking part in one of those now-infamous marketing loops. “Yes, you can still get free Platinum with Tapjoy in both Apple and Android devices," a representative told us.
Just for reference, the areas that are set to remain free are Balefort Castle, Fathom Crypts, The Lost Expedition, The Ancient Swamps, Balefort Sewers, and last but not least, The Alien Oasis Trilogy.
Pocket Legends is one of the deepest, most well designed mobile MMOs on the market to date. As we've previously noted, we reviewed the game last year, but a lot has changed since then, so you'd probably be better off reading the to get a good sense of what Pocket Legends is about. Oh, and if you're in the market for a more in-depth look at Sandstone Caves, these wouldn't be a bad start.
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Unknown Square Enix Title Revealed as ‘Imaginary Range’, An Interactive Comic-Game Hybrid
In more Square Enix news this morning, the company has for their previously unknown upcoming game that we posted about a couple of weeks ago. The game is called Imaginary Range, and will be launching in Japan for free on May 5th. It doesn’t sound like your typical game, either.
Square Enix describes Imaginary Range as a “game comic”, which basically means it’s a digital comic book with interactive elements spread throughout. As you’re reading it, you may come across hidden items in some of the panels that relate to the overall story, or you may come to a scene that requires you to complete a mini-game in order to progress. They want this to appeal to people that are only interested in reading the story as well as gamers, so whatever gameplay elements it contains are of the simple variety that anybody can play.
According to and some dodgy Google translating of , the story in Imaginary Range revolves around two characters named Sid and Sierra. A giant monster known as Ω (Omega) has attacked France, and Sid and Sierra head into the country to figure out who Omega is and the purpose of the attack. Despite having the same name, the Omega character doesn’t appear to have any correlation with Square Enix’s recently revealed Chaos Rings Omega.
Famitsu has also been granted access to the first screenshots of Imaginary Range, which you can see in the gallery below (click to enlarge):
While Imaginary Range does sound interesting, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit disappointed that it’s going to be more of an interactive comic book with light gaming elements rather than a full-fledged new game. Still, since the game will be free I'll definitely be checking it out. Imaginary Range is slated to hit the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad on May 5th, with an Android version coming later in the month. We’ll let you know if we hear word of a US release, which I’d imagine we’ll be seeing, and in the meantime there is in our forums.
[Via and ]
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Sony Unveils Two New Tablet Devices with a Large Focus on Gaming
Yesterday, Sony officially entered the tablet market by unveiling two new tablet devices for release this Fall. As everybody and their mother are rushing into the tablet market to compete with Apple’s iPad after its unprecedented success, it’s not surprising to see one of the largest electronic makers in the world throw their hat into the ring.
What is surprising to me, however, is the decidedly different approaches each of Sony’s new tablets are taking compared to the rest of the crowd. And from a gamer’s perspective, the fact that both tablets are powered by Tegra 2 chips and will be the first tablets to officially be “PlayStation Certified” is definitely intriguing.
The first of Sony’s tablets, currently being called the S1, carries a 9.4” screen that’s only slightly smaller than the iPad’s. Unlike the iPad and most other similar tablets, the S1 features a tapered design that’s thicker at the top and gets skinnier towards the bottom, which Sony claims is more comfortable and is “like holding a magazine”.
Their second tablet, the S2, is a much more radical design and isn’t much like a tablet at all actually. It’s a clamshell design similar to a Nintendo 3DS, with 5.5” screens on both the upper and lower halves. The screens can work in unison to display content or can work independently to perform two different functions, like having game controls on the lower screen while showing the actual gameplay on the top, just like the 3DS.
Each tablet will run on Android 3.0 Honeycomb which is a special version of Android specifically designed for tablets. They will be able to do most of the types of things you would expect tablets to do involving accessing media and the internet, but what interests me the most is how these new devices will factor in regards to gaming.
As stated, both tablets are PlayStation Certified which means they will include support for the PlayStation Suite service which we reported on back in January. The PlayStation Suite allows PlayStation Certified Android devices to run a library of PlayStation 1 titles, and was first implemented into Sony’s own Experia Play phone which is largely known as the “PlayStation Phone”.
We speculated at the time that PlayStation Suite was announced that it would be possible the service could eventually come to iOS, and Sony executive Kaz Hirai further affirmed this possibility by stating that they have a “completely open stance” as to which devices and carriers the service may end up on.
Despite this, however, I don’t suspect we’ll ever see the PlayStation Suite come to iOS. First of all are the hurdles we outlined in our article on the subject, namely the fact that Sony would need to give the OK to whatever comes to the PSS service on top of Apple’s already strict approval process, and the need to have devices running PSS be PlayStation Certified, which Apple would most likely have a problem with.
Beyond this though, Sony’s new devices are not only aimed at the consumer tablet market at large but are also specifically aimed at the mobile gaming market with their emphasis on being able to run games and being PlayStation Certified. It’s obvious that Sony wants a piece of the mobile gaming pie that is currently being dominated by the iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, and 3DS. To offer a flagship service like the PlayStation Suite to one of their biggest competitors would seem like an odd move to say the least. Although, Sony has been known to make some odd moves in the past, so I guess anything is possible.
At any rate, these new devices are pretty interesting, and it will be fun to see how this all plays out over the course of this year and next. Let’s not forget that Sony’s new PSP is on the horizon as well, which throws yet another wrinkle into this matter. If one thing’s for certain, there’s never been a better time to be a mobile gamer as the mobile gaming scene continues to expand and evolve at an incredible pace.
[Via and ]
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Japanese Company GREE Buys OpenFeint for $104 Million
It’s been a bustling time for acquisition news in the past half a year or so with the popularity and success of mobile gaming rocketing through the roof and mobile gaming companies making moves to put themselves in the best position to ride the wave of continued growth. The big news last fall was developer Ngmoco being purchased by Japanese-based DeNA to the tune of $400 million. Around that same time Chillingo was purchased by EA, later in the year Zynga acquired NewToy, and back in January Firemint acquired fellow Australian developer Infinite Interactive.
All of this activity left everybody wondering what the next big acquisition would be on the mobile scene, and today we learn that the extremely popular mobile social network has been purchased by Japanese company .
OpenFeint has grown by leaps and bounds since first being founded in August of 2008. While it rapidly became the dominant social platform for iOS gaming, it expanded its reach by extending to the Android platform and currently maintains a userbase of more than 75 million players across both mobile operating systems. OpenFeint is used in more than 5000 games and has over 19,000 registered developers, and is the largest mobile social network in the US.
Japanese-based GREE is the leading social platform for mobile in Japan with a userbase of 25,000 players, and is the fastest growing technology company in that country. The two company’s combined user base of 100 million positions them as the largest mobile gaming social network in the world.
Despite the purchase, it appears that OpenFeint will continue to operate much as it always has. The entire OpenFeint team and Founder/CEO Jason Citron (pictured right) will retain their roles with the company, and their plans to open additional offices internationally and double their current staff in 2011 will continue.
This purchase gives GREE a quick entry into the US market with an already established company, and OpenFeint will benefit from GREE’s additional expertise at developing and expanding social gaming platforms. GREE has purchased OpenFeint’s outstanding stock for $104 million, but will contribute additional capital beyond this towards improving and growing the existing OpenFeint service.
There are currently no plans to merge the OpenFeint service with GREE’s to create one uniform service, rather they will tailor each of their products to specific regions. We expect to hear much more about the future plans of OpenFeint post-acquisition and we’ll bring you any new developments as they happen.
Congrats Jason!
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‘Pocket Legends’ Celebrates Anniversary with Crazy Freebie Fiesta
It's crazy to think that Pocket Legends [Free] came out a year ago. I've heard that one year equals seven in dog years, but with how fast the App Store moves, I'm not even sure what one App Store year would equate to. Lots more. Anyway, Pocket Legends is a free to play MMO of sorts that works quite a bit like Guild Wars both in actual gameplay and with the amount of expansion content they have for sale.
Well, to celebrate the game's anniversary, all of that expansion content is free for a limited time. Better yet, all of this is entirely cross platform and universal, so you can play with friends online regardless of whether they own an iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, or even an Android device. We reviewed the game last year, but honestly, so much has changed that you're probably better off spending some time on the to get an idea of what the game is all about now.
This promotion will persist for the next two weeks and allows complete access to Balefort Castle, Fathom Crypts, The Lost Expedition, The Ancient Swamps, Balefort Sewers, and The Alien Oasis Trilogy areas. In other words, you'll be able to play through the entire game from start to finish for free. These areas get switched back to their previously paid status on May 4th, so if you actually want to blow through the game for free, you better do it before then.
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Has Apple Adjusted the App Store Charting Algorithms?
Careful watchers of the top charts on the App Store have noticed an interesting trend over the weekend with various apps inexplicably substantially changing position. Previously (and possibly still currently) Apple seemed to use the number of downloads an app had to form both the top free and paid lists. While this method might have made sense originally, gaming these download-only lists has turned into a remarkably profitable enterprise for those that have apps with a large install base which also have a way to push users into downloading other apps.
If you've played a freemium game lately that offered some kind of benefit for downloading a completely different game, chances are the developer behind the title you're being incentivized into downloading paid the original developer a bucket full of money for that promotion. For both developers it's a win/win situation, one (often) gets a fat stack of cash while the other gets a massive boost in overall charting position along with all the benefits that includes. The issue with this is that clicking a link in your favorite social farming time sink to get more virtual oats for your virtual cows to download another game creates a top-download list that might not be entirely representative of what people are actually even using for anything more than that download bonus.
Google's Android rankings also used to work like this until a recent change that substantially altered the algorithm which resulted in apps like Seesmic [Free] jumping from #39 to #10 while Gowalla [Free] went all the way from #78 to #18. Developers speculated that the cause for these jumps were something referred to as the "sticky factor" which instead of relying only on downloads looks at daily active users, or perhaps factoring in a ratio of daily active users compared to monthly active users. Of course Google hasn't commented on what actually is going on behind the scenes, likely out of fear that this new system will be gamed like the old lists.
Chart courtesy of !
Apple could potentially to be following suit with a similar algorithm which might explain some recent shifts in the free charts. For instance, Facebook [Free] previously had comfortably floating around the middle of the top 25 for quite some time, and recently shot up to #1. Similarly, Pandora [Free] jumped into the top ten after living in the top 20's for ages. Speculating this has to do with engagement-based charting could make sense, as there wasn't any immediately apparent reason (such as a large influx of new devices from a launch or something similar) for Facebook to see a massive surge in downloads over the weekend. Previously, the amount of downloads needed to even climb single positions in top ten free was incredible, making it even more likely that the top lists as they are now factor in something else.
What that something is is anyone's guess. Apple obviously is notoriously secretive, so it will likely be up to developers analyzing their apps' movements on the charts compared to their own analytics inside of those apps. From a gaming perspective, it will be interesting to watch what kind of impact this new charting algorithm has on the freemium market which historically has been heavily influenced by paid installs, incentives, and other tricks to game the charts sending specific games rocketing up the charts. If they are in fact using daily active users to factor in how apps are ranked, developers are going to need to build freemium games that are actually engaging to play which keep people coming back instead of cutting deals with other developers to essentially buy chart positioning.
[via ]
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Smartphone Platforms Continue to Grab Share of Portable Gaming Market
Last December, on survey results showing that users of portable games are increasingly defecting from dedicated devices such as the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP to smartphones such as the iPhone.
from analytics firm Flurry comparing overall video game market share in 2009 and 2010 reveals a similar trend, with iOS and Android combining to take 8% of the overall market and a full 34% of the portable gaming market as measure by revenue. In the overall market, console games continue to dominate, growing from 71% to 76% on only a slight increase in total video game revenue.
From 2009 to 2010, iOS and Android game sales increased from 5% to 8% market share within the U.S. video game market. Specifically, we estimate that iOS and Android game revenue increased from $500 million in 2009 to more $800 million in 2010. Of this, the significant majority of revenue was generated by iPhone games.
But setting aside the console market, the success of iOS and Android (primarily iOS according to Flurry's data) as gaming platforms is more obvious in the portable market, where the smartphone platforms have increased their share of revenue from 19% in 2009 to 34% in 2010 at the expense of Nintendo's and Sony's offerings.
From 2009 to 2010, iOS and Android game sales have spiked significantly, resulting in nearly a doubling of their market share. With both Nintendo DS and Sony PlayStation Portable shrinking in sales, while smart-device game sales simultaneously grew by more than 60%, iOS and Android games now represent more than one third of the portable game category.
It is also important to note that the surge in revenue share for smartphone platforms comes at a significantly lower average price point than for dedicated devices, meaning that even the strong growth from those platforms has eaten into the total portable gaming market, which dropped from $2.7 billion in 2009 to $2.4 billion in 2010. The "race to the bottom" has long been one of the main concerns for smartphone application developers, particularly traditional game developers who have been accustomed to the pricing model for dedicated gaming devices. But users are clearly shifting toward more casual gaming at lower price points on their smartphones, and developers that have embraced that market are in many cases seeing solid results.
Originally posted on our sister site !
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‘Shadow Era’ – A Cool Cross-Platform Collectable Card Game
One down-side of the sheer madness of planning for, scheduling meetings, and actually attending two back to back conventions (GDC and PAX) was the amount of things that slipped through the cracks during that time. I've been going back and pouring through releases from the last few weeks and one that sticks out is Shadow Era [Free], a collectable card game by Kyle Pool, the man responsible for bringing Battle for Wesnoth [$4.99 / HD]. Shadow Era is universal, and there's even a browser version that can be played at . There's also plans for additional clients for PC/Mac/Android, with all of your cards and decks synchronized online.
The one drawback of that kind of cross-compatibility is that Shadow Era requires an internet connection, but as someone who is constantly frustrated by having game saves that are trapped on a particular device, this seems to be a worthy sacrifice. Gameplay seems to be a cross between Magic: The Gathering and the World of Warcraft card game. An in-game tutorial does a great job of explaining how the game works, but if you really want to get in to the strategy of the game I'd recommend taking a look at on our forums as well as the .
Judging by the on our forums about this game, I know I'm in the minority here, but these kind of collectable card games drive me crazy. I've played Magic: The Gathering on a competitive level on and off for close to 15 years now and all of these home-grown CCG games just pale in comparison. The card pool is limited, gameplay feels like an amalgamation of elements from existing games, and so much of the fun of playing a CCG is the social aspect– Something sorely missing from Shadow Era. But would you pick up on this if you haven't spent most of your life playing collectable card games? I doubt it.
That being said, the way Shadow Era is being sold is a fantastic representation of what freemium games should be. It's totally free to download and try, and you're given one starter deck from the get go that allows you to just go to town playing the game. Similarly, winning games awards you an in-game currency which can be used to buy more cards. You can either slowly grind this currency up by playing, or you can just flip out a few bucks and buy whatever you'd like. Also, because this is a strategy-based game, throwing money at it doesn't necessarily make you any better, so it's not like you're at much of a disadvantage if you only ever play with what you can get for free.
Even though it's easy for me to complain about nitty gritty CCG details that likely few people even care about, I still highly recommend giving Shadow Era a try. I hope the game is wildly successful too, as maybe it will prompt Wizards of the Coast (or Hasbro via EA or whatever corporate dragon is sitting on top of the M:TG pile of gold) to release a iOS version of either the client or . I'd be satisfied with either.
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