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Tokyo's Apple Store was recently host to a "Game Nights at the Apple Store" event where EA presented a slideshow with a surprising amount of information regarding upcoming titles for both the iPhone and iPad. We've known some of these have been in the works for a while, but this is the first time for many that we've either seen any kind of screenshot or any solid release information. Japanese iPhone site 4gamer.net was in attendance, and provides the following photos of the slideshow:

First off, Reckless Racing, formerly known as Deliverace is a game we were following quite a bit before it got picked up to be published by EA. Since then, we haven't heard much about the game aside from wondering when it was finally going to be released.

According to the above slide, it's slated for this month. EA almost always releases their games on Thursdays, so we're likely either looking at a release late at night next Wednesday, or the following week. Next up is NBA Elite 11, a 5 on 5 fully licensed basketball game that takes advantage of the Retina Display:

A client for EA's free flash game portal pogo.com is also on its way. The slide mentions the game will be ad supported, with additional content available via a subscription. We'll have to see how this plays out on the device, and if the subscription they're referring to is Club Pogo or something that will be exclusive to the iOS app:

Much like Reckless Racing, I expect the above two games that EA has listed as October releases to pop up late next Wednesday or the following Wednesday. Moving on to November releases comes Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit. We've been increasingly impressed with the Need For Speed series on the App Store, and I'm thinking Hot Pursuit will continue the tradition:

Next up is Pictureka!, an iPad game that sounds like a fast paced version of Where's Waldo? [$2.99 / HD]. It comes with pass and play local multiplayer for 2-4 people, and promises an art style that's both truly engaging and wacky. I'm not one to pass up on anything wacky:

Monopoly is finally coming to the iPad, which is allowing me to cross off yet another board game from my list of games I want on the device. The iPad exclusive features sound really rad, such as the auto-rotating tabletop mode… And I can't wait to see what in the world the new "cheating" mode entails. A mini game where you steal money from the bank while the rest of the players are getting drinks or going to the bathroom? We'll have to wait until December to find out:

EA Sports Active has been popular on consoles, and now is coming to the iPhone and iPod Touch. The following slide isn't really clear how involved the app will be, but hopefully it includes some cool GPS or accelerometer integration for tracking your performance instead of being yet another calorie/workout logging app. The features list upcoming post-launch gyro support, so we'll have to see how that all works:

Last, but certainly not least by any means is Dead Space 2. This confusingly named third person shooter is apparently going to bridge the story between Dead Space and its sequel, making this something more along the lines of Dead Space 1.5 than Dead Space 2. (This confusing sequel numbering reminds me of the Angry Video Game Nerd episode on the subject.)

I can see Dead Space being absolutely amazing on the iPad, and if they do it right, an iconic example of just how good and immersive an iPad game can be. It's not entirely clear from the slide if the game is going to be iPad exclusive, or for the iPhone as well since the header mentions the iPhone, but the bulleted list below mentions it being graphically enhanced for the iPad. Either way, Dead Space on the XBOX 360 was incredible, and I have a feeling it's going to be either just as awesome on iOS devices, or just as disappointing as Mass Effect Galaxy [$1.99]– I'm not sure there's much room in between.

Of course, we will post more as soon as we get any more information on any of these games.

[via 4gamer.net]

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It's Labor Day Weekend in the U.S. and most every retail sector in the land is offering major product sales — and the App Store is no exception. So, without further ado, the following games are available for a reduced price through this three-day, holiday weekend.

Namco

• BurgerTime Deluxe $1.99 → 99¢
• Garters & Ghouls $1.99 → 99¢
• Ms. PAC-MAN $4.99 → 99¢
• PAC-MAN $4.99 → 99¢
• PAC-MAN Remix $2.99 → 99¢
• PAC-MAN (iPad) $4.99 → 99¢
• Pole Position: Remix $2.99 → 99¢
• Pool Pro Online 3 $1.99 → 99¢
• Rolling 5 Dice Poker $4.99 → 99¢
• Solitaire: Deck of Cods $4.99 → 99¢
• Star Trigon $1.99 → 99¢
• Tamagotchi: 'Round the World $4.99 → 99¢
• Lt. Fly Rise of the Arachnids $1.99 → 99¢
• Brain Exercise with Dr. Kawashima $4.99 → 99¢
• Galaga REMIX $2.99 → 99¢
• Dig Dug REMIX $2.99 → 99¢
• PAC-MAN Championship Edition $2.99 → 99¢
• I Love Katamari $4.99 → 2.99
• Ridge Racer Accelerated $4.99 → 2.99
• …among others

Sky Burger, Free (down from $1.99) NimbleBit’s Sky Burger is a fun exercise in burger stacking that’s seen a great deal of success since it recently went free; presently it’s sitting at #6 free title in the App Store. Now’s the time to grab it.

Glu Mobile

• Build-a-lot $1.99 → 99¢
• Transformers $1.99 → 99¢
• Build-a-lot 2 $2.99 → 99¢
• Mini Golf $1.99 → 99¢
• Transformers G1 $1.99 → 99¢
• Deer Hunter: African Safari $6.99 → $2.99
• Jump O'Clock $1.99 → 99¢
• Stranded: Mysteries of Time $1.99 → 99¢
• Deer Hunter 3D for iPad $4.99 → 99¢
• Glyder 2 for iPad $1.99 → 99¢
• Super KO Boing 2 for iPad $2.99 → 99¢

Robot Unicorn Attack, $0.99 (down from $2.99) If there’s any game in the App Store that is double rainbow all the way, it is without question Adult Swim’s Robot Unicorn Attack. It’s got unicorns!!

Electronic Arts

• Boggle $1.99 → 99¢
• CLUE $1.99 → 99¢
• Littlest Pet Shop $2.99 → 99¢
• MONOPOLY $2.99 → 99¢
• MONOPOLY Here & Now: The World Edition $2.99 → 99¢
• RISK: The Official Game $4.99 → $1.99
• THE GAME OF LIFE Classic Edition $2.99 → 99¢
• Trivial Pursuit $2.99 → 99¢
• YAHTZEE Adventures $2.99 → 99¢

I Dig It HD, $4.99 (down from $9.99) InMotion Software’s I Dig It HD is an iPad take on the iPhone original that we — and most everybody else — loved. On the bigger screen, it’s bigger action and all the fun of the iPhone version.

The titles listed here represent a pretty good highlight of what's out there for less this weekend, and additional deals are being discussed in an active forum thread.

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In celebration of Spring, EA has discounted a number of their games until April 5th. The list includes a wide range of titles included below:

• The Simpsons Arcade – $0.99
• Spore Creatures – $1.99
• Madden NFL 10 – $4.99
• NBA Live – $4.99
• Spore Origins – $0.99
• Dragon's Lair – $2.99
• Monopoly (Classic) – $2.99
• Scrabble – $2.99
• Trivial Pursuit – $2.99
• Battleship $1.99
• Boggle – $0.99
• Connect 4 – $1.99
• The Game of Life – $1.99
• Yahtzee Adventures – $1.99
• American Idol $0.99
• <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/anytime-pool/id310787099

?mt=8">Anytime Pool – $0.99

• Clue – $0.99
• Mass Effect Galaxy – $0.99
• Star Trek – $0.99
• Wolfenstein RPG – $0.99
• Snood – $0.99
• Mystery Mania – $0.99

The sale lasts through the weekend until April 5th.

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Venan Entertainment is the creator of the recently released Space Miner: Space Ore Bust, which we absolutely loved in our review. Space Miner is the first game from Venan, but we liked it so much that we decided to feature them in this week's developer profile.

Brandon Curiel, the CEO of Venan, was kind enough to agree to be interviewed by us, and I got the chance to find out a little bit more about him, his company, and his games.

Touch Arcade: Could you give us a brief history of the company? How did you start off?

Brandon Curiel: Venan started in the summer of 2002 in my spare bedroom. We had just left a dot com bust, and having worked in games prior to that, the five of us we decided we wanted to get back into that market. Our initial target was the Xbox, and we spent a year working on a game demo and shopping it around, but didn’t have much luck. So with our savings getting low, we decided to switch gears and aim for something more modest – mobile development. Our first game, Super Putt Classic, got sold into Sprint by Mforma (now Hands On Mobile) and from there they started offering us contracts to do new games. One game led to another, and to another, and eventually we built up our business being a third party mobile developer.

We got started on the iPhone pretty early with a contract from EA to bring Monopoly over, which we had done on mobile and the regular iPod. It was like a breath of fresh air after having to deal with the fragmented Java/Native landscape for so long. Since then we’ve done four iPhone games, three for EA and one for Sega, but Space Miner is the first one we’ve developed as an internal title. We’re hoping to be able to dedicate more resources to internal titles going forward.

The Venan Entertainment crew

Touch Arcade: What was the inspiration for Space Miner?

Brandon Curiel: Space Miner is an interesting story, because there was no direct inspiration for it. Initially we were just trying to prototype a control scheme. The idea was to use the accelerometer to determine the device orientation such that when the user turned the device, we’d take the world and pivot it around the player. Seeing some of the success smaller developers were having, we thought we’d knock out a quick game with this nifty control scheme idea, so we brainstormed for some ideas that might work. Eventually we settled on a classic asteroids style game.

Since we’re not talking about the game I just described, something obviously didn’t work. To be blunt, the whole idea was a colossal mess. I can say that, since it was my idea! There were so many problems, like not having anywhere to put a UI, getting tangled up in headphone cords, and the undeniable fact that flipping the device around like that was just not fun and liable to get it dropped. So, having developed an asteroids “engine”, we had to rethink what exactly we were going to do with it.

Having to start over again I think made us take a deeper look at the App Store to figure out what exactly was out there and where we could be different. What we found was that there were a lot of “snack” type games, but not a whole lot of the type of deeper games like those you’d find on the DS or a PSP. So, we decided to be different. Instead of going in the same direction as everyone else on the App Store, we decided to do back to our roots and just blow out the whole asteroids concept into something we’d want to play. And that meant narrative, RPG elements, and all the things that you see in Space Miner now.

Space Miner, the first game from Venan

Touch Arcade: What's a game that you'd love to make in the future?

Brandon Curiel: Dark Blossom. It’s a name that means nothing to anyone (it shouldn’t at least), but it’s a classic fantasy RPG we’ve had kicking in the background in one form or another for at least five years. Prior to Space Miner, we had been working on it as an original DS title, but gave up because the market there is very tough if you aren’t Nintendo. I’ve personally always wanted to make an epic fantasy RPG, so hopefully we’ll get the chance someday to port it over to the iPhone and try reviving it once more.

Also, Space Miner II. First since that will mean the first Space Miner was successful. But really we always have had a plan for a sequel and have tons of ideas we couldn’t get in the first one.

The Venan Entertainment offices

Touch Arcade: Who wrote the dialog for Space Miner? Can you tell me a little bit about the decision to make the game humorous in nature?

Brandon Curiel: The story was primarily a collaborative effort between me and Alex Kain, an associate designer here. I dealt more with the story elements and the arc, and Alex handled the actual writing (and re-writing) but we both did some of the other as well. We also brought in an extremely funny writer we worked with on Ninjatown, Robbie Telfer, to help “funny it up.”

As for humorous, well, I think that was a natural fit. Once we hit on the mining angle, it took all of 1.5 seconds for Uncle Jeb to be created in our minds, and that character is just funny out of the box. We wanted this to be fun, light, and accessible. We were just so sick and tired of all the dark, gritty stories you see in these games that have just been done to death. So the tone was very conscious, from the UI, to the plot, to the dialog, to even doing the space station as a bobbing 2D billboard.

Here's a gameplay trailer for Space Miner:

Touch Arcade: What's an interesting fact about your company?

Brandon Curiel: There’s an ongoing agreement with the employees that if we sell 100,000 units of Space Miner, I’ll get them a pinball machine. We have a long way to go though…

App Store Link: Space Miner: Space Ore Bust, $4.99

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With the introduction of the Apple iPad yesterday, many developers seem genuinely excited about the prospect of bringing their games to the large-format device. During our Podcast we discussed that some games would be better suited than others to take advantages of such a large surface area. So here are a few that we think would benefit the most.

Tower Defense

Fieldrunners

Fieldrunners and almost any other Tower Defense game would be able to take unique advantage of the large scale size of the iPad. Right now, most iPhone games require you to zoom in and out or pan across maps to manage towers and track the creeps. Imagine playing with a massively large map with a full overhead view.

Line Drawing

Boom Brigade

Any line-drawing games such as Flight Control and Harbor Master would benefit from a large screen. In fact, both developers have already announced their intentions to make iPad-specific versions. It would also change the game play balance entirely, potentially making for a much more frantic play field. But the one line drawer that we always felt was handicapped by the iPhone's screen size was Boom Brigade. In Boom Brigade you could draw lines to direct your troops into formations to attack the enemies. The problem was that the screen was so small, there wasn't enough space to do much maneuvering. That will change with the iPad.

Board Games

Monopoly

Monopoly and every other board game out there are a perfect match for the iPad. Not only because you can actually see the entire board at once, but also because there's enough room on the device to actually play with other people in your family. Board games have always been social games, but that aspect tends to be lost when you are playing on a 3.5" device. The iPad may be the perfect way to revive these under appreciated games.

Real Time Strategy

Command & Conquer

StarCraft, well, maybe not StarCraft specifically, but aside from Command & Conquer Red Alert there really hasn't been many full-featured RTSs that we've enjoyed because of how difficult cramming all of the different interface elements required to control your units and micromanage your base requires way too much screen space on the iPhone. C&C did it best, and even then it felt like way too much of the screen was wasted on large finger-sized buttons. With the increased area for countless interface elements, the iPad could be the perfect device for realtime strategy games.

If you have your own ideas of what kind of games would be best served by a 9.7" multi-touch display, let us know in the comments.

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