steve demeter
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Steve Demeter's Trism to return as Trism 2
You may (or may not) remember Trism, which was one of the first iPhone games I've ever played, and was one of the App Store's first big gaming winners. Developer Steve Demeter was behind that game, but after his huge success on the early App Store, he left the spotlight for quite a while, and hasn't released another game since. Polygon caught up to him at GDC last month, however, and it turns out Demeter has decided to make another game, called Trism 2. As you can see above, the game looks very different than the original, though the slide-to-match gameplay is still there. Demeter's apparently decided to jump on the (overcrowded) free-to-play bus, not only selling the game and its features through in-app purchases, but also giving the title some colorful characters, and adding a lot of RPG-style progression to it. It sounds interesting. Demeter says that we'll see the game out on iOS devices soon, possibly sometime this summer. It sounds like he's done a lot of soul searching to figure out what he wants to try and make next after the success he's had, and Trism 2 will be the result.
OpenFeint announces iPromote, readies to take over iPhone gaming
During our interview with Danielle Cassley of Aurora Feint, I talked with her about OpenFeint, the code backbone for a social network that iPhone developers can use in their apps. Since then, a number of developers have added the interface to their apps, perhaps most notably Pocket God, which has used the tool only to create the barest of online leaderboards so far. Now the crafty folks at Aurora Feint are revealing another trick up their sleeve: something they're calling iPromote. It sounds like more or less a crosspromotion deal for various apps and games in the OpenFeint system -- certain apps will give their users a chance to pick up other paid apps under the OpenFeint umbrella. While the press release is fairly vague about exactly how it works (they say there will be "a revenue sharing model for sales that occur through OpenFeint"), it'll probably show up in the user's interface as links or promotions for other apps.There are quite a few of those apps -- Aurora Feint lists over 20 apps that have already integrated OpenFeint, and there are more on the way, including some high-profile apps from Chillingo. Even our friend Steve Demeter, who was working on his own community platform called Onyx, has abandoned work on that to join up with OpenFeint. There are at least a few other such platforms like this that were vying for widespread acceptance on the iPhone, but it looks like OpenFeint is primed to take the top spot. Which means we'll probably be seeing lots of it in applications near you very soon.
SXSW 2009: Games By the People, For the People
So you enjoy playing video games, right? That's what probably brought you to Joystiq in the first place. But have you ever thought about making your own? Right now you're probably thinking, "But, Kevin... doesn't that take millions of dollars and a huge development team?" Well you happen to be in luck, because the answer is no. You can pretty much do it all on your own for pennies. But what's the secret to making it awesome? 5 out of 5 panelists agree: you need to have a good story, or a really interesting idea. Simple, right? Start thinking, and find out more after the break.
