Create your own maritime empire in Shipping Tycoon on iPhone

While the shipping business might not seem like the most interesting premise on which to base a game, Hero Mind has released a new freemium iPhone game based on just that. Shipping Tycoon gives you a single port to start and then asks you to purchase new ships only to send those ships to your friends' games, where you'll earn different amounts of profit, depending on how far the ship traveled (different ports are set in various worldwide locations).

Your ships will take time to arrive, and you must wait for the ships to both make it to their destinations and for them to come back home before you can send them back out again. Furthermore, you'll need to refuel your ships in their destination ports, forcing you to interact with your friends' games (you can add strangers as friends via the in-game community menu).

As you level up, you'll unlock new ships, and can also build a few businesses on the land next to your port in order to increase your profits over time. Each new docking location can be unlocked with some cash, but you'll need to wait for the docks to actually be built before you create a new shipping route.

All told, Shipping Tycoon is a sometimes tedious experience that deserves credit for trying something new. There are some localization issues with the game's English, and even the shortest routes take quite a while to complete, but if you're willing to push through this acclimation period, you will soon find yourself at the helm of a massive fleet of ships, each making more money than the last.

Interestingly, Hero Mind has released the game for free, but the game's description says that it will only remain so for a limited time (then, the price will supposedly jump to $5). Needless to say, it's a bit odd to see a game require a charge upfront and then also offer premium currency within the game, so hopefully this is all just a marketing ploy to boost interest, rather than a true promise of a price increase. If it's the latter, make sure to download the game now while it's still free if you're at all interested.

Click here to download Shipping Tycoon on iPhone --->

What do you think of Shipping Tycoon? Would you pay money to download an app if it also expected you to purchase in-game currency afterwards? Sound off in the comments.

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Build an underwater empire with Kobojo’s Atlantis Fantasy

Atlantis Fantasy from French developer Kobojo is a new citybuilding game for Facebook. It charted at No. 10 in our emerging Facebook games chart at the end of last week.

According to our traffic tracking service AppData, Atlantis Fantasy currently has 260,000 monthly active users and 80,000 daily active users.

Atlantis Fantasy, like Kobojo’s previous game PyramidVille (recently reimagined for iOS), is a citybuilding sim based on popular mythology — in this case, a mix of Greek legends and the myth of Atlantis. The player is cast in the role of a minor undersea deity tasked with rebuilding a ruined settlement. Various well-known gods and goddesses from Greek mythology put in an appearance throughout the course of the player’s rebuilding efforts, and it’s through the missions that these deities provide that the game’s basic mechanics are taught.

Being a citybuilding sim, gameplay is mostly familiar with a few twists on the established formula of the genre. Firstly, unlike most games of this type, where buildings can be scattered fairly haphazardly, in Atlantis Fantasy, a building will not function if it is not connected to a road. This encourages the player to design the city in a somewhat more realistic fashion, clearing debris and building roads before placing buildings. Although the game’s Architect Mode allows players to move or rotate buildings once they’ve been placed, meaning there are few consequences for unwise placement, this mechanic does demand a greater degree of forward planning than some other examples of the genre.

The city’s population is also far more than a simple number for bragging rights. More residents means that structures and resources can be produced faster. When undertaking any construction project, whether it’s creating a new building or setting a production building to make resources, workers can be assigned from the city’s population. The greater the number, the shorter the amount of real time that the construction will take. Construction of anything can also be rushed, but unlike most games of this type, rushing construction uses energy rather than hard currency. Energy is restored upon leveling up, also, so canny builders can play for some time without having to sit and wait or purchase energy restoration items.

Socialization features of the game include the facility to visit others’ towns, with gifts on offer for doing so. Players can also send gifts to one another, and a number of the quests and buildings in the game require resources which can only be acquired through the help of friends.

Monetization is handled through the sale of the game’s hard and soft currencies, known as Pearls and Gold Coins respectively. Both of these can be purchased using Facebook Credits. Gold Coins are used throughout the majority of the game to produce essential structures, often in conjunction with resources created through production buildings. Pearls, meanwhile, can be spent on various items that cannot be acquired using Gold Coins. These include resources; special buildings; vanity decorations; and energy restoration items.

Since its launch in mid-December, Atlantis Fantasy’s MAU and DAU figures have been slowly but steadily climbing and look set to continue this way for some time. The game’s good production values and twists on the established conventions of the citybuilding genre will hopefully be enough to distinguish it from the variety of similar titles available.

You can follow Atlantis Fantasy’s progress with AppData, our traffic tracking application for social games and developers.

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Empires & Allies Cheats & Tips: Rename your Empire in a flash

by Brandy Shaul, Posted Aug 11th 2011 10:20PM

While Zynga's Empires & Allies has always allowed us to name our Empires upon starting the game, we've received plenty of questions from players that wanted to change the name of their Empires, but weren't sure how to do so. Truth be told, we weren't even allowed to rename our empires until just this week, but while we mentioned this new option in passing when bringing you a look at the new Quest Manager, here's a complete look at actually changing your Empire's name.

First, you'll know that this renaming feature has rolled around to you when you hover over your Empire's name and it highlights in gold.

Click on your Empire's name and a new window will appear where you'll have the ability to enter a new name for your Empire, up to 23 characters in length. If you change your mind and choose not to rename your city, just leave the name as-is and hit Save (or Save and Share if you want to share some free goodies with your friends). If you do decide to change your Empire's name, make sure you have the spelling and capitalization the way you want and hit Save to see the name officially change in your game.

Altogether, it seems like Zynga has simply triggered the re-launch of the first naming window from the very beginning of gameplay, as we're told "congratulations," which doesn't make much sense. Then again, if we're allowed to rename our Empires because of this re-launch (when we should have ultimately been allowed to rename our Empires since the beginning), I suppose I can't complain about some odd wording.

Now go forth soldiers, and rename your Empires to something epic!

Check out the rest of our Empires & Allies Cheats and Tips right here. -->

Have you been waiting for the ability to rename your Empire in Empires & Allies, or are you fine with its name the way it is? Sound off in the comments.

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Tags: ea, empires allies, empires allies rename empire, empires allies rename town, empires and allies, rename empire, zynga

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Zynga's Empire & Allies: The first nine minutes [video]

by Libe Goad, Posted Jun 1st 2011 5:00PM

Zynga's Empire & Allies game -- a mashup of the classic game Risk with another Zynga game, CityVille -- lands on Facebook today (read our full preview here). The video above shows off what happens during the first few minutes of the game -- a quick tutorial that shows you how to build barracks and other buildings on your land and get a first look at what a real-time battle in the game looks like as well.

The game is now live on Facebook, to check it out point your browser here.

Check out the rest of our Empires & Allies Cheats & Tips right here.

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Tags: empires allies, risk, zynga

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