The iFriday Roundup, No. 25

Community Announcements

Doomfan’s IOSAPPALOOZA community forum is off to a great start, drawing in promo codes for iDamaged this week! Good timing, too, because iDamaged recently received a user interface overhaul that drops the “fire” button in favor of tap-to-shoot, among other improvements. Scheduled to appear this weekend are several copies of the My Love Life app, Battle Group and Luminati, the latter of which sports a brilliantly haunting soundtrack by Mattias Holmgren. You’ll want to keep an eye on IOSAPPALOOZA so you’ll be the first to snatch these up! We even dropped in codes for Fara HD (iPad only) and SpyCorp (iPhone/iPod Touch and Mac versions) just as this article goes live to whet your appetite. As a courtesy, it’s much appreciated if you leave a comment letting everyone know which code you claimed, and it would be really awesome if you could leave a little feedback after you’ve spent some time with the game — keep in mind it could give the dev ideas for improvement!

In other community news, we’ve just started a Reader Roundtable group to serve as a platform of discussion on any iOS game industry topic you’d like to explore in-depth with fellow gamers and developers. Highlights from productive threads will periodically be rolled into feature articles on the topic at hand.

Time for an Epic Sale!

That’s right, Ipanema Games has just made Time for Epic free. You’d better be quick if you’re a Castle Defense fan, because this price tag won’t last forever. Check out our review if you’re wondering what it’s all about, and get ready for some touchscreen burn as you swipe away at hordes of bomb-strapped dinosaurs and brain-in-jar aliens.

Attack of the Great Bargains

The stars must have aligned, because some really awesome games are ready to jump into players’ iDevices at the low price of $0.99. These include Don’t Run With a Plasma Sword, an excellent runner/Action RPG mashup, and Jelly Defense, its sale scheduled to last only 48 hours. Side-scrolling adventure Terra Noctis rounds out our list this week.

Ravenmark Lite Gets its Wings

The longest Lite ever? That seems to be the goal Witching Hour Studios have set for themselves with the brand-new Lite edition of Ravenmark: Scourge of Estellion. It contains a nice three-hour chunk of the full game, which amounts to about one third the content! We’ve also been informed that the full version of Ravenmark (our review) will grow substantially with the addition of a new campaign later this month. TBS fans, get psyched!

All is Not Quiet on the Dangerous Front

The developers of Dangerous have been hard at work since our review, releasing an update that introduces options for minimizing screen clutter and customizing the game’s interface. The game’s star map is now visible from the outset among a bevy of additional tweaks and improvements. Dangerous has also released for Windows and Mac via the developer’s website, where you can download a trial for free. The game’s presentation certainly benefits from more screen real estate when played on a computer!

KEMCO to Bring Fantasy Chronicle to iOS This Month!

If your inner JRPG fan has already torn through the likes of Alphadia, Symphony of Eternity, and Eve of the Genesis, then heads up — the master of mobile JRPGs is about to bring another one our way at the end of January! In a break from the SNES-era Final Fantasy style presentations usually found in KEMCO’s releases, Fantasy Chronicle employs a first-person, menu driven battle system in the Dragon Quest vein. Don’t expect that to make the game any less flashy, however; Fantasy Chronicle sports the most animated enemies and the coolest special effects we’ve yet seen in a retro JRPG. Check out the game’s trailer in the YouTube video gallery below, and KEMCO’s dedicated English site while we wait to get our hands on this one.

RoboHero to Storm the App Store

A late submission snag aside, Bravado Waffle Studios plan on releasing their much anticipated RoboHero any day now! Why is it much anticipated? We’ll let the developer handle this one with an excerpt from our studio interview: “RoboHero is targeting the strategy tactical market. Gamers who grew up playing tactical games like X-COM, RoboRally, and RoboSport are going to adore RoboHero. It’s an entirely unique multiplayer game and there is nothing even close to it on the App Store right now.” Players will be able to try RoboHero for free and then purchase the entire package for $1.99 USD.

Eye Interactive Wants You to Stop Those Fish!

Fishing with…dynamite!? This may actually be something we haven’t done on iOS yet, and Eye Interactive – the folks who developed Zombie Samurai – were in touch to let us know that they’ll be bringing such a game to iOS on January 19. We’re told that “It’s a trajectory-based shooter reminiscent of 80s classics updated with a modern look and feel. A league of hyper-intelligent fish is plotting our destruction from their secret lair at the bottom of the sea. You are the leader of a small band of bears fighting for the survival of all land dwellers, and you have just one goal: stop those fish! To help you accomplish your goal, numerous upgrades of your boats, weapons and defenses are available. The game features more than 50 levels that steadily increase in complexity as you fend off a wide variety of enemy fish with different abilities.  Don’t let them turn the tides on you!”

We’ll have more on this one during the week; for now, scope out its preview video in the gallery below. Remember to click on the box-like gallery icon left of the YouTube logo to skip among the videos in this week’s gallery:

Are you an iOS videogame developer or publisher with a cool update, video, or other news that you want to get out to the masses? iFanzine probably has an eye on you already, but don’t hesitate to get in touch via our Twitter feed or Contact page. We want to fill our iFriday Roundups with all your beautiful stuff!