'Worp' is a Fun Upcoming High Score Game from an 18 Year-Old Developer
The fast-reaction, high-score-chase, micro-game genre that's swept the App Store by storm is a genre that has a few key tenets that can be tricky to do well: simple gameplay that's challenging, with intense action. The best games do the Flappy Bird thing, where a score of 0 or 100 are both equal possibilities. Max Glockling's upcoming Worp, based on a pre-release build I've played, looks like it's hitting all those buttons. You'll be controlling a ship spinning around the inside of a circle, trying to dodge balls that are shooting from a cannon directly across from you. There are multiple balls, tricky angles, and a playfield that shifts in size as you play to contend with. It's challenging and a ton of fun.
Worp will, like many other micro-games, be free with in-app purchases. The IAP will remove the ads and also let you get continues without watching further video ads. The system is set up in such a way that you can pay one of several different amounts to support the developer, starting at $0.99. It's a pretty cool option, and one I endorse for developers doing IAP unlocks: sometimes if you put the option out there for people to pay more for something they enjoy, they'll do so. Worp does a lot of things right, and it should prove to be quite addictive once it releases on May 21st, pending Apple approval.
Noodlecake Games' 'Mucho Taco' Will Finally Combine Idle Clickers and Tacos
In honor of it being both Cinco de Mayo and Taco Tuesday,
Noodlecake Games decided it was the perfect time to announce the latest
game they're publishing. From Mexican studio One Simple Idea comes Mucho Taco,
a game that finally brings tacos to idle clickers. You'll be using a
golden tortilla to create tacos, starting from one little taco stand,
building up to a taco empire. Just remember: you either die a hero or
live long enough to see yourself become Taco Bell.
Dominion Online' is Getting Closer to Release, Probably
If you enjoy card games and you own an iPad, then I'm pretty sure you're
one of those who seriously roll their eyes when they hear the word
"Dominion." For the uninitiated, Dominion was created by game designer
Donald X. Vaccarino and published by Rio Grande Games in 2008 and is
seen by many as the grandfather of deck-building card games, and even
though some find it a bit boring, its influence is seen in many
great card games including Stoneblade's Ascension. Back in 2012, Goko Games
tried to develop an HTML5-based platform in order to enable iOS players
to enjoy cross-platform gaming without needing to download a separate
app. Goko based its whole marketing on launching Dominion as
its flagship game to prove the technology worked. Notable as the
ambition was, it failed so miserably that it actually became a joke
among iOS gamers.
Well, apparently the joke's over (maybe) because Dominion Online has entered closed beta last week and its developer, Making Fun, (really, really appropriate name given the history of Dominion on iOS) has said that if all goes as planned, you'll be able to download Dominion Online on your iPad by June this year. The app is 80% complete from a technology perspective, but there's still work to be done. Dominion Online will offer cross-platform multiplayer games and rewritten single-player campaigns that introduce variants of traditional Dominion play. Making Fun doesn't seem interested in developing an iPhone version of the game, because they don't feel an iPhone 5/5s screen would be big enough for the game, and since Apple doesn't allow them to release only on the iPhone 6/6 Plus, the game will in all probability be iPad only.
So, stay tuned for the upcoming (?) Dominion Online app. I'm a very optimistic person by nature, so I believe the game will be making its way on the iPad soon, maybe.
'Warhammer 40,000: Armageddon' is Looking for Beta Testers (or Cannon Fodder)
Slitherine is continuing its inexorable march to conquer both PC and iOS with its announcement today that iPad beta testers for Warhammer 40,000: Armageddon are expected to report for duty here.
For those who lower their gaze when miniatures take the field to
slaughter each other, Warhammer 40,000 (or 40K), is a tabletop miniature
wargame produced by Games Workshop
which has a pretty huge following. Recently, there have been as many
Warhammer games on iOS as there are half-painted miniatures in the
houses of many thirty-something guys. However, this iOS game will
probably be among the best Warhammer games on any platform.
The game portrays the Second War for Armageddon and sets the Imperial
forces of the Armageddon Steel Legion and many Space Marines against
Orks in a branching 30-scenario campaign. The forces you lead carry over
throughout the campaign all the while gaining experience and upgrading
their equipment. To not belabor the point, if you like strategy games or
Warhammer, you should be marching on the double to apply for that beta
right now.
NItrome's Latest Game 'Cooped Up' Flies Free This Week
Nitrome's continuing to work hard on putting out new games on a regular basis. Their latest game this year is Cooped Up,
which releases on Wednesday. This game has you controlling a green
finch that has to go upward and eat insects, because a bird's gotta eat.
Unfortunately, other birds stand in the way. Ugly, featherless birds,
often too fat to even move by themselves. So, you must use your finger
to propel this green finch upward, to get more points and to eat bugs,
while avoiding those ugly other birds.
Much like other Nitrome high score games, this one features great pixel
art, and simple gameplay that quickly proves to be quite challenging. It
will be free with an in-app purchase to remove ads. It's more of a
straightforward high score chaser, but hey – Nitrome high score chasers
are never a bad thing. This one should be rolling out worldwide on
Wednesday, so you should be playing this sooner than later.
'Anodia 2' Combines Brick-Breakers with...'Crossy Road'?
Fans of brick-breaker games will want to keep an eye out for Anodia 2 this Thursday, as it brings stylish brick-breaking action with loads of powerups to iOS for free. The sequel to 2011's Anodia [$2.99]
will feature 80 levels of brick-breaking with a number of gimmicks:
invisible levels, glass bricks, challenging bricks, power-downs and
power-ups, and more! If you're interested in giving it a try, the folks
at CLM Games have put a web-based demo online for you to try out from a desktop browser.
Interestingly, Anodia 2 is trying to do the Crossy Road [Free]
thing with its monetization. You'll earn coins with regular bonuses,
and through watching video ads, but what you unlock with them are new
levels that can appear randomly in the game. This system is based on a
system that tries to give you the next level "based on the play count,
recent game history and levels' similarity." This is an interesting
system, and you'll be able to try it out for yourself starting this
Thursday.
'GoatZ' Combines 'Goat Simulator' and Zombie Survival, Coming to iOS This Week
Coffee Stain Studios has just announced the latest Goat Simulator [$4.99] expansion pack, and unlike Goat MMO Simulator, it's actually coming to mobile! GoatZ is coming to Goat Simulator this week, and that includes iOS! GoatZ will finally bring together the two most popular genres out there that aren't Five Nights at Freddy's [$2.99]:
absurd physics simulators, and zombie-survival-crafting games.
Seriously, you'll finally be able to craft things and fight off zombies
while also a goat.
GoatZ will be a $4.99 expansion for the desktop Goat Simulator,
but for mobile, it will be a standalone app for the same price. So
rejoice, mobile fans, you'll be able to get your goat survival on
without owning the original Goat Simulator. I don't know why you wouldn't already own Goat Simulator,
but I believe in freedom of choice. Expect plenty of 'intentional' bugs
and general wackiness that satirizes the genre. Especially as Coffee
Stain is joking that this is the first zombie-survival game not in Early
Access. Well, maybe on PC: Radiation Island [$2.99] is feature complete, y'all! Still, GoatZ is looking like it's going to be an experience starting this Thursday.
Recycling Gets Deadly in the Upcoming 'Shredmill' from the Creator of 'Cubed Rally Racer'
It's generally good advice to avoid papercuts. They hurt! In Shredmill, avoiding papercuts is the literal goal. You control a stack of paper that must avoid any number of hazards. This is the latest game from Nocanwin of Cubed Rally Racing [$0.99 / $1.99 (HD)] fame. You'll be using one-tap controls to dodge buzzsaws, barriers, and stay on your treadmill before fans hit you.
You can only switch lanes, but you'll have to use in-game objects to affect your positioning. Fans can blow you off the level, but also dangerously to one side or the other. Trampoline buttons that come by will prop you up in the air to get above hazards you can't just dodge. Nocanwin has done some solid fast-reaction games in the past year or so, and the solo developer has been trying to work on a bigger game. Shredmill was a way to take a break from that project while it gets sorted out. Expect Shredmill by the end of the month, pending Apple approvals.
'Positron' Will Bring 'Tron'-Style Lightcycle Mazes to Mobile
Who doesn't love Tron lightcycles? It's one of those things
that could perhaps be described as a classic 'game', but it's something
that's been adapted so much from the original arcade Tron that
many people likely know lightcycles' mechanics without having played
that original game. And many games have taken inspiration from it, too.
Retroburn's Positron is one of those games, and they're bringing this lightcycle-inspired game to mobile as well as Steam, hopefully soon. Confirmed in a recent tweet over the weekend, Positron will deliver maze-centric lightcycle action.
Learn How 'Call of Champions' Makes a MOBA Work Without Minions in New Video
Call of Champions is one of my most anticipated games at the moment; I love the idea of the 5-minute MOBA, and had a great time playing the game at GDC.
An alpha program is currently rolling out, and eventually wider
pre-release versions and potentially even a soft launch are in the
cards. In the run-up to the game, the team at Spacetime has decided to
release several new videos covering different aspects of the game. The
important one to watch is how the Orb works. The Orb is how you destroy
towers, and controlling it is how you win the game.
This game should be worth keeping an eye on over the coming weeks and
months as more info comes out and possibly playable versions make their
way out. I don't know if it'll be a success, but it could be a really
fun game.
AppAbove Games Brings 'Armadillo Gold Rush HD' from Feature Phones to Smartphones This Week
This game actually has an interesting origin as a mobile game from 2006. Yes, back in the days of feature phones.
The game actually seems to hold up really well in 2015; I started playing a version of the game before knowing that it was a feature phone game and thought it was pretty clever. Plus, the visuals look a lot better in the 2015 HD version! This should be a solid little puzzle game to play when it releases for $2.99 on Today.
'Dungelot: Shattered Lands' is Coming Soon, and Will be Premium
Red Winter Games is bringing back their Dungelot [$1.99 / Free] with a new entry: Dungelot: Shattered Lands. The third entry in the series will have you exploring new levels, uncovering tiles to find enemies and fight them. Six hero classes, including the vampire from the original game, will be playable in Shattered Lands. Red Winter is playing up elements like the game's story, with decisions to make in some of the quests. Additionally, the game will feature randomly-generated dungeons, globla map exploration, and and a hero's mansion you can build up.
Red Winter is developing this right now, and they don't yet have a release date or a price, but it will be a premium game, not free-to-play like Dungelot 2 [Free]. They are hoping for this to be the best Dungelot yet, and they're even putting in iCloud sync. Hey, I'm in favor of any game with that. The developers have a forum thread in case you want to chat and ask questions about what the game will have!
'Blitz Breaker' Has a Playable Demo You Need to Try
Boncho Games announced their swipe-based platformer Blitz Breaker earlier this year.
The game looked quite intriguing, but it seemed like with a 4th quarter
of 2015 release date, that we wouldn't get to try it out for a while.
But hey, conservative release date estmations hopefully mean no worries
about delays. Well, the good news is that it is possible to play Blitz Breaker right now, as Boncho has posted a playable demo version of the game on the web.
It's playable on the web with a keyboard, as well as in Mobile Safari,
though going fullscreen doesn't necessarily work. Still, it's quite
playable.
I have to say, this is quite reassuring with the game. I wasn't worried,
but it's always great to play a game that looks interesting to see how
it actually is. And Blitz Breaker feels like it's potentially
living up to its promise after playing this demo. There's potentially a
lot of fun here, and the demo has a solid amount of content. Keep an eye
on the forum thread for Blitz Breaker, it could prove to be a fantastic game when it's finished.
'Hyperburner' is an Impressive-Looking High-Speed Cave-Flier Coming Soon
Developer Badpotion has just revealed their latest game Hyperburner,
and it's looking like quite the impressive game. You will be
controlling a ship flying through dangerous environments, dodging all
manner of obstacles at high speeds. Hyperburneer is 3D, and
takes place from a behind-the-ship perspective, so you'll be moving
across multiple axes to stay alive. The game is looking absolutely
gorgeous across its different landscapes.
Hyperburner's full title promises that it's an "Infinite Flier"
and that's not untrue, as endless modes for the six zones in the game
will be unlocked. But you'll have to clear the three levels in each zone
to unlock endless, for a total of eighteen levels and six endless zones
to play in. Controls will involve a touch-drag system that isn't pinned
to a spot like a virtual joystick, though it will work similarly. And
the game will support both portrait and landscape modes, always a
welcome feature in mobile games if it works. The developer is looking for testers in the forums if you want to try it out and provide feedback ahead of its release.
'Subterfuge' Strategy/Diplomacy Game Preview - Fascinating Machinations of Machines
One of my favorite aspect of strategy games is the clash of wits and
the constant attempt to outmaneuver your opponent. Yet, AI opponents
never really give me those glorious moments that a strategy board game
can, the knowledge that you've just outmaneuvered someone who sees and
understands the game in the same way you do but still couldn't figure
out the trap you'd been setting the last few turns. So, when I first
heard about Subterfuge, a one-week long multiplayer game of strategy and diplomacy currently in alpha developed by a team consisting of Ron Carmel (of World of Goo), Noel Llopis (of Amazing Alex), and artist Shane Nakamura (of Zombie Gunship), my strategy sense started tingling. According to the developers, the game was greatly influenced by Neptune's Pride and Diplomacy,
which is music to my ears. After spending about a week with the game, I
have to say that I'm really looking forward to the game coming out
because Subterfuge really brings diplomacy to the fore and will
be a great game to play with friends (as long as you don't mind losing a
few of them after you double-cross them for the tenth time).
If you want to take over an outpost, you send a submarine filled with drillers, and in the ensuing fight superior numbers win unless there are Specialists involved, whose existence gives the game great strategic complexity. To be honest, I began my first Subterfuge game thinking that it would be all about timing my sub moves correctly, but the presence of the various specialists (you get to choose one out of a random group of three every 16 hours) forced me to develop some very complex strategies to win. The game's UI is excellent (and would make Apple's Jony Ive proud) in the way it provides the necessary information regarding the battle outcomes, and Subterfuge's "Time Machine" feature enables you to arrange future battle plans (which means you can attack your friend's factory while you are actually sleeping and dreaming of attacking your friend's factory).
While Subterfuge's mechanics are very sound and make for a fun strategy game, it's the diplomacy feature that really makes the game stand out. Diplomacy in games often starts out as a great concept but then falters in execution, but I think that Subterfuge is getting it as right as a game can by giving you plenty of diplomatic options. In the game I'm currently playing, I have a tentative alliance with two of the eight players, and we are organizing attacks against two other players (one of the players we are attacking thinks I'm on his side and the other thinks I'm neutral).
Subterfuge is still in closed-Alpha, (which you can apply to join here), but it runs very smoothly on both the iPad and the iPhone. You can follow the developer's blog if you are interested in game design or simply want to see how the game has been changing throughout its development process. I'm really looking forward for the game releasing because it's the perfect game to play with friends (the TouchArcade forums will make it easy to find people to play with). So, keep an eye out for this game if you enjoy well-made strategy games that put a premium on winning by diplomatic means while also allowing for entertaining military victories.
Latest 'Divide By Sheep' Trailer Showcases the Power of Friendship and Slicing Sheep into Pieces
Back at PAX South in January, we went hands-on with tinyBuild's Divide By Sheep,
a sheep-based puzzler that had you splitting and sorting groups of
sheep onto different floating rafts. And by splitting I mean literally
splitting those poor little sheepies in half. Anyway, despite the odd
setup and its overly-cute aesthetic, we were surprised by just how
interesting and fun Divide By Sheep was, as well as how dark and gory it could be.
Besides iOS, Divide By Sheep is planned to launch on Android
and Steam as well. The planned launch is the nebulous "summer 2015".
'Night Terrors' Aims to... Actually Do Something Cool with Augmented Reality
It feels like developers have been trying to do something with augmented reality for years now. I've always been oddly excited for the technology, as the augmented reality dream is really cool. Imagine playing a game that uses your surroundings as the play field, or an app that uses your phone as a lens to view information about the world around you. On paper, it sounds rad as hell, but in practice it's almost always really lame. Augmented reality games often require you to print something out for your camera to recognize, and apps like Yelp's "monocle" functionality really just don't work that great- It all ends up coming off as somewhere in between gimmicky and broken. This feels like the promise developers often make with augmented reality, when in actual reality, you usually just get some aliens overlaid on top of whatever your camera is seeing without actually augmenting reality at all.
Night Terrors aims to change that, with an augmented reality game that actually seems to be able to parse reality, and, well, augment it. It's just an Indiegogo campaign now, but the important part is they've already developed the technology that pulls your reality into the game.
You can see it analyzing doors and hallways, and after walking around for little more than a minute it's already build a decent map of the area the game is being played in. This allows the developers to make things happen intelligently using the internal architecture of your house instead of just rendering a 3D model on top of where your camera detects a basic barcode.
It is a crowdfunding campaign, so cautious optimism is likely warranted here, but it's powered by the dudes behind the classic (and incredibly popular) iOS puzzler Geared [$0.99]... So, that seems a lot better than just some random guys you've never heard of saying they're going to do something cool.
'Operation Dracula' Preview - The Most Authentic Bullet Hell Shmup From Outside Japan Yet?
Samurai Games is not from Japan, but if you play their upcoming bullet hell shoot 'em up, Operation Dracula,
you might think they are. Developed by a team with the lead developer
in Morocco, but others in the US, this game, being published by Crescent
Moon Games, could prove to be one of the most accurate representations
of the Japanese bullet hell shmup outside of Japan when it eventually
releases.
The game has you controlling the ships of one of three characters, with the goal being to fight wave after wave of enemies, dodging fire with your small hitbox. You have bombs you can deploy, along with the special ability that can be charged up, and varies depending on the character selected. It's a familiar setup for shmups like this, but it nails the look and feel of how these games should be. There's colorful bullets everywhere, ridiculous character profiles, everything feels like overload, and is in your face constantly. Even the name Operation Dracula makes no sense whatsoever! It's absurdity as a video game.
The difficulty is a bit welcoming at this stage, which is a bit of a surprise because these kinds of games wind up being north of impossible. This game is still very difficult, but it's at least somewhat doable. While I had some trouble beating the first couple of levels in previous playthroughs, I wound up finally being able to beat them in the video I recorded. Thankfully, you have a credit system which helps you get a few extra shots at progressing. It's definitely not easy at all, and will require a lot of practice to get good at. I mean, it is a bit more accessible than many similar games.
But still, it's super-cool because the game looks amazing, runs great even in pre-release form, and provides that sensory overload that the best bullet hell games do. The controls are 1-1 touch-and-drag controls that work well. It's just an overall solid package. There are some interesting IAP options where you can buy one of the characters and buy extra credits, but as a pre-release build, these are subject to change.
This one has been kicking around in some form for a while now, there's evidence of the game existing since 2013 but Crescent Moon Games has picked it up for publication. It will be interesting to see how the shoot 'em up crowd at large takes to this. It's definitely a solid game, and it nails a lot of its genre's conventions. But I'll be interested to see if Operation Dracula manages to appeal to the hardcore fans of the genre. At least on the surface, it nails the aesthetic it's going for.
Space Bears' 'Kindo' Finally Releases Next Week
Space Bears' upcoming abstract strategy game Kindo, formerly known as Kingdoms,
finally has a price and release date. You'll be able to pick up this
game for $1.99 next Thursday, May 7th. The game has been in beta testing
for a couple of months now, and after loads of play testing, it seems
as if Space Bears is ready to release this intriguing game.
There will be both local and online multiplayer in Kindo, so
you'll be able to try and defend your kingdom from whenever, against
whoever. It's interesting in that Space Bears describe it as "a medieval
board game from the 21st century," which kind of describes its
simplicity. But of course, "simple to play" doesn't mean "easy to
master," and it'll be interesting to see just what forms of strategy
come out of this one as people start to get really good at it.
No comments:
Post a Comment