TouchArcade.ru

Red Alert: Canabalt is now .99¢ instead of its usual $2.99. This marks the second time that Semi-Secret has lowered the price of its atmospheric and perfectly executed runner since its launch in 2009, which is why we’re thinking you might be interested in jumping on this deal while it lasts. We’ll probably be rocking iPhone 5s and iPad 4s by the time we see another price drop, but that’s just our conjecture.

There is a reason for today’s sale. A bunch of indie developers are banding together in a fun little promotion called Because We May. Its goal is to pull attention to numerous price drops for several games across multiple platforms, including iOS. Canabalt is one of the games in the promotion, and it’s one of the first to shoot down in price. Yay, for us!

We’ll have a lot more on Because We May tomorrow, as a lot more of the promotion’s games will see big price drops. For now, just enjoy Canabalt. You won’t regret grabbing it.

[source]

This morning Subatomic Studios unveiled that it has been doing something other than pounding out updates for Fieldrunners on iPhone and iPad. It’s been working on a big budget sequel to that 2008 original. In fact, Subatomic has been building Fieldrunners 2 since Fieldrunner’s initial release, carefully toying around with new concepts while also playing around with other prototypes. So, yeah, this one did take awhile.

It’s true that this sequel ushers in the usual, not-so-exciting follow-up fare: new enemies, new towers, new modes, new progression systems, and new maps. But it’s also doing something great and pure. It’s introducing new mechanics that change up the core experience. These tweaks and changes are radical enough that they had Subatomic floating the idea of calling the game something else.

Jamie Gotch, the CEO of Subatomic Studios, chatted with us this afternoon about some of the game’s biggest changes. He also gave us a brief history lesson on how Subatomic got its start, and how important Fieldrunners is to the studio.

“We formed back in 2008. When we first established, we were virtual. We were just some dudes who were working on this game part-time on the side,” Gotch says. “We saw an opportunity on the iPhone and we went for it. We had this game idea, which was Fieldrunners, and we figured that — this was before any games were released when the iPhone was in its beta phase and we thought tower defense game would be great to put on a mobile device. There wasn’t much of that out at the time. I don’t know if there were any games that were in that genre. We saw it as a great opportunity. We worked really hard and got the game out and it did really, really well.”

Gotch paints an overall picture that has us thinking that Subatomic wouldn’t exist in its current full-time staffed form without Fieldrunners. Subatomic almost … owes that game, and it needs to produce a sequel that feels as honest and hip, but also just as new as Fieldrunners felt at the time.

“We were really fortunate,” Gotch tell us when we ask about how many people were buying into the original. “As you know, there’s so many iPhone games out there. It’s very hard to release a game on a huge budget because it’s a huge risk. Fieldrunners has done well and it allowed us the ability to build this team and the game we wanted to build.”

One of the things the studio wanted to build for Fieldrunners 2 is better AI. It did, and it’s a game-changer. It’s smarter. It’s now aware of itself and the world it inhabits. Enemies can bump into each other at choke points and push to find safer pathways. They can also scramble over and under each other. The original game was as mechanical as other tower defense games. Enemies just plowed straight ahead, totally oblivious to everything around them — no behaviors, no awareness, no brains.

“In Fieldrunners 2 what we did, we actually have this very elaborate swarming behavior,” Gotch says. “Units behave like they would on a real battlefield. If you were to throw hundreds of units on-screen they would all swarm in and take control of the battlefield. Like an army you would see in Braveheart … They actually influence one another. You can build mazes and congest the [pipes you build]. And the guys behind [other enemies] are affected by the guys in the forefront.

Gotch excitedly tells us about other new stuff. Bridges and tunnels are being introduced in addition to environmental hazards and mini-bosses. A really neat sounding collectible card mini-game is in the works, too. As you earn achievements in the game’s modes, you receive cards.

Several of you noted earlier today that the game looks great. It does, and that’s thanks to Fieldrunner 2’s re-written engine, which is what makes all of the game’s new, much more unpredictable action possible. We’ve got a couple of new screens in the article, so give the game a look as you’re reading.

The new engine and the new AI behaviors combine to make a pretty different game, which is what prompted the debate Subatomic had about the Fieldrunner 2’s name. In the App Store world, putting a number instead of a subtitle in a sequel’s name is often said to be sales suicide because people quit buying the original game. Subatomic doesn’t care about this. It thinks it created a better game and if it loses sales, whatever. It wants this to stand proudly on its own.

Fieldrunners 2 is due out this June on iPhone and an iPad version will then follow. We talked with Gotch and the game’s lead designer Sergei Gourski on this week’s episode of our bonus podcast. We’ll blast the audio to your earholes tomorrow.

[source]

London-based design studio ustwo created a heck of a game in Whale Trail, but it’s failing as a commercial entity. It’ll never hit the App Store top 10. The face of its bubbly and wide-eyed mascot, Willow, will never grace products like panties or fruit snacks. And at its current pace, it’ll be awhile before it generates a decent profit.

The studio has huge expectations that aren’t being met, and just based on trends, it’s clear that Whale Trail will continue not meeting them. It’s a failure in this life. But will it be one in its next? Again, ustwo is spending money on Whale Trail, giving it a second wind via creative mouth-to-mouth. It’s retooling and redesigning the oddball flying game as a free-to-play title in a high-bandwidth effort to attract the casual audience that the original version failed to reach, but managed to brush.

The hope is that this model, alongside some fresh content, will finally put the game over the top and onto hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of phones and tablets across the world. It’s a crazy plan. Crazy, however, is kinda its project lead’s thing.

On Conversion, Failure, And Journeys

I’ve been speaking with ustwo co-founder Mills about the upcoming transformation. Mills is like a bizarro Clint Eastwood. In the face of adversity he has the same grit and air of determination, but instead of a cowboy hat and a killer squint Mills rocks a long, flowing red wig and eyeglasses with thick, black frames. When he talks to you, even via e-mail, you feel his warmth, energy, and passion. He’s funny, too, and you see a lot of his brand of humor in his game. As we talk, he refuses to call the original Whale Trail a failure despite being able to produce evidence indicating as much. Instead, he calls it a “succailure” and the process of making it a F2P title a “journey.”

“Whale Trail was our first proper game release,” Mills tells TouchArcade. “Full heart, full passion. The launch was a success for our studio, showering loads of eyeballs on us but something didn’t quite click. Although we were hitting 12,000 downloads a day at launch, it tailed off pretty quick.”

In fact, Whale Trail has just hit over 188,000 total sales, and it shifts around 250 units a day across Android and iPhone and iPad. These kind of numbers would be enough for a lot of studios, but ustwo spent oodles of cash on the game. It needed Whale Trail to be up there with the Angry Birds and Fruit Ninjas and the Cut the Ropes of the world.

How those titles manage to stay up top is a matter of debate. Mills doesn’t believe that featuring, reviews, or exposure brings in new downloads. He thinks that word of mouth is now driving sales. As evidence, he notes that the game’s trailers still get around 500 new views a day and the music video for the theme used in the game drives interest, too. Riding on a wave of featuring, however, Whale Trail managed to light up the charts for a short period. Mills shot us the following handy chart, for those of you into the numbers:

Learning about why the game didn’t keep selling at its initial, breakneck pace is an important component of its upcoming transformation. Mills is soaking up everything he can. He frequently frames this entire ordeal as a learning experience.

“We went back to the drawing board and dove deep into the blue waters to understand why Whale Trail wasn’t quite able to take off. We had made a wonderful experience but there wasn’t enough ‘replay’ value in the current game. The new challenge levels added in iteration release two and three helped, but we needed more. Much more,” he adds.

The new version of the game is, indeed, functionally different. As you collect bubbles and travel, you’ll collect an in-game currency called Krill. With Krill, you can buy new powers, “useable treats,” costumes for Willow and its five new playable friends. If you want this stuff without the grind, you can buy Krill straight-up.

“The game is so much better. Players are now in full control of their destiny and each play rewards them. This was missing before,” he says.

If you’ve already purchased Whale Trail, Mills says you’ll receive a “BIG” bag of Krill when you update to the new version. Additionally, you’ll receive a message designed to make you feel “special.” Mills worries about how the current install base is going to react to this massive change, since the regular version will essentially die after this update. Perhaps that’s why this message to fans will be “like finding a bag of money in your house that you can use to pimp it right up 50 style” or “like finding a bag of candy that is so sweet, yet so sticky.”

When I bring up failure, Mills says I have a point, but he describes the experience so far as a “journey.” His studio has had opportunities to sell off the IP or actually make money, but ustwo as a whole is more interested in learning at this point.

“You can look at it as a failure, but I see it as journey,” Mills says. “Each iteration of Whale Trail has created a new buzz and has engaged the players more. It’s been a big lesson for me especially in regards to releasing something I wanted and releasing something that the majority of players want. We were very successful at creating buzz, we were very open about the whole experience and the story of Whale Trail will now be told via Penguin,” he tells us. He means the publishing company, not an actual penguin.

“We had two Whale Trail acquisition offers for the game as it currently stands now, but we were not interested in money. We were interested in better understanding what we could do to make the game better. I couldn’t walk away from it now, knowing it was not the game we wanted it to be. The game we have since built and are testing now with players is the game we should have released back then but didn’t realize it at the time.”

Even though the Whale Trail flopped, Mills notes some positives. It gave his studio new business opportunities, a higher-profile in the development community, and a lot of good will. These things, however, aren’t going to make new Whale Trail sail. A balance of IAP and fun mechanics are the only thing that’ll save it.

“I want to know more about free-to-play,” Mills says. “We are not being aggressive with the monetization potential. Players need never spend, but the joy they feel should allow the game to be pretty viral. We get a small social virility through Twitter right now, but the potential at the higher numbers is unreal. I guess the plan is for Willow to find some real Whales!”

We’ll have to see if the new version of Whale Trail hits the heights that Mills thinks it can reach. Regardless if it does or not, it’s going to be hard to call this iteration a failure. To Mills, success is all about what you do as you try to succeed.

“We didn’t set out to make something generic. Success is about crafting something you believe in and telling that story, granted it may never be a smash hit as the very concept of a little fat flying whale called Willow who lives in a psychedelic land is too far out for many to stomach, but we made something we are so proud of.”

We’ll have hands-on impressions in the near future.

[source]

On this week’s episode of The TouchArcade Show, we power through conversations about smart gyms and wearable heart monitors in order to bring the latest, greatest, and the best in iPhone and iPad. At the top of the show, we dive into oral reviews of a bunch of cool games, including Brainsss and King of Fighters 2012. Later, we ponder if the free-to-play market is about to collapse and dig into the realities of development in a market that only wants 99¢ stuff.

You can listen below via these handy-dandy links or, hey, you can subscribe to us on iTunes or Zune. The latter is the only way to get our stuff the very second it comes out and lord knows you want us immediately so do it!

iTunes Link: The TouchArcade Show
Zune Marketplace: TouchArcade.com Podcasts
RSS Feed: The TouchArcade Show
Direct Link: TouchArcadeShow-050.mp3, 42.7MB

Here are your show notes:

GAMES

• Brainsss [$2.99]
• Flight Control Rocket [99¢]
• The King of Fighters-i 2012
• Tower of Fortune [99¢]
• DreamWorks Dragons: TapDragonDrop [$1.99]
• Junk Jack [$2.99]

JARED’S KITTY KORNER

• Cat Sliding [Free]

FRONT PAGE

• ‘Draw Something’ Is Losing Dudes Like Whoa
• Tiger Style Reveals Lifetime Sales Numbers
• Jason Citron Forming Games Studio

The original Soundtrack by Jim Guthrie (of Sword & Sworcery fame) for Indie Game: The Movie is available for pre-order now on Bandcamp and iTunes. The 24-track album featuring music from the award winning documentary chronicling the journeys of independent game developers by filmmakers James Swirsky and Lisa Pajot will be released in full on May 15th. It will also be available on double LP exclusively through Bandcamp. Pick up a pre-order copy of Indie Game: The Movie: The Soundtrack today on Bandcamp and iTunes.

[source]

This day of crazy deals just doesn’t seem to want to stop. Chair’s amazing sword fighter that has since spawned a whole series of games Infinity Blade [ $0.99 ] is on sale once again for 99¢. So, if you missed the last 99¢ sale that took place around a month ago, here’s another chance. Also, we’ve got a review of the game if you want to check that out first.

On the Infinity Blade II [ $6.99 ] front, an update just hit the App Store which addresses some issues people were experiencing with the new ClashMobs add-on. If you were having difficulty claiming rewards, that should be fixed along with “several other” mysterious issues that Chair wasn’t too specific about in the patch notes.

Aaaand if you’re looking for an Infinity Blade II review, it’s right here. Alternatively, if you’ve already got the game and are looking to find some dudes to join your clash mob, we’ve got that too.

[source]

A couple of months back, Tiger Style Games released Waking Mars [ $2.99 ], the follow-up to our 2009 Game of the Year Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor [$0.99 / $0.99 (HD)], and we thought it was an incredibly unique and enjoyable experience in our review. About a month ago, Waking Mars was updated for the new iPad’s Retina Display, and we noted that the visual improvement really had a big impact on a game that is so much about creating a moody atmosphere.

But wow, as good as we thought the game looked after that last update it turned out to be just a partial Retina update and just a taste of what was to come. Today Tiger Style has released another new update which adds full Retina Display support for Waking Mars in addition to a set of new jetpack types for your character to zip around Martian caves with. Check out this screen from the new iPad, which Tiger Style has cropped in close in order to show off how much detail you can see.

In a blog post detailing this latest update, which is called the May Day Update by the way, Tiger Style notes that the iPad’s beefy hardware generates the 3.1 million onscreen pixels at 60 frames per second, and that all of their artwork had been drawn at an incredibly large scale to begin with so adding support for the new iPad resolution wasn’t terribly difficult. Screens don’t really do it justice though, you have to see Waking Mars running on a new iPad in person to fully appreciate just how gorgeous it is.

In addition to the update for Waking Mars, Tiger Style has also updated the iPad version of Spider with partial Retina Display support. Only select assets have been upgraded, but Spider is still one of the most beautiful games around. Also, all 3 of Tiger Style’s games are currently on sale for a limited time. Waking Mars is down to $2.99 from $4.99 in its first ever sale, and both the iPhone and iPad versions of Spider are just 99¢ each. Finally, you can grab the excellent soundtrack to Waking Mars for just a buck on its Bandcamp page, down from $5.

[source]

Late last week Capcom surprised everybody by announcing an iOS port of their classic arcade fighter Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 [ $2.99 ]. In all honesty, I suspect this was a cleverly timed release to casually tie in with ‘The Avengers’ movie coming out next week, but whatever the motivation I’m not complaining. Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 is one of the most beloved fighting games in history, and prior to the downloadable rerelease on XBL and PSN in 2009 it could be kind of a difficult game to play unless you owned the Dreamcast or the somewhat rare PS2 or Xbox versions.

With that said it’s fairly mind blowing then that today you can download the entire original game onto a device that fits snugly in your pocket (or to your iPad if you’d rather, since the game is Universal, though it’s extra snug trying to jam that in your pocket). The iOS version of Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 is really cool for what it is, basically a cheap nostalgic trip, but it’s plagued with several major problems that drag the experience down, making it feel more like a novelty rather than another solid iOS fighter.

The major sticking points in Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 are that it’s difficult to control compared to the other top iOS fighters, the 12 year old visuals have not aged gracefully, and the overall performance leaves a lot to be desired. However, the virtual control setup that Capcom has come up with for the game is pretty clever, and just having a classic like Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 in my pocket is worth putting up with its shortcomings. It’s just a shame because with a little more care I think this port could have been a whole lot better.

Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 features a whopping 56 playable characters, 28 from the Marvel camp and 28 from Capcom. Only 24 are available from the start, with the rest being unlocked from an in-game store using coins earned through play, or for performing certain tasks like completing the arcade mode with different characters.

In the XBL and PSN versions of the game, all characters are unlocked from the start, but I far prefer having to unlock them on my own as it gives you a sense of progress and some goals to shoot for while playing. However, if you’re dying to download the iOS version and bust out some local Bluetooth multiplayer with a buddy (sadly there is no online) right out of the gate, then you might find it annoying to have to spend significant time earning enough coins to unlock your favorite characters. Surprisingly, there is no sort of in-app purchase option to unlock everything.

Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 is all about 3-on-3 tag team matches where characters can be swapped in and out at will, there’s a crazy emphasis on battles in the air, and the combos and special moves are all outrageous and over the top. Unfortunately, the iOS version runs so sluggishly that much of those fun moments are turned to frustration. The framerate can be a bit choppy and the virtual controls don’t seem to respond as well as even other Capcom fighters available on the App Store. This makes pulling off elaborate combos and air battling nearly impossible.

Despite the controls being sometimes unreliable, the default controls that Capcom implemented to simplify the experience are pretty nifty. There’s just a single button each for punch and kick, then there is a special button for controlling teammates and another for special moves. Besides just tapping these special buttons, each one can also be flicked in 4 different directions in order to perform additional moves. For example you can simply tap the special move button to shoot out a hadoken (fireball), but if you flick it to the side instead you can instantly launch into a shoryuken (dragon punch).

It’s a really cool idea and when it works well it’s brilliant, but for some reason much of the time it feels like the special buttons don’t respond to many of your flicks. There is the option to go with the original arcade game controls, which means no flicking for special moves, and I found that this option is much more reliable but does require more work on your part.

The visuals in Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 are also a pretty big letdown. I expect a 12 year old game to look dated, but for some reason the iOS version looks worse than any previous version. Sprites are noticeably jagged and pixelated, something that is accentuated on the iPad’s bigger screen. On the bright side, the fully 3D animated backgrounds are intact here and actually look quite good, especially when you consider the boring static backgrounds used in Street Fighter IV Volt on iOS.

So, Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 has a lot of issues, but nothing that renders the game completely unplayable. The controls work well enough but are far from as good as other iOS fighters, and definitely not good enough to fully pull off some of the game’s more complicated techniques. If you’re a fan of the game on other platforms and can accept the problems it has on iOS for the sake of having it in your pocket, then I think it’s definitely worth the $3 price of admission (or $5 when the intro sale ends). Personally, I’m having a ton of fun playing through the game again, even with the inherent frustrations.

If you don’t have any particular affinity for the original game but are just looking for a new iOS fighter, then Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 is a tougher sell. The controls are passable, but nowhere near the likes of Street Fighter IV Volt [ $6.99 ], King of Fighters-i [ $6.99 ], or SoulCalibur [ $11.99 ] on iOS. It’s frustrating because those examples prove that Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 could have been such a better port, and it may be in the future after some updating, but if nostalgia isn’t playing a big role in your desire for having this game on iPhone then I’d suggest waiting to see how things shake out down the line.

TouchArcade Rating:

[source]

Hey! You! Yeah, you. You loved Oblivion, can’t get enough of Skyrim and all those subsequent “arrow to the knee” memes. You probably wish there was something at least vaguely similar on your phone or iPad, right? Well, there is. It originally hit in late 2010, so you might already have it. If you don’t take a peek at our review:

You start off in Aralon by choosing one of three races – a human, elf, or troll – and from there you further refine your character by choosing its class. Both humans and elves can be male or female and pick from warrior, rogue, ranger, and mage classes. Trolls can only be male and either a warrior or a rogue. Each class has its own skill tree to master as your character levels up, and they all play quite differently from one another giving plenty of reason to play through the game as each. You then customize the look of your character model using a decent selection of hair and face choices, and although the options here aren’t as robust as what you would find in a console game, it’s certainly the most extensive on the iOS platform.

The story of Aralon then begins, and follows a tale of betrayal and a Kingdom on the brink of collapse. As fate would have it, you are the key element to solving these problems and restoring The Kingdom of Aralon to its previous state of peace and harmony. It’s certainly the kind of story that follows clichés of the role-playing genre, but it’s interesting nonetheless and serves as a good motivator to carry on and see things through. …Read More.

Aralon has aged surprisingly well, and for its sale price of 99¢ your cost-per-hour-of-entertainment in this game is down to mere pennies. Give it a look, especially if you’re into semi-open world RPGs. We made an awful lot of noise about Aralon when it was first released, but, I suppose it’s possible there are people out there who haven’t heard about it or still haven’t picked it up for whatever reason.

[source]

One of my personal favorite games of 2011 was the quirky slot machine-meets-role-playing game King Cashing [$0.99 / Free ]. The slot machine battle system was a really different kind of idea that turned out to work great in practice, and the character leveling and upgradeable items drew you in to continue forging on through the campaign. We totally enjoyed King Cashing in our review, and about a month later a big update hit that added new weapons and a new kind of battle, making the whole game just that much better.

Yesterday the second major update hit for King Cashing, this one even bigger than the first. It adds an entire new Survival campaign where you face off against a string of enemies while utilizing the same pool of spin cherries. You can earn a small portion of cherries back by each time you defeat one of these enemies, but you can’t go back and replay levels to grind so efficient play is crucial if you’re going to last until the end of the campaign. It’s quite challenging and a great twist on the normal gameplay found in the original campaign mode.

Speaking of the original campaign this update also brings 3 new battles against “protected” bosses who are covered with shields which must be broken away before inflicting damage on the enemy itself. There’s 3 new weapons too, one for each class member, as well as some new bonus types and a myriad of other tweaks and fixes. The new Survival mode adds a great new way to experience King Cashing, and the other new goodies are all welcome additions as well. If you haven’t checked out King Cashing yet there’s a lite version to try and the full version is currently on sale for 99¢ to celebrate this new update.

[source]

One of the absolute finest games available on the App Store is 11 Bit Studios’ Anomaly Warzone Earth [ $1.99 ]. Don’t believe me? Well check out our glowing 5 star review of the game from when it launched on iPad last August, and then consider that we chose it as our runner up for Game of the Year 2011. It’s not just us, either, as Anomaly has received critical praise across the gaming universe as well as plenty of award consideration, including winning a prestigious Apple Design Award for the Mac version.

So yeah, Anomaly Warzone Earth is good. And today it gets even better, as 11 Bit has just released the latest update for the game which adds high resolution Retina Display support for the new iPad. Anomaly was a gorgeous game to begin with, and it held up pretty well even on the new iPad anyway, but the difference this update makes is quite dramatic. All the text and UI elements are razor sharp and the in-game visuals are as crisp as they’ve ever been, practically popping right off the screen.

Of course, while Anomaly Warzone Earth really sings on the iPad, it can also be played just as well on the smaller screens of the iPhone and iPod touch. The original iPad version became Universal late last year, and to celebrate the new update it is currently on sale for just $1.99. If iPads aren’t your thing, the iPhone/iPod touch only version is also on sale for 99¢ [Link]. Basically what I’m getting at is that no matter how you do it, you must experience Anomaly one way or the other, and with the new update and sale now is a fantastic time to dive in.

[source]