Adam the Artist
I actually found an app all on my own for iOS, which is, like, unheard of. It was in the App Store’s “What’s Hot” section while Outwitters was being featured. The icon intrigued me, I tapped for details, & the screen shots closed the deal. So that’s what that feels like, I thought.
Shellrazer is a war-turtle-riding simulator from the guys that made N+, which Alex and I used to play together. I’m not sure how well this one will work on an iPhone, but on iPad it was perfect for me. You stack some guns on top of your turtle, throw some perks on those guns, and mow down goblins and gun towers and sheep-mounted knights. The difficulty gets pretty nuts towards the end, so paying attention to which guns work best on who and what perks you need becomes really important. I had a blast.
Alex the Codesmith
I’ve been on a PC gaming kick as of late, meaning more than Starcraft 2. Every now and then, especially after a major release or between projects, I tend to go through a lot of games. I usually don’t even come close to beating them. I’ve kind of gotten over the nagging “completionist” in me. If a game offers a decent amount of entertainment for a reasonable amount of time, I’m happy. Maybe it’s a sign of getting older…
In any case, one game I picked up during the Steam Summer Sale was Anno 2070. Very cool city building game with insane amount of depth. The selling point for me was the ability to play in the same ‘world’ with friends, either as separate cities or sharing a city. Provided for some good times.
Another game I’ve sunk a decent amount of hours into was the Arma 2 mod Day Z. It’s in alpha so ‘buggy’ doesn’t really begin to describe the quirkiness of that game. But it’s definitely playable and extremely difficult. The concept of being put on a vast landmass to survive on your own, avoiding zombies, and other players was really compelling. Death in this game is permanent. You start from square one when you die. You could be a month into the game, miles north into the territory and have a bad run in with some zombies, starve to death, or get killed by some bandits (other players) that don’t like the way you looked at them. From a design perspective, the game is fascinating. It’s a multiplayer game where paranoia between players is truly real, and even though there are weapons not everyone is rushing to point X to up their kill/death ratio. Killing another player in this game has a unnerving effect (at least on me). If you manage to kill someone (either by accident, defensively, or just by being a griefer) the consequences are huge. You could have potentially wiped out weeks if not months of another player’s playtime with a single shot (click of the mouse).
And finally, I’m currently pretty into Tower Wars by Supervillain Studios. It recently came out for PC on Steam. I’ve never been a big Tower Defense fan (mostly from fatigue of the game type), but this game was refreshing enough for me to be genuinely interested in the nuances of the tower interactions with the creeps. Having 2v2 and 3v3 co-op head-to-head is kind of what clinched it for me (again). Good times had by all.
David “the Code Penguin” Lambert recently brought to our attention something he’s been working on for Outwitters: a browser-based replay viewer! Not only can you watch your replay without an iDevice, you also get to see a fog of war overlay for each player, a move by move summary of the action, AND it can generate a heatmap of your game (which I think shows you which spaces and paths were used; correct me if I’m wrong). I hate to say it, but this is cooler than our in-game replay if you’re wanting to analyze your game.
Check out this sample Super-Titan replay, or plug in a link of your own! You’re going to want to bookmark this. For anyone out of the loop, you can copy a replay link from any completed game in Outwitters by tapping and holding the entry in your games list. These URL’s can be viewed on any device with Outwitters installed, or by plugging them into David’s contraption.
Fan art by Pyyrhic
We come to the end of another week working on our patch update, which should alleviate Outwitters’ most annoying bugs and crashes. We’re aiming to have that out around the end of the month, after which we can start testing our new team pack ideas.
If you’ve been eyeing any Outwitters IAP, I’d suggest you take this plunge this weekend. Everything bumps up to non-sale prices on Monday!
Adam the Artist
I’m one of those weirdos that still turns on his Wii once in a while . I couldn’t find a better way to word that. Anyway, the virtual console is a nostalgia factory, so I bought Paper Mario and Super Mario RPG. It’s surprisingly easy to get me to buy old games all over again.
I found another iOS title that hooked me pretty hard, and it’s free so you should check it out. Project 83113 (which is a terrible name, because I have to think really hard to type it) is a bullet hell platformer with swipey slide and jump controls. They take some getting used to, but it’s comfortable as long as you aren’t trying to stand still. It’s a bullet dodging game, so… I don’t think I was supposed to be standing still anyway. Each level has highscore goals and hidden objects (GOD I love hidden objects) so there’s nice replay value to be had. I’m a sucker for a good platformer.
Alex the Codesmith
Alex is playing House Hunter. It’s a very dull and time-consuming game where you try to buy a house in Atlanta.
The Outwitters release went swimmingly, and we’re at 388,000 free downloads so far. We were even Apple’s Editor’s Choice pick for the week, which was a nice surprise. No major meltdown problems technically, but still a LOT of bug reports to sift through. Unfortunately, there’s a lot you don’t catch when your beta only has like 30 devices in it. Although we did get one email thanking us for releasing a “bug-free game”, so apparently one copy of Outwitters was touched by an angel.
This week we’re sort of working at a stutter. Alex (our developer) has decided to flee the state of Alabama for greener pastures, so there’s the distraction of house hunting to be dealt with. Once that’s settled, he’s working on a major patch update for Outwitters to address some of the nastier bugs and crashes. The game limit will also be getting a big bump for some users (might we recommend the über pack?). If all goes according to plan, that update should hit in about a month.
In my stabler corner of the world, I’m animating and painting a fourth team for our first content update (coming to a device near you in many, many weeks). YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST: Their name starts with a V! And it ends with a T! And it contains five vowels.
Finally, in news that few people will care about, you may have noticed that our merch section has disappeared. We ordered some of the products and they were crap, and expensive. So in a fit of rage we ripped it from the navigation bar and broke it over our knee.
There’s also this iPhone-only wallpaper (because I made it too small) featuring all of our characters.
Download Outwitters for free, and if you feel extra generous you could leave us an App Store review. Huge thanks to everyone for your support with this launch, we’re excited to be entertaining you again.
That’s my favorite headline in recent memory, by the way. Here’s a fun fact that only the beta testers know: if you tap and hold on a completed game entry, you can get a hyperlink to your replay. If anyone views that link on an iDevice with Outwitters installed, they can watch your game. It is known.
Also available today, Outwitters: the Soundtrack by Mike Reagan and his company, REdVOLT Audio. They did all our music and screams of pain and kissy noises for Outwitters. You can stream it for free, or own it for 99¢.
Carter Dotson, professional journalist and notorious playboy, invited us to talk about Outwitters on The Portable Podcast this week. Hear me make a bad joke about introductions, then we talk about our game. And at the end of the podcast: Grandma Tank.
Not really a red band trailer. Outwitters is out tomorrow!
In a landmark decision, the Supreme Court of the United States of America has approved our game for sale on the App Store. You can get your hands on Outwitters next Thursday! That trailer I’ve been promising you has been cut together, it exists, we just need to get some music for it. Hopefully we’ll have it ready before launch, so keep a peeper on this blog.