Last week, TouchArcade attended the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2010 in San Francisco, CA. It was an intense and incredibly fun week of developer meetings, parties and events.

We got sneak peeks at a number of games which we've already reported on and a number of unannounced titles that we'll be hearing more about in the near future. Even though GDC officially ended last Saturday, we're still recovering from the trip and catching up on the backlog of games and news that has come out since. We also expect a few more GDC-related posts to trickle out over the next few days.

The iPhone game that seems to have gotten the most buzz at GDC 2010 wasn't even a finished game. Sword and Sworcery definitely wins the prize as the biggest surprise of the trip. In this week's podcast we discuss the reason why the game -- even in its unfinished form -- seemed to have captured people's imaginations so much.

And our reactions weren't out of the place, as the game has seen a similar reaction amongst other gaming sites as well.

In our GDC Wrapup Podcast we also discuss other interesting games including Sketch Nation, Faraway, Assault Squadron as well as games from Gameloft, Namco and the promise of iPad gaming.

In my mind, the biggest value of these large conferences to developers is the after-hours events and meet ups with other iPhone developers. As much as TouchArcade is a news and review site, it is also a massive community that successfully brings both developers and players together. It's great to meet up in person with TouchArcade forum regulars who happen to also be developers, even if just to say "hi".

Check out our GDC 2010 Wrapup podcast where Blake, Eli and I discuss the most interesting games that we saw.

Podcast music provided by Overclocked Remix.

Podcast: Subscribe in iTunes or Direct Download (M4A, 42MB)

We sat down with the guys from The Binary Mill late Friday evening at GDC to check out their upcoming shooter, Assault Squadron. The most immediately noticeable feature about the game is the insane frame rate it all runs at, and the developers insist that it even runs at a solid 60 FPS even on the 1st generation iPod touch. These performance levels are important, especially as the game increases in difficulty and you find yourself in "bullet hell," as the developers put it.

The twist of Assault Squadron comes from the two gameplay modes the various levels alternate between. While playing through the game, you'll go through a level where it plays like a vertical shooter with your phone held in portrait mode. Following that, the game might alternate to a horizontal side scrolling level. With each transition you see different sides of both your ship and enemies, and the gameplay feels slightly different as well.

Other than that, Assault Squadron comes with everything you could possibly want in a shooter. There's a crazy scoring system with multipliers galore (and online leaderboards via Crystal), four different ships that all handle differently with their own unique weapon systems, upgrades everywhere, and best yet-- Control options that should satisfy everyone between the on-screen touch controls, a virtual joystick, and tilt.

Take a look at the recently release gameplay trailer:

The developers have mentioned they still have balancing a bug fixing to do, but hope to have Assault Squadron on the App Store sometime this spring. For more information on the game, take a look at the thread on our forums which is home to quite a ton of Assault Squadron media.

Back in October we covered the 360iDev Game Jam, an all-night coding frenzy that challenged developers to create a playable (and, hopefully, interesting) game in just 10 hours. The results were impressive.

One of the developers who took up the challenge was Owen Goss of Streaming Colour Studios. Owen labored through the night and came up with an interesting title called UpDown.  As Owen described the game,

UpDown is a puzzle game. To complete a level, all pieces must be raised or lowered to level 0. However, you can only raise or lower pieces in the patterns dictated by the brushes. Strategy and intuition are required to master this simple yet challenging game.

While graphically sparse, the game was maddeningly difficult. What Owen had come up with was such a challenging formula that, when we spoke with him about the title last year, he indicated that he was considering building the prototype into a more complete game and releasing it through the App Store.

At GDC 2010, I sat down with Owen and he showed me LandFormer, his upcoming puzzle game that is the evolution of UpDown. And trust me, it's still maddeningly difficult.

The included screenshots show rather clearly how the game has evolved. LandFormer presents a five-by-five game-world grid with five different terrain levels for each block. The goal is to alter the terrain such that all blocks form a flat plane (the blocks with the little villages on them). To do so, you must pick a brush along the side of the playfield, tap a block on the playfield at which to center the action, and carry out a two-finger swipe up or down to indicate the desired direction of change.

If that sounds easy to you -- well -- it's not. The effects of one move are layered upon the next (and upon the next, and so on...) in such a way that you can pretty quickly develop a dread sense of having painted yourself into a corner, in a manner of speaking. I was having difficulty with the easiest few levels and could feel a growing desire to send Owen's test device into the wall of the Marriott lobby. But, despite my own frustrations, Owen assures me that all of the levels in the game can indeed be completed.

To enable players to torture their friends, the sinister developer has included a level editor that allows for the creation of custom maps, built using the same brushes used for standard play (so that all levels will be solvable). User made levels can be shared with friends via a web-link system, where all the data needed to describe the level is present in the link's CGI variables.

Puzzle addicts who enjoy having their brain crushed will want to run, not walk, to the App Store and grab LandFormer when it makes its debut in April. The game will be a free download including about 10 tutorial-difficulty levels (which is what I was playing at GDC...) and the aforementioned level editor, with additional levels available as in-app purchases.

Out at GDC 2010 last week I had a chance to sit down with Wes Paugh of Dinofarm Games to get a bit of hands-on time with their upcoming iPhone roguelike, 100 Rogues, which we covered, most recently, last month.

Wes explained that 100 Rogues is designed to be approachable by adventure gamers that aren't necessarily hardcore roguelike aficionados. The game features a modern, enhanced graphics set that should appeal to players more than the fairly sparse presentation of most roguelikes out there. Certain options and items have been kept more basic, as well, in the name of keeping things straight forward for the player. For example, there are only two character classes: Fairy Wizard and Human Crusader, and there are a good number of items to collect and equip along the way, but not the thousands of obscure scrolls found in the more traditional roguelike offerings.

100 Rogues, a name inspired by the SNES title 100 Worlds Quest, features not only an array of dungeon enemies, such as Bats, Rats, Skybabies, Gypsies, and Bandits, but also the occasional boss enemies, including a Genie and even Satan himself. A tap-based inventory and attack menu system designed to be quickly accessible on the iPhone has been implemented.

The initial release will feature two game worlds, with four to five additional worlds to be made available down the road through updates.

Have a look at the brief gameplay video we were able to capture during our meet.

The iPhone is happily host to several excellent roguelike dungeon crawlers, including Rogue Touch [$2.99] and Sword of Fargoal [$4.99]. Based on what I saw of 100 Rogues at GDC, Dinofarm's own take on the formula is sure to be listed among those of quality.

100 Rogues is set to appear in the App Store in just a couple of weeks.

Gamenauts has been a game developer since 2005 with titles for the PC, DS and Wii. The company, however, is about to make their first move into iPhone gaming with a brand new title called Stickbound.

The game centers around a new gameplay mechanic where the character extends a stick to pole vault themselves throughout the level. The came consists of a series of platforms that must be navigated as you try to get as far as possible.

As you can see from the video, tapping on screen extends the stick in that direction. Well timed and placed taps will keep your character in motion as you try to make it farther. Falling in between the platforms results in your demise. The game is expected to have global high scores, unlockable characters as well as mini achievements. Stickbound is due later this month.

Autralian-based iPhone developer The Voxel Agents were also present at GDC 2010 and gave us a preview of their next major update to Train Conductor. Train Conductor is a chaos management game that was originally released in December. We reviewed the game and found it to be fun and frantic. The main criticism of the game has been a lack of endless or survival mode -- but readers should be happy to know that this mode will be added to the coming update.

The other big feature for the new version is the addition of new America map and levels (shown above). The new levels we were shown were based on the Grand Canyon and New York City Subway. See our hands on video to see them in action.

The update will be free and due in late April. The current version of Train Conductor remains available for $1.99.

App Store Link: Train Conductor, $1.99

At GDC 2009 we had chance to sit down with Engineous Games and have a look at their in-development iPhone game construction set, Sketch Nation Shooter.  The system was in a very early stage back then and has evolved notably, since.  We posted a demo video the developers released back in December.

Sketch Nation Shooter, as Engineous describes it,

...allows users to create their own games by drawing a player, enemies and a level on a piece of paper and taking a picture of the drawing with their iPhone camera. Users can then share their creations with their friends and other users. Our unique image recognition technology automatically detects the objects drawn and calculates collision boundaries. Sketch Nation Shooter is the only game to incorporate the iPhone camera in such a way. iPod Touch users can import their drawings through the Photo Library. After the drawings are imported into the game, users will be able to place enemies and powerups as well as set their properties in our easy to use in-game editor and then play with their unique creations.

Here at GDC 2010 a year later we had a chance to meet up with the developer once again and were shown a rather impressive demo of the app in its current state, in which he created a simple game in under two minutes and took us through the paces of several more complex games. Once created, users can share their games with other players online through their Facebook login and compare global high scores.

Have a look at the video we captured that demonstrates the system in action.

It's an impressive piece of work and we're anxious to see how much gaming goodness iPhone gamers can create with the system. Sketch Nation Shooter for the iPhone is expected to arrive in the App Store in early April. The developer indicates that an iPad-specific version down the road is likely.

The final game that Gameloft showed us at GDC was Fishing Kings, a fishing simulator that they're hoping to target the hardcore fisherman iPhone owning market segment with. Freeverse's Flick Fishing has been insanely successful, and Fishing Kings utilizes a similar control method in addition to some new cool features in attempt to add another layer of depth to fishing on the iPhone.

The most substantial addition is an underwater camera that allows you to see all the fish near your lure, as well as what your lure is doing. What lure you choose also apparently has an effect on how effective your fishing is with more fun things to fill your tackle available to unlock later in the game.

15 different fishing spots are included spread across 5 unique locations, each with the proper fish for the water you're fishing in to make up 30 fish in all to catch. Al of these things are secondary to the voice acting included in the game. While you're reeling in a fish, the in-game announcer is constantly cheering you on. It's beyond ridiculous, and only made worse due to the typical Gameloft voice acting quality.

Fishing Kings is expected to be available late March.

Steph Thirion is the brains behind Eliss, an independent game that we fell in love with at last year's GDC. Eliss was an excellent example of the sort of innovative gaming that becomes possible with the incredibly low barrier of entry that the App Store provides.

While Eliss was not a runaway success for Thirion, it performed well enough that he has been able to devote his full time to making more games. His latest project is called Faraway and last night, we sat down with Thirion who gave us a demo and explained the inspiration behind the game.

Thirion reveals the seed idea for Faraway was simply to create a game that involved drawing constellations. From this premise, he began testing and exploring various mechanisms to accomplish this. In the end, he was inspired by Canabalt, a game that uses the iPhone's screen as one single large button. Similarly in Faraway your only control is a single button.

Despite that fact, you actually have a lot of control in the game as demonstrated in the video (button presses are off-screen in this demo):

In Faraway, you control a comet by activating a gravitational pull by simply pressing a single button. Each time, it activates a gravitational pull to the nearest star. Using well timed presses, you can slingshot your comet into the right direction. The goal is to create as many complex constellations in the time allotted. Powerups include speed-ups as well as time-extenders. Creating large and looped constellations add to your high score (which will be recording on a global leaderboard). Once time runs out, you are treated with a panning view of the constellations you've created.

Thirion reports the game is very much still in progress and he's planning on performing significant user testing and balancing before release. I really enjoyed my brief time with the game even at this early stage. The single-button slingshot mechanic works really well and trying to precisely create a constellation remained a just-out-of-reach skill, so I'm looking forward to the final release to get a chance to play some more.

During last night's iPhone Developers Union party, here at GDC 2010, I had the chance to sit down with Dan Bliss of BinarySquare and have a look at his new, retro-styled block elimination title Kerplinkus [App Store].

Now, many of you out there are surely thinking you need to see another block elimination game like you need a hole in the head, but Dan has managed to deliver a fresh take on the formula that's simple and highly challenging -- in fact, it can be downright panic inspiring. It works like this: you start off with a playfield consisting of upwardly advancing rows of differing blocks. Particles that match the rising blocks fall from above and, in the case of a match, eliminate the blocks they hit (and any bordering blocks of the same design) or, if the shapes don't match, add a block to the column in question. The goal of the game is to see how long you can keep the tallest column from touching the top of the screen. The real strategy lies in the fact that you can swap any two of the advancing blocks by tapping one and then the other. The trick is to wisely determine which columns to focus on to keep the game going. It's a pretty frantic affair.

Like BinarySquare's earlier title, Space Out [App Store], the game features a highly-retro, pixellated graphical treatment that lends the title a distinctive look that some gamers (like me) will love. Old school music and sound effects, created using the Commodore 64's famous SID chip, are also featured.

While it's true that the App Store is flooded with block elimination games, Kirplinkus really does deliver a fresh twist on the formula. See BinarySquare's demonstration video for a look at the gameplay.

App Store Link: Kerplinkus, $0.99

Yesterday, we met with Glu mobile a development team that has generated a following with a number of fun and different titles including Glyder and Beat It. We took a look a few of their pending games which we've detailed here:

Escape from Nom is an original game from Glu that is coming as early as May. The game is a physics puzzler that I think will be of great appeal to fans of iBlast Moki and Peggle. Since the game is so far out, we don't have any screenshots but I was able to play with an early build of the game at GDC.

The game is a level-based physics puzzler comprised of 5 different worlds each with 10 levels. Each level is a single screen with your circular character (Allen) at the top. Your goal is to simply align Allen left/right and drop him into the water below. Each level, however, introduces more and more obstacles as well as enemy "noms" that will eat poor Allen. You are given a set of tools (bumpers, accelerators etc..) that can be placed on screen to bounce Allen around obstacles and get him to the final destination. The game has a very similar play style to the aforementioned iBlast Moki where trial and error is employed to figure out the best path for Allen to go.

Glu already has a level editor in place and expects to allow users to create and share their levels, allowing potentially endless gameplay. We'll hear more about this title in the coming months.

Their next title Stranded 2 actually was born on traditional mobile phones and is now being brought to iPhone. This sequel will be arriving in mid April and is an adventure/story game set on an island. The game employs an isometric view with virutal d-pad controls. As you explore the island and speak to characters, you are assigned missions and sub-quests as you unfold the mystery of the island.

The game also incorporates time travel as a component where you are sent back and forth during the course of the game. The main story is expected to take a few hours, while completing the side-quests will take much longer.

We should see the game arrive in mid-April.

The last game we saw was actually released just yesterday. Fans of Glyder and Glyder 2 will be interested to hear about this cross-branded game based on the upcoming movie How to Train Your Dragon from Dreamworks. The premise of the movie involves a young Viking named Hiccup who manages to capture one of the dragons that have been attacking their village. Unable to bring himself to kill dragon, Hiccup finds himself developing a new friendship.

The game takes place as a sidestory to the movie plot and is narrative based storyline with individual missions. The game should be quite familiar with fans of Glyder as it's obviously based on the same engine and mechanic. Glu has tweaked the gameplay a bit to accommodate the story line -- for example dragon's are not dependent on the thermals to gain altitude.

How to Train Your Dragon is available immediately. Discussion thread available.

App Store Link: How to Train Your Dragon, $2.99

This morning I met with the guys behind Sword & Sworcery EP: Craig D. Adams of Superbrothers, Nathan Vella of Capybara Games, and musician Jim Guthrie. In its current state, Sword & Sworcery EP, is less of a game and more of an "experience", but both Blake and I were completely blown away by the music, atmosphere, and profound feel of the whole thing.

Sword & Sworcery EP seems like a classic pixelized old school adventure game where players find themselves in a mysterious world to explore. The game has two distinct play modes currently, a landscape mode for exploring, and when you enter combat, turning the phone sideways changes the game to the battle mode, which plays a lot like the classic NES Punch Out. You can swing with your sword, dodge, and block.

The team has put together two videos of the first section of the game, which they've described as "like the tram ride in Half-Life." If you've never played Half-Life, the game started with a minimally interactive train ride of sorts that did a fantastic job of setting the mood for the entire game. After taking the Sword & Sworcery tram ride, all I can really say is wow.

Horizontal "sworcery" mode:

Vertical "sword" mode:

Sword & Sworcery recently won an achievement in art at IGF Mobile 2010, and is scheduled for a Q2 2010 release. The team is planning on slowly releasing more details (and hopefully gameplay videos) over the next few months. Out of all the games we've seen so far at GDC, this is the one we're by far the most excited for.

At this point in the life cycle of the App Store, it's starting to seem like games are often very similar to existing games, with one or two tweaks or a vaguely different feature set. Sword & Sworcery feels unlike anything I've played on the iPhone, and I can't wait to dive deeper in to it.

Touch Arcade at GDC met today with Stephane Portha of Eurocenter and had a look at several impressive upcoming iPhone and iPad game titles that will arrive from the studio in the coming months.

Eurocenter is readying an iPhone version of the open source artillery game Scorched 3D developed by Gavin Camp, itself a modern take on the classic, 2D title Scorched Earth. The studio has gotten Camp's blessing on this enhanced iPhone port and, down the road, intends to submit progress made on the iPhone version back to the core project.

Open source PC release

Scorched 3D for the iPhone, like the open source desktop version, is a turn-based game that presents the player with a series of islands to defend by means of highly controllable artillery weaponry. The task at hand is to take the lay of the land and aim your turret at the enemy's tanks as best you can by adjusting the angle, rotation, and power of your ordnance. Cash is earned by successful hits and can be used to purchase a variety of available weapons, including dirt clods, missiles, napalm, and nukes (some, obviously, being more effective than others). Once you've made your adjustments, pull the trigger and your turret, as well as your enemy's, will exchange fire and find out where the carnage will lie.

The iPhone version features a combination of drag-control to manipulate the camera angle and slide-control to turn two onscreen aiming gears. The visuals in the game go beyond the desktop version and, along with the fluidity of the animation on the 3rd Gen iPod touch demo device we previewed, are highly impressive. What's more, iPhone 3GS-class devices feature real-time shadows and shader effects that add to the eye-candy.

Interestingly, the title will be released as two separate games. The first release will feature single-player modes as well as on-line head-to-head action. It will follow the "freemium" pricing model that, in the base release, will offer the full game experience, with an option to pay in to gain more money, islands, and weapons for those wanting to move things along more quickly, as opposed to spending the time required to progress through the game the hard way. A second release will follow, that delivers an MMO-type experience where many players can compete to amass islands, defending them against other players in an ongoing game world. It's really a sort of heaven in your pocket for all the Scorched Earth fans out there.

See our gameplay video for a look at the title in action.

The initial release of Sorched 3D for the iPhone is expected to appear in the App Store in late April. Stay tuned for a closer look when the game goes live.

As for the other titles we previewed from Eurocenter, well, we can't talk about those just yet, but you definitely won't be disappointed. Stay tuned...

Here at GDC 2010 we had the chance to meet with Benjamin Zuckerer of CipSoft and have a look at the upcoming iPhone version of their popular TibiaME mobile MMO.

TibiaME is an exclusively mobile, top-down 2D MMO that made its debut on Nokia platform devices six years ago and has been growing its community ever since. At present there are approximately 50,000 active players in the game world, which consists of 67 islands, with 16 levels each. The islands exhibit a variety of different terrain types, such as forest, dungeons, ice, and "undead."

TibiaME places the player in the game world as either a warrior or a wizard. The islands of the world are peopled by other online players and a host of enemy characters that range from squirrels to demons -- 56 types in all. There are magic-using boss monsters to contend with, as well. During the demonstration we were given of the pre-release iPhone client, there was no lack of activity in the world, as can be seen in our demo video.

While the iPhone version of the game client ties into the same game world that has been running these six years, it is a complete, ground-up rewrite that has been under development for a year and a half. The 20x20-pixel character graphics of previous versions of the game have been redrawn at a rather more detailed 50x50 pixels for the iPhone version, a new user interface has been implemented, and fight sequence animations have been added to the mix, as well.

The iPhone release will make its debut mid-year and follow the "freemium" price model. The base release can be downloaded free of charge and offers two (of the total 67) islands to explore. Characters playing in this mode are limited to a maximum of level 20 experience. Those wanting to experience the full game world can buy play time in blocks of one (5 euros) or 4 months (12 euros). Any character that has been built up in the pay model will retain all stats in the event an unrenewed block of time, but will be unable to level higher without the purchase of additional play time. The developer estimates that the base, free play experience delivers about one month of engaging play for the typical user.

To keep the game fresh, the developer has been in the practice of releasing a series of updates over the course of a year: 12 small that alter various game details, and 2 large, bringing new features and notable enhancements.

The only stand-out negative we saw about the title is its complete lack of any in-game music or sound effects. The iPhone version will allow the user to play tracks from their iTunes song library, however. And, of course, the main stand-out positive is the six years the game has been live and the sizable community that has grown within it, a most iPhone MMO's can't point to.

See our gameplay video for a look at the action in the pre-release client.

TibiaME for the iPhone is expected to debut mid-2010. Additional screenshots of the game can be seen at CipSoft's TibiaME Facebook page.

The first game that Gameloft showed us at GDC this year was the latest in a long line of Splinter Cell games, a series that also has several books associated with it along with a movie that may or may not still be in the works. In the games, you play as Sam Fisher who is an extremely experienced member of an elite team within the NSA called the "Third Echelon". Splinter Cell games are episodic in nature, and this is the sixth installment in Sam's adventure.

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Conviction for the iPhone closely follows the console game with the same title. In fact, they are so alike, they even share cut scenes and voice work. (And because of this the voice acting is much higher quality than typical Gameloft games.) There is also a surprising amount of chatter between the bad guys you come across, and Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Conviction is one of the few iPhone games that frequently drops the F bomb. It will be interesting to see how much of that remains in the final version of the game.

There are 10 included levels that Gameloft estimates will take players anywhere between 4 to 5 hours to burn through, and of the few levels we were able to see in the demonstration the locales vary wildly from night time stealth missions to missions in middle eastern cities complete with sand blowing everywhere. Overall the game looks amazing, and according to Gameloft is running on the next evolution of the NOVA engine.

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Conviction controls well, using a virtual joystick for movement, an array of context sensitive buttons that appear when needed as well as the same buttons that act like dials seen in many other Gameloft games that can be swiped to select different weapons and gadgets. There's a cover system, different instant kill melee attacks, and a "tag and execute" aiming mode that can potentially allow players to slay entire rooms full of bad guys.

For the few minutes I was able to play of the game, it's hard to form much of an opinion on it. Initial impressions are positive, but we'll need to put the game through its paces once it's finally released. Gameloft isn't discussing release dates with Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Conviction yet, but the console versions of the game are due to be released on April 13th, so it's unlikely that we will see the iPhone game before then.