Graphics and Levels

I finally got around to making that promised update on Kitten Vs. Zombie! This one is adding a pretty good amount of changes as far as content. I redesigned all the levels with new updated graphics that make the game look 10x's better and also added a new story level!

Also added in this update a prototype minigame, the goal is to get as far as you can down the level without dying, sounds easy right? Well not really, I made it where the game will randomly pick one of four different levels designed in a unique way from the last. So no cheating and trying to learn the pattern!

New Updates; New Game!

Hey everyone! Hope you all like the new changes to the blog in terms of the header / background. It's a little sneak peek at what could be coming up in the future! Before we get to far ahead of ourselves though, we need to cover our newly released game!

Prodigy - Pocket Merlin:

 Prodigy - Pocket Merlin is the first and only Merlin game for Android! Experience for yourself the classic games envisioned by Parker Brothers in a new modern era!

 

Prodigy - Pocket Merlin: A Reboot of the original "Merlin, the Electronic Wizard"! V1.0.0 Now Available!

Challenge yourself with 6 classic number pad games including:

• Echo (A pattern game similar to Simon Says)
• Magic Square (A puzzle game reminiscent of Rubik's Cube)
• MindBender (A number guessing game similar to Mastermind)
• Music Machine (Record a song using Prodigy)
• Blackjack13 (A "card" game similar to Blackjack 21)
• Tic Tac Toe (Classic Three-in-a-Row game)

I may be looking into maybe adding leaderboards for certain games to add a bit of social features in the future, so be sure to update!
 

 

Download Statistics II

So it wasn't the weekly update we promised (instead we focused on bringing you guys an amazing new update!), but here it is! The week 3 update for downloads!

Downloads As Of September 2012 (Week 3) "Kitten Vs. Zombie":

SlideMe              :  1111

Google Play        :  812

Amazon              :  355

GetJar                :  296

AndroidPit         :  139

Opera                 :  89

                                                                                             Total  =  2802 downloads

**Some side notes*

• SlideMe continues to amaze me with it's daily downloads, not only has it surpased all others, but it has also been on this market the shortest! A major factor in this I would say is my constant updating I've been doing to my game (at least once a week)
• Google Play still has given me the most feedback from users (though not all constructive..) I would definitely not overlook this market.
• Amazon just as predicted, Amazon has gained a fair amount of traction through time. The daily downloads here could prove to make it a strong market.
• GetJar after my initial surprise boom with this market, downloads slowly began to crawl. Even with my updates it does not seem to be gaining much attention here. 
• AndroidPit is a market I recently just found out about so it's only been on here a couple of days, but already it seems very promising! Something to note here is the amount of downloads to active users, you retain almost all of your user base that downloads the game here it seems!
• Opera another market that has slowed down significantly over time. Perhaps it will surprise us in the future.
• Apptown, Insyde, Mall.soc.io & Appoke  are still not looking good for market downloads.

Update V0.2.0

So we've been a little busy lately and haven't had the chance to post download data the last week. Instead we have an Exciting New Update to share!

That's right! We finally brought ourselves into the 21st century of games and added all new social features to our game Kitten Vs. Zombie! These features include the long awaited Leaderboards, Achievements, Friends Lists, Game Messaging, and the ability to now Buy Internets as well as earn them! All of these new aspects are thanks to the feature-rich development tools provided by Swarm Connect!

So get going and make it to the top of that leaderboard before somebody else does! Also don't forget to earn those Achievement Points!

Download Statistics I

Well the first week of releasing Kitten Vs. Zombie is up and I'd say we had a pretty successful launch! Below you will find the download numbers for our new game from all the markets we've been trying.

Downloads As Of September 2012 (Week 1) "Kitten Vs. Zombie":

SlideMe              :  338

Google Play        :  293

GetJar                :  105

Opera                 :  62

Amazon              :  16

Apptown            :  2

Insyde                :  0                                                            Total  =  814 downloads

Appoke               :  0  

**Some side notes*

• SlideMe it seems, is the first stop for indie games and developers, this market is by far the best source to release an app that does not have the marketing capabilities of larger companies. In only a few short days SlideMe has had by far the most exponential growth. uploaded and accepted to this market 9/12
• Google Play was the first market that I uploaded to, being that it is the flagship store for Android. This market, though somewhat slower in downloads than others does have certain advantages over others. You will likely get the most feedback from users here, currently a  ★ ★ ★ ★ & 1/2 rating in the market. uploaded and accepted to this market 9/8
• GetJar was rather surprising in it's download numbers. In the first few days after uploading it seemed that it was going to be a bust market, but suddenly after about 2-3 days being up it gained significant downloads. uploaded and accepted to this market 9/9
• Opera another new market this time around has shown a somewhat interesting result. On the first couple days it was on the market it gained a fair amount of downloads, but that number has slowed considerably over time. Because of this I believe new / updated games will do best here. I will test these results with my first update coming soon. uploaded and accepted to this market 9/9
• Amazon so far has not gained significant traction, however, I expect this one to have a delay time much the same as with my last game. We will see in the coming weeks how it does.
• Apptown Insyde & Appoke  so far have been busts, but may surprise us in time.

Period of Absence

Well, after a long absence from posting on this blog I have finally returned to update on our recent progress!

What Has Happened:

 

Let's see.. for starters Android Market is no longer known by that name. So if you look at past posts making reference to it, Google has now dubbed their mobile market "Google Play Store". I know, not nearly as catchy. All the same, we still love Android as a platform even with their questionable name change. 

Our first game TwoD_mentia has a grand total of ~2000 downloads now which is pretty significant for not even being finished! But now onto the big news...

We released our new game we've been working on! Kitten Vs. Zombie!

I've already updated the blog with a new page for it as well as added media on the media page. Currently I have it up on Google Play and it should be up on several other markets in the next few days. Consistent with our older posts, I plan to give an in depth look at our download statistics with these new markets as time passes.

There's also an exciting new feature to document as our new game starts getting noticed! I've implemented Tapjoy, an incentive based download system which should prove to be an interesting look at alternate methods than Ads or charging for apps. The downloads cost no money to users and it is completely optional if you want to take a look at the offers (they aren't imposed on you like other ad methods). So you can look foward to the results being documented in the near future.

Feedback Review

Everyone should be entitled to their own opinion, so to respect this I've included some positive, negative, as well as constructive feedback below. While not every review is always helpful especially when vague we always value our players opinions and would love to see what you think about what were doing here.

Positive Reinforcement / Constructive Feedback:

 

 Ishan (Android Market):

• Great game, but why i can touch light from the bottom but not from above? please fix that, it seems messed up. I've played some great games, but yours deserves to be at the top of my fav list! (but PLEASE consider my request and have the shadow guy tell you the light touching thing?) 
• Thanks for the detailed feedback Ishan! As far as the light touching, you should not be able to touch it anywhere. It is possible to get fairly closer to it on the ground than when you are flying, but this was implemented because testers requested a little more room for mistakes while on the ground moving (it was too difficult without putting that extra space in). We will, however, take another look back at it when we go into the game to make some long overdue updates. In the next update we are looking to condense the tutorial levels into a shorter, more precise set of instructions that let you jump into the action sooner (we have had many people tell us that the talking at the beginning takes far too long to get through).

Dillin (Amazon Marketplace):

• A pretty cool game, but very few levels. Some levels are literally impossible at higher difficulty levels. Poor quality. I definitely would not reccomend. 
• Well we are very glad to hear you think our game is cool, not so much about the not recommending / poor quality part though. In the next update we should be potentially doubling the amount of levels present now, making about 20 overall. We are also hoping to get some more testing done on the difficulty of each level, making changes as needed, hopefully these updates are enough for you to take another look!

Negative Feedback:

 

Acoperis / Micutul (Android Marketplace):

• Annoying...
• This is very sad news Acoperis / Micutul. Perhaps we can make changes to, what was that you said annoyed you again? We are whole-heartedly sorry that you did not enjoy our game, but being vague and  cynical does not help us in any way shape or form. Perhaps if you suggested something that we could improve on we could make a better experience for you in the future.