Running Free

After a week of waiting, I've had my first game accepted - Running Free was just made available on the App Store!

Tilt the phone to shift gravity in four directions, and guide the perpetually running stickman to collect three red stars, while trying to avoid anything nasty-looking. It gets much harder than it looks!

http://www.clickteam.info/davidn/gam...creenstrip.png

You can see a video (of a beta copy, which I have to update) at http://www.runningfreegame.com

Or download the game at http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/running-free/id505820719

I'd really appreciate any feedback and reviews (unless you hate it, in which case don't worry about it too much)

Contrats DavidN for your Game! :)

I used this code KXMLYANLEFYA, later my feedback!

I tried to leave you a review but it's telling me I must own it. . . Which I do. I'll try again tomorrow. Did you post a release announcement on touch arcade?

I also got that message, but worked after ~1 hour.
I rated the game 5 stars in the norwegian app store :-)
Great game!

used PH6R3KRJL66H, thank you and I will give it a review in the UK store :)

I used the K7FWEFR4T9RK one. I'll review it and rate it :) Congrats on the release!

Thanks! I posted it just a couple of hours after I got the emails saying it was being prepared for the store, so it may have taken a while for it to be properly activated (I really don't know).

ah plums, using a code means I can't review it :( didn't think of that earlier.

Nice job, looks like a lot of fun, gonna pick up a copy later today.

Wahey it's out!

All your promo codes have been used up by the way. Lurkers not posting that they've used them.

Cool game!

Of course I paid for it, was going to anyway.

Just a tiny bit of advice for your next update - don't put the title in the iTunes Artwork (I noticed it's a different icon when you have it on the device, a much better one, you got lucky, Apple sometimes reject an app for the different icons not being consistent), it's illegible at iPhone size on the app store on the device (which is where a lot of people buy your app), particularly on non-retina devices (iPhone 3GS, iPad 1&2) and it's not overly attractive or compelling - you should have a read of some articles on app icon design, you need the icon to give a preview of what you'll be doing in the game, the main object/character etc.

Its a really cool game! runs really great on my wife's iPhone 4 but it is painfully slow on my 2nd Gen ipod touch (you may want to point that out in the description so that nobody with an older touch buys it and then blasts it in a review). Overall a great game from what i have played!

Yes, I'd been worried about that icon ever since I read the same thing in your reply to my earlier thread - I hadn't realized that the 512x512 icon would be shrunk down to be used on the App Store as well. My trouble is that the stickman looks... silly at that size, and the logo gets reduced too far on the app store. Still, something to think about...

Thanks for letting me know about the iPod Touch speed - I only have an iPad and iPhone 4 to test on. I'll put something in the description recommending Touch 3+ or something (I notice the third one had a jump in memory capacity).

You can limit it to 3rd gen or later by using a feature in info.plist for system requirements of arm7, I forget what the parameter is but if you want I can find out.

Great game DavidN. I can't rate nor review it seems... :( Very addictive.

How's it performing?

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Originally Posted by DavidN

Thanks for letting me know about the iPod Touch speed - I only have an iPad and iPhone 4 to test on. I'll put something in the description recommending Touch 3+ or something (I notice the third one had a jump in memory capacity).

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I came here just to tell you the same thing. Unfortunately I don't have a newer iThingy to test it on but compared to the videos I saw of the game running, it seems to be pretty slow (about half-speed) on a 2nd gen iPod Touch. I could take a video if you think it'd be helpful. Since Running Free only has a few active objects, I assume that all MMF-made iOS games will run at this speed or slower. I've tested games made with Unity and Money and didn't see a speed issue. It might make some of those later levels easier, though :)

And congrats on releasing another game!

Left you a 5 star review on the UK store.

Thanks for those - perhaps I'll get into a release schedule that's greater than one game every four years now ;)

I don't think that the iOS exporter is inherently that slow - the game in DistantJ's icon, Awesome Land, looks noticeably shinier and runs really smoothly (though again, I've only seen it on the iPhone 4). I use a lot of fastloops for the game physics - it's more complicated than you might expect from looking at it - which may explain some of the slowdown.

Yeah, Awesome Land runs perfectly on iPhone 4+ and with each new Beta of the iOS exporter it performs better on 3GS (though I had to do a lot of economising with the way it was built, lots of tricks in there to speed it up!) but it does struggle on earlier devices. I'm currently working on a device-independent platform engine - one which alters the speed at which everything moves based on the speed the game is running at - the slower the game is running the faster it will move the character etc., giving the appearance of frameskip over slowdown; when it's done I'll put it out on here for others to use.

Any plans for Crystal Towers mobile, David?

hi

...hi there.

Yes, sorry nim - your posts were coming up as waiting for moderator approval for some reason. I'm seeing what I can do to turn that off...

Running Free now has a free version! It has fifteen unique levels, so it's a bonus for those who already own the full game, as well.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/runni...509869227?mt=8

Good man! Let us know how the free version affects your sales of the full version. I'm putting my game out for free for a few days to gather word of mouth and an audience for the sequel & IAP, then we can see how limited-time free promotion compares to free lite versions.

Well, I can say that yesterday I had 1,400 downloads of the free version - and one sale! These casual game players seem to be rather casual buyers, as well...

I think every day but suddenly business is Free Apps with iAds! As long as you have a masterpiece under his arm. Things are complicated by the entry of large market publishers like EA, Activision, Lucas soon, Namco, etc...

But the difference is huge between the free downloads to pay. This is definitely a marketing business, if you can place your app in the list of the different shops have secure downloads and sales, not being on the list can get to download "0", I passed a couple of times with "Color Machine ", as a developer Indy, all I can do is change the price and take a free App from time to time as well as updates, is the only thing that puts you on the list again.

Promoting yourself at Touch Arcade ranges from $ 650 to $ 1850 a Banner on your site. Imagine what will reverse the big publishers on these sites, for them this is nothing for us is money. Think good strategy.

What do you think of this?

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Originally Posted by DavidN

Yes, sorry nim - your posts were coming up as waiting for moderator approval for some reason. I'm seeing what I can do to turn that off...

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Thanks for checking. It still seems to be happening, though.

I wonder if it has to do with you not having any registered products?