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Last Thursday at Macworld 2011 I stopped by the booth for XMG Studio and had a chance to check out their latest game that should be releasing very soon. XMG is responsible for some incredibly popular titles on the App Store, like Drag Racer [$2.99/Free/HD], Little Metal Ball [$2.99/Free/HD], Cannon Cadets [99¢/Free], and most recently Inspector Gadget’s MAD Dash [99¢/HD].

Their upcoming title is called Cows Vs. Aliens, and after spending some time playing it I think it has the potential to be another popular addition to their library. Cows Vs. Aliens is a casual title built on a super simple game mechanic. Waves of cows will spawn from the bottom of the screen, and it’s your goal to herd them into the barn entrance at the top of the screen. Aliens will begin to show up in the herd, and you must scoot them off to the sides of the screen before they have a chance to get in your barn, in which case it’s game over.

What makes Cows Vs. Aliens so fun to play is the interesting controls. Touching the screen creates a circular barrier of sorts, and you’ll use your two thumbs to pinch and push the herd towards the barn. You can even use up to 5 points of multitouch on the iPhone (up to 11 on the iPad) to try and utilize different strategies for better results. The waves increase in size as you progress, with both more cows and more aliens providing a greater challenge as the game goes on.

Cows Vs. Aliens is one of those games that is really easy for anyone to play, but offers a real challenge when going for higher scores. Game Center integration with leaderboards and achievements adds to that allure. Cows Vs. Aliens should be submitted in the next few days, if not already, so be on the lookout for it soon. XMG also has roughly 6 new titles slated for the rest of the year, including some that utilize interesting licensed IP, so we’ll be bringing you more information on these upcoming titles as it becomes available.

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It was back in October that we began following the saga of Sarien.net, a retro Sierra adventure game portal setup by developer Martin Kool. In April 2009 his website began offering entirely web-based remakes of classic Sierra adventures, built entirely with HTML, CSS, and Javascript (though the project really began back in 2001 with a Sierra-inspired graphical chat client). Last year, Kool began creating versions of these web-based games with an interface and graphical treatment appropriate for the iPad and mobile Safari. The first iPad release to go online was Space Quest, which we previewed in November, followed by King's Quest and Leisure Suit Larry, earlier this month. These games were basically reverse engineered, ground-up remakes and were not licensed by Sierra. And, as such, last week's news of Sarien.net receiving a cease & desist letter from Sierra and closing its doors was sad, but not highly surprising.

It seems the Sarien.net story is not over, however. Kool has just revealed in a lengthy blog post that includes a fully history of the project that, in an unexpected turn of events, Activision has contacted him with a proposal offering limited official authorization to publish a subset of his remakes online.

Activision proposed to officially authorize Sarien.net to publish the first game of any series in its multiplayer HTML5 form. As it may generate interest in also playing the games' successors, Sarien.net will provide a link to Steam and other services that offer the full game collections. To me that sounds beyond "fair enough", and very reasonable. Also, as Activision may (or may not) choose to provide official releases of these games through the AppStore, they requested that all iPad versions of the games be removed.

Now even though it is based upon the same HTML5 technology I also find this request understandable, as I would probably have done the same if I were Activision. Then again, if I co-owned Activision instead of Q42, there might've been a World of Space Quest and worldwide free beers on Fridays, but right now this really is a huge step forward and allows games like Space Quest, Police Quest and King's Quest to be played by many people during work hours – err, I mean, in a browser.

And, so it seems that that Sarien.net and some of its web-based Sierra adventures will live on, though iPad gamers will not be enjoying the excellent custom treatment that they may be accustomed to — unless Sierra launches their own iOS versions of said classics. (Incidentally, the jury is still out on what will ultimately become of Leisure Suit Larry, as it seems Activision sold it to CodeMasters at some point in the past.)

Kool indicates that his first order of business is to restore Sarien.net to what it was (but with the approved list of games), with a redesign and additional functionality to follow. While it's less than we'd hope for as far as iPad adventurers are concerned, this is certainly good news for the gaming community in general. And we offer a "hats off" to Activision for their consideration to Sarien.net regarding these classics.

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So there's these oranges… They're just hanging out amidst wooden blocks and platforms of various sizes, against the backdrop of numerous lovely pastoral landscapes. It's about all an orange could ask for, really. Well, it would be about all an orange could ask for, were it not for this pesky and dangerous cloud that keeps blowing about, precipitating deadly poisonous rain and spelling gruesome death for said oranges. Poor, poor oranges!

Such is the dilemma in FDG Entertainment's iOS physics puzzler Cover Orange [App Store]. But, fret not — there is something you can do…

Cover Orange presents you with level after platform-filled level of cute little vulnerable oranges, and it's your mission to protect them — to cover them, if you will — from the aforementioned cloud's deadly rain. This is done by strategically dragging and dropping the various objects at your disposal (each level presents you with a different mix) onto the platforms where the oranges are resting. This might mean filling a gap between two platforms with a crate to provide cover, or nudging an orange towards the safety of an overhang with a wagon wheel, or dropping in barrels and a crate to build a makeshift house, of sorts, for a helpless orange.

As you progress through the levels, the platform arrangements grow more elaborate. You may need to drop a barrel onto one end of a lever platform to catapult an orange across the screen, or nudge a hinged hammer into motion to get things flying about the level properly. Whatever the case, the end goal is to keep the bouncing droplets (more like pellets, really) of rain from contacting any orange on the screen when the cloud comes passing by.

A realistic physics system acts upon every object onscreen, including each raindrop, which brings with it a bit of collision chaos that inserts a bit of chance as to whether your particular arrangement of objects will get the job done. In short, there is no single, right solution in many cases, and it feels like luck plays a role, as well.

My only real gripe with the game is to do with the scaling of difficulty as the levels advance. The difficulty does increase with the level number, in general, but there are several instances where you may still be patting yourself on the back for completing so complex a level arrangement, when faced with a follow-up level that's quite basic and easy to complete. Additionally, I have heard comments from one or two gamers who dislike the feeling of luck being a party of things, that I described earlier. It's hard to articulate, but there's definitely a feeling that, where you thought you placed your objects well and still failed, another round of the same arrangement might yield success. It's to do with the chaos introduced by the physics system. It may leave a sour taste in your mouth, but it bothers me not at all (because, while it sometimes hurts, it sometimes helps).

Cover Orange for iOS is a port of an existing Flash title, but with notable scenery enhancements. FDG released both Cover Orange [link] for the iPhone / iPod touch and Cover Orange HD [link] for the iPad in mid-December and in the month and a half since, the game has become quite popular, seeing over 2 million downloads.

In the time I've spent with Cover Orange so far, I've definitely felt that "ok, just one more level" draw that a clever puzzler will inspire, making it tough to walk away from. And, while I've not run through all 120 levels (and 20 more are on the way at the time of this writing), I expect I will soon enough.

I know it's not the same sort of game, but if you like Angry Birds and its ilk, I think Cover Orange will be worth your while — there's just a spiritual similarity of sorts going on there. At any rate, at least give the Flash version a whirl or check out the lite version of Cover Orange HD [link].

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Early arcade games were pretty much all about a very simple play mechanic that just worked. Appreciation of such simplicity in gameplay is a big driver of the growing retro gaming crowd — that and nostalgia. Two games from back in the day that delivered such gameplay are Asteroids and Breakout. Simple, addictive. iOS developer Coolpowers has endeavored to combine both of those formulas into the same game with his recent release, Breakeroids [App Store].

Breakeroids is, as it's name might suggest, a mashup of Breakout and Asteroids. It works like this… The upper three-quarters of the screen is a pretty standard Asteroids-like field of asteroids drifting about the play area, with the occasional alien saucer passing by. The lower quarter of the screen contains a Breakout-style paddle, separated from the asteroids by a multilayer convex shield.

As the game begins, you fire a ball up towards the asteroids in an effort to break them into smaller and smaller pieces, eventually eliminating them. Power-ups (thank you, Arkanoid) descend occasionally, for better and for worse. The aforementioned shield keeps the asteroids (but not the alien saucer's bombs) from passing into your paddle space — but with each missed ball, one layer of the shield drops off. You start with three shield layers, but eventually (for all but the perfect player) that drops to two, then one, then…none. And, once your shield is gone, the first time an asteroid passes off the bottom of the screen, it's Game Over. You get a full, new set of shields with each level and, in classic arcade fashion, there is an infinite number of levels. And the whole scene is rendered in beautiful, glowing retro vectors that support the Retina display and, at that resolution, look as if they're being rendered onto a proper vector monitor.

Breakeroids is a lot of fun. One the one hand, it's a pretty simple game, though a little more complex than either Asteroids or Breakout alone, understandably. But keeping track of what can and can't pass through that shield when the action gets hectic can make for a rather intense experience.

My only complaint about the game is the generally lengthy process of smashing that last, tiny asteroid on the playfield. With it and your ball both in motion, it can be a bit of a tedious process to get to the next level. But it's not a deal breaker. And, in fact, a few deal sweeteners will arrive shortly, when the game sees a free upgrade to a universal app, adding native support for the iPad's larger screen, and gets a same-device multiplayer mode.

Breakeroids uses swipe controls for the onscreen paddle, and both OpenFeint and Game Center are supported for online leaderboards and achievement tracking.

If you're the kind of gamer that digs Asteroids and Breakout and are into the retro aesthetic, Breakeroids is one you'll probably want to grab. Our readers are having a good time with it, so far.

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Early arcade games were pretty much all about a very simple play mechanic that just worked. Appreciation of such simplicity in gameplay is a big driver of the growing retro gaming crowd — that and nostalgia. Two games from back in the day that delivered such gameplay are Asteroids and Breakout. Simple, addictive. iOS developer Coolpowers has endeavored to combine both of those formulas into the same game with his recent release, Breakeroids [App Store].

Breakeroids is, as it's name might suggest, a mashup of Breakout and Asteroids. It works like this… The upper three-quarters of the screen is a pretty standard Asteroids-like field of asteroids drifting about the play area, with the occasional alien saucer passing by. The lower quarter of the screen contains a Breakout-style paddle, separated from the asteroids by a multilayer convex shield.

As the game begins, you fire a ball up towards the asteroids in an effort to break them into smaller and smaller pieces, eventually eliminating them. Power-ups (thank you, Arkanoid) descend occasionally, for better and for worse. The aforementioned shield keeps the asteroids (but not the alien saucer's bombs) from passing into your paddle space — but with each missed ball, one layer of the shield drops off. You start with three shield layers, but eventually (for all but the perfect player) that drops to two, then one, then…none. And, once your shield is gone, the first time an asteroid passes off the bottom of the screen, it's Game Over. You get a full, new set of shields with each level and, in classic arcade fashion, there is an infinite number of levels. And the whole scene is rendered in beautiful, glowing retro vectors that support the Retina display and, at that resolution, look as if they're being rendered onto a proper vector monitor.

Breakeroids is a lot of fun. One the one hand, it's a pretty simple game, though a little more complex than either Asteroids or Breakout alone, understandably. But keeping track of what can and can't pass through that shield when the action gets hectic can make for a rather intense experience.

My only complaint about the game is the generally lengthy process of smashing that last, tiny asteroid on the playfield. With it and your ball both in motion, it can be a bit of a tedious process to get to the next level. But it's not a deal breaker. And, in fact, a few deal sweeteners will arrive shortly, when the game sees a free upgrade to a universal app, adding native support for the iPad's larger screen, and gets a same-device multiplayer mode.

Breakeroids uses swipe controls for the onscreen paddle, and both OpenFeint and Game Center are supported for online leaderboards and achievement tracking.

If you're the kind of gamer that digs Asteroids and Breakout and are into the retro aesthetic, Breakeroids is one you'll probably want to grab. Our readers are having a good time with it, so far.

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I'm not entirely sure what to say about all this. On one hand, I'm a massive Monty Python and the Holy Grail fan, on the other, I'm terribly tired of Angry Birds [99¢] clones. That being said, Monty Python has existed since the late 1960's and has built of a fairly fantastic reputation for amazing parody over the years, so if anyone can put a funny spin on the Angry Birds formula, it would be them. (Hey, I'm cautiously optimistic.)

In the game, you play the role of the French defending their castle, which should be instantly familiar to anyone who has seen the movie. If this doesn't ring a bell, you should seriously Netflix Monty Python and the Holy Grail immediately, or, I suppose you could just read the synopsis on IMDB (although that doesn't seem like much fun). In the game, you'll be able to fend off the daffy English knights (with the "k" pronounced, of course) in 80 different levels. Your ammo consists of six different types of farm animals, and it sounds like you can even upgrade your catapult.

I have no clue whether or not Monty Python's Cow Tossing will be any fun or not when it actually launches, but I'm hopeful. Admittedly, it really does have the odds stacked against it in the fact that it's not only a game based on a movie (which often can be the video game kiss of death) but it's also an Angry Birds knock-off. Hopefully they're able to cram enough Monty Python humor in to the game that it's at least funny to play. I've got my fingers crossed, anyway.

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The original Hysteria Project [Free] was released in early 2009, and still sticks in my head as one of the more memorable iPhone games I've tried. It's free right now, and you really should give it a try… But, if you're in a place where it's not feasible to quickly download a 150MB iPhone game, here's the gist: Hysteria Project plays surprisingly similar to those old Sega CD era full motion video games in that you don't have very much interaction and you're mostly just watching a video with branching points. During the game you'll have an opportunity to tap certain objects to interact with the game world, decide where your character runs, or other things like that.

Even though gameplay was more than a little basic, I thought it was really well done and combined a cool little indie horror flick with some interactivity. The game is short, but was just long enough to leave you walking away from it saying to yourself, "Huh, that was cool." And really, games that make you think that seem to be entirely too rare these days. Hysteria Project 2 [$1.99] can be described in mostly the same way.

Like its predecessor, it's a full motion video game with a heaping helping of video to watch. There is significantly more interactivity this time around, but at its core the game is still a Sega CD style FMV game, which means interactivity is limited to some puzzles and other touch-based mini-games. Unfortunately, these puzzles and mini-games really aren't much fun, usually aren't explained very well (if at all), and the only hints you'll find are generally on the game over screen– A screen which you will get incredibly used to seeing while playing through the game.

Both Hysteria Project games kind of give me the same vibe as Papa Sangre [$4.99] which I reviewed yesterday. I'm glad they exist, and they're the exact kind of crazy indie games that I love seeing crop up on the App Store, but I'm not sure how strong of a recommendation I can give them. They're great experiences, but I wouldn't really describe them as "fun", which I think is what most people are shooting for when they're looking for a new game to play.

That being said, if anything above sounds even remotely interesting to you, you need to try the original Hysteria Project while it's free. If you play through that and are looking for more, dive into the sequel.

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Somethin' Else's Papa Sangre [$4.99] has been on our radar since it was originally released in mid-December. With a recent sale and an official nomination in the "Most Innovative Game" category at the International Mobile Gaming Awards, I figured it's high time we gave Papa Sangre a closer look.

Admittedly, I initially thought Papa Sangre was a nifty little binaural tech demo. After all, the game has no graphics short of a basic menu system and interface, but if you let your imagination go with it you will be in for a treat. Let's back up a bit and get in to what exactly binaural audio is, in case it's something you're unfamiliar with. There's a number of ways it can be recorded, from two appropriately spaced microphones to actually using a dummy head with fake ears. The resulting product, when listened to with headphones, will provide a shockingly convincing 3D effect for the listener. Wikipedia, unsurprisingly, has a really interesting article on how it all works.

The premise of Papa Sangre is great. The game takes place in the world of the dead, where your eyes are useless. Thankfully, your ears work fine. You're on a quest to save the soul that belongs to a loved one, and doing so involves making your way through Papa Sangre's underworld "seeing" with your ears. Your control is limited to buttons for each of your feet, which you can walk or run with by alternating tapping them either slow or fast. Additionally, there is a dial of sorts that you swipe on the top of the screen to turn your character in game.

At its most basic, you need to walk towards a sound, which you can hear in the distance. Doing so involves swiping to spin the dial until the sound seems to be coming from in front of you, then alternating your right and left thumbs to walk to it. As you get closer, you might need to make adjustments with the dial to not miss the sound. Once you do, it's off to the next level. (Most levels also have multiple sounds that need to be located before they're over.) Of course it isn't that easy though, as the game quickly throws various enemies in game that all make sounds that you need to avoid, as well as different types of terrain. This terrain sounds different, and you might make more or less noise walking on some ground, which can lead to the enemies in the level being able to quickly locate you if you're not careful.

What you get out of Papa Sangre is directly related to how much you're willing to get immersed in to the game. This means playing with your eyes closed, and letting your imagination do the rest. The game is wonderfully narrated before the start of each level, explaining your surroundings and the enemies you need to avoid. An early level sets you inside of a room covered in discarded finger bones which you must run over, and it's just really cool imagining what that room actually would look like to go with the sounds that you're hearing.

Grab some headphones and listen to this:

Even though Papa Sangre is really cool, I'm not sure how strong of a recommendation I can give it. It's a great experience, but I think you need to be in the proper state of mind to enjoy it, and even then I'd lean more towards describing the game as "this is really neat" rather than "this is really fun." Regardless, it's still a great concept, and I'd totally stand behind the IMGA nomination for its innovative gameplay. If you like strange games, or are intrigued by the binaural nature of this game, consider giving it a shot. If nothing else, this is just something really unique on the App Store that more people should be aware of.

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There are tons of different endless running games available in the App Store, and while the genre certainly wasn’t invented by Canabalt [$2.99] it sure seems to have exploded in popularity since that title's release in October of 2009. Nowadays it’s hard to get excited about a new running game, much in the same way it’s hard to get excited for another match 3, doodle, or zombie game. It's an overly-saturated genre, but every once in a while a new entry will emerge and do something that is just different enough to change up the gameplay in a way that puts a new spin on things. That is the feeling I had after spending time with 10tons’ newest title Grim Joggers [99¢].

The hook in Grim Joggers is that you are actually controlling multiple running characters at the same time. You start out with 15 joggers in a line, and you can jump or double jump by tapping anywhere on the screen. The lead jogger will jump immediately upon tapping, with the rest of the crew following in a staggered fashion. The goal is to run for as long as possible through randomly generated levels while avoiding a plethora of hazards and dealing with a steadily increasing speed. Inevitably you will lose members of your crew to these hazards, but play will continue as long as at least one of the joggers remains alive. Once everyone has given up the ghost, though, the run is over.

The multiple jogger aspect may seem like just a gimmick, but it actually completely changes the typical approach to this sort of game. Normally you would just immediately jump every gap or hazard that comes your way without much thought. In Grim Joggers, however, you have to consider the entire line of joggers – where each of them are when you jump, where they will land, and what sort of hazards will be in their way next. It’s a subtle change from the norm, but it impacts the gameplay in a significant way. I really like having to actually make strategic decisions and pay attention to everything that’s going on while playing, rather than just blindly reacting to a level’s challenges.

Heightening this evolved gameplay is an excellent scoring system that is the real heart of what makes Grim Joggers so much fun. Points are accrued as you run, and at set intervals there are checkpoints. The amount of joggers in your crew when you pass through each checkpoint adds to a scoring multiplier. Needless to say, it’s in your best interest to have as many joggers alive as possible for each checkpoint if you want to reach any kind of meaningful scores. This, coupled with the need to play smart and pay attention, creates some pretty compelling gameplay and is what sets Grim Joggers apart from other running games.

Visually, Grim Joggers utilizes a colorful pixel style that won't blow your mind but does look quite nice. There are all manner of gruesome deaths awaiting your joggers, from man-eating plants to explosive barrels to polar bears ready to maul you. It’s a tad on the gory side, but done in a humorous way, and there is an exhaustive amount of funny statistics and facts tracked throughout the game as well. Three different environments are available to unlock and play through, with a fourth level apparently coming soon. The pacing of the game is really well done too, and there are a ton of achievements to earn and high score tracking through Game Center.

Grim Joggers may be yet another running game, but it brings a few different twists to the genre that put it in a category of its own. The fantastic scoring system and randomly generated levels give the game a ton of replay value. The only thing I came across that I didn’t like about this are the sometimes unfair placement of hazards due to the randomly generated nature of the levels. These occurrences are pretty rare, though, and don’t hinder the overall experience. There’s a discussion thread for the game in our forums with further impressions, and even if you think you’ve had your fill of endless running games, Grim Joggers is still worth a look for its different take on the formula.

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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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