iGame Radio

If you are into old-school RPG gaming, such as the Ultima and the D&D series, then you may want to check out Izar for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. Developed by SVP Mobile and released this week, Izar is an epic saga about a knight building a castle and searching for ancient artifacts. Most action is real-time until you get to combat, which is turn-based. The screens definitely remind one of old-school 2D 16-bit gameplay. The game goes for $2.99

Island Tribe, on the other hand, is a combo of time management and RTS with a bit of adventure mixed in. Released for the iPad by Realore Studios, your goal in Island Tribe is to rescue the island natives from the volcano that is starting to erupt. Building structures and device is part of the job to help them get to the ocean. The game goes for $2.99.

Pix’n Love Rush by Pastagames and Bulkypix has received an update, but only to the iPhone/iPod Touch version so far. The free update includes a new game mode, The Rainbow Rush, which adds a bit of color to this retro racing platform game. You’re still racing the cat across the screen, but now you have color added into the mix. There’s no word on whether the game mode will be added to the iPad version as well.

Appular has released a free version of Push Panic that includes 15 never before seen levels. Push Panic is a match-three game wherein you must tap your matches before the pile reaches the red panic bar and topples over. The game includes powerups and bronze, silver, and gold medal achievements. The full version has 75 levels, three game modes, and costs $1.99.

Valve Software has released Portal 2: The Final Hours, a “digital book” that takes you behind the scenes within Valve for an unvarnished look at the creative process behind Portal 2.

Journalist Geoff Keighley was granted unprecedented “fly on the wall” access to Valve to create a 15,000 word multimedia experience, including exclusive photos, videos, interviews, interactive experiences, and more. The Final Hours includes a lot of previously unknown information, such as the fact that Portal 2 actually began as a prequel to the first game without portals or GLaDOS. A video of a never-before-disclosed project, Two Bots, One Wrench, shows examples of Directed Design Experiments created after Half-Life 2: Episode 2. You’ll also see images and read details regarding the evolution of the Portal 2 story as the game was developed.

Interactive highlights include:

• Play with portals in an interactive diagram where you learn how portals work.
• 360 degree panorama photos of the Valve office and design labs.
• Listen to the songs that inspired the Portal 2 development team.
• Hear Jonathan Coulton’s Portal 2 song in various stages of development.
• Puppet Wheatley in an interactive experience.
• Destroy Aperture Science by wiping your fingers over the screen.
• Interact with fans and voice your opinion via polls and a feedback form.

The cost for his multimedia experience is $1.99, and SteamPlay is required.

Every other week until E3, Runic Games is giving folks a glimpse of what to expect in Torchlight II. This week, Runic Games is exploring a few environments within the game. Included is an intro by Patrick Blank, Lead Level Designer.

The developers will also be explaining a bit about what to expect from the different types of areas, how they are technically different from each other, and how the environments compare to the first Torchlight game. In addition, they have a Level Design Q & A with Patrick Blank and Jason Beck with questions asked by Runic Forums members.

From Making the World of Torchlight II:

Torchlight II introduces randomized outdoor areas throughout the game, in many sizes. We have broken down our outdoor areas into two different types: Passes and Overworld areas. There are multiple Passes and Overworld areas in each Act of the game. All offer random dungeons, random events, and lots of exploration for players.

From Level Design Q&A:

How much of the world will we visit in TL2? – asked by Seer

Jason: In Torchlight II you’ll be traveling across 3 distinct regions of the continent of Vilderan, one of two major continents in our game world. Those 3 regions make up about 1/5th of the continent. Within each of those 3 regions there are various zones, passes, dungeons, and cities. So, it’s a big step up from the single little mining town of Torchlight, but it allows us a great deal of real estate to play with later on in the MMO.

To read the entire set of articles, hop onto the Runic Games website for more information.

 

What’s inside this episode:

• Host Omaha Sternberg goes it alone this week, talking about the week’s news in Mac and iOS gaming. First up, she talks about the game pricing model that Gabe Newell of Valve Software has proposed. What do you think about games priced based on how much fun you are to play with?
• NCsoft has announced the shut down of the North American servers for Lineage. But the Asian servers are still live and well.
• Lodsys has begun sending licensing letters to iOS developers based on a patent filed years ago describing the Apple in-app purchasing procedure. Omaha describes what the problem with the patent is, and why Apple should step up to the plate to kill it.
• Blizzcon tickets go on sale this weekend. And Blizzard has announced a new service called Cross-Realm Dungeon Grouping. No date, but play with real friends across realms.
• Omaha talks about games that she’s played in the past week.

Music Notes:

• Digital Droo produced our theme music here at iGame Radio.
• Digital Droo for featuring music from Burning Monkey Solitaire.
• Rich Carlson for featuring music from Dr. Blob.

 

What’s inside this episode:

• Omaha Sternberg interviews Gary Gattis of Spacetime Studios about Pocket Legends, Blackstar, and beyond. Pocket Legends recently celebrated their one year anniversary by opening up most of their game locations for free. We talk about the anniversary celebration, the Mac/PC version soon to come, the mobile MMOG Blackstar soon to arrive, and more.

UPDATE: Fans of Spacetime Studios have created a transcript of the show, which you can read here. Thanks very much, guys!

iGame Radio received an email from Valve this week that stated that they would not be showing anything at E3 this year:

Lots of folks have mailed asking about appointment times, etc., with Valve.

Well, we are not showing any titles at this year’s show. So no appointment is needed.

This has set tongues wagging, as we know of at least one title that Valve is actively working on (DOTA 2), and the hopes have been with many that they are also working on Half-life 2: Episode 3, though there is no absolute evidence of that. But that statement leaves many to wonder whether DOTA 2 is further off than many thought, or whether Valve does not want to show any work at E3.

A disappointment indeed, as we all would have liked to see more of DOTA 2 and any other Valve work.

Nomoc has released their first iOS game, Doubleside Mahjong, for iPhone/iPod Touch and iPad. Previously publishing games for non-smartphones, Doubleside Mahjong takes advantage of the iPhone’s gyroscope to turn a three-dimensional image of a Mahjong pyramid to make matches front and back. The company may not quite have a grasp on the terminology, though, as they have released an HD version for both iPhone and iPad, as well as a standard version for iPhone, but we’re not seeing any difference between the two iPhone versions.

Last week Alawar Entertainment released Amelie’s Cafe, a time management sim set in a cafe. The game comes across as a Europeanized version of Diner Dash, with a more hipster flavor. The game let’s you serve customers, deliver food, and order the meals while providing time between levels to upgrade your kitchen and decorate. Available for both iPhone and iPad at $1.99 and $3.99 respectively.

Puzzle Sphere was released yesterday by Puzzle Brothers. This puzzle game challenges you to roll a ball across different lifts, levers, and switches using the accelerometer to unlock new pathways to collecting gems and escaping to the next level. There is a lot of challenging physics to the game, as you try to balance the ball without letting it push a switch again, for example, and closing what you just opened, or getting stuck somewhere and having to start over again. The game is going to have an update shortly with a bunch of new features, we are told, as well. (Disclaimer: Omaha consulted with the developer on the game. :)

Spaces of Play has released a major update to Spirits and Spirits HD. Main features of the update include Game Center achievements (apparently the #1 request of game fans), an improvement to the touch interface code, and redesigning early levels make the game more accessible. The accessibility removes difficulty bumps and is intended to improve the flow of the game. Spirits will remain $0.99 for a while as the company transitions from the temporary free to paid model again.

Zombie Farm has released a universal update to include iPad users in their game fan list. The update also includes a reworked user interface to make playing with the iPad version much easier, as well as more zombie alerts to control what is happening to your zombie farm. You can also access multiple accounts from a single profile. You can pick up this update freemium title today.

Hothead Games has released their second iOS game, Chromanoids. A classic style arcade shooter, you must use color to blast away the enemy aliens. There are five different gameplay modes, including a Story Mode, an Armada Mode (seemingly survival), and a Red-shift Mode, wherein color doesn’t matter. Powerup items and Game Center support round out the game. There’s both a free and full version of the game, for $0.99. But the trailer is pretty awesome!

Release Date: September 13 2011

id software takes the time to show you their first person apocalypse in Rage, an expansive world with fast cars, big guns, bigger cities and violent tribes of raiders. Huge environments and an even bigger over world that you can traverse is a major part of the game. Also the game is being made with id’s latest iteration of the idTech engine.

Screenshots

Trailer

 

What’s inside this episode:

• Omaha Sternberg interviews Mike Gnade of Indie Game Magazine. Gnade recently ran a Kickstarter Campaign to restart Game Tunnel which Indie Game Magazine had purchased. Omaha talks with Mike about the history of the magazine, the reason why they purchased Game Tunnel, and what the future holds in store for that venerable indie game site.