What the other Mac game developers have in their crosshairs this year
Valve and Blizzard might get a lot of attention, but they don’t have all the games. We called up some of our favorite Mac-friendly developers to inquire about their plans, and found that they were just as excited about this year as we are.
TransGaming has already been busy in 2010, delivering Mac versions of popular Electronic Arts games Dragon Age: Origins and The Sims 3: High-End Loft Stuff expansion, as well as Ubisoft’s The Settlers 7: Paths to a Kingdom. According to Paul Nowosad, vice president of corporate marketing and business development, the shift toward same-day releases on PC and Mac is making Macs more appealing for gamers. “No longer is Mac gaming only about casual downloadable content or the latent releases of PC titles,” says Nowosad.
The Settlers 7: Paths to a Kingdom
TransGaming’s latest Mac releases--The Sims 3: Ambitions expansion and Nancy Drew: Trail of the Twister--launched simultaneously across platforms early this summer. Trail of the Twister marks the teen detective’s first appearance on Mac, but she won’t be investigating the “Case of the Missing Mac Games” anytime soon!
“Just because you prefer some of the advantages the Mac has over the PC, you shouldn’t be punished by not having amazing games to go along with it,” says Marc DeForest, CEO of S2 Games. All three of the company’s titles have been released on the Mac, and the latest is the just-released Heroes of Newerth, a five-on-five real-time tactics game based on the immensely popular Warcraft III map Defense of the Ancients.
Indie developer Soldak Entertainment has been pumping out action-RPGs for the Mac since 2007, and its latest, Din’s Curse, follows the template set by genre pioneers like Diablo, but with randomly triggered environments and layouts. “Things are constantly changing and evolving based on your actions, the actions of the people in the town, and even the monsters’ actions,” explains founder Steven Peeler. “Every single playthrough is pretty unique.” Next up for Soldak is an expansion pack, tentatively titled Din’s Curse: Demon War, in which your character finds himself fighting off the warring demons and undead.
For well over a decade, Feral Interactive has partnered with publishers to bring their top titles to the Mac, and surprise, surprise, they’re still at it. After last year’s smash shooter BioShock, Feral delivered Rome: Total War, an excellent real-time strategy, and its most recent release, Brothers in Arms: Double Time collects two well-received World War II shooters in one package. Peter Cohen, head of marketing, believes the broad range of Mac hardware makes it easy for anyone to play a great game. “Apple is doing a better job than ever of offering powerful hardware that can run games across the entire product line,” he says. “Gaming isn’t something that’s limited to ‘pro’ machines anymore--Mac Mini and MacBook users can get in on the fun, too.”
Mini Ninjas
Feral’s next release this summer is Mini Ninjas, the latest game from Hitman creator Io Interactive. This kid-friendly action-adventure follows a pack of young ninjas as they attempt to take down the Evil Samurai Warlord and his animal henchmen.
Australian developer Brawsome has lent its talents to Diner Dash spin-off Avenue Flo and to point-and-click adventure Emerald City Confidential. Founder Andrew Goulding says the increased Mac support in game engines makes it easier to bring titles to the platform, and helped him while preparing his latest indie game, Jolly Rover. Released in June, it’s a pirate-themed, point-and-click adventure with sharp hand-drawn artwork and hilarious voice acting. Goulding is upbeat about the game’s potential: “Mac users seem to embrace point-and-click adventure, if stats on casual charts are any indication,” he says.
Telltale Games has led the point-and-click adventure genre on the Windows side for a few years with episodic favorites like Sam & Max and Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People, but you won’t need a Boot Camp install to enjoy its hilarious hits for long. Dan Connors, CEO and cofounder, says the company intends to bring its existing catalog to the Mac in the near future, including Strong Bad, Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Adventures, and the first two seasons of Sam & Max. Of course, the third season of Sam & Max episodes, called The Devil’s Playhouse, will continue to unravel over the summer, and the company’s Tales of Monkey Island five-episode series is already available for the Mac.
Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures
Telltale’s next Mac project is Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent, a quirky adventure about a federal puzzle investigator sent to discover what’s happening at the Scroggins Eraser Co. in Minnesota. It’s the first entry in Telltale’s Pilot Program initiative, which will launch single episodes of various new games, and then use sales and player feedback to decide whether to fund a full season of episodes. “We think it allows us to be more diverse and more creative in the stuff that we pursue,” explains Connors.
Hot off the releases of well-received shooter The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena and soccer franchise sim Championship Manager 2010, Virtual Programming CEO Mark Hinton says his company has big plans for the rest of the year: “Mac gaming for Virtual Programming has never been so exciting and so busy.” Looming on the horizon is a Mac version of real-time strategy hit Supreme Commander 2, which launched to solid reviews on Windows and Xbox 360 this spring. Also in the works are celebrated tower defense title Defense Grid: The Awakening, time-traveling first-person shooter Darkest of Days, the Heir to the Throne expansion pack to strategy favorite Europe Universalis III, and ItzaBitza, an edutainment adventure that lets kids draw their own characters and items in the game.
So far in 2010, long-time Mac gaming leader Aspyr has brought ports of The Force Unleashed: Ultimate Sith Edition, Civilization IV: Colonization, and The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition to the Mac. Plus, the company has been re-releasing many favorites via its Gameagent.com distribution portal.
Supreme Commander 2
“We’re working with other Mac publishers in hopes of creating a Mac gaming destination beyond Aspyr,” says Elizabeth Howard, director of digital publishing and business development. She couldn’t shed any light on what to expect for the rest of 2010 from Aspyr, but hints that we’ll hear more once the ink dries on some publishing contracts.
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