Month: April 2013

Facebook event to be held April 4th, possibly a home screen replacement

Late Friday evening, Facebook sent out invites to the press for an event that will take place on Thursday, April 4th. The only clue about what the event would cover is the tagline, “Come See Our New Home on Android.” Does this mean there will be a Facebook phone? Or will it be a home screen replacement for Android?

The folks over at Android Police have gotten their hands on the supposed HTC Facebook phone and have dissected parts of the software to get a better idea of what Facebook is announcing. The device will be manufactured by HTC and will be running Android version 4.1.2, which is a version behind the most current version of Android. The phone only contains middle of the road specs so don’t expect it to be a powerful handset like the Samsung Galaxy S4.

The interesting thing about the phone is that it’s still running HTC’s Sense UI but will have a custom Facebook app, code named “com.facebook.comwakizashi.”Android Police dug deeper and found that there were a bunch of different permissions that the app has access to, signaling a tighter integration into the operating system of the phone.

android police facebook home blog

For all the nitty gritty details that Android Police dug up, hit up the source link below.

Source: Android Police

GDC 2013: ‘Trolls vs Vikings’ is a tower defense game modeled after ‘Plants vs Zombies’ [video]

softonic GDC iconNordic game developer, Megapop, showed off its upcoming iOS tower defense game, Trolls vs Vikings at GDC 2013. The game looks strikingly similar to Plants vs Zombies, which Megapop acknowledges on their site by saying their game shows “some similarities with a certain Plants-based game.”

While it shares the same grid layout of Plants vs Zombies, the game can stand by itself as a unique tower defense game. The story behind Trolls vs Vikings is that peaceful trolls are being encroached on by vikings who want to expand their territories. In a slight plot twist, Megapop has made the trolls the protagonists of the game. You can only play as trolls and will have to defend against waves and waves of vikings.

We saw a very alpha build of Trolls vs Vikings but gameplay looked smooth and the story seems pretty hilarious. While Plants vs Zombies is very much a static game where your units stay in one place, Trolls vs Vikings differentiates by making players move units around the battlefield. This makes it a very involving game where you have to give it 100% of your attention. There is a deep level of strategy involved since there are many different enemy types, including Thor, the god of thunder himself.

Megapop will also make Trolls vs Vikings a multiplayer experience (live and turn-based) where you can play with your friends. We didn’t get a chance to see this mode yet since the game is still in early alpha. The game will be free-to-play with microtransactions to unlock different items and powers. There will be pay-only “towers” as well as consumables that only last a certain number of games.

Megapop is aiming for a December release for Trolls vs Vikings with an Android version a few months after that. The game will integrate with Game Center as well as Facebook to bring a social aspect to the game.