‘HUEBRIX’ for iOS and Android game review

The mobile gaming category is currently populated by two types of games, those that are meant to give you a “console quality” feel and others that are designed specifically with the touchscreen and the usage case in mind. While it’s nice to have high quality 3D visuals and extensive character and story driven games, in the end, the second category of games is the one that works the best and is the most popular.

HUEBRIX falls in the latter category. It’s a puzzle solving game for iOS and Android where you have to drag out paths and fill the shapes. Sounds simple, but it’s often the simple things that are the most enjoyable. We decided to find out if it that’s the case with this game.

Title	HUEBRIX
Developer	Yellow Monkey Studios	Noodlecake Studios
Platform	iOS	Android
Content rating	4+	Everyone
Size	20.9MB	17MB
Price	$0.99 (on sale)

Gameplay

In HUEBRIX you have to drag a stack of colored tiles across a grid of squares. The number of tiles in the stack dictate how further you can drag the stack, i.e., you can drag a stack of five tile upon five blocks. Your goal is to drag all the tiles across the entire grid and make sure every block gets covered by the colored tiles with no spare tiles left.

If that sounds complicated to you, watch the video below. I’d suggest not watching it entirely or else you’d spoil the solution for the puzzles for yourself.

You will comes across several other objects within the environment that determine how you spread the squares around. Certain squares are blocked, some can only be accessed by a stack of a particular color, some don’t let you progress beyond that point and some force you to move in one particular direction after you cross them. Some even add or subtract from the number of colored tiles you have. Sometimes, you can also go through one side of the environment and come out from the other.

The basic premise of the game is very simple and you hardly need any instructions to play. The real fun is figuring out how you can fill out the squares using all the colors and this can be ridiculously challenging at times, even on the easier levels. Personally, I’m a fan of games that require you to rack your brain to complete the level instead of just mashing a button relentlessly until everything on the screen stops moving. HUEBRIX offers just the right amount of challenge that, even at its most intense, only makes you push on further instead of giving up. And the solution always seems simple once you find it, making you feel bit stupid for not thinking of it before. And if you’re really stuck, you can use one of the 20 available hints to make your progress a bit easier.

Once you go through the 100-odd levels of the game, you can purchase up to 300 more levels from within the game using in-app purchasing. The levels are separated as packs and are of varying difficulty. The game comes with a starter pack, along with Easy 1, Medium 1 and Medium 2 level packs, and you can purchase, Easy 2, 3, 4, 5, Medium 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, Hard 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and Insane 1, 2 and 3 level packs. You can also purchase additional hints and you get a pack of 19 and 99 hints. Each of these packs are sold for $0.99, except for the 99 hints pack which costs $3.99.

This is one area of the game where it differs from some of the previous puzzle games we have seen before on mobile, like Cut the Rope, for example, where new levels are added over time for free. I personally prefer this method, where you pay once and keep getting new levels as they are released for free and let’s face it, who wouldn’t? While what HUEBRIX does is not necessarily bad it does mean you get less bang for your buck. The 100 levels in the game are not much and you can go through them in a single afternoon. After that, spending the cost of an entire game ($0.99 right now) on a pack of 30, 20 or 10 levels (depending upon their difficulty) feels a bit much. While I won’t advise the developer to give away the levels for free, they could at least put in more by default or squeeze in more levels in the packs.

One last aspect of the game is that you can create custom levels using the level editor. You can then share these with people on GameCenter and download levels created by them. This feature is only available on iOS.

Graphics and Sound

HUEBRIX is a basic 2D game but still manages to look stunning thanks to a bright color palette, particularly on high resolution displays. As usual, the game is best enjoyed on a tablet but even on the small display of a smartphone the game is quite enjoyable.

The sound is also quite nice. There is a single tune playing on a loop in the background but it’s soothing and goes well with the theme of the game.

Conclusion

HUEBRIX is a simple yet thoroughly enjoyable puzzle solving game that anyone with a smartphone or a tablet and some spare time on their hands can enjoy. It looks stunning and is filled with clever puzzles. Sure, the in-app purchasing system could be a bit more generous to the players but otherwise the game is perfect for anyone who enjoys solving puzzles.

(The game is on sale right now and selling for $0.99. Final price as of yet is unknown.)

Rating: 4/5
Pros: Simple gameplay, clever puzzles, stunning visuals, ability to create and download custom levels
Cons: Additional levels cost money and offer poor value

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

Kickstarter: 2012 is the year of the game

Of 11 projects that have passed the $1 million mark on Kickstarter, seven have been from the game category.

If you’re an indie game developer, you should probably try your luck on Kickstarter. The crowdfunding platform has hosted 11 campaigns that have passed the $1 million mark, and among those 11, seven of them have been game related.

This year, Kickstarter declared, is the year of the game. The platform has had the most dollars pledged to the game category this year, with $50 million, and has been bumped up from being the eighth-most funded category in the history of Kickstarter, to the second-most funded category.

Kickstarter released some data that displays just how much money the gaming category is bringing in for campaign owners and Kickstarter. In 2009, just over $48,190 was pledged to game-related campaigns. By 2010, $519,885 was pledged, and that amount jumped to $3,615,841 by 2011. With the data from 2012 tallied up for the first eight months of the year (through August 31), 2012 saw a nearly 1,400 percent jump. Kickstarter revealed that of 36 projects that have raised over $500,000 in 2012, 20 of them have been games. And yes, there is still another four more months left in this year.

Kickstarter explains that the growth was spurred by the indie game project Double Fine Adventure, which ended up raising a total of $3,336,372 — over eight times its goal of $400,000. In just the first hour alone, the project raised $1 million.

“The gaming world hasn’t looked at Kickstarter the same way since. Double Fine signaled to game developers that they could use Kickstarter to do something that previously seemed impossible: make the game they wanted without outside interference,” Yancey Strickler, co-founder of Kickstarter, and Fred Benenson, an engineer, wrote in Kickstarter’s blog post.

Since then, game projects like OYUA, and the latest, Reaper Miniature Bones, and Planetary Annihilation, have breezed past the $1 million mark. A project like Reaper Miniature Bones, you may not realize, falls under the subcategory of board games, despite the fact that much of the attention on Kickstarter games has been focused on video games. But with the increasing profile of successful Kickstarter game projects, board games have tagged along for the ride to the extent that the amount of money pledged to board games has doubled, with 47 percent of board games successfully reaching their funding goals. Just 23 percent of video games, on the other hand, have been successfully funded, with an average of $96,000 pledged to video game projects.

Kickstarter notes that game backers tend to be the most frequent supporters of campaigns, but as more and more indie developers take to mediums like Kickstarter to raise awareness and funding, the competition for the backers’ attention will intensify. And hopefully the hype doesn’t lead to fatigue. 

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Marantz Consolette: Ears-on with a $1,200 speaker dock

The Marantz Consolette sounds spectacular, but its equally spectacular price tag and unique design puts this speaker dock firmly in the "high-end" category.

Marantz’s Consolette stands to be a rather polarizing product. You’ll either love its styling or really, really abhor it. Then there’s the matter of the stratopheric price tag. At $1,200, the Consolette is not for the faint of heart.  But if the Consolette’s design passes muster and you consider $1,200 to be chump change, then we think this new networked speaker dock from one of America’s classic audio companies is worth a close listen. 

Part of the Consolette’s appeal is its design, which takes some queues from the original 1952 Marantz Consolette pre-amp, which launched the brand. Prominently featured are a rich wooden backing, porthole window and the classic Marantz gyro-wheel, which is integrated into the speaker dock as a source selector. 

Considering the challenges of a noisy show floor, we thought the Consolette sounded very impressive. Its sonic signature is distinctly Marantz thanks in part to a unique “balanced load radiator” design that has the tweeter dispersing higher frequencies over a wider area than traditional tweeters. Bass was impressive, especially considering the large volume of the room, and midrange was lush and smooth. 

At almost double the price of Samsung’s DA-E750, the Consolette may be a hard sell, but we think enthusiasts with deep pockets will find it irresistible. You can expect to see the Consolette sometime in November. 

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com