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Daily iPad App: Drawn: Trail of Shadows is a simple, beautiful puzzle game
The Drawn series is hard to describe, really -- I've mentioned one of them here before, but I don't know if I quite gave the series a good description. Fortunately, if reading this post doesn't work, I've included a video of me playing the game down below, so you can take a closer look at just what these games are like. The series started up on PC as the domain of Big Fish Games, a company that has released a lot (a lot!) of PC games over the years. But Big Fish is making its way onto iOS (most notably with the great Fairway Solitaire), and the Drawn series is slowly coming along, with Trail of Shadows being the latest release on iOS. At its core, this game is a hidden object title, where you need to poke around a series of still pictures, finding items to use in various adventure-game style puzzles. The title is quite atmospheric and beautifully, well, drawn, and provides a very casual story experience for you to simply relax in and enjoy. These games aren't for everyone -- a gamer used to a little more action might call them boring, and unfortunately, Big Fish hasn't very smoothly ported the game over, so there are some awkward loading screens and the occasional dropped cutscene. But there is definitely a strong mood here, a strong feeling evoked from playing a game like this, and having this around on your iPad can make for a very intriguing afternoon of gameplay. Drawn: Trail of Shadows is available as a free trial right now, and you can pay US$4.99 in the game if you want to play through the whole thing. It's definitely worth a look -- there are certainly games of this hidden object ilk that are indeed a waste of your time, but Drawn is one that's won me over a few times already.
Amazon launches its own game studio, goes social with Living Classics on Facebook
Amazon is committing itself to gaming much more seriously than providing a storefront: it just launched its own game development house. The simply titled Amazon Game Studios is starting out gently by producing a Facebook hidden object game, Living Classics, that lets the socially inclined dig around through scenes from well-known literature -- what else would you expect from the Kindle's creator? While the free, me-too game isn't going to give Microsoft or Sony any frights just yet, the company has the ambition of making "innovative, fun and well-crafted" titles. Amazon is actively recruiting more help for the studio as we write, so we'd expect more grandiose work before too long.
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: The Secret Castle
Indie developers are the starving artists of the video-game world, often brilliant and innovative, but also misunderstood, underfunded and more prone to writing free-form poetry on their LiveJournals. We at Joystiq believe no one deserves to starve, and many indie developers are entitled to a fridge full of tasty, fulfilling media coverage, right here. This week, John Francis of Platronic Games is way too humble when discussing the outstanding 3D graphics of his hidden-object title, The Secret Castle. Seriously, watch both of the included videos for a full run-down of the truly amazing tilt-3D mechanics. What's your game called and what's it about? The Secret Castle is a 3D hidden-object and puzzle game that follows Jonas Lyons, a young boy who begins to have strange dreams about a mysterious castle after moving into a new home. How exactly is The Secret Castle "reinventing the genre" of hidden-object games? I can't say I exactly planned this but a lot of things happened when we instituted the 3D system. There's not really any easy way to spam the screen just hoping to find things, which is one way to play traditional hidden-object games. Also, the 3D really makes the player engage in a whole new way because the game is constantly giving feedback as the player looks for stuff. Also, it's the only hidden object game I know of with a boss fight.
MMObility: Creating a hidden-object mobile MMO
Around the time we left for E3, I discovered some of the hidden-object games published by Big Fish Games. I have enjoyed puzzle games in the past, but these seemed to have a nice, dependable quality to them that I had not seen before. On the way home -- during the last several hours of our trip, when it became hard to settle down -- I pulled out Moonfell Wood, a lovely hidden-object game set in a magical world of fairies and princesses. (I think the target audience was obvious.) It was just a trial, but it was very relaxing. The music was nice and the puzzles were challenging but not mind-crushing, and my wife would look over my shoulder once in a while to point out one of the objects or to help solve a puzzle. It really got me to thinking: could a hidden-object MMO be created for the mobile market? I think it could. Click past the cut and let's discuss it.
Shutter Island game adaptation for DS rated by ESRB, OFLC
The upcoming Shutter Island game for Nintendo DS didn't get announced with a press release and a bunch of hoopla. It just calmly strolled onto the Entertainment Software Ratings Board website (and Australia's OFLC as well), just like our man Leo strolled off that boat in the film upon which the game is based. While the Aussie board description only reveals that the game is being published by City Interactive, the ESRB description details it as a "seek-and-find puzzle" (read: hidden object) game. Players will take on the role of US Marshals exploring the movie's Shutter Island location where the "Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane" is housed. Aside from finding "clues/items among scenes of jumbled objects," players will interview hospital personnel and uncover patient files -- one of which is said to have a story about "the scalping of relatives for use as hats." So, not for kids then?
