Latest Articles
Explore the solar system and inhabit new worlds using real science in TerraGenesis
TerraGenesis has already sent over 1 million brave iOS explorers to new planets, and now the game is giving Android players the chance to join in the fun. TerraGenesis is an elegant space management game that’s based on real NASA data. Travel to distant planets and terraform them to create new intergalactic civilizations. You have the power to meld the solar system’s planets into habitats fit for living creatures. Use science and technology to ensure your world has sufficient air pressure and oxygen, while keeping the ecosystem and sea levels in check. Should you overcome all of these challenges, you might even get the chance to create your own organisms using genes and phyla.…
AndroidTerry Cavanagh's next game is the dice-based tactical roguelike Dicey Dungeon
If you're familiar with the name Terry Cavanagh, you probably know his games: the frantic arcade evasion of Super Hexagon, and the gravity-bending hard-as-nails platforming of VVVVVV. His next game, Dicey Dungeon, is leaving the reflex-testing action and precision platforming behind in favor of dice-centric turn-based roguelike. Choosing from a number of classes (currently three out of a planned six) like Warrior and Inventor, you move through each map, level-by-level, fighting enemies and gathering loot from chests. Each battle is a turn-based affair reminscent of the card battles of card-RPG hybrids, except with dice instead of hands. From your backpack, you equip up to six weapons and pi…
Kids is the artful new project teased by Double Fine and developer Playables
If the name Playables doesn't ring a bell, you might recognize some of the work of its members, mainly Plug & Play and the co-operative puzzler Drei. Much like those other themed projects and puzzlers, the recently-revealed Kids is an interactive piece of art, aiming to explore the psychology of crowds. Like the aforementioned Plug & Play, Kids will be a short experimental interactive project, using its stark aesthetic and design to delve into themes over twenty to thirty minutes. Not much has been revealed about how the mechanics will work to serve that purpose, but the game's premise describes its structure as moving "with and against crowds until everyone is gone." The cro…
Pocket-Run Pool is an upcoming arcade pool game from Zach Gage, releasing this Thursday
With Really Bad Chess and Flipflop Solitaire, Zach Gage took a familiar game and created something addicting and unique with a simple variation on the formula. That approach continues when Pocket-Run Pool releases later this week, adding an high-scoring arcade touch to pool. In Pocket-Run Pool, each pocketed ball causes the score multiplier of the holes to shift around the table, while misses and scratches cost you a life; these rules promise a precise physics-based puzzler where every sink must be carefully planned and precisely placed. Unlike many other pool games, Pocket-Run Pool is designed with single player in mind, with a focus on encouraging skillfully angled shots to earn th…
Minesweeper Genius combines the logical challenges of Picross and Minesweeper, available on iOS and Android
Minesweeper and Picross (and Picross-inspired games) have more than a few variants on mobile, but Minesweeper Genius blends elements of the two to create a charming and clever puzzle hybrid. Reminiscent of how Swap Sword had you navigating a character through a match-3 grid, Minesweeper Genius turns each stage into a maze of mines to manuver through, guiding broom-wielding genius Aristotle through a gauntlet of science experiments step-by-step. Similar to Picross games, numbers on the rows and colums allow you to logically deduce which tiles are either rigged to blow or safe to walk along; Minesweeper-style markers also provide additional information as the randomly-generated puzzles…
A Steel Media round-up for the week of May 14th
Here’s another weekly round-up of news, previews, and features from Pocket Gamer, 148Apps, and the rest of our sister sites. On our Youtube page, James Gilmour provides hands-on impression of the recent release Bombarika. This bomb-clearing isometric puzzler relies on precise timing and trial-and-error as you manipulate objects inside rooms to try and bounce a bomb outside before it explodes Over on Pocket Gamer, Jessica Famularo covers the news that the acclaimed story-driven indie game To The Moon will be received an animated film adaptation, made in Japan with funding from Chinese investors. Not much is known about the project currently, but it is expected to have…
Threes developer Sirvo Studios reveals their next game Guildings in new trailer
Threes was one of mobile's surprise hits, a puzzle game that wringed addictive challenge from simple mechanics; Sirvo's next game, Guildings, looks to be more complex amd larger in scope, but retain the polish and charm that defined Threes. Described as a "mobile fantasy adventure", Guildings is an episodic single player game, inspired by JRPG mechanics, that blends magic with the mundane. As Coda, you're thrust into a sprawling journey after a cursed smartphone reveals a hidden magical culture and a quest to save the world. The short teaser trailer showcases the various elements of Guildings' gameplay: exploring low-poly environments and interacting with odd characters, learning the stor…
Pre-register now for MMORPG Dragon Nest’s much anticipated mobile debut
Those who have already played the PC iteration of Dragon Nest have plenty to look forward to when the mobile version launches as Dragon Nest M at the end of this month. And if you can’t wait to start enjoying the classic 3D adventuring the series is known for, pre-register for the game to gain exclusive gifts and rewards at launch. Maintaining the same high bar for story, fantasy setting, and characters, Dragon Nest M will feature similar scenes and play style present in the PC version, but there are some new additions to await eagerly. Mobile players will be able to choose between six classes, for instance, each one having up to 70 skills available. Warrior, Archer, Mage, Tinkerer,…
What you can expect from MeoGame's upcoming football management sim, Champion Eleven
In case you prefer your football with a little more fantasy than reality (and if you're a Manchester United fan you most likely have this season) then you should take note of MeoGame's upcoming release, Champion Eleven. The FIFPro endorsed game features over 100 licensed teams from across the World, over 60,000 active players, and comes endorsed by arguably the best coach in football right now, Pep Guardiola. So it's hard to argue that the game has credentials - but what can you expect from it? Well, we're here to tell you. First off, expect the expected. That is to say that the game is called Champion Eleven for a reason. You'll take on the role of manager, director and chairman of y…
Take flight and dodge traps in physics-based vehicle platformer Animal Super Squad
Animal Super Squad is a new vehicle platformer taking cues from the absurd physics and big ramps of the Trials series, swapping helmeted rider with reckless animals in slapdash machines on wheels. There's no motorcylce to master here; instead you choose between a daring fish, chicken, or sloth and then race along arcadey tracks in different vehicles, each with their own style to learn. The hover truck and the toilet on wheels are going to control differently enough, but either way, Animal Super Squad has you boosting and flipping through gravity deftying tracks, activating switches to destroy or change parts of the upcoming roadway. Of course, you might also be launched out of…
Hidden Gem of the Week: Telepaint
Combining easy controls with tricky space-bending puzzles, Telepaint's format is simple: you're a paint bucket trying to reach a waiting brush, auto-walking between portals that you can link to teleport around levels. Activating these portals are the core of Telepaint's puzzles, requiring timing and planning to survive hazards and tricky puzzle elements. While the automatic movement may sound like more of a hectic element, Telepaint lets you pause the time and manipulate portal while stopped, giving you as much time is needed to consider what direction you'll exit portals, how that direction will make you bump off walls, how you'll interact with certain obstacles. Early levels only requir…
Narrative-driven puzzler G30 tells the story of a fading memory through clever challenges
G30 might seem obtuse at glance, but its colorful artful aesthetic is the backdrop for an ambitious and clever puzzle game that uses its mechanics to deliever a human tale. Colored lines connect with jigsaw pieces, switching between various design as you drag on the line. With drag, you piece together a shape, and with each correct shape, G30's story unfolds on the screen. It's a narrative about a fading memory, about remembering and consciousness, and your puzzle solving brings new context to the text. Its minimalst art style and piecemeal story structure is designed with intent, attempting to represent the nature of remembering fragments of memories, snapping into place and revealing th…
Make your bid for the crown in Iron Throne, Netmarble's new MMO strategy game out now
Immersing yourself within a world of swords and sorcery is all well and good. But the real magic when playing Netmarble’s new MMO Strategy title Iron Throne is the ability to do so amongst high quality full-3D visuals. Over one million players have already pre-registered for the game, which is now fully available on mobile devices from today. When loading up Iron Throne, you’ll be greeted with a vast open world cloaked in a world of descending darkness. Only by willingly participating in real-time 3D battles, embarking on NPC quests, and building up an army of your own will you stand a chance of winning. Thankfully, your journey to the throne isn’t a burden you’ll…
Q-Games' Eden Obscura is swinging onto iOS on May 18th
The artistically abstract and arcade-y agile Eden Obscura is releasing soon on mobile, bringing Q-Games' unique Pixeljunk style and satisfying swinging to iOS later this week, according to the developers on Twitter. Eden Obscura is an enhanced and updated successor Q-Games' Pixeljunk Eden, designed with mobile in mind; the floral landscapes and graceful swinging remains, now with a useful double jump and a unique feaure that uses your phone's camera to create dynamic and atmosphere backgrounds to navigate through. With each gossamer grapple and planted seed, your agile movement through the world brings it to life with growing structures to swing even higher in your quest to collect specia…
Scalak is an unorthodox cubic puzzler from the developer of Zenge and Art of Gravity, releasing this month on iOS and Android
Developer Michal Pawlowski's roster of puzzle games all share the traits of being visually unique and relaxingly paced, and the upcoming Scalak looks like a welcome addition among past titles like Zenge and Push. At its most basic, Scalak look reminiscent of a 3D jigsaw puzzle, challenging you to fit oddly-shaped pieces onto cubic structures. In the trailer, a wide variety of puzzle types are shown, each one building upon that concept in different ways: filling in gaps on surfaces with shaped tiles, rotating sections of cubic levels so special tiles will fit with the correct orientation, and even placing girder-like construction across a structure's vertices. And like his past games, Scal…
