Hi all, I'm pleased to announce our next title that will be going into Beta in a week or two - Yachty Deluxe. Features include: Asynchronous online multiplayer Pass & Play multiplayer vs AI play Two rule variants for single player - "standard" and "triples" Realistic 3D dice with proper physics Leaderboards and Achievements Full in game manual Flick the device, roll the dice. (Ahem, or press the roll button) More info can be found here. From that page you can subscribe to our low volume newsletter and/or follow on twitter for release announcments. The game will be free to play, supported by unobtrusive advertising which can be removed via an in-app for $0.99 if you wish. Nothing is locked out in either case. Hope you're all gonna love it. We do.
Thanks for that. We'll be looking for Beta testers soon enough if you or anyone else wants early access. The multiplayer aspect will have to go out to market in a Beta state as it's impossible to test properly with a limited number of people, but it's starting to feel pretty solid.
Sweet, got the multiplayer working today. Jesus I love Apple. So much for Ballmer and his "developers, developers, developers" rubbish. I was never an Apple fan boy until I got with the program on iOS but I now know they rock. The ease with which this new multiplayer stuff "just works" is yet another example of how Apple actually do care about "developers, developers, developers" as well as "consumers, consumers, consumers". </fanboyism> In the mean time, windows mobile won't even use a standard development language and google can't even get a bloody app store to work reliably, nevermind useful support features. Other "competitors" should look to Apple and hang their heads in shame.
I second this. The reason I, as a consumer, love Apple is not because of blind fanboyism but because all of their features *work*. Had an Android phone previously - spending about 10 minutes fighting to check my email every time just didn't mesh with me. Anyway, great news on the multiplayer! A question though, will this game be built intended for multiplayer with an AI mode thrown in, or will you be able to play vs AI and multiplayer is an option?
You can play however you want. We support having 30 games running simultaneously, so you can really play how you like. For example, a "hardcore" player could have all this open at once: 20 asynchronous multiplayer games on the go, waiting for servicing from 1-20 different opponents. 5 pass and play games partway through, waiting for next weekend to finish off when the nephews come round again. 2 games vs AI's. 2 games of solo. 1 game of "triples". All running at once. Or maybe just one at a time.
That's... pretty impressive. (and maybe just a tiny bit overkill? ) What's the difference between AI and solo games?
Yeah, if you're gonna do something, do it BIG! "Solo" is literally playing by yourself just for kicks and trying to get achievements or a spot on a leaderboard. It's the quickest gameplay option. "Triples" is like "Solo" in that you play by yourself but with three scoring columns. Each column gives single, double or triple points, but the added strategy comes in that you don't get to pick - each scoring row fills in from the left (single points) end. "vs AI" is standard rules game against an AI opponent. "Pass & Play" is standard rules for two humans with one device taking it in turns by passing the phone back and forth. "online" plays like the various "... with friends" games, in that you challenge someone, take a turn and then wait for your opponent to watch it and then send his move back later. "online" can play in real time if your opponent is also actively responding and you sit in the gameplay screen. If not, you get notifications coming into the "active games" list when his turn is in. Regardless of how many games you have running, you can quit the app at any point and it all just comes back to life the next time you launch it - including being in the middle of an online game. We've designed the interface such that more sedate players who need just one game at once can do so easily too. tbh we're pretty proud of this game. Sure it's not as deep as Great Little War Game and etc., but we're maxing out all the features we can think of. We'll be responding to user suggestions for additional play modes and stuff too but we have to release something first. Given how quickly the multiplayer stuff went in, that may well be quicker than we planned too!
Given you can download it for free, we're considering an "open" beta now. (Aka a "release" ) The main thing we'd want to test is for bugs in the multiplayer stuff, but we can't do that very well with only a handful of people anyway. It feels solid enough right now but you never can tell until masses of people start trying to break it, but we'll do our best to check it all out. Our current thinking is about a weeks worth of polishing and finishing off and then stick it in to Apple. We can test it in the office for the week or so that Apple take to approve it.
