[SUBMITTED] Incoming Mini Squadron!

Squirt Reynolds · Oct 23, 2009

EDIT: @jak56 why did you post a video of another game in this thread?

Your 7 consecutive posts were bad enough...

arta · Oct 28, 2009

Have you been preparing to send news to various sites about your game while it is in submission?

MiniSquadron · Oct 28, 2009

Yes I have - I have submitted a preview build to toucharcade people too. Although there are bugs -I am planning a way to send out news to more people. This is my biggest fear as I don't have much experience in this area. I am very scared that it won't get a fair chance and will sink into obscurity - regardless of whether it was good or not. So I shall update my blog again soon and then hit more sites

caubetocdaido · Oct 28, 2009

MiniSquadron said: ↑

Yes I have - I have submitted a preview build to toucharcade people too. Although there are bugs -I am planning a way to send out news to more people. This is my biggest fear as I don't have much experience in this area. I am very scared that it won't get a fair chance and will sink into obscurity - regardless of whether it was good or not. So I shall update my blog again soon and then hit more sites
Click to expand...

Will out in november ??

Frant · Oct 28, 2009

great game so far, looking forward to playing it

good luck with developing! ))

ultimo · Oct 28, 2009

I am loving what I see, waiting for the Lite
Great Job & Welcome to TA!!

Aldex Oun said: ↑

Omg, this game is so totally unrealistic that I want it. Those weapons are amazing, I'm definitely looking forward to this one, and thank you for making it a virtual pad to play with, although I love Aera, gameplay with the accelerometer was the one thing that I wasn't quite fond of.
Click to expand...

Yeah!
C'mon guys... its an iPod touch... not iPod tilt

MiniSquadron · Oct 28, 2009

It will definitely be submitted by November - but then its up to the magical Apple Approval to OK it to to eh App Store!

ultimo · Oct 28, 2009

Something just hit me.... Like a Truck

This is a Worms (The Funny GFX & the smoke trail of missiles) mashd with Minigore (Dual Stick shootr ?)
But is much much bettr when we talk about Content!

eggzbacon · Oct 28, 2009

Aww man, there was beta testing???

MiniSquadron · Oct 28, 2009

Sorry eggzbacon, it was mostly internal beta with a limited number of external beta testers. I didn't feel I could easily cope with a large number of people to communicate with along with all the other stuff I need to do But you never know, there might be more people needed in the future!

da shiz wiz 19 · Oct 28, 2009

Well it does look fun and I always like games like this. If you do have a promo code contest or anything Ill be there =). If not Ill try to buy it anyways

jak56 · Oct 31, 2009

what he said

Yffum · Oct 31, 2009

Wow, game looks really awesome. If you're worried people won't know about it you should do what Catch a Mouse 3 did on TA. I have the game embedded in my brain.

MiniSquadron · Oct 31, 2009

Hi guys - sorry for the delay. Unfortunately the art man is still late as he is overloaded with work, and the game will finish and be submitted in 2 weeks max. I've sent preview builds around, so maybe watch TouchArcade for it soon ) If you follow me on twitter.com/mrfungfung you will definitely know as soon as things happen!!

THANKS FOR THE SUPPORT!

Aldex Oun · Oct 31, 2009

MiniSquadron said: ↑

Hi guys - sorry for the delay. Unfortunately the art man is still late as he is overloaded with work, and the game will finish and be submitted in 2 weeks max. I've sent preview builds around, so maybe watch TouchArcade for it soon ) If you follow me on twitter.com/mrfungfung you will definitely know as soon as things happen!!

THANKS FOR THE SUPPORT!
Click to expand...

Sweet, I'm so stoked for this game. I didn't realize you had a Twitter, I just started following you

Prab · Oct 31, 2009

Submitted in 2 weeks, another 2 weeks for review. So a December release? Cool

MiniSquadron · Nov 1, 2009

I bloody hope so!! It's been brewing long enough!! I *want* you guys to play it so much - you're all gonna love it. It's like POKEMON but with planes lol!

arta · Nov 2, 2009

Looking forward to it.

arta · Nov 4, 2009

http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/iPhone/Mini+Squadron/news.asp?c=16511

Hands on with the cartoon combat of Fung Fung's Mini Squadron
Are you ready for Cuban Eights and Immelmann turns?

Over on PocketGamer.biz, as part of the One-man Band series of interviews, I caught up with Tak Fung. He 'fessed up about his significant past with developers such as Lionhead and Sony, and, more importantly, his future plans with his debut iPhone game Mini Squadron. Just over a month later, Tak's almost finished work on the game and so has nicely sent over a beta build for preview.

As the title suggests, the 2D side scroller is all about frantic dog-fighting action, combined with some Pokemon-style collect 'em all progression.

First things first, however. The controls are really simple, with a small virtual D-pad on the left hand side of the screen to control your plane in terms of moving it around the sky. Actually, it's less of a virtual D-pad and more of a circle you rotate your thumb around like an original iPod scroll wheel. You can change the sensitivity via the game's options.

The control of your plane is completely simple. You rotate your thumb to raise and drop the nose of the plane and if you keep rotating around, the plane does a loop-the-loop. But what's really clever is the animation system makes sure your plane is always the right way up when you loop, which means you don't have to reverse controls as you'd otherwise have to do. A similar animation happens when you reach the left and right edges of the side scrolling level. Like a swimmer's racing turn, your direction will be reversed.

Slightly more complex is how Tak deals with each level's height. The sky's colour fades to black the higher you go, until your plane stalls and reverses direction - effectively falling back to earth. The only way you can stop this is to gain speed by diving, after which you can control the plane as usual. Explaining this might make the controls sound tricky, but really they're not and you'll pick up them straight away. The only other thing you need to know is to keep your finger pressed down on the 'fire' button, which is on the right hand side of the screen.

There are 60 planes in total, of which you have to unlock 59. As is normal, each offers a different set of speed, armour, turning rate, reload time. and weapon. You choose which of your mini squadron to fight with at the start of each mission. In the single-player mode, there are eight levels, of which you have to unlock seven. There are 12 waves of enemies to defeat in each level, and basically you fly around blasting everything that's in the air.

Another neat touch is that because the levels are bigger than the screen, the position of off-screen enemies is shown by small arrows at the left and right hand edges. This is really useful as it means you can fly towards them, firing as you go.

To be honest, there's not a lot of strategy involved in Mini Squadron, although as you come up against tougher enemies, you'll need to mix up your attacks. If you're flying head on towards your enemies, they'll be able to fire directly at you, too, and that's not to mention those planes which shoot missiles, or the UFOs that hover in the sky.

In general, then, you'll be zooming around the sky, doing plenty of loop-to-loops to get on your enemies' tails, as well as trying to pick up the power up stars and extra life hearts as they fall. The power-ups can provide more health, speed you up, or slow you down, or provide better weapons such as shoot-'em-up style area beams and air strikes. But beware - the enemy planes can also pick them up.

What's most important, though, is that Mini Squadron feels really sweet to play, while the 'continue' option encourages addictive replay, while making sure you can't just breeze through the game without gaining any new skills. All combined with excellent sprite graphics, the sort of piano-based music that's reminiscent of the Dastardly and Muttley Catch the Pigeon cartoon, plus a multiplayer option, and I'm expecting Mini Squadron to be on course to gain air supremacy over the App Store when it comes out in November.
Click to expand...

emb531 · Nov 4, 2009

Just wanted to post in here and give some support to Tak; I beta tested the game a week or so ago, and while the build I played was not finished, the core gameplay is quite entertaining and fun. It will surely be a hit around here, lots of content for a small price. Controls are great and the sensitivity is just about perfect. There a lots of little gameplay elements not shown in the initial video that improve and enhance the game overall. Basically it is one of the most well suited games for the device; good to pick up and play in short bursts but enough content for longer play sessions. Hopefully I should have an RC build to post some impressions about soon, if anyone has any questions post them here

[SUBMITTED] Incoming Mini Squadron!

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