Games - iOS Archives - Page 3 of 4

APPLE TV!!!

November 3, 2015 by Zwilnik

Phew! After a month in crunch mode, I’ve finally submitted Any Landing as the third of our games for the new Apple TV App Store. SlotZ Racer 2 and Tiny TrackZ are both on there already, although thanks to the somewhat soft launch of the App Store on the Apple TV you have to manually search for them to find them.

Please, Please, Please, do the search for Tiny TrackZ, SlotZ Racer (and when it’s released) Any Landing and buy them on the Apple TV as without the feature visibility we’re struggling with them being practically invisible on the store.

The good news is, if you’ve already bought one of our games on iPhone, iPad or even iPod Touch, we’re making all our Apple TV games what Apple calls Universal Purchase. This means that the tvOS and iOS versions of the game are covered by the same purchase. So for instance, if you’ve bought Tiny TrackZ on the iPhone, you already own it on Apple TV and just need to download it.

Even better, we’re implanting iCloud synchronisation between the iOS and tvOS versions, so you can carry on playing your saved games from the iPhone (or iPad etc.) on your Apple TV. We’ve got this in SlotZ Racer and Any Landing already and the next update to the iOS version of Tiny TrackZ will cover that too!

We’re also big fans of the MFi Game Controller so all our Apple TV games support them. That means SlotZ Racer 2 can now be played in 4 player mode with your friends sat around your TV! (great fun for parties!)

The update to SlotZ Racer on iOS got a little delayed by the sudden appearance of Apple TV developer kits, but it’s benefitted as we’ve realised we can use the uprated graphics we did for the Apple TV version on the iOS version too for the new iPhones and iPads, so that’ll be out soon too!

An Update on Updates :)

August 25, 2015August 24, 2015 by Zwilnik

Now that Tiny TrackZ has successfully left the engine shed, we’ve set to work on some much needed updates for all of our games and working on making new paid versions of the Play Nice ones.

First up is Any Landing. The 1.2.2 update is undergoing testing at the moment and focuses on updating to properly use the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus screen sizes as well as fixing a bunch of annoying bugs. I’ve also re-jigged the ads a little to make them less annoying although due to changes in what’s allowed in apps now, I’ve had to remove the “Free wings for having our games installed” page. Watch for the update of Any Landing PlayNice in the next couple of weeks.

The paid version (i.e. Any Landing) is almost done, so that should be submitted soon after Any Landing Play Nice. Gameplay wise, it’s more of a challenge as you can’t adjust the difficulty downwards by spending money to buy more powerups but you do start with more Wings (and the bank option is on by default, so you can build up your coins to use).

We’re already working on the first update to Tiny TrackZ. This will focus on bug fixes, optimisation and general tuning. We’re planning the first actual content update, which will have some German locos and wagons and suitable layouts to play with. As Tiny TrackZ has done pretty well in the German App Store though, we’re putting extra effort in to get a German localisation done for this content update too. I’m aiming to submit the bug fix update by the end of this week and the content update will follow later once Adam’s had time to do all the new artwork!

Fast Fishing is also in the update process. As mentioned in a previous article, there’ll be Fast Fishing PlayNice which will be the update for the current Fast Fishing and Fast Fishing, which will be the new pay once version. We’ve got some fun new content planned for these that our old Flick Fishing fans will like, so it’ll take a little longer. It’ll be worth the wait though 🙂

Last but not least I’ve also been spending time updating SlotZ Racer 2 🙂 Apart from fixes to the screen mode to cover newer iPhones and adding MFi Controller code, it also adds the Zenos E10 and Zenos E10S sports cars from SlotZ Racer Zenos Special. These will be available as part of the main set of cars, so won’t need unlocking.

Being able to spend time on these updates is only made possible by our most excellent players buying our games and keeping playing them (and telling their friends so they can buy and play them too).

Update: We’ve been asked (especially by one very keen Fast Fishing app reviewer in the US 😉 ) to update our original iPhone fishing game Flick Fishing over and over again. The problem being that as we wrote it to be Freeverse’s IP and it was on their App Store account, it’s moved with that account to their new owners. So unfortunately the situation is that while we’d love to update it, we simply can’t as we don’t have access to it.

That’s one reason why we wrote Fast Fishing. It’s essentially the same as Flick Fishing in how it works (the actual fishing code is the same) as we don’t own the Flick Fishing brand, but the code is still ours 🙂 With Fast Fishing we wanted to try a different gameplay mode to suit current gamers, but there’s still a definite fan base that wants an up to date version of Flick Fishing. However a lot of them bought Flick Fishing later on in its development when it had lots of features in it and don’t remember the original release which only had the basic fishing spots and a couple of tournament options.

So don’t worry fans, we’re expanding Fast Fishing towards what you want. It won’t be immediate, but we hear you and appreciate your keen feedback 🙂

If you want to contact us directly to let us know what you’d like to see in our game updates or report any bugs, remember can contact us at info@strangeflavour.com and we’ve also started an email newsletter so you can keep up to date on our latest work Strange Flavour Newsletter

Tiny TrackZ!

August 14, 2015 by Zwilnik

Our new game Tiny TrackZ is finally out on the App Store!

Tiny TrackZ App Store

We’re really proud of this game so we’d love it if you all went out and bought it (at only $2.99/£2.29 it’s a steal!).

Our aim is to keep expanding Tiny TrackZ. Preferably without resorting to IAP packs of content if we can. So we’re keeping it simple. Essentially if Tiny TrackZ sells enough copies (i.e. we make the rent), then we can afford to add new content to the game for free. So the more players that buy the game, the more content you all get.

Think of it like a really easy Kickstarter campaign. You ‘pledge’ $2.99 and get your reward immediately. The more of your friends that buy the game, the more content you all get. (of course if everyone just downloads pirated copies, nobody gets anything).

App Store pricing and our new games

August 7, 2015 by Zwilnik

If you’ve read my previous blog you’ll know we’re switching from our Play Nice free to play system to a straightforward one of paid games.

The plan is to try and update our Play Nice games to have paid versions. Generally speaking they will be the same game but without the pay as you play options. We debated what to call them though? Snap Match Soccer Paid?, Fast Fishing Pro? Any Landing Plus?

Eventually we decided that as the new, paid, versions would be the ‘normal’ version of the game, it’s better to rename the old versions of the game by adding ‘PlayNice’ to them. So if you’ve got any of them, the name will change but they’ll still work the same.

We’re obviously keeping the old versions on the App Store as over a million players have downloaded them and they’re still being played every day. Plus some players have bought content and it would be unfair to penalise them. As far as is practical we’ll be keeping them updated too.

We’ve put a lot of thought into pricing too. With Flick Fishing we were one of the first app developers to recognise that gaining chart position made selling the game at the lowest price point of $0.99 worthwhile. That was of course the early days of the App Store and it worked fine then. However in the current App Store chart position isn’t quite so valid unless you can guarantee a top 10 position and way too many people seem to equate a $0.99 game with one they can wait for until it inevitably goes on offer as a free game. So we’re only going to keep the $0.99 price point for old games as a ‘budget’ label. These are our older or less popular games that we still want people playing but probably won’t have a lot of time to update that regularly.

For the bigger games we’re starting at $2.99 as a base point. Our thinking is pretty simple in that all our games are worth at least that and players who are only interested in cheaper or free games have plenty of options to trawl through 😉

Tiny TrackZ for instance is a simple (but rather deep) puzzle game, so the iOS version is going to be launched at $2.99 with the Mac version coming in at $6.99 (this covers the extra development time, lower customer base and wider range of machines to support). It may have some IAP packs to extend it at some point but only for big content add ons.

The relaunched Any Landing is going to be $3.99 as it will effectively be the same as the Play Nice version rewritten as if you’d paid the full $9.99 option for everything. Fast Fishing will be $2.99 and Snap Match Soccer will be our first $0.99 budget title. We’re already testing the first version of Any Landing in paid mode.

Tiny TrackZ Promo Video

August 5, 2015 by Zwilnik

Here’s a little video we did for Tiny TrackZ!

The actual game will be out soon on August 13th for iOS and following soon after for OS X.

Music : “Ballycastle Bay” performed by the Fairey Band.

All rights reserved. Any unauthorised copying, reproduction, rental or broadcast of the information contained in this product is a violation of applicable laws.
Music under license from Delta Leisure Group.

Tiny TrackZ R&D

August 4, 2015 by Zwilnik

Sometimes when we write a game, we possibly take our research a little too seriously 🙂

Back in 2008 when we first started writing SlotZ Racer, I delved back into my childhood hobby of slot car racing and spent a lot of time playing, setting up tracks and racing Adam before I even started on the main code.

Just after SlotZ Racer was released in early 2009 I already started thinking about using the track system to do a railway game. Our dad used to be a big model railway nut, so we’d grown up building and running OO model railway layouts that either took up a spare room or an extended shed. It’s something neither of us had done in a while though, so I put together a prototype of a game called “TrackZ : Pocket Railway” (continuing the Z naming theme from SlotZ 😉 ) while I bought myself a small N Gauge set to experiment and generally play with to us back into the right mindset for model railways.

By the time we had the original prototype of TrackZ ready, Adam and I had both built N Gauge layouts. Mine being the original “Ives Yard”, built on my desktop around my iMac as an Inglenook Sidings style shunting layout (although with longer sidings).

Around this time, our publishers Freeverse were being bought out another publisher and there was a general change in direction as to what type of games they were interested in publishing. It was also getting obvious to us that TrackZ was turning into a huge project that could take us a couple of years to write if we carried on making it into the same sort of feature set as SlotZ Racer with a track editor (as railways are a lot more complicated!). So reluctantly we put the project on the back burner while we moved onto other games.

We didn’t stop railway modelling though. By that point it had become a proper hobby again, so here’s some pics of what I’ve been working on since then as my R&D for Tiny TrackZ…

My layout is called Ivebridge. It incorporates the original Ives Yard layout at one end but is now a much bigger layout with a lot more scenery.

While Adam spent some time working on his smaller Dunmarsh layout, he recently expanded the range of his hobby and he’s now helping out at the Isle of Wight Steam Railway, restoring a full size coach to its former glory..

Above all this though, we love writing games. So while researching the subject matter for them is fun and sometimes becomes a full on hobby in itself, the games are the fun bit!

Tiny TrackZ is due for release on iOS on August 13th with the OS X version to follow.

New Stuff and a change of direction!

July 24, 2015 by Zwilnik

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything, mostly because we’ve been working really hard to get Tiny TrackZ ready for launch in August (we’re even sponsoring the Touch Arcade podcast for a couple of weeks on launch, so tune in!).

We decided earlier in the year that we were going to change how we sell our games from now on. Our Play Nice system has been an interesting experiment in seeing if we can provide Free to Play games without over the top and unlimited micropayments and still earn enough revenue to fund game development. However it’s not really done well enough to pay the rent. We’re also not entirely happy with how free games are perceived and simply put, we’re having to do a lot of extra hard work to make games work for Play Nice without any real benefit.

So from now on, we’re keeping it simple. All our new games will be paid games. We’re also having a moratorium on sales and none of our paid games will be free for a day or at all, so if you like one of our games, you can buy it without worrying if it’ll be cheaper at some point (it won’t. In fact, the price might even go up).

We’re not ruling out having extra content added to our games as an IAP option but this will be extra content and not a payment to keep playing the game or change how the game plays.

Once Tiny TrackZ is released, I’m going back over all our old games and working on updates as well as new paid versions of the Play Nice ones. We’ll be keeping the Play Nice ones on the App Store, but they’ll also have straight paid versions for players who just want to play and pay.

Zenos!

April 22, 2015 by Zwilnik

We’ve got a brand new SlotZ Racer special edition out! It’s called SlotZ Racer Zenos Special and we’ve written it in collaboration with Zenos Cars, a brand new British sports car manufacturer!

http://www.zenoscars.com

We even got to have a test drive of their 250bhp turbocharged E10S on the roads around Brands Hatch (and some fast passenger laps around the track with their test driver Emma!) so we have first hand experience of just how much fun this car is 🙂

SlotZ Racer Zenos Special is on the App Store now and even includes MFi controller compatibility so you can play the game with any compatible game controller. (It’s actually set up for 4 player mode using controllers, but we’re still getting the bugs out for an update). All the new features in this special edition, along with the E10 and E10S are coming to SlotZ Racer 2 HD in an update soon too.
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/slotz-racer-zenos-special/id953253365?mt=8

Tiny TrackZ (Work in progress)

February 9, 2015February 7, 2015 by Zwilnik

So like most coders, I’m sat here on a Saturday evening watching a good film (Jim Jarmusch’s Night on Earth) and working away on our next game.

It’s still a work in progress, but it’s looking good and it has trains in it 🙂