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Pixels on Toast is the development studio set up by games genius Kevin Ng. Based in Edinburgh, Pixels On Toast is the studio behind games including Kick Flick Football, the forthcoming Food Run and the newly released Word Crasher. Or indeed the newly enhanced version for the latest iPad – Word Crasher Blitz.
Billed as the tactile word game, Word Crasher challenges players to create words from a veritable deluge of gaily coloured tokens, which drop from the top of the playing area, like a pleasantly candy-coloured rain of lettered tokens, from a delightfully playful rain god, who fancies testing the vocabulary of his/her subjects, in some kind of celestial competition.
However, unlike an actual game played with a deity, whether letter-obsessed, responsible for weather, or not. Word Crasher rarely ends in SACRIFICE and MUTILATION, unless those are words you make with your letter tokens.
As Pixels On Toast says:
As letters fall down and pile up on your screen, touch them to make words. Making long words and using rare letters is a risky strategy, but will score much higher. But watch out, if the letters reach the top of the screen it’s Game Over.
WordCrasher Blitz adds some new wrinkles into the gameplay, including individual letter score multipliers and a new game mode, “Quick Game”, designed to be played in that minute or two at the bus stop.
Like the original, WordCrasher Blitz tracks every unique word the player enters into the game, and uploads their vocabulary to Game Center and OpenFeint leaderboards. The current champion of the original WordCrasher has entered over 20k unique words. Compare this to the average English speaker’s total vocabulary of 10k-15k words, and this is impressive indeed.
Word Crasher Blitz has ultra-realistic tactile physics. Letters bounce, stack, roll and respond to you tilting, waggling and juggling your iPhone/iPad or iPod (which are all supported by the by…)
Each and every single game you play contributes to your WordMaster level, submitting your unique words and building your status as a wonderful word wizard, just like levelling up in an RPG, but with less brutal orc death.
Word Crasher Blitz features three game modes – Quick Game, Marathon and Flood Panic, in which your letters float delightfully in a glass of virtual water, which creeps ever upwards towards the top of the screen (at which point you die. Horribly).
With over 190,000 words recognized in US, UK and International English, there’s something for even the most unliterate.
Best of all, Word Crasher Blitz comes for the magical price of FREE. Or for $4.99 on your Mac.
Go visit Pixels On Toast online. Join, like and contribute to their Facebook page, or follow, follow them on Twitter. Kevin also has a development blog that we’d recommend highly.
This is a guest editorial from long-standing friend of scottishgames.net Phil Harris…
“What is Conpulsion?”, I hear you cry? Well let’s answer you all then.
Conpulsion is Scotland’s Premier Gaming Convention. We bring people from all walks of gaming together with roleplaying, board games, wargames, card games and, introduced last year, video games all featured at the event.
This year Phil Harris, former editor of SquareGo, is running the event, ably assisted by games designer Gregor Hutton and an exceptional team and they have done their utmost to ensure variety and entertainment with over one hundred separate events and games throughout the convention.
Indeed this year the whole of the development team behind the One Ring (Lord of the Rings Roleplaying Game) are attending. Loren Wiseman of Travellers Aid Society fame and renown fantasy artist Dave Allsop (who hasn’t attended a convention for over 5 years) as well as countless other artists and writers, workshops by Avenger Enterprises. Live swordplay from Dawn Duellists Society and much, much more.
More importantly, since its inception 25 years ago as Dungeon Aid, Conpulsion has always been associated with supporting local charity and this year is no exception with Pass It On, a lovely group of people who adapt donated IT equipment for use by the disabled, being our choice for this year,
People can donate through various means. We have a charity auction, you can paying for charity re-rolls in the games, use the Bring and Buy stall, buy soup from local retailer Union of Genius, invite friends to the Steampunk disco on Saturday night (where £4 of every £5 goes towards the charity) or simply ask at the sign-up desk.
At a price of £10 for a weekend ticket and events running from 10:00 until late evening on both main days, as well as a soiree for those early to arrive on the Friday (“As you wish” is all we’ll say about that one), there is so much to do in Edinburgh, this Easter.
So think Edinburgh, Easter, Conpulsion. Visit the site, book tickets and come along for a magical ride knowing the Monday is a bank holiday so many of you won’t have jobs to go to.
- Thanks Phil.
You can find Conpulsion over on Facebook…
If you’re in central Scotland on March 27th (next Tuesday), you owe it to yourself to come along to the first UKIE Scotland event focusing on accessing finance.
Key speakers include Jo Twist and Andy Payne – the CEO and Chair of UKIE as well as representatives from a number of other organisations offering practical and specific advice on how companies working within the games industry can find funding from a number of different sources including venture capital funds, prototype funding and market flotation.
Euan Mackenzie, the UKIE representative for Scotland told us:
“The response to the event has been phenomenal. We’ve offering entirely practical and currently accessible routes and funding opportunities for developers and publishers. We’ve pulled in experts from across the business and financial community and we want to emphasise to participants that all of these opportunities are available now and offer games companies new ways to approach financing projects.”
Euan also told us he’s thrilled to bringing the first UKIE event to the Scottish games sector:
“I’m thrilled to be bringing the first UKIE event to the Scottish games sector,” he told us.
The event is free, but space is limited. Tickets are moving fast, so to ensure you have a place at this exciting mini conference, you need to hit the Eventbrite page and reserve a ticket NOW! Flying out the door we hear.
We look forward to seeing you there.
Any questions, post them in the comments, visit our Facebook page, or tell us on Twitter.
Last night saw the first meeting of the new cross-party group on videogames technology at the Scottish Parliament. Convened by MSP Joe Fitzpatrick, whose constituency covers Dundee, the group is designed to look at the whole games sector and how it can do business more effectively in Scotland.
Despite many companies attending the Game Developer Conference in San Francisco, the meeting was packed. Representatives from TIGA and UKIE, Creative Scotland, the University of Abertay, the University of the West of Scotland, Napier University, many local development studios and digital media companies were joined by MSPs including Joe Fitzpatrick, Jenny Marra and John Swinney.
Two of the initial topics, introduce by Dr Richard Wilson from TIGA were, not surprisingly, tax breaks for games companies and access to finance for start-ups and young businesses. While these are familiar issues to those in the interactive sector, they remain a key topics for the whole of the UK, given the growing number of regions and territories offering this sort of support for creative companies. Yet the increasing numbers of smaller studios, focusing on simpler, titles for non-dedicated platforms such as mobile, social networks and web browsers, may reduce the significance of the tax breaks issue.
The issue of access to funding is one which remains problematic. New creative businesses in Scotland have a variety of channels to approach, from the Small Business Gateway to Abertay’s Prototype fund. Yet institutional funding and venture capital is an elusive beast in Scotland and a ‘funding gap’ between very early start-up costs and progressing into larger projects shows no signs of shrinking, let along vanishing.
John Swinney pointed out that the Scottish government is committed to the creative industries as a key sector for the Scottish economy, but reminded the audience that many of the issues surrounding tax are reserved for the UK government in Westminster. He did welcome the cross party group however and welcomed ongoing dialogue with the industry.
NESTA’s Graeme Downie reminded attendees that NESTA has been supporting the interactive sector for several years now. The organisation (which is now a registered charity) has provided mentoring to four of the studios in Scotland and was instrumental in setting up Appy Nation, the games consortium and publishing organisation which is now up-and-running in the UK. NESTA’s interest in the digital media sector is alos opening up opportunities in the hyper-local media sector and intriguingly will see four local authorities opening up their data, allowing companies to… explore and create new services (hopefully).
Linda McPherson, the creative industries director for Scottish Enterprise spoke of a number of initiatives from the organisation which are hoped to make SE a ‘one stop shop’ for companies seeking investment, including a new online presence which should be live by the Autumn. Along with new flexible workspace initiatives in Dundee and Glasgow aimed entirely at new companies, increased business mentoring and an intellectual asset centre, Scottish Enterprise loves the games industry and hope to show it across the rest of 2012.
Creative Scotland, which has yet to make a significant impact with the games sector is now actively looking for partnerships and has a focus on content with a £1.25 million innovation fund, which is open to creative interactive companies. It’s also working with Abertay on something called Dare+, which we’re hoping is a move to bring more of the content and titles created during the world’s leading game creation compeutition, out onto the market and support them (and we’ll chase Abertay and CS to find out more).
Abertay’s Paul Durrant reminded the group that the Prototype fund is there for start ups and companies looking to drive growth.
Then there was Colin Anderson. We love Colin. You should love him too. Aside from being the MD of Denki, Colin is one of the people who can outline the opportunities and highlight the potential and wonder of the whole interactive sector. Colin suggested that the games sector in Scotland has an opportunity similar to that in the industrial revolution. It wasn’t the invention of steam which kick-started the entire process, but the James Watt’s creation of a far more efficient process. Scotland already has the skills, the talent and the experience, but needs far more efficient processes to help drive the infinitely more complex processes required in the new digital media world.
Colin called for far more focus on creating a culture of entrepreneurship and encouraging the creation of new generations of problem solvers rather than simply training people in specific technical skills.
We couldn’t agree more.
Questions from the floor probed the issues of access to finance, the recognition of the games industry in places other than Dundee and the bewildering variety of organisations and groups which all offer some form of help and support to companies in the interactive sector (Scottish Enterprise, Scottish Development International, Creative Scotland, Interactive Scotland, the Cultural Enterprise Office, TIGA, NESTA, UKIE, Creative Edinburgh, Small Business Gateway, Interactive Tayside, etc. etc. etc.)
Then there was wine. And a bit of a tour around the parliament chamber, which is incredibly impressive. Some wag described it as Star Trek meets Ikea, but everyone ignored him…
While the first meeting of the cross-party group on videogames technology did not reveal anything particularly unexpected or revelatory, it was a very welcome demonstration of the Scottish parliament’s support for the sector.
As Mr Anderson so eloquently put it, Scotland has an incredible opportunity right now. We have a great deal of skill and experience in the games market. We have similar skills and experience in other areas of the media and the arts.
The games industry is evolving incredibly rapidly. What constitutes a ‘game’ is being redefined in fundamental ways and as a result the very definition of a ‘games company’ is changing on an almost daily basis. Interactivity and digital media are changing the other creative industries from film and television to literature and performing arts, almost as quickly.
For the cross-party group to be truly effective it will have to accept a very broad range of companies, organisations and participants. It may be impossible to provide clear focus on the future, since nobody truly knows how the hell everything is going to change in the next decade. However, the support understanding and recognition of the government and parliament HAS to be a good thing.
We hope that the commitment and interest shown last night is ongoing and the support and goodwill shown at the first meeting of the group can be taken and result in greater understanding and support for the whole digital media and interactive sectors in the future.
AND we found new games companies there. A big hello to Polybius Games and Gamevial. Profiles and coverage of both coming soon (along with listings in our new Company Directory).
If you want to ask questions, discuss the results of last night’s meeting, or suggest topics that the group should consider, you can leave a comment below, join the Scottishgames Facebook group or join us on Twitter with the hashtag #HolyroodGamesGroup.
It’s request time, readers. Anthony Reynolds from Glasgow University is looking for people to help his research into gaming culture and mature content in videogames. It’s not another survey into violent games = violent behaviour. Rather he’s looking for input from gamers to help shape the research itself.
If you can spare 10 minutes at some point soon, we know he’d appreciate it…
As Anthony himself said:
This is ten-to-fifteen minute survey which will contribute to a new study into gaming culture being produced at the University of Glasgow.
Please note, unlike much other research into games, this study does not assume that the use of games has the inherent potential to cause harm to the player. Rather, the aim of this study is to document, investigate and shed light on the experiences and cultural identities of adults living in the UK who play games frequently and regularly, and consider games to be of great importance in their cultural life. If this sounds like you, please continue!
All participants must be resident in the UK and 18 years of age or over. If you are neither of these, thank you for your interest, but I cannot use your data.
When filling out your answers, try to reflect on:
- your past relationship with games (including in childhood)
- what games and gaming mean (and has meant) to you
- how you think gaming relates to your life, identity, and personality in the present
I really hope you get something from answering these questions, and enjoy reflecting on your gaming experiences!
Many Thanks,
Anthony Reynolds
Centre for Cultural Policy Research
University of Glasgow
9 University Avenue
Glasgow
G12 8QQ
You can find the survey questions here. Thank you in advance.
Because it’s important, dammit… A misty-eyed Cara Ellison from Square-Go interviews a steely-eyed and chiselled Robert Florence on the legacy of Consolevania.
If you’re not familiar with the Consolevania ‘thing’, well, you should be. Thankfully you can now download all of them (including the inspirationally Scotland-heavy Fluff piece) from iTunes.
Go read the piece, watch the shows and remember what was.
Highway Hobo is the game formerly known as ‘Bummer‘ aka, the Frogger type game featuring a drunken bum. If that’s not a premise that makes you immediately interested, then we don’t know what will.
Out now on the Android market (or Google Play as we must now call it), from the team at Braindead Ape, Highway Hobo challenges players to stagger, muttering down the middle of a busy road – in the best tradition of drunken bums, avoiding the traffic and picking up discarded items. Not unravelled cassette tapes or individual shoes, as you’d find in the real world, but bottles of generic booze type alcohol to maintain that pleasant buzz.
Of course, the booze has an additional benefit. When your booze meter maxes out, you can belch explosively – clearing all oncoming traffic out of your way, scaring small children, killing scurrying hedgehogs and lifting the paint from the road.
It’s a distance game. Like Cannabalt or Jetpack Joyride, the goal is to get as far as possible.
The team are promising updates, additional content, new game modes and all manner of new stuff in the coming months.
Additionally, Highway Hobo is just the first title in a wider family of linked games, based around a bunch of loveable hobo types, which Braindead Ape is now working on. The plan is to have your own customised bum who will feature in a number of different game types, creating a sort of tramp platform if you will.
The Braindead Ape team is looking for feedback, input and responses from players. If you’re an Android owner, download the game, give it a go and let the team know what you think.
It’s quite simply… staggering!
What?
YoYo’s busy and efficient release schedule is back with the company’s latest title emerging for both Android and iOS. Froad (is he/she a frog or a toad? We may never know…)
In Froad, players are challenged to catch and nom down on tasty, tasty bugs – and avoid yucky horrid bugs, to keep Froad alive.
Keep him full, keep him happy.
Froad is another title in the simple, fast, pick-up-and-play style of game in which YoYo is rapidly making a name for itself. The company’s previous titles – Karoshi, They Need To Be Fed, etc. are tapping into the appetite for fast, accessible games for smartphones.
YoYo’s game catalogue is now approaching 20 titles, covering a wide range of styles and genres – and formats, since the company is now publishing titles in HTML5.
You can buy Froad now on the Apple App Store and Android market for £0.69/$0.99.
Check out the video for the game here:
Edinburgh’s Games Analytics have signed a deal with Bigpoint, the German-based online games publisher. The deal will integrate Games Analytic’s Predict platform into Bigpoint’s games.
This will allow Bigpoint to analyse and predict user behaviour. They can use this information to enhance the user experience, personalise games and increase retention rates and revenues.
Games Analytics worked with Bigpoint on one game back in 2011 and obviously impressed them with their technology and approach, since this new deal means platforms will be integrated and tight connections formed.
The Bigpoint Logo - yesterday
Bigpoint is the company behind games such as Battlestar Galactica, Skyrama, The Mummy Online and many others. They get millions of players on a monthly basis. Most of their titles use the freemium model, so clearly customer satisfaction and retention is a key priority.
Quote time:
Philip Reisberger, Chief Revenue Officer, Bigpoint said: “We are pleased to continue the collaboration with GamesAnalytics having enjoyed very positive results from our first project. Their predictive modeling and in-game messaging technology is an excellent extension our existing market-leading analytics toolkit and we look forward to seeing increased player value and player satisfaction.”
GamesAnalytics’ COO and Co-Founder Mark Robinson added; “it’s a great opportunity for GamesAnalytics to be working with Bigpoint. Their games are played by millions of users which the Predict platform can segment into actionable behaviors to develop sophisticated in-game messaging strategies.”
Games Analytics are out at GDC should you fancy a quick chat with them. Stand #833 to be precise.
While some people may scoff, or indeed sneer at the use of data analysis and modelling, this is a great achievement for Games Analytics. Online gaming is only going to get larger and to move beyond the standard cash up front business model (which doesn’t work out so well for anyone bar the publisher) data analysis is a key tool. Congratulations to the Games Analytics team.
