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.

Some of the best viral videos I’ve seen either primarily feature digital animation or use it in some form or another. It’s been a while since I’ve dabbled in moviemaking (although what the Mac offered in that space is what drew me away from Windows initially) but I’ve noticed how the tools are helping good movies become even greater. Sure, story comes first – but if you have the know-how and the right tools in your arsenal, you can really take your film to the next level.

The Mac comes armed with a great tool already in iMovie, but that doesn’t really cover the animation front all too well. Something like Kinemac is what you’l need for that – and Cult of Mac Deals has it available for a limited time for only $49.99.

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.

Between now and Christmas, we’re going to see a flood of new smartwatches hitting the market, and I have the feeling that Google’s rumored smartwatch will be one of them.

Google is working on a smartwatch. But what kind of watch?

In the wake of revelations that Google bought WiMM Labs, it’s looking like Google’s smartwatch may be more than just a watch. Much more.

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.

Apple was found guilty in July of conspiring with publishers to fix the price of eBooks. As punishment, Apple must delete existing contracts with publishers and negotiate new ones, one at a time to avoid new conspiracy. The government is also pushing for Apple to let Amazon and others sell their books from Apple’s iPhones and iPads.

The whole story is framed like this: Apple and publishers are the bad guys, conspiring against victim Amazon to screw readers out of reasonably priced eBooks. So government, the hero, steps in and sets it right. Everyone lives happily every after.

It sounds like a bad fairy tale. Unfortunately, the true story that nobody is telling is actually something of a Shakespearean tragedy.

Here’s the true and tragic story of how Apple ended up helping Amazon become the Mother of All Monopolies. 

This time, on another fabulous episode of The CultCast: we imagine a Ballmer-less Microsoft; the 5S gets a smokin’ fast chip and a mysterious camera upgrade; the best ways to sell your old iPhone; why you should definitely wait to buy another Mac or iPad; plus special guest and Wired Editor Joe Brown uses toilets… from the future.

Have a few laughs and get caught up on all the finest Apple stories in the land. Stream or download new and past episodes of The CultCast now on your Mac or iDevice by subscribing on iTunes, or hit play below and let the pure enjoyment commence!

Apple was found guilty in July of conspiring with publishers to fix the price of eBooks. As punishment, Apple must delete existing contracts with publishers and negotiate new ones, one at a time to avoid new conspiracy. The government is also pushing for Apple to let Amazon and others sell their books from Apple’s iPhones and iPads.

The whole story is framed like this: Apple and publishers are the bad guys, conspiring against victim Amazon to screw readers out of reasonably priced eBooks. So government, the hero, steps in and sets it right. Everyone lives happily every after.

It sounds like a bad fairy tale. Unfortunately, the true story that nobody is telling is actually something of a Shakespearean tragedy.

Here’s the true and tragic story of how Apple ended up helping Amazon become the Mother of All Monopolies. 

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.

The success of the LifeProof cases are really nothing short of a marketing phenomenon — one that’s predictably spawned a parade of imitators. This isn’t a bad thing though, as most of the newcomers are priced more competitively than the $80 and $90 LifeProof pair.

But the latest challenger — Outdoor Tech’s rubberized Safe5 — is just $50, miles below pretty much anyone else.

Plants vs Zombies 2: It’s About Time has only been out a couple of weeks, but it’s quickly climbed up the App Store charts and shattered records. EA announced this afternoon that PvZ2 has been downloaded nearly 25 million times, smashing the total lifetime downloads number set by the original Plants vs Zombies game.

Over 10 million plants have been planted during the 81 thousand players have logged in the first week. EA announced last week that a “Far Future” expansion for the game soon will be released soon, but in the meantime, they’ve shared the following infographic to celebrate the 25 million download milestone:

ICU has shared a new video that goes hands-on with the rumored graphite iPhone 5S and second-gen iPad mini rear shell. We first saw part leaks for a graphite-colored 5S earlier this week, and the backing shown in this new video comes by means of the same source, Sonny Dickson.

The graphite iPhone 5S is a relatively new development in the rumor mill, and it suggests that Apple will offer a fourth color for the device beyond white, black, and champagne gold.

While Apple decided to hold out for a court battle — that it eventually lost — five of the publishers involved in the iBookStore price fixing antitrust case have already reached settlements with the DOJ. Two of those publishers, Penguin and Macmillan, are already sending out emails to customers to notify them that they’re eligible to receive iTunes credit, or a check for the settlement.

The best, obvious financial solution is one that automatically performs accounting tasks as funds are spent without the need for human input. But until such a system exists that actually works, we’re stuck with having to record our spending habits manually.

Still, it could be worse; at least there are solutions out there like the iOS and Mac MoneyWiz app pair to make the task somewhat less odious. Heck, sometimes it almost feels like fun.

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.

The Smart Cargo is a portable cubbyhole designed to — literally — stick close to your iPad and keep all of your little widgets, gadgets, cables and trinkets safely together. When I first opened the package, sent by the maker and friend of Cult of Mac Dotan Saguy, I found it bulky and absurd. Then I used it, and I like it enough that I wish there was a version for the iPad mini.

SimCity’s launch on the PC earlier this year was nothing short of embarrassing for EA, with server problems making the title physically unplayable for those who purchased it. So you’d have thought that the gaming giant would have put extra effort into ensuring everything went smoothly when SimCity finally made its debut on the Mac this Thursday.

But it didn’t. It was another disaster. EA has now promised, however, that the installation problems have been solved.

AT&T has received a lot of gruff over the past few months from T-Mobile and its prepaid wireless service plans, so to strike back, AT&T is launching its Aio Wireless prepaid brand nationwide next month.

The new service offers AT&T customers the option to sign up for prepaid data plans starting as cheap as $40 a month for 250MB, to $70 a month for 7GB with a bunch of other options in between. After being tested in markets in Flordia, Texas, and Atlanta, Aio wireless will be available online to all U.S. customers starting mid-September.

During the history of my own website, I’ve gone through at least five full-fledged design changes. And I wouldn’t have been able to make those changes happen without the use of some great-looking templates.

Like many people, when I first started to blog I used the free themes that were readily available. But as the web became more populated, I decided to pony up some dough for themes that cost a little bit of cash. Then I paid even more for some robust ones. But if I’d had some of the templates found in The Premium Website Template Bundle I might not have had to do that.

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.