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Not long ago, WPCentral broke the news that Shuffle Party, a new game from Babaroga and Microsoft Studios, would be released as a free download in the US this week. As promised, Shuffle Party is now available on Xbox Live. Even better? It appears to be available outside of the US too!

Shuffle Party is a shuffleboard/bowling game. Players aim the puck with the touch screen and then send it flying down the lane. The game has several modes of play, with the overall goal of earning money to purchase items from the Pro Shop.

What we didn’t mention last week was Shuffle Party’s sweet Xbox Live Avatar support. Between shots, the camera cuts to your Avatar, showing how he or she reacts to the game. It gives the game a great personal touch – nobody will accuse this one of being too sterile.

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Shuffle Party is a free download and includes Achievements worth 50 GamerScore. We can confirm that the game is available in France as well as the US. Foreign readers, let us know if you’re able to grab it too. Here’s the download link.

We’ve interviewed Xbox Live developer Babaroga in the past, and today we look at the studio in more depth. Zombies!!! is the developer’s best-known Windows Phone title, but Babaroga has actually worked on more than 9 Xbox Live games, including Minesweeper and Sudoku. Both tiles are published by Microsoft and available for free in multiple territories. History Babaroga opened its doors in Chicago in 2001. From day one they focused specifically on mobile phone games development, making dozens of games prior to the proliferation of smartphones. That experience made it easy for them to migrate to more powerful devices as they debuted, including Windows Phone in 2010.  To date they have released over 50 titles, including the previously mentioned Xbox Live games as well as Spore Origins and EA Sports MMA, both published by Electronic Arts on iPhone. Expanding for the future Babaroga recognizes the tremendous opportunities that Microsoft platforms bring to game developers. As such, they now focus primarily on Windows Phone, Windows 8, and Xbox Live Arcade development. The strategy has paid off so far; their Xbox Live titles have enjoyed praise from critics like yours truly and fans alike. After more than ten years of crafting mobile games, Babaroga has recently opened a new studio in London, just a stone’s throw away from WPCentral’s own Richard Edmonds. Spearheading the European office is David Bachowski, VP of Business Development. The  London team is currently looking for programmers and 3D artists who share excitement and passion for Windows Phone and mobile gaming as a whole. Interested parties should contact Babaroga by email. Don’t forget to let us know how it goes!

We’ve interviewed Xbox Live developer Babaroga in the past, and today we look at the studio in more depth. Zombies!!! may be the developer’s best-known Windows Phone title, but Babaroga has actually worked on more than 9 Xbox Live games, including Minesweeper and Sudoku. Both tiles are published by Microsoft and available for free in multiple territories.

History

Babaroga opened its doors in Chicago in 2001. From day one they focused specifically on mobile phone games development, making dozens of games prior to the proliferation of smartphones. That experience made it easy for them to migrate to more powerful devices as they debuted, including Windows Phone in 2010.  To date they have released over 50 titles, including the previously mentioned Xbox Live games as well as Spore Origins and EA Sports MMA, both published by Electronic Arts on iPhone.

Expanding for the future

The London office of Babaroga LTD

Babaroga recognizes the tremendous opportunities that Microsoft platforms bring to game developers. As such, they now focus primarily on Windows Phone, Windows 8, and Xbox Live Arcade development. The strategy has paid off so far; their Xbox Live titles have enjoyed praise from critics like yours truly and fans alike.

After more than ten years of crafting mobile games, Babaroga has recently opened a new studio in London, just a stone’s throw away from WPCentral’s own Richard Edmonds. Spearheading the European office is David Bachowski, VP of Business Development. The  London team is currently looking for programmers and 3D artists who share excitement and passion for Windows Phone and mobile gaming as a whole. Interested parties should contact Babaroga by email. Don’t forget to let us know how it goes!

When Microsoft published their free Xbox Live version of Minesweeper in August, we were all happy to get a free game. However, we noticed something was up with it. Namely, there were so many mines that you couldn’t solve the puzzles properly! Minesweeper’s supposed to be challenging, but not like that. I resolved to stop playing it until an update came out.

Thankfully, Microsoft and developer Babaroga took notice of these problems as well. Today they issued an update corrects the difficulty issues, but it’s not a traditional update. Minesweeper’s control data is stored as an XML file on a Microsoft server. This allows the developers to make adjustments to the game without the need for a patch. When gamers launch the game while connected to the internet, it checks for the updated XML file and updates accordingly.

Today’s Minesweeper changes include:

Classic mode

• Intermediate:
  Mines reduced from 36 to 24
  Experience reward increased from 150 to 200
• Advanced:
  Mines reduced from 76 to 60
  Experience increased from 250 to 300

Speed mode

• Beginner:
  Mines reduced from 15 to 12
  Experience increased from 150 to 200
• Intermediate:
  Mines reduced from 40 to 24
  Experience increased from 200 to 300
• Advanced:
  Experience increased from 300 to 400

To update your game, launch the game while connected to the internet. You may need to load up the Leaderboards and/or restart the game for the changes to take effect. You’ll know it worked when the mines listed on the difficulty selection pages match the new values.

It’s amazing what a difference a few less mines can make. Previously, it took me over 100 tries to complete an Intermediate puzzle. Post-update, I finished one on my first try. This dramatically improves the game and makes the Achievements much easier too. Look forward to our full review soon.

Minesweeper is free on Xbox Live. Get it here (Zune link) on the Marketplace.

When Minesweeper and Sudoku, two free Xbox Live games developed by Babaroga and published by Microsoft, were released only in the US a few weeks ago, our foreign readers were understandably displeased. We speculated that it might have been because of the games’ reliance on in-game advertisements, which may not have been cleared for other markets yet.

Good news then, as Minesweeper is coming to foreign markets on Wednesday. Well, sort of good news. Minesweeper is actually pretty busted on the highest two difficulties, filling levels with so many mines that they’re impossible to clear without repeated use of the EMP powerup. Babaroga tells us this may be fixed in the future, but for now it seriously hampers the fun.

Minesweeper can be downloaded here (Zune link). No news yet about when Sudoku will be released outside of the US, but we’ll keep you posted. We’ll have reviews of both games very soon.

Thanks to Professeur Thibault for the tip!

At WPCentral, we’re big fans of Babaroga, makers of the unique Xbox Live game Zombies!!! Last week we revealed that Babaroga’s Minesweeper and Sudoku are both coming to Xbox Live as free, ad-supported games. Naturally the Windows Phone gaming community has a ton of interest in these two titles. So today we bring you this mini-interview with Andreja Djokovic, Babaroga CEO and Founder that delves deeper into their twists on two classic games.

Head past the break for the full interview.

Zombies!!! (review) was one of the first Xbox Live games I bought after jumping on the Windows Phone bandwagon. A survival horror-themed board game, it’s like nothing else on the platform. The game’s developer, Babaroga has made it no secret that they are working on a major update for the game. That’s good because I hate secrets almost as much as black licorice. Putting the devil candy aside for the moment, WPCentral is excited to bring you something much tastier: our interview with Andreja Djokovic, CEO and Founder of Babaroga, about their future plans for the Zombies!!! franchise and Windows Phone.

Grab a snack if you like and head past the jump for the full interview.