Village Gamer

The following is a statement on recent events which occurred at the office of Evil Objective Studios.

Filthy. Freezing. Kinda smelly. These are just four of the five words used to describe the scene in an Alberta basement Monday morning where three of the studio’s designers were found. Tired, cold, and mildly infuriated with one another, the trio had been held hostage for months by their own iOS game.

Details are sparse but it appears the three friends – who have no professional or practical experience in much of anything – were taken hostage by their iOS game “Scribble Byte Scramble” at some point early in development.

Authorities suspect the trio was likely unaware of the dangers of game development.

Possessing little money and even less sanity, the trio aimed to develop and release their game on a timeline and budget that was initially described as ‘brilliant’ – it has since been downgraded to ‘laughable’.

The whereabouts of “Scribble Byte Scramble” – the  game responsible for this catastrophe – are unknown, but it is expected to resurface in early September. Rumours suggest the trio are currently in recovery, receiving extensive treatments from an Italian pharmaceutical specialist.

Toronto-based developer DrinkBox Studios has announced that it is working on a new downloadable PlayStation®Vita title called Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack.  A follow-up to Tales from Space: About a Blob – the studio’s first game – Mutant Blobs Attack will feature new levels, new powers and controls, and a new Blob player character.

“The control systems available on the PlayStation®Vita have allowed us to experiment with all kinds of new gameplay possibilities.  We’re finding that touch controls in particular can be used to complement traditional thumb-stick puzzle-platforming very well”, said DrinkBox Designer Chris McQuinn.  He added: “We learned a lot developing our first game – we want to use that experience to deliver the best game we can in Mutant Blobs Attack.”

DrinkBox will be showing an early development build of the game this weekend at PAX Prime 2011 in Seattle.

IUGO is pleased to announce the launch of its next mobile social title, Animal Academy, a time/resource-management game that lets you build and customize your school for adorable animal teachers and students.

“We wanted to create a fun experience for all ages,” states IUGO’s CEO Hong-Yee Wong.  “Animal Academy is very easy to pick up, and the friendly and intuitive activities will keep you delighted for hours.”  The game launches with 20 cheery classroom themes and 23 endearing animal characters, with more being added with regular updates.

Animal Academy Description

• Customize your school – Build classrooms that will delight the students of Animal Academy. Reading, writing and arithmetic are the basics, but this ultra-fun school can also teach subjects such as paleontology, robotics, fashion and football to name but a few.
• Attract adorable animals – Each new classroom unlocks a new animal species! Cats, dogs, penguins, foxes, robo-mice and more.
• Play with friends – Pitch your students up against rival schools in friendly competitions or help out by supervising a friend’s classroom! Playing with friends earns you daily in-game rewards.
• Play the role of Principal – Build and maintain the greatest school in the land. The students at Animal Academy have been known to reward beloved Principals with heart-felt, home-made gifts.
• Expect tons of future content – IUGO is committed to keeping Animal Academy fresh with frequent and continuous updates. Check back often for new classrooms, animal species, game features and more.

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The iPhone and iPad enhanced game is available now in the Apple Appstore and is today’s free download thanks to @FreeAppADay. Animal Academy is rated 4+ and is compatible with iPhone, iPod touch and iPad devices running iOS 3.0 or later.

Celsius Games has released the next installment in the Red Nova saga. In Episode 1: Red Nova, which was released earlier this year, players were introduced to the Earth Colonial Fleet, brave soldiers tasked with protecting the people of our home planet. While out on a test flight with the shiny new prototype fighter ESC Red Nova, the crew happens upon a previously unknown alien fleet preparing to stage a sneak attack on the human colonies.

In order to give the Red Nova a chance to escape and warn the rest of the fleet you have volunteered to attack the aliens head-on. With a choice of any of the fighters on deck, you have to use your wits, guns, and ample supply of homing missiles to survive the alien onslaught for as long as possible.

In Episode Two: Mercy, the ESC has been receiving reports that a massive alien mothership has begun an assault on the shipyards at Gamma Crucis, a mere 88 light years from Earth. It has disabled the fleet there and without your help the crew of those ships will perish.

While the Red Nova occupies the mothership you must use your skill to pilot your heavy transport ship, the Raven, against the alien’s fighter onslaught launched from the mothership. Battle through the waves of enemy ships and rescue the stranded citizens at the shipyard before it’s too late.

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Episode Two is a free update for those who already own Episode One – if you haven’t yet purchased this challenging game for your iOS mobile device, you can get it in the iTunes App Store for only 99 cents (USD) – a very good value for such a polished title.

New features added in Episode Two include an added “Gun Pod” power-up which, when activated, will orbit your ship, targeting the nearest enemy and firing at a rapid rate. Gun Pod is backwards compatible with Episode 1. Another new feature is the anti-capital-ship explosive enemy type, which is only featured in Episode 2. This feature offers lots of hit points and will only attack capital ships.

Fixes included with the Episode 2 Update:

• Optimized rendering engine, should improve performance
• Changed pause button to make it easier to see the radar
• Radar markers now change size based on distance to target
• Fixed a pause/resume bug that would occur when the game entered the background during “Game Over”
• Increased the range at which energy orbs will become attracted to the ship
• Improved loading time from optimized data files
• Improved menu navigation

Red Nova is compatible with iPhone, iPod touch and iPad devices running iOS 3.1.3 or later and is Rated 9+ for Frequent/Intense Cartoon or Fantasy Violence. For even more insight into the Red Nova story, check out the short story Test Pilot by game creator Colin Walsh.

Pioneering online fashion retailer musterbrand LLC has unveiled its latest range of high-end gaming fashion – the Deus Ex: Human Revolution^TM collection. Set to launch on the same day as the long-awaited Deus Ex: Human Revolution game,  the officially licensed clothing line allows gamers to ‘become’ Adam Jensen, the iconic, trenchcoat-wearing hero of Square Enix’s forthcoming blockbuster videogame. Fans can gear up in Adam’s signature outfit, or purchase clothing and accessories from other in-game characters, as well as other items inspired by the game.

Available in North America and Europe at the Deus Ex store, the Deus Ex: Human Revolution range of clothing has been designed in partnership with game developer Eidos-Montreal, ensuring the closest real-world version of the virtual items as possible.

The standout item in the Deus Ex: Human Revolution is Adam Jensen’s coat—a futuristic interpretation of a trench coat. This slick trench, adorned with signature vented holes, and structured sleeves, is inspired by Deus Ex: Human Revolution’s cyber-renaissance art direction. Just remember that you’re not actually augmented before leaving on your adventures.

“Standard logoed T-shirts, sweatshirts, and hats are the norm,” said Knut Jochen Bergel, CEO, musterbrand. “musterbrand’s clothing lines are designed by top stylists, woven from the highest quality material, and cut so sharply they should come with a warning. Deus Ex: Human Revolution is already drawing praise for its unique design and playability – we’re aiming to replicate the game’s popularity with our clothing line too.”

“musterbrand has done an amazing job at not only bringing the clothing in Deus Ex: Human Revolution to life, but producing cool, wearable clothing inspired by the game,” says Jonathan Jacque-Belletete. “It’s of utmost importance to me to always retain the integrity and signature look and style of the game in everything we produce. I think Deus Ex: Human Revolution fans will be stoked at musterbrand’s offerings!”

Deus Ex: Human Revolution will be releasing in North American stores tomorrow, August 23rd for the PlayStation®3, Xbox 360®, Windows® PC, Steam® and OnLive®.

Ludia Inc. and Mark Burnett’s One Three Television LLC have announced the availability of the Are You Smarter Than A 5^th Grader? game for Facebook platform. Based on the syndicated TV game show, players across North America can now enjoy a multiplayer Are You Smarter Than A 5^th Grader? experience with friends, family and the larger Facebook community.

“Are You Smarter Than A 5^th Grader? is an acclaimed TV game show franchise that translates into an extremely fun and social game on Facebook,” said Alex Thabet, Founder and CEO of Ludia Inc. “We’re thrilled to release yet another top game show property featuring multiplayer, simultaneous game play- a unique formula that has proven to be highly addictive for players and very successful for Ludia.”

Contestants simultaneously compete to correctly answer eight multiple choice questions pooled from different school subjects such as Art, World Geography, Earth Science, Math, Languages, and others, with the ability to use the “copy” cheat to help answer difficult questions. The top three players at the end of the first round have a chance at boosting “cash” earnings by correctly answering a 5^th Grader Bonus Question. At the end of the game, a successful contestant can share winnings with friends, and brag about the win by posting it on his/her Facebook Wall.

Are You Smarter Than A 5^th Grader? on Facebook features:

• Live, multiplayer game play with friends and other Are You Smarter 5^th Grader fans, and the ability to follow friends’ grades and progress in the game.
• Favorite elements from the You Smarter Than A 5^th Grader TV show, including thousands of questions drawn from 10 different academic subjects, authentic theme music and the familiar “classroom” setting.
• The ability to choose Facebook friends as “cheats” from whom players can “copy” an answer in order to earn bonus points and increase the chances of winning.

“This exciting game release brings a whole new dimension and audience to Are You Smarter Than A 5^th Grader?,” said Mark Burnett. “We’re delighted to see the franchise continue to thrive on Facebook so that fans of the TV show and players who enjoy social games will have an outstanding interactive experience with the brand.”

With just seven weeks left until the Ontario election, Damian Sommer, a student at George Brown College, has developed a video game where the player must dodge obstacles like tuition fees, debt and apathy to tackle a ballot box. The game is part of the Canadian Federation of Students – Ontario ‘Take It Over‘ campaign and can be played online.

“Drawing on the skills of our members, this game was designed to be a fun way to engage Ontarians about voting on October 6,” said Cindy Brownlee, Director of Education and Equity for the Student Association of George Brown College. “George Brown students, like students across Ontario, are struggling to pay high tuition fees and high levels of debt, so it’s important for us to encourage students to vote.”

“As students face another year of a five per cent tuition fee increase, we decided to offer them some relief from the stress that growing student debt causes through this game,” said Sandy Hudson. “The ‘Take It Over’ campaign has several components that are interactive and we hope that Ontarians will take the  chance to tackle the ballot box through our game, and then vote in the fall.”

The Nintendo-style game launched this morning as a browser game and will be available as a mobile app in the next few weeks. To date, students have released seven videos, held actions across Ontario and talked to hundreds of students about the importance of voting and the promises being made by the political parties to reduce the costs of college and university education.

The Canadian Federation of Students – Ontario unites more than 300,000 college and university undergraduate and graduate students studying at post-secondary institutions in all regions the province.

Funcom and EA Partners announced today at Gamescom that the highly anticipated modern-day, Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMO), The Secret World™ will release for the PC in April 2012. Starting August 26^th, gamers can register to join upcoming betas through a unique interactive social media campaign that will be made available on the game’s web site.

Imagine a world where secret societies pull the strings of kings and presidents, where vampires are more than just a Hollywood fantasy, and where all the myths, legends and conspiracies are true. The Secret World is an MMO that breaks free from the confinements of character classes and levels and allows players to explore real-world locations with an engrossing storyline. Funcom will not only challenge but redefine long-established MMO standards.

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“It has never been more rewarding working on The Secret World than it is now,” says Senior Producer and Creative Director Ragnar Tørnquist. “The progress we are making in development allows the whole team to really enjoy just playing the game for hours on end. We are all looking forward to bringing in players through upcoming betas, and their feedback will be crucial to the further development of the game as we progress toward the April 2012 launch.”

Based on the ABC hit show Wipeout and continuing the tradition of wickedly entertaining family fun, Activision Publishing, Inc. and ABC Entertainment Group announced today at Gamescom that Wipeout 2, the latest release in the hit video game franchise will be coming this holiday season for the Nintendo DS™, Nintendo 3DS™, Wii™ from Nintendo, Kinect™ for Xbox 360®, and PlayStation®Move for Playstation®3.

Currently in development at Behaviour Interactive, Wipeout 2 will offer updated, outrageous course designs across all platforms with obstacles and effects taken straight from the show’s summer and winter seasons. Players must navigate around snow, ice, foam, and fan-favorite obstacles like the Sucker Punch Wall and Big Balls; which are making their triumphant returns alongside more than 50 others. Extended gameplay on all systems encourages even more interaction and participation with family and friends. Once again, all the wild and crazy action is narrated by the show’s hosts John Anderson and John Henson.

“I’m excited that the video game series is evolving just like our show,” said Matt Kunitz, Wipeout’s Creator and Executive Producer. “Players will experience all the fun of the new winter and summer courses without being sore in the morning!”

Particular attention is being paid to making every platform experience unique with ramped up excitement that engages gamers like never before. Freshly revised controls makes for intuitive and easy to use motion-based gameplay for Wii owners. The PlayStation Move and Kinect for Xbox 360 titles will offer gamers the ability to taunt and toss paintballs and snowballs at family and friends while they run the course.

Handheld gaming will finally become a communal experience with pass and play ‘Hot Seat’ participation for up to 4 players with Nintendo 3DS players also seeing their graphics taken to a whole new dimension. No matter how players choose to enjoy, the crazy and hilarious fun is taken to wild new heights with Wipeout 2.

“Working with ABC on the Wipeout titles has been a tremendous success,” said Nicole Armstrong, Activision Publishing. “Their integration of the game series into the show has been outstanding and their contributions to the game make it truly appealing for fans. We look forward to bringing more great Wipeout experiences to families.”

The Nintendo DS and Nintendo 3DS versions have been rated E for Everyone by the ESRB. The Wii, PlayStation Move and Kinect for Xbox 360 versions have been rated E10+ for Everyone 10 and older by the ESRB.

Nintendo Canada says that consumers and their families soon will be able to experience even more must-play games for the Wii™ system at an excellent value. Nintendo has announced the addition of four games to the Nintendo® Selects collection, a hot-selling series of fun, family-friendly Wii games offered at a suggested retail price of $19.99 each. Starting August 28th, the Nintendo Selects lineup grows to include Super Paper Mario™, Mario Strikers™ Charged by Next Level Games, Punch-Out!!™, also by Next Level Games, and Super Mario Galaxy™, which is recognized as one of the most acclaimed Wii games of all time.

Already enjoyed by millions of players around the globe, games in the Nintendo Selects collection offer boundless fun at an enticing price for Wii users of any experience level, whether they want to expand their own game libraries or find affordable, fun-packed gifts for loved ones. The Wii console, which comes bundled with the Mario Kart™ Wii game and the Wii Wheel™ accessory, delivers extraordinary entertainment value for families and is available for a suggested retail price of $149.99.

Three of the four new additions to the Nintendo Selects collection invite players to interact with Nintendo’s iconic Mario™ character in imaginative and entertaining ways: Super Mario Galaxy is an out-of-this-world adventure in which Mario must travel through outer space to rescue Princess Peach™ from the devious Bowser™; Super Paper Mario offers classic Mario RPG action that can be switched from flat 2D worlds to a full open-world perspective; and Mario Strikers Charged finds the Mushroom Kingdom crew storming the soccer field for fast-paced athletic kicks. Also, the fan-favorite Punch-Out!! game delivers motion-controlled boxing thrills with a host of memorable characters. All four games feature multiplayer modes that let friends and family members have fun together.

Previously announced games in the Nintendo Selects collection include The Legend of Zelda™: Twilight Princess, Animal Crossing™: City Folk, Mario™ Super Sluggers and Wii Sports™.