Random musings of the app store.

Minigore Released into the Wild

Minigore, a dual-stick survival shooter, has finally been released onto the App Store after weeks of intense hype and anticipation. So what was all the hype about? Honestly, I don’t know. Compared with its survival shooter kin, iDracula (App Info), Minigore is as shallow as a puddle. It has one map, two weapons, four enemy types, and two health points. It definitely has a unique art style going for it, but beyond that, not too much. There seems to be some sort of story, and while it is never even touched on, there will apparently be Pocket God-style episodic updates. I’m sorry, but I don’t like this approach unless it’s done with a complete game. Minigore is clearly not a complete game, and I’m tired of getting incomplete games with promises of updates that aren’t always fulfilled. There seems to be a bit of a logjam cycle going on with apps nowadays – developers won’t add to their apps unless they do well in the App Store, but consumers don’t want to pay for an incomplete app. But hey, it worked for Pocket God (App Info); it went from being a boring, mindless, stupid time waster to a… boring, mindless, stupid time waster. But seriously, Minigore is not a bad game, just an average one that without a bevy of substantial updates is undeserving of the immense hype that preceding it.

Freeverse joins ngmoco’s Plus+ network

As I touched on last week, there is an emerging social game network competition on the App Store. And, as I loosely predicted (thank you, thank you), ngmoco’s Plus+ network has taken the lead. Freeverse, who may not be my favorite developer but is certainly among the most popular and has a large volume of games, has announced that they will be implementing the Plus+ network in their upcoming action space trader Warpgate, their incredibly popular Flick Fishing (App Info), and presumably more upcoming games. Having two of the premiere App Store developers certainly bolsters Plus+, and could induce a chain reaction of developers braking for Plus+. At this point, OpenFeint may be implemented in more games, but that catalog is very scattered, not all of those games are exactly quality controlled, and some apps were clearly not made for OpenFeint (have you ever tried to go into a Pocket God chat room?). I’m definitely putting my money on Plus+ for now.

From the developer of Trace – Gomi submitted

Bovine Dragon has finally submitted their new game, Gomi, to the App Store. Gomi appears to be a platforming game in which you, as a Gomi, replace the pollution in the world with trees and other natural things. The artwork is certainly unique, and the gameplay looks good, but perhaps the most impressive thing about Gomi is the staggering amount of content. Gomi will have over 140 stages, each lasting several minutes, spread across 8 worlds, with a boss battle for each world that unlocks a new ability. There are also 8 unique mini-games, hundreds of achievements, hundreds of playable Gomis, a complete soundtrack of 17 songs, and online scoreboards for everything. Wow, talk about a complete game! The developer estimates that playing through each stage once, without trying to unlock any achievements
or playing any mini-games, will take over 12 hours. The price for a game of this size? Reportedly just $1.99 upon release. This looks to be an incredible value and if the production values and unique gameplay of Trace (App Info) were any indication, Gomi should be an incredible game.

This week’s sign of the apocalypse

Offender Locator (App Info), an app that locates nearby sex offenders, is currently sitting at #4 overall in the App Store. First of all, are people really that paranoid? And second, if you do find an offender in your area, what are you going to do? Move away? Complain to your neighborhood police patrol? Set up barricades? No, you are just going to be more worried than you were before.

App of the week

So normally, I would list more than one app of the week, but this week, there is basically only one app deserving of the honor, only one game I have been playing all week:

Space Invaders Infinity Gene

I have to admit, after seeing SIIG appear on the App Store, I was skeptical. After all, how fun can a remake of Space Invaders be? It might be fun, but for $4.99? I figured they just slapped some neon backgrounds on the old tried and true gameplay. Well, after reading the 148apps review, I decided to buy the game, and, happily, I was utterly, completely, and unequivocally wrong. TAITO brings a shining example of how to remake retro games for the App Store. The graphics are fantastic, the action is frantic and heart-pounding, the music is techno bliss, and the controls are perfect. The evolution concept and implementation is fantastic, with unlockables aplenty. And on top of all of this, there is the ridiculously awesome ability to generate completely original levels based on your iPod music. I really need some good songs for this mode, so if anyone has any suggestions, post away! This isn’t just a great App Store shooter, this is a great shooter period. Probably in my top three iPhone games ever, and at $4.99, if you’ve ever enjoyed a shooter, you owe it to yourself to buy this game.

Wow, they actually let me write a second Monday Morning App HQ. Hopefully everyone is enjoying the column, and feel free to post feedback.

One of the big features for iPhone OS 3.0 is in-app purchasing. The feature allows you to buy expansion packs for games and applications while in the application. It’s a way to extend the game a little while not requiring you to purchase a whole new application.

Now that 3.0 has gone live, we’ve got first looks at a couple games that have been upgraded to take advantage of these features.

Flick Fishing from Freeverse

Freeverse have launched an updated to Flick Fishing today that takes advantage of in app purchasing by allowing you to buy a new level called Private Island for $0.99. This island adds both a new location to fish in the game along with some new fish and a new game mode, Fish Jack.

One thing that is interesting is that the Flick Fishing app is currently $0.99 itself. Unfortunately developers can’t offer in-app purchasing for less than $0.99. It has to be the same price points as apps in the app store ($0.99 – $999.99, in increments of $1.00). Another requirement is that the apps that utilize in-app purchasing must be paid apps — free apps can not offer in-app purchasing.

Enigmo from Pangea Software

Pangea has updated Enigmo to allow you to purchase level packs directly in the game. The expands their previous offering that allowed you to download user-created level packs. Currently available are 2 different kids level packs that are specifically designed simple levels for kids. Each of the 2 packs contains 25 new levels and costs $0.99.

One special feature that Enigmo exposes right on the level purchase screen is the ability to restore previous purchases. This requirement from Apple is a fairly recent development. Apple has told developers that they need to provide a way for users to get back anything they have purchased in-app in case of data loss. In other words if you purchase something in the app and your phone needs to be restored, there needs to be a way for you to get back the items that you purchased. It will be interesting to see how different developers handle this requirement.

I think we’ll quickly see lots of games add options for in-app purchasing. While these two games have done it correctly, we’ll see lots of developers do it the wrong way — provide too little value for the money. While developers are trying to increase revenue in an app store with slowly dropping prices, consumers used to those lower prices are going to be hesitant to make in app purchases without a great incentive to buy.

Continue reading A Quick Look at In-App Purchasing in Games »