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More Angry Birds costumes (and a cake)
As requested, TUAW reader Amy sent us pictures of these homemade costumes designed to look like the characters in Angry Birds. You can browse through all of them in the gallery below -- again, I'm partial to the pig, but that bird looks pretty good as well. Reader Sheldon also dressed up as an Angry Bird, and included the legendary white iPhone with a screenshot on his costume -- twice the geeky references! And while it's not a costume, reader JT says he spotted this Angry Birds cake in Singapore. Never have the birds and their enemies looked so darn ... edible! Thanks to everybody who sent pictures in. I didn't see many Mac-related costumes out and about this weekend during Halloween. There were lots of video game and comic book characters walking around Hollywood last night, but no Steve Jobs or Newtons to be seen. Did you see any fun Apple costumes? Update: Here's some more reader Hanson created with his son. %Gallery-106395%
Homemade Angry Birds costumes take flight
We've seen Steve Jobs and an iPhone so far, and here come some Angry Birds costumes, from the hit iPhone game. These were all made by crafters (from what looks like fabric, felt, and plastic), and some of them look pretty elaborate. I like the pig costume the best, although dressing yourself in a costume shaped like a large yellow triangular bird has to win points for something. Very cool, and given how many Angry Birds fans there are out there, it'll probably nab a lot of candy on Sunday. Are you dressing up in a Mac- or iPhone-related costume this Halloween? Be sure to take pictures and send them in -- we'd love to see it. [via MobileCrunch]
Rovio Mobile passing on Chillingo in the future
Chillingo closed a huge deal with EA yesterday (becoming the second big iPhone publisher in as many weeks to be picked up), but the company's work with its biggest title apparently left a bad taste in the mouth of the developers, Rovio Mobile. That company tells TechCrunch that they'll never work with Chillingo, or any publisher, again. That's not so much a reflection on Chillingo, though, as it is on Rovio's success -- Peter Vesterbacka says that with the way the App Store is set up, you just "don't need publishers" any more. For a lot of iPhone developers, I would disagree -- Chillingo has put together a nice set of iPhone titles over the past few years, and seeing their name on an iPhone game can give a nice boost in profile to a developer just starting out. Obviously EA agrees -- while this doesn't mean we'll see EA start taking advantage of the Angry Birds license (necessarily -- I'm sure Rovio is poking around in as many places as possible to recreate the Angry Birds game on other platforms), it does mean that EA is getting access to a significant amount of experience in creating, publishing, and marketing iPhone games. Chillingo seems to have a talent for finding titles of solid quality that are willing to experiment a little bit, so this should bring us some more EA games that are outside of the standard Madden/Need for Speed/Tiger Woods ilk. As an iPhone user, I'm excited about both the Chillingo and the Ngmoco deals recently -- both will create more options for two iPhone publishers who have made a solid name for themselves, as well as bring a little more standing to the platform at large as a great place to publish and release great games. Rovio's done with iPhone publishers, but the rest of us are just getting started.
Angry Birds publisher Chillingo acquired for $20 million
In the wake of such huge news from Apple today, it's hard to concentrate on anything else. Here's one story you won't want to miss, though: Chillingo, the publisher behind the wildly popular game Angry Birds, was acquired by EA Games for a cool $20 million in cash. Not to worry, though, because Angry Birds isn't going anywhere. The rights to the game are actually owned by the developer, Rovio, who updated his Twitter profile earlier today to clarify that Angry Birds was not part of the sale and will not be controlled development-wise by EA. Even so, it's no secret that the App Store's most popular game of all time certainly helped to sway EA towards this acquisition. With many successful apps available, Chillingo probably looked pretty delicious to all of the big fish in the game industry who were hoping to cash in on the mobile market. Now, it's time to fire up Angry Birds and do some additional research on the story. What? Why are you giving me that look? Yes, I'm working!
Determining Game Center's current popularity
The always insightful Stuart Dredge over at MobileEntertainment has crunched some numbers on Game Center's actual popularity. Since Apple's own gaming social network on the iPhone launched, I've heard lots of different things from developers in terms of how they're implementing and using it. Some developers jumped in head-first, bringing all of their apps on board quickly, while others have only brought one or two apps on board at a time, opting instead to wait and see what their users are into. And some developers haven't even started on it yet, instead waiting to see how adoption works. So, in order to get something resembling hard numbers, Dredge took the reported sales of a few popular App Store apps, and then he compared those to the number of players listed as playing them in Game Center. You can see the top few examples above -- keep in mind that this is a picture painted with a roller rather than a fine brush; it was just created to give an idea of what's happening rather than exact figures. But there are some conclusions to draw -- a title like Angry Birds, with over 6 million players, is only seeing about a quarter of those users using the Game Center integration. At the same time, a newer title like Cut the Rope has a majority of its players using Game Center. In other words, Game Center is still in the early adopter stage -- the mass market of iPhone users hasn't yet jumped on board. But users who seek out and find the latest and greatest apps (and Cut the Rope is a hit that's only a few weeks old) are signed up and playing on Game Center already.
Angry Birds officially lands on Android, made free for all
This game needs no introduction -- if you're using iOS, webOS or Symbian, chances are you would've already come across the endless hours of puzzle entertainment that is Angry Birds. Where's the Android version, you ask? Well, today's the day: not only has it now come out of beta, but it's also made free for all! The only small catch is that it's ad-supported, although we're pretty sure this isn't gonna stop you from grabbing it -- at the time of writing this, GetJar's website's taking a serious hit from avian fanatics around the world, so we suggest you go put on the kettle and try later. Enjoy! [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
More info about the physics of Angry Birds than you need to know
If there's anything I love to read, it's analysis of the commonplace items in our lives by physicists, engineers, and mathematicians. That's why I was attracted to a recent Wired Dot Physics post by physicist Rhett Allain in which he did a Tracker video analysis of the most important characters in Angry Birds -- the birds. By using the official Angry Birds walkthrough videos on YouTube with Tracker, Allain was able to determine several important factors -- that the birds exist in a drag-free world (no air resistance), that the sling shot is huge (5 meters -- 16 feet) tall, and the birds are good-sized as well. Y'know that little red bird? He's about 70 cm (27.6 inches) tall. That's a big bird! To see how Allain used Tracker to plot the horizontal and vertical motion of the birds in flight, follow his analysis, and review his assumptions, be sure check out the original post.
148Apps creates an App Hall of Fame
Jeff Scott of 148Apps has finally revealed his App Hall of Fame project -- he started it up about a month ago, and asked a number of personalities around the iPhone/iPad app scene (including yours truly) to nominate and then vote on a few App Store apps, with the eventual goal of inducting them into a Hall of Fame. We made our nominations and voted a little while ago, and the first inductees into the store are now listed on the site: Angry Birds, Flight Control, Doodle Jump, Shazam, Evernote, Plants vs. Zombies, Pandora, Simplenote, the official Twitter app, Instapaper, Homerun Battle 3D, and Fieldrunners. You've probably heard of all of those already, but that's the point: the Hall of Fame aims to honor "the very best mobile applications and games." There will be 12 inductees honored every month going forward, so the collection should grow bigger pretty fast. The nomination process is all done by the selection committee (not the public), but if you want to follow along, you can sign up on the mailing list (and have a chance to win some of the nominees for free every month). It's a fun project -- the App Store has been around long enough now that some super popular apps have risen to the top, and this is a good way to keep track of the absolute cream of the crop over the App Store's whole life. At the same time, I'm sure we'll see some interesting decisions in the months to come, so stay tuned for that.
Angry Birds developer claims Microsoft jumped the gun, Rovio 'not committed' to Windows Phone 7
Software developers make or break a platform, as Microsoft's Steve Ballmer once famously stressed, but that shiny new Windows Phone 7 site has angered a mildly important one. Rovio Mobile, developer of the wildly popular Angry Birds game, tweets that it's presently 'not committed' to bring the game to Windows Phone, and that the above icon is being used in Microsoft marketing completely without permission. While it's possible this is just some sort of mix-up and Rovio just wanted to make its own announcement ("nothing to do with if we do or don't, it's just that we decide that ourselves," the company added in a later tweet), it wouldn't be the first time Microsoft's engaged in shady business to inflate its new app store. Update: Microsoft sent TechFlash the following statement: "It appears information was mistakenly posted to Microsoft's website, and has been removed." Sure enough, the offending logo is gone now. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
TUAW's Daily App: Cut the Rope
At every one of these gaming shows (it's GDC Online this week, which I'm at for TUAW), there's usually a "game of the show" that emerges. It's something, either on the show floor or demoing behind closed doors, that everyone starts to talk about. The buzz starts at parties and in the hallways, and then it carries over into panels and starts to crop up in those casual discussions about "what you've seen this week." But so far, the game everyone's talking about this week isn't even on display at the show. Epic's Mark Rein even recommended Chillingo's newest title, Cut the Rope, to me. It's a brand new game that's already making a huge splash this week (as of this writing, it was number two on the App Store paid list), and it's all the rage among app developers and journalists here at GDC. The phrase being passed around is "Angry Birds meets Fruit Ninja," and those comparisons are apt. The idea is that you guide a little piece of candy, by cutting ropes and manipulating other items in the environment, to a cute little monster that's hungrily trying to eat it. Cut the Rope has the cute characters of Angry Birds and the fun, tactile interaction of Fruit Ninja all wrapped up into one extremely polished and shiny package. For only US$0.99, you get four stages full of levels, three stars to collect in each level (to add replayability), and to top it all off, Game Center integration for achievements and leaderboards. The iPad version is $1.99, but there's also a lite version on that device to check out. I'm not even that big of an Angry Birds fan, but I found myself giggling as I pulled off Cut the Rope's little puzzles. I was very charmed by Om Nom, the little monster who just wants that hanging candy. Cut the Rope has just barely gone live, and this is an app that is already getting into people's heads.
TUAW's Daily App: Saving Private Sheep
Saving Private Sheep is a fun one, especially if you like Angry Birds (and there are plenty of you out there who do). Saving Private Sheep is another physics-based puzzler. This time, instead of throwing birds at pigs, you have to save sheep from wolves by tapping various wooden objects in a scene and blowing them up to try and land the pentagonal sheep safely on the ground. It may sound confusing, but once you play the game (which you can do in a free trial), it makes much more sense. The game's 80 levels will have you exploding crates, breaking ice, dropping pulleys, tossing objects around, and trying to earn as many gold medals as you can (by exploding as few items as possible as quickly as possible). And the best part is that the game's on sale for just 99 cents right now. It's not exactly the same as Angry Birds, but the game has a very Angry Birds-style feel to it, so if you like that one, give this one a shot as well.
Angry Birds introducing Mighty Eagle, costs real money to skip levels
If you're an Angry Birds player like me, you've hit a couple of levels you've had to play 10 or more times before finally being able to progress. Curse those speedy yellow birds! Give me more bombers! If that's you, Rovio Mobile -- creator of Angry Birds -- has the solution to your frustration, which it announced recently at the Nokia World conference. But the bad news is that it's going to cost you. Meet the new, angriest of the Angry Birds: Mighty Eagle. Via an in-app purchase (with real money) of a can of sardines, you'll be able to summon this new bird for a one-time shot at clearing an entire level. If you want to make use of Mighty Eagle again, you can try going back to the previous level where he was used and clear it without him. Then, voila -- you can use him again in a later level. Check out the video introducing Mighty Eagle in the 2nd half of the post.
Games updated for Game Center (soon)
As you might have noticed if you've added a few friends in Apple's new Game Center service, the backbone social components are working great. But where, exactly, are all of the games? Developers have actually had access to Apple's service for quite a while now -- it was introduced to them under NDA way back at WWDC. But for some reason, Apple seems to be waiting on approving Game Center-enabled games. Fortunately, they're coming, probably as soon as Apple can approve them. Touch Arcade forum member Project-79 has been keeping track of which games have said that they'll be Game Center-enabled. As soon as updates roll out for games like Field Runners, Flight Control, Super Mega Worm and Angry Birds, you'll be able to jump in and earn achievements with them. Keep in mind that some of the best games on Game Center are still to come: Gameloft's Dungeon Hunter 2 was leaked via a Game Center screen, and of course we're all waiting to see what Epic Games' Project Sword looks like, ever since it was shown off with full GC functionality at last week's Apple event. There are games coming for Game Center, and they should be here soon. Update: Apparently Ms. PAC-MAN is the first game to get updated with Game Center support. You might want to wait, though -- we've heard it's not a very good version.
App Review: Angry Birds (Android)
What does it take to make an addictive game? Not much -- just throw in some super simple controls, cute graphics, and basic physics. Rovio Mobile's Angry Birds is one such game that includes all these elements, and today the studio's just released a public Android beta to cater those without an iOS, webOS or Maemo 5 device. In case you're not already familiar with the popular title, the backstory is that a gang of hungry pigs snatched away some eggs from the birds, forcing the feathered creatures to embark on a rescue mission for the sake of their survival. The gameplay on the Android version is just as simple as before: in each level you use a fixed slingshot to fling the birds -- one at a time -- into the forts, in order to kill all the pigs inside. As a secondary challenge, you must also attempt to get a three-star rating depending on the amount of structural material you destroy, so the key is to perfect your shooting angle. At the beginning you're only given one type of bird that does nothing more than just headbutting, but throughout the game you'll come across six more birds, each possessing one special power: multiply, explode, accelerate, dropping egg bombs, boomerang, and extra strength. Don't worry, the instructions are pretty clear when you first meet these enhanced kamikaze birds -- most involve just a single tap anywhere to trigger their special abilities mid-flight. Once you get the hang of it, you'll soon be wanting to try out all sorts of trajectories to take vengeance on those cheeky green hogs. Seriously, the pigs really do laugh at you when your birds miss them. While we're not familiar with the Maemo 5 and webOS versions of Angry Birds, we've definitely spent a fair amount of time on the iOS flavor. Sadly, since the latter's still running on a low 480 x 320 resolution, the blurred graphics on the notoriously sharp retina display does no justice to the game. On the other hand, the Android version looks a lot prettier on our Nexus One, Dell Streak and HTC Desire, as it runs on their native resolution of 800 x 480. That said, overall the Android beta didn't feel as well-oiled as its iOS counterpart -- we've noticed the occasional light hiccups while panning across the scene, so here's hoping that this will be fixed in the final release. Regardless of this minor flaw, we'd still highly recommend Android users to check out this free Angry Birds beta in the market -- go grab it while it's hot!
Angry Birds fever continues
Here's one Angry Birds fan who took things to a whole new level. An industrious fan decided to recreate one of her favorite iPhone games using balls, clay, eggs, slingshots and cardboard boxes for a sort of "live" version of the popular iPhone/iPad game. I sure hope that's not a wick on the top of the big black bird ... or do I? Meanwhile, everyone's talking about the previously-reported rumors of an Angry Birds movie. Variety recently spoke with Mikael Hed, CEO of Rovio, creator of Angry Birds, where he talked about the success of the game and a short word on a probable sequel. Add to all of this that Angry Birds is slated to hit the Sony PSP, PS3 and the Nintendo DS. Is it possible we'll get sick of all this Angry Birds-ness before it's allowed to become as big as Hed hopes? The title is certainly primes for moving in more directions, so long as Hed gets the ball rolling quickly.
Angry Birds: The Movie?
There's no questioning that the iPhone/iPad game Angry Birds is a huge success. The company is close to seven million downloads of the game, all without any direct advertising of their own. Now the company that developed the game, Rovio, is taking a serious look into more commercial avenues for the title, including movies. The company has already done a great job with the animation within the product, including a cinematic trailer released on YouTube (which I guess you could say is technically advertisement -- check it out after the jump). But is there enough to this to make for a good story? According to Rovio, the company has been approached by several very interested parties, including movie studios, and they're giving all offers serious consideration. Chief exec Mikael Hed has grand ambitions to see the Angry Birds brand become much more than games, akin to Pixar with Toy Story, so games and movies would just be the tip of the iceberg. Do you think something like Angry Birds could translate well enough to other mediums? Is there a potential story in there worth developing?
New section of the App Store lets you Try Before You Buy
Apple seems to be taking a step towards trying to combat app piracy, while making App Store customers happier about their purchases. A new section in the App Store touts the free, "Lite" versions of many popular apps. These versions have been around for a while and have always been free, but this is the first time that Apple has marketed the apps directly. Not only is there a whole new section called "Free on the App Store," but the Lite versions of popular are now listed in a "Try Before You Buy" area. The idea is that if you try out an app and like it, you'll be more likely to purchase the app, and once it's purchased, less likely to try to get a refund from Apple and the developer. There are 98 free titles listed in the new section, including Lite versions of Angry Birds, Labyrinth 2, CoPilot Live Directions, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, and DigiDrummer. [via 9to5Mac]
Angry Birds HD updated with more levels... and crashiness
Angry Birds has been a phenomenal success, staying atop the App Store best seller list for months. I too, succumbed to the "bird in a slingshot" craze, as has my eight year old son who told me the other night he dreamed that he was in the slingshot. Angry Birds HD was one of the first games that I downloaded for the iPad, but I was pretty disappointed. While the iPhone game was only $0.99, the HD version was $4.99, following an unfortunate trend where iPhone games are ported to iPad, cost much more, and don't add any new features. But Angry Birds HD actually had fewer features and levels than the iPhone version. Rovio told us at E3 that they'd be fixing that soon. Well, as promised, an update came out a few days ago which added more levels and brought the game up to par with the iPhone version. Unfortunately the game has also added what one friend called "extreme crashiness action." So far I haven't actually lost any progress due to a crash, but it's fairly annoying. Hopefully there will be another update soon. As a side note, developer Marco Arment noted back in May that the App Store was full of scams and ripoff apps surrounding Angry Birds, some which use the same name, and others which use the same artwork. It's sad to see that these apps are still there, and to know that they are profiting unfairly off the success of a popular game. Why Apple would allow some of these apps to remain and purge others is beyond me. [Update 2010-07-08: the developer confirmed crash problems. A new update posted today seems to have solved the crashes.]
App Store filling up with spammers and clones of popular apps
Marco Arment has noticed a growing problem on the App Store; as hits emerge from among the free and paid apps, some companies are doing a little search scamming. They're ripping off the names, styles, and sometimes even the art of popular iPhone apps. He went to get the popular Angry Birds game and found that there are companies actually selling apps with "Cheats" and "Trivia" added on to the titles, often reusing the artwork from the original game. Certainly, some of these fall into a legal gray area (Angry Bird is technically another game, even though it's obviously hopping on the back of the more popular title), but some of them are straight up scams, and the angry reviews and terrible ratings prove that's the case. Arment calls out a few companies (whose titles are still on the App Store, as of this writing). He says that developers who feel an app is infringing on their trademarks can send a message to appstorenotices@apple.com to let Apple know about the problem. We'd love to see Apple clean house on these, but of course, we're not yet sure of their position. They may have some guidelines that define how close an app can get before it's actually infringing, but some of these are clearly over the line. We'll have to wait and see what actions Apple decides to take.
