SMERC Design

Relocate

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 16:54:00 +0000

We've relocated our blog to the main website over at http://smerc.com. All future updates will be made there.

thanks!

God of War as Inspiration

noreply@blogger.com (SMERC Design) — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 23:00:00 +0000

It should come as no surprise that we’re huge God of War fans. I mean that sort of goes with the territory if you’re making a third person 3-D adventure game set in the mythic past. It is sort of THE standard, right?

Check out the full post here: READ MORE

Rundlc.com - Hercules: Curse Of The Hydra Preview (Apple iOS, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch)

noreply@blogger.com (SMERC Design) — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 22:31:00 +0000

The fine folks over at rundlc.com just posted an amazing preview of Hercules: Curse of the Hydra. Be sure to check it out! http://bit.ly/i2nTqx

Hercules Blog: It's complicated being Hercules

noreply@blogger.com (SMERC Design) — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 21:19:00 +0000

Everybody has a rough time explain their family to others. This is only exacerbated when you are a half god. So it goes without saying that it's complicated being Hercules, even in a digital format.

You'd think it would be getting easier when you're on the iPhone. Hercules could call up his Dad Zeus and be like, "Hey Pop - My stepmom, your wife, is trying to kill me again. Can I jsut mail her a fruit cake and maybe she'll calm down." But no, you end up having to go on an epic quest and kill lots of myythological beasts. It's a pain.

You can read some more about family and friend tensions on the Hercules: Curse of the Hydra Blog's recent post. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE

Hercules Blog: Game Balancing - Why won’t she die?

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 19:35:00 +0000

Whether your fighting the Scorpion King, Medusa or a lowly undead berserker it is important to choose the right weapon. Everyone knows this. As a game developer it is the challenge of balancing difficulty, skill, ease of understanding and the all important fun quotient. Does it makes sense and seem fair that a single swipe of the scorpion king takes half your life? These are the questions we ask our selves on a daily basis.

You can read all about it from the horse's mouth, so to speak, on the Herc log as the main programmer talks about balancing Hercules. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE

Side note: as a game dev try recording yourself talk about your game and the listening to it later in another environment. It is difficult to take yourself seriously. My favorite me quote is this sphere: "Ninjas are way too mature for this game".

damn it, I guess we're going to be suckers for Journey, too

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 19:17:00 +0000

Every year there are games that get ridiculous buzz way before they come out. They're the unexplained media darlings of the game world. A good portion of the time we're left wondering what everyone was smoking.

So we were skeptical about Journey, the upcoming release from That Game company. Yeah, Flower was very pretty and elegant. But have you seen the Journey trailer? A game about loneliness? That's just inspired. Count us in as fans.

That Video Game Blog: Test Drive Unlimited 2 gets second dev diary

noreply@blogger.com (SMERC Design) — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 23:37:00 +0000

That Video Game Blog just posted a video of new dev diary for Test Drive Unlimited 2. We're excited about this game. We can't tell you why quite yet but we'll let you know soon. Its a secret and stuff.

Hercules blog: A Unity 3D Memory Solution

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 23:28:00 +0000

We've spent over a year creating Hercules: Curse of the Hydra and we've used Unity 3D to do it. That has exposed us to many joys and pitfalls of the platform. Memory usage on a phone is tricky enough as it is. Add a layer of abstraction and it becomes more diabolical still. Read our article on one such memory oriented issue and our creative solution on the Hercules blog.

New Hercules Trailer

noreply@blogger.com (SMERC Design) — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 15:55:00 +0000

Somehow it seems like we didn't post the new Hercules: Curse of the Hydra game trailer to this blog. Whoops! We sent it everywhere else. If you haven't had the pleasure of viewing it before prepare to get excited. The game will be coming out for iPhone, iPad, and various Android devices very soon. We promise!

As always, please 'LIKE' the game on FB to stay up to date on all our amusing blog posts. CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE FB PAGE

Hercules Blog: Hercules vs The Great Bear – or Lou Throws Stuff Into Space

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 21:14:00 +0000

You've probably heard tell by this point that we're putting out the greatest thing since sliced bread in gaming soon. I'm referring of course to Hercules: Curse of the Hydra for iPhone, iPad and various Android devices.

Hercules has had many a turn in pop culture media. Perhaps one of the least famous but most entertaining is the '80s Movie with Lou ferrigno. Check out our post about it on the official Hercules website : CLICK HERE

And don't forget to 'LIKE' the game on FB to stay up to date on all our amusing blog posts. CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE FB PAGE

Hercules: Curse of the Hydra Website

noreply@blogger.com (SMERC Design) — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 17:21:00 +0000

The Hercules: Curse of the Hydra website is up here: http://hercules.smercgames.com

Also, Make sure you LIKE us on Facebook so you can stay up to date on all the news and releases: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hercules-Curse-of-the-Hydra/163290433690355?v=wall#!/pages/Hercules-Curse-of-the-Hydra/163290433690355?v=wall

Hercules is coming out on iPhone very soon and not long after that it will be available for iPad, Android and Android Tablet.

Tic Tac Paddywhack! Makes Babble's Top 50 Favorite iPhone Apps For Kids

noreply@blogger.com (the.dub) — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 16:20:00 +0000

Tic Tac Paddywhack! has made Babble's list of the Top 50 Favorite iPhone Apps for Kids.

Babble is the fastest growing website for moms, with over 4 millions moms visiting the hippest parenting site in the US every month.

Get Tic Tac Paddywhack!

Playdom picks up another $33 million

noreply@blogger.com (SMERC Design) — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 19:11:00 +0000

A week following gigantic Zynga fundraiser, Playdom draws more money for social gaming.

Playdom's latest round comes at a time where social gaming startups are constantly making headlines with fundraisers, acquisitions, and other announcements. A week ago, for example, Zynga raised a whopping $147 million from Japanese telecom SoftBank to expand the company's social gaming offerings in Asia.

It looks like the social media spending wars are on. Time will tell if his leads to innovation or saturation. The drop off in userbase is a sharp one when you count down from the top developers. Zynga and Playdom seem to be saying that you need to buy your place at the top in the current social network geography.

We're at E3!

noreply@blogger.com (SMERC Design) — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 20:07:00 +0000

We're showcasing our latest iPhone/Android game at E3 this week and we're pretty amped on how great it looks. Here's an exclusive sneak peek at "Hercules - Curse of the Hydra"

This epic action-adventure game allows you to play as Hercules, as he fights to stop the goddess Hera from unleashing havoc on the city of Athens. The game features multiple weapons upgrades, myriads of baddies, and lush levels that introduce you to characters and settings from Greek mythology.

We'll keep you posted with more news and previews as the week goes on...

The Stupid iPhone-Controlled Computer Game You Have to Play Today

noreply@blogger.com (SMERC Design) — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 22:43:00 +0000

Pirata Boat Race gets undeniable cool points for this unique implementation. Download the program, scan the QR Code and start rowing with your iPhone. The set up is a bit clunky but the innovation on the cheap is top notch.

Check out the title link for more or just go to http://piratalondon.com/boatrace/ .

Boing Boing's 8-bit obsession is now a contest

noreply@blogger.com (SMERC Design) — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 19:28:00 +0000

From Boing Boing:

We love chiptunes, the quirky celebration of 8-bit-style music that's become a a vibrant genre of its own with a thriving scene supporting it. The compositions evoke a time where electronic musicians had to make the most of the limited resources offered by primitive computing technology. Keeping that fire alive, the latest compositions are like the soundtracks to vintage videogames that never existed.

As teased last week, we're joining with Safari Books Online, the massive online library of technical know-how, to honor the mighty chip in the form of a Game Dev Challenge. Your task is to make those games real. For inspiration or technical insight, Safari Books Online is offering Boing Boing readers 30 days free access to five videogame-related books from the library.

Game dev folks have until July 5 to get there 8-bit tribute to Boing Boing to submit in time. The prizes include a limited-edition art print to a Gama-Goon statue

While we understand the nostalgia around 8-bit graphics and music it seems quite tired now. Boing Boing might as well be asking the game development community to make a cubist game. It is endemic of a culture of sentimentality and childhood obsession that is running rampant.

This contest does nothing to move gaming forward. It only keeps us mired in the past.

Big Money in Social Apps Virtual Goods

noreply@blogger.com (SMERC Design) — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 22:13:00 +0000

Investment Opportunities in Social Apps – Not Just Publishers and Not Just in the US

The industry is well on its way to contribute $835 million to the $1.6 billion US virtual goods market this year. And even though many developers’ traffic has been wracked by Facebook’s changes to its communication channels, there are still opportunities for investment, as leading social app investors told us recently.

We're just excited it's Friday. Let's all go out and buy some virtual beers and contribute to the billions being made by those social games out there.

For Power Users: The iPhone vs Android Showdown

noreply@blogger.com (SMERC Design) — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 16:58:00 +0000

With the new iPhone being released in two weeks and the Android OS continuously getting better software and hardware, the battle between these two is more fierce than ever. Obviously when buying a phone of this type, doing as much research as possible in order to make sure you get the best phone for your money, for what YOU’RE going to use it for. So what phone should you spend your pennies on?

Though this article provides (obviously biased) comparison between the two platforms there are two key areas that they fail to address which still give iPhone the advantage.

Fragmentation
The Android phone market is rapidly fragmenting with all the new handsets making is very difficult for users to find the apps they want. This, in addition to the lack of any Android Marketplace curation or moderation, makes for a vastly inferior Android experience.

Applications
Not to be redundant, but the quality and accessibility of the Android apps in the marketplace leaves a lot to be desired. Developers with quality apps get lost in deluge of crap apps. Even the service providers attempts at their own App Stores are flimsy. Is anyone home at the Android Marketplace? It will be interesting to see if these new phones have an impact on the app market which for Android is estimated to be at $1.7 million annually compared to Apples $250 million.

We're hoping the slew of Android tablets coming out this year to compete with the iPad have a positive impact on the Android app market. We're banking on it. Our new indie title Hercules: Curse of the Hydra, which is due out this summer, will be released on a bevy of Android tablets. Here is hoping for change for the better!

Lazy, Hazy, Crazy: The 10 Laws of Behavioral Cloudonomics

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 17:59:00 +0000

Cloud computing is taking its turn as the hot technology that will solve everyone's problems. It turns out there is a complex psychology to cloud computing, but this article goes beyond that. We think we learned a lot about life, and why we always get the venti size at Starbucks. Check out the full article for the whole skinny.

Risk and Loss Aversion — There are emotional and perceptual asymmetries between losses and gains. A loss is more painful than a commensurate gain is pleasurable: losing a $10 bill can be more irritating than finding one is joyful. Certainly CIOs must exercise due diligence regarding proposed cloud initiatives, but should also be aware that these asymmetries may cause some concerns to be overweighted relative to benefits such as total cost reduction and enhanced agility.

Flat-Rate Bias — One effect of loss aversion is that consumers often prefer flat-rate plans (PDF) even when pay-per-use would cost less. With flat rates or up-front capital expenditures, the charges are never in doubt. The cloud’s pay-per-use pricing for on-demand resources typically reduces total cost while enhancing scalability, but the pleasure of a dollar saved may not outweigh the fear of loss from auto-scaling gone awry. Flat-rate buckets, monitoring and reporting, and auto-scaling policy management with maximum capacity limits can help.

Need for Control and Autonomy — Author David Rock reports that people have a deep-seated need for control over their environment (PDF), or they may exhibit “learned helplessness” and shortened life spans (PDF). Owning a data center may provide a perception of greater control over assets, making dashboards, portals, transparent policies and fine-grained management essential for cloud providers. Autonomy —“I can do it myself!”— is an important driver for cloud computing. Developers can autonomously procure infrastructure resources, and platform services enable the democratization of IT.

Fear of Change — Rock also observes that people are often uncomfortable with uncertainty and therefore fear change. The cloud offers not just new technologies but new business and organizational models. Consequently, overcoming the inertia of the traditional owned asset model may require free trials, unalterable and explicit privacy policies, and/or multiyear price guarantees.

The Endowment Effect — People value goods that they already own more than they would pay to acquire them. Ariely showed that for the same hard-to-acquire Duke basketball tickets, students were willing to pay up to about $170, but weren’t willing to sell them for less than $2,400. Add in the choice-supportive bias, which rationalizes selected options and discounts unselected ones, and a stubborn fondness for existing IT technology and organization assets can be understood.

The Status Quo Bias and Escalation of Commitment — Moreover, we tend toprefer things the way they’ve always been, and invest additional amounts in past strategies which we have pursued. Again, this can lead to inertia slowing the adoption of new approaches.

Hyperbolic Discounts and Instant Gratification — People tend to discount future risks and benefits hyperbolically, that is, more steeply than accounting texts teach: a chocolate chip cookie is much more valuable now than in an hour. This is good for the cloud, which promises instant gratification via on-demand services. Moreover, the “pain” of payment is deferred, thus discounted.

The Zero-Price Effect -– Ariely argues that zero is special. People would rather receive a free $10 gift certificate (a $10 gain) than pay $7 for a $20 one ($13 gain). This also benefits the cloud, since up-front costs are typically eliminated.

Need for Status — Rock points out that humans and other social primates have exquisite, fine-grained status detectors. For cloud adoption, the status associated with managing a large IT organization with a substantial asset base needs to be replaced by the status accruing to being perceived as an innovator through the use of cloud services.

Paradox of Choice — Web commerce has enabled a shift from a few big hits to along tail of boundless choice. However, too many choices may cause paralysis by analysis, reducing sales. Fewer bundles, rather than unlimited configurability, may best boost service provider revenues.

The next Silicon Valley? It may be New York

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 16:18:00 +0000

Silicon Valley -- or Silicon Alley? To non-techies, that's the San Francisco Bay Area versus New York. If you're an internet startup company, it's a debate that's probably plagued you at some point.

Do you remember the giant Double Click "Welcome to Silicon Alley" sign? The late nineties parties where models swooned with geeks as start ups blew threw venture money like so much confetti. Heady days, friends.

Today's New York tech scene has a different, more grounded flavor, but who knows we may be heading back to the glory days of NY tech. I could use a few more VC funded cocktails.... well, if it's at someone else's start up. Having lived through the ups and downs of the economy in NYC for the last 10 years we appreciate what a rare opportunity it is to have your idea believed in, nurtured to a company and product that is brought to fruition. Yes.. we have a few ideas we're looking to step into the ring with.

Take a look at the article and let us know what you think.

Cellphone in New Role: Loyalty Card

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 22:02:00 +0000

Loyalty cards — those little paper cards that promise a free sandwich or coffee after 10 purchases, but instead get lost or forgotten — are going mobile. And merchants are looking for ways to marry the concept to games that customers can play to earn more free items and, it is hoped, spend more money.

We love this article. It fits in with our mantra that everything is a game. Loyalty programs have always had game-like properties a game, so it makes sense that these be structured around digital and real world play. Don't be surprised if you are playing games while in the check out line of your favorite grocery store sometime soon. In some ways what we're seeing is simply a defined rule set which allows measured competition for activities that have always been played like a game.

Check out teh article and let us know what you think.

Searching With Google On Your Mobile? Expect To See Apps In Your Results

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 13:00:00 +0000

Google is working hard to be the best search engine on the go, and today is tweaking their algorithms to include applications in their mobile results. If you use an iPhone or Android device, for certain search terms Google will now offer you an application to download along with your regular search results.

One of the greatest drawbacks for developers and users to the Google market place, all Android AppStores, and the iTunes Appstore presently is the lack of visibility for apps. Users can't find quality apps that are relevant to them easily.
Curation, up till now was based on apps that are most popular or are those that are curated by the Appstore gatekeepers. This new innovation by Google has the potential to change the face of the smart phone app market. We're very excited about it. Check out the full article to learn more.

Name Analyzer and Spanish-Language Apps Top This Week’s List of Fastest-Gaining Facebook Apps by DAU

noreply@blogger.com (Brian) — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 22:07:00 +0000

We're interested to see if this trend towards foreign language apps means that the English language market has plateaued.

Check out the article and let us know what you think.

Top Gainers This Week

	Name	DAU	Gain	Gain, %
1.	My Empire	715,564	+615,889	+617.90
2.	PetVille	3,765,887	+399,202	+11.86
3.	MindJolt Games	2,819,402	+336,994	+13.58
4.	Name Analyzer	336,958	+335,298	+20,198.67
5.	Café World	6,099,510	+252,493	+4.32
6.	Facebook	18,502,708	+243,808	+1.34
7.	Entrevista tus Amigos	358,923	+184,522	+105.80
8.	Frases Diarias	1,019,638	+149,403	+17.17
9.	Texas HoldEm Poker	5,745,522	+136,127	+2.43
10.	Causes	1,202,757	+134,357	+12.58
11.	Nightclub City	708,738	+120,629	+20.51
12.	Mall World	538,288	+102,572	+23.54
13.	Ranch Town	194,202	+95,946	+97.65
14.	phrases 4 fun	126,651	+91,633	+261.67
15.	Games	487,339	+89,417	+22.47
16.	Crazy Cow Music Quiz	100,560	+85,521	+568.66
17.	American Flag	83,971	+81,921	+3,996.15
18.	Good and Evil	117,491	+77,343	+192.64
19.	Wild Ones	526,480	+77,339	+17.22
20.	Baking Life	211,049	+74,963	+55.09

In-game Sponsorship and Advertising

noreply@blogger.com (Patrice) — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 00:43:00 +0000

Being as we are a sort of digital steward for many high-profile licensed properties and brands, we are often tasked to think of creative ways to involve sponsors and advertisers in games for fairly disparate brands. On the flip side, we can also find it somewhat difficult to explain this integration to our clients, convincing them that it will not dilute their brand. This has been a challenge we’ve faced for a while, so we developed a series of “tiers” of increasingly complex and involved sponsorship opportunities in games we develop.

Tier 1 is the application of traditional media placement and sponsorship within games. Interstitials, logos, banners, these are all to be placed within the property in ways analogous to traditional print, web, and on-air practices. These methods are inexpensive to include, easily swapped out or rotated, and readily understandable to less game-savvy clients.

Tier 2 is generally feature specific and involves an understanding of gameplay. Clients should be interested in a specific area of a property, as their exposure will be contextual and will be most effective if they understand the audience of a specific area of the game or of the demographics of recipients. For example, brands that would want to sponsor the “Choose Your Do” section of Jersey Shore Yourself might be those interested in promoting hair products.

Games that lend themselves to this sort of sponsorship are those that have:

a. Multiple points of entry/exit (iphone, web, FB)

b. Multiple “rooms” or components with some degree of segmentation

c. “meme”-style hooks (brands get more mileage by latching on to existing cultural phenomena than by trying to create them from scratch)

Tier 3 is similar to traditional co-branding. There is deep integration with the game, whether through rewards and incentives, or through product placement in-game (See Comedy Central Supermarket Death Race with Keystone placement).

The sponsor should be interested in seeing their product tied deeply with the property for which the game is an extension. The application of these methods is flexible (can do themed levels or an entire themed game) but the games should always remain mutually exclusive in terms of competitive brands (i.e. Natural Light and Miller Lite should not appear in the same game.)

This is the most time-consuming form of sponsorship, but it is also the most rewarding in terms of brand effect and exposure. It is difficult to swap out from sponsor to sponsor, as graphics and sometimes even game play have been customized for the product.

Deadliest Warrior iPhone upgrade!

noreply@blogger.com (SMERC Design) — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 20:11:00 +0000

There's even more reason to play our new tower defense game for Spike TV's Deadliest Warrior for the iPhone and iPod touch - with the launch of the new season of the show, we've unlocked a new Campaign upgrade!

Now you can see how Season 2 warriors stack up against some heavily-armored SWAT foes. At just $0.99, the content upgrade lets you throwdown some major firepower: Somali Pirates, Drug Cartel, and the KGB are now at your disposal. Not only can you choose a Hero from the 3 new characters, but you can use any Hero character in the game to create an all-star defense team from Seasons 1 and 2.

Buy the full game on iTunes, or test ride the Lite build for free!