Thursday Appdate: Candymeleon

Thursday Appdate: Candymeleon

Recently on Gamasutra, BitMonster's Lee Perry wrote a very insightful blog on an often intangible facet of game design: player feedback, that bit of game "feel" that makes a game not just fun, but injects fun into the basic actions and events on-screen. Candymeleon, a selection by Bulkypix from the 'New ...

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Waiting for Superman: The Beauty of Virality

Waiting for Superman: The Beauty of Virality

One day in October 2012, I happened across this YouTube video with a top-down view of PSY’s concert in Seoul. Over 80,000 people were in attendance, with the crowd spanning entire city blocks. Every member of the audience was singing along in unison with PSY who was on stage addressing ...

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I Play SimCity Social for the Writing

I Play SimCity Social for the Writing

“SimCity Social?” they ask me. “Sure, it’s got the SimCity branding and all, but isn’t it just another click-and-wait Facebook game?” Though I know the look of skepticism it will produce, my reply is, “Oh, I play SimCity Social for the writing.” Since I can feel your dubious smirks already, let me ...

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User-Generated Content and Generating Contented Users

User-Generated Content and Generating Contented Users

We at Frisky Mongoose like to play a lot of location-based games; it’s kind of our thing. There have been a lot of them over the years, as designers and developers have tried to gamify locations, or localize games, or whichever approach they feel like taking. While there are some ...

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Nothing Unusual at All is Happening Today

Nothing Unusual at All is Happening Today

Just another regular day in the games industry! Dogfighting game War Thunder has a new set of combatants, there's a new contender in the console field, and SEGA's got a new sound engine. New DLC is out for Journey, which is nice, and Europa Universalis was announced for a new platform. Oh, and ...

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Goodbye, LucasArts, and Thank You

Goodbye, LucasArts, and Thank You

This is my Corley Motors keychain. Corley Motors is a fictional motorcycle manufacturer that the player, as gang leader Ben, must save from a hostile takeover in the classic LucasArts adventure Full Throttle.  Together with Grim Fandango and his work on the Monkey Island series and Day of the Tentacle (all also LucasArts games), Full Throttle ...

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8 Reasons I Quit Playing Facebook Games

8 Reasons I Quit Playing Facebook Games

Two years ago, I ranted about the need for more challenge and chance in social games. Since then, the entire gaming industry has drastically changed. If I sound like a broken record on that note, it’s because in a fast-paced, high-tech market, it’s always true (and thus worth reiteration). It seems ...

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How Not to Play Location-based Games like an Idiot

How Not to Play Location-based Games like an Idiot

Welcome to the wonderful world of location-based games! I see you’ve just downloaded a copy of Traveler’s Quest, or Dokobots, or CodeRunner, or perhaps you’ve got yourself on foursquare for the first time. That’s great! You’re about to discover what geotagging and GPS-enabled mobile devices can add to gaming and ...

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Temple Run 2 Tries Harder to Kill You

17. May 2013

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Temple Run 2 Tries Harder to Kill You

Tweet Temple Run 2, much like its predecessor, is a game nobody can ever win. You run and you run, and perhaps you cover a long distance and feel pretty good about it, but ultimately you fling yourself off a cliff or into the murderous arms of a hell-monkey. It’s a game about losing. As [...]

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The Sporos Are Free, the Aliens Are Blitzing

15. May 2013

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The Sporos Are Free, the Aliens Are Blitzing

Tweet Some people celebrate milestones with a splashy announcement or a party, but not TriplePoint client Appxplore. No, they’ve decided that the proper way to mark two million downloads for puzzle-app Sporos is to unleash a torrent of spores and aliens upon us all — presumably because now that they’ve achieved their success, there’s nothing more [...]

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Thursday Appdate: Candymeleon

9. May 2013

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Thursday Appdate: Candymeleon

Tweet Recently on Gamasutra, BitMonster’s Lee Perry wrote a very insightful blog on an often intangible facet of game design: player feedback, that bit of game “feel” that makes a game not just fun, but injects fun into the basic actions and events on-screen. Candymeleon, a selection by Bulkypix from the ‘New and Noteworthy’ section in [...]

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How Much Muck Would a Muck Chuck Chuck?

9. May 2013

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How Much Muck Would a Muck Chuck Chuck?

Tweet I do so enjoy a name with a crafty double meaning, so I’m already inclined to like Chuck the Muck from TriplePoint client Kiz Studios. See, Muck is kind of their thing; they’re the folks behind SmashMuck Champions, and in one of their other titles, Critter Escape, the critter being referred to is a glob of [...]

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Sunstorm Games Hits a Milestorm

9. May 2013

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Sunstorm Games Hits a Milestorm

Tweet Sometimes, as a developer, all the good news hits at once in a perfect storm of boast-worthy data. If you happen to be Sunstorm Games, a TriplePoint client and mobile games developer, perhaps you look forward to the day you can call yourself a perfect Sunstorm — but until then, hitting 10 Million Monthly [...]

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Discovery Apps Discovering New Bans from Apple

6. May 2013

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Discovery Apps Discovering New Bans from Apple

Tweet Anyone can recommend a good app — that’s a lot of what we do here at Frisky Mongoose, in fact. If you recommend apps using an app, however, you may have some problems: according to an article this morning on PocketGamer, a new spate of recommendation and sharing apps have found themselves on the business [...]

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Thursday Appdate: Bee Leader

2. May 2013

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Thursday Appdate: Bee Leader

Tweet Among the features in Apple’s update of the App Store each Thursday is an app of the week — something no iDevice owner ought to be without. Apple has picked a good one this week in Bee Leader, a quick and clever arcade-style game from Flightless that does two very important things right: first of [...]

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Wednesdroid: Puzzle & Dragons

1. May 2013

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Wednesdroid: Puzzle & Dragons

Tweet So, here’s a funny story: I was checking out the titles on offer in today’s Google Play update, and one of the titles leapt out at me: Puzzle & Dragons. Yes, it’s very true that I love puzzles and I’m reasonably fond of dragons, but the title seemed familiar somehow. Probably because of all those [...]

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Your Daily AppGratis: Wiklist

1. May 2013

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Your Daily AppGratis: Wiklist

Tweet Every day, TriplePoint client AppGratis hand-picks an app that they think you ought to have. They feel strongly enough about the app to make it free for a day. We download and check out what’s on offer — because it’s free. Need to get yourself organized but don’t really feel like getting yelled at? [...]

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Your Daily AppGratis: FaceFusion

30. April 2013

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Your Daily AppGratis: FaceFusion

Tweet Every day, TriplePoint client AppGratis hand-picks an app that they think you ought to have. They feel strongly enough about the app to make it free for a day. We download and check out what’s on offer — because it’s free. Some apps, we’re glad to explain to you with a quick post. Some [...]

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Your Daily AppGratis: Fancy

29. April 2013

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Your Daily AppGratis: Fancy

Tweet Every day, TriplePoint client AppGratis hand-picks an app that they think you ought to have. They feel strongly enough about the app to make it free for a day. We download and check out what’s on offer — because it’s free. AppGratis has a special present for you today! All you need to do [...]

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Your Daily AppGratis: Word Chums

26. April 2013

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Your Daily AppGratis: Word Chums

Tweet Every day, TriplePoint client AppGratis hand-picks an app that they think you ought to have. They feel strongly enough about the app to make it free for a day. We download and check out what’s on offer — because it’s free. Let’s acknowledge the elephant in the room: Yes, today’s game Word Chums kind of [...]

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