iOS gamers… always so smug with their extensive library of amazing mobile games and relative lack of shovelware. Well we’re taking away one huge point from your side! And by we, I mean the fine folks over at The Voxel Agents who just recently released Train Conductor 2: USA onto Android, my personal smartphone OS of choice.

FreeAppADay just took their mission to a whole new level. DIYGamer’s 2009 iOS Game of the Year, Train Conductor — the work of Australian indie devs The Voxel Agents — has gone free on the App Store. One can speculate this will be so throughout the weekend, but it may also be free for a week or longer. The reason for all this uncertainty? Well, simply put, the promotion often runs longer than it is intended. By the looks of it, there is an almost unanimous approval of Train Conductor by those who have played it.

If you enjoy the game, then I suggest purchasing Train Conductor 2: USA for double the awesomeness in quality levels. It’ll be exciting to see what the Voxel Agents come up with next, but for now, get your butt over to the App Store and download Train Conductor.

[The Voxel Agents]

It’s good to know that while The Voxel Agents are concentrating mainly on Train Conductor 2: USA, they haven’t altogether forgotten about the first Train Conductor. After all, it was the Voxel Agents’ first chance to prove themselves — and they did. Now even with the second installment into their series, a new night version of the “Barossa Valley” level is available for the first Train Conductor.

Moreover, the game also supports iOS4 multitasking. Much like its successor, Train Conductor is available on the App Store for $0.99. Both games are exceptionally well-designed, and a purchase is warranted even for the first if you own the second.

Keep up the good work, guys!

[The Voxel Agents]

A month back Arsen posted on Freeplay IGF announcing the inaugural Freeplay Awards, an indie competition running alonside their August festival in Australia. Now, just over two weeks away from the event, the finalists for the competition have been revealed.

Several of our down under developers (and friends) check in as finalists for multiple awards including The Voxel Agents for Train Conductor, Brawsome for Jolly Rover and Farbs for the Captain Forever series. Other stand-outs that we’ve seen before include Alexander Bruce’s Hazard: The Journey of Life (mentioned in our E3 Podcast.)

The winners will be announced during the Freeplay Indie Games Festival 2010 taking place August 14 and 15 at the State Library of Victoria in Melbourne. Congrats to all the finalists recognized, the full list follows:

Best Australian Game

Up Down Ready (Sword Lady & The Viking), Jolly Rover (Brawsome), Colourbind (Finn Morgan)

Best International Game

Bo (Mahdi Bahrami, Iran), TryFail (Anders Højsted, Denmark), Last Hope (Yellow Jam, Brazil)

Best Design in a Game

Up Down Ready (Sword Lady & The Viking), Hazard: The Journey of Life (Alexander Bruce), Train Conductor (The Voxel Agents)

Best On-Paper Design

Epic Adventure (Tobye Ryan), iCrazy Man (Timothy Ryan), Galaqua (Katie Murphy)

Best Art in a Game

Captain Forever series (Farbs), Hazard: The Journey of Life (Alexander Bruce), Doodle Find (KlickTock)

Best Concept Art

Exodus (Fiasco Studios), City Ruins (Evan Raynor), Speed Demon (Catbus Interactive)

Best Technical Innovation

Captain Forever series (Farbs), Colourbind (Finn Morgan), Up Down Ready (Sword Lady & The Viking)

Best Game Writing

Captain Forever series (Farbs), Hazard: The Journey of Life (Alexander Bruce), Transumer (PVI Collective)

Best Audio

Train Conductor (The Voxel Agents), Gamebook Adventures 1: An Assassin in Orlandes (Tin Man Games), Jolly Rover (Brawsome)

Had you read my most recent review, you would know that Train Conductor 2: USA has hit the App Store. But for those who’ve missed the announcement anywhere else, I’m always happy to bring it to you in “news” format. The sequel to last year’s acclaimed and popular App Store masterpiece Train Conductor has received a well-deserved sequel treatment, and this time there’s more pressure.

While the first of the games took place in Australia, Train Conductor 2: USA takes place in, obviously enough, the United States of America. This means that you’ll get to take a trip down to the myriad of hotspots in the U.S. of A and enjoy some good old-fashioned — and also new-fashioned — train conducting. Miami Beach, the Grand Canyon, Nashville, Las Vegas and New York City are all open for business. Gamers are invited to experience new additions to the game including dynamic backgrounds, new gameplay mechanics, and brand new music while coordinating different types of trains: steam trains, electric subway trains, monorails, ghost trains and skull trains.

“We came, we saw and we conquered — Australia. Now the challenge is America! We’ve added so much content to the game that Train Conductor fans will have a hard time putting the sequel down. Beware of extended sessions while at work – you might get fired!”

- Simon Joslin, CEO of The Voxel Agents

This time around, Train Conductor 2 contains integration with Facebook instead of Plus+. While this is visibly a problem in the ratings for the game on the App Store, gameplay remains unaffected. Check out our review of the game. If you find you’re interested, both the first and second iterations of the game are on sale for only $0.99 and they’re both certainly worth it.

The Voxel Agents also mentioned that the iPad version is in the works. We’ll keep you updated as to what happens.

[Buy from App Store.]

E3 is very overwhelming. Surprisingly enough, I spent the first day of my first year at E3 yesterday. Throughout my dive into one of gaming’s most important events — and a good example of the monstrous world that is the video game industry — I got a chance to see and play lots of new stuff I’m sure the mainstream fans have been hearing about. The big names showed off their ingenious marketing ploys, employing charming (shall we say…) booth babes and fast-talkers to promote their extravagantly produced material.

And in the midst of it all, Simon Joslin from The Voxel Agents met up with me to showcase the studio’s upcoming Train Conductor 2: USA, the sequel to my personal favorite iPhone/iPod Touch game of 2009, Train Conductor. Ironically enough, it was Simon’s first E3 as well. But that’s beside the point, which is this: Train Conductor 2: USA is nothing like what I had expected. It improves vastly on every aspect of the original. While my concern is mainly that gamers who aren’t familiar with the first Train Conductor may not be so agile with the new one (although it should be noted, tutorials are available for each level so gamers can feel at ease), Simon was quick to point out the intricacies of the new level designs, and he’s absolutely right.

Obviously enough, all of the locations in Train Conductor 2: USA are areas in the states that are widely known throughout the rest of the world. The Voxel Agents ditched their old habit of progressively making each level more difficult for a newer method. In the sequel, whatever level you play through will start out slow and simple enough for you to catch on. But as that same level progresses, the growing challenge will begin to overwhelm you; this is clearly not the same game we played the first time around, and that’s a damn good thing.

That’s certainly not the only thing that’s new, either. While The Voxel Agents have ditched the charming day and night scheme from the first game, their new levels make up for it. Whether you’re in Las Vegas, coordinating and color-coding purple and blue ghosts (that’s right, NOT trains) to their rightful positions before an evil train conductor can get to them — or in the subways of New York City avoiding pillars and experiencing brain-bending frustration as to how to get by — you learn to appreciate the work of a train conductor much more…although there’s no chance that being an actual train conductor can be half as fun as this. In addition to those two levels, I tried out the Grand Canyon as well. In the Grand Canyon level, players build bridges in order for their trains to cross from one side to another. Most of the trains wait until their bridge is built, but others are in a rush and must be attended to in a quick fashion.

The new artwork and graphic design is something to behold. Dynamic backgrounds and beautifully drawn set pieces lay at the heart of Train Conductor 2: USA. Having revamped the HUD has helped open up a tremendous amount of space for full view. Additionally, Simon’s brother wrote a couple of new tracks for the sequel which I unfortunately did not get the chance to hear.

So what’s the plan for Train Conductor 2: USA? Well, according to Simon the game should be released right before the end of June (29th assuming all goes well), and will be priced at $0.99. Trust me on this one: if you play games on your iPhone/iPod Touch and you don’t own the first Train Conductor, you should get it — if anything, for the preparation to enjoy the fantastic sequel.

My personal favorite handheld/mobile indie game of 2009, Train Conductor, has had some good news come down the pipeline recently in the last couple of months. The wonderful devs behind the release — The Voxel Agents — have been hard at work on new content. But last week’s release of a new level — Australia’s Barossa Valley — to Train Conductor wasn’t enough. Rather, the Voxel Agents have been working on a new game altogether: Train Conductor USA, and that announcement has been keeping me really excited.

While the now five Australian locations are a ton of fun to play through, the idea of new gameplay mechanics within Train Conductor USA‘s two announced locations (as I’m sure more are incoming) — the Grand Canyon and New York City — are looking spectacularly promising.

Make sure to update your copy of Train Conductor and get your hands on that new DLC. As for Train Conductor USA, I’ll work to keep you posted but in the meantime, check out the video below.

At GDC last week, a scheduled meeting with a single iPhone game spawned a crash course in the world of independent Australian game development. In a short span of time, I got my hands on a selection of choice titles that are in different stages of development arising from the land down under. Some projects spawned from government grants, others from their past successes, and all with bright ideas from this unique country.

Jolly Rover

First up was the adventure game Jolly Rover from Brawsome Games. Andrew Goulding, Brawsome Game’s director, gave me a glimpse of the current build of the game. It’s a pirate themed adventure game that uses dogs as the main characters. It’s a four to eight hour experiences with around sixty scenes and twenty five characters. The art is cartoony and enjoyable and a callback to the adventure games of yore.

It’s got a great visual story with interesting characters, and Andrew played some audition clips from the voice actor’s submissions. The actors they’ve picked to voice the adventure are fantastic choices, and should add a lot to the story and it’s world.

To make the game unique, Andrew’s implemented some elements to add replayability and avoid the pixel hunt that ends up in a lot of adventure games. By tapping the space bar, the player is shown all the areas that the main character can interact with, and to further aid the quest, items are labelled in either blue or white text, depending on whether or not they have already been interacted with. It also includes a loot and achievement system, where the player collects crackers as they go. Once they start earning achievements for different actions in the games, they can unlock features such as a developer commentary to shed some light on the creation process.

The game is currently in an alpha state having started development in August 2009, with a beta scheduled for May and a release in June. All the elements I was shown indicate polish and a great-looking adventure, I’m looking forward to the completed product. We’ll be in touch with Andrew as the game nears release.

Train Conductor

Simon Joslin approached me with an iPhone in tow and and information on the game’s pending update. Arsen reviewed the original game extremely positively, even dubbing it his favorite iPhone game of 2009. Not being a mobile game myself, this was actually my first time playing Train Conductor.

For those not in the know like myself, the game is a puzzle game, involving directing trains across multiple tracks to reach their destination. For example, there are three tracks running horizontally across the playing field. A train will enter on the top track and have a number 3 posted, meaning you must drag your finger from the top track to the third track, creating a new path for the train to travel. Then multiple trains start arriving and you must direct each one to its destination without crashing into each other. Our review explains it in even more depth.

But after showing me the basics, Simon broke out the update. While the original game is set across three locations in Australia, the expansion is taking the title to the United States. There is now going to be a survival mode in which players need to last as long as possible, and there are two new playable levels: The Grand Canyon and the NYC Subway.

The Grand Canyon was a five track level split down the middle by the canyon itself with no tracks crossing over. It’s up to the player to connect the trains over the chasm while not crashing into each other and trying to wrack up the highest score for speed and efficiency. For a novice player like myself, this was no easy feat. Sure the trains stop at the gap on their own, but I was moving so slowly to get them to their proper exit point that I wasn’t scoring points successfully. Then moving on to NYC created a new game mechanic. The tracks weren’t broken in the middle, but cement columns blocked paths and tracks could only be crossed in between certain pillars which narrowed the window with which the game could be played. These levels are for a more advanced Train Conductor player and should make people very happy. Not only is the update due out next month, it’s going to be free.

While they weren’t being shown, the map of the USA had a few extra locations outside of Arizona and NY, but Simon indicated to me that these are still under construction. We’ll keep you posted as we find out more about the update and the game’s future.

Raskulls

Halfbrick Studios are no stranger to making games, as their main focus until this point has been working on licensed titles such as Sponge-Bob Squarepants and Avatar. But they have a new independently produced game coming to XBLA called Raskulls. While Halfbrick is much larger than the other developers I met with, I think they still have a place in this discussion of what’s coming out of Australia these days.

Phil Larsen showed off the game by taking me directly into the action. Raskulls is a well animated game in which all the characters have skulls for faces. It’s a racing platformer, in such that some levels you’re jumping and digging your way through the level and others you’re racing groups of NPC characters (or real players once it hits the marketplace). The action is quick and frantic, and you’ll find yourself digging through Tetris-like blocks and using items to boost your speed and efficiency through levels.

The game will feature over seventy levels across three chapters. This leaves a lot of variety for a simple XBLA game and with its fun factor and polish be quite a hit. The controls are tight, the characters memorable, and the action simply enjoyable. I played through the introductory story, the earliest platform levels, and my first race, getting a taste for the variety. You bust through multicolored blocks, you swim through floating chunks of water, and with power-ups you do everything it takes to win a race. All the elements that make a platform game fun, and then some. There’s no exact release date yet, but they’re hoping to launch it in early 2010. By my count…that’s soon.

Gamebook Adventures and Mole

Ben Britten, a figure from Escape Factory, partner at Tin Man Games and developer of the iPhone game Mole: Quest for the Terracore Gem showed me what he’s been working on.

Tin Man Games have created a series of Choose Your Own Adventure books for the iPhone. They’ve already released two titles An Assassin in Orlandes and The Siege of the Necromancer. They’re originally works written just for this series. The next book comes out in May and then they’re aiming to release new ones every four to six weeks. While you’re not directly flipping pages, the book leaves you choices just like the old fashioned books with a “If you want to Y turn to page X” choice structure. Conflicts and fights in the books actually turn into a minigame of dice rolls, which is a nice break from reading and should keep this new form of interactive fiction fresh. While the win or loss aspect doesn’t directly change things, just leave you another “turn to page x if you died” aspect, it does keep things interesting. The books are peppered with artwork and an interesting new application for the iPhone.

Then I got the game Mole in my hands, which is a fun digging game where you’re collecting precious gems and digging through different layers of earth on your quest to find the “Terracore Gem.” You must stay alive by finding pockets of air, and drills found throughout the playing field return you to the surface where you can purchase upgrades to help you on your journey of getting deeper and deeper. It’s a fun digging game that reminds me of a few different things I’ve played on Newgrounds, but fits in the palm of your hand.

Steam Pilot

Last up with a prototype build of a game John Lycette of the Lycette Bros. was working on. He’s a member of the Escape Factory, which is an indie game collective that help each other out on their projects.

Steam Pilot has you piloting a kind of blimp through the silhouetted skyline of an old-fashioned city. The whole game plays in black and white and you travel in a circular pattern around the city picking up pieces and putting them in their proper place, such as a weather vane or a missing ampersand.

The game had very little work put into it at this point, but it was just a glimpse at the art style the Lycette’s are capable of and what is to come. At this point there isn’t much to undertake, just floating up and down and positioning your blimp in the right place to grab things with your claw. There are also birds to avoid who will cause you to drop your cargo. There can never be too many stylish iPhone games, so I’m curious to see what this simple gameplay prototype evolves into.

If you’re one of our readers and own an iPhone/iPod Touch, there’s absolutely no reason for you not to own Train Conductor. With seamless, simplistic, addictive, and downright beautiful gameplay and graphics the game will have you hooked for hours. Currently, it comes at a tender price of $1.99 and while I still think it’s worth it, the Voxel Agents are kind enough to offer the game at 50% off for $0.99. That…is…ridiculously…awesome!

The game has developed a considerable amount of praise, from us at DIYgamer to 24 countries in general as it is now one of the Top 25 Strategy Games in the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Japan, China, etc. simply three weeks after launch. What makes Train Conductor so worth it are: its day and night parallel traintracks–where you will control real trains but also ghost trains; it’s simple and addictive gameplay mechanics; 4 different cities to enjoy in the day and night; an achievements system with Plus+ that will truly keep you playing the game; and sleek graphics and style. Even better, the Voxel Agents are currently working on an update to add an endless play mode.

The sale will occur in the week of January 20th and will go on until January 26. At $0.99, I cannot recommend this title highly enough. Check out our review if you’ve got any doubts. Rock on, Voxel Agents!

I play a lot of games for DIYgamer. Usually, I like them and sometimes I feel indifferent. But Train Conductor, the latest release from the Voxel Agents, is an exception in every way. Flight Control left a huge imprint and games have tried to follow its formula since. But for as much as it laid out a formula, the game was unique and hasn’t been replicated since. Most of the titles that followed the formula added their own flair and surrounded a different type of vehicle, like glpeas’ Carcophony. Who would have thought that traffic control would ever be this fun?

Train Conductor is an extraordinary title on the iPhone/iPod Touch. It breathes excellence in every aspect and deserves to be checked out by anyone that is an owner of the platform. And all of this is before we even start the review! But I’ll get to it now, provided you can promise me you will try it out.