iPad Ground Effect 1.2 + Lite with OpenFeint

Promo code competition

Win a promo code for the full version by playing Ground Effect Lite. 5 to give away.

Get a score under 7:30 on the "Total Time Lite" leaderboard and PM me to claim your prize.

 

Duel

Like Steve Wiebe vs. Billy Mitchell... It's become an epic duel of Titans.


By the way, I wouldn't describe it as 'chill' racing anymore. It's all business now

 

I had no idea who you were talking about but have just followed Steve Wiebe on Twitter, having hastily educated myself! (no offence intended to Mr Mitchell - just ouldn't find him). For any other ignoramus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_of_Kong

 

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner?

I believe I just made top 5 on the "Total Time Lite" leaderboard =). Picked up the lite version last night and was so impressed even wrote a review for it in iTunes, under the name "Showtime." *Just checked & still the only review for it.*

Glad I saw this promo giveaway challenge, as I was just about to buy the full version later tonight. Decided to check the forums to get some more feedback on it.

PM is sent, BTW great game.

 

http://twitter.com/billy_mitchell
http://g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/696318/gaming-legend-billy-mitchell-smarmily-tweets-about-steve-wiebes-failed-world-record-attempt.html

 

Wow! It looks like there was some serious competition going on last night to win those promo codes. Thanks to all who've participated & don't forget to rate & upgrade if you've enjoyed playing the game.

http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=44631

 

Before the most recent update, in the US store, Ground Effect had 184 ratings, a 3.5 average and the five star bar was the longest.

since the update it has 8 ratings a 2.5 average and the 1 star bar is the longest, while people seem to be loving the lite version.

This makes the update seem like a complete waste of my time. All that effort and the instant impression it creates is of a very unpopular, low rated app.

I'm not saying that it's fixed or anything but an app being updated is a great time for anyone with something against it to re-rate with 1 star.

I would really appreciate it if a few people could go and re-rate with however many stars you think it deserves, specially those who picked up promo codes.

This makes the whole idea of bothering to make an update seem completely pointless...

 

Thoughts on Ground Effect

So I downloaded this racing game called Ground Effect from the app store the other day. I fired it up and selected a vehicle, etc., and started racing. I didn't have my headphones plugged in, and the music coming out of the tiny iPhone speakers seemed repetitive and annoying, and I wasn't sure what was going on (the game provided very little in the way of explanation). Fortunately I was not in a hurry. I played around for 15 minutes and it started to dawn on me: there was something deeper going on with this racer than all the others I've played in the two years since Apple unveiled the app store.

Fast forward 3 days. I'm basically obsessed with the game, reading the entire 600+ post thread for Ground Effect on the Touch Arcade game forum, seeing the developer Glenn Corpes's comment about the physics of the game, starting to realize why I like this title so much: he created this world, and he obsessed over the details and the physics of it - the speed of the craft, the density of the cushion of air beneath you, the sensitivity of the controls, the difficulty of each level. And he drops you into his creation with zero fanfare because fancy menus and trophies and career modes and weapons and all the trinkets and ceremony that would normally accompany such a game - he doesn't want that stuff. He doesn't want anything that might dilute the purity of the racing.

So anyway, on the day I got the game I played for awhile and figured out how to race well enough to unlock the first few levels. I got stuck on level 4, like most folks. Luckily I didn't get too frustrated and I found enough patience to slow down and play around with the course. I tried some new things and started to relax and care less about winning and more about speed and form and scenery and exploring the freedom of the open level. And then I unlocked level 5 and then I unlocked level 6 and then I had the experience that led to this short essay.

See, in the game you are flying this thing called a ground effect vehicle (GEV). It moves forward to create a cushion of air between the hull and whatever surface you're flying over: water, rock, grass, etc. So it seems like a hover craft at first. You tool around with a few feet of air between you and the ground. But GEVs, also known as ekronoplans, are different from hover crafts. Because if you go off a cliff with a hover craft, I'm pretty sure you'll tumble to the ground like a rock. But an ekronoplan *loves* to go off a cliff. It reminds me of a flying squirrel.

You know the scene in Avatar, when the main guy catches his own banshee, and together they go tumbling off the cliff with the banshee struggling to fly with a rider on his back, and the rider just trying to hold on, to survive?

And they tumble down, down, down, and the banshee flaps mightily but each flap of his wing just smashes into the rocks and they roll down the face of the cliff, completely out of control? Somehow, about halfway down, banshee and rider both realize how to mutually survive this catastrophe, and they stop struggling and just: WHOOSH out into the air, over the trees, flapping and gliding and then whizzing along the rocky face of the cliff for the sheer joy of it.

That's how it felt when I was racing against my ghost on level 6, finally getting in sync with the pulse of the game, tapping my boost rhythmically with each checkpoint, faster, faster, faster and then: WHOOSH! Over the edge of the cliff, soaring across the valley.

There's a trick where you can pause the game and unlock the camera and pan and zoom the entire world to your heart's content. Using this trick, I took a screenshot to show how it feels to soar off the cliff in a tight race on level 6.



Now I'm on level 12, with 2 levels left to unlock. Level 12 is hard. I'm racing my ghost and learning the course properly instead of immediately grinding my way toward first place. Wearing my headphones and cranking the music (which, through headphones, has turned out to be quite good). I'm in no hurry to finish this game.

In normal racing mode, you start out in last place and slowly fight your way past seven other vehicles to try and take first place in the course of three laps. Third place or better will unlock the next level.

Ghost mode, on the other hand, pits you against the record of your best time for each level. There are only two vehicles on the course. In a good race you'll be neck and neck with your ghost most of the way, swapping the lead with every twist and turn. You start to get a feel for the best times to conserve your boost and the best times to unleash. You slowly chip away at your record time.

Following close behind my ghost reminds me of when I was in my early twenties snow skiing with my brother. It was the first time we skied as friends - and as equals - instead of big and little brothers. I remember noticing with some surprise how well he could ski, and we flew down the slopes in single file, swapping the lead with each run. The joy of focusing with all your body on the minute details of the terrain as it flies past in a blur, the joy of accomodating each rise and fall of the landscape in synchrony with another skier. This little iPhone game somehow brings a fraction of that experience back to me.

The latest version of Ground Effect has a mediocre 2.5 star rating on iTunes. I've purchased and played almost 200 games for the iPhone in the last 18 months or so. Most of them had more than 2.5 stars. *Very* few of them even came close to giving me the satisfaction that I've found with Ground Effect, and the ones that did were certainly not racers.

Let this be a lesson about App Store ratings.

 

lol i read it a few hours ago and my brain has finally managed to process the excessive amount of info.

in the beta, i got stuck on level 4

 

Awesome post & so eloquently written! Thank you! So many people compare Ground Effect with typical racing games and I guess many of them feel disappointed by the lack of engine sound, power-ups etc. But you have completely understood what Glenn was trying to do (ie make a game that you could win through skill and practice alone) and I'm so glad that you're enjoying it.

I hope people reading will be persuaded by your detailed 'review' to try it now - the Lite is still available for free.

 

ra88it: 14 posts since May 2009. But when you post you make it count!!

I second every single word in that post. Except I was about 16 when skiing with my brother. There is something visceral about the GE experience, and that experience is what GE is about, it's not about being another racing game.

I think this post should replace the pictures and info for GE on the appstore. If people can relate to this, and want to get GE, this is exactly what it has to offer.

 

Great post Ra88it. 'Jeep, I already considered replacing the app description with it...

The Ghost race is indeed the key to posting great times. Because of the way the boost timing works, if you are only shaving a fraction of a second off your time, you and your ghost will be constantly switching places and you won't actually know if you've won until you cross the line!

Your theories about the way Ekranoplans handle jumps are slightly off though.
The evidence, filmed by JoshCM's son is here

I notice you made it through level 12. In fact you seem to be number 18 on the global leaderboard. Well done!

 

I'm glad y'all liked the post. Thanks for making the game, GlennX. It really stands apart.

 

@GlennX: If you'd like to use my post in the app description, or wherever, please do. Might want to drop the paragraph where I explain ekranoplan aerodynamics, though...

 

Thanks Ra88bit! Glenn is looking at re-vamping his App Store game description but in the meantime, I've posted some of the most insightful comments on his blog page at http://www.glenncorpes.com/blog-1 (that'll be those from Ra88bit, Jeep & Winter413). I'm being his spokesperson a bit at the moment as he's busy coding the new game on which JoshCM (Ravensword) is the co-dev (it looks seriously amazing and you're definitely gonna love it).

Anyone who would like a free copy of the full version of Ground Effect can have a go at getting a promo code HERE

 

If you'd like one of those codes, best be quick

 

It saddens me that this games ratings after the last update has gone way way down. In the US store, a guy rated it 1 star because it wasn't like Jet Car Stunts. Seriously? All I do is laugh at the review

I recently just started to play Ground Effect, but was instantly impressed and taken back by it. To think, I passed this up when it very first came out. My mistake! My playing time is limited right now, but when I have time to play this is the game I like to open up first.

It's nice to see ra88bit offer some kinds words about the game. No doubt he admires the time that was put into this games physics and beautiful graphics as much as I do.

Till next time.... WHOOOOOSH!

 

Dang Ra88it just saw your post and it is right on. In fact I'm about to go resubmit my review to help the rating of the game...