Considering the rise of indie games in the last few years, it seems quite inevitable that some of the biggest publishers in the industry would start paying attention soon. Well, it’s more than that really; Activision’s latest hope is to encourage indie game developers over to them through Activision Mobile Publishing. They announced that they had partnered up with mobile analytics company, Flurry in order to provide metrics, publishing support and users due to AppCircle.

Speaking to Gamasutra, Flurry president and CEO Simon Khalaf spoke up about the domination of indie games on mobile platforms and how they hope to squeeze in. What he says is backed up by a report that Flurry released a few months ago, which we decided to pull apart as you can read here.

“We’ve seen this market develop to a multibillion dollar market, and it is not just a controlled by the indies, it’s simply dominated by the indies. We felt that the best way to approach the market is to simply help the indies organize and do a much better job of managing an audience.”

“With those smaller developers [we can] provide marketing, funding, resources, and a platform that we’re providing to connect the games together into a larger community.”

Those who fear putting their livelihood in jeopardy upon taking up the offer can be relieved to hear that at least your IP will still belong to you, the original owner, and they won’t attempt to steal it. However, they haven’t disclosed any idea on the revenue share at all, only saying that it will be discussed on a case-by-case basis.

While it may all sound like helpful stuff, especially for struggling indies, we would encourage developers to assess whether they actually need the help. Buy hey, let’s give Activision props for trying hey?

City State Entertainment was founded by Mark Jacobs who left Mythic Entertainment three years ago where he worked on Dark Age of Camelot and Warhammer Online, and also Andrew Meggs whose experience includes Skyrim and Warhammer Online. The two of them left their previous positions in order to create their own studio and to work on a game that Mark had been visualizing.

This game has just been revealed as March On Oz, which is described as a RTS-styled Road Defense game. The team claim that the amount of work invested into the game means it’s of a “AAA quality”, with 50 levels, two difficulty levels and a full musical score. It is hoped that this will be a start to a series of games set inside this unique take on the Land of Oz.

“Like my most famous game, Dark Age of Camelot, March puts an entirely new spin on this well-known world” claims Mark. “Whether it is our NOMES (Northern Oz Mechanical EntitieS), or new takes on Aunt Em and many of the other familiar inhabitants of Oz, March On Oz represents a unique artistic and creative vision from CSE.”

March On Oz will initially be released on iPad 2 & 3 with PC and Android versions possible if the demand is there. There’s no set release date but it is expected soon, with plenty of DLC, updates and add-ons to follow.

More information on March On Oz can be found over on the game’s official website.

Since Peter Molyneux stepped down from his position at Lionhead Studios there has been many questions directed towards him about what he’ll do next. The only answer that has been received so far is that he is working at a new start-up called 22 Cans and that he is interested in developing for mobile platforms. It seems he couldn’t resist the charms of Lewis Denby at Imperial College London’s Games and Media Event this morning though as he revealed that the studio were working on 22 Experiments to Beefjack.

This is a project of 22 parts that will be gradually released digitally in order to build up towards the final product that 22 Cans are working on. The first of these experiments is expected to be released in “about six weeks” though he never stated any platforms.

There were no more details of significance revealed, but you can probably draw the direction that Molyneux is going with his most recent projects from the talk he gave:

“Our whole passion [at 22 Cans] is to use some of the technology which is around in the world today in a single product and a single experience, in a way that no one else has used it,” he said.

“I am fed up to the back teeth of consuming other people’s visions – of directors’ and screenwriters’ ideas of what a hero should be; of novelists writing stories that they think are good, but I think are rubbish. Why can’t we have stories about me? I want to have my own unique experiences.

“When I put my son to bed at night, the best story I can tell is a story that I make up, and that’s a story about his life. And he lovs it. That’s the story I want. I don’t want another James Bond film, I don’t want another Avengers.”

“Please don’t take what I’ve said too literally – it’s not a storybook called ‘whatever your name is’. It’s a bit more subtle than that,” he said as a means to alleviate any hasty conclusions.

“I love this one thought, and I have experimented with this in previous games, that you find out more about yourself while being engaged with this experience than [you would] with anything else. And we all love finding out about ourselves – whether it’s through personality tests, or someone turning around to you and saying X, Y and Z.”

Whatever it is that 22 Cans are working on, it sounds like we’re in for something quite different – though you can never be sure with Molyneux – fingers crossed!

Via Beefjack

There are many ways to judge a game, but none better than noticing its title is always written with capital letters and then nodding approvingly. FIST OF AWESOME is the latest game from Nicoll Hunt who brought us Hard Lines on to iOS and Android last year, apparently it was a “bit good”. Quite. Well this year we’ll be kicking deer in the nuts and tackling disgruntled bears on iOS in this humorous beat ‘em up which updates the sidescrolling brilliance of Double Dragon, Streets of Rage and Final Fight.

You’ll be playing as the stereotypical Jack Lumber who is a chap that gets caught up in a needlessly complex interstellar plot to take over Earth by altering history with remote controlled animals. Probably best to take that at face value and run with it. As such though and quite excitingly, FIST OF AWESOME takes place over a number of time periods which is good for our need for level variation. Oh and, as far as we and Nicoll are aware, this is the only game that boasts a full grown grizzly bear that punches you in the face. That’s got to count for something.

The funniest and perhaps cutest thing about FIST OF AWESOME is that Nicoll has “been wanting to make [this game] for 17 years” but has only been able to now due to financial depravity. We like things like that. Now, watch the teaser trailer already! Oh and those lovely sounds you are about to hear are provided by Brendan Ratliff who also composed for Pineapple Smash Crew.

More information on FIST OF AWESOME can be found on the developer’s official blog.

Amanita Design’s award winning and undeniably marvellous point and click adventure title, Machiniarium, has finally been released for Android.

Featuring fantastic hand-drawn artwork, a quirky sense of humor and a pretty great soundtrack, Machinarium has been very deserved of the praise it has received since its release. We gave the PC version of the game a very high score ourselves and can only transfer that to the iOS version of the game. Needless to say, we expect no different from this Android release.

You’ll be playing as a small robot as he attempts to sneak back into the city he just got chucked out of in order to save his lady friend. There are plenty of puzzles to solve the whole way and you can also expect some slightly tedious pixel searching, as is often the case with adventure titles. Regardless, Machinarium is a fantastic title to pick up and could it get any more fitting to play a game about robots on an Android device?

It should be noted that this mobile version of the game is best played on a tablet due to the design of some of the puzzles. It’s still playable on a smaller screen but it is not recommended if you have a tablet you can play it on.

So, if all sounds good and you’re up for a challenge, you can grab Machinarium for your Android device for just £2.49 / $3.99 on the Google Play Store.

More information on Machinarium can be found over on its official website.

Positech Games has re-released their space-sim/management game, Gratuitous Space Battles, on to the iPad without all of the previous bugs and as it’s bloody brilliant you should at least consider giving the game a look.

Taking a different approach to strategy gameplay than most, Gratuitous Space Battles focuses on letting the player design space ships, assemble fleets and issue orders to said starships pre-battle. Rather than descending into the click fests that strategy games often become when battle commences, GSB is all about preparation – prepare to cross your fingers as your ships enter battle as you’ll have no direct control.

We really rather like GSB as you can read in our review of the PC version of the game. This iPad version of the game is very much the same as you would hope, with the only huge difference being that the game’s campaign add-ons will not be included at any point. The expansion packs on the other hand will be making their way to the iPad.

Cliff Harris, the one army behind Positech, seems to think that the gameplay of GSB actually suits the tablet rather well (unsurprisingly):

“Because GSB is a game of dragging ships into battle-positions, and a drag-and-drop ship design system, combined with a lot of mid-battle zooming-in to watch your enemies explode, it seems to work pretty well on the touch-screen iPad.”

You can purchase GSB over on the App Store for £6.99 and it comes highly recommended.

More information on Gratuitous Space Battles can be found on the game’s official website.

Gentleman Squid Studio (of Three Dead Zed fame) have announced their second game and this time they’re heading over to iOS and Android devices with Astro Drop.

It can get lonely in space. There’s not much going on, barely any sound and no quick way back to civilisation – at least, there doesn’t seem to be. The astronaut in Astro Drop is determined to not let the vacuum between him and Earth come between him and his baby being born though. So, bravely or stupidly, he leaps out of his space ship and hurtles towards Earth (don’t question the physics) in an attempt to make it down in time to meet his child.

On the way there will be lots of things to dodge which is where you, the player, comes in with your quick reflexes. Yes, this will be a game of twitches and the like, so warm up your wrists in preparation. As well as dodging the many perils on the way down you’ll also want to look our for power ups to collect that will help you out in a number of different ways (some may even be a hindrance for some people).

Astro Drop is expected to, well, drop on to Android and iOS devices by the end of May. Check out the teaser trailer below:

More information on Astro Drop can be found on the game’s official website.

Creashock Studios have released a little teaser trailer for their upcoming sci-fi action/survival game intended for iOS devices named Sector Zero.

At only half a minute long and featuring just a low tone and a severed hand floating across the screen, there’s not too much that can be derived from Sector Zero’s first teaser trailer. Saying that, it’s clear that Creashock are attempting to get across the game’s atmosphere and they’ve done a fairly good job. Sector Zero is intended to be a survival game set in space with some light RPG elements to complement progression.

It’s a story-based experience too though and as such will be fully voice acted – let’s just hope it comes across as professional! Though the game seems pretty serious on initial impressions, the developers have said that there is some dark humor sprinkled thoughout. Here’s the summary of the game’s story:

“Software engineer Joshua wakes up in a very hostile and unfamiliar environment without a clue how he got here and what is this place. There’s a lot threats waits for him behind every corner and he even doesn’t have a weapon. Therefore he will need to use his reaction and brains, to survive and defeat treats in a form of different enemies and bosses.”

Gameplay will be varied so as to not get to repetitive and apparently there will be some mini games to play on the way. Once the game has been completed once, the player will then unlock survival mode. What kinds of enemies the player will be facing is not clear but it seems that squid-like aliens are on the list if the screenshot at the top of this post is anything to go by.

Check out the teaser below and find out more information on Sector Zero over on the game’s official website.

Terraria has quite the large following on the PC but can it replicate that success as a mobile game? We’ll be able to assess that soon enough as solo developer, Brad Gearon, is bringing it over to Android. However, he still needs to receive permission from the game publishers.

Due to the low graphic specs of Terraria, the port seems to pretty much match the PC version perfectly. On inspection, the only slight concern is the game’s interface which looks pretty small but hopefully should be manageable with a bit of care, otherwise this is looking dandy.

For those who don’t know what Terraria is, it’s best to imagine it as a sidescrolling version of Minecraft, except there’s enough unique features to it so that it avoids the label “clone”. Players can dig down into the earth, craft new items and find new ones the further they venture down and many people build huge structures in the game too.

As this port is still in development there are no release details as of yet but we’ll be keeping an eye out for this to land on the Google Play store soon! In the meantime, check out some gameplay of the game running on an Android device below.

Fans of sci-fi, mechs and third-person shooters; gather! M3CH has been announced by Small Impact Games and the concept art is breathtaking, the dubstep soundtrack…well, that depends on your taste. The prototype of the game looks to be coming along pretty well though, that much can be said.

It is of course early stages still for M3CH, but what has been displayed so far is rather promising. It’s a stompy mech game and they often prove popular, it contains a bespoke dubstep soundtrack which is proving popular at the moment too. But the real stunner is the game’s concept are. But we can’t judge a game on that alone so let’s look at the gameplay details.

It’s a third person mech shooter with arena based single and competitive multiplayer action. Scavenger Mode is a wave based survival game type and there will be opportunities to gamble your in-game winnings in deathmatch arena matches. We can’t really go into more details than that at the moment but if you’re sold on the game then you can help fund its development via its Indie Go Go project.

You can find out more details on the game via a development thread that the developers have set up which contains plenty of gorgeous artwork to please your eyes, so go and have a gander at that too. Otherwise, stick around here and watch the game’s pre-alpha trailer:

M3CH will be released on iOS devices initially, but the developers are hoping to bring to to PC via Steam in the future.

You can find out more information on M3CH over on the aforementioned development thread on the Indie Go Go Project.