God of War as Inspiration

It should come as no surprise that we’re huge God of War fans. I mean that sort of goes with the territory if you’re making a third person 3-D adventure game set in the mythic past. It is sort of THE standard, right?

Check out the full post here: READ MORE

Hercules Blog: Game Balancing - Why won’t she die?

Whether your fighting the Scorpion King, Medusa or a lowly undead berserker it is important to choose the right weapon. Everyone knows this. As a game developer it is the challenge of balancing difficulty, skill, ease of understanding and the all important fun quotient. Does it makes sense and seem fair that a single swipe of the scorpion king takes half your life? These are the questions we ask our selves on a daily basis.

You can read all about it from the horse's mouth, so to speak, on the Herc log as the main programmer talks about balancing Hercules.  CLICK HERE TO READ MORE

Side note: as a game dev try recording yourself talk about your game and the listening to it later in another environment. It is difficult to take yourself seriously. My favorite me quote is this sphere: "Ninjas are way too mature for this game". 

Hercules blog: A Unity 3D Memory Solution

We've spent over a year creating Hercules: Curse of the Hydra and we've used Unity 3D to do it. That has exposed us to many joys and pitfalls of the platform. Memory usage on a phone is tricky enough as it is. Add a layer of abstraction and it becomes more diabolical still. Read our article on one such memory oriented issue and our creative solution on the Hercules blog.

Tic Tac Paddywhack! Makes Babble's Top 50 Favorite iPhone Apps For Kids

Tic Tac Paddywhack! has made Babble's list of the Top 50 Favorite iPhone Apps for Kids.

Babble is the fastest growing website for moms, with over 4 millions moms visiting the hippest parenting site in the US every month.

Get Tic Tac Paddywhack!

The Stupid iPhone-Controlled Computer Game You Have to Play Today

Pirata Boat Race gets undeniable cool points for this unique implementation. Download the program, scan the QR Code and start rowing with your iPhone. The set up is a bit clunky but the innovation on the cheap is top notch.  


Check out the title link for more or just go to http://piratalondon.com/boatrace/ .

Microsoft is getting destroyed in smartphone race

http://www.businessinsider.com/android-gains-more-subscriber-share-2010-4?utm_source=Triggermail&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=The+Internet+Analyst+-+April+5+

Here's February's data compared to the three month period before:

* RIM is at 42.1% for December to February period, compared to 40.8% for the September to November period.

* Apple is at 25.4%, compared to 25.5%.

* Microsoft is at 15.1% compared to 19.1%.

* Android is at 9%, compared to 3.8%.

* Palm is at 5.4% compared to 7.2%.

Deadliest Warrior: Defend and Conquer Lite is free on the iPhone!

Spike's Deadliest Warrior has finally fought its way onto your iPhone and iTouch! Deadliest Warrior: Defend and Conquer has improved upon the best in tower defense gaming. With all your favorite warriors to choose from, Defend & Conquer utilizes the actual battle data from Spike's hit series and now it's up to YOU to decide which warriors can defeat a charging enemy.
A new feature to Tower Defense play is the mobile "Hero" unit for each warrior class. Tap anywhere on the screen to make the hero move there. The hero doubles regular warrior attacks when standing next to them and features a rechargeable "super attack" to fight back the onslaught of foes - just when you need it the most!
The LITE version features the Mongol Campaign. To play the Huns and Centurion campaigns purchase the Full version. Stay tuned for all new Season 2 characters in a MODERN WARFARE campaign – only available in the Full version.


What's New in Version 1.2

We are pleased to announce the following updates:

- iPhone 3G crashing bug fixed

Deadliest Warrior:Defend and Conquer: Campaign Two

Hey folks- as promised here is another screen shot from our upcoming game Deadliest Warrior: Defend and Conquer. We'll be leaking details pretty regularly over the next month.

Developer Blog: Deadliest Warrior: Defend and Conquer

Huge news here at SMERC. We're working on a new game for Spike's Deadliest Warrior to be released in a few weeks. It provides an amazing twist on the tower defense genre. The game will be released for iphone, facebook, and web.

There will be four campaigns distributued among various content upgrades. The fourth campaign will feature season two characters.

We're giving you a sneak peak here. Check back for more information soon.

Helping Developers Shift MMO Platforms

Via this article from mocoNews we found an interesting snippet about a company called Good Games Productions, who's main focus is to help developers of PC-based MMO extend their concepts to be featured on both Facebook and iPhone.

 

"Good" is the brainchild of game industry vet Grantley Day and, aside from already having a small development team, has a roster of games and developers they're working with.

mocoNews says, "It’s a cost-effective business model, since the startup won’t have to invest the millions up front currently needed to build a game from scratch—not to mention market it in the hopes of growing a huge audience," and we agree.

An interesting change, merging of platforms, we can't wait to see if this type business model takes off or if developers create in-house teams to port their own MMO's to other platforms.

Top Ten Handheld Holiday Buys

The Guardian UK's Game Blog has just done a swift run down of the top 10 handheld games you could own this holiday season. The following games were featured in two categories:

DS Titles:

1. Mario and Luigi: Bowser's inside Story (AlphaDream, Nintendo) 

2. Professor Layton and Pandora's Box (Level-5, Nintendo)  

3. Scribblenauts (5th Cell, Warner Bros)

4. Nostalgia (Matrix Software/Red Entertainment, Ignition)

5. Space Invaders Extreme 2 (Taito, Square Enix)

PSP Titles:
1. GTA Chinatown Wars (Rockstar Leeds, Rockstar. Also on DS)

2. Beaterator (Rockstar Leeds, Rockstar)

3. Gran Turismo (Polyphony Digital, Sony) 

4. Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny (Project Soul, Namco Bandai)

5. LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule/Sony Cambridge, Sony) 

We personally think that the best gaming release of this season comes from right here at SMERC.That game is one that's found on two "hand held" devices, the iPhone/iPod Touch and any ol' Android phone, and its called Decades. Check out the hyperlink and purchase the best gift of the season yourself.

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.

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.

3GS Games = Added Coding

While were mulling over re-posting an OP/ED about the gaming market now driving much of its business development in the direction of the iPhone, we stumbled upon an article on Kotaku and thought, "Moot point. iPhone knew this would happen. They're not trying to gain part of the market, they're trying to become a ubiquitos force in it."

In case you haven't noticed Apple trying to extend itself beyond a brand into a 360 degree "way of life", with highly stylized, super-futuristic phone/MP3player/compasses, unnecessarily re-branded white MacBooks (why anyone would ever prefer that clumpy looking, dirt-magnet over the sleek titanium version is beyond us), specialty mall stores where super-informed Macnerds speak to you in soothing tones, we're pleased to inform that they are succeeding in this endevour and going a step further in their quest for world domination (and domination in the gaming world) by creating a separate programming platform for iPhone 3GS. While game developers (like us!) will still be able to create games for the older generation of iPhones and iPod Touches, they now also have the option of encoding a seperate set of parameters into a game that will be recognized once a game is downloaded and opened on an iPhone 3GS. The added codes will allow for optimized game playability and really take advantage of the meat and potatoes of the iPhone's technology. 

Pretty fascinating we think and we can't wait to see if this broadening of Apple's iPhone/iPod Touch platform will give them that extra edge in the market by creating a further challenge for game development enthusiasts.

Full article via Kotaku

#88 in Adventure Games

Jesse James is a Dead Man: Red Wire Blue Wire. App store rank: Ranked #110 in Adventure Games — #88 was highest known rank achieved.

Not too shabby.

New RWBW Levels

Jesse James: Red Wire Blue Wire has just been updated .
• Added 35 new levels
• Reduced memory footprint and load times
• Removed memory related crashing
• Improved controls for 3 of the game types

http://tinyurl.com/mr4r4e

You can become a Facebook fan here:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home&__a=1#/pages/Jesse-James-is-a-Dead-Man-Red-Wire-Blue-Wire/89634739213?ref=s

Tic Tac Paddywhack on the iPhone is ultimate fun for children

iphonefootprint love for Tic Tac Paddywhack!

Remember the tic tac toe game, which you played in school to kill time or when two of you friends were waiting for a third one? Good news is the game is now available for the iPhone. And very apt for this generation of children, who can never think of anything other than gadgets free from pen and papers. I don't have to tell you how to play a tic tac toe game, may be that is the reason why there are no instructions in the game. The most significant and interesting feature in tic tac paddywhack! is that the game

Click to read the review

Red Wire Blue Wire

iTunes just released our awesome new bomb diffusing app for Spike TV's "Jesse James is a Dead Man!" Red Wire Blue Wire challenges you to disarm a series of bombs rigged to the vehicles in Jesse's shop.

Face 5 different puzzles types in increasing difficulty and complexity until you meet the ultimate challenge - a live nuke!!

It's fun, challenging, and here's the best part - it's free! Download for iphone and ipod touch today!

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftwa
re?id=319067875&mt=8

Tic Tac Paddywhack! Lite

Freemium Anyone? Play the new FREE verison of Tic Tac Paddywhack.

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=318165908&mt=8e?id=318165908&mt=8

More Love for Tic Tac Paddywhack!

Endorsement from "An Island Review" for our iPhone game Tic Tac Paddywhack!

Read the review here:

The cool thing is that there are no boring X’s and O’s. In this version
it’s kids versus pets. My girls loved the cartoon images and it made playing the
game a lot more fun and interesting for them. Even my 3 year old got the hang of
it in no time. The touch screen of the iPhone made it this game very kid
friendly and interactive.