Hot News On The Android Front

Kind of excited about this news via Gizmodo today. It seems Google has decided to not only assert control over their mobile platform Android (one of our more favorite plaforms to design for *cough* check out a game we made for it*cough*) but finally design a phone that meets their design and functionality expectations from top to bottom. 

So, preview pics of the darn thing? Yes! Right Here:

 

Though there have been rumors of a fully Google-produced phone in the past, there are...well...rumors again. Gizmodo seems to speculate that HTC, being the proprietary manufacturers of all things Android, will design the official Google hand unit. If you ask us, we don't think Google is trying to come out with a definitive handset for the purposes of doing things exactly how they've been done before. The device will likely be a proposition to all 3rd party manufacturers as to how to design Android-based devices from now on and that means that they'll probably try to outsource the job from elsewhere.

Stay tuned for the real answer kids...

Top 5 Glitchiest PC Games

Just in time for you to begin deciding what game or games to spend all of tomorrow with, Game Central has reviewed the Top 5 PC games with the most glitches, so, you know what not to trip over while you're cruising through a full day of turkey and gaming bliss. The order go as such:

1. SkyNET 

Too non-sensical and erratic, half-finished 

2. S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl 

"Artificially difficult" and illogical. Tons of audio errors and inactive game buttons

 

3. Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor 

Slow, stuttering, plus uninstall caused potential destruction of system files

 

4. Divine Divinity 

Amateurish concept, shrieking noise when game freezes, too many post-release fixit patches to count

      

5. Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magic Obscura 

Broken quests, frequent crashes, need we say more?

 

So, this Thanksgiving holiday play our newest, most brilliantly designed game to date: Decades. It's a PC game (also available for iPhone/iPod Touch, Android, and PC) that won't leave you frustrated and wanting to tear your hair out. Instead, you'll be cruising happily through historical and pop-culture trivia, while enjoying beautiful, fast-paced graphics. Check it out here: www.decades.com. It's addicting and FUN.

Full article from Game Central here.

Comedic Violence Is OK Right?

We're never ones to tout violence, but, we do love us some Office Space and sympathize with the recent downsizing/restructuring at Pandemic over in the lovely city of Burbank, CA. It is for this reason that we give you probably the funniest post-firing vid ever (second only to the original from whence it came, you'll recognize this scene as part of the third act of one of the greatest comedies of all time).

The video, as you might have guessed, is a take-off on the printer smashing scene in Office Space and is brilliant. But, just as an FYI, SMERC does not condone use of the "N word" (nah ah) and we're a little "eh" on the overuse of all the mother effers in the song.

Also, after watching the above this instantly came to mind:

Happy birthday to the ground!

What? It's the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. If you think we don't already have Turkeybrain, you're wrong.

Give the Gift of Song

We don't much care what the critics say, we absolutely love us some virtual instrument gaming. Which is why we fully stand behind MTV's extra push of "The Beatles: Rock Band" during the holiday season.

 

Activision has been courting much controversy with their gaming ventures lately, but, we do think that the particular brand of benevolence this version of Rock Band has been receiving from the media is a testament to both the band's legacy and the unique connection the franchise has been making with it's audience.

Developers Scaling back on Android

We've reported on our own frustration with the Android Marketplace store. It is largely unuseable unless you know what you are looking for. In a sense, it is too democratioc and early blunders like only allowing 325 characters to describe your game and no pictures make one think that Google simply has no idea how to prioritize interaction for a user interface or facilitate proper promotional tools and opportunities for developers in it's app store.

Gameloft, a noteable mobile heavyweight, seems to feel like it isn't worth it at this point:

"We have significantly cut our investment in Android platform, just like ... many others," Gameloft finance director Alexandre de Rochefort said at an investor conference.

http://www.macrumors.com/2009/11/20/game-developers-scaling-back-android-efforts-as-iphone-continues-to-dominate/

We're hanging in there, continuing to develop for this platform. We believe in it and think it has the most potential to become the dominant juggernaut it promises to be. A little help from Google would go a long way here.

Here are three simple starts:

1) Allow external web links to applications and games

2) Revamp the store- better featured section and enable recommendations

3) Make it easier for users to get to and purchase the paid applications.

Friday Night Video Bonus

We here at the SMERC blog are pretty big fans of other blogs like 1UP and Wired's GameLife blog, so, it follows that we would be big fans of the Retronauts podcast, a collaborative effort between editors of those two blogs, plus some others.

GameLife editor Chris Kohler and varying others have formed the group as a way of discussing vintage video games and tracking their history. In this weeks clip on the Retronauts' site the group continues their trek through Tokyo in search of retro game shops in the district of Nakano

You'll see the boys climb some stairs and geek-out wildly on everything around them, including chocolate (?), including the ultra colorful apparel of that region and everything on the public walls. Why IS everything in Japan so colorful? 

Either way, the Retronauts are truly enjoyable because they're not just industry surveyors, but, really authentic fans of gaming concepts and visuals.

Job: Concept Artist

We are looking for an excellent concept artist for a contract position. Ideally you live in the NYC area, but that is negotiable. Qualities we admire: professionalism, friendliness, and the ability to communicate. Examples of people we think are excellent concept artists: 

http://creaturebox.com/

http://goodbrush.com/ 

To apply please send an email politely introducing yourself and a link to your online portfolio to: jobs.at.smerc.dot.com

Applicants without online portfolios will not be considered.

Follow us on this blog, twitter or facebook to be the first to find out about job openings.

Decades Slays, All The Others Just Stand By In Awe

Check out this review of Dungeon and this review of the new lame for dead promo Left 4 Dead if you need to find out about games and apps that are a little behind the times or just plain confusing. Check out THIS ANNOUNCEMENT if you need to find out that one of the brightest, best, most multi-platform games this year just became available for iTunes, Android, PC and Facebook.

We've JUST announced Decades for all four gaming platforms and that makes the game one of our widest releases to date!!!

If you have any sense in you you'll click over to www.decadesthegame.com to find out more and if you're preferential of one platform over another, here are the separate links for access to each one:

On Facebook: apps.facebook.com/decadesgame

On iTunes: itunes.apple.com/webobjects/mzstore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=329690750&mt=8

On Android: www.decadesthegame.com/android

On PC platform: www.decadesthegame.com/playnow 

Decades is brilliant, addicting, and truly truly fun. Enjoy and thank us later!

Warfare Frenzy

We've hastily been trying to avoid reporting on Modern Warfare 2, since it seems like you can't get away from news of it the past week, but, the game has officially reached 1.78 million in unit sales and that is something we can't help but mention.

In a persistently deadened economy, where gaming sales undulate from "staying afloat" to "weakening" status on a weekly basis, MW2 has scored a record sale of $108.7 million (estimate is converted from British currency) in just 7 days. We can't quite wrap our heads around that, but, we won't try to either. 

We'll just congratulate our industry peers on scoring one for the league and hope that the fact that they've scored the highest grossing video game release of all time in an economy such as this is projection of a more positive future. 

Read more at VideoGamer

Getting Hopeful About Zune

Here's something you rarely hear us (or anyone else) mention, Zune. Well, we're going to break that dry spell now and tell you that we've come upon an article via Ars Technica that actually calls the new batch of Zune HD games for the beleaguered MP3 player(/gaming handheld?) "fun". Fancy that.

According to the piece, the fun is actually an important aspect of the new 3D/HD products as the previous set of games boasted painfully slow loading times, simple 2D graphics, and a lacking in captivating plot-points/action. 

The more state-of-the-art concepts load a lot quicker (thanks to a firmware update), have sensually pleasing graphics (and we mean that in the way that they appeal to your senses), and actually have some "replay value".

In reviewing the newest releases, Ars actually called Checkers for Zune "beautiful", citing that its outdoor setting and simplicity made it surprisingly captivating, and even went so far as to pay the "Wii compliment" to Lucky Lanes Bowling, comparing the mobile app to the visual experience of playing on the console.

We really are hoping in our heart of hearts that this isn't the last we'll be mentioning of Zune gaming for a while. With iPhone/iPod Touch carving a new nieche for casual gamers in the market, if Microsoft really steps up the content of their gaming products they could genuinely reap the benefits of what Apple started.

"Face"-ing Up To PS3

Here's some news that we (the producers of three supremely awesome Facebook games) are quite giddy about the possibility of: murmurs in the video game blog-o-sphere seem to be speculating that the PS3 system may soon become Facebook-enabled. 

The gossip has apparently been triggered by three errant images that appeared on PlayStation's website yesterday and that depicted Facebook running on PS3's XCrossMediaBar. Here they are for your own consideration:

Though the snapshots have been pulled down since leaking, Sony UK PR has responded to the snafu by saying that official news on the subject will be arriving "very shortly".

So basically, it seems like the company was giving the images a test run on their web building software and accidentally uploaded the content. Pretty good accident, we think, as it has garnered some unintended publicity for the forthcoming announcement and subsequently given a little heat to XBox 360, who have already officially demoed both Facebook and Twitter for their console.

Clever dealings Sony, clever indeed. You can read a bit more here: GameSpy

A Case For Mobile Gaming

As we had previously mentioned, the iPhone is more surely the biggest driving forces in mobile gaming at the moment. It's sales at the designated point of purchase location, iTunes, trump sales of any other mobile gaming retailer, bar none. But, did you know that the collected mass of Apple mobile gaming venturing may be having a positive impact on traditional console concepts?

We caught an interesting bit via GameDaily today, that was begun as a cautionary tale of the adverse affects mobile gaming may be having on the console/computer gaming market. The piece was eventually concluded with the realization that mobile gaming in fact, boosts interests of the casual/passive game player and make individuals who are not particularly passionate about gaming as entertainment that much more involved in all aspect of it, not just in mobile gaming alone.

Ask about the potential disinterest in console gaming mobile applications may cause, VP of Marketing at GameStop, Tony Bartel, had this to say:

“I really see a lot of growth in both of those areas...they appeal to two different audiences... I've been looking at Madden and Assassin's Creed on my iPhone, and while they're fun to play, they're far from the experience I can get on a console or even on a handheld. So I think in some cases they could lead people over into that (console) area."

Well said, we think and as Bartel himself says:

 "I really see the [iPhone market] as more complementary than competitive at this point.” 

And so do we. Check out our newest mobile gaming entry (Decades) for iPhone/iTunes right here.

Minesweeper Adventure To Be Developed For Charity

Yesterday we hinted at the persistence of simple casual games in the mobile market (specifically on iTunes store), today we've picked up an item about a new development project for Minesweeper, via Joystiq.

According to the post, the utterly addicting Windows OS mainstay is being developed by Charles Cecil (originator of the Broken Sword series) for charity game manufacturer OneBigGame, who's mission is to sell video games in order to create endowment funds for various children needs.

That mission statement sounds great to us, we just hope that the kids don't get a hold of the new game. Lord knows we wish we could get our childhood back after the many hours we spent in front of our old PC trying not to get "mined". We've switched to Mac since. Phew

We're Webbie Almost-Winners

As if getting props from the Android world for our mobile version of Decades wasn't enough, we're also proud to say that for our Nickelodeon-commissioned effort Sponge Bob Soak and Squeeze we've become the only game the kid's channel will be entering for competition into the Webbie Awards.

We're pretty excited, seeing as how the Webbie's are the foremost judging pannel for what's good on the interwebs, so, wish us luck! We hope we win something.

iPhone Chart Toppers: Less Is More

Today, via Kotaku, we're running down the current Top 10 iPhone Games.

Check out the post, and tell us, if you don't find it a little bit funny that despite the progress in animation and quality of development, much of the same type of games that could be found on more primitive mobile devices several years back still reign supreme.

Hanging at #2 on the Top 10 is EA's is Rock Band for mobile, which is an obvious contender, seeing as how the virtual instruments franchise is the hottest one on the market. But, what about games like Bejeweled 2, Scrabblte and Tetris (all three are also Top 10 contenders)?

Weren't one-point-perspective casual games that didn't require toggling between multiple screens just as popular before the advent of a wide-screen PDA mobile device? We definitely played a couple of those on our black and white screen Nokia back in the day and we definitely find it a bit amusing that so many years into the advent of mobile gaming, players really do just want a colorful, casual, familiar experience. It is for that reason we think everyone should download our newest mobile product and casual game, Decades for iPhone, right here!

Enjoy!

We're On The Winning Path!

We're pleased to tell you that our newest mobile creation for Android, Decades, has been selected as a Top 20 app in the "Casual Games" category for the Android Developer Challenge. 

 
HOW TO VOTE

The Android Developers Challenge is a user-voted competition where developers from all walks of life submit their finished apps in order to win the title of "best application" in a certain category. So, since we're so close to victory we can taste it, we ask that if you own an Android-based device:

1) You download the ADC2 Challenge app via the Android Market by searching Android Developers Challenge 

2) Or scan the following bar code (your device will instantly recognize ADC2 as the app to download).

Let's get Decades into the top spot! We appreciate all your support ;)

And The Hits Just Keep On Coming

All week, we've been reporting about the rocky terrain in virtual instrument gaming these days (see here and here) well, today, Activision, despite the fray, has decided to push forward with the addition of three new bands to their Rock Band Music Store.

The White Stripes, Kasabian, and legendary band The Damned will all have tracks available for purchase through XBox 360, PS3, and Wii next week and we can only hope that none of these acts find fault with the silly Rock Band avatars we'll all make up to sing their songs (although, we have tried very hard to keep our Rock Band style of dress pretty slick).

The individual tracks should run you about $2 a pop and a full package of tracks should square off around $4.50. Seems like a solid deal to us. You can check out the full announcement via VG247.

Leggo My LEGO

So, if you read yesterday's post, or managed to tune into the bloggosphere late last evening, then you'll know that Activision is getting heat from yet another musical act they worked with as part of the Rock Band and "Hero" series of games. Today, it seems, is no better for the firm as a member of the development team for LEGO Rock Band reveals that half of the staff of the animation staff on the project were against its creation.

 

Matt Palmer, a head animator on the project, explained that "People were saying, 'Oh, they're flogging a LEGO license again...about 50 percent of our studio were for the idea, and about 50 percent were against it."

So, how did the project eventually come to fruition? Well, for one, "Many of us started realizing that we weren’t just skinning one franchise on another," Palmer explained. In the end, hired developer TT Fusion also found unique ways of developing the game's characters through key-frame and hand-drawn animation, which ultimately breathed new life into the classically block-y characters and boosted both the LEGO and the Rock Band's brand.

Of course, the game, since has had tepid, at best, public and press reception. But, perhaps, now that there's new controversy surroudning Activision's virtual instruments product line, they'll thrown additional thought onto future releases.

Full article via Develop Online.

No Hero for No Doubt

Sigh...we don't know how to say this to No Doubt, other than they just "get over yourselves". Apparently, the band, who, as far as we can tell, all have clean mental records, have decided to follow in the footsteps of the perpetually irrational Courtney Love and sue Activision for "fraudulent inducement" of their band's image (read: we actually think Court is very smart, but, maybe needs to ease up on the drugs sometimes). 

 

The band's disagreement with the video game firm stems from the fact that they signed a contract for the production of three avatars bearing the band's resemblance and were in turn made into a "virtual karaoke circus act". Question. Isn't one of their butts hanging out in that photo above?

The fact that ND have spent the majority of their career portraying themselves as crusty pre-punk, ragga outsiders, makes it that much more hypocritical to feign being prim and proper now that they've accepted corporate money and in turn had their artistic identity back at them. What were their expectations exactly?

For their part, Activision responds by saying the following: 

 "Activision has a written agreement to use No Doubt in Band Hero – an agreement signed by No Doubt after extensive negotiations with its representatives, who collectively have decades of experience in the entertainment industry. Pursuant to that agreement, Activision worked with No Doubt and the band’s management in developing Band Hero. As a result, Activision believes it is within its legal rights with respect to the use and portrayal of the band members in the game and that this lawsuit is without merit."

We think the problem here is that, whether its Courtney Love or No Doubt battling for accurate representation in the video game realm, the marriage between the music and gaming world always seems to get rocky when the artist becomes directly involved (not so much with third party music track licensing). So, we pose the question to you? Does a band have the right to sue a gaming company after signing a contract that does not explicitly beak the rules of the agreement? Should they mediate all of their contracts through a third party without signing directly? Discuss...

...and catch the full story via VG247.

Congregate to Kongregate

A bit of self-promo today as we wanted to let y'all know that our newest brainchild Repo Depot is now playable through Kongregate.com for free!


 

Stalk the city streets in search of cars to repossess! Avoid angry owners and drive your car back to the Depot to earn some sweet moolah! Visit Kongregate to check out the game here.

N-o More N-Gage

Although some in the mobile gaming market are launching new bids for dominance and some already seem to have it, Nokia has announced yesterday that it will cease production of new gaming content for its N-Gage platform and cut off sales for the existing games in late 2010.

The shuttering of the platform does not, however, mean that Nokia gamers will not be able to get their fix via their mobile handset period. Instead, all sales and new mobile gaming product will become available via the company's Ovi applications store. In order to throw a bit of a positive spin on the forthcoming changes Nokia issued the following comment: 

"It's much more convenient to have one place to get all your mobile games, and this it what Ovi Store provides."

"Mobile gaming is one of the most popular activities in the Ovi Store, with games being the second most downloaded category for premium content." 

With competition stiffening up in the mobile market at large, and Nokia being a long-time mobile device industry leader (one well ahead of Samsung and LG), it's hard to believe that the switch to Ovi will be a permanent solution for their customers mobile gaming needs. How the company will re-brand it's gaming division, however, remains to be seen.

Full article via BBC News.

As iTunes Leads, Mobile Gaming Sales Could Reach Billions by 2014

Coming off this article via Game Daily, we're really happy to read what swift progress mobile/portable applications are making in the gaming world.

According to a series of new reports from DFC Intelligence(an idepedent field research group), the "mobile" (we'll just call it that for brevity's sake) gaming market could reach sales of up to $11.4 billion by 2014. This doesn't mean "the end" for console gaming, those systems are expected to continue to reign, but, mobile gaming, lead by what is predicted to be a 24% market share for iPhone/iPod Touch, has grown to the point where a whopping 54% of DFC's surveyed U.S. residents had played a mobile game on their phone in the past year. In Europe the number was at 69% of surveyed mobile users.

The news is a boost for the moral of the industry for sure, and just another milestone in the evolution of gaming we all knew would happen.  

To check out some our most recent mobile games for yourself see: Red Wire Blue Wire, Tic Tac Paddy Whack, and Decades.