Our new Indie Games subforum is now open for business in G&T. Go and check it out, you might land a code for a free game. If you're developing an indie game and want to post about it,
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[iPhone/iPad] games: Your call dropped, use new thread
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Yeah it does seem to be the case. It looks like this is the Ash guys first release so they are trying what they can to get it charting/featured as those are generally the only way to bring in a sustained return on the app store.
As studios become known and there titles are picked up with less work then they are less likely to go free/reduced. It's a really difficult market and no one has really nailed down a winning marketing formula yet.
I want to know more PA people on Twitter.
3DS Friend Code - 3437-3066-2510
In other news: Did anyone get Shibuya when it was on sale this weekend? It was 99 cents, and is back now to what I assume is its regular price of $1.99, but it's a really intriguing color-match puzzle game that's not your tired old match-3 mechanic. I found this demo from PAX 10:
Shibua PAX 10 Demo
I didn't know what I was doing for the first half-hour or so, but something clicked on my bus ride into work this morning and I'm really liking it a lot. I also impulse-bought GameLoft's Let's Golf 2 when it was 99 cents (back up to $4.99 now), though I haven't even tried it yet.
Hah, I bought it on release day. WhatafoolIam.
Was it $4.99 at launch, or $2.99? Either way, for individual games, it's only a few bucks' difference. It's not like the crushing price drops on new retail games around Black Friday, where a $60 game goes to $30 in an instant.
Speaking of price drops: Apparent one-day sale on GTA: Chinatown Wars at $4.99! I bought it months ago and honestly have only put a little time into it. I guess GTA isn't my thing.
Some other things people here might be interested it: Infinity Blade set for Dec. 9 release, $5.99 universal app. I'm pretty sure I'll be getting this, as the slashy trailer from before makes it look like a weird blend of Dragon Quest Swords and Punch-Out. Plus, the graffix are crazy!!!
Note that according to TouchArcade, "Infinity Blade will be a universal app, and will run on iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, 3rd and 4th generation iPod touch as well as the iPad."
And GameLoft is running some kind of advent calendar for Christmas and promising free games and other things, but it's only on The Accused Twitter. This kind of marketing spam is the stuff I'm okay with, if it gets me free things; there's nothing else good on Twitter anyway.
i'm also totally stoked for Infinity Blade- if the repeated playthroughs as different generations of knights are made enjoyable through upgrading gear, and the enemies getting tougher, that's going to be a lot of fun. Any word if the bad guys will change in appearance too?
I stopped looking at the thread about IB on the Toucharcade forums once the juveniles on there started arguing about how 'it's too cheap at $6- it probably won't be any good/ have any longevity.' Seriously.
Gameloft is doing a daily free game via their twitter feed (Driver today)
We also see the return of the original appventcalendar.com with a free app and game each day. Todays game is Time Geeks.
I want to know more PA people on Twitter.
Awesome, thanks for the heads-up! I almost bought Time Geeks last week...
About a week ago I got a PM from Spectheintro, the community manager for SRRN games — his dev team recently released a retro-inspired RPG by the name of "Ash", and he made a thread about it, but he asked me if he could set up a contest to give away 10 free codes to PA forumers, and I thought that would be cool on the condition that we were all brutally honest and open with how we felt about the game. So check out the 2nd post of the thread for the full details, but essentially, just PM Spectheintro with "Ash iPhone Giveaway" in the subject line to enter before Noon EST next Monday. He'll pick out the winners next week!
Full disclosure: He also provided me with a free code to check out the game and asked me to give some feedback, but I told him I'd do so so long as I posted publicly about it. So here's my take on the game so far.
I'm maybe an hour or two into the game, past what I think is the second quasi-dungeon, and this is going to sound like a backhanded compliment, but so far it's better than what it looks like at first blush. The elephant in the room is that it's using graphics taken from RPG Maker, and that doesn't really go away—it looks like a fangame. That said, if you can get over that hump, the game so far is pretty nicely put together. Everything else about Ash—characters, plot, and if I'm correct, music—is fully original, and according to the dev team the graphics are legitimately licensed for use.
The general setup of the game is similar to an early 16-bit JRPG; the vibe I get in the overworld is very Final Fantasy IV, as in dungeon-crawling and town exploration with occasional scripted segments. In-battle the game is mostly straight-up turn-based Dragon Quest with a dash of Final Fantasy X: There's a turn-order bar at the top of the screen, based on agility stats, and certain moves can knock PCs or enemies back out of their order.
What's nice is that the game is a ground-up iPhone project: You tap on enemies and skills directly to use and attack, and storefronts and inventory management are all tap-and-drag arranged. In the overworld, the default control setup is a little strange in that the whole screen is a giant D-pad, and then you tap on people or action hotspots to talk or interact; the dev team apparently got user feedback that this felt clunky, so they've also rolled out a traditional "D-pad and action button" control scheme that you can toggle from the system menu.
I'm still kind of early in, so the game is pretty by-the-books in terms of the plot setup and dungeon crawling, but what is impressive is the writing: It's not a badly localized translation of a JRPG or KRPG, like a number of other iPhone projects, but is actually very coherent and chuckle-worthy. I only have two party members so far, but one of them is a smarmy asshole mercenary and his lines have been surprisingly well-written. There's also a lot (a lot) of unique flavor text when examining barrels, chests and such.
I don't know if I'd say it's worth $4.99 quite yet—still really early in—but the only other RPGs I've played on iPhone are FF1, Dungeon Hunter and a tiny bit of Crimson Gem Saga, and so far Ash compares quite well with them; a lot more story and character-driven interaction than FF1, and the interface has its quirks but definitely feels more native to the iPhone than Crimson Gem Saga, which was obviously a PSP port (and I bought on sale for $4.99 but is normally $9.99). It's definitely worth free, so if you're remotely interested (or want to enter for yourself and just give the code to someone else you know), PM Spectheintro, enter the contest and then post with your own feedback.
360 Gamertag: NFJ TheNix
I haven't updated the OP in quite some time, but those are at least a few of the generally recommended games by the peoples here. If I had to pick a few random ones as my current favorites, I'd say:
- Game Dev Story (Tycoon-ish sim game about game development, pure fanservice)
- Trainyard and Shibuya (clever puzzle games)
- Bit Pilot and Fruit Ninja (for arcade, pick-up-and-play high scoring)
- Espgaluda II, DoDonPachi and/or Space Invaders: Infinity Gene (diehard shmups with great controls)
Have you seen the IGN previews? It got me fairly excited for how the game should play out. "Previews lol" and all, so take them with hefty grains of salt, but this combat description and the RPG-lite elements got me really pumped. Like a strange hybrid of Dragon Quest Swords, Punch-Out!! and Fruit Ninja. :rotate:
I might make an Infinity Blade thread if I have time this week and no one else does it; if it lives up to a quarter of the hype it's getting, I'll be playing this constantly.
EDIT: This year's Appvent Calendar is live! Goddamn, so much free stuff. The first game is Time Geeks, which is a quirky hidden-object game with pixel art that looks pretty rad.
My favorite game that's too recent to be in the OP is Mirror's Edge. It's like Canabalt, but developed into a full game rather than just a time waster.
Cut the Rope and Angry Birds are must haves. And they both have lite versions I think.
DON'T PANIC
I'm going to look into everything else that was mentioned.
360 Gamertag: NFJ TheNix
These should keep you going.
Super Mega Worm
Chaos Rings
Space Miner
Spider
Tilt to Live
Rogue Touch
I can't believe I forgot Tilt to Live. That game has some of the best motion controls I've ever played.
DON'T PANIC
http://itunes.apple.com/app/time-geeks-find-all/id391469201?mt=8 (iphone)
http://itunes.apple.com/app/time-geeks-find-all-hd/id396278715?mt=8 (iPad)
http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2010/12/game-dev-story/?pid=711&viewall=true
I always kind of suspected this; for all the tongue and cheek stuff Game Dev Story throws at you, it isn't that far off after all. I can't wait for the sequel. I really hope it's more of the same, with more consoles, options, and staff.
It's also kind of fitting that the article is from Gilbert, because "Pirate adventure game" was instantly the first game I started making in Game Dev Story.
I just wanted to poke my head in here to publicly thank TheLunker for being awesome, and to express my gratitude for the feedback on Ash I've received thus far. (Surrealitycheck in particular, thanks!)
I look forward to more contest entries and impressions of the game--keep 'em coming!
THat should also be my gamecenter name btw.
There's also a cool teaser for a new game from MobiGame (makers of Edge), called Perfect Cell. I love Edge. <3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ud4EW8-uE-c&feature=player_embedded
I heard the price was going up today so I picked it up yesterday. It is a great game! I've never played the board version of the game, but this version is so much fun. Even my wife keeps asking to play which is unheard of - I've bought countless games like this in an effort to get her to game with me...
PSN ID: Wraithverge