GarnettLee
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GameFly enters the world of mobile game publishing with Writer Rumble
GameFly is a company that works like Netflix for video games -- you give them a subscription fee every month, and in return, they send you out a video game at a time, which you can send back when you're done to get another. It's a very popular service among gamers, and so the company has had extra cash to explore a few other pastimes lately (including in the game editorial arena with the popular site Shacknews). GameFly's also released an iOS app called GameCenter (no relation to Apple's Game Center service), and that app also has a very strong following, bringing GameFly's news and game information to a very large audience on Apple's iOS platform. A little while ago, GameFly announced that it would use this expertise with a mobile audience to get into publishing iOS games of its own, and on November 28, the company's first game arrived on the App Store. Writer Rumble is a game that was previously known as Wordfighter, and in that incarnation was actually awarded recognition as a PAX 10 title. But Garnett Lee (a former 1up and Shacknews editor who is now serving as GameFly's new director of publishing -- "the publishing side of the house is me and me alone," he told TUAW recently) believed the title had more potential than the two developers, Gian Cruz and Kris Zambala, were able to give it on their own. Due to their real-world jobs and other pressures, the two delayed development on the original title, and so when GameFly agreed to support development, the two got a chance to hammer out their game into something better equipped to rise through the App Store's charts. The end result does look good -- the title is a word game where characters (all based on famous authors like Edgar Allen Poe and Jane Austen) spell words to use fighting game-style attacks, either against other characters or against monsters in an endless mode. The spelling action is fast and furious, and while there are powerups to mix up the battle a little bit (with boosted attacks, special healing or double points), the real innovation here is in the fighting game. Half the time, you'll need to watch what your enemy is sending at you to know how to deal with it. Even for a first-time publisher, GameFly's polish is evident, and the US$0.99 game has more content coming, in the form of other characters, and eventually an online, asynchronous multiplayer mode. Lee says that GameFly's goal with publishing (at least at first) is more about spotlighting great games and developers rather than trying to grow franchises. "The indie spirit is really alive in mobile development," he says, and GameFly's goal is to find developers who have great games and great talent, and give them the helping hand needed to find an audience on iOS. Lee says "discoverability really is bad on the App Store," and the idea is to use GameFly's reach into the gaming world to get these apps some players. Lee wants GameFly to start as a sort of "boutique movie studio," releasing only one or two games every few months, and working directly with developers to make those all solid releases. Lee's got lots of experience covering video games, but not so much experience publishing them, and he says that he's learned publishers often have to "make some tough decisions" about game funding and features. But he's up to the task and says GameFly is ready to make a go of releasing these games -- the company has set aside "a very comfortable amount of funding" for the publishing program. There are a few more titles in the pipeline already, said Lee, so it'll be interesting to see what else "GameFly Games" has decided to put together, and what the reaction to these titles by GameFly's users turns out to be. In the meantime, though, Writer Rumble is the debut title, and it's out on the App Store right now for 99 cents.
Oblivion: Downgraded for PS3, not happening on Wii [update 1]
When we learned that the PS3 version of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion would not feature the majority of downloadable content found on the Xbox 360 and PC versions of the game, it was a blow to fans of horse armor everywhere. An episode of The 1UP Show (02/02) provides the follow-up hook as 1UP relays a juicy bit of info from Bethesda. As it turns out, it may be due to a memory limitation with the Playstation 3 itself.1UP says that Bethesda simply could not find a way to load every piece of downloadable content without affecting the performance of the game. Considering that the Xbox 360 can pull off this feat without a hitch, that seems quite odd. Bethesda will still be looking into getting that content available for PS3 users, as addressed by their VP of Marketing, Peter Hines, who also comments on the "rumors" regarding the memory issue in an IGN interview.As for the PS3 version of Oblivion trumping the 360 in the visuals department, it just so happens that the new shader techniques applied to the PS3 will also be worked into the 360 version of the game. And thus, they are equals once more. Unless you want some horse armor. In which case, you're boned.Finally, Shacknews sat down with Pete Hines and questioned their plans beyond the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. When it comes to waggling your remote in Oblivion, "It's not really going to run on a Wii for example, but if it could we would put it there. Our philosophy is to make a game and make it available to as many people as possible."Read - The 1UP Show, Oblivion Expansion Preview (9:40)Read - IGN Interview with Pete HinesRead - Shacknews, Interview with Pete Hines[Update - We swapped out the Mark Rein quote with the more recent IGN interview to pull the feedback away from gritty, armchair analysis of tech specs and back into the content involved. Cleaned up some wording to not sound so definitive on a complex and unresolved issue. Thanks!][Thanks, Stephen!]
RSS this!
Every week PSP Fanboy brings you a great new podcast that you can use your PSP's RSS feature to subscribe to. We like to call it RSS this! This week's spotlight is one that many gamers probably already subscribe to, but that doesn't make it any less worthy of praise. 1up Yours is 1up.com 's premiere weekly podcast. A typical episode can consist of developer interviews, rumors, news, community features and general conversation about games. The cast usually consists of John Davison, Garnett Lee, Luke Smith and Shane Bettenhausen. One of the most listened to and respected video game podcast around, 1up Yours is a passionate, informative and humorous journey into what makes gaming great and what it needs to do better. When the podcasters aren't attacking their separate viewpoints on gaming, they mock their sexuality. The best part though is since everyone is so honest, you get to know them and even if you don't agree with them, they stay endearing. If you haven't yet heard 1up Yours and you want to add it to your PSP's RSS, just bring up this site with your PSP through our mobile version at m.pspfanboy.com and click on this link: http://feeds.feedburner.com/1up/podcast. Then you can exit your web browser and the show should be in your RSS channels. From there you can set a timer for auto-download of episodes or stream them so you don't take up memory stick space. Got something you have RSS'd and would like us to feature it? Just let us know in the comments, or let other readers know what you think of 1up Yours.
