About Author: Sasu Kemppainen

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Sasu is an aspiring video game designer and writer, dabbling in journalism. He doesn't really care for writing about himself and his incredible achievements in third person.

Posts by Sasu Kemppainen

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Deal of the Week: Zombies!!!

By
Sasu Kemppainen
– October 25, 2012Posted in: Deals, Games, News

Every week, the Windows Phone marketplace puts a new title on sale. Don’t miss your chance to get this deal.

This week’s deal is Zombies!!! by Babaroga. You can now get the game for $2.99, discounted from $4.99.

Zombies!!! is a video game adaptation of a tile-based strategy board game of the same name. The goal is to move your player piece on the zombie infested game board, trying to escape to the heliport. The shambling horde, of course, would like to stop you from doing that. A big part of your success depends on whether you decide to avoid or just simply slay the promenading dead you encounter. Pick your battles wisely and don’t let bloodlust blind you.

If one exclamation mark isn’t enough for you, check this game out here, for $2.99, or scan the tag below.

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Rocket Riot gets an update

By
Sasu Kemppainen
– September 24, 2012Posted in: Games, News

Strap on your jetpacks and arm your rocket launchers! The stylish arena shooter, Rocket Riot, has received a new update, bringing with it some very interesting things.The new features are:

  • A new game mode, where players can challenge their friends for a match
  • Two Xbox LIVE Avatar Awards
  • The game is also now available in Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese, Korean and Chinese

 

The developers of the game, Codeglue, also posted a sneak peek of one of the newly available Avatar awards on their Facebook page: The Rocket Torso.

Get Rocket Riot here, for $4.99 or scan the tag below.

Source: Codeglue Facebook page

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Problems with the Marketplace this week? Microsoft has an explanation.

By
Sasu Kemppainen
– August 15, 2012Posted in: Apps, News

From WPCentral

Some of you may have noticed a problem with downloading or updating apps this week. Luckily, Microsoft is on the case!

The issue has to do with digital certificates used to sign apps. The problem only seems to affect phones that were upgraded to 7.5 from an earlier version and only a small percentage of new or recently updated apps on the Marketplace are refusing to install or update. It is completely on Microsoft’s side and they’re already working on sending out a fix.

Developers may also notice the app submitting process taking a long time. Microsoft is holding all app certificates until the problem is taken care of.

If you have any of these problems, just be patient and don’t uninstall any important apps until the issue is fixed.

Source: Windows Phone Blog, WPCentral

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Bloomberg: Nokia to announce Windows Phone 8 handsets early September

By
Sasu Kemppainen
– August 6, 2012Posted in: Hardware, News

Nokia is apparently going to announce its new Windows Phone 8 based handsets at their Nokia World-event, taking place in September 5th-6th. The plan seems to be to get the phones for sale before the year-end holiday shopping season.

While this all sounds very likely, the information comes from an unidentified “person with knowledge on the matter.” Nokia officials themselves have declined any comment on this announcement.

Source: Bloomberg

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Pirate Cat gets improved features and a new bonus item

By
Sasu Kemppainen
– August 6, 2012Posted in: Games, News

Remember this stylish game? Pirate Cat has been updated to version 1.1, which gives you a nice excuse to get your game on! The new features are:

  • New bonus item to unlock: time travel
  • Live tile for the game, pin it to your start screen to see at any time your best score and ranking
  • Improved the highscores display
  • Lot of optimizations to run more smoothly on first gen devices

In Pirate Cat, your goal is to fly to the moon in search of treasure, using a pair of handmade wings. Maintain the wings by collecting feathers from birds, or you’ll fall! If you didn’t already get the game while it was free, head out to the Marketplace!

You can get the game here, for $0.99, or by scanning the tag below.

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A trademark issue forces Microsoft to abandon the “Metro”-term

By
Sasu Kemppainen
– August 4, 2012Posted in: News

It seems that Microsoft needs to start thinking of a new name for their Metro user interface. Apparently, a threat of legal action from a German company, Metro AG, has prompted Microsoft to completely drop the term. A technology news and information website, Ars Technica, was able to get a short comment from a Microsoft spokesman:

“We have used ‘Metro style’ as a code name during the product development cycle across many of our product lines. As we get closer to launch and transition from industry dialog to a broad consumer dialog we will use our commercial names.”

Despite this, Metro was obviously more than just a code name for the UI and it’s a shame to see it go. Microsoft is expected to reveal a new name next week, so hopefully we won’t have to settle for “Windows 8-Style UI”.

Source: Ars Technica, WPCentral

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Deal of the week: Need for Speed Undercover

By
Sasu Kemppainen
– August 3, 2012Posted in: Games, News

Every week, the Windows Phone marketplace puts a new title on sale. Don’t miss your chance!

This week’s deal is Need for Speed: Undercover by Electronic Arts. You can now get the game for $2.99, discounted from $4.99.

In this game, you take the role of a police officer, infiltrating a criminal organization. The goal is to gain their respect by taking on different jobs and competing in races around the open world of Tri-City. Drive like crazy, avoid cops and try to keep your car in one piece!

If it’s speed you need, check this game out here for $2.99, or scan the tag below.

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Interview: Jake Kazdal, Skulls of the Shogun design lead and art director

By
Sasu Kemppainen
– July 30, 2012Posted in: Features, Interviews

The core of 17-BIT: Borut Pfeifer, Jake Kazdal and Ben Vance

We recently had a chance to conduct a quick interview with Jake Kazdal of 17-BIT, the creators of the much hyped, turn based strategy game Skulls of the Shogun. Jake told us about his experiences with working on the game, his stance on Windows Phone as a gaming platform, and gave us some hints as to what the future holds for Skulls of the Shogun and 17-BIT.

You’ve been working on three different versions of the game pretty much simultaneously. Have you had any big challenges with this development strategy?

We’ve had to spend a lot of time tuning the 3 different UI’s into account, while developing all three simultaneously.  I would prefer to do one at a time next game!

What specific things did you have to consider when designing the Windows Phone version?

We were surprised with the performance, it was much less optimization than we would have forecast.  The textures had to be resized lower, but because the resolution of the screen is lower you really can’t tell.  A few of our shaders had to be redone but overall its basically the exact same game as the PC/XBLA version!

What are your thoughts on Windows Phone as a platform for video games and game development?

Microsoft is taking the multi-screen approach very seriously, and we’re proud to be part of that first wave.  I think the future of the Windows 8 phone being very easy to work cross platform with Xbox and Win 8 will mean more great, console-like experiences on phone.  My biggest dream is for Microsoft to release a “Gamers Phone” that has buttons, dpads and access to XBLA!  That would be the go-to gaming experience for me over everything!

Read the rest of this entry »

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Gabe Newell calls Windows 8 “a catastrophe for everyone in the PC space”

By
Sasu Kemppainen
– July 28, 2012Posted in: News

The co-founder and managing director of Valve, Gabe Newell, gave a small interview at this year’s Casual Connect video game conference and it wasn’t pretty! When addressing Valve’s interest in developing games and services for Linux, he came out with some pretty rough criticism of Windows 8:

“I think Windows 8 is a catastrophe for everyone in the PC space. I think we’ll lose some of the top-tier PC/OEMs, who will exit the market. I think margins will be destroyed for a bunch of people. If that’s true, then it will be good to have alternatives to hedge against that eventuality.”

Gabe is not the only big name Windows 8 skeptic, however. The executive vice president of game design at Blizzard Entertainment, Rob Pardo, seems to agree with his sentiments:

“nice interview with Gabe Newell – “I think Windows 8 is a catastrophe for everyone in the PC space* – not awesome for Blizzard either”

Sounds bad, but perhaps it’s still too early to make any serious judgements. Gaben has been very vocal about his criticisms of different platforms in the past, calling the Playstation 3 “a waste of everyone’s time”, for example. He did warm up to the console later on, releasing a Steamworks supported PS3 version of Portal 2. There’s definitely hope for Windows 8 still, as long as Microsoft takes heed of the criticism.

Don’t worry, Gabe! We still love you!

Source: AllThingsD.com, Twitter, Daily Tech

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Deal of the Week: geoDefense

By
Sasu Kemppainen
– July 26, 2012Posted in: Games, News

Every week, the Windows Phone marketplace puts a new title on sale. Don’t miss your chance!

This week’s deal is geoDefense by Critical Thought Games. You can now get the game for $1.99, discounted from $2.99.

Being a tower defense game, geoDefense is simple, but visually pleasing and addicting. The creeps move in predestined paths towards their goal and it’s your job to stop them by strategically placing different defense turrets.

Check out this game here for $1.99, or scan the tag below.

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