10 Best Android Games of 2014

2014 was the year of games. Whether its a smartphone or a tablet, most of our handheld devices are filled with games more than useful apps. Admit it or not, you must have carried some of these popular games. While searching for best ever Android games of 2014, we come across a huge list which is impossible to describe here in a single post. Therefore, we decided to mention the top 10 based on users’ reviews and ratings.

1. Angry Birds Space (Free)

Pulling back the shooter and releasing a shot on birds. Angry Birds is what all about that. Angry Birds Space also emerged with a same concept, but a new idea to make you feel fresh. Some additional concepts and planet-based environment demands for a different technique from you to win the puzzle.

2. Monument Valley (Paid)

None of the app can compare with Monument Valley, it is a unique and ideal concept. The levels in this game are not just levels, they are the perfect example of beauty. Geometric shapes, colorful maps, rotating ways, etc., which are all against the nature have made their virtual world in Monument Valley.

3. Dots (Free)

Dots is a game that proved that not only graphics can get the users hooked for a couple of hours. Dots emerged with addictive mobile game development concept and minimal-graphics where you are required matching the same colored dots to clear the board and make a space for new ones with a new challenge.

4. Stick Cricket (Free)

It is simple as well as addictive as well as genius game, especially for cricket lovers and if you are not the one, you will soon become a fan of cricket, once you start playing Stick Cricket. The game possesses all things that refresh the memory of real cricket. A bat, a ball, a team, a field, an audience, scores, etc.

5. The Simpsons Tapped Out (Free)

Presentation of The Simpsons Tappen Out is enough to make you more pleasant and distract from your ordinary life. It’s easy with this game to keep on going and unlock the content without paying a dime for it. Rebuilding the springfield will keep you busy and make you feel like an architecture of the whole area.

6. Super Bit Dash (Free)

An endless running game surrounded by a nice looking retro-bow. You can’t stop the character run, but you can control its speed and use many weapons to skip the obstacles. In the case of this game, you will learn how to play the levels and you are required to play the same levels again and again.

7. Whale Trail Frenzy (Free)

The game is enriched with highly-delightful graphics, including black face clouds, smiling sun, blue colored water, and much more. You are playing the role of a baby whale who is passing by the hurdles with extreme courage.

8. Badland (Free)

The game is just like its name, a badland. The environment seems beauty as well as horrifying where a blob is struggling a lot to save its life. As there is a problem, there is a solution also to skip such problems. This is the only concept of this game.

9. Pew Pew (Free)

Pew Pew reveals wireframe graphics and a retro beauty, looks like the old one and modern at the same time. The superb shooter in Pew Pew runs so smoothly with the controls. The whole screen sparks and filled with bright neon colors as the player move on.

10. Plague Inc (Free)

Plague Inc gives you a feeling how you can infect the whole world with your virus. In this game, you are powerful enough to end the world with the help of a small virus. The world will try its best to let down your virus, but you have to accept this as a challenge and try to defeat the same.

As you see, most of the above games are absolutely free to play and free to win. One or two charges you fees, but all of them are high-rated games, so spending behind them is worth. At least you can be sure that you will get distract from your real world, once you get interact with our picks.

Related: Top 7 Wallet Breaking In-app Purchases

Have you spent heap of dimes on Candy Crush?

Candy Crush costs nothing to download, nothing to play and nothing to even win. Still, many have admitted to have lost a heap of dimes on the game. How this could be possible if game not even charge a penny from you to keep it in your mobile and play with it as far as you like.

Every day 93 million people play Candy Crush which leads the company to earn $800,000 daily. These earnings are from players who spend real money to purchase new lives, boosters, playing game continuously, new added levels, etc. So what makes the players stick to the game?

Let’s start with the basics to reveal the mystery. Initial levels of game are extremely easy to play as you have to just match colours which is easy even for a preschooler . Here begins the magic of game to make you addictive. The game lets you win with sovereign ease, giving you a strong feeling of satisfaction. Your brain recognizes your small winnings as your mini rewards and sends a message to your heart, saying that “let’s win the biggest rewards by playing more levels”. This message creates a firm desire in you to play more, win more and reach to the end.

An easygoing game where the player is passing all levels by applying a minimum logic, can’t keep the player hook for a long time. Our mind doesn’t like to win in that much easier way for the couple of hours. Our mind hooks easily with challenges and Candy Crush is what possesses something to challenge us. As we play more, the levels are getting harder and harder, turning our regular wins into occasional wins. At one side, users’ curiosity is going on increasing to win and on another side, Candy Crush makes the winnings hard for them to achieve. A habitual winner never likes to lose, he puts in more to stay on the top and win.

Candy Crush serves you with 5 lives in every interval of 2.5 hours. A curious player skips to wait for hours and pay a real money to achieve the goal. He pays money to get more lives, to play constantly, and to add more levels just to fulfil his addiction.

Besides human psychology, one more thing is there, which makes the mobile game development of Candy Crush Saga a part of users’ addiction. Interactive graphics containing colourful candies and the changing phase of levels with more hardship and interesting notions.

Here is the story of one of the fan of Candy Crush Saga

Upto 66th level, a man never spent a dime for extra lives, extra moves, bombs, etc. But a situation occurs on 66th level which made him spend real money. He was stuck at 66th level for a week, and the minute comes when he was going to win the level, but the lack of moves didn’t let him win the game. Due to few moves, the man was not ready to lose the game and he finally decided to purchase the extra five moves at once only. What’s next? He was already an addictive of the game and its win-win situations, but the harder levels don’t let him achieve the wins easily. By paying real money, the man becomes addicted to unstoppable winning situations. To win each round, he pays a small amount for extra lives, moves, bombs, etc. Finally, the day comes when the man sat to count the total amount of money spent behind Candy Crush and you would not believe the summed upto $236.

Candy Crush Saga is a masterpiece of King Digital Entertainment. The team has clearly understood the human behaviour and made the game on that basis. Game is filled with attractions to delight the eyes and challenging nature to keep the users hooked for a long time. It is one of the most addictive game ever built for mobile and has attracted in-app purchases like no other.

So are you also an addicted candy crusher playing with real money?

Related: 5 “Ugly” Apps With More Than 1 Million Downloads

How to create an infinite 2D map in Unity?

Hello Guys!  Hope you have set your new year resolutions and have gone to the gym on 2nd of jan as well.

Well, it has been quite some time and this was one of the pending tutorials we are yet to discuss. So let us kick off this year with this fresh tutorial on making infinite 2D maps in Unity.

Making infinite maps are a necessity. You must know it as endless runner games are so common these days and earning mindless revenues. They have emerged as one of the most addictive game categories in the app stores. You can create an infinite map in Unity by employing repeated texture and set offset texture. You can loop the texture infinite times to create an infinite map.

Repeated texture will have the same start and end point that creates the perception of an endless loop for the player. You can set the values in the inspector as shown here in this free unity scripting tutorial.

Set the texture type to ‘advanced’, set the wrap mode at ‘repeat’. This makes Unity engine repeat the texture infinite times. Create a material in the project panel set shader to ‘unlit/texture’. Create quad in hierarchy panel and apply the material n quad. After that is done, you need to set texture offset. Refer the unity3d game source code to set the variables to the desired values. You are done.

Hope you enjoyed the tutorial and successfully created your own infinite 2D map in unity. Wish you a great year ahead.

We will be back with more tutorials on 2D development soon. Till then, stay busy and get things done. Cya!

Related: How to create snowing effect in Unity3D using shaders?

Top 7 Wallet Breaking In-app Purchases

More than 90% of apps and games provide in-app purchase today and some of them are ridiculously high. It is like entering into the fair at free of charge and paying for the rides inside. In-app purchases are effective enough to break your wallet for some extra power ups or levels. Mobile game development experts seems to have nailed it and this is the reason almost all games feature in-app purchase options these days.  While most of the in-app purchase are modest in most of the games, some are jawdroppingly high and outright ridiculous.

1. MY LITTLE PONY – Friendship is Magic

• Princess Celestia (a character within the game): £20.06

There is a town within the game named Ponyville where ponies are living. One day Nightmare moon spreads his night at Ponyville, covering all ponies in its darkness. Luckily, a pony named Twilight Sparkle escaped the darkness. Now, it’s up to the player and the Twilight Sparkle to repopulate the Ponyville again. This is possible with in-game currency, which you can avail either by doing activities within the game or by giving your real money. The twist is to finish the game you need the most expensive pony named Princess Celestia, which cost you 430 gems or £20.06. It will take over a year to get 430 gems which you can skip by paying such a high cost for it.

2. Real Racing 3

• Koenigsegg Agera R (a car model): £55.99

No one is unknown of Real Racing series. Real Racing 3 is the one with the beautiful eye-candy visuals and mind-blowing gameplay. Within the series, it was the first game came with the alternatives of different car models. You can select any car to drive, but conditions applied. Some car models will cost you a higher than your budget and the most expensive one is Koenigsegg Agera R with a price: £55.99.

3. Super Monster Bros

• God Mode (extra energy): $58.99

Super Mario Bros was a terrible game with characters looking like Pokemon and sound effects refresh the memory of Mario. Don’t jump to the iTunes store as the game is not available now. Super Mario Bros was a fine game in every manner, but one thing ruins the whole gaming experience: in-app purchases. Every action within the game leads to the occurrence of pop-up, requesting you to confirm in-app purchases. The costlier one was God mode, which you will get when you fail to achieve the task and you have to pay $58.99 to turn your failure into success.

4. Contract Killer

• Nanotech Sniper (a rifle): £64.39

A charming game gives you a chance of systematic murder. You have weapons to complete your task and some additional weapons are given there to increase your capacity. If you are not satisfied with the available weapons and wish to upgrade, you have to pay a real money to fulfil your wish. The most expensive rifle named Nanotech Sniper will cost you around £60.

5. Deer Hunter Reloaded

• Infinite Knives Pack (a gun or a pack of guns): £134.60

Dear Hunter Reloaded had topped the list of being best app of 2012. The game is free, it is addictive, it is adventurous or everything it has to keep you busy. One thing might disturb you within the game is weakness of available free weapons and strength of available costly weapons. The game will grab your attention by letting you know the key advantages of expensive overpowered firearms. Among which Infinite Knives Pack cost you a lot higher than others by Price: £134.60.

6. Gun Bros

• Apathy Bear (a gun): £394

Gun bros is a perfect combination of multiplayer shooting game with attractive graphics and game play. You can purchase everything inside the game using in-game currency – you can earn by playing the game. But the problem is the game makes it difficult for you to earn the enough currency required to purchase extra guns. And the gun named Apathy Bear with a cost 3499 War bucks (in-game currency) will take your years to earn or take £394 from your wallet to save your time.

7. Curiosity – What’s Inside The Cube

• Diamond Chisel (a powerful tool to destroy the cubelets): £47,000

To know the secret of cube, you have to destroy the 2000 layers of the box, filled with 64 billion cubelets. The game will give you coins to destroy the cubelets and lets you collect more coins to purchase tools that help you destroy more. The most powerful tool is Diamond Chisel. It costs as per its capacity, but out of your capacity to pay for. It costs £47,000, in exchange of which you will get 3 billion in-game coins to purchase the Diamond Chisel.

And the winner is Curiosity – What’s Inside the Cube for being the top wallet-breaking in-app purchases followed by Gun Bros at second place. You can continue these games without making any in-app purchases, but the stage or level will come which necessitate the availability of in-app items, tools, characters or anything else within the game.

Related: How to create a trail in Unity3D?

How to make your own augmented reality simulation in Unity using Vuforia?

You get a lot of Augmented Reality in games and probably you should also know how to create one. We have a made a simple and a quick free unity 3D scripting tutorial for you to get started in no time. We are going to make this AR effect using Vuforia.

First, you must update the latest vuforia plug-in from their site and create a custom image of the target from https://developer.vuforia.com . Now download target as a unity package and import the plug-in. Create an empty game object and attach “Image Target Behaviour” script.  Set properties of this script Set type to Predefined, Dataset which give you an image name ,Image Target– select name which one when you will create a target.

Now attach  “Image Target Trackable EventHandler” Script.  In “image target trackable eventhandler “script you will change On Tracking Found method and On Tracking Lost method. Add the game object to the empty game object already created and set it on image target. dd AR Camera prefab in hierarchy panel. check load data set and activate.

Augmented reality is being used by a lot of games to create path breaking games. One of them is Ingress. It is surely one of the best strategy games out there and has been developed by Google. Apart from Ingress, Drakerz Confrontation, Pulzar and many more.

Have a great time learning the tutorial. Next time we would take up a Unity 3D game source code for creating infinite 2D map. Cya!

Related: Make your Christmas merrier with these 12 Apps