:: FUN
:: NOT ENOUGHBlacksmith Games are about to debut onto the App Store with their first title for the platform. Submitted just a few days ago, Plushed is a platformer which will literally transport you to a fairytale world. The game takes the player on a dark-humored, Tim Burton-esque adventure roller coaster .. starting off with the story of a girl, who's most favorite things in the world are her fairytale book, and her cuddly bunny - Plushie. One night while in bed, she notices a snoring noise coming from out of a mouse hole in her wall. Having never noticed it before, she goes to inspect the noise and grabs a piece of cheese from her dinner left overs, to entice whatever was making the noise, to show it's face.
A few minutes later a mouse wearing a fairy costume appears in front of her, with a jealous-looking smaller mouse standing behind. Without a thought, the mouse grabs the cheese and devours it. As a reward the mouse offers the little girl one wish. Of course the girl wished to be a fairytale princess. Just as the spell was about to be cast though, a skull from the other mouse hits the wand, mis-firing the spell, causing it to hit the fairytale book. In an instant the book swallows up both the girl and plushie, and the adventure .. begins.
In-game, you play as the main character, Plushie the bunny. Guiding him through 9 danger-filled but fun lengthy levels, including; Ancient Ruins, Wild Plains, Mountain Trail, Batcow Stables, Cotton Candy Park, Cursed Wood, Graveyard Swamp, Princess Room and Evil Mouse Lair, you aim to collect as many golden ladybirds within each of these levels, as possible. Through the game you'll also come across various weird and wonderful support characters, including a pizza eater, which when given pieces of pizza will close its mouth and let you jump on his back to reach those hard to reach places, a kubicorn which is like a unicorn, but square!, and many more. By default only the first level is available, with the game unlocking each subsequent level, after completion of the previous. Completion of a level seems to be deemed as reaching the end-of-level door, as opposed to collecting all the pickups available, and therefore I found myself re-playing the levels to try and beat my previous golden ladybird totals.
The games controls are fairly straightforward. Moving back and forth is controlled by a left and right arrow seen as in the bottom left of the screen, while jumping is performed simply by tapping the screen. You'll be glad to know though that you can also control by tilt. To do this just select 'Tilt' from the 'Options' pane. As well as the game's built-in levels, Plushed also features 3 mini-games, which you can play through. These include: Jackpack Master, Mining Expert and Defender.
Having gotten the chance to test Plushed out over this weekend just gone, I have to say that I have fallen in love with it. In my opinion, a great first debut. Vibrant visuals and polished hand-drawn characters all complete with their own realistic animations, I couldn't help but not want to play through some of the levels again.
Plushed has already been submitted, and will be hitting the App Store soon. Watch out for this one!
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Blacksmith Games, thankfully, isn't starting this promotion until December 1st—that sounds reasonable, doesn't it?—but what they're offering is sure to delight any and all App Store junkies. Their new program is an "Appvent Calender," and if all goes as planned, customers will be able to get a different free game every day, from December 1st to the 24th.
Jo from Blacksmith Games writes:
While finishing Plushed I got the idea to make an advent calendar with free games. It is called appvent calendar :-) Developers can apply for providing their game for free for one day. Then 24 games will be chosen.
It looks like they need more developers to join the program before it takes off, though, so any developers interested in participating should apply here. Jo is quick to point out that this benefits developers and much as customers; switching an app to free for one day, combined with the Appvent Calender, should generate a nice promotional boost.
Meanwhile, customers should check appventcalender.com once December hits. Let's cross our fingers and hope that the free games are good ones...Talk about a sweet treat!
Phil Shiller is writing back to Steve Frank about the App Store approval process issues. While we wait for Steve Jobs to return our correspondence, here's the latest from the app store.
It's an interesting idea for a game. Take the Wolfenstein 3D game and add an RPG element to it. Early reader reviews are great. We'll try to have a review up in the next couple days.
Push, bid, push, bid. Ebay have updated their app to include push notifications for outbid alerts and watched items. You still don't have a chance against the snipers though.