We’ve been teasing our next project for a few weeks now, and it’s been AGONIZING for me to keep my big mouth shut. So without further ado, put on your Sunday best for Tilt to Live Easter!
As soon as we saw the announcement for Angry Birds Halloween, Alex and I were instantly brainstorming holiday editions of TtL. Wouldn’t it be cool if the dots were ghosts? Cranberry sauce? Snowballs? Realistically, it was too late for us to jump on the Halloween bandwagon. And November/December was already booked with Viva la Turret.
We want this Easter edition to stand alone as its own thing, and more importantly to capture the fun of the holiday in a really authentic way. For us Easter is about surprises, the thrill of finding hidden stuff, and the creativity of decorating your eggs. So obviously, we started by turning all of the enemies into easter eggs.
We’re still in the very early stages of establishing a scoring system, so I can’t go into a lot of detail. But we do know that along with points, you’ll be accumulating Easter Spirit via a meter at the bottom of the HUD. Here’s the cool part: if you die with enough Easter Spirit, there’s a Resurrection mechanic that prevents a Game Over, saves your progress, and respawns you after 72 hours.
Tilt to Live Easter will (obviously) be released April 24th, and will debut at 99¢. Stay tuned for screenshots and a trailer as E-Day approaches.
The Viva la Coop HD update is approved and ready for installation. If you have an iPad and a friend with another iPad, and both of you have Viva la Turret, then this is great news! If you don’t, then I guess it’s just Thursday. Our next project will have fewer requirements, we promise.
Other fixes:
- The scoring bug that gave people highscores in the billions has been fixed. There was only one way to restore the honor of the TtL HD leaderboards, and that was a Classic and Code Red leaderboard reboot. So go prove to the world that your old rank wasn’t a fluke!
- The vortex will no longer suck you out of the Perforator turret in Classic & CR.
- Some typos in our awards have been fxied.
The Tilt to Live Merch store is just about finished. My shirt got here & the print quality was great, but I screwed up the design and won’t be posting pics until a do-over arrives. This is why we test things. Should be ready to go next week. Also, our next project will be announced April 2nd.
Oh, hey! I didn’t see you come in. Alex and I were just finishing up playtesting Viva la Coop HD. But I’m sure you can see that. Because you are in the room with us in this bit I’m doing. Viva la Big Coop is being submitted for Apple’s approval today, so we’re finally checking “make iPhone and HD the same” off our to-do list.
In Other News
We got iPad 2’s to test with! They are thin. I named mine Padly Paddington, & Alex’s Padrick Paddington III. They’re twins.
In my down time, I’ve been experimenting with merchandise options (namely cafepress) for getting some Tilt to Live t-shirts and stuff made. Why now? I dunno. I want one. I’ve ordered a test shirt & poster to make sure these things are worth the money. They should be here this weekend. If Alex and I approve the quality, I’ll set up a little store for you guys to peruse.
Lastly, we’re going to tell you about our next project around the end of this month. So that’s neat.
Adam’s Picks (Art/Writing)
Consoles continue to hold my attention, primarily. I’m currently working on Darksiders, which Alex got me for my bday. It plays like God of War meets Zelda meets Devil May Cry, but it’s not nearly as good as any of them. That said, the places it’s taken me so far are enthralling. Last night I journeyed into a desert of ash crawling with giant Tremors monsters, and my next stop is a castle made of spiderwebs. I don’t care how boring the game has been to play, I can’t NOT get excited about a castle made of spiderwebs.
Freaking Inkies (also in HD):
Yes, this game is old as hell. I think it came out around the time TtL debuted a year ago. It’s a tilt-based shooter with a lot of personality, and the artist in me appreciates the color mixing mechanic. The child in me appreciates the sound effects.
Alex’s Picks (Codesmith)
Disc Drivin’ (Lite):
I felt a bit late to the party on this one as a lot of fellow devs have been playing this game a bit longer than I have (and it shows). The game is a turn-based racing game where you fling discs around several courses. The description sounded odd to me at first, but once I understood how it worked it seems like a brilliant idea perfectly suited for the mobile device. I found that while it has a rather addictive quality to it, it isn’t as intrusive as a game that requires your 100% attention. Taking a turn in Disc Drivin’ is only a few seconds and you go on about your business. Locally you can play up to 8 players, but online is limited to 4. One of the few multiplayer games that you can even get your non-gamer friends really into.
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.