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Multiplayer games on the iPhone were the hot new thing a year ago. Now, the quickly maturing field offers a host of choices. We’ve picked some of the best for you — but first, some housekeeping:

To play over local WiFi, all players have to connect over the same hub. Global WiFi and 3G games let you compete from anywhere, but are sometimes geared to a universal pool of players; playing your buddy might be impossible if the game automatically matches you to opponents.

That said… let the games begin!

N.O.V.A. (Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance,) Gameloft; $6.99. Gameloft has been a powerhouse of iPhone gaming since day one. Gameloft’s specialty is delivering the kind of experience you expect from one of those grandpa game machines hooked up to a television, but in iPhone size. (The company’s “Brothers In Arms” franchise, a knockoff of “Call of Duty,” is legendary). NOVA is a HALO-like first-person shooter set in a sci-fi world, and up to four can play in a game. The graphics are gorgeous, the gameplay is crisp, and you have good leeway to explore in every screen, adding to the realism.

Galcon, Galcon.com; $2.99. There are those who say that Gameloft gets by on perfect implementation of someone else’s idea. The secret of Galcon’s addictive power, by contrast, is its originality. The graphics are flat and geometrical, but they’re not meant to be realistic. The action is in the strategy, but here’s the kicker: there are no turns. You do all your galactic domination in real time. It’s simple, it’s addictive, and it’s at the best at what it does. Add in human opponents and your iPod touch or iPhone become an arcade you can’t leave.

Alive 4-ever, Meridian; $2.99. Prefer your shoot-’em-ups with a top-down point of view and waves and waves of living dead? Alive 4-ever is for you. You and up to three other survivors battle it out in a zombie-infested wasteland, where if you know what’s good for you, you even shoot the dogs. You’ll play Alive 4-ever until you realize you’ve become one of them,and go looking for fresh brains to eat. Bonus: with multiplayer gameplay, now you’ve got a lunch date. Bluetooth and local wifi (you and your buddies,) no global wifi.

MyBrute, Bulkypix, $3.99. MyBrute strips away everything except the fighting, then doesn’t let you control the fighter. If that turns you off, skip to the next “best.” If it doesn’t, you’re an RPG fan. RPGs are about building, training, equipping, and perfecting your character, then pitting him against others and letting nature take its course. MyBrute does that brilliantly, with equipment and skills out the wazoo and dojos competing for the privilege of training your cute little gladiator. Caution: extremely addictive for the RPG fan, and provides insidious option to buy new features. Fighters also kill each others’ pets, but it’s cartoony, so you won’t mind.

F.A.S.T. (Fleet Air Superiority Training), SGN; Free. Online, real-time, 3-D Dogfights sound sweet? Then you want F.A.S.T. Go to where the DefCon’s highest, and engage the enemy over wifi internet, either in private combat against friends, or against random internet victims. Fight head-up or in 2-on-2 dogfights. Ten planes, 30 missions, unlimited opponents.

Find reviews on the best iphone apps at AppCraver.com ( http://www.appcraver.com/ ), a website dedicated to app reviews for the iPhone, iPod and iPad devices.

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Try to picture the websites you frequently visit. Now consider the graphics on those websites. Right away you might remember the color scheme and how it coordinates with the company’s logo. Or you might think of a particular image that displays a service that the company provides. Perhaps you think about the way products are displayed. And in some cases, you may not be able to picture any graphics at all. Madison graphic design varies in style and approach, but if you want to garner the best results from your website, you need to decide what you want out of your

graphic design.

For great examples graphic design, Madison is an excellent place to begin. The websites of several Madison businesses make great use of this element in helping users to identify the business and get the most out of their online experience. And that’s the point of all this web development stuff, right? Your customer.

Good graphic design means different things to different people. But most professional graphic designers will base their designs on five basic elements.

Balance

One feature you will see in successful websites is their ability to balance information, navigation, and graphics on a page. The page should not feel very heavy on the left or right sides, nor should it be top heavy. It’s true that you need to consider how people will see the page, taking into account the tendency not to scroll if they don’t have to, but when you look at the page as it comes up on the partial screen, does it look balanced or does one thing overpower?

Rhythm

You might be thinking to yourself, “Rhythm in a website?” Yes, this is a vital part of good web design. How do your elements move from one to the other? Is there an effortless flow of information? As your eye moves across the page, think on how you come across one item and then the next and assess if you have good rhythm.

Proportion

This is imperative to websites that are user-friendly. If you have ever been to a site with tiny hard to read text that blends in with the background, you know that proportion is vital to return visitors. On the contrary, don’t cram huge graphics on a page. You can either shrink them or remove them.

Dominance

While you want there to be balance and proportion, you also need to make it clear what the important elements are on the page. If you want to draw attention to the navigation bar with links to affiliates, you need to highlight this. If you want the customer to take note of the great search feature you installed at the top of the page, put it in a prominent spot and use effective graphics to make it a dominant element in its field.

Unity

If your page looks like a jumble of content from five different sites, you may have trouble getting your main point across. Similarly, if each successive page has a different format or color scheme than your homepage, you lose the unity of the site. Stick to a uniform color scheme, graphics style, and font.

This article was written by S. Reeves Morris. Mr. Morris runs the Internet technology company New Media located in newmediamadison. http://www.newmediamadison.com, which for 11 years has been dedicated to helping businesses succeed online. Mr. Morris is a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Expert who is always updating his skill set with the latest Search Engine Optimization and Link Building Techniques.

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