What are you waiting for? Download Ultimate Battle Zombies now!

Today’s launch is just the beginning for Ultimate Battle Zombies. We have several updates planned, and will be introducing new fighters regularly. The first new fighter should come out next week.

Thanks for playing!

This week we wanted to show off one more comic panel, and one of our newest fighters….El Taco De La Noche…we don’t know what that means, but somehow it seems a fitting name for a brain thursty bad-ass luchador zombie fighting machine…enjoy!

This week’s presentation was from Mike Montgomery, our Chief Creative Officer. These are the links that he shared with the team, along with a short explanation:

Seeing as the holidays are almost upon us, I wanted to take a look back at 2011, and also a look forward to 2012.

Before we get to that, I wanted to share a few comments and links with you.

First off, I can’t stress enough the importance of an app icon.

“When browsing the App Store, all you really have to guide you is the name of the app and the icon. Based on those two pieces of information you have to decide if the app seems interesting enough to read more about and possibly download. And so many developers still don’t get this.”

Quote by: Unknown…

Icon Design Best practices:

These are some great resources for any mobile game designer and are well worth the read:

http://www.pixelresort.com/blog/iphone-app-icon-design-best-practises/

http://blog.marketnet.com/index.php/2011/01/14/best-practices-for-iphone-app-icon-design/

Mobile Freemium Games: Women Thrifty, Men Binge:

I came across an interesting article this week, discussing the growing iOS and Android app economy. Did you know that freemium games are leading all app revenue models and now account for more than 65% of app revenue?

Check it out:

http://blog.flurry.com/?Tag=Freemium

iPhone Eye Candy:

It’s not often that I come across an iOS app that makes me stop everything and search for the designer who created the artwork. That was definitely the case with these 2 games.

Mad Rush: http://itunes.apple.com/app/mad-rush/id467931443?mt=8

Jelly Defence: http://itunes.apple.com/app/jelly-defense/id436134867?mt=8

New Releases:

What do I think users will be playing this holiday season? These are my top picks:

Kinectimals:

The popular Microsoft Xbox Kinect game comes to iOS. I predict this will be very popular with the kiddies this year.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/kinectimals/id482365195?mt=8

Console/PC:

All I want for Christmas is Skylanders….ok, I couldn’t wait and picked it up the other day.

http://www.skylanders.com/

Rebuild:

Rebuilding a city after the zombie apocalypse and manage resources while defending against undead attacks = Awesome!

http://itunes.apple.com/app/rebuild/id478523928?mt=8

Coming Soon on iOS:

This just looks hilarious and is right up my alley.

http://www.sinorwin.com/

iPhone App Review, 2011 Rewind:

As a mobile game company it is important as we look the future, to also take a look back. This is a list of the iTunes 2011 Rewind of the top 10 apps of 2011. These developers are definitely doing something right. I would love to see what’s under their trees this year.

Top 10 Paid iPhone Apps (2011)

1. Angry Birds
2. Fruit Ninja
3. Angry Birds Seasons
4. Cut the Rope
5. Tiny Wings
6. Angry Birds Rio
7. Words With Friends
8. Camera+
9. Doodle Jump
10. Plants Vs. Zombies

Top 10 Free iPhone Apps (2011)

1. Facebook
2. Pandora Radio
3. Words With Friends Free
4. Angry Birds Free
5. Skype
6. Netflix
7. Angry Birds Rio Free
8. Groupon
9. Fruit Ninja Lite
10. Twitter

Top 10 Grossing iPhone Apps (2011)

1. Tap Zoo
2. Angry Birds
3. Zombie Farm
4. Tap Pet Hotel
5. Poker by Zynga
6. Smurfs’ Village
7. Texas Poker
8. Haypi kingdom
9. Infinity Blade
10. Motion X GPS Drive

Here are a few more promo images that we would like to share. The first is one of our screenshots which should give you a little more insight into what this game is all about.

As for the second image, our Art Director Adam, said that we can’t launch this game without a Luchador Zombie…..we had a hard time disagreeing with him.

We thought we would share a few photos so you can see where all of the creative magic happens…

Here is a preview of the intro motion comic we are currently working on. Battle zombies and motion comics…I love my job!

This week’s presentation was from Sara Bine, our Web Developer. These are the links that she shared with the team, along with a short explanation:

Sixth Sense, created by Pranav Mistry, is a prototype for a wearable gestural interface which allows its user to interface with a mobile computer via natural hand gestures. The “screen” is projected onto surfaces such as walls, desks, and even human skin, and recognizes hand gestures based on colored markers on the tips of the wearer’s fingers. It can take pictures, check flight information, read emails, make phone calls, and provide live video feed as a supplement to newspaper stories.
http://www.pranavmistry.com/projects/sixthsense/

iCam is a conceptualized DSLR substitute in the form of an iPhone case, created by Italian designer Antonio De Rosa. It snaps on to your iPhone to provide an interchangeable lens system, extra hardware controls, and a front-facing display for self-portraits. Although it doesn’t exist yet, the design is slick and certainly feasible enough to someday become a reality.
http://www.adr-studio.it/site/?page_id=14&album=1&gallery=44

Here are a few teaser images…more to come soon!

This week’s presentation was from Asma Inam, one of our UI designers. These are the links that she shared with the team, along with a short explanation:

The Playgrounds 2009 Opening Titles, is by far one of my favourite and most memorable pieces that I’ve come across.

The entire opening titles shows an intense brawl, that’s in slow motion, between two guys. What’s awesome about this piece, is how the creators executed it. Instead of using a High-speed camera to get the slow-motion effect, they use a camera mapping technique in 3D to execute the look and feel. The end result of this piece is brilliant, playful and definitely one not many will not forget – I sure didn’t forget it.

http://vimeo.com/7160598

The short film titled “Move” is a great example of how important concept is in anything that you do. The creators of this short film took a simple concept of movement and applied it to tell a beautiful story. All the footage was taken on a trip with 3 buddies, in 44 days, in 11 countries, 18 flights, 38 thousand miles, with 2 cameras and almost a terabyte of footage.

All in all a beautiful and compelling final piece.

http://vimeo.com/27246366

This week’s presentation was from Andrew Miller, one of our UI designers. These are the links that he shared with the team, along with a short explanation:

The Guide to the App Galaxy by Google is a site designed to help developers through the process of launching an app and building a mobile business. The site lists many key points in starting a mobile business as well as sustaining it. Some of the topics discussed are promoting, earning, and evaluating your app. Some of our staff have found this site to be a great learning tool and have used it to gain a better understanding of the process used to create apps.

http://www.guidetotheappgalaxy.com/

Art of the Title displays movie and tv title design via video links, interviews, creator notes and user comments. You can find all of your favorite movie and tv title sequences from Dexter to The Shining, this site has a great collection of some really inspirational work.

http://www.artofthetitle.com/