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'Icebreaker: A Viking Voyage' is Rovio Publishing's First Game

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Apr 12, 2001
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Last month, Angry Birds-maker Rovio announced that it would soon be releasing "the best new games" on its own publishing label called Rovio Stars. Its first game, Icebreaker: A Viking Voyage was released today.

Our sister-site TouchArcade has posted a brief item about it, saying their "initial impressions couldn't be more positive".
In brief, the game revolves around you saving frozen viking trapped in ice. With a mixture of Slice It! [$0.99] Cut the Rope [$0.99 / $3.99 (HD)] you'll need to slice away parts of ice, and hopefully have them land in your viking ship where another viking will break the block if it's small enough. The iOS version is greatly enhanced over the original Flash concept, with many environmental obstacles that interact in a clever way.

As you can see in the trailer, there's a ton of variety in the puzzles in the game. We'll have a full review shortly, but in my 10 minutes of playing it my initial impressions couldn't be more positive. Definitely give this a look if you've ever remotely found yourself enjoying physics puzzlers.
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Icebreaker: A Viking Voyage is available for the iPhone and iPad for $0.99 and $2.99 respectively. [Direct Links: iPhone, iPad]

Article Link: 'Icebreaker: A Viking Voyage' is Rovio Publishing's First Game
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2013/06/20/icebreaker-a-viking-voyage-is-rovio-publishings-first-game/
M

Mr.damien

Guest
if I understand this news, it's a game published by rovio but not from rovio right ?

So basically they want to become the new chillingo.
 
HiRez

HiRez

macrumors 603
Jan 6, 2004
6,250
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Mr.damien said:
if I understand this news, it's a game published by rovio but not from rovio right ?

So basically they want to become the new chillingo.
Click to expand...

Yeah. I wonder what cut they are demanding from the developers. I can see the draw of it, if you're a small developer, you will likely get a huge advantage in marketing with Rovio's name and marketing machine attached to it.
 
mopatops

mopatops

macrumors regular
Jul 21, 2011
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Poor that the developer isn't mentioned in the article. Nitrome for anyone who's wondering
 
A

Astroexe

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Feb 19, 2012
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Netherlands
This simply looks like a mashing of those apps listed in the article.. I thought gaming on iOS was about innovating and pushing the boundaries of puzzles and light entertainment?

This is just like all those early failed platform knock-offs back in the day.
 
thefourthpope

thefourthpope

Contributor
Sep 8, 2007
1,391
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DelMarVa
Astroexe said:
This simply looks like a mashing of those apps listed in the article.. I thought gaming on iOS was about innovating and pushing the boundaries of puzzles and light entertainment?

This is just like all those early failed platform knock-offs back in the day.
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Makes me want Lemmings.
 
Manderby

Manderby

macrumors 6502a
Nov 23, 2006
500
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Ah, those were the days where such games were new and fun and you knew that a new game by nitrome meant hours of joy and all you needed was Flash and played the game for free with some minor advertising, could download the soundtracks from independent composers, was reminded of the golden days of arcade games...

Now, we need a 1000$ device or a 2000$ contract, pay for every new levelpack and get overthrown by ads.

Who would have thought that, I mean, nobody, right? It surprised us completely, now did it? Such high quality. And so innovative. HTML5 is so owning Flash. I'm speechless.

Indigestion. Good word.

Yes, I'm jealous on Rovio making money. :mad:
 
H

hunttis

macrumors newbie
May 1, 2013
4
0
Manderby said:
Ah, those were the days where such games were new and fun and you knew that a new game by nitrome meant hours of joy and all you needed was Flash and played the game for free with some minor advertising, could download the soundtracks from independent composers, was reminded of the golden days of arcade games...

Now, we need a 1000$ device or a 2000$ contract, pay for every new levelpack and get overthrown by ads.
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I don't know where you live, but iPads in Finland cost about 300 euros (the mini one at least).

The thing is, Nitrome has said that they've started making less and less money with just ad-supported flash games, since the competition is so tough. Adding ads might give them something more, but it would degrade the experience for the user. And obviously they don't want to go under, so unless you're one of those people who are happy that people might lose their jobs, this is a pretty sensible move.

It's not like 89 eurocents or 2,39 euros is going to bankrupt you. There's still that hours of joy in it.

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Astroexe said:
This simply looks like a mashing of those apps listed in the article.. I thought gaming on iOS was about innovating and pushing the boundaries of puzzles and light entertainment?

This is just like all those early failed platform knock-offs back in the day.
Click to expand...

There are no original games (or mostly ideas either, for that matter). They are all refinements of existing ones. And that's how you create great stuff. As soon as you accept that, you're going to be able to enjoy all kinds of stuff a whole lot more.
 
S

Stokjeros

macrumors newbie
Jun 21, 2013
2
0
Manderby said:
Ah, those were the days where such games were new and fun and you knew that a new game by nitrome meant hours of joy and all you needed was Flash and played the game for free with some minor advertising, could download the soundtracks from independent composers, was reminded of the golden days of arcade games...

Now, we need a 1000$ device or a 2000$ contract, pay for every new levelpack and get overthrown by ads.

Who would have thought that, I mean, nobody, right? It surprised us completely, now did it? Such high quality. And so innovative. HTML5 is so owning Flash. I'm speechless.

Indigestion. Good word.

Yes, I'm jealous on Rovio making money. :mad:
Click to expand...

I am always surprised by these types of comments; You talk about playing a game for free for hours. Telling how you loved that. Those developers are not making money anymore, and those models no longer work. and what do you have to pay now? 0.99 cents? and that has become a lot of money all of a sudden? I also don't know where you buy 1,000 dollar Tablets, or 2,000 dollar contracts? but please don't tell me.

What I don't get is peoples perception that 0.99 cents or 2.99 or 4.99 for a game that provides hours of fun is a lot money? you and othe rpeople aparently have gotten spoilt over the years. Do you smoke? 2 cigarettes are more expensive than an Ipad game, Do you ever forget to turn the lights off? that is the cost of an ipad game? I mean the games are cheap! it's as simple as that
 
S

Stokjeros

macrumors newbie
Jun 21, 2013
2
0
Astroexe said:
This simply looks like a mashing of those apps listed in the article.. I thought gaming on iOS was about innovating and pushing the boundaries of puzzles and light entertainment?

This is just like all those early failed platform knock-offs back in the day.
Click to expand...

Do you really mean that? the video looks nothing like an early knock off, it looks like nothing we have seen before. It seems your opinion was formed by the introduction to the video, try to be more innovative next time!
 
Manderby

Manderby

macrumors 6502a
Nov 23, 2006
500
92
hunttis said:
It's not like 89 eurocents or 2,39 euros is going to bankrupt you. There's still that hours of joy in it
Click to expand...

Stokjeros said:
I am always surprised by these types of comments;
Click to expand...

I think, you all misunderstood me. When I say that I watch ads from flash games and download soundtracks, I am supporting the creators directly. Or to speak differently: I generate revenue for the developer and I pay money to the artist. And I defenitely payed more than 2.99 when donating. I appreciated those games and was thankful that there are people out there inspiring me.
 
L

Luckybobby

macrumors regular
Aug 26, 2011
104
0
I loved this game 10 years ago when it was first released. When it was NOT copying any games at all, and I'll love today even if there are some games that are sort of like it.
 
the8thark

the8thark

macrumors 601
Apr 18, 2011
4,628
1,735
autrefois said:
In the headline and lead to the story, yes. But mentioning Nitrome somewhere in the article wouldn't have taken away page hits, would it have?
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Correct. But Nitrome deserve to have their name in the article title. They made the game. They put all the hard work into it.
 
autrefois

autrefois

macrumors 65816
Oct 22, 2003
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I’m autrefois+, the same as autrefois but with a +
the8thark said:
Correct. But Nitrome deserve to have their name in the article title. They made the game. They put all the hard work into it.
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I understand what you mean and certainly think that the developers deserve credit for their creation and work. But I don't the article isn't about Nitrome. The article is about the fact that Rovio, which is a world-renowned publisher because of Angry Birds, is now releasing games made by others.

While I feel that leaving the developer's name out of the article is either an unfortunate oversight or important omission, I completely understand why it wouldn't be in the title. That's not the important part of the story. There are thousands of developers and hundreds of thousands of games. This one is being mentioned because of its association with Rovio, not because it was developed by Nitrome.

I see that Touch Arcade's more in-depth story (the story this article on MacRumors is referencing) mentions Nitrome in the very first sentence, so they are given prominent credit. So I think the purpose of this brief article on MR is just to tell people to go to TouchArcade to find out more.
 
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