Earlier this week we reported that Palm had announced a public beta version of the Palm® webOS™ Plug-in Development Kit (PDK) as available at the Palm Developer Center (developer.palm.com). This enhancement to the current SDK allows developers to target high-performance 3D graphics and native ARM code. Something that I and many other developers had pointed out to Palm was sorely missing from their development system.

Palm is demonstrating a fairly healthy batch of new games at it’s booth at GDC this week. I’ll be checking the SDK out in coming weeks and will report back on my findings.

At CES in January, Palm introduced 12 games built by four leading developers with early access to the PDK:

• “Asphalt 5” (Gameloft)
• “Brain Challenge®” (Gameloft)
• “Glyder 2” (Glu Mobile)
• “Let’s Golf!” (Gameloft)
• “MONOPOLY” (EA Mobile™)
• “Need for Speed™ Undercover” (EA Mobile)
• “SCRABBLE” (EA Mobile)
• “Sudoku” (EA Mobile)
• “Tetris®” (EA Mobile)
• “The Oregon Trail” (Gameloft)
• “The Sims™ 3” (EA Mobile)
• “X-Plane” (Laminar Research)

Since then, more than 20 exciting webOS titles have been launched by these early-access developers:

• “Apollo” (Laminar Research)
• “Assassin’s Creed™ – Altair’s Chronicles” (Gameloft)
• “Brothers In Arms®: Hour of Heroes” (Gameloft)
• “Castle of Magic” (Gameloft)
• “Deer Hunter 3D” (Glu Mobile)
• “Dungeon Hunter” (Gameloft)
• “Earthworm Jim” (Gameloft)
• “Gangstar: West Coast Hustle” (Gameloft)
• “Giant Fighting Robots” (Laminar Research)
• “Guitar Hero 5 Mobile” (Glu Mobile)
• “Hero of Sparta” (Gameloft)
• “Real Soccer 2010” (Gameloft)
• “Real Tennis” (Gameloft)
• “World Series of Poker: Hold’em Legend” (Glu Mobile)
• “X-Plane Airliner” (Laminar Research)
• “X-Plane Carrier” (Laminar Research)
• “X-Plane Extreme” (Laminar Research)
• “X-Plane Glider” (Laminar Research)
• “X-Plane Helicopter” (Laminar Research)
• “X-Plane Racing” (Laminar Research)
• “X-Plane Space Shuttle” (Laminar Research)

This batch of titles far outstrips anything that Microsoft have been able to pull together for it’s upcoming Windows Phone 7 Series. We reported on their rather lacklustre and frighteningly small list of titles in development this week. The number of titles Palm already has bears out the advantage I mentioned of going with an API in OpenGL ES which is already being used by thousands of developers world-wide.

There is little doubt that Microsoft will catch up, or that quite a few of those titles above are being made by developers who are already working with Microsoft, most likely on ports. And there is also little doubt that Apple and the iPhone will still lead the way in terms of diversity of entertainment titles. But this is heartening news from Palm. I think for some time we’ll see titles appearing on iPhones, Android and Palm before they do on Windows 7.

Build-a-lot

Build-a-lot is an exceptionally well built game for all who love real estate development simulation games!

Read review here.

Glyder

With stunning visuals and fantastic gameplay, you cannot go wrong with Glyder!

Read review here.

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With stunning visuals and fantastic gameplay, you cannot go wrong with Glyder!

Features
– Collect over 200 crystals to unlock new magical lands
– Over 35 achievements to master
– Discover and complete over 20 trips
– Fly seamlessly through 6 imaginative lands

Glyder ia a beautiful adventurous game which will captivate you with its stylish gameplay and freedom to fly over magical lands.

The objective of this game is to guide Eryn through dimensional rifts and collecting crystals to open the portal home.

The game begins with you choosing your first destination and then you enter a magical land. Tap the screen to start your flight and tilt your iPhone/iPod touch left or right to turn. Glu has has paid close attention to key elements of a flight which are speed and altitude. While you are flying you need to maintain your speed by diving and rising again. In order to soar higher you need to flap your wings by titling your device forward and backward or use the thermal vents.

As you fly though the dimensional rifts you need to collect crystals, these can be collected by flying over them at a low altitude. During your journey you can also choose to complete Trips (get from one place to another in the shortest time) and gain Achievements (Follow the ledge, Blind Diving, Crazy Fast etc.)

Glyder also offers complete freedom to fly to any destination within the game which is absolutely amazing. The replay value for this game is very high as you try to unlock all achievements and improve your statistics.

*Price: $0.99 (Sale)

The Good

• Beautiful graphics
• Stylish gameplay (dive, rise and flap wings)
• Achievements, Trips and Statistics
• Fly to any destination within the game, unlimited lives

The Not So Good

• Leaderboard missing
• More episodes could be added (enemies, weapons etc.)

Glyder High Score and Statistics

Until Glu adds global leader board use the space for comments to share your stats and scores (please leave a link to your screenshot to get your comment approved)

Our Stats

Best Altitude: 26 km

Best Speed: 216 km/hr

Longest Flight: 0:06:25

Farthest Flight: 118 km

Total Time: 0:40:31

Total Distance: 852 km