SimonOliver
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Handcircus set to return to iOS with free game based on Okabu
Simon Oliver's Handcircus studio was one of the biggest winners in the early days of the App Store. His game Rolando was originally published by Ngmoco back before the company went completely bonkers with social and free-to-play casual games. After Rolando 2 sort of sputtered out into the marketplace, hamstrung by Ngmoco's own strategy, Oliver and his company strayed away from iOS and created a game called Okabu for the PlayStation Network. Oliver is coming back to iOS, according to The Guardian. The company has been working on a new mobile title set in the same universe as Okabu that will again be free-to-play. But before Rolando fans worry, don't forget that the app market changed a lot in the few years since Rolando was released, and Oliver himself has changed as well. "When Ngmoco decided to go free-to-play, I didn't know how to make games like that," he tells the Guardian. "But ideas have been bubbling away for the last couple of years." I'm interested to see what Oliver gets up to. He suggests that Handcircus still may use a third-party publisher to get the game out, which is a little bit worrying. But it'll be good to have one of the biggest original iPhone devs back on the platform with a new release.
Rolando and Rolando 2 updated with Retina Display, on sale now
Ngmoco has surprised us with some updates. Rolando and its sequel Rolando 2 have both been updated for the iPhone 4's Retina Display and have had a few bug issues fixed. To celebrate the update, they're both on sale for just US$0.99. Either one of these is a bargain at that price. They're both very solid, original platformers, designed specifically for the iOS system. What's most interesting about this, though, is that Ngmoco has updated these at all. Rolando was one of the first big titles for the now gigantic iOS developer, but when Ngmoco moved into the We Rule freemium model, the Rolando series was more or less abandoned in favor of games that could use more microtransactions and attract more "DAUs" (daily active users). A lot of Rolando fans were disappointed with that direction, though Ngmoco's We Rule and other freemium games have seen plenty of success anyway. Rolando creator Simon Oliver's HandCircus has been working on a PSN game instead, but maybe with these updates, there's a possibility we could finally see Ngmoco return to the little rolling hero and his series.
TUAW Interview: Rolando's Simon Oliver is ready for release
So today, on the release of one of the first games that really got us excited about the potential of the iPhone as a gaming device (yes, you can buy it right now if you want), we sit down again with Simon Oliver for an exclusive interview, this time to talk about the road he's traveled over the past few months, and how far both he and his game about little rolling "Rolandos" has come. He talked with us about the Ngmoco partnership and how it helped him as a developer, the viability of Rolando as a $9.99 game, and the future of both what he's working on and what the App Store needs as a gaming platform.
