Village Gamer

Silicon Sisters Interactive would like to let you know that School 26: Summer of Secrets is now available for iPhone, iPod touch ($2.99), and iPad ($4.99). This is the second installment in the School 26 series of social mastery games designed for teen and tween girls.

In School 26: Summer of Secrets, the gossip is flying faster than ever as high schooler Kate and her friends get ready for the hottest concert of the summer. (Road trip!) Use emotional intelligence and social savvy to draw out your friends’ secrets — then tactfully share what you’ve learned. If you succeed, you’ll help sparring friends make peace, establish love connections, and get the whole crew psyched for the big Battle of the Bands competition. Dish the dirt with the wrong people and you might gain a rep as the school blabbermouth.

“Our first School 26 game was about fitting in at a new school. Now that Kate has a network of friends, Summer of Secrets is more about being yourself and seeing the impact of your choices,” says Silicon Sisters co-founder Kirsten Forbes. “As you play, the game tracks your decisions and presents you with a personality profile based on your playing style. So while you’re helping Kate sort out all of these secrets, you’ll also learn something about yourself.”

To learn more about the School 26 games and become part of the growing fan community, visit School 26 on Facebook or follow along on Twitter.

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)

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.

Big Bad Brush has announced that their much anticipated iOS game Big Sticky, will be available on the app store on July 26, 2011 (pending review and approval). Utilizing intuitive controls combined with original gameplay, Big Sticky will be sure to dazzle, challenge, and entertain gamers of all ages. Stay tuned for follow up releases with promo codes.

Sticky is a purple frog prince who was living happily with his princess until one day chaos erupted when a jealous lonely castle abducted her, along with all of the other princesses in the world! Injured by the evil castle, Sticky is forced to use his Big Sticky tongue to stick and swing in search of his beloved princess.

With simple intuitive controls combined with an original gameplay experience, players help Sticky conquer the evil castle, moving him through the levels with his sticky frog tongue. By simply tapping the screen, players will use a stick and swing action to get Sticky to the castle door, where he then must save the princess hidden within each level. With a total of 51 platform-styled puzzle levels, there are always new obstacles and challenges to overcome.

Join Sticky in this wild sticky adventure as you swing over snow, lava, enchanted platforms, moving walls and more. Everyone needs a little purple hero and there’s never a dull moment in this fairy O’ tale.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iv1MiSPV4c]

Big Sticky Features:

• Original gameplay with simple intuitive controls
• Using the tongue, tap to stick and swing away
• 51 platformer puzzle levels to overcome
• 5 beautifully illustrated worlds to explore
• Many out of this world princesses to save
• Collect roses and earn gold trophies
• Obstacles such as fireballs, moving walls, switches and more
• Available on iPhone, iPod and iPad

Frima Studios and Bolt Creative want you to know that the Pygmies of Pocket God on Facebook will be celebrating the 4th of July festivities with a global in-game event. From now until July 7, players can participate in a new dance craze sweeping the island and win a new idol in the process, and can also send a special holiday-themed item to their friends.

Move over Macarena, the Indepen-Dance is the premier dance all the cool kids are doing nowadays. During the night, Pygmies may display the urge to cut a rug—or rather, sand—and it’s up to you to make sure that your hip, little Pygmies keep with the times and participate. Until July 7th, if 100,000 Pygmies shake their booties on the floor, all players will receive a limited edition Liberty Bell idol for their island. What are you waiting for, get on the dance floor already!

Players can also send their “friends” a special gift in the form of a rocket. For just one bone, would-be deities can bestow a rocket to their loved ones, giving the recipient a chance to view a monumental fireworks show. Each fireworks show also recharges five devotion points so you can keep the party going. And no, you can’t light the rocket underneath your friend’s butt.

Neggi Studio, based in Montreal and Monterrey, Mexico has announced that its new game, Zombie Piñata for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch is now available on iTunes for 99 cents USD.

A terrible and evil Mayan spirit has been released from its prison; the curse says that the first “species” that this evil spirit touches will be transformed into zombies. The problem is that the biggest piñata chain store in Mexico was build on top of the prison, so the spirit ends up possessing the body of a piñata and thus transforming all the piñatas from all the retail stores in the country into Zombie Piñatas!

Zombie Piñata is an action packed game, challenging players to fight their way through over 30 stages of pure madness while fighting the now evil piñatas. Find the zombie lair deep in the Mayan archeological site and face the biggest zombie piñata of them all: Piñaton!

The game features old school side-scroller gameplay that presents a quick fix of action on the go.

Key Features:

– Travel around some of Mexico’s most famous cities and areas while whacking all the piñatas that stand in your way, clean each town and free the land from this zombie infestation.

– More than anything, piñatas fear the might of the whacking stick, improve your skills with upgradable combos and get power ups to turn your piñata stick into the legendary “Master Stick”

– Visit the totally groovy “Cheke’s Specialty Shop” for grenades, extra ammo and other awesome improvements to increase your chances for survival as you face hordes and hordes of zombie piñatas and people they have turned into zombies.

– Use every weapon and special item at your disposal; inflate zombies or blow them up, dish out justice, piñata hunter style!

– Download additional content such as music and game wallpapers for free!

– Future updates will bring additional achievements and future leader board integration using OpenFeint.

Zombie Piñata is rated 9+ for the following:

• Frequent/Intense Cartoon or Fantasy Violence
• Infrequent/Mild Horror/Fear Themes
• Infrequent/Mild Realistic Violence

Stegersaurus has released a new title on Xbox Live Indie Games. Avatar Without A Chute is a flying game – kind of. It’s actually a falling game. Players “toss” their avatars out into thin air and then let them fall to earth, collecting points on the way down. The object of the game is to be the first avatar to reach the ground. Now I have to try this game to see if my avatar will go splat, and how well it will splat. For some reason, I find the splatability of my avatar to be somewhat intriguing. There are no power-ups to collect, so riches are to be found in the number of points you can garner before hitting the ground.

Avatar Without A Chute features single player fun in offline mode while in online mode you can play with 2-4 friends. There is a free trial, or you can get the full game for 80 MS Points.

Android users now have a premium skee ball style game to call their own. Ball-Hop Bowling by Renown Entertainment has been customized for Android smart phones and tablets, previously available only on Apple iOS and Facebook.

Ball-Hop Bowling features high definition 3D graphics, fun ultra-realistic physics, tons of prizes, and standard/premium content to keep you coming back for more. Best of all, it’s FREE!

President James Lau notes “This arcade classic is a staple on mobile devices and we’re proud to offer this best of category experience for Android. Ball-Hop Bowling garnered near perfect user reviews and shot to the top of the Apple App Store charts in addition to being featured worldwide in its first day of release. The universal appeal on iOS is undeniable, and we hope Android users are equally excited to get this quality game in their collection at no charge.”

“The team obsessed over creating a faithful version of the real world counterpart. They measured and weighed the balls, played on a variety of machines, captured videos for reference, and tuned the physics until the game was exceptional.”

Don’t have an Android? Get it free for your Apple iOS device or play on Facebook and challenge your friends to compete for the highest score on the Ball-Hop Bowling leaderboards.

Bulletproof Outlaws, an indie start-up studio documenting the process of developing a videogame from scratch, has teamed up with Ravenous Games, developers of the wildly popular iOS version of League of Evil, to release Elusive Ninja: The Shadowy Thief for the iPhone and iPod Touch.  Elusive Ninja has full-screen visuals, tight controls, catchy music, and comes packed with a ton of behind-the-scenes information about the game’s development, starting up a game studio, a Post-Mortem analysis, the original Game Design Document with commentary, and more.

“We’re proud to release our first game, and eager to get started on the next,” says Bulletproof Outlaws founder Jeff Hangartner, “It’s been a long journey, and we’ve learned a lot about everything from streamlining the game development process to handling the business and financial side of starting a studio up.  We’ve documented every step of the journey and there’s over 100 pages of game development information for other developers and gamers curious about what goes into making and releasing a videogame.”

Game Features:

• Epic full-screen visuals
• A whole bunch of behind-the-scenes Bonus Features everything from a Post-Mortem to the original Game Design Document with commentary on how the final game compared to the original design
• Leaderboard support (both OpenFeint and Apple Game Center) so you can compete with the whole world or stick to one-upping your close group of friends
• Achievements (OpenFeint and Apple Game Center) to give you some extra challenges to shoot for when you’ve got your skills rockin’
• Super tight controls, and a difficulty curve that’s challenging but not impossible…the AI gets smarter the longer you last but there are a few strategies to discover and master that will help you survive the most chaotic situations

IUGO is pleased to announce the launch of its next mobile social title Sunshine Cruise Lines. Sunshine Cruise Lines is a free-to-play title offering a fresh and innovative spin on social games. Begin your cruise today by visiting the iTunes App Store and downloading Sunshine Cruise Lines for your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad device running iOS 3.0 or later.

“We have strived to create a new and unique experience for mobile gamers, and I think we have succeeded with Sunshine Cruise Lines,” states IUGO’s CEO Hong-Yee Wong. “It is engaging, easy to play, and you can share the experience with your friends.”

Sunshine Cruise Lines App Description

Welcome aboard your very own cruise ship! Build, customize and manage your one-of-a-kind dream cruise. Play with friends, earn rewards and have the most fun in the sun.

• Customize your own cruise ship with over 40 different facilities, unique crew members, color schemes and more
• Choose your play style! Fun, fast-paced en-route gameplay or take it easy and let the crew handle it for you
• See the world! 50 different ports around the globe (and more to come)
• Take on the role of Captain while getting to know your lovable and quirky crew
• Rich storyline infused with personality and humour
• Play with friends through Facebook (optional)
• Gamecenter achievements give you and friends plenty of rewards
• 100 beautiful postcards to collect and share with friends
• Hundreds of fun destination facts
• View friends‘ routes on your world map
• One-of-a-kind art style, signature IUGO polish and quality
• In-app purchases optional with Cruise Bucks