We’re looking for a few great freelancers to help Candystand make awesome games. Specifically, we’re looking for iPhone game developers, but if you have game design/development chops in general, we want to hear from you too!

Shoot us your portfolio/resume at jobs@candystand.com — and if you’re swinging by San Francisco next week for the Flash Gaming Summit or GDC, let us know. We’ll be there with our bells on.

Here’s a quick look at gameplay in BigTree Defense, which just launched today. The battle we focus on in this clip is Battle 2 from Act 1, and shows you how to upgrade and equip weapons before the battle and how to construct multiple branching limbs on the main tree in order to build up your defenses.

In anticipation of tomorrow’s new game release, BigTree Defense, here’s a sneak peek at the weapons you’ll have at your disposal to prevent insect invaders from destroying your tree.

What’s BigTree Defense? Check out our preview of the game, which will launch on Candystand.com on Tuesday March 2, 2010.

How weapons in BigTree Defense work
When you first start up the game, a short tutorial will guide you through the steps of buying and equipping weapons. If you’re like us though, you’re probably going to skip it to just get into the game as soon as possible.

First you’ll need to unlock weapons with Points. You’ll earn points when you kill enemies during each battle, and they add up even when you lose the battle. This is done on the Upgrade & Equip screen before every battle.

You can upgrade each weapon to Level 5 using points, which unlocks the ability to level up your weapons during the actual battle. For example, if you unlock Shine Flower’s Level 3 in Upgrade/Equip, you’ll be able to level Shine Flower up to Level 3 during the battle using Water points.

Weapon Guide for BigTree Defense
Fruit Cannon: Basic cannon, average damage, fire rate and range.

Candystand says: Solid basic cannon that’s cheap to purchase and upgrade, but you’ll probably only use this for your first battle.

Nut Cannon: Fast cannon, low damage but high fire rate and range.

Candystand says: The high rate of fire makes this a staple when we equip our weapons for each level. It upgrades nicely even though it has relatively low damage.

Torpedo Fruit: Heavy splash damage, but low fire rate and range.

Candystand says: Good if you want a nice, in-between weapon that does more than direct damage, but ultimately you’ll want something more powerful.

Gem Fruit: Slows enemies down, low fire rate and average range.

Candystand says: Slowing enemies down is great, especially if you want to prevent insects from returning back to their portals and multiplying!

Continue Reading…

Next Tuesday, we’ll be launching one of our most highly anticipated releases (well, highly anticipated internally since this is likely the first time you’ve heard of it!). It’s called BigTree Defense, from developer Burstyx, whose previous games include Time Goes By and Glow Cut, both of which are oddly addicting in their own right.

BigTree Defense takes its inspiration (as the name implies) from the tower defense genre that has become hugely popular in the Flash gaming community recently. Waves of enemies will come to attack, and you’ll need to purchase and upgrade weapons in order to fend them off.

That’s where similarities to other tower defense games end, though. BigTree Defense has multiple layers of complexity, starting with the fact that you’ll have to control the actual shape of the tree by growing branches and stems on which to place weapons.

The weapons themselves are inspired by plants — you’ll use fruit cannons, shine flowers, nut snails, rocket fruit and more in your quest to defend the Big Tree from insect attacks.

Before each round, you’ll be able to upgrade and equip up to seven different plants to use during the battle. Each weapon can be leveled up to 5 (which means you can use water points during the battle to upgrade the weapon).

Once the battle starts, an arrow will indicate which direction the first wave of insects will approach from — that’s when you’ll need to strategize plant/branch placement. If an insect reaches the main trunk of the tree, they’ll start draining HP — and since you won’t want your weapons to damage the tree itself, insects are invincible for this short amount of time. This means you’ll protect the tree most effectively by building branches outwards.

There are three ‘Acts’ to BigTree Defense, with three battles each. The trees you can build are unique to each Act, so you might find that a strategy that worked perfectly in the first few battles will fail you in the next.

And fail you probably will. BigTree Defense is one of the most challenging and punishing games we’ve put on Candystand in recent memory. Even after testing and replaying this game for weeks, we still run up against waves of enemies that overpower us sometimes. We’ll post a ton of tips and tricks for this game after it releases to point you in the right direction

BigTree Defense will launch on Candystand.com on Tuesday March 2nd. Check back to play the game!

This Tuesday’s upcoming big game launch is a strategy game called Civilizations Wars, where you’ll take on the role of an omniscient deity commanding troops to take over forts and defeat enemies. Don’t let the title scare you off though – behind this game is the simple mechanic you’re likely familiar with in the card game War (larger groups of soldiers will overpower smaller ones).

The main goal is simple: eliminate all the opposing forces in each level by sending your troops out to their bases and outnumbering them. This is done by clicking on a base from which you want to send troops and dragging them to another base to take over.

Protip: you can send multiple sets of troops to the same base by dragging your cursor over different bases that you’ve already conquered. This helps when there are a high number of enemies in the base you’re gunning for.

With over a dozen levels, a handful modes per level (including a Mummy mode where you have to fend off waves of undead!) and numerous upgradable special powers, we think Civilizations Wars is going to be hit when it releases tomorrow on Candystand.com, especially for those of you who may have thought last week’s parking game was too ‘easy.’ Who loves ya?

If you like games (check!) and you like playing with other awesome people such as yourself (double check!) then we’re going to blow your mind tomorrow when we launch OMGPOP, a brand new multiplayer experience on Candystand.com.

Here’s what you need to know!

It’s a brand-new way to play with your friends. We’ve launched a ton of awesome games like Balloono, Putt Putt Penguin, Draw My Thing and more — all multiplayer-enabled, meaning you can play alongside thousands of other online players, for free!

You’ll want to log into your Candystand account before you play. Since the OMGPOP games need your username to identify you in each multiplayer match, we can’t let you play unless we’re able to tell you apart from the thousands of other players. You can also use your Facebook-Connected account. Once logged in, you’re all set!

Instead of earning trophies or tickets, you’ll earn coins! Coins can be used to buy powerups for games, clothing for your characters or just decorations for your profile — you can earn coins simply by playing OMGPOP games.

Look for the OMGPOP icon on games around Candystand.com. All the OMGPOP games will be listed on the OMGPOP category page, but if you’re ever browsing around for a great multiplayer game, just keep an eye out for the icon on the game’s thumbnail image.

We’re super excited to be launching these great games tomorrow morning. Check back on Candystand.com to play – you won’t miss it on the homepage, we promise

Platform-adventure game Wrath of Anubis launched on Candystand and viral sites a few weeks ago — the game features dozens of levels of mummy-avoiding, tomb-exploring and gem-collecting entertainment, and we were lucky enough to snag a quick interview with the game’s developer, Jeff Louie at JFlashGaming. Read on to get a glimpse inside the game developer’s mind.

Tell us about the development of Wrath of Anubis – when did you start development?
It’s been about 6 months since I started tinkering around with the engine that powers the final build of the game. After developing a level editor and playable character, the game elements were slowly added. However, most of the development time was spent on creating the individual levels that fill the three worlds of Wrath of Anubis. Much care was taken ensuring the player is not overwhelmed by difficult or underwhelmed by a slow-paced game. I believe the current version has a nice balance between the two.

Why Egypt?
Wrath of Anubis was originally just a tech demo for a tile-based platformer. I experimented with different movement and jumping mechanics that are the basis of Wrath of Anubis. Incidentally, I included yellow bricks as wall and ground tiles and the game was formed around that.

Jeff used this playable tech demo to find an artist for the final version of the game.

What are you working on next?
Right now I’m looking in to incorporating new themes into the platformer genre. Re-working some of the code in Wrath of Anubis and implementing some enemy path finding has created some interesting possibilities. Without giving out all my ideas, just think how awesome “platforming zombies” would be. And no, right now I don’t even know what that fully means.

What are some games you’ve been playing lately? Any cool things you see happening?
Jayisgames.com just wrapped up their user-voted top games of the year segment. It’s nice to have a list of the top games in each category and see what gameplay innovations have been introduced. This is especially important for a game designer to see what others have done which is hard given the sheer amount of flash games released.

As for console games, I have been working hard levelling up my character in Modern Warfare 2. However, like many others, I am also getting torn apart by the gamers online. Oh well, I’ll get better some time!

Play Wrath of Anubis now >