We’ve just returned from our first ever Game Developer’s Conference! For whatever reason, these are the only two pictures I took. We attended some pretty sweet lectures, and I got to shake hands with the Art Lead from Donkey Kong Country Returns and the writer from Dead Space 2. I’m keeping their business cards on my desk for inspiration. I tried to get a lock of hair, but there was no really smooth way of doing it.

Alex’s souvenir was a truly terrible-sounding illness that had me washing my hands religiously. Poor guy spent the last two or three days of the conference in silent agony. Silent aside from the snorting and coughing fits. Hopefully he feels better soon.

We also got to meet at least six British people (one was from New Zealand, but he counts)! I’ve never met a British person before, and I’d like to apologize for asking you all to say things from Lord of the Rings, and snickering when you went for tea on our coffee break.

So now it’s back to work! Alex is polishing up HD’s Coop, and I’m continuing artwork & animation for something new. More on that after coop is out the door.

¡Viva la Coop! has arrived for the iPhone and iTouch! Those of you with a healthy pool of potential partners should be pretty stoked. For the rest of you, I have some recommended reading.

We aren’t able to give promo codes away for our IAP anymore, since our in-app promo code system didn’t sit well with a certain fruit company. So instead, 30 mailing list subscribers are getting a free copy of the Tilt to Live Soundtrack! Tomorrow morning. When my Thursday night shows aren’t on.

Next week, Alex and I journey to our first ever GDC conference. I know it’s supposed to be GD Conference, but this is sort of a family blog. From what I gather, we’ll be spending the week attending lectures and drinking heavily. So basically college.

When we return, we’ll be putting the finishing touches on ¡Viva la Coop Gigante! That’s the two-iPads-required version, one of the more expensive multiplayer situations we can imagine. But it’s not too hard to port over, so why not? And after that… something new.

Happy birthday Tilt to Live! We got you cooperative play… whenever it’s approved. And happy birthday Steve Jobs! We got you 30% of our revenue. Don’t spend it all in one place.

I didn’t leave much to write about in the post. ¡Viva la Coop! for iPhone/iTouch is submitted as of yesterday, so pending approval you can expect it by the end of this month.

We got the following email recently from a serviceman in the Israeli army:

“hey there, first of all, i want to thank you for making, hands down, the best iPhone game i have ever played.  Tilt To Live is the only game i was ever able to justify spending money for, and it was worth every penny. I serve in the Israeli army, and i work with a team of people who are all obsessed (thanks to me) with tilt to live. i catch my commander playing on my iPhone all the time, and its a known running joke that our whole office is addicted. Tilt To Live is probably responsible for countless wasted work hours, and its only tolerated because the game is so awesome.  the reason i am writing is because i am (finally) finishing my army service next week, and i really wanted to give my team a going away present that was somehow related to Tilt To Live.  is there any way that i can acquire a poster or something related to the game?  i think that that would be the most appropriate present to get them, and believe it or not, that probably how ill be most remembered anyway (i hold the current record).  any help would be greatly appreciated. keep up the good work!  JON”

We decided to indulge his request for two reasons: (1) I happened to have ideas for Jew-themed weapons, and (2) you do not say no to people with guns. Below, the poster for a fantasy spin-off.

Viva la Turret HD is now gracing iPads everywhere, since about 7pm Central Time on January 31. TOLD YA it’d be out in January. You can now experience a bullet storm in the wide open spaces of TtL HD. For an overview of what’s changed in the gametype from the iPhone version, click here.

If you have the HD Full Version already, it’s just 99¢ to get the Viva la Turret Expansion IAP. If you don’t, the app’s new Full Version includes everything in HD for $4.99, Viva and all.

Other stuff new to 1.4:

• When you unpause the game, your cursor’s location will now be highlighted for you before gameplay resumes, to help you regain your bearings.
• Pickups are no longer obscured by the burnicade’s flame trail.

Having sent iPad’s Viva la Turret off for approval, we were once again faced with our favorite dilemma: what’s next? Artwork and concepts for Game II have been piling up since March of last year. But in the volumes of never-realized ideas for Tilt to Live, one has persistently tugged at our heartstrings: cooperative play. Before we move on, we just gotta.

February 24th is TtL’s first birthday, and what better present is there for our game-child than two player Viva la Turret? None, and don’t tell us how to raise our kid.

Why Viva la Turret? It works more naturally as a two-player game than the other modes. One of you will man the Perforator, defending your imperiled teammate as he grabs jewels and brings you fresh pickups. All of the rules and dot behaviors are being redone to accommodate two players, so expect a fresh remix of familiar Viva elements.

Coop (nearby/offline only) will be a free update for anyone who’s purchased the Viva la Turret Expansion. The iPhone version is about 60% complete, and should be released around the end of next month.

We were so busy with Viva la Turret last month that we didn’t get a lot of playing done. This month, we’re starting to binge again.

Adam’s Picks (Art/Writing)

The last two console games I’ve played were both platformers with hidden collectible stuff, which I can never seem to ignore. Even when the collectibles are things like fruit lamps and sewing machines for my imaginary room, I must have them. Playing Kirby’s Epic Yarn was like taking valium (I imagine). It’s a relaxing platformer for people who enjoy quilts. Donkey Kong Country Returns was a challenging platformer for people who enjoy the movie Groundhog Day. Specifically the part where he keeps killing himself and starting over. Both good games; I liked Donkey Kong better. As for the more relevant platforms:

Neuroshima Hex (Universal App, Lite):
It’s a multiplayer strategy game with kind of a steep learning curve, but it’s been our go-to road trip title for a couple of months now. You place pieces on a hexagonal board, aiming their attacks in the direction of your opponent’s pieces. Once your turn is over, your pieces are stuck where you pointed them. So then the jerk you’re fighting does his best to ruin everything you just set up. It’s One-upmanship: the Game, for up to four players.

Alex’s Picks (Codesmith)

When I find a game I truly like, I tend not to move on. These days I’m still coming back to Quake Live for quick 5-15 minute frag fests, and if I’m truly in the mood for getting my ass kicked I still go to Starcraft 2. With the amount of stuff we’re working on in January, I haven’t had much time to explore the deep caverns of the App Store.  So this recommendation comes from a friend, and after playing it for a short while I was hooked. I’m still not too far into it, but it’s been an utter joy playing this on my iPhone whenever I have a small amount of downtime:

Battleships (iPhone):
While not to be confused with EA’s Battleship, this is a really clever take on the latter. It’s actually a puzzle game, where you are trying to discover the location of several different sized ships on a grid. Each row and column have a number indicating how many “Ship Tiles” are in that row or column. Each level can be solved completely with logic alone, and that’s the really appealing part. I’ve sat and stared at the grid for minutes at a time convinced there’s no way to figure this out other than trial and error, but knowing that fact I’ve stuck with it and solved each puzzle so far without guessing. A really satisfying puzzle game worth checking out.

Next week: We’ll show you what’s coming your way after Viva HD (which is in review and on its way).

Tilt to Live HD‘s ¡Viva la Turret! expansion has come together at last. It’s a 99¢ In-App Purchase for those who already own the Full Version, just like its little brother was. For demo users, the Full Version IAP will be going up to $4.99 USD, and will now include Viva la Turret right off the bat (to simplify things). At face value the gametype feels pretty similar to the iPhone version, but you’ll notice some important gameplay differences as you’re swiveling for survival.

The walls are farther apart.

Big deal, right? Right! Assuming you were not being sarcastic. You may not realize it, but a lot of dots in the iPhone version die from being smashed against the walls by the Perforator’s shockwave. In HD, depending on your turret’s position, a lot of that smashing isn’t going to happen. What will happen is you’ll push the same dots back again and again, and they’ll start closing in faster and faster.

The jewels are farther apart.

How long does it take you to make a trip around your iPhone screen? Not long, so it’s not unheard of to collect every jewel you create. The HD arena is about 4x the size, so you’ll find it much riskier to be OCD with your jewel collecting. More often than not, you’ll have to learn to let go.

Get to da Perforatah!

Developing Turrets HD, we noticed the extra screen real estate made being outside the turret feel a bit too safe. To spice things up, we’ve added a cruel new wave that only appears when you’re unarmed. It’s guaranteed to make you forget your jewels and run for the nearest weapon.

We’re submitting the update to Apple tonight, so you can expect ¡Viva la Turret! to reach your iPad before the end of the month.