Due to constant abuse from this IP range, all interactive traffic is blocked. If you are running a legitimate crawler/robot, ensure that it properly identifies itself via the user agent with a contact site or address.Despicable Me: Minion Rush is a casual game for (Android | Based on the Despicable Me animated films, we find ourselves in the shoes of a restless minion who travels across an endless laboratory avoiding obstacles and collecting bananas. Much like Sonic Dash or Subway Surfers, Despicable Me: Minion Rush uses the endless runner style of gameplay: the character runs automatically while you move him sideways and make him jump or crouch to collect items and avoid hazards. Playing the game needs no further explanation, but if you want to master it you will need to follow a few basic tips that I’ll reveal to you right now. Collecting bananas is very important in Minion Rush as they are the currency in the game. Your goal is to collect as many bananas as possible unless you see other minions on the track.

In this case ignore your banana cravings and start bashing into them: every collision with another minion multiplies your score.hoover vacuum cleaners history Minion Rush is exciting enough, but there are small variations in gameplay. best vacuum cleaner for wool carpetWhen the minion approaches green tracks, you switch from using your finger to controlling him by tilting your device. vacuum cleaner ryobiTilt carefully because if you move it too much your minion will fall through a gap. You also have to be very delicate and observant when changing from the usual rear view to side view. This view makes it more difficult to see obstacles, although you’ll get a good view of the scenery and crash less frequently.

It’s probably better to concentrate more on avoiding danger than collecting bananas. There are many upgrades available in the game’s store. Some of these upgrades are paid, others can be purchased with bananas. However once purchased they can be picked up during missions. Which upgrades are more worth it? I recommend you start with the Minion Shield. Although there are cheaper upgrades, it allows you to continue playing even after you crash into an obstacle but it’ll only work once. Another useful upgrade is the banana vacuum. The purchase is required to unlock one of the first phases of the game. Just like the magnets in other endless runner games, it attracts all sorts of objects towards you without you having to approach them. Once you’ve saved up a little more, another solid purchase is the Fluffy Unicorn. When riding on him you’ll to be able to collect bunches of bananas almost effortlessly. Don’t obsess over advancing through levels. It’s better to keep repeating them until you’ve collected the three fruits for each one.

This strategy will help you get a lot more rewards because once you’ve passed a level and you know how to complete its goals, getting high scores is almost no effort at all. Vector, the villain of the film, appears after level 10. Defeating him isn’t difficult; all you need to do is concentrate and keep your eyes on the drones you need to throw. Focus on avoiding the drones with the bars and when a drone without bars approaches click on it to throw it into the villain. Do this a few times and you’ll eventually defeat him. Reviving your character is expensive and not worth the trouble. However every time your minion dies a screen pops up with a countdown and the option to revive him. To make the countdown timer pass quickly, repeatedly press on any part of the screen. One option you may have missed is Events. You’ll be able to win additional prizes. Just by playing you win bananas, but if you do well you’ll also earn expensive power-ups and currency. With these basic tips you’ll be able to progress through Minion Rush much faster, but at the end of the day all that matters is the beating your friend’s high score.

Sonic Dash: 8 tips to collect more rings Subway Surfers: 7 tips to be number one The best Android games to play on public transport Originally published in Spanish on Softonic ES.As if independent game development wasn’t hard enough already (innovation, finance, exposure, doing all this alongside your day job… ) there’s a looming hulk on the scene to make it just that much harder to get your game out there. King, proprietor of Candy Crush Saga, Bubble Witch Saga, Farm Hero Saga, Pepper Panic Saga (each with their own unique domain and the list goes on), is protecting their enterprise by taking out a series of trademarks and copyrights to prevent any infringement of their namesake. For those unfamiliar with the developer, King specialise in saturating the market a rejigged version of the long-loved tile-matching game mechanic. Their games offer the same functionality re-skinned to market branches: they are free to play with in app purchases, brightly coloured with cutesy cartoon mascots and have repetitive, addictive gameplay.

With this , Candy Crush Saga and it’s sibling entourage generate King in the region of $3.5 (£2.1) million every day, or $1.26 billion (£747 million) per year . King are winning at app game development. The problem is that King’s over cautious trademarking and often aggressive enforcement of said trademarks is harming independent game development. They have made applciations to trademark ‘Candy’ and ‘Saga’, both of which have been successful in the EU. To understand the impact of this, we need to be clear about the basics of trademarking. Trademark applications, different from copyright and patents despite their common bundling, are intended to prevent consumer confusion between your brand and the sea of other products in the jostling market. It protects your brand identity and gives the consumer quality assurance that when they see that mark it is shorthand for your brand and its standards. A such, trademarks need to be clear, distinct and unique but also, crucially, sensible.

Ryan Morrison writes and excellent article in GameFront about this. Trademarks are context dependent, in a few ways. One is that once a trademark becomes bigger than the brand it is unenforceable – for example ‘hoover’ has become shorthand for any vacuum cleaner by consumers and so has, ironically, lost its power as a trademark. Another is that openly descriptive words cannot be registered as trademark. To use Morrison’s example, Apple is fine to flourish as a brand name in technology innovation, but their trademark would not be allowed in the food sector. Additionally, if consumers started referring to all computers as ‘Apples’, the trademark would be lost and unenforceable. In the EU, King owns the trademark in the video game industry to both single words ‘Candy’ and ‘Saga’. Arguably, these terms on their own too closely straddle the line of ‘description’ to achieve trademark status. But somehow, they did. And what’s more, as a primarily iOS developer, they have Apple’s stringent App Store enforcement on their side.

This means that any mobile video game that uses either ‘Candy’ or ‘Saga’ in their titles will face resistance and eventually legal action from two corporate giants. Early this year, The Banner Saga, an independently developed PC RPG by Stoic Studio, was prevented from trademarking their title because it contained the word ‘saga’. Consequently, they are limited in protecting their intellectual property. King wanted the title stripped all together, but settled with allowing the developer to use the chosen name. In actuality, King shouldn’t have had a say in the matter at all since ‘Saga’ (derived from Old Norse meaning ‘narrative’ ) is a descriptive term which should never have cleared trademarking. The word is actually more applicable to Stoic Studio’s game since it actually follows a tangible journey and narrative. This isn’t the first time, and it won’t be the last, that big honchos pick on the little guys during trademark territory war. In 2011, indie organisation Mojang (ever heard of Minecraft?) faced legal action from Bethesda (AAA developer of The Elder Scrolls series) over their development of Scrolls.

This case settled, but arguably only because Mojang had the money to back up the battle. Independent game developers are special creatures that we should care for and nurture. They’re fighting a hard enough battle as it is and scary corporate words like trademark and lawsuit, when used inappropriately and aggressively, are going to stop these developers from developing. King’s use of trademark law isn’t necessarily malicious but it is questionable. The damage is in the untold stories, the thousands of developers whose work was squashed before release, whose games can float loose in the market without protection. Most importantly, this hostile environment is likely only to discourage future independent development – because these guys can’t afford to defend themselves, their rights, or their works. Thanks to King’s Candy Crush Saga and Stoic Studio’s The Banner Saga for use of their in game screenshots and logos. Thanks also to Google Play for the screenshot of their app store.