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Free games and big updates this weekend on the App Store
Another day of the holiday season brings a whole lot of great downloads from the App Store. What we saw yesterday was mostly new releases, but here's a list of free games (and free updates) you might want to check out. A whole bunch of great games have gone free for the weekend, including Baby Monkey, Redlynx's 1000 Heroz, Battle Slugs, Burn the Rope Worlds, Crystal Soul, Gem King, and Ragdoll Blaster 2. Every single one of those is worth a download if you don't have them yet. More free apps: Legends of Alekham, Sarge, Rise of Atlantis, Doomsday 2: Legions of Hell, and AtlantiSub. There are also some really great new freemium titles to play; Cosmonauts is one, and I've really been enjoying Battle Nations (you can friend me in that one -- I'm "toucansamurai"). Freemium title Tiny Tower has gotten a big update that adds missions, the ability to share stock with friends, and new floors and costumes to play with. Bungie's Crimson Steam Pirates is free on the iPad right now to celebrate the new 99 cent iPhone version, and there's a new Chapter 3 update with more content to play with. Zombie Gunship has added a new unlockable scenario, as well as full AirPlay support. Freemium title Rocket Chimp recently got an update for iCloud and iOS 5. Once again, there's more there to play than you'll need all weekend. Things are picking up as this holiday season gets into swing. Stay tuned, because I'm sure we'll see lots more of this over the next few weeks.
What's in a Name: Bungie Aerospace
Bernard Yee is the Aerospace Portfolio Manager for Bungie, tasked with helping the newly independent studio expand into digitally distributed frontiers. He's previously worked on everything from EverQuest at Sony Online Entertainment to Rock Band at Harmonix. The name came about a couple ways: There are a bunch of real space industry fans at Bungie; like when the shuttle launch happened, a bunch of people from the studio went down to Florida to watch it. So there's a bunch of aerospace engineering fans at the studio and I think the name came about partially from that. There's an expression in Latin, and I forget what it is in Latin, but it's "to boldly go into the stars" [Ed: "per audacia ad astra"] and I think that saying sort of personified Bungie's feeling of being independent again. We could be cross-platform, we weren't tied to any specific console device anymore, we're getting to do something new with a big IP. And as specifically applied to Bungie Aerospace, the idea that there were a whole host of platforms like iOS and Android and PC/Steam and to a similar degree XBLA and PSN; that there were different game experiences being developed there. It's almost like the mammals underfoot the dinosaurs, something interesting was happening. Bungie is a very technically capable studio and we clearly see the trajectory of these hardware devices. We understand the things that make Bungie a great game studio on console were going to be increasingly relevant in this space, with iOS devices. But it wasn't 100% transferable, right? The lessons we learned on console will be useful on the mobile platform but they're going to be different game experiences. Maybe the game sessions are 20 minutes instead of two hours. I think I remember reading that Torchlight's average game session was about 20 or 30 minutes. I would guess that Halo or Call of Duty's average is much longer. The idea is that we want to understand this platform because it's relevant to us as game creators and there's a lot to learn. We wanted to do this as a way to grow Bungie's expertise and reach into other areas. That's where the Aerospace name came from. Bungie Aerospace recently released its first title, Crimson: Steam Pirates, from developer Harebrained Schemes. It's available for iPad from the iOS App Store. Like this feature? Be sure to check out the What's in a Name Archives.
Crimson: Steam Pirates was made in 12 weeks
Believe it or not, Bungie's latest didn't take that long to develop -- oh, you read the headline? Well, aren't you perceptive! Yes, Crimson: Steam Pirates (not to be confused with The Crimson Permanent Assurance) only took 12 weeks to create, believe it or not. It's the subject of a Gamasutra postmortem by developer Harebrained Schemes' Aljernon Bolden, who worked in the trenches over those dozen weeks to create what is one of the top free iPad apps. His diatribe recounts the last month (it launched on September 1, remember?) and how a team of seven people was able to meet deadline. Did you know the game uses animations originally created as flipbook animations in Flash? Just one of the many interesting tidbits to be discovered! Do yourself a favor and give it a read. It's not only a great read to learn how a first-time developer was able to come up with high-impact, low-cost solutions to achieve its goal, it's also fascinating stuff for budding developers -- and in this App store world we're living in, that should be at least 75 percent of you. %Gallery-131494%
PSA: Bungie Aerospace's Crimson: Steam Pirates now available (for free)
This is just a quick reminder that Bungie Aerospace's first project, Crimson: Steam Pirates, is now available on iPad for the excellent sum of no dollars. We had assumed that the Hairbrained Schemes title was about a band of buccaneers out to steal your wine-stained dry cleaning. It turns out, however, that it's actually an action RTS game in a Steampunk 1800s setting. You'll follow the high-seas adventures of General Thomas Blood as he conducts ship battles against opposing fleets. You can find out more about the top-down action in the video above. Or, you know, you could just download the game, what with it being free and all. %Gallery-131494%
Bungie details iPad release of Crimson: Steam Pirates, coming next week
Man, after all the rumors, it almost seems expected: Bungie has finally announced its first original project for the iPad, a game called Crimson: Steam Pirates. It's due out on the iPad next week, and will let you command a steampunk crew across a turn-based battlefield, combining strategy, action, and Bungie's own polish and experience into what looks like a pretty impressive iOS game. The best news is that it's free to play -- the first chapter of the game contains eight missions, two multiplayer scenarios, and lots of extras like Bungie.net and Facebook integration. Other chapters will soon be available for $1.99, with chapter 2 coming immediately after release, and presumably more content later. For now, the app is iPad-only, which leaves us iPhone owners out of the loop, unfortunately. Still, the game looks good, and Bungie has had few bad games in its time. Stay tuned -- we should see it ready for download next Thursday.
First Bungie Aerospace project detailed, Crimson: Steam Pirates hits iPad next week
The very first project setting sail under the Bungie Aerospace flag is Harebrained Schemes' Crimson: Steam Pirates and it's leaving port on September 1, with its compasses pointed towards the free-to-play frontiers of the iPad. Promising turn-based gameplay coupled with a "mystery" that, as mysteries are wont to do, needs uncovering, Crimson: Steam Pirates certainly has presentation in the bag. But what else will your $0.00 buy you? The site details eight "voyages that begin the tale of Thomas Blood's adventures in the Caribbean," two "'Pass-and-Play' multiplayer scenarios," oodles of ships, subs, airships, and unique crew members, and of course, Bungie.net stats, Leaderboards, and the unavoidable Facebook integration. If you're wondering how anyone makes money off this would-be treasure hunt, it's simple: while the first eight missions are free-to-play, "Chapter 2, 'Tales of Captain Blood' will feature another eight missions for $1.99." That's what we call buried treasure. %Gallery-131494%
Bungie Aerospace a partner program with social, mobile devs
If you were hoping that Bungie Aerospace would be a new action-packed game from the venerable Halo developer, well ... we don't think we could disappoint you more than we're about to right now. Bungie Aerospace (the trademark for which first popped up in early 2010) is a partner program in which the AAA powerhouse will team with social and mobile devs, giving them "creative freedom and the resources they need, like access to the Bungie.net platform and an audience with the incredible Bungie community." The release stops short of calling Bungie the publisher of these products, but it certainly reads that way. The first dev getting the Bungie bump is Seattle's Harebrained Schemes, a studio run by Jordan Weisman, of I Love Bees/FASA Interactive/Wizkids fame. It's an intriguing partnership, but we won't get our hands on the results until this summer when a game codenamed "Crimson" (which Aerospace trademarked in May) hits iOS and Android. You know, we're excited by the news, but we can tell this isn't what some of you were hoping for. ... Hmm. Well, what if we told you "Crimson" has Master Chief in it? It doesn't, but what if it did? (It doesn't.)
Bungie Aerospace Corporation trademarks 'Crimson,' mystery continues
Bungie's trademark frenzy continues with the discovery of a trademark filing for "Crimson" within the past several days. GameSpot UK spotted the listing on the US Patent and Trademark Office website, which denotes "Crimson" as being "Computer game software downloadable from a global computer network; Computer game software for use on mobile and cellular phones; Downloadable computer game software via a global computer network and wireless devices." Presumably, whatever "Crimson" is won't be all three of those things. Interestingly, the filing applies to newly incorporated Bungie Aerospace (rather than Bungie Studios proper), while Bungie's previous trademark applications were all filed by a proxy corporation (as to hide their origins). As with previous reports, we've contacted Bungie for a comment, but don't expect to hear much back. Nor do we expect to hear anything at E3, as the studio has specifically said it won't be attending this year's show.
