An Update on Updates :)

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

 

App Store pricing and our new games

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

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.

Strange Flavour’s New Game Any Landing Hits The App Store With A Crash On February 12th 2014

AnyLandingicon

Latest Title Showcases Strange Flavour’s Revolutionary New IAP called “Play Nice” Preventing Players From Accidentally Overspending

 On 12th February, Strange Flavour will launch its latest game, the “endless crasher” Any Landing,  for the iPhone, iPod Touch and the iPad.  This is a crashtacular game of airborne mayhem that comes from the creators of the Number One iPhone games Flick Fishing and SlotZ Racer, Mac games such as Airburst Extreme and the Apple Design Award winning ToySight .

In Any Landing, you are a pilot working for a very low-budget, cheapskate airline run by a dodgy miserly airline boss. Your aircraft always breaks down, your engines are forever burning out meaning you have to keep crash landing your planes. Not only that but a rival air company, Evil Air, are doing their level best to keep you out of the skies. Your mission is to try keep your passengers happy and your aircraft flying!

kittenspace

 

SOME OF THE MANY FEATURES OF ANY LANDING: 

  • Fly through 32 levels over 4 different air routes!
  • Crash-land your plane, plunder luggage for  souvenirs and rescue cute kittens!
  • Unlock and fly 8 different aircraft and avoid been knocked out of the sky by the nefarious Evil Air!
  • Use lots of different upgrades to improve your aircraft and fly further!
  • Complete bonus VIP missions for extra rewards!
  • iCloud save game syncing
  • Game Center Leaderboards and Achievements
  • MOGA ACE™ POWER Controller Support (as well as any other Made For iOS controllers).

 

 

playnice1Strange Flavour are using Any Landing to introduce their new IAP System called Play Nice ( playnice.strangeflavour.com) which allows players to accelerate their gameplay with In-App Purchases, but doesn’t allow them to accidentally overspend.

Unlike other IAP-based systems, Play Nice always has an “All you can eat” option that permanently unlocks all optional content. What’s more, when a player purchases any of the lower priced content, the cost of that is taken off the price of the “All You Can Eat”  item meaning they’ll never pay more than a fixed amount. Once the player has purchased All You Can Eat, it’s theirs permanently.

It is hoped the Play Nice system will allow players to enjoy the games they want, the way they want, without accidentally racking up huge bills while at the same time, allowing the developers to still make a living.

CEO and Lead Coder Aaron Fothergill explains, “In-App Purchase is a very useful feature that has recently been somewhat abused in games. Strange Flavour wants to play nice and help rebuild the players’ trust.”

And as the old saying goes, “Any Landing you can walk away from is a good landing!”

Any Landing will be available for Free on the App Store, 12th February. The Universal App, requires iOS 6 and above.

Teaser Trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3WYJZZL85Q&list=LLVKbESoIMPmZvEzs9MqkQoA&feature=share

Screenshots (full size)

Or zip archive of them all..

http://www.strangeflavour.com/sfGames/AnyLanding/Screenshots/AnyLandingiPadScreen.zip

Screenshots (1024×768 jpg)

Contact

info@strangeflavour.com

www.strangeflavour.com

PR Enquiries

Anna Larke

annalarke@hotmail.com

About Strange Flavour

Strange Flavour Ltd. is a small UK based independent games developer run by two brothers, Aaron and Adam Fothergill who have nearly 50 years of combined experience in the games industry.

After taking the Mac world by storm with their award winning games Airburst Extreme and ToySight, Strange Flavour have been creating hit iPhone games, including Flick Fishing, published through Freeverse, which was one of the top selling iPhone games of all time and the #1 slot car racing game SlotZ Racer.

Strange Flavour are now publishing their own iPhone games on the App Store, starting with SlotZ Racer 2 and SlotZ Racer Caterham Special.

For the physicists…

Strange Flavour is named after a sub-atomic particle called a quark. Quarks come in various flavours, such as up,down and rather interestingly, ‘strange’. As has been pointed out to us by some of the physicists out there, there are more than the 4 original flavours of quark than we first believed (I did my physics a *long* time ago). They’re probably adding new flavours of them to compete with the new ones that the fizzy drinks companies are marketing.

Aaron Fothergill : Game Design and Programming

Adam Fothergill : Graphics and Sound

Website: http://www.strangeflavour.com