Bit Blot’s Aquaria is heading to the iPad and iPad 2 later this fall and in the most recent news regarding its impending release, Semi-Secret Software’s talented hands will be handling part of the publishing duties. In a new blog post, Semi-Secret tossed out an awesome video of the game in action with bonus commentary with the original game’s co-creator Alec Holowka.
Think of Aquaria as an underwater Castlevania. It’s a traditional 2D side-scroller with a huge, explorable world and an emphasis on shooting. According to Holowka, this touch version of the 2007 Independent Games Festival winner won’t sacrifice what made it great by being a touch controlled title. He reckons it’ll enhance the experience instead and also bring the game to a lot of people (including some of us in TouchArcade tower) for the first time.
You can read more about Aquaria in a bunch of places, so definitely hop to it if you’re into teasing yourself. The original game was, obviously, rated pretty highly, so we’re more than stoked to give this a spin -- especially if this touch version is as promising as it appears to be.
The creator of the fantastic space shooter Red Nova [$.99], Celsius Game Studios, is set to follow up with another space combat joint called Drifter. The studio made a few waves the other day on Twitter with the official unveil, which has us thirsting for more information.
As the teaser suggests, this is indeed an open-world exploration game, but it’s a bit more. Celsius’ Colin Walsh tells us that it’s something of a passion project that’s inspired by games he grew up such as the venerable Frontier: Elite II. His twist is the combat and the joining of trading game. You’ll be able to be wander the galaxy as a merchant or put on the thigh-high space boots of a “cold-blooded mercenary” charged with “ taking out the scum of the galaxy.” We added the thigh-high part, there, because, frankly, we like thigh-highs.
The map in the game is the biggest point of interest for us so far: it’s procedurally generated and will contain 100,000 light years worth of space crap like, say, planets and star systems. The ultra-ambitious Drifter doesn’t have a release yet, but Walsh hopes it’ll hit before the end of the year.
It seems like a question that pops up on a near-daily basis on our forums is "How do I get started to make my own game?" Well, if my Twitter feed is any indication, iOS developers can't get enough of Unity and, as this video illustrates, you can have a totally functional prototype of a basic game using the Unity development environment in under an hour:
What's even cooler, is that all the tools shown in the video are totally free to download, and there's even a fully-functional 30 day trial of the "pro" licenses. You don't even need to know how to build 3D models, as the Unity Asset Store has tons available, both for free and for reasonably cheap licensing fees.
If game development is something you're interested in, but don't really know where to start, give this video a watch. A lot of stuff might initially go over your head, but that's OK, there's no shortage of Unity tutorials online and you really can't go wrong with all the software being free-- The only cost to you is your time, and really, if you're learning something, that's not much of a "cost" at all.
As if simply touching a screen with your finger and interacting with an iPad game wasn’t magical enough, Disney Mobile is taking things to the next level with a special toy and game tie-in for Cars 2. All Things D recently got a glimpse at the first “Disney Appmate,” this specific one being a weird experiential racing game that requires Cars 2 toys. Basically, you turn on the game, put a toy Cars car on the surface of the iPad, and then you push it around and explore the virtual top-down world that Disney Mobile has developed alongside the corporeal item.
The meatspace-slash-cyberspace tie-in isn’t a new concept by any means, but it’s interesting to see a new product utilizing the iPad’s touchpad enter the realm. Also, this is definitely the mother of all free-to-play experiments so far. The game part will be free and packaged in with a $20 blister of two interactive Cars 2 toys. The toys and the app are slated to hit retailers and iTunes respectively next month.
Kids love the gadget and word on the street is that they also love toys, so on a conceptual level this all sounds like a promising venture. We can’t really envision a world in which this actually takes off, but hey, who saw that electricity thing coming? You? Nope.
You remember the brothers Marsh, right? They’re the two dudes behind NimbleBit of Tiny Tower [Free] fame? We chatted with them on our podcast? Glad we’re on level because the dynamic duo was recently in the news for doing something other than making a wildly successful free-to-play game. In a heartwarming move, the Marshes gifted 35 iPad 2s and a bunch of “other equipment” totaling more than $30,000 to a small school in City Heights. Undoubtedly, this’ll go a long way in improving the school’s technology education and teaching in general. Also, it makes us go “Awww.”
The reason? The school’s principal was the duo’s technology and business teacher at their old high school. In a statement to Sign On San Diego, Ian Marsh, the right brain of NimbleBit, said they just wanted to give back.
“We knew we wanted to do something to give back, but we didn’t know exactly what to do. I’m a geek when it comes to tech stuff. When I was in school, I would have died if someone handed me an iPad,” he said.
Props to these guys for using some of their skrilla to make the world better. In the spirit of the Marshes, I think I’m going to send a picture of my biceps to my old gym teacher. I think she’ll appreciate that. I mean, who wouldn't?
Big Blue Bubble’s Burn The Rope Worlds [$.99] is an intensely faithful follow-up that feels like a yearly iteration of a well-trod franchise. It’s as great as its predecessor is, but only in the strictest sense. It’s as if the core of Burn The Rope [$.99 / Lite / HD]was transplanted, not massaged and implemented, into this sequel, which makes the staggering amount content the only meaningful mark of differentiation between the two games. A better name for this would have been Burn The Rope: More Burn The Rope -- a great proposition, but a flat approach to sequel design.
If you’re new to Burn The Rope, the short of it is that it’s a rotation-based puzzle game where you control multiple points of interest (fire) on a line of virtual rope by tilting your phone. If you tilt it the wrong way, the flame goes out. You’re awarded with medals and progression if you manage to burn significant chunks of rope, which can be a harder task than you’d think since additional flame can spurt whenever it hits fulcrum points. Colored rope and bugs are later introduced as complimentary parts that add to the strategy. By setting fire to a bug, you get a special color of flame that can only effect that color of rope. (more...)
Depending on how closely you follow the Apple rumor mill, you likely already knew this was coming, but now it's official. Apple will be holding a media event at their Cupertino campus on October 4th at 10:00 AM Pacific time. The invitation itself is also incredibly elegant, and manages to convey everything you need to know in four iOS icons:
Details other than that are non-existent, although it seems safe to assume we'll see some kind of new hardware, whether that's a spec-bumped "iPhone 4S" or a newly designed iPhone 5. iOS 5 and iCloud also likely will launch either at or near the event as well.
Let the speculation begin, you've only got a week left to do it before Apple pulls the curtain!
Minecraft is coming to Android really soon -- like, September 29 soon. Earlier this morning, creator Mojang announced that the portable version of its eternally in-the-works tunneling / LEGO game is hitting capable Android phones just before the month closes. Previously, the title was shackled to the Xperia Play as part of an exclusive.
Oh! And it also showed off how the game will control. Basically, movement is confined to two virtual interfaces: a huge d-pad and a disappearing reticule. The d-pad is responsible for walking and strafing, while the on-screen reticule (which will be activated by flicks) is how you’ll alter the first-person perspective. All other core actions, like, say, breaking blocks, is managed by direct touch interaction with that object. Here's a little explanation in video form:
Minecraft - Pocket Edition looks like a fantastic Twister experience, so we’re stoked to get our hands on it. Pocket Gamer reports that the iOS version still doesn’t have a date, but it’s slated to get out of the door before 2012.
Thanks to a handful of savvy developers out there, iOS retro fans have been able to enjoy classics from a variety of different platforms of old on their Apple mobiles. Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, the Atari VCS, the Amiga -- the list goes on, and I'm happy to report that it just got one platform longer. At long last, the RetroVex Advanced Games System is being accurately emulated under iOS!
Surely our oldschool readers will recall the RetroVex. Come on -- little cabinet, cartridge slot up front? No? Well, you can be forgiven if that one seems to have passed you by, as it's actually only been spotted at the labs of Upside Down Games. And, only in the mind of the studio's two-man crew, at that. Developer Greg Michael, lead programmer on Alien Trilogy and Forsaken on the Playstation, and Ned Langman, artist on Silkworm, SWIV, and Rodland for the Amiga, have recently released the first in a series of retro-inspired titles to be published for their virtual RetroVex game console that lives exclusively within iOS.
They duo explains what they're going for in this playful effort of theirs,
We want to try and capture the elements of our favourite classic games like Robotron, Galaga, Berserk, Tempest, Tron, etc. A lot of those old Williams games had an edge to them that most retro revival games haven't quite got. Mostly to do with the sound. The sound is really important. If you play Defender with the sound off it isn't quite right!
We love the humour and quirkiness that the old games had, like Manic Miner and Llamasoft games. That kind of content is only achievable by independent developers.
On this week’s bonus episode of The TouchArcade Show, Eli and I grill the dude behind Kode80 and the game 1-Bit Ninja [$1.99], Ben Hopkins. Hopkins is a creative guy who, obviously, has a love of retro-style games and, as we discovered, perspective. Our interview spans an insane amount of topics including Hopkins devastating injury and how that is effecting him as a creator and what informed his work on 1-Bit Ninja. I think you’ll dig this one.
If you’d like to give us your earholes, you can do so just below via direct download or in-browser streaming. If you’d like to catch these episodes as soon as they’re uploaded, you can do so by subscribing to us on the iTunes and the Zune.
Machinarium [$4.99] is a treasure, judiciously and efficiently designed, with not a single pencil-drawn sprite out of place.
It was worthing playing on the PC two years ago, it will be worth playing on the PlayStation 3 later this year, and it's worthing playing on your iPad 2 right now.
The "story" of Machinarium -- Amanita Design's first full-length effort -- is unobtrusive and elegant, told entirely through the unnamed protagonist-bot's thought bubbles and context clues. There is no human speech to parse, no dialogue trees to navigate, no lengthy exposition to ignore -- Jakub Dvorsky and his team have a laser-sighted focus on puzzle design.
The Dark Meadow by Phosphor Games is an upcoming action adventurey horror game and despite heaps of excitement, we still don't know a whole lot about-- Yet, anyway. Well, that's all going to change on October 6th, when the game is unleashed to the world, per a recent announcement from the developer.
Here's the trailer again, if you didn't catch it over the weekend:
Hopefully we'll be able to do some additional preview coverage before the 6th, but if you're looking for other similarly excited people to chat about the game with, head into our forums.
So, a dog wrote and shot us a press release about a tangram game this morning. I mean, we’re not stupid enough to think that one actually sent us an e-mail since everyone knows pooches can’t stop slobbering long enough to form coherent sentences, but the studio framed its press release as if it was written by a dog and intended only for Eli’s attention-starved mutt’s flappy ears. We’re not making this up.
In brief, the e-mail was about the impending release of Little White Bear Studios’ “lite” version of its colorful puzzle game, TriZen HD [$2.99]. Set to hit this October 3, this free-to-play version of the normally $2.99 game will incorporate 500 levels and “hundreds of hints” for the wonderful price of $0. Hints in TriZen HD regular (and we're guessing "lite") are essentially it’s F2P currency -- you pay for more after you’ve used all the available ones.
And, well, that’s all our new dog friend had to say. What’s next, a cat? Wait, wait, I want a garden snake to write ussssss next. Hey, you see what I did there? Zing!
If there’s one genre that’s prolific on the App Store, it’s mini-game collections. It’s not particularly surprising considering the general appeal for games that can offer small doses of gameplay for gaming on the go. Flick Champions [$0.99 / HD] looks to expand the genre with its own collection of sports themed mini-games. While Flick Champions certainly succeeds at providing some much-needed diversity in its sports mini-games, the fact that a lot of the better games are locked at the onset may irritate potential players.
As its name implies, the mini-games in Flick Champions are all centered on simple flicks and swipes in order to play each of the eight included mini-games. For example, both Tennis and Hockey are played as glorified Pong simulators which have you swipe around the field of play in order to block the ball (or puck) from scoring points on you. Other games, such as Bowling and Basketball actually require precise flicks in order maximize your scores in harder difficulties. Each game also has a variety of options to tinker with, allowing you to customize certain rules and make the gameplay as long (or as short) as you want.
When it comes to actual gameplay, Flick Champions has some fun games, but not all of them are going to be particularly compelling. As mentioned above, Tennis and Hockey are incredibly simplistic and, while fun, aren’t going to win any awards. Soccer is a sort of turn-based magnetic foosball simulator, and can be frustrating since a lot of the game is dependent on missteps from the opposing AI. Bowling and Archery were my most favorite games, as they actually require enough timing and skill that your success is mostly dependent on you and not the AI. The same goes for mini-golf, which features a whole 18-hole course and would be a good casual game on its own if it had more courses.
Another thing Flick Champions does a good job with is its overall presentation. The game has a definite Olympic-style motif which is prevalent in everything from your initial selection of a country to represent to its round-robin tournament ‘Cup’ gameplay mode, which has you playing against other countries for trophies (and experience). Also, the entire game, from the playfields to even the menus has a striking visual appearance (at least on retina devices). Some folks may be turned off by the simplicity of the player models (they look similar to ‘Mii’ avatars), but overall Flick Champions nails its visual style.
My only complaint with Flick Champions is the fact that only half the games are unlocked when you first pick up the title. Even more frustrating, the four that must be unlocked (Bowling, Archery, Mini-golf and Football) are by far the most interesting (and deep) games that are available in Flick Champions. Considering that the primary way of unlocking games is by accumulating experience through playing games, you’re going to see a lot of the first four games (at least a few hours’ worth) before you start unlocking the other titles. Of course, an IAP option exists to unlock all collectibles and games instantly, but it seems a bit odd to have to pay extra to unlock these other games when you’ve already paid for the initial app download. I understand the need to create 'hooks' in order to encourage your player base to return to your game, but it would have been nice to have one or two more games available at the onset.
Overall, if you’re a fan of mini-game collections and you’re looking for a new fix, Flick Champions does a solid job of satisfying that need. There are certainly enough different games (assuming you’ve unlocked them all) for variety, and the available options and collectibles (along with a harsh difficulty on ‘Hard’) means that you’ll have plenty of reasons to return. However, if you don’t care for simplistic gameplay (or if you’re not a fan of sports games), don’t expect Flick Champions to offer anything particularly captivating.
Real Steel [$4.99] was released to the App Store this month by Indian developers, Jump Games as a tie-in to the boxing movie of the same name. The film is due to be released on October 7th, and as far as we can tell from trailers, combines Wolverine and Kate from Lost with an $80 million dollar budget and a likely drunken bet in the Hollywood production rings that they could get people to pay money to sit through a movie based on Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots.
If you don't generally follow upcoming releases of robot-centric movies with lots of explosions, this trailer will get you up to speed:
Bit Blot’s Aquaria is heading to the iPad and iPad 2 later this fall and in the most recent news regarding its impending release, Semi-Secret Software’s talented hands will be handling part of the publishing duties. In a new blog post, Semi-Secret tossed out an awesome video of the game in action with bonus commentary with the original game’s co-creator Alec Holowka.
You remember the brothers Marsh, right? They’re the two dudes behind 
Big Blue Bubble
Machinarium [
If there’s one genre that’s prolific on the App Store, it’s mini-game collections. It’s not particularly surprising considering the general appeal for games that can offer small doses of gameplay for gaming on the go. Flick Champions [$
Real Steel [
