Aralon: Forge and Flame’s Open World Looks Spectacular

Almost six year ago, a big-little game called Aralon: Sword and Shadow was hailed as “Elder Scrolls on the iPhone.” We actually said that, by the way, in our 2010 review. While we ran into some serious bugs and control issues, the game gave us a taste of what the future of open-world RPGs could be like on smartphones.

Now Crescent Moon Games is gearing up to launch their follow-up to Sword and Shadow, Aralon: Forge and Flame. Featuring three continents for players to explore, Crescent Moon Games told us that Forge and Flame is expected to launch in December.

Beyond the vast landscapes featured in the trailer (you’ll explore three continents!), players can expect to find new races as well as complete day/night cycles with dynamic lighting and shadows which make things like torches really pop and come to life. Players can also experience the game from a third or first-person perspective thanks to an overhauled user-interface system improved from the original game.

Expect this one on the App Store before the end of the year.

News
October 9, 2013
Ackuna’s translation service aims to help small developers localize their games and apps
By Joe Jasko
I'm sure at one point or another in your mobile gaming career you've undoubtedly heard the many tales of caution that proclaim how important it is for developers to localize their mobile apps for sale in other markets and expand on their success. But of course, even if developers do take those initial steps towards bringing their games to other countries and mobile markets, there's always been that one glaring hurdle that's managed to keep so many games landlocked in their own native grounds: the elusive language barrier. Luckily, a new translation service called Ackuna is looking to make the prospects of localization a whole lot easier for small-studio game developers going forward.I recently had a chance to speak with Michael Duke of the marketing department at Ackuna, and learn some more about the company's take on localization and how their own translation services are crafted to help you achieve your own mobile development goals. According to Duke, what sets Ackuna apart from other more machine-based translation options out there today is the unique sense of community that the service provides. Users will be able to monitor the quality of work throughout the entire translation process, and fine-tune their own localization efforts through community feedback, advertising, and networking. The groundwork for Ackuna was actually put it place about two years ago, when it first began as a mere side project of the company's prime translation agency, Translation Cloud. In these humble beginnings, Ackuna functioned as a simple means of proofreading a machine-translated text for its interested users."But as the popularity of the project grew, Ackuna soon adapted in order to directly connect its users with the freelance translators themselves at Translation Cloud, before setting its sights on assisting the localization efforts of mobile app developers. Having just come out of its beta period this past September, Ackuna currently supports 22 different languages, with some of the most popular translations being English to Spanish, English to Chinese, and a number of other European languages, such as French and Italian. To help ensure that most mobile app developers are covered no matter their platform, Ackuna also supports a range of 10 different file formats, including the popular Apple iOS strings, Android XML, Blackberry resource file, and Java configuration file, as well as more uncommon ones, like YAML (Ruby), Microsoft Office spreadsheet, and Open Office spreadsheet.
Reviews
April 21, 2012
Conclave Review
By Nick Tylwalk
In our always-connected digital age, not many of us have the time to sit down for a vintage role-playing session like we did in our youth (my youth, anyway). The guys at 10x10 Room have come up with a novel way to meet us halfway with Conclave, a browser-based fantasy RPG that can be played live with other gamers or by turns whenever you have time. It's like pen-and-paper brought into the 21st Century.

Tom Christiansen

Former Good Morning America child star, Tom spends his time these days writing lots of things for people to read. He's a fan of independently developed video games, and always roots for the underdog. Send him animated .gifs on Twitter: @tomscott90. He likes those things