Let me start by saying, yes, the latest version of CryptoQuip Free has been approved for sale by Apple!

The interesting part is as follows… CryptoQuip free was the 1st to go into review, but the non-free version was the first to get approved (yesterday). We started to wonder if perhaps Apple would not approve the free version, or would request we add the ability to remove ads or something. We are thrilled that our app and the in app purchases for additional puzzle packs was approved (in time for the weekend too).

Now we just sit back and wait for existing customers to buy packs of puzzles, which should be a positive thing, because if you play through all the games and want more, you obviously like the gameplay enough to invest more time and money into it.

Yay!, Rafter’s Loot  and Rafter’s Loot Free are now both available in the App Store!

As I mentioned in my last post, we’re winding down new game development for a little while, but we think Rafter’s Loot is a great finale to a summer of programming. The Next Angry Birds it’s not, but it is easy to pick up, play and have a little fun with!

Angry Birds creators Rovio have been valued at 1.2 Billion dollars. So what will the next Angry Birds look like? Will it be Rafter’s Loot? Star Chase? Probably not.

We ask ourselves every time we start on a new game. Is it the artwork? Is it the gameplay? Is it the puzzles? I don’t think every great game has to look like Angry Birds, but it would be silly to ignore the phenomenon.

One great thing about Angry Birds is that everyone can play it. It only takes a few moments to learn the controls. Rafter’s Loot (our latest release) has two buttons and a menu, and in Beta testing kids could pick it up. On the other hand, Star Chase is a complicated space physics game so it was harder to build something accessible to everyone, but there’s more to it than that.

Part of me thinks that advertizing and marketing our games is where we are missing the ball. We have no marketing budget, so we try and do it all ourselves. I know we’re not alone since I get these emails every time we release a new game saying “great game, let me sell you my marketing services”.  Angry Birds was published by Chillingo which had experience marketing games and bringing them to #1. If we had a few thousand dollars to invest in the problem we would, but we don’t. For now, we plan to continue doing this ourselves, and keep our focus on making quality apps.

In the meantime we’re just settling into a new groove for the fall semester. We’re expecting another child soon so we’re winding down full blown game development mode idle to focus on support for our existing apps, and new non-game apps, perhaps related to pregnancy or kids….

So while we keep hoping to build The Next Angry Birds, we’d happily settle for 1% of their success.

We just submitted for review to the App Store the full version of our newest game Rafter’s Loot.

Screenshot from iPhone of Rafter's Loot

This game is probably our best game so far. In it you control a raft and try to collect as much valuable loot as possible. Using a great physics engine, original artwork, and inspiration from our childhood, we know this is our best game yet!

As your stack grows it may become unstable and you lose loot! If you manage to keep organized then any groups of 3 disappear and you score them, a handy way to make more room in your boat. Some items are good, others bad, and the shadows that tell you what come next are only a hint, since two square boxes with different contents have similar shadows!

We’re taken inspiration from our childhood gaming memory and applied our collective experience to try a build a great game. Classics like asteroids and Tetris influenced this game as well as Mario Brothers (in artwork and menus). I hope you enjoy it when it hits the store later this month!

Oh. A Free version will be along shortly, so you’ll probably hear about that before we get approved.

Bitsy the Spider toddler game is now for sale in the App store!

In the game bitsy the spider moves towards wherever the child touches (palm smashes are handled too) and she collects fruit, saying the fruit name as she touches it.

The game uses a physics engine, so collisions between objects look real. Rain collects on the rooftops, and pours off the edges of the house.

Our son touches the screen and says a few of the fruit names. He likes the music too.

We may introduce more objects/fruits or something in the future depending on feedback.

Check it out free if you’re the first one here…

TMPHLLF4ELWF

The above code will let you download Bitsy for you kid – free! The link at the top will take you to the iTunes store.