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Daily iPhone App: Rivals at War is fun but way too freemium
Hothead Games is a studio that's been all over the place -- it's a Canadian developer that started out making some interesting PC titles, but lately has transitioned over to iOS, making freemium games that recently have been more freemium than games. The company found a sizable hit with its Big Win series, combining a collectible card game with a virtual sports simulator. But now Hothead has made yet another right turn, spinning the Big Win formula into a combat game. Rivals at War is the company's latest title, and it uses Big Win's collect, upgrade and then watch mechanics to simulate combat rather than a sports game. The formula is interesting: You open up different types of soldiers that you can upgrade via the freemium currency, and then you can assemble them into teams and pit them up against opposing teams in a battle. Unlike a lot of other combat games though, this one's all about assembling that team in the right way, because once the battle starts, your soldiers just fight for themselves. It's up to you to make sure you have the right troops in the fight instead of controlling them directly. Because of that similarity to the Big Win series, Rivals at War has essentially the same pros and cons. It's definitely a well-polished game: Hothead knows how to make these by now (after making five Big Win titles), and the move to a more gritty combat setting is a welcome change for the often cartoony Big Win series. The battles are very well-portrayed. But because the series is so heavily targeted on collecting cards and spending boosts and abilities, there's way too much freemium here, and just not enough game. Watching a battle makes you want to jump in and play it rather than just sit back while your virtual soldiers fight. Hothead is a solid game developer -- they clearly know their craft, and they've got a lot of good ideas to put into action. But whether because of financial pressure or other reasons, both the Big Win series and this Rivals at War game just spin too much towards making money rather than focusing on fun, engaging gameplay. Rivals at War is worth a try if you want to see how it all works (the game is free, of course), but hopefully Hothead will make another swing back towards focusing on the fun rather than building in innovative ways to sell more in-app purchases.
Daily iPhone App: Zombie Ace flies out from under freemium clouds
Hothead Games is sort of building a new life for itself in the iOS space. The company has always been a downloadable game company, aiming for digital distribution for its titles rather than through the traditional retail stores. But up until last year, most of Hothead's work was for traditional consoles and PCs. After Hothead released Kard Combat and saw a lot of success with that freemium title, we saw the company change quite a bit. Nowadays, most of Hothead's work seems targeted at freemium casual games (the Big Win sports series has also been very popular for them), and the latest release, Zombie Ace, is no different. On the face of it, Zombie Ace is very much "influenced" by Jetpack Joyride -- it's a one-button endless runner, where you tap the screen to move upwards as you fly along in a zombie-piloted plane. But there's a lot of new gameplay here as well: You can fight as you fly, throwing zombies and enemy planes. There are certain vehicles with trails you need to stay in, that will give you bonuses and other addons. And your plane is extremely upgradeable, providing a nice progression to the title that most endless runners don't have (you're flying across the country, basically, and you need to upgrade your plane enough to make it from Seattle to New York). The whole game is very much driven by freemium purchases, which can get annoying (especially when the app asks you constantly to buy more IAP items, or sign up for TapJoy, or watch a commercial, or any of the other spammy stuff that are the model's worst offenders). But if you can make it past all of that crap, the game itself is a lot of fun, and there's a nice amount of polish on it as well. It's a little saddening to see Hothead move away from its premium history, and really depend so much on all of the spammy freemium tricks. But at least there is still some good gameplay in there, hidden under all of the IAP prompts.
Hothead Games looks for a Big Win on iOS
Hothead Games is actually an old company by most iOS standards: As marketing director Oliver Birch told me at GDC last week, the company is actually turning six years old this week. Previously, they mostly made PC and console games (most notably the Penny Arcade Adventures, and Ron Gilbert's Deathspank), but recently, Hothead has been pushing more and more towards Apple's App Store, and Birch says that while Hothead definitely "supports all of the games we've got out there, really, we're all about mobile now." Which makes sense -- between the collectible card game Kard Combat, Jetpack Joyride-alike Sea Stars, and the excellent Gem King (formerly known as Kickin' Momma), Hothead already has a nice run of iOS hits. And the company is now looking to follow all of that up with a new game, out now, called Big Win Soccer. Big Win Soccer is probably unlike any soccer game you've played before -- in fact, it's more of a collectible card game than anything else. The idea is that you have a team of players (represented by cards), and you can activate various stats and abilities on them (also represented by virtual cards). When you play a game against someone else online, you don't directly control the players. Instead, you watch the game play out, and the various abilities and stats you chose to represent your team go into the final outcome. After the game, you can earn coins, which can be used to buy and win even more cards, making your team stronger and better. It's ... an interesting idea, though if you're turned off by the trappings of freemium games, you will find plenty of them here: You have a certain amount of energy to play with per day, and can't play beyond that point, and of course the collectible card system is also driven by (optional, admittedly) in-app purchases. Hothead wants you to spend money, it's clear. While there is a card game to be had here, the strong suggestion to supplant your normal play with money is always there. In its short life on the App Store so far, Big Win Soccer has been a huge success, so much so that Birch says the game melted a few of the company's servers (I don't think it literally turned wires to liquid, but Birch wasn't clear). The overwhelming demand for the game on its server software means that Hothead hasn't publicized the game's launch much, but apparently it hasn't had to, given how many players are trying to log in. Reviews for the title are stuck down around two or three stars only, but most of the reviews talk about the servers going down, not the actual gameplay itself. If the game turns out to be a success, Hothead is all ready to follow up: Birch also showed me Big Win Hockey, and it's probably a safe bet that Hothead will expand the line as much as it can, allowing fans of all sports to play their favorite games through the various card collecting mechanics. Birch also showed off a few other titles, each at various stages of development (including one which isn't quite ready for the press yet, he says). Zombie Air is Hothead's next release -- it's a freemium title that also plays sort of like Jetpack Joyride, but instead of just an endless run game, it actually consists of quite a few different levels, as zombies take to the air to fly in customizable planes across a post-apocalyptic United States. The game has a fun and cartoony look, but the freemium model is very evident here as well -- Birch said Hothead is using a lot of the "learning from Sea Stars" to put this one together. So Hothead clearly has a nice slate of titles ready to go. When the company was working on the console, Birch explained, they used to take twelve to eighteen months to put games together, and these days, "we can make a game now in weeks." Is that such a good thing, though? Deathspank and the Penny Arcade Adventures were both interesting, original titles, not bogged down by the trappings of freemium, and Hothead's latest titles, while very well-produced and colorful, don't skimp on the monetization. Birch agrees the concern is there, but says that Hothead needs to be profitable, and wasn't necessarily so back in the console days. He also admits that the company is learning along with its audience just what works best. "We're trying to work it out," he said: How the audience can really enjoy and appreciate Hothead's games, but also make sure that "we get something out of this as well."
Daily iPhone App: Sea Stars
Sea Stars is Hothead's latest game on the App Store, and it's really good. You play as a little fish who can swim and jump through water with a touch of the screen. Your goal is to swim as far as possible while avoiding obstacles. It's quite fun and well done. There's just one big issue: The game is basically Jetpack Joyride. Now, it's not exactly Jetpack Joyride, since you're not riding a backpack, and in practice, the controls are more or less upside down from JJ's float-up-when-touched controls. But the other similarities are undeniable. First, you collect coins which can be spent on upgrades (coins can also be bought via in-app purchase). You'll also find "friends" which work like JJ's vehicles, making you survive an extra hit and switching up the control scheme. Finally, the obstacles move and turn like the electric spheres in Jetpack Joyride. It's possible Hothead was working on this before Halfbrick's big title, but not likely. This game is essentially Jetpack Joyride re-skinned. That's not necessarily bad. Jetpack Joyride is a great game, and if you've already prestiged in that one a few times, Sea Stars will definitely float your fish (though I do have to say that I don't understand the "hurt your tail" reference when the game ends, whatever that means). But this is a blatant ripoff. I would rather have seen Sea Stars try to improve on Halfbrick's great formula rather than borrow it. Perhaps I'm complaining too much, especially considering the app's current price. Sea Stars is a great title that just happens to be free thanks to a promotion in the App Store right now.
Kard Combat, Spy Mouse, more push big updates
Hothead Games' great freemium card game for iOS, Kard Combat, has gotten a big update this week in the App Store. The biggest new feature is a new "pass-and-play" multiplayer mode, which allows for two players with one iOS device in the same place to play their cards out, and then pass the device on to the next person. Obviously, it requires a little bit of honor on the part of players, but if you just want to play a friendly game of Kard Combat, it's a cool mode to try. Game Center multiplayer has also been added to the game to work inside iOS 5, and there are new UI updates and a few other new features in there as well. Firemint's line-drawing stealth game Spy Mouse has also gotten an update, bringing in new global leaderboards, new challenges, and a few other bug fixes and other tweaks. Kiska, the in-game cat which will help you get past some of the tougher levels, can now also be used once per hour rather than just once per day. Artistic platformer Contre Jour also got a nice update, adding 20 new levels to play through, featuring a cool opposite visual style from the rest of the game. And finally, while it hasn't been updated recently or anything, I'll also just mention that Super Stickman Golf is free today as well. If you haven't picked up this great little 2D fantasy golf game for iOS, now's the time.
Kickin' Momma becomes Gem King, Hothead tells us why
I am a fan of Hothead Games' Kickin' Momma, a colorful, Peggle-style title that appeared on the App Store a couple months back. Just recently, that game disappeared from the store, and in its place now is a new title called Gem King. It's free to download and employes a freemium, in-app purchase system. A few of the comments on that game accuse Hothead of some questionable business practices in making the apparent switch to the new title, so TUAW spoke with Hothead's Oliver Birch and Joel DeYoung to figure out exactly what happened. In short, Kickin' Momma, while a good game ("Our highest rated game yet," they told me), didn't do as well as expected. "To be honest with you, it just didn't achieve nearly the downloads that we were hoping it would. We had a plan to add new content, new levels," said DeYoung, "but it wasn't enough downloads to really justify making that new content." Hothead liked the game a lot, however, so they came up with a solution to get more people playing it. "We figured the best way to do it is to just take it free." The team already had an update planned out for iOS 5, and there were some bugs and inconsistencies in the gameplay they wanted to fix, so they decided to "reboot and reimagine" Kickin' Momma, and then release it as a free title. Perhaps the biggest and most obvious change in the game is that Momma is now a dude, a King nonetheless. Hothead said that they originally just went nuts with Momma's collectible accessories, which got them into trouble. "When we were coming up with ideas of the little dress up things," DeYoung said, "it was like well, she kicks her babies so she's going to need boots, and then it kind of went on from there." The first unlockable in Kickin Momma was a moustache, which led to confusion about just what Momma was. So in Gem King, the character is obviously male, and obviously a king, which opens him up to even more personalization. Did Hothead purposely choose a male character because they thought that would get more downloads? "I don't think we thought of that as a factor, necessarily," said DeYoung. The decision was more based on what's clear and fun than actual gender preferences. "There were suggestions about a backstory, maybe she got a sex change or something, but we didn't take it that far. Of course it's not meant to be taken so seriously." In the iTunes reviews for Gem King, some players are complaining about Hothead putting Gem King up at a higher price, and then dropping it to free to try and get on price charts. DeYoung confirmed that yes it did launch at a price higher than free, but he said that the company wasn't doing anything but standard price testing on the App Store. "It gives us a lot of interesting data about price sensitivity and that sort of thing, and that's something you see fairly typically on the store." From the beginning, however, Gem King was set up to be free. "The intention was let's reboot or reimagine Kickin' Momma as a free game. And that's what we did. It was free within 12 hours or something very quickly after that. A few people, I think, jumped on, and jumped to some conclusions." At any rate, Gem King is now free on the App Store, and it offers the gameplay and levels of Kickin' Momma, along with a freemium design and the new features of iOS 5. If you already have Kickin' Momma installed, you can keep it and it will still work, but of course any updates will go out to (the free to download, of course) new version.
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy app coming to the iPad, Don't Panic decal not included
Canadian indie developer Hothead Games is producing a Hitchhikers Guide app, aiming to replicate the titular guide itself (rather than the novels). When it arrives this fall, we can expect beautifully animated sequences describing the Babel Fish and Vogon Poetry -- but just a single word about planet Earth (the addition of the word "Mostly" should come in a second, more sinister update). Visit the holding page and you'll hear the unmistakably honeyed tones of Simon Jones who played Arthur Dent in the original TV and radio series. If he's voicing the guide then this will be a must-have for fans, taking over a role made famous by Peter Jones, and later Stephen Fry in the movie. As the app is iOS only, Android users should probably still panic -- or make a trip to their local laser etching station.
Daily iPhone App: Kickin Momma
Kickin' Momma is Hothead Games' latest iOS title, and it pretty blatantly borrows some gameplay setups from Popcap's popular Peggle. That's actually ok from a gaming standpoint, though, because the game is executed very well, and there's just enough newness here to really enjoy the proceedings. The idea is that "Momma" kicks her little spawn off into a little series of circular pegs, and your goal in each level is to pick up as many little red gems as possible. Hothead uses a Chillingo-style rating system for each of the 36 levels, and there are other little mechanics that pop up later on, like explosive and multiplier pegs to hit. There's a whole lot of sparkle and flair to the game's design, with lots of particles kicking around and flashy graphics to enjoy. You can earn accessories for Mama as you play, and there's full Game Center integration for both leaderboards and achievements. Kickin' Momma is a great game with a lot of style, and while yes, it does re-use some ideas from Peggle specifically (though Peggle is kind of based on Plinko from the Price is Right, no?), there's enough care and work put into this one that it's well worth the purchase. You can buy a standard iPhone version for US 99 cents, or a universal HD version for both the iPhone's Retina Display and the iPad for $1.99.
Kard Combat bringing out big update, talks IAP conversion and community
Kard Combat is a recent iOS release from Hothead Games that's been doing very well on the App Store, and the title is set to see its first big update today. Four new mages are being added for players to play through, including card decks based on Demon, Chaos, Deception, and Arcane magic, and two new game modes. Challenge mode adds additional challenges and goals to the standard gameplay, and timed multiplayer requires that multiplayer turns be taken within three minutes, making for relatively quick games. The update also includes a number of new options and features -- most of the standard features will obviously be free for anyone who's already downloaded the app, though of course the new campaigns will be available via in-app purchase. Anyone who's purchased the full game already for US$9.99 will of course get all of the new content for free. As I said, Kard Combat has been doing very well -- Hothead producer Hamish Millar tells TUAW that while they can't reveal actual numbers behind in-app purchases, "we have a very active multiplayer community of which most have made a purchase." The most popular option so far has been the $2.99 purchase for the first four decks. Millar also says that Hothead's very happy with how the game has been received and reviewed, picking up a very committed player community and lots of feedback to go with it. This game's a little more hardcore than something like Angry Birds, so I wouldn't expect it to be quite that big. Still, Hothead seems to have a nice hit on their hands, and the card game model is something already proven to use DLC as a successful way of extending a game's life over a long period of time. Kard Combat looks like it's well on the way to being a very popular and profitable iOS IP.
TUAW's Daily iPhone App: Kard Combat
Kard Combat is a new universal iOS title from Hothead Games, the folks behind the Penny Arcade videogames, DeathSpank, and the iPhone's Bunny the Zombie Slayer. As you may have guessed from the name, Kard Combat is a Magic The Gathering-style card game, where you use a deck of cards that represent magic spells or creatures and fight them against each other. To be honest, Magic the Gathering isn't really my thing, so I can't compare the two super closely. But Kard Combat offers some innovation, I think, in the way the cards are laid out -- any cards summoned to your side first attack cards laid across from them, and then the health pool of your opponent, so there's some interesting positioning strategy involved. You also oversee a few different types of mana that grow over time or based on certain cards you have out, so that provides a lot of complexity to the gameplay. There's a lot of content to play through as well -- four decks, each with their own single player "Tower" campaigns, and then of course multiplayer gameplay. The game's business model is almost tougher to figure out than the actual strategy -- currently, the title is a free download with five single-player missions unlocked, though an in-app purchase of $2.99 will unlock everything. After that, there are more decks and cards to buy, of course, and more to come. In the end, Kard Combat is an excellent little turn-based title. It's definitely worth a free download, and then if you consume all the content there, you can see if you want to dive in deeper.
TUAW's Daily App: Bunny the Zombie Slayer
Hothead Games, the developer behind DeathSpank, Swarm and the Penny Arcade series of PC and console games, just released Bunny the Zombie Slayer, its first title on iOS. Just in time for Easter, the game has you playing as a bunny fighting zombies by lobbing Easter eggs at them, taking them down by lining up your shots and using special eggs with various functions. The game's reminiscent of Pro Zombie Soccer as you take down shambling hordes with a very arcade-style weapon. It's fun, and Hothead's great art direction and design keep things fresh every time you load it up. The game's low on features, with no Game Center integration or multiplayer, but it's still a nice deal at US$0.99 for a universal version on iPhone or iPad. Bunny the Zombie Slayer is a nice debut for the iPhone from the increasingly impressive Hothead, and hopefully we'll see more from them on iOS in the future.
PAX 07: Penny Arcade Adventures developers panel
We went to the Press only Hothead Games Q&A for their upcoming PC (Windows, Mac and Linux) game for Penny Arcade, On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode One. It opened up with a new trailer that built upon the previous one, that has taken huge steps in capturing the Penny Arcade look, in both the 2D and 3D realm. As they start showing the same demo on the show floor today, the trailer and gameplay footage will more than likely be hitting the intertubes soon so you can form your own opinions in the the progress of the art direction. After the trailer played the fired up their build of the game and started a new campaign. Full details on the demo and information from after the Q&A session can be found after the break.
Joystiq interviews Penny Arcade Adventures' Hothead Games
While at PAX, we also got to speak with Joel DeYoung and Steve Bocska of Hothead Games, the ex-Radical development team tasked with bringing Penny Arcade's dark vision to life, episodically, as Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness. We asked them about their team, the degree of cooperation with Penny Arcade, the growing episodic gaming space, and whether or not they'll use any of those fancy cartoonish graphics employed in Radical's Simpsons Road Rage title ... we hope they do.You can download the full interview here (.mov), or watch the video embedded after the break.
Penny Arcade presents Penny Arcade Game starring Penny Arcade
The news is out, PA Panel and embargoes be damned! Penny Arcade are making a game! We know what your first reaction is:"Knowing Tycho's concupiscent relationship with italicized words of Brobdingnagian proportions, we can only assume it will be an impossibly difficult Scrabble variant tailored, like the finest Italian suit, for lexiconnoisseurs."You might be correct in such an assumption ... but you're not. "It must be a 'poke the doll' game where we play as our favorite erotic fruit juicing device and sweet, succulent fruit takes on the role of the pliable porn starlet."Wrong again. It will be, in fact, an episodic "comic adventure" known simply -- or, rather, not so simply -- as Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness. The installments will initially be available on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux platforms, "followed by a version for next-generation consoles." Robert Khoo, Director of Business Development for Penny Arcade, assured us these would be episodic as well, as opposed to a compilation of episodes. Khoo told us "it's an RPG in short" but will contain elements of adventure games befitting its "comic adventure" moniker. Knowing that adventure games, episodic content, and creative control are a publisher's kiss of death, Penny Arcade, like Telltale before them, will be distributing their game directly, bypassing retailers and online platforms like Steam and GameTap (for now). The game is being developed by Hothead Games, comprised of former employees of Radical Entertainment, makers of Simpson: Road Rage, Hulk: Ultimate Destruction (read: two licensed games that don't totally suck). Khoo was quick to dash any notion that this would, in fact, be a licensed game exactly. Both Tycho and Gabe have been hands-on every day with the developers working on everything from art and story to design. Khoo explained just how much hot and heavy greasy hand to game contact there's been: "We're doing everything we can to make sure it has our fingerprints all over it." Yeah, now that's hands-on.So when can you virtually copulate with big, long words, PA style? They're taking the Duke Nukem Forever "when it's done" route. We'll be sure to ask about the possibility of fruit copulation and Scrabble minigames. Shiny new press release embedded after the break.
