As Spiderweb Software’s fantasy epic hits its 18 year anniversary, the final game’s App Store debut is looming on the horizon. But it’s not just the second iOS release for the series, not counting Avadon as it’s a separate thing, it’s the final chapter to a second trilogy. That’s six games, total. And I was lucky enough to be able to ask series creator Jeff Vogel about it.

First and foremost, what made you all decide to create a role playing game in the first place?
I’ve been obsessed with role-playing games since I first learned to play Dungeons & Dragons, around 32 years ago. Sometimes there is something about a genre that just grabs you and doesn’t let go.

I have to ask, when you all began work on the first Avernum, did you have plans for a 6-part series?
Avernum is a rewrite of my very, very first game, Exile: Escape From the Pit, which I started in 1994. When I began it, I honestly thought it was just a hobbyist thing, and I didn’t look for one second past the first title. Happily, the world I created turned out to be very versatile and have a lot of stories in it.

And why six games specifically?
Two trilogies. I think three games is a really good length for telling one epic story. So the whole series is two almost self-contained arcs.

I imagine you’ve learned quite a bit from working on so many titles, and not just the Avernum series. Were there any particular bits of experience you’ve gained along the way that have been more useful than most?
I have learned so much since I started, and 18 years in, it feels like I learn more every year. Things about how to design, to code, to test, to market. It’s a huge, complex field, and there is no shortage of mistakes and foolishness on my part I need to correct.

In that vein, have there been things that you know now that you wish you knew back at the beginning?
I wish, when I started, I knew to pony up the money and find good freelance artists. I made a lot of the art in-house, and I should have had real people doing it. Especially the interface.

Have there been any unique challenges in developing any of the Avernum titles for iOS as opposed to Mac or PC?
Adapting from a mouse/keybords interface to a touchscreen was difficult and required a lot of thought. Touchscreens don’t work as well for hardcore, tactical games. Happily, people seem to be happy with the interface we developed.

I imagine iOS distribution is fairly different than Mac/PC. Have you found there to be any specific hurdles in releasing, selling, and supporting a game on the App Store?
Marketing. Visibility. It’s a hugely, HUGELY busy and competitive platform. It’s so hard to stand out from the teeming masses. Happily, we are about the only ones writing this sort of game for iOS, which helps.

Has there been more notable success on one platform as opposed to the others?
Avadon: The Black Fortress continues to do really well for us. I recommend it. It’s fun.

Now that the final game in the series is coming to iPad, might there be plans to bring earlier titles to the platform?
Yeah, a few. I’m adapting Avernum 6 now, and I hope to have it out in October. However, the older games use an old code base that would be extremely difficult to adapt to iOS.

On a similar note, are there any plans to make the series available for iPhone?
No. The screen is too small. I will need to rewrite the engine from scratch to adapt to it.

I hope to someday write games for the iPhone. I’m really thinking about it. But that sort of thing needs to be baked in from day 1.

Lastly, how’s Avadon 2 coming along? I noticed the little blurb about it on the website. Will that be available for iOS alongside the first one?
It’s going. Slowly. I want it to be out next summer, but I’m having a little bit of mid-life burnout. But it is happening. And it will absolutely be out for the iPad.

Avernum 6 HD is slated to hit the App Store on October 10th. Avernum: Escape From The Pit and Avernum 6 are also available from the Mac App Store.

$9.99

Avernum: Escape From the Pit HD

iPad Only App - Designed for the iPad
Released: 2012-04-03 :: Category: Games

Freemium social games are all well and good, but a number of them are decidedly lacking in certain places. Namely in action. That’s probably why it’s so easy to take notice when companies like Pangalore announce a game like Knightly Adventure.

Knightly Adventure is indeed a social game, and it does indeed possess a bunch of typical fantasy RPG elements; stuff like medieval kingdoms, quests, hostile monsters, colorful storybook-like graphics, and so on. But while it adheres to many freemium norms, it also attempts to deviate in that one key area. Amidst all the kingdom building, character customizing, friend gathering, and so on is a much more interactive action RPG approach to the quests. With the option of choosing between four character classes (swordsman, wizard, bowman, or knight) available to further sweeten the deal.

This free-to-play cross-platform (mobile, tablet, or Facebook) super-hyphenated fantasy adventure will be setting up shop in the App Store sometime next month. Presumably and preferably soon.

I’m not being sarcastic when I say that I wish more browser-based games made their way onto iOS. A lot of them are fantastic, but due to various software/hardware constraints they typically don’t function on handheld Apple devices. It’s a shame, really. But what isn’t a shame is that another browser MMO is coming to iOS. And it’s going to be playable across all (read: iOS, Android, HTML 5) platforms.

Dragon Eternity affords players many of the luxuries they expect in their MMOs; more than 1,000 quests, loot drops, 200+ crafting recipes, mounts, powerful bosses, crafting professions, pets, over 500 monsters to fight, custom character development, and five different PvP modes. So yeah, there’s a lot on offer here. The beta version is already sporting over a million registered users, so I think it’s safe to say that it won’t be one of those Massively Multiplayer Ghost Towns that some of these games tend to be when they first launch.

It’s still in open beta via the browser version, but once Dragon Eternity is complete it will be available for iOS (most likely iPad) and Android devices as well. It’s also going to be free-to-play so there’s no need to start saving up for the eventual release.

An exciting release for iOS fantasy gamers and Magic: The Gathering fans alike is slated to come later this month. Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013, an installment of Magic: The Gathering games, will be available for the iPad (and other platforms) starting on June 20th. This is the first iPad release for a Magic: The Gathering game.

Within the game, players fight against Magic‘s evil mastermind, Planeswalker Nicol Bolas with ten new decks added to the game, new puzzle challenges, and an integration between the digital and paper product (cards and the video game). There’s even a muliplayer mode in the game on all platforms. Although, multiplayer for the iPad version is slightly limited in the iPad version compared to other platforms (according to Touch Arcade’s hands-on with the game at E3). iPad, Game Center-powered multiplayer is limited to two players while other platforms get up to four (four player multiplayer available vs. AI).

We look forward to the release of the game later this month. Imagine looking at those detailed cards on the new iPad’s retina display! Check out the gallery below with the game’s first screenshots.

Magic has an estimated 12 million players around the world in over 70 countries. It was released by Wizards of the Coast in 1993. Since then, over 12,000 cards have been created (around 500 per expansion pack).

Mail.Ru Games, developers of popular Legend: Legacy of Dragons and Allods Online, have released a new RPG, Juggernaut: Revenge of Sovering. The game takes players through the world of Haradan to defeat the evil Sovering.

Mail.Ru Games is describing Juggernaut: Revenge of Sovering as “an entirely new breed of RPG.” The combat in the game can be done in one of three different ways including tapping, swiping, and combo-hit controls. Players also occasionally experience in-fight minigames that include a memory game, “collect the mana,” and fighting the “evil eye.” Other mini-games (not in-fight) deal with finding treasure and lockpicking.

The game contains five heroes to choose from. Those champions have over 100 enemies to fight in 15 different locations. Spellcasting includes four different schools of magic with 12 different battle spells. Heroes, of course, can equip themselves with various types of armor and weapons.

Spellcasting looks a bit similar to Infinity Blade, where players draw the spells they’re trying to cast. The shapes the players draw even look similar (why change what works?).

The game is free. Even for those not interested in playing, please download the game and let me know in the comments if the warrior on the title screen looks familiar (Bruce Willis, anyone?)

FREE!

Juggernaut: Revenge of Sovering.

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2012-05-10 :: Category: Games

Just last month, Rob Rich here at 148Apps reviewed Kingdoms of Camelot: Battle for the North. He described the freemium multiplayer strategy game as “surprisingly fresh thanks to a number of small gameplay elements” and “accessible but still complex and intricate.” Just yesterday (April 16th), developer Kabam released the fifth version of Kingdoms of Camelot: Battle for the North.

The update is basically an expansion to the game. A second city is available for players to build up and fortify. There are even new buildings for seasoned players to add to their second cities including the Relief Station and the Round Tower. Also added in this update is a Might Leaderboard, High Stakes Merlin’s Gamble, and the addition of Mystery Chests to the shop. Some improvements were made to the bookmarking system, a search for alliances, more peacetime item choices, and in-chat notifications for finished items in players’ cities.

Kingdoms of Camelot: Battle for the North is a freemium multiplayer strategy game where players build up a medieval city, train an army, and attack other players’ cities for riches and glory. Kingdoms of Camelot: Battle for the North can be downloaded for free and gems can be purchased through in-app purchases to speed along building and upgrades.

FREE!

Kingdoms of Camelot: Battle for the North

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2012-02-29 :: Category: Games

It’s the end of the week and there are all kinds of great-looking games and apps to give a shot over the weekend. Let’s call this a sci-fi/fantasy week because all of three of the games in this week’s five have either a sci-fi or fantasy theme. We also have some filter-applying photo apps.

DOFUS: Battles 2
This is the sequel of the tower defense I reviewed a little less than a year ago, DOFUS: Battles. DOFUS: Battles remains to be one of my favorite tower defense experiences on iOS. The games are based on the world from popular MMORPG, DOFUS. “Towers” are characters that can be leveled up and equipped and placed on the game board to defeat waves of enemies. DOFUS: Battles 2 is a reverse tower defense; the characters are attacking, not defending. I’ll definitely be playing this one over the weekend. DOFUS: Battles 2 is available in an HD version as well for the iPad (my preference).

$2.99

DOFUS : Battles 2

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2012-04-12 :: Category: Games

$2.99

DOFUS : Battles 2 HD

iPad Only App - Designed for the iPad
Released: 2012-04-12 :: Category: Games

Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space Ep 4
Those with a great memory may feel a bit of deja vu when looking at this app. Didn’t Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space already show up in Five for Friday recently? Yes it did. A little over a month ago, Telltale released Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space Episode 2 this is Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space Episode 4! Two months and three episodes! This is the same developer behind the Back to the Future and Jurassic Park games.

$2.99

Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space Ep 4

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2012-04-12 :: Category: Games

iStriper
Camera apps that apply filters are getting popular. iStriper applies a unique filter to photos. The app takes a picture from the camera roll and “cuts” it into strips of varying sizes to create an artistic looking result. Distance, thickness, and color can be customized and photos can be exported via Facebook, Twitter, or email.

$1.99

iStriper

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2012-04-09 :: Category: Photography

B&W Lab
Another photography app that adds filters has been released this week, B&W Lab. While most of these filter apps provide a variety filters (like Instagram), B&W Lab focuses on black & white style filtering. There are twenty black & white presets in the app, but users can also customize the saturation, contrast, brightness, gamma, and more. Photos can be shared within the app via Twitter.

$1.99

B&W Lab

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2012-04-09 :: Category: Photography

Hero Mages
Hero Mages is a mix between an RPG, strategy, and card game. Players command a party of three champions and fight in multiplayer or campaigns with various dice and cards to represent spells. Multiplayer can be played with up to 8 players all over the world in free-for-all, team, or cooperative games. Hero Mages was developed by D20Studios, a one-man development team.

$2.99

Hero Mages

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2012-04-11 :: Category: Games

Spellsword, a new title from Fire Fruit Forge, is set to be released soon. According to a release announcement and screenshots posted on the Touch Arcade Forums, it should be released sometime soon (possibly within the next month).

After watching the gameplay trailer, it looks to be quite the action-packed hack and slash game. The storyline is based on a “spellsword” with the ability to kill many minions at a time and the champion who picks up the sword. The game has a sort of retro look and the music even sounds 8-bit derived.

Apparently, the mission/quest system was somewhat inspired by Jetpack Joyride. There are quests in different areas but the game still contains an “endless gaming” sort of feel. There will be 60 missions at the release of the game.

Fire Fruit Forge is also the developer team behind hit title, Terra Noctis. Check out the gameplay trailer for Spellsword below.

This week at 148Apps.com, writer Carter Dotson reviewed one of the most anticipated iOS games in recent memory – Infinity Blade II. Dotson writes, “Most of what is new here is a modified and extended progression structure. Instead of one path leading to a final boss, where failure means starting over, there are now several of them, with more branching paths to explore. There are 3 different weapon types now: the traditional swords, slow and heavy axes that deal more damage, and speedy dual swords that deal less base damage, but can do double damage once combos are started. The story is more fleshed out, with actual speaking dialogue from characters besides the God King.”

Read the full review at 148Apps.com.

$6.99

Infinity Blade II

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2011-12-01 :: Category: Games

Meanwhile, our attention was turned to more artistic matters at GiggleApps, as Amy Solomon reviewed Auryn – Van Gogh and the Sunflowers. Solomon says, “The look of this app is terrific, with illustrations evoking the style that Van Gogh is known for, complete with bold color choices and noticeable use of brush strokes, but maintains a childlike quality that fits well within this storybook. The jazzy music used is also wonderful, relaxing as well as engaging and very enjoyable to listen to even for long periods of time. The narration used here is also quite good. Parents will also like that each spoken word is highlighted red to aid the young children new to the world of reading.”

Read more about our take on Auryn – Van Gogh and the Sunflowers at GiggleApps.

$3.99

Van Gogh and the Sunflowers: encourage creativity and teach your child art history in this interactive book with text and paintings by Laurence Anholt (by Auryn Apps)

iPad Only App - Designed for the iPad
Released: 2011-10-21 :: Category: Books

Finally, 148Apps.biz site editor Rob Lefebvre reported on tablet users and their media consumption. LeFebvre writes, “In a study put out by comScore and reported by Fierce Mobile Content and the appside, interested parties can see that the number one use of tablet devices is games, with 67% of surveyed tablet users saying they’ve played a game at least once in the past month, as compared to 49% of smartphone users surveyed. 23% of those surveyed said they’d played a game on their tablet EVERY DAY. That’s a good number.”

Dig deeper into this study and read the full report on 148Apps.biz.

That’s our wrap-up for this week. While you’re out getting all of your holiday shopping done, don’t forget to check us out on our Facebook and Twitter feeds to find out the latest and greatest news, reviews and contests. Feliz Navidad!

Some princesses are content to sit around and wait to be rescued. They don’t mind sitting in their tower/castle/fancy chair until a prince shows up to rescue them or sweep them off their feet. Princess Punt isn’t that type of girl. She goes out and does the looking for herself.

Trajectory-based games are nothing new to iOS devices, be they medieval, automotive or avian in nature. The practice of knocking down ramshackle structures with an odd assortment of objects is a popular one, but not many of them involve giving armored soldiers the boot. Much less booting them into all manner of large (and vicious) beasts. Different “weapons” have different effects that can be triggered when the screen is tapped, while shot placement (trajectory, strength, point of impact, etc.) can mean the difference between “teh phat lewtz” and utter failure. It’s a weird concept that seems just insane enough to be awesome.

But don’t take my word for it. Anyone looking to dropkick noblemen into scaly monstrosities can check out Princess Punt in the App Store right now for absolutely free.

FREE!

Princess Punt

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2011-11-02 :: Category: Games