You might be able to indirectly learn something about physics by playing Angry Birds, but it's not exactly a learning game. That doesn't mean the company behind the unstoppable franchise can't try something a little more high-minded, which is exactly what Rovio is gearing up to do - with the help of some third-party developers.Rovio told PocketGamer that it is seeking educational games from other developers to publish as part of its new Rovio Jr line. The intended audience of these games would be kids from pre-school to middle school."Educational games can be a tricky field, but there's definite truth in the idea that Rovio can aid developers by promoting their products through its already successful brands. Teaming up would certainly help solve the discovery problem facing smaller studios, particularly since educational titles need to catch the eyes of both children and parents.In any case, we may not have to wait long to see an announcement about the first fruits of this new program. Rovio and PocketGamer are going to be holding Big Indie Pitch Jr at GDC next month, allowing developers to pitch games they think would be suited for the publishing initiative in person in San Francisco.
Free-to-play is the greatest thing to happen to the games industry (and gamers) since Pong. Here's the thing, though: it's common knowledge that only 1-3% of all gamers of free-to-play games pay, the rest don't. These gamers are commonly referred to as whales.According to a new survey by Swrve (pronounced, I have no clue), that 1 - 3% is a bit off, by a lot. Only .15% of mobile gamers are responsible for 50% of total mobile game revenues. In biological terms, these players are blue whales (the largest mammals on earth) of the mobile game world.As reported in VentureBeat, this is a classic good news/bad news story. These blue whales pay the bills for the mobile games industry and are helping to grow the market to astronomical heights. The bad news is that the vast majority (let's call them minnows) are becoming accustomed to playing games for free, and there is no clear path to turn a minnow into a blue whale.And what happens if these super whales get bored of playing and tired of paying? .15% is such a small number, just one small drop in this bucket could have a huge impact on the future of the global gaming industry.In Vegas, whales are comp'd with free hotel suites. How are these super blue whales rewarded in the games world?
As I've mentioned before, every game developer I know buys ads on Facebook to drive games installs and uses HasOffers to track them. So it was a bit of a shock when Facebook dropped HasOffers as a mobile measurement partner a few weeks back. We virtually sat down with HasOffers CEO Peter Hamilton to ask him: What happened with the Facebook relationship? Who else is out there to advertise with aside from Facebook? What gives HasOffers the edge over their competition? What to do if you have the aspirations of King.com but not $350 million to spend? And what's going down at the Mobile World Conference that he's currently attending in Spain? All in 5 questions and in a less than 5 minute read.
Improbable? Yes - but as any hoopy frood knows, improbability is The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy's stock and trade.Based on the trilogy in five parts, the late great Douglas Adams teamed up with Infocom (makers of Zork) in 1984 to create the wildly popular text adventure game called (not surprisingly) The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. It was witty, it was fun - it was everything the books were.And it's about to turn 30.To celebrate, BBC Radio 4 Extra (a comedy station in the UK) has announced that they'll be publishing a 30th anniversary edition of the Infocom classic. It sounds surprising, but when you realized BBC Radio 4 did the same for the 20th anniversary… maybe less so. And when you remember that Hitchhiker's started life as a BBC radio program in 1978, all the pieces seem to fall into place rather nicely.
Who knew that while we go about our days, a giant war is raging all across the floor of our very own bedrooms?! Romans In My Carpet! from Ravenmark developer Witching Hour Studios lets players partake in the epic battles of the war between Rome and Britannia, all condensed into wonderfully bite-sized and 16-bit visuals. The game looks to be just as cute and adorable as it is engrossing and strategic.The bite-sized action of the game takes place across the sprawling terrain of a modern-day dorm room, complete with "its mite-ridden carpets and other dusty paraphernalia." Both the "Romites" and the "Breetles" will have six unique unit types to use in the turn-based strategy battles, complete with spider-driven chariots and poop-flinging catapults. It sounds like a truly terrifying war, doesn't it?The game will feature a single-player campaign called "Romans" that spans 10 battles long, as well as an asynchronous online multiplayer mode. You can download Romans In My Carpet! on Android or iOS devices when the game launches sometime this spring.
For a substance so sweet, it's surprising how bad a taste the word CANDY has left in people's mouths this year. And it all started in January, when it was revealed by Gamezebo that King (Candy Crush Saga) held the European trademark on the word CANDY, and was in the process of obtaining a similar mark in the US.But now, Kotaku reports, that trademark filing has been withdrawn."Yesterday, King filed for abandonment of the trademark in the United States," Kotaku's Jason Schreier writes. "When reached by Kotaku, King confirmed the trademark abandonment but declined to comment."
Don't you ever get tired of all those sidescroller games that, you know, scroll sideways? Me too. And that's why I'm so pumped to play Super Kid Cannon, a new Donkey Kong-inspired action game that keeps the lighthearted action moving upwards on a vertical plane.Super Kid Cannon, or SKC for short, is a courageous Red Panda who is on a quest across 30 levels and 5 worlds to rescue his love interest Justine from the evil Snow Leopard Khan. Described as the world's first "vertical launcher," Super Kid Cannon will find players launching their little hero out of all kinds of contraptions, from the titular canons and mine carts, to even geysers, bubbles, and spaceships.One look at the game's debut launch trailer and you can see the Donkey Kong and Mario Bros. influence in spades. Much like the barrel-blasting mechanic of the Donkey Kong Country games, you'll be carefully lining up your barrel blast shots to launch SKC upwards through a number of jungle environments with wonderfully illustrated designs. You can also expect to find a quirky cast of characters and lots of other fun obstacles and hazards to overcome along the way.The free-to-play game will be getting a soft launch in New Zealand this month on Android and iOS, with a worldwide release to follow sometime shortly after.
When it comes to video games, AAA console releases have really grown stagnant over the last decade. That's one of the many reasons I'm so glad to be at Gamezebo, where we focus on the platforms that give developers the freedom to experiment instead of the latest cut-and-paste first person shooter.As it turns out, Xbox co-creator Ed Fries seems to feel the same way about the current state of AAA games, and he's ready to explain why, detailing the creativity-stifling environment that led to his 2004 resignation from Microsoft in a recent GamesIndustry interview.Rather than fostering new ideas, Fries suggests that AAA development is run too much like a business - focusing on quantity of dollars rather than quality of game. Instead of experimenting with little things, which Fries says sows the seeds of successful bigger projects down the road, the focus of the Xbox brand during his time there was to stick to what works and sell it better. "In a sense, I fundamentally didn't agree with that because I think the big things come from little things," Fries told GamesIndustry.