Platform: Flash — The latest in the Protector series from Undefined might not be what you expect, but it still has all the strategy and fantasy you love. Use your tower defense skills to defend the adorable land with your adorable warriors against the adorable forces of darkness. Trust us; it's adorable. Tagged as: browser, fantasy, flash, free, game, macwinlinux, protector, rating-y, rpg, strategy, towerdefense, undefined, upgrades

Platform: Flash — What's in a doooor? A puzzle by any name would not be as cute... or brainwracking. Developer Hempuli's first foray into the world of flash gaming is a deceptively adorable and simple looking platform puzzler where your only goal is to figure out how to get the glowing blue crystal on each level. There's only eighteen stages, but trust us; that's more than enough to give your brain a workout, thanks to some clever design. Tagged as: ateikari, browser, flash, free, game, hempuli, macwinlinux, platform, puzzle, rating-g

Sometimes a loading screen is a good thing... Tagged as: babylonsticks, comic, funny

I have a problem. The very first that I wanted to buy is goddamn free!. I demand a possibility to pay $4.95 to get that game.

I’ve read & checked out half of the games on that list, and so far especially these got my attention. Especially the oddly catchy phrase got my attention.

I’ll go through the list and grab some games.

Thanks everybody who participated.

Howard Glitch is about a space shuttle hurtling into the maw of a monster. You're on the shuttle, along with several other passengers, but there's no driver or controls. The shuttle is being controlled far away by someone who isn't paying attention. While you're rushing toward your doom, you have some choices to make. The first being whether you'll sit by and await death or will you escape reality? Tagged as: browser, experimental, free, game, interactiveart, narrative, puzzle, rallmand, rating-y, unique

Alawar has announced the release of Farm Frenzy: Gone Fishing for the PC. The goal of the game is to raise exotic fish and manufactures never-before-seen products. Players get to take on a different role and instead of raising farm animals and making products produced from farm animals, players are raising fish. The game is a time management style game.

Players take on the role of Scarlett that has been given an island farm in recognition of her hard work. The farm has a huge pond in the middle of the land. Scarlett decides to make the most of the pond and starts raising fish and making goods to export. Everything is going good until Scarlett makes a discovery that turns her world upside down.

The game contains six new animals, 90 new levels, new products, new buildings and an all new Endless Mode.

“Farm Frenzy: Gone Fishing is sure to please fans angling for something exciting and new,” says Kirill Plotnikov, vice president of publishing at Alawar.  “We think players are going to love the tropical island setting and get a kick out of the sea horses, dolphins and sharks, which our animators have brought to colorful and vivid life.”

If you like time management games, head over to Alawar and check out Farm Frenzy: Gone Fishing.

image by yomanimus

Woot! I finally reached an awesome milestone which is that my games have grossed over $1,000,000. I have made 6 games and one game framework, and I store all the sales figures and royalty report information in a *big* spreadsheet. Of course I only receive Net revenue, but based on the various deals that I have with the portals I have been able to work backwards to an approximate gross revenue for each game.

It’s pretty awesome to think that people have spent over $1,000,000 on games that I made. That’s a good feeling and an indicator that I’m doing something right Also last December I hit a milestone of over 100,000 units sold online and this figure has gone up a lot since then too.

Anyway, I’ve been looking forward to hitting this milestone for a little while. I’ll report back when I hit $2,000,000. Wish me luck!

How is your gross revenue doing? I really want to hear some 8 figure numbers!

Platform: Flash — The fictional land of Pixela-RT witnessed years of prosperity. Now, a dark portal spews forth endless waves of Space Invaders inspired monsters intent on destroying all that is good and pixely. Luckily, volunteers from across the land take to the sky in small white spaceships to fend off the menace. Endless waves of enemies face down your small white ship on an apocalyptic top-down battlefield in this arena shooter from Epic Shadow. Tagged as: arcade, arena, browser, epicshadow, flash, free, game, macwinlinux, rating-y, retro, shooter, topdown, upgrades

Platform: Flash — Well balanced and beautifully illustrated, Elements is an addictive collectible card game with an impressive community to test your virtual deck against. It sparks the imagination and puts your vision and strategic mettle to the test. It can suck you in for hours at a time, but with each match lasting hardly more than a few minutes on average, Elements can be as casual an experience as you like. Tagged as: browser, card, collectiblecard, flash, free, game, macwinlinux, multiplayer, rating-o, strategy, zanzarino

August is pretty much over, I’d say… but August contest will remain until tomorrow morning (or day, depending when I – or at least my brain – wake up).

Last chances to convince me (for now).

There’s already couple of good looking purchase candidates. See you here.

Platform: Flash — Once upon a time, there a was a young llama with a dream. A dream and $200 adorably clutched in his hoof. With that hoof-ful of dollars, he would take the wretched turf left to him by his father and become... KING! King by plagiarizing all the neighboring cities, but still. In A Llama, A World and a Plan, a building simulation from StefanT, you can become a Lama glama and make your every ungulate wish come true. Tagged as: browser, cgdc8, flash, free, game, macwinlinux, rating-g, sandboxtheme, simulation, stefant

Avanquest Software has announced the upcoming release of Witches Curse for the Nintendo DS. The game was originally released on the PC and has been adapted for the Nintendo DS. Nintendo DS owners will have to complete 40 different puzzles and 15 mini-games all set in magical backgrounds.

Princess Isabella has returned from a trip to find out an evil curse has been put on the castle. The curse has turned everyone in the castle into mirrors. The players take on the role of Isabella and fight the evil witch that has cursed the castle. The player does have a fairy that will be helping them battle the witch. Players have to search the castle for broken mirror pieces. The pieces have to be put back together to release the people from the curse.

If you are looking for a hidden object game/puzzle game for the Nintendo DS, check out Witches Curse.

Press Release Follows:

Avanquest Software is soon to release the award winning* puzzle adventure game Witch’s Curse, now on Nintendo DS™. Online casual gamers and fans of the PC version can now experience the new look and feel on the handheld format as they look to complete 40 puzzles and 15 mini-games, set against the backdrop of 135 magical castle scenes.

The game begins with Princess Isabella returning home from a trip to discover that an evil curse has been put upon her castle. The curse has placed evil in every room and turned everyone inside the castle into mirrors. With the help of a fairy friend, players must step into Princess Isabella’s shoes and battle against an evil witch to lift the curse.

Players must search the castle for shards of broken mirror pieces that are scattered around the rooms. Each piece must be collected and reassembled in the Hall of Mirrors to bring back loved ones and help to release the witch’s curse. Every time a loved one is freed from the bewitching mirror spell, players receive new clues that will help them progress through the cursed castle. A Fairy guide armed with hints, special abilities and power-ups including Fire, Water, Rock and Wind helps players through each stage should they become stuck.

Walking through the cursed castle and its mystical grounds, players will visit the rooms ruined by the witch. Starting in the Courtyard then moving on to the Grand Hall, Hall of Reflections, Piano Lounge, Hunting Gallery, Tea Room and the Observatory, players must complete over 40 spell-binding puzzles and hidden object games. Once the castle rooms have been lifted of the curse, players will then face the witch in a final puzzle showdown to win back the castle and banish the witch forever.

We’re pleased to say that after almost 2 years of hard work we released GabCab – great time management game.

Get ready for fun with GabCab! Upgrade your cab, hire assistants, and catch tips as you keep your customers content in this fun and exciting Time Management game. Hire assistants, including a limo and a tour bus, as you gain more and more customers and start raking in the cash! Hop into GabCab today and go on a hilarious ride!

* Hire fun helpers
* Customize your cab
* Hop into the GabCab!
* 98 levels

Unfortunately we can’t sell it directly to you, but I’m sure Amazon store is not a bad choice either. The game is/will be available at top casual portals too.

GabCab received great reviews at GameZebo. Here’s a quote for you:

GabCab is definitely an entertaining game, highly original, and proving how to make a real stand-out sequel. The game does not simply improve the experience of Airport Mania, it creates a totally new experience that still resembles the other game enough to satisfy older fans and newcomers. GabCab receives four stars and a recommendation from us, so enjoy the ride.

Platform: Flash — Escape from Restaurant Minshio moves Tesshi-e ever closer to that elusive goal: the perfect room escape. Fantastically fun, challenging, and more accessible than ever, Escape from Restaurant Minshio is about as perfect a mid-week experience as you can get. You even get a yummy meal and maybe even a dessert out of the experience. Tagged as: browser, escape, flash, free, game, japanese, macwinlinux, pointandclick, puzzle, rating-y, tesshi-e

Platform: Flash — From the creator of Windosill comes a quiet, creative romp through an imaginary world. Seasons is a gorgeous piece of interactive art that lets you explore half a dozen scenes with Thomas and his unicycle. Pedal through the snow and see which animals pop their heads out. Shake the beehive and see where the bees go. Take a dip in the lake and watch your reflection in the water. Seasons is nothing short of beautiful, and its relaxing, webtoy-like presence will captivate your curiosity for longer than you might expect. Tagged as: browser, flash, free, game, interactiveart, macwinlinux, rating-g, vectorpark, webtoy

The next generation 3D (that’s the term I use to describe 3D screens that display 3D stuff in a new way). I experienced a 3D movie for the first time about a year ago, and had to check that blog post to see whether I liked it or not. (I did, if I understood my comments from that blog post properly).

I talked about 3D screens and friend of mine pointed out that there’s new televisions coming… where you won’t need glasses. I know Nintendo has some hand held device that somehow uses two “layers” to create 3D effect (without need for glasses).

Now, will this “next generation” 3D (where the “depth” effect can be so much different than in other movies) happen in games? Will we see more and more next generation 3D that we forget “regular 3D” completely?

I have mixed feelings about this. I can predict that there will be tons of people who say how unhealthy it is for your eyes and how your brain will be messed up and all that… but I feel that we people adapt. I think 3D tech will evolve and at some point it’s not any more unhealthy than staring regular computer screen.

But… will games support it? Will manufacturers go for it?

I find this a really tricky question to be answered. Tons of social & casual games are 2D, and they have become increasingly popular. Wii is doing pretty well in the console side of things, and it has old graphics in it.

I somehow feel that for some games, this next generation 3D will be a breakthrough that will at some point be always used. First person (shooters/rpgs/adventure) games, the 3D will be a hit. (My prediction). I would expect that the immersion of 3D is just so much greater that at some point we won’t see regular FPS games no more. Instead, the new 3D is always there.

Also, some horror games start to use it more and more. There will be more horror games created in 1st person perspective, using the new 3D effect to create more scary environment.

(And as long as games have good writers who understand that horror isn’t about screaming and blood and trying to scare people with sudden loud voices… it’s about waiting for something to happen, this will be good).

In some games, for example RTS games, the new 3D effect won’t be used. Same goes for sports games like NHL, it just won’t cut it.

New 3D requires certain camera view, in my pretty humble opinion. And some camera angles just aren’t good for it, or can just become a mess.

With this all being said… what you think?

(I really think that the 3rd generation 3D will be something that we need. Holograms. We will see graphics that will really fill the living room…. now, that will be something really cool)

Platform: Flash — Ah, the cosmos. It contains the whole of everything that is, was and shall be. It is filled with the awe-inspiring beauty of the nebulae, the quasars and the familiar stars. Science cannot know how big the universe is, nor can it count the number of planets or star. Every time we get close to an exact figure, a giant space whale, dubbed Harmony Keeper, starts devouring celestial bodies. Or at least, that's what this latest action/arcade title from Mofunzone teaches us. Tagged as: action, arcade, browser, flash, free, game, macwinlinux, mana, mofunzone, rating-g, shooter, space, unique, upgrades

Platform: Flash — Light Up 2 is a physics/puzzle game from the creator of the original Light UP. This chill, relaxing game is all about moving circles around the screen to light up dark orbs, hence the name. You do this by turning neutral orbs into colored orbs that reflect certain types of orbs, creating a little bit of controlled chaos that will (hopefully) settle in to a fully-lit arrangement of circles! Tagged as: browser, flash, free, game, gameslist, macwinlinux, physics, puzzle, rating-g

TikGames and Creat Studios have announced their “End of Summer Sale Spectacular” on all of their PlayStation Network titles. The studios have nine different titles on the PlayStation Network and all of them are on sale for 40% off. The games are not the only thing on sale, the downloadable content packs for the games are also on sale for 99 cents each. The sale is going on from August 31st through September 14th, so don’t wait.

“TikGames and Creat Studios continue to lead the pack, offering more titles than any other publisher on PlayStation®Network,” said Anatoly Tikhman, Founder and CEO of TikGames, LLC.  “As school begins and autumn approaches, we are very happy to present such an excellent value to PSN fans!”

Some of the more well known games are Smash Cars, Magic Orbz, and Hamsterball. If you have not picked up these games and would like to, head over to the PlayStation network and get the games for a great price.

The sequel to Governor of Poker was released and I was thrilled to play it. I spent many late nights trying to take down those Gamblers in the first one and I was looking forward to the challenge of the second. So far I have not been disappointed. The game-play is essentially the same as the first: your job is to win enough money to buy up the local towns and beat enough notorious gambles so you can face off with the Governor. However, version 2 more fully engages the player with a lot more data at your fingertips and a more complete world. I like how with a simple mouse-over you can easily see where your current hand ranks in the pecking order of poker hands and with a single click you can review the results of the previous hand. Another improvement in the game is the non-linear play. You are no longer restricted to a set of cities. If you have the money, you can go anywhere and play. You can even gamble while riding on the various forms of transportation. The graphics are improved as well and you can purchase your own hat! I'm not sure if it is just me, but the level of difficult seems higher in this version, with the locals raising their bets higher sooner. The only sour note I encountered was a typo in the very first dialog you read, which spells the Spanish word "Hola" as "Ola". Come on guys, who was proof reading this stuff?

» Governor of Poker 2 Cheats & Forum

» Governor of Poker 2 Free Trial & Related Games

Platform: Flash — Ah, another perfect day. Sitting on a cliff. Letting the breeze blow through your bright pink hair. Then you hear the distant rumble of some kind of black hellspawn chasing your boyfriend. Well, just put out your hand and fly away with him in [Together], One Mr. Beans's entry in our 8th Casual Gameplay Design Competition that took third place overall. It's an experimental game of exploration and heart gathering with a loose narrative threading it all [together]. Tagged as: action, arcade, browser, cgdc8, competition, experimental, exploration, flash, free, game, macwinlinux, onemrbean, rating-y, sandboxtheme, zen

I just want to take a moment out of our regular review schedule to thank a few sites who were gracious enough to review game entries from our Casual Gameplay Design Competition #8. It would be really nice to see this list expanded upon for future competitions. Tagged as: blog, cgdc8, press

Sharing.

Sharing stuff is that makes all the difference in the world. Earlier in my life I’ve bought things separately and haven’t given much thought about connections. For example, I’ve bought PC and do PC stuff with it. I have a separate radio/CD player that can play radio. Then I have TV which I use to watch TV.

(Being slightly oversimplistic here to make the point, but hopefully it helps)

This has changed a bit. Now I think about connectivity and sharing things. For example, I can use my PS3 with my tv but also want to connect it to home cinema system to get nice sounds. And then I’ve found information about setting the PS3 media server to speak with PC so that it would be possible to get to play spotify via PS3. And then I’ve given though about a new mobile phone so that I could connect it to different devices and listen to music. And of course this mobile phone could use the wlan to connect to net at home.

And so on, and so on. This is probably very familiar to you guys.

Separately, PS3 (without a network connection for example) loses its value. By making it possible to connect PS3 to other devices, the value of all devices is greater. When adding new things (such as the mobile phone) I can leverage the existing system, thus increasing again the value of all pieces.

And this is due the possibility to connect devices with each other.

Now… to think gaming.

How could your game benefit from connectivity? (Might be a tough question in some areas (for example people who do epic single-player RPGs), but very relevant in some areas (especially games for social platforms))

Some food for thought.

Platform: Flash — 5xMan is an action/puzzle game that plays on the now-familiar concept of controlling multiple characters one at a time. You play a team of five guys, each in a stunning single-color one-piece jumpsuit (is that a Louis Vuitton?!), and work your way through each stage. Make it as far as you can with one guy, then switch to the next to see what more you can do, opening new paths for subsequent team members as you go. Tagged as: action, browser, flash, free, game, macwinlinux, platform, puzzle, rating-g, replaytheme

Platform: Flash — Bingo, another combo card is filled in Reeelz, an addictive blend of skill-based puzzle and luck-based slot machine from Game In a Bottle. No more mindlessly feeding coins into the one-armed bandit; if you prioritize and have a long term plan, you'll certainly come out on top. Take that, Las Vegas! Tagged as: board, browser, flash, free, game, gameinabottle, macwinlinux, puzzle, rating-g, slotmachine, strategy

The Jim and Frank Mysteries – The Blood River Files is an adventure game for the iPad and iPhone/iPod Touch. The iPad version is in HD and contains exclusive puzzles. The iPad version will cost you $2 more than the iPhone/iPod touch version. Jim and Frank head out on an adventure given to them by Jim’s grandfather. Every year on Jim’s birthday his grandfather sends him an adventure to undertake. Jim’s friend Frank has always gone on the adventure with Jim and seems to enjoy them a bit more than Jim.

The adventure game wraps players in a story and uses puzzles to progress the story line. The player will listen or read a piece of the story and then have to walk to a location. Each location walked to brings a puzzle to be solved. Some of the puzzles are easy, but some of them are very difficult. There are all types of puzzles. There are math puzzles where you have to figure out people”s ages based on a word problem of sorts. There are logic puzzles such as requiring players to board off pigs in a pen by using three pieces of rope. Players have to figure out the correct pattern to separate all of the pigs.

The puzzles are more on the difficult side and take some thought to complete. There is a hint button, but you only get three hints and the  hints. The hints provide clues on how to finish the puzzle and usually require two hints to get the answer to the puzzle. The player can buy more hints, called Eureka’s. They sell the hints in bundles. Personally, I don’t like this method of making money. Players already pay for the game and they shouldn’t be required to pay for hints. Usually, you can earn hints throughout the levels or earn items that get you hints. Some players may not mind this style of game play, but it is a turn off for me.

The graphics in the game are cartoonish, but nicely done. Each location is drawn clear and crisp. The story line keeps the game moving and keeps the player engaged. There is just enough mystery keep the player going.

Over all, The Jim and Frank Mysteries – The Blood River Files is a challenging game. If you are a player that enjoys challenging puzzles, this is definitely the game for you. The puzzles take some thought. If you are a player that gets frustrated easily, this may not be the game for you. The game does contain a good story, but without getting the puzzles solved the game will come to a halt. If you are looking for a challenging puzzle game, check out The Jim and Frank Mysteries in the Apple App Store.

Platform: Mobile (Android) — Games featured this week: My Paper Plane 2 (3D); Galcon; Choice of Romance; Andoku Sudoku; Laser Reflections — So many new Android games, so little time to play them all! Here's a protip for you: instead of social interaction, try an Android game! Cell phones are already wonderful tools for spurning your pals, so why not ditch the implied SMS communication and have some fun?! Tagged as: android, blog, mobile, mobile-monday

Platform: Flash — The point-and-click adventure from Springtail Studio is all grown up! Alchemia was first released in 2009 as a free browser game with the promise of an extended version later on. Well, later is now, and the downloadable Alchemia comes with five more playable levels and nine new locations, providing even more photorealistic scenery and lateral-thinking puzzles than before! Tagged as: adventure, browser, demo, flash, game, interactiveart, jwinter, macwinlinux, pointandclick, rating-g, springtailstudio, surreal, tomask

Platform: Download (Windows) — Give the rural life a go with this fast-paced management game. Plow, sow and harvest your crops to keep the local towns fixated on your watermelons (and other crops). And shoot a few crows for relaxation. Tagged as: affiliate, demo, download, game, rating-g, strategy, timemanagement, windows

I spend quite a bit of time coding in front of my computer (especially when handling tricky bug hunting…) but there’s two places where I do much of progress:

• Sofa
• Bed

I might sit down a sofa and make notes on paper. I might build pseudo code in order to solve certain coding dilemmas. I might lie down and just stare the roof and think. This is all without a computer. Pen & paper you know.

The other place where my code is refined (without even thinking it) is in my bed, while at sleep. I might have some tricky coding puzzle that won’t solve by staring the screen. After failing to see the solution, I might realize that now I just need to stop, go to bed, and see the solution the next morning. And this has yet to fail me.

Sure, I can do “puzzle solving” in front of my computer, but I’ve found it good to prepare and plan the code in my mind while somewhere else. That’s where the hard part happens. That’s where the thinking process takes place.

After the plan is made, it’s easy to sit and start typing the code together.

Platform: Download (Mac, Windows) — Built like an adventure game from the ground up, Robin's Quest: A Legend Born is a cure for the common hidden object game. The gorgeous release from Gogii Games puts you in the now-feminine shoes of Robin Hood as she escapes prison and starts doing what the legend is famous for: taking money from the rich Prince John and giving it back to the people! Tagged as: adventure, affiliate, demo, download, game, gogii, hiddenobject, macwin, rating-g

But won’t do that just yet.

Can’t almost wait.

(Talking about the game stuff I’m working on)

Off I go, there’s coding to do!

In the mid-1800s, the country trembles on the verge of change, a great war that will shape the outcome of the future... but for you, the world of mortals is the least of your concern, when you find yourself having caught the eye of someone less (or more) than entirely human. In this remarkably deep and ambitious text RPG adventure with multiple paths and endings, set out on your journey as a fledgling vampire. Just remember that as powerful as you might think you are, there is always danger around you... especially in those close to you... Tagged as: browser, choiceofgames, dhtml, free, game, macwinlinux, narrative, rating-o, rpg, text

Sega has dropped the price of their iPhone iterations of some of their classic Genesis and Gamecube games, be aware that these prices will go back up to normal on September 1st, so if you have a hankering to play Phantasy Star II for $3 you better jump on it now.

Sale prices:

• * Ecco the Dolphin for $0.99
• * Golden Axe for $0.99
• * Phantasy Star II for $2.99
• * Shining Force for $0.99
• * Sonic the Hedgehog for $2.99
• * Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for $2.99
• * Streets of Rage for $0.99
• * Super Monkey Ball 1 for $1.99
• * Super Monkey Ball 2 for $2.99
• * Super Monkey Ball 2: Sakura Edition (iPad) for $3.99

Let us know if you pick any of these titles up.

Platform: Download (Windows) — Games featured this week: Sugar Cube; Mr. Blocko: Super Tournament Edition; Alex Adventure — CUUUUTE games this week. So unabashedly cute. Sugar cubes and tiny block guys. Squeaking mushrooms and elevators that play elevator music. Ohhhh, I'm gonna burst with sugary sweetness. Tagged as: blog, download, weekenddownload, windows

Platform: Download (Mac, Windows) — My Kingdom for the Princess has returned in an aptly-titled sequel, My Kingdom for the Princess 2! Nevosoft brings back its casual resource management/building game with a new story, new levels, new settings, and some other little twists to give players of the original something to look forward to. If you love games like Build-a-lot but can't stand keeping track of so many things at once, My Kingdom for the Princess will suit you just fine. Tagged as: affiliate, demo, download, game, macwin, nevosoft, rating-g, simulation, timemanagement

Platform: Flash — Wing Men is a bold stroke of simplicity for the casual strategy defense genre. While the gameplay is a little shallow and underdeveloped, that can at least partly be explained by its minimalist take on strategy gaming. It's simple and straightforward, like Wing Men Corp's take on warfare and business. "War is money?" Play to find out. Tagged as: browser, defense, flash, free, game, labugames, macwinlinux, rating-g, realtime, strategy

SpinTop Games has announced their latest hidden object game, Mystery P.I.: Stolen in San Francisco, the latest in the long-running Mystery P.I. series. As the title implies, this game takes place in the Golden Gate City.

There are three game types included with the game. In ‘Find the Stolen Gold’, the player has to find clues that will lead them to $250 Million in stolen solid gold, which had been pilfered from an armored car. The search will take the player around San Francisco, visiting sites such as the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, Haight-Ashbury, Fisherman’s Wharf, among other for a total of 25 scenes. The scenes feature over 2100 hidden objects. Collecting all the Keys & Peace Symbols unlock two bonus game modes: Unlimited Seek & Find and a Match-3 Bonus game.

“Since San Francisco is sometimes affectionately dubbed the Golden City, we thought it was the perfect setting for a gold heist. Glittering and gritty locations alike make this seek-and-find mystery a fun adventure for the whole family,” states Duncan Magee, co-director and co-founder of SpinTop. “We focused our efforts on creating the best visual locations ever to keep our millions of Mystery P.I. fans happy. We’ve always kept our artistic standards high, and I think we’ve exceeded them with Stolen in San Francisco!”

The deluxe version is available now at Spin Top Games, and will eventually be available in a few months at other game portals such as Gamehouse, MSN Gaming Zone, Pogo and Yahoo! Games.

SpinTop(TM) Launches Mystery P.I.(TM) Stolen in San Francisco

Latest Game in Award-Winning Series Boasts Best Graphics To Date, Golden Gate Setting

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Aug. 27 /PRNewswire/ — SpinTop Games, a division of leading casual game developer and publisher PopCap Games, today announced the immediate availability of Mystery P.I.™ Stolen in San Francisco, a new “hidden object” puzzle game set in the Golden Gate City. Stolen in San Francisco is the latest addition to the immensely popular, award-winning Mystery P.I.™ series which has been downloaded more than 100 million times since the series began in 2007.

Mystery P.I. Stolen in San Francisco challenges players to solve the biggest theft in San Francisco history by exploring dozens of locations for hidden “clues.” Mystery P.I. Stolen in San Francisco carries a retail price of US$19.99, and a free trial of the deluxe version is available now for download at www.SpinTop-Games.com. The game will also be available on other leading game portals, including Gamehouse, MSN Gaming Zone, Pogo and Yahoo! Games, later this quarter.

“Since San Francisco is sometimes affectionately dubbed the Golden City, we thought it was the perfect setting for a gold heist. Glittering and gritty locations alike make this seek-and-find mystery a fun adventure for the whole family,” states Duncan Magee, co-director and co-founder of SpinTop. “We focused our efforts on creating the best visual locations ever to keep our millions of Mystery P.I. fans happy. We’ve always kept our artistic standards high, and I think we’ve exceeded them with Stolen in San Francisco!”

In Mystery P.I. Stolen in San Francisco, $250 Million in solid gold has been stolen from an armored car. The gold’s owner has hired you, the world famous Mystery P.I., to find and return the gold before the trail goes cold. Seek and find over 2100 hidden objects in 25 amazing San Francisco-centered scenes to track down the stolen gold! Locations include the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, Haight-Ashbury, Fisherman’s Wharf and many more.

Mystery P.I. Stolen in San Francisco features three enthralling ways to play: In ‘Find the Stolen Gold’ mode you must find clues that will lead you to the gold. Collect all the Keys & Peace Symbols to unlock two bonus game modes: Unlimited Seek & Find and a Match-3 Bonus game. Go for a ‘Perfect Investigation’ and speed bonuses to maximize your points to become a Master P.I.!
Key features of Mystery P.I.™ Stolen in San Francisco include:
More than 2100 cleverly hidden objects to find.
25 stunning San Francisco locations to explore and investigate.
3 fun game modes: ‘Find the Stolen Gold’ plus two Unlimited game modes
7 unique mini-games: Match-3, Word Search, Circle Rotation, Spot-the-differences, Jigsaw plus a unique final puzzle.
Locate the secret Keys and Peace Symbols to unlock two Unlimited game modes.

About SpinTop:
SpinTop™ Games www.SpinTop-Games.com is the world’s leading developer of hidden object video games and a subsidiary of PopCap Games www.popcap.com, the worldwide leader in casual games. SpinTop is best know for its award-winning Mystery P.I.™ franchise which first launched in 2007 and now boasts 6 games in the series. Mystery P.I. has been downloaded over 100 Million times and the series is available in 9 languages worldwide. SpinTop’s mission is to offer customers the best PC games in a safe and secure family friendly environment. Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, SpinTop was founded in 2004 and acquired by PopCap in 2007.

Last year I posted about my shopping trip to a hobby store to buy game design prototyping tools. Some weeks ago, I bought even more items, such as tiny wooden barrels and glass beads. These tools are great for doing quick and easy paper prototypes of game designs.

I’ve been keeping them in small plastic bags, and all of those bags were in a larger freezer bag. While this was functional, it felt a bit lame. I’m a game designer, and some of my most important tools are in plastic food bags? It’s not right.

So I went shopping again and found a nice toolbox for less than $15. It has these cool compartments that I can move about relatively easily, and when the lid is closed, everything stays in place.

I put all of my wooden pieces and glass beads in the toolbox, and each gets its own compartment. I realized I had a lot more star-shaped wooden pieces than any other piece, though. I even had room for more things, so I put in some dice. My dice collection isn’t much, but I had them separate from my prototyping tools before. Now they’re all together.

Here’s a shot of the toolbox opened.

And here’s a shot of the closed toolbox.

The plastic bags were a bit more portable. I could put the entire collection in my bookbag when I left home, but this toolbox is its own luggage. By and large, I don’t find myself going out to do prototyping, so it isn’t that big of a deal.

What’s in your game design prototype toolbox? How do you store your physical paper prototyping tools?

Platform: Flash — Done a bad deed lately? Catch up with your favourite little purple demon as he sets out to recapture a voodoo priestess and her lackies who have managed to escape back to the human world. Use all the dirty rotten trickery you can to wrangle them or your boss, "Luke", will want to have a very painful chat with you. The latest chapter in the Reincarnations point-and-click series is short, but very well made, and just might bring out the devil in you. Tagged as: achievements, adventure, bgroup, browser, cgianelloni, evil, flash, free, game, macwinlinux, pointandclick, puzzle, rating-r

Just a gentle reminder that I really, really want to purchase your game (if you convince me).

Moment ago I downloaded Plain Sight game from Gamersgate summer sale, and few minutes later made a few tweets.

Check the below discussion (click the image)

Basically: I made a comment about corrupted download file (at 11:20). 11 minutes later (11:31) gamersgate replies to me that they want to help me get it working. And a minute later (11:32) they give me idea of redownloading the whole thing. Few minutes later (11:35) I got the thing working.

If customer service is about following people who talk about your game… you certainly are doing something very right.

Kudos Gamersgate.

Games featured this week: Treadmillasaurus Rex; Love Trampoline; The Birdinator; Up Down Ready; Sugar Rush — This week on Link Dump Friday; games of reflexes, puzzles, and arcade action! We all live on a love trampoline... in space... with the tooth fairy... and MC Hammer... and a cyborg bird... and a t-rex on a treadmill. I don't know about you, but that was actually my aspiration when I was five years old. Tagged as: blog, browser, linkdump

The venerable Worms franchise has been around since 1995, developed by Team17 as an offbeat variation on the classic Scorched Earth tank game in which you and your opponent took turns taking potshots at each other on an uneven terrain, as physics played with the calculated shots. Worms infused the genre with a wacky sense of humor, and it struck a chord with gamers.

Team17 has developed their latest in the series, Worms Reloaded, and if this was the last game ever produced in the series, it would be a marvelous tribute to the history of Worms and a fitting end to the series. This is the best game in the series, and the most fully packed.

For starters, the game looks absolutely gorgeous. The game has always featured cartoon-style graphics, but now, the images are crisp, with some fine details and smooth animation, all in loving high def. In addition, the sound has been jacked up as well – there are 70 speechbanks, 50 of which are from the previous Worms titles, and 20 all new speechbanks.

The speechbanks really come into play when you’re building your team of four. You can completely customize them, from their hats, speech, color, gravestone for when they die, victory dance, and as you progress through the missions, you earn money to buy new items to edit them even more. You’re given full control over your wormy A-Team for the battles. The worms themselves aren’t the only customizable part of the game – you can create your own levels as well, and share them with the Worms community.

Combat is a blast. Every weapon from the previous Worms games make a return, including the bazooka and the Holy Hand Grenade, and includes 14 all-new weapons including killer ferrets, for a total of 47 weapons. If that weren’t enough, levels now have verticality in which you can fight from all-new heights, aided by the jetpack and the ninja rope that allow you to scale up to higher vantage points.

As for gameplay itself, the game has more than enough for single player and multiplayer. On the single play campaign side, there are 35 regular missions, and an addition 30 mishes for the advanced player who needs a little challenge. If that weren’t enough, Worms Reloaded has its own “horde mode” in which your worms take on endless enemies to see how many they can dispatch before perishing.

Multiplayer is even more featured. Since the game is fully integrated with Steam, it’s a fully featured Xbox Live-style experience, which will incorporate your friend list into the game, for easy game invites, leaderboards, and VOIP chat. You can play up to three other players, both online and offline. The game comes chock full of new gameplay modes, including Crazy Crates, Bazooka and Grenade, Forts (a deathmatch game where opposite teams are separated in the ocean or a cavern in their own forts)  and Rope Racing (players race using Ninja Ropes to swing them around like Spider-Man Spider-Worm). For those Worms veterans who hate new things, you can play in Classic Mode as well.

All in all, Worms Reloaded is a love letter to the series. It has everything any Worms fan would ever want, and its the perfect entry tool for gamers who’ve never tried Worms; the game includes a nice tutorial that will bring them up to speed. The game is available exclusively on Steam for $19.99, so just go buy it and try it. If there is never another Worms game released, this will satisfy every fan’s desires.

System Requirements

• OS: Windows XP, Vista, 7
• Processor: 1.25GHz AMD Athlon or Intel equivalent
• Memory: 1GB
• Graphics: 128MB Video Card (GeForce4 or equivalent card)
• DirectX®: DirectX® 9 or above
• Hard Drive: 2063MB
• Sound: DirectX® 9.0c-compliant sound card
• Other Requirements: Internet connection required

Platform: Flash — WayWords, TwistedSimple's new word puzzle release, is one part Boggle, two parts Magic Square, and three parts playing around with alphabet blocks. It has the sort of aesthetic that wouldn't be out of place between the Crossword and the Sudoku in your daily newspaper, and gameplay that would fit right in between Scrabble and Upwords in the ol' game cabinet. Tagged as: browser, flash, free, game, macwinlinux, puzzle, rating-g, solitaire, strategy, twistedsimple, word

I’ve been discussing this with the Insiders and they are showing quite green light (as long as certain things are handled “the right way”), and I thought I’d post a poll in this blog as well.

Basically, I’ve been brainstorming this idea about an indie game portal where people could play any games in the portal for paying $9.99 per month. Gross sales (most of it, let’s say for example 70% to 80% of the Real Money) would be split among developers based on how much people play their games in each month.

Links to more detailed posts part 1, part 2 and part 3.

So, what’s your take in this? Would you submit your game to this indie only games portal?
Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Ever played a game so many times that it starts creeping into everything else you do? Tagged as: babylonsticks, comic, funny

Platform: Flash — So going uphill is hard, but what about going downhill?... only, y'know, without the "hill" part. Descend through levels of tricky terrain in a game that combines classic platforming with good ol' fashioned "save the princess" swashbucklery. And while you're at it, save the heroes too! By rescuing different heroes, you can assume their abilities, and unlock new ones, in your quest for treasure and glory in this clever new hybrid from Nerdook. Tagged as: action, arcade, browser, flash, free, game, hybrid, macwinlinux, nerdook, platform, rating-g, vertical

Astraware announced the release of Astraware Sudoku and OddBlob for WebOS. The games will initially work on the Palm Pre and Pre Plus, with support coming for the Pixi later on. Both releases keep with the long standing tradition of Astraware games on Palm devices.

Astraware Sudoku is a Sudoku game packed with features, including a puzzle of the day. Each day there is a new puzzle to be downloaded and solved. After players solve the puzzle, they can upload their times to the leader board to see how they compete with other players.  OddBlob is a puzzle-arcade game created from modeling clay, and featuring online leader boards for players to post their high scores in both Strategy and Panic modes.

“We’re delighted to be re-establishing our long-term relationship with Palm, and supporting the new platform with a range of great casual games,” said Howard Tomlinson, CEO of Astraware. “Our experience at supporting well-featured devices in a range of sizes and resolutions has helped us to make our first webOS games a pleasure to play, and we look forward to bringing many more titles to the platform.”

Astraware will be releasing other games for WebOS in the future, as well.

Press Release Follows:

Staffordshire, UK – August 24, 2010 – Astraware® is excited to announce the release of its first games for Palm® webOS™. The first two games, Astraware Sudoku and OddBlob, will initially support Pre™ and Pre Plus devices with support for Pixi™ to be added later.

Astraware has a long and successful history of working closely with Palm. Zap!2000 was the first color game released for Palm OS and for several years Palm smartphones offered at least one Astraware game bundled along with it. Now that Palm has released their PDK development kit, which allows developers greater access to some of the core functions of webOS, Astraware is able to continue that relationship by bringing some of their best-selling games to the platform.

Astraware Sudoku is a multi-award-winning version of the worldwide smash puzzle game. It is packed with features that avid Sudoku players love, including the unique Puzzle of the Day feature, which sees in excess of 20,000 users regularly downloading the daily puzzles and uploading their times on the global leader board. First released for smartphones earlier this year, OddBlob is a cute puzzle-arcade game entirely created from modeling clay, and featuring online leader boards for players to post their high scores in both Strategy and Panic modes.

“We’re delighted to be re-establishing our long-term relationship with Palm, and supporting the new platform with a range of great casual games,” said Howard Tomlinson, CEO of Astraware. “Our experience at supporting well-featured devices in a range of sizes and resolutions has helped us to make our first webOS games a pleasure to play, and we look forward to bringing many more titles to the platform.”

Astraware intends to bring a number of their own-IP games to the webOS platform as well as working with their premium licensor partners to add to the range of quality casual games available in the Palm App Catalog.

“Palm has a rich history with Astraware, and we’re excited to see that relationship continue with the webOS platform,” said Ben Galbraith, director of Developer Marketing, Palm, Inc. “Astraware’s popular titles are a welcome addition to the breadth and quality of webOS games in the Palm App Catalog.”

Astraware Sudoku and OddBlob are available now on the webOS App Catalog, priced $4.99 each. For more information visit http://www.astraware.com/webos.

It’s fairly inevitable that Popcap’s biggest seller, Plants Vs. Zombies, would be heading to the Nintendo DS. After all, it’s already been released on Windows, Mac, Apple mobiles, and will be heading to Xbox Live Arcade on September 8.

The question is, what will the Nintendo DS version have? According to Escapist Magazine:

The DS version of Plants vs Zombies will include the Adventure, Survival, and Puzzle modes already available in other versions, along with their mini-games, but PopCap also promises “new and exclusive” game content. Depending on what this means, it could make Nintendo’s handheld the platform with the most complete edition of the game. Or it could just be a couple of exclusive zombies.

Let us know if you’ll be picking up this iteration of the popular Plants Vs. Zombies. You can check out Casual Gamer Chick’s original review here.