Hello, everyone. I'm very happy to announce my first game and subsequently, the first space combat/tactical simulator for the iPhone and iPod touch! ARCHANGEL: FATE OF THE GALACTIC COMMONWEALTH Captain on the bridge! In a desperate bid for survival of the human race, the Galactic Commonwealth has appointed you to command their latest prototype battlecruiser, the UGS Archangel. After devastating nearly all of the Commonwealth's fleet, the Makuzi Ascendancy has unleashed one last armada to destroy the remaining Terran homeworlds. With the UGS Archangel, warp to various sectors of the quadrant to fight off Makuzi warships with phasers and torpedoes. Send damage control crews to various parts of your ship. Divert power to balance the terms of engagement. Coordinate with navigation, tactical, engineering, and communications, as you carry out your orders. It's a battle to the finish, and you're in total control from the captain's chair! Archangel: Fate of the Galactic Commonwealth features intense arcade action, stereo sound effects, dozens of high-quality voiceover phrases, and an epic orchestral soundtrack. If you're a fan of sci-fi TV shows and movies such as Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, Babylon 5, and Firefly/Serenity, you'll love the feel of this game. This game has been a passion project of mine since 2004 when I was designing for Windows Mobile devices. Unfortunately, due to the demands and complexity of the game, plus the varied hardware specifications of Windows Mobile devices at the time (some using TI OMAP 200MHz CPUs, others using Intel XScale 624MHz), I could not complete this game on that platform. Thanks to Apple and their amazing iPhone device, my dream has finally come true. As an avid gamer, I was a bit tired of simple, side-scrolling shooters, especially the "one hit, one kill" style, so I hope my game is a refreshing change for you. As an avid Star Trek fan, I was a bit disappointed with "Star Trek: The Mobile Game" to be very much like the rest of those side-scrolling shooters. For instance, I always wanted to know what it felt like fighting Khan in the Motara Nebula. So, I set off on my own to create something different. If you've played the sea battle games like Warship and Pirates, you can quickly get right into this game. In regards to its complexity, there are many live calculations that determine the health of your ship. For example, from a single impact of an incoming torpedo, the strength of your shields will determine how much damage the hull will get, which in turn will determine how much damage the various parts of the ship will get, from the phaser array to the impulse engines to the warp drive, and so on, and how many crew members are killed in the process. On the flipside, repairs are be determined by the number of crew members alive and able to repair, and how many are diverted to a particular section of the ship to perform such repair. All this sits on top of a fun, arcade shooter. You can try to just tap away for an all-out battle, or you can strategically adjust your ship as you see fit to take out the enemy, or you can warp out of the sector before being annihilated - it's all up to you. Gameplay video will be uploaded in the near future. The game is being submitted to the App Store this Friday, July 3, 2009 for immediate sale worldwide at the introductory price of $1.99 USD. Thanks for everyone's support and their love of gaming on the iPhone and iPod touch platforms. When it's finally released, I honestly hope you will enjoy it as much as I have enjoyed creating it.
Love the title and love Star Trek oh and yes love the sound of all that tactical aspect of it You got one sale for sure! something tells me my avid star trek watching will help me know some things to do when you go to fix your ship does it pause the action or does it happen in real time?
Please upload the video quickly, even if I'm half sure i'll buy it on day one... It looks and sounds great, I hope the gameplay is good as well.
Thanks for the complements! Controlling all aspects of the ship is done in real time. You could be in the middle of getting blasted by phasers and torpedoes while trying to adjust damage control and power distribution. There's also a 10-second countdown for the warp drive to spool up, to which you need to lower shields first in order to do that. This makes your ship very vulnerable to attack. I welcome all constructive criticisms while I'm putting the final touches in place, and am also considering releasing the game in various languages. If you're interested in submitting your voiceovers in your native language, please PM me.
I'm loving that smashed screen effect, a cute way to remove the fourth wall, as it were and put you IN the loss of your ship.
Yeah, I did that on a whim and it looked so cool on the iPhone that I kept it in. Try controlling your ship with a smashed screen, you feel like your ship is really messed up.
Yeah, but there already was one game rejected because of this effect (Apple doesn't like the devices to look broken).
I'll be looking out for this one. Looks very cool. I've always wanted a warship-style game set in space.
My game has been officially submitted to the App Store and is currently "in review." Sorry about the delay for the video, but I wanted to tweak it out and add some last minute features before it was sent off. I'll definitely have the video walkthrough very shortly! Thanks for everyone's patience!
Yes, that was probably "Ninja Buddy" by fellow TA member Scotopia (the only one I am aware of, but there may have been others). His has a ninja star that shattered the screen when you were hit, and Apple rejected it. Very cryptically too, their rejection e-mail did not spell out exactly what the problem they had was, and it took days to drag it out of them. Then re-submit and wait for another week or more. Maybe BeyondtheTech will get lucky and this will pass through, but once you issue an update it'll be vulnerable to rejection again... I think Ninja Buddy was rejected on his third update, after it had even been FEATURED by Apple in iTunes with the glass-breaking imagery! Looking forward to seeing this game appear, it looks quite interesting (as you can imagine it might to someone with a Star Trek forum name )
Indeed that was me...I was mighty pissed about it too I guess cross your fingers but keep an alternate image on tap and ready to go in case they get rejection happy. BTW if this game is at all like Star Control I am getting it! Good to see your still alive Commander, drop me a line when you can.
Damn, this one is taking a while to get approved. Ever since I happened upon this thread I've been checking the app store regularly to see it's been released, but alas. Sorry to see that video never saw the light of day though.
Well, not really: It's Friday, July 10th here, which makes it a week in my book, so I'm officially in "keeping an eye out" mode.
Just a little blurb here, I actually got a response from the App Store Reviewers, they're still looking at my game, no ETA yet. They just wanted me to update the icons so that the small and large ones match up. Could be soon! Yes, I know - I've hired someone to create a little video montage of the game mixed down with some music and voiceovers, etc. Be back in a bit!
Always a good sign as I'm convinced the majority of the 7 day or so approval process is just your app sitting in the hopper to finally get looked at, at least now we know they're currently looking it over.
