1）据The Next Web报道，Yahoo!Japan与GREE日前宣布达成社交游戏开发合作协议，这项合作有助于提升GREE手机游戏服务的知名度，同时又能让Yahoo!Japan（完全独立于雅虎公司的实体）获得更广泛的手机用户群体。

Yahoo-Japan-and-GREE(from yseeker.com)

2）据gamasutra报道，Zynga日前宣布收购November Software（游戏邦注：该工作室于2011年由前LucasArts和EA开发者创立），其收购对象包括人才、跨平台3D引擎（游戏邦注：据称该引擎支在移动设备上的帧率为60帧/秒），以及一款运行效果堪比主机产品的免费动作游戏。

November Software team(from venturebeat.com)

November Software代表Szymon Swistun表示，他们希望突破社交及手机游戏局限性，为喜欢动作战斗游戏的玩家创造出色的“中核”游戏体验。

3）据gamasutra报道，任天堂总裁岩田聪最近表示，公司旗下的Miiverse（针对主机游戏的社交平台，运行于类似平板电脑的硬件设备GamePad）的设计也离不开纸质原型。

paper wii u(from gamasutra)

该公司委托Kyoto社交传媒公司Hatena展开了大量的Miiverse设计工作，当时Wii U基于平板电脑理念的GamePad尚未成形，但Hatena UI设计师Kazuyuki Motoyama却需要了解Miiverse的整体感觉，因此就使用简单的纸板制作了原型。

观察者认为这一理念也适用于游戏开发项目，开发者应该使用手头的任何可行工具（无论是纸片、HTML网站甚至是免费的UDK、Unity拷贝版本）制作原型，以便节省预算。

4）据《太阳报》报道，今年64岁的石匠Ken Howe创造了一种新墓碑iTomb，这种科技墓碑植入了一款依靠太阳能运行的iPad，支持死者亲友在上面发布照片以及来自葬礼网站的其他媒体内容。

ipad-grave(from gistexpress.com)

这种墓碑上还覆盖了一种防护罩以免iPad遭遇风吹雨打。这种墓碑上的iPad成本是659英磅，石头造价则是900英磅，当然订购者也可以选择269英磅的iPad Mini来缩减成本。

5）据insidesocialgames报道，Alpha Dog Games最近向iOS平台推出《Wraithborne》这款动作冒险游戏。

Wraithborne(from insidemobileapps.com)

Alpha Dog Games工作室由Nick Riley（联合创始人及设计总监）、Jeff Cameron（技术总监）和Shawn Woods（美术总监）创办，这三人已有多年的主机、网页及社交/手机游戏开发经验，他们希望为玩家所在的各个平台引进AAA级游戏体验。

该游戏采用Epic Games的虚幻引擎技术开发，目前在苹果App Store售价2.99美元，支持运行于iPhone、iPad和iPod Touch。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

1）Yahoo! Japan and GREE team up — Yahoo! Japan and GREE are joining forces to codevelop social games. According to The Next Web, this is a great deal for both companies because it raises’s awareness of GREE as a mobile gaming service and gives Yahoo! Japan (which is a totally separate entity from Yahoo! Inc.) access to a broader mobile audience.（source：insidesocialgames）

2）Zynga hopes to change its image with a 3D mobile action game

By Frank Cifaldi

Among the complaints analyst and investors have been lobbying at Zynga over the past year or so are two big ones: that it hasn’t expanded its audience much beyond traditional social game players, and that it’s behind the trend in transitioning away from the web and onto mobile devices.

The company that FarmVille built is hoping to alleviate both of these concerns with one big acquisition. On Friday, it announced that it acquired November Software, the Mill Valley-based developer formed in 2011 by console game developers from LucasArts and EA.

With the buyout, Zynga acquires not only November’s talent, but also a high-performance cross-platform 3D engine (November claims it pushes 60 frames-per-second on mobile devices) and the first game to show it off: Battlestone (pictured above), a free-to-play action game that is a much closer resemblance to a console game than something you’d traditionally see Zynga’s name attached to.

Expanding social and free-to-play games to reach more traditional video game players is rapidly becoming an arms race for most companies in the space. In a blog post that says “mid-core” four times, November Software’s Szymon Swistun said of the announcement that “We know that players, like us, love a good action combat game, so we want to push the limits on social and mobile games, and at the same time create an experience that fits around their schedule.”（source：gamasutra）

3）Sometimes, paper is your best prototyping tool – even if you’re Nintendo

By Frank Cifaldi

- Nintendo president Satoru Iwata marvels at the simplicity of an early prototype of the Wii U’s tablet controller (pictured above).

Nintendo is banking on its Miiverse — a sort of mini-Facebook with a layer of console game makeup — to draw players to its new Wii U console. It was a new concept, running on a new type of game hardware with the tablet-like GamePad.

Nintendo contracted fellow Kyoto social media company Hatena Co. Ltd. to do a lot of the Miiverse design work. The Wii U’s tablet-infused GamePad hadn’t been finalized yet, but Hatena UI designer Kazuyuki Motoyama felt that he needed to know how the Miiverse would feel in his hands, so the company developed the basic feel of it with this simple cardboard prototype.

“We wouldn’t know how it felt unless we could actually hold it, but since we didn’t have one, the only thing to do was make one,” Motoyama explains. “In the middle of the night, I cut pieces of cardboard and glued them together.”

I think there’s a game development lesson here. You can prototype just about anything with the tools available to you, on just about any budget. Whether it’s paper or an HTML website or even a free copy of UDK or Unity, you shouldn’t let available technology hold you back from trying new ideas.

If paper prototyping is good enough for a feature embedded in millions of Nintendo-made consoles, it’s probably good enough for you too. （source：gamasutra）

4）Any last requests? Yes, I’d like an iPad in my gravestone

by Zen Terrelonge

iTomb will allow loved ones to swipe away the tears and relive happy memories on an embedded Apple tablet.

We’ve covered eerie mobile concepts before, what with former App Of The Day: iFuneral acting as something of a digital will that enables users to plan their wake.

Now, The Sun reports that 64-year-old stonemason, Ken Howe, has developed the iTomb.

The tech-riddled gravestone sports an embedded iPad that runs on solar power, enabling loved ones to post photos and other media from the burial site.

What about rain and unsavoury characters? Well, the iTomb comes with a protective cover to fight off bad weather and crooks.

iPads cost up to £659, while the stone will set you back £900 quid. Of course, buyers could always look to reduce costs by buying a £269 iPad mini.

Howe made the iTomb in ten days for a charity and said: “People are asking for more creative headstones. With a bit of tinkering it could become a viable headstone very easily.”（source：mobile-ent）

5）Wraithborne launches on Apple App Store, developed by video game industry veterans

Scott Reyburn

Developer Alpha Dog Games’ Wraithborne was released today for iOS devices, which is an action adventure title that’s made by game industry veterans and powered by Epic Games’ Unreal Engine.

The Canadian-based studio is led by co-founder and design director Nick Riley, tech director Jeff Cameron and art director Shawn Woods. The three have 35 years of combined experience making triple A console, web, mobile and social games. Riley describes Wraithborne as a “whack-and-smash” game in a dark fantasy setting, featuring gesture-based controls.

“We’re trying to bring the promise of the triple A experience on to the platforms you play everyday,” Riley tells Inside Mobile Apps.

To do this for mobile, Riley says developers have to “wow” users with the graphics quality and gameplay that’s not dumbed down, like something a player is used to playing on console. At the same time, Riley added that games have to be playable in digestible chunks, unlike a 40-hour long console game.

One of Wraithborne’s core gameplay features is a “Challenge Mode” that utilizes Apple’s Game Center to track achievements and a global leaderboard. The game also has in-game currency, but is not tied to real money.

Alpha Dog Games, which originally planned to self-publish Wraithborne, signed a publishing deal late in development with Crescent Moon Games, which has published other mobile games, including Topia, Pocket RPG and Aralon.

Crescent Moon Games was a publisher Alpha Dog Games had their eye on, according to Riley, but Crescent Moon Games wasn’t a be all, end all publisher to land for them. Alpha Dog Games waited until the game was shippable before they began talking to publishers, and after they released their teaser trailer, publishers were knocking on their door, including Crescent Moon Games.

“We probably could have gone to publishers earlier than we did, but we wanted to wait and hold off,” Riley tells us. “We found that publishers were coming to talk to us now, not the other way around, which is nice. It gets nervous when you don’t go to them earlier because it’s not like you’re being funded by a publisher the whole way through, but we think we’ve hit on something good by waiting.”

Wraithborne is powered by Epic Games’ Unreal Engine technology, a graphics engine used in many console games and mobile games such as Chair-developed Infinity Blade. Riley says the team considered other game engines but they had previously worked with Unreal before, so they found it much easier to get the level of detail and graphic quality they wanted faster.

Wraithborne was self-funded through a combination of loans and personal funds.

The game is available now in the Apple App Store for $2.99 and supports iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.（source：insidemobileapps）