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!!!)

Read more

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)

Read more

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

Sorry, this entry is only available in Deutsch.

Finally: C64 available on the AppStore

Now what do you say? Finally C64 made it back into the AppStore! After a short time in there being thrown out again with many people wondering why it disappeared. Now it’s back and just looking at it makes me feel young…like a little boy again.

Or maybe I should feel reeeeeeaaallly old now since the C64 is so long gone that it’s almost, no, it actually IS part of history! But anyway, it’s great fun of days long ago and every one who every had one of theses “breadboxes” or loved to play at one should get this App at once! It’s not just an option, it’s a must!

Everyone else, who got used to computer games by playing at a Playstation or something more advanced should definetly have a second guess about it! Maybe you first have a look at the video I embedded after the break for you and then decide wether this is for you or not.

With Commodore 64 you´ll get 8 games for free to get you started:

• Dragons Den
• Le Mans
• Jupiter Lander
• Arctic Shipwreck
• Jack Attack
• International Soccer
• International Basketball
• International Tennis

More games should be available as In-App-Purchases later on (haven’t tested the App so far)…which reminds me that I wanted to write a post about IAP itself someday… ;) …so, anyway, here’s the Video of the App in action: