In the wake of Apple's keynote today unveiling the iPad, we rounded up Dave Castelnuovo and Allan Dye from Bolt Creative, Anders Mårtensson from Illusion Labs, Natalia Luckyanova and Keith Shephard from Imangi Studios and Bruce Morrison from Freeverse to hear what four successful iPhone development studios thought about the new device.

The reception amongst this group of developers was remarkably positive, and everyone had ideas for new projects exclusively for the iPad, as well as refining or enhancing existing games to take advantage of the additional screen real estate and processing power of the device. We also discuss the niche that the iPad will likely fill, and what kind of usage patterns we expect the device to see once it is available for purchase.

Music lovingly lifted from the Steve Jobs YTMND.

Podcast: Subscribe in iTunes or Direct Download (M4A, 50MB)

Media who attended the Apple keynote are now being allowed some hands-on time with the iPad, and so far the first impressions make the device sound pretty awesome. Gizmodo describes the iPad as "...substantial but surprisingly light. Easy to grip. Beautiful. Rigid. Starkly designed. The glass is a little rubbery but it could be my sweaty hands. And it's fasssstttt." While Engadget confirms the speed of the CPU, they described the iPad as "...not light. It feels pretty weighty in your hand."

Joystiq provides some details on gaming with the device. The iPad features a "2X" button which scales any iPhone app to full screen, but of course this comes at a graphical cost. Much like upscaling Gameboy Advance games on the Nintendo DS, or Sony PSone classics on the PSP, games are said to look noticeably upscaled. They felt that Need for Speed: Shift actually controlled better with the larget screen, as tilting the device had less of an effect on the screen.

Also, as we expected, the sheer size of the device makes it impossible for your thumbs to obscure most of the screen as you're playing games like NOVA. According to an Apple representative at the event, iPad-optimized games will have their own section on the App Store, although the SDK allows for apps which will run equally well on both devices.

With the SDK for the iPad available today, we expect to hear quite a bit from developers. We've already heard from the people at OpenFeint who are pledging their full support to the platform, and Firemint just dropped us an email announcing an optimized version of Flight Control for the device. They are also "working on some incredibly fun and exciting games that will look amazing on iPad and take full advantage of its features, as well as working brilliantly on iPhone and iPod touch."

Jon Kromrey, GM of the Apple games divison of Namco network also dropped us a note saying how excited they are to create AAA games for the device and feel "the iPad will play a significant part of our goal to reach any player, anywhere at any time."

Photo courtesy of Joystiq

Apple's keynote is starting in a few minutes where Steve Jobs is expected to take the state at the Yerba Buena center in San Francisco. What happens from there is anyone's guess, it seems the entire world is anticipating some form of Apple tablet, and so far the spy shots Engadget posted last night seem to be the most believable:

Nearly every tech blog on the planet is going to be providing some form of keynote coverage. On TouchArcade, we will be focusing on things that pertain to gaming. Stay tuned, things should start rolling soon.

Like all Apple events, Steve took the stage and wasted no time on getting knee deep in amazing sales statistics. Apple has sold over 250 million iPods since the initial launch in 2001, and since the inception of the App Store, there are now 140,000 apps and a few weeks ago they announced the 3 billionth download.

Wasting no time, Apple introduces the iPad:

So far the iPad seems to work exactly like a large, high resolution iPod touch. Or, in the words of Steve, "it’s so much more intimate than a laptop, and it’s so much more capable than a smartphone." Jobs has gone through the email, web browsing, contacts, media playing, maps and other functionality. The device itself looks amazing. All we need now is for Steve to load a game...

Here are the stats: 9.7" IPS display with great viewing angles, 0.5 inches thin, 1.5 pounds, all with Apple's world class multi-touch sensors. 16, 32, or 64GB of storage. 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth, and a custom chip called the "A4" which "screams" at 1Ghz. The iPad also has accelerometer, compass, speaker, microphone, dock connector, and best of all, 10 hours of battery life with a month of standby time.

Steve hands the presentation over to Scott Forstall, SVT of iPhone software. According to him, “We built the iPad to run virtually every one of these apps unmodified right out of the box. We can do that in two ways — do it with pixel for pixel accuracy in a black box, or we can pixel-double and run them in full-screen. This is really cool.”

Scott goes on to show ESPN's Snowcross, both full screen and scaled to iPhone resolution:

The new SDK for developing applications for the iPad will be available today.

Two weeks ago Apple started inviting developers to get a sneak peek at the iPad, the first of which was Gameloft. Nova running on the iPad:

After showing apps for the New York Times, and a painting app called Brushes, Apple invited EA's Travis Boatman on stage to demonstrate Need For Speed Shift which is controlled either via touch or tilt, much like the iPhone version:

The iPad will have 3G data connectivity, pricing is as follows:

iPads will be available within 60 days, and pricing is as follows:

Detailed information on the iPad is now available on the Apple web site: http://www.apple.com/ipad/.

Photos by Gizmodo and gdgt.

Early last week we reported that the C64 for iPhone emulator [App Store] would soon be getting global leaderboards and achievements for in-library games via the OpenFeint network. These features were rolled out yesterday as part of the v1.4 update.

The final list of these updates is as follows:

• Jupiter Lander: leaderboards and achievements
• Lemans: leaderboards and achievements
• Arctic Shipwreck: leaderboards
• Uridium: leaderboards
• Nebulus: leaderboards
• Paradroid: leaderboards and achievements when you own the 999 droid
• NOTE: High scores are recorded only when trainer is OFF

As the in-app games themselves were changed to facilitate these enhancements, they must be "purchased" again from within the application before the global network features can be utilized (at no additional cost to the user). The developer also indicates that the emulator environment received certain performance enhancements that allow iPhone 3GS and 3G iPod touch units to run all games at a solid 50fps for smoother gameplay.

Manomio indicates that the upcoming v1.5 update will be focused on usability and playability; controls and the UI will get some work. Details on these will be forthcoming on the developer's blog.

Another very interesting bit of news comes from forum reader killy billy who spotted seven new games listed in the C64 in-app shop yesterday but, as yet, unavailable for purchase. The list of games he saw follows.

• International Karate
• Microprose Soccer
• Jumpman
• Druid
• Wizball
• Trailblazer
• Elite

We grabbed the update and took at look at the app's game shop, but the indicated games were not listed, presumably pulled until available for actual purchase. Let's hope they reappear with full global network integreation -- and soon. What a superb list of titles it seems Manomio has in store for us. All are highly playable, but Archer MacLean's International Karate, a C64 favorite, and David Braben and Ian Bell's seminal space trader Elite, considered the best game ever written by many critics, are particularly welcome.

We'll let readers know when these games appear for purchase within the app and will pass on further news and information surrounding this great emulator as we get it.

App Store Link: C64 for iPhone, $4.99

On the eve of what could be the biggest Apple announcement since the iPhone, Battle of Puppets [App Store] somehow is successfully holding my attention over obsessively refreshing every tech blog on the planet looking for more tablet tidbits. (A lofty accomplishment, to say the least.) While at the heart of the game it's little more than a castle vs castle battle, Battle of Puppets is absolutely oozing character and charm through its amazing art style and other really clever features.

If you've played one castle vs castle game, the gameplay mechanics will be instantly familiar to you. If not, here's the genre in a nutshell: Two castles are on opposing side of a battlefield, you need to manage various resources to produce units, often limited by a unit cap that may change on each level. You must formulate a strategy based on the different strengths of your units playing off the weaknesses of your opponents units to fight your way to their castle and eventually destroy it.

The battlefields in Battle of Puppets are amazingly cute stages with scenery that moves around depending on the time of day, and when a unit dies it's yanked off stage. Continuing with this theme, each of the armies in game are themed after a different classical opera, with everything from spanish forces themed after Carmen and to asian themed armies inspired by Madame Butterfly.

Compared to other castle vs castle games, the amount of thought and small touches developers Small Wonders put in to the game is awesome. The animations are great, each army feels a little different, and there's even three save slots so multiple people can be playing the game on a single device. The following gameplay trailer should give you an idea of the atmosphere of the game:

There are a bunch of castle vs castle strategy games on the App Store, but few can come close to rivaling the look and feel of Battle of Puppets. Playing as each of the different opera forces should provide a decent amount of replay value for people who become engrossed in the game, but under the hood it's still a castle battle game. If you haven't been interested in them in the past, the eye candy in Battle of Puppets likely won't be enough to sway you over.

App Store Link: Battle of Puppets, $1.99

Normally it would seem that gamers appreciate games that had a ton of work put in to them, and generally speaking, the more depth the better. However, a new trend has taken hold in iPhone development, with games produced in the least amount of time possible. Super Ramen BROTHers was released earlier this month, and yesterday Project 72 [App Store], a game developed in 72 hours, appeared.

In Project 72 you tilt your device to pilot a rocket through space, avoiding various obstacles and picking up a few different items. Your ship needs to be constantly refueled, requiring you to plan your course around picking up the green fuel tanks. There's also a power-up that surrounds your ship in a shield and a nitro power-up to make you go faster.

While the gameplay may be fairly basic, the seamless integration of online scoring is really nice. Forum members in the game's thread are really enjoying it, and if the guys from Dogtown Studios can produce a game with these kind of high quality graphics in three days, I'm going to be looking forward to seeing what else they come up with in the future.

App Store Link: Project 72, 99¢

The entire internet seems to be in a frenzy today regarding the unannounced Apple Tablet. Between the CEO of publisher McGraw-Hill confirming its existence and Daily Finance already reporting on things they don't like about it, speculation, rumors, rants, and questions which won't be answered until Steve takes the stage tomorrow are running rampant.

This morning, Stand Alone Inc announced their intentions to bring Crosswords [$9.99] to the rumored Apple tablet device. While they may be jumping the gun a little bit, announcing a game for a device which hasn't even been officially announced, Stand Alone does have a fair amount of street cred' in tablet application development. They were a major developer for the now defunct Apple Newton and authored an impressive library of software for the Newton, which is still available online.

Crosswords is among the better crossword games available on the App Store, and is one of the few games which has lived on my phone since its initial release in 2008. If the Apple tablet does run the iPhone OS as many are speculating, and it has either its own associated App Store or operates off the existing App Store, we expect this will be the first of an avalanche of announcements of software coming to the device.

Apple's keynote begins tomorrow at 10:00 AM Pacific, and will be covered live by nearly every tech-related web site. We will be providing live updates with anything that pertains to gaming, regardless of what is announced, and if Apple's tablet does end up serving as a gaming device, expect tablet game coverage to supplement our existing iPhone and iPod touch coverage.

Mobile Bros' puzzle platformer Trundle [App Store] was released yesterday, and is getting nowhere near the attention it deserves. Trundle is a free game with a neat art style all tied together with simple tilt and touch controls that create a great (but short) gameplay experience.

The object of the game is to simply roll a black ball from one side of the screen to the other. Tilting the phone controls your movement, and tapping on the screen jumps. Along the way you'll come across different vehicles to ride in, switches to activate, platforms to navigate, and other obstacles that often have different physics-based challenges to overcome.

Trundle itself is rather short, and shouldn't take you much more than an hour to finish. However, the iTunes description mentions additional level packs available in the future via an in-game purchase. I had a lot of fun playing through the game, and I think this kind of DLC model is great, especially since the amount of content in Trundle doesn't make the game feel like a demo at all.

The few people who have downloaded the game already in our forums are really enjoying it so far, and I doubt I'm alone in hoping they hurry it up with the additional level packs.

App Store Link: Trundle, Free

IGF announced the finalists for their 2010 mobile games competition. Last year's winners were dominated by iPhone games.

This year's finalists again are dominated by iPhone entries and include:

Best Mobile Game Design

• MiniSquadron (iPhone)
• Glow Artisan (DSi)
• Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor (iPhone)

Achievement In Art

• Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP (iPhone) - unreleased
• Guerrilla Bob (iPhone)
• Zombie Pizza (iPhone)

Technical Achievement

• Stair Dismount (iPhone)
• SCVNGR (iPhone)
• Tumbledrop (iPhone)

Audio Achievement

• Lilt Line (iPhone)
• MuBlip (iPhone) - unreleased
• Zombie Pizza (iPhone)

Best iPhone Game

• Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor (iPhone)
• Drop 7 (iPhone)
• Hook Champ (iPhone)

Results are announced on February 8th and will be showcased at GDC 2010 in March.

Acceleroto's Air Hockey [App Store] is one of the early classics in iPhone gaming. Released in August of 2008, the game has been regularly updated with different features and additions such as peer to peer bluetooth multiplayer and OpenFeint integration.

Aside from peer to peer bluetooth multiplayer, Air Hockey can also be played against another person using one device or by facing an AI opponent with several different difficulty levels.

Air Hockey has been featured several times by Apple, including being listed in the iTunes "Best of 2008". On top of that, the game was the #1 paid app on the App Store, and has won many other rewards from various media outlets. In other words, there is absolutely no reason for you to not drop whatever you're doing and download this game.

Also, on a somewhat unrelated note, if you're in to following iPhone developers on Twitter, Acceleroto developer Brian Duke is responsible for one of the more interesting Twitter feeds that I follow.

Acceleroto's other game, Occurro! [App Store] is also worth a look, especially if you like space shooters. We really enjoyed the game in our review.

App Store Link: Air Hockey, Free (For today only.)

I'm not sure what it is about dual stick shooters, but it seems like our forum members just go crazy for them. Guerrilla Bob [$2.99] was released just moments ago, and after spending a considerable amount of time with the pre-release version of the game, I think it's safe to say that dual stick shooter fans will feel right at home playing Guerrilla Bob.

Featuring multiple weapons, a level progression (instead of simply an open arena like most dual stick shooters), and even a ridiculous plot line that focuses on a battle between Guerrilla Bob and Minigore's John Gore, it almost seems like the developers of Guerrilla Bob went down a wish lists of our forum members and turned them in to a game.

Impressions (if you could even call them that) are being collected in our forums and so far seem overwhelmingly positive. We'll post a full review soon, but in the meantime, if you love dual stick shooters, Guerrilla Bob is a safe purchase.

App Store Link: Guerrilla Bob, $2.99

WiSTONE's Symbian MMORPG has finally made it to the iPhone, Anrufen Online [App Store] is a free to try online game with two different classes, and realtime combat that pits players against monsters and even other players. The isometric viewpoint and graphical style reminds me a lot of Ultima Online, and reading WiSTONE's web site for Anrufen reveals a shocking level of depth that doesn't immediately seem apparent when aimlessly wandering around the game world on a free account inside of the few maps you're restricted to.

If you decide to subscribe, Anrufen Online will run you $12.99, paid quarterly. This gameplay video provided by the developers shows what you're capable of both while fighting monsters and other players as you progress in the game:

Reactions on our forums seem mixed so far, but in my time with the game there seems to be a lot of potential here if you can overcome the cumbersome menu systems which seem to be directly ported from the Symbian version of the game combined with an overly cluttered interface. Still, if you're looking to get your MMORPG fix on the go, Anrufen Online seems to be one of the more complete offerings available on the platform.

App Store Link: Anrufen Online, Free (Subscription: $12.99 quarterly.)

Early this month we discovered vague references to a game on the Plus+ network named GodFinger. Today ngmoco revealed that the next game we'll see from them is GodFinger, a collaboration with Wonderland Software.

Two interesting tidbits of information come from their company web site. First of all, the team had their hands in the Fable series, as well as Black & White 2. They also thank Rex, the artist behind Little Big Planet for their new web site. Without many more details on who is involved in this collaboration, all we can do is speculate that he also could possibly be involved in GodFinger on some level.

Gameplay sounds quite similar to some of the mechanics from Black & White games. You play as a fledgling deity and need to build an army of followers to worship you. Worshipping seems pivotal to learning new god powers and performing wonders such as striking things down with lightning, creating floods, or even changing the shape of the landscape. It also sounds like you can choose to be a benevolent god or an evil god, much like Black & White

According to ngmoco, GodFinger is "rapidly approaching its App Store debut". We expect more information to be revealed in the not too distant future.

From Revolution Software, the same people who brought the iPhone the fantastic remake of Beneath a Steel Sky, comes Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars: The Director's Cut [$6.99], a remake of a point-and-click adventure from '96 that many consider to be one of the greatest games within its genre. As we covered in our preview two different versions of this remake were already published on the DS and Wii in March of 2009, and the new iPhone version is a bit of a mixture of the two, adding full voice acting and other features that the DS version lacked.

Broken Sword, which was renamed Circle of Blood for its release in the USA, has been given a significant facelift. Whereas the original version of the game focused almost solely on the male character, George Stobbart, The Director's Cut does a better job of fleshing out the back story of the game's female protagonist, Nicole Collard. The game opens as Nicole prepares for an interview that unexpectedly becomes a murder investigation when the man she was set to interview is shot by a mysterious mime. Other modifications to the game include new puzzles that are specific to the iPhone platform and new art and animation from Dave Gibbons, who you might be familiar with through his work on Watchmen.

The story in Broken Sword, as in most point-and-click adventure games, is the most important element of the game, so those who haven't played a version of the game before will be pleased to find that Broken Sword's writing is excellent, and the story is quite gripping. I particularly enjoyed the self-depreciating sense of humor that Nicole occasionally displays with her commentary, and George is a comedic parody of an American from a European perspective, making him a fairly amusing character as well.

For a point-and-click adventure, Broken Sword does a lot to make itself easily accessible. In an intelligent move by the developers, a simple finger swipe will reveal everything that George or Nicole can interact within a single screen, preventing players from having to poke around the screen randomly until they find something that they can interact with. The game's many puzzles range from brain games wherein an abstract combination of collected items must be used to progress to a lock-picking game that's nearly identical to the iPhone's own Blocked to a ridiculously complex cypher that players must harness incredible code-breaking skills to crack.

Luckily, the game has a built-in walkthrough in the form of a hint system that can be easily accessed if players want to give up and find the answer to a puzzle. For each puzzle there are several hints, each one more explicit than the last, with the last one usually being a straight-up answer to the puzzle for players who just couldn't figure things out. The genius of both the "swipe-to-reveal" mechanic and the hint system is that it's possible to never use either if a player doesn't want to. Some of the hardcore fans of the original PC version of the game that're picking up the iPhone version will want a more "pure" experience, and that option is available to them, but softies like myself can still enjoy the game without having to resort to an online walkthrough.

Broken Sword's creative touch interface works like a charm on the iPhone screen, but it was the one-two punch of the game's fantastic soundtrack and art that really hooked me. The piano-heavy orchestral soundtrack is so good that I purchased it from the iTunes store so I could listen to it later, and the fact that every line of dialogue in the game is voiced makes this a game that must be experienced with headphones. Dave Gibbon's contribution to the art and animation was an invaluable addition, as the painted backgrounds and the fluid animation adds a certain appealing touch to the game.

Even though I've never been a huge fan of point-and-click adventure games, the story and all around high-quality production values of Broken Sword sucked me in like a good book. Whether you're an old fan of the original game, a newcomer to the series, or even someone who's never played a point-and-click adventure before, Broken Sword is a game with mass appeal that will draw you in.

App Store Link: Broken Sword: The Director's Cut, $6.99

A trailer was recently released for Glu's exploration and collection game, 1000: Find 'Em All!. In the video, Chris White, head of Glu's London studio, reveals the three different ways the game can be played. First off, with a GPS-capable device, you can wander around in the real world visiting locations shown inside the game with presents to be found. Travel there, and the game awards you with one of the many items available.

If you don't have a device with GPS, or the thought of wandering city streets to collect virtual goods doesn't appeal to you, there are two other way to collects in-game presents: Exploring in-game, coloring the black and white landscape in the process or finding random WiFi hotspots. Item generation based on WiFi data sounds a lot like Monster Rancher for the PlayStation, a game that used data from music CD's inserted in to the system as the seed for the random monster generator.

The idea behind the game seems cool enough, and there's no doubt that there are people out there who love games with tons of things to collect and unlock. I just can't quite decide if the GPS functionality and the exploration Glu asks you to do with the game is going to turn out to be a really neat gameplay element, or a gimmick players will ignore, choosing instead to just run around in-game.