‘DomiNations’ Brings Classic Strategy To Mobile

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The mobile game market is seeing an amazing amount of new games coming out every week, and it’s getting more difficult than ever to get noticed in this avalanche of games. One thing that helps is a pre-existing audience, either for the style of game, the game’s creators, or the content of the game. Big Huge Games today introduced DomiNations, which the company is hoping will resonate on all three points.

DomiNations is certainly reminiscent of Rise of Nations, the hit real-time strategy game created by the original Big Huge Games and published by Microsoft back in 2003. DomiNations; like its spiritual predecessor, lets you create and grow civilizations through history, and of course battle other players for resources and territories. This is an extremely popular genre of games on the PC, and certainly mobile games like Clash of Clans and Game of War owe a lot to this genre.

The creators of DomiNations are led by Brian Reynolds and Tim Train, veterans who’ve worked on games like Civilization, Alpha Centauri, and of course Rise of Nations. Their games have a devoted following which is certainly going to want to look at DomiNations. The historic content of the game ia something nearly everyone is familiar with, seeing popular historical figures and civilizations portrayed in the game will certainly grab interest from players. DomiNations is now available as a free download on iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, and Android mobile devices.

 

“We’ve built DomiNations from the ground up to combine the in-depth strategy gameplay we’ve been creating for over 20 years with a fast, fun, and tactical experience customized for mobile devices,” said Brian Reynolds, Creative Director for DomiNations.

DomiNations is a base-building strategy game where players will choose to lead one of the world’s greatest nations including the British, Romans, Chinese, Germans, French, Japanese, and Greeks. The timeline of DomiNations unfolds across the expanse of human history, where players must research landmark technological developments, leverage unique strategic civilization abilities, and build Wonders of the World in order to pave their way to victory. With famous generals like Alexander the Great, Cleopatra, and Napoleon at the helm, players can relive history’s most famous conflicts at the tips of their fingers.

“Big Huge Games is ushering in the next generation of mobile strategy games with DomiNations, offering players an unrivaled amount of strategic choices and gameplay depth,” said John Robinson, general manager of Nexon M, Nexon’s arm devoted to mobile games.

Tim Train

The [a]listdaily spoke with Big Huge Games co-founder Tim Train about DomiNations, which he call a “Combat City Builder” or CCB. Some people, he said, call it “reverse tower defense” but that’s not as catchy.

Mobile is different from PC, both in the technical aspects of the platform but also in how players tend to play games. You’ve had to take that into account with your design, haven’t you?

Yep. One of the keys to mobile game design is making your game work for short gameplay sessions or long gameplay sessions. You want to have a lot more flexibility in how the player is able to play the game, so you need to have really short play session times that are possible. You can just log on and harvest your caravans and your farm and hunt the animals that are wandering around your map and see what rare resources you get from them. That might take a minute or two minutes, but when the player has a half hour of time that’s when you want to battle.

So when you have a long period of time you want to make more careful strategic decisions.

Absolutely. The attacks themselves, we wanted to add a lot more depth than the state of the art in strategy games these days.

How does monetizing the game work? Can I spend money to speed up construction?

Yes, you can spend your money on speedups and resources, those are the two main areas you’d spend premium currency on.

Does the game work equally well on tablets and smartphones?

We think it translates pretty well. That’s for people who own small-screen devices to decide. The trickiest bit is the interface, as in making sure your interface is readable, your icons are big enough to tap on but not too big that they obscure too much of the screen. So far we haven’t had any real issues with it.

What’s the marketing strategy for DomiNations? How will you help your audience find the game?

For us, as a game developer, our plan is just to make a good game. That may be a little naive to say in this day and age, but for us that;’s where it starts. If you make a great game that people want to come to play, they’re going to tell their friends. And then their friends are going to tell their other friends. To us that’s really the heart of it — you make a great game and people will come.

Now, there’s the whole user acquisition component to it in the mobile space, with optimization of channels. That’s not really our thing, that’s something for publishers. That’s where Nexon comes in.

How is developing this mobile game different from what you’ve experienced before creating PC games?

The thing that I’m excited about is the ability to actually understand more about what players actually like, and then responding to that. In the old days you’d basically box something up and throw it over the wall and that was it. You might have community forums or something, but you never really knew exactly how many people finished your game, or how many people bought it and never opened it. But in this world, you can say ‘OK, let’s actually look at what people are doing.’ Do they seem to like generals Are they building a lot of generals OK, maybe we’ll put some more generals in the game. That’s the thing to me about the ongoing development process, to be able to understand what your players like and do more of it.

Download DomiNations for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch on the App Store and for Android devices on Google Play {links no longer active}.

First Impressions Of Facebook’s Newest App, Riff

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It’s no secret that Facebook has been increasing its emphasis on video in the past year. Now an after-hours side project of the team at Facebook has come to light, Riff. It’s yet another video app, yes. So what makes it different?

Riff is all about collaborative video and video length falls in-between Vine and Snapchat at 20 seconds or less. Video on Facebook now accounts for 30 percent of all content types on the social network, so the emphasis on shorter video feels necessary.

“The potential pool of creative collaborators can grow exponentially from there, so a short video can become an inventive project between circles of friends that you can share to Facebook, or anywhere on the internet, at any time,” said Facebook product manager Josh Miller in their blog announcement.

We chatted with Nic Mercado, project manager and social media strategist at Ayzenberg to find out what her initial thoughts are on Facebook’s pet app project.

Nic Mercado, Project Manager and Social Media Strategist at Ayzenberg

Nic Mercado, Project Manager and Social Media Strategist at Ayzenberg

 

What was your first thought when you heard Facebook has launched another app?

I’m always a little hesitant when Facebook launches something new because they are so brand-based now, but considering it’s a video app, it definitely piques my interest!

What are your thoughts around Facebook’s increasing emphasis on video as a format?

It’s smart of them to jump on the video wagon. There are so many interesting video apps and programs, I’m shocked it’s taken them this long to come up with something themselves.

Are you excited at all to experiment with Riff?

As a huge Snapchat fan (and video in general), I am super excited to try out Riff. I have a lot of friends that do amazing things all around the world, so it would be nice to “collaborate” on a video from miles away. Photo and video sharing will never go away, so when there’s something new and exciting, I’m always stoked to try it out.

What are some video apps you’re currently using and what do you like about them?

I use Snapchat on a daily basis and love how advanced it has gotten with geo-tagging and sharing stories. I’m constantly finding myself “snapping” things and sharing funny/interesting stuff happening in front of me.  I also really like seeing my friends’ stories and seeing what they are up to all day. Also, I’m a little addicted to PHHHOTO but I wish more people were on it!

 

Twitch Grows Its Music Library

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Twitch.tv, the popular game streaming service that sees over 100 million monthly viewers, has been making strides in adding music to its channel, both through tunes that can be played by users during their broadcasts and with live music specials, including Steve Aoki and other artists. Now, it’s pushing its collection even further, partnering up with the Rhymesayers label to bring hip-hop to the channel.

With the partnership, Twitch will bring more than 100 songs in the hip-hop category to the Twitch Music Library for users to utilize however they please. This brings the total music library to over 1,000 tunes available for broadcasters, doubling what was initially offered back in January.

Rhymesayers has made a name for itself over the last 20 years, helping independent hip-hop artists rise to stardom. Performers such as Atmosphere, Brother Ali, Dilated Peoples, P.O.S. featuring Mike Mictian of Doomtree and Aesop Rock are amongst the many available in the Twitch music library.

“The Twitch community’s taste in music is as varied as the games they play,” said Colin Carrier, CSO and head of music for Twitch. “By being able to offer Twitch broadcasters such a large collection of music to use from Rhymesayers’ robust catalog, it ensures fans of independent hip-hop have plenty of choices.”

“It’s important for Rhymesayers to have our music where people are listening,” said Skye Rossi, CFO for the label. “With so many gamers in our audience, we’re excited to be a contributor to the Twitch community.”

Grieves, one of the artists featured in the deal, also spoke on the partnership. “I’m excited to be a part of this launch on Twitch ’cause not only do I get to share music with the world, but I get to game with it as well,” he said. “Bump the music, bang with me on the digital battle ground, but most of all, have FUN! That’s what this is all about.”

The deal should be beneficial for both sides, bringing in new Twitch fans eager to use Rhymesayers’ music, and introducing the label to an audience that will appreciate the presence of hip-hop. The label will host a community event tomorrow at 5:00 p.m. PDT to celebrate the announcement, with artists like Grieves and others taking part in gameplay sessions of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. Fans of the label can attend the event on the official Rhymesayers Twitch page.

Supercell Preps New Mobile Game

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Supercell has become one of the biggest success stories in the mobile world, generating a whopping $1.7 billion across its three releases, Clash of Clans, Hay Day, and Boom Beach. However, that isn’t stopping it from trying something new with its latest endeavor.

VentureBeat reports that Supercell has been testing its latest release, Smash Land, for release on the mobile market. The game shows some similarities to the popular mobile release Monster Strike, as you “smash your way through dangerous lands packed with scary creatures,” according to the product description. Players can arm themselves with “explosive abilities” and seek out treasures, while teaming up with friends and taking on foes. Additional heroes with new capabilities can be unlocked (or purchased), for players to add to their collection.

The game takes a new approach to the usual Supercell style, which relies on hardcore strategies that players of Clash of Clans and Boom Beach have easily adapted to. However, a similar business mode is in play here, as there’s hours worth of gameplay, as well as plenty of goodies for players to invest in, although it remains completely optional.

Supercell is somewhat finicky with its releases, as it’s been known to cancel projects before coming to fruition, mainly because they couldn’t live up to the reputation created by its previous releases. However, Smash Land shouldn’t have any trouble generating an audience of players of all ages – and that could help push the company to even greater success for 2015, in a market that could hit $30 billion by December.

For a team of 150 employees, Supercell has generated a lot of attention over these past couple of years, and Smash Land could be the game that pushes them even further, despite its somewhat “cute” approach compared to other releases. Its “fling-and-smash” sort of play should bring players in with ease, with an assortment of heroes and enemies keeping them there.

There’s no word on a release date for Smash Land yet, but it is available in the Canadian App Store, so arrival on other markets shouldn’t be too far off.

Simon Tay produced a video preview of the game, which can be found below.

 

Nintendo Reveals Add-Ons, Amiibos

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Yesterday was no April Foolin’ for Nintendo, as the company presented its latest Nintendo Direct online broadcast and showcased a number of new additions for popular games, as well as teases for upcoming titles. And, seeing how healthy its Amiibo business is as of late, it made a few announcements in that category as well.

Here are some of the more general stories that came out of yesterday’s announcement:

Super Smash Bros.’ New Combatants – Nintendo officially announced new downloadable characters for its Super Smash Bros. games, including popular Pokémon character Mewtwo, who will release at the end of this month; and Lucas, a hero from the company’s classic Earthbound game. In addition, bonus costumes will be available for unlocking for Mii fighters.

A New Card Based Animal Crossing Game – Fans of the interactive Animal Crossing games will be able to take part in a new experience for their Nintendo 3DS systems, in the form of Happy Home Designer. In this game, players will be able to create their dream homes, with help from characters from the series. In addition, Nintendo will release an NFC adapter for the 3DS systems, sold separately, that will enable players to scan Animal Crossing cards to add extra items into the game. Happy Home Designer should release later this year, alongside the NFC adapter.

Mario Kart 8 Getting Back Up To Speed – Ever since its release last year, Mario Kart 8 has been a huge seller for Nintendo. So, the publisher announced some new content for the game, which will be released this month. An Animal Crossing-themed downloadable content pack, featuring eight new tracks and additional karts and characters, will arrive on April 23rd for $7.99. Also, a new free update will provide a new speed class to the game, boosting the action up to 200cc. Fans seeking hardcore racing action are sure to love that.

Amiibo Madness – Finally, Nintendo continued to capitalize on its Amiibo success with the announcement of a fourth wave of the interactive figures, which will come to retail on May 29th. These include a number of fan favorites, like Wario, Charizard and Pac-Man, although some will be sold exclusively through retailers like GameStop and Best Buy.

Two newer titles coming from the publisher for Wii U, Yoshi’s Woolly World and Splatoon, will also have Amiibo tie-ins that launch alongside their respective games. Yoshi will see special yarn-based Yoshi figurines that can be used to activate secondary characters within that game universe, while Splatoon will feature a three-pack of characters – two Inkling soldiers and a squid – that can unlock bonus features in the third-person paint shooter, which we profiled last week.

Splatoon and its respective Amiibo characters will launch May 29th, while Yoshi’s Woolly World and its unique figures are due later in the summer.

The Nintendo Direct special can be watched in full below.

 

Augmented Reality Games To Reach Record Numbers By 2019

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With virtual reality technology on the rise, it won’t be long until the marketplace is flooded with games that take advantage of these headsets, whether it’s Sony’s Project Morpheus, Facebook’s Oculus Rift or a number of other competitors on the market. But will augmented reality-based video games really be as popular as most developers believe One research company seems to think so.

Advanced Television has reported that data provided by Juniper Research indicates augmented reality apps, which place users in a secondary universe that they can look around and, to some extent, interact with, will see a huge rise in popularity in just a few years’ time. Juniper indicates that AR-related games on the mobile market will generate 420 million downloads annually by 2019. Currently, those numbers sit at 30 million for 2014, which isn’t too shabby a number.

With the introduction of new technology, including virtual reality units, Google Glass, Magic Leap’s hardware and Microsoft’s recently announced HoloLens, interest in AR games will pick up. That’ll be a change of pace from how they’re selling now, as the market has been stagnant over the last couple of years. Juniper believes that the reason for this is because of the lack of cutting-edge apps that would draw in potential customers. However, as new technology becomes introduced, more and more people will pick up on it, and immerse themselves in their available worlds.

“The app market has stagnated somewhat, with the industry struggling to move beyond AR marketing tools,” said research author Steffer Sorrell. “I do see a shift, though – Blippar, for example, is moving into visual search, which will open the app to a far wider potential audience.”

Interest should not only increase in a customer base, but also marketers and companies that can find a way to effectively implement products and advertising into augmented reality, but without getting in the way of the experience itself. As more headsets and other gear comes to store shelves, we should get a better idea of how these ideas will come to fruition.

For now, though, the future looks virtually set on augmented reality to take over. It’s just a matter of seeing what companies can do with it.

Digital Domain And Immersive Media Form VR Joint Venture

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by Jessica Klein

Digital Domain Holdings Limited, the parent company of visual effects studio Digital Domain, and Immersive Media, an immersive video production company, have partnered to form IM360, a venture aimed at creating virtual reality videos and providing services to other VR creators.

In addition to offerings tools that help creators edit and produce their VR content, IM360 will provide ways for clients to distribute their content on VR headsets. The joint venture will also put forth and distribute its own immersive content.

Read more…

This article was originally posted on VideoInk and is reposted on [a]listdaily via a partnership with the news publication, which is the online video industry’s go-to source for breaking news, features, and industry analysis. Follow VideoInk on Twitter @VideoInkNews, or subscribe via thevideoink.com for the latest news and stories, delivered right to your inbox.

One In Five Americans Access The Internet On Their Phones Only

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There are a number of companies that provide strong Internet service for those who can afford it. However, a new survey indicates that a good deal of the American audience prefer to use their smartphone when it comes to accessing sites and social networks.

A report from Re/Code states that nearly one in five Americans depend solely on their cellphone for Internet access, and it’s a number that’s showing eventual growth.

This is mainly an audience consisting of younger users, or those without a feasible budget for a high-speed alternative. In addition, those with lower education are coupled into this audience, according to numbers compiled by the Pew Research Center.

“The traditional notion of ‘going online’ often evokes images of a desktop or laptop computer with a full complement of features, such as a large screen, mouse, keyboard, wires and a dedicated high-speed connection,” says the report. “But for many Americans, the reality of the online experience is substantially different.”

Smartphone penetration is showing a higher rate, with nearly two-thirds of Americans possessing some form of the technology.

While the limited site screen makes it difficult to navigate certain sites, the ease of use with smartphone-based Internet allows users to easily check certain information, like updates on social media sites and private information, such as a bank balance.

High cost may be the biggest factor when it comes to Internet service – and even smartphone users have seen some form of effect from that. Pew’s report indicates that 23 percent of smartphone owners have had to cancel or suspend their service at one point, mainly due to the lack of funds. 15 percent, meanwhile, had to hold back, but for a different reason – reaching a maximum data limit on their plan.

“The connections to online resources that smartphones facilitate are often most tenuous for those users who rely on those connections the most,” said Pew senior researcher Aaron Smith.

While this isn’t quite alarming news to broadband and strong Internet providers just yet, the growing audience of smartphone users could be of slight concern over the next few years – especially with more affordable data plans that are likely to be introduced as a competitive move.

April Fools! Which Brands Did It Best?

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We’ve all been especially leery-eyed at our screens today as the Internet alighted in pranks here and there. Some more believable than others, some funnier and some flat-out bad.

Here’s our round-up of nine the best ones we’ve seen, but we need your help to determine who the real winner of the day was. Let us know which prank was your favorite or if we missed out on any especially good ones below.

Audi’s Autonomous Office Chair

First up is Audi’s ‘Autonomous Office Chair,’ an obviously fake product that we really, really want anyway. The humor is absolutely on point and shows that the luxury car brand is far from stuffy.

 

Tinder… For Uber

Tinder’s own competitor to Lyft appears to have been launched today. Match yourself to an Uber driver and split rides! If that isn’t romantic, we don’t know what is.

PlayStation Flow

VR is so hot right now. It’s also absolutely ripe to poke fun at. Oculus Rift, watch out: a truly immersive experience is here.

 

Tanks On The Moon

Even if it was just a trailer, this would be good. The best thing about this April Fools gag is it is actually playable for a limited time.

 

Airbnb Time Travels

Planning out your next vacation in ancient Greece Airbnb makes it simpler for you, whether you’re thinking of renting out a private villa or a totally normal-looking wooden horse.

The Steam-Powered Console

We use Steam. We own consoles. Now the two are combined in the most literal way.

Steam Powered Console

Zombie Army THRILLogy

If you like dancing games and also zombie games, you’ll be delighted that the makers of Zombie Army are bringing together the best of both worlds (and zombie Hitler).

 

Jetsetter’s First Virtual Reality Hotel

We laugh now, but this prank might be the kernel of a very, very good idea.

Razer Project McFly

We know Razer as the maker of high quality peripherals, but they’ve really outdone themselves this time.

 

 

Programmatic Is Major Growth Area For Mobile

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Programmatic ad spending is on the rise. Over the last couple of years, it’s seen triple-digit numbers when it comes to increases in spending. And according to eMarketer, that growth won’t stop anytime soon.

The site believes that spending on programmatic ads will rise an additional 50 percent to $14.88 billion for 2015. That makes up 55 percent of total digital display ad spending in all.

A research report by RBC Capital Markets and Advertising Age, posted back in February, shows that programmatic ads make up a small (yet still significant) part of marketers’ total budgets when it comes to ad spending. An approximate 45 percent of US marketers put 20 percent or less of its overall marketing spend into these ads, while only eight percent spend more than 20 percent.

But the numbers won’t stay stagnant for long. The report indicates that nearly two-thirds of respondents have intentions of putting more money into programmatic ad budgets for the coming year.

Mobile plays a huge part in programmatic ad spending, as 33 percent of marketers polled believe it’s the biggest factor with such campaigns. Video came in a close second, with 20 percent of respondents behind it. Other formats, like social media, display and native, followed behind in the 10-16 percent range, as indicated by the chart below.

A follow-up report by Digiday, which also posted in February, notes that U.S. ad buyers and sellers are becoming more involved with programmatic mobile advertising. 69.1 percent stated that they use it in some format, coming in a close second behind display, with 85.6 percent. (Video followed in third with 67.1 percent.)

Overall programmatic display ad spending for mobile in the U.S. is likely to double, according to eMarketer. It estimates an 88.4 percent rise to $8.36 billion, which calculates to 57 percent of the total mobile display ad spending in the market. By 2016, the number will pick up even more, with 68 percent of mobile display ad dollars going towards programmatic mobile ads.

It’s certainly something for companies to keep an eye on – programmatic ads, especially for mobile, are here to stay.

Image source