About five years ago, Mojang popularized a form of pre-purchase known as "early access" with their game Minecraft. By allowing players access to the most current build of the game, back during the Alpha and Beta build days, Mojang opened the door to player's direct feedback, letting them essentially playtest the game through development. This system worked pretty flawlessly for Mojang, and since then, countless independent developers have understandably followed suit.Early access releases are now a pretty normal way for developers to release their games to players anxious to get into the latest build. But, this method of direct developer-to-player feedback has begun to develop a dark side.Within the past year I have observed a number of player bases lash out at development teams, going so far as to call the developers scam artists regarding their early access releases. The buyers of these early access titles feel like the developers have abandoned them, essentially making a prototype of a game, selling it as is while promising more, and then taking the money and running.
…and it's not a card battle game! Hot off the success of their earlier partnerships with Hasbro (Transformers: Legends, GI Joe: Battleground), DeNA has announced today that they'll be bringing a mobile game based on the upcoming summer blockbuster to market later this year.Unlike their past collaboration (which were of the Rage of Bahamut card game variety), DeNA will be tackling this one as a runner. Early screens have revealed Optimus Prime, Bumblebee and Grimlock to be playable characters.And let's be frank - the only reason you care about Age of Extinction is Grimlock. I don't care if it took three garbage movies to get to this point - WE'RE GETTING DINOBOTS, PEOPLE.
Weather, like the App Store, can be unpredictable. You can plan for sunshine, but rain is always just a few clouds away. Bigger trends, though - like heat in summer, snow in winter, and celebrities attaching their name to mediocre mobile games - are as certain as death and taxes.With that in mind, I'd like to share with you the latest "why is this a game?" game with a celebrity name attached, Al Roker's Al's Weather Rokies. "Al loves the weather so much, he often dreams about it!," reads Rokies iTunes description. "It's up to you to wake him and get him to the studio."We took the game for a spin, and it's actually not terrible. Weather Rokies is a match-3 game that requires you to flick pieces from the bottom of the screen towards an alarm clock in the center. You'll need to clear away the weather pieces surrounding the clock to reach it and wake up ol' Al.
GOG.com has long since cast away it's "good old games" moniker, becoming a one-stop shop for great games new and old. But why pay full price for said games when there's a crazy neat sale going on?Unlike most sales where prices are lowered for a set amount of time, the Insomnia Sale put a select number of copies of a certain game at a ridiculously discounted price. Once they sell out, that deal is gone for good and the next deal starts. And sometimes - just sometimes - the deal will drop the price of a game to free.You're going to want to keep this URL open in your browser and keep clicking refresh until the deal ends… which won't be until they run out of the sale's allotted stock.I guess it's time to put on a pot of coffee. You're going to be here awhile.
Playing games is all well and good, but haven't you ever had the itch to make your own? Scratching that itch, though, might seem like a fairly daunting task. Luckily, with a few good deals, you can take those first steps for an incredibly low price.We have two different bundles on Gamezebo Deals you should seriously consider. The first, aptly enough, is The Game Developers Bundle. For $49 you'll gain access to 7 different courses totalling 30+ hours of training. Hurry though - this one ends in 5 days.If that's too rich for your blood, why not consider the Name Your Own Price Learn to Code Bundle? It doesn't have the gaming focus of our other bundle, but it does have the advantage of costing whatever you want. Beat that, Full Sail University!
When it launched earlier this year, Disco Zoo managed to hit on a certain something - but it was an incredibly simple something, and it was begging for something more. Tales of the Adventure Company, an upcoming mobile game from Slothwerks, give it that something: violence!Well… turn-based swords and magic violence, anyway.The game offers up the same "tap to uncover creatures in different configurations" puzzles that you'll find in Disco Zoo, but tasks players to do battle with those creatures as they uncover them. You'll also new party members and other goodies along the way.Tales of the Adventure Company will be hitting iOS, Android and Windows Phone for $1.99 this June, but if you don't want to wait, you can check out a browser-based version of the game right now at gamejolt.com.
There's long been a debate about the ethics of Pokemon. Are you collecting or capturing those creatures? Are you their loving master, or the digital equivalent to Michael Vick? If you're looking for a comparable experience that solves this ethical dilemma (while introducing a whole new one), you may want to check out Deity Quest - the "gotta convert'em all!" of the role-playing world.Players will fill the heavenly shoes of "an ambitious young god, recently assigned to a world to convert followers and gain power," says the game's official site. "Your goal is to become the Overgod, the highest position among the many gods of Aberos."The followers you'll collect are the equivalent of Pokemon's monsters, but at least this time you'll know they're fighting for you willingly; even if it is a tad theistically tongue-in-cheek.The game features 6-vs-6 battles, which sounds fairly epic. If that sounds up your godly alley, you can pick this one up for PC, Mac, Linux and Android at fancyfishgames.com.
When it first launched back in 2011, DragonVale was a phenomenon. Yet despite an army of copycats (my daughter is currently nursing a Dragon City addiction, so I'm speaking from experience), Backflip Studios didn't seem too keen on revisiting the IP.At least not until now.DragonVale Wings hit the App Store this week, but it's not quite the DragonVale follow-up that fans might be expecting. Rather than a dragon breeding city builder, Wings is a Flappy Bird-alike, and not a terribly good one at that.