Frozen Synapse on iPad is one of the few notable "core" kinda releases this week, and it is what you think it is: a pretty straight-up port of an imaginative PC title that got a bunch of awards and praise. This version sees the addition of one-tap touch controls, as well as cross-platform play.
At the top level, this a turn-based strategy game set in a world bursting with neon. For the most part, you'll be tasked with ordering around a squad of lo-fi dudes in an effort to clear the enemy team or take an objective. You'll send your dudes to take cover or to flank and, if you're lucky, to go in for a kill. What makes this interesting is the fact that you're controlling the smallest movements. You pick which direction your dudes will look, at which point they'll crouch, and so on. As you do this, the enemy team moves too, so there's a bit of a reaction and prediction component going on as well.
Details are ridiculously vague as of this writing, but the internet is exploding this afternoon with news of a recent update to the Frostbite "History" page which makes mention of something called "Frostbite Go," a mobile version of the Frostbite engine being in the works:
One of our most exciting current projects is called Frostbite Go, a mobile division empowering EA game developers with Frostbite’s proven excellent workflows and features to bring true Frostbite experiences to all major mobile platforms.
Frostbite has been through many iterations and has been used in tons of games, most notably the Battlefield series. You can speculate like mad as to what "mobile" means, but it seems crazy to think that wouldn't also include the iPhone on some level. That's really all we know right now, but you better believe we'll be watching this story like a hawk.
Just a quick heads up that a very neat game is currently free, and worth checking out even if you miss out on the freebie. It's called Floris [Free] by Ox & Coon, and it takes similar matching inspiration from games like Tetris and Dr. Mario and blends them into an audio/visual treat that feels equal parts art and game.
To be perfectly honest, Floris seems pretty simple on the surface but it actually can get quite complex and strategic as you go. It's also one of those things that's hard to explain, but will eventually "click" after you play for a bit and from that point on Floris really begins to shine.
Floris is based around a center point with 12 extensions branching out from it evenly, like the numbers on a clock. At any given time two of the extensions are pointing towards the top of the screen, and two sets of colored dot-like petals travel down them towards the center. Buttons on either side of the screen allow you to spin then entire shape around, changing which extensions are pointing up and receiving the dropping petals. Another set of buttons allow you to swap the position of the dropping petals, and touching the center of the Floris causes your petals to fast-drop to the center. It's easier to see in motion in the following video.
Matching five of the same color on one extension will eliminate the petals in that extension, but the real fun lies in making entire circles of a matching color around the entire Floris. Again, it's tricky to explain and I'm even still trying to wrap my head around the game, but suffice to say there is a lot of strategy involved in the mechanics of Floris. You'd do well to read the developer's guide which does a great job of explaining things, as there really isn't an in-game tutorial to speak of.
There's so much more to Floris than the basics that I've covered here, and it's worth the effort to read up on and learn its ways as it really is a clever and visually striking little game. Players in our forums seem to be really enjoying it ever since its release a month ago, and you'd do well to snag Floris during its freebie sale.
Two years ago, Imangi Studios hatched the bright idea of getting stickers made of the Temple Run app icon. Everyone who saw them at GDC 2012 was like, "Hey, that's a great idea!" Fast forward to GDC this year, and we hooked up with Sticker Mule to get a bit of a discount to try to spur the adoption of a GDC indie developer app icon sticker trade. Well, the whole thing exploded and was successful beyond my wildest expectations. Everyone had stickers made which not only served as a slick little mini game collecting them all but also turned out to be a fantastic icebreaker for us awkward nerds to talk to one another at mixers, parties, and other similar events. I came home with so many stickers it was ridiculous.
Well, WWDC and E3 are just around the corner, and once again we did a proverbial fist pound with Sticker Mule, and got a sick coupon code to help developers save some cash and get a boatload of stickers to trade in the process. Here's how it works this time around:
Pick out whatever you want, as long as it's over $50. The 2" x 2" rounded corner sticker is perfect for app icons, an as seen above can be printed edge to edge just like a real icon. Alternatively, if you want to get fancy you can get die cut stickers, or anything else.
Use coupon code WWDC2013 during checkout and save $25 on your order!
Trade stickers like a boss at WWDC, E3, or both.
One major PRO TIP I learned the hard way: Stickers are surprisingly heavy. The 2" x 2" rounded corner stickers come in little shrink wrapped 50 sticker packs, and each of those weigh around 2 ounces. If, like me, you have the grand plan of ordering a few hundred then throwing them in your suitcase with all your other heavy gadgets, gizmos, and wires, you could find your suitcase woefully over weight for your flight.
Figure out where you're staying, contact Sticker Mule, and have your stickers shipped to your hotel before you arrive! Way easier! I wish I would've done this at GDC, but, c'est la vie! This coupon code will be good through WWDC and E3, but it's not a bad idea to get orders in early in case you need to do any art revisions to make sure your stickers look as awesome as possible.
I really can't say enough good things about Sticker Mule. Their service is amazing, the quality is fantastic, and holy heck was trading stickers at GDC a lot of fun.
Rovio has made a killing selling Angry Birds games and pretty much any type of branded merchandise you can imagine, but they haven't done so hot with games that don't feature angry birds or little green pigs.
Today the company announced a new publishing initiative, called Rovio Stars, which will see Rovio publishing 3rd party titles that they think have the potential to be the next Angry Birds without having to actually dump the time and resources into making their own 1st party games. Think Chillingo, but more Finnish.
It makes total sense, and with the kind of money and established fan base that Rovio has they can provide an opportunity for good games to stand out that might otherwise get buried in the App Store.
While I'm not super surprised to see Rovio moving into publishing, the most exciting part about this news is that the first two Rovio Stars games are both ones we've previewed in the past, were pretty excited for, and then haven't heard much about since.
First up is Nitrome's Icebreaker: A Viking Voyage, a clever-looking physics puzzler we first spotted last December. I know, I know, physics puzzlers. But Icebreaker looked pretty unique in that it had you manipulating and slicing apart different parts of the environment in order to get your little viking dude to its goal. It also didn't hurt that Icebreaker had a top-notch visual style and great sound work. Here's a new Rovio Stars-approved trailer for Icebreaker which looks pretty similar to the first trailer but comes with much more gruff voiceover.
Following Icebreaker, the next Rovio Stars game is set to be Tiny Thief by 5 Ants. You might remember us gushing over Tiny Thief back at GDC last year, which feels like ages ago. Not long after that some new screens popped up and it looked like everything was go for launch in the months that followed. It sort of seemed to fall off the map, though, so I'm extremely happy to see it resurface under Rovio Stars.
Tiny Thief is a puzzle game at its heart, and sees you controlling a tiny thief as you use stealth and ingenuity to successfully steal stuff in a vibrant, cutesy little universe. The really impressive part about Tiny Thief is the level of interactive elements in the game's environments. You can interact with practically anything, and doing so can have a wide variety of results, meaning there's never just one clearcut path through each level. Here's the original trailer again, newly branded by Rovio Stars, so you can get an idea of Tiny Thief in action.
Both Icebreaker: A Viking Voyage and Tiny Thief are said to be coming "soon" so be sure to add both to your TouchArcade [Free] app Watch List if you didn't do so previously and we'll be sure to update you with any more news, like pricing or a specific release date. Also, if you're a developer interested in applying for the Rovio Stars program you can do so on the Rovio website.
It'll be interesting to see how this whole Rovio Stars thing pans out, but at the very least I'm super excited to see two games I had thought went the way of the dodo resurface with new life.
If you've been getting stomped in Star Command [$2.99] and stopped playing as a result, consider giving it another shot. Creator War Balloon just pushed out an update that added a bunch of rookie-friendly features, including tutorials, a beginner difficulty level, and tips for the weapon-firing mini-games. Also, three additional tokens are now being dished out at the start of every new game, bringing the total to a hefty 15. Show the space zombies who's boss! Or not!
This update also sees a bunch of other tweaks and improvements. The list is sorta crazy huge, actually. Here are some notable additions: room ammo and assign buttons have been disabled if a room can't hold anymore, max crew has been increased, and you can unlock "larger ships and heavy difficulty," provided you're a Bad Enough Space Dude to handle them.
You can check out the patch notes for yourself over at our sister site AppShopper. Also, if you're still having troubles after updating, consider swinging by our guide for Star Command, which is full of hot tips from us and our community.
We've been incessantly tweeting about it, but I figured it was worth a quick PSA post to get the word out to folks who don't do the whole social media thing. In a nutshell, we're always on the hunt for new writers. As the App Store gets more and more popular, there's an ever-increasing need for more people to handle the exponentially increasing onslaught of weekly iOS game releases.
Whether you're just getting your start in the games journalism world, or you're an experienced freelance writer that's seeking another notch in their belt, we're anxious to hear from you. For more information about what we're specifically looking for and how to submit your details from us, follow this link.
Indie developer Grapefrukt released their minimalist strategy title Rymdkapsel on PlayStation Network just last week, and today they've revealed on Twitter that their game will also be hitting iOS and Android devices in July. IndieGames has a nice write-up of Rymdkapsel, and in a subsequent Twitter conversation an editor inquired about a possible iOS or PC port to which Grapefrukt replied "iOS and Android in July! No promises for PC." If you follow Grapefrukt's blog Prototyprally then you are probably already aware of the impending iOS version. Check out the trailer for Rymdkapsel to see what it's all about.
Back at GDC in March, Rymdkapsel was nominated for an IGF award in Excellence in Design, and while it didn't win it did receive an honorable mention. Grapefrukt has been making many interesting Flash games for a while now, and Rymdkapsel is their first title to be sold and available on a platform like PSN. A week after release and people really seem to be digging it, so if you're liking the look of things then throw Rymdkapsel on your TouchArcade [Free] app Watch List and get ready for the iOS version this summer.
Foursaken Media's castle defense third-person hack 'n slash mashup Heroes and Castles [$1.99 / Free] has just received another massive update adding all sorts of new goodies to the game. You might remember that we thoroughly enjoyedHeroes and Castles when it came out in January, and the very next month a huge version 2.0 update hit which sweetened the deal even further by adding a competitive multiplayer mode, a single-player Siege mode, and a trio of brand new character classes to play as.
Today's update, which is significant enough to be called version 3.0, again adds a trio of new characters. First off is a female Assassin which gives you a sneakier way to dispatch your enemies. Next up is a Barbarian who has a unique "risk vs reward" attribute that seems him getting stronger as his health gets lower, which should make for some interesting tactics. Finally there is a Druid who uses nature and various kinds of spells to augment the units under his control. The Assassin comes free for everybody, while the Barbarian and Druid are unlocked using gems like the rest of the characters in the game.
In addition to the new characters, a new 20 mission campaign has been added which continues on from the end of the first campaign, and is balanced for players who have beaten the first. It features a new beach environment and new enemy types. There are also several new ally units that you can utilize, like a long-ranged Hunter, heavily armored Dwarves called the Iron Helms to beef up your front lines, two new types of Wizards, and a very powerful (but very expensive) Dwarven Tank which sounds pretty bad ass. Speaking of ally units, you'll be able to level up your buildings and units by 3 additional levels thanks to the new update.
All of this new Heroes and Castles version 3.0 content will be available in versus and co-op, and there's a new multiplayer map to battle it out on as well. If you have a higher-end iOS device you'll also be treated to real-time shadows, and Foursaken has lowered the RAM usage on lower-end devices which should help with of the crashing issues some people had been experiencing. Of course, there's many other tweaks and fixes under the hood in this update too.
Heroes and Castles just keeps getting better as time goes by. There is a full-featured free version which will let you give it a spin risk-free, though the version 3.0 content in that version had a slight hitch and is still waiting for approval from Apple. Seriously, Heroes and Castles is truly awesome and players in our forums have been loving it since day one, check it out if you haven't done so already.
I need Road Not Taken in my life, like, right now. It's the next game from Spry Fox, the studio behind Triple Town [Free]. Inspired in part by Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken," it's being described as an "evergreen rogue-like" that explores life in loss -- you know, heavy stuff, like what happens when you stray from your path and all that.
Spry is being pretty vague with details (and probably for a good reason), but it is sharing some concept art and a teaser trailer, the latter of which we've embedded in this post. Take a look around; this thing looks like a winner.
Road Not Taken is due out for PC in 2013 and "eventually" mobile and tablet down the line. There's no doubt we'll be keeping our all-seeing eye on this thing, so add this one to your Watch List in our app [Free] if you want to be alerted whenever we post an update on the project.
Cavern [$2.99] is a pretty traditional, top-down rogue-like. You might recall the name. It made an impression on folks back when it was released in 2011. Frustrating, game-ending bugs ultimately held it back, though, despite its neat ideas, great touch interface, and hip combat. Most of those issues have now been fixed. A flurry of recent updates, including a big 2.0 update, have made it pretty playable. We've been enjoying it so much, in fact, that we thought we'd share a run in the game with you.
Earlier this afternoon, I decided to school Jared in the art of perma-death in Cavern, which, in hindsight, was a pretty easy thing to do because all I had to do was die. But it sure was nice to walk around in the randomized dungeons of this game again and grab all sorts of loot. Poison, on the other hand, not so much fun.
If you're in the market for an iOS rogue-like game, you need to grab this. Just check out that video and see if it clicks with you.
After a soft launch period that began in February, Gameloft's free-to-play class-based shooter Blitz Brigade [Free] has now been officially launched in the App Store. Originally announced in January, Blitz Brigade feels like the lovechild of Team Fortress 2 and Battlefield Heroes. It's a lighthearted kind of game, as opposed to the gritty, realistic nature of most shooters nowadays. Despite not being an entirely original concept, I'm actually surprised with how much fun Blitz Brigade has been so far.
As you'd expect, it's pretty freemium'd out, but not really in a gross or unfair way. It looks like you'll be able to earn everything the game has to offer just by playing, or if you're impatient or otherwise just don't mind dropping a few dollars on in-game currency you can purchase packs of gems to spend on basically anything in the game. The part that's annoying is that Gameloft takes every chance possible to let you know you could be spending that gem currency, so it's pretty in your face, but at least it doesn't appear to gate any of the content from you outright.
It's sad that so much time need to be dedicated to explaining how a game's pay model works, but that stuff aside Blitz Brigade is pretty darn cool. It looks nice, it plays well, and it's fun. The main dish is of course its online multiplayer, but there's also a good deal of single player missions to work your way through that'll pretty much walk you through all the different aspects of the game and its characters. The online connection has been a bit iffy but seems solid for the most part. If you've played any other Gameloft shooter you pretty much know what to expect.
I'll be spending the weekend playing some more of Blitz Brigade to dig in further, but I have to admit I'm pleasantly surprised with it so far, and our forum goers seem to be digging it as well. It's free so give it a look if you've been waiting for this type of shooter to hit your iOS device.
As we learned back in August of last year, Rodeo Games, who brought the excellent Hunters [Free / Free (HD)] and Hunters 2 [$4.99] top-down strategy games to the iOS platform, are hard at work on an official Warhammer Quest game for our little touchscreen Apple devices. Today they've finally released a look at the game in action, and the developers are even on hand with commentary to explain things and answer some questions they've gotten from the fans. Check it out.
As someone who isn't familiar with anything to do with Warhammer and who didn't play the original board game, I have to say I'm pretty psyched for Warhammer Quest. It looks phenomenal. For even more, take a look at our hands-on preview from earlier this week. And if you haven't already, add this to your TouchArcade [Free] app Watch List to be notified when more news stories hit, and of course head into our forums for some community discussion. Warhammer Quest should be hitting the App Store sometime in the next month or two, and we're pretty darn excited for it.
Back in October of last year we learned that Pixbits, makers of the awesome side-scrolling Minecraft-alike Junk Jack [$2.99], were considering making a new 2.0 version of the game. As the story goes, they had many ideas for Junk Jack that they originally wanted to include but ended up cutting in an effort to support as many generations of iOS device hardware as possible.
With Apple implementing new rules mandating Retina Display and widescreen support for all apps on the App Store, and a new software development kit that cuts support for the oldest devices, it pretty much forced Pixbits hand into creating a new version of Junk Jack that would comply, or risk being removed.
I think, though, that once Pixbits started cranking away on Junk Jack 2.0 things just spiraled out of control in a fantastic way, as yesterday on their blog they announced that version 2.0 is actually a completely new game they're calling Junk Jack X and it looks like they're throwing everything they ever wanted including the kitchen sink into this new project.
I'd highly suggest checking out their blog post for yourself, as there is just so much new information about Junk Jack X, but let me try to summarize the highlights. It will have online multiplayer through Game Center for two people and local multiplayer for up to four. They'd like to increase the number of players who can play together in the future, and for now all multiplayer is cooperative so you can build and explore with your buddy (but not kill them, not yet anyway).
You'll be able to fully customize the look of your character with basic stuff like gender and hair styles, but even more exciting is you can further customize him (or her!) using the new functionality of equipping stuff. Similar to an RPG, you'll have four slots on your character to equip stuff in: head, chest, legs and feet. You can craft items to equip and those will further change your characters look as well as performance, and there's even a special fifth slot which will be used for bonus items or augmentations.
Probably the biggest new aspect in Junk Jack X will be the ability to visit and build on different planets. In addition to creating and saving one-off worlds like in the first game, there will be an Adventure mode which starts you out in the original world but you can find and assemble a portal which lets you travel to different ones. These new worlds will have different themes, different block types, and different mobs. Once you discover a new world in Adventure mode, you'll be able to generate the one-off worlds using that theme, and this time around there's no limit on how many worlds you can create and save.
As I said, there's tons more too, like the addition of liquids, a vastly improved crafting system and craft book, more types of weapons, and a huge upgrade to the visuals. No price has been decided just yet, but one thing that Pixbits says is for sure is that Junk Jack X will not be freemium. Be sure to check out their blog for more, our forums for discussion, and add Junk Jack X to your TouchArcade [Free] app Watch List to get notifications when new stories hit. Junk Jack X is planned for release sometime in the second half of this year.
While the folks over at Big Bucket Software are busy cranking away at their next project, they've decided to show a little love to their previous iOS release The Incident [$0.99] and drop its price down to 99¢. What is The Incident? Well, imagine on any random day you're outside standing on the sidewalk. All of a sudden, stuff just starts falling from the sky. And by stuff, I mean just a bunch of weird stuff. Like refridgerators, cars, foam fingers from sporting events, garden gnomes… if you can think of it, it's probably falling from the sky in The Incident.
Your job is to avoid getting smashed by this stuff, but also continually stay on top of what eventually becomes a rapidly rising junk pile. What results is a fun and challenging arcade game that has stayed on my device since its original release nearly 3 years ago.
Check out our original review for more, but keep in mind that over the years The Incident has been updated pretty frequently to keep with the times. First it received an endless survival mode, iCloud progress syncing, iPad Retina Display support, and most recently iPhone 5 widescreen support. It really is one of those cool little games that's always fun to fire up and play, so if you don't own it yet then definitely consider grabbing it during this 99¢ sale.
Frozen Synapse on iPad is one of the few notable "core" kinda releases this week, and it is what you think it is: a pretty straight-up port of an imaginative PC title that got a bunch of awards and praise. This version sees the addition of one-tap touch controls, as well as cross-platform play.
Two years ago, Imangi Studios hatched the bright idea of getting stickers made of the Temple Run app icon. Everyone who saw them at GDC 2012 was like, "Hey, that's a great idea!" Fast forward to GDC this year, and 
