Game Dev Stories: Fraktalvoid

Melbourne mobile-game dev studio Fraktalvoid, with a team made up of former members from Square Enix, Sega, Konami and Nintendo, has just released its first game, Speed Blazers. Come with us behind the scenes as we chat with Fraktalvoid founder Chris Concepcion.

(Credit: Fraktalvoid)

Speed Blazers seems to be the first game from Fraktalvoid. Can you explain a little bit about it and how it came to be?

Speed Blazers is a 3D-platform racer with crazy obstacles set in rich and stylised anime environments. The players are equipped with Sonic Particle Blades (SPB) — special boots designed for players to glide, jump unbelievable heights, perform insane tricks and boost your character's ability to perform devastating super moves.

Speed Blazers came to be when I was watching a number of anime and Parkour, and playing a number of platform games. I then thought, "what if we can make a racer with tricky obstacles, and make the characters glide instead of running so they can perform tricks?" Also, at the same time, we always thought about the gameplay and what kind of controls that people were comfortable with. So this is when we started prototyping and mashing in ideas early.

There's massive competition in the mobile-gaming market. What do you think Speed Blazers offers that other games do not?

There is no surprise to us that there will be massive competition in mobile gaming; every year, quality and unique gameplay has astounded us all.

Speed Blazers is packed with different features compared to other racers on mobile devices; it offers a fast-paced, beautifully designed 3D environment, challenging, over-the-top obstacles with unique player controls and a combination of having a D-pad to control and jump, and swiping on-screen to perform heart-pounding tricks. Speed Blazers highly focuses on obtaining and clearing achievements, and winning to be the top on all levels.

Were there any particular challenges you had to overcome in setting up your studio and making Speed Blazers?

Fraktalvoid was really tough to set up, and there were lots of challenges in learning the games business and marketing. I guess to us, everything was a challenge, nothing was ever a walk in the park. We started off as an art-outsourcing company, but due to the challenges of the Global Financial Crisis and our Aussie dollar skyrocketing, it was very hard to score work, especially when we're up against China and other Asian countries that offer not only cheap services, but comes at great professional quality as well.

So as a team, we decided to create Speed Blazers and aim to create a special game to help understand the limitations of current mobile devices.

Since the team consisted of ridiculously talented artists, we handled and overcame the obstacles of creating artwork. The hardest part is finding a good programmer. We had to create tools that can be merged onto future games, and make the development easier for everyone without bothering the programmer too much.

We are a young studio, and we have lots to learn and lots more obstacles to overcome. I think I am very lucky to have such a dedicated, super-talented and persistent team; even through tough times, they still had a proud smile and believed in creating this cool game with me, and together we have realised it.

What do you think is the essential ingredient in a truly awesome mobile game?

To us, unique gameplay is the essential ingredient. Where the developer has truly focused on their target audience, and love making their games as a team!

Just to sneak this in, the second is having great, polished artwork and game.

Your website mentions that the Fraktalvoid crew have a lot of experience in AAA development. What led you to mobile gaming?

Most of us have worked in top developers around the world, such as Sega, Konami, Square Enix and Nintendo, to name a few. We have experience working on exciting AAA titles. What truly led me to focus on mobile gaming is from experiencing, learning and while working in tech-savvy Japan. They had TVs, super-fast internet and great games on their mobile phones seven years ago. Even during that time, they already had free-to-play running years ago, and it is just recently I feel the world is catching up. So, using that experience as an inspiration, I felt we should create games for mobile platforms, since we had experience with working on PSP and Nintendo DS titles, as well, which helped us know the restrictions of mobile devices, which are almost similar when it came to developing for them.

It also came down to the time and costs in winning publishers for work, which is a super-tough gig to get.

(Credit: Fraktalvoid)

What have you found different about mobile-gaming development, as opposed to console and PC development? Is it better or worse?

The major difference in mobile-gaming and console/PC development would be the amount of time, team, budget and freedom in creating a game.

Mobile development is faster to create and build, depending on different games. You can have small, agile teams working on different projects.

You can control and budget small teams a little easier. The freedom of creating the kind of games you want to make as a team and for the audience is what we are loving most.

I believe it will be much better in mobile gaming! There will be lots of game variety and exciting projects, since many developers are capable of creating new ideas. Although console and PC gaming are rapidly changing as well, so there will be a transition later with digital distributions, which will then open more doors to new possibilities, such as browser gaming and set-top TV boxes.

What advice would you offer aspiring mobile devs looking to set up their own studio?

The best advice I could give is research a lot, work super hard, stay happy and make sure you enjoy what you are doing!

Find great team members that are super talented, dedicated, share ideas and then share the same vision.

Create great artwork. Artwork is what attracts people first, especially when marketing your game.

Lastly, prototype and experiment. Constantly test your game, and have gamers play-test a reasonable demo.

What's next for Fraktalvoid?

Speed Blazers still has a couple of months to go. We still have updates — new characters and levels near completion as a free update. At the same time, we have started two new un-announced projects that we are very excited about.

We are aiming for a more next-generation platform look with intense visual graphics and gameplay, almost matching console quality with the new generations of mobile devices.

We are also focusing on expanding to online digital downloads on console and PC for our next titles, and looking forward to the new, powerful devices and technology in the near future.

Original Source

Spry Fox sues 6waves Lolapps for copying Triple Town game

The issue of copycat games is rearing its head in mobile games, just as it had with social games on Facebook.

Spry Fox, a small game developer in Seattle, announced today in a blog post that it has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against 6waves Lolapps, a major social and mobile game publisher, for copying Spry Fox’s hit game Triple Town (pictured top left).

The copycat issue is turning into a big one, as it’s quite easy to copy mobile games and sometimes the copycats become even more popular than the original. In some categories such as farm games, you can find dozens of similar titles. Nimblebit, the developers of Tiny Tower, recently poked Zynga in the eye with an infographic, alleging that Zynga’s upcoming Dream Heights game copied Tiny Tower. But in this case, Spry Fox alleges extensive copying took place, beyond the graphics of the game.

While Triple Town is a Facebook title, David Edery, co-founder of Spry Fox, and Daniel Cook, co-founder, alleged that 6waves Lolapps’ Yeti Town (pictured top right) is a “blatant copy of Triple Town.”

In a statement, 6waves Lolapps said, “Lolapps is disappointed that David Edery has chosen to file a lawsuit, and believes his claims are factually inaccurate. We respect others IP and did nothing to violate any contracts our team had in place. The copyright infringement claims are unjustified.

“This was a difficult decision for (co-founder) Danc and I,” Edery said. “We are not enthusiastic about the prospect of spending our time in court as opposed to making games. And in general, we believe that only in the most extreme circumstances should a video game developer resort to legal action in order to defend their creative works — the last thing our industry needs is frivolous lawsuits. Unfortunately, it is our opinion that 6waves has behaved in a reprehensible and illegal manner, and we can not, in good conscience, ignore it.”

Edery said that Yeti Town (pictured at bottom) was a “nearly perfect copy of Triple Town.”

“We’re not just talking about the game’s basic mechanics here,” Edery wrote. “We’re talking about tons of little details, from the language in the tutorial, to many of our (user interface) elements, to the quantities and prices of every single item in the store (how exactly did 6waves “independently” decide to price 200 turns for 950 coins, or 4 wildcards for 1500 coins each? That’s quite a coincidence!) But don’t take our word for it.”

Edery cited articles in the press that noted the similarities:

Gamezebo: “Unfortunately for Yeti Town, the only substantial difference between it and Facebook’s Triple Town is the platform it’s on. Otherwise it’s the exact same game, only this time with snow.”

InsideSocialGames: “Yeti Town is a matching game nearly identical to Spry Fox’s Triple Town”

Games.com: “Replace “saplings” with “bushes”, “tents” with “houses” and “yetis” with “bears”. What do you get? Something that would look a lot like independent developer Spry Fox’s Triple Town”

Edery further alleged that 6waves had signed a confidential non-disclosure agreement with Spry Fox to publish Triple Town “at the exact same time that they were actively copying Triple Town. “

Edery said, “We gave 6waves private access to Triple Town when it was still in closed beta, months before the public was exposed to the game. We believed those negotiations were ongoing, and we continued to give private information to 6waves, until 6waves’ Executive Director of Business Development sent us a message via Facebook on the day Yeti Town was published in which he suddenly broke off negotiations and apologized for the nasty situation. His message can be found in its entirety in the body of our legal complaint.”

Edery wrote, “It’s bad enough to rip off another company. To do so while you are pumping them for private information (first, our game design ideas, and later, after the game was launched on Facebook, our private revenue and retention numbers) is profoundly unethical by any measure.”

Original Source

SCLin's neuroscience blog: Dopamine neurons don't just encode valence -- Some encode salience

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How To Improve your iPhone Home Button Responsiveness

If you’ve used your iPhone for quite some time, you might have noticed that the Home button became less responsive after a while. iPad owners might jump in at this point and admit they have the same problem and until they will get the chance to upgrade to the next generation iPad, they need to take care of the unresponsive button now. Well, the teams at the iDownload blog came up with some little neat tricks to help us all recalibrate the home button of our iPhones and iPads and to make it as good as new, or nearly.

If the sluggish response of the home button isn’t a direct consequence of the iDevice being dropped somewhere, then the issue is software related and can be fixed the same way.

The first step is to open a stock app then the user needs to press and hold the power button. A familiar “slide to power off” message should appear and now it’s the time to release the power button and start focusing on the home button. Pressing the home button until the “slide to power off” message disappears and the app force quits should do the trick. Now the home button should respond more quickly. It’s all explained in this video.

Probably this trick is flying around over tips and tricks websites, but is easy, reliable and proven, so a quick reminder doesn’t hurt.

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iPhone 4S soars with Siri

The beefier hardware is welcome, but the star of the show is the voice-controlled Siri personal assistant

What can you say about the iPhone 4S, the most written-about smartphone ever? Well, I can say it's a really good smartphone that continues to best the competition in so many areas. At first glance, the iPhone 4S appears to be a modest upgrade to the iPhone 4, with a faster processor and higher-quality camera. It's nice, but nothing stunning.

Until you start using Siri, that is. The voice-based "intelligent" assistant is simply amazing to use. It does dictation in any app with a keyboard, and it can handle many spoken commands across multiple apps and Web services, asking for clarification in some cases. There's simply nothing like it out there; even Google's longtime voice recognition in Android doesn't hold a candle. It's technology like Siri that you didn't expect, didn't expect you'd really care about, and end up really liking that explains Apple's continued success with the iPhone and most of its other products -- and why the iPhone 4S remains the mobile champ.

The iPhone 4S comes in several versions, with choices of black and white bezels and storage capacities of 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB. Available from AT&T Wireless, Sprint, and Verizon Wireless, these models cost $649, $749, and $849, respectively, without a contract, and $199, $299, and $399 with a two-year contract. Apple also sells an unlocked model that can be used on any GSM network; it's intended for international travelers who swap SIMs in and out as they move among countries.

Hardware

You can't tell an iPhone 4S from an iPhone 4, as they look identical. Apple claims the iPhone 4S weighs 3 grams less than the iPhone 4; I'll take the company's word for that tiny difference. Inside, though, there are several changes. One is the use of an 800MHz dual-core ARM-based Apple A5 processor rather than the previous 800MHz single-core A4. The result is that everything feels faster, smoother, and more responsive, from Web browsing to application switching.

A second difference is that the Verizon and Sprint models are now "worldphones," meaning they can work on GSM networks overseas in addition to these carriers' CDMA networks. However, you have to make prior arrangements with Verizon or Sprint to roam overseas on GSM networks, and you're limited to using their overseas carrier partners, which is very expensive. AT&T, which uses the GSM technology in the United States, similarly partners with carriers overseas. If you get an iPhone 4S from a U.S. carrier, you can't just swap out the SIM as you can with Apple's unlocked models.

The third big change is that the graphics system now allows screen mirroring via a dock-to-video cable (HDMI or VGA), so you're no longer restricted to just those applications such as Keynote, Videos, and YouTube that have video-out support built in. You can now display anything and everything on the big screen, just as you can with an iPad 2.

The final big change to the iPhone 4S's hardware is its rear camera, which has been bumped from 5 megapixels to 8 and includes support for 1080p video capture, better optics in low-light situations, and electronic enhancements for image stabilization when shooting video. It's darn close to a pocket digital camera in quality, though I wish it had image stabilization when taking still photos.

Where the iPhone 4S feels behind is its screen size. The 3.5-inch screen is cramped, especially compared to the 4.3-inch screens that are becoming widely available in competing mobile platforms. A larger screen really should be part of the next-generation iPhone.

Except for the Siri service, the rest of what the iPhone 4S offers are the stock capabilities from iOS 5, which are also available to the iPhone 4 and, to a lesser extent, the iPhone 3G S.

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Android-based technologies growing fast in Chennai

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Chennai is slowly becoming a hub in providing support for gaming and android-compatible technologies. The city is also witnessing a demand for Computer Aided Design (CAD).

“Chennai is basically a very strong market for software support, particularly in the area of medical transcription and financial system. But, now we find it is slowly becoming a preferred place for supporting android and gaming technologies,” a senior Software Technology Parks of India official said.

There has been a growth in the usage of Android devices and gaming devices all over the world. The official said that the city is catching up with the trend fast.

Besides Chennai, Coimbatore is another city which is witnessing a new trend in demand for support services on CAD software or ‘engineering design’, told the officer.

Android clearly became a common name in India with its strong foothold. With more and more manufacturers shifting to Android devices, the technology community is getting increasingly interested in the Google’s new operating system. An increasing number of developers are also getting into the Android business in India.

According to official data,  about 1,766 companies are registered with STPI in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. Annually, they export to various countries and the latest figures shows that IT export growth compared to 2009-2010 was Rs 42,210.65 crore (2010-11) from Rs 36,765 crore registered last year (2009-2010).

Besides serving the IT industry, he said,” The city is also home to good chartered accountants. The financial services system is also very good (in Chennai ).” Referring to other cities, he said places such as Salem and Tiruchirapalli are fast catching up as preferred locations for IT firms.

“In the case of Salem, it is geographically located close to (the country’s IT capital) Bangalore. And Tiruchirapalli has some good educational institutes, where the students having good knowledge in the IT industry become immediately employable in large IT firms,” the official said.

He observed that it was because of these reasons Tamil Nadu was poised for a “decent” industry growth, with application software and engineering software as the growth drivers.

“In 2010-11 alone, exports (from Tamil Nadu and Puducherry) of application software and engineering software saw growth of 38 per cent and 26 per cent respectively,” he said.

Original Source

Paying TOO much for your mobile app development? Outsource it

Mobile App Developer

Read on to find out how you can cut down on app development cost and keep the quality intact with an offshore mobile app development company.

Outsourcing is the magic word for all those who aspire to make millions by selling mobile apps but don’t wish to loosen their purse strings for app development. Offshore app development destinations such as China, Russia, Philippines, Romania and Argentina to name a few, are in the lime light due to their low cost services. None the less, lack of quality work haunts offshore app development companies. To find a good offshore company that can give you decent quality at low price is like finding a needle in a haystack.

Among the early adopters of mobile app development were IT companies from India. They worked on mobile technology and gradually earned valuable experience on it. It’s easier to find cost effective hire mobile app developer services there. You may wonder why someone would give away quality mobile app developer services at low cost. Well, here is how it works. The currency difference between Indian rupee and the US dollar is quite huge. Even if the price is cut down marginally, it will make app development cheap for the US client and at the same time keep the app company profitable.

Mobile app technology is evolving at a pace of light. This year alone, over a dozen of big players have made their debut in the smartphone and tablet segment. This has given an unprecedented surge in the demand for mobile app developers who can build functional apps. It makes good business sense to develop and sell mobile apps for varied devices such as iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry and the new range of android powered devices. Let’s do the math. If you decide to sell your app for $0.99 and promote it right, you can easily get thousands of downloads within a month. Further, if you are able to keep your app bug free and run a good app marketing campaign, you can sustain the voluminous downloads for months together.

Outsourcing mobile app development helps you to save on the operational overheads such as infrastructure maintenance, core staff and support staff salary, employee benefits and so on. This savings helps you to keep the price of your app low and ward off competition from similar pricey apps whilst keeping you profitable. The same can also be used for app marketing to create the buzz for your app.

If the app development price pinches your pocket, its time you consider outsourcing it. You may be required to give in some extra time to search the perfect talent match for your app, yet the big savings and plush profits from a successful app will pay it all off.

Mobile app developer team of OpenXcell Technolabs has developed and deployed hundreds of mobile apps for iPhone, Android and BlackBerry. We are ISO 9001:2008 certified and an internationally acclaimed offshore company. View our mobile app development portfolio on http://www.openxcell.com

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