Yesterday I made it out to the Freeverse offices and sat down with their development teams to look at their lineup of upcoming games. The title closest to completion was Warpgate, which we have previewed in the past. I played through the first few tutorial missions, and the game has grown substantially from the initial screenshots we saw so long ago.
The concept of the game has stayed essentially the same since our preview, but since then Freeverse has added a tremendous amount of content and graphical effects. Each system that you can land on has their own economy which is in constant flux, along with a series of procedurally generated random missions that will allow you to play the game forever without running out of things to do.
In the graphical department, normal mapping has been added to every object in game. Normal mapping is a rendering technique used to fake shadows and lighting on objects to create much more detailed graphics while still maintaining a low enough polygon count to be rendered at a high framerate. (Wikipedia has an excellent article on the specifics of normal mapping, including an image that does a great job of illustrating what it can do.)
There have been other games for the iPhone that have used normal mapping, but all of these games have been sold as "3GS-Only" games. Warpgate is anticipated to be the first game for the platform that scales these graphical effects based on the device you're playing it on.
If you're playing on an iPhone 3GS, normal mapping will be enabled and you'll be able to see canyons and crags in planets along with the different details of the ships and warpgates. But, if you're playing on a previous-generation device, the game will gracefully degrade back to standard textured 3D models. If in the future you upgrade to a newer device, all of the graphical features you didn't have access to are instantly enabled without needing to buy a "enhanced" version of the game.
Here is a video provided by Freeverse illustrating the difference in graphical quality between devices:
Warpgate is still in development and Freeverse is hopeful to have it on the App Store in time for the holiday season. We've been playing different builds of the game over Warpgate's development, and the game seems to be rapidly progressing. Look forward to a more detailed preview and review of the game here as its release approaches.
Earlier this month we profiledMad Monkey Studios, a mobile developer that indicated they were beginning the development of iPhone games, but only those that would take specific advantage of the advanced capabilities of Apple's new iPhone 3GS hardware.
A few weeks later, the studio posted a video that showed a 3D shader-driven visual technique. The technique is somewhat reminiscent of the cartoon stylings in the '80s a-ha video 'Take On Me.'
Early this morning, a simple game based on the demo, Sktech Hop [link], was released in the App Store and, as promised, is only compatible with the iPhone 3GS.
Sketch Hop is a simple and free "2.5D" side-scrolling jump-the-obstacles platform game that challenges the player to take a bouncing ball as far down a scrolling row of logs as possible, without falling into the gaps. It's a tap to the screen to jump (the longer you hold, the higher / farther you'll jump), and that's pretty much as complicated as it gets. As a game, it really just stands out more as an example of 3GS-specific game making from a studio that, when it comes to the iPhone platform, is dedicated solely to Apple's flagship device.
See a reader's video (which lacks audio) of the game in play.
It's a simple free download for 3GS users, but non-3GS users aren't really missing out on much… yet.
If you don't keep your nose glued to our forums or the various Twitter feeds of game developers, chances are you've missed out on these four bits of news that have popped up in the last couple days:
Zenonia 2 was revealed on Gamevil's Twitter. There's a thread on our forums with all of the images that have been released so far complete with fans of the original sharing their anticipation with other forum members.
Gangstar had a teaser site for the game with screenshots and video revealed via Gameloft's Twitter along with announcing that the game will be launched at $6.99 when it is finally released.
Madden 10 for iPhone was reportedly pushed back to September. We still have yet to hear any details on the game, its control method, or anything else outside of knowing that it's eventually coming to the App Store. When in September it's going to be released is currently anyone's guess.
Mad Monkey Studios released another tech demo from their upcoming 3GS-only game project that we covered when it was first announced. We don't have any more information than that, according to this video the game is going to be "sketch shaded":
The video shows a cool direction for the art style of their upcoming game to be taking, but it's hard to get too excited over tech demos without having any idea what the final game will even be about.
Josh Presseisen from Crescent Moon Games emailed us a heads up this morning of their 3D action RPG set for release sometime in September. Ravensword: The Fallen King has been designed with the iPhone 3GS in mind because of the high polygon count, but will be tuned to also run on previous-generation devices at lower frame rates and without as much graphical eye candy. Reluctant to give too much away, Presseisen compared the game to both Oblivion and Zelda: Twilight Princess for the Wii.
Ravensword is said to have an open environment with a main quest line that will take anywhere from 3 to 6 hours to complete, along with a hefty amount of side quests to also keep you occupied. What I'll be interested in seeing is how extensive the side quests in Ravensword are, because I had much more fun just fooling around in the open game world of Oblivion than playing the comparatively short main quest line.
Take a look at these screen shots and concept art, also the developers are collecting ideas for the game in their thread on our forums. If you'd like to see something added or have other suggestions, don't hesitate to post them.
Since we first got word about the new iPhone 3GS at the WWDC keynote, we've all been wondering when we will be seeing the first 3GS-exclusive titles. We've seen a few games so far that have been optimized for the 3GS with fancy lighting, and even a few that take advantage of the compass. None of these games really provided much of a "Wow!" experience though, and basically just served as tech demos for some of the special effects found in the 3GS hardware. None have really pushed the hardware as far as it could go.
Mad Monkey Studios today announced they will be developing games exclusively for the iPhone 3GS, and released the following video benchmark demonstrating the performance difference between iPhone 3G and 3GS. It shouldn't come as a surprise that the 3GS mops the floor with the older iPhone hardware, but this raises the question of whether or not we're looking at a simple benchmark or a glimpse at their first 3GS-only game.
Their first game will be announced soon, and is said to include a "cutting edge 3D look never before seen on the iPhone." They also have "plans to use the shading capabilities to their full extent to create visually innovative games." Needless to say, we're going to be keeping a close eye on this project. It will be interesting to see the community reaction of this title, especially with the 40,000,000 iDevices in the wild which will quickly become obsolete for gamers if this trend catches on.
RockingPocketGames has released the 3GS specific of their Blue Skies [$0.99] helicopter shooter that was originally released back in August 2008. The new version is amongst the first few games to offer 3GS specific features:
The 3GS enhanced version makes use of the pixel shaders that are ONLY found in the new iPhone 3GS. It has per pixel bump mapping and amazing dynamic animated water that demonstrates the true power of the new iPhone 3GS!
Aside from the visual enhancements, the game content remains the same. If you've never played the game, it's was a solid shooter when it was originally released. For a side-by-side comparison, you can download the Lite version of the original [link].
Star Hogs [App Store] saw a price drop to $2.99 this morning, and IUGO has plans in the works for two updates, one of which has already been submitted.
We first saw Star Hogs at WWDC, and when we finally got the game in to our hands, it was just as good as we expected.
Star Hogs is less of a Worms clone, and more of an evolution of Worms-like turn based combat. The variety of options for ships, 32 single player levels, free play (which is basically just online play but with AI or human opponents sharing the same device), and the potential of online multiplayer makes for a solid title that can easily hold its own amongst the other $4.99 games on the App Store.
Star Hogs Lite [App Store] is also available, and if you ever enjoyed a Worms game in the past, you owe it to yourself to at least give the free version a try.
Only now, instead of $4.99, Star Hogs is $2.99. The update which has already been submitted to the App Store addresses some online game balance issues and fixes a few bugs. The next update coming down the pipes features improved graphics, in-game messaging for multiplayer battles, and an optional purchasable map pack which will bring 32 new campaign levels.
IUGO's Sarah Thomson has been extremely active in the Star Hogs thread on our forums and is collecting community feedback for future updates. So if you have comments, questions, or other ideas for Star Hogs, don't hesitate to post them.
RockingPocketGames posted a video of a new version of their Blue Skies helicopter shooter that was originally released back in August 2008. The new version (which is a completely separate version) makes it amongst of the first games to offer 3GS specific features:
The 3GS enhanced version makes use of the pixel shaders that are ONLY found in the new iPhone 3GS. It has per pixel bump mapping and amazing dynamic animated water that demonstrates the true power of the new iPhone 3GS!
There's been some debate about the practicality of offering 3GS-specific versions of games in the future. While most developers will likely target the broad market, but obviously some will certainly experiment with some of the new features to gain a bit of an advantage.
Here's a video of the existing version of Blue Skies
The 3GS version of Blue Skies has been submitted to Apple for approval but has not yet been approved. It will be a separate $0.99 purchase over the existing version.
Update: It appears the 3GS version will be a separate app rather than an upgrade that we had originally indicated. Apologies for the mistake.
The graphics in SurrounDEAD [App Store] aren't amazing, and the simple tap to shoot gameplay isn't anything we haven't seen before, but if you are lucky enough to be playing on an iPhone 3GS you are in for a treat.
SurrounDEAD is one of the first games available that not only has the standard tilt controls for previous-generation devices, but also utilizes the compass on the 3GS as a control method. Standing up and spinning in circles as you pan the area for zombies feels just as strange as the Amiga 3000-based 1000CS virtual reality machines that often served as the crown jewels of arcades of the early 90's.
Facing different directions in real life to face those directions in games adds an extremely odd level of immersion to such a simple game. In its current state, it's little more than a tech demo for 3GS owners to show off the fancy features of their phone. In the iTunes description it mentions updates coming soon to add more zombies, zombie AI, a shotgun upgrade, and some kind of level structure. However, as it stands, you just tap to shoot zombies until you get overrun and eventually die.
If you own a 3GS, SurrounDEAD is worth throwing down a buck at because the compass control method is really cool, but other than that, there's not much to this game.
Firemint's Real Racing [App Store] is the game to show people when you're showing off the graphical capabilities of your phone. The immersion experienced in the cockpit view is substantial, and the remarkably lifelike AI makes the game extremely fun to play. I even made note of how great it felt playing against the AI opponents who actually play like people do when playing against others online in my review of Real Racing:
Real Racing is an entirely different animal. In my previous hands-on / first impressions post I mentioned how great the AI is, and countless races later I still feel this is Real Racing’s greatest asset. The AI opponents play how they should play; they’re not mindless drones following a simple line around the track, they’re extremely competitive racers that just flat out won’t put up with you trying to cut in front of them, or leaving yourself open on a turn.
Now imagine this, but not against one or two racers, but forty. Allow me to introduce you to an excerpt from the latest post on the Firemint blog:
Real Racing has up to six cars on the track at any one time. Since the game uses a high fidelity physics engine, adding cars is a good test for pushing the hardware. We started our tech demo with 8 cars on the track, then 10, 12, 16 and 20, and the 3GS still didn't break a sweat. We finally stopped when we got to 40 cars on the track at the same time, still with no perceptible drop in frame rate. We think the results are mind blowing.
Unfortunately, this is just a tech demo by Firemint. They don't actually have plans to release a version of Real Racing to allow for 40 racers at once. Regardless, this serves as a remarkable benchmark of what the iPhone 3GS is capable of.
Yesterday I made it out to the Freeverse offices and sat down with their development teams to look at their lineup of upcoming games. The title closest to completion was Warpgate, which we have previewed in the past. I played through the first few tutorial missions, and the game has grown substantially from the initial screenshots we saw so long ago.
There have been other games for the iPhone that have used normal mapping, but all of these games have been sold as "3GS-Only" games. Warpgate is anticipated to be the first game for the platform that scales these graphical effects based on the device you're playing it on. 
Since we first got word about the new iPhone 3GS at the WWDC keynote, we've all been wondering when we will be seeing the first 3GS-exclusive titles. We've seen a few games so far that have been optimized for the 3GS with 
The graphics in SurrounDEAD [
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