Independent studios can make games as impressive as the big boys. Sometimes it’s the combined passion, sometimes a fantastic idea clicks or a technological innovation blows away gamers across the globe. Whatever may spark the powder keg, we gamers have seen a few unexpected hits in recent years. iTZKooPA hadn’t heard of The Game Bakers or Squids, the hardcore casual game the company is about to deliver, but we gave the small studio a chance.
Considering how addicting and replayable Squids turned out to be, we’re glad we did. The innocent product has a good chance to become one of the success stories from left field when it’s released next week (iPhone) and later this month (iPad, PC, Mac).
Check out the video to find out what makes Squids a hardcore game, the plans for its future, including content and updates, how to access the bonus map and why you should care. Yeah, a casual game with story!
Today the world around recognizes a genius’ passing. Steve Jobs passed away today on October 5th, 2011. He has left a legacy through Apple, Inc.
Born in 1955, he revolutionized consumer use of electronics, and kept an eye for the cutting edge of technology to innovate our use and interaction with the world, and ourselves.
Tim Cook, Apple’s recently named new CEO, has sent an email today to all Apple employee’s to announce the upsetting news:
Team,
I have some very sad news to share with all of you. Steve passed away earlier today.
Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple.
We are planning a celebration of Steve’s extraordinary life for Apple employees that will take place soon. If you would like to share your thoughts, memories and condolences in the interim, you can simply email rememberingsteve@apple.com.
No words can adequately express our sadness at Steve’s death or our gratitude for the opportunity to work with him. We will honor his memory by dedicating ourselves to continuing the work he loved so much.
Tim
While people are unsettled by the lack of a iPhone 5, the news of Steve Jobs’ passing will definitely be felt by the world around – not just Mac and iProduct users. He was a brilliant mind ahead of his time, always with his eyes towards the future, and building it for himself and those around him.
Apple themselves are mourning in their own way, with updating their website with a short eulogy to him on the front screen. Click here if you want to see it yourself.
The five-volume Warcraft: Legends series has been out for a good while now, with the first book released in 2008 and the other volumes coming out over the course of about a year. But I had not yet had the chance to read them, and they actually had been off my radar for quite some time until last week when Cryptozoic announced that it had acquired exclusive rights to distribute digital versions of Blizzard’s extended universe manga.
Along with that announcement came the promotion of offering the first volume of Warcraft: Legends for free via the new Cryptozoic Comics app for iPhone and iPad. I jumped on that opportunity, and although it’s a bit belated, wanted to share my thoughts on the book for those of you also pondering the acquisition of free goodies while they’re still gratis.
Legends offers a diverse line of four unrelated stories set in various stages of the Warcraft universe.
The first story, Fallen is a collaboration between Richard Knaak and Jae-Hwan Kim. The first part of the Trag Highmountain story, Fallen follows up from the Sunwell Trilogy. The tauren Trag, who readers were first introduced to in Warcraft: Shadows of Ice, finds himself reborn as one of the undead after defeating the Baron Valimar Mordis. Mordis who had stolen the orb of Ner’zhul from the scourge and raised a frost wyrm, ultimately intending to spread the will of the forsaken. Trag crushed both the Baron and the orb — but in doing so cursed himself to undeath. Continue Reading
When we previously talked about the venerable Golden Sun franchise I was a bit upset. I hadn’t hit any head-scratching puzzles, the staple of the series, yet. What was encountered were distractions. Tasks that any old person could solve. No need to bring an adept wielding untold mental powers to complete. I toughed it out and boy, am I glad I did.
Later in the game you’re tasked with clearing Craggy Peak Ruins. Nestled inside this dungeon is a great machine. Upon entering the area the player is deployed in a circular room full of doors. To make the machine operation we’re tasked with solving a puzzle for each of the zodiac signs, which are emblazoned above the doors. As puzzles are solved, more doors are open. The challenge ends up being the “boss” for the zone and a none too easy one. My brain was tickled more than once. I’m glad to admit that I was flat-out stumped on Capricorn puzzle (ironically, my sign).
In the room, dubbed “The Goat” due to the statues, the player is told that “The Goat Leaves No Trace Behind.” I figured the task was to repeat that old kindergarten game of hitting the circle block through the circle hole. In homage to Ghostbusters (or not), the paths of the statues cannot cross. The challenge is that each statue is on the opposite side of the room from its destination. An artfully-crafted puzzle for an overall challenging area.
Give it a whirl on the screenshot (click for a larger version) before you see my failures and the solution in the video.
The Golden Sun franchise created by Camelot Software Planning is my favorite RPG series to come out of the GBA, a handheld that was chockfullo’qualityRPGtitles. And one of my favorite RPG franchises of all time. Golden Sun introduced me to Djinn, which subsequently lead me to further investigate Middle Eastern mythology (something we’re seeing a lot of in WoW now). The titles tickled my frontal lobe with a story, while cliche at the outset, that grew in to an epic tale spanning multiple continents and told through different perspectives. Most memorable, the franchise racked my brain with increasingly difficult and complex puzzles that coalesced battle mechanics and puzzle-solving spells into a single ability, psyenergy.
Camelot wasn’t stupid enough to remove this award-winning element from Dark Dawn, the recently released third installment. Instead, the title is hamstrung by an incredibly lengthy introduction/tutorial campaign. The opening sees the young protagonists, children of the heroes from Golden Sun, besieged by First Day of School syndrome. You know, those boring first few classes where the only thing you “learn” is the upcoming curriculum and the professor’s name.
Players are told, in great detail, how to battle, use spells, psyenergy, djinn, etc. Instructions for new mechanics and franchise-specific changes to genre staples is fine, but even equipping weapons and using items are explained in great, unskippable detail. It’s as if Nintendo expected a horde of normal people, those that have never played an RPG before, to flock to the third game in a franchise.
Tower Defense games were created on the PC platform. The fundamental gameplay, placing and upgrading structures in rapid-fire succession, necessitated the need of a rapid-fire input, the keyboard and mouse. The genre flourished on the humble PC, from a simple sub-game distraction to a market all of its own, with the now-multi-platform Plants Vs. Zombies leading the charge. Many developers have attempted to transition the genre to the DS, only to discover that the platform’s stylus input offering the same versatility doesn’t necessarily equate to a successful title. Abylight set out to combine the appropriate mix of gameplay depth, challenge and spot-on controls in Dairojo! Samurai Defenders to break the mold.
Dairojo! Samurai Defenders plays like your typical Tower Defense title: enemies approach from various locations and attempt to assault your base. Players, as what one should assume is the overlord to the castle, must defend our stronghold by placing various military units on established areas. Dairojo! Samurai Defenders eschews the recent trend of story-driven TDs for the old-school mentality, securing a High Score.
Breaking the trend further, this defense game features a healthy amount of modes and a splash of customization. Normal, Score Attack, Random and VS modes greet players at the title screen. Don’t get too excited. All three single-player modes are palette swaps of each other. Normal is about finishing the level, Score Attack tasks players with gaining the most points and Random switches up the types of mobs that assault each attempt, leading to ever-changing scenarios. Changing scenarios is key, because there is a limited number of maps shared between the three modes, making the layouts easy to master. The only bit of customization comes from item drops. Players can select how the items are chosen, at random, in a roulette, none, etcetera. The VS mode in a DSiWare TD is a godsend. The ability to play against another human in a survival mode via Download Play is the first feature that sets Dairojo! Samurai Defenders apart from its competition.
Pixeline and the Jungle Treasure for the iPad and other iOS devices by Osao is a platformer that has you collect items while exploring a jungle to find mysterious treasures that turn the main character, Pixe, into various jungle animals. Using their powers, she can gain new abilities that allow her to further explore areas. Continue Reading
I’ve been a fan of card games since a very young age, from Go Fish to Solitaire to Cribbage. But none have held my collective interest through the years more than Tichu. It’s a trick-based game, a variation of a similar Chinese card game, but fully copyrighted as being created by one Urs Hostettler. While not widely played in the United States, it has gained a small following and (ironically enough because of where I just moved), also has a dedicated community of players in Germany.
For me, it started back in my college years and the development of interest in what my circle of friends liked to call “cheap-ass games,” such as Munchkin-Fu, or for the super-cheap, games that only required writing your own cards on pieces of paper. Somehow through that flurry, someone discovered Tichu — which can be played with a regular deck of cards plus 4 jokers/other random cards that become special cards that make the game unique (a briefer on gameplay will follow below).
I was immediately hooked. The game usually is played with four people, and there were many, many nights in school that included three friends sitting around a table for hours at a time and having an absolute blast playing this fun strategy game. The more we played, the more we refined our strategies and realized that there are many different ways to play based on your own style.
Anyhow, it’s been five years since those happy times, and until recently the opportunity to play Tichu with other advanced players had become rare. And as already detailed, my current situation in Germany has been somewhat boring . While still lacking most of our stuff (which should be in customs by now) and without internet to appease my entertainment needs, I turned to my iPhone and found something to quell my thirst that was released only last month. While the official Tichu app ($2.99 on the iTunes app store for iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch) has a few downfalls, overall it is quite satisfying.
And for all of you scratching your heads and wondering what this Tichu game is all about — the app also comes with a great tutorial feature to guide you through your first hand. If you like card games and want to learn a new one that requires a lot of strategy and has so many nuances in gameplay, this is a great way. Then you can teach your friends!
Independent studios can make games as impressive as the big boys. Sometimes it’s the combined passion, sometimes a fantastic idea clicks or a technological innovation blows away gamers across the globe. Whatever may spark the powder keg, we gamers have seen a few unexpected hits in recent years. iTZKooPA hadn’t heard of The Game Bakers or Squids, the hardcore casual game the company is about to deliver, but we gave the small studio a chance.
