Star Trek fans are among the most loyal and passionate in the entire spectrum of pop culture aficionados. That makes it all the more shameful that they've had their hearts broken by video game adaptations numerous times over the years.A fan of the property himself, Disruptor Beam CEO Jon Radoff knows that it hasn't always received the most love and care from game designers."Too many games have been made where they take some existing title, re-skin it, add a little Star Trek dust on top to make it look like Star Trek, and they ship it," Radoff said to Gamezebo at PAX East. "Frankly, I think fans rightfully have some cynicism about these poor licensed products."Awareness of that state of affairs is front and center in Radoff's mind as his company gets set to boldly go into full scale development of its next game, Star Trek Timelines. The Boston-area studio announced the project recently and has revealed some of the initial details.
Remember how you were nursing a serious Bridge Constructor addiction a few weeks back? Don't be ashamed - we all were. And if today's announcement is any indication, you should ready yourself for a relapse: Bridge Constructor Medieval will be available on iOS and Android on May 1st.Travelling back to the days of yore, amateur bridge builders will need to use their old skills in some new ways. The Middle Ages were rife with war, and as such you'll need to build bridges sturdy enough to withstand cannon fire and get your troops across, but also weak enough to collapse under the weight of enemy troops, sending them spilling to their deaths below. We're not quite sure how the yin/yang of bridge design can balance such contrasting goals, but we're excited to find out.New materials, new challenges, and familiar gameplay await ye olde gamers brave enough to take the plunge. Keep an eye out for Bridge Constructor Medieval when it hits your favorite mobile marketplace on May Day.
Here's something I bet you weren't expecting: Albert Ransom's trademark troubles are officially a thing of the past.Ransom, whose company Runsome Apps created CandySwipe, has been fighting King's Candy Crush Saga trademark since long before "candygate" became a buzzword. And when King applied for the US trademark on the word CANDY, Ransom swore he'd fight that too.King fired a returning shot by purchasing the trademark rights to Candy Crusher, a 2004 game, and using those older rights to try and have Ransom's mark on CandySwipe revoked.In a word, things were getting ugly.But as of today, that ugliness is a thing of the past. Ransom has informed Gamezebo that he and King have "amicably resolved" their dispute. He has withdrawn his opposition against the Candy Crush Saga mark, and in turn King has withdrawn their counterclaim against CandySwipe. "Both our games can continue to coexist without confusing players," reads an official statement on candyswipe.com.
It's an odd thing to want an Android device to justify buying games I already own on other platforms. Such is the world we live in where games can be bought for next to nothing, as long as you wait long enough for sales like the Humble Mobile Bundle.If you're not familiar with the organization (and you really ought to be -- you're welcome) Humble Bundle provides packs of cheap games (and movies and ebooks and albums) on a pay-what-you want basis. If you pay more than the user average, you get a swathe of extras like more games and goodies like soundtracks.This, the fifth Humble Mobile Bundle, includes Android versions of games like The Room Two, The Cave, Carcassonne, Bag It!, Aralon: Sword and Shadow and R-Type II. More games will be added over time, and purchasing now will get you those as well.
The previous game from Drinkbox Studios, Guacamelee! was a wonderful send up of the Metroidvania genre that's colorful in more ways than one. Its bright Day of the Dead/luchador aesthetic was a cheerful celebration of Mexican culture, while its story and characters were frenetic and entertaining without becoming cloying or clichéd.Severed looks similarly Central American, but a whole lot more serious. Guacamelee! had its sullen side, but Severed sounds like a tale of revenge. Our warrior protagonist has lost her arm (and possibly more, if I'm interpreting the above trailer correctly) and seeks retribution against supernatural forces.So far it's only been announced for mobile platforms, but the devs haven't ruled out the possibility of bringing Severed to touchsreen devices like Vita, 3DS and even the Wii U. Considering the company's history with Sony, at least one of those is probably a safe bet.
Butterscotch Shenanigans first appeared on my radar thanks to Gerblins, a cute little puzzle game that was both simple to play and shot through with personality. I liked it quite a bit, but as fun as it was, it didn't inspire me to think of the Butterscotch boys as a potential force in the field of mobile game development. That didn't happen until the March 2013 release of Towelfight 2: The Monocle of Destiny, a game I literally did not stop playing until May of that year, when Quadropus Rampage turned up and sent me on a quest to destroy Pete, the Mad God of the Sea. I'm still playing that one.I don't want to say that Sam and Seth Coster are a strange pair, but the games they create do make me wonder what's in the water they drink and where I can get some. And now they're in the midst of an even more unusual project: "Speedcrafting," a sort of weekly game jam in which they give themselves ten hours to develop a small but complete game - a "Butterscotch Mini" - from start to finish."Our current plan for production is eight Minis, one every Monday, though that's only to give us something to shoot toward should things get difficult. It's much easier to motivate yourself to do another one if there's an end in sight," Sam Coster recently explained. "However, they've been so useful (and fun to make) that we expect we'll be doing these until our blood runs cold."
I won't lie - that was a fun headline to type. I don't know what a "Fruity Robo 3" is, and there's a good chance that you don't either. But if you're in China, there's a very good chance you do - and you're no doubt excited to learn that it's about to be adapted into the mobile game Three Kingdoms of Fruit.What does it all mean? Read on to find out the answer to that and other questions, like "is Capcom looking for Chinese investment to enter the market?," and "how do the Chinese feel about Papaya?"Thanks again to Laohu.com for sharing the top stories out of China this week. For a daily dose of Chinese gaming news, be sure to bookmark Laohu.com.
It's been a few years since it first launched, but if you dust off your ol' memory box, I'm sure you'll find plenty of happy ones from your time with Hemisphere Games' 2009 masterpiece Osmos. The game was later ported to mobile devices, winning Apple's iPad Game of the Year award in 2010 - and, it would seem, the hearts and minds of The Simpsons show writers.The internet was abuzz this week with talk of this week's Minecraft couch gag on The Simpsons, but a voxelized Springfield wasn't the only indie gaming nod on this week's show. About halfway through the episode, when Milhouse learns that Bart has plenty of stolen goods - including Milhouse's iPad - Bart suggests he relax to the soothing sounds of "this bubble game."We reached out to Hemisphere Games to see how this collaboration came about, and it turns out they were just as surprised as we were."We had no idea The Simpsons cameo was coming," Hempishere's Eddy Boxerman told Gamezebo. "Our jaws dropped in disbelief when we caught wind of it! As a few friends have said (and who are we to disagree?) 'It's official -- Osmos is pop culture now!'"