Little improvements and patches are trickling in to Outwitters 2.0, including a little extra love to the old base death animation.

Alex is working his butt off getting things straightened out between all these Droid and iOS devices, but he’s set a personal goal to have everything working by the end of next week. Definitely a tougher port than we expected when we set off on this adventure, but it’ll be worth it when iOS and Android buddies can finally duke it out.

If you’d like an email reminder the day that Outwitters 2.0 drops, you could sign up for our mailing list or follow us on Twitter and Facebook. Or, you know, we post that kind of stuff here too.

I think I’ve used this post title before, but I like it too much not to use it more often. Just got a beta build out yesterday that finishes implementing all the menus (so… many… menus) for the tablet version of what we’re calling Outwitters 2.0. Still bug squashing and working in the death animations and sound effects, but we’re almost there!

Alex would like me to remind you to follow us on twitter, where he posts new developments more frequently than we do here, often using significantly less words! Just yesterday he dug up these old logo designs from the embryonic days of Outwitters, when we were thinking about maybe just calling it Outwits.

Still creeping forward on the Outwitters port this week, inching ever closer to our big cross-platform release. Alex is wrapping up the iPad/tablet versions of everything while I recreate the old tutorial animations in the new engine. It’s all taking about twice as long as we expected, but the upshot is we’ll have a great framework in place if we decide to make another turn-based strategy game.

We’re just about to start the spit and polish portion of development, and both of us are super-excited to get this thing out into the world next month.

We’ve been working pretty hard on wrapping up our Outwitters port to Android. Not to leave our iOS users in the dust, this update does a lot to bring Outwitters up to speed on iOS as well. Some of the new features coming to both platforms:

• Higher frame rates for smoother animations
• Faster push notifications, allowing for ‘blitz’ play, where one can sit in-game and simply wait for a turn to refresh their game board live!
• Minor touch-ups and add-ons to UI, such as viewing your friends’ rank before inviting them to a game.
• Faster transitions/loading between game and main menu

As well as iPhone 6/6+ support for iOS. Anyone that wishes to take our beta for a spin and give feedback/report bugs on Google Play or iOS please sign up via your respective platform in our beta thread.

The Gauntlet’s Revenge switch to free to play on Android was a bit of a distraction, but we’re back on track with the Outwitters port. This past week the map backgrounds were all rebuilt to resemble the originals as closely as possible (though I did improve the twitchy egg animation for Reaper & War Garden – you’re welcome). According to Alex, we’re still set to have it all wrapped up by the end of the month. That may mean a February release rather than January like we intended.

As for January being prototype month for Game 5, that ship seems to have sailed. My work stack for the port is a lot smaller than Alex’s, so for me it feels like waiting for Christmas. I’ve got like eight turn-based strategy games prototyped, so I’ve shifted focus to something I’ve always wanted to experiment with: an adventure game with a story. It won’t be game 5, but it’s fun to play around with.

So, real talk, Gauntlet’s Revenge has been under-performing on Android as a paid app. By a whole lot. In light of this, in the spirit of making lemonade from our lemons, Gauntlet’s Revenge just went free with ads on Android! Now there’s nothing standing between you and your shot at the Dot King.

A “remove ads” IAP is included so you can play the game as it was originally intended. We are unbelievably sorry to the few players who did purchase the app. There’s just no way for us to exclude you from a change like this, and we totally understand if you’d like a refund on your purchase. Send your request through this form along with your Google Play order number and we’ll get it issued as soon as possible. We wouldn’t consider a drastic move like this unless it absolutely had to be done.

There are no plans to make changes to the iOS version of the game at this time.

Want to try out bleeding edge (mostly working) software? The beta for the next Outwitters update that’ll eventually bring Outwitters to Android is now live for iOS. If you’re interested in helping out and taking it for a spin, head over and sign up.  Details on the beta requirements and what it means for your current Outwitters play can be found here.

With Gauntlet’s Revenge, it was brought to our attention that we should try modifying our Android icons to look more “Androidical”. Rounded corners are an iOS thing, and Android lets you use all kinds of weird shapes. That suggestion led to this modification of the Outwitters icon for our upcoming Android port.

It’s been a pretty productive year for One Man Left. The early months saw the Brimstone Pinball DLC come together for Tilt to Live 2, followed shortly by the evolution of Gauntlet’s Revenge from DLC to full game. We almost even squeezed in an Android port of Outwitters before New Years caught up with us. We’ve typically only managed about one game a year, so that’s not a bad collection of completed projects.

We really cannot thank you guys enough for supporting us year to year, if you managed a purchase. We’ve been chugging along full time at this for almost 5 years now, and that is 100% thanks to you.

Looking forward to 2015, I’m really itching to dive into some fresh material. While Alex has been putting together our Android ports, I’ve been brainstorming and sketching game ideas for about 2 months now. Alex will join me in January for what we have dubbed “prototype month”. I don’t think we’ve ever had this many different game ideas to choose from. Come February 1st, we will be ready to make the living crap out of something.

So what can you expect out of One Man Left next year? We’re leaning toward smaller projects, which means a faster turn-around for you guys. With any luck, we’ll have Game 5 ready around summer time. It’d be great to have two games done in 2015, but that’s just a flimsy New Year’s resolution at this point. A lot can happen between now and next December 31st. Naturally, we’ll be blogging it all right here as it develops.

And holy crap I’m getting married next year.

It’s getting late in December, so happy everything, everyone! I had too much fun making this ad. EVERY One Man Left game is now on sale for the holidays. We hope you’ll consider taking one of these for a spin while you celebrate whichever celebration is yours. Thanks to everyone who’s supported us over the years, and happy holidays!

On the App Store:

• Save $1 on Tilt to Live, Tilt to Live 2, or Gauntlet’s Revenge (33% off)
• Save $2 on the Tilty-Tilt Boom Boom Bundle (3 Tilt to Lives, 44% off)
• Save $2 on Tilt to Live HD’s Full Version (40% off)
• Save $2 on the Outwitters Uber Pack (50% off)
• Save $1 on the Outwitters Map Pack or Extra Game Slots (50% off)

On Google Play:

• Save $2 on Tilt to Live 2: Redonkulous, or Gauntlet’s Revenge (66% off)