iGame Radio

Yesterday was a hectic, interview-filled, panel-attending day. This year’s conference is definitely the year of the social gaming scene. Which begs the question of whether games weren’t social before. Perhaps a lot haven’t been, considering that single-player games in the casual scene have been quite dominant. More on this thought in a moment.

I’ve got two great interviews to post, which I intended to post last night, but found myself unable to. And not because of partying either. Let’s just say that I found out Seattle’s new Light Rail seems only meant for those who already drive. And since I can’t drive…well….

I really enjoy attending conferences like this. It allows me to socialize (which is hard to do when you work by yourself from a home office), and it allows me to see old friends that I don’t see very often. I get the chance to catch up on news, learn new stuff that I can’t find out any other way, and verbally abuse folks who drop me from their press lists (yeah, I’m talking to you, PlayFirst ;).

I’m heading out to the exclusive PopCap Games luncheon, where I will get some more cool info about upcoming PopCap Games, and will post more about that later. Hopefully their zombies won’t eat me before I do. I will also post about some other very cool news that I’ve been hearing about here at the conference regarding more Mac and iPhone games.

So look for both podcast posts and news posts later today. And I might be tweeting some interesting iGame Radio stuff too, so keep track of the tweets!

Fresh from my vacation last week (well, where did you think I had disappeared to?), and I have jumped right back into the middle of things. I am at day 1 of the Casual Connect casual games conference here in Seattle. I’ve got a busy three days ahead of me, and plan to post a podcast a night with interviews from folks in the casual games industry as well as commentary about what I’ve seen and heard.

I’m currently waiting for the opening keynote speech to start, and thought that I’d look through my “bag ‘o swag” to see what this year’s take is.

First up: A cool Gelaskins iPhone skin cover with the Addicting Games logo on it. It actually looks pretty cool, with tiny thumbnails of characters from casual games all over. I’ll see if I can get a link to the image and see how many characters we all can figure out. I also got a Gelaskins drink coaster. Weee.

Next: Energy boosting sunflower seeds from PopCap Games popular Plants vs. Zombies. Not that I need them this moment…my Pea Shooter died (well, we thought it would survive our vacation…apparently the zombies got into the house). Kids will have fun planting it and capturing the sun drops that fall. ;)

Playrix dropped in a pen. But not any ordinary pen. If you happened to get bored with keynote speeches, you can start moving the tiny little marble through the little maze in the pen. Looks pretty cool, actually.

A free game card from Paysafecard and free coins from Mochi. So if I need to play games while I’m here (like I don’t have enough to review right now) I’ve got more. Heh.

Oh, and another cool bag from Big Fish Games, with a little outside pocket.

Nice haul overall, but sorta expected more based on last year. ‘Course, last year we didn’t have this year’s economy. :(

I’ll be attending Casual Connect 2009, the premier casual games conference, from July 21 – July 23 this week. I’ll be floating around gathering interviews, attending panels, getting drunk going to parties, and generally having a great time with my casual games buddies.

If you will be attending and want to hook up, let me know in the comments section, or send me an email. My schedule is pretty filled up already, so let me know now.

Spiderweb Software guru Jeff Vogel has officially announced Avernum 6, the last in the Avernum series. Set to be released for the Mac this winter, Avernum 6 will conclude the story of Avernum, in which a final set of disasters threatens to destroy the world with famine and warfare. Spiderweb Software had promised higher quality graphics this time around, and though the graphics are still not what one would call modern or realistic, they are much nicer than previous versions of the game.

System Requirements:

* PC Running Windows 2000 or later or Macintosh running System 10.3.9 or later.
* 800 MhZ processor. Minimum 1.6 GhZ processor recommended.
* Video card or processor with OpenGL support and 32 MB video RAM (64 MB recommended).
* 512 MB RAM.
* 200 MB hard disk space.
* 1024×600 screen resolution with 32 bit color.
* Avernum 6 will run natively on Intel Macintoshes.

Virtual Programming has announced the release of Pipemania, a puzzle game in which players learn the ancient art of plumbing. No, really. Cause, you lay down pre-set pipes in a tiled grid so that you can keep the Flooze, this flowing substance that moves faster as you go, moving through the pipes as long as you can without overflowing. Isn’t that what you did when the toilet exploded?

Actually, if you had utilized “quick and forward thinking, precise coordination, and keen awareness”, the toilet wouldn’t be lying in a million pieces on a wet floor right now.

The game includes five different game modes: world, arcade, bonus, multiplayer, classic, and the original Pipemania game.

Features:
• Entire game is playable co-operatively with another player
• Build up your Island World with all manner of Pipelines
• Enhanced visuals & a variety characters to help and hinder
• Attacks & damage, new pieces, new play mechanics, multiple floozes
• 250+ levels set across 8 themed locations

Requires an Intel or PPC Mac running 10.4.11 or better, and at least an 800 MHz processor. It’s also available for iPhone.

Podcast Episode 75 is now available. I apologize that it has been so long since the last podcast has posted, but I will be posting podcasts every week (Wednesday is my target date) save for next week…I’ll be on vacation next week. The week after that is Casual Connect, so I’ll be reporting from the conference, and will probably have multiple podcasts posted that week. So that will make up for nothing next week.

This week:

A review of PopCap Games’ Plants vs. Zombies, a wonderfully addictive casual game that is equally addictive to traditional gamers.
A review of 9 Innings, an iPhone game from Com2Us (it’s hard to say that company’s name with a straight face, you know). A baseball game for the true baseball fan.
An interview with Mike Smith of Elecorn, the developer who brought you Caster 3D.

In an interview with VideoGamer.com, Harmonix creative director Josh Randall believes that even though music games as they are now are very popular, that the future could see these games abandoning consoles completely.

“I think you could foresee a future where maybe you don’t even have a console,” said Randall. “Your instrument can have all these songs and you just plug it into your TV. I’m sure it [the genre] is going to start to move in weird ways that no-one’s even thought of yet.”

Meanwhile, musicians worldwide rubbed their hands in glee, knowing that their plot for worldwide domination of the music game market has not yet been suspected. “We are still on track for ending that final last link to the external need for storing songs,” said Marcus McVengeance, head of Musicians for World Domination. “The next step will be to move all that music right into people’s heads, then gather them for giant jam sessions, and then We..Will…Rule…Everything!!! BWAHAHAHAHA!!!”

Ahem.

Today’s selection reminds me why so many apps fail. They don’t provide the proper amount of customer support necessary for their apps. At least two of these apps, when you went to their website, didn’t mention the game *at all*! No screenshots, no videos, no blog post…nothing. I mean, how can any customer have any faith that you are supporting your game when you won’t even talk about it?

Time Twister, by Redbot Software: A lite kid-friendly version of their popular Vortex Revolution game. It’s a variation on the old shape-matching game, only in this case you have to match the shapes up as they are twisting their way into a vortex. The vortex gets faster and faster as it gets closer to the center, and as you get higher in level. Unfortunately, the video available is only for Vortex Revolution, and seems to show the game perhaps more difficult than it is (due to the developer constantly tilting the iPhone for what seems to be a non-gameplay reason). The game is only $0.99.

iChainLife by Alan Liu: I’m still trying to get a handle on exactly how this game is played, due to the fact that this is one of those developers who seems intent on not telling people on his site that he developed the game. But the description says that the aim of the game is to explode a set number of flying balls by setting off a chain reaction. The bigger the chain reaction, the bigger your score. How you do that is unclear. But it seems unique enough, and is inexpensive enough, at $0.99, to try out.

Snapped, by HotRod Software: Another of the “Doesn’t mention on their website” games, which is a pity because I think it would be quite a bit of fun for the social factor. Snapped seems to be a simple enough game…you are tapping the blue tiles as you work your way to the red tiles at the end of the grid. The more tiles you hit, the more points you get. However, each row has one booby trapped tile which, if you touch, will snap and the game is over. The social factor comes into play in the 2-player mode, where the other player can set the booby traps, which I found an interesting and fun additional factor. And at $0.99, you aren’t losing much money in trying it.

Leaf Bound, by Pixel Stream: A platform-style game where you jump from leaf to leaf in a manga art world…with monkeys. (Freeverse, watch out!) The artwork is well done, the sound effects are professional, the gameplay seems very sound from the video I watched. And the game is only $0.99. Quite a surprise, actually, because of what I’ve seen so far it’s worth more. Then again, maybe the pricing is based on only 8 levels available.

I’m establishing a new watch list of interesting iPhone games as they make it onto the App Store. Not all games will make the list…just ones that seemed to be interesting in one way or another.

Form, by Ironsoft Studios: Navigate a ball through an obstacle course from one pipe to the other. Before completing a level, you must first obtain all of the keys to unlock the exit pipe. You are provided with ramps, gravity modifiers, and teleporters which you can position and rotate to guide the ball through each level. Teleport through walls, reverse gravity, and orbit the ball around obstacles. Features real physics, 48 levels, 4 difficulties, and cool graphics. The graphics especially are what drew me initially toward the game; they have a very steampunkish style to them.

OrbD, by Inner Four: Navigate a ball through a series of 2D surfaces with 3D obstacles by tilting the iPhone. Think Marble Blast. The graphics look great, the game is cheap. And I’ve always loved tilt games. The storyline is a bit cheap too, as in they couldn’t come up with their own.

Alice Free Fall, by Flipcoin Studio: Follow Alice as she falls down the rabbit hole. A surreal experience combined with capturing items as you continue your journey. Tilt the iPhone as you fall, use your powerups to help you grab more or miss attacks. The graphics are gorgeous, and the music is lovely. You can even see a video of the gameplay here.

According to the Wall Street Journal (ganked through Mashable), the Department of Justice is looking into anti-competitive practices of the major telecoms, including AT&T. This initial review will explore issues like anti-competitive practices, the sheer market share of AT&T and Verizon (60% of wireless customers), and the practice of locking up phones via exclusivity agreements.

Whereas there is a question whether AT&T has developed a trust in regards to the iPhone (I mean, you *can* get a smartphone elsewhere, and sign up with it with other telecoms), there are still questions about whether exclusivity agreements in themselves violate the Sherman Act (a law established in the 19th century that requires the Federal government to investigate and pursue trusts, companies and organizations suspected of violating the Act.)

In any case, it should be interesting to see whether this actually goes anywhere. Heck, even if the initial review doesn’t go beyond an investigation, or the investigation goes into slightly different places, it could give Apple an excuse to slip the bonds of economic marriage that it currently has with AT&T, should it want to.