Magic the Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers

Wizards of the Coast's MTG on XBox 360

Are you a retired Magic the Gathering player? Or are you a huge fan? This is your chance to relive your glorious moments and play Magic the Gathering to your heart's content without burning your wallet from all those expensive cards (and Shivan Dragons)! I remember saving my allowance back in college just so I can buy a booster pack every week LOL. Magic the Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers is now available on XBox Live Arcade for 800 Microsoft Points--that's about US$10.00 upon conversion. It's really cheap considering the amount of replayability this game can offer. Planeswalkers is developed by the same team who developed Carmageddon--Stainless Games. The game has a single and coop campaign mode as well as a challenge mode for those who love to solve puzzles. You unlock new cards as you breeze through the campaign and you can also play a casual or ranked match on XBox Live. The graphics on Planeswalkers is much better than the PC version they released several years ago. Give it a try by downloading the trial version from XBox Live!

eSoft Interactive's mobile games for only $0.99!

Hurry! Promo expires on July 6, 2009!

Today's a great day! eSoft Interactive is offering all of its mobile games for only $0.99! Yeah you got it right--0.99 cents for one week! Hurry and grab your favorite eSoft interactive games before the promo expires on July 6, 2009! This reminds me, you can now grab Hot Pursuit for Windows Mobile -- eSoft's latest strategy puzzle game for only $0.99! How sweet can that be? :)

Hydrocultured plants, anyone?

Each plant is only about 6-7 inches tall and has a special pot so you can easily water it

Hydrocultured plants by Miura

What inspired me to create my latest game was actually (yes its that simple) a small hydrocultured plant I saw from a local mall distributed by Miura. These plants can live without soil and needs to be watered only once per day. As you can see from the photo above, the plant is sowed using small granules which absorb water from the pot's base. The best part about these plants is that they can be grown indoors and they're small enough to fit on top of your work desk. Each plant pot is only about 6-7 inches tall and will take approximately 4x4 inches space on your cluttered desk. Plus--not only growing plants at home is fun but it can be a nice outlet especially if you're not the type who loves high maintenance pet animals. As for my upcoming game? It will be called "SOW" and will initially be available for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Watch out for it soon!

Thoughts on how Windows Mobile can compete with Apple's AppStore--a developer's point of view

Microsoft's Windows Mobile

First of all, I'm not an Apple nor a Windows Mobile fanboy. I use a BlackBerry as my everyday communication tool, an HP Voice Messenger as a back-up phone and bring an iPod Touch with me for my music (and video) needs. I've been a Windows Mobile device user for more than 8 years now and have been developing for this platform since its infancy stage. Though the Windows Mobile is a powerful platform, its been overshadowed for the past year by Apple's iPhone. In fact, the internet was once again plagued by Apple--various news about the release of the iPhone 3G S and the highly anticipated iPhone 3.0 OS. The AppStore have become popular after only over a year of existence because of tons of apps and games that was released through it. Huge companies like EA, Gameloft and Ubisoft have already jumped in, releasing wave after wave of their popular titles for the small screen. I admit, even our efforts are more focused on creating iPhone games now, not because this is where the money comes from but its fun to develop for a device who cares about the gaming audience. I know the competition doesn't stop here. I still believe that Windows Mobile can gain an even larger market share if only the major factors were addressed. Below are some thoughts I would like to share.

1. Reach out to a wider audience. Windows Mobile should get its act together by finding a more effective way of getting its apps into WM users hands. Currently, there are dozens of online sites that sell WM apps and almost each of these sites have their own version of "Windows Mobile AppStore". If there was a single WM AppStore where users can grab and purchase apps, it would be more advantageous for the developers, publishers and the consumers.

2. Quality versus cost. As a developer, the only way to get your product sold on Microsoft's Official Windows Mobile Store is to get certified. Certification is not a bad idea because it ensures quality and favors the consumers but charging roughly around US$ 600 for each application you wish to get certified, is. Bummer.

3. Standardize on a specific screensize. I understand the demand for technological advancement among mobile devices but releasing a device for every screensize you can imagine is just absurd. Windows Mobile currently supports around 7 different screen resolutions (AFAIK) with each new resolution requiring the developers to "re-update" their applications for it to run properly. Windows Mobile boasts thousands of applications available for their platform but the real question is--how many of these apps will run on your current-generation device's resolution?

4. Standard pricing scheme. After first hearing about the AppStore's $0.99 priced apps, I thought it was a ridiculous idea but when I released my first $0.99 game, I realized the value of mass market selling. I remember selling my first Windows Mobile game for $4.99 about 7 years ago and I'm now wondering if I sold more copies had I priced it at $0.99? Apple has indeed proved to most developers that this "ridiculous" pricing scheme "may" work given the correct factors--one of which is having a centralized store where consumers can purchase apps. While I'm not sure if this will work for WM, I believe its something worth looking at.

5. Create a single device versatile enough for any purpose. While windows Mobile isn't popular for its games, there are dozens of games out there that proves it can be but without proper backing by Microsoft, the direction stops there. IMHO, Windows Mobile should not only target corporate users, yuppies and users who can afford, they should also reach out to mass market consumers and gamers alike and design mobile devices that can cater to all these needs as much as possible. I believe WM should work closely with hardware manufacturers in order to achieve this.

6. Listen to what consumers and developers say. The best way to get feedback about your products are from those who use and integrate it in their daily lives, right? There are a lot of true and tested testimonials out there where Windows Mobile can benefit from if they only take advantage of these. Listen!

Whew! I hope I didn't sound like I was ranting. No offense to anyone. The points above are based only on my experience as a developer and consumer. Feel free to share your thoughts. :)

The case of the bloated Macbook battery

Photo borrowed from Engadget

I know I should've chosen a more "subtle" title for my entry but that's exactly what happened when I looked at my 13" Macbook this morning. I couldn't take a proper photo of my battery because its black and the bloated portion is almost negligible to see so I searched from Google and found out that there have been a lot of similar cases! I've owned like a dozen laptops of various brands already and I've never encountered anything like this. I know that batteries have a lifespan and gets depleted over time but not BLOATED. Now I can't use my Macbook unless its plugged in and I can't work properly. I went to PowerMac this afternoon to get a new battery and they had no stock. What's even worse is that it'll cost me Php 7,500.00 and it'll take around 2-3 weeks before I receive the item if I ordered from them. After all, Php 7,500.00 is a lot cheaper (and less of a hassle) than getting a new Macbook and selling my old "battery-less" one, right? I browsed the Philippine Apple Store online and found out that they ship w/in 24 hours and guess what, it just cost me Php 6,590.00 plus FREE shipping! Sold!

XBox 360: Did Microsoft finally fix the problem?

The Falcon unit and its overheating problem--photo borrowed from Console Games

I've been playing with my XBox 360 Jasper unit for more than 3 months now and I still haven't encountered any overheating problem. Comparing it with my Falcon unit (which is about more than a year old), I've tried playing with my Jasper for more than 4 hours straight without any airconditioning and the unit didn't even show any signs of that dreaded 3RL. Most of my friends said that 3 months is still a short span of time to make any assessments but I have complete faith that Microsoft has finally fixed the motherboard/GPU overheating problem with this new model. This is after all their 3rd version of the XBox 360. I haven't found any reports or sightings on the web about Jasper overheating problems as well. I guess I'll have to post another update after 6 months then. Now if I can only upgrade my unit's HDD to 120GB so I can save my CDs, everything would be tad perfect!

NBA fever

Odom and Bryant savoring their new title--photo borrowed from NBA.com

I'm not sure if its E3 or WWDC or the NBA Finals but there's been a lot of happenings lately that I'm always pressed for time. So little time, so many things to do. Maybe its these three different projects that I'm simultaneously working on? Or maybe because of this huge thing I'm so excited about and I'm planning on launching real soon? Or maybe because I wanted to do a lot of different things lately that I'm having a hard time balancing everything and squeezing each one within my limited 24 hour clock. At any rate, I'm glad I'm able to allot 30 minutes of my day updating my blog--its an amazing outlet.

Anyway, back to the post's title--congrats to LA Lakers and all the fans for bagging the 2009 Finals title! I honestly stopped watching Game 5 after the 3rd quarter because its starting to feel like I was watching a non-Finals game. The Magic players seemed like they weren't on their game today. I still think Cleveland would have done a better job. Wait, I almost forgot I'm a Celtics fan! :)