I was just notified by a friend of a rather cool video that I just had to share. Someone built a tilt motion controller for the iPhone and plans on mounting it to a camera to allow a robot to play accelerometer based games. This has been done before with  Guitar Hero, but the cool thing is that they were using Tilt to Live to test the controller! Check out the video below and the short article here.

This looks to be shaping up to be a really cool project. You can read more about it on Shane Wighton’s blog along with some other neat stuff.

2010 Best App Ever Awards

The new year has begun, but we’re still feeling the tug of 2010! Specifically, the 2010 Best App Ever Awards are in full swing, and Tilt to Live has been nominated in several categories. We need your votes to win! You can place your vote anytime before January 25, 2010. The winners in each category will be announced at the 2011 Macworld Expo! So go vote, tell your friends to vote, tweet it, and post on Facebook! Here are the categories for which Tilt to Live has been nominated. Just follow the links to vote:

Best Game Controls (Tilt to Live)

Best Game Controls (Tilt to Live HD)

Best Casual Game

Best Action Game

To have gotten so many nominations is really unexpected. Let’s see if the Tilt to Live community can make their voices heard! If we don’t win, that’s okay. We’ll still make games for you.

OpenFeint Fire Sale

In case your voting finger is still itching, Tilt to Live is also up for a Fire Sale promotion on OpenFeint’s Game Channel. I don’t have a witty reference to Die Hard at the moment, so I’ll leave that to the professionals. Tired of your friend complaining that Tilt to Live costs $2.99? (Because you already have it, right?) Here’s your chance to do something about it. If we have at least 2,000 votes by tomorrow, Tilt to Live will go on sale for the weekend for 99¢. The power, is YOURS! *Fades to black*

2010 was an amazing year and a great start for us! Tilt to Live being our debut game on the app store took us further than we would have imagined. Going from a part-time hobby to a full time career has been nothing short of amazing over this past year. We released Tilt to Live back in late February and the support has been phenomenal! We’d like to thank our fans for their support and just being awesome! Below I wanted to share with you some of the places Tilt to Live came up in conversation during all the ‘end of the year/best games of 2010’ ruckus.

End of Year Accolades

We were selected as the iPhone Game of The Year for 2010 by AppAdvice. We’re flattered! Thanks again so much to the guys and gals over at AppAdvice!

Being selected as one of the top 5 best casual iphone games of the year on Touch Arcade was a great achievement!

We were nominated as Best Quick Fix mobile game of 2010 by IGN. It was an honor to be nominated among such games as Cut the Rope, Fruit Ninja, Pix’n Love Rush, and Plants vs Zombies

We got an honorable mention over at midlife gamer for Game of the Year. Heavy Rain beating us out…hah. Having screenshots of the two games side-by-side is rather mind blowing. OUR ARROW IS THE MOST REALISTIC ARROW EVER RENDERED ON A TWO DIMENSIONAL SCREEN.

We got runner-up in the ‘Biggest Surprise’ category over at touchgen.net.

Back in November we were inducted into the App Hall of Fame.

That was one helluva year :). Here’s to keeping it up for 2011!

We just submitted Tilt to Live HD with Game Center to Apple. It should be out in the next week or so. So what’s changed in this update for HD?

What’s New:

• Game Center Leaderboards
• Game Center Achievements
• Multitasking support

What’s fixed:

• Fixed bug that kept scores/awards from uploading to GameCenter if app was minimized during gameplay
• Fixed bug that caused game not to spawn enemies when in weak wi-fi or 3G signal (weird, I know)
• Fixed issues with disappearing vortexes, caused when multiple vortexes were on screen

What’s improved:

• Tweaked steam effects in Frostbite mode

And that’s that! The Viva la  Turret expansion is still coming to the iPad sometime in January. So see you all in 2011! Hope you have a Happy New Year!

With the new update, Tilt to Live finally has enough music to make a short soundtrack! You can stream it all you want below. The only track we couldn’t secure the rights to was Gauntlet’s theme, so our apologies to fans of the mambo.

You could also support our composer by buying a copy on our Bandcamp site ($1.99), or on iTunes ($3.99 – we can’t tell iTunes what to charge). Or if you’re quick, you could click here and enter one of these five codes to get it for free:

3fgq-63ee
wau7-g4f3
p65v-3q54
rnr8-hz2a
ddm2-5tx7

Ten more free copies are heading out to our mailing list today, all of whom are getting a coupon code that reduces the soundtrack to 90¢. Now we’re friends with benefits!

Viva la Turret is now available for In-App Purchase in iPhone’s Tilt to Live! If you’re on the fence about dropping 99¢, maybe this trailer will help.

Having cleared up our indiscretions with the turret update, One Man Left has been removed from the naughty list and given a big ‘ole sack of approval. Viva la Turret will be in your hands December 22nd! God bleth uth, every one.

Trailer coming soon!

Update: The new “¡Viva la Turret!” version is being submitted tonight, so the delay may only amount to a week or two.

It is apparently in bad taste to name your gametype after an affliction for which perfectly nice people are ridiculed. Lesson learned. The gametype formerly known as Turret’s Syndrome has met strong opposition over what is perceived, by some, as objectionable content. We’re now in the process of renaming it “¡Viva la Turret!” and resubmitting the update.

How will this affect the December delivery of Turret’s Syndrome? It’s likely to push it into early January, but we’re exploring every possible avenue to deliver this month. We’ll keep you updated.

We’re one week closer to the release of Tilt to Live‘s Turret’s Syndrome expansion later this month. You blog-&-facebook-&-twitter followers were the first to see the new weapon, and now you’re the first to get the details of our fifth gametype: Turret’s Syndrome. Check out the new music by Tilt to Live’s always-excellent composer, Whitaker Blackall.

Your Arsenal

Turret’s Syndrome will feature only one weapon type: the Perforator turret. In last week’s post, we mentioned that the dots would incinerate when they reached the turret pod, rendering you invincible. In Classic and Code Red that’s true, but it’s not the case in Turret’s Syndrome!

To be specific, the Perforator lasts 6 seconds and there is NO eject button. So for those six, point-earning seconds, you’ll be vulnerable to droves of dots bearing down on you from all angles. A word of caution: the deadliest formations are actually WAITING for you to get into a turret. You can shoot them at long range or, for an up-close-and-personal touch, fry them by sweeping your gun barrel.

The Jewels

You may be thinking it’s best to hop from turret to turret all day long. But what keeps this mode interesting is its multiplier system, which makes the difference between a “meh” highscore and a “MUAHAHAHA” one.

In TS, each dot is carrying a jewel in its little dot purse. The more dots you blow away, the more jewels litter the battlefield. Once your turret ends, you’re free to snag as much moolah as possible before entering another. But choose wisely! The jewels you don’t collect will disappear for good.

Jewels will multiply the points you earn in a turret. Grab 20 jewels before hopping in, and your kills are multiplied by 20. But multipliers only stick around for the life of one turret, so you’ll need to keep collecting jewels between Perforators for a truly great score.

Feeding the Turret

But what if you’ve got x200 multiplier, and aren’t ready to say goodbye just yet?

While you’re occupying one turret, the other pickup is floating innocently around the arena. Shooting that pickup actually draws it closer, like a tractor beam. Once it reaches you, a shockwave shoves your pursuers away, your Perforator’s life extends by 6 seconds, and your multiplier stays alive! The trick is knowing when to fire at your enemies, and when to go for that pickup. You’ll find yourself in a deadly game of chicken, praying that your weapon reaches you before the dots do!

When Oh When Oh When Is It Coming?!

Turret’s Syndrome has been finalized and submitted to Apple for approval. Once we’re given the okay, we’ll have a definite release date for you guys. For now, the best we can tell you is, based on past experience, we expect it to be out this month. The expansion for iPhone’s Tilt to Live will cost a mere 99¢, with a similar arrangement coming to Tilt to Live HD shortly afterward.

Don’t forget to join our mailing list for a chance to win one of 10 free copies of Turret’s Syndrome on launch day!

This week, we’re proud to unveil the next unlockable for your TtL weapon arsenal. Ladies and gents, the Perforator turret:

Hopping into this new pickup triggers a shockwave, shoving nearby dots backward (or smashing them to pieces against a wall). You’ll appreciate the breathing room when your mini-gun armor sprouts, spewing dot-chewing bullets in whichever direction you tilt. Dots that get too close will disintegrate against your hot metal pod. And when your turret finally overheats, a second shockwave shoves the survivors back for your escape.

The Perforator will be the star of our new gametype, Turret’s Syndrome, similar to the Burnicade in Frostbite mode. You can use it in that gametype from the start, but you’ll have to unlock it for Code Red and Classic. Unlike previous unlocks, though, the turret won’t be earned by grabbing awards (you’ve all had too much time to buffer those Pocket Scores). Instead, all of your scores in Turret’s Syndrome will be added to a pool of points. Earn enough lifetime points in TS, and the Perforator is unleashed upon the other, unsuspecting gametypes.

That’s all you’re getting out of us this week! Stop by next week for more on the new gametype, and how this weapon fits in.