Monster Crew is now live on the App Store!
Hot on the heels of spooky Halloween, Bonus XP have now launched their first action packed game on iOS – Monster Crew! A perfect game for the season, Monster Crew launches with its first episode which sees Frankie complete his collection of cards, only for them to be accidentally sold in garage sale by the typical local crazy scientist. In the first episode Frankie takes charge to get his cards back and travels to the scientists castle where things end up not going quite to plan… Frankie ends up being turned into Frankenstein! Here beings Monster Crews strategy-platforming gameplay as Frankie sets about recovering his cards from the many levels in the castle. Read more
Coming soon from BonusXP – Monster Crew!
Hot on the heels of PeopleFun the latest mobile video game studio to form from Ex Ensemble talent is “BonusXP” formed by Dave Pottinger, John Evanson and Jason Sallenbach all of whom are Ex Ensembler’s. A little while ago they lifted the lid on their first soon to be launched mobile title “Monster Crew”. The game is a strategic platformer game featuring combat and RPG elements. The story resolves around the young “Frankie” a boy who enjoys playing his “Monster Crew” card game. After having collecting numerous cards his collection is unfortunately sold by accident after a yard / car boot sale. Keen to get his cards back Frankie sets out on a mission to recover them. Turns out his cards are held by a mad scientist in a creepy castle. After setting about trying to get his cards back Frankie accidentally presses a button in the castle which turns him into Frankenstine, and here the adventure begins! Read more
Kenny’s Word Chums review – there’s no going back!
When I was preparing this review for Word Chums, it hit me. Word Chums is like one of the following analogies, so pick the one that applies to you depending upon your age. It’s like you went from cassettes to CD’s or home phone landlines to a cell phone or dial-up internet to broadband. When I went from Words With Friends and other word games to Word Chums there was no going back. When I first installed Word Chums I immediately noticed some things that may seem trivial when you see them on a press release or someone tells you about them. But upon further inspection there are major changes to the genre of the game. And by major I mean they improve the experience by one hundred percent. The guys over at PeopleFun took what annoyed me about other word games and they fixed them. And some of them I didn’t even know that I disliked until I played Word Chums. Read more
Kenny Newell interviews Tony Goodman. Ensemble Studios, Robot Entertainment and PeopleFun founder
Fantastic news for all Ensemble fans. Our expert audio interviewer Kenny Newell has managed to bag an absolutely superb interview with Tony Goodman, founder of Ensemble Studios. Tony was kind enough to invite Kenny into his house to talk about Ensemble and his newest venture, PeopleFun over dinner. The hour long interview takes fans right through Tony’s video gaming career starting right at the beginning when Tony first formed Ensemble Studios with close friends and colleagues from Ensemble Corp. This interview is an absolute must listen for all Ensemble fans where for perhaps indeed the first time you can listen to Tony first hand explain how the Ensemble journey began and his motivations. There is great insight into life at Ensemble and how the Age games came together. The Ensemble Studios acquisition by Microsoft is also discussed at length. Read more
Paul and David Bettner leave Zynga
Ex Ensembler’s Paul and David Bettner who set about forming the hugely successful mobile studio NewToy have confirmed that they have now left the mobile gaming giant, Zynga. Paul and David Bettner joined Zynga after NewToy was acquired in December 2010. Back then the brothers commented that joining Zynga made perfect sense as both parties “share the same dream of building a social treasure”. Since the acquisition the NewToy studio which was re-named “Zynga With Friends” have greatly expanded the “With Friends” series of games from the massively successful Words with Friends to including Hanging, Matching, and Gems with Friends. Read more
Hero Academy goes viral in China; a beacon of localization success.
Hero Academy fans may remember that back in late June this year Robot Entertainment announced that it was partnering with YoDo1, a Chinese video game studio, in order to bring Hero Academy to the mass Chinese market. Hero Academy has been available in China for a number of weeks now and the launch has been a great success. So much so that the YoDo1 localized version of Hero Academy made the Top 10 list in free games, and Top 25 iPhone apps overall in just 48 hours after going live on the App Store. Read more
PeopleFun’s first mobile game “Word Chums” launching tomorrow!
Tony Goodman’s recently announced new mobile studio “PeopleFun” are poised to launch their first game on the iTunes store tomorrow. As anticipated their first title will be “Word Chums”. So what is this all about I hear you ask? Well, the premise is that it is very similar to existing word games like Words with Friends. However, what makes this game stand out is that it is very visually unique. Colourful to say the least, Word Chums adopts typical Ensemble Studios design styles with rich and bright colour palettes to help engage players and make it a pleasure to play. Take a look at the screenshots below and you’ll see just what I mean – this game is bright! Read more
Age of Empires Online – 1 year later by Matt321
August 16th has marked the one year anniversary for Age of Empires Online which was originally developed by Robot Entertainment before handing over the reigns to Gas Powered Games. Much has changed since Robot handed off on the project included complete changes to the business model. Many Ensemble fans will be interested to know just how this Age franchise title has developed into what we see today. Matt321 over at Robot Fans has written up an excellent article which describes how the game has grown over the last year.
If you havent had a chance to play Age of Empires Online recently, check out the article below to get up to speed on the latest development and I encourage you to take another look at the game!
http://www.robotentertainmentfans.com/2012/08/19/age-of-empires-online-1-year-later/
Orcs Must Die 2! – now live!
If you have been living under a rock lately then you will be wanting to get out and start heading down to the caves. The Orcs are here and they really have to die. Thats right folks, Orcs Must Die! 2 is now live on Steam! If you have pre-ordered the game you will have enjoyed a nice 10% off the list price – sweet! If you havent pre-ordered you can still purchase the game from the Steam store right now!
http://store.steampowered.com/app/201790/
Go forth War Mages and Sorceresses!
Two new ex-Ensemble studios form: BonusXP and PeopleFun. Word Chums expected as launch title (Part 1)
VentureBeat has reported this week on two new studios forming from Ensemble Studios veterans. The first studio to be announced was “PeopleFun” a new venture from one of the key founders and CEO of Ensemble Studios, Tony Goodman. The other announcement was also from one of Ensemble’s long serving employees, Dave Pottinger who lifted the lid off his new studio “BonusXP”. These new studios are both small studios focussing on mobile gaming and join the line of many other ex Ensemble formed studios to enter the mobile market including the very successful “NewToy” and “Bonfire Studios” who were acquired by Zynga. So lets take a look at these exciting new announcements in more detail! Read more
