If you thought the original Bonus Challenge goals in FarmVille's Lighthouse Cove were difficult, you may not be excited to hear that there is now a second set of goals that have also been given the "Bonus" treatment. These three goals appear alongside the goals from Chapter 2 in the Lighthouse Cove story. We'll tell you flat out - one goal requires you to expand your Lighthouse Cove farm, which is currently only available to do with Farm Cash. Keep that in mind when you decide whether or not to actively finish these goals.
Bonus Quest 4
* Harvest Lighthouse Cove
* Harvest 55 Tarragon
* Complete 1 Orchard
While these tasks aren't incredibly difficult, they might be a bit time consuming depending on how big your Lighthouse Cove already is. That is, if you haven't already expanded your Lighthouse Cove, you won't be allowed to plant 55 crops at a time, so you'll need to do two plantings to reach the 55 total. If you finish this first Bonus Quest (the fourth overall for the farm - hence the name), you'll receive 500 XP, an Unwither, a Livestock Baby Animal and 2,500 coins.
Bonus Quest 5
* Harvest 70 Darrow Blackberries
* Make Blackberry Ice Cream Twice
* Expand your farm to an Inlet Garden
Blackberry Ice Cream is available to craft inside your Restaurant, and requires three Darrow Blackberry, two Chandler Blueberry and three Strawberry bushels. To finish this particular task, you'll not only have to set the recipe to craft twice, but will also have to wait the six hour period for them to finish. As for the Inlet Garden, here's the task that I warned you of earlier. As of this writing, an Inlet Garden farm is only available for 40 Farm Cash, and that's after you go through the Coastal Patch farm that costs 30 Farm Cash. That is, if you're looking to complete this particular goal, you'll need to shell out 70 Farm Cash with no option for coin-spending instead. If you decide to go through with this goal, and can finish it, you'll receive 1,000 XP, a Speckled Alder tree and 5,000 coins.
Bonus Quest 6
* Complete a Zoo
* Harvest 70 Red Clover
* Harvest 70 Chandler Blueberries
For this goal, the requirements are toned down a bit, at least in terms of the cost to your wallet. By the time you make it this far, you'll have the ability to plant more than the starting 35 plots of land on your farm, so the crop tasks will be easier by default. As for the Zoo, this is built using 30 ingredients that can gather from your friends. It's not an incredibly difficult building to complete, so check out our guide to doing so for details. If you can finish this final bonus goal for Chapter 2, you'll receive 500 XP, a Chimpanzee and 2,500 coins.
We've been told that additional goals will be launching in the game every week, so keep checking back with us as we'll bring you everything you need to know about the future Chapter 3 goals in Lighthouse Cove and beyond.
[Via: Zynga]
Check out the rest of our FarmVille Cheats & Tips right here.
What do you think of this trio of Bonus Goals? Are they more difficult or easier than the first set? Will you purchase the farm expansions with Farm Cash or will you skip that goal entirely? Sound off in the comments.
Thứ Sáu, 30 tháng 9, 2011
Zynga Mobile Chief: Mobile is a 'new social gaming frontier'
Everyone else is right there with ya, big red. During an interview with The Guardian, Zynga Mobile SVP David Ko said, "We believe that mobile represents a new social gaming frontier. We've always said we want Zynga to be the best content creators in the world, and we are platform agnostic." More and more Zynga fans expect to play its games on their phones and tablets, which wasn't exactly where CEO Mark Pincus's heart was many moons ago.
Regardless of whether Zynga has been creating mobile games since Zynga Poker hit iOS devices in 2008, it was only the advent of Facebook Connect that motivated the company to dig deeper into the platform. From that we got games like FarmVille and CityVille Hometown, neither of which are feature-complete versions of their Facebook counterparts. (The latter of which is a different game entirely.)
Now, The Guardian reports that Zynga is looking to take advantage of mobile devices' key features like cameras and accelerometers in future games. And tablets appear to be a big deal in Zynga HQ--Ko told The Guardian the company was "very bullish" on the idea. And HTML5, the emergent web coding language that's been touted as the proverbial messiah for cross-platform social gaming, is something Ko admits the company is interested in.
"HTML5 is interesting, although I do feel it is early," Ko told The Guardian. "With those acquisitions, you can see into our thinking in this area a little bit." (Ko there is referring to companies like Newtoy and Dextrose.) Zynga already released one game through HTML5: Mafia Wars Atlantic City.
However, HTML5 games have yet to achieve the complexity of, say, Hanging With Friends, which Zynga just released on Android devices. Regardless, all eyes--including Zynga's--are on those 4-inch screens that rarely leave your side. And with companies as unlikely as Capcom making buku bucks on mobile games, you can bet Zynga is a' hustlin'.
Are you waiting for more mobile games from Zynga? What would you like to see the developer do next on smartphones? Sound off in the comments. 1 Comment
Regardless of whether Zynga has been creating mobile games since Zynga Poker hit iOS devices in 2008, it was only the advent of Facebook Connect that motivated the company to dig deeper into the platform. From that we got games like FarmVille and CityVille Hometown, neither of which are feature-complete versions of their Facebook counterparts. (The latter of which is a different game entirely.)
Now, The Guardian reports that Zynga is looking to take advantage of mobile devices' key features like cameras and accelerometers in future games. And tablets appear to be a big deal in Zynga HQ--Ko told The Guardian the company was "very bullish" on the idea. And HTML5, the emergent web coding language that's been touted as the proverbial messiah for cross-platform social gaming, is something Ko admits the company is interested in.
"HTML5 is interesting, although I do feel it is early," Ko told The Guardian. "With those acquisitions, you can see into our thinking in this area a little bit." (Ko there is referring to companies like Newtoy and Dextrose.) Zynga already released one game through HTML5: Mafia Wars Atlantic City.
However, HTML5 games have yet to achieve the complexity of, say, Hanging With Friends, which Zynga just released on Android devices. Regardless, all eyes--including Zynga's--are on those 4-inch screens that rarely leave your side. And with companies as unlikely as Capcom making buku bucks on mobile games, you can bet Zynga is a' hustlin'.
Are you waiting for more mobile games from Zynga? What would you like to see the developer do next on smartphones? Sound off in the comments. 1 Comment
Half of all U.S. social gamers own a game console, RockYou study says
As if we already didn't know: Some social gamers are more "hardcore" than we thought. But the next study released that attempts to drive this point home is courtesy of Zoo World creator RockYou and conducted by Interpret, a media research firm. Titled the "Social Gamer Thought Leadership Research Study," it finds that 50 percent of U.S. social gamers own a traditional gaming console.
The study, which polled over 2,00 social game fans living in the U.S. aged 18 and older with a 60-40 women to men split, also found that social gamers are more "sophisticated." To back up the claim, the study reports a quarter of social gamers prefer games with quests, and that 22 percent admit that score-sharing drives their urge to play more. Oh, and these players also spend quite a bit of time with the games.
Of the over 2,000 people polled, RockYou and Interpret found that the average social gamer spends an average of 9.5 hours playing out of the 13 average hours they spend on networks like Facebook. The average social game player, according to the study, has just over 16 real-life frieds playing these games with them and has made 20 new friends through social games. Of course, the study doesn't get into how deep said friendships are, but how could you?
The study also reports that 42 percent of social gamers would play a social game more, if offered real world rewards like coupons or gift cards. (But isn't the idea to get them to pay up?) It was just recently that Raptr discovered that a number of Zynga fans may be Halo and Grand Theft Auto fans, too. And before that, Kabam found in its own study that the hardcore crowd on Facebook is growing.
What should you take away from this influx of studies and reports? Regardless of whether you still dig tending to virtual crops or running a shanty town, many developers--even the "casual" ones--seem all but done with your farms and cities of yore.
What do you think of the numerous reports on the growing hardcore crowd in social games? How do you think this will change the industry in the long run? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment
The study, which polled over 2,00 social game fans living in the U.S. aged 18 and older with a 60-40 women to men split, also found that social gamers are more "sophisticated." To back up the claim, the study reports a quarter of social gamers prefer games with quests, and that 22 percent admit that score-sharing drives their urge to play more. Oh, and these players also spend quite a bit of time with the games.
Of the over 2,000 people polled, RockYou and Interpret found that the average social gamer spends an average of 9.5 hours playing out of the 13 average hours they spend on networks like Facebook. The average social game player, according to the study, has just over 16 real-life frieds playing these games with them and has made 20 new friends through social games. Of course, the study doesn't get into how deep said friendships are, but how could you?
The study also reports that 42 percent of social gamers would play a social game more, if offered real world rewards like coupons or gift cards. (But isn't the idea to get them to pay up?) It was just recently that Raptr discovered that a number of Zynga fans may be Halo and Grand Theft Auto fans, too. And before that, Kabam found in its own study that the hardcore crowd on Facebook is growing.
What should you take away from this influx of studies and reports? Regardless of whether you still dig tending to virtual crops or running a shanty town, many developers--even the "casual" ones--seem all but done with your farms and cities of yore.
What do you think of the numerous reports on the growing hardcore crowd in social games? How do you think this will change the industry in the long run? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment
FarmVille Horse Paddock: Everything you need to know
Back in the middle of August, FarmVille saw the launch of the Wildlife Habitat breeding building, and at the time we were told that six (and then seven) new buildings would be released in all. We didn't know when those buildings would eventually release, but as time passed we've been led to here. The final animal breeding building has launched in FarmVille, the Horse Paddock.
Similar to the Cow Pasture, this Horse Paddock is specifically for Horses, and it gives you an opportunity to store those horses and randomly breed those that are inside. You'll only need to have a single "type" of each Horse for it to be possible to breed a matching Foal when harvesting the building, but as of right now, a few Horses or Unicorns may not be able to be stored. (This is probably because either they're coded differently, or Zynga just forgot.)
Of course, before you can actually use your Horse Paddock, you need to build it. You'll need three building materials, two of which are new: 10 each of Logs, Saddles and Bridles. These Logs are the same logs that are used to repair/upgrade the Lighthouse Cove on your new farm, so it will be up to you to decide when exactly to divert your efforts there into building this Horse Paddock. As for gathering these ingredients, you can do so by asking friends through individual gift requests, or you can purchase them outright for 1 Farm Cash each.
Once its construction is complete, you'll be given a free Cream Draft Horse. You can store up to 20 Horses in total inside your new building, and you can have as many Paddocks as you like, provided you collect the building materials to build each on individually. With this feature also comes the ability to grow individual Foals into adults with Farm Cash. You can keep them as babies forever (as before), but if you've received a free Foal from a friend and can't wait for the Nursery Barn to grow it into an adult, you can now pay to do so outright.
Remember, both Foal and Calf mastery are coming soon to the game, if you need any extra incentive to build one of these buildings--and fast! Also, with the release of the Horse Paddock, the Horse Stable is now unavailable to buy/build from the market. You can keep your existing Horse Stable(s), but you'll also be given the option to trade in all of your Horse Stables to receive exclusive Horses and Animal Feed. Then again, as so many users lost their Cows entirely when doing the same for the new Cow Pasture building, I'd suggest holding off on that for now ... or forever.
Check out the rest of our FarmVille Cheats & Tips right here.
What do you think of the Horse Paddock? Do you prefer it over the Horse Stable, even though it has less storage capacity? Sound off in the comments.
Similar to the Cow Pasture, this Horse Paddock is specifically for Horses, and it gives you an opportunity to store those horses and randomly breed those that are inside. You'll only need to have a single "type" of each Horse for it to be possible to breed a matching Foal when harvesting the building, but as of right now, a few Horses or Unicorns may not be able to be stored. (This is probably because either they're coded differently, or Zynga just forgot.)
Of course, before you can actually use your Horse Paddock, you need to build it. You'll need three building materials, two of which are new: 10 each of Logs, Saddles and Bridles. These Logs are the same logs that are used to repair/upgrade the Lighthouse Cove on your new farm, so it will be up to you to decide when exactly to divert your efforts there into building this Horse Paddock. As for gathering these ingredients, you can do so by asking friends through individual gift requests, or you can purchase them outright for 1 Farm Cash each.
Once its construction is complete, you'll be given a free Cream Draft Horse. You can store up to 20 Horses in total inside your new building, and you can have as many Paddocks as you like, provided you collect the building materials to build each on individually. With this feature also comes the ability to grow individual Foals into adults with Farm Cash. You can keep them as babies forever (as before), but if you've received a free Foal from a friend and can't wait for the Nursery Barn to grow it into an adult, you can now pay to do so outright.
Remember, both Foal and Calf mastery are coming soon to the game, if you need any extra incentive to build one of these buildings--and fast! Also, with the release of the Horse Paddock, the Horse Stable is now unavailable to buy/build from the market. You can keep your existing Horse Stable(s), but you'll also be given the option to trade in all of your Horse Stables to receive exclusive Horses and Animal Feed. Then again, as so many users lost their Cows entirely when doing the same for the new Cow Pasture building, I'd suggest holding off on that for now ... or forever.
Check out the rest of our FarmVille Cheats & Tips right here.
What do you think of the Horse Paddock? Do you prefer it over the Horse Stable, even though it has less storage capacity? Sound off in the comments.
FarmVille Horse Paddock Goals: Everything you need to know
With the launch of the Horse Paddock in FarmVille, many farmers are probably wondering just when the matching set of goals will arrive. If you're like most, you probably don't have them in your game yet, as they are on a very slow rollout. For those that do have them, however, you'll see that this set of six goals has a 16-day time limit (perhaps less by the time these roll around to everyone), and will reward you some Horses for completing them. Here's a guide for doing just that:
Horsing Around
* Get 6 Horse Combs
* Place 1 Horse Paddock
* Buy 3 Orange Hay Bales
The Horse Combs are earned through a general news feed post. The full six people can click on this post to actually send you rewards, so you shouldn't have to ask for it twice. As for the Horse Paddock, note that this goal doesn't require you to have completed the construction on the building - just place its base. Finally, the Orange Hay Bales are available from the store for 125 coins each. Finishing this first goal, no matter how simple it might seem, actually gives you some great rewards: 50 XP, 2,500 coins and a Pink Saddled Horse. To be specific, the horse's body is white, but the saddle is pink.
There She Is, Miss Equestrian...
* Get 6 Horse Tiaras
* Buy 2 Horse Topiaries
* Harvest 10 Horses
For this one, we're not sure if Horses placed inside your Horse Paddock (or previously owned Horse Stables will count), so if you try it once and they don't, just pull some Horses out of storage and wait for them to become ready to harvest on their own. To collect the Tiaras, you'll post another item to your news feed asking all friends to help at once. You can then finish this goal off by purchasing the Horse Topiaries, which cost just 100 coins each in the store. For completing this second goal, you're given 50 XP, 2,500 coins, a single Animal Feed and a Fancy Hitching Post decoration.
Sugar High
* Get 6 Sugar Cubes
* Complete a Horse Paddock
* Harvest 100 Vegetables
It doesn't matter which vegetable crop you harvest, so long as you harvest 100 individual squares of them. While you wait for those crops to grow, you can collect the Sugar Cubes via a general news feed post, and can complete the Horse Paddock by collecting its 30 required building ingredients. Check out our guide to the Horse Paddock to see exactly what we mean. Finishing this goal gives you 50 XP, 2,500 coins and a Cream Stallion.
Horseplay
* Get 9 Carrots on Sticks
* Harvest a Horse Paddock
* Harvest 75 Wheat
Each Horse Paddock is available to harvest once every 24 hours, so if you happen to collect from one right before you receive this goal, just wait until the next day to finish this one off. In the meantime, you can post a general news post asking for the Carrots on Sticks and can harvest the wheat as well. For finishing this goal, you'll receive 50 XP, 2,500 coins, five units of Animal Feed and a Blingy Water Trough decoration. Apparently, these horses are fairly high maintenance.
Giddy Up!
* Get 9 Stylish Horse Shoes
* Master Cream Stallion to Level 1
* Harvest 50 Mint
The fastest way to master any Horse will be to make sure they're in storage, so that they can be collected from once per day (rather than once every few days when they're outside of buildings). Just place the Cream Stallion into either Horse building on your farm (that is, if you didn't trade in your Horse Stable for feed and prizes) and collect from it routinely to reach Level 1 before this goal series expires. Oh, and you guessed it--the Stylish Horse Shoes come from a general news post on your wall. Finish off this goal and you'll receive 50 XP, 2,500 coins, five units of Animal Feed and something for your avatar: a Jockey Outfit.
Saddle Up!
* Get 9 Horse Saddles
* Place 10 Horses in a Horse Paddock
* Harvest 50 Spinach
If you already have 10 or more Horses in a Horse Paddock and this step doesn't automatically complete for you, just pull them back out and replace them in the building. That should clear up any "bugs." One final news feed post will help you earn the Horse Saddles, which you can collect while waiting for your Spinach to grow, which takes 14 hours. When finishing this goal, you will have completed the Horse Paddock goal series in its entirety, and will receive 50 XP, 2,500 coins and a Chestnut Mini Stallion (a dark brown miniature horse) as your final rewards.
Just remember--these goals are on a time limit, so if you like these prizes more than those, say, for completing the Chapter 2 Goals in the Lighthouse Cove farm, feel free to prioritize any way you'd like to receive the best prizes in your eyes. Happy farming!
[Source and image credit: Zynga]
Check out the rest of our FarmVille Cheats & Tips right here.
What do you think of these Horse Paddock goals or the prizes therein? Have you received these goals on your farm(s) yet? Sound off in the comments.
Horsing Around
* Get 6 Horse Combs
* Place 1 Horse Paddock
* Buy 3 Orange Hay Bales
The Horse Combs are earned through a general news feed post. The full six people can click on this post to actually send you rewards, so you shouldn't have to ask for it twice. As for the Horse Paddock, note that this goal doesn't require you to have completed the construction on the building - just place its base. Finally, the Orange Hay Bales are available from the store for 125 coins each. Finishing this first goal, no matter how simple it might seem, actually gives you some great rewards: 50 XP, 2,500 coins and a Pink Saddled Horse. To be specific, the horse's body is white, but the saddle is pink.
There She Is, Miss Equestrian...
* Get 6 Horse Tiaras
* Buy 2 Horse Topiaries
* Harvest 10 Horses
For this one, we're not sure if Horses placed inside your Horse Paddock (or previously owned Horse Stables will count), so if you try it once and they don't, just pull some Horses out of storage and wait for them to become ready to harvest on their own. To collect the Tiaras, you'll post another item to your news feed asking all friends to help at once. You can then finish this goal off by purchasing the Horse Topiaries, which cost just 100 coins each in the store. For completing this second goal, you're given 50 XP, 2,500 coins, a single Animal Feed and a Fancy Hitching Post decoration.
Sugar High
* Get 6 Sugar Cubes
* Complete a Horse Paddock
* Harvest 100 Vegetables
It doesn't matter which vegetable crop you harvest, so long as you harvest 100 individual squares of them. While you wait for those crops to grow, you can collect the Sugar Cubes via a general news feed post, and can complete the Horse Paddock by collecting its 30 required building ingredients. Check out our guide to the Horse Paddock to see exactly what we mean. Finishing this goal gives you 50 XP, 2,500 coins and a Cream Stallion.
Horseplay
* Get 9 Carrots on Sticks
* Harvest a Horse Paddock
* Harvest 75 Wheat
Each Horse Paddock is available to harvest once every 24 hours, so if you happen to collect from one right before you receive this goal, just wait until the next day to finish this one off. In the meantime, you can post a general news post asking for the Carrots on Sticks and can harvest the wheat as well. For finishing this goal, you'll receive 50 XP, 2,500 coins, five units of Animal Feed and a Blingy Water Trough decoration. Apparently, these horses are fairly high maintenance.
Giddy Up!
* Get 9 Stylish Horse Shoes
* Master Cream Stallion to Level 1
* Harvest 50 Mint
The fastest way to master any Horse will be to make sure they're in storage, so that they can be collected from once per day (rather than once every few days when they're outside of buildings). Just place the Cream Stallion into either Horse building on your farm (that is, if you didn't trade in your Horse Stable for feed and prizes) and collect from it routinely to reach Level 1 before this goal series expires. Oh, and you guessed it--the Stylish Horse Shoes come from a general news post on your wall. Finish off this goal and you'll receive 50 XP, 2,500 coins, five units of Animal Feed and something for your avatar: a Jockey Outfit.
Saddle Up!
* Get 9 Horse Saddles
* Place 10 Horses in a Horse Paddock
* Harvest 50 Spinach
If you already have 10 or more Horses in a Horse Paddock and this step doesn't automatically complete for you, just pull them back out and replace them in the building. That should clear up any "bugs." One final news feed post will help you earn the Horse Saddles, which you can collect while waiting for your Spinach to grow, which takes 14 hours. When finishing this goal, you will have completed the Horse Paddock goal series in its entirety, and will receive 50 XP, 2,500 coins and a Chestnut Mini Stallion (a dark brown miniature horse) as your final rewards.
Just remember--these goals are on a time limit, so if you like these prizes more than those, say, for completing the Chapter 2 Goals in the Lighthouse Cove farm, feel free to prioritize any way you'd like to receive the best prizes in your eyes. Happy farming!
[Source and image credit: Zynga]
Check out the rest of our FarmVille Cheats & Tips right here.
What do you think of these Horse Paddock goals or the prizes therein? Have you received these goals on your farm(s) yet? Sound off in the comments.
Thứ Năm, 29 tháng 9, 2011
Game of the Day: Impale
No one likes zombies.They're scary, they're smelly, they eat our brains, they congest our highways, and are generally a nuisance to have around. Has one of your socks ever gone mysteriously missing in the wash? Chances are a zombie took it.
Today's Game of the Day, Impale, understands your zombie-hatred. That's why the object of the game is to hurl zombies from a catapult, impaling them on spikes, hooks, saws, and much much more. On each map there are a number of hazards with red lights on them, impaling a zombie on that object will turn off the red light. If you turn off all the red lights, you'll progress to the next level!
Though it may sound easy, Impale quickly ramps up the difficulty in it's 50 regular and 20 bonus levels. It'll take accuracy, wit, and a little luck to successfully impale all the zombies.
Click here to play Impale!
impale game of the day impale game of the day
Pro Tips:
* To unlock the bonus levels you'll need to get a score of 1,000 on the first 50 levels. To do that, you're going to need to limit the amount of zombies you launch. The fewer zombies it takes you to complete a level, the higher your score.
* Remember to aim carefully. The further your cursor is from the catapult when you click, the farther and faster your zombie will travel. Also, though they are above death, zombies aren't above gravity. When you launch a zombie, it will travel in an arc. Aim slightly above what your trying to hit for best results.
* If you aren't looking to unlock the bonus levels or get a high score, and just want to have fun, may I suggest my preferred technique: the zombie catapult machine gun. Simply rapid-fire zombies at whatever you want for maximum effectiveness.
Click here to play Impale!
Were you able to complete all fifty levels?
Today's Game of the Day, Impale, understands your zombie-hatred. That's why the object of the game is to hurl zombies from a catapult, impaling them on spikes, hooks, saws, and much much more. On each map there are a number of hazards with red lights on them, impaling a zombie on that object will turn off the red light. If you turn off all the red lights, you'll progress to the next level!
Though it may sound easy, Impale quickly ramps up the difficulty in it's 50 regular and 20 bonus levels. It'll take accuracy, wit, and a little luck to successfully impale all the zombies.
Click here to play Impale!
impale game of the day impale game of the day
Pro Tips:
* To unlock the bonus levels you'll need to get a score of 1,000 on the first 50 levels. To do that, you're going to need to limit the amount of zombies you launch. The fewer zombies it takes you to complete a level, the higher your score.
* Remember to aim carefully. The further your cursor is from the catapult when you click, the farther and faster your zombie will travel. Also, though they are above death, zombies aren't above gravity. When you launch a zombie, it will travel in an arc. Aim slightly above what your trying to hit for best results.
* If you aren't looking to unlock the bonus levels or get a high score, and just want to have fun, may I suggest my preferred technique: the zombie catapult machine gun. Simply rapid-fire zombies at whatever you want for maximum effectiveness.
Click here to play Impale!
Were you able to complete all fifty levels?
Android gaming gets smurfalicious, Smurfs' Village launches Sept. 28
Android owners, did you really think you could survive the blue wave for long? Capcom's Beeline Interactive announced that Smurfs' Village will launch on select Android devices for free on Sept. 28. Originally released for the iPhone and iPad in late 2010, the mobile social game skyrocketed in popularity and even resulted in one hilarious lesson in child rearing in 2011.
The game plays out much like mobile Zynga games like CityVille Hometown in that players are tasked (by Papa Smurf) to build up their very own--you guessed it--village. But this time, it's for the Smurfs to dwell in as the evil Gargamel seeks them out. During your time expanding the Smurfs' miniature empire, you'll gain access to some of the more popular Smurfs and their special abilities.
Namely, many of these blue buggers will unlock mini games for you to enjoy and find additional resources with like Greedy Smurf's Baking Game or Papa Smurf's Potion Mixing Game. Of course, players can also share their experiences with their friends on Facebook through Facebook Connect. According to Capcom, Smurfs' Village consistently ranks as a top grossing app worldwide. (We think we have an idea of how that happened back in the day.)
Most recently, Capcom and Beeline released Smurfs' Grabber to iPhone and iPad, which will soon integrate directly with Smurfs' Village. (Not to mention that Ubisoft released a full-blown Smurfs game for Facebook.) We imagine that, with the heaping gold mine that the Smurfs property has proven to be for Capcom, it won't be long before you're grabbing for goodies in Smurfs' Village with Smurfs' Grabber on Android devices, too. Until then, just focus on building your blue buddies some comfy mushroom houses.
Click here to find The Smurfs' Village on the Android Market >
Are you a fan of the recent mobile and social takes on the Smurfs in smartphones and on Facebook? Will we ever get enough of the smurfing? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.
The game plays out much like mobile Zynga games like CityVille Hometown in that players are tasked (by Papa Smurf) to build up their very own--you guessed it--village. But this time, it's for the Smurfs to dwell in as the evil Gargamel seeks them out. During your time expanding the Smurfs' miniature empire, you'll gain access to some of the more popular Smurfs and their special abilities.
Namely, many of these blue buggers will unlock mini games for you to enjoy and find additional resources with like Greedy Smurf's Baking Game or Papa Smurf's Potion Mixing Game. Of course, players can also share their experiences with their friends on Facebook through Facebook Connect. According to Capcom, Smurfs' Village consistently ranks as a top grossing app worldwide. (We think we have an idea of how that happened back in the day.)
Most recently, Capcom and Beeline released Smurfs' Grabber to iPhone and iPad, which will soon integrate directly with Smurfs' Village. (Not to mention that Ubisoft released a full-blown Smurfs game for Facebook.) We imagine that, with the heaping gold mine that the Smurfs property has proven to be for Capcom, it won't be long before you're grabbing for goodies in Smurfs' Village with Smurfs' Grabber on Android devices, too. Until then, just focus on building your blue buddies some comfy mushroom houses.
Click here to find The Smurfs' Village on the Android Market >
Are you a fan of the recent mobile and social takes on the Smurfs in smartphones and on Facebook? Will we ever get enough of the smurfing? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.
Zynga publishes Mafia Wars 2 comic, sets the stage for Las Vegas intrigue
Mafia Wars 2 has remained a mystery since the word leaked in January. The only follow-up the public has gotten from Zynga is last week's 'badass' trailer. But the game's official fan page announced a Mafia Wars 2 digital comic last night, titled with the game's much bandied about tagline, "Being Bad Never Felt So Good". The comic presents the glamorous yet dangerous world of the game, which is set in Las Vegas, and drops just enough exposition for the reader to meet the cast -- including whose shoes players will be stepping into once the game launches.
This eight-page comic was created by UDON Entertainment, a Canadian comics studio that specializes in Asian-inspired art, lending the story a manga flair in the character designs and paneling layout. UDON (named after the Japanese noodle) isn't a new entrant in games comics either. They're best known for their work with major Japanese games maker Capcom, drawing and publishing comics and artbooks for the Street Fighter series.
Mafia Wars 2 characters
So far, Zynga seems intent on keeping quiet about Mafia Wars 2's gameplay (except for the fact that it'll be a "vast 3-D world"), but they've been very big on establishing the game's world and its characters, the latter of which actually have detailed backstories available on the official website. A focus on characters and narratives is a rare thing in Facebook games. The last time this was done, and to a much greater extent, was Qunify's CLASH: Rise of the Heroes, which is heavily based on superhero comics. One of Zynga's developers, Mike Humphrey, has said that "I'm really looking forward to finally seeing how Mafia Wars 2 is received; it's unlike most games on Facebook right now, and I think it pushes the envelope of what people can expect from games on the platform." Let's hope they keep pushing until the day of the launch.
To check out the comic yourself, click here and follow the directions to 'Like' the game's official Facebook fan page.
How do you like the comic so far? Are you enjoying what appears to be Zynga's move towards more in-depth, story-driven Facebook games? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment
This eight-page comic was created by UDON Entertainment, a Canadian comics studio that specializes in Asian-inspired art, lending the story a manga flair in the character designs and paneling layout. UDON (named after the Japanese noodle) isn't a new entrant in games comics either. They're best known for their work with major Japanese games maker Capcom, drawing and publishing comics and artbooks for the Street Fighter series.
Mafia Wars 2 characters
So far, Zynga seems intent on keeping quiet about Mafia Wars 2's gameplay (except for the fact that it'll be a "vast 3-D world"), but they've been very big on establishing the game's world and its characters, the latter of which actually have detailed backstories available on the official website. A focus on characters and narratives is a rare thing in Facebook games. The last time this was done, and to a much greater extent, was Qunify's CLASH: Rise of the Heroes, which is heavily based on superhero comics. One of Zynga's developers, Mike Humphrey, has said that "I'm really looking forward to finally seeing how Mafia Wars 2 is received; it's unlike most games on Facebook right now, and I think it pushes the envelope of what people can expect from games on the platform." Let's hope they keep pushing until the day of the launch.
To check out the comic yourself, click here and follow the directions to 'Like' the game's official Facebook fan page.
How do you like the comic so far? Are you enjoying what appears to be Zynga's move towards more in-depth, story-driven Facebook games? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment
Chủ Nhật, 25 tháng 9, 2011
Cafe World 2 Year Anniversary Manny's Journey Goals: Everything you need to know
After spending a few days in Great Britain, the Cafe World two-year anniversary extravaganza has moved onto the Philippines, where we'll meet Master Chef Manny in a new set of goals called "Manny's Journey." Through these goals, we'll be introduced to four new dishes, but of course, they won't simply be handed to you. You'll need to finish the Manny's Journey goals multiple times in order to unlock all of the prizes, which include a 50% Lightning Stove (that would reduce the time it takes your dishes to cook by 50%). Here's a complete guide to these new goals.
As a note, we weren't told by Zynga whether or not these goals contain the same dishes for all users across the entire game, or if they vary as in past goal sets. If you notice any differences in your own game, this will likely be the cause.
Manny's Journey 1
* Ask for 3 Old Filipino Recipe Cards
* Place the Roasting Pit
* Serve 20 Fish n Chips
You'll start this goal series out serving Fish n Chips which takes two hours to prepare. You can wait for those to cook while asking your friends to send you the Old Filipino Recipe Cards, and can finish off this goal by placing the base to your new Roasting Pit. Yes, there's a building project to go along with these goals, and we'll bring you a guide to building the Roasting Pit as soon as we can you can check out our guide to building the Roasting Pit right here. Finishing this first goal gives you 15 Travel Passes. As a reminder, these Travel Passes work as contest entries of sorts, giving you a chance to win in-game prizes, along with real world trips to exotic locations.
Manny's Journey 2
* Ask for 6 Filipino Postcards
* Spice 6 Neighbors Dishes
* Serve 20 Gnocchi Gianna
The Gnocchi Gianna takes six hours to prepare, and is unlocked while completing the Pasta Maker goals. For finishing this goal, you'll receive 20 Travel Passes.
Manny's Journey 3
* Ask for 10 New Filipino Recipe Cards
* Collect 4 Anniversary Collection items
* Serve 30 Broiled Rainbow Trout
Anniversary Collection items are earned by using spices on your dishes, while Broiled Rainbow Trout takes 12 hours to cook (at the very least, this gives you plenty of time to collect spices if you don't earn the four Anniversary Collection items after running through your supply). Finish this goal to receive 25 Travel Passes.
Manny's Journey 4
* Ask for 8 Filipino Postcards
* Serve 12 Cafe Bombon
* Serve 30 Osso Bucco
Osso Bucco takes 18 hours to prepare, giving you plenty of time to collect these Postcards from friends. As for the Cafe Bombon, this is a Specialty Coffee Drink that can only be served after you've hired Becky the Barista to work in your cafe. It costs 55 Energy for 10 Servings, so you'll need to prepare it twice in order to reach the total required number of 12 servings. You've almost reached the finale at this point, and finishing this particular goal gives you 30 Travel Passes.
Manny's Journey 5
* Ask for 12 Dirty Filipino Recipe Cards
* Serve 18 Acai Blueberry Juice
* Complete the Roasting Pit
Once again, the Acai Blueberry Juice must be served from a machine - this time the Drink Bar. It's not available until after you've hired Beverly Bartender. Once you finish this goal, you'll have finished off Manny's Journey, and will receive 500 Travel Passes. You'll also receive one of four new dishes, from a selection of Beef Mechado, Filipino Paella, Lechon and Sisig.
To be especially clear, completing this goal series the first time only gives you a single recipe, and it looks like you'll need to complete the entirety of these goals another three times to unlock the remaining three recipes. These goals (along with your chance to repeat the British goals) will expire in 10 days, so you'll want to make sure and complete as many goals as quickly as possible to stand the biggest chance of unlocking everything in time.
What do you think of these Manny's Journey goals? Do you think they're easier, or more difficult than Winston's Royals goals? Sound off in the comments.
As a note, we weren't told by Zynga whether or not these goals contain the same dishes for all users across the entire game, or if they vary as in past goal sets. If you notice any differences in your own game, this will likely be the cause.
Manny's Journey 1
* Ask for 3 Old Filipino Recipe Cards
* Place the Roasting Pit
* Serve 20 Fish n Chips
You'll start this goal series out serving Fish n Chips which takes two hours to prepare. You can wait for those to cook while asking your friends to send you the Old Filipino Recipe Cards, and can finish off this goal by placing the base to your new Roasting Pit. Yes, there's a building project to go along with these goals, and we'll bring you a guide to building the Roasting Pit as soon as we can you can check out our guide to building the Roasting Pit right here. Finishing this first goal gives you 15 Travel Passes. As a reminder, these Travel Passes work as contest entries of sorts, giving you a chance to win in-game prizes, along with real world trips to exotic locations.
Manny's Journey 2
* Ask for 6 Filipino Postcards
* Spice 6 Neighbors Dishes
* Serve 20 Gnocchi Gianna
The Gnocchi Gianna takes six hours to prepare, and is unlocked while completing the Pasta Maker goals. For finishing this goal, you'll receive 20 Travel Passes.
Manny's Journey 3
* Ask for 10 New Filipino Recipe Cards
* Collect 4 Anniversary Collection items
* Serve 30 Broiled Rainbow Trout
Anniversary Collection items are earned by using spices on your dishes, while Broiled Rainbow Trout takes 12 hours to cook (at the very least, this gives you plenty of time to collect spices if you don't earn the four Anniversary Collection items after running through your supply). Finish this goal to receive 25 Travel Passes.
Manny's Journey 4
* Ask for 8 Filipino Postcards
* Serve 12 Cafe Bombon
* Serve 30 Osso Bucco
Osso Bucco takes 18 hours to prepare, giving you plenty of time to collect these Postcards from friends. As for the Cafe Bombon, this is a Specialty Coffee Drink that can only be served after you've hired Becky the Barista to work in your cafe. It costs 55 Energy for 10 Servings, so you'll need to prepare it twice in order to reach the total required number of 12 servings. You've almost reached the finale at this point, and finishing this particular goal gives you 30 Travel Passes.
Manny's Journey 5
* Ask for 12 Dirty Filipino Recipe Cards
* Serve 18 Acai Blueberry Juice
* Complete the Roasting Pit
Once again, the Acai Blueberry Juice must be served from a machine - this time the Drink Bar. It's not available until after you've hired Beverly Bartender. Once you finish this goal, you'll have finished off Manny's Journey, and will receive 500 Travel Passes. You'll also receive one of four new dishes, from a selection of Beef Mechado, Filipino Paella, Lechon and Sisig.
To be especially clear, completing this goal series the first time only gives you a single recipe, and it looks like you'll need to complete the entirety of these goals another three times to unlock the remaining three recipes. These goals (along with your chance to repeat the British goals) will expire in 10 days, so you'll want to make sure and complete as many goals as quickly as possible to stand the biggest chance of unlocking everything in time.
What do you think of these Manny's Journey goals? Do you think they're easier, or more difficult than Winston's Royals goals? Sound off in the comments.
Cafe World Roasting Pit: Everything you need to know
On top of being required to complete five new goals in Cafe World's Manny's Journey set, the game's two-year anniversary event has received another building project as well. This "buildable" is the Roasting Pit, the base of which will be given to you for free when you start these Manny's Journeys goals. While you may think you can simply place the base and then forget about it, if you're interested in completing these goals, and subsequently unlocking any of the four recipes associated with them, you'll be required to complete its construction.
Once you place the Roasting Pit, you'll be able to begin the process of asking your friends for building materials. You'll need to collect eight Bags of Coal, 10 Steel Plates, six Roasting Sticks and six Roasting Pit Stones. The Bags of Coal are the only items you'll be able to ask for via a general post to your news feed / wall, while the other three items are earned via individual gift requests sent to those friends that you think would be the most likely to help you.
Once you finish this Roasting Pit, you'll not only have a new "decorative" machine in your cafe, but you'll also be able to earn a single bonus mastery point for each Filipino dish you serve while the Roasting Pit is displayed and therefore "active" in your cafe. That is, instead of earning a single point for each Filipino dish, this Roasting Pit will cause you to earn two points with every serving, well, served. Also, even if you don't manage to unlock all four recipes in the Manny's Journey goal set, this Roasting Pit will still have a purpose, as a single, pre-existing dish falls under the Filipino heading: Chicken Adobo.
Again, this machine must be built in order to complete the Manny's Journey goal set in Cafe World, so check out our guide to doing just that to have the best shot of earning some new dishes - and fast!
What do you think of the Roasting Pit? Do you like items like this that allow you to earn bonus dish mastery points? Let us know in the comments.
Once you place the Roasting Pit, you'll be able to begin the process of asking your friends for building materials. You'll need to collect eight Bags of Coal, 10 Steel Plates, six Roasting Sticks and six Roasting Pit Stones. The Bags of Coal are the only items you'll be able to ask for via a general post to your news feed / wall, while the other three items are earned via individual gift requests sent to those friends that you think would be the most likely to help you.
Once you finish this Roasting Pit, you'll not only have a new "decorative" machine in your cafe, but you'll also be able to earn a single bonus mastery point for each Filipino dish you serve while the Roasting Pit is displayed and therefore "active" in your cafe. That is, instead of earning a single point for each Filipino dish, this Roasting Pit will cause you to earn two points with every serving, well, served. Also, even if you don't manage to unlock all four recipes in the Manny's Journey goal set, this Roasting Pit will still have a purpose, as a single, pre-existing dish falls under the Filipino heading: Chicken Adobo.
Again, this machine must be built in order to complete the Manny's Journey goal set in Cafe World, so check out our guide to doing just that to have the best shot of earning some new dishes - and fast!
What do you think of the Roasting Pit? Do you like items like this that allow you to earn bonus dish mastery points? Let us know in the comments.
Thứ Bảy, 24 tháng 9, 2011
Social game network Hi5 suffers 'significant' layoffs, pushes onward
Hopefully not sounding too crass, but this is one of the unfortunate if efficient advantages of technology. TechCrunch reports that Hi5, a social game network looking to compete with Google+ Games and Facebook in 2012, has laid off 28 employees. The decision, confirmed by infamous pundit and Hi5 president and CTO Alex St. John, was made in response to new tech:
"We have also been building the next generation site in a new architecture, .NET framework, and have moved away from Open Source and Java technology," St. John told TechCrunch. "As we have recently turned the corner on our technology migration efforts we have been able to significantly reduce the number of positions required to support the older hi5 site and are in the process of re-organizing the company to focus entirely on the development and deployment of our next generation social play site."
Simply put, technological advances in how the future Hi5 website will work has led to automation in web support that was before handled by multiple employees. Since the new website can handle much of those tasks on its own, 28 of those full-time and contract workers were deemed no longer necessary. TechCrunch recalls this is far from the first time Hi5 has trimmed the fat, so to speak.
The company, originally a general-use social network, has since pivoted toward capitalizing on social gaming. Early next year, it will unveil its next generation social gaming network with 28 fewer people to celebrate, sadly. "The departing folks were very talented and we hated to let them go but our business is changing rapidly now," St. John said to TechCrunch. "We hope that other great companies in this area snap them up quickly."
Even with its automated enhancements, it will be interesting to see just whether Hi5 can hop into the ring with the big league players, Facebook and Google. Its strategy doesn't seem to be one of scale, so we're intrigued to see what's up St. John's sleeve. Regardless, best wishes to those 28 unfortunate folks--may you find super awesome gigs elsewhere.
What do you think of this news just as Hi5 prepares to enter its next phase of social gaming? Do you think the company could become a viable competitor to Facebook and Google in social games? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment
"We have also been building the next generation site in a new architecture, .NET framework, and have moved away from Open Source and Java technology," St. John told TechCrunch. "As we have recently turned the corner on our technology migration efforts we have been able to significantly reduce the number of positions required to support the older hi5 site and are in the process of re-organizing the company to focus entirely on the development and deployment of our next generation social play site."
Simply put, technological advances in how the future Hi5 website will work has led to automation in web support that was before handled by multiple employees. Since the new website can handle much of those tasks on its own, 28 of those full-time and contract workers were deemed no longer necessary. TechCrunch recalls this is far from the first time Hi5 has trimmed the fat, so to speak.
The company, originally a general-use social network, has since pivoted toward capitalizing on social gaming. Early next year, it will unveil its next generation social gaming network with 28 fewer people to celebrate, sadly. "The departing folks were very talented and we hated to let them go but our business is changing rapidly now," St. John said to TechCrunch. "We hope that other great companies in this area snap them up quickly."
Even with its automated enhancements, it will be interesting to see just whether Hi5 can hop into the ring with the big league players, Facebook and Google. Its strategy doesn't seem to be one of scale, so we're intrigued to see what's up St. John's sleeve. Regardless, best wishes to those 28 unfortunate folks--may you find super awesome gigs elsewhere.
What do you think of this news just as Hi5 prepares to enter its next phase of social gaming? Do you think the company could become a viable competitor to Facebook and Google in social games? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment
Zynga reveals Mafia Wars 2, to be a 'badass' Facebook game [Video]
To most, Facebook gaming is nothing but farmland, cows and rainbows with a dash of brand endorsement. Zynga, one of the stereotype's main offenders, hopes to set the record straight with Mafia Wars 2. A full-blown sequel to the original text-based Facebook RPG (role-playing game), Mafia Wars 2 will bring the franchise into "a vast 3D world where being bad never felt so good."
Judging from this early artwork and the ... interesting trailer below, it seems as if Zynga could make good on previous speculation that its next Mafia Wars game would take a more literal approach in paying homage to its inspirations.
The trailer is set to Jane's Addiction's "Mountain Song," you know, so its badassery really sets in. Jokes (about the narration) aside, the video is impressively-edited with its stylistic, "golden" approach to blood and gore.
Unfortunately, all we know about Mafia Wars 2 is apparently how badass it's going to be. While that may be all some need to get psyched, you can check out and "Like" the game's official Facebook fan page to find out more about the game.
Oh, and you'll score some early items for the game by hopping on board early like some accessories for your character and decorations. These already tell us a great deal about the game--fully customizable 3D avatars, anyone? Alright, now we know you're hyped.
Judging from this early artwork and the ... interesting trailer below, it seems as if Zynga could make good on previous speculation that its next Mafia Wars game would take a more literal approach in paying homage to its inspirations.
The trailer is set to Jane's Addiction's "Mountain Song," you know, so its badassery really sets in. Jokes (about the narration) aside, the video is impressively-edited with its stylistic, "golden" approach to blood and gore.
Unfortunately, all we know about Mafia Wars 2 is apparently how badass it's going to be. While that may be all some need to get psyched, you can check out and "Like" the game's official Facebook fan page to find out more about the game.
Oh, and you'll score some early items for the game by hopping on board early like some accessories for your character and decorations. These already tell us a great deal about the game--fully customizable 3D avatars, anyone? Alright, now we know you're hyped.
Finally, hang out with your Android buddies in Hanging With Friends
It looks like Tuesday is unofficially Zynga Game Day, as the company just announced that Hanging With Friends is now available for free on the Android Market. Keep in mind, this comes just minutes after the company revealed Mafia Wars 2. Even better news than the fact that Android players can get in on Zynga With Friends's second mobile game is that it's now cross-platform ready.
Yes, now you can play both your iPhone-toting friends and your best Android-owning enemies buds in this crazy take on the classic pen and paper game of Hangman. In case you're unfamiliar, Hanging With Friends takes the popular turn-based exchange of the wildly popular Words With Friends and applies that to a wacky game of Hangman, but with some twists.
For one, players who choose their word for an opponent are limited by the letters provided to them. Then, that challenge is sent to a player who must guess the word with a limited amount of guesses. This exchange of posing challenges and guesses continues asynchronously until one player loses all of their balloons and falls into a pit of lava or other various deathtraps.
Luckily, you have a series of power-ups at your disposal that can restore some of your guesses or reveal letters that may or may not be part of the word your friend chose in secret. Of course, these boosts cost Coins, which you can accumulate over time by winning Hanging With Friends matches or purchasing them outright in-game.
Gallery: Hanging With Friends on Android
Of course, the Android version contains all of the features that its iOS counterpart sports, like the ability to play up to 20 games at a time, in-game chat and push notifications. Finally, you can add friends via your existing With Friends account, or just connect to Facebook (like everyone else) to find more folks to crush with your wordsmithery. Have at thee, Fandroids.
Click here to download Hanging With Friends on the Android Market Now >
Are you psyched that Hanging With Friends has finally come to Android? What other Zynga games do you hope to see on Android phones on the future? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.
Yes, now you can play both your iPhone-toting friends and your best Android-owning enemies buds in this crazy take on the classic pen and paper game of Hangman. In case you're unfamiliar, Hanging With Friends takes the popular turn-based exchange of the wildly popular Words With Friends and applies that to a wacky game of Hangman, but with some twists.
For one, players who choose their word for an opponent are limited by the letters provided to them. Then, that challenge is sent to a player who must guess the word with a limited amount of guesses. This exchange of posing challenges and guesses continues asynchronously until one player loses all of their balloons and falls into a pit of lava or other various deathtraps.
Luckily, you have a series of power-ups at your disposal that can restore some of your guesses or reveal letters that may or may not be part of the word your friend chose in secret. Of course, these boosts cost Coins, which you can accumulate over time by winning Hanging With Friends matches or purchasing them outright in-game.
Gallery: Hanging With Friends on Android
Of course, the Android version contains all of the features that its iOS counterpart sports, like the ability to play up to 20 games at a time, in-game chat and push notifications. Finally, you can add friends via your existing With Friends account, or just connect to Facebook (like everyone else) to find more folks to crush with your wordsmithery. Have at thee, Fandroids.
Click here to download Hanging With Friends on the Android Market Now >
Are you psyched that Hanging With Friends has finally come to Android? What other Zynga games do you hope to see on Android phones on the future? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.
Game of the Day: Alchemy
alchemy game of the dayAlchemy is a game of strategy and wit. Carefully place runes and turn the entire board to gold. You can only place runes next to pieces of the same color or shape. However, you can place a rune of any color or shape next to a grey stone. If you can't place the rune, you may discard it. But be careful, discard four runes in a row and it'll be game over! If you fill a row or column with runes, they'll all disappear, opening up the board. Similarly, a skull will let you destroy any rune on the board.
Alchemy may seem complicated at first, but once you grasp the basics, you'll be hooked on its addictive gameplay. Good luck!
Click here to play Alchemy!
alchemy game of the day alchemy game of the day
What did you think of Alchemy? Where you able to turn lead into gold?
Alchemy may seem complicated at first, but once you grasp the basics, you'll be hooked on its addictive gameplay. Good luck!
Click here to play Alchemy!
alchemy game of the day alchemy game of the day
What did you think of Alchemy? Where you able to turn lead into gold?
Chuck star Yvonne Strahovski is awfully addicted to Angry Birds
Another falls to the power of casual games. Just as actress Emma Stone had to go cold turkey on FarmVille, Chuck star Yvonne Strahovski has admitted to Collider an acute Angry Birds addiction. The actress (and voice of Miranda Lawson in Bioware's Mass Effect series) told the website she's not just hopelessly addicted to the game, but has some serious bird-slinging game.
"I don't know if this classifies as a video game, but I have a terrible obsession with Angry Birds," Strahovski admitted to Collider. "I have 3 stared every single level that has ever come out ever except for this one in this moon thing that just came out." Well, she already has me beat, it seems, and likely many of you.
When asked whether she used YouTube or something else to cheat, the Australian starlet replied, "No. I am legitimate. The only thing I looked up is that I could't find the last two golden watermelons in the Rio version. I could't find them. I was like, 'Where are the watermelons?!' So I had to go online and find out where they were." Alright, we get it, so you know your stuff.
Her next mission? Clear every level in the game with 100 percent using the Mighty Eagle. Well, I guess that's about the only challenge she has left, considering she's obliterated every last level. After that, maybe she might consider voice over work for the upcoming Angry Birds movie when it goes into production in oh, I don't know, two years? And who knows, maybe you'll catch her in a Starbucks, flicking away to destroy your high score sometime soon.
[Via Kotaku]
[Image Credit: Collider]
Are you still addicted to Angry Birds after all this time? Have you accomplished more in the game than lovely Yvonne? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.
"I don't know if this classifies as a video game, but I have a terrible obsession with Angry Birds," Strahovski admitted to Collider. "I have 3 stared every single level that has ever come out ever except for this one in this moon thing that just came out." Well, she already has me beat, it seems, and likely many of you.
When asked whether she used YouTube or something else to cheat, the Australian starlet replied, "No. I am legitimate. The only thing I looked up is that I could't find the last two golden watermelons in the Rio version. I could't find them. I was like, 'Where are the watermelons?!' So I had to go online and find out where they were." Alright, we get it, so you know your stuff.
Her next mission? Clear every level in the game with 100 percent using the Mighty Eagle. Well, I guess that's about the only challenge she has left, considering she's obliterated every last level. After that, maybe she might consider voice over work for the upcoming Angry Birds movie when it goes into production in oh, I don't know, two years? And who knows, maybe you'll catch her in a Starbucks, flicking away to destroy your high score sometime soon.
[Via Kotaku]
[Image Credit: Collider]
Are you still addicted to Angry Birds after all this time? Have you accomplished more in the game than lovely Yvonne? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.
Thứ Năm, 22 tháng 9, 2011
Empires & Allies Battle Blitz launches global PvP (and special prizes)
Finally, Zynga's answer to the growing legion of hardcore strategy games on Facebook, Empires & Allies, puts on the brass knuckles, so to speak. The developer has released Battle Blitz to the game, a feature that essentially allows you to invade (or be invaded by) any opposing Empire in the game. In other words, E&A finally has its own global PvP (player vs player) mode.
The feature appears on your tool bar to the bottom right of the screen with an icon that looks like two heads butting each other. Click on it to open the Battle Blitz menu. This replaces your Neighbor Bar for the time being with portraits of players that may or (most likely) may not be your Facebook friends. However, you must fight these players in succession--more on that later.
Once you click on the player, you will be taken to their Empire. Then, it's clobbering time as per usual. Click on a site to invade, and proceed to bring it to the ground. Once you successfully invade an opposing Empire, the Prize Machine will appear. Successfully invading Empires through Battle Blitz earns you Tokens to use in this feature for rewards like resources.
E&A Prize Machine
The reason you must invade Battle Blitz players in succession is that the higher you climb on the Battle Blitz ladder, the better your rewards will be from the Prize Machine. And just like normal invasions between friends, players can easily opt out of Battle Blitz by using your Immunity Tower or click on the white flag icon found to the left of the Battle Blitz bar. But look, this is war--why would you want to do that? What are you ... chicken?
[Source and Image Credit: Zynga]
Have you participated in the Battle Blitz feature yet--what do you think? Is this the feature you've been waiting for in E&A, or what else do you think the game needs? Sound off in the comments. 23 Comments
The feature appears on your tool bar to the bottom right of the screen with an icon that looks like two heads butting each other. Click on it to open the Battle Blitz menu. This replaces your Neighbor Bar for the time being with portraits of players that may or (most likely) may not be your Facebook friends. However, you must fight these players in succession--more on that later.
Once you click on the player, you will be taken to their Empire. Then, it's clobbering time as per usual. Click on a site to invade, and proceed to bring it to the ground. Once you successfully invade an opposing Empire, the Prize Machine will appear. Successfully invading Empires through Battle Blitz earns you Tokens to use in this feature for rewards like resources.
E&A Prize Machine
The reason you must invade Battle Blitz players in succession is that the higher you climb on the Battle Blitz ladder, the better your rewards will be from the Prize Machine. And just like normal invasions between friends, players can easily opt out of Battle Blitz by using your Immunity Tower or click on the white flag icon found to the left of the Battle Blitz bar. But look, this is war--why would you want to do that? What are you ... chicken?
[Source and Image Credit: Zynga]
Have you participated in the Battle Blitz feature yet--what do you think? Is this the feature you've been waiting for in E&A, or what else do you think the game needs? Sound off in the comments. 23 Comments
FarmVille Livestock Pen Animals re-released to fill your habitats
If you're looking for a slew of new (ok, re-released) animals to fill your new Livestock Pen in FarmVille, you'll want to check out the game's store within the next five days, as you can choose from a selection of re-released pigs, sheep and goats for a limited time. Here's the full lineup of re-released animals, along with their prices for your reference.
Black Pied Pig - 18 Farm Cash
Alpine Goat - 14 Farm Cash
Latxa Sheep - 20 Farm Cash
Biker Goat - 14 Farm Cash
Fame Sheep - 20 Farm Cash
Chamois Goat - 14 Farm Cash
Island Pig - 16 Farm Cash
Devon Pig - 16 Farm Cash
Again, these animals have been released previously; for instance, the Black Pied Pig was released previously in the German event in 2010 and then again in the Birthday Classics even earlier this year. You'll want to make sure you don't already have these animals on your farm before shelling out the Farm Cash, so you don't run into unnecessary duplicates. Just make sure you shop fast - these little fellas (and ladies) won't be around forever.
Are you going to purchase any of these animals during their brief re-release in the store, or do you already have the best ones on your farm? Sound off in the comments.
Black Pied Pig - 18 Farm Cash
Alpine Goat - 14 Farm Cash
Latxa Sheep - 20 Farm Cash
Biker Goat - 14 Farm Cash
Fame Sheep - 20 Farm Cash
Chamois Goat - 14 Farm Cash
Island Pig - 16 Farm Cash
Devon Pig - 16 Farm Cash
Again, these animals have been released previously; for instance, the Black Pied Pig was released previously in the German event in 2010 and then again in the Birthday Classics even earlier this year. You'll want to make sure you don't already have these animals on your farm before shelling out the Farm Cash, so you don't run into unnecessary duplicates. Just make sure you shop fast - these little fellas (and ladies) won't be around forever.
Are you going to purchase any of these animals during their brief re-release in the store, or do you already have the best ones on your farm? Sound off in the comments.
FarmVille Livestock Mystery Crate: What's inside?
As part of Zynga's attempt to make people care about the Livestock Pen in FarmVille, which, admittedly is a little hard (don't we already have dedicated storage buildings for both pigs and sheep?), it has released a Livestock Mystery Crate in the game's store containing six animals that can be stored inside your new pen. Now, the Livestock Pen can also store animals like goats or llamas, but unfortunately, only two items of these six re-released animals isn't some form of Pig or Sheep. Here's a full list so you see what I mean:
Alpaca
Babydoll Sheep
Miniature Goat
Teacup Pig
Welsh Mountain Sheep
White Ram
Each of these crates costs 20 Farm Cash, and they can be purchased from within the Decorations tab of the marketplace, instead of the Animals tab like you might expect. Remember, while you are guaranteed to receive one of these animals when you purchase a crate, you aren't guaranteed that you won't receive duplicates the next time you purchase one. That being the case, you'll want to really make sure you don't already have some of these animals already on your land before making a purchase, to ward off any unneeded extras. If you do want one of these crates, shop fast, as they'll only be around for five days.
Do you already have all of the animals inside the Livestock Mystery Crate, or will you purchase some for your farm this week? Which of these animals are you hoping to find inside? Let us know in the comments.
Alpaca
Babydoll Sheep
Miniature Goat
Teacup Pig
Welsh Mountain Sheep
White Ram
Each of these crates costs 20 Farm Cash, and they can be purchased from within the Decorations tab of the marketplace, instead of the Animals tab like you might expect. Remember, while you are guaranteed to receive one of these animals when you purchase a crate, you aren't guaranteed that you won't receive duplicates the next time you purchase one. That being the case, you'll want to really make sure you don't already have some of these animals already on your land before making a purchase, to ward off any unneeded extras. If you do want one of these crates, shop fast, as they'll only be around for five days.
Do you already have all of the animals inside the Livestock Mystery Crate, or will you purchase some for your farm this week? Which of these animals are you hoping to find inside? Let us know in the comments.
FarmVille: New Craftshop recipes use Lighthouse Cove crops
If you thought your Lighthouse Cove crops in FarmVille were only going to be good for completing goals or earning new mastery signs, think again. Zynga has released a series of new Craftshop recipes using these new crops which will see you combining "old" crops with these new bushels. Here's a complete rundown of the new crops so you know exactly what to grow (and what to stock up on) should you wish to craft any of these items in bulk.
Bright Yellow Tractor: 4 Clam, 10 Tarragon and 6 Elderberry Bushels
Mechanic Scarecrow: 3 Hay Bushels, 3 Apple Wood Baskets and 4 Wheat Bushels
Sheep Topiary: 4 Tarragon Bushels, 2 Wool Bundles and 5 Green Tea Bushels
Apple Red Seeder: 4 Seafood, 10 Dill and 6 Onion Bushels
Bonsai: 3 Kennebec Potato, 2 Cherry and 4 Basil Bushels
Tree House: 4 Lady Slipper Bushels, 2 Apple Wood Baskets and 4 Chandler Blueberry Bushels
Apple Red Harvester: 4 Lobster, 10 Daylily and 6 Basil Bushels
Post Office: 10 Cove Cranberry Bushels, 4 Poplar Wood Baskets and 6 Cauliflower Bushels
Evergreen Train: 10 Red Clover Bushels, 4 Poplar Wood Baskets and 6 Hay Bushels
Keep in mind, farmers, that if you're new to crafting these items, you won't be able to craft many of them until you earn mastery stars by crafting other things. Luckily, ones like the Bright Yellow Tractor and Sheep Topiary recipes are open by default, so at least you can earn some mastery stars while completing these new recipes. Also, keep track of how long each of these recipes take to complete, as some of them aren't exactly fast (the Harvester, for instance).
We'll make sure to let you know if additional Craftshop recipes are released in the future, along with what you'll take to actually craft them. Keep checking back with us for more.
What do you think of these new Craftshop recipes? Which items would you like to have more of on your farm? Sound off in the comments.
Bright Yellow Tractor: 4 Clam, 10 Tarragon and 6 Elderberry Bushels
Mechanic Scarecrow: 3 Hay Bushels, 3 Apple Wood Baskets and 4 Wheat Bushels
Sheep Topiary: 4 Tarragon Bushels, 2 Wool Bundles and 5 Green Tea Bushels
Apple Red Seeder: 4 Seafood, 10 Dill and 6 Onion Bushels
Bonsai: 3 Kennebec Potato, 2 Cherry and 4 Basil Bushels
Tree House: 4 Lady Slipper Bushels, 2 Apple Wood Baskets and 4 Chandler Blueberry Bushels
Apple Red Harvester: 4 Lobster, 10 Daylily and 6 Basil Bushels
Post Office: 10 Cove Cranberry Bushels, 4 Poplar Wood Baskets and 6 Cauliflower Bushels
Evergreen Train: 10 Red Clover Bushels, 4 Poplar Wood Baskets and 6 Hay Bushels
Keep in mind, farmers, that if you're new to crafting these items, you won't be able to craft many of them until you earn mastery stars by crafting other things. Luckily, ones like the Bright Yellow Tractor and Sheep Topiary recipes are open by default, so at least you can earn some mastery stars while completing these new recipes. Also, keep track of how long each of these recipes take to complete, as some of them aren't exactly fast (the Harvester, for instance).
We'll make sure to let you know if additional Craftshop recipes are released in the future, along with what you'll take to actually craft them. Keep checking back with us for more.
What do you think of these new Craftshop recipes? Which items would you like to have more of on your farm? Sound off in the comments.
Sims Social survey lets you sound off on item prices, favorite features and more
It's that time folks - time to let your collective voices be heard! EA wants to know how much fun (or not) you're having with the Sims Social on Facebook, and they've released a fairly long survey to help you tell them. This survey contains all sorts of questions, ranging from the basics of how often you play the game, to allowing you to rate your opinion on item pricing (are they too cheap? too expensive?) and what some of your favorite features are in the game.
Of course, the point of all of this is to gather enough opinions to actually sway the way the game develops in the future. Hopefully, with questions dealing with how much we like to "build" items with parts (bookcases, double beds, etc.), and the option to say that you don't like it at all, we may actually see a lessening in those kinds of items, if enough users agree. You can even rank various gameplay features (decorating your house, visiting friends, customizing your Sim, etc.) in the order that you like them. In this way, perhaps we'll see more focus being placed on the most (overall) liked feature, and you'll be able to say you helped to make that happen.
Unfortunately, this isn't the kind of survey that will allow you to give your opinion on future item sets, but there are plenty of blank text boxes for you to say exactly what you want to the developers in a place that you know they'll see it. Again, this survey is prety lengthy (when compared to other Facebook game surveys anyway), so you'll want to make sure you have around 5-10 minutes to set aside to take it.
We've taken this survey as well, and if we start to notice any gameplay changes arising because of options listed here, we'll make sure to let you know. In the meantime, head over to this link right here to take the survey for yourself.
Of course, the point of all of this is to gather enough opinions to actually sway the way the game develops in the future. Hopefully, with questions dealing with how much we like to "build" items with parts (bookcases, double beds, etc.), and the option to say that you don't like it at all, we may actually see a lessening in those kinds of items, if enough users agree. You can even rank various gameplay features (decorating your house, visiting friends, customizing your Sim, etc.) in the order that you like them. In this way, perhaps we'll see more focus being placed on the most (overall) liked feature, and you'll be able to say you helped to make that happen.
Unfortunately, this isn't the kind of survey that will allow you to give your opinion on future item sets, but there are plenty of blank text boxes for you to say exactly what you want to the developers in a place that you know they'll see it. Again, this survey is prety lengthy (when compared to other Facebook game surveys anyway), so you'll want to make sure you have around 5-10 minutes to set aside to take it.
We've taken this survey as well, and if we start to notice any gameplay changes arising because of options listed here, we'll make sure to let you know. In the meantime, head over to this link right here to take the survey for yourself.
Thứ Tư, 21 tháng 9, 2011
Karma Kingdom looks to combine social good, social fun on Facebook
A Facebook game that can score us some good karma points--where do we sign up? We've seen games like FarmVille and CityVille run social good campaigns, but Singapore-based developer Asvathaa has a made an entire game of the idea. The developer just released Karma Kingdom on Facebook, a quest-driven game that looks to help you "Create Your Better World," according to its tag line.
Karma Kingdom integrates Indian mythology into modern lessons of doing good for others. It does this by allowing players to curate an island nation and maintain their citizens' happiness using the three tenants of happiness: health, community and knowledge. You will be guided by several Indian gods and goddesses in your efforts to keep the people happy through quests.
You do this through creating homes for your people to live in, and then surrounding those homes with decorations that promote Health, Community and Knowledge. It seems as if it's important to keep that balance in the decorations you place. Otherwise, your citizens will quickly become unhappy and provide less Goodwill, the resource you need to provide for your people.
Players can plant crops to provide more Goodwill, and the game doesn't seem to be governed by any energy system. (Now, that's something fresh.) But what's more important is the real goodwill Asvathaa aims to create with Karma Kingdom. The Singapore developer has promised to donate a 10 percent of its income through Facebook Credits to non-profit charities. (However, Asvathaa doesn't say which charities it will donate to exactly.)
Karma Kingdom in action
The more happiness-generating decorations you buy in the game using Facebook Credits, the more Asvathaa will donate ... somewhere. "We want to offer a personal CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) platform for every individual as the desire to give back exists in each one of us," Asvathaa CEO and founder Ashok Desai said in a release. If anything, the game looks to be a fresh take on the genre given that it doesn't limit your play time through energy, and maybe it will do some good, too.
Click here to play Karma Kingdom on Facebook Now >
Have you tried this new Facebook game yet, and what do you think of the fact that it doesn't limit you via energy? Would you ever pay up in the game, not knowing exactly where your Facebook Credits are going? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment
Karma Kingdom integrates Indian mythology into modern lessons of doing good for others. It does this by allowing players to curate an island nation and maintain their citizens' happiness using the three tenants of happiness: health, community and knowledge. You will be guided by several Indian gods and goddesses in your efforts to keep the people happy through quests.
You do this through creating homes for your people to live in, and then surrounding those homes with decorations that promote Health, Community and Knowledge. It seems as if it's important to keep that balance in the decorations you place. Otherwise, your citizens will quickly become unhappy and provide less Goodwill, the resource you need to provide for your people.
Players can plant crops to provide more Goodwill, and the game doesn't seem to be governed by any energy system. (Now, that's something fresh.) But what's more important is the real goodwill Asvathaa aims to create with Karma Kingdom. The Singapore developer has promised to donate a 10 percent of its income through Facebook Credits to non-profit charities. (However, Asvathaa doesn't say which charities it will donate to exactly.)
Karma Kingdom in action
The more happiness-generating decorations you buy in the game using Facebook Credits, the more Asvathaa will donate ... somewhere. "We want to offer a personal CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) platform for every individual as the desire to give back exists in each one of us," Asvathaa CEO and founder Ashok Desai said in a release. If anything, the game looks to be a fresh take on the genre given that it doesn't limit your play time through energy, and maybe it will do some good, too.
Click here to play Karma Kingdom on Facebook Now >
Have you tried this new Facebook game yet, and what do you think of the fact that it doesn't limit you via energy? Would you ever pay up in the game, not knowing exactly where your Facebook Credits are going? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment
Club Penguin fires a salvo of fun with Puffle Launch for iPhone [Video]
Parents, secure the iPhones and iPads. If Club Penguin isn't going to slide onto Facebook anytime soon, we'll take the next best thing: the iPhone. Puffle Launch, first released as a mini game within the kids world of Club Penguin over a year ago, launches onto iPhone tomorrow, Sept. 15. The game, which will be available for the paltry price of $.99, puts players in control of Daredevil, one of the many Puffles available in the existing Disney-owned web game.
Just like in Club Penguin, kids can fire Daredevil from a cannon, careening into obstacles and collecting Coins. Better yet, those Coins can be transferred to kids' existing Club Penguin accounts to buy new items from the web game's store. As players advance through the game's many daring and dangerous aerial courses, they will eventually have to face the Crab Boss.
According to a Club Penguin representative, Puffle Launch is already played by 150,000 kids daily, and a new Puffle is adopted every second in the kid-friendly virtual world. (That amounts to more than 20 million of the little balls of love adopted in 2011 already!) With statistics like that, color us baffled as to why Club Penguin has yet to hit Facebook, especially considering the amount of preteens that are already active on the social network.
Hopefully, this is just the beginning of Club Penguin's expansion beyond its little home on the web and onto new platforms (aside from Nintendo's stable of consoles). Check out the game's trailer below, but you might not want to show the kids just yet, unless you're willing to buy it on every iOS device in the house.
Are you excited that Club Penguin has finally made it to iOS? Where or how else would you like to see the Club Penguin franchise go? Sound off in the comments. 1 Comment
Just like in Club Penguin, kids can fire Daredevil from a cannon, careening into obstacles and collecting Coins. Better yet, those Coins can be transferred to kids' existing Club Penguin accounts to buy new items from the web game's store. As players advance through the game's many daring and dangerous aerial courses, they will eventually have to face the Crab Boss.
According to a Club Penguin representative, Puffle Launch is already played by 150,000 kids daily, and a new Puffle is adopted every second in the kid-friendly virtual world. (That amounts to more than 20 million of the little balls of love adopted in 2011 already!) With statistics like that, color us baffled as to why Club Penguin has yet to hit Facebook, especially considering the amount of preteens that are already active on the social network.
Hopefully, this is just the beginning of Club Penguin's expansion beyond its little home on the web and onto new platforms (aside from Nintendo's stable of consoles). Check out the game's trailer below, but you might not want to show the kids just yet, unless you're willing to buy it on every iOS device in the house.
Are you excited that Club Penguin has finally made it to iOS? Where or how else would you like to see the Club Penguin franchise go? Sound off in the comments. 1 Comment
Kabam on Edgeworld's release and what battles lie ahead [Interview]
Edgeworld
Even at first glance of its war-torn landscape filled with futuristic buildings blasted to bits by the laser weapons of alien and mechanized armies, it's clear that Edgeworld is San Francisco-based developer Kabam's most ambitious project yet. Formerly known as Watercooler, the studio and publisher is filled with fans of traditional strategy PC games. Even CEO Kevin Chou was a world-ranked StarCraft player back in the day.
Inspired by sci-fi staples like Star Wars, Star Trek and even the Halo series of shooter games, Edgeworld is the culmination of Kabam's ongoing mission to bring a true 4X (explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate) game experience to Facebook. Since the game's "open beta" release in August, the team is hard at work to make that vision a reality as it claims to have in previous games. (As of this writing, the game enjoys over 858,000 monthly players, according to AppData.)
We sat down with Edgeworld Producer James Holloway recently to hear his thoughts on the game post-release, and what plans he and the rest of the Kabam team have for the strategy game in the future.
Edgeworld in action
Now that Edgeworld has released, what are your knee-jerk reactions? What do you love about the game at release, and what would you like to fix most?
We're really pleased with the release so far. We're seeing a lot of people come back to play the game--it has a really high retention. A lot of people are joining Alliances and engaging with each other. In every sector, I see chat is very active. But this is just the beginning.
The biggest thing that I think we're missing is that our Alliance feature is pretty lean right now. The thing that we would like to emphasize more is a cooperative play of the game. I think we have just the basics right now. The new Maps feature is going to integrate very tightly with alliances--you work together [with Alliances] to conquer territory.
We have about four unique turrets and nine units, and that's just the beginning. We're working on a new unit and a new turret that we're really excited about, and those are going to launch in the next month. We'll be introducing higher levels of our buildings. So, there's a lot more content that we need to create, and we're just getting started.
What's the most interesting thing you've seen players do in the game since release--something that never happened during testing?
One thing that we sort of didn't anticipate was that some Alliances and players are attacking each other for resources. At one point we didn't have inter-Alliance resource sharing, so right now you can actually send resources to other players to help them out. So, we didn't have that feature [originally].
But what people were doing was working around that by setting up their Command Centers, which are what contain your resources, outside the perimeter of their turrets. [Players would then] leave their Alliance, cook it, and then attack them and take their resources. So, they were doing resource transfers before the feature was even allowed.
Do you have any interesting or helpful gameplay tips for the players to get ahead in Edgeworld?
Certainly! If you're just starting out, we give every player two days of starter protection wherein no other player can attack you. That's a free few days of protection, and use that time wisely to build up your base and experiment with different configurations. Allow the Factions to attack your base. There's a lot of experimentation with the units.
Players are posting on the forums, talking with each other and also within their Alliances about the best combinations of units to deploy when attacking a base. There are a lot of combinations of tanks and DPS [damage per second] units you can deploy. Rhinos, or other types that have a lot of hit points, can take a lot of fire, and then you can deploy units with longer range or higher DPS behind them.
Edgeworld blast
Depending on what your goals are--like, you might want as many resources as possible--you might want to deploy the Raiders. The Rhinos draw fire from the turrets, while the Spectres sit outside and fire away at the turrets. You really want to upgrade your Spectres to give them a longer range.
We have two different types of units in the game right now: infantry units and mechanized units. It's not necessarily that the mechs are more powerful than the infantry--we're still constantly balancing the game to make sure every unit has its role.
Another thing is that the Warp Gates are really important as far as attacking goes. As you upgrade those, you increase their capacity so that you can actually deploy more units on the ground [at once]. As you unlock more units, the more powerful units will start to consume more of the [Warp Gates'] bandwidth, so you want to upgrade those to deploy the biggest army that you can.
Thanks for talking with us (and for the tips), James.
Territories Could Blow Alliance Play Wide Open
During our chat, Holloway had something brand new to show coming soon to Edgeworld. (Though, it's still in the concept phase, so weren't provided images.) It's a feature tentatively known as "Territories," and the game's producer hopes that it will expand Alliance play into something even more meaningful.
"We haven't seen a past feature like this that I can think of, and we all play a lot of games," Holloway gushes about what he's about to show me. "We're trying to make this a deeper, more robust 4X or empires building game."
As it relates to the game's story, many of the Galactic Union's outposts have been abandoned during the war for Cerulea IV, and they're ripe for the taking. The Territories feature will provide you with a map of the entire planet Cerulea IV, with your home base appearing in the center as a star. Your home base will be surrounded by either hostile, Alliance or neutral territories marked in red, green or simply displayed as abandoned outposts, respectively.
Edgeworld concept art
It's up to you to work with your Alliance to invade either hostile (controlled by enemy Alliances) or neutral outposts, and keep them under your control for as long as possible to reap their benefits, which weren't revealed to us. (Our best guess is additional resources to keep your home bases going.) Players will individually attack outposts just as they would enemy bases, and can call on their Alliance for help asynchronously.
However, players cannot build on these outposts, only bolster their existing defense turrets with their own resources to maintain control of the benefits they provide. This will make it more difficult for enemies to invade. Speaking of invading, players can only enter outposts that are adjacent to their own base or controlled outposts. Eventually, we see the Territories feature becoming a constant struggle between opposing Alliances, and hopefully something for us to work toward.
"This is very different from our other strategy games," Holloway says. "In most cases you individually own tiles on the map, but in this case you kind of need an Alliance to own territory. This is something we're really excited about. We're still working on it and prototyping it, but hopefully we'll have something out in the next four weeks."
[Image Credit: Kabam]
What are you impressions of Edgeworld so far? Are you excited about the upcoming Territories feature coming to the game, and what else do you hope to see from developers like Kabam? Sound off in the comments. 2 Comments
Even at first glance of its war-torn landscape filled with futuristic buildings blasted to bits by the laser weapons of alien and mechanized armies, it's clear that Edgeworld is San Francisco-based developer Kabam's most ambitious project yet. Formerly known as Watercooler, the studio and publisher is filled with fans of traditional strategy PC games. Even CEO Kevin Chou was a world-ranked StarCraft player back in the day.
Inspired by sci-fi staples like Star Wars, Star Trek and even the Halo series of shooter games, Edgeworld is the culmination of Kabam's ongoing mission to bring a true 4X (explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate) game experience to Facebook. Since the game's "open beta" release in August, the team is hard at work to make that vision a reality as it claims to have in previous games. (As of this writing, the game enjoys over 858,000 monthly players, according to AppData.)
We sat down with Edgeworld Producer James Holloway recently to hear his thoughts on the game post-release, and what plans he and the rest of the Kabam team have for the strategy game in the future.
Edgeworld in action
Now that Edgeworld has released, what are your knee-jerk reactions? What do you love about the game at release, and what would you like to fix most?
We're really pleased with the release so far. We're seeing a lot of people come back to play the game--it has a really high retention. A lot of people are joining Alliances and engaging with each other. In every sector, I see chat is very active. But this is just the beginning.
The biggest thing that I think we're missing is that our Alliance feature is pretty lean right now. The thing that we would like to emphasize more is a cooperative play of the game. I think we have just the basics right now. The new Maps feature is going to integrate very tightly with alliances--you work together [with Alliances] to conquer territory.
We have about four unique turrets and nine units, and that's just the beginning. We're working on a new unit and a new turret that we're really excited about, and those are going to launch in the next month. We'll be introducing higher levels of our buildings. So, there's a lot more content that we need to create, and we're just getting started.
What's the most interesting thing you've seen players do in the game since release--something that never happened during testing?
One thing that we sort of didn't anticipate was that some Alliances and players are attacking each other for resources. At one point we didn't have inter-Alliance resource sharing, so right now you can actually send resources to other players to help them out. So, we didn't have that feature [originally].
But what people were doing was working around that by setting up their Command Centers, which are what contain your resources, outside the perimeter of their turrets. [Players would then] leave their Alliance, cook it, and then attack them and take their resources. So, they were doing resource transfers before the feature was even allowed.
Do you have any interesting or helpful gameplay tips for the players to get ahead in Edgeworld?
Certainly! If you're just starting out, we give every player two days of starter protection wherein no other player can attack you. That's a free few days of protection, and use that time wisely to build up your base and experiment with different configurations. Allow the Factions to attack your base. There's a lot of experimentation with the units.
Players are posting on the forums, talking with each other and also within their Alliances about the best combinations of units to deploy when attacking a base. There are a lot of combinations of tanks and DPS [damage per second] units you can deploy. Rhinos, or other types that have a lot of hit points, can take a lot of fire, and then you can deploy units with longer range or higher DPS behind them.
Edgeworld blast
Depending on what your goals are--like, you might want as many resources as possible--you might want to deploy the Raiders. The Rhinos draw fire from the turrets, while the Spectres sit outside and fire away at the turrets. You really want to upgrade your Spectres to give them a longer range.
We have two different types of units in the game right now: infantry units and mechanized units. It's not necessarily that the mechs are more powerful than the infantry--we're still constantly balancing the game to make sure every unit has its role.
Another thing is that the Warp Gates are really important as far as attacking goes. As you upgrade those, you increase their capacity so that you can actually deploy more units on the ground [at once]. As you unlock more units, the more powerful units will start to consume more of the [Warp Gates'] bandwidth, so you want to upgrade those to deploy the biggest army that you can.
Thanks for talking with us (and for the tips), James.
Territories Could Blow Alliance Play Wide Open
During our chat, Holloway had something brand new to show coming soon to Edgeworld. (Though, it's still in the concept phase, so weren't provided images.) It's a feature tentatively known as "Territories," and the game's producer hopes that it will expand Alliance play into something even more meaningful.
"We haven't seen a past feature like this that I can think of, and we all play a lot of games," Holloway gushes about what he's about to show me. "We're trying to make this a deeper, more robust 4X or empires building game."
As it relates to the game's story, many of the Galactic Union's outposts have been abandoned during the war for Cerulea IV, and they're ripe for the taking. The Territories feature will provide you with a map of the entire planet Cerulea IV, with your home base appearing in the center as a star. Your home base will be surrounded by either hostile, Alliance or neutral territories marked in red, green or simply displayed as abandoned outposts, respectively.
Edgeworld concept art
It's up to you to work with your Alliance to invade either hostile (controlled by enemy Alliances) or neutral outposts, and keep them under your control for as long as possible to reap their benefits, which weren't revealed to us. (Our best guess is additional resources to keep your home bases going.) Players will individually attack outposts just as they would enemy bases, and can call on their Alliance for help asynchronously.
However, players cannot build on these outposts, only bolster their existing defense turrets with their own resources to maintain control of the benefits they provide. This will make it more difficult for enemies to invade. Speaking of invading, players can only enter outposts that are adjacent to their own base or controlled outposts. Eventually, we see the Territories feature becoming a constant struggle between opposing Alliances, and hopefully something for us to work toward.
"This is very different from our other strategy games," Holloway says. "In most cases you individually own tiles on the map, but in this case you kind of need an Alliance to own territory. This is something we're really excited about. We're still working on it and prototyping it, but hopefully we'll have something out in the next four weeks."
[Image Credit: Kabam]
What are you impressions of Edgeworld so far? Are you excited about the upcoming Territories feature coming to the game, and what else do you hope to see from developers like Kabam? Sound off in the comments. 2 Comments
Thứ Ba, 20 tháng 9, 2011
FarmVille Livestock Pen Goals: Everything you need to know
To go along with tonight's launch of the Livestock Pen in FarmVille comes a set of goals (what, you didn't they we'd get away without them, did you?). These goals are of course sheep, goat and llama themed to go along with our new animal breeding building, so read on for how to complete these goals as quickly as possible (and of course receive your rewards).
Farmin' Ain't Easy
* Get 8 Farmer's Overalls
* Place 1 Livestock Pen
* Place 4 Whitewash Fences
Whitewash Fences cost just 300 coins per square, so spend the 1,200 coins on four and then delete them as soon as you're done with this goal. As for the Farmer's Overalls, you'll need to ask your friends to send them to you. Finish this first goal and you'll receive 50 XP, 2,500 coins and a Grey Mouflon Goat.
These Boots Were Made for Farmin'
* Get 8 Pairs of Farmer's Boots
* Buy 3 Barrels
* Harvest 5 Sheep
Barrels cost 125 coins each, so at least this is another cheap expensive just to finish the goal. Gathering the Farmer's Boots is another task for asking your friends to help. Finishing this goal gives you another 50 XP, 2,500 coins and one White Llama.
Perqs for the Talent
* Get 8 Wool Blankets
* Complete the Livestock Pen
* Harvest 50 Vegetables
Luckily, it doesn't matter which of the vegetable crops you grow, so just pick something you have yet to master, or the shortest growth-time vegetable to finish this one off. As for the Wool Blankets - you guessed it - ask your friends to send them to you. As for completing the Livestock Pen, you can check out our guide to doing so right here. Finish off this goal to earn 50 XP, 2,500 coins and five Animal Feed.
Hay-Ho the Dairy-O!
* Get 8 Piles of Hay
* Harvest the Livestock Pen
* Harvest 75 Flowers
Again, it doesn't look like it matters which kind of flower you harvest, so just pick the lowest harvest-time building and you'll be able to move on. Ask your friends for the Piles of Hay and eventually you'll finish this one off, being rewarded with 50 XP, 2,500 coins and Flower Sheep for your efforts.
Keeping Up With Baby
* Get 8 Livestock Tags
* Raise a Livestock Baby
* Harvest 90 Fruit
Remember, common Livestock Babies take 10 Animal Feed to grow, while rare babies take 30. Once you finish this goal, you'll earn another 50 XP, 2,500 coins and five Animal Feed.
Get Oat!
* Get 9 Oat Sacks
* Master White Llama to Level 1
* Harvest 100 Vegetable Crops
Again, plant whatever vegetable you like just to be done with this one as quickly as possible. As for the Oat Sacks, you might be lucky enough to have some extras on hand from the first set of Lighthouse Cove goals, but if not, just ask your friends to send you the Sacks that you do need. Finishing off this last goal in the series gives you 50 XP, 2,500 coins and a Black Laxta Sheep.
Luckily, we're given a full two weeks to work on these goals, so if you have others that you need to clear off your plate first, feel free to do so without worrying about these expiring as well.
Check out the rest of our FarmVille Cheats & Tips right here.
What do you think of these Livestock Pen goals, or the Livestock Pen in general? Sound off in the comments.
Farmin' Ain't Easy
* Get 8 Farmer's Overalls
* Place 1 Livestock Pen
* Place 4 Whitewash Fences
Whitewash Fences cost just 300 coins per square, so spend the 1,200 coins on four and then delete them as soon as you're done with this goal. As for the Farmer's Overalls, you'll need to ask your friends to send them to you. Finish this first goal and you'll receive 50 XP, 2,500 coins and a Grey Mouflon Goat.
These Boots Were Made for Farmin'
* Get 8 Pairs of Farmer's Boots
* Buy 3 Barrels
* Harvest 5 Sheep
Barrels cost 125 coins each, so at least this is another cheap expensive just to finish the goal. Gathering the Farmer's Boots is another task for asking your friends to help. Finishing this goal gives you another 50 XP, 2,500 coins and one White Llama.
Perqs for the Talent
* Get 8 Wool Blankets
* Complete the Livestock Pen
* Harvest 50 Vegetables
Luckily, it doesn't matter which of the vegetable crops you grow, so just pick something you have yet to master, or the shortest growth-time vegetable to finish this one off. As for the Wool Blankets - you guessed it - ask your friends to send them to you. As for completing the Livestock Pen, you can check out our guide to doing so right here. Finish off this goal to earn 50 XP, 2,500 coins and five Animal Feed.
Hay-Ho the Dairy-O!
* Get 8 Piles of Hay
* Harvest the Livestock Pen
* Harvest 75 Flowers
Again, it doesn't look like it matters which kind of flower you harvest, so just pick the lowest harvest-time building and you'll be able to move on. Ask your friends for the Piles of Hay and eventually you'll finish this one off, being rewarded with 50 XP, 2,500 coins and Flower Sheep for your efforts.
Keeping Up With Baby
* Get 8 Livestock Tags
* Raise a Livestock Baby
* Harvest 90 Fruit
Remember, common Livestock Babies take 10 Animal Feed to grow, while rare babies take 30. Once you finish this goal, you'll earn another 50 XP, 2,500 coins and five Animal Feed.
Get Oat!
* Get 9 Oat Sacks
* Master White Llama to Level 1
* Harvest 100 Vegetable Crops
Again, plant whatever vegetable you like just to be done with this one as quickly as possible. As for the Oat Sacks, you might be lucky enough to have some extras on hand from the first set of Lighthouse Cove goals, but if not, just ask your friends to send you the Sacks that you do need. Finishing off this last goal in the series gives you 50 XP, 2,500 coins and a Black Laxta Sheep.
Luckily, we're given a full two weeks to work on these goals, so if you have others that you need to clear off your plate first, feel free to do so without worrying about these expiring as well.
Check out the rest of our FarmVille Cheats & Tips right here.
What do you think of these Livestock Pen goals, or the Livestock Pen in general? Sound off in the comments.
Coco Girl on Facebook: For the fervent fashionista in all of us
Alright, so the fashion game has already been done on Facebook. But Damian Harburger, CEO of Argentina-based social game developer MetroGames, thinks that it hasn't been done right. Well, until now. We know, you're used to seeing hardcore-skewed social games come from the developer like AutoHustle.
Consider this most recent release a fundamental shift for the studio. Harburger tells us that, from here on out, MetroGames will focus largely on women when it comes to Facebook games, and on the more hardcore crowd (mostly men) in its mobile efforts.
Coco Girl is a Facebook game designed for the fashionista in every girl (and guy, in this writer's very particular case). Every girl has her opinions on fashion--some are just more vocal than others, no?--and Coco Girl provides the medium through which to express them.
At every turn in Coco Girl, you're given the opportunity to voice your take on various outfits and in a multitude of situations. In fact, rating your fellow females' outfits is the basis of the game. Sure, players can visit various shops and dress their heavily customized avatar (seriously, even I spent at least 30 minutes fine-tuning my lady). But it's the ability to give other players' clothing choices your two cents, or Rubies in this case, that's the star of this fashion show.
Coco Girl isn't governed by an energy system or too much of a gameplay structure, though you are given daily tasks to complete and quests to embark on. The quests are simply introductory, tiny tasks designed to introduce you to the game's myriad features and customization options. Your Daily Ruby-Maker Checklist is the bread and butter of Coco Girl, and is essentially what's going to get you the Rubies you need to purchase now outfits, make-up and accessories.
Gallery: Coco Girl on Facebook
While in your character's home, you will notice a magazine called Fashion Expert. Every day, you'll open it up and rate at least 20 outfits based on whether you dig them, or whether they're appropriate for certain situations like, say, a job interview or a casting call for a horror movie. However, the amount of Rubies you earn for doing this depends directly upon whether you're opinions gel with the rest of the Coco Girl player base.
While this does well to keep you in line with "what's hot" at the moment, it has the potential to limit daring or unique fashion statements. Nevertheless this is perhaps the most elegant approach yet to having opinions play a meaningful role in a Facebook game. Players can then participate in various mini games in the Coco Carnival to add a dash of variety to simply voting on get-ups, which of course will result in precious Rubies.
The first of which is Fashion Slots, a game in which you must successfully complete an outfit that a fellow lady is looking for. You do this by stopping a spinning wheel of various clothing items in a particular category. As you continue to try and select the correct items, the wheel will spin faster. Then there is Elusive Treasures, a hidden object game that times you on how many, well, hidden objects you can spot within the time limit. The Final mini game is Love Machine, a puzzle game that has players rearranging pipes to create a direct path between two lovers.
Coco Girl Home
All three mini games offer a considerable challenge and refreshing variety to Coco Girl. More importantly, they also provide Tickets, a currency that can only be spent in Coco Carnival on more Rubies or accessories for your avatar to hold. Finally, you can create Daily Looks and Quest Looks--an important aspect of Coco Girl, if you want to be a respected fashion expert in-game.
Every look you create in the game, once saved, can and probably will be voted upon by other players--friend or not--in the Fashion Expert feature. The Daily Looks are voted upon using a star system, while Quest Looks, the outfits you create to best fit certain situations, are a simple thumbs-up or thumbs-down affair. And at the end of the day in Coco Girl, it's all about the votes, it seems.
The ultimate Goal of Coco Girl is to have one of your outfits make it into the Daily Looks Hall of Fame. The get-ups that get the most positive votes are featured every day, and those that the score the most of all time get a spot and recognition forever. You can even buy those top-ranking outfits for Facebook Credits, if you want a competitive edge.
Coco Girl, on top of its detailed artwork, slick animations and varied gameplay, is all about what matters in a Facebook game about fashion: the looks and what people think about 'em, because we all have an opinion.
Click here to play Coco Girl on Facebook Now >
Have you tried Coco Girl on Facebook yet? What do you think of Facebook games directly geared towards women? Do you think any game thus far has been one that "gets it?" Sound off in the comments. Add Comment
Consider this most recent release a fundamental shift for the studio. Harburger tells us that, from here on out, MetroGames will focus largely on women when it comes to Facebook games, and on the more hardcore crowd (mostly men) in its mobile efforts.
Coco Girl is a Facebook game designed for the fashionista in every girl (and guy, in this writer's very particular case). Every girl has her opinions on fashion--some are just more vocal than others, no?--and Coco Girl provides the medium through which to express them.
At every turn in Coco Girl, you're given the opportunity to voice your take on various outfits and in a multitude of situations. In fact, rating your fellow females' outfits is the basis of the game. Sure, players can visit various shops and dress their heavily customized avatar (seriously, even I spent at least 30 minutes fine-tuning my lady). But it's the ability to give other players' clothing choices your two cents, or Rubies in this case, that's the star of this fashion show.
Coco Girl isn't governed by an energy system or too much of a gameplay structure, though you are given daily tasks to complete and quests to embark on. The quests are simply introductory, tiny tasks designed to introduce you to the game's myriad features and customization options. Your Daily Ruby-Maker Checklist is the bread and butter of Coco Girl, and is essentially what's going to get you the Rubies you need to purchase now outfits, make-up and accessories.
Gallery: Coco Girl on Facebook
While in your character's home, you will notice a magazine called Fashion Expert. Every day, you'll open it up and rate at least 20 outfits based on whether you dig them, or whether they're appropriate for certain situations like, say, a job interview or a casting call for a horror movie. However, the amount of Rubies you earn for doing this depends directly upon whether you're opinions gel with the rest of the Coco Girl player base.
While this does well to keep you in line with "what's hot" at the moment, it has the potential to limit daring or unique fashion statements. Nevertheless this is perhaps the most elegant approach yet to having opinions play a meaningful role in a Facebook game. Players can then participate in various mini games in the Coco Carnival to add a dash of variety to simply voting on get-ups, which of course will result in precious Rubies.
The first of which is Fashion Slots, a game in which you must successfully complete an outfit that a fellow lady is looking for. You do this by stopping a spinning wheel of various clothing items in a particular category. As you continue to try and select the correct items, the wheel will spin faster. Then there is Elusive Treasures, a hidden object game that times you on how many, well, hidden objects you can spot within the time limit. The Final mini game is Love Machine, a puzzle game that has players rearranging pipes to create a direct path between two lovers.
Coco Girl Home
All three mini games offer a considerable challenge and refreshing variety to Coco Girl. More importantly, they also provide Tickets, a currency that can only be spent in Coco Carnival on more Rubies or accessories for your avatar to hold. Finally, you can create Daily Looks and Quest Looks--an important aspect of Coco Girl, if you want to be a respected fashion expert in-game.
Every look you create in the game, once saved, can and probably will be voted upon by other players--friend or not--in the Fashion Expert feature. The Daily Looks are voted upon using a star system, while Quest Looks, the outfits you create to best fit certain situations, are a simple thumbs-up or thumbs-down affair. And at the end of the day in Coco Girl, it's all about the votes, it seems.
The ultimate Goal of Coco Girl is to have one of your outfits make it into the Daily Looks Hall of Fame. The get-ups that get the most positive votes are featured every day, and those that the score the most of all time get a spot and recognition forever. You can even buy those top-ranking outfits for Facebook Credits, if you want a competitive edge.
Coco Girl, on top of its detailed artwork, slick animations and varied gameplay, is all about what matters in a Facebook game about fashion: the looks and what people think about 'em, because we all have an opinion.
Click here to play Coco Girl on Facebook Now >
Have you tried Coco Girl on Facebook yet? What do you think of Facebook games directly geared towards women? Do you think any game thus far has been one that "gets it?" Sound off in the comments. Add Comment
Want to taste the FarmVille crops you harvest? Take a trip to Turkey
Kotaku's Stephen Totilo found the restaurant while on travels through the visibly gorgeous country, and took a few snapshots. The "FarmVille Cafe & Restaurant" even uses the official FarmVille logo and dishes inspired by the game like Shepherd Salad and FarmVille Salad, and more general items like Tuna Fish Salad and Chicken Salad.
There are certainly more dishes available, but these are all we can point up. I guess Turkey has some seriously devoted FarmVille fans ... and even more savvy entrepreneurs. If you want a taste of FarmVille, you better book a flight now--knowing Zynga, this probably won't last much longer. (Sorry, Turkish dudes.)
[Image Credit: Kotaku]
What do you think of this FarmVille inspired restaurant? Would you ever dine at an official FarmVille eatery? Sound off in the comments. 2 Comments
Bossa Studios's Facebook debut, Monstermind, will crush your dreams
But in a good way, we promise. Like the U.S., folks in the UK are super cereal (isn't that what kids are saying these days?) about the social games movement. The Guardian reports that Shine TV has acquired London-based social game startup Bossa Studios for an undisclosed amount.
Elisabeth Murdoch's TV production company (recently bought out by daddy's News Corp) has reportedly been eying social gaming for a long time. And what do you know--her timing could not have been better.
According to The Guardian, 11-month-old Bossa Studios looks to unveil its first project, Monstermind (pictured), next week on Facebook. However, it looks like the game is available now on Facebook, though in an "open beta." (For all intents and purposes, the game is live and available for all to play.)
"We have long identified social gaming as a critical component to this strategy, and in Bossa Studios we discovered an entrepreneurial, creative team that shared our passion for creative excellence," Miss Murdoch told The Guardian. "They have bold ideas for this space which we naturally welcome and will be a significant addition to the Shine Group."
Monstermind looks to be a fresh take on the city-building genre that CityVille has done so well to popularize. Well, fresh in the sense that, in addition to building cities, you can sic giant monsters to crush your friends' towns. The game features nearly full 3D visuals and an art style that screams "The Blob meets Sim City." Check out the game's trailer below to see what we mean.
Click here to play Monstermind on Facebook Now >
Were you waiting for a new approach to city-builders on Facebook? What do you think so far of this new studio's first contribution to Facebook gaming? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment
Elisabeth Murdoch's TV production company (recently bought out by daddy's News Corp) has reportedly been eying social gaming for a long time. And what do you know--her timing could not have been better.
According to The Guardian, 11-month-old Bossa Studios looks to unveil its first project, Monstermind (pictured), next week on Facebook. However, it looks like the game is available now on Facebook, though in an "open beta." (For all intents and purposes, the game is live and available for all to play.)
"We have long identified social gaming as a critical component to this strategy, and in Bossa Studios we discovered an entrepreneurial, creative team that shared our passion for creative excellence," Miss Murdoch told The Guardian. "They have bold ideas for this space which we naturally welcome and will be a significant addition to the Shine Group."
Monstermind looks to be a fresh take on the city-building genre that CityVille has done so well to popularize. Well, fresh in the sense that, in addition to building cities, you can sic giant monsters to crush your friends' towns. The game features nearly full 3D visuals and an art style that screams "The Blob meets Sim City." Check out the game's trailer below to see what we mean.
Click here to play Monstermind on Facebook Now >
Were you waiting for a new approach to city-builders on Facebook? What do you think so far of this new studio's first contribution to Facebook gaming? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment
Chủ Nhật, 11 tháng 9, 2011
Naev 0.5 released!
A new release of the 2D space trading and combat game Naev is out and available as binaries for Lin/Mac/Win here.
List of changes since 0.4.2:
For Players
For those using Ubuntu (or other Debian-derived distributions), Naev is available from PlayDeb. Naev is also available in Arch Linux, Gentoo, and from the openSUSE Games repository.Have a changelog:
List of changes since 0.4.2:
For Players
- Larger universe
- Expanded Dvaered, Frontier, Empire and Pirate territories
- All-new Sirius and Soromid territory
- Big systems
- More planets per system
- Much larger planets, many new planet and station graphics
- Players must fly to jump points before jumping to another system
- Overlay map for in-system navigation
- Mouse interactivity
- Planet, ship and jump point targeting
- Contextual click actions (board, hail, land, etc.)
- Optional mouse-controlled flying
- Electronic warfare
- Ships have cloaking and detection abilities
- Sensor range depends on cloak vs detection
- Turrets no longer track all ships equally
- Time model changes
- In-game time progresses in real-time
- Dynamic time compression speeds up long journeys
- On-map security rating abandoned in favour of faction presence indicators
- System backgrounds (nebulae, stars and more!)
- Fancier new GUI
- Brand-new tutorial that is independent from the main game
- Outfit slots now have sizes
- Weapon sets allow easy configuration of different weapon combinations for each ship
- Ship and weapon heat system
- Weapons start with perfect accuracy, and become inaccurate as they overheat
- Severe overheating causes rate of fire to drop
- Damage absorption and penetration system
- More diverse planetary inventories (see the tech system below)
- Random bar NPCs
- Sound system improvements
- Smarter autonav behaviour
- … and plenty more (new missions, ships, outfits, portraits, etc.)
Battle for Wesnoth Architecture
The popular open source game Battle for Wesnoth has been featured in the new free online book The Architecture of Open Source Applications.
We believe that the beauty of the Battle for Wesnoth as a program is how it made coding accessible to a wide variety of individuals. To achieve this aim, the project often made compromises that do not look elegant whatsoever in the code. It should be noted that many of the project's more talented programmers frown upon WML for its inefficient syntax. Yet this compromise enabled one of the project's greatest successes. Today Wesnoth can boast of hundreds of user-made campaigns and eras, created mostly by users with little or no programming experience.Read the full section online for further insight into the design and design decisions of Battle for Wesnoth.
bfxr = sfxr + flash + omg awesome
Sfxr is a simple retro sound machine. It has undergone some iterations and the latest software based on its principle is bfxr, which also has valuable management tools.
Their feature list:
Their feature list:
- 5 new waveforms : triangle, breaker, tan, whistle, and pink noise.
- 3 new filters : compression, harmonics, and bitcrusher.
- Ability to lock parameters during mutation/randomization.
- Expanded pitch-jumping abilities - good for arpeggiation effects.
- Visualisation
- Mixer
- Keeps your sounds and mixes in persistant lists.
- Can reverse synths
- Ability to link directly to sounds
Needs flash. Might be a problem. Can anybody with free flash implementations run this?
Inside a Star-Filled Sky (Public Domain For-Pay) + Video Review + Jason Rohrer on open source
Inside a Star-Filled Sky (IaSFS? InaStFiSk?) is a game. And art. [You want a game?=art discussion? Go to page 9! ;)] This art runs on OSX, Linux and Windows.
So you move around in procedurally generated mazes in real-time, shoot enemies, pick up stuff and change between levels. Sounds like.. GoblinHack so far (the graphics are softer though).
But.
The mazes are people.
Or pixelated monsters for that matter. Or upgrades.
You control a thing inside another thing. the thing is a maze.
The game costs at least $1.75 because it's pay what you want + fees.
I was lucky to get Jason to answer two of my questions.
About public domain: There is no PD statement in Jason's code as far as I can tell but I was told via email that it is PD. UPDATE: fortify dependency has been removed. The game code contains (depends on?) the non-free fortify.
I could upload the game and share the link. It'd be legal. I would feel guilty though. So instead I offer you my help at buying the game if you can't use the payment method available. If you can transfer to a German bank account or are located in/near Berlin, Germany, contact me and I'll buy the game for you if you somehow give me the money you want to pay.
I guess we need screens...
But.
The mazes are people.
Or pixelated monsters for that matter. Or upgrades.
You control a thing inside another thing. the thing is a maze.
I was lucky to get Jason to answer two of my questions.
Q: Is IaSFS in the public domain?IMHO Jason is a very interesting guy to listen to [video search "Jason Rohrer"].
Jason Rohrer: Yes, it's all in the public domain (which is why no license file is included).
Q: Why do you release your games as open source? Why does open source matter (to you)?
Jason Rohrer: I release all of my work as open source because there's no reason not to. People mostly "hide" their source code out of fear, but I think that fear is unfounded. In the game world, releasing source code is almost unheard of, except for decades-old abandonware projects. Long ago, I used to harbor the romantic hope that some other coder would benefit from reusing or at least studying my source code. But over 12 years of releasing all of my source code, that has happened only rarely. Instead, the main benefit has come from making my work as portable and as long-lived as possible. Binaries break eventually as platforms change, and they cannot be repaired. A source distribution can survive and remain functional much longer. My passion for open source has transitioned from idealistic to pragmatic over the years.
About public domain: There is no PD statement in Jason's code as far as I can tell but I was told via email that it is PD. UPDATE: fortify dependency has been removed. The game code contains (depends on?) the non-free fortify.
I guess we need screens...
Enjoy! It's from the official gallery!
Freedom is Fun
Happy festive season to all those who are celebrating, and commiserations to those who are missing out or have not been blessed with a nice Christmas period.
Many thanks to Q for being a custodian of the blog. It would surely have died long ago but for his endeavour and I deeply appreciate his ongoing efforts.
NYC in SauerI have a queue of interesting things... like this lovely screenshot of a NYC map for Sauerbraten that pushes the engine's performance.
There was a Christmas release of SuperTuxKart and it's full of goodies. Verison 0.6rc1 (an rc, thusly YMMV) offers (among a lot of new tracks and other improvements) improved physics with skidding, nitro, a better AI, and positional sound effects. Sounds super.
Gearhead2 is now completable as of the latest release, version 0.530, meaning that it is no longer a tech demo but a real live game. It's a futuristic / mech-based graphical roguelike and a very nice one too by all accounts.
Vega Strike has had a lot of speech packs contributed in the last few weeks. To preview them you'll have to head on over to the VS forums (sorry, no direct links). I'm sure this will make the next release of the game more atmospheric. Whilst core development seems a little cool at the moment, the community contributions are as active as ever and I predict an explosive release sometime in 2009 that makes people go, "Wow, that's what open source can do." I also mined this nugget from the Ogre forums when procrastinating the other day (hellcatv is a lead VS dev, VS is prospectively getting ported to OGRE, and that thread is about a feature that looks particularly useful for transitions between space and planetscapes). Yes, that is rumour-mongering, and I'm proud of it!
Scourge is getting nicer lighting, there's a poor quality video on vimeo of it in its infancy (the effects have since improved). There was a bump with the 0.21 release, which got pulled and replaced by 0.21.1, but now that's sorted out development momentum has returned and already 0.22 looks promising.
I don't monitor nearly as many projects as I used to. Are there any other impressive screenshots you guys have seen lately? Any other projects looking promising for nice 2009 releases?
Many thanks to Q for being a custodian of the blog. It would surely have died long ago but for his endeavour and I deeply appreciate his ongoing efforts.
NYC in Sauer
There was a Christmas release of SuperTuxKart and it's full of goodies. Verison 0.6rc1 (an rc, thusly YMMV) offers (among a lot of new tracks and other improvements) improved physics with skidding, nitro, a better AI, and positional sound effects. Sounds super.
Gearhead2 is now completable as of the latest release, version 0.530, meaning that it is no longer a tech demo but a real live game. It's a futuristic / mech-based graphical roguelike and a very nice one too by all accounts.
UFO:AI Starchaser
I really liked this UFO:AI "Starchaser" interceptor (right). I'm looking forward to 2.3 which should be another impressive release for the project.Vega Strike has had a lot of speech packs contributed in the last few weeks. To preview them you'll have to head on over to the VS forums (sorry, no direct links). I'm sure this will make the next release of the game more atmospheric. Whilst core development seems a little cool at the moment, the community contributions are as active as ever and I predict an explosive release sometime in 2009 that makes people go, "Wow, that's what open source can do." I also mined this nugget from the Ogre forums when procrastinating the other day (hellcatv is a lead VS dev, VS is prospectively getting ported to OGRE, and that thread is about a feature that looks particularly useful for transitions between space and planetscapes). Yes, that is rumour-mongering, and I'm proud of it!
Scourge is getting nicer lighting, there's a poor quality video on vimeo of it in its infancy (the effects have since improved). There was a bump with the 0.21 release, which got pulled and replaced by 0.21.1, but now that's sorted out development momentum has returned and already 0.22 looks promising.
I don't monitor nearly as many projects as I used to. Are there any other impressive screenshots you guys have seen lately? Any other projects looking promising for nice 2009 releases?
Plutocracy, Cheese Boys and Goblin Hack 1.16
Cheese Boys breaking the fourth wall
Cheese Boys is a humorous post-apocalyptic action adventure. The current two-level implementation, that features dialog and fighting already contains a lot of strange fourth wall breaking humor (although it is quite different to Fallout's.)Goblin Hack 1.16
Goblin Hack (GH) 1.16 is now out with new features, including music by Pascal Provost and new level kinds. Apparently there even is an end game level now, which I assume 0.17% of all GH players will reach. (Ever finished Nethack? Not me. :) )Plutocracy rev 499
Plutocracy is a multiplayer 3D RTS game focusing on merchant trade and domination by economic means, although warfare and piracy are always an option. The game has a 1600s Caribbean theme, is played on a real globe, and aims to replicate realistic economic transactions.I fell in love with it's graphical style, which reminds me of Populous III. I haven't had the chance to play it with anybody else and there are no bots, so I can't say anything about playability, besides the fact that it's easy to lose your units out of sight.
Friday, December 19, 2008 DccNiTghtmare 0.3, ASC 2.20
DNT: inspiration source in the shelf
DNT: post-apocalyptic santa
DccNiTghtmare (DNT), the RPG with a dyslexical title, a post-apocalyptic setting and The Sims-like graphics, is 0.3 Versions old (download here).To my great joy, there are already three solvable quests and a bunch of collectable items. The main thing, however: humor. In your journes you can either choose the light path and install GNU/Linux on the computers you pass by or infect it with the dark force of ruinix. You can actually do this in the latest version. I like where this is going, if this open source/proprietary thing gets implemented well, the game will have completely different playing styles.
Update: 0.3.2 of DNT has been released and it runs! [video] Also check out this DNT tutorial in comic form.
Advanced Strategic Command's latest stable version is 2.2.0. Some of the changes include new terrain and object graphics and changed unit definitions. Unfortunately it won't run on my system for now, so no screens from me this time.
Nongame: Killer
The Killer is a flash/as3-based nongame. Talking more about it might spoil it so if you're OK with that, there's a discussion going on at TigForums.
The source is "what you want" and hosted on github. Perhaps this could be ported to Haxe/Fixel.
The developer has an interesting "support me" implementation. Exclusive updates and postcards. :)
Naev 0.5 released!
A new release of the 2D space trading and combat game Naev is out and available as binaries for Lin/Mac/Win here.
List of changes since 0.4.2:
For Players
For those using Ubuntu (or other Debian-derived distributions), Naev is available from PlayDeb. Naev is also available in Arch Linux, Gentoo, and from the openSUSE Games repository.Have a changelog:
List of changes since 0.4.2:
For Players
- Larger universe
- Expanded Dvaered, Frontier, Empire and Pirate territories
- All-new Sirius and Soromid territory
- Big systems
- More planets per system
- Much larger planets, many new planet and station graphics
- Players must fly to jump points before jumping to another system
- Overlay map for in-system navigation
- Mouse interactivity
- Planet, ship and jump point targeting
- Contextual click actions (board, hail, land, etc.)
- Optional mouse-controlled flying
- Electronic warfare
- Ships have cloaking and detection abilities
- Sensor range depends on cloak vs detection
- Turrets no longer track all ships equally
- Time model changes
- In-game time progresses in real-time
- Dynamic time compression speeds up long journeys
- On-map security rating abandoned in favour of faction presence indicators
- System backgrounds (nebulae, stars and more!)
- Fancier new GUI
- Brand-new tutorial that is independent from the main game
- Outfit slots now have sizes
- Weapon sets allow easy configuration of different weapon combinations for each ship
- Ship and weapon heat system
- Weapons start with perfect accuracy, and become inaccurate as they overheat
- Severe overheating causes rate of fire to drop
- Damage absorption and penetration system
- More diverse planetary inventories (see the tech system below)
- Random bar NPCs
- Sound system improvements
- Smarter autonav behaviour
- … and plenty more (new missions, ships, outfits, portraits, etc.)
Battle for Wesnoth Architecture
The popular open source game Battle for Wesnoth has been featured in the new free online book The Architecture of Open Source Applications.
We believe that the beauty of the Battle for Wesnoth as a program is how it made coding accessible to a wide variety of individuals. To achieve this aim, the project often made compromises that do not look elegant whatsoever in the code. It should be noted that many of the project's more talented programmers frown upon WML for its inefficient syntax. Yet this compromise enabled one of the project's greatest successes. Today Wesnoth can boast of hundreds of user-made campaigns and eras, created mostly by users with little or no programming experience.Read the full section online for further insight into the design and design decisions of Battle for Wesnoth.
bfxr = sfxr + flash + omg awesome
Sfxr is a simple retro sound machine. It has undergone some iterations and the latest software based on its principle is bfxr, which also has valuable management tools.
Their feature list:
Their feature list:
- 5 new waveforms : triangle, breaker, tan, whistle, and pink noise.
- 3 new filters : compression, harmonics, and bitcrusher.
- Ability to lock parameters during mutation/randomization.
- Expanded pitch-jumping abilities - good for arpeggiation effects.
- Visualisation
- Mixer
- Keeps your sounds and mixes in persistant lists.
- Can reverse synths
- Ability to link directly to sounds
Needs flash. Might be a problem. Can anybody with free flash implementations run this?
LibriVox Hacked
View Comments
The public domain audibook project LibriVox got hacked (not the first time it seems). There was no open announcement yet [edit: here's the blog post] but as a forum user I received an email:
I would like to appeal to the community to look out for each other and report strange activities like spam posts or random content deletion to site admins, pointing out this recent hacking. Everybody who had a LibriVox account and used their password elsewhere should change it ASAP, especially if moderative or administrative accounts are involved!
... Let me just add a little bit of positive open content news though: I was looking for car blinker sounds, contacted three Freesound contributors and got permission from all of them to re-distribute under CC0, which I did on OpenGameArt. j1987 even added a "all my sounds are public domain" note. :)
A hacker broke into the LibriVox forum and got access to our completedatabase including emails and encrypted passwords. We have locked them outof the system, and we’ve fixed the vandalism, but they still have ourdatabase.Well, I'm glad they are open about this. A great time to update the passwords I use to more secure ones. :)
In the interests of full disclosure, here is some extra information:(1) The database contained every piece of communications sent through theforum, including all private messages. This information is now in thepossession of the hacker.
(2) All forum passwords in the database are encrypted. However, if yourpassword was very simple, it will be trivial for the hacker to break theencryption using "brute-force" techniques. They will likely attempt exactlythis, so if you use the same password on any other Internet service, youshould immediately change your password at those services.
We are very sorry that this happened, and once this is sorted out as bestas it can be, we’ll be doing a more thorough security review.
I would like to appeal to the community to look out for each other and report strange activities like spam posts or random content deletion to site admins, pointing out this recent hacking. Everybody who had a LibriVox account and used their password elsewhere should change it ASAP, especially if moderative or administrative accounts are involved!
... Let me just add a little bit of positive open content news though: I was looking for car blinker sounds, contacted three Freesound contributors and got permission from all of them to re-distribute under CC0, which I did on OpenGameArt. j1987 even added a "all my sounds are public domain" note. :)
Assorted strategy game news
Quick Sunday afternoon rundown of recent strategy game updated...
0AD got a new beta 5 release, which improvements in rendering & AI code, a completely new faction (Iberians), and a new map:
MegaGlest also got updated recently (Version 3.5.1), bringing various fixes and performance improvements. Furthermore I can report that both the sable and the development version of Battle for Wesnoth have been updated, and I strongly recommend everyone (who has not played this game for a while) to retry this classic in the newest development version.
EvolutionRTS, a nice looking (but sadly CC-by-NC-ND licensed) game based on the SpringRTS engine also saw an update to version 1.3 this month (check out this gameplay video).
Hmmm, what else? Ahh, UFO:AI was ported to Android, and and the change of Warzone2100 from SDL to qt (which is not exactly a game framework) raised some eyebrows, but will probably make the game more easily portable and better integrated into your favorite desktop.
0AD got a new beta 5 release, which improvements in rendering & AI code, a completely new faction (Iberians), and a new map:
MegaGlest also got updated recently (Version 3.5.1), bringing various fixes and performance improvements. Furthermore I can report that both the sable and the development version of Battle for Wesnoth have been updated, and I strongly recommend everyone (who has not played this game for a while) to retry this classic in the newest development version.
EvolutionRTS, a nice looking (but sadly CC-by-NC-ND licensed) game based on the SpringRTS engine also saw an update to version 1.3 this month (check out this gameplay video).
Hmmm, what else? Ahh, UFO:AI was ported to Android, and and the change of Warzone2100 from SDL to qt (which is not exactly a game framework) raised some eyebrows, but will probably make the game more easily portable and better integrated into your favorite desktop.
Đăng ký:
Bài đăng (Atom)