Monday, January 31, 2011

DAILY 180 CONTEST 7: Play 180, Win Dead Space!

180 for iPhone - Daily Hi-Score contest on Facebook!

Another day, another contest! Up for grabs today is the recently-released Dead Space by EA for iPhone ($6.99) You know you want this!



To win Dead Space, you must play Endless Mode. Again the rules are going to be a mystery until the contest ends - last time we awarded a prize for the median score, what will today bring? Submit by midnight (PST) tonight and we'll award this incredible game to one lucky winner!

IMPORTANT: Scores will be judged against to all others who post/participate in the contest thread today, not going by all score posts shown on openFeint.

Your score must post online!
You must be sure to favorite 180 within openFeint so we can easily verify the score in your game list. Be sure to grab and submit a screengrab of your OF page showing that you completed the task and add it into this post (upload the pic somehow, perhaps imgur or something, and then put a link to that inside your response to the post. Or put it into your Facebook album, and then copy the tiny text below it "to display this image publicly...")

Full rules & info here.

Good luck - now get to work!

Friday, January 28, 2011

DAILY 180 CONTEST 5: Play 180, Win KosmoSpin!

180 for iPhone - Daily Hi-Score contest on Facebook!

Another day, another contest! Up for grabs today is the beautiful-looking Kosmo Spin ($0.99) brought to you by our buddies at Simogo!



Check out this great video of the game :)


The name of the game today is endurance, of a different nature. How many games of 180 have you played already? This is tallied up in the "Total Coins Cleared" category. By midnight PST tonight, the Top 2 Koin-Klearers get Kosmo!

IMPORTANT: Scores will be judged against to all others who post/participate in the contest thread today, not going by all score posts shown on openFeint.

Your score must post online!
You must be sure to favorite 180 within openFeint so we can easily verify the score in your game list. Be sure to grab and submit a screengrab of your OF page showing that you completed the task and add it into this post (upload the pic somehow, perhaps imgur or something, and then put a link to that inside your response to the post. Or put it into your Facebook album, and then copy the tiny text below it "to display this image publicly...")

Full rules & info here.

Good luck - now get to work!

Thursday, January 27, 2011

DAILY 180 CONTEST 4: Play 180, Win Silverfish!

180 for iPhone - Daily Hi-Score contest on Facebook!

Hear ye! Today's challenge is a test of endurance! You must compete to see who can score best in Drop Attack Mode of 180 (v1.1) and post a pic of the game over screen for a chance to win a copy of the gorgeous-looking Silverfish for iPhone, generously donated by the kind folks at Chaotic Box! (worth $0.99)

Anyone can compete in today's challenge, even if you have previously won a contest this past week! IMPORTANT: Scores will be judged against to all others who post/participate in the contest thread today, not going by all score posts shown on openFeint.

The 5 best-scoring players will each receive a copy of the game, judged after midnight PST. 1st place will get a special bonus prize as well! Oooo mysterious! I'll say this much, you will like it!

Drop Attack
plays very differently than the other two modes in 180. The goal is not to clear large chains and combos, but rather to get "through" as many pieces in as quickly a time as possible. You need to develop some very unique strategies to do well in this mode! There's a depth marker on the right side of the screen to help visualize how far you have gone: lower depth = better score.

Your score must post online! You must be sure to favorite 180 within openFeint so we can easily verify the score in your game list. Be sure to grab and submit a screengrab showing that you completed the task and add it into this post (upload the pic somehow, perhaps imgur or something, and then put a link to that inside your response to the post. Or put it into your Facebook album, and then copy the tiny text below it "to display this image publicly...")

Full rules & info here.

Good luck - now get dropping!

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

DAILY 180 CONTEST 3: Play 180, Win Tiki Totems 2!

180 for iPhone - Daily Hi-Score contest on Facebook!

Time to roll up your sleeves and get to work! Today's challenge is fairly simple - you must simply play a single round of 180 (v1.1) and post a pic of the game over screen for a chance to win a copy of the Tiki Totems 2 for iPhone (and Tiki Totems 2 HD for the iPad), generously donated by the kind folks at Spokko Mobile Development! (worth $0.99)

You must be sure to favorite 180 within OF so we can easily verify the score in your game list. Be sure to grab and submit a screengrab showing that you completed the task and add it into this post (upload the pic somehow, perhaps imgur or something, and then put a link to that inside your response to the post)

We've got 10 codes to give away, your choice of iPhone or iPad. First 10 posters who get verified, win the codes. Good luck!

Full rules & info here.

Good luck!

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

DAILY 180 CONTEST 2: Level 30, Win Dead Space!

180 for iPhone - Daily Hi-Score contest on Facebook!

Time to roll up your sleeves and get to work! Today's challenge is moderately difficult - you must reach Level 30 in Endless Mode of 180 (v1.1) to win a copy of the newly-released Dead Space for iPhone! (worth $6.99) (Today's contest open to US residents only)

OpenFeint is still acting up so there will be a delay of maybe a day to announce the winner. Also you must be sure to favorite 180 within OF so we can easily verify the score in your game list. If you believe you have won, be sure to grab and submit a screengrab showing that you completed the task and add it into this post. First player that we can confirm the achievement, wins the prize :)

Full rules & info here.

Good luck!

Monday, January 24, 2011

180 for iPhone - Daily Contest on Facebook!

180 for iPhone - Daily Contest on Facebook!


Now's your chance to win great apps like Dead Space, Real Racing 2, and so many others for your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad!


Simply follow our Facebook page and watch for daily contests. Some days you will need to play our game 180 and post a screengrab (how-to) in order to compete. Other days you must simply post on the daily thread to be eligible for a drawing. There's chances for anyone to win!

TODAY'S CONTEST - CLICK HERE!


Any questions, email me here
Any other devs who would like to contribute prizes/cross promote, read this

Good luck Gamers!!


Friday, January 21, 2011

iPhone App Game Development Blog #45

iPhone App Game Development Blog #45


Time for an update - thar she blows!

180 for iPhone - sick of hearing me talk about this one yet? No you aren't! Well I sure have seemingly said all there is to on the matter, but guess what - there's a ways to go! Here's some juicy tidbits:
- installed on a hair shy of 140,000 iDevices
- nearly %30 of v1.0 users have updated to the latest version
- still at 4 stars on iTunes and holding
- still "featured on iTunes" to some degree (though not in any prominent, meaningful way)
- hasn't crashed in months! (sales)
- in development for a different platform, and releasing very shortly :)
- was free for all of December, and for a minute last week. Effects on sales were profoundly minimal (this was expected)

Bizdev - always the interesting part. I am working on a couple of things, I seem to say that a lot. I am actually trying to find the time to advance something int he short-term. I have a programmer and possibly a small staff to help me between the necessary disciplines - I just need to find some time to organize and delegate things. It might actually pick up shortly.

GDC, PAX East are both looming closely on the horizon. While I'd love to attend at least one of these events, it is unfortunate that I am just way too busy and far too broke for either to be a reality. It's more and more important to get out there and be seen, and all of that - but it's a luxury I haven't got right now. To be honest I do feel kinda conventioned-out after all the craziness last year - yeah, still - so I don't really feel much remorse on the matter. I do believe my time will be well-spent producing in the interim, though I can't argue that meeting and connecting with folks in person is essential to growth and success. Well, there is always E3..

What Else is Going On - I was speaking to a couple of literary agents about writing a book (should this come as a shock?) It's something I've been too busy to follow-up with, but I think I might dust off the cobwebs shortly since my journalist brother has some free time on his hands. 3 guesses what it might be about, hint: there's a lot of material already lying around.

I am unbelievably busy with freelance work right now. It's been a very, very long drought and it's so nice to be back in the thick of it, even though it does pull me away from my independent/personal projects. Fortunately, the work is good, I enjoy it very much, and it helps me out in a lot of ways. I am doing the best I can to keep on top of things, but it's a battle at times. I think people going through similar circumstances know what I am talking about.

Promotion - I've long said "2011 will mark the end of my promotion of 180," well it seems not to be the case. I've merely been mixing things up. Gone are the days of forcing my way through TouchArcade, I've looked long and hard at my clicks and the research resoundingly screams "Facebook" so I have been working hard to grow my presence there. It's not easy - especially for such a tiny operation - but it's growing fairly strongly across all that I've been doing. I get several hundred views per day, and it is growing. Mind you, I have several pages spread across my campaign (my personal page with @2200 connections, my HcG page with @500-odd fans, my dedicated 180 page with over 50 fans, my FreeAppTracker page with a couple hundred fans.. I've started experimenting with some Facebook advertising as well. It's costly, and "probably not worth it" but it is something I need to familiarize myself with, and that's just by throwing into the fire. I'll push it further very soon with more aggressive/intriguing promotion and see if that grows anything.

A lot of people say "the game is done, let it go" but I have a very different philosophy and looking at my numbers, it makes sense to go this route (also, I am not telling all of my plans at once...) Anyway we have a good 14,000 active users right now - that we know of - which I consider to be a fairly healthy number, and I want to stoke the embers a little bit in light of what's to come. Besides, in the ensuing follow-up, if it falls flat I can always just cut the line fairly easily. As I see these numbers keep ballooning, it makes sense to keep pushing things.

Otherwise, I am anticipating a very crazy 2011 for the games industry. It's a little bizarre to be sitting here in what feels like the calm before the storm. I felt like last year was one of the quietest in many ways, but what's to come should be fairly earth-shattering. I think mobile is going to start to really disrupt the scene in 2011, unless you have your head down a hole I think many would be inclined to agree. This is just the beginning and if you can hang on and continue to be active and knowledgable, you will get to be a part of it all.

There's certainly a lot more to say and I will do my best to keep reporting it to you who would read it. I still owe a nice "numbers post" and I know there are folks who are interested in that, I will put it out when I have the time to present it appropriately. I think I've pretty much outlined the long and short of things already, but even for my own edification it is nice to present it all in black and white. It will get put together soon.

Lastly, I need help from my community! As usual, I am still the scrappy little guy fighting my way up this giant mountain, and there's still a ways to go! If you haven't already, please do these:

Like us on Facebook
Write a review of 180 on iTunes
Keep our TouchArcade post alive :)

Both of these things are very crucial to our growth. I can't stress that enough.

I want to open up the floor to questions/comments/criticism as well. I have tried this in the forums, I have tried it on reddit, both places are fairly useless for this sort of thing I have found. Please ask me anything regarding this all (my process, my plans, my delusions!) and I will do my best to give you an answer that is satisfactory. I enjoy writing in this blog, but I prefer to have it be open and share with the community, with other developers, with the people who enjoy our games, than just "this is me talking AT you."

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned!

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Retro Game of the Day! Donkey Kong GB


Retro Game of the Day! Donkey Kong GB

Donkey Kong by Nintendo for their GameBoy, released in 1994.


Here's an anamoly for you! Released quite late into the original GameBoy's life, DKGB was designed to take advantage of a new peripheral for the SNES, dubbed the "Super GameBoy" - a device that would play the entire library of original black-and-white GameBoy games and pipe them through your SNES onto the television. This cartridge in particular would display in a special "limited-color mode" when played in such a fashion. Mind you, this all preceded the GameBoy Color, which was not compatible as one would hope.

The game itself was a spin on the very classic original Donkey Kong formula, aping the original game (I'm so sorry) for the first few levels before launching into the true meat of this quest. Eschewing the whole Mushroom Kingdom canon altogether, this game presented an entirely different take on the whole story which harkens back to Mario's original "Jumpan - rescue Pauline" roots and is quite refreshing for it. Sadly, the game was a true undiscovered gem. Branding the game as simply "Donkey Kong" and starting the game off as a throwback to the original, it looked like the game was simply a port of that much older original game. Those who knew better and played the game were in for quite a feast of a game, among the best the GameBoy would ever offer.


After dispatching the homage to the original levels, the gamer would find a huge and complicated platform/puzzler hidden within, as each "screen" challenged our famous protagonist to seek a key and exit to the next levels. Each world ended with a boss battle, and a longer journey followed through several of the same, all with different themes (Jungle, Pirate Ship, Airplane, The Big City, etc) Mario's moveset was hugely expanded upon, and the game really shines in it's design and execution.

The game can easily be seen as a precursor for the ensuing GBA and DS games such as "Mario vs Donkey Kong" and "March of the Minis,' but in no way is it inferior to any of those titles gameplay-wise. Despite the very dated tech, this game still tops many GameBoy fanatics' must-have lists and is extremely fun to play through today. An overlooked classic worth anybody's time!

Our iPhone action/puzzler 180 is a hit! Fans of games like Tetris Attack and Magical Drop will feel right at home - pick it now up for only a buck on the iTunes App Store!