iGame Radio

In an event in San Francisco yesterday, TellTale Games revealed tidbits of their next game to be released. Puzzle Agent is based around totally new IP and is part of TellTale’s Pilot Program, which gives the developer an opportunity to experiment with strange games to see what takes off. Successful titles enter into TellTale’s episodic content model.

Puzzle Agent is a mix between Professor Layton style puzzles and TellTale humor and writing. The setting is snowy, rural Skoggins, Minnesota. As the agent in question, you must investigate strange occurrences that even the townspeople seem to be in on. Think Fargo. Scenes are not point-and-click, as in TellTale’s other games. Instead, each challenge is a contained unit, with an introduction and a conclusion that includes an evaluation of performance for the agent. There is a creative hint system as well. Because the agent thinks best while chewing gum, you must find and chew gum to get hints. It reminds me, in a way, of the hint system for Machinarium.

The artwork is done by former TellTale artist, now cartoonist, Graham Annable. He’s a storyboard artist at Laika, the studio that produced Coraline, and is influenced by the likes of the Coen Brothers, so you’ll likely see some dark, twisted humor in the artwork.

Puzzle Agent is due out in June, and will be available for the PC, Mac, iPhone/iPod Touch, iPad, and Wii. This will also be TellTale’s first iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad game as well!

InstantAction, the browser-based gaming service, has announced that they intend to support iPad gaming. InstantAction has been evolving over the past few years, and is now embeddable in websites, Facebook pages, and blogs…similar to videos. CEO Lou Castle is apparently a big fan of the iPad he has been playing around with, and told IndustryGamers that “…InstantAction will absolutely support the device with dedicated applications…”

Big news for all of us iPad users!

(via The Loop)

Appular is hosting a contest in honor of their new iPhone game, Hand of Greed, and you just might win an iPad. The rules are simple. The first 1,000 people with US iTunes accounts to sign up get a free copy of Hand of Greed.

They are also giving away 100 $0.99 apps from the App Store. Just hop onto TouchArcade and answer the Appular daily poll thread. Everyone who answers is entered to win a $0.99 app of their choice.

But wait, there’s more. You could win an iTunes Gift card. Just “like” Appular on Facebook, or follow @appular on Twitter and tweet “Hand of Greed giveaway! Win 1100 free apps, iTunes GC’s, and an iPad! Info: http://bit.ly/cACAJm #HandofGreedContest”. Appular will be giving away a $10 iTunes Gift card every day for the next two weeks to a lucky person on Twitter or Facebook. And they did say “yes you can do both, and yes it will double your chances to win”.

Last, but certainly not least, you can enter to win a free WiFi iPad. Just write a review on Appular’s Facebook wall of your experience playing Hand of Greed. They recommend that you open up, have fun, and be creative. They’ll select the top 10 entries, then randomly choose one winner from those top 10 to receive the iPad.

The deadline is May 12, and the contest is only open to US residents with US iTunes accounts.

Freeverse has announced Flick Baseball Pro, the next in their Flick Sports lineup, will be available on May 3rd. A fully 3D baseball simulation of America’s favorite pastime, now you can play baseball with a flick of your finger.

You can create your own teams with complete customization or choose from up to 34 unique teams in the game. Gameplay includes accelerometer-based aiming controls for batting and pitching and touch-screen tapping for fielding players. You can play a full season, three or nine inning games, or even a single game. All game progress, ranking, and stats are tracked automatically. You can also choose between two difficulty modes.

You can brag to your heart’s content as well through the Plus+ network, which will track game progress with online leaderboards and achievements. Freeverse is also partnering with Chevrolet to release a free sponsored exhibition game version of Flick Baseball Pro, Chevy Baseball, also available on May 3rd on the App Store.

PopCap Games is celebrating the 10th anniversary of Bejeweled, one of the most popular match-three games of all time, in style. The Show Your Bejeweled Love contest encourages you to submit a YouTube video illustrating or describing in some way your love for this simple, yet well-loved, video game in two minutes or less. All types of submissions are welcome, from weird to fanatical, and anywhere in between.

The top ten winners have access to $5000 US in prizes, including a limited edition notebook PC and two iPads, each with custom-designed, “Bejeweled 10th Anniversary” engravings. The contest ends May 26th 2010 and is open to residents of the US, Canada (except Quebec) and the UK.

Judging will be performed by members of PopCap’s art and game design teams throughout the contest period, and will be based on three criteria: enthusiasm, presentation and knowledge of Bejeweled. All top entries, as well as complete contest rules and the official submission form, will be posted on the site during the contest.

Someone got a head start.

Science Fiction author and futurist Charlie Stross penned an interesting blog post today about just why Steve Jobs hates Flash, and the future of Apple (and PC) computing. The gist of the article was that Jobs, seeing that the PC market would be bottoming out literally within years, was attempting to save his precious Apple and move it into a new computing ecosystem. The remainder of the Silicon Valley world is flailing about, either equally terrified but not certain what to do, or taking less than effective action.

The picture Stross paints is an interesting one, Read more

Steve Jobs posted some interesting thoughts on Flash today on the Apple website. His thoughts circulated around why he didn’t want Flash on Apple’s mobile platforms. Jobs’ musings came down to what he characterized as technology issues, including Flash’s lack of openness as a technology, battery life issues, and the fact that Flash was created as primarily a mouse-driven tool.

Regardless of whether Adobe could improve the ability for Flash to operate in a touch-screen world, have better security and performance, or less impact on battery life, the fact is that Flash would still be owned by Adobe, rather than controlled by Apple or be an open standard that is managed by the technology industry in general. And that’s just something that Apple can’t take.

So, what do we, as gamers, do about that? Read more

I’m taking the week off this week. Which means that I’m not actually going to post today a one hour or so long podcast that includes reviews, interviews, and me conversing with either Peter Cohen or Corey Tamas. I may be posting a Game Review Podcast (which I haven’t done in a while) because I’m backed up on those game reviews and have a ton to get out. I have been doing lot’s of reading about cool games, and even cooler stuff in Mac, iPhone, iPad gaming. I have been prepping for other things down the road. So, you can define that as “taking the week off” if you’d like.

My husband doesn’t.

After announcing the Worldwide Developers Conference less than six weeks hence, Apple also revealed the details regarding the Apple Design Awards this year. Apple has chosen to only award the ADA this year to applications on the App Store.

From the Apple Design Award website:

The Apple Design Awards 2010 recognize iPhone OS applications that demonstrate technical excellence, innovation, technology adoption, and quality.

All applications must currently be on the App Store to be eligible for an award. Nominations will be accepted until Friday, May 14 at 5 PM PDT, and you must be an iPhone Developer Program member to nominate apps. However, one does not need to be nominated to have a chance at winning.

There are no details regarding why Apple has chosen, after more than 10 years, to make the ADA exclusive to the iPhone App Store, and exclude Mac OS X applications as well as student applications.

Apple announced the dates of the Worldwide Developers Conference in a press release today. The 2010 WWDC is slated for June 7 – June 11 at San Francisco’s Moscone West. The conference will include five technology tracks to choose from: Application Frameworks, Internet & Web, Graphics & Media, Developer Tools, and Core OS.

This year’s conference will include labs in iPad development as well as Mac OSX and iPhone/iPod Touch development. The Internet & Web track promises to include help with HTML5, which will become a big part of animation for the iPhone and iPad.

The WWDC will also include the Apple Developer Awards, an annual event since 1997, as well as evening events such as Stump The Experts and the WWDC Bash.

Tickets to the WWDC conference are already available for $1,599. You can sign up for the event at the WWDC website.