Announcing Gravity Sling

Discussion in 'Upcoming iOS Games' started by dubane, Oct 13, 2009.

  1. dubane

    dubane Well-Known Member

    #1 dubane, Oct 13, 2009
    Last edited: Oct 16, 2009
    Sorry for being so quiet the past couple months, but as you may have heard (http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?p=506725#post506725) things have been a bit crazy lately.

    Anyway, I'm back now with my new company Riptide Games, and have teamed up with Jonathan Hartstein of Pyro Monkey Productions, Seth Howard of Spatial Reasoning, Eric Lannan from Crucial Games and Ben Long of Noise Buffet to bring you our next game: Gravity Sling

    This started out at the iPhone Game Jam (http://www.iphonegamejam.com) held at 360iDev in Denver a couple weeks back. In about 12 hours (7pm-7am) we built out the core mechanic of having the astronaut sling around planets to reach the spaceship. In the couple weeks since then we've polished up the experience a lot, tweaked the gameplay, added a lot fancier graphics, and have started putting together some really fun levels. We're getting very close to submitting this to Apple, and should be doing that within the next few days.

    I posted the Promo Trailer for Gravity Sling on YouTube earlier this evening.



    The idea behind Gravity Sling is to use the gravity of the planets to get the astronaut back to the ship safely. However, the key is to try to get the astronaut back by taking the longest path possible. While some levels may have simple or obvious solutions, most will have much longer ways to get there.

    The game will ship with at least 35 levels, and while not part of the initial launch, we are planning to polish up our level editor and make it available as an update as soon as we can.

    We have full Open Feint integration complete with high scores and achievements, so players can easily track their progress against their friends.

    We plan to launch the game for just $.99. The initial release will be for the iPhone and iPod Touch, but we've already started working on the Palm Pre version of Gravity Sling and will be releasing it as soon as we can get it finished up.

    Update: I changed the title to point out that Gravity Sling will now be free, as outlined in more detail in my post below.
     
  2. loves2spoon

    loves2spoon Well-Known Member

    Sep 22, 2009
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    cool, looks interesting!
     
  3. dubane

    dubane Well-Known Member

    Thanks! Looking forward to letting you play it!
     
  4. drelbs

    drelbs Well-Known Member

    Jun 25, 2009
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    It's a game, it's a Spirograph, it's YOU CRASHED

    Looks like a great use of physics in a game. I'll be watching for this one.

    One comment: it might look a little less Monty Python-ish if the astronaut was about half the size. It seems Odd that he's as big as the shuttle he's trying to navigate to.

    +1 OpenFeint! :)

    Random thought: I would look forward to drinking a Singapore Sling while playing Gravity Sling... ;)
     
  5. dubane

    dubane Well-Known Member

    You say that like looking less Monty Python-ish would be a good thing?

    :D
     
  6. drelbs

    drelbs Well-Known Member

    Jun 25, 2009
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    For the general public, perhaps.

    Don't get me wrong, I'm all for silly, check out my glowing review for Avoid Hitting Piano!
     
  7. thegamerocks06

    thegamerocks06 Well-Known Member

    Jun 3, 2009
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    I'm always attracted towards gravity :D
     
  8. sizzlakalonji

    sizzlakalonji Moderator
    Staff Member Patreon Silver Patreon Gold Patreon Bronze

    Apr 16, 2009
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  9. xFinch713x

    xFinch713x Well-Known Member

    Apr 26, 2009
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    yay, a space game dealing with the sling-shot effect ;D haha. Looking forward to this game :)
     
  10. dubane

    dubane Well-Known Member

    Good find, I hadn't seen that game before. It's pretty cool, but definitely feels very different to Gravity Sling.

    We put a couple screenshots up here: http://iphonegamejam.com/index.php?title=Gravity_Sling and obviously the video shows a lot of gameplay too.

    Overall though, Captain Galactic has you running around planets and constantly trying to navigate between them to collect coins, jewels, people, etc. You have very direct control over the player and you are supposed to travel to each planet specifically.

    With Gravity Sling you're trying instead to avoid the planets. You don't want to crash into them, rather you want to sling near them to travel a long distance to reach your ship. We also don't have a big story and aren't having you save helpless people :)
     
  11. dubane

    dubane Well-Known Member

    Just wanted to follow up on this and let everyone know that with Apple's change in policy today we've decided to release Gravity Sling for free.
    http://www.riptidegames.com/2009/10/gravity-sling-coming-soon-for-free/

    So now instead of having to hold out and wait for a Lite version, and then remember to go purchase the full version when you love the Lite, you can just download the game for free from the start. If you like it and want to help support us continuing to develop it with more levels, etc then you can purchase more levels from within the game. If you don't like it (not that that would even be possible of course :) ), then at least you didn't have to spend any money to know.

    We think this is a win-win for everyone, and I'd love to hear your thoughts.
     
  12. xFinch713x

    xFinch713x Well-Known Member

    Apr 26, 2009
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    yay :D Very excited now :) Most likely will purchase the full in-app game once i see how good it is ;)
     
  13. dubane

    dubane Well-Known Member

    Gravity Sling is submitted

    Hey everyone,

    We just submitted Gravity Sling to the App Store last night, so I'm hoping you'll be able to play it within the next week or two.

    The final game will be available as a free download, and it will ship with 15 free levels to try out. If you enjoy it there is an additional 30 levels available as an In-App purchase level pack for just $.99. So instead of having to download the Lite, then separately download the full version, instead you can just "upgrade" the content within the app. We're very excited about this, and hope that it makes your game experience much more enjoyable.

    We also have full Open Feint integration including leaderboards for all 45 levels, and numerous achievements you can unlock through play.

    As mentioned earlier the trailer for Gravity Sling is here
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1qGYFvHb0A

    and I've posted up more details and a couple screenshots here:
    http://www.riptidegames.com/2009/10/gravity-sling-is-submitted-to-apple/

    Finally, I want to give everyone credit for this as Gravity Sling is the result of a collaboration between Riptide Games, Pyromonkey Productions, Spatial Reasoning, Crucial Games and NoiseBuffet. All Denver-based iPhone developers.


    If you have any other questions or comments post them here and I'll try to answer everything for you.
     

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