Hidden Temple : Legend of?

Name : Hidden Temple
Developer : Aleksandor Polanowski
Price : $0.00 on 29 June 2012
Size : 13.8  MB
Compatibility :  iPad+iPhone

Fun to Price ratio : 1.0/0
Let me quote an appstore comment: "Game is  boring  and graphics is bad thing, But if this is your first app, you have taken the first step; good luck."  I would like to wish the same. This seems to fall in the same category of accidental hit game that I had discussed before(IMHO).

[UPDATES: Its a fake imitation of popular game Temple Run - I feel sorry for my oversight.]

Everybody wonders, how this game is able to achieve the top status?
Let me do some guesswork.

• Name: 'Hidden temple' - If you loved the the game Temple Run than definitely you would look over this game.  A quick Google search reveals lot of interesting stuffs which are unrelated to this game. Importantly, there seems a game show Legends of the Hidden Temple.

• Icon is an image of a 3d rendered temple.
• Screenshots are also snapshot of rendered 3d graphics.

Screen shots

Looks like a 3D game!

Nope! Temple is just a background.

One has to make the dummy to throw stones towards the mask.  For your convenience the dummy rotates 360° on its place!  Power meter helps to control the force. Stones must pass over the blue brinks. But red bricks are breakable. Note that, background wall including the fire everything is a static image.

 

Madcoaster:Quantity Matters

Name : Madcoaster

Publisher : Chillingo Ltd
Price : $0.00 on 26 June 2012
Extras : In app purchase of themes,coins etc
Size : 25 MB
Compatibility : iPad+iPhone

Fun to Price ratio : 3.0/0
The real important thing, that I should tell about this game is content. Its looks like a formula based game. Get a simple working concept and hire a bunch of graphics people, add lot of themes, purchase items and approach a big publisher. (May be I am biased against big companies). I liked this game; not loved it. Graphics are very rich; music just OK.  What I am missing is freshness.

Ready.. Set..  Go..

Game is about riding a Roller coaster. Your coaster will take you in a big theme park. Tap any where on the screen to make your coaster to jump between the tracks. (Slide down to move to a lower track). You can collect coins. Or you can hit the birds or animal during your ride (Which is a plus!).

Collecting of coins is a cool thing to do.  Many times, coins spread over an arc shape and its cool to jump and collect them. One thing I hated is hitting on an animal or a bird. Specially, I felt bad to dash on a gorilla(?) which made a loud cry wooo :(.


Themes
Game consists lot of themes to ride, which are mind blowing. However if you stop to watch the beauty, your coaster will be off the track.

wow!

Aha!

Watch your track! You are lucky if you have spare life.

In the end

Results

 

Some items to purchase.

Appstore: What is it?

No need to explain. Right?
Wait. Its bit complicated.

Wikipedia says:
App Store may refer to:

• App Store (iOS), the official Apple online application distribution system for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch 
•  Amazon Appstore, an online application distribution system for Android devices
•  Mac App Store, the official Apple online application distribution system for Mac OS X
• A generic term for digital distribution platforms

Whenever I use the word appstore/ App store; it refer to the first point i.e. official Apple iOS App Store.

Amazon has its own store named as Amazon Appstore. But Apple claims that, they cant do this! They feel, 'App Store really means App Store™'.  

Amazon rejects this and claims the last point of Wikipedia (A generic term - I doubt that entry made by some Amazon PR guys!)  It seems, On this issue, Microsoft is helping  Amazon. 

Flow: Minimalist but addictive game

Name : Flow Free

Developer : Big duck games LLC
Price : $0.00 on 24 June 2012
Extras : In app purchase of levels
Size : 3.4MB
Compatibility : iPad+iPhone

Fun to Price ratio : 3.0/0
This is the minimalist game we need to talk about: simple graphics, simple icon, no music, but a brand new idea. (Yet I wont regret saying minimalist not an option. Addition polishing might yield  still better results.)

Remember time of good old video game tetris. There was no music, no graphics, still it was a fun. No character, no dialog, some random shaped tiles, even today I liked to play it.  Flow is a kind of such game. For any developer out their, I must say that, if you got such an idea than, you can turn into some millions.

Main menu: Again minimalist

Don't get disappointed by the dark background; it looks kind cool on a real idevice. Only thing I disappointed is lack of music, again its OK. Sound effects are nice.

Game play

Connect the same colored dots and that's it. Note that you can't overlap the lines while connecting.

In the end

Initial levels are very easy. You can increase the difficulty by choosing a larger board.

I have not checked what the inapp purchases contain.

Save the titanic:Minimalist is not always an option

Name : Save the titanic

Developer : Scary Robot Production
Price: $0.00 on 22 June 2012
Size : 27.1 MB

Fun to Price ratio: 1.0/0
This game really just a 3d rendering of the iceberg that which hit the titanic; and a ship wheel which you can turn, for nothing.

Who told that, its difficult to move a igame to top 10. Just look at this game, it was  #4 on  22 June 2012 in Indian appstore. If you purchased (sorry, downloaded - its free of course) this game  you would feel sorry for wasting your bandwidth. Like all markets, it is difficult to understand appstore ranking system. Or one can say, we cant read peoples mind. Or may be, its a marketing trick. What I was wondering, If its possible to fool people by few interesting screen shots.

In the beginning:Ready... Set... Go...

Calm sea.

Wake up bastards!

          All,  you need to do is to rotate the wheel.. Its of no use. You are going to hit any way, except that your ship will rotate slightly to right.
          Either they need to reduce the complexity (The claim a future update ). Or one should use a robotic arms to rotate with more speed.

In the end

Bang!

A crap jokes at the end

Its looks good, But believe me their is no good.
If anybody out their, who successfully crossed the iceberg or had a different experience please comment.

Updates: Hopefully I am not just alone; there are other voices sounding similar.  

Propel man:(Cont'd)

This is the continuation of my last post. I have been playing this game for day 2,  now reached to level 25.  Its of  mixed feelings, kind of boring (same game play), and a kind of interesting (Can experiment with different items). Right now, I have unlocked all the  shopping items except 'space machine' catapult, which will be unlocked in level 26.

Day 2 began  with classic dialogs.

All igames want to be online, all the time.

Thank you!

Miscellaneous

Hint: Use all the rocket boosters available. (All the 9).  

Bug:Oh no! Propelman afraid to climb on catapult. Soln. Just relaunch the game.

Propel man:Classic power meter game

 

Name : Propel man
Developer : Spiel Studio
Price: $0.00 on 17 June 2012
Size : 50 MB
Its a classic power meter game. The Propelman is thrown using  a catapult. In order to increase the distance traveled, you can control the power and angle of the catapult.  Also, you need to launch the parachute, to avoid the Propelman from hitting the ground. Your score will be based on maximum distance traveled, coins collected etc. Game offers variety of upgrades to increase the  time of flight (Rocket boosters, Jet Parachutes). Shop items progressively gets unlocked in the game. In app purchase allows to buy more coins gives power to purchase more items.

MainMenu: Intense graphics

Graphics of the game is very detailed one and stunning.

Some times color combination extremely rich may distract your eyes.

Game mechanism: The catapult

Fine tune the angle

Fine tune the power

And the Propelman is on the air!

Results

Oh my!

Use parachute to save your self.

Oh! crash landing.

Again?

That's it. Wait, You can shop some items.

ParkingFrenzy: Yet another but minimalist parking game.

Name : Parking Frenzy
Developer : Game2Win
Price: $0.00
Size : 16MB


ParkingFrenzy is very simple but interesting parking game for free. Minimalist theme of the game is highly attractive. Game contains 16 levels. Developer claims to increase the no of levels in the future.


Let set go! Simple MainMenu: Play and music control.

About

Game development is just a fun. However make a living from it, is a challenge!

It was my 4th month in the indie world. I was arguing with my dad about game development. Topic of the discussions was originality of the game. My dad was suggesting that I should play and observe other games and other peoples work. I was against to it and argued that, it kills our creativity and originality.

Over the time I perceived the importance of other peoples work and to learn from them. And my dad was right.

Successful game always needs an inspiration.
I am keeping this blog to review other peoples work, to become inspired from them. I will try to review  at least 1 iGame a day. Its a double edged sword. Game player and me come to know about the games. I am expecting somebody else to review my games and give some feedback.

PS:

1. Lets us see if their any good game other than Fruit Ninja / Angry bird!
2. This is my why page! (Read: Start with why)