Thanksgiving = Thanks for Giving :) [Update 2]

The big ones in the AppStore seem to be very very thankful this year. Guess they all made a penny or two selling their games on the AppStore. ;)
Anyway, for the rest of us this means a lot of fun during the holydays and beyond. The big ones like Namco, Electronic Arts and Gameloft reduced many of their titels to as low as $0.79! So, just get wild and buy some…

After the break we have a list of the games that we consider the ones you have to buy. If new ones are added, we will let you know!

(Note: All these links are affiliate-links. So by clicking on them and buying something, we get a small bonus to feed our developers. For you it doesn’t make a difference! You don’t have to pay more!!!)
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Ravensword is now available!

Ravensword, the highly anticipated new role playing game is now available on the AppStore. After first review, Apple rejected the game due to it’s use of the UNITY-Engine but now, things seem cool again. The UNITY-Engine was changed and Ravensword was uploaded for review again and there it is. No reason to leave the iPhone-Market just yet… ;o)

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Awake 1.5 is now in review

I just finished and uploaded the next update to Awake. In Version 1.5 you will have the option to show the latest news from the diner just below the button. In this textfield, Awake will show the latest tweet from the diner so you can rest assured that you wont miss out on updates and promos coming from us.

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In-App-Purchases are cool…or not?

Over the last few days I came across a few games I wanted to try somehow. I switched over to the AppStore and thought, like so many times before, ‘mjaaaaa…sounds good somehow but I think I won’t spend money on it just now’. It was one of these moments where I know that it’s probably not the right’Snack’ for my brain at that moment. So, I make a note to rethink the App someday later.

But…this time around it was a bit different: Gravity Sling and Eliminate got my attention and both are free with a limited set of levels or play time. Basically these are the free trial-versions we’ve been waiting for since day one. So I grabbed both and tried them. More Levels or play time can be purchased from inside each game as an In-App-Purchase. So, I played as far as I could…I liked both games and…didn’t buy anything afterwards. Why? Well, just because I had enough for the moment afterwards. But the games still reside on my iPhone and surely enough, whenever I like to play some I wont start looking around on the AppStore but play the games I allready have and like.

So, under the line I think IAP are a great mechanism to get the foot in the door at customers. People are free to try the App as long as they like and can enhance it if the need more levels, playtime, ammo, cars…whatever. On the other hand, People who don’t like it will probably give the App one of the infamous 1-Star ratings just because they were “tricked” into downloading the app and now “wasted valuable amounts of their lifetime” (I actually read this in one rating once…was a rating for a free(!) movie!). I don’t know what you think about app-reviews by users on the AppStore but I think they should be eliminated…but that’s another story!

I for one really like the mechanism behind IAPs very much and I’m happy to see it is becoming more and more adopted by developers. I’m thinking about it myself but right now I don’t see any of my apps suitable for IAPs…but maybe in the future…

What are your thoughts on this? Are IAPs cool or not? How would you like to have it? Share in the comments…

Wooot…more Retro coming

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