TouchArcade.ru

At the end of August this year, developer Ossian Studios announced that they were creating a new 3D Western-style RPG for the iOS platform called The Shadow Sun. At the time, there was no indication of what the game would be like beyond a short text description provided on the developer's website. However, given Ossian's previous involvement in the Neverwinter Nights series and the fact that studio head Alan Miranda was producer of Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal, there was definitely plenty of reason to get excited with that kind of RPG pedigree behind the project.

Now, just a little more than a month later, Ossian is finally ready to give players a peek at the world that they've been creating, as they have just sent over the first screens of The Shadow Sun.

The Shadow Sun will take place in a fully 3D world centered around an imperial city called Shar. Tensions between the inhabitants of this world run high, and beyond the outskirts of the civilized cities lie unknown dangers. Aliens have somehow tampered with the planet's sun, causing an ever-increasing shadow to encroach across the lands with horrible consequences. Ossian notes that they are aiming for the high adventure of the Dungeons & Dragons series, real-time combat inspired by games like Fable, The Legend of Zelda series, and The Witcher, and an element of sci-fi horror in the style of author H.P. Lovecraft. Here are some other key features as detailed by the developer, and a gallery of additional screenshots (click to enlarge):

Enter a story full of complex characters, intrigue, danger, and shocking surprises.

Explore the decadent imperial city of Shar and the exotic desert lands around it.

Battle enemies using magical powers and dozens of weapons.

Play as male or female with a character system that allows you to evolve your character’s abilities exactly how you want.

Ally with one of several companions to adventure with and fight alongside.

Make your role-playing choices wisely through dialogue or action, and become either a hero or a villain.

These early screens look gorgeous, and have me really excited to see more of The Shadow Sun. The iOS platform has already proven to be a rich resource for great role-playing games of all kinds, and Ossian Studios is claiming that The Shadow Sun will redefine the genre on the platform. That sounds like a mighty claim, but based on their background in RPGs and these stunning screenshots, it's certainly within the realm of possibility. The release date doesn't get more specific that "late 2010", but a discussion about the game has begun in our forums and we'll of course bring you more information on The Shadow Sun as we get it.

[source]

Trudging through the forums of TrendyEnt's Dungeon Defenders, an upcoming game on PC that recently caught my eye, has upturned some pretty juicy developments. Apparently, Dungeon Defenders' release in November and a console version on the way hasn't prevented the busy developers at TrendyEnt from finding the time to post their work on an iOS port of the game, too. And it's looking mighty fine, even at this early stage.

The Dungeon Defenders website describes the game as a hybrid between a Tower Defense game and a Co-op Action RPG, where 4 players take on the role of heroes tasked with defending the onslaught of enemy creep waves by building defenses and directly attacking the horde themselves. There seem to be rich underlying RPG concepts driving Dungeon Defenders, as heroes collect loot, level up, lay traps and even get their own familiars along the way.

It seems as though Dungeon Defenders' iOS release may not be too far away, either. A video released by the developers on YouTube (below) shows Dungeon Defenders already being played co-operatively on 4 different iOS devices. On initial observation, it looks to have many of the features of the PC version, with the touch interface effortlessly replacing the standard point-and-click and the bright, colorful, cartoon-like graphics remarkably in-tact in its translation to the handheld device.

The PC release is described as having an extensive campaign, lots of planned DLC, detailed stat tracking and the ability to seamlessly mix both online and local participants, all features we'd love to see carried over to the iOS port too. Little information is actually known on the project so far, beyond what has been released in alpha demonstrations. We have contacted the developers to see what else we can get from them, and will keep you up to date on any further developments.

[source]

Halfbrick Studios, developer of both Fruit Ninja [99¢/HD] and Monster Dash [99¢], has officially announced today the port of their hugely successful PSP Minis game Age of Zombies to the App Store. There had been speculation in our forums for over a month that the game would be making an appearance on iOS devices, with a “coming soon” banner on the Age of Zombies website and a product description on Halfbrick's online merchandise store providing hints of an intended App Store release. Early this morning, Halfbrick updated their website and sent out a press release with Age of Zombies iPhone screenshots, thus confirming the game will indeed be coming.

Age of Zombies is the original adventure of Monster Dash hero Barry Steakfries. When Barry uncovers the plot of Dr. Brains to send zombies to different points in time to destroy mankind, he decides to take action. He'll travel through five different time periods battling zombified versions of cavemen, mummies, ninjas, and dinosaurs. The teaser trailer for the PSP Minis version shows some of the gameplay in action:

The game will include the full five worlds of the story mode as well as a Survival mode featuring online high scores, and is set to be an improvement over the PSP version in a number of ways. It will contain better graphics, a reworked user interface, and dual-stick touch screen controls for controlling Barry. Click through the following gallery for a look at some screens of the iPhone version of the game:

No word on pricing just yet, and the release date doesn't get any more specific than sometime in October. Halfbrick does note that Age of Zombies will be a universal build that will run on both iPhone and iPad, which is good news for gamers with both devices. We are definitely looking forward to taking Age of Zombies for a spin when it releases this October, and until then drop by the upcoming game thread in our forums to join in on discussion about the game.

[source]

This past Friday we took a look at the upcoming Augmented Reality game ARDefender from developer Int13. What sets ARDefender apart from other Augmented Reality games is its use of a special printed image that is placed in the camera's view and is recognized by the software to create a 3D model of a tower inside the game. Int13 was nice enough to promptly send over a preview copy of ARDefender so that we could try it out for ourselves, and after spending some time playing with the game over the weekend, my feelings are largely positive. The game works just as well as was demonstrated in the video from our preview, and beyond being a really interesting piece of technology, ARDefender offers up a pretty fun gameplay experience as well.

The first thing you'll need to do before playing ARDefender is print out the PDF image from their website that creates the tower in the game. After printing and cutting out the square image, you'll place it down on a flat surface where you intend to play. Loading up the game and hitting the play button will bring up the view from the device's camera, and once it recognizes the PDF image it will instantly create a little tower out of thin air.

Gameplay involves using the weapon mounted on top of the tower to fend off waves of enemies as they attack. Touching anywhere on the screen places an aiming reticule at that spot and holding down a button in the lower right corner fires your weapon. There's a regular cannon with unlimited ammunition, and limited missile or laser attacks at your disposal. Occasionally an airplane will drop off a crate full of ammunition for you to collect. The tower has a health gauge in the upper corner and the goal is to keep the tower alive for the duration of each round, which seems to always be 60 seconds. More difficult enemies appear with each round, and if your health gauge runs out the tower crumbles and it's game over.

The first portion of this video shows one round of gameplay in ARDefender, with a few toys I laid out next to the tower just for fun. Then I tried to pan around the tower to give a closer look at the 3D model it consists of. Finally, I printed out the PDF image at four times the size of what the default is, to see if it would give me a larger tower in the game, which it indeed does. It doesn't seem that the game will recognize both towers at once though, but I did find that I preferred playing with the larger tower rather than the smaller one. This will also depend on how far away you plan on being from the surface where the tower is set.

Overall I really liked what I've played of ARDefender so far, despite its fairly simplistic game mechanics. It's hard not to be impressed with how convincingly the tower is created in the real life space where you play the game, in my case a coffee table and kitchen floor. It's worth noting that the game had trouble creating a tower when I tried playing on an uneven surface like carpet, so it seems to require a smooth flat surface for best performance. Also, it's a really bare-bones package. There's no sort of cohesive campaign or storyline to play through, or any type of persistent stats or score tracking. This can easily be rectified with an update down the line, however, and I'd personally love to see some additional downloadable images that give you different styles of towers to play with.

Despite any shortcomings, the game still manages to be pretty fun. ARDefender has already been submitted to the App Store, and we'll take a closer look at the game when it becomes available, hopefully sometime in the next couple of weeks.

[source]

It was just about this time last year that Apple introduced the 3.1 firmware update to the iPhone that allowed developers to access the built-in camera for games and apps. What followed was an avalanche of “Augmented Reality” games, or in other words games that utilized real-time images from the iPhone camera and added digital graphical effects over those images to create gameplay out of the environments in front of you. Unfortunately, nothing too spectacular ever emerged from this technology, and most games consisted of shallow gameplay with Space Invaders-type graphics slapped over the camera's view. There have been some interesting uses of Augmented Reality on the iPhone just to be clear, but as far as gaming was concerned it never amounted to more than just a gimmick.

Now it seems that developer Int13 is trying something a bit different to bring a more authentic Augmented Reality experience to the iPhone (and camera-enabled iPod touches) with their upcoming game ARDefender. The way ARDefender works is that you'll print out an image from a PDF file available on their website, and this special image will be read by the camera and create a tower where the image is placed. The goal of the game is to defend that tower from waves of enemies by moving your device around the fixed position of the tower to take aim and blast away at them. It may sound a little simplistic gameplay-wise, but what I really like is how convincingly the tower and enemies seem to actually be on the table, which can be seen in the video below.

We previewed a technology very similar to that used in ARDefender way back in March of last year at GDC, but at that time use of the iPhone camera APIs was off limits to developers. The technology has also been used in the Playstation 3 game Eye of Judgment, and even in this incredible Augmented Reality tattoo. Ideas like this are obviously possible on the iPhone as well, and it seems like ARDefender is a step in the right direction. All I've ever really wanted from an Augmented Reality game is for it to make me actually feel like something is being created in the real life space around me, and by the looks of things ARDefender does just that.

It shouldn't be too long before we can get our hands on the game either, as ARDefender has already been submitted to Apple. Interestingly, the game has been available for over a month on the Samsung Wave, and impressions from those gamers have been positive. They've even come up with some clever ideas on how to use the technology, like printing out a huge version of the PDF image to create a gigantic tower and playing the game from an elevated area like a balcony, or pulling up the PDF on their computer at work and pointing their phone at it to play the game directly on the screen. We'll be sure to take a closer look at ARDefender when it gets released in the near future.

[source]

Some of you gamers out there may remember a GameStop ad campaign from a couple of years ago featuring a foul-mouthed little bunny named Buck who would find himself in funny situations as he made his way through fake versions of Mario-like 2D platforming games. For reference, there is a nice montage video on YouTube showing some of Buck's commercials. The ads were a hit, and there was even a short-lived game available on GameStop's website that let you play through a level featured in one of the commercials. Now, GameStop has given Buck another chance at video game stardom in a new iPhone game just released on the App Store called Buck and the Coin of Destiny [99¢].

Buck and the Coin of Destiny is an auto-running platforming game that have become quite popular with the success of games like Canabalt [$2.99] and Monster Dash [99¢]. There's a Story mode that has Buck running through five different video game-themed levels in an effort to get from the start to the finish of each level as the story of the Coin of Destiny unfolds. For example, one level is reminiscent of the Legend of Zelda games, one is very Castlevania-esque, and before and after each level are some funny animated Buck the Bunny cutscenes. Buck automatically runs to the right and tapping the screen allows you to jump or double-jump as you collect coins and powerups while avoiding spikes, pits, and enemies.

The five levels of the Story mode are fairly short, and it won't take too long to complete the whole campaign. However, there is an Arcade mode that lets you play through any of the five level themes in randomly generated endless fashion. This mode has the potential for unlimited replayability, but I do have one small gripe about it. You start the endless portion with only one heart, meaning if you hit any hazard it's instantly game over. Like the Story mode, you can pick up additional hearts along the way, up to a total of eight. That's fine for the Story levels that have a definitive ending, but in endless mode the ability to pick up additional hearts can cause a game to drag on for a pretty long time. I'd much prefer to see how far I can make it with the threat of instant death looming, or even just a cap of 3 or 4 hearts instead.

The gameplay in Buck and the Coin of Destiny isn't the best available in the running platform genre, but it's really not bad at all. The jumping controls are responsive, the level designs are interesting, and it's simple and fun to play. I'm really surprised by how much I continue to come back to Coin of Destiny. The Story portion is pretty short, but a fun ride while it lasts. The end of the game offers a “to be continued…” so the brevity may be rectified in the future with updates. The endless Arcade mode is a great addition to lengthen out the game, even if it does tend to drag on a bit. There's also a number of achievements to earn in the game, and local scores are kept for the Story mode and each individual Arcade level. Sadly there's no Game Center integration or online functionality other than the ability to share your scores over Facebook.

If you were familiar with the GameStop Buck commercials, like many of the players in our forums, then you'll likely get your dollar's worth of enjoyment on the cutscenes alone. If you don't really care about the Buck character but are looking for a new running platform game, then Buck and the Coin of Destiny really isn't a bad choice at all. I'd really like to see the game evolve with updates to add more content to the Story mode, some tweaks to the endless Arcade mode, and some sort of online functionality for achievements and high scores. There's a really nice foundation in place here, and even in its current state Buck and the Coin of Destiny is a solid running platformer for the price.

[source]

Last year we posted early details surrounding the forthcoming iPhone game controller accessory from 22moo, the GameBone, which will offer official iOS 4 support (read: no jailbreak necessary). The accessory-maker has recently posted additional details on the item to their website.

Features listed by 22moo:

• 8-way D-pad (directional pad)
• 4 action buttons
• 2 shoulder buttons
• Built-in 1600 mAh Lithium battery for additional power for your iPod touch / iPhone
• Rear button and LED to check charging state and capacity
• Built-in stereo speakers
• Omnidirectional MIC
• 3.5 audio headphone jack
• Rear kick-stand
• iDevice independent volume control
• Charge and sync for all iDevices (except for the iPad)
• Interchangeable core for compatibility with iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad devices

The company is currently in the process of finalizing the device's new PC board and updated case design for mass production. A new availability date will be announced in early October, so stay tuned.

Stuart Carnie of Manomio has indicated that the studio's C64 for iPhone will offer eventual support for the device when it hits market.

The GameBone will support the following iOS devices: 2G, 3G, 4G iPod touch, iPhone 3G, 3GS, 4, and iPad.

[source]

Our sister site AppShopper finally launched a native iPhone and iPad app that offers the same App tracking functionality as the full website.

AppShopper tracks all the major changes to the App store, including new apps, updates and sales. For example, with the right combination of filters you can find every app that has gone from Paid to Free. For a less overwhelming view, you can just view popular changes amongst other AppShopper readers.

You can then add apps to your own personal wishlist to get notified of sales or price changes. The app now lets you maintain that list on the go.

It's what we use to keep track of interesting game sales, and now you can monitor them on your iPhone or iPad. The app is being discussed on the forums.

[source]

Last week, in a post featuring new screenshots from the upcoming iPhone version of Riven from Cyan Worlds, we pointed to clues of a new, previously unheard of forthcoming title spotted on the studio's website. At the time, all we saw of Stoneship was an ad banner commanding, "Never let your timbers be shivered!" and a tiny screenshot. Today, Cyan shared with Touch Arcade exclusive details and screenshots to help give readers a feel for what Stoneship is all about.

The upcoming Stoneship represents "a lighthearted new direction" for Cyan Worlds, the studio indicates. The game is a casual, top-down, turn-based, strategy puzzle game "with a bent toward the whimsical," we're told. The game sets you and your first mate on the high seas, charged with exploring, controlling, and protecting vast oceans and islands, under continual threat of a pirate siege. There are eighty three included levels to play through, with additional levels to come later, it appears.

Granted, there's still room for gameplay specifics and other details on this one, but what we've got does paint an overall picture. And the screenshots provided us should help flesh out that picture, further.

Cyan plans to submit Stoneship to Apple in the next few weeks and, as well, confirms that Riven for the iPhone is still on track for a release this fall. We expect to post a full review of Stoneship coincidental with its release in the App Store. Stay tuned.

[source]

No long-time aerial combat fan can be a stranger to NovaLogic's Comanche helicopter combat series. Known for its comparatively realistic terrain rendering thanks to its use of voxel technology, the series culminated in the 2001 release of Comanche 4 for Windows PCs. A recent banner spotted on NovaLogic's website seems to indicate that iOS gamers may soon get the opportunity to deal out some death and destruction from the cockpit of a RAH-66 gunship.

Mixed in among a number of promotional graphics on NovaLogic's site, the banner in question depicts an iPhone 4 with the silhouette of a Comanche helicopter rendered on its screen, along with a blueprint side-shot sketch of the craft shown below phrase "Coming Soon." Since we became aware of the banner a few days back [ thanks Kamil ], we've sought confirmation and any details on this upcoming title through several NovaLogic channels, sadly with no success.

The Comanche series made its debut in 1992 and is centered around the Boeing / Sikorsky RAH-66 Comanche helicopter gunship which was in development / prototyping at the time of the games' releases. And, while the Comanche program was cancelled by the U.S. Army in 2004 before fielding, NovaLogic's Comanche series stands as a rather unique and satisfying combat simulation experience — and one that's definitely more sim than simple arcade, first-person blaster.

See a game trailer for Comanche 4 for Windows, featuring in-engine play samples.

Having enjoyed Comanche 3 and 4 on the PC in days past, the prospect of a new iteration of the title on today's iOS devices — which are far more powerful than the PCs of the games' day — with full accelerometer / gyroscope controls has me pretty excited. You can be sure we'll pass on any details we're able to dig up on this upcoming title as soon as we get them.

[source]