Versus: Unfriendly Frenzy Available Now on Tablets
/
A quick real-time-strategy game Versus: Unfriendly Frenzy from Toronto-based indie studio ZeMind (@ZeMindGames) Games is now available on Android Tablets and iPad.
Read More
Alto's Odyssey Discounted On iOS
/Snowman's infinite runner Alto's Odyssey is currently on sale on the iOS store right now. The game is enjoying a 60% discount which is normally $4.99 USD but is $1.99 USD for the next little bit.
Silverfish DX Out Now On iOS
/Silverfish DX, the action game from one-man studio Chaotic Box has been released on iOS for iPhone and iPad.
"Weave your way through menacing swarms, collect Power Pods and turn the tables on your foes! The space bugs are back and tougher than ever - do you have what it takes to defeat them?"
You can pick up the game on iOS (iPhone and iPad) here for $3.99.
COLHEX Out Now On iOS
/Last we heard from Alessandro Profenna we interviewed him for his game COLHEX, which is out now on iOS (iPhone, and iPad). You can play the multiplayer game for free, but make sure to bring some friends for the hectic finger tapper. You can check out some of the iPad screenshots below.
Head over to the Apple Store to check out the game.
Featured
St. Catharines Developer 'Rocketship Park' Is Born
/Friend of the site Jim Squires, and indie developer (and Toronto Blue Jay fan) Shane McCafferty announced this morning the creation of their new studio: Rocketship Parkl According to the press release (which you can see below), Rocketship Park will focus on creating emotional experiences "that best reflect the team's unique design philosophy."
The studio's first title, Block Droppin', will be a puzzle game about "discovery, assembly, and organization" and be released on iPhone and iPad. For more, make sure to follow them on Twitter, FaceBook, and Instagram!
Press Release follows:
St. Catharines, Canada – 29 March 2017 – After several years of successful collaborations in different mediums, games industry veterans Shane McCafferty and Jim Squires today revealed the launch of Rocketship Park, a new games development studio based in the heart of Niagara. Shane and Jim bring with them a combined 20 years of experience in the industry. Shane has previously led development on a variety of hit games including Starseed: Origin, Crobble, and Word Forward, accruing more than six million downloads across a number of projects. Jim brings a wealth of experience from his work as a consultant, journalist, public relations specialist and entrepreneur.
Rocketship Park is just one of a growing number of game development studios in the Niagara Region, joining the ranks of Phantom Compass, PixelNAUTS, Creative Bytes and Falling Squirrel as a games company that calls St. Catharines home. “Being so close to Toronto, it’s all too easy to feel like we’re in the shadow of greater things,” says co-founder Jim Squires. “But that’s nonsense. While we’re proud to be a part of Toronto’s extended gaming family, the St. Catharines / Niagara area is booming with great talent and we’re honored to stand alongside them.”
Prior to the formation of Rocketship Park, Jim and Shane have collaborated on a number of projects including the Apple-featured 2016 word game AlphaPit and the weekly mobile gaming podcast The Elephant & The Irishman. The pair first met in 2015 at Cowork Niagara, a local coworking space that served as an accidental incubator for the company, taking Shane and Jim from freelancers to founders.
Rocketship Park will be focused on the creation of emotive experiences that best reflect the team’s unique design philosophy. “When you’re creating a game, you’re also creating an emotion within the player,” says Shane. “All too often, that emotion is either an afterthought or abandoned completely in the design process. At Rocketship Park our process starts with the feeling we want to create, and that feeling informs every decision we make.”
The studio will be revealing details about their first release, Block Droppin’, in the coming weeks, and has a number of other projects in development. Block Droppin’ will be a frenzied puzzle game about discovery, assembly, and organization for the iPhone and iPad. To learn more about Rocketship Park and to stay apprised of their activities, follow them on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and sign up for their newsletter at rocketshippark.com.
###
About Rocketship Park:
Rocketship Park is a digital design studio focused on creating unique, emotive games that eschew derivative design. Founded in early 2017 by industry veterans Shane McCafferty and Jim Squires, Rocketship Park has several projects currently in development and are actively seeking the right partners to help bring these experiences to market.
Don't Starve: Shipwrecked Makes A Surprise Real On iPhone/iPad
/Don't Starve: Shipwrecked, the DLC expansion to Don't Starve which was co-developed by Toronto based Capybara Games, and Vancouver based Klei made a surprise release on iOS late last year.
You can download the game on iOS right here for $4.99.
Featured
Caveman Cliff Becomes A Paid App On iOS
/We've spoken about Toronto developer Shiny Talisman before, who have three releases to their name: Warp Looter, Gravtrav, and Caveman Cliff. Gravtrav was released a few weeks ago, and now Caveman Cliff, which was originally a free to play game, but has been moved to being premium app costing $2.79.
In an email to me, developer Brad Kennedy said:
"Without the paywall I was able to make some changes that really improved the game including taking down the difficulty early on to help ease the player in and getting them to the good stuff quicker, like the dino-might and whirlwinds."
This paid version of the app includes no-ads, and no in-app purchases.
Caveman Cliff is a story about a caveman, named Cliff, who wants to live on a cliff. As levels are completed puzzle pieces will be earned. The revelation of the puzzles will guide the user through Cliff’s adventure as he struggles against the pterodactyls. New game mechanics will unlock in relation to what is happening in the story. Four gorgeously illustrated puzzles (30 levels) will need to be completed to find out how the tale ends for Cliff. Levels are completed by clearing the cliff of boulders. The pterodactyls want the cliff for themselves so they’re going to try and stop you. Things will go quicker if you pile boulders together creating boulder chains. These chains will also boost your abilities once they’ve been unlocked.
Caveman Cliff can be picked up on iOS right here, you can also follow the developer on Twitter.
Check Out Our Podcast!
Severed Out Now On iPhone and iPad
/
Back at E3, DrinkBox Studios announced Severed would be making the jump from Vita Island to iOS, 3DS, and Wii U. It looks like the first of those versions has been released, as Severed came out on iOS earlier this week.
Read MoreToronto GameDev: XMG Studios
/Here is another "FYI: Check out this developer" - XMG Studios! This Toronto Developer has created lots of games on mobile devices including Cows vs Aliens, and Dragonwood Academy.
Coming up, XMG Studios has Project Giants:
In a world where all emotions have been forgotten, we must brave an ever-evolving environment to reclaim what it truly means to be alive. Witness a desolate, barren world blossom into a verdant utopia of colour and life. The unique art style marries geometric forms, painterly textures, and a dash of Futurism for a truly breathtaking visual experience.
Make sure to follow the developer on Twitter and check out their games on mobile devices!
Math Behind iPad Game Noodles
/I've spoke about Noodles before. It's a fun relaxing puzzle game on iPad that I think is worth checking out. The developer Lummox Labs has posted some interesting blog posts that detail some of the mathematics behind Noodles, as well as the code. Really useful for other developers out there that want to learn.
I'll start off with this link. That is pretty much amazing, and I wish I had known about it when I started building the hex games. The trickiest things with hexagons (ignoring design challenges) is the math in placing them because columns are offset, and the hexes don't have equal height and width. Read up there on how to do that math. Or do high school trig again. Okay, so what is a Noodles puzzle, as a data structure? Well, if you think of the pieces as nodes and the connections between them as edges, it's a graph. Let's say an edge exists between two nodes (x, y) and (a, b) only if they both connect to each other.
It's a great read for anyone interested in game design. Make sure to check out the full post here.
Article: "How Canadian indie hit Alto’s Adventure was inspired by Tiny Wings, Ico and Journey"
/I've written about Alto's Adventure before, including about how much I enjoyed it. If you're not familiar with Snowman's snowboarding game, it's essentially an endless runner where you complete tasks such as grind for x amount of meters, or doing two backflips in one run. The game has incredibly smooth animations and looks really great with its changing time of day.
The game was recently written about over at mobilesyrup, where creator Ryan Cash wrote about the games beginnings:
“The idea was to make an indie game in the first place. However, it came when Jordan became addicted to Tiny Wings, in the fall of 2012. After he got me into the game, we kept discussing the idea of doing something like it ourselves – or at least trying to. We were both really blown away by the emotion and magic that [Tiny Wings] conveyed. We’d never seen anything like it in a mobile game before,” said Cash."
Check out the article if you're interested how other games inspired Alto's Adventure. The game is out now on iPad and definitely worth a look at.
Check Out Noodles On iPad From Lummox Labs
/Wanted to take this opportunity to give a shout out to Lummox Labs because I'm now addicted to their puzzle game Noodles on iPad. Noodles is a "connect all the nodes" type of game, there might be games more similar, but it reminds me of the steam/water puzzle game in Bioshock.
Alto's Adventure Now Available In More Languages
/The developers behind Alto's Adventure (which I am still in love with) detailed their latest update for the game, and great news if you wanted the game in Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Russian, or Welsh. The game now supports those languages as well as English, French German, Italian, and Spanish.
Developer Snowman also said they are looking into an Android version, as well as something to do with all the coins after purchasing everything. You can check out the full post here.
So Now I'm Addicted To Tap Titans...
/Confession time: I was addicted to Cookie Clicker...and Click Heroes. I had my computer on at all times always just clicking cookies, or clicking enemies. When I slept, when I went to work, when I left the house, I was collecting cookies, or killing beasts.
So earlier today I found out that Tap Titans, a similar clicking game on mobile devices, was created by Game Hive right here in Toronto. Thanks to them, I now have my iPad just chilling on the table while I write this post, tapping away. I guess I'm addicted again.
Once I get the will power to close the app, I'll check out Beat the Boss. Make sure to follow Game Hive on Twitter.