When we last spoke with Nathan Meunier, freelance writer and video game journalist extraordinaire, he had just published the first entry in what was to become a series of guidebooks for hopefuls looking to follow in his inky footsteps. That book, Up Up Down Down Left WRITE: The Freelance Guide to Video Game Journalism, covered a plethora of topics that are bound to hound the would-be journalist, including composing pitches, covering gaming conventions, and even getting your pajama-clad daily routine in order. His next entry in the series, Interview Fu: The Game Journo Guide to Conducting Killer Interviews, explores one of UUDDLW's many topics in greater depth and is already available for purchase in print or Kindle formats. We soaked up all of the knowledge present in this new guidebook and used it to pry even more wisdom from the mind of 10-year writing veteran Meunier."While interviewing is covered at a high level in UUDDLW, Interview Fu provides a hyper-focused expansion of the topic that was previously confined to a single chapter. Meunier also expanded the section on pitches into a longer, specialized PDF titled "12 Ways to Improve Your Pitches" after readers responded with overwhelming positivity to its coverage in UUDDLW. "Interview Fu wasn't driven as much by reader response as it was by my own desire to fill an inadvertent void in UUDDLW," Meunier told Gamezebo. "It's one of several areas that I didn't get into very deeply in the first book, in-part because it's a big enough topic to merit an entire separate book. It's also a subject that's near and dear to me, as readers of the book will discover."
Here's one last piece of fun and unexpected news to leave you with before the weekend: Milkbag Games and NimbleBit have teamed up to bring us a brand new game about dancing animals called Disco Zoo. And they said that Disco was dead…When we last heard from Milkbag Games, the duo of Matt Rix (Trainyard) and Owen Goss (Finger Tied) were hard at work on the upcoming Snow Siege, and NimbleBit had just put out the fantastic Star Wars: Tiny Death Star with Disney, so the announcement of this new game comes as a welcomed surprise.Alongside the official Twitter announcement, the developers have also released a 20-second teaser trailer that depicts various zoo visitors gathered around different animal exhibits, which are all brought to life through NimbleBit's signature and adorable 8-bit visual style. But then the lights go low, the disco ball drops down, and the zoo animals then get their 1970s on!That's all we know about Disco Zoo so far, but I don't think I'm the only one who can't wait to learn more. Keep checking back on Gamezebo for all the latest news regarding this seriously funky game's platforms and release date.
Great news for Android fans today, as Gamezebo has learned that Tilt to Live 2: Redonkulous from One Man Left is officially coming to Android next month! And in case you happened to miss our review of the game last November, we happened to think the sequel brought more of that same arcade-style goodness that made the first Tilt to Live such a blast to play.What's even more exciting about this news is that it marks One Man Left's very first foray into the Android market ever since the developer started making indie games in 2009. So naturally, Gamezebo reached out to the team to see if Tilt To Live 2's upcoming Android release might lead to a similar treatment of One Man Left's hugely popular iOS hit, Outwitters. This is what they told us:"Well, we're able to take TtL2 over because we developed it with Unity, so there was minimal reshuffling to do to get it to work. Outwitters would have to be rebuilt more or less from scratch, so I don't think that's going to happen. Now if we were to do an Outwitters sequel/spinoff (not planned at the moment, but we do play with prototypes from time to time), or really any future game, that's much more likely to make it to other platforms thanks to the tools we've started using."Oh well, but at least Android users still have the fantastic Tilt to Live 2 to look forward to! The addictive (and of course, redonkulous) arcade game will be making its Google Play Marketplace debut on February 24th, and we can assume it will cost the same $2.99 as its iOS counterpart.
We have a bit of a mixed bag of free games and sales this week, but what would life be without the ups and the downs? The biggest area where you should direct your bargain-hunting sensors is over at the Nordic Games catalogue, which is currently on sale across GOG.com and even on the Steam store for a few select titles.If you're still hungry for some price cuts after that, you can always make your way over to the Humble Bundle camp and pick up an excellent bundle for fans of roguelike games, as well as mosey on over to the iOS App Store for a short but sweet collection of fun games at next-to-nothing prices."So even though this week seemed a little bit on the sparse side, what greater incentive than to head out into the wilds of the internet and see if you can locate any other great deals that we may have missed! Be sure to add to this week's current list of free games and sales by heading down to the comments section below.
Albert Ransom, the founder of Runsome Apps, first released CandySwipe to Android gamers on November 15, 2010 - a full four months before King debuted Candy Crush on King.com (now RoyalGames.com). Both games offer match-3 gameplay and both are built around a candy theme, but in our conversation with Ransom, he wasn't crying "clone." He's just worried about the same thing King is: consumer confusion."If you start typing 'is candy swip' into google, you will get the auto complete 'is candy swipe the same as candy crush'." It's a frustrating experience for a developer whose work came first and who, like King, was quick to trademark. The CANDYSWIPE trademark was granted to Ransom in July 2011.But being first and having a mark isn't going to do much to sway public perception - especially when a similar competitor shoots to the top of the App Store."Their game (and name) closely resembles CandySwipe; so much so, that CandySwipe is often ridiculed as a Candy Crush knock off," says Ransom. "This infringes on OUR registered trademark and good will."
With so many game developers these days branching off into untapped genres and strange new concepts, inherently mysterious games have become the new black this gaming season. Stormhatt Studios, a new developer based out of Sweden, is getting ready to release their intriguing first title called Barmark, and like any good mysterious mobile game, there's not a thing that's direct or clearly explained about it!We don't know all that much about the game at this time, other than the fact that Barmark can loosely be defined as a point-and-click adventure, and that players are encouraged to achieve "personal perfection" by changing the world around them as they play. The game is described by its creators to have "no goals, no points and no death," in order to let the players craft their own unique game experiences around them.Luckily for us, the developer has also just released a debut trailer for the game, which you can view just above this paragraph: and despite how mysterious everything about the video is, there's no question that the game's first footage is simply breathtaking. Barmark is currently planned for a tentative iOS and Android release in the spring of this year, and you can visit the official Stormhatt Studios website for additional information and screenshots on this enigmatic new game.
2013 was a big year for Clash of Clans. So much so that we didn't hesitate to call it the year of Clash of Clans. Back in August, their CEO was quoted as saying "you can't be global without being in Asia." Well now they are, and in full force. And as you might have expected, the clones have followed.Thanks to our Beijing-based friends at Laohu.com for gathering up the top stories out of China for us (as they do every week). For a more Chinese gamer news daily, be sure to add Laohu.com to your bookmarks folder.
There's no denying how far the world of mobile applications has come since the early days of smartphones and tablets, but the number of people who are still jumping on board in other parts of the world? It's skyrocketing. Distimo, the popular application analytics company, has today released their January 2014 report. And the findings this month are nothing short of eye-opening: Asia has become the world's most lucrative continent for mobile application downloads.In the new report titled "Asia: The Leading App Market in the World," Distimo extracted data and revenue estimates from both Apple App Store and Google Play app downloads for the month of December 2013. And as it turns out, their findings show just how big a force that Asia has become in the mobile games space today, accounting for 41% of the entire global revenue last month, with North America trailing behind at 31%. The numbers have risen a whopping 162% since last year (as compared to North America's 46%), which is thanks to Google Play downloads quadrupling since December 2012."The Distimo report also unearthed a few other interesting findings. For starters, Japan is by and large the most lucrative Asian country when it comes to mobile apps, followed by South Korea and then China. It should also come as no surprise that free-to-play or freemium is the leading business model in Asia, and the most downloaded game on the continent in December 2013 was Angry Birds Go!. In second and third place were two Asian market games, Carrot Fantasy 2: Polar Adventure and The Hardest Game in History.What does this mean for mobile developers today? That the globalization and localization of their mobile apps in other markets has never been more crucial for their ultimate success. To learn more about Distimo's findings and what the future of mobile games in Asia might look like in 2014 and beyond, you can download the "Asia: The Leading App Market in the World" for free by clicking right over here and providing an email address.