Every so often we get a week where a lot of what we report on is about games making their way to Android in the near future. It's Monday and it already is shaping up to be one of those weeks. Another game that will be making the jump to Android soon is Dungeon Crawlers.
Coming January 26th to iOS, Dungeon Crawlers is a 3D turn-based strategy game where you play a squad of characters who are crawling their way through dungeons infested will all kinds of nasty monsters. Each member of your four-person squad has their own unique class: alchemist, priest, barbarian and a drunken dwarf warrior. The developers have also included plenty of humor in the game to keep you entertained while slaughtering massive amounts of monsters.
Noble Master Games has opened up a real-time strategy salvo on the Android Market in the form of Tropical Stormfront, a new wargame that sees various superpowers do battle across bright, sparkling shores. The game features land, sea, and air units, and 25 structured missions to battle across against multiple AI skill levels. There’s also a random level creator for after the Story mode, which is always pleasing to see, and 12 different unit types ranging from tanks and jets to gunboats and aircraft carriers to command (and possibly conquer).
Sand, sea, and salvos The title has had input from a number of industry veterans during its production, while the team behind it include staff that worked on the excellent Java version of Age of Empires III.
Noble Master Games has told us that they are readying an update for the title in the future that enhances the group selection and management, which should make managing your massive American war force a little easier. Tropical Stormfront is out now on the Android Market for £3.25 (download). If you want to dip your toes in the water, there’s also a free Lite version available Via Pocket Gamer
Time to gird your loins, ladies. The Leftover expansion for Shadowgun is now finally available for your Android device. The expansions is a thank you gift from Madfinger Games featuring giving players the chance to battle it out in 4 all new levels while expanding upon the original story.
Best of all — it’s all free. All you have to do is jump into your Android Market and update the app. If you’re looking for the Tegra 3 optimized version for your Transformer Prime, you’re going to have to sit the bench. That version will be coming sometime in the near future.
Take a look at your recently installed games and apps on your Android device. If you're among the potentially millions of Android users who downloaded one of the following apps then you will want to promptly uninstall them. Symantec has discovered 13 applications in the Android Market spread across three developers (iApps7 Inc, Ogre Games, redmicapps) which can be used to steal user information.
Symantec has identified multiple publisher IDs on the Android Market that are being used to push outAndroid.Counterclank.
This is a minor modification of Android.Tonclank, a bot-like threat that can receive commands to carry out certain actions, as well as steal information from the device...The combined download figures of all the malicious apps indicate that Android.Counterclank has the highest distribution of any malware identified so far this year.
Here's the list of apps/games that Symantec has identified as being malicious.
You'll want to stay away from them! We noticed that some of these are not showing up in the Android Market as of right now however most of them are still listed.
Counter Elite Force
Counter Strike Ground Force
CounterStrike Hit Enemy
Heart Live Wallpaper
Hit Counter Terrorist
Stripper Touch girl
Balloon Game
Deal & Be Millionaire
Wild Man
Pretty women lingerie puzzle
Sexy Girls Photo Game
Sexy Girls Puzzle
Sexy Women Puzzle
Use your noodle, kids.
Whereas you might know what's a quality app and/or developer, many new Android users are not as wise. Spread the word to all your new Android converts to watch out for these apps.
Back in July of 2010, the US Library of Congress added several critical exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) that effectively made it legal to jailbreak, root, unlock or in any way hack a smartphone as long as the action wasn’t being carried out to circumvent copy protection.
The ruling was a clear win for consumer rights but it could be taken away soon, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
The EFF reports that the exemption is due to expire this year and is calling on people to make their voice heard not only to renew the exemption, but to also expand it to cover tablets and video games consoles -- which apparently wasn't covered before. Otherwise, it would become illegal to install custom software on Android or iPhone devices -- among others -- and leave users open to lawsuits over these fair use activities.
To support the exemption renewal you can contact the US Copyright Office and explain why jailbreaking is important to you. Here are some suggestions from the EFF on what to include:
Which jailbreaking exemption are you supporting—smartphones/tablets, video game consoles, or both?
What's your background (i.e., developer, hobbyist, academic, independent researcher, user, etc.)?
What device do you want to ensure you have the legal authority to jailbreak?
Explain why you want to jailbreak this device. What limitations do you face otherwise? Is there software you couldn't run, computing capabilities you wouldn't have, cool things you couldn't do, etc.?
If you're a developer, did an online application store or console manufacturer reject your app or game? If so, what reasons did they give?
Comments are due in by no later than 5:00 pm EST. on February 10, 2012.
Although smartphone manufacturers have taken a more relaxed stance on this issue, acknowledging it's something only a minority of users do and in some cases even releasing official unlock tools, ensuring that the act of jailbreaking does not become illegal is imperative to maintaing a healthy jailbreak community.
Via Techspot
Free online gaming website Kongregate has published its first iPhone and Android game - indie developer Incredible Ape's action title / Escape \.
The game sees you playing as a ninja, jumping between two walls while avoiding electric fences and a giant laser beam.
/ Escape \ was originally a free Flash game on Kongregate. It was critically acclaimed, earning gold medals in the Audio, Visuals, and Overall categories in the Ludum Dare 21 Competition last year.
The mobile version of / Escape \ boasts online leaderboards, achievements, and integration with Kongregate's Serious Street Card service, which lets you gain badges and even GameStop PowerUp Rewards
Via http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk
A new survey reveals Google’s Android operating system has replaced Apple’s iOS in terms of its importance to developers in the Asia-Pacific region.
The survey, conducted by technology analyst firm Ovum, was aimed at finding out how changes in the device market have altered app developers’ preferences when selecting platforms to use.
Ovum interviewed more than 100 developers globally, asking them which platform they preferred, comparing the answers to last year’s survey.
Both the Android and Apple’s iOS still form the core of developer support, the survey said, but there is increasing interest from developers in Blackberry OS and Microsoft’s Windows phone.
Adam Leach, head of devices and platforms at Ovum, says a smartphone platform’s success is dictated not only by consumers but a “healthy economy” of applications delivered by developers.
“Therefore, it is important for all players in the smartphone ecosystem to understand the choices developers are making today, and the downstream impact of those choices,” Leach says.
An earlier report by Ovum reveals the Asia-Pacific smartphone market will double its size by 2016 to hit shipments of 200 million.
According to Ovum, Android will drive the growth and will emerge as the dominant platform, dramatically outperforming Apple with a massive 20% lead on market share.
“We will see dramatic shifts in dominance for smartphone software platforms, with Android storming into the lead,” Leach said in the report.
One Australian developer who launched on the Android platform first is Native Tongue, which makes apps to teach people new languages via video games.
“The Android version was launched in early November and the iPhone version was launched last week,” Native Tongue developer Matthew Ho says.
“We launched an MVP first on Android, iterated, released new product features, tested, analysed the states and learnt a lot from that experience.”
“There’s a lot of benefits for launching first on Android because of the easier approval process and ability to test immediately.”
According to Ovum, the trends in this year’s survey mirror changes in the wider smartphone market.
Developers have been quick to respond to the exit of once-important smartphone platforms such as Windows Mobile, Symbian and WebOS, and have embraced the potential of newer platforms.
The research also shows a move away from traditional cross-platform mobile application approaches such as Java, Flash and WAP.
Instead, developers are focusing their efforts on web-based standards, such as HTML5, which appear to be the preferred approach to building cross-platform applications.
But despite the increasing use of cross-platform approaches, most developers are still using vendor-specific distribution channels, such as Android Market, to deploy applications.
Ovum explains that this is seen as the best way for developers to reach the largest possible audience for their applications.
Via http://www.startupsmart.com.au
During CES, Gameloft announced they’ll be bringing their new in-game chat to multiple games and have kicked things off by offering it with Asphalt 6 — the popular street racer game. Apparently they didn’t shout too loud because we’ve not heard a lot regarding this new level of gaming but are excited to hear more.
"We are thrilled to be partnering with Verizon to illustrate the potential of in-game voice chat and multiplayer over the 4G LTE network,” said Baudouin Corman, vice president of Publishing for the Americas at Gameloft. “Gameloft seeks to provide gamers with a complete mobile gaming experience and feels that these features are at the forefront of the platform’s future."
Paper Zombie is a fast action shooting game where your mission consists of facing challenging waves of zombies in relatively short but very exciting and intensive stages.
Luckily you have three kinds of different weapons, each one with its own capabilities. You should combine them to succeed at this unevenly-matched fight.
- Cutting weapons. Everyone knows that one of the best ways to destroy paper is cutting it, but you’ll need to be relatively close to the zombies.
- Shooting weapons. Shoot at the zombies to knock them down but remember that you may only have a limited amount of bullets.
- Launching weapons. Paper burns easily. Launch firebombs to the areas plagued by zombies to finish them off but be careful that there aren’t any innocent ones in the area!
Paper Zombie isn’t just another game. It takes 3D capabilities of the handheld device to the limit, with user friendliness, an audiovisual display and depth to the game that has never been seen before on this platform and even more so on consoles.
Seems like Minecraft addicts also like crafting on the go. Mojang's Minecraft: Pocket Edition reached a whopping 700,000 downloads in a span of two months. Developer Daniel Kaplan revealed in a tweet the astounding number of the combined download for both iOS and Android.
The open-world construction game Minecraft has become an addiction on par with Angry Birds. The game debuted on Android as a Sony Xperia Play exclusive back in August, then a general Android Market release in October. Between then and now, Micecraft Pocket Edition has racked up an incredible 700,000 downloads across the Android and iPhone platforms.
No idea what games they should try out on the Market. Hooked is a free app that is available for download now on the Android Market.
With Hooked, the more games a user ranks, the more customized and better their recommendations become. All sorts of games that meet the criteria can pop up on search results even if they’re from smaller developers whose games may have not received significant exposure previously. In addition to recommending games, Hooked provides gameplay stats for folks who are interested, a quick way to access all their installed games, the ability to create a game Queue (for saving games to install and play later), and Community Discovery (to see what games other people including your friends are playing.
The highly popular racing game from Polarbit is about to get a new addition to the series in Reckless Racing 2. We reported back in October 2011 that Reckless Racing 2 would be heading to the Xperia Play first before climbing onto other Android devices after a short exclusivity period.
Since then though it has been pretty quiet regarding when this game would come out. Now it has been confirmed by Xperia Gamer that Polarbit will be releasing the game on February 2nd, 2012 as long as everything goes according to plan. It was originally slated for release in December 2011.
This second addition to the series will feature more tracks that will be much more dangerous, a single-player campaign to play and some new gameplay mode that Polarbit has yet to reveal and is keeping a secret. It will feature the same crazy micro-machines type of cars that you get to drive like a manic in. We will be sure to announce when the game is released and any more information that comes to light between now and then.
The mobile game Whale Trail has been released on the Android platform this week, following steady sales of the iOS version late last year. With a refreshingly candid approach, developer UsTwo has talked about how much the game cost to develop, and whether it is likely to see a return on its investment.
UsTwo co-founder Matt Mills has expressed his disappointment with Whale Trail sales to date. There have been 140,000 paid downloads of the iOS version of the game so far, but at a price of 99 cents, these haven’t yet covered total development costs.
Speaking in August last year, Mills explained, “We’ve chosen to spend upwards of £100,000 (roughly $153,000) creating a premium game … and by premium I mean selling at a mere 69p (99 cents). We made sure that for our first release, we remained as far away as possible from the F-word – freemium.”
Mills described the reason for avoiding a freemium model, where a game is initially free to play, but has extra features that must be paid for. “The freemium model doesn’t lend itself to our approach of making nuggets of quality perfection. We don’t want to hide the really good elements of what we’ve created behind a series of gated doors. We want to give the user the complete and best experience from the very first touch.”
Whale Trail has now cost UsTwo £250,000 (roughly $383,000) to develop and update across the iOS and Android platforms, and Mills is looking for strong Android sales to help recoup that investment. “We simply need to see ROI [return on investment] over a shorter time period. I’m praying that I’m wrong and Whale Trail is a hit on Android. But, we’ve been here numerous times before. The likelihood is this will be the final UsTwo nail in the premium games coffin.”
Based on its iOS performance to date, Mills is not convinced that the premium model was the correct one to adopt for Whale Trail. “We had invested a lot of money making and marketing a game for the masses and it failed to reach the masses. Although we’re still getting around 500-700 downloads a day on iOS, we quite rightly feel it’s not enough for a game of such quality. So our conclusion is that we were wrong to go premium.”
While the success of Whale Trail is obviously important to UsTwo, the design studio has other projects on the go, including a partnership with Sony for a GoogleTV app . Speaking to Develop, Mills admitted that while he would like the game to do well, if it isn’t a financial success then the studio “would be fine with that.”
Other independent developers will no doubt be paying attention to Whale Trail’s performance, to see whether premium mobile games with high production values can still be a success on iOS or Android. When as many as 88 percent of iOS apps being downloaded are free, charging any upfront fee for its games may be something that UsTwo shies away from in the future.
The developer is hoping for paid downloads in the region of 45,000 in the first few months on the Android Market. Failing to hit that mark could mean the end of the premium pricing model for UsTwo, with Mills saying, “If we shift less than this, then we can safely say premium is no longer sustainable for UsTwo and others like us in terms of investment.”
UsTwo is a digital design studio that delivers pioneering user experiences as digital partner to the world’s leading brands including Sony, Sony Ericsson, Intel, H&M, BBC, Turner and J.P.Morgan. It currently has studios in London and Malmö, Sweden, with a New York studio coming soon.
You can listen to the suitably psychadelic Whale Trail theme song, by Gruff Rhys, formally of Welsh rock band Super Furry Animals, below.
via venturebeat
Android is an increasingly popular platform for the gaming industry, even attracting interest from venture capitalists. Bionic Panda Games is the latest startup to receive funding, with seed financing from SoftTech VC, Norwest Venture Partners, Google Ventures, 500 Startups and angels Craig Sherman and Kal Vepuri. Bionic Panda has proven successful with the hit game Aqua Pets, reaching more than 3 million downloads as a top-grossing app in the Android Market. Founders Charles Hudson and Mike Jimenez know all about emerging game industries, hailing from another game startup Serious Business, the company behind Friends for Sale, which later went on to be acquired by Zynga.
When it comes to Android, Bionic Panda became successful with free-to-play microtransaction games. They’ve limited their advertising efforts, leveraging Android’s multiple options for game distribution. Bionic Panda is focusing on Android at the moment, anticipating even more opportunities for growth through additional Android channels such as the Kindle Fire tablet, which features Amazon’s Android app marketplace.
Out of This World coming to Android
While Bionic Panda revels in new-age game formats, DotEmu looks to Android as a platform for revival. The company has revealed its plans to bring the cult classic video game Another World to Android, celebrating the game’s 20th anniversary. Better known to US gamers as Out of This World, the Android edition will modernize the game with HD graphics and touch controls, along with remastered music, new sound effects and three difficulty levels. But don’t get too excited just yet – the game won’t be out for another few months.
Ion’s pocket-sized game controller
And as the Android gaming community continues to mature, we’re seeing more controllers enter the market. SteelSeries’ Ion is the latest. They’ve created a game controller sized to fit in your pocket. It features buttons with a layout similar to the PlayStation Dual Shock, with double joysticks, four face buttons, start, select and two shoulder buttons. The Ion comes with an Android app for customizing controls for individual games, and supports Bluetooth and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.
Via Androidapps
A month or so back we talked about a bunch of games coming our way when the Tegra 3 chip was officially announced. One of those games happen to be a title called Jett Tailfin Racers which, after doing a fair amount of hunting on our own, we couldn't find a whole lot about it. Now it has appeared on the Tegra Zone and we now know a lot more about it.
Developed by Hoplite Research, Jett Tailfin Racers is an underwater racing game where the tracks represent marine ecosystems. They are, however, modeled after street racing tracks so you will have to interact with other opponents, characters and the environment just as you would in a normal racing game. The only difference is that it's underwater. It looks like this game will have some similar mechanics as well to the 'kart' type of racing games with power-ups appearing on the track that you can use.
Jett Tailfin Racers Features:
- Designed specifically for phones and tablets using NVIDIA® Tegra® family of mobile processors.- Support for Bluetooth or USB game controllers and stereoscopic 3D. (USB gamepads only supported on Android 3.1 or higher.)- Features motion-blur shaders and other advanced under-water lighting effects.- Family-friendly gameplay and easy to use multi-player modes.
The cool thing about this game is that there is an actual storyline to it and not just mindless racing. You will be meeting friends, as well as enemies, along the way. In Single player mode you will be unlocking all the tracks as you progress through the game with each one getting more challenging. Multiplayer mode works similar to that of Diablo 2 where, as the host, you will be able to pick from the available tracks you have and can race against up to 8 different players.
Jett Tailfin Racers looks pretty good already as a racing game and does come with some great looking eye candy as well to enjoy. Unfortunately we will have to wait a bit longer to be able to play this game as it is slated for release sometime in February 2012. Oh, and if you haven't guessed yet, you'll be racing as a fish. When this is released it will be available for Android Tegra 2 and Tegra 3 devices.
Android users, be very careful with a fake Angry Birds, Cut the rope and other popular games. Avast give some advises: Computer security firm Avast said the apps, published by developer Miriada Production, may send expensive SMS messages to premium numbers, at the users’ expense. Avast said Google removed these malicious apps from the Android Market, but only after it alerted it to their presence.
Avast said if someone tried to look for “Cut the rope free,” one of the malicious applications was in the fourth place in the search results. It added that while there are many signals that an app like this is a fraud – such as asking permission to send an SMS less experienced users may not be able to see this as clearly. Downloading package Avast said the malicious app, once installed, starts to download a package from a remote server. While the package contains a real game, the app is sending a SMS to a premium rate number. “One interesting facet is that there is a different number for many countries in Europe, so it does not target Russian only. For example, within the Czech Republic, the SMS is sent to number 9090199 which charges about €4. In other countries, the amount charged is usually a bit less,” it said.
The app distinguishes between these countries based on their ISO and nearly 20 individual countries are affected – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Czech Republic, Germany, Estonia, France, United Kingdom, Georgia, Israel, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Liechtenstein, Latvia, Poland, Russian Federation, Tajikistan and Uganda.
What happens when a chick, a pig, and a cow team up? Find out in Piggy Adventure
A world without color...
Scary, right?
But that's what happened in Avelon.
Once a colorful utopia; now, a ‘black-and-white joyless’ land.
A beautiful, lively world, Avelon used to be the land of happiness and joy.
However, one fateful day, a beast manipulated the wind, blowing away all traces of color.
Help Steezy the pig, Haden the chick, and Moochew the cow use their wisdom, unique skills, and teamwork to get across various obstacles and conquer evil to recover the radical colors of Avelon!
FEATURES
•Transferred from an awesome iOS game with the same title
•Alternative controls: either gravity sensitivity or virtual buttons that are easy to use and just feel right
•Over 40 challenging and puzzling physics-based levels
•Over 40 Achievements and Leaderboards to compete with your friends
•Switch between characters to perform best teamwork
•Explore the unique islands from Ukurawe to Hoddanfield: unlockable challenges, secrets and rewards
•Dramatic and dreamy art design which looks amazing on your device
