Category: Game Development

The wheels are in motion! 2014 was a bit of a roller-coaster for HitPoint. We hit some pretty awesome goals, but faced our fair share of challenges and hardships as well. The upheaval at Microsoft earlier this year, particularly in their gaming division, hit us hard and was a major impetus for our decision to seek new VC funding. Thanks to members of the Western MA investor network River Valley Investors and the Springfield Venture Fund created by MassMutual, as well as other generous investors, we were able to secure enough funding to finish off the majority of our work-for-hire projects and focus the team exclusively on HitPoint-owned games through early 2015. This is both a liberating and challenging position for us to be in, but we’re embracing it with full enthusiasm and determination.

Our Facebook games are doing well and part of the team is heads down on making sure those experiences continue to be enjoyable to our players. If you haven’t checked out Seaside Hideaway, Jane Austen Unbound, Relic Quest, or Fablewood, the latter of which we recently released on iPad, give them a go and let us know what you think.

We have also licensed a mobile game that we developed for DeNA called Hell Marys, which we will be re-releasing this January. The game will be available on Android and iOS devices. The content is definitely a departure from most of the other game genres we’ve worked on, but it has been a great experience for the team to work on something different. While it’s definitely a game for mature audiences only, we’re excited to be tackling new territory and giving it the HitPoint level of polish it deserves. Look out for another post in January when we launch.

The most exciting part of our new focus, which the majority of the team has been working on the past few months, is our “next big thing”. More details will be forthcoming in February when we announce the new product at Casual Connect Europe in Amsterdam, but for now suffice it to say it’s a very ambitious project we think is going to make a big splash in the mobile space next year. We’re all thrilled to be working on it and are doing our best to make it a fantastic user experience.

Finally, with the new year and our new direction come two other big changes for HitPoint. The first is our new logo, which is changing for the first time since HitPoint was founded in 2008. Check out the new hotness in this post’s featured image above, courtesy of one of HitPoint’s amazing artists Steve Forde. Our new branding really captures the playfulness and accessibility of our games while still paying homage to our old-school gaming roots, and we’re really happy for it to be a new way to get the HitPoint name out to the world.

The second major change is our relocation (again!). After just over a year and a half in our current space in Amherst, which we’re all quite fond of, we’ll be moving to a new office space located in the heart of Springfield’s financial district at One Financial Plaza. It’s a fantastic space with an amazing view that you can see somewhat in the photos below, which show our new suite as it is right now, under construction. What’s even more amazing is that all of this construction is happening over the course of just a couple of weeks, and we’re all set to move in this weekend! Thanks to our investors at RVI and MassMutual for making this a reality. Everything is happening very fast, but being able to start the new year in this awesome new space is a great way for us to kick off 2015, which we think will be a huge year for HitPoint. Stay tuned for more announcements as we bring all of these threads together next year to make some amazing products.

HitPoint’s most recent independent game Fablewood is now available on iPad! Previously free to play only on Facebook, Fablewood is a hidden object game in which you banish evil from famous fairy tale stories you know and love, and build up your own enchanted forest. Now you can play for free on your iPad.

Our team has done an amazing job getting the game running smoothly on Apple’s tablet, and it looks fantastic on devices with retina displays. Fablewood is available on iPad 2 and higher, and requires iOS 7 or higher. You can check out some screen shots below.

If you’re already playing on Facebook, or want to play on both your iPad and your computer, Fablewood will keep all of your game data synced between your devices. Just sign into the app with Facebook on your iPad!

So if you’ve got an iPad, grab the game from the App Store and try it out. If you like it, we’d be super appreciative if you gave it a good review! If you don’t have an iPad, you can still play on Facebook, and visit our community page to leave your comments or like Fablewood. We hope you enjoy it!

HitPoint has just finished up development on a new mobile game based on the DreamWorks movie How to Train Your Dragon 2. The game, Dragons Adventure: World Explorer, is currently available as a free download on select Windows 8 tablets and Windows Phone 8 devices. Dragons Adventure is the result of a collaboration between HitPoint, DreamWorks, and Microsoft, and has been in the works for several months. The game has several pretty unique and innovative features, mostly centering around incorporating location-based, live data into an augmented reality experience.

In Dragons Adventure: World Explorer you play as Hiccup or Astrid and fly dragons from the DreamWorks franchise over a 3D-rendered map of the real world styled to look like Hiccup’s home island of Berk. Local points of interest show up in the world as medieval buildings. It’s not uncommon to fly over a Starbucks transformed into a medieval mead hall, or a Hilton styled to look like an ancient viking inn. You’ll even see different numbers of vikings milling outside those locations based on how popular the venue is. The game also factors in the time of day and weather conditions of the place in the world you’re traveling through, so while it might be a bright sunny afternoon outside your house, you can navigate your dragon though a rainy evening in Paris.

The most interesting part of Dragons Adventure though can only be experienced on a road trip. Hop in the car, select a destination, and the game will use your device’s GPS to plot a route out for you, complete with a viking ox-drawn cart that travels along with your car as you drive (just make sure you’re playing as a passenger!). Along your route you’ll receive quests to rescue stranded vikings, pick up lost sheep and bring them back to your cart, attack evil viking towers to free friendly imprisoned dragons, and explore the area around you to find new local hotspots you may not have known about. Device sensor controls let you fly your dragon by tilting the device, just as if you were holding Toothless’ reins yourself! Check out some screenshots from the game below, and download it here if you’ve got a Microsoft Surface or Nokia tablet, or here if you’ve got a compatible Windows Phone 8.

Developing Dragons Adventure was both a huge challenge and a great experience for the HitPoint team. It’s the first real-time 3D game of this scope that we’ve developed, and there was no shortage of technical hurdles we had to overcome. The biggest challenges came from the integration of the various real-world data streams into the game. The world map uses data pulled from HERE Maps to paint Berk-themed textures onto the game world’s terrain. The viking buildings that pop up throughout the game are populated based on local point-of-interest data from Foursquare. The local weather is obtained from a Weather.com live feed. Getting all of these features integrated, playing nicely with each other, and incorporated into the game’s quest design was no small task, but I think HitPoint did an amazing job pulling it off, and so far those that have played the game have had similar opinions.

We’re definitely proud of the product we were able to build with DreamWorks and Microsoft, and hopefully there will be some more interesting updates to come down the road. In the meantime if you’ve got a compatible device go check the game out and let us know what you think!

HitPoint is extremely happy to announce the release of our latest game, Fablewood. Free to play on Facebook now, Fablewood is a hidden object game where you banish evil from famous fairy tale stories you know and love, and build your own enchanted forest! We’ve worked incredibly hard over the past several months to make Fablewood as beautiful and fun as it is, and we’d love for you to try it out and give us your feedback. Just click the image above to go to the app and play.

Please visit our community page to leave your comments, and click the like button if you have fun playing! Don’t hesitate to invite your friends either. We’ve got a ton of new content in the works for Fablewood that we’ll be releasing over the coming months, including numerous hidden object scenes from famous fairy tales. We’re also working hard on an iOS version of Fablewood that will be available early next year, so you’ll be able play Fablewood on the go!

If you’re still looking for a reason to check it out, take a look at some of the amazing artwork our team created for Fablewood below. There are tons more of these fantastic hidden object scenes, beautiful town buildings, and quirky items you can use to build and decorate your enchanted forest. We hope you enjoy playing the game as much as we had fun making it!

A new adventure in Disney Fairies: Hidden Treasures is now available. In North of Neverland, Tinkerbel’s ambitious plan to journey alone to the island north of Never Land soon runs into trouble when she finds herself stranded in the wilderness without pixie dust. Will Tink be able to find the Mirror of Incanta in the old pirate shipwreck in time to save the Autumn Revelry?

HitPoint has continued to put our all into making each new episode even better than the last. We definitely appreciate your feedback, so let us know what you think of it. Just purchase the new adventure from the game’s main menu and enjoy. Stay tuned for the next and final adventure of this season in the coming months!

The latest chapter in Tinkerbell’s adventures, titled Once in a Blue Moon, is now available for purchase in HitPoint’s and Microsoft’s Disney Fairies: Hidden Treasures. Follow Tinkerbell on her quest to create the perfect scepter for this year’s Autumn Revelry celebration. We worked very hard to make this new adventure super fun and would love to hear what you think of it. Just purchase the new chapter from the game’s main menu and enjoy. More adventures are on their way, so stay tuned!

The final chapter in Adera’s first season, Episode 5 – A New Light, is finally available! This episode is by far the largest and most epic in the series. We’ve spent a ton of time polishing it and making it awesome for you, so if you’ve played the previous episodes be sure to grab this season finale and let us know what you think. To gain access to the new episode just update your app if you already have it, or download it from the Windows Store if you’re a new user.

If you’re new to Adera, this release also features a Collector’s Edition which gives you access to all 5 episodes of the season at a discounted price and an in-game strategy guide for each episode. It also includes some extra features in Adera’s main hub, including special backgrounds, wallpapers, music tracks, concept art, and a gag reel. This is a great deal for newcomers, and is appropriately discounted for those who have already purchased some episodes of Adera.

It’s been a long ride since we started work on Adera, but the long hours and hard work have paid off greatly. We’re very proud of how the first season and especially Episode 5 has turned out. We hope you feel the same way. At present, plans for a second season have not been determined, but we will definitely keep you posted as new information comes in. In the meantime, we hope you enjoy the first season!

For those of you that like hidden object and town-building games a la Gardens of Time or Farmville, try out HitPoint’s own Seaside Hideaway on Facebook. Play hidden objects games to unlock items you can use to help restore a sleepy seaside village into its former glory. Build up your perfect seaside getaway and help your friends build up their own. You can visit your friends’ towns and challenge them to see who has the better eye for spying things. It’s free to play and a lot of fun. Just hit the Play Game button on the community page. Try it out and let us know what you think!

Also, here’s some insider information for you. HitPoint is hard at work bringing Seaside to iOS! We hope to have it in the App Store by early fall. So if you like Seaside and you own an iPad or iPhone be on the lookout for an announcement from us about Seaside being available on your mobile device soon!

One of HitPoint’s original games, Guardians of Magic HD, is now available in the App Store for iPad. A beautiful and captivating puzzle adventure, Guardians represents the hard work of a great team at HitPoint doing what they do best. The charming art style and thoughtful gameplay make Guardians a perfect addition to your iPad’s game collection. Here’s an excerpt from the store description of Guardians‘ premise:

“Amanda finds herself alone in her grandfather’s house after his funeral. While lamenting the passing, a voice calls out that thrusts her into a secret world she never knew existed. For centuries, the Guardians of Magic have protected a hidden realm, and her grandfather was one of them. Now, the Guardians face a technological threat from Amanda’s own mentor, Dr. Talbot Magus. To stop him, she must discover her grandfather’s secrets and learn to use her own unexpected magical talent. But will it be enough to save the Guardians of Magic?”

Head over the the App Store and grab Guardians for a great price. If you don’t have an iPad, the game is still available to play on PC and Mac from Big Fish Games. Try it out and let us know what you think. We hope you enjoy playing it as much as we enjoyed making it!

A new chapter in Tinkerbell’s adventures is now available for purchase in HitPoint’s and Microsoft’s Disney Fairies: Hidden Treasures. HitPoint worked very hard on the new adventure Saving Spring and would love to hear what you think of it. Just make an in-app purchase from the game’s main menu and enjoy. More adventures are on their way, so stay tuned!

The fourth and newest installment of Adera, Tower of Visions, is now available for purchase in the Adera app. Just update Adera from the Windows Store and launch it to purchase the new episode. We’ve been working hard making great content for this episode and we think it’s paid off. Let us know what you think, and be on the lookout for the fifth and final episode of Adera’s first season, coming this summer!

A brand new e-book is now available in the Barnes and Noble Nook store chronicling the past of Adera’s protagonist Jane Sinclaire. Penned by R.H. Stavis, who helped conceive the back story of Tomb Raider’s Lara Croft, Adera: The Soul Stone takes a look at the events leading up to Jane’s perilous and fantastical journey in Adera, the episodic puzzle adventure game on Windows 8. HitPoint is excited to have the lore of Adera enriched by Ms. Stavis, providing more color and texture to our narrative team’s creation. If you have a Nook device or app, grab Adera: The Soul Stone and check it out for yourself.

HitPoint’s latest game for Microsoft Studios, Disney Fairies: Hidden Treasures hit the #1 spot in paid apps today in the Windows Store! Congrats to the team for all the hard work; it payed off. If you’ve got Windows 8 and haven’t checked it out yet, grab Disney Fairies from the store and let us know what you think!

For those of you with little ones, HitPoint’s latest Windows 8 game is now available – Disney Fairies: Hidden Treasures. Help Tinkerbell discover her hidden talents at her new home in Pixie Hollow. Another team of talented people at HitPoint put a ton of work into making this a great game, and we’re very proud of the way it turned out. If you’ve got Windows 8 let your kids have a try, or play it with them. You can purchase it here. Let us know if they enjoy it!

The latest installment of Adera is available now for purchase! If you already own Adera just update your app in the Windows Store and you’ll be able to purchase Episode 3 inside Adera on the episodes page. As with Episode 2, you’ll need an Xbox Live account to make the purchase. It’s free to create one if you don’t have one.

Episode 3 was a lot of fun for us to work on, and we’re excited about how it has turned out. We hope you enjoy it and let us know what you think. If you like it we’d love it if you rated Adera in the Windows Store. Also please check out Adera’s Facebook page and post any feedback you’d like us to hear.

If you’re having any troubles purchasing episodes, or with the game in general, please check out Adera’s support forums on the Xbox support website. If you don’t see your issue addressed please post and someone will get back to you as soon as they can.

Thanks again to everyone that’s enjoying Adera so far. We hope this new chapter will pull you deeper into Jane’s exceedingly intriguing and perilous journey. We’re hard at work finishing up Episode 4, so be on the lookout for it as well in the near future!

Today HitPoint Studios released a new version of one of our original games, Words in Space, which is available for free in the iOS App Store here.

Words in Space has somewhat of a history at HitPoint. The first version of Words in Space was a browser game created by Christopher Gendron, and is still available to play here. It was a cross between Scrabble and Tetris with a cute outer-space theme and was a lot of fun to play.

HitPoint decided to bring the game to iOS and I had the pleasure of working with Christopher on a redesign of the game for that platform, which HitPoint released in 2011. That version of the game is still in the App Store as well, now under the title Words in Space Classic.

The newest iteration of our title is the result of a lot of hard work by some more people at HitPoint, and we’re all very proud of it. The new version adds multiplayer features and a great new look and feel to the game. Please check it out, challenge your friends and others to see who’s the fastest speller, and above all let us (and everyone else) know how much you like it!

The next exciting episode of Adera is now available for purchase in the Windows Store! Just grab the free update to the app and launch the game to purchase the next installment from within the app. If you don’t have an Xbox Live for Windows account, you’ll need to sign up for one to purchase the episode – a free process that can all be done in the game. Just click the download button on the Episodes page to get on your way.

Episode 2 was another challenge for the Adera team, but we’re all very proud of the way it turned out. You’ll be introduced to some new and interesting characters, explore more of the visually stunning world Jane has stumbled into, and solve many more mind-bending puzzles to help Jane on her way. We’re currently hard at work on Episode 3, which should be available shortly after the holidays. We hope you enjoy this new chapter, and let us know what you think of it!

Just a friendly reminder that tomorrow, October 26th, Adera Episode 1 will be available for free in the Windows Store if you upgrade to Windows 8 (just $40). If you’ve got a Windows PC, why not upgrade and check it out? 🙂 It’s been a long year or so since HitPoint started work on it, but it’s turned out very well and we hope everyone likes it. It has lots of great reviews already from beta-adopters of Windows 8. Check it out and let us know what you think. We’re hard at work on Episodes 2 and 3 right now. They’ll be available in the next few months for a small price. Enjoy!