Tag: Papa Sangre II »

It's the most wonderful time of the year for people who enjoy scaring themselves silly with haunted houses, movies, video games, and what have you. Mobile might not be the first platform you'd turn to for quality scares, but rest assured there are plenty of spooky experiences to be had. We highlight five of the best.

Welcome, one and all, to another 148Apps holiday shopping guide! Are you having trouble figuring out what to get for a distant relative, new neighbor, or estranged second cousin? Thankfully there are people like us putting together handy-dandy holiday shopping guides for you! Whether you’re looking for new hardware and accessories, or just something a bit less impersonal than an iTunes gift card, we’ve got you covered.

Other 148Apps Holiday Gift Guides: for [Health Nuts] [Socializers] [Creative Types] [Power Users]

Today’s guide centers around iOS gamers. These are the folks who love their portable games and spend most of their morning commute matching pieces of candy or fighting immortal titans. If you’d like to make the gamer(s) in your life have an overall more pleasant and convenient gaming experience, or simply get them some really cool stuff to play, check out our list below for some ideas.

Somethin' Else's Papa Sangre II and The Nightjar have gone on sale in Apple's Amazing Horror Games Promotion. Until Nov 7th, the price of the games will be halved. Papa Sangre II is a survival horror game told entirely through a creepy soundtrack. Narrated by Sean Bean (best known for Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings), the game takes you through 18 levels of Papa Sangre's museum as you try to find a way back to the living.

The Nightjar is another audio only game. This time you are up against a horde of zombies. With only your ears to guide you, how long will you last?

You can pick Papa Sangre II and The Nightjar up for $1.99 on the App Store.

It's All Hallows' Eve once again. And what better way to enjoy the holiday spirit(s) than to have a good scare - or ten?

Since nobody at 148Apps could come up with an answer to that question we've created a list of our top picks for spooky, creepy, scary, and unsettling iOS titles in honor of the ghoulish festival. Hopefully these games won't be too much for you to handle...

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The Walking Dead - Season 1

The Walking Dead isn't conventionally scary in the "Aargh! What the heck just jumped out at me??" kind of way, but it's distinctly unnerving. It taps into that instinct to protect those we care about then shows us just how easily the life we once knew can be taken away forever. Forcing you to make tough decisions that are a matter of life and death mean you never get a chance to calm down or relax. Instead, you're constantly on edge in a world that makes no sense any more. If that's not deeply scary, I don't know what is. - Jennifer Allen

Ellie - Help me out... please

Ellie - Help me out... please is a short, but creepy puzzle game that revolves around the player's interactions with a kidnapped girl through a security camera feed. It definitely has some Saw vibes thanks to its puzzle room nature and voyeuristic perspective.

Although the puzzles are a little opaque, immersion in the very tiny game world is precisely what makes it kind of creepy. Not necessarily creepy in the "spooky" sense, but in the sense that players start questioning the game's bizarre setup. Who is the player character? Why is this girl in this room? What does it all mean? - Campbell Bird

Somethin' Else, the crew behind the chillingly popular Halloween-themed voice thriller voiced by Sean Bean Papa Sangre 2, is happy to announce that the game - which takes players on a sound-controlled adventure - has won a prestigious International Mobile Gaming Award for (drum-roll, please) Excellence In Sound Design.

To celebrate, the game is being offered for free on Thursday, March 27, 2014 (today!). We had an opportunity to review Papa Sangre II for Halloween last year. It's currently available on the App Store for its discounted price, but you'd better hurry.

Seems like ten is the magic number this year. The International Mobile Gaming Awards (IMGA) has announced the nominees for their 10th annual awards, and have spread them out across ten different categories. Some nominees and categories include Type:Rider for Best Serious Game, Year Walk and LIMBO for Excellence in Art Design, Papa Sangre II for Excellence in Sound Design, Republique for Excellence in Storytelling, and a whole lot more.

You can find the full list of categories and nominees on the official IMGA website, and the winners will be announced on March 20, 2014.

Image Source: IMGA

Cynics would have you believe that the App Store is full of Match-3 puzzle games, Endless Runners, and attempts at stealing money through a multitude of in-app purchases. OK, so the App Store isn't perfect and those games are certainly out there (and a plentiful amount of them are still fun!), but that's far from all that's available.

In the spirit of it being the end of the year and the ideal time to look back at what the App Store does so well, I took a look at some of the best experimental delights out there. These are titles that are a little bit different from the norm, either in terms of having a very open ended storyline or through offering a way to interact that's unconventional. As many of us wind down for the Christmas and New Years break, it's the perfect time to relax and try something a little different.

Luxuria Superbia

For the shy or easily embarrassed, Luxuria Superbia is a title that's perhaps best played away from less open-minded members of the family. It's a musical and visual journey requiring one to stroke and touch the petals of a flower, watching and reacting accordingly to how the game responds to sensuous touches. It's a title that could well make one blush as they play it, but it's also the perfect example of what the touch based interface of the iPad and iPhone can truly offer when experiencing something different.

Papa Sangre II is different from other horror games. Recently released for the iPhone, it makes use of gyro and binaural technology in order to create the most atmospheric and chilling experience possible. Featuring the voice of Sean Bean, it’s being talked about as being one of the most remarkable works of art produced for iOS. I caught up with Nicky Birch, Head of Products at Somethin’ Else and executive producer of Papa Sangre II, to discuss their new game.

148 Apps: You’re obviously a company who work with a great variety of media. Was there anything you learned from the development of the original Papa Sangre that you took on board in order to create the greatest user experience possible for Papa Sangre II? 
Nicky Birch (NB): The two Papa Sangre games are similar but also hugely different. The first was a piece of magic; we wanted a 3D sound game and realized there was no technology to help us, so we had to build it. It was beautiful and a real technical ground breaker. For the sequel we wanted to use more sounds and add to the dramatic narrative feel of the game. We began to think about how we can make a game with more advanced gameplay, have a returning game (achievements) and crucially use the gyro controls system for much more immersive play.

148 Apps: What does the term ‘truly innovative’ mean to you as a developer? Do you feel that Papa Sangre II has paved the way for other developers to really branch out and try new things?
NB: Fundamentally it means being bold and investing in R&D. Merging creative game designers with adept technologists. Pushing the devices to the limits of what they can do. We have had to reinvent  a bunch of game known design archetypes - what is a puzzler without graphics? Or a first person shooter without defined visual clues?  It doesn't come without challenges; our developers and producers are under pressure to deliver and learn at the same time, which is hard but ultimately rewarding work to do.

Producer Tom Green after playing too much Papa Sangre II.148 Apps: The Papa Engine is a most impressive piece of audio technology. How did the idea come about and how long does it take to put together such an ambitious project as Papa Sangre II? How difficult a process was it to combine the technology of the Papa Engine and the Gyro technology of the iPhone?
NB: Papa Sangre II was a huge project which took close to two years to make. The game itself took about a year from early conception to delivery and it was a labour of love for the team of writers, producers, sound designers, developers, and illustrators involved. The other substantial piece of work was the entire overhaul of the 3D engine (Papa Engine) that powers the game. This is what allows you to hear sounds 360 degrees around your head - sounds which can move towards or away from you as designated by the game's producer.

The Papa Engine is a powerful spatial audio engine that uses sophisticated HRTF processing to produce a binaural audio-scape in your headphones. HRTF processing has been around for years, but doing this on a mobile platform is a new innovation. I am proud to say our audio engineers are true geniuses who have now wrapped this engine up into a reusable API for other devs to use on their games. With regards to the gyro, right at the start of the game design process after Papa 1, it was always our intention for our next game to connect more to the environment the player was in. So the gyro tool was the obvious first addition to add in. Allowing us to augment reality in a clever and possibly more authentic way than games that use cameras and visuals because it lets your mind fill in the blanks. That's why we always say your mind has the best graphics.

Benedict Cumberbatch did the voice-work for Somethin' Else's second game The Nightjar.148 Apps: Papa Sangre is obviously a game that must be experienced to be understood. Considering how newfangled and unique of an idea it is, was it originally tough to get others on board?
NB: We were lucky because of the success of Papa Sangre and our follow up game The Nightjar with Benedict Cumberbatch. We had won some awards and had an audience of players who followed our games as well as lots of support from within the blind gaming community. So we didn't have to explain the idea to many people; they trusted us to deliver.

148 Apps: What feedback have you received for Papa Sangre II? Do you feel the involvement of Sean Bean as narrator has made a huge difference to the success of the game?
NB: We have been overwhelmed with the response for Papa Sangre II - both in blog reviews and also player reviews. At the time of this interview, Papa Sangre II is the highest rated British iOS game of all time (and also the highest rated across the world this year). So that is a real honor and a fantastic response to our team's passion and commitment to pushing creative and technical boundaries. Having Sean on board has helped that to an extent as he has fans across the world who know him from his movie work and Game of Thrones. Also when you play the game you can hear how great Sean plays his role and his first class performance adds a real edge to the drama.

Sean Bean is the narrator and guide for recent release Papa Sangre II.148 Apps: What’s the next step for Somethin’ Else? Will the Papa formula be extended for use in any of your other upcoming ideas and can we expect more from Papa Sangre in the future?
NB: Having built and refined the Papa Engine that powers Papa Sangre II, we want to experiment with more audio games and see where we can push the technology. Only we hope it won't take 2 years for the next one - so expect more 3D audio games to come early next year. Wearing our client hat we also make games for brands and broadcasters...but to find out which games are ours may take a spot of detective work.

Many thanks to Nicky Birch for the interview. We can't wait to see just what Somethin' Else has in store for the future.

Papa Sangre II is receiving massive praise all around, gaining a 93% Metacritic rating. To celebrate this success, the developers have released a new making of documentary that takes fans behind the scenes of the game. It includes interviews with Sean Bean, the developers, and players as they experience it for the first time. Check it out!

I'm sorry to bring this news to you all, but apparently we are all dead this Halloween. Sucks, I know! However, it appears as if there may be a way to return to back to the other side as Sean Bean will guide us all through the darkness in Papa Sangre II!

Sean Bean will guide us through the darkness? Whatever, 006! I don't trust you! You want the ring for yourself!

Put on your headphones and check out the trailer below!