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Gamers have been enjoying the frantic arcade game Tilt to Live [$2.99/Lite/HD] for nearly a full year now. We really liked the iPhone version in our initial review as well as the excellent iPad version that came later in the year, and Tilt to Live has since gone on to be one of the most well-supported games on the App Store with numerous content updates that have added new items, enemies, and game modes.

Now developer One Man Left is teasing in our forums and on their Twitter feed about another upcoming mode for Tilt to Live. All we can really glean from this screenshot is that there will be some sort of multiplayer coming to the game in the near future.

There are currently no other details about this mysterious multiplayer mode, such as if it will be cooperative or competitive or how the gameplay will work with two players, though One Man Left has confirmed that it will be local multiplayer using Bluetooth. We’ll definitely keep our eyes and ears open for any new info about this, and you can drop in on the thread in our forums for more information from the developers themselves as we wait to hear more about this upcoming multiplayer mode.

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Chaotic Box’s Silverfish [99¢/Lite] is an intense arcade-style avoidance game with flashy retro graphics and fast-paced gameplay. We really enjoyed Silverfish when we reviewed the game back in November, and we also really liked the brand new Haste mode that was added in an update just a couple of weeks ago. Despite all of this positivity towards Silverfish, though, the game never really seemed to catch on with mainstream App Store gaming populace.

Now there’s no reason not to at least give the game a try, as Chaotic Box has just released Silverfish Free into the App Store. Silverfish Free features a single game mode based on the Reaper mode from the full version of the game. This free version is ad-supported, but does contain full Game Center integration for competing on high score leaderboards and unlocking achievements. It even contains two exclusive achievements not found in the full version.

Silverfish Free is a great way to get a taste of the regular Silverfish without having to pony up any dough. Should you decide to upgrade to the paid version, you’ll get an unlimited Reaper mode along with 3 additional play modes, as well as many more achievements and leaderboards through Game Center. Silverfish really is one of the best games that you aren’t playing, and players in our forums have been loving it since release. Check out this new lite version, and if you dig it, the full version of Silverfish is still currently on sale for 99¢.

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So, by now you’ve read the reviews for Dead Space [$6.99 / HD]. The game is good. Real good. But on top of sharing my thoughts about it, I wanted to get some inside perspective on the three pillars of the game: its world, its scares, and its action. For that, I went straight to the source, which happened to be lead designer Jarrad Trudgen.

Let’s start with the scares. Dead Space is unusual in that it’s able to make the predictable or obvious scare as impactful as the sudden kind. It’s all in the tension, the build-ups to the event. Scripting and the placement of precursors and mood setters are a big part of how the team succeeds in this regard. The other part is leverage. This game is able to use any mechanic, any trope no matter how insignificant, to scare you.

Of course, touch screen and the power of the iPad and iPhone can be barriers. So, I asked how the limitations informed the design of the horror elements, in addition to asking for comment about how some of the more clever stuff was developed.

“Scares are a big part of survival horror games and Dead Space is no exception. I still fondly remember jumping out of my skin when those zombie dogs jumped through the window in Resident Evil on console,” Trudgen said. “So, including some similar moments was a high priority for me personally.

“For the first time in our studio’s history we developed a scripting system that allowed designers to set up scripted events using triggers, sound cues, animations, enemy spawn controls etc. — basically all the tools a designer would use on a console title.”

“This allowed us to have a good variety of scripted scares and atmospheric scenarios play out over the course of the game. We also employed teleport and asset switching scripts that allowed us to produce some truly startling and disorientating hallucination sequences that I can’t wait for players to experience.”

Dead Space has a lot of scares. The general knock on them is that they’re too predictable. I don’t necessarily “get” this criticism because I feel like Dead Space always does a fantastic job at keeping you at a level of alertness that makes you jump at whatever goes bump or thump in the game. I especially dig how these scares are worked into basic tropes, like the Necromorph room I spoke about in the review.

“As far as leveraging game tropes against the player you are absolutely right. In order to keep things fresh we play with misdirection a lot. You set up an expectation for the player like, ‘Dead Slashers always pounce on me,’ or, ‘I’m safe in this type of room.’ Then you let that expectation set in and finally, once you’ve got some mileage out of it but before it gets stale, you violate that expectation… or don’t.”

And the technical challenges?

“In terms of delivering horror, the limitations we encountered on the mobile device were pretty much confined to issues of fidelity. Horror relies a lot on atmosphere and, to a degree, the more realistic you can make a game look the more convincing the atmosphere. “

“So, a big challenge for our artists and programmers was to squeeze every last drop of performance out of the devices to make the best possible looking game we could. We have a lot of staff with console experience and this knowledge is applied to developing our products."

“For example, our art pipeline is fundamentally the same as console production. Nothing is ported, everything is created from scratch using concept art and existing assets as reference, where applicable. We then bake down these high-resolution assets to produce convincing lighting on our character models, environment pieces and props.”

“Design works closely with Art when building out the levels to ensure that environments and props are laid out harmoniously with respect to the baked lighting. Through this process we make sure we nail the look and feel of the Dead Space universe with a minimal hit on performance,” he said.

Let’s talk about combat now. In the review, I pan it. The lead character, Vandal, doesn’t have the mobility I think is really required to deal with what’s coming at it. Early in the game, though, there’s a really good balance of combat versus exploration, as well as very careful, measured waves of enemies that keeps frustration down to a minimum.

I would have rather had more puzzles and more imaginative segments in Dead Space, but action was a crucial pillar of the game’s design alongside horror. Also, the team wanted to keep the game accessible with the touch interface.

“Early in pre-production we made the decision to focus on the horror and combat aspects of Dead Space and less on the navigation and puzzle solving elements,” Trudgen said. “With any development schedule, priorities need to be set and by making this decision early on we maximized the resources poured into these more accessible and engaging features to make sure they were robust.

“The primary goal behind this decision was ensuring that strategic dismemberment remain the core combat mechanic of Dead Space – a challenging feat requiring physics support to send lopped limbs flying and colliding with surfaces realistically. Although we do have a few puzzles in the game and the occasional more labyrinthine environments we felt that combat was a better focus for a platform that is often played in short bursts.”

Accessibility means more than just workable controls — as you’ll notice in Dead Space, the team cuts content that appears in other Dead Space titles in order to ease some of the burden that touch screen players experience with full-featured TPS titles.

“Accessibility is key on iOS devices and as combat is the core mechanic of Dead Space it needed to be very accessible. We knew that the Dead Space 2 team was considering making stasis a regenerating resource in their title. We decided to go one step further and make health regenerate, too.

“This meant one less thing for the player to fiddle about with during combat, allowing the tension to come from intense sustained battles rather than a lack of resources. Combined with our streamlined inventory and contextual melee events the combat is kept exciting and tense but not frustrating. In terms of balancing the combat we added difficulty support to cater for the diverse range of iOS players.

“Easy is suitable for anyone new to 3rd person action/horror games while Hard, which is unlocked along with a New Game+ mode after completing Easy or Normal, is very challenging.”

And of course, there’s the HUD. It’s brutally clean, leaving a lot of the screen open to play with.

“Our decision to maintain the minimal HUD aesthetic of Dead Space on console was primarily to increase immersion in the game world and allow an unfettered view of the strong art content.

“However, it was also a necessity in terms of our control scheme to provide the best possible player interaction. Other 3rd person shooters typically restrict input to a small arbitrary region of the screen, slap a ‘button’ on it and call it a day.”

“The result for the player is an often frustrating experience, where by the time they line up a shot, find the ‘fire button’ and tap it, then the enemy has moved on and they must repeat the process. Instead, we have developed a ‘tap anywhere’ style control scheme that gives the player greater freedom in where they place their thumbs/fingers and a better overall control experience. “

As for the world, well, you know most of the story from pre-release coverage. Dead Space takes place after the first Dead Space and leads directly into the events of Dead Space 2, which just released this morning in the US.

Like I said in the review, I would love to see more “new” in Dead Space, but there’s a lot in the game that makes it feel like the original title. This is something the team wanted.

“In terms of keeping that feel of the original Dead Space we decided to build some of the iconic areas of the original to make players familiar with that game feel right at home – the tram station for example is unmistakable and immediately conjures up feelings of nostalgia and, hopefully, that old familiar dread.”

“We also built some completely new areas of the Sprawl, the space station where Dead Space iOS and Dead Space 2 are located and these include a flesh processing plant, a water treatment facility, one of the crossover tubes connecting the Sprawl to the Titan Shard and, finally, the Titan Reactor.”

“Concept art and other reference material was used to make sure that these new environments, the 2 new weapons (the Plasma Saw and the Core Extractor) and the Boss designs were consistent with the iconic Dead Space style – that gritty, lived-in feel and engineering aesthetic to the weapons. As a bonus you can see the evolution of some of these designs through exclusive concept art wallpapers for your device that are unlocked by earning achievements,” he said.

We couldn’t talk about the future of the game world and Dead Space iOS, unfortunately, as the Trudgeon is unable to comment on DLC or his desire to make another game. But we did talk about a really big spoiler, so I'll share that conversation with you next week when you're finished with the game.

Dead Space is available on iOS now. Check it!

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Alright, I suppose technically this is more of an entertainment app than a game, strictly speaking. This hasn't stopped me from trying to stump it (and having a great time doing it) for the past hour. Akinator [$1.99] and Akinator HD [$1.99] ask you to think of a person or character, then asks you a number of questions. These questions can be answered by buttons for "yes" or "no", as well as "I don't know," "probably," and "probably not" in case you're not sure. The Akinator will start asking you incredibly vague questions such as whether your character is male or female, or whether they even really exists. A few questions in and it will start asking you more and more specific things, right down to the color of their hair.

The sheer amount of stuff the Akinator is capable of guessing is just incredible. It's been able to come up with Mr. Pink from "Reservoir Dogs," Alex Trebek from "Jeopardy," Sebastian from "Little Mermaid," and George Washington. It even can do comic book characters:

This is definitely a novelty app, especially considering you can play with the Akinator online for free, but as mentioned previously– I've been having a ton of fun with it. Also, answering the questions truthfully, I've yet to be able to think of something it doesn't know. Something to keep in mind, the Akinator requires an internet connection… an unfortunate side effect of being able to guess every person ever.

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Did you burn all of your iTunes credit you had saved up on Dead Space last night? Have you given up actually purchasing games as part of an extremely odd New Year's resolution? Or, maybe, do you have such a terrible case of the Mondays that it has become a case of the Tuesdays? Well, here's a whole load of great free games to nab. Of course, the standard App Store pricing disclaimer is in effect here in that all of these games are free as of this writing, but they could go back to paid at any time. So, really, it's in your best interest to just mash your download button as hard and as fast as you can on all of these games before they go back to their normal prices.

AR Invaders, Free – [Forum Thread] – This game was nominated in the International Mobile Gaming Awards as one of the best real world games and now you can try it for free. Basically, it uses the camera of your device to overlay an alien invasion on top of your nearby surroundings. It's a pretty cool augmented reality tech demo that's totally worth checking out.

Buster Red, Free – [Forum Thread] – Huge lasers, bullets everywhere, massive bosses, tons of enemies, multiple ships to play as, and many other features come packed in this vertical shooter. It has achievements, leaderboards, and some pretty awesome music to boot.

Cat Physics, Free – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – I'm reluctant to really call Cat Physics the best Donut Game, but I do love cats, physics, and Donut Games… In this particular title, you need to roll a ball between two cats. Of course it's not that simple, however, as these cats seem to play in the strangest of environments.

Hysteria Project, Free – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – To hype of the release of the sequel due out on the 27th, the original Hysteria Project is free for a limited time. I still think this game is pretty cool, as it reminds me a lot of early full motion video games where you view canned footage with branching points, kind of like a video choose your own adventure book.

Jungle Crash Land, Free This seems to be one of the forgotten Donut Games, as not many people on TouchArcade are talking about it. I’m not sure why, because it’s a heck of a lot of fun. The basic premise amounts to you’ve got a plane landing on a runway that’s covered in rocks and other junk that you need to shoot with missiles first. Sure, it sounds goofy, but give it a spin.

Liberty Wings, Free – [Forum Thread] – Do you like flying planes, shooting things, and playing three distinctly different game modes? Well, Liberty Wings is the game for you. It has a campaign and freeplay mode, as well as OpenFeint integration for all that fantastic OpenFeinty stuff.

muBlip, Free – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – Part rhythm game, part Simon, muBlip is a stylish game of music, timing, accuracy, and memory. I gave it a try when it was first released and was surprised by just how difficult it was, especially as you progress through the levels. I never dared to try the "hardcore" mode.

Phoenix Spirit, Free – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – If you've been looking for a good Metroid/Castlevania style game on the App Store, give this one a try. In Phoenix Spirit you play as a flying squirrel, which is pretty cool until you discover that the game's control scheme revolves around gesture-based gliding. If you find yourself enjoying the controls, you'll be in for a treat.

Skycat and the starchildren, Free – [Review] – [Forum Thread] – I thought this game was great when it was first released, but with a limited pool of content and no endless mode it was a little hard to recommend. Now that it's free, you can see what all the fuss is about at no cost! Seriously, give this game a try, it's a surprisingly fun platformer.

Sunday Lawn, Free – [Forum Thread] -The third and final free game from Donut Games. Sunday Lawn is a puzzle game involving mowing lawns while avoiding obstacles. It also saw a substantial update since its initial release which added 30 new levels and all kinds of other fun stuff.

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Here’s a curious move you can benefit from: Developer Recluse Industries has offered up its latest title Survelliant [Free] , a 3D stealth game that has you avoiding CCTV cameras, for free on launch day. For the next 24 hours you can download the game at no cost, risking little more than hard drive space, which can be reclaimed quite easily if you’re not a fan.

But, hey, you might like it. The game is getting decent traction on our forums and the developer is indeed active in the thread. A couple of people have pointed out that the controls aren’t the greatest thing since 35 calorie bread, but Recluse seems very open to the idea of re-tuning and tweaking in an effort to please. My suggestion is just to try it yourself and keep the game around because, dude, it’s free.

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Last September, we reviewed Neuroshima Hex [$4.99/Lite], the iOS adaptation of a highly tactical board game that takes place in the Neuroshima role-playing universe. We enjoyed the title a lot for its deep and satisfying strategic gameplay, and about the only negative about Neuroshima Hex we could find was the fairly steep learning curve and lack of very much in-game assistance for helping new players to the game. Since release, a few updates have hit that addressed some of the game’s shortcomings while adding even more new features, with the most recent update coming last Thursday.

After an initial bug fixing update a couple weeks following release, the second update to Neuroshima Hex in November added a ton of usability improvements. An in-game manual could be easily accessed if a part of the ruleset was confusing to you, an undo button let you undo a previous move, and visual displays of unit information and statuses made it much more clear what was happening during play. Another thing that snuck its way into the second update was Retina Display resolution game board graphics, though the rest of the menus and UI remained at regular resolution.

Neuroshima Hex’s third update last week adds in the rest of the Retina Display support for the remaining elements, and the game looks absolutely gorgeous in high resolution. It has also been updated as a universal build, so iPad owners can now run the game at native iPad resolution and with appropriately adjusted UI elements for the larger screen. Most players in our forums had been perfectly happy running Neuroshima Hex in 2x mode thus far, but I’m sure native iPad support is still a welcome addition. Finally, Game Center is now integrated containing online leaderboards and 54 achievements to unlock.

Neuroshima Hex was a really solid effort on release, and over the past several months it just seems to be getting even better with each new update. Currently, developer Big Daddy’s Creation is looking into adding a form of asynchronous online multiplayer, which would really push Neuroshima Hex into the upper levels of iOS board games along with the excellent Carcassonne [$9.99]. New factions and other new features are also being considered for potential updates. Make sure to update your copy of Neuroshima Hex to check out these latest additions, especially if you’re an iPad or a Retina Display device owner.

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The watchful european eyes of the ElectricPig recently spotted an Angry Birds [99¢ / Free] cameo on German TV. The 5:21 long video features a number of interesting things. First off, they visit the home offices of Rovio, showing some behind the scenes looks at how Angry Birds levels are made and they even revealed that the Angry Birds team is now 40 people strong. Following that, there's a brief segment on casual gaming with appearances from both Doodle Jump [99¢] and Cut the Rope [99¢ / Lite]. Around the 4:20 mark, the new Angry Birds Seasons [99¢ / Free] Valentines Day update is revealed.

Now it isn't exactly a surprise that Rovio is updating Angry Birds Seasons with a Valentines Day levels, but it is neat to see a sneak peek of what these levels will look like beforehand. Also, while I knew the Android version had ads, I had no idea they were so obtrusive. It really pays to have an iOS device sometimes.

[via Pocket Gamer]

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Most everyone who owns an iOS device has heard of Fruit Ninja by now. The definitive fruit slicing game debuted in April of last year, quickly rose up the ranks, and has maintained a steady position in the top of the App Store charts ever since. Fruit Ninja has been downloaded and enjoyed by millions of people, but I don't think any of those millions have taken their passion for the game quite as literally as the comedy group The Misunderstoods.

As Kotaku has pointed out, two members of that group have decided to try and find out what it would be like to be a "fruit ninja" in real life. Or perhaps they just couldn't afford an iOS device and wanted to join in on the fun. Either way, the results are pretty hilarious.

Note: Both of these videos contain shirtless dudes and a couple of naughty words. Either of these things may not be suitable for your current viewing location. You have been warned.

Oh, hey there, pretty funny right? Since you seem to have made it past our first set of warnings, let me offer up one last one for you: Kids, don't try this at home. You don't need to be messing around with knives, destroying your mother's groceries and making a mess in the garage. Leave that to the professionals. For a safe way to be a fruit ninja, grab a copy of the game if you haven't already, as it's one of the most solid purchases you can make on the App Store.

[Via Kotaku]

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It's possible that Hamlet [$2.99 / Lite / HD] for iOS, is indeed "the last game without MMORPG features, shaders, and product placement" as its title suggests, so I wanted to at least give you a heads up about it. Publisher Alaware Entertainment has finished its porting work on the bizarre PC-based puzzle game and you can grab it now on the App Store.

The coolest thing about Hamlet is its take on "Hamlet." Sure, it’s been a couple of years since I’ve sat through those college level English Lit classes, but I’m pretty sure "Hamlet" had nothing to do with time travel. Or an alien with a light bulb on his head. Or guitars. Or crabs. Or tentacles.

As far as the game part goes, the execution is all over the place. Some puzzles are unguided pixel-by-pixel clickathons while others are straight-up bad. The "Corridor" puzzle in particular, which is your standard puzzle game maze construct, is so wildly obtuse that I’ve been struggling with it while using a guide. But if this kick-you-in-the-junk Flash approach (think Samorost) to puzzle design is your jam, I think Hamlet has a lot to offer you. And I do think it does have a few great things to share. The art style in particular is pleasing and some of the puzzles are indeed the kind of satisfying brain twisters that you want from a solid puzzle game.

The original designer of the game is connecting with our TA forum members and I’d imagine that thread is about to explode as more and more people learn about the game. A Lite version for the iPad and iPhone are indeed out there, so I definitely suggest giving them a shot before you buy. Also, a Retina screen update is apparently in the works, so look forward to that.

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