We’d all love to make video games, right? Odds are you’ve got a cool idea but no way to realize such potential. Well, one Pixel Press' Kickstarter project could be just the thing you’re looking for. It’s called Bloxels, and it lets you build a game out of physical blocks.
Scrapbookers move over, Scrapgaming is the new thing.
Papercade, by Hololabs Studio, gives you a way to create games using your own photographs. Players can easily snap a photo, select the parts of the image they want to use, and then create simple games and interactive stories with Papercade's tools. Once their game is done, game crafters can easily share their work with friends and family.
“We were inspired by the miniature worlds and dioramas that we built inside shoe boxes when we were kids,” said Hololabs Co-founder and Chief Creative Officer, Paul Warne. “Papercade brings back this simple joy of crafting and sharing stories from things we make ourselves.”
Papercade is available for free on the App Store now.
:: GET CREATIVE! :: Read Review »Createrria, the interesting app maker within an app from Incuvo, has just received a big update. The update adds leaderboards, parental controls, seasonal content, and more. From the developer's website:
Most important new features and changes are:
- Holiday content: Icon, splash, new avatar and new profile decorations
- New physics-based game mechanics: Pogo Bubble
- Possibility to easy showcase creations to other players
- High score leaderboards
- Parental Controls for online features and in-app purchases
- Many speed and stability improvements for older devices
Createrria, as noted, allows players to use the tools it provides to create and share platform games. We reviewed the game late last year; it is available for free on the App Store.
GameSalad has already been a huge part of the App Store, as the company claims that over 15% of new games released last year for iOS were made with GameSalad Creator. This jump to Windows should help to expand the audience for their tools, especially for those interested in using GameSalad Creator to develop games for the web and Android, which became supported in the last year. Those looking to upload to the App Store will likely still need a Mac involved at some point to upload and edit their app. However, all development should be otherwise possible on the Windows version of GameSalad Creator. It is currently in a closed beta, and should be made publicly available later this year.
:: WELL-DRAWN
Tuesday at GDC, Engineous Games showed off Sketch Nation Studio, their long-awaited game creation tool kit. The followup to Sketch Nation Shooter, this game was in development for the past year as Sketch Nation Jump before they took some extra time to enhance the game, and now it is just about ready to hit the world.
This will allow budding game creators to create their own endless platformer game of one of five types; endless jumpers like Doodle Jump, an endless descent game, horizontal jumping games, endless runner, and an endless flier, similar to Jetpack Joyride. Other genres are planned to be added at some point in the future.
There are two ways to create games: Simple mode, which allows users to choose a genre, add some player and enemy art, and create their game; this process can be done in under two minutes, as was shown off in our demo of the game. Advanced mode allows users to create games in about an hour, according to developer estimates. Platforms with specific behaviors can be created, along with various enemies, powerups with a variety of effects, various scoring systems implemented, and advanced art effects applied.
Sketch Nation Studio will be free to download, but will have in-app purchases. What this currency, entitled Sketchbucks, will be used for is to download games from the service. Users will start with 1000 Sketchbucks, and will spend 50 or so Sketchbucks to download a game. However, it will be free to upload games to the Sketch Nation networks, and users will get Sketchbucks for every game they ‘sell’. The developer, Engineous Games, is trying to create a social network with news feeds and shared activities so users can see who among their friends is playing what, and to try and beat their high scores.
The app’s most defining feature may be the ability to submit games to be sold as separate games. These must be created separately from the Simple and Advanced modes, and do not feature the ability to import user-created games or user art from the network at this point. The games will then be submitted to the developers for review, and if approved, will be sold on the App Store for $0.99, with 50% of the price after Apple’s 30% cut going to the game creator. Payment will be handled through PayPal initially, though there are plans to partner with another payment processor in the future.
The app will be submitted to Apple soon, and will be available as a universal app. Canadians will get a head start on the creation, as the app is planned to launch there in a brief stress test before the global launch. A lot of these details are subject to change, especially as the app may push the boundaries of what Apple allows in their review guidelines, but this app and its technology should be available to the general public in some form soon.
