Village Gamer

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.

TVO gives Facebook politics a whole new meaning and takes another step in promoting citizen engagement with the launch of Honoured Citizen, a multi-player social media game that runs on the Facebook Platform.

Developed for TVO by Lazar Entertainment, Honoured Citizen allows players to participate in all levels of civic society and demonstrates that there are many ways to become an Honoured Citizen, if you are willing to speak out, engage with issues, question, debate and vote.

“Game-based technologies can serve as powerful tools for advancing civic engagement – it’s called gaming for good,” says Christine McGlade, Manager of Interactive and Digital Media for TVO. “Honoured Citizen will immerse gamers in the political process. It’s a great example of how TVO uses digital media as a platform for civic engagement.”

Honoured Citizen is the only Facebook game that realistically simulates all aspects of the political process. Players participate as citizens, politicians, activists or lobbyists. Politicians can seek nominations and woo voting blocs. Lobbyists can wine and dine politicians. Activists can start protests and organize petitions. Citizens can raise issues and participate in polls.

The object of the game is to gain honour points by engaging with and participating in an online shadow government – discussing, debating and organizing around political issues. These points may be spent to take on different roles in the game, perform other functions, or they may be traded with other players or strategically donated. The game runs in real time and every round is one week long, with new issues in play during each round. After every four rounds, there is an election.

Set in a virtual province, Honoured Citizen offers players a chance to simulate the political process. While the topics gamers raise may be real-life issues, it’s not a place for partisan politics. The game focuses on issues of governance, and non-partisan debate.

Honoured Citizen is the most recent addition to TVO’s gaming for good efforts, which includes Inside the Haiti Earthquake, the Games for Change Festival 2010 Transmedia award-winning interactive game.

Honoured Citizen is part of TVO’s Your Vote 2011, a suite of multimedia resources designed to engage Ontarians in the lead-up to the fall 2011 Ontario election.

Majesco Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox Consumer Products and Bagdasarian Productions have announced plans to release the Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked video game, which is based on the third installment of the blockbuster animated feature film franchise, coming to theatres this December 16^th.

Scheduled to launch this November, the game is currently in development at Behaviour Interactive and lets players sing and dance along with the film’s stars Alvin, Simon, Theodore and The Chipettes (Brittany, Eleanor and Jeanette), in an immersive motion-based experience. The Kinect™ for Xbox 360^® version tracks full body dance moves as players control their Chipmunk on stage, and plays back their “Alvin-ized” voice as they sing along. The game will also be available for both the Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS.

“The Alvin brand has proven to be evergreen with universal awareness and growing appeal,” said Jesse Sutton, CEO, Majesco Entertainment. “The extensive customization and combination of dancing and singing to contagious Chipmunk music will deliver a full-featured experience based on the upcoming movie that the whole family can enjoy together.”

“This game will bring fans even closer to the fun and music of Alvin and the Chipmunks by taking full advantage of the Kinect for Xbox 360,” said Gary Rosenfeld, Senior Vice President, New Media for Fox Consumer Products. “It’s going to be the perfect complement to the upcoming film and we know that fans are going to love it.”

The forthcoming Alvin and the Chipmunks movie finds the trio vacationing aboard a luxury cruise liner, turning it into their personal playground until they become ‘chipwrecked’ on a remote island. The Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked video game continues the story with an around-the-world journey that has The Chipmunks visiting six tropical locations inspired by the movie. Hear your voice “Alvin-ized” when you sing along with the game and unleash your “Munk Power” to perform ultra-cool dance moves.

The Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked video game features include:

• Sing and dance as any of The Chipmunks and The Chipettes — Alvin, Simon, Theodore, Brittany, Jeanette and Eleanor.
• Perform more than 50 different dance moves to electrify the crowd with your on screen performance.
• Customize your Chipmunk before you hit the stage by choosing from a huge range of styles and accessories.
• Experience the movie in Story Mode with environments inspired by the film.
• Hear your voice “Alvin-ized” during your on-stage performance using the Kinect for Xbox 360.

Game publisher Wicked Interactive has announced that the popular, free-to-play, online first-person shooter Mission Against Terror (M.A.T.) will begin commercial launch today. Wicked Interactive’s SUBA Games platform, best known to shooter fans for such titles as Cross Fire, is hosting M.A.T. With the official commercial launch of M.A.T., SUBA Games endeavours to blow through expectations of all SUBA Games’ Cross Fire and M.A.T. fans.

“We are delighted to be launching M.A.T. 2.0 today,” said Sam Ho, Director of Wicked Interactive. “M.A.T. 2.0 comes with a massive amount new content and updates.  The biggest change is that the game is no longer in Open Beta status.  M.A.T. 2.0 strikes hard with its commercial release; rocking a new user interface, a new game mode, an expanded crafting system, seven maps and over a dozen weapons.”

Hybrid Invasion is a brand new game mode that is being introduced with this patch, expanding on the need to band together as team mates to survive.  Players will survive wave after wave of hybrid creatures that are a combination of AI robots, mummies and biological weapons.  If players survive long enough, they will encounter the Tyrant; a hammer-swinging monstrosity that’ll take a well trained and well armed squad to put down!

The expanded crafting system will allow players to create a variety of items out of multiple types of materials.  Before the patch, players had to collect just a robot part from AI Mode and use a Weapon Casting Machine on it to create one of several weapons.  With the new patch, players will be able to use all kinds of materials like PCB boards, diodes, metal, nylon, leather, dyes, etc to create not just weapons, but clothing and items as well. Read the rest of this entry »