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Afro Samurai Resurrection iPhone wallpaper
It’s been quite awhile since I’ve blogged, but I couldn’t resist this little bit of promo for something very cool, as well as rant against some poor implementation. But recently, Afro Samurai’s long awaited return has been released, Afro Samurai Resurrection. If you have not seen the original SpikeTV animated manga/cartoon, you really should rent it/netflix it.
So along with Season 2, there is a PSP3 and Xbox game, and a music album, and of course quite a few marketing downloads. Afro Samurai is wonderful eye candy so this is all good, and these guys have even gone so far as to create iPhone downloadable wallpapers… which gives me all sorts of warm and fuzzy feelings inside. So what do I do as a well conditioned consumer, I jump on my trusty iPhone to download said images, what could be cooler. And what do I discover, the site navigation is all based on Flash, and as anyone who uses an iPhone or maybe read mac news, Flash does not yet work on the iPhone (don’t get me started on this one). Ok, fine, I think, easy to click on a news article and see the house ad for the wallpapers… which I do. And lo and behold, what do I discover, the downloads page (for iPhone wallpapers and desktop wallpapers only) is totally Flash based. I give this a big FAIL. Does no one actually try and test a website anymore. Did no one actually think, “hey, let’s actually download this onto an iPhone from the site!”. Alas, these guys couldn’t be bothered with a non-Flash version, or gasp, text navigation links on the bottom, so here are the images for those of you that happen to land here.
Ikariam
So evil Joe has introduced me to another time sink, but one right up my alley. Ikariam is a free web-based empire building game, I just started and it looks like a lot of fun. The best part is that it doesn’t look like it takes a ton of time, just a few minutes to catchup and you can ignore it for a few days without much going wrong.
TGISource did a good review of the game:
Essentially, the game is empire-building. You register an account, choose a world (server) to play on, and then you’re plopped down on a random island. A big part of the game involves building up your town, doing research, and managing resources. Which, of course, ends up being pretty fun. Harvesting of materials and research is automatic, and the only decision to be made is how many citizens to devote to each (citizens without specific tasks will generate gold).
The big test will be time and if my interests keep up with the game. Of course, the first time my butt gets kicked might also have an impact.
Spore as a Casual Game
Anyone else getting tired of hearing about Casual Games? Guess what, Spore is a Casual Game, says Wired Game|Life.
This was reflected in other design choices. Rather than force the player to start at the “cell” level, you can instead select between any of the five different parts of the game right from the start. While this is certainly sure to be a controversial decision — it takes a lot away from the sense of growth and expansion that I believed the game would have if it forced you to start from the beginning — it’ll let anybody jump in wherever they feel most comfortable.
It’s hard to say if this is just jumping on the “casual” buzzword bandwagon or actually meaningful. It is true that the Sims are some of the most popular of video games with a broad audience, and the best example of a “hard-core” video game gateway (and Spore and the Sims are from the same creator). Maybe it just comes down to what casual is referring to. When I worked in the industry, casual usually meant that the development costs were low compared to hard-core games, but nowadays it is more closely tied to how quickly a person can finish a game. So thats going to make Spore an interesting hybrid. The Cell Stage of the game will be available as a Mobile version and will have some very quick play. The Creature Creator will be also on the DS in a simplified version and allow for exchanging and brilliant upsell to buy the full game. So can you really call a game Casual if its got a few parts that can be played casually or you can skip some Stages for quicker play? I think not, but I’m sure it will get some traction from the press that way, and that will drive some sales, and a Wii version wouldn’t hurt.
I am a huge fan of the sim category of games, especially the Civilization series (1,2 and 3), though I never really got into the Sims which I found too tedious. The ability in Civ to jump start and skip some of the boring beginning was an excellent way to speed up a game. Each game would usually take a full day to complete. I have been greatly looking forward to Spore since I watched the demo a year ago. Granted I can see why many are frustrated by the endless delays over the years and the huge expectations from the game.
DiggKiller
Jeremy has come through once again and found a truely dangerous time waster, DiggKiller. He was the one that got me to finally play Desktop Tower Defense also.
This is a little flash game that uses the Digg API to pull content… which you then have to shot.
iPhone Games
Like GigaOM, I have to wonder Where are the iPhone Games?
I have played the ones I could find, with the only decent ones from MacMost, like a match-three with fruit that didn’t capture my attention too long. Guess when compared to my PC match-three favorite, Cradle of Rome, it didn’t hold up. The iWhack (a Steve Balmer) was good for a chuckle, but only for less than a minute.
iGiki seems to have an interesting model where you pay 99 cents for a 99-day subscription for a game, with most games looking like lots of point and click. Not much info on the site and not many demo’s, so I didn’t check them out too much, but interesting that a developer can upload their own game and get paid for it.
So to answer Om’s question, I do want to some good iPhone games… and I am still waiting. Where is DTD for the iPhone!
PS3 Parity
A very funny song and video for Sony’s PS3, and How To Kill A Brand.
Lots of good stuff over at Sarcastic Gamer, including this gem for the Microsoft Surface.
Google Goes In-Game
Google yesterday bought Adscape Media, a company that does in-game advertising. Double Fusion is the big player in the space. More on Adscape on Gamasutra. Vallywag puts the price at $23 million.
Our technology, which has been in development for the past four years, allows Adscape Media to provide publishers the added benefit of more than just today’s static and dynamic in-game advertising. Adscape Media’s technology also provides an interactive element – a “gateway” – that provides publishers a variety of new outlets for additional revenue streams above and beyond those currently being used in games today, while at the same time providing advertisers with a unique, customizable approach to reaching gamers in an engaging way.
Gotta love the press release… chuck full of not much information.
