Guest Post by Weldon Hathaway, Technical Director, at Phoenix Online Studios.
Before Cognition, Phoenix Online cut its teeth on the freeware fangame The Silver Lining, based on the popular Sierra Online series King’s Quest. As a non-commercial game, all work on this game has been volunteer-based and continues currently—we have released four out five episodes so far! For our upcoming fifth Episode, TSL will be making the switch from the Torque engine to the Unity engine, the same one that we’re using for Cognition (as mentioned in the last entry). Our Technical Director, Weldon Hathaway, explains how and why we made this switch in this week’s Developer Diary. (more…)
FutureMark Studios released their “revolutionary” tower defense game called Unstoppable Gorg, which pays homage to the classic sci fi alien invasion movies from the 1950s. Consumers can buy and download Unstoppable Gorg from Steam on sale for the PC and Mac computers for $8.99 (10% off the normal $9.99 price) and thru the Apple App store for the IPad for $4.99. The Gorg attack our planet after we send two good will ambassadors to their planet to say “Hey What’s up?” (more…)
Post Written by Katie Hallahan from Phoenix Online Studios.
Happy New Year! Mayan prophecies be damned, I think 2012 is going to be a great year. (That’s the last time I’ll mention Mayans, unless they turn out to be right and I’m still around post-apocalypse.)
With Kickstarter and the holidays behind us, Phoenix Online has been busy working away at Cognition with all due haste. Our programmers are getting familiar with the Unity Engine and creating the tools and pipeline for the game, our artists are hard at work on concept art and cutscenes, our animators are working on creating the pieces of the game itself, and myself and Cesar are furiously plotting, writing, and editing the first two episodes. (more…)
Cliff Harris, a one man indie game creator, discusses the thematic and gameplay influences of his upcoming tower defense strategy PC game due out in early 2012. Look closely to see some of the video games on his shelf. (more…)
Actionsoft released the HD PC version of their action platform game Midnight Mansion originally released for the Mac. Midnight Mansion HD Chapters 1 & 2 cost 16.00. You play as Jack Malone whi must explore 11 mansions, solve puzzles, navigate tricky platforms. The tricky platforms seem to present the most challenge. See 1 minute 8 second mark in the video. Rather than walking across the collapsing platform you must hop across so parts of the platform stay afloat so you can get back to your destination after completing a task. (more…)
Tuokio, an Finnish indie studio maker multi-player video games, are offering King of Opera for free one day only December 16th. In King of Opera gamers play the role of one of four tenors and must knock the other three tenors off the stage to steal the spotlight while avoiding a bull tenor with super power. You can play against the computer or with your friends and family or complete strangers. (more…)
Grey Alien Games released Holiday Bonus, a Christmas themed match 3 game for the iOS and Android platforms for $0.99. They have actually released two versions one with smaller levels for smaller screens and HD versions with larger levels for tablets. Holiday Bonus looks like a standard run of the mill match three game. Match 3 games were interesting years ago when PopCap’s Bejeweled first launched. Bejeweled created the Match 3 genre and hundreds of game developers cloned the concept like this game. (more…)
A game company named Suspicious Activity released Andy Card Match, a puzzle game, for the IPad for $0.99. In Andy Card Match the game player must match two like looking cards just like the game Concentration. We don’t see anything unique or new in the game play but children and families will enjoy it. Suspicous Activity plans to release an Android version in 2012. (more…)
Vivian Collignon released “Make Life Thrive”, an iOS game for the IPhone, IPod Touch and IPad in both an ad supported lite and a paid version for $0.99. You must make life “thrive” by nurturing a little stone using the right amount of elements like fire, water, air and earth. You capture the elements by dragging your finger around each element. You can also drag the stone to meet each element as it falls in the sky. You can also shake your device to use lightning as a catalyst. You can use snow flakes to freeze and slow down elements.
Foundation Games released Lumi , an HD action puzzle game for the IPad priced at $2.99. The game features Lumi, a creature who players must guide to save the universe. Darkness reigns in this universe but Lumi has the ability to lighten things up so to speak. Using Lumi’s abilities players must use magnetism and light through the keyboard controls to play Lumi. Foundation Games plans to release Lumi for the IPhone and IPhod Touch December 20th. (more…)
