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Pangea iOS games are free for today only
Pangea Software is celebrating three years of development and US$7 million in sales by making all its iOS applications free for today July 11th. The free-for-all starts at 8 am CST and ends at 8 pm CST. When the free promotion ends, Pangea will lower the price on its iOS apps to 99-cents for a limited time. Some of these apps are in $2-4 range, so this is an excellent deal for the casual gamer. Be careful when you grab your free app. Though Pangea says this promotion extends to all its iOS app, some, like Quarters and Warheads, still have a $0.99 price tag as of the writing of this post. [Via MacObserver] Show full PR text Austin, Texas – July 11, 2011 – Pangea Software celebrates the App Store's third anniversary by giving everything away. This week marks the third anniversary of Apple's App Store, and to celebrate Pangea Software is making all of their iOS games free to anyone who wants them. No restrictions, no limitations, no catches. From 8am to 8pm CST on July 11th every Pangea game will be free, and after 8pm they will all go on sale for just 99 cents. The regular prices of Pangea's iOS games are generally $3-4. This sale includes Enigmo, Enigmo 2, Enigmo Deluxe, Billy Frontier, Bugdom 2, Cro-Mag Rally, Antimatter, Warheads, Nanosaur 2, Otto Matic, and, Quarters. The games can all be found on the App Store at: http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/pangea-software-inc./id281736538 Pangea Software was one of the first game companies to experience great success developing iPhone apps with over $7 million in sales since 2008. "iOS and the App Store are the most important things to come along in the video game industry in a generation," said Brian Greenstone, President of Pangea Software, "We've been very fortunate to have been a part of this, so to say 'Thank You' to all of our awesome customers we're hosting the biggest giveaway the App Store has ever seen." Pangea also notes that they are working on major updates to many of their games for iOS 5 due to be released later this fall. No details are available yet, but the updates are said to be significant, especially regarding their two multiplayer networked games Nanosaur 2 and CroMag Rally. Additional information can be found on Pangea's web site at www.pangeasoft.net About Pangea Software: Founded in 1987 by Brian Greenstone, Pangea Software, Inc. is a versatile and progressive software developer that is independently owned and operated. Based in Austin, TX, the award-winning Pangea team is focused on creating original titles for the Apple iPhone and Mac OS platforms.
WWDC Interview: Pangea Software
This week TUAW and MacTech Magazine teamed up to speak to developers at WWDC about the keynote and how Apple's new technologies will help them and their customers. Over the next couple of weeks, we'll bring you those videos here, MacTech.com and MacNews.com. Also, check out the free trial subscription offer for MacTech Magazine here. I spoke to Brian Greenstone of Pangea Software at WWDC, and he was kind enough to tell us about some new stuff Pangea is working on, plus the reason Cro-Mag Rally (US$2.99) was once featured in an iPhone ad. Check it out below. Pangea Software was an early entrant on the App Store and has had a string of successes. It's interesting to hear what the Mac App Store and Lion mean to their plans going forward, considering many of their apps predate OS X!
GoldFire Studios announces caveman MMO
While it's certainly not the only genre out there, fantasy has dominated the MMO market for quite a while. Game developers looking for a change typically head in the direction of sci-fi and the future, churning out titles like Fallen Earth and Star Wars: The Old Republic. GoldFire Studios has chosen to go in a completely different direction with BC Wars, which is in open beta as of today. Want to channel your inner caveman? You might want to take a little bit of time to check out this browser-based, free-to-play number. It's a bit predictable -- you start on Pangea and clams are the local currency -- but it definitely has possibilities. You began as a low level caveman, wearing a loincloth and scavenging for food, and have 200 steps (turns) you may take each day to advance your character. Registration and character creation is quick and basic, and the game itself is a fun way to pass some time. Check it out here, explore the forest, and find some clams!
In-app purchases not so hot for some developers
PocketGamer.biz has an interesting interview up with Pangea, makers of the iPhone physics puzzle game Enigmo, and they say that so far, their experience with in-app purchases has been pretty lukewarm. The software itself has sold over a million copies, but only a very small number of those customers are going for the in-app purchases -- about 25 per day, according to Pangea's Brian Greenstone. 25 per day may not be bad for a smaller developer, but Greenstone says he "was expecting hundreds."Why aren't the microtransactions doing so hot? It's going to take time, first of all -- customers need to learn the value of picking up content piece by piece, and developers need to learn exactly how to price and plan the stuff out. On an established download service like Xbox Live, add-ons and content packs have become de rigueur, though some of those battles are still being fought. But on the App Store, not only are prices still up in the air, but in-app purchases are hard to find, and they're all over the map in terms of value versus investment.Greenstone seems to believe what I'd tend to agree with: that after all of the dust has settled, customers will pay for content that's worth paying for -- he's just given up on worrying about pricing, and is focused on delivering content that's worth whatever he wants to charge. Eventually, both devs and customers will settle on a fair price, and when that happens, I'm sure we'll see some major in-app purchase sales.
iPhone app roundup: Quickoffice, Otto Matic, Evernote 2
In the hustle and madness of yesterday's wayback machine activity, there were a couple of App Store introductions (and a notable upgrade) that might have slipped through... First up: The long-awaited version of Quickoffice for iPhone that allows editing of Word and Excel files hit the store today and was demoed at CTIA. [Looks like the new Quicksheet is available now, but the full bundle and the Quickword standalone app aren't on sale yet as of Thursday morning.] While QO has had a 'mobile files' tool on the iPhone for a while now, this is the first build of the venerable portable office suite (which has been a favorite on Palm handhelds for years) that can do editing in both formats. Quickoffice for iPhone can do font formatting and cut, copy and paste within Word documents -- presumably to be tied in with system-wide C/P in the OS 3.0 world-to-come. Both the Excel and Word tools will support landscape mode for extra editing area. Files on the iPhone can be transferred off the device using WiFi to a local Mac, or straight to a MobileMe account. Quickoffice for iPhone is shipping now for an "introductory price" of $19.99, but if you just want the Excel spreadsheet editor (formerly MobileFiles Pro) you can have it for $12.99; the Word document editor is also $12.99. Quickoffice Files (previously known as MobileFiles 2.0) is $3.99 and offers similar file transfer capability to Readdle and other file managers. We're getting a review copy for a more thorough walkthrough later this week. It's worth noting that a Microsoft exec hinted at a version of Office itself for the iPhone that may be coming sometime in the not-too-distant future. Second... who doesn't love a good robot game? For $4.99, you can now dive into Pangea's classic Otto Matic series with the company's new title for iPhone, Otto Matic: Alien Invasion. The B-movie style game pits Otto against the attacking Brain Aliens from Planet X; his job is to save as many humans as possible. Otto Matic: Alien Invasion features 10 levels and 25 different enemies, multiple weapons and activities, and quite a bit of fun. Lastly, the TUAW top pick Evernote has been updated with a nifty landscape mode, thumbnail viewing, improved performance, favorites sorting, and an embedded web browser to reduce the tap a link --> Safari --> back to home screen --> scroll around --> relaunch Evernote loop-the-loop annoyances. Evernote 2.0 for iPhone remains a free download, and the basic Evernote service is also free; a year of pro-level service costs $45.
Pangea updates Enigmo for iPhone to 1.1.1, adds downloadable content
Over the past day, Pangea Software has issued two updates for their Enigmo physics game for the iPhone/iPod touch. The updates in question (1.1 and 1.1.1) allow you to download custom levels from Pangea's website via the application.Be sure to sync your iPhone and complete the backup process before updating Engimo, as the saved game deletion issues continue to be a concern. Pangea has officially acknowledged the issue, and offers backups as a solution. You can download/buy Enigmo from the App Store (iTunes link).%Gallery-29190%
Pangea demos Enigmo, Cro-Mag Rally for iPhone at Apple Keynote
Following Sega's Super Monkey Ball iPhone demo during today's WWDC Apple keynote, Pangea Software's Brian Greenstone took the stage to show two games they have been working on, Enigmo and Cro-Mag Rally, both games that date back to at least 2003 for the developer. Said Grenstone, both games took "three days to get each game up and running -- totally playable." No other news is available. Monkey Ball notwithstanding, it's kind of disappointing we haven't seen anything from known iPhone devs Ubisoft, Electronic Arts, id Software or Gameloft. Pictures of Cro-Mag Rally for iPhone after the break.
Pangea offers free games to schools
Here's a nice story. Pangea Software, creators of Bugdom, Nanosaur, Cro-Mag Rally and more, have offered free licenses to any school that makes a request. All you need to do is send a request on the school's official letterhead, signed by the principal, and the contact listed must use a ".k12" email address. Get the full scoop here. As a system administrator for a school, let me say, "Nice work, Pangea!"[Via MacMinute]
