Kindle Fire Games Get an Upgrade

[kitsuta]

Kindle Fire Games Get an Upgrade

Amazon is courting game developers with new features and "much more to come."

Although it's currently best known to gamers for running boxed titles [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/115827-Amazon-Valentines-Day-Sale-Puts-30-Core-Games-at-75-Off], Amazon apparently wants to be known for mobile games, too. Since launching the Kindle Fire, a 7-inch Android-based tablet with its own app store, Amazon has been working to entice application developers. Back in April, for example, it added the ability for developers to sell items inside their apps, a necessity for any microtransaction-based game. Now it's courting game developers further with a newly-announced initiative called "GameCircle."

GameCircle adds some key, albeit common, features to Kindle Fire games: achievements, leaderboards, and cloud save games are now all available for developers to use. The new features work much the same as other app stores and platforms; developers add the pre-built features using Amazon's custom APIs, so the features themselves are managed on Amazon's side. This means that Amazon can expand the features and make other changes without any application updates required.

The systems all look fairly robust, though they're undoubtedly similar to contemporary systems offering the same features. The developers who tested GameCircle during beta - including Triple Town developer Spry Fox [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/features/9751-Bears-are-Jerks-The-Evolution-of-Triple-Town] - had praise for the new initiative. While these systems are pretty much expected as part of any game device, the fact that Amazon bothered to add them means that it's interested in expanding the role of games on its tablet. In fact, Amazon hints in the announcement trailer above that GameCircle may add even more game-centric features for developers in the future.

Source: Gamasutra [http://www.amazonappstoredev.com/2012/07/announcing-amazon-gamecircle-a-new-gaming-experience-for-kindle-fire.html]

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[Evil Smurf]

It's always nice to have some good Kindling available, even in the summer.

Your pun is bad and you should feel bad.

OT: who even has a kindle?

 

[weirdee]

people who are too overwhelmed by the ipad and want someting a little toned down so they can just read stuff on it, and maybe play angry birds

 

[Kapol]

Looks fairly meh. The features seem pretty standard, but the sync sounds good. The main problems comes in where all the games have to be purchased for Kindle and can only be used on the Kindle. That's honestly one of the reasons I didn't get a Fire when I had the chance. You have to buy the games seperately for Fire from general Android in at least some cases. It's really annoying in my opinion.

 

[Omeene]

OT: who even has a kindle?

I do. And I love it. Also, good on Amazon for adding these. 'Bout time.

 

[Draconalis]

That's all good and well... but when can I get a Mtg life counter on my Kindle Fire...

 

[Klagermeister]

This is good. Glad Amazon's taking initiative to give us gamers a better experience.
(Typed this comment on my Kindle Fire xD)

 

[chaosyoshimage]

It's always nice to have some good Kindling available, even in the summer.

Your pun is bad and you should feel bad.

OT: who even has a kindle?

I have a Kindle Fire, but the only games I have are the awesome Dead Space mobile game (Which led me to believe we'd be seeing other similar Android games of that caliber like the Grand Theft Auto games, Max Payne, and that Mass Effect game, but nope), an Asphalt game that takes up too much room so I deleted it, and some casual stuff like Fruit Ninja (Which is surprisingly fun) and a broken version of Tetris. I want to check out some of the RPG's like Eternal Legacy and Zenonia, but I have a lot of RPG's on my 3DS (Well they're all regular DS games) and PSP so I've never bothered.

I mostly just use mine to read comics and books. It'd be cool to be able to play some decent games though...

 

[MetalMagpie]

OT: who even has a kindle?

Just an ordinary Kindle? Pretty much everyone on my train to work. The London commuter population has really fallen in love with them, because it means you can read and turn pages with just one hand (while the other hand holds on to something because - naturally - you don't have a seat). Real books (and iPads) require two hands free.

I love my Kindle, but I'm unsure whether I'll want a Kindle Fire (whenever they actually go on sale in the UK). It seems to lose the two most important things about the Kindle (long battery life and one-handed operation) that makes it so perfect for commuting with.