Slowly but surely Drifting Belle is drifting towards the iPhone and iPod touch.
Drifting Belle is a new game from PebbleBug Studios filled with fun, adventure and loads of heated air.

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Rainbow Raid is a platform-esque game for the iPhone and iPod touch where you have to guide Ruby and her sisters through the clouds to find their way home (and grab a load of gold).

Because the video is a screen recording from the emulator that uses the mouse, the game controls are slightly different from the real thing. Once I’ve set up the video camera and manage to get a quality recording I’ll post it here on the blog.

We hope you like this short clip.

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I’m doing my best to be able to show some actual game play soon. A bit of game play is probably more interesting than a menu screen.

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Yes, just this single image…

The coming weeks more news and screenshots will find their way to this place, so check back soon.

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My heart skipped a beat or two and I started reading immediately. I had to calm down a bit after finishing it, it doesn’t happen that often that you receive full marks in a review.

Here’s a quote I like very much:

“If we could have one game on a desert island right now, it would be Springball.”

Thank you so much Slide To Play!

Check out Slide To Play’s review of Springball.

gr.jakko

After all those long hours of coding, testing, designing, observing and listening to feedback it would be so great if I could just sit back, enjoy the nice weather and watch sales spring into existence. Getting Springball finished was hard work you know, don’t I deserve a bit of down time?

It turns out a big fat NO is the answer to that question. The work that still has to be done turns out to be even harder than getting the game ready.

Things to do after game is finished:

1. Get the word out, let people know Springball is available
2. Convince people investing a bit of money and time in Springball is good for them

It seems the best way to get the word out is to get your game mentioned on the websites. But with the whole world screaming for that same bit of attention, troubles already start at step 1: the websites are flooded with review requests. Lately there are a lot of high profile games entering the iPhone arena, the chances of getting noticed are getting smaller and smaller by the week for a small developer. I’m not saying that it is impossible, but the odds are getting slimmer.

A polite email with a short introduction, some game information, promo codes, links to screenshots and a gameplay movie was sent to a number of websites just after the release of Springball. So far I’ve only received one reply, a very nice email from Pocket Gamer telling me they just don’t have the time to take a look at Springball. Disappointing? Yes, very much so, but it was nice of them to let me know. I’ve heard nothing from the other websites, but I think the outcome is pretty much the same: too many requests, no time for you.

Although the initial batch of emails didn’t have any tangible results yet, there are two positive Springball reviews, no negative ones yet.

• One is from iPhoneclub a Dutch site I contacted a couple of days after the release. They were very kind and responsive, I think being a Dutch developer helped in this case.
• The second review is on iphonetech78’s blog who contacted me on the TouchArcade forum during a Springball promo code giveaway (which I would do entirely different now, after what I’ve learned from it).

So, am I stuck at step 1 already? I don’t think so, there still is so much more there can be done and I will keep you updated with what’s happening.

If you have any comments, tips or suggestion, feel free to add them. I’m very interested in you opinions.

gr.jakko

Go Get It Now. It is awesome!

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Springball has been submitted to the App Store and is awaiting approval, and with a bit of luck the whole world can enjoy a bit of Springball fun within a couple of days.

So what happened to Pocket Town Hero, the game I have been talking about before Springball dropped out of the clear blue spring sky? I’ll keep that little story for another blog post, let’s just say a day I labeled “Disaster Thursday” was involved.

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The extensibility of the Unity interface is great however. I’ve added loads of helper objects that automatically generate the real geometry when the game is started.

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Join the fun at: www.twitter.com/pebblebug 

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