iGame Radio

Ambrosia Software, publisher of cool utility, productivity, and game programs for the Mac and iPhone, has announced a holiday sale. The Ambrosia Holiday Bundle provides savings of up to 70% off on their games & utilities. The sale runs right up until Christmas Eve, December 24th 2009.

There are two different bundles that you can choose from, at three different prices for each bundle.

The “work” bundle starts at $59 and includes:

• WireTap Studio
• Soundboard
• Dragster

The “play” bundle starts at a mere $19 and includes:

• SketchFighter
• Apeiron X
• Bubble Trouble X

Both bundles are priced at a 50% discount, and feature larger sizes with more products for 60% and 70% discounts (for example, you can pick up a bundle that includes both Aquaria and EV Nova for just $39!). Definitely some big-time deals there, so check them out.

Spiderweb Software announced the release of the final episode in the Avernum series, Avernum 6. This version features the conclusion to the game about the nation of people living in an underground world composed of warrens of tunnels and caverns. When the Blight came, the mushrooms Avernum needed to feed itself withered and died. The reptilian Slithzerikai emerged from the lower tunnels to take advantage of the situation, and hunger and warfare was the result.

Avernum 6 includes changes to many spells, enhanced graphics, and other gameplay balancing mechanics. The game includes a large demo, so you can’t complain that you didn’t know what it would be like, and has low system requirements. Check it out!

Got a trailer for the new Chronicles of Inotia sequel, A Wanderer of Luone. The iPhone/iPod Touch RPG game continues a heroic journey through a land of magic, companionship, and a never ending battle against evil. Choose from five different classes (I suspect that the developer has suspended the affects of gravity on the large assets of the female gender choices), control up to three members in your party, customize your characters, and enter into multiplayer battles. Over 200 single-player quests have been included in the game.

The game has been submitted to Apple and the developer, Com2uS is hoping the game will pop up onto the App Store in early December.

EVE Online: Dominion was launched today, making this the 12th expansion for the free sci-fi based MMOG. New features in the game included sovereignty changes that intend to catalyze player relationships into closer conflict, doing away with the entrenched siege battles.

“Our goal for EVE is to maximize human interaction and then leverage it to make a more meaningful, interesting game,” said EVE’s Lead Game Designer, Noah Ward. “Dominion was designed to give players more tools to mold their experience with better means of communication and extra rounds of ammunition. Undoubtedly, the compelling intrigue we’ve seen in EVE will never end as pilots fight to bend the universe to their will.”

New features include unprecedented alliance control over territory, allowing them to change things to suit their goals and playstyles, the re-engineering of many ship classes, a new in-game browser and mail system, and some major graphic improvements to various planets, moons, and stars. More info can be found at the EVE features page.

Yes, I’m prolific today.

Gravity Sling, by RipTide Games, is all about the physics, man! Get your astronaut back to his shuttle by slinging him around planets and stars. Take advantage of their gravity to figure out the right angle and trajectory to start your astronaut on his journey. Compete against friends, too! This is a free game, with in-app purchases to get additional level packs.

Now you, too, can bag yourself a deer without any of the nasty side effects (getting up at the crack of dawn, jumping into camo, slogging through mud and thistle, and dragging a dead, smelly carcass after you). Big Buck Hunter for the iPhone is in the App Store today. BBH enjoys a big following, including an arcade tournament in Chicago where players from around the world competed for $10k. Developer Super Happy Fun Fun has said that there will be contests around the iPhone version too, so keep a look out.

He wants to eat the cake, and it ain’t no lie! Dante’s Devilz Food Quest hit the iPhone store recently, and it’s a pretty interesting game. Stack your little demons high enough, and they can have their cake. You use the accelerometer controls to kick them up into a stack, and stoke the fires below to give them that push.

Ever since the job posting on the Apple jobs site was discovered, the Internet has been speculating about what that might mean for Apple. Is Apple going to start developing games as a first-party publisher? That’s what everyone wants to know. That’s what many people want to believe.

But, according to an article at Slide-to-play, not necessarily so. Rob Fahey, a self-described games industry analyst, was interviewed and stated his thoughts that Apple was probably scrambling to play catch-up with making its iPhone APIs and platforms more game friendly.

“It’s leaping to conclusions to assume that Apple’s hiring suggests a secret internal game development team,” Fahey said.

According to Fahey, Apple moving into development would upset the balance too much to be worth it. It could cause burgeoning development teams to be outshone by the platform’s own creator.

“Even if Apple did have ideas about entering game development, it’s hard to see how they’d make it work,” he continued. “They’d end up alienating and annoying their developer community– not new ground for Apple, admittedly– and would face accusations of favoritism for their own titles in the App Store, no matter how scrupulously they obeyed their own rules.

Now, where I’m all for believing that Apple has no intention of jumping into first-party development/publishing of games…on the iPhone or Mac…I disagree with Fahey’s reasoning behind why. For one, I don’t believe that Apple would ever intend on getting into game development because Apple doesn’t see itself as a developer of software that doesn’t directly support its hardware or operating system. Consider that Apple could probably come up with a really good project management system (something to compete with MS Project, for example). But they never have. Because project management software doesn’t directly support the OS.

“What about iWork?” I hear you ask. Well, first off, iWork has been in development for years…not something that Apple is just now considering moving into a crowded market. Secondly, most everyone who uses a computer uses a word processor and some simple spreadsheet tools. Not so for project management.

“Ah,” I hear you say. “But what about iTunes!”

And to that I respond with my other reason for why Apple is not, and won’t in the foreseeable future, end up in the game development business. And it has nothing to do with Fahey’s ideas of “favoritism” in the App store (think Microsoft Games and Xbox Live Arcade). It has to do with favoritism within Steve Jobs. Jobs just doesn’t like games. He never really has. He *loves* music. Most every single keynote includes music of some kind, and Jobs has even been up there playing the guitar himself. He promotes music in software all the time.

But never games. The last time games were mentioned in a keynote that I remember was back in, maybe, 2004 (until Schiller’s keynote of WWDC this year).

I’m glad if Apple is working hard to make the iPhone a better gaming platform. Maybe they will actually work hard to make the Mac a better gaming platform as well. But don’t expect any games out of Apple anytime soon.

ETA: I confirmed that the “Gaming PC” is in fact a Windows box. :(

If you haven’t heard about Two Worlds II, you might want to mosey on over to the site and check it out. Not only is it coming out for PC, Mac, and consoles, but the developer, TopWare Interactive, has started a contest today that runs through the winter holidays. All you have to do is register on the site, then check out the Advent Calendar and answer a daily question. Get the questions right, and you win a prize. Get all of the questions correct up through a certain time period, and you are entered into a drawing to win prizes such as a PS3, an Xbox 360, or a “Gaming PC”.

I don’t know exactly what a “Gaming PC” is, but I’m confirming what it is so we don’t make any, you know, assumptions. ‘Cause, you know, the game is coming out for the PS3, Xbox 360, PC, and Mac, and you’d think that the prizes would be PS3, Xbox 360, PC, and Mac.

You’d think.