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PAX 10 announced, features an all-stars of indie gaming selection
With PAX 2009 just under two months away, the folks organizing the Penny Arcade Expo have begun gearing up for the show. How do we know, you ask? Simple: The PAX 10 was announced today, featuring a list of games we'd sorta/kinda heard of before. Since we're so cool and totally knew about all these games before anyone else did (yeah right), we're a bit nonplussed by this year's PAX 10 winners. Hell, we even have Fieldrunners running on our giant, collective iPhone right now. Seriously! Okay, fine, we only knew that one ... CarneyVale: Showtime by the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Games Lab (Xbox 360) Closure by Tyler Glaiel and Jon Schubbe (PC) Fieldrunners by Subatomic Studios (iPhone/iPod touch) Liight by Studio Walljump (Wii) Machinarium by Amanita Design (PC) Osmos by Hemisphere Games (PC) Puzzle Bloom by Team Shotgun (PC) Tag: The Power of Paint by Tag Team (PC) Trino by Trinoteam (Xbox 360) What is Bothering Carl? by Story Fort (PC)
Sony's plan for "snackable" PSP game and application downloads revealed
Sony already announced its intentions to bring more developers to the PSP platform at the big E3 gaming show last month. And the move to simplify its development tools was seen as a hint of new PSP applications beyond games. Now Develop has laid bare Sony's PSP development strategy as explained by Zeno Colaço, Sony's head of developer relations. According to Zeno, over 50 studios are working on "new kinds of games and applications" that will be sold via a "specially-branded separate area" of the PlayStation Store accessible by PSP and PSPgo owners. In effect, Sony is going after the kind of "snackable content" made popular by Apple's App Store -- inexpensive games and apps that can be downloaded in less than a minute for immediate gratification -- according to Subatomic Studio's Ash Monif. In fact, Subatomic, best known for its massive App Store hit, Fieldrunners, is developing a PSP-exclusive version of its tower defense game. Unlike Apple, however, Sony is charging for its PSP SDK in a bid to keep things, uh hem, "professional," as Zeno calls it.[Thanks, Calvin H.]
Report: Sony changing PSP dev pricing, pipeline to attract more creators
Sony's European head of developer relations, Zeno Colaço, has explained the company's strategy for courting companies to make products for its digital distribution-focused PSP line (more specifically, the new, expensive PSP Go). The executive tells Develop that the new development pipeline involves getting rid of concept approval, shortening quality assurance process, slashing the SDK price (and implementing cheaper development kits), and pushing for a low price point for games.Colaço boasts that over 50 studios are already making the new generation of PSP titles. He mentions Subatomic Studios is already working on a PSP version of Fieldrunners, its tower-defense iPhone hit. Basically, Sony wants to bring App Store-esque titles to the PSP. We expect about four or five fart-based titles by holiday '09.
GDC09: iPhone gaming roundup
The Game Developers Conference is on in San Francisco, and game companies are starting to pull out the major announcements on what's coming to the iPhone in the next year. Here's a roundup of all the titles we've heard mentioned already. EA announced a huge lineup of ports from their already popular games: everything from Command and Conquer: Red Alert to SSX to FIFA, Madden, and NBA are all coming in some form to the iPhone. They're also working on bringing over the Wolfenstein RPG and Spore Creatures (which was the DS port of Spore), as well as a big list of casual board games (Scrabble is only the beginning), and versions of Need for Speed: Undercover, and Tiger Woods PGA Tour. And most amazing? All of these are due out before the end of the year. Someone's lighting a fire under iPhone developers at EA. id software announced that they're bringing Wolfenstein 3D Classic to the iPhone in an official form -- that one's already been submitted to the store and should be out soon. Click the link below to read on.
GDC09: IGF Mobile Award winners announced
Several games took home honors at this morning's Independent Games Festival's Mobile awards ceremony, but the event's true winner was apparent: the iPhone. While the awards were geared towards -- and open to -- titles for all wireless / mobile devices, every game that won is available exclusively on Apple's telephonic wunderkind (and, of course, the iPod touch). Subatomic Studios' tower defense favorite, Fieldrunners, won for Best Art and Best Mobile Game (overall). Sergei Gourski and Jamie Gotch (above), the two developers responsible for the game, have been viewed as rising stars in the indie mobile gaming scene since Fieldrunners' release; today's wins cemented their star status. We spoke with the duo about their award-winning creation -- look for the full interview soon on the 'Stiq.Two awards also went to Secret Exit for its sublime Zen Bound. The part game, part relaxation exercise was named Best iPhone Game and earned a Mobile Audio Achievement award. The Best Innovation award went to the simplistic, yet infinitely replayable 4x4 space strategy title, Galcon. The only unreleased game to win was Firemint's Real Racing, which earned Best Technical honors. We'll have a hands-on with the impressive looking (hey, it won the tech award for a reason) racer soon.
iPhone is dominating independent gaming
Our friends at Joystiq make a very insightful and very telling discovery: the iPhone more or less owns the finalist list for the 2009 Independent Games Festival Mobile category. 11 of the 14 contestants aren't on the Nintendo DS or PSP -- they're built and played on the iPhone and the iPod touch. The popular Fieldrunners and Igloo Games' Dizzy Bee are standouts, but even innovative games like Galcon and the pseudogame experience Ruben and Lullaby are being honored with nods.Very, very telling -- the relatively low cost of entry into the App Store and the versatility of Apple's SDK makes the iPhone/iPod touch a dream platform for independent game developers, and clearly, even with less than a year of development time, Apple's handheld is making a big splash in the industry. Sure, there's still a few pricing hiccups that need to be worked out to get bigger developers on board in a big way, but for smaller and single person independent game developers, there's never been a better platform on which to make and market your games.
2008 Best iPhone App Ever winners announced
The voting only went underway a while ago, but they've just announced the winners for the 2008 Best App Ever awards, celebrating (according to 148apps.com and the people they got to nominate and vote in their contest) the best iPhone apps of last year. As I said for the voting, you can probably take most of this with a grain of salt, but there's no question that there are some awesome apps in here, and probably at least one or two you'll be interested in checking out if you haven't yet.Shazam won big in the "Best Overall", "Most Innovative," and "Best WOW" categories, and that is well worth it: Shazam is super reliable and works great as a "music recognizer." Rolando picked up "Best Game Graphics," and "Best Game Controls." Fieldrunners also picked up two awards for "Best Strategy Game" and "Best Long-play Game."Unfortunately, the much-despised (by me) Ocarina won three total awards, including "Best 99 cent app" (I would have chosen Koi Pond over that one easily and that's one where Weightbot was made to win), but feel free to ignore me and my iPhone app crankiness. There are lots of great iPhone apps here (especially when you dive into the nominations), and overall, we're looking at the best of a terrific first year of iPhone development. Onward to 2009!
Fieldrunners and other great iPhone games for the holidays
Time Magazine has named Fieldrunners one of the top ten games of the year -- and the only game on the list for the iPhone. Very impressive. The App Store has only officially been out for half a year, and games have been in development for only a little longer than that, but already, we're getting some great games on the iPhone's touchscreen.And speaking of great games, I've only recently come across Warfare Incorporated, but I know some of our commenters have been waiting for it. I'm no good at RTS games, but the game was award-winning on other handtop platforms, and is apparently doing very well on the iPhone also. If you're looking for real-time strategy on the small screen, there you go.And finally, Tatomic, which is a game I've really enjoyed (kind of a cross between Lumines and Dr. Mario), sent us a note to say that their full version is on sale for the holidays, for only $2.99. There is still a free version, but even at the normal price of $4.99 Tatomic is a bargain if you at all like falling block games. At just three bucks, it's a steal. Terrific to see the iPhone holding its own with quality games this holiday.
