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Even more coverage is rolling in about the newly and fully announced Transformers: Earth Wars mobile game from Hasbro, Space Ape and Backflip - with new reveals too in the form of Windblade and Slipstream as playable characters! The interview with Space Ape founders John Earner and Simon Hadesnippeted below from Gamesindustry.biz also offers insights into the game type, the build the companies have been using, and the companies' commitment to the project and aesthetic choices. Check it out, and head here for the full thing!
The studio [Space Ape Games] has, so far, made its name as something of a specialist in what its founders call 'build and battlers', the mid-core asynchronous multiplayer genre established to such great success by Supercell and Clash of Clans. It's already had two successes in the genre: Samurai Siege and Rival Kingdoms, but now Earner and Hade are looking to take the next step with the attachment of a globally recognised IP in the shifting shape of Hasbro's Transformers for its new game Earth Wars.
"I guess you could say it's the modern take on classic Transformers, where the characters are bigger, chunkier and more colourful, rather than the [Michael] Bay-style, which uses more organic characters," says product owner Chris White when I ask if they're tying Earth Wars to the Bay-directed films. "It works very well for us because they're very readable when they're small."
[...]
"Talking to a lot of the Transformer fans we have over the course of development, it's amazing how many of them haven't played any games in this genre before," says White. "Whereas you'd expect everyone to have played Clash of Clans, they actually haven't, so we're introducing them to the genre for the first time. One really interesting thing we saw during development, when we were getting Transformers fans in, is that, as a developer you've obviously seen a lot of games, a lot of tutorials. You start to think that everyone must know how this works, that you need to teach the player something different. Actually, there's tons of Transformers fans out there that don't know the mechanics of the genre, or indeed any game.
"It's easy to be cynical, having played tons of games in the genre and developed a few of them, but then you realise that maybe in some areas you've actually gone a little too far with the innovation and you need to dial it back a bit and give people something they're more familiar with."
[...]
"Transformers is huge in Asia," Earner corrects me. "We have the rights to launch the game globally, we secured the rights via Takara to introduce the game to Japan, which is the only territory where Hasbro doesn't have the rights, but there's a long and productive relationship between the two. So it's not so much that we don't have plans for Asia, it's that Asia requires an extra amount of detail. We won't go live in those countries on day one because we want to put real time into it.
"A pleasant surprise for me, having spent a week in China last year: we always knew that China had become excited about what we call 'Bay-led' Transformers. Bay-led is a country or person whose introduction to the brand comes from the recent films. France is Bay-led, believe it or not, as is China. We suspected that, as a result they might not recognise some of the characters, such as Grimlock. But the mid-core player on the coast of China is also male, 28-45. They know this stuff and they love it, so we're extremely optimistic about it, but like you say, they're a different market, you can't just come at it straight."
Fellow Seibertronians, we have been informed that Bob Budiansky is going to be doing two shows in the near future. He will be at the Super Megafest in Massachusetts April 8-10, and at the East Coast Comic Con in New Jersey April 16 & 17.
So what do you think? Are you excited, will you make it a point of going to either of these shows now? Sound off in the comments below.
It never ends! Like a vast, predatory bird, the grandfather of Transformers comics fiction has just been announced by TFNation as joining the list of guests attending the new UK convention in August, in Birmingham, UK. Check out more info on Simon Furman below, and be warned: you won't believe the things he can do now...
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We are honoured to announce that Simon Furman, one of the most significant contributors to Transformers and its rich mythos, will be joining us for our inaugural convention!
It really does feel right for somebody who has worked so hard from the Cybertronian's earliest days be here with us to celebrate the bold new era of TFNation.
We would keep you here all day if we were to list Simon's complete Transformers credits. Much of his work comprises the bedrock of the comics, animation and films we all enjoy today. Simon's writing has stood the test of time and his work is still held in high regard today. He has worked for the successive publishers Marvel, Dreamwave and IDW.
Simon has also lent his comic talents to many other titles including Scream, Thundercats, Alpha Flight, Doctor Who, as well asco-creating Dragon's Claws and of course a certain Freelance Peacekeeping Agent who Marvel keep teasing may return...
In addition to his writing, Simon also served as an editor for Marvel UK and Titan Books.
Away from comics, Simon has been involved in the world of animation from Beast Wars, X-Men: Evolution, Dan Dare to most recently serving as both Head Writer and Script Editor for CITV's The Matt Hatter Chronicles.
Over the course of the weekend, you will have the opportunity to hear more about this storied career from the man himself and in much greater detail.
From the gang of writers over at the Machinima Transformers Combiner Wars animated series, we have an update on the status of the scripts and writing for the show: all scripts are in, and Eric Calderon, George Krstic and FJ DeSanto have been shooting some behind the scenes material, probably for both promotion and extra additions to the show! No news yet on the animation side of things, but we will update you as soon as we know.
The TRANSFORMERS are coming to Machinima. In an agreement between Machinima and Hasbro, the TRANSFORMERS world will be brought to life on the many2many programming service that kicks off right smack in the middle of The Combiner Wars. The series introduces new lore and all-new characters that, combined with the characters fans have known for decades, will bring the TRANSFORMERS storytelling in a new direction as the Machinima series will deliver raging action and signature humor to legions of TRANSFORMERS fans.
Fellow Seibertronians, hot on the heels of the Meet the Autobots video - which featured clips from Transformers RID Season2 - we get our first teaser trailer for season 2. Although, it can only be watched on YouTube, we also get an interesting post on Kirk Van Wormer's Twitter account that seems to simultaneously announce and confirm a season 4 of RID, despite there being no news of a season 3 at this point - we have screencapped the message below, in case of changes from on high.
Are you excited for season 2 of RID? Even more so for another 2 after that? Check out the trailer, and leave your thoughts on this announcement in the comments below.
While helping Universal Studios Hollywood with their press release earlier today, I discovered various content from BotCon 2014 wasn't posted on Seibertron.com. Sometimes after these events, there's so much wrap-up that certain content gets overlooked. Old news or not, I felt like it was a disservice not having this content available to all of you so I decided it was time to post it before it fell to the wayside again. Better late than never, right? Besides, what Transformers fan doesn't love hearing Stan Bush performing "The Touch" one more time!
Without further ado, here's some additional Seibertron.com content from June 20th, 2014 at the Transformers Fan Event at Universal Studios Hollywood, in which many BotCon 2014 attendees participated. Enjoy!
Seibertron.com's YouTube Channel Videos
Transformers The Ride 3D at Universal Studios Hollywood Transformers Fan Experience
Stan Bush performs "The Touch" and "In This Life" at Universal Studios 2014
Hasbro's Dinobots panel from Transformers Fan Experience at Universal Studios Hollywood 2014
Visual designer and illustrator Augusto Barranco has tweeted some old concepts for the Transformers: Robots in Disguise series, as the second season rolls out its carpet and teasers (which you can see here). Namely, we get a look at Micronus, Optimus Prime's Yoda-esque mentor and envoy of the Primes, and some more defined art of Ped. Check them out mirrored below!
Via a number of sources across the internet, but converging to an interview that director Michael Bay (and John Krasinski) sat through with Dean Richards of WGN Radio, we have news that the new instalment in the Paramount Transformers live-action movie series will see a return to Chicago during the filming process. While they don't mention too much, Bay did say:
he plans to be back in Chicago sometime later this year. The film is scheduled for a 2017 release, with plans already in the works for two more "Transformers" movies after that. Billion-dollar revenues will do that.
"You going to blow up Michigan Avenue again?" Richards asks Bay in his interview (at the 5:40 mark). "No, we're gonna find a new street," Bay said. "But I love Chicago." And then, referring to some of the city's systemic problems, including gun violence, added dryly: "We'll come in with some Transformers to even it out."
Check out the full interview - which is about 13 Hours - here.
Issue 49 of The Transformers will be released next week, with More Than Meets the Eye catching up later in the month - but the latter's writer James Roberts has opened up the letters page again in occasion of the 50th issue, through a special email address.
If you would like to feature in this landmark issue of one the most acclaimed Transformers comic book series, just follow the instructions below, and hurry: the deadline for submission is this Sunday 17th January!
In next month's issue, in celebration of MTMTE reaching its half century, we're resurrecting the letters page.
This is an invitation to get your name in print and to share with other readers your thoughts on the last four years - favourite issues, stories, characters, character moments, you name it. Best of all would be an insight into what MTMTE means to you.
There's no word limit as such, but the shorter your correspondence, the more we can fit in - and we reserve the right to edit letters for space. You don't have to give your actual name, but we need some kind of identifier - your twitter handle, for example.
But listen -- time is of the essence. You only have until Sunday night to send something through...!
A special email has been set up - mtmte50[at]gmail[dot]com - so that your letters are immediately recognised as being intended for publication in issue 50. Sending something to that address indicates that the message is 'For Publication'. After Monday, once the pages have been finalised, the email account will be cancelled.
We can't promise to print every letter, but we'll squeeze in as many as we can.
Feel free to spread the word beyond Twitter to TF sites etc.
If you're moved to write, thank you. MTMTE would be nothing without its fans, and this is a chance to recognise and celebrate that.
Courtesy of the Transformers Collectors' Club envoy TF_JW, we have an update on the guestlist for the 2016 edition of BotCon. One spider leaves, another one crawls in, as Alec Willows cancels his appearance, but Venus Terzo confirms hers - check out more info below!
An update for the BotCon 2016 guest list:
Alec Willows has unfortunately cancelled his BotCon 2016 appearance. Well, I should say that it is unfortunate for those attending the show. For Mr. Willows, his cancellation is due to his earning a part in a theatrical play which will still be running by the time BotCon rolls around. So congratulations to him!
In his place will be the other Beast Wars spider. Venus Terzo, the voice of the original Blackarachnia, will be in attendance during the weekend and ready to sign all of those brand-new Takara Tomy Legends Blackarachnia figures!
Head over to the guest page on BotCon.com for the updated guest list.
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