A transmission from the deep south.
![Production artwork from Spaces of Play’s forthcoming iPhone game Spirits. Team member Andreas Zecher:
The game [borrows] some basic gameplay mechanics from Lemmings-style games, but has a very different graphical style and atmosphere. Players can manipulate the wind in the game world and guide the spirits towards the exit of each level using four different actions: Blow wind, suck in wind, dig tunnels and build bridges.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l0soj5VJ2V1qz6jndo1_400.jpg)
Production artwork from Spaces of Play’s forthcoming iPhone game Spirits. Team member Andreas Zecher:
The game [borrows] some basic gameplay mechanics from Lemmings-style games, but has a very different graphical style and atmosphere. Players can manipulate the wind in the game world and guide the spirits towards the exit of each level using four different actions: Blow wind, suck in wind, dig tunnels and build bridges.
The Font Game from Johno Boardley, Justin Stahl and Kari Pätilä is in the App Store approval queue, due out any day. It’s a single-player, quick-fire font identification game in which you race the clock to name 30 typefaces in a multi-choice format. The beautifully designed interface makes liberal use of H&FJ’s Whitney family, which is a welcome change from the usual Helvetica. I’ve played with an early beta and even then the subtle animation effects and slightly non-standard UI made for a very handsome product. I’m sure it’ll be a big hit.
“Know Your Weak Points!”, a poster designed by Olly Moss for episode five of A Life Well Wasted, “the internet radio show about video games and the people who love them”. I really dig Olly’s personal wordmark too, derived from four letters of the famous Hollywood sign. Clever. (via Tiny Cartridge)
My good friend Matt has a new iPhone app out. It’s called Pocketball and it’s a physics puzzle in the style of The Incredible Machine and Enigmo. Like every good puzzle, it starts off easy and keeps getting more challenging. The rules are always clear, but you gotta get cleverer with each level to keep going. At a criminal $1.99, with no nickel-and-diming, and in this economy, you can’t afford not to buy it.
I’ve made it midway through the game in my first couple of days, and it’s quite fiendishly simple and challenging at the same time. The game’s graphics, also by its creator Matt Comi, are minimal and beautiful and add to its overall appeal.
This fantastic-looking (and fully licensed) C64 emulator app for iPhone by Manomio has been rejected for violating the SDK’s rule against running emulated or interpreted code on the device. Such a pity, given Apple’s reported excitement about the project at the outset, and the number of similar apps already for sale in the App Store. Think of the in-app purchasing possibilities! I would give pretty much anything to have Bruce Lee in my pocket. (via John Gruber)
Superb animated intro to The Beatles: Rockband, launching September 9th. The parallax effect in the page header is a nice touch. (via Steven Frank)
The Default.png splash screen from Shaun Inman’s 8-bit iPhone strategy game, Horror Vacui, pays homage to the killscreens of old. He elaborates on this and other technical approaches on his blog:
I knew going in that this intentionally glitchy screen was going to cause confusion (and it already has) but the smile-in-the-mind it gives players who are in the know makes it worth it.
Monopoly, remixed by Andy Mangold:
Monopoly, in spite being the classiest of all board games, unfortunately is packaged just as boringly and uncreatively as every other garbage board game on the shelves. So, I decided to repackage it… turning the class up to 11.
(via Patrick Wang)
“Joy to Commando” from Doctor Octoroc’s 8-Bit Jesus album, where every track is in the style of an 8-bit game. (via Shaun Inman)
Written and designed by Matthew Buchanan. Colophon. Please give credit. Email
