Village Gamer

Rock Hippo Productions Ltd. has released a “Summer Recharge” patch for its popular online cartoon style third-person action shooter, MicroVolts. The latest patch includes a brand new map, new weapons and all new content for the summer season. A new trailer and screenshots revealed today explore the new map and feature the characters sporting the new weapons, parts and accessories that are now available to players. In addition, MicroVolts is celebrating with its first-ever MicroVolts Clan Tournament, “Clan Clash”, from July 15 – August 11.

MicroVolts is celebrating summer in style with a brand new map, Magic Paper Land and all-new weapons such as the Thunder Grenade Launcher and Hornet Rifle. The “Summer Recharge” patch also includes hot summer items such as a Pink Polka Dot Bikini that is sure to heat up the battlefield! For players looking for even more bonuses and special privileges can check out the new rewards available through the Battery Charge Program. Players who complete certain objectives, such as joining a clan or reaching 100 forum posts, can unlock rewards such as a 30-day Rock Hippo Costume Set or the coveted ability to cast polls and post videos in MicroVolts forums.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvvSCvvUsfg]

“MicroVolts continues to be a huge success with its player base and clans reaching new heights. Hundreds of thousands of players and over 2500 clans have already joined the MicroVolts community with thousands more players joining each day,” said Howard He, President and CEO of Rock Hippo Productions. “We don’t want our players to experience any summer boredom, and the MicroVolts team looks forward to bringing the community even more new updates and content in the near future.”

MicroVolts is also hosting the first-ever MicroVolts Clan Tournament, “Clan Clash”, from July 15 – August 11th. Clans will battle it out for a 1st place prize of 18, 000 Rock Tokens and a 7-day Happy Pack accessory item!

MicroVolts will be at Gamescom in Cologne, Germany, August 18-21st! Players are invited to meet the Rock Hippo crew, grab some neat giveaways such as an Alienware gaming mouse and participate in the on-site tournaments! MicroVolts will also be at FanExpo in Toronto, Canada, August 25-28!

MicroVolts features fast paced, third person shooter action and pits players against each other in a secret battle that has been waged and going unnoticed right in our own backyard for years. No one knows for sure when or where the first toy declared war but rumor has it that the uprising began with four original limited edition figures, code-named MicroVolts. Battle lines were drawn when Naomi, Knox, Pandora, and C.H.I.P.-the prototypes-were soon joined by an endless number of modified versions. Now, toy figures around the world are engaged in an all-out war for valuable battery resources and supremacy of the Micro World. All we can do now is stay out of their way and wait for a champion to be declared! Featuring a ton of weapons, inventive character designs, and a huge list of customization features, MicroVolts is destined to invigorate and re-energize the Free2play space.

Game modes include Free for All, Team Deathmatch, Item Match, Capture the Battery, and many more featuring various maps designed by toy concept.

Vancouver indie Games developer Hothead Games has released some exciting character details and screenshots from the anticipated summer title that fans have been salivating over. The Baconing, where the endearingly egotistical DeathSpank faces an assortment of terrifying new enemies will be released on PC, Mac, and other platforms this summer.

Fortunately for our naively intrepid hero, he finds help in the Forest of Tomorrow from an unlikely group of adventuring scientists. The Nuclear Family is a group of rather socially dysfunctional mad geniuses who push the boundaries of science within their laboratory-esque arboretum. Truly – what other type of scientists could one expect to find in DeathSpank’s wonderful world of whackiness?

Motherly Betty Nuclear stays home and has perfected the science of cooking and cleaning while her husband, Dick Nuclear, spends his time at the “Pleasuretorium” creating robots to help cure the ills of society through full body sensual massage.  Meanwhile, their brilliant son Elroy keeps busy with his attempts to clone a two-headed dog to call his own, and his sister Chastity entertains herself by constructing a boyfriend out of ‘spare parts’ dug up from a graveyard.

In order to gain access to the Fire of Bacon, DeathSpank must reunite this frenetic family.  Of course, it’s never as simple as that: each family member has a tendency to explode when agitated, and that tendency grows when in the vicinity of their fellow Nuclears.  But if he ever wishes to get one step closer to facing off against the villainous AntiSpank, whose very presence threatens everything he stands for, DeathSpank must find a way.

Toronto’s XMG Studio has been very busy lately. The studio recently joined forces with toy manufacturer Spin Master Ltd. to deliver innovative mobile gaming to the newly announced App Blaster. The collaboration is bringing a new dimension of realism to shooter games everywhere, giving users a truly unique way to interact with their favourite XMG sniper game, Marine Sharpshooter, which is currently being optimized for the App Blaster. With over 5 million unique downloads, Sharpshooter has become one of the most popular sniping games, making it a perfect fit for the peripheral.

“Working with Spin Master on this has been really exciting”, says Ray Sharma, Founder and CEO of XMG Studio. “It’s a great opportunity to really expand the expectations of what people consider to be traditional mobile gaming.”

This partnership marks a major strategic alliance of these leaders in their respective industries. The concept of combining an out-of-game experience with an in-game effect and using an interactive, real world object is extremely cutting-edge. The App Blaster will revolutionize the way future first person shooter games for mobile devices are played – less button mashing, more strategic aiming. Now, with the innovative toy-making and consumer expertise of Spin Master, coupled with the mobile gaming savvy of XMG Studio, sniper-fans everywhere can have something incredible to look forward to with a far more intense game-play experience, bringing them closer than ever to the skill and precision of the real thing.

“What we have here with App Blaster is very cool and very innovative,” says Dave Colebrook, VP Marketing at Spin Master.  “Gamers haven’t yet seen this type of gaming, so we’re glad to be working with such a company as XMG to bring this to concept to life.  This is just the beginning of this kind of interactive gaming.”

In addition to some awesome updates to one my favourite game titles, Cow vs Aliens, XMG Studio has also recently two great new games in Apple’s App Store that you might be interested in checking out.

Degrassi: A story-driven game based on the hit TV series, it has already reached a #1 ranking in the App Store’s “Role Playing” category. As their first days of school unfold, players make important decisions, engage in meaningful conversations and play their way through classes, all in the ever-familiar locations of Degrassi. The player is free to forge his or her own pathway through the game, ultimately resulting in a different ending depending on which choices were made. Degrassi is the most watched drama on MuchMusic in Canada, and highly rated on TeenNick in the U.S. It’s an interactive role playing game that allows the user to build and maintain relationships with familiar characters from the popular TV series.

Louisville Slugger Homerun Challenge: There are plenty of baseball games, and even some home run derby apps, but Louisville Slugger distinguishes itself in a few ways in that it’s extremely accessible with simple, responsive swipe controls. The game has crisp hand-drawn artwork, multiple game modes, stadiums, and Louisville Slugger bats modeled after original Louisville Slugger models. (published by our partner mLamb Productions)

Frima Studios has been traced as the source of this cryptic message that has been transmitted across the gaming universe today:

“Attention people of Earth! It is I, Commander P Jefferson, sending this message from the future to alert you that the galaxy is finally safe from alien scum. How did it become safe, you ask? Well, because I kicked their ugly alien butts!

On July 28, you will be able to recreate my epic battles with the forces of evil (a.k.a. anything that isn’t human) by downloading A Space Shooter for Free!, an exciting shooter that takes place in—wait for it—space! I bet you humans from the past are neither smart nor handsome enough to grasp that concept. A Space Shooter for Free! costs nothing to try and features an infinite supply of aliens to obliterate. The big ASS version, with more special weapons, more bosses and more power-ups can be unlocked in-game for only $0.99.

Within this epic and critically acclaimed game, previously available for the PSP, yours truly will yet again demonstrate how to kill aliens dead by blowing up their ships, earning loot to upgrade the USS Eradicator, and blasting even more aliens dead.”

Hothead Games has unleashed strategy card game Kard Combat upon the world of iOS devices, complete with a Launch Special. Players can download the game for free from iTunes and join this ancient tournament of cards and magic. Entrants into the tournament grow powers and their Kard collections by battling their way up the Black Tower. On every floor there is a new opponent to fight using the cards at hand. There are rewards to earn to help defeat the Arch Mage, Harkus, and the many other magi to be encountered online.

From now through to July 20th, Kard Combat will be featured as OpenFeint’s Free Game of The Day. Players who download Kard Combat during this first week will receive Catastrophe, one of the most powerful cards in the game, and a +1 Life Crystal Shard.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wa2Z1Fesk0&hd=1]

The free download includes:

* All 4 mage classes, each with unique strategies: Holy, Death, Machine and Dominator
* Over 40 Kards to use in battle
* Unlimited, turn-based multiplayer battles
* 5 Tower battles, complete with rewards
* 3 Single Duels
* 3 Difficulty levels to match any player’s skill
* OpenFeint and Game Center enabled, with achievements and leaderboards

For the minimum in-app purchase price of $0.99, players will also receive:

* The full, 33 battle Tower campaign
* Unlimited Single Duels
* Access to over 100 incredible, hand-crafted cards
* The ability to run up to 20 simultaneous multiplayer games

Lending his vision to co-design the game, Richard Garfield, creator of the wildly popular card game, Magic: The Gathering, stated “for years I’ve wanted to create a Magic-like experience for people who play video games. Kard Combat on iPhone and iPad does this and is simple enough for anyone to pick up and play, but with plenty of depth for the hard core player. Hothead has created a truly magical game.”

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcjfDJvq-Vc]

Kard Combat is rated 12+ for the following:

Infrequent/Mild Mature/Suggestive Themes
Infrequent/Mild Cartoon or Fantasy Violence
Frequent/Intense Horror/Fear Themes

Device Requirements:

Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 3.1.3 or later

One of the most original new titles that has taken the game industry by storm is now available for your iPad. Sissy’s Magical Ponycorn Adventure by newcomer Cassie Creighton (and her Dad) was released earlier today on the iTunes Store for $2.99 and compatible with iPads running iOS 4.0 or later.

Sissy’s Magical Ponycorn Adventure began as a father-daughter project at TOJam, a Toronto-area Game Jam held in May. The game was designed in Flash and was originally released for play in web browsers, but the overwhelming success of Cassie’s game, for which she created the artwork and voice-overs, has led to additional releases for PlayBook and now the iPad. You can read the full story behind the game’s journey on Ryan’s blog over at Untold Entertainment.

All of the proceeds raised from the sale of Sissy’s Magical Ponycorn Adventure are going to pay for Cassie’s education once she is old enough to attend a post-secondary school. Since launch, Cassie’s game empire has also grown to encompass Ponycorn merchandising and appearances on TV and radio, as well as in mainstream print media.

For those who would like to chat first hand with Cassie’s Dad about his young game designer phenom or about Ponycorns, rainbow portals and evil lemons, Ryan will be attending Casual Connect next week in Seattle. Of course, Ryan does have his own projects he may want to discuss – but that’s outside the scope of this article, which is to send all of you iPad and PlayBook owners to the appropriate marketplaces and online stores to purchase Cassie’s game and support her education.

Streaming Colour Studios proudly introduces Baby’s Musical Hands for iPad (99 cents Compatible with iPad. Requires iOS 3.2 or later), featuring 15 brightly coloured squares that your baby can touch. Red squares make drum sounds, yellow squares play piano notes, and blue squares play guitar notes. Every time your baby touches the screen, colorful stars will burst from their fingers. Watch them delight in the audio and visual feedback!

“As a game designer and developer, I love my iPad. But as a new father, I realized how much my son loves it too. I decided I could put my experience developing for iPad to use, and build an app for my son to play with, and Baby’s Musical Hands was born!” says creator Owen Goss, founder of Streaming Colour Studios.

Features:

* Baby’s Musical Hands supports full multi-touch, meaning your baby gets the kind of feedback they expect when touching the screen.
* Baby’s Musical Hands respects the iPad’s mute switch and volume buttons, if you want your baby to enjoy a visual feast without the sounds.

Always one to encourage early adoption, here is a video of Trainyard creator Matt Rix’s  son Toren testing out the technology:

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kw4q1hkjkYk]

+100 for cuteness 😉

Independent game developer Spooky Squid Games has released the debut trailer for They Bleed Pixels, a fast-paced, “gothic lo-fi” platforming beat-em-up coming to Xbox Live Indie Games in Summer 2011.

Featuring a distinct visual style that blends pixel art with paper and ink textures, They Bleed Pixels is a singular mix of intense platforming and fierce beat-em-up action.  It tells the story of a young girl haunted by a mysterious book and her violent Lovecraftian nightmares.

They Bleed Pixels uses a simple one-button combat scheme with surprising depth at its core. Button mashing is discouraged while kicking shadowy monsters into saws, pits and spikes is rewarded thanks to a unique checkpoint earning system: instead of being evenly distributed at set locations, players must earn and place checkpoints through stylish kills.  The more and better you kill, the faster you fill your checkpoint meter. Avoid combat or button mash mindlessly and you’ll find checkpoints uncomfortably far apart.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SF4Pygb9nXY]

“We’re crafting They Bleed Pixels with a healthy respect for the player’s abilities and the belief that action games should offer a genuine challenge,” says Miguel Sternberg, Creative Director at Spooky Squid Games. “We wanted to create a game that demands that players excel at both combat and platforming. Want a checkpoint before you take on that series of spike-lined pits? Then dash into the nearest enemy launch him in the air and juggle him into that nearby skill saw.”

Immersive Media Company has launched im360/im360 Lite, the first iPhone/iPad/iPod touch app that lets consumers watch amazing 360-degree videos on their mobile devices, using the touch screen or motion-control feature to manage what they see. Viewers have access to the world’s largest library of 360-degree videos available today. Whether it’s base-jumping in Malaysia, or exploring the Vegas Strip, im360 ($1.99) and im360 Lite (free, ad supported) allows users to direct the action and take control of their viewing experience.

With the app, viewers select from a diverse set of videos in the online library that they can download to put themselves in the middle of the action. As each video plays, they can move the video up and down, pan left and right, and zoom in and out to see everything in the scene as if they are actually there.

“With im360, everyone can be an armchair adventurer. If you’ve always wanted to surf the world’s biggest waves or explore the Chicago Art Institute, you can do it all from your iPhone or iPad,” said Myles McGovern, CEO, Immersive Media. “This is the same cutting-edge technology we’ve provided to the Black Eyed Peas for their BEP360 app and to ABC.com for the Oscars, among many others such as NBC, CNN and Google. It is disruptive and addictive technology that really demonstrates the interactive power of mobile devices.”

Videos include content in the following categories: Arts & Entertainment, City Highlights, Helicopter Tours, Museums & Science, Nature & Wildlife, News & Events, Parks & Gardens and Sports & Action.

The currently available videos include Red Bull’s extreme sports competitions; helicopter tours over Alcatraz, the Vegas Strip, Los Angeles and Chicago; footage from Northstudio360 of the June 15 Vancouver riots; tours of leading museums, zoos and botanical gardens; and much more. Future upgrades will enable access to live, streaming videos of concerts, sports events and other real-time content.

Two versions of the app are available for download on iTunes: im360 Lite is free with ads; the ads-free im360, which costs $1.99, offers users the ability to use Immersive Media’s publishing tools to view their own images in 360 degrees. Both versions come with a “View in 3D” setting that allows viewing the 360-degree videos in 3D as well. Compatible with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPod touch (3rd generation), iPod touch (4th generation) and iPad. Requires iOS 4.2 or later.

Toronto educational developer Spongelab Interactive has opened a beta run for SpongeLab, a revolutionary new web site that is a global science community with educational games, 3D animations and beautiful images, all integrated into a sophisticated teacher management system. Stunning and detailed science content linked with powerful teaching tool stitches all elements of the classroom together in one place. Assessment and reporting is made easy using a flexible system that provides detailed analytical information about the classroom environment, everything from student progress to engagement and user behaviours.

Educators can explore free digital content that can be organized into lessons, shared with students and presented in class. The opportunity to share goes even farther. Members of the Spongelab community can upload their own teaching materials such as images, lesson plans, videos and case studies making this site a current, vibrant open place for communicating about science.

Spongelab.com is also a game, encouraging users to earn rewards in the form of credits and experience points that can be redeemed for premium resources and features. Credits and experience points are earned by every action performed on the site: searching, viewing, creating, contributing, and referring. Redeeming credits provides access to more content at no monetary cost, opening up the world of science for everyone regardless of budget.