GameLicenses.com is a new auction site to buy and sell video game licenses across all major platforms. The Game Licenses custom licensing system allows publishers, developers, and brand owners to globally trade licenses in distribution, development, funding, localization and more.

The auction site can be used by game developers looking to find funding, publisher's wanting to sign the latest indie game, or anyone looking to find worldwide distribution partners. The robust licensing system allows for the creation of any number of licenses across all areas of game development and distribution. For example, console developers can find a publisher, MMO developers can find distribution partners in Germany, and publisher's can buy the distribution rights to 'the next big thing'.

As well as finding the right game engine, every publisher knows that games linked to well known brands sell better. For this reason, GameLicenses.com expanded its marketplace to include brands. Now developers can come online looking for brands to associate with their games, and brand holders can use the auction site as a platform to promote their brands to developers.

Scott Kirk, Managing Director says “GameLicenses.com really is a game changer. It fulfils a niche in the market where developers and publishers are looking to buy and sell licenses globally with ease”. GameLicenses.com is a global venture with partners in six countries around the world. Their goal is to empower indie developers by simplifying the process of buying/selling video game licenses around the world.

Comments from a couple of regular players of Elite Command, the online turn-based strategy game:

"I'm a big fan of turn-based strategy games and enjoy the simple mechanics of Elite Command yet it still provides plenty of strategic challenge. Though the community is still small, there are some passionate players that play turns every day.


Not sure about a best moment but I do recall a worst moment. In a three player game between dris and ketoojin on a new 3-player map I had designed. I was discovering that I made it too small. Furthermore both dris and ketoojin decided to 100% focus on me. It was at that moment I realized there was no way to win and I was slowly beaten down. I didn't surrender though and make one of them lose the game by continuing to focus on me. Dris was the smarter player and pulled back while ketoojin continued to relentless attack me, all the while ignoring dris as he built up a large force. ketoojin finally eliminated me but within 2 rounds dris has stomped his forces and bases out.


Elite Command is so easy to just start up another game, play another turn. With email notifications you can play WAY too much. I try to limit myself to 6 or less games and restrict my time for turns so it doesn't intrude on other parts of my life. Been there and done the addicted gamer thing. Beware!! Elite Command is addictive and fun!"

by mghaught


"The best part about elite command is that it's strategically rich, but I don't have to spend a lot of time playing it at any one time like a lot of other strategy games. I'm super busy, and elite command gives me a way to play on my own time.


The best moment for me would definitely be finally beating dris. My first game, he just rolled over me, and when I was finally able to beat him, I felt pretty good about it.


Worst moment? I don't know -- every time I lose, I try to learn something that I can do better next time. Maybe the worst moment was when an update was released that caused planes ending the turn over an enemy base to be destroyed and at that moment I had a bunch of planes over some of my enemies' bases. I learned from that one too, though."

by arcanius

(In case you were wondering... Dris is the creator of the game.  Beating him is kind of a big deal! :-D)

My mini-review of Elite Command

http://elitecommand.net

Comments from a couple of regular players of Elite Command, the online turn-based strategy game:

"I'm a big fan of turn-based strategy games and enjoy the simple mechanics of Elite Command yet it still provides plenty of strategic challenge. Though the community is still small, there are some passionate players that play turns every day.


Not sure about a best moment but I do recall a worst moment. In a three player game between dris and ketoojin on a new 3-player map I had designed. I was discovering that I made it too small. Furthermore both dris and ketoojin decided to 100% focus on me. It was at that moment I realized there was no way to win and I was slowly beaten down. I didn't surrender though and make one of them lose the game by continuing to focus on me. Dris was the smarter player and pulled back while ketoojin continued to relentless attack me, all the while ignoring dris as he built up a large force. ketoojin finally eliminated me but within 2 rounds dris has stomped his forces and bases out.


Elite Command is so easy to just start up another game, play another turn. With email notifications you can play WAY too much. I try to limit myself to 6 or less games and restrict my time for turns so it doesn't intrude on other parts of my life. Been there and done the addicted gamer thing. Beware!! Elite Command is addictive and fun!"

by mghaught


"The best part about elite command is that it's strategically rich, but I don't have to spend a lot of time playing it at any one time like a lot of other strategy games. I'm super busy, and elite command gives me a way to play on my own time.


The best moment for me would definitely be finally beating dris. My first game, he just rolled over me, and when I was finally able to beat him, I felt pretty good about it.


Worst moment? I don't know -- every time I lose, I try to learn something that I can do better next time. Maybe the worst moment was when an update was released that caused planes ending the turn over an enemy base to be destroyed and at that moment I had a bunch of planes over some of my enemies' bases. I learned from that one too, though."

by arcanius

My mini-review of Elite Command

http://elitecommand.net

Moscow, Russian Federation - Verbena Games is pleased to announce the release of PlanetSave TD 1.0 for iOS. PlanetSave TD is a tower defense game. From point A to point B following the aliens your task is to lot them go.

To do this, you have defensive towers that shoot at the aliens. Each tower can be upgraded to Level 3. With each upgrade your towers will be able to attack more effectively. The enemies may be immune to various towers. Some enemies have different properties such as; invisibility, increased speed and the bosses.

In the early days of the game's release Verbena Games will be releasing a new version with modified balance on player feedback. Verbana Games' plan is to work hard to refine the game in the future. Soon they will be releasing a new version, which fixes some bugs and makes the game a little easier in the easy mode. Included in the planned update is more language support including; English, Russian, German, Italian, Spanish and French.

Device Requirements:
* iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad
* Requires iPhone OS 4.0 or later
* 53.6 MB

Pricing and Availability:
PlanetSave TD 1.0 is $2.99 USD (or equivalent amount in other currencies) and available worldwide exclusively through the App Store in the Games category.





Verbena Games is a small independent app development company based in Moscow, Russia and is led by developer Anton Boroveev. 

"You have been invited to attend a magical school. Here you can make new friends, learn dozens of spells, face exams in the school dungeons, run for class office, and try to find a date for the May Day Ball.

But be careful! You might end up in detention, be lured into a secret society, be forced to marry your professor, or even be expelled!

Every puzzle has multiple solutions, and the path you choose is up to you. Are you a good witch or a bad witch?"

Madrid, Spain - Spanish game development companies, RLS Games and Ivanovich Games today are pleased to announce the release and immediate availability of "Push-Cars", their first puzzle-style video game for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. "Push-Cars" is incredibly easy to play, but surprisingly challenging.

In this level based game, the player controls several cars, some of them ecologic and clean, that will find their way out of the city, and some polluting ones that will crash and stay in the streets of some of the most beautiful American cities. From New York to Las Vegas, visiting Washington, Miami, Houston, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Hollywood along the way.

With a brand new game idea, Push-Cars will have you hooked with its irresistible gameplay. You only have to use one finger to position the cars in the desired direction and hit Play to make them move and clear each level. Easy to play, but with a smooth difficulty curve that will keep you craving for more! There is more than one way to resolve each level, but only one will give you the three wheels of fame.

Features:
* 90 Challenging levels based on authentic American cities
* Incredibly easy to play. But surprisingly challenging
* Retina display graphics and HD version exclusively for iPad
* 9 Different cars with different behaviour
* Unique achievements with game center integration
* Exclusive music theme by Edu Quindos, soon available to purchase via the game in iTunes
* Unique puzzle gameplay
* Game Center, Facebook and Twitter integration

Language Support:
* US English and Spanish

Device Requirements:
* iPhone, iPod touch and iPad
* iOS 3.0 or later
* 54 MB

Pricing and Availability:
Push-Cars 1.0 is only $0.99 USD (equivalent amounts in other currencies). Push-Cars HD 1.0 for iPad is only $1.99 USD. Both are available worldwide exclusively through the App Store in the Games category. 

Icarus - new indie retro 2D platformer

Really Big Sky is a proper, red-blooded, co-op enabled, mind melting, eye bursting, arcade inspired space shoot 'em up for the PC platform.

It's being launched later this week through Impulse and Gamersgate. Other distributors and console/iOS ports are in the pipeline.

Really Big Sky Screenshots:

The second episode of Oozi's Earth Adventure is coming soon to Xbox Live Indie Games! It's going to include five new Story Mode levels with a boss fight at the end and over ten additional Challenge Mode levels. The second episode will also introduce new skills that Oozi will be able to utilize in his journey, including wall jumps, punching enemies and throwing items!

Oozi's Earth Adventure: Episode 2 Trailer

VANCOUVER, Canada, June 22nd -- Independent developer Rocket Bear Games has announced that its game Infested Planet is available for preorder and public testing. After preordering the game, players immediately get access to the beta. The developer hopes that public participation will let gamers share in the excitement earlier than usual and build a closer bond between Rocket Bear Games and its audience. The game is available for preorder via the Infested Planet website (www.infestedplanet.com) for both the PC and Mac. 

About Rocket Bear Games Rocket Bear Games is a small independent games company in Vancouver, Canada. Founded in 2010 by Alex Vostrov, the company focuses on making thoughtful, innovative games. Alex is active in the local indie developer community and co-founded the Full Indie developer group (www.fullindie.com). 

Infested Planet, the company's first commercial title has been under development since June, 2010. The game is slated to be released in the second half of 2011. 

Infested Planet Screenshots:

Cryptozookeeper is a character-driven graphical text adventure. Features include over 60 cryptids to create and train, over 200 characters to find total, over 12 hours of gameplay and a soundtrack of over 70 songs.

Intrigued?  Visit this page for downloads, links to reviews and more info.

Cryptozookeeper Screenshots:

Work is well under way on the development of  Greedy Bankers vs The World for iPad. Building on the previous game (Greedy Bankers), the iPad version centres around competitive multiplayer on a shared board. With the ability to reach across the board to steal from and set traps for their opponents, players are very much encouraged to become greedy bankers themselves!

The game is also set to feature expanded arcade modes, making use of the larger screen size, and brand new power-ups to shake up the gameplay. An AI-driven story mode against a gauntlet of new banker characters is also going to be a key feature of game, and the AI is already a very tricky opponent!


Development Blog

Development Screenshots:

GREEDY BANKERS - COMING SOON TO AN IPHONE NEAR YOU!

Haugesund, Norway - Today indie developer Interex is pleased to announce a contest of skill in playing their latest game, Minefield Navigator. The player with the highest global high score at contest end will win a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. The contest began at 12:00 a.m. PST on Monday, June 20, 2011 and ends at 12:00 a.m. PST on August 31, 2011. Be sure to read the full official rules on the Minefield Navigator website.

Minefield Navigator is a new arcade style game set underwater. A casual, pick-up-and-play game, players must navigate through a minefield by touching the screen to move up, and release to move down. All levels are randomly generated so no two games are ever the same. The number of mines increases by one at each new level, and there are an unlimited number of levels. The goal of the game is to complete levels and get the highest score. In Arcade mode players score points by completing levels and picking up items. In Marathon mode players earn points based on the total distance traveled.

Feature Highlights:
* Unlimited random levels
* Different game modes
* Global and local high scores
* 3 difficulty levels
* 5 different themes
* Simple, fun, and addicting gameplay

"Minefield Navigator provides lots of exciting action as you try to navigate above, below, and through fields of underwater mines," commented company CEO Joachim Fagerland.

Device Requirements:
* iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch
* iOS 3.0 or later
* Universal app
* 18.8 MB

Pricing and Availability:
Minefield Navigator 1.0.1 is free with an in-app purchase to unlock the full featured version for $1.99 (USD), and available worldwide through the App Store in the Games category. There is also an in-app purchase at $0.99 (USD) called "God Mode," this mode provides an unlimited number of lives, but disables the ability to submit the score to the global high score list.

Contest Rules: http://minefieldnavigator.com/contest-rules


Located in Haugesund, Norway, Joachim Fagerland is an independent software developer. With his strong blend of design and development skills, his mission is to craft elegant, easy-to-use applications for mobile device and Facebook users.

Five for Five indie games bundle, available now until July 3. 

Features crisp graphics in Full HD at 60 Hz and support for stereoscopic 3D-vision. Gamers will be able to enjoy the pixel exploding puzzler on the PlayStation®3 from June 28th in US / June 29th in Europe for $9.99/€9.99. 

Puzzle Dimension is a "easy to learn hard to master" 3D puzzle game. The player is invited to 100 unique labyrinth-like structures. In Puzzle Dimension gravity depends on your movement, up and down are relative terms. Classic game play elements such as fire, ice, spikes, buttons and hidden sections give the player a diverse range of problems and satisfying eureka moments. 

"Doctor Entertainment is excited to bring Puzzle Dimension to PlayStation®Network. Players will experience the satisfaction of Aha moments supported by dynamic audiovisuals." said Jesper Rudberg, CEO of Doctor Entertainment AB. 

Puzzle Dimension has audiovisuals which blend depending on the player's progress. When the player moves the retro inspired pixel blocks explodes revealing high end graphics and the sound changes from a 8-bit chip tune to a modern version. 

"Doctor Entertainment is proud to see that our in-house game engine "Traktor" is able to run Puzzle Dimension in Full HD at 60 Hz on PlayStation®3." said Anders Pistol, CTO of Doctor Entertainment AB. 


ABOUT DOCTOR ENTERTAINMENT 
Doctor Entertainment AB was founded by developer veterans Jesper Rudberg and Anders Pistol. Together they have over 20 years of game development experience from companies like Starbreeze Studios and EA/Dice where they worked on several multimillion selling AAA games. 
Doctor Entertainment is an independent games studio located in Uppsala, Sweden. They develop and publish their own IP:s via digital distribution. 


http://www.puzzledimension.com/ 

New Britain, CT, USA - June 21, 2011 - Independent developer, Peter Levine, announces today his latest iPhone game, Blue Giant. Blue Giant is an intergalactic arcade game. Blue Giant will be released on Apple's App Store on June 24, 2011 at a price of $0.99.

Travel the universe as one of the illustrious and beautiful blue giants in the sky. Use planetary defenses to safely maneuver through the galaxy and perhaps have a little fun doing it.

Peruse the beautiful nebulas, solar system neighbors and other stars as the blue giant makes it's way through cosmos.

Unlike what some may say about crystalized carbon objects, however, nothing lasts forever. Make the blue giant's journey last as long as possible in this beautiful universe we all call home.

Navigating its way through your edge of that galaxy tilting the device up and down. Using its planetary defenses to destroy any objects in your way by touching and holding in the area to fire. Travel through three never-ending sections of the universe building up on a leader-board for each. Score 17 achievements by making sure the path is clear for this solar system.

Independent developer who has been in the iOS arena part time for the past two years. He's a full-time software engineer for the hospital industry where the focus is on making sure people get the care they need efficiently. For the purpose of keeping software development and engineering interesting and fun, he writes games and develops small applications for himself or for clients on his free time.

Atlanta, Georgia - Asgard Studios today is pleased to introduce Wizard's Castle 1.0 for iPhone 4, their match and remove game for all ages. The player enters the castle to find that the friendly Wizard has cast a spell and colored, magic balls are raining down from the ceiling. The goal of the game is to prevent the room from filling up with balls during each three minute round. Players match and remove balls by touching or swiping groups of two or more balls of the same color. While manageable at the lowest levels, the game quickly presents a difficult challenge to both hand-eye coordination and finding a winning strategy. Completing a level unlocks the next. Wizard's Castle features eight levels of play and Game Center leaderboards and achievements.

In addition to locating groups of still and moving balls of the same color and preventing the room from becoming completely filled, in some levels magic gems also drop from the ceiling.

Magic Gems:
* Gems with coins cause the player's score to go up 10,000 points or down 1,000 points
* Gems with lightening bolts remove all of the magic balls that are the same color as the magic gem
* Gems with floating balls cause many extra balls to drop from the ceiling
* Gems with flames are bombs that destroy many nearby magic balls
* Gems with a stone pattern cause stone balls to drop from the ceiling, which can only be removed by the bomb magic gems
* Gems with the infinity symbol slow down time and make the magic balls drop very slowly from the ceiling

Wizard's Castle is highly re-playable because the colored magic balls always fall and bounce differently. Players may earn up to three stars for each level depending on their score, and may replay any level to reach the maximum of three stars. Current Score, High Score, Level, and Time Remaining are continuously displayed at the top of the portrait mode screen. Wizard's Castle has been featured on Apple's iTunes App Store New and Noteworthy Strategy Games and Puzzle Games sections. Asgard Studios's other game, Wizard's Castle HD for the iPad 2 was recently featured on the Daily App Show - Everything Edition and Apple's iTunes App Store New and Noteworthy Strategy Games section for iPad in the U.S. and Australia.



Feature Highlights:
* Extremely challenging but simple game for players of all ages
* Use up to 10 fingers to touch groups of identically colored magic balls
* Touching groups of two or more balls of the same color removes them
* Prevent the room from filling up with magic balls for a full three minutes to move to the next level
* Magic gems also may fall from the ceiling
* Magic gems can have extraordinary powers that may help or harm players
* Every game is different, as balls fall in a random way from the ceiling
* Retina display support

"Wizard's Castle was created in Unity 3 using C# scripts. My son Raymond designed all of the gameplay and the levels. I did all of the programming, and Jeff Bucchino, a local cartoonist, did the 2D art work," stated developer Randy Herring. "From the time we began work on the project until the day we submitted the iPad 2 game to the App Store was one year almost to the day. In addition to Unity, we made use of several add-ins."

Device Requirements:
* Compatible with iPhone 4, iPod touch (4th generation), and iPad 2
* iOS 4.2 or later
* 33 MB

Pricing and Availability:
Wizard's Castle 1.0 is $0.99 (USD) and available worldwide through the App Store in the Games category. Wizard's Castle 1.0 HD for iPad is $0.99 (USD) and available worldwide through the App Store in the Games category.