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Pavilion is a Mysterious and Immersive Puzzle Adventure

March 30, 2017 by RSS Feed

Pavilion is a Mysterious and Immersive Puzzle Adventure

Pavilion: Touch Edition ($3.99) by Visiontrick Media AB is a mysterious and puzzling adventure that is quite an experience all on its own. If you like titles such as The Room series, then you will feel right at home with Pavilion. The game is a mobile port of the original on PS4 and Steam.

Despite the fact that a lot of my gaming time has been on my Nintendo Switch lately (there’s way too much to do in Breath of the Wild), I like to take a break every so often with some quality iOS games. If you’ve followed my work for a while, then you’ll know I’m a complete sucker for puzzle games, even though sometimes they’re a real stumper and leave me scratching my head. Still, I like games that keep my mind stimulated so that I don’t feel completely useless, and that’s why even though I feel like I’ve played a ton of iOS puzzle games, I’m always looking out for new ones. When I saw Pavilion on the App Store last week, I knew that it was something that I had to check out, mostly because of the screenshots and how it bills itself as a “fourth-person puzzling adventure.” I mean, how can I resist?

Pavilion is a Mysterious and Immersive Puzzle Adventure

In terms of visuals, Pavilion is downright gorgeous and rather stunning to look at. The game features completely hand-crafted art that represents a rather futuristic yet classical dreamscape environment that is unlike anything you’ve seen before. And because of the lovingly hand-crafted visuals, everything is packed with a ton of fine details, such as subtle patterns and textures in your surroundings, various lighting and shadowing effects, realistic items that you’ll come across along the way, and realistic movement for characters. Pavilion is definitely a testament to what mobile games are capable of, even though this is technically just a port. The game also has a soothing ambient soundtrack that fits perfectly with the overall dreamy mood of the game, and the sound effects are realistic and top-notch. Visiontrick certainly did a fantastic job with Pavilion’s visual and audio design, that’s for sure.

Unlike most puzzle games, Pavilion does not have a level select screen, though the game is split up into multiple stages for players to traverse through seamlessly. At the moment, Pavilion only has Episode One, though it’s a story that is told in two. The developers claim that Episode Two content will be coming later this year, so there is something to look forward to once you complete the first episode. The goal in Pavilion is to help your character get from Point A to Point B, but it’s tougher than it seems — there are puzzles that you must solve along the way before you can get a clear path, and items you find will reveal the secret behind a mysterious story where reality clashes with fantasy. Once you get to the exit gate at the end of a stage, then you will be taken to the next area immediately in a seamless transition. Unfortunately, if you want to replay an area, you can’t go back to it without resetting the game, so be warned. The game lets you pick up wherever you last left off at, so you can pick up Pavilion and play as you please without worry.

The controls in Pavilion: Touch Edition are simple and intuitive. Since the game is all about interacting with your environment, there will be a lot of tapping involved. Unlike adventure puzzle games, you can’t freely move your character around. Instead, pay attention to the lights and bells — tapping on a bell has your character move towards the sound, and he can only walk when there is a lit path — if a light is out, he won’t go through the shadows and it will be blocked off like a physical wall. When there is a hidden object that your character comes across, you’ll know because a “drawer” will show up on the screen (or the item itself), and you have to interact with it to reveal the item, which you tap on to collect. There will be a variety of obstacles to interact with and items to find and use to reveal the story, so there’s definitely variety in what you’ll find. Another thing to note is the fact that levels can be rather large, so you may need to pan the screen around to view more of the area, which is done by just dragging your finger around.

Pavilion does not penalize you for taking too long or making too many moves, so feel free to take your time figuring out a puzzle. There aren’t any tutorials or explanations in the beginning either, so players are kind of thrown into the game and left to figure things out on their own, which just adds to the mystery of the game.

I’m still early on in Pavilion, but I’m enjoying the experience so far. It did take me a while to figure out how to do anything in the start, but once everything clicked, it all felt super intuitive. My best recommendation is to just tap on anything that looks interesting and see what happens, then look at the bigger picture and put it all together. I don’t think the puzzles are too difficult either, as you can figure out what needs to be done after a few attempts, so this is a great puzzle adventure for all ages. The hand-drawn graphics are beautiful to behold, and when it’s combined with the ambiance of the music and sounds, it’s a surreal dreamscape that’s hard to escape from.

I highly recommend giving Pavilion: Touch Edition a try, especially if you’ve never played the game before. You can find Pavilion: Touch Edition on the App Store as a universal download for your iPhone and iPad for just $3.99. There are no in-app purchases, and Episode Two will be coming later this year.

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from : Mid Atlantic Consulting, Inc.

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Twitter Drops User Names from Counting Against 140 Character Limit

March 30, 2017 by RSS Feed

Twitter has been quietly changing how replies work for some users over the past few days, but now it’s official for everyone: user names no longer count towards the 140 character limit. The change means you tweets don’t have to be as short when several people are included in your replies.

Previously, including a user name in a tweet counted against your 140 character limit, so a post like “@davehamilton You should check out Twitter’s reply changes” was counted as 58 characters. Now that same tweet counts as 44, assuming you also remove the space after Dave’s Twitter handle.

Twitter product manager Sasank Reddy said, “It’s now easier to follow a conversation, so you can focus on what a discussion is about, and who is having it. Also, with all 140 characters for your replies, you have more room to participate in group conversations.”

The change is automatic, so you don’t need to worry about remembering to install updates or change any account settings.

With that off the to-do list maybe Twitter’s engineers can start working on letting us edit posts.

Source link: https://www.macobserver.com/news/twitter-user-names-140-character-limit/

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from : Mid Atlantic Consulting, Inc.

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Reunite Ellie & Max in This Ever-Shifting Puzzle Game

March 29, 2017 by RSS Feed

Reunite Ellie & Max in This Ever-Shifting Puzzle Game

Ellie & Max ($1.99) by Appetizer Games Co., Ltd. is an adorable puzzle game about a girl and her best friend. If you enjoyed games in the vein of Monument Valley and Fez, then you will like what Ellie & Max have to offer.

While most of my gaming time is spent on my Nintendo Switch with The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild these days, every now and then I like to take a break from Hyrule and kick back with some iOS games. If you’ve followed my work here at AppAdvice for the past several years, then you will know that puzzle games are one of my favorite genres. This is because while I like to relax, I prefer to keep my brain stimulated with something that is both fun and challenging. Even though it feels like I’ve played almost every well-known puzzle game on iOS so far, I can’t help but keep my eye out on new releases. When I saw Ellie & Max on the App Store, I was intrigued by the screenshots, which reminded me of my brief time with Fez. Needless to say, if you’re a fan of optical illusion puzzle games, then Ellie & Max is one that is worth checking out.

Reunite Ellie & Max in This Ever-Shifting Puzzle Game

Visually speaking, Ellie & Max is beautiful and fun to look at. The game is rendered in both 2-D and 3-D since it makes use of optical illusions to change perspectives, just like Monument Valley. Everything is rendered in an isometric, voxel style like Minecraft, so the aesthetic is both retro (think 8-bit) and modern at the same time. Despite the cube-like visuals, the game manages to pack in a lot of finer details, such as environmental textures and appearances of every character (more to unlock later). The color palette in Ellie & Max features a nice mix of both soft pastel hues and bolder, more vibrant tones. Characters have lively body language that breath life into the game, and animations are smooth and fluid so I had no issues with lag on my iPhone 7. The game also has a quirky soundtrack that just adds to the overall charm of the game, and the sound effects are fun to listen to as you successfully complete the puzzle one step at-a-time. I think the developers did a pretty good job in terms of Ellie & Max’s visual and audio design.

Like other puzzle games, Ellie & Max is level-based, and players must go through each stage in chronological order, so it’s fairly linear. At the moment, there are over 80 levels, so there’s plenty of content for your buck, and more will be added in the future.

The game has a pretty generic storyline going, which involves a girl named Ellie, and her pet dog Max, who both get lost and separated from each other in a strange and mysterious world. The objective of each puzzle is to help Max find Ellie, who’s hidden somewhere on the stage, and then reach the goal point (marked by glowing butterflies) together. While it sounds easy enough, things get challenging when you take into consideration the ever-changing perspectives of the stage, as well as the fact that you only have a limited number of spins in order to successfully clear it. If you ever get stuck, though, the game does have a helpful hint system that shows you what you need to do for the part that you’re having trouble with. Your score and number of stars earned (up to three) are purely dependent on the number of moves you make as well as how many cookies you collect.

Controls in Ellie & Max are simple and fairly intuitive. To direct Max, just tap on where you want him to go. Max will go there if he is able to, and he can jump up one block automatically, but he cannot go upwards more than one block. He can jump down more than one block, though, so don’t be afraid of dropping down a few blocks. Since Ellie & Max is dependent on shifting the view and changing perspectives, you rotate the stage by dragging your finger horizontally across the screen. The stage will “snap” into place once you release your finger.

Unlike other games, your movement is not limited to the number of times that Max actually moves, per say, but the amount of times you spin the stage. The number of spins allowed is shown at the top of the screen, and it will decrease by one each time you rotate the screen, so try to be conservative with those spins. Another thing to keep in mind is the fact that Max must be visible after each spin, otherwise it is considered invalid. Sometimes you will have to rotate the stage a few times before you see what you have to do, because each shift can change the stage subtly or dramatically. While you may see the end point early on, nothing will happen when you go to it unless you have Ellie with you. To make things more interesting, some levels will also be separated into several parts, so once you get to the checkpoint of one section, the next section reveals itself.

After a certain point in the game, you will unlock “Hard Mode” that can be selected for every stage. This means that the location of each character will be different each time, so the solution you memorized before won’t work. This spices things up for each stage, which adds replay value. The game also has achievements to obtain, so there are goals to strive for if you’re into that. And if you’re a completionist, there are cookies to collect on each stage, which just help you earn three stars on the stage (along with using the fewest number of spins possible). You also get coins (currency) and gems (premium currency) that can be spent to unlock new characters (100 gold coins for a random character), though they are purely for cosmetic purposes.

I’ve only just started Ellie & Max in recent days, but I’m enjoying the game so far. The game’s aesthetics remind me of Fez, which is not entirely a bad thing, considering that Fez is not on iOS. The visuals are definitely appealing with the isometric voxel style, and the music is delightful. The puzzles start off easy enough, but things pick up in difficulty at a nice, gradual pace, so it’s never overwhelming. Adding a hard mode that changes everything up keeps the game interesting, and gives you brand new opportunities to beat your previous high score.

I recommend giving Ellie & Max a try if you like shifting perspective puzzle games. You can find Ellie & Max on the App Store as a universal download for your iPhone and iPad for just $1.99. There are in-app purchases for gems.

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from : Mid Atlantic Consulting, Inc.

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Pico app makes smartphone film photo emulation sleek and simple

March 28, 2017 by RSS Feed

you can give your smartphone photos the retro look without the hassle of more complicated apps.

what was once a niche market has now become standard in the world of mobile apps. film emulation apps have been flooding the ios app store since hipstamatic and there is no sign of them stopping. one of the latest to hit the market is pico.

as we’ve come to expect from analogue-inspired photography apps, pico is designed to replicate the various aesthetics of film stocks new and old, but it manages to do so in a far more simplistic fashion than the likes of vsco and filmborn.

unlike other photography apps, which give you control of every facet of your image, pico is limited in its functionality by design. there is no adjusting contrast or bumping up the saturation of an image after the fact. what you see in the viewfinder is what you get and any extra edits need to made elsewhere.

more: raw has arrived in vsco — and more filters inspired by real film are next

pico offers eight live presets: max, ultra, plus, pro, noir, one, gold, and xtra. each of the eight presets offers its own visual quirks designed to emulate various films and developing processes.

aside from its simple lineup of presets, the stand-out feature of pico is its simple exposure control. when composing a photo, simply slide your finger across the display to smoothly adjust the exposure. no need to mess with shutter speed or iso adjustments.

photographs captured are automatically saved to the camera roll. this feature is a welcome design decision that simplifies the workflow compared to an app such as vsco, which has its own internal library to deal with.

pico isn’t an all-in-one photo editing solution, but it’s not meant to be. it focuses on doing only a few things well and it accomplishes the task.

you can find pico in the ios app store for $4.

15797Source link: http://www.digitaltrends.com/photography/pico-film-emulation-ios-app/

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from : Mid Atlantic Consulting, Inc.

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TypeShift is a Different Kind of Word Game

March 27, 2017 by RSS Feed

TypeShift is a Different Kind of Word Game

TypeShift (Free) by Zach Gage is a modernized word puzzle game that will keep your brain stimulated for quite some time. If you enjoyed unique word games like Letterpress and Alpha Omega, then you will like what TypeShift has in store.

As a writer, I have a thing for words, so it should come as a surprise to no one that I enjoy my fair share of word games, especially on iOS. While I’m not as good as other people I know, I find word games to be fun, challenging, and they’re great at stimulating my mind and expanding my vocabulary. I’ve gone through a good amount of these puzzles while at AppAdvice, but I can’t help it — I’m always on the lookout for exciting new ones that pop up. So when I got the news of TypeShift, the latest game from Zach Gage, who made Spelltower (another excellent word game), Ridiculous Fishing, and Sage Solitaire, I knew that it was something I had to try out. And without a doubt in my mind, TypeShift is another great title from Gage that won’t disappoint.

TypeShift is a Different Kind of Word Game

TypeShift features a super minimal aesthetic that will appeal to anyone who craves simplicity. Since this is a word game, there isn’t too much in terms of graphics, but the sans serif typeface used for the puzzles is rather bold and makes an impact while being easily legible. There are simple icons that should be easily recognizable for daily completed puzzles and the section of your favorite words, which is handy for referring back to at a later point. The default color palette is nice, as it features a dark blue background with a nice range of soft pastels to richer tones. TypeShift has smooth and fluid animations, and there is plenty of haptic feedback if you are playing on an iPhone 7 or 7 Plus. There are even soothing click noises as you slide the columns of tiles, which is oddly satisfying.

If you prefer something different, you can unlock all of the color themes in the game by making any in-app purchase, which also gets rid of ads and lets you view your statistics. I opted for the “Chocolate” puzzle pack to unlock the extras, and the additional color themes are well done and make the game stand out more. Plus, there’s a handful of different options available, so there will be a theme for everyone. Just like his other games, Gage has done a great job with the look and feel of TypeShift.

Like other word games, TypeShift is level-based, with hundreds of puzzles spread out across a myriad of “packs,” which are essentially chapters with tasty names. With the initial free download, players will find over 100 puzzles already available from the get-go. On top of that, there will be daily puzzles each day, and these are a great way to compete for the fastest times across the globe if you’re the competitive type. However, if all of that is not enough, you can purchase additional puzzle packs at about $0.99 to $1.99 a pop, or go for the Starter Bundle that includes three packs at a discount rate. As I mentioned, any in-app purchase gets rid of the ads and grants you access to the color themes and statistics. Each pack tells you the type of puzzles it contains, whether they’re quick or require a bit more thinking, small, medium, or large, and whether they have clues or not (think crosswords). Regardless, the goal in TypeShift is simple enough: spell out words in the center row until you’ve used all of the letters at least once.

The control scheme in TypeShift is easy and intuitive. Each puzzle features several rows and columns of letter tiles. However, the only way to spell something out is if it is done in the center row, which is highlighted and stands out from the rest. To move letters, you’ll have to slide a column vertically with your finger, similar to a padlock dial. When you spell out a proper word, the letters will change color and bounce, which is a nice and subtle indication that you’re making progress. Repeat this process until you find all of the words and use up all of the letter tiles. If you’re curious about your progress on a puzzle, just check the upper right corner, where you can see a percentage of how complete it is.

If you get stuck, the game does have a hint system, but you only have a few free ones to start out with. When you’re out of hints, you’ll have to buy more through in-app purchases. Otherwise, another option to consider is to ask your friends through the iOS Share Sheet. A lot of the puzzles can be solved by trial-and-error though, so don’t worry if you get stuck — just give it a few moments and come back to it. At least that worked for me.

As mentioned earlier, TypeShift is an anagram-type of word game with a dash of word search thrown into the mix. However, some puzzle packs that you can purchase are “Clue” puzzles, which means that there are short clues to the words that you can find in a puzzle, similar to a crossword. These offer a nice variety to the typical puzzle that you find in this game, and make it less random when it comes to the words that are hidden in the level. However, the only negative is the fact that these puzzles come at a premium, since there are no Clue stages available with the initial download.

As a fan of word games, I’ve found TypeShift to be a delightful gem among the recent flood of big indie game titles on the App Store. The visuals are simple and clean, the sound effects are fun to hear, the haptic feedback is nice, and the game mechanic is different enough to stand out among the word game market. I just wish that the game gave you some Clue puzzles to try out first before dropping cash on in-app purchases, and honestly I would have preferred a “complete bundle” type of in-app purchase to get everything (including future premium packs) for a set price, rather than individually. Plus, the amount of ads that are included prior to making a purchase was a tad too frequent for me. I did notice that sometimes solving a puzzle through trial-and-error made me spell out words that I never heard of before, so there are definitely some obscure terms in TypeShift.

I still recommend giving TypeShift a try if you’re in the mood for some stimulating word puzzles and want something that is distinctive. TypeShift is available on the App Store as a universal download for your iPhone and iPad for free with in-app purchases.

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from : Mid Atlantic Consulting, Inc.

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"If there is an app for that"

Pavilion is a Mysterious and Immersive Puzzle Adventure

Source link: http://appadvice.com/reviews

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from : Mid Atlantic Consulting, Inc.

Twitter Drops User Names from Counting Against 140 Character Limit

Reunite Ellie & Max in This Ever-Shifting Puzzle Game

Source link: http://appadvice.com/reviews

credit : appadvice

from : Mid Atlantic Consulting, Inc.

Pico app makes smartphone film photo emulation sleek and simple

TypeShift is a Different Kind of Word Game

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from : Mid Atlantic Consulting, Inc.

Source link: http://appadvice.com/reviews

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from : Mid Atlantic Consulting, Inc.