Category Archives: Casual Game News

Stagecraft: Velvet Sundown

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In the file of ‘completely new idea based on very old ideas’, we find Stagecraft: Velvet Sundown. The concept behind this game is that a small group of players get together and play through a pre-scripted story, but because of the uniqueness of each person in the game, it turns out a new experience each time the player goes through it. Not sure what I’m saying yet? Take a look at this from the website - it explains the concept better than I ever could:

Velvet Sundown is a story for 6 to 12 players. The events take place on a luxury super yacht cruising in the Caribbean. You act a character tied to the story through quirks, ambitions and secrets. You find yourself in an environment filled with colorful drinks and tanned people, surrounded by glimmer of gold and flashes of diamonds. As you might expect from such crowd of rich and beautiful, matters might be entirely different behind the practiced smiles and small talk.

Step aboard, get to know the other passengers and work your way into the jungle of ambitions, suspicion and hidden agendas to figure out what really is going on aboard the yacht!

We’re incredibly intrigued. It reminds us of the old Dungeon Master, the person who creates a scenario for his friends, then has them play through it, all the while he’s controlling every element - but he can’t predict what his friends will do, so they impact what is going to happen as much as he does. The game is due out this Summer. You can find more information on the official Stagecraft website. We’ll be checking it out as soon as they let us.

Treasure Seekers 3: Follow the Ghosts Coming to iPad/iPhone

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G5 Entertainment has announced release dates for the iPad and iPhone versions of their popular hidden object title Treasure Seekers 3: Follow the Ghosts. The Treasure Seekers titles are solid, and we gave Treasure Seekers 3 a score of 8.3/10. We can only imagine the game will be that much more enjoyable using a touch screen. Here are some details of the upcoming release:

Use your Hidden Object skills to explore a mysterious world, and discover valuable clues. In Treasure Seekers 3: Follow the Ghosts you will help Nelly and Tom release unlucky ghosts trapped by an evil alchemist! Track down the necessary items to free the dead ancestor of Cardinal House, a shaman, and many other characters. Stop the evil alchemist and save the day!

· 48 Fascinating levels
· 5 Chapters
· 2 Game modes - casual and advanced
· Captivating storyline
· Impressive graphics
· Support of multitasking with iOS 4.2
· Game Center Support

Find out more details from the official sites for the iPad and iPhone versions of the game.

Psych - the Game in Development

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Based on the popular crime show on USA, Legacy Games announced an agreement with Universal Partnerships and NBCUniversal to produce a casual game. Pscyh is about a faux psychic crime detective - that is, he fakes it. What he really is, it turns out, is super observant. This will make a good transition to a hidden object game, since that is all about paying attention to surroudings and seeing the clues others miss. Here’s the important parts of the press release:

“Legacy Interactive is thrilled to be collaborating again with NBCUniversal,” said Ariella Lehrer, President and CEO of Legacy Interactive. “Psych is the perfect TV license for the light adventure game customer, given how its protagonist, Shawn Spencer, uses observational skills to solve crimes. Imagine the opportunities for hidden object game play. Plus, the show has such a great, fun vibe!”

“Humor, mystery, and co-operation are fantastic elements to work into a casual game design, and Psych is chock full of these attributes,” said Bill Kispert, Vice President & General Manager, Digital Platforms, Universal Partnerships & Licensing. “We are excited to bring clever, new cases to Psych fans online, and to partner again with Legacy Interactive with a leading TV brand.”

Psych blends light adventure gameplay with challenging hidden object searches, as players take on the role of Shawn Spencer, who consults with the local police department to solve crimes as a would-be psychic while actually using his heightened observational skills. The game consists of two all-new episodic cases to solve with a cast of quirky witnesses and suspects and no shortage of witty banter between Shawn and best friend Gus. While exploring the beautiful Santa Barbara locales, players must collect inventory items, play mini-games to find previously undetected evidence, solve clever puzzles, and help Shawn and Gus talk their way into and out of trouble. Players must stay alert and watch for clues only an expertly trained investigator, or perhaps even a real psychic, would be able to see in order to uncover the truth.

Sounds exciting!

Twilight Zone on the Way for PC and Mac (do do do do, do do do do)

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Legacy Interactive, a leading casual game developer and publisher, announced just a few minutes ago that they will be producing a game based on the popular science fiction television show The Twilight Zone. Legacy has signed an agreement with CBS and the game is currently scheduled to be released in the first quarter of 2012. It will be available to PC and Mac users. This should come as no surprise, since Legacy continues to turn TV shows into casual games, with previous titles based on House, M.D., Ghost Whisperer, Criminal Minds, Psych and Murder, She Wrote.

“Legacy Interactive is thrilled to be collaborating with CBS Consumer Products and developer Spark Plug Games on this amazing franchise,” said Ariella Lehrer, President and CEO of Legacy Interactive.  “Who doesn’t remember episodes like ‘Time Enough at Last’ or ‘Nightmare at 20,000 Feet’? Beloved by baby boomers worldwide, Legacy hopes to bring the same chilling intelligence, social relevance, and supernatural themes to our Twilight Zone video game.”

In Groundhog Day fashion, The Twilight Zone’s story will revolve around an actor who becomes trapped in a TV show he can’t escape. He has to uncover his role in each storyline before he can move on. This title will be an adventure style game with hidden object gameplay.

While I’m definitely a fan of Twilight Zone, I have a beef to air. There is an episode called ‘A Little Peace and Quiet’ that I saw when I was much younger and I have never been able to get it out of my head. Spoilers ahead, so if you haven’t seen it yet and don’t want it ruined, step back from this post.

Continue reading →

‘Weird Worlds’ Mac Attack!

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Developer Digital Eel and publisher Shrapnel Games are very excited to announce that the galaxy’s greatest thirty-minute space opera, Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space, is now available for the Mac! That’s right, the same exciting game that thrilled PC owners can now be played on the Mac. This is also a true port, and not simply a universal binary version of the game, although plans are in the work for that.

The Mac version of Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space is currently purchasable as a digital download, although it will be available in the near future on a hybrid Mac/Win CD, for those who prefer to bask in the odors of newly pressed CDs. Head on over to the Shrapnel e-store, the Gamers Front, to snag your Mac download.

The Mac port of Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space allows Mac users to experience the very same award-winning gameplay that Win users have been enjoying. Explore the infinite possibilities of Sector Prime for scientific knowledge, a military show of force, or a healthy dose of space rum and alien parrots with a crew of cutthroat pirates. Enjoy a short ten year mission, or try your luck at surviving the hard vacuum for a full thirty years (in gameplay that is; in the real world expect your missions to last an average of twenty minutes).

Exploration is done in a leisurely, turn-based, one-click mode. Strange encounters in outer space or planet-side are common, ranging from the benign to the malevolent to the just plain wacky. Sometimes it’s even a wacky malevolent encounter. Those tend to not end well for your crew.

You’re also not the only starship zooming around in Sector Prime. You may encounter a friendly trader, a lost fighter pilot, or other alien vessels. And let’s face it, most alien races are rather angry, and they like to take their anger out on humans by blowing them up, enslaving their women, and probe parties. Weird Worlds continues this fine tradition of human-hating aliens bent on your destruction.

In combat the action unfolds in real-time, as the darkness of space is seared with beams, rays, missiles, projectiles, and other implements of destruction, all in glorious Destructo-
vision. Gamers can ever practice their battle skills in a separate combat simulator.

And just when you think you’ve seen it all, that you’ve explored every single planet you could explore, that you’ve encountered every single encounter, that you’ve fought every single probe-happy alien vessel you could, there’s more! Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space is so mod friendly we often have to turn a hose on the game, just to keep the mods apart. The Weird Worlds experience never has to halt!

For more information on Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space please visit its gamepage. You’ll also be able to download a Mac demo for a sampling of the groovy game. And while there be sure to check out all our other titles for the Mac, such as Dominions II and Dominions 3 and Salvo!.