I just got back to the office and found an awesome surprise.
Our recently released game, Rail Adventures for the iPhone, just made it to no. 92, in the Top Paid applications in the US App Store.

This is yet another recognition of the success and quality of the games developed here at exosyphen studios.
We would like to thank everyone for supporting our game, and making this possible.

I always had a passion for trains,railroads, 3D graphics and few other assorted things. I added in some extra details (adventure, horror, etc), and decided to write a 3D game in which you hop in a mine cart and race your way through an abandoned mine (and other nice sceneries), shooting monsters, jumping over obstacles, picking up objects, etc. And yes, I enjoyed the Indiana Jones movies, and specially the race scene on the mine railway

This project allowed me to explore the possibilities offered by the hardware OpenGL acceleration present in the iPhone. I programmed a lot of OpenGL and 3D graphics back when I was still in college. The iPhone has some amazing hardware capabilities, so expect more cool games from us.

There are a couple of cool concepts that were involved in the development of the 3D engine. It was also a research project, so I have taken the liberty to play around with some ideas. The whole 3D scene through which you race, is mostly generated mathematically on the fly. Basically, I have designed a cross section of a 3D mine (scene) model, and repeat/twisted it around a curved track. I had to go through some pen & paper moments to remember most of the math I have studied back in college, but it did work out eventually. You might think that the scenery becomes repetitive, but it doesn’t. There are a lot of other elements that change at each cross-section repetition (pillars, lights, etc). The cool thing with this model is that I can design new levels very quickly, meaning that you can expect a lot of new levels in future updates.

You will also notice something “new” in our games. A lot of 2D art graphics. That is thanks to my girlfriend and her talent in drawing things. I decided to spice up the game a bit with some nice art. Check out the splash image below, which is mostly hand drawn:

Head to the App Store and grab your copy of the game. It’s only $1.99 (as usual, we did our best to keep our prices as affordable as possible)
Here is the iTunes link:

Rail Adventures 3D - iTunes

Also, Hacker Evolution: Untold has been picked up for publishing, by IGN Entertainment’s Direct2Drive publishing service.
We are running a promo with them, so for a limited time, you can order the game and save 50% of the standard price (only $12.50 now).
Click the image below, to order your copy now:

With a slight delay (of 1 week) we have finally released the sequel to the original Hacker Evolution game.
I didn’t wanted to call it Hacker Evolution 2, because the respective numbering scheme is pretty much crappy, and the action of the game takes place before the time of the original game.

Those of you that have played the original game, will notice a lot of changes. We have added some new commands, the target maps are more real and interactive, and the game play itself has changed quite a bit. We have some new concepts as well. For instance, every server you hack, contributes to your global trace by a certain amount. But there is now the possibility to go back to the server and delete the logs.

Also, the way we have designed the levels, has changed a lot. There are levels which require a lot of thinking and balancing to get through (level 4 as an example) a maze of firewalls. You have to hack them in the right order to be able to bounce through the hacked ones and advance to the next ones. The depth of the levels has also changed a lot. You will explore office buildings, houses, entire locations or an abstract global level.

This will be pretty much the last hacker game engine I will develop. Over 6 years have passed since we have released our first hacker game, and it’s time to move ahead and come up with new game ideas. Don’t worry … we are not heading towards the billion polygon-blow-things-up games genre. There are 2 mains reasons to continue to stick around. One is that I will continue expanding the game with new levels, features (freelance infinite play, online multiplayer, etc). The second one is even better. Our next game, which will be the next chapter of exosyphen studios, will be entirely based on the current hacking simulation idea, except that we will take it to a whole different level. All the things you have enjoyed in our current games, will become a small part of a giant and immerse game.

Download and enjoy the game, if you haven’t done so, already…

Exactly 6 years ago, on November the 5th 2002, in a cold autumn morning, after a sleepless night, our first PC game, Blue Sky::Acceptable Casualties was released. It was our first game, and exosyphen studios was officially born.
We came a long way since then and continued coming out with better and better games, and other products.
I would like to thank to all our supporters throughout these years.
We will be here for many years to come, and promise to deliver the same great games.

I would like to thank Jeremy Stride from Terminal Zero, for all his help and support in helping us with our first game, and making it into the independent games industry.

Recently, I have made a small game for the BlackBerry, called : Daughter In The Box. It’s an ancient chinese puzzle.
As many people know this (both developers and gamers), there are 2 versions of each game. A demo, that allows you to evaluate the game up to a certain point, and the full version, which if you decide to purchase, gives you access to all the features and content of the game.

It’s been like these since the first day computer games appeared.
I wanted to innovate and create a slightly different model of distributing commercial games. The scope of the game is to move the pieces of the puzzle, until the biggest piece of puzzle reaches the exit. The “demo” version will allow you to play the game for a maximum of 100 moves.

Here comes the catch. The game can be solved in less than 100 moves, if you are real good, meaning that you get to play the game completely free, if you are real good … as a nice reward for you.

This year I have decided to attend the Games Convention 2008 in Leipzig (Germany). I will be attending as a business visitor this year. I will be in Leipzig 20-23 August. between  Hopefully for the next edition, we will have a booth to showcase our company and products. Since I rarely play games (other than those that I make), this will also be a good opportunity to check out some new games, and perhaps buy a good game to play.

If you are in the area, drop me a line using our contact form. I am more then happy to met anyone of you for a cup of coffee. Also, free licenses for Hacker Evolution (or any other product) will be offered to anyone asking.

Also, I will post some photos and coverage from the GC, just in case you are wondering what you are missing.

I decided to start a blog, to keep everyone posted on what are we up to, and also to publish various bits and pieces that we would like to share with the general public. I hope you will enjoy our blog.