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'Vote: The Game' is a political fighter from the Infinity Blade folks
Yup, that's about as exciting as it sounds – a United States politics-based fighter from Infinity Blade developer Chair Entertainment. Call it "Ignominy Blade," if you will (we will). Or call it Vote: The Game, which is its actual name.Epic and Chair announced the iOS entry this afternoon as a "cartoon-style political slugfest." The game was produced alongside the Rock the Vote folks in an effort to appeal to unregistered gamer voters – you can register to vote from right within the game.Cartoon versions of both President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney appear in the title, where they battle Infinity Blade-style to win debates. It may trick a few potential voters into thinking that's how the debate process works, but that doesn't sound like too bad of a byproduct to us.The game isn't available in the US iTunes App Store just yet, but it's already popping up in other territories. It should arrive on the North American store shortly.Update: It's live now in the US, grab it here!%Gallery-163152%
Chilly Chair uses static electricity to raise your arm hair, force an 'emotional reaction' (hands-on video)
Hiding in the back of the SIGGRAPH Emerging Technologies demo area -- exactly where such a project might belong -- is a dark wood chair that looks anything but innocent. Created by a team at the University of Electro-Communications in Toyko, Chilly Chair, as it's called, may be a reference to the chilling feeling the device is tasked with invoking. After signing a liability waiver, attendees are welcomed to pop a squat before resting their arms atop a cool, flat metal platform hidden beneath a curved sheath that looks like something you may expect to see in Dr. Frankenstein's lab, not a crowded corridor of the Los Angeles Convention Center. Once powered up, the ominous-looking contraption serves to "enrich" the experience as you consume different forms of media, be it watching a movie or listening to some tunes. It works by using a power source to pump 10 kV of juice to an electrode, which then polarizes a dielectric plate, causing it to attract your body hair. After signing our life away with the requisite waiver, we sat down and strapped in for the ride. Despite several minutes of build-up, the entire experience concluded in what seemed like only a few seconds. A projection screen in front of the chair lit up to present a warning just as we felt the hairs jet directly towards the sheath above. By the time we rose, there was no visual evidence of the previous state, though we have no doubt that the Chilly Chair succeeded in raising hair (note: the experience didn't come close to justifying the exaggerated reaction you may have noticed above). It's difficult to see how this could be implemented in future home theater setups, especially considering all the extra hardware currently required, but it could potentially add another layer of immersion to those novelty 4D attractions we can't seem to avoid during visits to the amusement park. You can witness our Chilly Chair experience in the hands-on video after the break.%Gallery-162116%
Infinity Blade 2 adds free 'Skycages' update, limited-time price cut
Infinity Blade 2 received its final free content update today in the form of "Skycages." The expansion adds new areas, enemies and the "Solar Transport Energy Blades"... which look awfully similar to another franchise's elegant weapons.To celebrate the latest update, the regularly priced $6.99 universal app is temporarily cut down to $2.99. Now, go slice up some new fools, who more than likely deserve it.%Gallery-161653%
Epic Games: Infinity Blade on iOS more profitable by the pound than any other game we've made
Traditional console makers have often sworn up and down that mobile doesn't make money for game development. That might still be true for some developers, but you'll get a very different answer if you ask Epic Games. Co-founders Tim Sweeney and Mark Rein have collectively described the currently iOS-only, Chair-developed Infinity Blade as the "most profitable game we've ever made" when considering the amount of money and time invested relative to the money coming back. Yes, that includes even the Gears of War series, which most consider Epic's primary cash cow. Sweeney, like his long-time competitor Johh Carmack at id Software, is also taken aback by the power stuffed inside the latest generation of mobile devices -- a 2012 iPad is nearer the performance of a PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360, he tells Gamasutra, and the pace is only picking up. Even more insights await in the interview with Sweeney; click below if you want a hint of what one of gaming's pioneers has to say about where your tablets, phones and (yes) PCs are going.
Unleash 'The Power of Liking' in Infinity Blade 2's 'Vault of Tears' this Thursday (tissues not included)
It's not a new box set from The Cure, nor from Joy Division, nor from Him. It's not a Tears for Fears reference, nor is it access to Prince's 1980s clothing selections! Nope, Infinity Blade 2's "Vault of Tears" is actually a massive (free) content update headed to Epic's latest iOS entry this Thursday.Several new enemies are being added, as well as "more than 50 new items" and rewards. Most bizarrely, the ability to "earn extra turns and invite their friends, family, and other non-Infinity Blade players to do in-game damage with the power of liking and re-tweeting battle calls." You read that right, folks: "the power of liking and re-tweeting battle calls." In the biz, we call that a "paradigm shift." Also, awful.%Gallery-155820%
Infinity Blade 2 update drops next week, introduces ClashMobs
Having received an iPad 3 update recently, Infinity Blade 2 has a new, more substantial upgrade coming on Thursday. It will tweak the gem interface and let you meld together three gems, creating a single, more powerful jewel. There's also a new game mode, called ClashMob.ClashMob is a global social game mode where hundreds or thousands of players can come together to take on enemies with massive health pools for the chance to unlock in-game goodies. By recruiting friends into your "Mob," you'll increase your odds at getting some sweet gear, cash, or whatever that particular challenge awards you. You'll be able to enlist folks in your Mob by importing your friends from Facebook and Game Center.
Infinity Blade 2 updated for iPad 3, new content teased for next month
Playing Infinity Blade 2 on that boring old iPad 2 like some kind of commoner? Get with the times, friend -- it's all about that new iPad now. Epic and Chair have updated the app to take advantage of the "increased memory and processing power, yielding even higher performance and more sophisticated rendering features." In other words, Infinity Blade 2 looks purtier.Next month brings another Infinity Blade 2 update, adding new enemies, weapons and items, plus a new feature called ClashMob, in which players "work together to complete objectives and earn rewards." Chair promises to reveal more information in the coming month.
App review: Infinity Blade 2 (iOS)
The 3D duel-fest is back, and attempting to answer some of the questions left over from its first installment (and a few major updates). Infinity Blade has had a huge effect on promoting the iPad and iPhone as valid gaming options, with high quality visuals and intuitive touchscreen controls. Well, Epic hasn't tampered with the formula too much, but has tried to instill some considered expansions and pour even more eye-honey all over it. Will it stretch gamers beyond the original? We've now spent a fair bit of time slashing away at those pesky immortals and their underlings -- see what we thought of this little big adventure after the break. %Gallery-141444%
Mustard: Infinity Blade success didn't stall Shadow Complex 2
Chair creative director Donald Mustard was nice enough to sit for a few moments with us to talk Infinity Blade 2 so, naturally, we took advantage of his generosity to grill him about the long-discussed (and apparently "largely designed") Shadow Complex 2. We asked if the runaway success of Infinity Blade is what's kept the follow-up to the side-scrolling action-adventure off of Chair's radar. "No, I think that's a complete misnomer," Mustard said. "When we sat down to figure out what we wanted to do after Infinity Blade, and we started to wonder 'Do we want to do Infinity Blade 2?', it wasn't about 'Do we want to make more money?' it was about 'Do we have more to say in this genre?' 'Can we push this gameplay somewhere meaningful?' Those are the questions we ask ourselves. "Now that we've made the first Shadow Complex we kind of know what we're doing and we feel like we can really bring a lot to the Metroidvania genre and Shadow Complex franchise. We want it to be amazing, we want it to be perfect, and we want it to be delivered on the right platforms. It's really about finding the right opportunity for Shadow Complex, not that we've been diverted in any way. "Everyone on our team at Chair will be dead long before we run out of games we want to make. So we try to be very careful about where we spend our time." That's right, that's the answer: Mustard is choosy about projects because he's worried about his own mortality. We may not know when Shadow Complex 2 will arrive, but at least we know the source of the shadows: Donald Mustard's gloomy bummer clouds.
Chair on Infinity Blade 2 development crunch: It sucked
Chair co-founder Donald Mustard recently talked to Gamasutra about the trying circumstances under which Infinity Blade 2 was developed. The whole kit-and-caboodle was created in a six-month crunch; Mustard explained, "We don't look at that like that's a good thing at all. We only did it because we definitely, passionately wanted to get the game done, and we wanted a little more in there." Mustard added, exhausted, "I think in retrospect, having done it twice, that our development cycles are a little too short." He tiredly explained his team had to "death march kill ourselves" for the last two or three months, which is detrimental to the studio's longevity. "And so we definitely won't do that again," Mustard added, with great fatigue. "It's not worth the cost." We totally agree. Now, we're thinking Shadow Complex 2 by early April. Let's get cracking, okay?
Daily iPhone App: Infinity Blade 2
Yes, it's out. Go get it right now. Oh, you're still here? Well then I guess I'll tell you that Infinity Blade is even bigger and better than before. There are now multiple classes and play styles, including dual wield and two-handed in addition to the standard sword-and-board hack and slash gameplay. You can now forge your own weapons and upgrade them with gems, explore a much bigger and more exciting world, and see a little bit of story along the way. Combat itself has been tweaked and fixed up, so parries are much smoother to pull off, which is good, because there are new enemies and attacks, too. In other words, Infinity Blade demonstrated how to make a brilliant iOS game, and Infinity Blade 2 is the idea expanded and writ large. There's even more to come, as Chair has promised more updates. Since first title eventually got free content, level cap raises and a multiplayer update, it's a good bet this game will get the same post-release attention. In short, Infinity Blade 2 is as triple-A as iOS games get. Consider that top-shelf console games sell around US$59.99, and it's quite nice that iOS gamers can get ours at just $6.99. Chair and Epic are still setting the bar for major studio gaming on the iPhone, and this time they knocked it up there pretty darn high.
Portabliss: Infinity Blade 2 (iOS)
A closer look at Portabliss: Infinity Blade 2 on iOS.
Watch Chair pitch Infinity Blade 2 as an 'artistic experience'
Infinity Blade 2 studio Chair Entertainment say the project is much more than just a game, calling it an "artistic experience" in the latest dev diary. As such -- just to be safe -- we'll play the iOS title in a local museum when it arrives next week.
Infinity Blade: The Soundtrack now available
Epic Games and Chair Entertainment have released Infinity Blade: The Soundtrack ahead of Infinity Blade 2's December 1 launch. Despite containing a finite number of songs, the soundtrack features orchestral scoring from both Infinity Blades 1 and 2, bringing the track listing to a rather sizable 25 jams. Composed by Josh Aker (Undertow, Shadow Complex) the collection of chronologically recursive music is available on iTunes, Amazon (both regular and On Demand) and Zune for $9.99. You can also purchase each song individually for 99¢ if that's your style, but we can't figure out why anyone would be inclined to do so. It's not like high-fantasy soundtracks usually have singles, after all.
Infinity Blade II previewed, has bigger world, more enemies, and new gear features
With the launch of Infinity Blade II just a few short weeks away, Chair has shown the game off to IGN Wireless, and they report that it looks terrific. The game mostly follows in the path of the first title, with the player having to navigate a path over and over while upgrading their equipment and skills while doing so. But this time around, the "loop" is significantly bigger (with an intro section that's apparently as long as the last game), and there's another reason for going around it a few times, which we'll learn as we play through the game. There are also some significant updates to the gear system, including the ability to dual wield one-handed blades, or even use a big two-handed sword (with its own mechanics for blocking). The magic system has been updated, and gear can now be adorned with gems for extra stats or bonuses. There are a few new varieties of enemies, and enemies will now use tactics like magic also. The world itself is upgraded, too -- various trips through the game will unveil new paths and story lines that play out as you go. And the preview hints at even more interesting features, like "clash mobs," where players all around the world can whittle the health of a huge boss down and then all get a reward for killing it. Sounds really interesting -- Infinity Blade II is due out on December 1. Can't wait!
Epic Games announces Infinity Blade 2, coming 12/1 on iPhone 4S
Mike Capp from Epic Games has taken the stage at Apple's iPhone event in Cupertino today to show off Infinity Blade 2, the upcoming sequel to one of the most popular games on iOS (a game, incidentally, that Epic says it's made $20 million from already). The new game will reportedly take full advantage of the newly announced iPhone 4S' A5 graphics chip, and even implement "some graphics techniques that aren't even available on home gaming consoles." The demo shown was of course beautiful, featuring lots of reflections and shadows, and even in-world details like koi swimming in a pond and fireflies in the air. The game is essentially the same kind of swordfight gameplay, though in this version, the player will be going after the creator of the Infinity Blade itself. Dual wielding, with one sword in each hand, will be possible as well. No price yet, but Infinity Blade 2 is set to come out on December 1. There's no word whether it will require an iPhone 4S to run (hope not), but Apple did say that it would only run at its best on the new version of the iPhone.
Infinity Blade 2 coming to iOS December 1
After pulling down $20 million in revenue on Infinity Blade (no seriously) it should come as no surprise that Epic just announced Infinity Blade 2 during Apple's iPhone 4S announcement keynote. Better yet: It's coming December 1. While Epic's Mike Capps insisted it's "only going to run like this on the iPhone 4S," it doesn't sound like the game will be exclusive to the new device. Also of note: Need, want, please, now.%Gallery-135728%
Bleszinski: Shadow Complex 2 is 'largely designed' and 'sitting there'
Remember when we told you that Shadow Complex 2 was probably going to come out, even though Epic focused on a new iOS title, Infinity Blade, after releasing Shadow Complex? Turns out we were right. Again. Epic's Cliff Bleszinski confirmed to Gamasutra that Shadow Complex 2 is "largely designed" and is just "sitting there." Bleszinski said Epic and Chair Entertainment, the developer behind Infinity Blade and Shadow Complex, are looking for a partner to help finish the sequel. Even though it left Shadow Complex 2 behind, Bleszinski said developing Infinity Blade for iOS was the right move: "We needed a flagship product for iOS, plain and simple," he said. "And we could have ported Shadow Complex, but it would have been a lot of work and it might not have been the right fit. And then Donald Mustard suggested Punch Out!! with swords with RPG layers and we were like, 'Yes!'" Update: We got a comment from Chair, which reads: In a recent interview, Cliff reiterated the same thing ChAIR's Donald Mustard has said in the past and Epic President Mike Capps commented on a few weeks ago. Following the release of Shadow Complex, ChAIR did some really great design work on Shadow Complex 2. ChAIR then shifted gears to develop Infinity Blade upon noticing a huge opportunity with the emerging iOS market. In regards to the "looking for partners" comment, its likely Cliff was referring to a potential publishing partner. Given the tremendous popularity of Shadow Complex, there's a ton of interest in a sequel and plenty more we'd like to do in that universe. We're confident we'll revisit when the right opportunity presents itself.
Why Epic Games hasn't made Shadow Complex 2 (but 'never say never')
When Shadow Complex was released in 2009, it received critical praise and became a commercial hit. After Epic Games announced that Chair's next game would instead be an iOS title named Infinity Blade, many were curious as to what had happened to the obligatory, post-success sequel. "The reviews were great, it was a record seller for a single-player game on the platform, but at the same time we've got this mobile gaming push that's coming in strong," Epic Games president Mike Capps explained this morning during his GDC Europe keynote. "And the big thing for me was that we were looking what the iPhone could do, and the games that were on iPhone, and we thought there was a huge gap, so we put our engine team on the problem, and that's where we came up with Infinity Blade," Capps said. "We were thinking about the sequel [to Shadow Complex], we were ready and 'Maybe we should start working on this,' and instead stopped everything and went and made Infinity Blade." Capps expanded on the possibility of a Shadow Complex sequel when I followed up with him after his presentation. "Never say never," he offered. Of course, when Chair head Donald Mustard answered the same question earlier this year, he said that such a sequel is "a question of when, not if."
Infinity Blade X for Mobage goes free in Japan, supported by virtual goods sales
DeNA, Japan's most successful mobile internet company, will offer a free-to-play version of Epic and ChAIR's incredibly successul iOS game, Infinity Blade. Over there it'll be called Infinity Blade X for Mobage, and promises to offer multiplayer and co-op features through DeNA's immensely popular Mobage network -- the game will be free to play and supported by the sale of virtual goods. Infinity Blade, which is considered a "premium" title everywhere else but Japan (see: it costs more than a buck), was just recently updated with head-to-head multiplayer and survival modes. The game's latest milestone saw it surpass $10 million in sales. Infinity Blade X for Mobage is scheduled to launch in Japan sometime this fall.
