Gauntlet mode first appeared in the original Tilt to Live. Rather than hopping from weapon to weapon, it was about navigating a parade of deadly traps with precision and good timing. It was a fun mode, but there were a few things we wish we’d done better. The difficulty was fairly flat, and the enemy formations lacked variety. We retooled it for Tilt to Live HD as a single screen bullet hell mode, but we always wanted another crack at that “precision endless runner”, “tilt platformer” feel.

When it came time to think up a second DLC for Tilt to Live 2, getting a chance to finally do Gauntlet justice was high on our list. Once a few enemies and track pieces were in the prototype, all sorts of interesting ideas came up. What if you could reach some kind of bonus room if you survived long enough? I have a lot of leftover obstacle ideas; what if we did a few different Gauntlets?

Rather than cutting our ideas down to make DLC for Tilt to Live 2, we’re running with them in our first Tilt to Live spin-off: Gauntlet’s Revenge. Development is already underway for iOS and Android, and we expect to be ready for release later this year. You can keep up with our progress on this blog, or sign up for an email reminder when the game is released.

We sat down for a long discussion about Tilt to Live 2‘s 2nd DLC recently. The prototype is fun, and there’s so much more we could do with it if it wasn’t just a gametype within Tilt to Live 2. So why not flesh it out a bit? DLC 2 has enough going for it that it could be our fourth game: a spin-off that’s unlike any Tilt to Live game we’ve made. We’ve got to nail down a few details before we’re ready to formally announce the project, but good stuff is coming.

Our more astute fans may have noticed that Tilt to Live 2: Freedonkulous is no longer available on any stores. It must be true, because I didn’t even make the name a link to anything just now. We had some issues with the app, and made the decision to pull it from the store until we could figure out how to fix them.

But dry your teary eyes now. Because to make it up to anyone that missed out on Freedonkulous, the REAL non-lite versions of Tilt to Live 2 AND the original Tilt to Live have both been set to free on the App Store for a limited time! This is not a thing that happens, so act fast before you miss out. One caveat for our Android fans: we don’t actually have a way to set a game from paid to free and back on Android, so we’ve reduced the price as low as it can go for you.

Our second TtL2 DLC has taken a very interesting turn, so check back for news on that next week.

Just released in an update to the paid version of Tilt to Live 2, Brimstone Pinball now has a hard mode, with its own leaderboard for crazy people. How long will you last? One second? THREE?!

Pro tip: you’ll definitely want to make use of the star beam (dribble against a green star wall 3 times) and the superball to keep your enemies at bay. You won’t last long in hard mode without them.

Here’s an enemy type that we sadly had to cut from Brimstone Pinball in order to meet our deadline: Giant Bumper Baddies. They moved much slower, but took like 10 brimstone hits to take down. We had them working up to a point, but they did some very odd things with the physics, exploded if another bumper spawned on top of them, and died in one hit from the superball and star beam like everything else, which was pretty anti-climactic. It would have taken a lot of retooling to do them justice, so we had to give them the axe.

We’re still working hard on Tilt to Live 2 DLC 2, which we’re going to have to come up with a better name for. Once it gets a bit prettier and more fleshed out, we’ll be ready to “reveal” it and “market” it at you.

Dot King sketch from the old Boss Gauntlet concept

Lots of cool ideas are being tossed around like so much pizza dough. We had a few long discussions on how different weapons could take center stage like we did for brimstone, spitballed some new weapons, and even came up with some weird modes without any weapons at all. Two rough-but-playable demos have been assembled for our strongest candidates (One by ME, and I can’t even code! Thanks Unity!), and we’re just about ready to commit to one of them. We’ll probably be ready to announce what it is in a few weeks.

Another good idea sprung up from our conversations: we may be adding a “hard mode” toggle to Brimstone Pinball & the 2nd DLC, similar to the “Old School” toggle for Classic and Code Red. Alex would like to die faster. Not sure why we haven’t thought of this sooner.

And now, the moment people who don’t like paying for things have been waiting for! Freedonkulous is something we put together so anyone can grab the basic Tilt to Live 2 experience, free of charge. Plus, not coincidentally, the paid version of Tilt to Live 2 is only 99¢ for a very limited time! I cannot express how excited I was to discover that our tagline could double as a “free” pun. Actually, I just looked it up, and it’s not a pun. It’s called a portmanteau, and now we’re all smarter.

What are we giving away in Freedonkulous, you probably ask? It’s got Classic Mode with all of its boss fights, an Old School option to streamline the gameplay, two unlockable weapons, and over 30 achievements to conquer.

If you free users like what you’re playing, now’s a great time to upgrade to the paid version (whose price is temporarily inhibited) for:

• Code Red (hard mode): with harder bosses, more achievements, & two more unlockable weapons!
• Access to the Brimstone Pinball DLC
• No ads
• Support the devs: your purchases keep us in the business of making games

We’d like to thank everyone that took the plunge and bought the new Brimstone Pinball DLC. We worked really hard to make that worth your 99¢, so reading things like “Brimstone Pinball is the best thing that happened to Tilt to Live since Code Red” made our day. Thanks for keeping our little game-making outfit afloat. And thanks to the App Store editorial team for including Tilt to Live 2 in their featured games this week.

New updates recharge our App Store promo codes, so iOS users who don’t have TtL2 already should give one of these a shot:

As we mentioned last week, there’s a small side project being wrapped up for release (we think) by the 30th of this month. I can’t tell you much about it for good reason, other than the whole thing took about a week to make, so don’t get your hopes up too high (Outwitters fans).

Today is the day! You can add the new Brimstone Pinball DLC to your Tilt to Live 2 lineup for a mere 99¢. It’s practically a whole new game, with a fresh lineup of enemies and 15 tricky achievements to conquer. To help you get started climbing the leaderboards, we’ve assembled a list of tips to maximize your score:

• Hitting a star wall is worth the same amount of points as killing a bumper baddie, and it’s quicker.
• Dribbling 3x on a star wall triggers the star beam, which clears a portion of the screen. These kills are worth more than double the norm.
• Double, triple, and multi-kills each provide a score bonus, so when you can, kill in groups.
• Dribbling an enemy to death (not touching any walls) is a perfect kill, worth 5x the norm.
• Superball kills are also worth 5x the norm. Try filling the screen with enemies before you fill those background stars!

Never resting, because we are machines, we’re already winding up production on a small side project. More on that soon.

This promotion is over now. RIP, Frederick.

Did you know that today is Free Soundtrack Day? It’s the one day each year that we remember the sacrifices of Frederick P. Soundtrack, a man who gave all of his music away for free until he finally starved and died. And his family, who depended on him to earn a living, also starved and died. And so, we celebrate by setting the Tilt to Live 2 Soundtrack to FREE for a day, from now until whenever I remember to switch it back tomorrow, or until we run out of free download credits from Bandcamp. Whichever comes first.

If all goes according to plan, you can expect Tilt to Live 2’s Brimstone Pinball update to arrive next Thursday!