Godus - Time is precious

One of the best computer games I've ever played in the late 80s/early 90s was Populous by Peter Molyneux, a genre breaking app which spawned a whole industry of "god" games, so it was with great excitement that i saw Godus by 22Cans on the App Store, designed by Peter himself, and widely regarded as the spiritual successor to Populous.

The price tag rang warning bells in my head though: it was free (with in-app purchases). "But it's Populous for iOS," I thought. I had to give it a try.

Battleheart Legacy Review

When the mostly text-based Wizardry was released in September 1981 for the Apple II, it sparked a revolution in computer role-playing games (RPG), not because it was the first to cover this genre but because its complexity coupled with ease of use, and highly versatile adventure, sparked the imagination of hundreds of thousands of players.

Fast forward to January 2011 and a host of imitators and innovators later, Mika Mobile released their own interpretation of an RPG for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch, Battleheart. Again, they weren't the first to market, not by a long shot, but their lovely cartoon-like environment, original animation, and easy to master yet engrossing combat, made that game a highly enjoyable experience, well geared for mobile gaming.

Puppet Pals - Interview with Polished Play

Stop motion animation can be a lot of fun; there’s always something magical about seeing inanimate objects move seemingly by themselves. But there’s one major inherent problem with this creative endeavour: it’s a painfully slow process - assuming you work in PAL, you must move your objects and characters a little bit at a time, recording the process twenty-five time just to produce one second of video. The results are often worth it, of course, but it’s definitely an exercise in patience. This is where Lance Harris and Heber Sheffield, the founders of Polished Play come in; they created a set of apps for iPad to turn this process upside down and enable anyone to create animated scenes in minutes, rather than days.

Leo's Fortune - Interview with 1337 & Senri

Leo's gold has gone missing. The thief has left a trail of coins like breadcrumbs to tease him into finding his hoard again, and thus begins the premise of this original game from 1337 & Senri.

Leo himself is a beautifully rendered ball of blue/green fur - with a large moustache and an Eastern European accent. You make him move to the left and right by dragging your finger on the left side of the screen, while the right side controls his up and down movement. Like a puffer fish, Leo can make himself bigger, which enables him to float and avoid obstacles, or slow down his fall. All of this is extremely well demonstrated in the tutorial.

Hints & Tips #1 - Emoji on iOS

I've been asked about this a few times so I thought it best to set it in stone, or at least in the ever flowing posts of my site.

Emoji are a series of pictograms, similar to smileys but much broader in scope, which originated in Japan, and thanks to mobile computing, their use is spreading fast.

Most modern operating systems allow you to see them in the messages, tweets, and Facebook posts you receive (if not, all you'll see are white squares where those images should be), but how do you get to use them yourself?

Axl and Tuna - Interview with Game Collage

It's been two and a half years since Bobo leapt onto the scene and delighted numerous iPad owners and their children with its wonderful educational adventures and charmingly quirky personality, effortlessly teaching kids all about the mysteries of light.

But Game Collage haven't been idle since: they've been working on a game which they're releasing today called Axl and Tuna and I spoke to Juraj Hlaváč, developer of the two-man team that created this latest endless runner.

Monument Valley - Interview with Ustwo

We keep hearing bleak news when it comes to the App Store; what was once a thriving and exciting revolution is giving way to "me too" apps, poor clones of successful games and a cataclysmic avalanche of "freemium" games based on grabbing as much money out of you or your children as possible through the highly deceptive use of in-app purchases.

But every now and again, something surprises and delights you, and reminds you that games are meant to give players pleasure, not frustration. Monument Valley does exactly that.

ANM News Flash: White Pride Standoff

A demonstration in support of White Pride turned into a fiasco in Swansea on Saturday when it became clear that none of the parties present were singing from the same hymn sheet.

The confusion began this week after Councillor David Phillips had stated his objection to the far right demo taking place in the city and seeking police co-operation to relegate it to a less central location.

Paving Paradise: Bag Up the Bay

As you'd expect Swansea city council regularly cleans its beaches, but the recent storms have washed up more waste than usual and a special volunteer's day was organised to give the main beach a good once over.

Over 100 people took part and collected an impressive 1,020kg of rubbish.

ANM News Flash - ATOS Demo, Swansea

Citizens met outside Atos Offices in Grove Place in Swansea on Wednesday, as they did in cities and towns all over the UK to protest at the manner in which Atos, a French multinational contracted by the Coalition Government to oversea disability assessments and cuts has conducted itself.