Amazon launches its first mobile game, Air Patriots

Amazon's first social game, Living Classics, was launched in August

Amazon Game Studios is launching its first mobile game, called Air Patriots, the company announced Thursday.

Air Patriots is a tower defense game, which requires strategic positioning of an arsenal of planes to push back an enemy tank invasion. Players are put in change of a squadron of military planes, which they control using their finger in order to draw the paths the planes will follow in order to engage the enemy.

Amazon says that, unlike other tower defense games where defense bases are stationary, Air Patriots requires players to adjust their strategy on the fly.

"When we created Air Patriots we wanted to make a game that was easy and engaging, and the simplicity of drawing paths for planes was something we thought would appeal to players,” Ernie Ramirez, Executive Producer at Amazon Game Studios, said in a statement.

“We think customers will find Air Patriots both familiar and fresh, with a degree of challenge that keeps them engaged and enthused to play more. We are very excited to bring Amazon customers Air Patriots today, and Amazon Game Studios looks forward to bringing our fans even more great games in the future."

Air Patriots gives users access to Amazon GameCircle on Kindle Fire, which they can use to track both achievements and high scores on the game. Air Patriots also featutes Whispersync, "to ensure that progress is saved in the cloud whether it’s played on the Kindle Fire or Kindle Fire HD."

Players will be able to switch back and forth between multiple Kindle devices as they play the game.

Air Patriots is available as a free download in  the Amazon Appstore for Android, Google Play, and Apple’s App Store. Air Patriots is available on the Kindle Fire, Kindle Fire HD, Android Devices, iPhone, and iPad.

Amazon original content

Amazon launched Amazon Game Studios in August, along with its first social game. Living Classics.

The game features a family of foxes have to be reunited after wandering into scenes from classic literature, such as Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, and King Arthur.

“Players help to reunite the foxes by exploring beautifully illustrated scenes and spotting moving objects. You can visit friends, share rewards you’ve earned, rediscover famous stories, and reunite fox families,” Amazon said at the time.

So far, the game has not been doing all that well. According to AppData, Living Classics currently has 10,000 daily active users, and 140,000 monthly active users. The game is currently available to be played for free on Facebook. 

In addition to games, Amazon has also begun creating its own television shows, and comic books

Amazon Studios, which was originally launched as a content development division, has seen over 10,000 movie scripts, and 1,800 television pilots, submitted in 2010. There are currently 17 films and nine television series in development from deals made through the service.

In May, Amazon announced that it would be developing original comedy and children’s series for Instant Video, allowing anyone with an idea to submit a pitch.

It said that each month the company would pick one project, which would then be tested with an audience. If the series was picked up for a full series, the creator would receive a payment of $55,000 and up to 5% of the money made from licensing. So far, Amazon has chosen seven projects: four comedies and three children’s series.

Amazon also created its first digital comic, called Blackburn Burrow, in September. It described the comic as, “a story set in Civil War America where supernatural horrors are infesting a small Appalachian town in Northern Georgia,”

See Amazon's official trailer for Air Patriots below:

(Image source:https://games.amazon.com)