Saturday, November 23, 2024
Archived Post

What you should play this weekend: Tengami

Occasionally you’ll find a game that’s so beautiful you want to play it slowly and intentionally, savoring the developers’ work. Tengami (US$4.99, universal for iOS) is one of those games.

It’s an adventure puzzler that has your character exploring his world, one scene at a time, unlocking secrets and moving ever forward. There’s no clear objective other than discovery itself, and that’s a big part of Tengami’s appeal. Walk, look, and see what’s next. Here’s our look at Tengami.

Looks

To call this game pretty is a laughable understatement. The premise is that you’re in a Japanese pop-up book come to life. Each “page” unfolds to reveal charming cut-outs and intricate folds. Paper petals flutter from tree tops. Water “shimmers,” a paper moon glows faintly in the sky and hidden bridges, staircases and more unfold before you…if you figure out how to trigger them.

The music completes the theme with a calming melody that encourages quiet inspection. Wear headphones for this one.

Dead Man’s Draw (universal, free with in-app purchases) is a push-your-luck card game with an enjoyable pirate theme. A lot of people are turned off by games that feature luck as a main mechanic. If that’s you, move along. As for the rest of you, read on to learn more about this simple, fun game.

Looks

It’s not easy to depict a card game on an iPhone. Trying to fit the cards, scoring and other necessary components on that small screen isn’t easy. Blizzard’s Hearthstone is a shining example of the genre done well. The developers and designers at Stardock have also done a great job with Dead Man’s Draw. It can feel a little cramped, but not to the point of interfering with gameplay.

Each player’s hand is displayed at the top and bottom of the screen, leaving a wide-open play area in the center. The pirate theme is consistent throughout, from the music to the art on the cards that look like woodcuts to the beautiful player avatars.

Game play

Dead Man’s Draw is super simple to learn. There’s a draw pile of cards and two players. The deck consists of 10 suits, numbered 2-7. To begin, the active player flips a card and observes its suit and value, or number. She then flips a second card, a third and so on, accumulating points. Each card’s value will be added to your collection and, subsequently, your score.

Read: previous selections for “What you should play this weekend.”

Scoring depends in part on what’s in your collection. Only the highest card in your collection is scored. For example, if you draw a 4 Chest, but already have a 7 Chest in your collection, the 4 is not scored.

Keep drawing cards until your satisfied with the score you’ve accumulated by doing so, or until you “bust.” A bust means you’ve drawn the same card twice in a single turn. If this happens — and it will — all of those cards are discarded and you score nothing. Good day, sir!

It’s time to save some of your hard-earned money with our Daily Deals, featuring highlighted deals for AWT readers, hardware discounts and our own handpicked iOS and OS X sales. All prices are USD and subject to change. Please check prices before you purchase as some deals may expire quickly.

AWT Featured Deal

  • Weather Live [$1.99 → $0.99] Whether it is sunny, cloudy, rainy, snowy or even stormy, Weather Live provides you with beautiful weather scenes that reflect local and worldwide current weather conditions and forecast.

Hardware and Accessory Deals

iOS Software Discounts

  • Beat the Beast [$0.99 → Free] Get Beat the Beast now and lose yourself in a unique and beautiful fairy world. Use a vast arsenal of towers, magic powers and obviously your tactical skills and the wisdom to defend your kingdom’s gates against the beasts.

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  • TightWire [$0.99 → Free] See if you can balance our fearless daredevil across the wire and prevent him from plummeting to the ground! Both challenging and eye-catching, TightWire will provide endless entertainment for only four quarters.

  • Brave Guardians TD [$1.99 → Free] Brave Guardians is an epic 3D action fantasy defense game that narrates the story of four heroes (Pepo, Tiko, Zagi & Rapu) — each with extraordinary abilities.

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  • Better Fonts Pro – Now With Cool Font Keyboards For iOS 8! [$4.99 → Free] The easiest way to directly put in your better fonts. Do it fast, and do it all the time!

  • KeyTouch [$0.99 → Free] Unlock, lock and enter your password on your Mac with Touch ID.

  • Neuroshima Hex [$4.99 → $2.99] Neuroshima Hex is a fast paced, tactical board game where up to 4 players (human or AI) lead their troops to victory.

  • Neuroshima Hex Puzzle [$2.99 → $0.99] Still not tired of scraping evil machines, shooting raging mutans, facing bloodthirsty gangers and anihilating human kind – or what’s left of it? So come on and continue your journey in the world of Neuroshima Hex.

  • Eclipse: New Dawn for the Galaxy [$6.99 → $4.99] Alliances are shattering, and hasty diplomatic treaties are made in secrecy. A confrontation of the superpowers seems inevitable – only the outcome of the galactic conflict remains to be seen.

  • Monument Valley [$3.99 → $0.99] Monument Valley is a surreal exploration through fantastical architecture and impossible geometry.

  • EMPIRE: The Deck Building Strategy Game [$2.99 → $0.99] The barbarous tribes who fought amongst themselves for so many aeons are at last able to come together to found a wondrous civilization. Is yours the first of its kind in this world, or one of many? No man knows, but what all men know is that their Empire must not only survive, but flourish!

  • Galaxy Trucker [$7.99 → $2.99] Can you build a space ship from sewer pipes? Are you willing to face meteors, pirates, and smugglers? Can you fly a five-engine ship after four engines have been destroyed? Then you are our kind of trucker!

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  • PDFpen Scan+ with OCR, PDF text export [$6.99 → $4.99] Touch-free scanning with PDFpen Scan+. Use your iPhone or iPad to scan and OCR multi-page documents to create searchable PDFs.

  • Map My Fitness+ – GPS Workout Trainer for Fitness, Step and Activity Tracking [$2.99 → $1.99] Get fit with the MapMyFitness+ community. Log over 600 different types of workouts; record GPS-based activities to view detailed stats; connect with 400+ devices to import and analyze all your data in one place. All MapMyFitness apps are on sale for $1.99.

  • TextGrabber + Translator: OCR recognize, translate and save editable text from any printed material [$9.99 → $1.99] TextGrabber + Translator easily and quickly scans, translates and saves your chosen text from virtually any printed material.

  • Password Manager PRO+ [$2.99 → $0.99] Most simple, secure & powerful Password Manager App used by thousands of users everyday.

OS X Software Discounts

  • Paint – Draw With Customizable Brushes [Now free, down from $2.99] Paint is a painting app designed for OSX.

  • Softmatic QR Perfect [Now free, down from $9.99] Softmatic QR Perfect is fast, cheap and loaded. All you need in one package.

  • 1Password – Password Manager and Secure Wallet [On sale for $34.99, down from $49.99] 1Password creates strong, unique passwords for every site, remembers them all for you, and logs you in with a single click.

  • Money by Jumsoft [On sale for $14.99, down from $39.99] Money by Jumsoft presents a powerful, comprehensive, and intuitive system designed to help you keep control of your financial life.

Steve Sande
the authorSteve Sande
Steve is the founder and former publisher of Apple World Today and has authored a number of books about Apple products. He's an avid photographer, an FAA-licensed drone pilot, and a really bad guitarist. Steve and his wife Barb love to travel everywhere!