So Outwitters is a multiplayer, multi-race strategy game. How many races will we include? However many we can finish. Here’s the first race we ever mocked up, wayyy back in October. They’re the team Alex and I are testing with in our first, bare bones prototype.

When you pick a race in Outwitters, you’re choosing two things: what do I want to look like, and what’s my special unit? Every race has 5 standard units plus one exclusive, special unit.

• Soldier: Balance of speed & strength
• Runner: Fast mover, weak fighter
• Heavy: Packs a punch, but gets around a little slower
• Medic: Lover, not a fighter
• Sniper: Long-range, low mobility
• Special Unit: Unique for each race

The sixth unit isn’t a “super unit” at the time of this writing. You can create one for the same price as anything else, and use it whenever you want. They may not march effortlessly across the battlefield leaving only devastation in their wake, but they do have unique abilities to keep your opponents on their toes.

For the Feedback in our prototype, the special unit is called a Scrambler. It’s an incredibly persuasive, cybernetic floating brain. It’s special power: possession! If you manage to corner an enemy with a Scrambler, you can instantly brainwash him to join your team. It’ll even hijack another race’s special unit, so you can use their own abilities against them.

Stay tuned for more sneak peeks at artwork, levels, and races as we expand our prototype into the full-fledged game, arriving free-to-try on iPads and iPhones later this year.

Game II was announced pretty fast and loose. Not a lot of details on gameplay, because the game doesn’t actually exist yet. But we’re all about keeping you guys informed, and we can answer some of the questions we’ve heard so far.

Q: But One Man Left, I don’t like strategy games :(.

Let me start by saying this game will be free to try out (like Tilt to Live HD), and we’re designing it to be something anybody would like, not just strategy aficionados.

The goal of the project is to boil the usual strategy experience down to what’s most fun about it, in our opinion. We’re tweaking some of the conventions, and eliminating tedium where we find it. The phrase “I don’t usually like this type of game, but…” has already come up in testing, which is definitely what we’re aiming for. How do we know if we’re on the right track? We’re recruiting testers that don’t like strategy games AND testers that love them, and we’re listening. And then we’re thinking really hard.

Q: What do you do in the game?

This may change, but right now: You start with a small army, a base to protect, and some “wits”: the resource you use to move and fight.  You’ll be using wits to add more men to your army, beat up your opponents, and ultimately destroy their base. Pretty easy to wrap your head around, right? It’s not hard to play at all, just tough to win.

There are six different units to choose from, and all cost the same amount of wits to spawn. The trick is recruiting the right men for the job, then getting through your opponent’s defenses.

Q: Will it have a single player campaign?

Nothing is set in stone, yet. Fighting AI in Monopoly is lame, so we’re leaning heavily toward player vs. player matches. Our goal is to have the online matchmaking work so well that you won’t ever need to play alone. And if you like who you’re matched with, you can continue to challenge them by name.

Next time:

We’ll introduce you guys to the Feedback, our robot race. Below is some concept art. They don’t actually have herbicide in the game, for obvious balancing reasons.

So Tilt to Live Easter was an April Fools joke, and we apologize to anyone who got super psyched about the Resurrection feature. Today is April 2nd, and this is the real deal.

I’d like to start by saying that we love Tilt to Live, and there’s still a long list of update ideas we could try. This is probably not the last you’ll see of the old arrow n’ dots, but let’s give it a rest for now. We feel a need to demonstrate to ourselves and the world that we are no one-trick pony. We want to be such a tricky pony!

In that spirit: Game II is a multiplayer-focused, turn-based strategy game for everyone. “For everyone” means that you won’t have to play a 25 minute tutorial before you can start having fun. There aren’t 30 buttons onscreen, there’s no dialogue to skip, and you don’t have to be a space marine. Turn-based meaning you can play a match all in one sitting, or back and forth at your convenience like Words with Friends.

The prototype is literally just being finished, so not a ton of details feature-wise yet. We’re definitely going for local and online multiplayer (with matchmaking), so you can have fun with a friend or with a Stranger Danger. You’ll have a number of races to choose from, each with a unique advantage on the battlefield. Below are some characters concepts for the Plant and Cuddly teams (“for everyone” also means there’s a cuddly team).

Also pictured: a severed head from the Robot team. Production for Game II is now in full swing, and it will be ready for release later this year on iPhone, iPod Touch, & iPad. Whether it will be two apps or universal has yet to be determined. We’ll continue blogging this weekly-ish with additional artwork and updates on our progress.