Just a couple of weeks ago, I started work on Chopper 2. Normally an announcement at this point would be premature. Perhaps it still is, except that I want to involve the community every step of the way. So I have started a twitter feed @chopper_2 where you can watch progress as it happens, and send any ideas or feedback my way. I'll be chatting - perhaps cursing - about the various hurdles I come across, asking for opinions on decisions, and posting screenshots throughout the development process until release. If you have any particular features you would like to see in Chopper 2 feel free to respond here too, I'll be watching this thread closely . Cheers, David Frampton - Majic Jungle Software
I would like an option for controlling. Not that I don't like the tilt controls, but sometimes I feel like playing the game on my bed and whatnot. Maybe a nicely designed d-pad or something of that nature.
Hmm, I just saw that you dropped the price of Chopper. I bought the game when it was 8 dollars. I loved it and still drag it out sometimes. But I have a few qualms with you. How come you never added any new levels? Why no story mode? I paid 8 dollars for it; I feel sorta cheated. Again, it was a wonderful app when it was released. But now it doesn't stand up, which is why it's a buck. I just thought a real update was forthcoming. Alas, it never was. So with this release, I hope for a nice story mode, much better graphics, and more levels. Another control method would be nice, but I like the way it handles already. If you're not gonna update the game, though, please add enough levels so I don't have to superficially extend game time by playing on a harder difficulty.
Thanks for the feedback. russiaone: I'm sorry you feel cheated. I was never really sure if I would be adding new levels or not to the first Chopper. The main problem was that with the limited number of enemies and weapons available I had simply run out of ideas for levels. In the end I felt that the 20 levels available made a nice package, and added the 'Pacifist' difficulty setting later to add more challenge as you get more skilled. Of course I could have added more enemies, and more weapons, and more graphical elements, but I wasn't sure how to place those extra features within the current available levels, and in the end my thoughts on improvements were too sweeping to be tacked slowly on to the original.
Dont worry dave, i bought chopper day one and i loved it. I honestly dont have any ideas for a sequel, just keep on doin what you are doin and add in some elements that make it different from the first one.
Hey, thanks for the response. Lemme clarify: I LOVED Chopper. Still do. And now I feel cheated, but only because I see what other games offer and sometimes for cheaper prices. But that's now. Then? When the game was released I didn't feel cheated at all. Things change. Still would love another few levels, but keep working on that sequel. Can't wait.
I bought the first one when it was released all those months ago, and still think it's one of my favourite games- well done! For the sequel, I would like the soldiers to have a better death animation, so they would perhaps wobble around a bit before flopping to the floor. It doesn't look ideal when you shoot a soldier for them to immediately be lying on the floor in the next frame, see? Also, the option to despatch of them using your 'copter blades would be excellent- say if a soldier was on a cliff for example and you could rise up, move over and... splat!
I had this app even before the iphone was in stores and I loved this game for my mac(until my computer was reformatted). If it was one of the things I liked it was the music in the game I was wondering if you could bring that back and I will be expecting to see attacks by another aircraft again. Also I'm not sure if it's just me but I miss the ability to pick up weapons not just to have an unlimited supply of bombs and missiles(not that there are any in Chopper for the iphone)
Eh, I was thinking about a black hole generator, kinda like in Heli Attack 3, except it's not for the helicopter. See the brilliant irony? But for reals, maybe make the physics a little smoother? I dunno, it didn't feel right. Fun game, but it felt weird.
Thanks again for your thoughts everyone Chopper 2 is using the Chipmunk physics library, instead of the mock-physics of the first Chopper, so hopefully it should feel a little more realistic. Rockets will definitely be brought back, as well as limitations to ammo. Fuel will also be added to provide some time pressure. Also I've always wanted to have enemy choppers, and will at least experiment with how I can fit them into levels. I want to greatly increase the variation of enemies, and some of the new enemies will definitely be air based.
Now thats two of you asking for a D-pad. I hadn't ever thought that anyone would prefer touch controls to tilt for the Chopper, but it sounds like an option would be good. Cheers, I'll keep it in mind.
Chopper is the only game I feel was worth £5.99. Im so glad a squeal is on its way. 3D chopper sounds cool. Is the editor for levels? Are you developing for 3.0? Im hoping with in-app purchases the app store wont be filled with demos and lite versions. Developers make all apps free and make the rest in-app purchasable.
The editor is for levels, yes. The original Chopper has a pretty decent Mac OS X based level editor, but without some way to load custom levels, it's not worth distributing. I'm hoping that I can make the Chopper 2 editor available and useful at some point, but it's early days yet. As a developer, 3.0's 'pay to get more content' thing seems good, as a consumer, I'm not so sure. Currently I'm building for 2.1. I'm still sitting on the fence about requiring 3.0 in the future. Nothing I'm doing yet requires 3.0. I'll make a call for testers when the time is right. It might be best to subscribe to the @chopper_2 twitter feed to find out when, but I'll also make a post here on the forums.
Good to know you agree. Also, the caves in the first one are too blocky imo. I overlooked it because gameplay is more important. But ideally I would like them looking more irregular in their shape.
