It’s been a while, but there’s a new “GROW” game out, called “GROW Valley.” This one has you choose one of seven colleges to develop a futuristic high-tech society.’
All the GROW games can be found at eyezmaze.com.
Featured 3D Short: The Monk & The Monkey
A determined young boy, Ragu, is sent by his master on his final quest to become a monk. A seemingly simple task becomes an unexpected challenge for Ragu as he discovers the real value of his quest.
Future Rock Band
What rhythm games such as Rock Band might look like in the future:
1990 vs. 2010 [Pic]
[Via MUO]
Preparing for a cameo in “Vampires Suck.”
Bryan Cruz, who has one line in the upcoming parody film, “Vampires Suck,” spent a lot of time with his friends preparing for his big Hollywood debut.
PR firm busted over fake iTunes reviews
A public relations firm has “settled” Federal Trade Commission charges that it wrote bogus reviews of games on iTunes on behalf of its clients. Its the first major such case since the introduction of new guidelines on disclosure from people writing online.
Reverb Communications staff had “consistently” posted reviews on iTunes using false usernames. Every review rated the game at four or five stars and included comments such as “GREAT, family-friendly board game app” and “Really Cool Game”.
In the wonderful stating-the-obvious style of most legal verdicts, the FTC noted (PDF): “Respondents failed to disclose that those reviews were written by employees of Reverb, a company hired to promote the gaming applications and often paid a percentage of the applications’ sales. These facts would have been material to consumers in their purchasing decision regarding the gaming applications. The failure to disclose these facts, in light of the representation made, was, and is, a deceptive practice.”
Although the FTC didn’t name the games involved, Reverb’s website lists 23 current gaming clients and 33 former clients, including some major iPhone app developers. It specifically lists 20 iPhone games, including iSamJackson and Turf Wars.
According to the FTC, the Reverb reviews breached the Federal Trade Commission Act. This followed revised guidance from the FTC last year that made clear anyone writing online about a product or service shows disclose any material connection they have with the seller. At the time that prompted speculation that amateur bloggers might fall foul of the rules if they failed to disclose getting free copies of a product that they reviewed.
At the moment, Reverb won’t face any repercussions beyond the negative publicity. It will have to remove all the bogus reviews and has signed an agreement committing to disclose commercial connections in the future. Although Reverb hasn’t been found guilty of breaking any laws, the agreement is legally binding and violating it could lead to a fine of up to $16,000.
Wicket the Ewok and other Amigurumi
Had a bad day and need your ration of cute? Here’s Wicket from “Return of the Jedi,” in knitted stuffed animal form. This Wicket (and others like him) are called “Amigurumi,” which is the Japanese art of knitting or crocheting small stuffed animals.
Our friends over at GeekDad pointed us to other geeky Amigurumi, including more StarWars characters, Harry Potter, Cthulhu, and others, on more than one occasion.
Searching for other geeky Amigurumi on Google, I found this list on thedomesticscientist.com, which includes Mythbusters Amigurumi, Megaman Amigurumi, and more.
Angry Birds: The Movie?
If you’ve somehow managed to avoid the Angry Birds phenomenon, you might not be able to escape for much longer. The game’s creators are heading to Hollywood to try to strike cash-in deals.
The game itself, which appears on the iPhone platform, is remarkably simple. You use a catapult to fling birds at a pile of wood or glass in an attempt to destroy a group of pigs that stole the birds’ eggs. As the game goes on, you acquire birds with different powers such as one that splits into three smaller birds, clusterbomb style.
It is ridiculously addictive, though it does mean that when my wife has the iPad and I hear the theme music start up, I know that I’ve got a few hours of complete control over the TV, so that’s a win. Part of the success is that it’s the type of game where you first have to work out how to complete each level, then physically pull it off.
The game has so far sold 6.5 million copies. What makes that particularly impressive is that the free edition (covering a few early levels) has 11 million downloads: as far as I know, a 50% conversion ratio for a free sample game is spectacularly high.
Now Variety is reporting that the producer, Rovio, has decided that rather than produce a new game (which they think would be like trying to strike gold twice), they are looking for spin-off deals.
Or to put it in Variety-speak, “The company’s founders have been making the rounds of the studios and tenpercenteries over the last several weeks weighing which ancillary offers to move forward with first.” (A “tenpercentarie” is an agent, working on said commission.) The company has recruited several specialist advisors, including a man who set up licensing deals for Twilight.
Rovio CEO Mikael Hed says there are plenty of possibilities, but he favors the idea of either a TV show or even a full-length movie based on the characters, noting that the claymation style of Wallace & Gromit might be the best format.
Whether that’s really going to succeed is open to question. While the characters are certainly cute enough, it really is the gameplay rather than the story which makes Angry Birds work. There aren’t many successful game-to-movie transplants, and this really does seem like a case where losing control of the characters would take away far too much of the appeal.
Dead flowers for bad relationships
Such is the power of the Internet that we can match people who supply crazy goods and services with people who demand crazy goods and services.
For example, dead flowers for really rotten relationships.
At Dirty Rotten Flowers, you can order a bouquet of rotting flowers, or the “Morticia,” (a dozen decapitated roses), and send them to the people you never want to see again.
Love left you forlorn?
Got dumped for the yoga instructor?
Want to send a reminder of the “good times?”
Maybe you’re feeling a little cynical…
Yet another forgotten anniversary?
Or, maybe you just want to have a little fun…“Oh, you shouldn’t have…” will resonate surprise when your recipient opens their elegant box of Dirty Rotten Flowers.
Ctrl-Z, Ctrl-V, Ctrl -X [Pic]
[Via 9gag]