Village Gamer

Calgary-based independent game developer Evil Objective Studios is thrilled to announce the release of its debut title Scribble Byte Scramble, which is available in the iTunes App Store for 99 cents USD. Scribble Byte Scramble features a unique blend of arcade and puzzle elements that has the player scrambling to connect same-colored ‘Bytes’ before they hit the ‘Fire Wall’ at the bottom of the screen.

“We are incredibly excited with the release of Scribble Byte Scramble”, said Russ Dawson, founder and Director of Evil Objective Studios, “our goal was to create a casual, fun gaming experience on iOS devices that would be easy to pick up but hard to master, and I think we succeeded.” Read the rest of this entry »

Touch Village Inc. has released Dragons Rage, a tower defense styled medieval arcade game where users take the place of an angry dragon and fight to defend themselves against an onslaught of enemies like knights with swords, archers and pike men. Using the power of fire and the movement of the mobile device, the dragon must defeat enemies as they attack from all sides. Users will fight their way through villages, towns and mountains to reach the castle and their final challenge. A universal iOS game, Dragons Rage is currently available at the introductory sale price of $1.99. Read the rest of this entry »

Bulletproof Outlaws is pleased to announce a 50% off the regular $1.99 price “Back-To-School-Boredom” sale on their first flashy, fast-paced iPhone and iPod Touch release – Elusive Ninja: The Shadowy Thief.  With a 4-Star rating on the US App Store and a 4.5-Star rating on the Canadian App Store, Elusive Ninja has has over 20,000 users dodging Throwing-Stars and catching Sushi.  The sale starts Monday, September 12^th and runs through Sunday, September 18^th.

For students attending game development and business entrepreneurship courses, Elusive Ninja features over 100 pages of behind-the-scenes documentation about the game’s development, the business side of starting up a game studio, a Post-Mortem analysis, the original Game Design Document with commentary, and more. Read the rest of this entry »

EA Sports™ NHL® 12 for the PlayStation®3 and Xbox 360® is now available in retail stores throughout North America. Developed by EA Canada, NHL 12 is rated E10+ by the ESRB. EA Sports NHL 12 is the second title to participate in the EA Sports™ Season Ticket program. Season Ticket subscribers were provided full digital access to EA Sports NHL 12 three days before retail launch.

“As a winner of twenty-two sports game of the year awards, the NHL franchise has a history of producing high quality and innovative entertainment experiences and this year we have taken it to new heights. With over 300 gameplay improvements and the ability to play with some of the NHL’s greatest legends, such as Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux, NHL 12 is our most exciting offering yet,” says Dean Richards, General Manager Team & Action Sports, EA Sports.
Read the rest of this entry »

Silicon Sisters Interactive has announced the Japanese debut of their School 26 game series for girls ages 12 to 16. The fully localized first installment is now available in Japan’s App Store for iPhone, iPod Touch (¥250), and iPad (¥450). School 26 initially released in English earlier this year.

School 26 is a social mastery game that balances high school drama with cute cartoon artwork, lively characters, and an engaging storyline. Playing as Kate, the new girl in school, you must build relationships, defuse tensions, and navigate high school’s sticky social situations. From first crushes to troubled friendships to sexual confusion, the game explores real issues its teen audience can relate to. Read the rest of this entry »

After experiencing the great success with their two iPhone apps “Stylish Girl” and “Cool Guy” (more than one million downloads and over 100000 active users worldwide), the Toronto based DDN Media team has decided to expand their fan club by inviting Android users in it. They gave advantage? to the girls first and developed “Stylish Girl” for Android so that they could feel as stylish as their iPhone friends.

Stylish Girl is a multifunctional fashion app focusing on three major fashion elements:

1. users’ virtual closets where they can create numerous outfits

2. Shopping by allowing users to combine items from the online fashion stores with their own and shop from their phone directly

3. fashion news on style and tips from professional stylist The social element anchors the fun by the allowing users to post links and pictures of items and outfits with comments to twitter and Facebook

Stylish Girl was presented by Apple on New York Fashion Week as a successful symbiosis of mobile technology and fashion and later included in their well-known campaign for the app store”There’s an app for that.”

Electronic Arts and Euroleague Basketball have announced a licensing partnership that makes the global interactive entertainment software company an official partner under the video gaming category. Under this agreement EA Sports will include Turkish Airlines Euroleague players in the upcoming release of the mythical arcade game NBA Jam: On Fire Edition.

This is the first time that European clubs will be officially represented in the NBA JAM franchise, one of the most successful video games in sports history. All fans will be able to choose any of the four participating teams in the last Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four. Dimitris Diamantidis and Mike Batiste of Panathinaikos Athens, Lior Eliyahu and Sofoklis Schortsanitis of Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv, Bo McCalebb and Ksistof Lavrinovic of Montepaschi Siena, Sergio Llull and Carlos Suarez of Real Madrid will be amongst the players representing the four Euroleague teams in the 2–on–2 basketball games.

Currently in development at EA Canada,  NBA JAM: On Fire Edition will change the way players play this iconic franchise. All your favorite moves, spins and dunks are still available but now includes a host of gameplay improvements.  NBA JAM: On Fire Edition brings you even more to this basketball arcade classic.  Enhanced gameplay, ground breaking artificial intelligence and exciting online features continue to bring countless hours of enjoyment to this over-the-top experience.  The game will be available via digital download.

The following is a statement on recent events which occurred at the office of Evil Objective Studios.

Filthy. Freezing. Kinda smelly. These are just four of the five words used to describe the scene in an Alberta basement Monday morning where three of the studio’s designers were found. Tired, cold, and mildly infuriated with one another, the trio had been held hostage for months by their own iOS game.

Details are sparse but it appears the three friends – who have no professional or practical experience in much of anything – were taken hostage by their iOS game “Scribble Byte Scramble” at some point early in development.

Authorities suspect the trio was likely unaware of the dangers of game development.

Possessing little money and even less sanity, the trio aimed to develop and release their game on a timeline and budget that was initially described as ‘brilliant’ – it has since been downgraded to ‘laughable’.

The whereabouts of “Scribble Byte Scramble” – the  game responsible for this catastrophe – are unknown, but it is expected to resurface in early September. Rumours suggest the trio are currently in recovery, receiving extensive treatments from an Italian pharmaceutical specialist.

Toronto-based developer DrinkBox Studios has announced that it is working on a new downloadable PlayStation®Vita title called Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack.  A follow-up to Tales from Space: About a Blob – the studio’s first game – Mutant Blobs Attack will feature new levels, new powers and controls, and a new Blob player character.

“The control systems available on the PlayStation®Vita have allowed us to experiment with all kinds of new gameplay possibilities.  We’re finding that touch controls in particular can be used to complement traditional thumb-stick puzzle-platforming very well”, said DrinkBox Designer Chris McQuinn.  He added: “We learned a lot developing our first game – we want to use that experience to deliver the best game we can in Mutant Blobs Attack.”

DrinkBox will be showing an early development build of the game this weekend at PAX Prime 2011 in Seattle.

Ludia Inc. and Mark Burnett’s One Three Television LLC have announced the availability of the Are You Smarter Than A 5^th Grader? game for Facebook platform. Based on the syndicated TV game show, players across North America can now enjoy a multiplayer Are You Smarter Than A 5^th Grader? experience with friends, family and the larger Facebook community.

“Are You Smarter Than A 5^th Grader? is an acclaimed TV game show franchise that translates into an extremely fun and social game on Facebook,” said Alex Thabet, Founder and CEO of Ludia Inc. “We’re thrilled to release yet another top game show property featuring multiplayer, simultaneous game play- a unique formula that has proven to be highly addictive for players and very successful for Ludia.”

Contestants simultaneously compete to correctly answer eight multiple choice questions pooled from different school subjects such as Art, World Geography, Earth Science, Math, Languages, and others, with the ability to use the “copy” cheat to help answer difficult questions. The top three players at the end of the first round have a chance at boosting “cash” earnings by correctly answering a 5^th Grader Bonus Question. At the end of the game, a successful contestant can share winnings with friends, and brag about the win by posting it on his/her Facebook Wall.

Are You Smarter Than A 5^th Grader? on Facebook features:

• Live, multiplayer game play with friends and other Are You Smarter 5^th Grader fans, and the ability to follow friends’ grades and progress in the game.
• Favorite elements from the You Smarter Than A 5^th Grader TV show, including thousands of questions drawn from 10 different academic subjects, authentic theme music and the familiar “classroom” setting.
• The ability to choose Facebook friends as “cheats” from whom players can “copy” an answer in order to earn bonus points and increase the chances of winning.

“This exciting game release brings a whole new dimension and audience to Are You Smarter Than A 5^th Grader?,” said Mark Burnett. “We’re delighted to see the franchise continue to thrive on Facebook so that fans of the TV show and players who enjoy social games will have an outstanding interactive experience with the brand.”