Tag Archives: game

DexIQ, Spicy Pony

DexIQ Updated!

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DexIQ Ver 1.1 (screen 2)

DexIQ 1.1 Screenshot

While the Spicy Pony team is hard at work on their new concept (Crooked House) they’ve found time to update their first release, DexIQ. The original DexIQ presented a unique challenge among iPhone games: Two games played simultaneously and geared towards challenging both your IQ and your dexterity.

The updated version improves the existing test/games and adds a whole new DexIQ challenge – new games in a new test package. These screenshots I’ve uploaded to my flickr account will show you some of the new games. But you’ve got to try it to ‘get it’ – trust me when I say you’ve never played a challenge game like this.

Hit these links:
DexIQ Home
DexIQ on App Store

DexIQ

Insane in the Brain Game

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Lobotomy Christmas

Insane Children Christmas

Merry Christmas from the Insane Children and Spicy Horse! Ever wonder why the Insane Children are insane? Mad looks, twitchy fingers, exposed brains – all symptoms of playing too much DexIQ!

Dan Kricke over at Appolicious provides details about this challenging new brain game in a recent review:

DexIQ’s hook is that it tests not only your IQ, but your dexterity, by making you play two different games at one time, with the screen split down the middle. It’s the iPhone equivalent to patting your head and rubbing your stomach at the same time.

Dan goes on to give DexIQ a 5 out of 5 rating and closes by saying:

I can’t stress enough, if you’re interested at all in puzzles and games that activate the brain, you should be putting DexIQ onto your iPhone as we speak. It’s a little short on the available amount of challenges, but for under $1, you absolutely cannot go wrong.

Yoyo over at iPhone Footprint says of DexIQ in a recent review:

I don’t think I’ve had so much fun going through an IQ test, probably because it has the game tag attached to it. So at times I am squashing bugs on one side while running away from a ghost on the other. Or maybe I would be calculating sums while floating through clouds simultaneously.

Our little brain game also scored a 5 out of 5 rating in that review!

News about DexIQ and the launch of Spicy Pony has spread far and wide: Blue’s News, Avault, Buzzapp, Videogame.it and Hybrid (Korea).

The Spicy Pony team is already working on improvements to the original challenge – expect a release sometime after the New Year. In the meantime, be sure to check out the brain game everyone is going insane for.

DexIQ on the app store.
DexIQ homepage.
Spicy Pony homepage.

PS – be sure to comment on things you’d like to see improved in future versions. We’re listening!

Featured, General, Spicy Pony

iPhone Developer “Spicy Pony” Launched

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Spicy Pony Logo

Spicy Pony Logo

Quick on the heels of news that the iPhone is gaining traction in China, Shanghai-based Spicy Horse gives birth to a mobile division aptly named “Spicy Pony“. Last week the Pony quietly released its first app – the unique brain trainer “DexIQ“. This week it makes official its entry into the iPhone arena with an eye towards developing entertainment, game and social apps for the Asian and Western markets.

To celebrate we’re making DexIQ FREE for a limited time (weekend of the 18th, December ’09).

Like many others, I was using an iPhone in China long before China Unicom’s official launch of the handset (October 30, ’09). Before the launch, conservative estimates put iPhone penetration in China around 1.5 million – some say as many as 3 million. But these are “gray market” phones, meaning they were sold in Hong Kong then brought into China, jail-broken and resold.

China Unicom iPhone sales hit 100,000 as of last week (December 11th, ’09). At that rate they’ll sell over 600,000 phones per year – and that’s without added momentum from price reductions, new features, killer apps, and the diminishing appeal of gray market phones. I’m going to be non-conservative here and guess that official iPhone sales will have surpassed 1 million units by this time next year. Things that will help drive iPhone sales for China Unicom:

* Young Chinese see cell phones as fashion accessories and love to update every 3 to 6 months.
* Most high-end cell phones here are the price of the iPhone (Chinese youth and professionals have been spending 300-800USD on phones for several years).
* Unicom is offering amnesty for gray market phone owners – allowing them to switch to legit accounts while gaining access to 3G.
* Better and faster network performance from anywhere will gain importance as people see their friends leveraging such access.
* Rumors abound that Unicom will unlock WiFi before long, when that happens watch out!
* More and cooler China-specific apps will drive interest in the device (as happened in the US).

For me, the biggest hurdle in switching was that I had to change my cell phone number. In China numbers are a big deal – everyone loves 8’s (very auspicious) – so phone numbers, license plate numbers and the like are chosen carefully and coveted. Fortunately, there’s little interest in 6’s, so I was able to secure a sweet ‘666’ number. Now that I’m on the new network I couldn’t be happier. It’s fast, reliable and price competitive – especially when compared to the so-so performance I was getting with my iPhone on China Mobile’s GPRS network.

For Spicy Pony, the rapidly expanding Chinese iPhone market is a phenomenal boon. Our studio and expertise are perfectly aligned to address the new Chinese and existing Western markets. It’s an exciting time to jump into the fray. We’re going to leverage our talents against development of original concepts for China and the West – and we’re cooking up a big license-based game I’m sure everyone will find quite wonderful.

Keep an eye on the Spicy Pony site for details and updates.

Check out the new Spicy Pony Website!
Check out the latest Spicy Pony game DexIQ!

And remember, DexIQ is FREE for a limited time. Enjoy!

DexIQ

Chinese Review of DexIQ

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DexIQ Practice Select Screen

DexIQ Challenge Select Screen

Read my first review of DexIQ in Chinese this morning. Here’s an excerpt (translated by Google Translate):

“DexIQ” is a very innovative game, the iPhone screen split in half, left and right side were a single game, while the right-hand man at the same time the player will need to manipulate both sides of the game. I just started can control, behind the barriers in the brain and responsiveness is really a test fails to the same as the name of the game, DexIQ in the English dictionary, and there is no vocabulary, Dex for the people who used to play the game should be very familiar with yes Dexterity (agility) and abbreviations, while the IQ intelligence that we are familiar with, and the producer is to the two together to create a new property of the individual ability to express the same time, the player the ability to think and operate and had to worship the author’s imagination force.

Spicy Horse Games is one of the few development of next-generation games company, I can count on over to Ubisoft, 2K, EA, on the Spicy Horse in the development of next-generation games. The Spicy Horse CEO American Mcgee is a famous figure in the game industry to participate in “Quake 2 & 3” produced by American Mcgee, has been tremendously popular “Terrorist Alice” is named after him. Because he likes China’s customs and currently lives in China and make contributions to China’s gaming industry. Be able to develop the game of such quality, I believe Spicy Horse can make the game more fun, let the world know that Chinese people can be creative and production capabilities. At present, this game is only available in English, with Unicom’s iPhone sales, the Chinese version should be soon on-line.

You can read the full review HERE.

While the translation job done by Google Translate leaves something to be desired – the point is made. DexIQ is a unique app which presents two separate games simultaneously on one screen. To play you have to “split” your brain between the two modes of action – some games are geared towards mental exercise, while others challenge your dexterity. As far as I know it’s a unique proposition in the iPhone gaming arena. Based on the sales and reviews so far it seems to be one people are attracted to.

We developed the game here in Shanghai at Spicy Horse. And our internal team is now looking to make improvements for the next version of DexIQ (including a Chinese version!), plus starting work on their next iPhone game.

If you’ve got a free moment be sure to check it out: DexIQ on iTunes Store

And if you like it, please write a review and give it some stars!

DexIQ, Featured

DexIQ – Launched!

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DexIQ Poster

DexIQ Poster

Spicy Horse Games has just launched its first iphone app “DexIQ”. Head over to the iPhone App Store now and BUY IT! You can also read more about it on DexIQ.com or take a gander at this informative product description:

Think you’re smart?

Think you have quick reflexes?

Your brain has two halves, shouldn’t your IQ test?

Presenting DexIQ, the first app designed to challenge your dexterity and IQ at the SAME TIME!

Two screens of independent game action unfolding simultaneously

Tests designed to challenge your reflexes paired with ones designed to test your IQ

32 individual mini-games combined into 8 levels of spasm-inducing cognitive battery
Compete against your friends to see just how dumb and slow they really are!

Compete against yourself to see which side of your brain is dominant!

Share your unique DexIQ score and achievements on the Plus+ Network!

So stop wasting time on games that only challenge half your brain. Take the DexIQ challenge NOW!

DOWNLOAD NOW

Just a little back story for those interested: This is actually the 2nd iPhone title built at Spicy Horse, but the first to be released. The concept was created by Ken Wong, our Art Director and built by “Spicy Pony”, our little internal iPhone development team. DexIQ represents our first attempt at becoming a serious iPhone developer of fun games and entertainment apps. We’re hoping our unique location in Shanghai, China will also allow us to build apps specific for China.

If you enjoy DexIQ please take a moment to rank it (5 stars!?) and write something nice about it. If you do it’ll make my day 🙂

DexIQ

DexIQ – Pre-launch Teaser

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DexIQ Poster

DexIQ Poster

DexIQ is the cool new iPhone app from Spicy Horse Games. The concept was created by Spicy’s own Ken Wong (Art Director on Alice 2, Grimm, etc).

DexIQ is currently going through the submission process with Apple. We hope it will get approved and released by end of year (2009). Once it’s on the app store we’ll do a full-blown launch. Consider this a sneak peak.