Welcome to the ShiVa 3D Development Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Welcome to the fourth edition of the ShiVa3D newsletter ...our digest of recent new and forthcoming events at and around Stonetrip.

Since the last newsletter we've been working round the clock on ShiVa3D 1.9 – firstly to ensure that the launch on November 2 went smoothly. Since then, we've been busy updating our documentation and preparing tutorials. I'd also like to thank everyone who attended the two webinars we held to go through the features of 1.9 – if you missed these sessions, we will be posting the recording online.

In this edition, we have news of a special offer for ShiVa developers from Mixamo and an update on games powered by ShiVa3D, and also some very exciting news as we announce our first ever ShiVa3D Awards. See the section in this newsletter and on our website to find out how you can be in with a chance of winning.

Always good to Torque
We'd like to extend a warm welcome to new subscribers who have joined the ShiVa3D community thanks to our special 50% discount offer to Torque developers earlier this month. This offer proved incredibly popular and we were inundated with requests. I hope that all our new ShiVa3D developers are finding the software easy to get to grips with – if you need help, look up our online tutorials – we might well have the answers you need there. Our developer forums are always a good place to go with questions and comments too, with plenty of contributors happy to help out. Or email us at contact@stonetrip.com.

You can get in touch with us too on Twitter – follow @stonetrip – and our Stonetrip Facebook group at www.facebook.com/stonetrip. Come and get talking to us!

Mixamo offers all ShiVa3D users 50% off in celebration of v1.9 release

Mixamo is a 3D animation service that makes it incredibly easy to animate any 3D characters within minutes. Mixamo partnered with Stonetrip a while back in order to give all ShiVa3D users the ability to create amazing animations for their 3D games. Now, following ShiVa3D 1.9's recent release, Mixamo has a new offer for ShiVa3D developers.

In this limited time promotion, you can get 50% off all Mixamo animations from now until the end of December 2010! Simply use the code CELEBRATESHIVA19 when you create your account on the Stonetrip/ShiVa3D page on the Mixamo site or at checkout, and take advantage of Mixamo's powerful real-time customisation and automatic retargeting capabilities.

Learn more about the Mixamo/ShiVa3D workflow at http://www.mixamo.com/c/stonetrip, or contact Mixamo at contact@mixamo.com any time for any questions you have.

Android games in South Korea

South Korea has one of the biggest - and fastest-growing - markets for Android games in the world. Yet you won't find any games on Google's Android Market in South Korea. Korean regulations mean that any game for sale in the country must be ratified by the Korean Game Rating Board, and submitted by a Korean publisher.

Stonetrip is keen that its ShiVa3D developers maximise their chances of being published in as many territories as possible and we can help put you in touch with one fo the biggest mobile game publisher in South Korea, Mobilebus, which is looking for partners outside South Korea. In addition to helping with the testing and age rating process, they also provide a translation into Korean service. Once approved, they will publish third party games in local Android outlets such as the SKT Tstore, the apps store for SK Telekom, which is Korea's biggest (? Rebecka) network operator with 2.6 million customers in 2010, projected to reach 5 million in Q2 2011 with the massive popularity of handsets such as the Samsung Galaxy series, and LG's Optimus range.

If you're interested, contact Mobilebus's CEO John Lee at lee@mobilebus.co.kr for further details.

Games bulletin

This month's selection of new games, all powered by ShiVa3D. We've got two great additions to the iPhone store here, plus a look at the award-winning Crusade Of Destiny, the 3D RPG created using ShiVa3D which has been an international hit on iPhone, Android and Palm webOS .

If you'd like to see YOUR game featured in these pages, just drop us a line at contact@stonetrip.com or get in touch with us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/stonetrip.

Putki Tunnel Addiction
Developer:AlphaPolygon
Platform: iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, HP Palm webOS
Available: out now
More info: www.alphapolygon.com

'How far can you make down this infinite tunnel?' is the question posed by this insanely addictive game. With a pulsating techno soundtrack to keep you focused, you need to see how long you can survive, keeping centred and dodging the obstacles under claustrophobic conditions. One for those with fast reactions who thrive under pressure.

Dexterity
Developer: IndyGandhi (Jeremy Deschamps)
Platform: iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch (Android, HP Palm webOS out shortly)
Available: Out now
More info: http://www.indygandhi.com

Your task in this deceptively simple looking game is to bring the watermelon, seen above rolling down the slope, safely home without it falling into the water. This is the kind of game you can pick up and play instantly, but mastering it will take much longer. Lots of clever touches in the levels and a distinctive cartoon drawing graphic style.

The other Palm d'Or ...

Great news from HP Palm – the handheld platform holder made its PDK Hot Apps awards last month and the ShiVa3D-powered RPG Crusade Of Destiny won a cool $50,000.

Crusade Of Destiny is essentially the work of one man, Jopacus J Parrott, who wanted to create a true 3D RPG for mobile platforms having been inspired by games such as Legend of Zelda.

An experienced artist, programmer and musician, Jopacus wanted to find a way to bring all the different game disciplines together quickly and smoothly. He found ShiVa3d ideal for the job.

"ShiVa3D enabled me to put everything together in my game. In my opinion it's the perfect development engine because it allows you to do almost everything from within the interface without having to leave the engine. You write code and you can instantly run it from within the engine which reduces development time very efficiently."

Jopacus also found ShiVa3D easy to pick up once he had grasped its basic principles: "It only took me about two weeks to learn how to use ShiVa3D. I knew C++ and Java but had never coded anything in the Lua scripting language before. After two weeks of learning ShiVa3D, using the example tutorials, I was ready to start working on Crusade Of Destiny."

The game was an instant success. First released on iPhone, it shot into the App Store's What;s Hot list within a couple of weeks of launch. On Android it went into the Top Paid category in Android Market back in May, and remains there to this day. On HP Palm webOS it went to number one in the Hot Apps Leaderboard following its release in July 2010; then, last month came the news that Crusade Of Destiny had won the Hot Apps award of $50,000.

You can read more about Jopacus J Parrott's experience in creating Crusade Of Destiny in this case study on the Stonetrip developer site.

ShiVa3D Awards

ShiVa3D Awards
With so many amazing games coming out from ShiVa3D developers over the last few months, this seems like a great time to announce our first ever ShiVa3D awards. Yes, we're going honour the very best games created with ShiVa3D in the last 12 months in a ceremony on Wednesday March 2nd at GDC in San Francisco. The awards are free to enter, so if you have a game which you think will qualify for a ShiVa3D award, read on:

Categories

• Best gameplay
• Best graphics
• Best cross platform game
• Best mobile-based game
• Best browser-based game
• Best serious game

• Plus the Golden Shiva, which will be awarded to the best overall game and will be chosen by the ShiVa3D awards jury – please don't send in an entry for this category.

Which games are eligible
Games must have been published, ie, available to purchase, or download, or play across the web by the general public between January 1st, 2010 and January 31st 2011. In the cross-platform category, games must have been published on a minimum of three distinct platforms in the time period above.

How to enter
There is an entry form on the Stonetrip developer website at http://www.stonetrip.com/developer/awards/, which goes live today. Please fill this in and submit your entry to Stonetrip through the site – the awards are free to enter and you may enter as many games as you like so long as each one has a separate entry form. You'll be asked for some details about the game being submitted and the use of ShiVa3D in its development. The closing date for entries is January 31st, 2011 and a shortlist will be announced prior to the awards ceremony itself.

Awards
The winning games will be announced on Wednesday March 2nd 2011 at an event at GDC in San Francisco – full details of the venue and the ceremony to be announced. Winners will receive a bespoke trophy to honour their achievement.

These details and the entry form are on the website at http://www.stonetrip.com/developer/awards/.

Good luck – we look forward to hearing from you!