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Daily iPad App: Agricola is Playdek's great adaptation of the board game
Agricola is one of the most popular board games around these days -- it's sort of a farming simulation game, where you can take two turns every round, and then periodically get rewards paid off in a harvest. Playdek is an up-and-coming iOS developer that's mostly done card games so far -- they're behind the Penny Arcade card game, as well as the excellent Ascension and a more complicated one I really like called Nightfall. Now, Playdek has teamed up with the creators of Agricola and Lookout Games to produce this iOS adaptation, available right now on the App Store for US$6.99. The way the game works is that every round, you send out a family member to perform some task for you, including growing crops, bringing in resources or building fences for animals. During the game, you can add more members to your family, which means you'll have more chances to bring in resources, but you'll also have more people to feed when the harvest comes around. The game is complex, but the core idea (of building up your farm bit by bit) is strong, so after playing through the tutorial and seeing the process for a while, it's easy to start building your own strategies and plans. Just as with the rest of their titles, Playdek has done a great job here in the presentation -- the game's stark but beautiful music goes well with the theme of fighting just to have enough, and all of the title's various processes and features are clearly displayed with charming and iconic touches. The game uses a top-down 2D drawn style, which might not have been quite as impressive as a full 3D farm environment, but works very well in getting all of the information you need across clearly. Plus, in addition to four gameplay modes, there's online or offline multiplayer, including a pass-and-play mode which is always a nice. Playdek knows well how to translate card games over to iOS, and this title proves they've been able to bring that expertise to board games as well. Agricola might be a bit pricey for those unfamiliar (or uninterested) in the original, but if you're looking for a full-featured, well-made adaptation of the popular board game, this is definitely it.
Hearthstone offers a peek at more content under development
If you've played the beta for Hearthstone, the virtual card game based off of World of Warcraft, you might have thought to yourself that you could use a little more World of Warcraft in your Hearthstone. As it turns out, the development team was apparently thinking the same thing, because now you've got quests, gold, leveling mechanics, and dueling. Pretty much everything other than arguing over raid wipes and peeking at Gearscore, in other words. Leveling allows you to improve your favorite class through continued play, with experience points earned from wins or losses alike. The team has also added new card frames and several new cards to make the game more fun to play and prettier to look at. Take a look at a rundown of all the changes on the official development blog, along with a peek at several of the new cards that have been added to the game.
Google Drive for Android updated with card UI and refined scanner function
Cards, cards, cards... that's the refrain around the Google campus these days. Everything is getting turned into cards. That now includes your documents stored on Drive, too. The Google Drive app for Android was updated today with a whole new UI that moves towards the refined Holo design of the Play Music app and displays your uploaded files as "cards," though, you can always revert to a tweaked list view. The cards offer a thumbnail preview along with the file name and an icon indicating the type of document. The ability to snap photos and have the results turned into a OCR-processed PDF has also been updated slightly. The feature is now called "scan" and it automatically crops photos to contain only the document you need to upload. Lastly, you can finally tweak text settings in sheets, delivering a much more robust mobile formatting experience. Just hit up the Play Store to get your update now.
Magic 2014 coming soon with new campaign and cards, sealed deck play
For a long time, Wizards of the Coast would not release anything official on iOS, even though the biggest collectible card game -- Magic: The Gathering -- seemed perfect for Apple's touchscreen platforms. Then, last year, we finally got Magic 2013 on the iPad, and now Wizards of the Coast is preparing Magic 2014. When the update is released in about a month, it will offer lots of new features and content to the iPad and Android devices. That second platform may not matter much to us here at TUAW, but it's a sign that Wizards is continuing to rethink its mobile strategy. The company kindly showed us the latest version of Magic: The Gathering running on the iPad this week, and it's very impressive. It runs faster than ever, and while the campaign is similar (you undertake a series of single-player challenges, or can take on other players in multiplayer), Magic 2014 has a definite emphasis on story that the current version doesn't have. Magic 2014 was designed to attract new players, so the various missions serve as a tour of the game's lore and background, with each section culminating in a battle against a "Planeswalker," one of Magic's big heroes. In addition to the new campaign structure, there's also new content, including lots of new cards from the past year of Magic. There are even some new cards from the Magic 2014 Core Deck, which isn't set to release until after the iOS app has arrived. That means that playing with this game will be the first time some Magic players can officially sit down and play with the new cards. There will also be more of a newer card type called slivers, so even if you've played Magic 2013 completely, the new version should offer up some more twists and turns. One of the biggest problems fans have had with these Magic: The Gathering video games is that in the single-player campaign, you don't get to build your own decks. Rather, you get to unlock cards for a certain deck. While there is some choice in which cards you use, all of the cards are basically tied to specific decks, so building a custom deck is out. Wizards is aware of this concern, and has an answer in Magic 2014. Sort of. The game will introduce a new mode called Sealed Deck play, where players will get six booster packs, featuring random cards from a larger pool, and will then be allowed to build their own deck from those opened cards. It's not complete freedom, because you only get a certain number of booster packs to choose from, and you'll need to make decks from those. But it does allow for a very structured bit of deck-building, and Magic 2014 contains a whole campaign and a PvP option centered just around using these sealed decks. On the game's initial purchase, you can create two total decks in this way, and then you can buy more slots for these built decks via in-app purchase. If you want to play with a sealed deck, but don't know how to build a Magic deck, the game offers an "autobuild" option. There are plenty of tutorials and difficulty options, so no matter what your level of Magic experience, 2014 has plenty to offer. The biggest drawback might be that while there are lots of new options and content, the game itself hasn't changed. Stainless Games is the company that makes both the console and the iOS versions, and as a result, both versions use the same pacing, same graphics and same gameplay. There's no iOS-specific touchscreen moves or fun tablet-specific tricks or graphics. But that's fine. The point of this is to play Magic, and Wizards and Stainless both deserve a lot of credit for producing such a well-made game. Magic 2014 should be available on the iPad in the next few months or so. We'll keep an eye out for it, and let you know when it's finally arrived.
Twitter Cards for apps, products and photo galleries unveiled
Twitter just wrapped up a developer shindig at its San Francisco HQ and trotted out three new content preview cards. When a user links to a page with Twitter-specific markup, a tweet will feature an application's name, icon, description, rating and price within the freshly unveiled App Card and link to its Google Play or App Store page, to boot. Product Cards on the other hand, highlight merchandise with an image, price and even ratings. When tweets link to a photo gallery on the web, the social network will use a Gallery Card to display a collection of four photos, indicating that it points to an image set, and not just a lone picture. The firm rounded off the updates with "mobile app deep-linking," which means that tweets can sport a download link for the app which was used to publish them. Flickr, Foursquare, Path, Vine and others will make use of the new features when they launch, which should be tomorrow according to word from the coder get-together.
Matt Rix and Owen Goss prepare for a Snow Siege
After a long absence from the App Store, developer Matt Rix will soon be back with Snow Siege, a game that's the result of a new collaborative effort between Rix and Owen Goss called Milkbag Games. I met up with Rix at GDC this week to talk about the new game and how it all came together. Rix made a big splash on the App Store a couple of years ago with Trainyard, an excellent game that had you connecting little colored trains with rails on a grid. Since then, Rix has worked on several projects and prototypes but hasn't released a new game for iOS. He admits feeling pressure in trying to follow up Trainyard's high quality, and notes that he "gets really sick of it" when a project goes on for too long. While game development can be fun, polishing a title for release often isn't. As a result, Rix found himself looking for a new project rather than finishing the ones he'd started. Last year, Rix teamed up with fellow developer (and Ontario, Canada resident) Goss, the creator of Finger Tied and Landformer. Rix said he hoped "working with someone else might make me stick to something." Rix has also been working on a framework built for the Unity engine called Futile (which developer NimbleBit has famously embraced for their games), so the duo started making a game together. Snow Siege is scheduled to be released this year. The initial game Goss and Rix started bore a close resemblance to another game Rix made called Baskeball Cannoncube, which itself has roots in a silly comment on Reddit. But the original game, which was about a cube that could shoot basketball hoops, eventually translated into a snowball fight game, and it morphed again and again, as Rix and Goss threw ideas back and forth, into the wild mix of genres that Snow Siege is right now. So here's the run-down. Snow Siege is a tower defense game with action elements. The defenses that you build (against an invading horde of 2D snowmen) are all represented and chosen from a deck of cards. A number of cards go into your hand during every build phase, you get a certain number of points to build with, and then you can spend those points to build defenses. Blue cards are shields that block enemy attacks. Red cards are weapons and used for attack. Green cards represent support units which provide a variety of helpful abilities. Snow Seige has one last twist. Once you choose what cards you'd like to build with, the defenses appear on the board in the form of ... wait for it ... Tetris pieces. With plus-shaped pieces, lines and various angled blocks, you can drop pieces onto the board and build them up as you like, either slotting them together Tetris-style or dangling them dangerously out across each other. There's even a little bit of strategy to building a rickety structure -- if a group of snowmen takes out a support block, the blocks overhead will fall and could give you a "crushing bonus," rewarding you with lots more coins and points. As you might imagine, the game starts simple, with just a few snowmen that are easily defeated. However, Rix showed me a battle from later in the game that was incredibly chaotic, including hordes of snowmen marching on a huge fort, driving tanks and even helicopters. Your defenses can get beefy too, with missile turrets and lasers that will shoot automatically and even target certain enemies for you. Snow Siege looks like a lot of fun, but complicated. The card mechanic is a strange addition to a game that's already got puzzle blocks and shooting weapons. But Rix said it's in there to simplify things, actually, and he and Goss hope that the simple act of collecting cards in a deck makes the choices of what and how to build a little easier and more understandable. At any rate, the pair has plenty of work yet to do. Rix and Goss are both talented game creators and they've got several interesting ideas up in the air already with Snow Siege. Hopefully they can juggle those ideas without dropping any.
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.
Pinterest quietly sneaks in support for Twitter Cards
Oh, the mild drama between social networks. Just as Instagram nixed its in-depth URL integration with Twitter about a week ago, now it's Pinterest getting involved -- however, the latter is taking a slightly different route. Thanks to Twitter user Kelly Lieberman, who initially spotted the changes, we have now learned that Pinterest has turned on support for Twitter Cards, allowing folks on the microblogging service to get a slightly better look at links coming from its own, pinboard-style network. Essentially, this means you can now get a preview within Twitter of what your friends are pinning -- you know, things like what type of grub they're craving or pics of insanely cute dogs.
Instagram officially kills photo integration within Twitter, leaves no trace behind
If you've taken to Twitter today, it's likely that you noticed all your Instagram photos that were stored as gallery Cards are gone. Unfortunately, this isn't a temporary glitch; as of today, the photo-sharing service has officially killed all photo integration on Twitter. So, although links to your photos will function like normal, there is no way to preview them within Twitter anymore. If you'll recall, it was merely a few days ago that Instagram pulled Card support from Twitter, which made any filtered snapshots display in wonky fashions within the micro-blogging network. While today's move by Instagram isn't totally shocking -- it would rather you view pictures on its new browser-accessible profiles, after all -- it's a shame that the contents of many Twitter galleries have vanished in a flash.
Guild Wars 2 gems now available in plastic card form [Updated]
Guild Wars 2's Black Lion Trading Company offers more than just a way to buy and sell in-game items; it's also used to buy the game's currency known as gems. These gems can be bought and traded for real money and converted to in-game gold for the purchase of just about anything your Tyrian heart desires. But now ArenaNet is making it even easier to buy the in-game currency through gem cards available for purchase at your favorite retail store. These cards would be perfect as a gift from your grandmother or sweet aunt Vickie, who can help support your crafting obsession without even knowing it. Just tell them that you're really interested in Geology and Gemology. It's a win-win! [Update: ANet has just posted the complete list of retailers offering gem cards. In the US, they are Fred Meyer, Hasting, NewEgg, Fry's, and Amazon.]
Daily iPhone App: Summoner Wars is a complicated mix of virtual board and card game
I took a trip down to Tampa Bay, Fla., for my sister's wedding last week, and before I headed for the airport, I loaded up my iPhone and iPad with a few new apps to check out on the way. Honestly, Fieldrunners 2 HD ended up taking most of my gaming time, but Summoner Wars was a very impressive choice as well. Summoner Wars is a complicated, intriguing game that combines tactical strategy, good old fashioned dice rolling and even some deckbuilding card game elements. You're fighting on a board pushing around cards as units. With each turn, you can either use your cards (as spells or actual heroes) in the battle, or save them as mana to summon more units on your next turn. There are plenty of deep strategical choices here that fans of complicated board games will find satisfying. Unfortunately, all of that complexity makes the game tricky to pick up. There is a tutorial, but even it only explains the mechanics of the game, and leaves you to figure out strategies completely on your own. But I appreciated that, especially on a long plane ride where I needed plenty of distraction from the crying baby behind me and the talkative gent across the aisle to my left. Summoner Wars is completely free-to-play, too, so if you want to check it out, you've got no excuses not to. If you like it, you can unlock everything in the game for US$7.99, or pick up individual card decks or card packs individually.
Apple updates nearly every app for iOS 6, sneaks in key GarageBand, iPhoto and Podcasts updates
If you didn't already know that iOS 6 was out in the wild, Apple just delivered a torrent of mobile app updates to make it perfectly clear. Virtually every app that isn't preloaded now has explicit iOS 6 support to keep it running smoothly, and some of the upgrades are thankfully more than just skin-deep compatibility tweaks. Among the highlights are Podcasts' new subscription list syncing through iCloud, ringtone creation with GarageBand and iPhoto support for 36.5-megapixel image editing on the latest devices -- you know, for that moment you need to tweak Nikon D800 photos on an iPhone 5. We're including direct links to a few of the juicier updates, but we'd recommend checking AppleInsider's comprehensive list to see everything that you're missing.
The HEX Code Wallet case is nicely built, but a little too unwieldy
A few years ago, I decided to do my best to narrow down the number of things I carry around in my pockets every single day. Instead of one giant keychain with all of the keys I've ever owned on it, I cut down to two smaller keychains, one for my house and another for my car. And instead of a giant wallet that had been stretching out my back pants pockets, I instead just grabbed the insert out and stuck my ID and a few cards in there. Other than that, my iPhone 4 is the largest thing I carry around all the time. Of course, the functionality is definitely worth it, but still, I've always wondered if there was a way I could go even lighter, and combine my iPhone and wallet into one unit. The HEX Code Wallet case for the iPhone 4 or 4S is designed to do just that: It's a very well-made leather wraparound case that has a few card slots on the inside front cover, and the goal is to simply store a credit card or two and your ID, so that you don't need to carry around both a phone and a wallet when you go out. Unfortunately, the HEX Wallet isn't what I'm looking for. While it will definitely store your cards as needed, it's just too unwieldy for the simplicity that I'm after. The case is definitely well-built -- the leather on the outside is solid, if a little too rough. Inside, however, the leather that holds your cards is quite luxurious, and the plastic that holds in the iPhone is smooth and strong. I had no problem snapping my iPhone 4 into place, and while it was a little tougher to get it out, presumably you won't be removing it much once you've purchased this one. All of the buttons are, obviously, accessible, and a nice open area near the dock connector means I had no issues hooking my iPhone up to a charging cable while in the case. The biggest issue with the HEX, however, is when you start to put your cards in it. There are three slots on the inside front cover, as well as a larger pocket behind. But if you actually do use all three slots, the case becomes quite thick, and a little too unwieldy for my taste. Plus, even with my wallet insert, I still carry around 10 or 12 cards (from various customer appreciation programs and discount stores), so the HEX wouldn't work for me all of the time anyway. The other issue I have with the case is the strap that runs from top to bottom outside, and is meant to keep the case closed and shut when you're done with the iPhone. While the strap itself is nice and strong and seems well-connected to the case, I just found it in the way while I was using the case, and it felt a little awkward snapping it back around when the case was being closed. Fans of Moleskine notebooks may love this strap, but personally, it didn't work for what I wanted. And finally, though this is probably the most personal of my feedback, I just don't like the idea of a cover flap on my iPhone. It makes what is a really beautiful and simple device into something off-center and even ugly. The flap doesn't fold around to the back at all, so when you're using the iPhone with this case on, it's basically a book where you're only reading the right side of the page. I admit that this is mostly personal taste, but that's not the case for me. If you do just have a few cards you want to make sure are always with your iPhone, and you don't mind those concerns about having a cover and a strap on your case, then the HEX Wallet might be what you're looking for. At $50, it's not cheap, but the production materials aren't cheap here, either -- this definitely feels like a case that can last a while, and the black one I tested did look quite classy, especially when closed. But this case definitely isn't the one for me. Personally, I'm more excited about the possibilities of Passbook in iOS 6, and any other future technologies that allow me to use my iPhone as a credit card, identification system or even car key. Eventually, my hope is that all I'll ever have to carry around to get whatever I need will be Apple's gorgeous smartphone, and any case it needs will accent its beauty, rather than try to cover it all up.
Daily iPhone App: Lost Cities is a great port of a popular card game
Lost Cities is one of Reiner Knizia's award-winning board games that recently made its way over to iOS, and I think it's great. The game is simple and easy to play, but it shows off quite a bit of complexity among just a few elements. The biggest complaints I have are that the tutorial can be confusing and there's no iPad version yet, unfortunately. But Lost Cities is an excellent strategy title good for quite a few matches of play. The core game here is a card game. You deal cards of various colors and numbers out of a stack, and then place those cards in certain colored lanes or in a discard pile. Playing cards in lanes gets you points. Each lane starts at negative 20 points, so the player needs to try and put as many cards in a certain lane to make their score positive and higher than the other player. The trick, however, is that you can only put cards in lanes in ascending order. Placing down a card worth the max of 10 points will earn you those 10 points, but it will also block off adding any other cards to that lane. Presentation is excellent: the graphics are clear, there's an excellent soundtrack and a variety of AI players to face off against. The Coding Monkeys, who also made the excellent version of Carcassone for iOS, have added "goals" to earn as you play, which offer extra incentive for replay value. Lost Cities is available for $3.99. It's a little steep as these games go, but if you like well-designed card and board games, it's worth skipping that cup of coffee to buy.
Card Hunter combines tabletop gaming with digital magic
Jon Chey is a co-founder of Irrational Games, who recently formed up a brand new studio called Blue Manchu, to work on a new game called Card Hunter. Card Hunter might easily be mistaken for many similar games of much lower quality: It's a Flash game that runs in your browser, and it's going to be a free-to-play title monetized by microtransactions, using collectible cards to fuel the gameplay.While Card Hunter may look shallow on the surface, it's anything but. Chey and his team have crafted what's essentially a love letter to tabletop gaming, combining mechanics usually meant for traditional board gaming (like game boards, cardboard cutouts, dice, and action cards) with a high-quality and well-designed video game.%Gallery-164200%
Nukotoys digital apps and physical cards available now
Back in January at CES, one of the most magical things we got to see was these new cards from Nukotoys, physical collectible cards that somehow interacted with Apple's capacitive touchscreens (probably with an invisible pattern, if I had to hazard a guess). The project seemed very cool, and Nukotoys told us that it hoped to release by year's end. They're ahead of schedule apparently, because the apps are now available on the App Store, and I'm told that the physical cards are out at retailers available to buy right now. That link above goes to the Monsterology-branded app, and there's also an Animal Planet-branded Wildlands app out, with specific "Nuko Cards" also available for each. The idea is that kids can buy packs of the cards, which will then interact with the apps when touched to the iPad or iPhone's screen, adding an animal or monster directly into the app. Nukotoys is sending some cards along to TUAW shortly, so we'll have a look at how it all actually works when those show up. In the meantime, if you've been waiting to see the product in action, you can run out and grab some cards right now. This interaction between the physical and digital is fascinating to me, and I wouldn't be surprised if we see exactly this kind of toy be very popular heading into this year's holiday season. Nukotoys has done a lot of work leading up to this release, so here's hoping it all pays off well for them.
Google Play gift cards officially announced, now rolling out to Target, RadioShack and GameStop
We've seen hints of them in the Google Play app and some pretty clear evidence of them in the wild, and now Google has finally officially announced the availability of Google Play gift cards. Those are available in $10, $25 and $50 denominations, and will be rolling out to Target, RadioShack and GameStop retail stores in the United States over the next few weeks (no word on availability outside the US just yet). According to Google, they'll also be available on Walmart.com later this month, but not in Walmart stores for the time being. As you'd expect, the cards can be used to purchase anything on Google Play, including movies, music and books in addition to apps (or in-app items). [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Dominion officially coming to the App Store this week
My favorite card game to play with friends right now is called Dominion. It's a game that's set off a "deck-building" craze in the board gaming world, in that you build up a deck to play with as the game goes on. It's inspired quite a few games on the App Store already (including the excellent Ascension), and there has even been an officially-sanctioned fan version of the game previously released. But that fan version disappeared a while ago, and that's because we're finally getting a full, official version of Dominion to play on iOS later on this week. Rio Grande has promised to make a full version of the game for a while, and as of this Thursday, we'll have it. The game looks and sounds great: free play of the base game, and then in-app purchase access to the game's expansions as they're released. You'll be able to play by yourself against bots, online with friends, or even in a new "adventure mode" that turns the game into a single-player title. The new app is essentially a frontend for an HTML 5 version of the game being worked on by a company called Goko, but as long as it's Dominion and it works, no worries, right? We'll find out how faithful this version is when it comes out on Thursday. [via Pocket Tactics]
Shadow Era physical cards now being shipped to retail stores
Shadow Era is an iOS app that came out a long time ago -- it successfully combines a collectible card game (fairly similar to the World of Warcraft card game, if you've ever played that one) with a freemium business model, a plan that has worked out very well for developer Kyle Pool. So well, in fact, that he announced a little while ago that Shadow Era would be getting physical cards to go along with the iOS title, and indeed, the company has announced that Call of the Crystals, the first physical version of the original iOS title, is now headed to a game retail store near you. You can see unboxing videos floating around already -- this is a full, high quality collectible card game that originally began only on Apple's iOS platform. That's great. Apple usually brags about how much software it has seen released on its iOS, but when you look at things like all of those Angry Birds collectibles and then a game like this, that has gone from an indie developer's idea to a full franchise, it's really fascinating to see just how popular and powerful this App Store has become.
Shadow Era getting physical cards to go with iOS game
I am a big fan of Shadow Era, a really solid World of Warcraft-style virtual collectible card game for iOS. It's been out for a little while, and with a few excellent updates and expansion packs released, there's a lot of game here to be had, starting at the low price of free. Now there's news that the game is about to get a lot less virtual: Shadow Era is releasing real, physical cards to play with. It's a great deal, especially if you're a fan of the game. Wulven Game Studios has teamed up with cardmaker Cartamundi to make high-quality real cards to play with, and they're selling them in a Kickstarter-esque "crowdfunding" format, with multiple rewards levels to play at. Perhaps best of all, every penny you spend on the real cards will get matched with virtual currency in the game, so you're essentially getting both real and virtual cards for your money. The cards themselves will debut at the Origins Game Fair in Columbus, OH in the beginning of June, and the physical cards are expected to start shipping later this month. It's great to see a big iOS property like this get so popular that it's extending off into the real world in such a huge way.
