With several hundred thousand downloads, Aurora Feint's gamers have been begging for a full-blown paid version of the free-to-play iPhone role-playing game. It looks like they'll be getting it on Friday or next week at the latest. Aurora Feint II: The Arena will set iPhone users back $10, but will include asynchronous massively-multiplayer gaming, leader board rankings, messaging and player walls. The Arena will be the second of three proposed games based on the world of Aurora Feint, according to the developers. "We had an overwhelming response to Aurora Feint: The Beginning and we are thankful for the support of our huge fan base" said Peter Relan, Chairman of Aurora Feint Inc. "The iPhone has created an incredible platform for gaming that Jason and Danielle have taken to a new level with the introduction of an Asynchronous MMO World." No word on what the mysterious third Aurora Feint game will be, but here's a run down on what you'll get for your $10 with Arena:
Asynchronous Head-Head Real Time competition Even though both players are not using their iPhones at the same time, a player can compete as if the other player is playing in real time, head-head. This is completely different from turn based non-real time competitive play, and is accomplished by "summoning persistent ghosts" that persist in the world and can be challenged by other players even when the ghost's player is not actually on their iPhone. Playing against a ghost is exactly like playing in real-time against a real player, with real-time interaction between challenger and ghost. World Newsfeed All players see a continuous stream of real-time events happening in the World all the time, as a ticker on the bottom of the iPhone touch screen. Touching an "interesting" event in this ticker takes you to a new place in the world called the Tavern, where players can conduct "asynchronous" chat with other players in the world, propose duels, share strategies and compete for leader board rankings. Player Walls Each player gets a wall where other players can leave comments and challenges and suggestions, which in turn become events in the Tavern.
"We've raced to be the first Asynchronous Mobile MMO, or AMMMO, specifically designed for "distractable" environments such as the iPhone. Game play is bursty, interruptible, and you don't know exactly when to expect your friends to be online. Yet even our casual gaming fans wanted massively multi-player capability and told us they would pay for it: so we built this AMMMO World and are thrilled by the positive feedback we've received in the beta cycle." said Jason Citron and Danielle Cassley. Now the only question is: Do you buy Aurora Feint II: The Arena now, wait for Puzzle Quest in December or pony up $20 for both?