gaming - page 30

Ever play Lemmings? If so, you know the thrill of guiding little figures through ever-increasingly hazardous environments, using each character’s unique skill to avoid and overcome the devious level designer’s clever traps and obstacles.

Wobbles, a new universal game app from developer Play Nimbus, takes its cue from Lemmings in two ways. One, players need to guide their wobbles from start to finish, as they all follow each other in unvarying obedience to the march. Two, the little sounds the Wobbles make come close to the cuteness of the sounds in Lemmings–when players fail a level, an adorable Wobble voice says, “wobble wobble wobble!” It’s adorable. Seriously.

If you’re tired of running through temples, taking joyrides on jetpacks, or robot unicorn … attacking, developer Bravo has a guy you should meet.

He’s RunBot, star of the same-named, free-to-play, sprint-forever game out now for iOS devices. I’m not actually sure that his name is RunBot, now that I think about it, but that’s as good a name as any considering he’s a robot that runs. He also jumps, slides, falls, and flies, but I’m getting ahead of myself here.

SEATTLE, PAX 2013 – As I sit here on the 10th floor of Seattle’s public library, I’m trying to make some sense of the last four days of gaming conference, the Penny Arcade Expo.

It’s not like gaming is as important as, say, the current crisis in Syria, or attempts to fight poverty and homelessness, or even the inability of spaces like PAX to provide a safe place for women or people who are trangendered.

On the other hand, gaming is a massive cultural phenomenon. PAX’s founders, webcomic writers Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik, wanted to create a convention that would focus on gamers, whether they play tabletop games, video games, or card games. That there is a massive interest in this convergence of different kinds of gamers, from D&D nerds to arcade geeks, is an understatement, as evidenced by quickly sold-out tickets months in advance of the conference as well as by the huge herds of human beings of all stripe who I saw traipsing from one booth to another this weekend in the Washington State Convention Center.

Ever feel like submitting your will, nay, your sanity, to an Elder God? iOS game Ball of Cthulhu aims to make your dream a reality, with a narrative right out of the pulp magazines of the Lovecraftian era to pull you from one Peggle-styled level to the next.

SEATTLE, PAX 2013 – We spoke a bit with indie studio, Gaijin Games, at the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) this weekend in Seattle, about the upcoming release of Runner 2 to iOS (and Sony’s PS Vita). Runner2, aka Bit.Trip Presents Runner2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien, is a side-scrolling platform game with heavy rhythm elements that’s already out on console and Steam for Mac.

The team wanted to publish Runner2 on iOS on its own, in contrast to the console versions, which were published by Aksys Games. The Bit.Trip series has been a critical and consumer success, selling well on a variety of platforms since it began with Bit.Trip Beat in 2009.

SEATTLE, PAX 2013 – Picture this: you pull out that old Dance Dance Revolution pad, connect it to your Mac, and then dance your way through procedurally generated dungeons, tapping your feet and bouncing to the beat as you kill monsters, loot chests, and equip yourself with ever more powerful weapons.

Wait, what?

Vancouver-based Brace Yourself Games (aka Ryan Clark) has perhaps stumped even the most open minded among us with this new combination, found in upcoming game, Crypt of the NecroDancer.

SEATTLE, PAX 2013 – Wizards of the Coast is at the Penny Arcade Epo (PAX) this year to show off the most recent digital version of its digital card battler, Magic the Gathering 2014: Duels of the Planeswalkers, available for iPad, PC, select Android devices, and gaming consoles. This is the first expansion set for the game, which was originally released this past June.

We sat down with Mark Purvis, a brand manager for the Washington-based gaming company, to talk about the new expansion and some cool connections between the digital game and the paper one the company also produces.

SEATTLE, PAX 2013 – As we walked around the show floor at Penny Arcade this year, our attention was drawn to a beautifully hand-drawn platform game playing on a Wii U in one corner of the more independent gaming section of the expo. Called Teslagrad, this is a 2D puzzle platformer with action elements that uses magnetism and electricity as its main mechanic.

This is the second game from developer Rain AS, itself based in Bergen, Norway, and it’s just gotten picked up for Steam’s Greenlight program, a way for Valve to support independent game developers on its own digital distribution platform.

SEATTLE, PAX 2013 – We spent some time talking to Geoff Pitsch with Proletariat games at the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) this weekend, looking at the company’s upcoming iPad game, World Zombination. The game is a faction-based, real time tactical, massively multiplayer game with real-world activity recorded across all players. All battles take place in areas based on real-world cities.

Currently, the zombies are winning.

SEATTLE, PAX 2013 – We sat down with Majesco’s Vince Vanasin today to take a look at the upcoming iOS game, Romans from Mars, a castle defense game with a sense of whimsy. The idea here is that the Martians are coming to storm your castle, and you’ve only got a crossbow to deter them.

Luckily, you’ll be able to upgrade that crossbow along the way in this free-to-play game coming to iOS this October. Here’s a quick Vine video of Romans from Mars, straight from the PAX floor.

SEATTLE, PAX 2013 – Robot Loves Kitty is a husband and wife game development team who used to live in a treehouse to save money. They started a Kickstarter hoping to raise just enough money to buy a decent laptop and a copy of Unity to develop the game. They ultimately raised 650 percent of their initial request, making things easier, yet much more complex, than they’d ever planned.

“I can’t believe it’s so popular,” said Alix Stolzer, the wife half of the Robot Loves Kitty development team. She also does some of the artwork, the story, and does PR for the game. The extra funding enabled the team to rent a tiny apartment and pay for internet, but it also requires them to create more features than they initially planned.

SEATTLE, PAX 2013 – We stopped by the booth for interactive radio drama with voices that most gamers here at the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) in Seattle this weekend will know, including Rob Wiethoff (Red Dead Redemption), Logan Cunningham (Bastion), Sarah Elmaleh (Skills of the Shogun), and Chris Ciulla (Fallout: New Vegas).

We got to sample the prologue and first episode of the game today at the PAX booth on the show floor in the convention center, where we spoke with Jonathan Myers about the innovative game. As you can hear in the launch trailer above, the voice work and the music bring you right into the action.

SEATTLE, PAX 2013 – We spoke with Josh Glazer, CTO of Naked Sky Entertainment, about the company’s upcoming turn-based tactical game, Backyard Battles. The game, coming to iOS, Android, and the web later this year, pits two teams of children against each other, wielding cardboard tubes, spell books, and their imaginations.

“It’s what kids raised on video games do when they play outside,” said Glazer.

SEATTLE, PAX 2013 – We got to spend a little time with this new rhythm game, Jungle Rumble, at the Indie Megabooth area deep within the Penny Arcade Expo showrooms. The game features monkeys and music, a great combination for fun and challenging gameplay, of course.

SEATTLE, PAX 2013 – Phobic Studios, the developers behind hit iOS game, Dragonvale, showed off their latest creation, Glare, at the Penny Arcade Expo this weekend in Seattle.

The game is made in Unity, which will let the studio release on Mac, PC, and Linux at first, with some vague plans for mobile spin off titles in the future. It’s looking pretty delightful, with gorgeously rendered, faux-2D backgrounds and plenty of lighting and particle effects. That sounds pretty dry on paper, but it produces a lovely effect while playing. Here’s a quick video of the gameplay we saw in the closed-door meeting.

SEATTLE, PAX 2013 – We dropped by the 2K booth today to chat with Jessica, one of the 2K reps in attendance at the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) this year in Seattle. She showed off 2K Drive, an upcoming free-to-play racing game very much in the vein of EA’s Real Racing 3, with hyper-realistic, licensed car racing. Here’s a little Vine video of our hands-on time with the game.

SEATTLE, PAX 2013 – We got to spend some time with Ben, one of the lead designers on the free-to-play multiplayer battle arena (MOBA) game, Smashmuck Champions, currently display here in Seattle at Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) 2013. Ben showed us how quickly a match can start and conclude, a far cry from the more typical 30 minutes to an hour of a MOBA like League of Legends or Defense of the Ancients. The match Ben played in while he talked to us was all of ten minutes or so, full of frenetic battle action with fun characters, called champions, jumping around and duking it out across the battle arena.

Here’s the closed beta announcement trailer, though Ben let us know that there should be early access on Steam next week on September 6th. You can see plenty of gameplay in the video below.

Is your iPhone’s screen shamefully free of smudges? Do you want to test your memory, spatial awareness, and patience simultaneously? Do you love chalk?

If your answer to any of the previous questions was anything above “Yeah, I guess,” then you might want to check out publisher Chillingo’s puzzle offering, The Impossible Line. It’s out now, it works on your iPhone or iPad, and it does one thing really well: make you swear at a tiny triangle.

If you like dystopian science fiction novels, Blackbar is for you. If you like innovative gaming experiences with solid fiction writing and a simple yet engaging mechanic, Blackbar is also for you.

If, however, you prefer your gaming to have lots of explosions and tons of hoorah military sentiment, Blackbar might not be for you. But you should try it anyway.

There are a huge amount of video games out on iOS for kids, from educational games to adventure games and more. Sure, you can get reviews of these games by adults, sometimes even from parents of kids who use them.

We thought it’d be fun, though, to ask the kids themselves.

Welcome to Kid APProved, a series of videos in which we ask our own children what they think of video games on the App Store that they’re playing.

This week, it’s Big Fish’s brilliant adventure/platforming game, Fetch – A Boy and his Dog.

The Penny Arcade Expo, or PAX, for the initiated, is an annual gaming conference held in Seattle. It was created in 2004 by the authors of the Penny Arcade webcomic, Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik, who wanted to go to a gaming show that focused on their own passions: console games, computer games, and tabletop games.

PAX got big, fast. Billed as a celebration of gamer culture, PAX, and spin-off conference PAX East, is more of a giant nerd gathering, contrasting nicely with the hard-pounding media-fest of the Electronics Entertainment Expo (E3) or the academic and developer focus of the Games Developer Conference (GDC). PAX is for gamers, by gamers, of all stripe and affiliation.

The Peablins are back.

The Peablins, for those not in the know, are the stars of 10tons’ hit iOS game, Joining Hands, a cute little puzzler that challenged players to connect a bunch of cute, gentle creatures across a variety of landscapes and levels.

The sequel takes the warmth and cute-factor of the first game and just knocks it out of the park. It helps that Joining Hands 2 is also a pretty fantastic little puzzle game, too.

I can remember saving up my allowance in the late 1970s and early 1980s, itching to get just one more Star Wars action figure from the local department store. When I’d get there, money clenched in my sweaty little hand, I would bliss out at the sheer variety and number of action figures on display.

Which to choose? That robot bounty hunter looked super cool, but it certainly wasn’t Boba Fett, who took my money that day. My younger brother opted for Bossk, because apparently we’re a family who loves bounty hunters.

Today, however, you won’t have to choose. There are nine new videos detailing nine characters from the upcoming Angry Birds Star Wars II game, set to release on iOS on September 19th.

Oh, hey, look, it’s another game from Rovio, the 800-pound gorilla avian in the gaming world, with more money and sales than pretty much everyone else, based on one intellectual property.

When Rovio mentions a new game, especially one based on Angry Birds, we listen.

Most days, you won’t hear us talk too much about a gaming genre that’s been beaten to death with a large stick, but upcoming Puzzle Knights is an exception to that rule, what with it’s interesting blend of, yes, matching colors, but also tactical strategy, light RPG elements, and online arena battles.

The game is expected to release sometime in the first or second week of September, so keep your eyes on this one. It’s exclusive to iOS, but will let you connect via Facebook to battle your FB friends.