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[Reilly]

Cute?! Noooooo!
JK, that's fine.

Going to start making a point of showing multiplayer maps at least one day out of the week to keep productivity up. I don't have too much trouble making maps, but making fun/balanced maps can be very difficult.

With that said here's a map from one of our alpha testers.
Tadpole Tango

[Photon]

PHEW. Missed the early July update at first somehow, but glad to know this is still on.

DON'T SCARE US LIKE THAT MAN.

[happymonster]

I think the water in the map image might look better if it was more blue and less aqua?

[Reilly]

@Photon - Sorry, bud! Coding AI is a terrible thing. (or so I've heard from Deezul)

@happymonster - I've always been partial to greenish water, but I'll play around with it. I'm sure I could tone it down some.

[James Edward Smith]

I think it looks fine, it has an "old photo" quality to it.

[kingdinosaurgames]

Love the art and the design behind the game - really would love it even more if it came to PC!

[Photon]

@Photon - Sorry, bud! Coding AI is a terrible thing. (or so I've heard from Deezul)

Heh. AI for platformer enemies can be bad enough at times. Your game, on the other hand... 

Also, THAT MULTIPLAYER MAP ISN'T FULLY SYMMETRICAL! The airport and mountain setup on the sides...

No but really, glad to hear you guys are still plugging away. Not sure what else to say than hang in there and that we're rooting for you!

[Reilly]

@kingdinosaurgames - Thanks. iOS needs to get out the door first, we'll see what happens after that. We have found some tools for making ports.

@Photon - Oh man good catch! I mocked that up in illustrator and figured I just made a mistake, but that's indeed what it looks like in game. I've played that map a million times and never noticed.

[and]

@triplevisiongames, thanks! No plans to bring this to PC currently. We have had a lot of interest in android support though, so that's something we may consider after we launch on iOS.

Bah! I'll look forward to picking it up on iOS then!

[Photon]

I was thinking: what's your game plan to start generating your user base before the game's release? I would imagine that pre-release hype would be critical for a multiplayer game like this, so I'm curious as to what you guys have put together so far.

Hmm... this wasn't already asked was it?

[Vanhail]

Being our first game of any sort, let alone on mobile, we're just trying to make something people want to play. No master plan or anything. We've toyed with the idea of releasing a free (ad supported) multiplayer version to get the player base up. But having ads and no campaign doesn't seem like the best first impression, not to mention the staggered launch momentum. Thoughts?

[dirak]

I Really dig the campaign map. It's a lot more charming than just a text list. The overall sprite work gives me an 'Advanced Wars' feeling (that game always brought a smile to my face.)

As this is a mobile game, do you plan on having asynchronous multiplayer? My concern is losing connection on the bus/train and ruining an otherwise well thought out match.

Hope to see more from this soon!

[Reilly]

@dirak - Multiplayer is asynchronous. The game periodically sends your moves to the server so if you lost data connection or even if your phone fell into a volcano, you'd be alright. I take a lot of turns on my phone at work and switch to my iPad when I get home.

In other news I I'm foolin' around with the layout for the campaign and versus stats.

[Photon]

Being our first game of any sort, let alone on mobile, we're just trying to make something people want to play. No master plan or anything. We've toyed with the idea of releasing a free (ad supported) multiplayer version to get the player base up. But having ads and no campaign doesn't seem like the best first impression, not to mention the staggered launch momentum. Thoughts?

Being someone who hasn't released or produced a significant amount of substance on a big project, I can certainly understand that the main focus is to get the game out the door. Its great you've stuck with this over the past two years. Really!

But its also my understanding that the mobile market is something of a shark tank. Despite the fact that this looks phenomenal, I've heard its no small feat to get a following in that high-paced environment. Not to mention: if you hit gold of any kind, the cloners may come a knocking to steal your potential audience. You have an advantage in that your game has some very fine-tuned parts like AI that can't just be whipped together in a couple hours (...right? ), but that doesn't mean cheap knock-offs can't distract the potential audience. I know someone who just released a game and about a week following that another developer had already ripped off the game.

Anyway, with such a strong emphasis on multiplayer, I feel like a strong user base is going to be so critical to this game's success. But again, I don't speak from experience. I do want to see this do well though! Maybe it'd be good to start some sort of forum/community site in the future for the game?

Also, with that latest picture, I want to reiterate how sharp and clean the graphics look. It makes me want to jump in and play. Speaking of which, do you guys have any kind of ETA on the game's release yet?

[Birdorf]

OMG, I love stats!

[Muzz]

Just want to jump in and say you guys are doing a stellar job. Well done!

[rek]

Intelligence. I can't not point it out.

[Reilly]

@Photon - Mobile market is very tough, and it was kinda silly for us to tackle something of this size for our first game. When we started the project, we were only focused on multiplayer, but launching a multiplayer only game nowadays pretty much means it needs to be free with IAP or ads. Also, getting a new player to try out a game by pitting them against another human is a tall order, they're almost guaranteed to lose and their first impression of the game will be a negative one.

While we definitely want people to play multiplayer, which is why we've been discussing adding a free multiplayer only option to the mix. Hopefully that would successfully bolster our player base. We've talked about making a forum, but I'd really like something more casual. Not sure what that would be though.

@Birdorf - Stats are rad! We also have some more fun competitive stats planned. Hopefully that all pans out.

@Muzz - Thanks for the kind words!

@rek - Haha, damn! Good catch.

Map time! Freedom isn't free on Freedom River!

[gamerzap]

Looks really great.  I love turn based strategy. 

[Chicha]

Being our first game of any sort, let alone on mobile, we're just trying to make something people want to play. No master plan or anything. We've toyed with the idea of releasing a free (ad supported) multiplayer version to get the player base up. But having ads and no campaign doesn't seem like the best first impression, not to mention the staggered launch momentum. Thoughts?

This is an interesting topic. I think the better way is to charge it $2.99 when it's just launched and change to freemium after a few months. At that time, the access to campaign becomes an in-app purchased item, costs $2.99. By that way, you get two phase of player base acceleration, with lower risk of making a mistake in player experience. Not to mention the downloads won't split up.

Just my thought, hope it helps!