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Kard Combat, Spy Mouse, more push big updates
Hothead Games' great freemium card game for iOS, Kard Combat, has gotten a big update this week in the App Store. The biggest new feature is a new "pass-and-play" multiplayer mode, which allows for two players with one iOS device in the same place to play their cards out, and then pass the device on to the next person. Obviously, it requires a little bit of honor on the part of players, but if you just want to play a friendly game of Kard Combat, it's a cool mode to try. Game Center multiplayer has also been added to the game to work inside iOS 5, and there are new UI updates and a few other new features in there as well. Firemint's line-drawing stealth game Spy Mouse has also gotten an update, bringing in new global leaderboards, new challenges, and a few other bug fixes and other tweaks. Kiska, the in-game cat which will help you get past some of the tougher levels, can now also be used once per hour rather than just once per day. Artistic platformer Contre Jour also got a nice update, adding 20 new levels to play through, featuring a cool opposite visual style from the rest of the game. And finally, while it hasn't been updated recently or anything, I'll also just mention that Super Stickman Golf is free today as well. If you haven't picked up this great little 2D fantasy golf game for iOS, now's the time.
Another World coming to iOS this month
Eric Chahi's classic game "Another World" (also known as "Out of this World," from its US release) is finally coming to iOS at the end of September. BulkyPix will be publishing the title, and controls will come in two flavors, either as full touchscreen controls or through a virtual D-pad. Fans of this game really love it, and will probably be happen to see it finally available on Apple's portable devices. The title will be US $4.99, and available as a universal app. I always found the game really hard, but that problem could be fixed (or worsened, depending on your preference): This version of the game will provide both easier and harder difficulty levels, as well as remastered sound, and full Game Center achievement support. We'll have to see what the game is like when it comes out on September 22nd.
Daily iPhone App: Quarrel
Quarrel is yet another word game for the iPhone, but this one is actually worth taking a look at. Instead of another Scrabble clone, in Quarrel you're also playing a metagame where you control an empire of warriors trying to take over territories by fighting battles with word scores. It sounds complicated (and it really would be, if the game didn't have an incredibly detailed tutorial to walk you through everything), but once a game gets rolling, it's terrifically fun. Developers Indiagames went all-out with presentation, and everything oozes quality, from the cute characters and smooth notifications to the sparkling gameplay. Everything is extremely well designed, and the game is really well balanced -- there's even something to do while you're not fighting a battle, which can grant extra rewards and power. If I have one complaint, it's that things are a little slow once you understand everything, but that's a minor concern -- otherwise, the gameplay's so well designed that it's really enjoyable. The one really big misstep here is that the game doesn't have any multiplayer included -- all of your battles so far are against AI opponents (though there is Game Center integration for achievements and leaderboards). That's coming in an update, supposedly, and when that happens, Quarrel will really be something amazing. Until then, though, it's still a really excellent game. There is a "Deluxe" version with a few extra modes and a dictionary available for US $4.99, but the free version for iPhone will allow you to go through the tutorial and play matches against the AI. Quarrel is a really amazing title, and I bet we'll see it become quite popular as more and more gamers discover it on iOS.
Daily iPad App: HowStuffWorks for iPad
If you love learning the details that explain how things work, then the HowStuffWorks app for the iPad is perfect for you. The app takes the best of the How Stuff Works website and packages it into a convenient, tablet-friendly format. It's chock full of content and features and will keep you engaged for hours on end. The app launches to the main screen which provides a preview of content. Included on this page are select articles, quizzes, and podcasts from the How Stuff Works website. A few informative and inspirational quotes are thrown in for good measure. Tapping on the book icon in the top right toolbar takes you to the reading library. All the posts are organized by category which includes everything from animals to money to tech and science. Each article is as full-featured as the website version and often includes an image gallery and links to other similar content in this category. You can also tweet, Facebook, favorite, print or email an article that you enjoy. The ability to change the font size and jump from one part of an article to another easily from the menu bar is another handy feature. Besides written content, the app lets you listen to podcasts and read quick posts from the hosts of each show. The shows include Tech Stuff, Car Stuff, and Stuff You Should You Know among others. Just like the articles, you can share these resources on Twitter or Facebook as well as favorite them. And the podcasts support Airplay so you can stream the media to your home theatre system. Lastly, you have a quiz section that tests your knowledge of scientific topics. Each quiz logs your score and sends it to the iOS Game Center. If you get an answer wrong, the app will explain the correct answer which is a nice touch some developers forget to add. The HowStuffWorks app is a perfect addition for those curious about the world around them. It's not a quick read, but is a perfect reference for those times when you have 20 minutes or so to digest an article. The HowStuffWorks for the iPad is available for free, but it does include small banner ads at the bottom which some may find annoying. You can download the app using this iTunes link and check it out for yourself. %Gallery-129979%
Developer frustrated over Game Center use by pirates
The developer of an iOS game that offers Game Center support is frustrated with Apple over their apparent inability to block pirated games from the Game Center leaderboards. GAMEized developer Luís Fonseca said in a blog posting that he had high hopes for his FingerKicks soccer game when it was released earlier this month. Over the first weekend of sales the game sold a modest 380 copies according to the sales stats in GAMEized's iTunesConnect account. When logging into Game Center that Monday Fonseca saw that there were over 200 FingerKicks players listed on the leaderboards -- meaning a high percentage of users were playing and sharing awareness of the game. Anxious to track his sales, Fonseca started checking the number of player of FingerKicks on Game Center throughout the day. He did so because Apple only allows developers to see new sales at the end of the day. In the meantime the Game Center numbers could act as a barometer of how his sales were increasing. The morning of the day after he last checked his sales, Game Center showed a whopping 1,000 players for FingerKicks. By that same evening the number of players jumped to 5,000. Fonseca was astonished at the high rate of sales and checked the official number in his developer account later that night. That's when he discovered that, despite over 5,000 Game Center players, FingerKicks had only sold an additional 160 copies over its opening weekend sales of 380 copies. A majority of the 5,000 FingerKicks Game Center players were pirating his app. FingerKicks had fallen prey to massive pirating on jailbroken iPhones. That in itself incensed Fonseca, but more so, he was angry that Apple didn't have a way to block pirated games from GameCenter's leaderboards. "Most bewildering of all is that even with all their rhetoric chastising piracy and intellectual property theft, Apple apparently has no functional counter-piracy safeguards in place on their Game Center – essentially permitting users to play pirated software on their Game Center without any fear of reprisals or consequence," Fonseca wrote. While Apple isn't responsible for app piracy, it is reasonable to expect that they should support their developers by implementing a way to stop games running on jailbroken devices from accessing GameCenter's leaderboards. Here's hoping that Apple can find a way to make this happen -- soon. And for those people who might have pirated the game: Grow up. It's US$0.99 and fun as hell. Piracy doesn't lead to development of future cool games, sales do. [via Razorianfly]
Gaikai partners with Walmart.com
If you're a game streaming service like Gaikai that's looking to partner with online retailers, Walmart.com seems like a pretty good option. (In case you're reading this on a mobile platform that can't see italics, we put them on those last three words to emphasize that were were understating the point. Classic Joystiq!) The retailer has, according to VentureBeat, added Gaikai in-browser game streaming to its GameCenter page for Dead Space 2 and possibly other titles. At the moment, none of us on staff can see the option to stream the game, but we know it's automatically disabled if you don't have the requisite bandwidth. Maybe we all just need to get fatter pipes? Assuming it'll all work as designed sooner or later, this could set a pretty important preceden for online game shopping. We just selfishly hope you'll still read our reviews when Skynet lets you try everything before you buy it.
Apple announces Game Center changes at WWDC
iOS 5 will introduce a number of exciting changes to Game Center, including profile photos, game discovery (and purchasing), achievement points and more. Here's a brief look at what's new. Apple's 50 million Game Center customers (!) will find achievements supplemented with points. The bragging rights are nice, but why not out-score your friends on the achievement board and the battlefield? Speaking of friends, you'll see the people your friends are following (Apple calls them "friends of friends") and even receive friend recommendations, though we're not sure how that'll work. Plus, everyone gets to add a pretty profile picture to their account. You'll also find game recommendations and an opportunity to buy games right from within Game Center. It looks like fun, and we'll see it in action soon enough. Get ready, gamers!
100 Cameras in 1: Amazing effects, incredible integration
Trey Ratcliff of Stuck In Customs Media is one of those photographers who constantly amazes people with his photos, and then explains his skills with High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography and the artful application of filters and textures. Back in December, Stuck In Customs came out with a US$0.99 iPhone / iPod touch app ($2.99 for the iPad version) named 100 Cameras in 1 that uses a unique and easy-to-understand user interface to make your iPhone photos look great. Unfortunately for Trey, the app hit the App Store the same day as the highly-touted Camera+ debuted, so 100 Cameras was overlooked by many of us in the Apple media. What I'm finding after using the app over the long US Memorial Day weekend is that 100 Cameras in 1 is going to allow me to delete a lot of other photography apps from my iPhone, and I'm going to start using the iPad version of the app to retouch photos that I upload from my digital camera. In this short review, I'll discuss both versions of the app, and how the combination of 100 effects and excellent integration with social networking sites makes 100 Cameras in 1 an app every iPhone and iPad-owning photographer should buy. %Gallery-124891%
New iPhone ad features Game Center
Apple released another "If you don't have an iPhone" advertisement that promotes Game Center on the iOS platform. The short, but sweet video introduces the iPhone as the smartphone with the largest number of games and a built-in social network for gaming. Introduced with iOS 4.0, Game Center sets Apple apart from its competition. The closest competitor to Game Center is the Xbox Live integration on Windows Phone 7. The Xbox Live hub lets Windows Phone users link their phone to their gamer tag and play mobile-enabled Xbox Live games on their handset. As was the case with the previous advertisements, the semi-smug presentation will undoubtedly raise the ire of Android and BlackBerry users whose mobile operating systems can't quite compete in the gaming arena. Read on to watch the video and leave your thoughts in the comments. In what may be a mistake, Apple has enabled comments on this YouTube video so feel free to chime in there, too. [Via Macstories]
TUAW's Daily App: Liqua Pop
EA's latest game on the App Store is called Liqua Pop. It's an original puzzle game that has you popping liquid bubbles of the same color in order to send a little toad on the side of the screen to the top. The presentation in this one is very well done -- the music is cool and clear, and the graphics are shiny and very (wait for it...) fluid. The bubbles show up quickly, and eventually bugs appear in the bubbles and add a little complication to the mix. But overall, the gameplay is pretty simple, and you get into a nice rhythm of building up bubbles and shaking the device to pop them. Unfortunately, the game's thin on content -- there's just one mode, and while there are plenty of levels to play through, it'd be nice to see a little variety to the gameplay. More of an issue is that there's no Game Center integration at all. You can share scores via Facebook, but really, especially with EA publishing, developers iChromo should have taken the time to include Game Center. Hopefully that and the other omissions will be fixed in a future update. Liqua Pop is US$1.99 on the App Store right now, and I can recommend you check it out at that price, though I wouldn't blame you for waiting for the next EA sale to see if it drops down to a buck. If you're good on games for now, that might be your best bet.
TUAW's Daily App: Float
The iPhone is known for casual games, but Float might be a little too simple even for most casual gamers. That said, children and those just looking for a super simple experience may find it interesting. It's a game we've all played before -- you get a balloon and try to keep it in the air for as long as possible. In Float, you get a few balloons that fall down the screen towards a row of spikes at the bottom, and it's your job to tap them up and away from the danger below. It does get a little more frenzied, and there's a bonus area to play with on the lower half, so there is a little strategy in how far you let them drop before batting them back up. But what's really intriguing about this one isn't in the gameplay, it's more in the presentation. The balloons are colorfully rendered, and the UI is very clean and well-designed. There are quite a few game modes, which originally needed to be unlocked via in-app purchase, but are now available for free. There's no Game Center, unfortunately, but OpenFeint is included, as well as a connection to Facebook if you want to share some scores. Float is available as a universal app for US$0.99, and there's a free version of the app to check out as well. Again, if you're looking for more complicated fare look elsewhere, but who doesn't love batting around balloons anyway?
GDC 2011: Sega demos Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing
At the 2011 Game Developers Conference, Sega revealed that it has decided to port its Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing game to the iPhone and iPod touch (no iPad announcement yet, but presumably it's coming). Sega then handed us a demo of the game to try out. It was (surprise?) a pretty standard kart racing game, with the added bonus that it uses official artwork, settings, characters and music from Sega's most popular franchises, from Sonic the Hedgehog to lesser-known classics like Billy Hatcher and Space Channel 5. This game's been out on other console platforms already, and to be honest, it's missing a little content, with fewer characters and tracks than the other versions. But the gameplay is all there; up to two players on Bluetooth or four players on Wi-Fi can race against each other across 12 tracks using 10 different characters. There are also three arenas to play in, as well as 30 "challenge missions" to play. As you race, you collect "lifetime miles" which unlock items in the game and break open official Game Center achievements and leaderboards. %Gallery-117840%
TUAW's Daily App: Volcano Escape
Here's another day-and-date release for you -- Volcano Escape is brand new on the App Store today, and it's an interesting take on the Canabalt-style genre. It asks you to run up a series of platforms inside a volcano rather than across rooftops like usual. The controls are a little floaty, unfortunately, but I think it's designed that way, as you can basically double and wall jump your way up the various stages. There's a button for shooting, and shooting various enemies will turn them into stone that you can then jump off of on your way up. Aiming is pretty tough, though, so sometimes it's easier to just dodge the baddies and move on. You can also get access to power-ups as you run, and your progress is constantly marked in the game, so you're often just trying to beat your last record. There's Game Center integration for leaderboards and achievements, and you can submit scores to Facebook and Twitter to brag about a particularly good run if you can pull one off. Things aren't quite as polished as they could be (I still love Monster Dash for this type of gameplay), but the idea of adding vertical platforming to the mix is a good one, and hopefully, it will spawn a little more innovation in titles like this. Volcano Escape, as I said, is brand new and available on the App Store for US$1.99.
Win a copy of Hungry Shark 3 for iPhone
The guys at Future Games of London have just released Hungry Shark 3 for iPhone. The Hungry Shark series is one of my favorite games for iOS (you can read my review of Hungry Shark Trilogy for iPad here). Hungry Shark 3 pits Hungry Shark against shark finners, mad scientists and leaking oil rigs. The latest edition of the Hungry Shark series also adds full HD support for Retina Displays, more than 25 new types of food (fish, crabs and people) and Game Center support. Hungry Shark 3 for iPhone is a steal at 99 cents, but for our loyal TUAW readers, Future Games of London has given us five copies of Hungry Shark 3 for iPhone to give away for free. To enter the drawing, simply leave a comment for this post. As always, the official rules are below: Open to legal US residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia and Canada (excluding Quebec) who are 18 and older. To enter leave a comment on this post. The comment must be left before Saturday, February 12, 11:59 PM Eastern Daylight Time. You may enter only once. Five winners will be selected in a random drawing. Prize: Promo code for Hungry Shark 3 for iPhone (Value: US$0.99). Click Here for complete Official Rules.
Is the Apple TV about to take on Xbox Live?
One of TUAW's tipsters points to an interesting possible development for the Apple TV: an online gaming service beyond what Game Center's paltry offerings currently provide, expanding gaming in iOS to the "hobby" living room device. Mysterious references to "ATVThunder" in the yet-to-be-released iOS 4.3 seem to indicate online games and merchandising will soon flow through iTunes and potentially into your Apple TV. Imagine scheduling games to be played online, viewing games by date, leaderboards by date (beyond Today, This Week and All Time), or watching live games or archived games. From what's been spotted in the OS, these may all be possible via streaming to your Apple TV. Considering the 8 GB of onboard storage for the device, it would have to be streaming, wouldn't it? Luckily the Apple TV is capable of OpenGL rendering, and the onboard processor and iOS frameworks are up to the task of streaming all sorts of things, including games. It's got the same A4 CPU that powers the iPad, clearly a gaming platform in its own right. Speaking of streaming, there are a couple of other references worth noting: "Sedona" and "Flagstaff" are listed as features in the OS. We have no idea what Flagstaff is, but Sedona is Apple's video rental mechanism. Considering the North Carolina data center for a moment, and what we're seeing in the 4.3 firmware, it isn't too much of a stretch to see video rentals becoming video streaming through the Apple TV. Another item: FEATURE_REMOTE_SCREENSAVER, which could be a way to push feature-rich screensavers beyond the Mac screen and onto your Apple TV or other iDevice. Imagine seeing Game Center leaderboards live on the Apple TV while you go grab a sandwich. Or something as mundane as the weather. iOS 4.3 is shaping up to be a pretty big update if any of these come to pass. Lastly, we're seeing support for DVD remotes from vendors such as Denon, Hitachi and Apex. Could this mean third-party remote support for the Apple TV? That would be nice -- and handy if you're watching a lot of movies. Update: As commenters have pointed out, the Apple TV supports third-party remotes as playback remotes. The evidence we're seeing indicates something ... different. Our tipster was intrigued by this behavior from a Harmony remote and decided to investigate. Could the remote be used to manipulate something other than playback? Or could Apple sell a proprietary IR blaster to plug into the USB port on the Apple TV? We'll keep digging for an answer. To sum up, it appears iOS 4.3 could add some new sales vectors for Apple and some more data sharing services: Online gaming, from MMOs to arcade games using Xbox Live-style matches and associated merchandising. Beyond your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch, these games could be played through the Apple TV. There could even be a new controller in the future, leveraging the infrared or Bluetooth connectivity on the ATV. Video streaming rentals and merchandising through Apple TV, quite possibly using the North Carolina data center to push the streams. The mysterious "Flagstaff" and a potential remote screensaver to enable stronger Mac/iOS/Apple TV connections. Support for third-party remotes with an IR blaster or as more than a playback controller. Any way you slice it, the next update to iOS looks to deliver some serious mojo to the little black box in the living room.
Apple TV gaming hinted strongly in iOS 4.3 beta code
Let's not jump to any conclusions, but a trusted tipster has uncovered evidence that's suggests some folks in Cupertino have learned a thing or two from Xbox Live. New code in the iOS 4.3 beta 3 firmware hints that Apple TV may soon support online gaming. Several references have been found pertaining to "ATVGames" and "ATVThunder" that point to a controller of some sort, leaderboards (think Game Center), a way to schedule games (multiplayer?), and a store front (think App Store, iTunes). We're particularly intrigued by two strings -- "com.apple.appletv.play.live.thunder" and ".play.archive.thunder" -- but what those actually mean in the grand scheme of things is ultimately ambiguous. Apple TV's minimum storage capacity (about 8GB) suggests the company might look to streaming not entirely unlike how OnLive works; as our tipster speculates, the OpenGL is mature and thoroughly implemented enough that streaming low bandwidth data and computing locally could happen, but that's just theoretical with nothing in the code to back it up. Additionally, there are two more codenames and a handful of other strings that popped up relating to Apple TV: Sedona and Flagstaff. Based on references to director, episode, season, and the like, we reckon Sedona is all about video merchandising and streaming, something tightly integrated into the traditional iTunes experience. As for Flagstaff, aside from a nod to Account Types and Merchants (i.e. iTunes merchandising), there's really nothing else to say. Think of it as a mystery wrapped in an enigma hung on a, erm, flag staff. Our tipster found numerous other little goodies, but the only other one really worth bringing up is feature_remote_screensavers, which suggests that you can use screensavers from other devices -- like, say, your Mac. Finally, elsewhere in the world, Alex Hisrbrunner used a Harmony remote to find hidden Apple TV commands that resemble iOS functions not normally possible with the standard ATV remote -- namely, wiggling icons that can me resorted using the directional pad. Video of that is after the break.
TUAW's Daily App: Captain Puzzle
Captain Puzzle is a colorful puzzle game in the vein of Bust a Move (which itself is on the App Store, by the way) and Snood (ditto). As Captain Puzzle, you throw little colored balls at similarly colored villains; when you are able to get three of the same color touching, they'll disappear and give you points. The 50 levels are set up Angry Birds-style, with each level requiring you to chase down three stars, challenging you to collect them all as you play along. The game offers both OpenFeint and Game Center integration, but unfortunately, there's just the one mode to play through; it'd be nice to see an endless mode or even a multiplayer mode added in eventually. But the basic gameplay is there, with some fun objective-based twists on the old Snood gameplay. The superhero theme makes for some fun graphics and nice music. Captain Puzzle is available on the App Store now, on the iPhone for US$0.99.
TUAW's Daily App: Battleheart
There are tons of great RPG apps out lately, and I'm not sure why that is -- something about the way the App Store has developed. At any rate, here's another one. Battleheart is just out this week, and it's really amazing. The game is a real-time RPG battler. There's not a lot of story or extras to this one, but the core system, in which you choose a group of heroes and send them out to battle oncoming hordes in various settings, is designed and executed very well. There are the usual RPG trappings of extra skills and better equipment, but the bonus here is the control scheme -- the cute little heroes are super easy to drag around, set up as healers or drop spells as a magic user. The graphics are polished, the sounds and music are great, and the variety of classes and their various abilities is really awesome. Unfortunately, there's not a ton of content -- the main battle mode is all there is, and while it takes a while to play through (probably more than enough for most casual players), there's no multiplayer, survival mode or any other gameplay to check out. There's no Game Center integration at all, either. Some users have reported crashes as well, and on that your mileage may vary. But all of those things can (and probably will) be patched in later. The core game is available right now for US $2.99, and it's worth every penny.
100 Cameras in 1 latest non-game app to use Game Center on iOS
Back when Apple first introduced Game Center, one of the first big questions was whether or not apps that weren't actually games could use the service to share achievements and leaderboards from user to user. Since then, there have been a few examples of this poking around, but this is probably the most blatant: a new app called 100 Cameras in 1 offers not only over 100 Instagram style "effects" for your iPhone 4's camera, but full Game Center integration as well. Unfortunately, the limit isn't really being pushed here as the achievements only give you some bonus points for using the various filters (and I agree with Wired -- it would have been nice to see some invention here, maybe achievements for taking a picture in multiple countries or taking a picture of a certain object). "Gamification" is kind of a buzzword being passed around lately, and it refers to the fact that companies of all kinds are finding ways to use gaming principles, either in things like managing their employees or rewarding customer engagement. Whatever you think of the idea itself (lots of people are seeing it as the latest business fad, and perhaps it is), it remains true that Game Center is still one of the best ways for iOS developers to spread the word about people using their apps. Through leaderboards and the Game Center app itself, all of your Game Center friends can see what you've been "playing," and vice versa -- it's a potential bonanza for companies wanting to share word of their apps. I'm still curious to see more non-game apps use the service. Game Center integration, especially when used well, can be that "secret ingredient" for utilities trying to make a bigger splash on the App Store.
Firemint sells 3 million copies of Flight Control
Firemint has shared some sales figures about Flight Control over on its blog. The now classic line-drawing game was recently listed in the top paid apps of all time on the App Store, and so Firemint decided to reveal a little bit about how many copies it's sold and when. The grand total is exactly 3,881,634 copies as of their posting. The game currently sells for 99 cents, but that doesn't mean Firemint pulled in $3.8 million as Apple takes its 30 percent share as well. Firemint has also posted the chart above, showing when the most copies sold. Interesting to see that the Game Center patch gave them the biggest spike in sales, though don't forget that Flight Control was one of the first games on the service as it went live, something that certainly encouraged extra downloads. The new maps and the Retina Display support patches also gave big bumps. iOS developers, take note: big feature updates sell apps. Christmas boosts sales as well, as we've discussed here in the past. What's most interesting about those bumps, I think, is that they're basically the same size -- Christmas is turning into a pretty predictable spike in iOS sales for developers. We saw a lot of "planned" releases and discounts last holiday, and I bet we'll see even more as time goes on. Of course this is only one app on the store, but it's one of the biggest apps of all time, and probably a good representation of a lot of bestselling apps. Thanks to Firemint for sharing!
