Sword & Sworcery Is Hauntingly Beautiful iPad Fun

The first time we saw Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP was just after the 2010 Game Developers Conference, when it was an oddly beautiful iPhone exclusive. Now the game is out for the iPad, with a new iPhone version to follow next month, and the scope of the project has grown fairly significantly. After less than 12 hours of availability, it became the fourth bestselling paid app on iTunes.

Ars recently sat down with some of the minds behind the game at Capy Games’ downtown Toronto studio to discuss how the game came to be, what it was like dealing with the early hype, and why the game just might change the iOS landscape for the better.

Sworcery first came to the attention of the gaming world when it won the Achievement in Art award at the 2010 Independent Games Festival. This helped the game gather some early buzz, but also set expectations for the final release quite high.

“It was obviously a huge positive for us,” Kris Piotrowski, the creative director at Capy Games, said of winning the award. “It was amazing to get that kind of feedback so early in the project. And also, because of that, we had the game on the floor and at the IGF pavilion. It was really amazing to see people digging just the simplest form of the game, which was just going for a walk through Craig’s paintings and Jim’s music, without a heck of a lot of what you’d call traditional gameplay there. Even so, the majority of the people seemed to enjoy that kind of experience.”

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Rating Nintendo 3DS’ Baked-In Freebies

Nintendo 3DS arrives in the United States this Sunday bearing gifts. While the new glasses-free 3-D gaming platform doesn't include a packed-in game, the handheld does come with a variety of apps baked into its memory.

"We spent a lot of time and energy on the pre-installed applications," Nintendo 3DS producer Hideki Konno told Wired.com earlier this month. Konno says the applications were designed to get other people watching and interacting with the 3DS, which is why many of them feature augmented reality, motion control and photography.

We've already reviewed the 3DS hardware elsewhere on Wired.com, but the volume of features, games and applications that come with the $250 gaming gadget is so great that we're taking a deeper dive into its capabilities.

Read on for Game

Life's impressions of all the built-in 3DS software and hardware frills, so you'll know what to spend time with first when you finally get yours.

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Square Enix Doubles Down on Mobile Game Biz

Final Fantasy publisher Square Enix has set up a studio for mobile game development, the company said Wednesday.

Hippos Lab, launched earlier this month in Japan, will be dedicated to cranking out “high-quality” games for smartphones. The company did not reveal any of Hippos Lab’s current projects, but said more information would be available soon.

Square Enix has been developing for Japanese mobile platforms for quite some time now, releasing games like Final Fantasy IV: The After Years and Chaos Rings for phones. In recent years, the company has also remade several old classics for worldwide release on iPhone, including the first two Final Fantasy games and Secret of Mana.

The most recent addition to Square Enix’s mobile library, a remake of Final Fantasy III, will be released Thursday for iPhone and iPad.