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Archive for the ‘iPhone’ Category

Retro Yeti Escape Game for iPhone and iPod Touch

Posted on Friday, December 14, 2012
14 Dec

I’ve just finished developing Yeti Escape for Vivid Reflection, my iOS development company. Yeti Escape is a new Christmas-themed retro game for iOS. The story: Present-hungry yetis have escaped from the North Pole and threaten to ruin Christmas. Pixel Santa must save the day by throwing spare presents at them. Can he still make his deliveries on-time? The game is available now on the App Store and I’ve made a short 2 minute video demoing the retro gameplay and awesome 8-bit sound effects and music so please check it out.

Yeti Escape Demo – 8-bit Retro Arcade Game from Vivid Reflection on Vimeo.

The Yeti Escape game is made in Cocos2D and has Game Center leader board support so you can challenge your friends too. It’s a fun variation on the classic 8-bit arcade shooter. You play by tapping the screen to fire presents from your sleigh, aiming to hit the yetis. Once they consume a present they disappear back to their slumber in the North Pole. If they escape, they eat everyone’s presents and it’s game over. In some ways it plays a bit like a modern-themed twist on the arcade classic Missile Command. As Pixel Santa is moving through the game world, you have time and aim the shot just right to hit the moving yeti. There are a number of different yetis all of differing strengths and speeds which try to escape at different times and if you’re not expecting it you’ll find yourself shrieking as some “super powerful bad-ass” sumo yeti escapes with your last life.

Please let me know what you think about the game in the comments. What’s your best bit about 8-bit retro games?

If you’d like to keep up-to-date on the apps and games I develop, follow @VReflection on Twitter or like Vivid Reflection’s Facebook page. The game has just gone live and Yeti Escape can be downloaded on the App Store now.

 
 

iPhone App: Windsock takes off

Posted on Tuesday, May 29, 2012
29 May

Windsock Screenshot of Dynamic mapsWindsock app iconWindsock, my latest iPhone app is live in the App Store. It’s a clean, easy-to-use app that lets you check the wind forecast remotely and up to 4 days in advance. I built it because a hobby of mine is remote control plane flying but often there are days when the wind is too strong or in the wrong direction and packing the flight gear, driving down to the park only to find it is too windy to fly was frustrating (the plane has a wingspan of 56″ which is tricky to get out of a car at the best of times let alone when it is windy also strong wind is likely to make you lose control of your model and fly it into a tree or worse).

Instead I built this app to drop windsock markers down on a map and get the latest wind readings for a near-by location so I know if it’s great weather to fly. You can also save it as a site and with a quick glance see the best park or field to fly in. It is also iCloud ready so will sync your sites between devices and has a relative compass mode to help you discover the wind direction – beats throwing a bit of muddy grass in the air!

The app uses high resolution data to give high-resolution readings every 3 hours up to 5 days in advance. Tapping on the detail view within the app will condense the rows to give you a daily overview of the wind readings. I’ve tried to design it to work in two modes, the first mode is more of a quick overview so you can compare sites and decide the best one to go to, the other mode lets you drill down and view the forecast for a particular site.

It’s also a handy app if you do other outdoor activities, such as kitesurfing, windsurfing, paragliding, kite flying or just fly model planes. Please check it out on the App’s website or on the App Store.

 
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Posted in Apps, iPhone

 

WWDC Update: 5 key points for iPhone apps

Posted on Tuesday, July 5, 2011
05 Jul

It’s now been just over 3 weeks since the torrent of information unleashed at Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference refreshingly drenched the brains of designers, developers and engineers. I’ve resisted blogging about the public announcements to fully let the impact soak in and gage everyone’s reactions but now feels like a good time to talk about where the future of computing is heading.
Read the rest of this entry »

 

Pub Darts now with Facebook Support

Posted on Monday, November 15, 2010
15 Nov

Richard Warrender's photo in Pub DartsHey, just to let you know Pub Darts 1.2 is now up in the App Store.

The biggest feature this new version supports is Facebook integration. Yes thats right… you can now log in and pull a “friend’s” profile picture straight onto the dartboard ready to let off some steam. Mmm, now if only you could download and try it out for free… wait you can because I made it free for a short while!
Here’s the link for Pub Darts.

So what else is in this free update?
Well I’ll tell you. This is what some people have been begging me for…

  • Ability to refresh dartboard
    (You can now remove the tiny dart holes)
  • Dart sound effects
    (Satisfying thuds as a dart hits the board – woop!)
  • Bug fixes related to using camera and albums
    (Needed fixing particularly for large images)

Just in case you can’t find it, to access Facebook navigate to…
Settings > Boss Image > Camera > Grab From Facebook

Let me know what you’d like to see in the next update. Either in the comments or an email. Of course, you could always leave a really positive review if you enjoy it :D

 
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Posted in Apps, Games, iPhone

 

Pub Darts now with Instructions!

Posted on Thursday, July 29, 2010
29 Jul

Pub Darts iconWhen I first launched Pub Darts last March, I got many great positive messages from people who love throwing darts at their boss’s picture! I also got much negative feedback from people who found the throwing mechanism difficult or not as intuitive as I thought it was. Therefore adding instructions to version 1.1 was very important to avoiding those 1 star reviews!

However due to work commitments it has had to sit on the back-burner but with the recent release of the iPhone 4, I couldn’t help but update Pub Darts with gorgeous high resolution artwork. I also managed to add in some instructions, make a new icon, fix a few bugs, allow games to save themselves when you quit and completely redo the shadows to be more ‘iPhone-like’. This free update can be grabbed immediately from your iPhone by updating in the App Store application.

More updates are coming soon. Feel free to suggest some features you’d like to see. If you’ve yet to experience Pub Darts on your iPhone, grab it for free now.

Pub Darts Screenshot Pub Darts Screenshot