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Gamers - have you ever bought a game on itch.io?

Indie Devs - if you are selling your game on itch.io, how many copies have you sold?

Wednesday, 29 February 2012

New Star Soccer - coming soon to iOS and Android devices

New Star Soccer will soon be available for iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad and Android devices! The game will be similar to the PC/Mac version in many ways but with a new match engine suited to touch controls. (I presume this refers to the latest incarnation of the series, New Star Soccer 5). The game is touted for release sometime around the end of March 2012.




See also: My review of New Star Soccer 5 (PC)


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Tuesday, 28 February 2012

8-Bit Funding is Back and Under New Management

PHILADELPHIA, PA, March 1, 2012- Crowd-Funding website, 8-Bit Funding returns backed by new management and popular indie game websites, DIY Gamer and Indie Game Mag. 8-Bit Funding was launched in early 2011 as a game focused alternative to other crowd-funding websites and was recently purchased by the people behind the Indie Game Magazine. 

In early February, the management team behind The Indie Game Magazine (www.indiegamemag.com) acquired the indie game, crowd-funding site, 8-Bit Funding (www.8bitfunding.com). Mike Gnade, owner of the Indie Game Magazine, commented saying, “8-Bit Funding is an excellent game focused funding platform that we believe never got the attention from game fans and developers that it deserved. We look forward to resurrecting the site and creating excitement about amazing new indie games.” Along with the new management comes the support of IGM (www.indiegamemag.com) and DIY Gamer (www.diygamer.com). These two sites will be used to promote the best game campaigns found on 8-Bit Funding. 

8-Bit Funding is primarily used for alpha or beta game funding strategies and is the perfect alternative to popular funding sites like Kickstarter since it is targeted and geared towards gamers. Unlike Kickstarter, 8-Bit is International and allows developers from all over the globe to start a campaign. 

8-Bit Funding has the added benefit of being geared towards gamers and is backed by great indie game sites like DIY and IGM, but 8-Bit Funding is also open to non-video indies. Creators of board games, card games and even pen and paper role-playing games are invited to begin a funding campaign. If your project is gaming related, then 8-Bit offers a funding solution for you. 

ABOUT 8-BIT FUNDING: 
8-Bit Funding is a crowd-funding website focused on game projects. The site was started and founded by Geoff Gibson, founder of DIYGamer.com. After experiencing and noticing the discrepancies against gaming related projects on other crowdfunding websites, the idea for 8-Bit Funding was born. The goal of 8-Bit is to help indie game developers throughout the world fund their projects. As an international website, 8-Bit Funding provides an instantaneous alternative to larger crowd-funding sites and is directly targeted at gamers. 8-Bit provides the funds to the developers in real-time and chart the growth of the funding donations toward the ultimate goal as set forth by the development team prior to launching the campaign. 




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Introducing Break Blocks, a break dancing, action puzzle game for charity!

Break Blocks is an action puzzle game which fuses the beat-based mechanics of games like Guitar Hero and Dance Dance Revolution with a color-based block puzzle.  You play as a young break dancer who must defeat a cast of 13 of the world’s most notorious dancers by building coloured blocks and clearing them to perform dance moves.  Blocks are built in time with the beat and then placed on the circular dance floor.  The object is not only to group primary colors (red, blue, and yellow) together, but also to connect them by using secondary colors (purple, orange and green) as a bridge to clear more blocks, and unleash more intense break dance moves.

Indie developers Greater Good Games are donating 20% of the profits from their sales to a charity - "Doctors Without Borders". They've also pledged to increase the share of money going to charity from sales if they go past certain thresholds (see this page for full details).

For more info and downloads visit the official website.


Trailers and screenshots below:



















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Indie Game Recognition in Canada

Indie developers Chevy Ray Johnston and Matt Thorson have had their game Fat Wizard nominated in 3 different categories in the Canadian Videogame Awards 2012 - no mean feat since they're directly up against AAA titles (well not in the Best Indie Game category obviously, but in the other 2 they are).  Their nominations are for:

  • Best Original Music
  • Best Indie Game
  • Best New Character

See the Fat Wizard page on the awards website.

See all the nominations for Best Indie Game.

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Ittle Dew - new trailer and information update

Word has been spreading for some time now about Ludosity’s new project, an offbeat puzzly Action-Adventure titled Ittle Dew. The developers have been working very hard and have regularly released gameplay videos to keep their fans updated. There still is much work to be done, and the guys want to get it perfect, so they kindly ask for their fans’ patience. However, they thought the time has come to reveal more than gameplay videos, in the form of a more in-depth description of the game, just to make things clear about what you are waiting for.

Formed in 2008 in Sweden, Ludosity have previously released the indie hit Bob Came In Pieces, which has sold more than 50,000 copies, as well as several smaller games for Android, iOS, Xbox Live Indie Games and the Web. The quirky flash game Garden Gnome Carnage has been played more than 5 million times so far. Next on the menu is Ittle Dew – take the caustic, cruel flavor of humor from Garden Gnome Carnage, add in some Bob Came in Pieces accents, sprinkle it with mellow nostalgia and add some modern game engine tech, and you end up with a full, distinctive, new aroma. Hungry yet?

Ittle Dew is an unapologetic girl with only one thing on her mind – adventure!  One day when she is out sailing the seas, she crashes onto an island, damaging her boat badly. She soon discovers Itan Carver, a trader who promises to fix her boat – for a price. Ittle has no money, but she knows where to find it. There just so happens to be a rich guy living in a fancy castle nearby. Ittle resolutely breaks and enters, and begins her quest for valuable loot!

The game is quirky in style, has lovely hand drawn visuals and crazy characters such as Tippsie, a winged rodent, who is perpetually drunk, living up to the moniker. In terms of genres, we’re dealing with an action-adventure game with exploration, dungeons, cool items and weapons to find, puzzles, bossfights and crazy NPC’s. Gameplay focuses on streamlining the classic adventure formula, by for instance, boiling down the amount of weapons to four basic ones – Bombs, Icegun, Portalwand, and the Stick (which can be set on fire). These can be combined to solve puzzles and defeat enemies in innovative ways, making much of the game highly replayable. The level design actively embraces open-endedness with ingenious puzzles that can be solved in many different ways, many of them quite subtle. Rewards are given to players who experiment and explore the many secrets of the castle. The game is also built for speed-running, and keep tracks of all your best times and completion gear (or lack thereof) with achievements and leaderboards.

Ludosity will be present at GDC.



http://ludosity.com/category/ittle-dew/


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Football Up takes WiiWare by Storm!

28th February 2012, Barcelona, Spain. Football Up is number one for more than two months in UK, Spain, and Italy. Also is on the top ten in all European Countries.

Julio Moruno, Game Designer of EnjoyUp Games: “Thanks for all support from users, once again it demonstrates the big acceptance of independent games. Thanks to digital distribution channels like WiiWare a lot of people are playing again.”

Pricing: 500 Nintendo Wii Points™.



See also: My Review of Football Up



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RAZE – Free Puzzle Racing Game for iOS

Linköping, Sweden - February 28, 2012 - The popular car physics puzzler RAZE has been upgraded! Twenty entirely new levels with tricky puzzles, improved driving physics, and the characteristic colorful minimalist 3D art-style awaits you in Appleʼs App Store.


RAZE is the first hit-game developed with Unity3D and Brain Builder. These powerful tools enable game development without traditional programming. In fact, RAZE was made without writing a single line of code! Both RAZE and Brain Builder were developed by Boldai, a Swedish spinout from the University of Linköping.

- RAZE was initially a tech demo to showcase Brain Builder. But it was so successful that we decided to make a solid update for the fans. We now include a great mix of easy levels for beginners and some radically tough levels for hardcore gamers, says Magnus Hallin, CTO at Boldai. Boldai is now working on a new creative community described as a mix between Minecraft and LEGO to be announced at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco.






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Android indie game review - Rocket Weasel

Rocket Weasel by Freeze Tag is a nice little android game where you play a rocket-propelled weasel on a mission to rescue chickens. In each level you have to set the angle and power of his flight in order to reach the cage on the other side, hopefully picking up bonuses and avoiding obstacles in between. It's a very simple concept but nicely realised, with the levels getting gradually more challenging as extra elements are added to the game. The controls and concept might be very simple, but that doesn't mean completing the game is going to be easy...


The graphics are very nice and have a cartoony yet detailed quality; the music is good, very lively and upbeat, and there are some amusing sound effects. Overall it's a very polished production that will keep you going for quite a while. It's also simple enough to be fun for even very young children.

The trailer below gives you a good idea of the graphics and music, and to some extent gameplay. Rocket Weasel is a really fun game that manages to find the right line between accessibility and challenge.

You can get the Android version of this game from:
  • Android Marketplace
  • Amazon.com

(Rocket Weasel costs $0.99)




Official blurb:



The forest animals send their little critters to "Weasel's School for Hunting Chickens" to learn from Mr. Weasel, an expert chicken hunter. On a midnight field trip, Mr. Weasel and his students sneak into the hen house, but everything goes horribly wrong! The farmer is waiting for them with crafty cages and treacherous traps. Help Mr. Weasel save his students and chomp the chickens.


Features:• An interactive puzzler for the whole family
• 64 levels of rocket-flying, crate-crashing fun
• Friendly animals who help free your friends
• Colorful characters and spectacular graphics





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Playable demo for J.U.L.I.A. was released today

Well okay, actually it was yesterday... I just didn't have time to post it at the time!




Popuvky, February 27th, 2012 – Developer CBE software and Publisher Lace Mamba Global are releasing a free public demo for the upcoming science fiction adventure J.U.L.I.A. today: The demo is approximately 270 MB big now available for download and free distribution. 

The free demo allows players to dip right into the start of the adventure, experience the introduction to the game, solve the first few puzzles and travel to the first planet in the solar system the game is taking place in. 

To get the demo, head over to the Downloads section of J.U.L.I.A. website located at www.juliathegame.com 

The upcoming science fiction adventure game J.U.L.I.A is scheduled for a UK and Irish retail release on March 02nd, 2012. 

J.U.L.I.A. is a narrative driven adventure game in a science-fiction scenario: In the year 2430, Rachel Manners, a 35 year old astrobiologist and member of an elite group of scientists, which is sent off in a giant space ship to mankind’s most exciting space mission: to explore the first ever discovered extra-terrestrial life-forms. 

After a long journey, Rachel suddenly awakes from a cryogenic sleep. She has no idea why she has been put into this hibernation, elusive memories to what happened before and just starts to find out that she is the only human survivor of her team. To make things worse, their space probe, currently orbiting an unknown planet in a far-off solar system, is severely damaged. Together with her now only companions – J.U.L.I.A., the spaceship’s very temperamental artificial intelligence system, and Mobot, a huge reconnaissance robot, Rachel now has to solve the mysteries of the events on board the space vessel, repair it and explore the unknown planet. It won’t take long until she encounters first extra-terrestrial life-forms… 

Players are taking over the control of Rachel, and have to utilize the Mobot as well as J.U.L.I.A. During their adventure, they will visit six different planets. 

Lace Mamba Global plans to release J.U.L.I.A. worldwide, starting in the UK and Ireland on March 02nd, 2012. 

For more information visit: 

http://www.juliathegame.com 
http://www.facebook.com/JuliaTheGame 


About Lace Mamba Global 

Lace Mamba Global Ltd. (LMG), one of the UK's leading independent computer and video game publishers, is a partnership between Mamba Games and the UK's leading DVD distribution company, Lace Group. Founded in 2008, LMG combines all areas of expertise including acquisition, product development, in-house development, UK and global sales/distribution, marketing and PR. 

With a solid distribution network throughout the world, Lace Mamba Global is publishing games of all genres, such as the upcoming RTS games of the critically acclaimed Men of War series, Men of War: Assault Squad and Men of War: Vietnam. Lace Mamba Global has become one of the leading publishers of adventure games with already released or upcoming genre highlights such as Tales of Monkey Island, Gray Matter, Black Mirror 2 and 3 and A New Beginning. 

Lace Mamba Global is the ideal partner for independent developers that want their product delivered to a worldwide audience both in retail and digital form. 

www.lace-mamba.com 








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GAMESPY TECHNOLOGY PROVIDES ONLINE TOOLS AND SERVICES FOR PLAYSTATION®VITA DEVELOPERS

I guess this is something indie developers might well end up using, so here's the press release:


San Francisco – February 27, 2012 – GameSpy Technology, a division of IGN Entertainment, Inc.,, has joined Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.'s (SCEI) tools and middleware license program, making its online game services available for PlayStation®Vita (PS Vita) developers. The first PS Vita game to take advantage of GameSpy Technology’s comprehensive online services is Mortal Kombat, the intense on-the-go fighting game from NetherRealm Studios and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. GameSpy Technology’s PS Vita tools will be available to interested developers beginning April 2012.

“GameSpy Technology is committed to giving game developers the tools they need to bring their games to multiple platforms with providing players with same high quality online experience,” said Drew Curby, Senior Director, Sales & Marketing, GameSpy Technology.  “Mortal Kombat Vita is a perfect example of how we can work with a talented developer to bring their game from one platform to the next.”

GameSpy Technology can significantly extend the versatility of online game titles on the PS Vita by taking advantage of the interconnectivity provided by WiFi hotspots as well as the mobile broadband network in 3G-equipped PS Vita systems. With its robust selection of online services, GameSpy Technology helps developers connect gamers with their friends and opponents quickly and easily.

GameSpy Technology's services open a world of possibilities for PS Vita game title designers. Some of the most compelling elements of PC and console games -- such as leaderboards ranking a player's accomplishments, awards systems that reward skills and frequent play and team-based competition and tournaments -- are now as easy to implement on the PS Vita as they are on GameSpy Technology-powered PCs and consoles.

The services use the familiar GameSpy application programming interfaces (APIs) that are already available on the PC, PlayStation 3, iOS and Android devices. This consistency reduces the cost of developing for multiple platforms and significantly ease and speed development.   GameSpy Technology will also allow future PS Vita games to feature cross-platform multiplayer, datatracking and cloud services, taking portable (handheld?) gaming to a new level of online connectivity. 

GameSpy Technology’s cross-platform SDKs include open APIs for rich player data tracking that assist in gauging game performance and audience engagement, leaderboards, user-generated content storage tools to enable actively-engaged communities to collaborate and extend the gameplay experience, and multiplayer matchmaking services. These services have been tested and proven at multiple levels of scale, from popular cross-platform indie titles like Dungeon Defenders to Triple-A experiences like Crysis 2 and Red Dead Redemption, to mobile games like Glu’s Gun Bros.

Game publishers and developers interested in learning more about GameSpy Technology can check out the official booth at GDC 2012 this year in the North Hall booth #1624 from March 7-9.  For more information, please visit http://www.poweredbygamespy.com/.




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EvilQuest released for PC

Chaosoft Games is pleased to announce the release of EvilQuest for Windows PC.  The game will initially be distributed through Desura, one of the world’s leading distributors of digitally downloadable games, and priced at $1.99 USD.  EvilQuest will be available for digital download on February 29th 2012, and is currently available for preorder.  Please visit www.chaosoftgames.com for purchasing details.

EvilQuest was released on January 4th 2012 for the Xbox Live Indie Games service and has recieved a high degree of critical and commercial success. Most recently, the game was featured on the Joystiq Indie Pitch and was selected as one of Kotaku's Favorites on the Xbox Dashboard. We hope to continue this trend on the Windows platform and want to thank anyone that has purchased the game thus far.

EvilQuest turns the Action-RPG genre on its head by putting the player in the role of a villain bent on world domination, rather than the traditional role of a hero trying to save the world. 

As the dark knight Galvis, the player begins the story by staging a daring escape from an imperial prison and unleashes his lust for vengeance and power on a world that is ripe for the taking. As the story progresses, Galvis will gain untold power, ultimately leading to a confrontation with the gods themselves. The outcome will determine the fate of the world and decide who is worthy to wield ultimate power. 

EvilQuest features a wide variety of environments, enemies, and boss creatures - all created in retro style with 100% original artwork, animation, and music. In addition to fighting monsters, Galvis will also terrorize the residents of several towns and must avoid imperial agents seeking to re-capture him.

The goal of the game is for Galvis to take revenge on his captors as well as unlock the secret power of four legendary seals. Players will find a variety of weapons, items, and magic spells to increase their power as they play through the quest. The game also allows the player to customize areas of proficiency during level-ups by assigning points to particular attributes.

GAME FEATURES:

- Dark and genre-defying dialogue and story 

- Fast-paced action-RPG gameplay

- Retro-style original graphics

- Original musical score

- Game world full of mysteries and twists to explore

- Multiple levels of melee & ranged attacks through weapon charging system

- 15 unique dungeon levels and overworld areas

- 14 different spells with a variety of purposes and effects

- Over 10 challenging boss fights

- Dozens of pieces of equipment and items to discover


ABOUT CHAOSOFT GAMES:

Chaosoft Games is an independent game devlopment company based in Knoxville, Tennessee. It is a licensed business privately owned and funded by founding partners Josh Ferguson & Forrest McCorkle. Chaosoft Games expanded its team to include Michael Hogan during the development of EvilQuest. Chaosoft Games previously released the title Chaos Shift for Xbox Live Indie Games in November 2010 and has been actively developing a number of independent game titles since 2008.



Evil Quest Screenshots (lots of screenshots!):



























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Sunday, 26 February 2012

Skejo Studios' Operation: Eradicate now available on Apple App Store

Irvine, CA-- February 26, 2012 -- Mobile game developer, Skejo Studios, is please to announce its debut turn based strategy game, Operation: Eradicate for the iPad and iPhone has been released in the Apple AppStore. Operation: Eradicate is a cooperative strategy game where the player controls up to four characters across the world to beat back the spreading 'infected' hordes. 

Operation: Eradicate is a unique challenge, quick to learn with the in-game tutorial and difficult to master with over 20 different possible character setups and 3 different difficulty levels. Forethought and a bit of risk taking is needed to navigate this game of resource management, location and timing. 

Travel across the world, fight the hordes, and launch counter-strikes before the 'Infected Ones' spread across the planet. Operation: Eradicate also comes with the ability to match with friends in Turn Based Matches through Game Center, as well as racing up the leader boards and scoring achievements. 




Features: 
* Board Game feel, iPad looks 
* Cooperative Turn Based Strategy mechanics 
* Game Center Turn Based Multiplayer available 
* Five specialized characters to command 
* Play a 2, 3 or 4 character game for vastly different challenges 
* Includes hand drawn commissioned artwork 
* Three different Difficulty levels 
* Game Center Leader boards & Achievements 
* Multi-step tutorial to quickly learn the game 


Device Requirements: 
* Optimized for iPad/iPad 2 and iPhone4/4S/4th Gen iPod Retinal-graphics 
* Playable on non-retinal devices 
* Requires iOS 4.0 or later 
* 14.0 MB 

Pricing and Availability: 
Operation: Eradicate will have a launch discount of 50%, priced at $1.99 for one week and is available worldwide through the App Store in the Games category. Regularly priced at $3.99. 





Skejo Studios is an independent game developer established in 2011 and located in Irvine California, USA. Skejo Studios specializes in iOS strategy and casual games. Operation: Eradicate is their first title.



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LOC: Can You Escape? - Kickstarter Campaign


"Loc is a 3D puzzle game for Mac, PC, and mobile devices, in which you have been taken prisoner by the last vengeful Queen of the Faeries who wishes to keep you in her now empty kingdom as a penalty for the harm caused by man on nature's balance. You must escape by solving "loc" puzzles that lie between you and freedom. 

Solving these puzzles may seem a simple challenge: a surface is covered with tiles of stone, each with a path carved into it- there are three different types of tiles with different styles of paths, and by knitting those together into one “road” from start to finish, through specific “gate” locations, you unlock each puzzle."
Featuring the artwork of Heather Campbell.

You can find out more and support the project by visiting the LOC Kickstarter Page




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Saturday, 25 February 2012

Zytron II - Multiplayer Twin Stick Scrolling Shoot Em Up

If you ever wanted a scrolling version of Geometry Wars, look no further.

Zytron II uses neon glow graphics with fast and smooth gameplay in a tradtional side scrolling shoot em up.

Created by Trinosis Software, a one man indie outfit based in the UK and taking inspiration from the classic shoot em ups of the 80's and 90's, Zytron II offers multiplayer shoot em up action usually only reserved for the consoles.





www.trinosis.com


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PC Indie Game Review - Flying Sheeps

In Flying Sheeps by Bad Mouse Digital Art, you play a shepherd whose sheep are floating in the air and need to be brought back to the safety of their pen at ground level. You do this by manoeuvring your hot air balloon, rescuing the sheep, and bringing them back down to earth – avoiding things that block your way / burst your balloon or but the rope attaching the sheep to your balloon.

This crazy plot is the basis for this slow-moving, enjoyable and very challenging arcade puzzle game. Despite the slow movement of your hot-air balloon, the game can get pretty tense at times – with tricky tight manoeuvres to perform, and especially when airborne sheep-dogs are after your flock as you try to return to the ground. The graphics are nice and the music is really good, overall it's a very polished production.  The controls are simple and really easy to pick up, but this is one game you're definitely not going to completely master quickly.

There are 50 levels in all, and to be honest I started to find most of the levels after level 5 to be fairly challenging – so completing all 50 will take quite some time and skill. There is also a built-in level editor. The realistic physics lend the game an aura of authenticity despite the bizarre nature of what you're actually doing in the game. Each level tracks the top 3 fastest times, which adds a bit more longevity to the game.


Grammatical inaccuracy aside, Flying Sheeps is a very good game. Not only that but it's available as a pay-what-you-want download (with no minimum requirement, so you can download it for free and play it' however it's good enough quality to be worth paying for, which rewards the developers who've obviously put a lot of work into this title).

Flying Sheeps Official Website for more information, game download etc.



The minimum system specs are:

OS: Windows XP, Vista or 7
CPU: 2GHz
RAM: 1Gb
DirectX: 9.0c

The graphics options are fairly extensive so you should be able to play the game on a fairly low-end system, but to get the higher resolutions with all the options ramped up you're going to need some pretty decent raw GPU power.



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Thursday, 23 February 2012

Polarbit and First Star Software team up for worldwide distribution of Boulder Dash®-The Collection™

Stockholm, Sweden – Leading developers and independent publishers, Polarbit and First Star Software, Inc., announced today their cooperation distributing Boulder Dash®-The Collection™ on the Android Market and numerous Android channels throughout the world. 

Says Mitri Wiberg, CEO at Polarbit: “First published by First Star Software in 1984, Boulder Dash® is a landmark in computer gaming, and the definition of a true classic. We're thrilled to be a part of bringing the game to as wide an audience as possible, and in introducing it to a whole new generation of gamers.” 

Developed by InstantCom, Ltd. for Android, Boulder Dash®-The Collection™ is a fast-paced action/puzzle game challenging the player to make their way through a series of caves, filled to the brim with boulders just waiting to fall, sneaky enemies, deadly traps and helpful tools. Players will need all their cunning and dexterity to collect enough diamonds to open exits and find their way out of the caves. 

Richard M. Spitalny, First Star Software’s president added: “We’re thrilled to work with Polarbit and leverage their success on the Android Market and with their numerous channel partners throughout the world. With only a few exceptions, Polarbit will be our exclusive distributor throughout the world.”

The multi-million unit selling, much loved original game from 1984, with original graphics, sfx and music is just one of the five games from the Boulder Dash® series that comprise Boulder Dash®-The Collection™. Three of the cave packs/games are from the 1980’s, two more recent games include new features such as the ability to access inventory to rotate caves 90 degrees, kick objects or use bombs. 

With over 250 cave permutations available players can buy Boulder Dash®-The Collection™, Complete Set as a single download containing all five cave packs for USD $3.99; or, they can select Boulder Dash®-The Collection™ Pick Your Pack for USD $0.99 with each additional cave pack then sold for USD $0.99 as an in-app purchase. 

Languages supported are English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese and Korean. 

Optimized for Xperia Play, players can elect to play in Zen mode, without a game clock; select from 3 sets of user-Configured Controls; play in Portrait or Landscape; use ‘Pause & Explore’ and/or the variable zoom to plan their next move. On the Android Market, Boulder Dash®-The Collection™ features OpenFeint, allowing players to earn achievements and share their top scores with friends. 


www.polarbit.com 
www.youtube.com/user/polarbit1 
twitter.com/polarbit 

About Polarbit AB 
Polarbit AB, founded in 2005, is an independent publisher and game and middleware developer focusing on high-end mobile and handheld devices. Their experience, dedication and uncompromising attitude towards quality ensure customers and users that Polarbit technology is always synonymous with world-class entertainment technology. 

About First Star Software, Inc 
Founded in 1982, First Star Software, Inc. develops, licenses and publishes games across all platforms including cell-phones, SmartPhones, Tablets, hand-held devices, home computers and next generation consoles. Creators of numerous best selling and award winning computer titles including Boulder Dash® and the SPY vs. SPY® series of games, millions of units of each series have been sold throughout the world. A privately held corporation, it is one of a very few surviving publishers from the early 1980’s that are run by the original founders. For more information please visithttp://www.firststarsoftware.com 

About InstantCom, Ltd.: 
InstantCom is a mobile software and service development company founded in 2002. With a pragmatic development approach, InstantCom's products and services cover a broad spectrum. They have developed software for use by individuals while also satisfying the requirements of demanding programs for use by telecom operators. For more information please visit http://www.instantcom.net 


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Moon Child released for iOS



Originally created in 1996 by three veteran game developers from the early Dutch game creation scene, well-known for the classic games Hoi (1992) and Clockwiser (1994), Moon Child brings you back to the golden age of platform games, with detailed, hand-crafted pixel artwork, old school 3D animations, a stomping retro-techno soundtrack and silky-smooth scrolling.

Guide Moon Child, a little green elf with magical mental and physical powers, on his quest to save the planet Utopia from an evil techno-virus, spread by a crashed meteor.

Control Moon Child using a unique approach called Elastimotion. Your fingers will no longer miss on-screen buttons, the Elastimotion control establishes a flexible line that connects your finger with the main character. Moving your finger to the right will make Moon Child run to the right, moving your finger up will cause him to jump, etcetera. You will discover that the Elastimotion control is the most natural way of playing a platform game you've experienced on a touchscreen device.

View the included demo sequence for an introduction to the game. The aim of the game is to collect at least 77 of the 84 Dark Diamonds that are spread throughout the various levels. Then you will be able to enter the psychedelic final world, where you need the Dark Diamonds to destroy the abstract heart of the techno-virus.

Moon Child requires an iPad 1 (or higher) or an iPhone 4 (or higher) with iOS version 5 (or higher) to run.








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Guns of Icarus Online Gears Up for Closed Beta

8th Highest Funded Videogame Kickstarter Campaign

Feb 22nd, 2012 – Muse Games (http://www.MuseGames.com) is super excited to have used Kickstarter to find both funding and beta testers for its upcoming steampunk airship combat game, Guns of Icarus Online. Having raised more than $35,000 from pre-orders and donations and recruited over 1,500 testers, Muse is getting ready to finally put players at the helm sometime next month. Thanks to the enthusiastic response, the early closed beta list is full, but anyone else interested in joining the open beta or receiving project updates is advised to sign up for the newsletter on the Guns of Icarus website at www.GunsofIcarus.com. 

Three hundred years ago was the beginning of the war, the Great War that never really ended. Cities were converted to war machines or rubble, citizens to soldiers or refugees, and the war raged until it consumed the world and turned the fertile plains to dust. Only when nations ceased to exist did they cease to send out armies and fleets to do battle, leaving those who remained, struggling not for dominance now but for survival, to regroup and rebuild among the ruins of the modern age. Where scattered survivors met they sometimes clashed, their skirmishes spasmodically reenacting the great wars in miniature, and they sometimes found a common interest and banded together, sheltering in makeshift camps. The largest of the camps became towns, and the largest of the towns became burgeoning cities, as slowly, life returned to the once-verdant wastes. When a man named Gabriel built the Icarus, the first airship, and sailed across the Burren, connecting the isolated towns, some said it was an atrocity; some said it was the future; and some said it would change everything. They were all right. Soon, others followed in his footsteps and built new airships, and a new age of commerce, and conflict, began. Humanity once again has the chance to fluorish, or to plunge once more into the greed and violence that already brought it to the edge of extinction. 

Welcome to Guns of Icarus Online, the first co-operative airship combat game mixing together first-person shooter action with team-based strategy. Up to four people will crew a ship, taking on one of the key roles of Captain, Gunner, or Engineer, and battling it out against other ships above the post-apocalyptic waste. In Guns of Icarus Online it will take teamwork and tactics to dominate the skies.

For more information and to sign up for the newsletter, take a look at www.gunsoficarus.com!

ABOUT MUSE GAMES
Based in New York City, Muse Games is a Unity development studio dedicated to producing high-quality games for Mac, PC, and mobile platforms, including its flagship titles Guns of Icarus and CreaVures. The studio has received nominations for multiple awards, including Brighton Develop Conference Indie Showcase Finalist, Game Connection Selected Project, and Best Casual Game at the International Mobile Games Awards. Find out more at www.MuseGames.com. 



Guns of Icarus Screenshots:







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