In short, MotoHeroz is a physics-based side-scrolling racer with platforming elements and a really depressing leaderboard where your friends show you how much better they are at the game. MotoHeroz is free to download on all iOS devices running version 4.1 or greater.
Square Enix sees 6 billion yen profit in fiscal 2012 thanks to Deus Ex, FFXIII-2
by Jordan Mallory
(2 days ago)
Total income from sales for the fiscal year, which for Square Enix ran from April 2011 through March 2012, totaled up to ¥127.89 billion ($1.6 billion) – a 2.1 percent year-over-year increase. After subtracting taxes and operating costs, the company was left with over ¥6 billion in profit, which must be welcome news for stockholders still feeling the sting from Square Enix's ¥12.04 billion ($150.86 million) loss in fiscal 2011.
"In the fiscal year ended March 31, 2012, we continued our efforts aimed at increasing profitability, including establishing best practices for the content in said growth areas, improving quality of our major online game, and strengthening our global structure," said Square Enix president Yoichi Wada in a statement accompanying the financial report. "We are accelerating the reformation to generate a substantial earnings improvement in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2013 and beyond."
Monstars Inc., a company founded by Rez programmer, Lumines designer, and Child of Eden programming lead Osamu Kodera, just released its first game, Kotomon for iOS. Despite breaking with Q?, Kotomon shows that Kodera and co. haven't broken with everything they know – Kotomon promises "Dancing! Monsters! Shooting! Action!" as you slide to collect monsters and then fire them at enemies, with each attack creating new beats in the music.
Kotomon is out today at a promotional $2.99 price; it'll go up to $3.99 after May 31.
Indie developers are the starving artists of the video-game world, often brilliant and innovative, but also misunderstood, underfunded and more prone to writing free-form poetry on their LiveJournals. We believe they deserve a wider audience with the Joystiq Indie Pitch: This week, iOS title Finger Puppet Frenzy gives your kids something to do, which gives you the free time to do your own things. Like mix a martini. Or two.
Our first release is a kids' game, Finger Puppet Frenzy, where you tap puppets in a whack-a-mole style and you can find rare puppets who help you increase your score and stay alive. Surprisingly enough it seems to require a significant level of concentration – this is not the kind of game you can daydream while you play.
Does Finger Puppet Frenzy appeal to hardcore gamers, or are you not interested in tapping that market with this title?
No, Finger Puppet Frenzy is not targeted to the hardcore gamer market. It is specifically designed for the "I Seldom Play Games" market. The simplicity of the game appeals to the young and will likely just frustrate hardcore gamers who often require a more complicated level of gameplay.
The Kickstarter may have ended, but you still have a chance to throw money into Double Fine's impressive coffers, and guarantee yourself access to both the game and its ongoing documentary. Double Fine has opened up a PayPal account to which you can contribute now -- you can find it on this very slow-loading page.
For $15, you get a Steam code for the PC or Mac version (when it's done), beta access, backer forum access, and HD streaming documentary videos as they finish. Double Fine graciously released the first episode of the documentary, which we've placed at the top of this post so you can have something to do while the PayPal page loads.
Republique sneaks past $500K Kickstarter goal with just six hours to spare
by Ben Gilbert
(5 days ago)
As of right now, the Kickstarter is sitting at just over $500K, but we expect it'll continue rising until time runs out at 6PM ET.
But this is just the beginning, as Camoflaj intends to raise another $500K from separate, non-Kickstarter funding. "We estimate that Republique will cost north of $1 million to complete. After months of meetings and due diligence, we believe that we can raise the necessary additional funds to complete Republique from potential outside investors, but there is some risk that our efforts will be unsuccessful," the game's Kickstarter info reads. Here's hoping that, for the sake of the folks who invested through Kickstarter, Camoflaj is able to raise that extra half million.
Redux: Dark Matters is the sequel to Dux, a 2009 shooter you may not have played ... because it came out on Dreamcast. However, developers Rene Hellwig and KTX Software want to bring the side-scrolling followup to PSN, XBLA, and Steam, and have posted a $25,000 Kickstarter drive toward that goal.
But the developers haven't forgotten their insane drive to keep the Dreamcast alive. If you contribute $65 or more, you'll get a limited-edition Dreamcast copy of Redux, exclusive to the Kickstarter campaign. This is all we needed to clear up our mixed feelings about the Kickstarter phenomenon; anything that leads to more Dreamcast games can only be a good thing.
The Angry Birds franchise has hurtled past a billion downloads. The number covers free and paid downloads of Angry Birds, Angry Birds Seasons, Angry Birds Rio and Angry Birds Space. The news comes a couple days after Rovio revealed revenues of $106.3 million in 2011, with approximately $67.6 million in pre-tax profit.
There's one curiosity in today's video announcing the milestone: the closing moments highlight physics-based Rube Goldberg puzzler Casey's Contraptions. As Gamasutra notes, Rovio has not officially purchased Snappy Touch or Mystery Coconut, the developers of the game. The connection between Rovio and the Casey's Contraptions team is currently unclear.
Remedy is also giving away an iPad via the Death Rally Facebook page. To enter the giveaway, users have to simply "like" Death Rally on Facebook. You should probably actually try the game first, of course. Not that we're suggesting anyone would ever "like" something dishonestly.
The next round of DLC, available May 29, has already been announced as well. The "Excessive Force" pack will include a "Viral Infector" grenade launcher and yet more powers and skins. It will also sell for $5.
In other Prototype 2 news, a companion app has been released for Android and iOS. The app allows users to keep track of achievements and in-game collectible thanks to some handy maps that have all collectibles marked. The app itself is free, though it only includes one map, the Yellow Zone. The remaining two maps can be purchased for $2.
Wolfenstein 3D celebrating its 20-year history by going free on browsers, iOS
by Ben Gilbert
(7 days ago)
But perhaps you're not around a computer at the moment, and you'd prefer to play on the go? id's got that covered too, making the iOS port of Wolfenstein 3D free for today only (the iTunes page still reflects a $1.99 price as of this writing, but Bethesda says it'll flip to free "later today").
Or maybe you've already played Wolf 3D more than you'll ever need to? Creator John Carmack recorded a director commentary aimed at superfans of the series, which we've embedded just below the break. Let us know if he talks about rockets at all!
The brain child of Tom Fulp and Dan Paladin, Alien Hominid was built in Flash and released on Newgrounds way back in 2002. It would eventually be ported to the GameCube and PS2 in 2004 (and Europe would see Xbox and GameBoy Advance ports), then to Xbox Live Arcade in 2007. Currently, The Behemoth is working on Battleblock Theater.
However, we're now seeing yet another race all the way to the bottom: free. Even as the PC space is largely adopting a free-to-play, microtransaction-driven business model, the shift is similarly occurring in the mobile market. Recent F2P hits have started a run of similar titles, with some paid apps adopting a free-to-play option.
The change began subtly. Rovio's breakout hit Angry Birds may have stuck near the top of the Top Paid Apps charts, but the Top Grossing arena was ruled by little blue men early last year. Smurfs Village spent months as the Top Grossing app, no doubt bolstered by co-marketing for the then-upcoming film. Still, the free app had an inviting price point, and even a few 99 cent purchases per user would easily push it above the revenue for a one-time dollar fee. Then, Tiny Tower became the talk of the iOS App Store blogosphere, using a similar model inspired by social gaming on Facebook, even garnering recognition as Apple's official Game of the Year.
The aspect of Japanese social games that the agency is rumored to disapprove of is the "complete gacha" style of microtransaction, in which players pay for randomized items, earning additional in-game rewards for completing a set. This could be construed as a form of lottery, which is illegal as a sales incentive in Japan.
GREE officially declined to comment to the Wall Street Journal about the potential impact of a ban on these microtransactions, noting that there were other ways to build revenue. However, we suspect Tanaka himself has a different view on the potential financial impact, having already seen it happen. GREE and other social gaming companies have announced plans to self-regulate their games, creating industry guidelines and imposing spending caps.
This (what's the opposite of a windfall?) happened just a week after GREE announced its purchase of Funzio, developer of social games including Crime City.
Skylanders Cloud Patrol now supports more Skylanders, Retina Display for new iPad
by David Hinkle
(8 days ago)
The other major feature of this update is allowing more Skylanders. Activision specifically calls out "Warnado, Wham-Shell, Camo and all of the Legendary Skylanders collection" in the update notes, though the full list of now-supported Skylanders is something we're trying to track down right now.
Resultantly, employee numbers similarly exploded – from just 28 employees in early 2011 to a whopping 224 at year's end. In case that isn't a dramatic enough statement unto itself, Valve Software employs 293 people, and Valve has quite a few more things to manage. Our biggest fear – a fear that many Rovio employees likely echo – is that the massive upscaling of jobs will result in a massive downscaling should the Angry Birds franchise lose its foothold as king of mobile distractions. Not exactly a new business model in the game industry, unfortunately.
For now at least, Rovio's employing a ton of Finnish devs to craft its bird flingers and related products. Someone's gotta think of these clever marketing vices, you know!
Tiny Wings creator's next game to be finished 'in less than three weeks'
by Richard Mitchell
(9 days ago)
Regarding the development of Tiny Wings, Illiger noted that he wanted to create a positive game about the dream of flying. "There are many destructive and negative games," said Illiger, "so I wanted to figure out if it is possible to make a game which makes you feel happy." Dude, mission accomplished.
[Thanks, Sarah!]
Hed doesn't necessarily mean branching out from his company's most popular franchise, of course. Especially not after such a big year for merchandising surrounding the Angry Birds – Rovio's "consumer products" unit took in "about 30 percent" of 2011's total earnings (approximately $31.9 million). That's a lot of Angry Birds gummy snacks!
Rovio's $106.3 million in revenue (not profit, mind you, but revenue) is owed primarily to growth in the Finnish company's Angry Birds games catalog, which expanded by just one game in 2011: a movie tie-in named "Angry Birds Rio." The games have been downloaded approximately 648 million times across all platforms as of Dec. 31, 2011, and have a monthly user base of approximately 200 million.
[Image credit: Flickr user 'Nearsoft']
Battle Chess remake moves to Kickstarter for multiplayer funding
by Alexander Sliwinski
(9 days ago)
"The Kickstarter will allow us to focus and finish the game," Subdued Software President Mike Terlecki told Joystiq. "If we get the funding we're looking at a September launch window."
The company's Kickstarter is seeking $100,000 for an online experience that'll include "skilled based matchmaking, statistics, leaderboards, achievements and in-game chat." The company also learned a lesson from the Star Command Kickstarter, factoring the cost of fulfilling rewards and running this campaign.
"We have carefully planned out the costs of staffing the programmers, artists and testers necessary to complete online multiplayer feature and arrived at this amount."