Matt Demers
Matt Demers is a Toronto writer that deals primarily in the area of Android, comics and other nerdy pursuits. You can find his work on Twitter and sites across the Internet.

15
Jun
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[Review] Doodle God Lets You Flex Your Omnipotence, Could Probably Have Used More Time In The Garden

Posted by in Apps/Games, Game Reviews, Games, Reviews
Last Updated: August 2nd, 2011

The Game

 When distilled down to its base values, Doodle God is a large logic puzzle based on matching. You're given four elements (earth, air, water, fire) at the start of the game and can combine them to make things. Combining fire and air gets you steam, fire with water alcohol (firewater, har har), and many others.

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From there, you can use the products of your matching to make other things, which is where the game gets most of its depth. There are over 200 different elements to find, and more being added all the time. This is the major selling point of the game, touting the ability to make fantastical creatures, like the front end of an airplane and the back end of a horse.

14
Jun
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[New App Review] Pax Britannica Gives Us One-Button, Competitive Strategy

Posted by in Apps/Games, Games, News

Pax Britannica for Android is a port of the open-source game of the same name. Marketed as "the one button strategy game," Pax lives up to its word. Players take control of an underwater factory ship that is locked in combat with another ship of similar function.

Each ship it outfitted with a dial which allows it to spawn individual ships. This is accomplished by a player pressing and holding their finger on their assigned section of the screen: the needle on the dial unwinds clockwise, and each quadrant of the dial spawns a different ship. The ships fight using artificial intelligence, and each have their own strengths and weaknesses.

13
Jun
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Swype 3.0 Beta Released, Includes Improvements To Prediction And Touch Typing

Posted by in Applications, News

The Swype team released a new round of improvements to their keyboard replacement software this evening. With this update, users can expect improvements to the "traditional" way of typing, as the correction engine that is used in the Swype method has been applied there as well.

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Other improvements include better support for Android tablets, a simplified registration process, a new method of choosing words (in a horizontal menu, as opposed to a popup) and other improvements. You can find a complete list of their changes below:

  • Swype v3 introduces two major new features: Tap Correction and Horizontal Word Choice List

  • Our Tap Correction engine utilizes many of the concepts that make swyping so accurate.

12
Jun
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[Review] Grand Prix Story Adds Some Much-Needed New Features To The "____ Story" Playbook

Posted by in Apps/Games, Game Reviews, Games, Reviews
Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

Japanese developer Kairosoft seems to be the king of the mobile simulation genre, having pumped out three English titles (Game Dev Story, Hot Springs Story and now Grand Prix Story) which manage to be addicting as hell while benefitting from the touch controls of a smartphone. In their games, you're put in the shoes of a business owner who is looking to both make money and rise to the top of his/her chosen profession.

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The Game

Along the way, you can customize everything from the staff you hire to the products you put out; going into each individual thing you can customize would lengthen this article by a couple thousand words, at the minimum.

10
Jun
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[Review] Rebirth Brings A Basic But Faithful (And Free) Lumines Port To Android

Posted by in Apps/Games, Game Reviews, Games, Reviews
Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

Puzzle games are some of my favourite titles for the Android because of their tendency to play well in short bursts. Rebirth looks to take the gameplay behind Lumines and bring it over to the mobile market: the question is, will it do the original justice?

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The Concept

For those looking for a basic clone of Lumines (more on that later), you've come to the right spot. Rebirth is pretty much the game to a "T", and brings the block-stacking madness to the Android platform with good faith.

For those unfamiliar, Lumines was a puzzle game that was first developed for the Playstation Portable System.

10
Jun
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[Review] Burn The City Indulges Our Godzilla Complex, Brings The Wanton Destruction

Posted by in Apps/Games, Game Reviews, Games, Reviews
Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

Sometimes, it's just not fun to be the good guy. Sometimes, you need to be a little bad. Sometimes, you just need to destroy everything that lays in your path with a fiery ball of fury.

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The Concept

Burn The City puts you in the shoes of a giant lizard/Godzilla/monster-thing who has hatched all alone and in a strange world. Clearly, the logical conclusion he reaches is to destroy everything around him.

This is accomplished by flinging fireballs from your mighty gullet, demolishing the buildings that face you. The buildings will be stripped down to their beams, finally collapsing under their own weight - and hopefully into the structures surrounding them.

10
Jun
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[New App] Postagram Is For Those Moments When Digital Just Won't Do

Posted by in Applications, Apps/Games, News

A large part of what makes the Internet amazing is that it's taken the human factor out of some things that rely on speed. The fact that e-mail has supplanted snail mail is a testament to this fact. Having to wait for a system to process and deliver your messages is just so much better in a digital environment.

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But what about for moments where the physical matters? Though digital photography has made leaps and strides to be accessible to all, not everyone likes to have access to photos only on their digital devices. Throw in the cost of buying a digital frame or photo printing, and complications quickly arise.

08
Jun
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[Nerd Toolbox] DiceShaker D&D Makes Sure You'll Never Be Without A D20

Posted by in Apps/Games, Game Reviews, Games, Reviews
Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

I'm not afraid to say I play Dungeons & Dragons; I think it's a great way for people to have fun together and enjoy a truly dynamic narrative. However, since I write about tech and other nerdy stuff for a living, I like having the old-school pen and paper mesh with technology whenever possible.

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However, like tech, Dungeons & Dragons isn't for those who don't have much in the way of disposable income; you've got numerous things to buy before you can get started, including handbooks and manuals that can run you up to $35+ each. Like the books, multi-sided dice are an integral part of the game, and a set of 10 standard dice will run you ~$7.99.

08
Jun
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[Review] Stellar Escape Shows Us How To Frustrate Users With Artificial Difficulty

Posted by in Apps/Games, Game Reviews, Games, Reviews
Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

You know what's more frustrating than a beautiful-looking game whose controls don't work?

A beautiful-looking game that requires you to use those controls to react to events in a split-second.

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Alright, perhaps that was being a little harsh. Stellar Escape is a new game that comes to us on the Android Market from a small dev team called Orange Agenda. In the game, you play as an interstellar courier who has delivered a package that could power a planet-destroying death ray. having a moment of conscience, he grabs the power source and sprints away from his client, becoming the most wanted man in the galaxy at the same time.

08
Jun
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[Just Released] Kairosoft Gives The Green Flag To Grand Prix Story; Rev Up Those Engines!

Posted by in Games, News

In a perfect addition to this lazy Hump Day, Japanese developer Kairosoft just dropped their newest entry into the Android simulation game genre, titled Grand Prix Story.

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This marks the third entry into the "______ Story" series by the company, following their highly-successful Game Dev Story and the follow-up, Hot Springs Story. In Grand Prix, you take on the role of race team manager, developing and customizing cars, entering teams into races, and cultivating a stable of elite motorsport drivers.

Kairosoft's always intrigued me with their titles because I love the "behind-the-scenes" aspects of running a certain business. While Grand Prix probably won't be the most realistic racing management sim on the market, it will probably be one of the most addictive, given the company's track record.

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