Gdc Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

GDC Online coming to LA, rebranded as App Developers Conference

by Mike Schramm (Sep 18th, 2012)

For the past few years, the Game Developers Conference has held a satellite show in Austin, Texas called GDC Online (and I went there a few years back for TUAW to cover the mobile gaming track). But GDC has announced that this year is the last year it'll do GDC Online in Austin. Starting next ...

Phil Hassey's Anathema Mines renamed Dynamite Jack, gets a trailer

by Mike Schramm (Apr 16th, 2012)

A little while ago at GDC, I sat down with Galcon creator Phil Hassey. He showed me a game he called Anathema Mines that was a stylish take on stealth action, with a fun mechanic of blowing up walls (as long as you could keep out of the reach of flashlight-wielding enemies). Apparently he's ...

Shadow Government tries to combine real-world policy with casual gameplay

by Mike Schramm (Mar 14th, 2012)

Shadow Government was probably the most fascinating game I saw at GDC. I should probably clarify that: I didn't see much of the game in action, but what I did see showed off an excellently designed UI and some good looking (if a little complicated) Farmville-style game mechanics. The most ...

Ayopa Games to publish Escape from Age of Monsters, Patchwork Battles, more

by Mike Schramm (Mar 14th, 2012)

Ayopa Games is a mobile games publisher that actually has its roots in Chillingo. Founder Johnny Coghlan was a former head of publishing there until Chillingo was acquired by EA. Coghlan has brought his mobile game-finding expertise to Ayopa, and this company's slate is almost as enticing as ...

Big Fish Games scores a hit with Fairway Solitaire

by Mike Schramm (Mar 14th, 2012)

My meeting with Big Fish Games' Patrick Wylie was one of my last meetings at GDC, but it was also one of my most satisfying. It turns out I'm not alone in my esteem for the great Fairway Solitaire app this company has put together; "This game is growing our audience," Wylie told me. That's quite a ...

Tatem Games goes freemium with Dream Gym and more

by Mike Schramm (Mar 13th, 2012)

I last talked with the folks of Tatem Games at last year's GDC. The Ukraine-based developer has had a few hits on the App Store already, and this year Tatem Games tells me it's headed onto other platforms. For example, the popular Carnivores game is heading to Android and aiming for release on a ...

Fishlabs sets the Galaxy on Fire with Valkyrie update

by Mike Schramm (Mar 12th, 2012)

Fishlabs Entertainment is a German-based gaming studio that scored a hit with the Galaxy on Fire series for iOS. The latest, most popular iteration is Galaxy on Fire 2, which Fishlabs has kept fresh with updates and extra content since launch. Players fight pirates, loot, mine asteroids and ...

DeepWorld is a 2D Minecraft-alike coming to Mac and iOS

by Mike Schramm (Mar 11th, 2012)

If you threw a bunch of gaming catchwords in a hat and then pulled them out one by one and put them in order, you might have an approximate description for the upcoming Deepworld. It's a 2D, steampunk, post-apocalyptic sandbox MMO, with Minecraft-style creation, and block graphics that open up to ...

EA previews titles from Chillingo and Firemint: New Flight Control, Burnout Crash, more

by Mike Schramm (Mar 11th, 2012)

EA had a large suite set up at GDC last week to show off its various new and recent offerings. Here's a quick roundup of what the company is working on for iOS, including among all of its recent acquisitions: PopCap, Firemint, and Chillingo. PopCap was up first -- the popular casual games ...

Imangi finds success, and more choices, with Temple Run

by Mike Schramm (Mar 10th, 2012)

Imangi Studios' Keith Shepherd and Natalia Luckyanova have been making solid games on iOS for years now, from their original hit Harbor Master and their charming dual-stick shooter Max Adventure. But it wasn't until Temple Run this past year (which I first saw in an off-the-record prototype form ...

Hothead Games looks for a Big Win on iOS

by Mike Schramm (Mar 10th, 2012)

Hothead Games is actually an old company by most iOS standards: As marketing director Oliver Birch told me at GDC last week, the company is actually turning six years old this week. Previously, they mostly made PC and console games (most notably the Penny Arcade Adventures, and Ron Gilbert's ...

Daily iPad App: Circadia hits the right notes

by Mike Schramm (Mar 9th, 2012)

Developer Kurt Bieg, whose new app Circadia is out on the App Store right now, is a former New York City musician. That scene didn't appeal to him, however, so he decided to try building games. "The way that I write music is arranging things for an experience," Bieg told me at the Game Developers ...

NimbleBit builds a tiny empire of quality freemium apps

by Mike Schramm (Mar 8th, 2012)

NimbleBit's David Marsh kindly met with me at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) this week. While he's not interested in discussing the Zynga/Tiny Tower fiasco (a game he first showed me at GDC last year), the public's interest in that story is understandable. Zynga is a social company that uses ...

99 Games focuses on time management genre, looks ahead

by Mike Schramm (Mar 8th, 2012)

This week's Game Developer's Conference was, I believe, the second time I've meet up with 99 Games, an independent, India-based studio with quite an iOS library. The company has found an audience with time management games. These ask you to manage virtual customers, moving them from point A to ...

Halfbrick working on new iOS game, 1.3 update for Jetpack Joyride

by Mike Schramm (Mar 6th, 2012)

Halfbrick Studios' Phil Larsen is a happy guy. Not only has his company scored a huge hit with Fruit Ninja (with over a million copies sold on Xbox Kinect alone), but the studio's Jetpack Joyride is a hit as well, garnering over 19 million across various free and paid incarnations. Halfbrick, says ...