Category Archives: mobile

Train2Game News Pocket Gamer Awards

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Steel Media is as excited as a Jack Russell puppy to officially launch the 2015 edition of the Pocket Gamer Awards.

Now in their sixth year, the Pocket Gamer Awards 2015 (http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/pgawards2015) continue the event’s now established tradition of celebrating the very finest from the world of portable gaming.

As has now become standard practice, any title released on app stores or reviewed by Pocket Gamer between 1st January and 31st December of the previous year is open to consideration by the site’s editorial team during the selection of the finalists.

This time around that meant just short of 1,000 games were evaluated for inclusion in the 20 slots available for each of the 14 categories split across traditional format- and genre-specific sections.

Following the hugely popular format of the two most recent Pocket Gamer Awards, while the PG team shortlists the nominees it is the site’s readers who decide the winners. Voting for each of the categories is now open and will remain so until midnight GMT on 27th February 2015.

The Pocket Gamer Awards 2015 winners will then be announced at a special event held during the Game Developers Conference, which takes place in San Francisco between 2nd and 6th March 2015.

This year’s Pocket Gamer Awards are sponsored by Games Solution Centre and Chukong Technologies.

Train2Game News StoreFrontSDK

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Apostrophe Apps, LLC, has released StoreFrontSDK (http://www.StoreFrontSDK.com), a free service and plugin that generates shops within mobile apps where developers and publishers can sell their custom-designed goods and apparel.

StoreFrontSDK is currently powering the SnorgTees mobile app (iOS and Android) and multiple mobile game companies have already committed to use StoreFrontSDK including SparkPlug Games (Plight of the Zombie) and Replay Games (Leisure Suit Larry: Reloaded).

StoreFrontSDK offers mobile app developers and publishers of any size an easy way to create, control and sell physical products featuring their intellectual property. Unlike most ad systems where mobile app creators earn a meager trickle of pennies for a few hundred ad clicks, the StoreFrontSDk system allows them to determine – and dynamically adjust – the amount earned for each product sold.

StoreFrontSDK is easy to implement, taking only a few minutes to populate with uniquely branded products and incorporate into a mobile app.

Mobile developers can create a free account at http://www.StoreFrontSDK.com, where they upload designs to create custom gear and popular apparel including T-shirts, hoodies, mugs and phone cases. They then use a few lines of code to create their own button to launch their shop within their app.

After the StoreFrontSDK plugin is implemented in an app, products can be managed through the web site, immediately pushing updates to the live app without costly, time-consuming updates. Product details, prices and even entire shops can be managed across multiple apps from one account, allowing for special promotions or quick responses to sales trends.

Apostrophe Apps handles all of the printing, payment processing, fulfillment and customer support, allowing mobile teams to concentrate on making awesome apps instead of worrying about boxes of products to catalog, store, sort, package and ship.

StoreFrontSDK will soon also support user-generated content (e.g. photos and art uploaded from a mobile device), unlockable content and curated partner products to sell within their shops.
StoreFrontSDK is currently available for Unity at http://www.StoreFrontSDK.com.

Train2Game News Talisman character from SpecialEffect

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A new character for Talisman Digital Edition will be immortalised with help from SpecialEffect, the charity that helps people with physical disabilities to enjoy gaming.

The proceeds of this new character will go to SpecialEffect, so more people with disabilities can be supported to reap the rewards of gaming.

A collaboration between Nomad Games and SpecialEffect will bring Talisman to people with disabilities. Not only will the game be provided to people that SpecialEffect supports, Nomad Games are asking those same people to get involved and design a character for the game.

The first step is to come up with some character ideas, and for the last few weeks Talisman Digital Edition fans have been submitting ideas for a new Talisman character. There has been a phenomenal response with over 200 entries, and it’s been a very difficult job to whittle them down to a shortlist of 6!

This shortlist will be going out for a public vote on the Nomad Games web site in January, where people will have a week to vote for their favourite idea.

When the character has been chosen, SpecialEffect gamers will create an artwork design for the new character. This will then be submitted to Nomad Games to convert into a new digital Character Card, which will go on sale over the coming weeks.

“When friends introduced Nomad Games to the work of SpecialEffect we were hugely impressed and realized that, as a games maker and publisher, we should lend our support. In an exceptional way, SpecialEffect put gamers with physical disabilities on a level playing field with every other gamer.”, said Don Whiteford, MD at Nomad Games Limited.

Train2Game News Transforming Gaming Event in London

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The multi-disciplinary talent management agency, DD-Mgmt has confirmed it will host an event at Mobile Games Week at the Google Campus in Shoreditch, London later this month.

The event, which will take place with support from GameSparks, will discuss the transformation of gaming. Focusing on the integration of gaming as a service, the discussion will focus on the development of games-as-a-service, with presentations including innovative ways to monetise the sector.

Entitled ‘Transforming Gaming – Transformation of Gaming and Benefits of Enhancing Games as a Service’ the seminar is set to welcome speakers from Game Sparks and DD Mgmt with additional content from LKWD – Lockwood Publishing. Presented by DD MGMT, the two and a half hour event will take place on Wednesday 21 January, 9.00am – 11.30am. Delegates should expect a lively discussion and transformative ideas, technologies and methods to drive investment and monetisation across the mobile gaming industry.

The inaugural London Mobile Games Week is celebration of the UK’s booming technology and creative sectors. A series of events will take place up and down the country to mark the initiative, with networking, conferences, seminars, meet ups, exhibitions, workshops and awards ceremonies arranged by independent associations and the wider gaming community.

DD MGMT is a talent management service provider. It celebrates individuality and difference, and provides a management service based on cherishing what is original about all of its clients.

Jhannon Fanus, CEO & Co-Founder of DD Mgmt said, “We’re delighted to be hosting the Transforming Gaming event at the Google Campus. Talent is a broad spectrum with many different forms – and we’re here to allow that kind of unique talent to shine through. We provide access to tools and resources that enables individual talent to find a platform. The gaming sector in the UK, along with the tech and creative sectors, are producing some really exciting work and phenomenal talent at the moment, which makes it a very interesting industry to be a part of.”

Train2Game News The Princess Bride game

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Gameblend Studios today announced the launch of  The Princess Bride – The Official Game for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. Prepare to play!

Based on William Goldman’s romantic fantasy-comedy, famously brought to life in Rob Reiner’s 1987 film, The Princess Bride – The Official Game takes players into this classic story to experience its best and boldest moments firsthand. There are four games to play within the adventure:

    Survive the Shrieking Eels!
    Scale the Cliffs of Insanity!
    Cross swords and duel with Inigo!
    Wrestle against a Giant!

Each mode features its own unique leaderboard, challenges and rewards, including genuine images and audio clips to unlock from the film. The game is designed with Retina-display art crafted to pop vividly on iPhone 6 and iPad devices.  Future free updates will test the players’ wits and have them running through the dreaded Fire Swamp.

Mars Williams from English rock band The Psychedelic Furs composed the music for the game.

The Princess Bride – The Official Game is available for $3.99 on the App Store for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch

Train2Game News WWE Immortals

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WWE and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment are creating WWE Immortals, a free-to-play mobile game that will feature epic Superstar battles in a fantastically re-imagined WWE world.

WWE Immortals is being developed by NetherRealm Studios, the creators of the best-selling Mortal Kombat franchise and Injustice: Gods Among Us, in conjunction with Phosphor Game Studios, and will be available worldwide on iPad, iPhone, iPod touch and Android devices in 2015.

“It’s amazing to be working with WWE to offer a new way for fans to experience the brand on mobile platforms,” said Greg Ballard, Senior Vice President, Mobile, Social and Emerging Platforms, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. “NetherRealm Studios are experts in creating award-winning games and the team is working hard to deliver the same quality of engaging gameplay with WWE Immortals.”

“We are excited to partner with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and NetherRealm Studios to create WWE Immortals and bring a new action-packed mobile experience to our passionate fan base,” said Casey Collins, Executive Vice President, Consumer Products, WWE. “By tapping into NetherRealm’s legendary game development studio along with the unparalleled reach of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, we are creating a new way for fans to engage with the larger-than-life WWE characters.”

Additional details, including gameplay features, will be announced leading up to the game’s launch next year.

Train2Game News In app purchases for charity

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Multiple leading developers will be donating all money generated by microtransactions to charity for the next two weeks.

The initiative is part of the Apps for Red drive, which is supporting Product Red, the organisation founded by U2 vocalist Bono and activist Bobby Shriver. The money raised will go to the Global Fund fighting HIV, AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in Africa.

Many of the mobile games involved have rebranded to highlight the campaign, with the money spent on any in-app purchases going straight to charity, reports Polygon.

Slogans supporting the movement include Angry Birds’ “Fling Birds. Save Lives” and Clash of Clans’ “Raid Friends. Save Lives”. Monument Valley has even released a brand new chapter named Ida’s (Red) Dream to help raise money.

The games involved include:

    Angry Birds
    Bubble Witch 2 Saga
    Clash of Clans
    CSR Racing
    Cut the Rope 2
    Despicable Me: Minion Rush
    Farmville 2: Country Escape
    FIFA 15: Ultimate Team
    Frozen Free Fall
    Kim Kardashian: Hollywood
    Monument Valley
    Puzzle & Dragons
    Rayman Fiesta Run
    The Sims FreePlay
    Threes!

Source: Develop

Train2Game News App store no longer using word free

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AppsApple has removed the term ‘Free’ from the app download button on its App Store as it aims to comply with recent EU rules.

Previously free-to-play games had used the term ‘Free’ instead of a price like their premium counterparts. This has now been changed to the word ‘Get’.

Though no official statement has been made, the move is likely part of Apple’s plans to make it clearer that free-to-play games include in-app purchases following criticism from the European Commission in July that labelling games as free could be misleading.

Google has already made a number of changes to its service to ensure its app store is compliant with EU rules. Apps are displayed as offering in-app purchases while the download button is listed as ‘install’, rather than ‘free’.

Train2Game News Clan of the Cloud

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Clan Of The Cloud has today unveiled its new ‘platform agnostic’ CloudBuilder framework for any developer to incorporate social elements into their app, game or any program they are working on, whether for corporate content to social gaming.

The company is already partnered with and speaking to many indie game developers, medium sized studios and healthcare companies including Pastagames, The Game Bakers, Astraware & Advanced Mobile Applications.

The launch of this new version for the framework sees these libraries come out of Beta and phased into general release and can be accessed here:

https://account.clanofthecloud.com

Clan of Cloud is truly disrupting the social experience – with only one line of code you can add many features such as:

    Social Features – Chat, Twitter & Facebook sharing, Leaderboards, Challenges, Push Notifications, Offer Rewards/Gifts and more.

    Monetisation – IAP, Set your own virtual currency, view sales/ROI, Virtual items on the fly, Rewards & promotions all in real-time.

There’s also a full CRM system, which gives developers complete data collection & control per user in real-time including data export/bulk push notifications.

Whether you’re working on Mobile (Android, iPhone, BB, Windows Phone), web (HTML5) or desktop to third- party middleware including STEAM, Unity3D, Marmalade, all these features are available and cross pollinated seamlessly with all of these platforms.

The features the cloud-based framework offers would usually take developers a minimum of four months to create via dedicated programmers – Clan of the Cloud are already there.

The latest version of the framework is online from today via http://cloudbuilder.clanofthecloud.mobi/

Train2Game News Commando Kiwi Update

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Commando KiwiTrain2Game Student Studio, Commando Kiwi, the winners of the 2012 Make Something Unreal Live competition are back and under new management!

Train2Game Student Adam Sherratt is now the head of Commando Kiwi and they have been working hard since we last heard from them.

After deciding that the project they had started following the Make Something Unreal Live contest was slightly more ambitious than they first anticipated they made the executive decision to start a new IP using the framework they had already created for there winning game at MSUL.

However, with life getting in the way, a few of the original Commando Kiwi members left on to new ventures which left the team struggling until Adam came up with a plan to revitalise the studio. Several of the team volunteered to be mentors at the recent Train2Game Game Jam which put them in excellent position to scout for new team members.

The studio was back up to eight members and ready to get to work on their next game.

When asked about the studios new project Adam said “The game is a 3rd person action adventure RPG style game with cinematic combat sequences that play very similarly to battles in final fantasy 7, 8 and 10. Our aim is to bring a console quality gaming experience to mobile. By using the unreal engine 3 we will be able to offer incredible visuals, a strong sound track and a great story to produce a truly immersive game world on mobile. Initially the game would be released on iOS for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch but if things go well we will port it over to Android too. If you follow Commando Kiwi on Facebook you will see we have just started to leak information and concept art and we have a new company logo.”

Now the next stage for Commando Kiwi is they will be displaying their game at Appsworld and Platform Expo this year to spread the word and receive feedback from the public to make the game as best as it can be. So if you are attending either event go and say hello and give them your support!

The studio is intending to start a Kickstarter campaign in the future as currently everything they are doing is having to come out of their own pockets and they want this game to be the best that it can be.

You can follow Commando Kiwi on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/comkiwi