Peggle posts

Every time I walk through Warehouse Stationery (New Zealand's equivalent to Office Depot) or Dick Smith's Electronics (pretty much Best Buy), I'm struck by how probably half the products in each store are pretty much useless to me since I've got an iPhone.

Thanks to the apps that come pre-packaged with the iPhone and the more than 100,000 third-party offerings now available in the iTunes Store, the iPhone has gained functionality that might have seemed hard to fathom under three years ago when Steve Jobs first announced the device.

"A widescreen iPod with touch controls... a revolutionary mobile phone... a breakthrough internet communications device... these are not three separate devices. This is one device." So Steve Jobs told us all back at Macworld Expo 2007. But since then, the iPhone has grown to be much more than just those three concepts.

What follows is a sort of anti-buyer's guide, a list of products and devices that you may never need or even want to buy again (or receive as a gift) if you have an iPhone. Some of these are certainly open for debate, but more than a few of them are products that, for all intents and purposes, are completely unnecessary if you have an iPhone. (Items in bold also apply to the iPod touch).

Here are two different insights from Pocket Gamer about how developers can grow the profile of their iPhone apps. The first comes to us from the wisdom of Peggle, that game that I just can't stop playing. Apparently, they've coined the term "Peggling," which means lowering the price of your app, and seeing a huge benefit from it. Whenever a game drops its price down to 99 cents, much as Peggle did soon after release, it sees a significant bump in the charts. I'm sure there are many other factors at play here -- Peggle was a great game, so you can't sell more of a crappy game just by selling it for cheaper, and I saw a lot of Twitter and blog attention when the price dropped, so it pays to have people watching the price in the first place. But under the right circumstances, dropping the price can do a lot for a game that's already selling pretty well.

But an update, apparently, won't. That's what the makers of Zen Bound told Pocket Gamer -- they say that when they released an update with new levels and new features, it didn't make a difference in their sale numbers at all. Games like Pocket God have made a reputation for themselves by providing regular and solid updates, and certainly it seems like those updates have at least spurred sales, if not made them blow up, but the Zen Bound guys say that singular updates on major products probably won't kick sales into gear.

Interesting. We're at least a few generations into App Store sales at this point, and we're started to see trends and consumer behavior in better relief; developers are getting better and better ideas every day about how to price and service their apps and customers.

If you didn't jump to pick up Kaloki Adventure [App Store link] after our first look last week, now's your chance: the game is on sale today (not tomorrow, apparently -- you've got under 24 hours) for just $1.99, a buck cheaper than the usual $2.99 price. The game offers some fun but casual real-time strategy business simulation, so if your dream has ever been to own a burgeoning spaceport, they don't come cheaper than that.

And as an added bonus, NinjaBee is also offering a catchy tune from the game's soundtrack on their website for the low, low price of completely free. It's the jumpy, swingin' background music to the main gameplay, composed by Eric Nunamaker, who's apparently been working on video game music for quite a while.

Oh, and finally, while we're talking about awesome iPhone games on sale, Peggle is only a buck. 'Nuff said.

We told you everything you needed to know back when it was announced. When it got delayed, we were bummed, but only a little, because we knew we'd soon have it in our hands. And now, it's finally here.

55 levels and 40 challenges of some of the most addictive gameplay there has ever been. Controls feature a "precision wheel" on the side of the screen that will let you line up your shot perfectly. All of the Peggle masters and powers in the regular version made it to the iPhone as well. If you've ever played Peggle, you probably already know that at $4.99, this is a steal, and if you've never played Peggle, we can almost assuredly tell you it's more than worth the price (though there is a free trial for the Mac just in case you're not 100% sure).

Peggle for the iPhone is out. Your free time's days are numbered.

Yesterday we posted about the Apple press release announcing that the SDK had been downloaded more than 100,000 times in four days. It's also worth noting, however, that Apple basically confirmed that several well-known developers are officially supporting the iPhone and bringing some exciting applications to everyone's favorite handheld. In addition to the developers represented on stage at the SDK event, of particular interest are:

• Intuit (of Quicken fame) which wants "to create powerful iPhone applications."
• Namco, specifically mentioning Pac Man and, my favorite, Galaga.
• NetSuite, developer of SuitePhone (CRM software similar to salesforce.com).
  
• PopCap games, working on the extremely addicting Peggle as well as classics Bejeweled and Zuma.
• Six Apart, which is developing an iPhone native TypePad blogging client.

In short, it's obvious that the App Store is going to be chock full 'o goodness once June rolls around. Personally, I'm slightly worried that with Peggle and Galaga on my iPhone I'll never get anything done.

Freeverse Software, makers of great Mac games like Wingnuts and the Burning Monkey series, have announced that Kill Monty is available at a 45% discount this weekend only, bringing the final price down to $10.95US. Kill Monty is fun, addictive and ten bucks for the rest of the day! You can't go wrong. Note that this goes beyond their one-day-only leap day sale.

That's great, but Mac gaming is still in a sorry state. From EA's backpedaling to the puzzled looks from Windows users ("You don't have [insert title here] yet?"), Mac users are out in the cold, despite an apparent demand in Mac games -- the demo version of Tomb Raider Anniversary has been downloaded over 100,000 times according to publishers Feral Interactive. I play Warcraft and Peggle, and I'm anxiously awaiting Spore. Other than that I use my PSP. I'm happy enough with my small library of games, but I believe I'm in the minority.

How about you? Are you a satisfied Mac gamer?

It would seem that I am on a mission to completely derail any chance I have to properly prepare for Macworld. First I decide to perform a brain transplant on my MacBook Pro, and now I find myself playing Peggle like a mad man.

We first covered Peggle last month, when a Mac native version was released by PopCap. Not content to merely suck all your time at your Mac away, the fine folks at PopCap have released Peggle as an iPod game as well. It costs $5.99 on the iTunes Store, but it will cost you much, much more in the way of lost productivity. Even the Wall Street Journal likes this game, though I am not sure when the WSJ started reviewing iPod games.

The full Mac version will cost you $19.99, but that includes lots of rainbows and a talking unicorn so really it is a steal at any price.

Boy, it seems like everyone was waiting for me to write up my gift guide before releasing some interesting Mac games this year. First Horde of Orcs comes out, then Sonic of all things appears on the iPod, and now here's two more fun gaming experiences appearing on the Mac.

First, our sister gaming blog Joystiq reports that PopCap's crack casual game Peggle has appeared for OS X, and just like most of PopCap's games, it's so addictive it should probably be regulated by pharmacologists. It's a universal binary, too, and right now it's only $10 (50% off from a sale on PopCap's site). Be prepared to disappear from your relatives for long stretches of time over the holidays, though-- anyone who can only play one round of this at a time is either not human or just in serious trouble with their spouse.

And MacNN reports that Bomberman has now appeared on iTunes as well. Hudson Software has produced an official port that features an "intuitive control scheme" (that I'd be interested to see), an exclusive boss stage for the iPod, and the option to play the game's music or your own during gameplay. Wild. That game is $5 and available as a download from iTunes.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas for Mac gamers-- turns out there may be more underneath the tree than we hoped earlier in the year.