Click to enlarge

Anawiki Games has announced the release of Runes of Avalon 2. The puzzle-driven game offers a unique combination of match-three and Tetris mechanics. It features over 100 challenging levels, 6 power-ups, 4 powerful spells, two minigames, and three game modes with many variations within a quest.

"We're always looking to build better games that challenge and provide fun for players," said Roman Budzowski, CEO of Anawiki Games. "After receiving tremendous feedback from players around the world, we found the perfect combination of original game-play, yet retained the familiar puzzle mechanics Runes of Avalon is known for. It's sure to immerse players in beautiful art, and vivid effects."

Runes of Avalon Story:
Welcome to the once glorious empire of Avalon, now clouded by the darkness of the evil Morganna's spells. After defeating Morganna in an intense magical battle, Evelyne, the protector of Avalon, must now cleanse Avalon from the dark curse with her Rune Magic. Help Evelyne to complete her mission and find her way home by matching the runes, encountering new locations, new spells and new challenges along the way. With three game modes and some unexpected twists, Runes of Avalon 2 takes you to an enchanting world of magic and mystery you won't want to leave.

• Mac OS X 10.3.9 Tiger or later
• Universal Binary for PowerPC and Intel
• PowerPC G4 with 128 Ram or Mac Intel
• 47 MB Hard Drive Space

Follow the links below for more information.

Runes Of Avalon 2

Anawiki Games

Click to enlarge

Frogames has released an Easter update for Penguins Arena - Sedna's World, is offering a promotional discount code for the game, and has unveiled a new Penguins Arena map editor tool. The update introduces a Custom Map mode to allow players to use maps made with the new editor tool

The "Easter update" brings a great new “Custom Map” game mode. It's designed to allow you to play custom maps created by players. Players can design their own levels using a new free Frogames tool: the Penguins Arena Map Editor (this tool is available even for non-licensed Penguins Arena players). Then they are free to share and distribute their custom maps ... and have new challenges!

And it's Easter! Frogames won't offer you chocolates but an unexpected present: "Easter", a 30% promotion on Penguins Arena, available until April the 6th! During the buying process you just need to enter the following coupon code : "Easter". For our European friends it brings the price of the game under 10 euros.

A new game mode, a new free tool, a 30% coupon code ... what are you waiting for? Go and try the demo of Penguins Arena! Penguins Arena is available for Windows and Mac OSX.

Peguins Arena - Sedna's World

Frogames

Click to enlarge

Hothead Games recently announced official pricing for the upcoming first installment in the downloadable, episodic game series Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness. The episodic game will debut at $19.95 for the Windows, Mac and Linux versions of the game. It currently scheduled to launch simultaneously on all platforms this spring.

Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode One is expected to offer gamers five to ten hours of gameplay and work on current generation computer hardware, making it compatible with players' schedules and pocketbooks.

Some of the game's features:
- Uncover the game's mysteries through classic point-and-click adventure gameplay
- Team up with Gabe and Tycho in a deranged alternate universe set in the 1920s
- An authentic Penny Arcade experience conceived by the creators themselves: character and world concepts and the entire game script created by Mike "Gabe" Krahulik and Jerry "Tycho" Holkins
- Dynamic turn-based combat system uniquely combines the best traits of RPGs with adventure gameplay
- Outrageous enemies, satisfying team-up moves and hilarious over-the-top mayhem
- Track your player statistics and unlock new abilities and then carry your skills from episode to episode

Hothead Games

Penny Arcade

Penny Arcade Adventures

RPG Vault has posted a new interview with GameTank CEO Jake Parks about the upcoming Guitar Rising. Unlike other rhythm games, Guitar Rising will make use of real guitars connected to a computer via a guitar-USB adapter, a microphone, or directly to the sound card. The game will teach real guitar skills, ramping up the difficulty as players improve their abilities.

Jonric: How do you actually play? What are the mechanics, and how does the scoring work? What changes as you advance through the difficulty levels?
Jake Parks: Guitar Rising cues the player as to what note to play by using a guitar tablature that moves across the screen. Each of the six individual rows tells him or her to play one of the six strings, and there is a number inside the note that tells which fret to press down. So, for example, if a note is traveling down the top row with a number '2' inside it, it is telling you to play the top guitar string with the second fret pressed down.
Scoring is similar to most other rhythm games. The player gets a certain number of points for hitting a particular note, multiplied by a combo factor.
As the difficulty levels increase, the player is exposed to greater note density (you have to play more notes in a given time span), as well as higher frets, more jumps between strings, and more challenging solos.

Jonric: What's your situation with respect to licensing music? How many songs can we expect to see in the demo and the full game?
Jake Parks: We anticipate the demo will have about five songs, and the finished product at least 30. The exact numbers will be determined during licensing discussions we're now having with three top music publishers. We hope to have an announcement about this in the next few weeks.

RPG Vault: Guitar Rising Q&A

Guitar Rising

Search for other Mac games news stories or browse our Mac Games News Archive.