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Daily iPhone App: Year Walk exudes a mysterious and personal feel
We posted last week that a new app from Simogo called Year Walk was coming to the App Store, and it's now out and available for download. And man, what a piece of work it is. Simogo consists of two Swedish developers named Simon Flesser and Magnus 'Gordon' Gardebäck, and they're known for their funny, but great little games, like Bumpy Road or Beat Sneak Bandit. Year Walk, however, is much more personal and intimate -- it's just about the most artful game I've seen on iOS yet. The basic idea of the game is that your character is thinking about going on a "Year Walk", which is a sort of a Swedish quest of legend that's meant to predict the future in some way (there's so much Swedish folklore in the game that Simogo has released a free companion app for it). And so much of the game consists of you "walking" through the woods by swiping around the screen -- left and right to travel, or up and down to swipe forward or back through the woods. As you go, there are a number of Myst-like puzzles to figure out, but the whole tone of the game is serene, mysterious and vaguely creepy. Year Walk is an experiment in using the iPhone's touchscreen interface to immerse you in a feeling, in a mood, and on that count it is very, very successful. I'm still sort of reeling from my experience with Year Walk -- I haven't yet finished the game by a long shot, but even the little time I've spent with it so far has left me with a huge, great impression. This is a very, very artful and well-designed project that obviously means a lot to Simogo (even if it may be a little confusing for more casual gamers), and I have a feeling that once we roll around to the end of the year and start talking about the best iOS experiences of 2013, Year Walk will be sitting there among them. Definitely don't miss out, but do enter into it with an open, ready mind: It's available for US$3.99 on the App Store.
Simogo's latest, Year Walk, coming to iOS next week
Simogo is an iOS developer best known for games that are cartoony and fun, like the great Beat Sneak Bandit and the charming Bumpy Road. But the company's next title is going to take a much darker turn, apparently. Year Walk is Simogo's next project, and as you can see above, this game looks neither cartoony or fun. Year Walk is set on a New Year's Eve in 19th century Sweden, as the player is tasked with exploring some dark woods to try and solve a mystery. The game's teaser trailer sets the tone about right: There will be puzzles and exploration involved, all with a very creepy, atmospheric black-and-white feel. Like I said, different from Bumpy Road. The title also has a companion app coming with it, that will fill in players on a lot of the folk lore and backstory that support the game's setting and various creatures. Year Walk looks very interesting. It should be available, according to Simogo, on the App Store on February 21, so we'll look for it next week.
ilomilo plus finds a companion in Windows 8
Southend Interactive's adorable bipartisan platformer/puzzle game, ilomilo, has made its way to Microsoft's latest operating system, in the form of ilomilo plus. Available on the Windows 8-centric Windows Store for $6.99, plus is an enhanced port of the XBLA version of the game, with two new characters, additional creatures, new cubes, more chapters and support for keyboard, touchscreen and gamepad control schemes.That last bit means you'll be able to play ilomilo plus on your new Surface for Windows RT and/or Surface Pro without shelling out $100-plus for one the available hardware keyboards.
Joystiq Indie Pitch: Kosmo Spin
Being a giant, beloved video game site has its downsides. For example, we sometimes neglect to give independent developers our coverage love (or loverage, if you will) as we get caught up in AAA, AAAA or the rare quintuple-A titles. To remedy that, we're giving indies the chance to create their own loverage and sell you, the fans, on their studios and products. This week we talk with Simon Flesser, half of Simogo, the team behind the adorable Kosmo Spin. How did your company get started? We met at Southend Interactive where I worked as an artist and Gordon as Technical Director. I had always wanted to "do my own thing" and it turned out that Gordon wanted the same thing. Times have changed and it's now possible to make games with only two people and no publishers, thanks to all the new places to distrubute your games (like AppStore). I also think that the DS, Wii and the iPhone have played a huge part in changing people's attitude to gaming. Not only are there more people playing games, I also think bite sized gaming is more accepted by "real gamers". Not every game has to be this super big epic experience. Not that we don't enjoy those games, it's just great that there's room for everyone now. So, the time was right and everything just seemed to fit, so we decided to set up Simogo and go for it.
