chillingo
Latest
Daily iPhone App: The Act combines great cartoon art with iOS gameplay
The Act is, I will say, probably one of the most interesting experiments I've ever seen show up on the App Store. I don't know if it's entirely successful, but even at the current price of $2.99, I can wholeheartedly recommend it. It does some very interesting things with interactive storytelling and animation that have to be seen to be believed. The Act is a game by React Entertainment, a company that has at least one famous 2D animation vet in its background. As you can probably tell by the screenshot above, it's a game that's been entirely hand animated, and the art is just plain beautiful -- the characters pop off of the screen like a Disney movie. There's no dialogue at all, so the story is told strictly through animation and music, and yet it all comes across very well. The interactive part of the game arrives in certain sections, where you need to swipe to the right or left on the screen to keep "the act" going. This is perhaps the biggest fault of the "game" -- all of your cues come from the on-screen animation, so it's often hard to tell exactly what you're supposed to be doing and when. But the game does get clearer as it goes on -- by the third interactive scene or so, I had a pretty good idea of when I was doing it right and when I was doing something wrong. Even with those issues around feedback (the game definitely could have been a little more designed for accessibility), The Act still respectably takes some bold moves with its gameplay, and again, that animation is just gorgeous. If you're a fan of games or good old fashioned hand-drawn animation at all, definitely check this one out.
Daily iPhone App: Catapult King is beautifully destructive
Catapult King lacks innovation on the surface, unfortunately. It looks like an Angry Birds clone in 3D, and that's basically what it is. I say "unfortunately" because I hope that won't keep you from giving it a look anyway. I saw this title for the first time at E3 last week, and while I am not a big fan of Angry Birds, I've really enjoyed Catapult King. It's a Chillingo-published title (as Angry Birds was originally, you'll recall), so it's got all of the polish that Chillingo os known for. The game just looks amazing. The graphics are clear and colorful, and there are a lot of nice touches, like art in the background of each stage that really adds a lot of depth and vision to the proceedings. You obviously control a catapult firing at soldiers on wooden towers, and your job is to bring the soldiers down with as few hits as possible. The game's fun and simple, but those graphics, along with the variety in the various levels, really make this one shine. There are freemium spells you can buy (a little lame, considering that the game also costs 99 cents), but I haven't needed them yet, and I'm having a lot of fun just hurling stones at the soldiers (who will happily gloat at you when you miss). The whole thing could use a bit more guidance, especially when aiming at various elevations, but Catapult King is a fun and cheap title that looks really, really good. It's universal, so you can grab it for iPhone or iPad today.
Daily iPad App: Feed Me Oil HD
Chillingo's Feed Me Oil was released a little while ago, and it's a solid game that didn't get a ton of press when it first dropped. The reason for that is probably because it's somewhat similar to Where's My Water, in that you're trying to get a fluid simulation into a certain place on the screen by tweaking physics-enabled objects in the world. But while Where's My Water was all about digging, Feed Me Oil is much more about creation -- you place objects like platforms and wheels in the world to try and get the "black gold" flowing where you need it to go. Like pretty much all of Chillingo's other titles, there is lots of content here to play through: Lots of levels and puzzles with an increasing number of objects to use and move around to your heart's content. And while the game is on the iPhone as well, it's much better on the iPad -- the graphics are bigger and the objects are easier to manipulate in the game's space. Feed Me Oil is an excellent game, and especially because it's on sale today for completely free. Check it out.
Daily iPhone App: This Could Hurt dodges danger with ease
I first saw Chillingo's latest title, This Could Hurt, at GDC earlier this year, and back then I didn't really get into it. It's a one-button title that I thought looked a little too simple. But after giving it a longer try post-release, there's actually a lot of surprising depth here. Yes, there's only one control (touch on the screen to make your character stand still), but developers Orange Agenda do an impressive job of wringing a whole lot of gameplay out of just that one mechanic. As your character runs along, he'll come across lots of strange contraptions designed to hurt him, and the goal of the game is to time your stopping just right so that he isn't harmed by whatever dangers await him. There are powerups in the game, but they mostly just involve moving slower or faster, so really, the game is just a list of ways to test your timing skills. And that list is surprisingly long. There are forty levels in the game, and each one of them puts a new spin on ways to try and avoid getting hurt. This Could Hurt does a whole lot with very little, and on the App Store, that's always impressive. It's available for 99 cents right now.
Daily iPhone App: Lock 'n' Load makes dual stick fun again
I can't keep up with everything Chillingo is putting out on the App Store lately -- they're really kicking out the jams over there. One of their latest titles is Lock 'n' Load, and even if, like me, you're tired of the well-traveled dual-stick shooter genre on iOS, this one's worth a look anyway. The game's polish and charm really lend a lot, and while the title doesn't really iterate too far on what a dual stick shooter does (use one virtual stick to move and the other to aim and shoot), Lock 'n' Load does it all well, and there's a lot of content in this excellent title. The one drawback, as you might imagine, is that even though the game is 99 cents, Chillingo hasn't played softball with the in-app purchases. You can of course earn in-game coins while playing, and you can buy them with real money if you need more later, but the balance is a little bit off on this one. It's not as generous as a title like this really should be. That will probably change -- the tendency is to make it easier to earn money in games like this, and my bet is that this one will be freemium before long. Even for 99 cents, however, Lock 'n' Load is a quality title. Even those who thought there were done with the dual-stick genre will find something to enjoy in it.
New games and updates on the App Store: Hunger Games, Dragonvale, more
Angry Birds Space wasn't the only big new release to hit the App Store last night. Here are some other noteworthy apps and updates that are now available (all prices are USD). Canabalt creator Adam Saltzman's new game, which is based on the upcoming Hunger Games movie, is now available as a free promotional app. It looks excellent, and features Saltzman's game design prowess as well as music from composer Danny B. Hunters 2 is a sequel to the great turn-based strategy title that looks awesome. It's $4.99. Chillingo has dropped an endless runner game in which you control a roller coaster called MadCoaster, as well as a good-looking physics puzzler called Light the Flower. Both are 99 cents. Swordigo is a 2D hack-and-slash RPG with impressive graphics. It's launching at $1.99. BattleLoot Adventure is a Final Fantasy-style RPG that looks excellent. It costs $0.99 Smule has released a brand new title called Beatstream that turns your own music into a playable game for $0.99. Pocket Gems has released a new freemium title called Tap Paradise Cove. 99 Games' Nightclub Mayhem has arrived on the iPad for $0.99. Big updates include the beautiful Zen Bound 2 ($0.99) which is now ready for the new iPad. DragonVale (free) got a nice update with a new dragon to seek out, and new buildings to put up. And Scribblenauts Remix ($0.99) has some new spring break content to download and play with. Man, that's a lot of new games and content to play with. Stay tuned, as we'll be covering a few of these more closely in the days to come.
The best mobile games of GDC 2012
We've picked out five of the most interesting new mobile titles seen at the Game Developers Conference this year. One of them is available now, and the others are coming soon, all from studios and developers of varying talents and reputations. Read on to see the cream of the crop from the mobile side of this year's GDC.
EA previews titles from Chillingo and Firemint: New Flight Control, Burnout Crash, more
EA had a large suite set up at GDC last week to show off its various new and recent offerings. Here's a quick roundup of what the company is working on for iOS, including among all of its recent acquisitions: PopCap, Firemint, and Chillingo. PopCap was up first -- the popular casual games developer has just released Zuma's Revenge HD on the App Store, and it's a very faithful port of the old arcade title originally released on PC. There's not much new to say about this one -- if you liked it on PC, you'll like it on Apple's iOS devices. I did ask PopCap's about Bejeweled 3 as well. That game has been out on PC for a while, but we haven't really seen a port of it on iOS just yet. But there was no news to report -- PopCap is taking its sweet time working on new titles, and is instead mostly just concerned with putting its popular catalog on as many titles as possible. We may have to wait a while to see another original title arrive on iOS. Next up was a game that a lot of Flight Control fans will be surprised to hear about: Flight Control Rockets. The space-age follow up to the extremely popular Flight Control title was developed by Firemint, but I'm sorry to say that I found it not quite as elegant as the previous version. The title has gone freemium, and you now earn coins as you play, which can then be spent on all sorts of upgrades for your station and skills (or, of course, purchased via in-app purchase). There are some good new ideas in the game, like a combo score that builds up as you line-draw ships of the same color into your station, and lots of new ship types, including ships that break off into two, ships that speed up after being guided home, and even a "snake ship" that is actually a series of ships that will follow each other wherever you draw the first one. There are also "robot helpers" that you can hire, three maximum for each time you play, that will either make things easier for you (by helping you score higher or guide ships in automatically), or change up the gameplay (there's one called a "hardcore bot" that will turn off all of your warnings, but give you more XP as you play). In addition to the player's XP, you can also level up each of your bots, and unlock extra abilities for each of those as well, and there are also "power crystals" you can buy via IAP to earn XP faster. If that all sounds complicated, you're right -- as I said, the first game had a sort of understated elegance to it, and this version is a lot more complex (and maybe even burdened, you might say, by the various in-app purchase possibilities available). But we'll see what players think -- Flight Control Rockets is due out later this month. EA's also working on a World Series of Poker app that even the company's rep admitted was very similar to the already-available Zynga Poker: It's completely online, a freemium title driven by microtransactions, and includes a lot of social fuctions (and even a subscription "VIP" service, if you're so inclined). Unless you're already interested in Zynga's social poker offerings, you might not be too interested by this one, but it's worth saying that EA's app also includes Omaha play, and a few nice metagame options, like the opportunity to quest for a WSOP ring. The poker game is due out early summer. Finally for EA's core lineup, the company is also porting the popular downloadable console title Burnout Crash to iOS, and developer Criterion Games has made quite a few improvements just for this platform. Most notably, the controls are now all touch and swipe based -- rather than going with an odious virtual stick layout, players now swipe their crashed cars around the screen, trying to line up as many explosive and destructive combos as possible. The game looks great (and will probably look even better on the new iPad), and there are new tweaks to the various game modes (Road Trip is now called Road Block) and a lot of nice features (Autolog has been implemented in full) to play with. Burnout Crash is a paid title that should be out later this month. EA recently purchased Chillingo, and that company's titles were on display at GDC as well. The most interesting offering was a really gorgeous flying game called Air Mail, which seems quite well crafted by N-Fusion Interactive, and just looks terrific on the iPad's big screen. The company did go with virtual buttons and a joystick for the default controls (though they are rendered beautifully anyway), but the most interesting feature of the game are the "Advanced Mode Controls," hidden in the game's menus. For that scheme, players use two thumbs on the screen to control either one of the plane's wings, and then can move the iPad or iPhone around in real space, using the gyroscope and accelerometer to guide the plane. It's hard (and I crashed quite often while using it), but once you get the hang of it, it's not only very exciting, but you can also do some pretty spectacular stunts. Air Mail offers a full campaign of more than 20 missions, but I'm most excited about the Explore mode, which just lets you fly around the game's amazing environments at will for as long as you want, finding and collecting various objects. Among Chillingo's other offerings is an interesting title called The Act, which is basically an animated romantic comedy movie that you control at certain times. The premise might be a little strange, and I found the "controls" a little confusing (at one point, I was supposed to swipe towards a woman to try to get my character to be attracted by him, but (as in real life, I suppose) the feedback on whether she was interested or not was a little unclear). Still, The Act's animation looks very well-done, and it's a project that's quite a few years in the making. We'll have to see how it comes out later on this year. Obviously, EA and its various mobile acquisitions are really hitting on all cylinders lately. There's definitely a big trend towards freemium and microtransactions, and I worry a little bit that some of the titles (Flight Control Rockets, especially) are going a little too far in that direction, and away from the core gameplay that really makes the absolute best iOS titles so popular. But we'll have to see how players respond going forward: If a title that heavily relies on the trappings of freemium games doesn't do as well as expected, maybe we'll see a return to a more subtle approach.
Some excellent new apps today: AAaaa!!, Hookshot Escape, lots more
It's Thursday, which means the new Apple-approved games and apps went up on the App Store yesterday, and there are quite a few good ones out this week. I'm not sure why devs decided to drop so many games on us (maybe just aiming to get them out by GDC next week), but if you need something to play this weekend, you've got it. Dejobaan Games has released its popular "falling action" title AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! on iOS, and it's available right now for $2.99. The game has you falling down through a series of skyscrapers, and trying to perform certain stunts and actions on your way down. It's just as good as the award-winning PC version, and worth a look if you haven't played it before. I've really been looking forward to Secret Base's Tobe and Friends Hookshot Escape, and it's also out now for $1.99. The graphics are charming as all get out, and my only complaint about the game so far is that it's not out on iPad yet. Chillingo's got a new freemium dual stick shooter called Mafia Rush. And that company has also got a new version of a Flash favorite, a platformer called Fancy Pants, for 99 cents. A beautiful puzzler called Incoboto has arrived on the iPad for $2.99. Looks great, supposed to sound very good as well. Ubisoft has released yet another Prince of Persia title, but this one's for old schoolers -- it features the old Prince of Persia game combined with a graphical style from the latest series. The iPhone version is $1.99, or you can go HD for a dollar more. And finally, the folks behind the very popular Spider: Secret of Bryce Manor have released a followup called Waking Mars, available as a universal app for $4.99. This one has you exploring underground Mars in 2097, and finding all sorts of interesting sights (and things) down there. Whew, those are some quality titles for sure. I'm sure some of these will show up in the Daily App posts very soon, so if you're not sure about pulling the trigger yet, stay tuned and we'll let you know. In the meantime: Just go ahead and get Hookshot Escape. It's awesome.
Cut the Rope and Where's my Water getting toys, more content
The New York Toy Fair is on this week, and so collectors and toy buyers alike are hearing about all sorts of new products. And given that the iPhone is one of the largest brands around, it's probably no surprise that iOS-based game properties are very popular this year. Disney's Where's My Water is the latest iPhone game to get toys made for it. There are plush dolls coming soon of the main alligator character, as well as rubber duckies modeled after the duckies you collect in the acclaimed physics puzzler. And Cut the Rope's Om Nom Nom already has a plush made of himself, but there's even more on the way. Mattel has signed a deal to provide a board game based on the popular iPhone title, and it will apparently interact directly with the Cut the Rope app on your iPad as you play. Jakks Pacific has signed a deal to bring the game to your TV, with a dedicated toy that plugs in with the game pre-installed. And we can't leave the game itself out: There's an update coming (actually for the Cut the Rope: Experiments spinoff) called Bath Time, that adds some water-related puzzles to the mix. It's a sign of just how big Apple's App Store has gotten that these iPhone developers are able to spin properties off the games on this platform. Certainly both of these games have a lot going for them (EA owns Chillingo, which publishes Cut the Rope, in addition to Disney's Where's My Water), but the fact that these toys are being made at all speaks to how big the audience for these games is.
Daily iPhone App: Spice Invaders
If you're tired of tower defense games, I don't blame you. Feel free to skip this post, but let me say this before you go: I wouldn't spotlight yet another tower defense game if it wasn't special. That's why Spice Invaders has made the cut. The standard tower defense tropes are in place. Build and upgrade towers with spells and abilities to repel invaders while carrying on a map-wide campaign. But Spice Invaders by On5 Games (published by Chillingo) goes a step further. First of all, the game is super polished. It runs great and looks terrific, and everything from the characters to the UI shines with color and fun. There's a huge upgrade system with lots of ways to develop your towers and abilities, and there's even (gasp) multiplayer support. You can play co-operatively or even competitively in a tower defense game! Each stage has multiple modes and can be played through multiple times, so there's lots and lots of content here, all of it quite fun. Spice Invaders is also a freemium title, which has both a pro and a con. The pro, of course, is that the game is free. Tower defense fans should waste no time in downloading it. Those of you who've soured on tower defense should also consider it. Bewarned, however, that Chillingo isn't gentle with the prodding. You'll get reminders in the middle of your game (and elsewhere) that you can buy spice and upgrades via in-app purchases. They can be removed with an in-app purchase, of course, but they're still annoying to see. That issue hits right at the core of the freemium argument, however. Yes it's annoying to be "pitched" in the middle of chaotic game play, but the game's a free download, so that's your tradeoff. At any rate, Spice Invaders is an amazing title, and even though I feel like I've said a few times now that tower defense has been worn out on iOS, Spice Invaders goes ahead and resets the bar all over again.
App Store holiday sales on now: GTA 3, id software, Dungeon Raid, lots more
The App Store freeze goes down today, so this is the last chance for many developers to put their apps on sale. And of course, many have taken advantage of that chance. Before we even start listing sales today, many of the sales previously listed, including EA and Gameloft's whole-catalog 99 cent sales, are still ongoing through the weekend. The anniversary release of Grand Theft Auto 3 is only $2.99. That's a bargain no matter which way you slice it -- pick it up. Japanese developer Cave is having a big 99 cents sale, with some of its bullet-hell shooters available for cheap. id Software is also going cheap, with Rage HD, Doom Classic, Doom II RPG, and more going on sale for just a buck. Hack-and-slash Aurum Blade (above) is free for the holidays. Monster RPG 2 is 99 cents. Comixology's great Comics app is having an in-store sale, with lots of comics for only a buck. Dungeon Raid is one of the best games of the year, and it's only $1.99 in a rare sale. Dragon Fantasy is an excellent 8-bit style RPG that's only a buck. Wayforward's excellent Shantae: Risky's Revenge platformer is only $1.99. Gamevil's Zenonia and Zenonia 2 are both completely free. iPad exclusive tower defense/strategy game Ant Raid is only a buck. Chillingo's Ravensword: The Fallen King is only 99 cents, and there's plenty of other Chillingo titles on sale for cheap as well. Disney's in on the sale, too, with Where's My Water, Jelly Car and lots of others for only 99 cents. Companions for iPad is only a buck. Galaxy Pirate Adventure got renamed as Galactic Phantasy, and it's only 99 cents right now. Word game Welder is just $1.99. And that's only the ones we've heard of -- there are probably lots more sales out there. In other words, if there's an app that you've been wanting to buy, you should probably check up on it today, because if it's not on sale now, it probably won't be this year. Good luck, enjoy all of your new apps!
Daily iPhone App: Extraction Project Outbreak
Extraction: Project Outbreak is a recent title from Chillingo that's an interesting mix of shooter and what's essentially real-time strategy. You control one soldier as you fight through a series of missions, and the control scheme is pretty interesting. You touch on the screen to move around from point to point, and then you drag across the screen to line up shots on your zombie enemies. The game is a real balance of movement and gunplay, as you try to move and position yourself to keep from getting hurt even when you're surrounded by the bad guys. Action ranges from tactical to frenetic, and lots of upgrades mean that as you go along, you can make both your soldier and his weapons better. There's a full singleplayer campaign to play through, and a few different modes to check out and mess around with. Extraction is fun. The action is simple but entertaining, and the graphics range from above average to really great. It's a great title for just sitting back and murdering some zombies with, and while it runs fine on the latest iPhones, it looks and plays better on the iPad. The game's available on the App Store right now for 99 cents, with in-app purchases available for extra in-game XP or money.
Daily iPhone App: Superman
This one kind of came out of left field -- there isn't really any reason for Chillingo to release a Superman game, especially one created by Flash developer Tiger Games. Superman games in general don't usually work well anyway: How exactly do you put a challenge on pretending to be the Man of Steel himself? But this one works because it stays simple -- you control the big blue boy scout running around Metropolis, and perform various tasks, like stopping robbers, killing big robots, or smashing asteroids or missles as they threaten the city. Most of the gameplay simply consists of flying around, and this is where Tiger Games gets it right -- Metropolis is a nice big 2D world to explore, and arrows on the screen will quickly directly you where Superman needs to go. There's a not-bad storyline propping the whole thing up, but let's be honest, this is superhero fantasy. You really just want to jump in as Superman and blast some robots with your eye lasers. The game's not bad at all, and for a Superman game, given the IP's history, that's enough. The iPhone version is available for just 99 cents, or you can pick up an HD version for iPad for $2.99.
SpellTower, Chickon, Superman and lots of other iOS releases today
Believe it or not, we are getting into the start of the holiday season, and that means tons of action on the App Store as people head over to buy apps for their new devices. There are a bunch of exciting new apps to check out today, so here's a quick list: Hothead Games (makers of Kard Combat and Gem King) has released a new 99 cent game called Sea Stars, featuring some Ecco the Dolphin-style jumping. As expected, Minecraft Pocket Edition is now out and available for $6.99 on iOS. EA Mobile has a new freemium title called Road Trippin', in which you tour around the United States. Adult Swim's latest is an on-rails shooter called Major Mayhem, available for just a buck. Days of Wonder has released an iPhone-specific version of its popular Ticket to Ride board game, yours for only 99 cents. Anthill: Tactical Trail Defense isn't new, but it's gotten a big new content update and it's on sale for just 99 cents as well. SpellTower is a really excellent new spelling game for iPad from the creator of the great Bit Pilot and Halcyon. The creator of Galcon has turned his real-time strategy game about planetary domination into a game about chickens called (of course) Chickon. It's available for free. To celebrate the year anniversary of its dual-stick shooter Age of Zombies, Halfbrick Studios has re-released the title in an anniversary edition, making it universal and adding new content, still at 99 cents. Chillingo has two excellent new titles out, Superman (which features the DC superhero saving a 2D Metropolis from various threats) for 99 cents, and Extraction: Project Outbreak (a well-done top-down action RPG shooter), in a universal build for also 99 cents. Superman will probably sell better, but Extraction shouldn't be missed. Com2Us has released Homerun Battle 2, a sequel to the excellent arcade baseball game Homerun Battle 3D, for $4.99. Firemint has given its rodent stealth game Spy Mouse an HD version, for $2.99. Street Fighter IV Volt has new characters and new content, and is on sale for just 99 cents. Man, that's a whole lot of great games! This isn't even all of the app releases out this week, and my guess is that we haven't even seen the biggest flood of new apps -- that usually comes around Thanksgiving, and then ramps up again right as Apple freezes the store before Christmas. It's going to be a busy holiday season in iOS gaming for sure.
Daily iPhone App: Poker Pals
I'll admit it: I never got into Words with Friends. I know it's a very popular and well-done game, but for some reason, Scrabble-style titles never appealed to me. But Poker Pals, a social title recently published by Chillingo and developed by Aspyr, scratches the same itch for me. Instead of using titles to spell words, you instead use them to make poker hands, and you get points for making the rarest ones. There are joker cards on each of the four corners that will line up to match whatever you put near them, and since the board is a little smaller than the standard Scrabble board (not to mention that every "hand" you make is five cards), I find it a little faster and more interesting than word-making games. Poker Pals is integrated with Game Center, and asynchronous play is smooth and well-done. The one big issue with the game is that Chillingo is still clinging to their own social network, Crystal, so the achievements and leaderboards are all tied up in that. It's a pain having to run two social networks, and frankly I haven't even bothered with a Crystal account, so I have no idea where I rate on the leaderboards. I've also only played the game on one platform so far, but the iTunes reviews for it say you can't sync accounts across two devices. That's a bummer if you want to play on iPad and the iPhone at the same time. But outside of the issues with the metagame, the core game is a lot of fun (especially as an asynchronous title), and you can start games with friends right through Game Center anyway. Poker Pals is available on the iPhone for just a buck, on the iPad in HD for $1.99, or as a free trial version on either platform.
The Man of Steel returns to video games ... on iOS
There's a lot going on in the DC Universe these days, what with the radically controversial reboot of all its franchises and the new Superman movie that's currently in production, so of course now is the perfect time to announce an iOS Superman title has nothing to do with any of that stuff. IGN reports that veteran iOS publisher Chillingo and Denki Blocks! developer Tiger Games (No, not that Tiger) will bring the last son of Krypton to Apple's mobile operating system, heat-vision and arch-nemesis Lex Luthor in tow. Each level will pit Supes against various sets of challenges, with metals awarded at the completion of each level, ala Angry Birds. Little else is known at the moment, but here's hoping it turns out better than Superman 64.
The Joystiq Indie Pitch: Pro Zombie Soccer
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, Enrique Corts of the Super Awesome Hyper Dimensional Mega Team talks international development dreams and drama in the iOS darling Pro Zombie Soccer. What's the story here? In Pro Zombie Soccer you control Jax, a soccer player who destroys his professional career due to hardcore partying. When suddenly he finds himself in the middle of a zombie apocalypse and he is bitten by the best undead soccer player in the world, he gains his powers and decides it's time to take some of those nasty zombies with him before he transforms into one of them, with only the help of his trusty soccer ball and the ability to control a mass-destruction super-powerful military satellite. Phew. The story is just as surreal as it gets. No intention here whatsoever of winning a Nebula Prize for best script, but players had a lot of fun with it and it's deeply integrated into the gameplay, which is exactly what we wanted.
Daily iPhone App: DrawRace 2
I got to see DrawRace 2 in action back at GDC this year, and it's a wild one. The title is a racing game at heart, but it plays unlike any racing game you've ever seen: Instead of driving the car around the track, you actually just draw a path around, dictating where the car will go, when it will turn, and how fast it should move. You have to still use the same rules as driving, however, as you push your finger around. Move too fast in the straights, and the car will spin out when you try to go around a curve. Or hit the side of the track accidentally, and you'll lose time in the race. It's a weird concept, but the execution makes it work anyway. The sound is particularly notable -- as you guide your finger around the track, you can hear the tires squeal and the engine growl, so the experience is very much like actual driving. Fortunately, at just US 99 cents, it's not a big risk to download the app and see what it's like. Chillingo is publishing this RedLynx-developed title (RedLynx also worked on the popular Trials HD game on Xbox 360), so there's Game Center support, lots of content and challenges to play through, and plenty of the polish that the publisher is known for. If you like driving or racing games, or just want to try out this crazy interface, definitely give DrawRace 2 a look.
