Flip's Escape [Shaun Inman - dev of The Last Rocket] (Universal)

[nfong]

The game got a 4 star rating from TA!

Also it's out in US.

[Darkjad]

Wow, I'm #10 in the world! (Apparently?)

I'm really digging this game. It might be weird of me to say this, but I actually really prefer it to TLR. I liked TLR, but I found it too fiddly: my meaty fingers weren't great at the timing on the button presses, and I could never get into the groove of it.

This is a completely different game, but like I said, I'm really digging it. It's easy to play and look up twenty minutes later, wondering where the time went. Wonderful risk/reward mechanic regarding braking for stars, and trying to get them without slowing down. I also love the little touch that when the game is paused, it shows a little arrow underneath Flip showing what direction he's travelling in.

This is a fantasticly addictive little time-burner so far. Sadly, I have to get back to packing boxes, but I'd definitely give this 5 stars. Cheap (99 cents!), but with gorgeous pixel art, 8-bit sound, and addictive gameplay. What more could you ask for?

[Acceleroto]

Really fun game, Shaun. I totally understand where you're coming from with a niche game/short project like this - I did one myself fairly recently & it was a ton of fun to do. It's definitely a fun spin on a top-down shooter.

The IAP is completely non-intrusive. Unless you're just opposed to apps with IAP, I don't see a reason that anyone would hold that against it. Haters gonna hate though.

Overall, Flip's Escape is a really fun game & totally worth the $0.99 price tag.

[ezone]

Pretty amazing that this game was made in 3 weeks! The 'quick' game we are working on now has taken more than 6 months already Kudos!

I'll just weigh in here with my take on IAP. The question for any game/developer should be 'Can you play and enjoy the game without IAP?'. If the answer is 'yes' (i.e. all NimbleBit games, Temple Run, Flip's Escape), then you are doing it right. If the answer is 'no', then you probably need to rethink your IAP, or go work for Zynga.

[Teh_Ninja]

This game is really addictive, and I'm having a blast (no pun intended) playing it. Hope it cracks the top 10.

[DistantJ]

Ah, the IAP debate! Came here from Eli's tweet.

The thing about IAP (in app purchases) is that they've been going for a lot longer than people think, but only recently have they become greedy. The Need For Speed series has been doing it for years, since ProStreet. A car will cost 30,000 in game dollars or you can buy it with a couple of dollars real money if you don't want to spend the time racing to gather the in game bucks. I'm in two minds about that method as although some of us may not have the time to spend unlocking it, we still already paid for that content on the disk.

More recently there's 'purchasable currency', I kind of like this method when they don't take the piss with it. A game will have in game currency, say Rupees in Zelda for example, and you will buy upgrades etc. with the money you collect in game, however the game will give you the option to buy in game currency with real money to skip ahead quicker or for those moments where you're desperate and about to run out of the in game stuff. They also give the option to unlock levels early or skip levels you're stuck on using this currency. When the game was either free or only cost you $1-2 it seems fair, but it massively depends on the developers' attitudes. They often now overprice everything, so that you have to spend hours and hours 'grinding' to be able to progress in the game without spending on an IAP. Obviously free apps are more greedy with this since they need to make their money somehow.

The one which really bugs me now is the dual currency method people like Madfinger Games have been using. This one I believe to be really unfair. Dead Trigger has cash and gold. Cash is the stuff you can find in game (and purchase more of to skip ahead quicker), gold can ONLY be purchased with real money. Many of the better weapons in the game can only be purchased with gold. This just seems sleazy to me.

But sometimes IAP makes the game more accessible to people who don't have hours to spend grinding (collecting coins, levelling up etc. RPG style) and hopefully it's not particularly expensive. If the game is 'grindy' by nature, a lot of people are going to enjoy the grinding whilst others want to enjoy it but don't have the time to do so, as long as the developer doesn't then make the game painfully slow to try and force the IAP.

Truth is, $1-2 for fully functional video games is a steal really. Consider that due to how competitive the iTunes store has become, many of us developers are building full scale console-style games, but are considered to be greedy if we want more than $2 for it, whilst Nintendo ask for $40 for the likes of the New Super Mario Bros. games which barely even differ from each other; IAP can help to recoup development costs.

People say 'you can buy your way to the top; it's not fair', but I personally would say 'you have enough spare time to grind your way to the top; it's not fair'. I know I'd happily pay a couple of dollars extra to be able to still play through Final Fantasy games without having to take time off work.

[Andy C83]

Hey Shaun, thank you for The Last Rocket. Easily one of my favourite games on iOS.

I have a question about Flip's Escape: if you manage to survive long enough, does Flip eventually manage to.. erm, escape?

I would hope that the answer is yes, but regardless, I will be picking this up.

I wish you all the best with this and all future projects.

[retr0spective]

Shaun Inman is a video game design genius and I think that we should all support his work as much as possible. Flip's Escape is a nice piece of fan service for fans of The Last Rocket. Unlike most games utilizing IAP as a business model - this is little more than an avenue to give back to the developer and one that I see as preferable to kickstarter - i.e. give me money to support my next project, or buy my Minigame and some ad-ons to support my next project. It is quite admirable in my opinion. I just hope the next project is released on iOS. If so I will greatly look forward to it and feel glad that I made my own small contribution to the project by enjoying Flip's Escape.

[syntheticvoid]

Originally Posted by retr0spective

Shaun Inman is a video game design genius and I think that we should all support his work as much as possible. Flip's Escape is a nice piece of of fan service for fans of The Last Rocket. Unlike most games utilizing IAP as a business model - this is little more than an avenue to give back to the developer and one that I see as preferable to kickstarter - i.e. give me money to support my next project, or buy my Minigame and some ad-ons to support my next project. It is quite admirable in my opinion. I just hope the next project is released on iOS. If so I will greatly look forward to it and feel glad that I made my own small contribution to the project by enjoying Flip's Escape.

agreed... this is totally how I look at this game; a better way to make some $$ to push your next game than using Kickstarter. Really wish more devs would go this route. =oP

[shauninman]

Thanks for the additional IAP insight guys. Kepa, I so want to steal your rolling class idea. Very clever.

Originally Posted by Andy C83

if you manage to survive long enough, does Flip eventually manage to.. erm, escape?

If the question is "does the game have an ending cutscene, say after x lightyears?" then no. If the quesiton is "do Flip and AMI (and their Spacemouse fare) survive to star in another game someday" then the answer is yes.