iGame Radio

Oh, PopCap Games, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways…

• Peggle Nights for the Mac…released last week!
• Peggle Nights for the iPhone…release date set for later this month!
• Free Bonus Level Pack!

For those of you unfamiliar with the game, think of Peggle Nights as a combo of pinball and pachinko with wealth of indescribable zaniness to round it all out. You try to hit 25 orange pegs with 10 metal balls while partaking in the Peggle Masters’ dreams and secret ambitions on a visit to the Peggle Institute. Your goal is to complete the entire night’s worth of dreams and usher in a new day.

And PopCap has also announced the Peggle Art Contest. Top submissions will be immortalized in a future Peggle version. The contest, which opens March 3 and runs through June 3, 2009, is available to folks in the US and the United Kingdom, and will award more than $8,000 in prizes, including trips for the top submitters to visit PopCap’s Seattle headquarters, spending sprees at Best Buy, limited edition Peggle merchandise, and iPhones and Xbox 360s with Peggle pre-installed.

Okay, gotta stop now…I’m breathing too hard…

Entries can involve any aspect of the game’s artistic elements, from background scenes to drawn or written descriptions of new Peggle Masters and power-ups, to level designs (peg layouts). Full details of the contest, including entry forms and rules, can be found at the Peggle Art Contest webpage. Entries can be submitted electronically or by mail.

Wait a sec, I live in Seattle…why should I care about the trip? Can I get a swap for a trip to the Caribbean??

I haven’t been keeping up with this as I should…naughty me! uDevGames contest, the wonderful Mac games contest put on irregularly by Carlos Camacho and the forum members at iDevGames.com, is nearing the end of its run, and voting has begun.

There are 19 game demos available to look at and vote on, from arcade to puzzle to rpg. So, check them out, vote, and I may be able to provide some voices from the contest in the next few days or weeks for you as well.

Last year’s PAX was awesome and draining and full of a lot of Mac and iPhone goodness, so of course I’m going to attend this year. Fully 6 months before the event, they have opened registration up. If you want to be a part of the goodness that is PAX, I highly recommend that you register early, because the number of badges will be limited this year. See you in September!

Aspyr Media has released a new iPhone app called VooDude. I’m uncertain whether I would call this a game persay, though you can certainly make it into a game. Priced at $0.99, VooDude lets you create your own personal, portable Voodoo doll within your iPhone or iPod Touch.

Seeing as how I can think of a few people in my life who would, ahem, benefit from this feature, I checked out the features list:

• Use the accelerometer and touch screen to shake, pin, burn and toss him – he’ll respond to your slightest whim!
• Personalize Voodude by mapping any photo you want on his head.
• Ragdoll physics
• Touch screen interactivity puts Voodude at the mercy of your fingers
• Save each of your custom Voodudes to bring them out later for further enjoyment
• Email your creations to other Voodude users

They need to add to the features list “send curses through VooDude to those you despise.” I could deal with that.

The Independent Games Festival organizers have launched the voting website for the Audience Award vote. Here you can vote for your favorite IGF 2009 game. The winner of the Audience Award will be awarded a $2,500 prize, part of the $50,000 total in prizes being given during the IGF Main and Student Competitions.

The Audience Award finalists that have Mac demos are: Brainpipe, Cortex Command, The Graveyard, and Between.

Finalists that intend to bring a Mac version but have no current demo are: Dyson and Osmos.

Games that are Flash-based and work on a Mac are: IncrediBots, Coil, and You Have To Burn The Rope.

All Audience Award finalists have qualified by being a Main Competition finalist and submitting a playable public demo of their game. This gives you an opportunity to download their game and try it out first before you vote.