"Imagine yourself in the deep space, 100 light years far from home, alone with your spacesuit. Would you be able to return to Earth with your own strength? There are only two ways to find it out, the cheaper and less dangerous, but no lessdifficult (or maybe just a little bit) is to download A Long Way Home. As you can read in the title, the way home for our unlucky astronaut is very long, 100 light years to be exact, but without losing heart, our hero walks, asteroid after asteroid, hoping to exploit the portals generated by dark matter to go on the next level and be a little closer to the Earth. A Long Way Home is a mix of puzzle and action based on physics, in which we go through 100 levels, each with its own leaderboard on Game Center, using three different types of controls that are touch, accelerometer and buttons. Among the main features, besides the dramatic story that the game has, we notice the beautiful graphics and the ambient music. A Long Way Home is a game that requires specific iPad iOS3.2 or higher system. It's available on the AppStore for 1.59 euros."
Sorry for the bad english is GoogleTranslate fault too
Just left a review. I'm on world 7 now. This stuff is starting to get hard! I can't tell you how disappointing it is to get really far on one of these levels and then drift off into space!
Just a thought: (and it might be either too late or too early, I don't know how these things work yet). Considering this would be a great game for young fathers to play with their kids, maybe a Fathers Day Sale? 50% off, or maybe free for the weekend?
JPickard said: Just a thought: (and it might be either too late or too early, I don't know how these things work yet). Considering this would be a great game for young fathers to play with their kids, maybe a Fathers Day Sale? 50% off, or maybe free for the weekend?
That's a good point - and it's unfortunate that this gem of a game is hitting at the same time that EA, Gameloft and Namco are having 'fathers day sales'.
I'm facing a dilemma myself with .Matrixx - it should be finished next week, but that would mean that by the time it was ready to publish it'd be the July 4th holiday stuff you Americans do.
Yea, it's a thin line. I don't want to drop the price so quick as I feel that degrades the brand, but how can I compete with those huge companies and their .99 sales. Well see how today goes, maybe I'll do a 1 day sale Sunday for .99.
I wish I had thought about fathers day, I would have pushed off releasing it a week.
Oh well, live and learn. Hopefully the damage isn't too bad.
Actually, I had a thought after the last gifting holiday, thus: When someone gets an iPad as a gift on a holiday they go nuts right away downloading stuff (hence the big companies offering sales) but when they go off sales the sheen is still new for the owner, but they are in the habit already of looking for apps on sale. Sooooo... Us little guys should plan on having "aftersale sales." Maybe.
(and yes I used thus and hence in this post, and I don't regret it.)
Dropped the price to .99, I can't compete with the fathers day sales, and I think that being featured under iPhone new and noteworthy is not helping, it doesn't show up on the iPad new and noteworthy list
jonmulcahy said: just emailed apple about trying to fix that new and noteworthy bug. since I'm not under the iPad section, it doesn't show up on the iPad.
That's a horrible oversight on their part - I hope they fix it for you asap!
Fingers, toes and eyes crossed for ya! You've got some great press so far, hope it helps!
yea, i have not heard anything yet, but hopefully monday when they come to work they can fix it up. I think dropping the price to .99 helped, it stopped me from slipping in the rankings too much.
Ok jon, I have a question. I am on galaxy 9, third world from the end. HOW IS THIS LEVEL POSSIBLE? haha. I spent all day yesterday and today playing it haha. I have been trying to curve myself around the blackhole but it's nearly impossible. Has anyone beaten this level?
I love this game. Please update it with more levels!
yup, every level is possible, i beat them all myself more times than I can remember during testing. Those black holes really have a small angle of attach for it to work. It has to be perfect.
Jon - My apologies if this questions was already asked - are you going to create this game for the iphone and if so, when? I was just about to buy it today when I realized its not out for the iphone yet. : (
8BitGrenade said: Jon - My apologies if this questions was already asked - are you going to create this game for the iphone and if so, when? I was just about to buy it today when I realized its not out for the iphone yet. : (
A Long Way Home is currently sitting at number 23 on the Top Paid Adventure Games, 44 on Arcade, and 138 over all. It's been climbing slowly and steadily.
Here's the world wide rankings as of 1:00pm EST via Applyzer
Those of you who purchased the game, if you have a moment would you leave a review? There is only 1 for the Mac version, and 5 for the iPad version. (All 5 stars though )
jonmulcahy said: Those of you who purchased the game, if you have a moment would you leave a review? There is only 1 for the Mac version, and 5 for the iPad version. (All 5 stars though )
I will try to leave a review (iPad version) tonight. It will be interesting if you get a spike in sales from the TA review. Keeping my fingers crossed for you!
Not sure about apps, but I've heard that also clicking on yes for "is this review helpful" also fits into Apple's algorithm, or maybe gets their attention a bit more. At least for podcasts. Never hurts to try.
jonmulcahy said: Right now it's number 17 in adventure, 40 in arcade, and 118 in overall games in the US
It's dropped to 18 in adventure, climbed to 39 in arcade and dropped to 129 in overall games.
If you were thinking of getting it, today would be a good day :)
I just finished tweaking the drift zones for all 100 levels. Originally I had a 10 px boarder with hazard lines to signify the drift zone, but when I removed the border, I didn't push the drift triggers out. They are now located off screen, which would fix those crummy areas.
Gotta fix a few issues with the asteroid fields, because some are curved, but the trigger box is a square, things are getting triggered early.
I just uploaded version 1.1. It tweaks the 'drift zones' on the edge of the screen, previously if you go 10px from the edge it triggered. I moved them off screen.
I also tweaked the asteroid belts to better represent the danger zones.
Well I'm sad to report my game has peaked I think. The touch arcade article I'd give me a nice boost, but yesterday it had dropped back down to 49 downloads, it's also slipped in the rankings to 37 from 18.
Apple still has not responded to the new and noteworthy screwup they did, and as such, it is still featured on the iPhone side of things, not the iPad. So, it doesn't show up on the iPad itself when browsing the new and noteworthy list. To make matters worse, someone actually bought the game thinking it was for the iPhone and left a review about it. They were nice about it since it wasn't my fault, but I'm afraid someone will freak out eventually.
1.1 is still waiting for review, I'm assuming it will be out later in the week.
A few of the reviews called it a sleeper indie hit. Maybe it will end up having a gradual increase in sales rather than the usual decline? Keep working on the marketing and on updates. The response seems overwhelmingly positive from what I've read.
Personally I'd add more depth/variety/interactivity to the sound design. But that's cos I like music a lot. Dunno how many typical users are that bothered about sound. (I've only played a few levels so far though)
Comments
Your right, its climbing up the charts even though the numbers are going down.
Just got my app Annie report, only 50 or so sales yesterday, not too great, but we'll see how it goes after new and noteworthy
....*Goes back to playing*
I'm facing a dilemma myself with .Matrixx - it should be finished next week, but that would mean that by the time it was ready to publish it'd be the July 4th holiday stuff you Americans do.
Which normally means more sales by the big boys
QS
I wish I had thought about fathers day, I would have pushed off releasing it a week.
Oh well, live and learn. Hopefully the damage isn't too bad.
(and yes I used thus and hence in this post, and I don't regret it.)
Fingers, toes and eyes crossed for ya! You've got some great press so far, hope it helps!
QS
I think dropping the price to .99 helped, it stopped me from slipping in the rankings too much.
Appaddict also touched on the game in their "This Week’s Notable New Releases":
http://appaddict.net/2011/06/18/this-weeks-notable-new-releases-brought-to-you-by-the-number-2/
iTunes review forthcoming.
I love this game. Please update it with more levels!
8 Bit Grenade - Game Development Studio & Revolution Igniter
Here's the world wide rankings as of 1:00pm EST via Applyzer
________________________________
【ツ】iPhone Icon Pack 【ツ】 - 【ツ】Graphic Pack【ツ】
Free GS demo: High score simple and advanced; Game Center; App Rating System
- Jeff
If you were thinking of getting it, today would be a good day
I just finished tweaking the drift zones for all 100 levels. Originally I had a 10 px boarder with hazard lines to signify the drift zone, but when I removed the border, I didn't push the drift triggers out. They are now located off screen, which would fix those crummy areas.
Gotta fix a few issues with the asteroid fields, because some are curved, but the trigger box is a square, things are getting triggered early.
1.1 should get submitted tonight.
I also tweaked the asteroid belts to better represent the danger zones.
Hopefully it's a quick review!
Apple still has not responded to the new and noteworthy screwup they did, and as such, it is still featured on the iPhone side of things, not the iPad. So, it doesn't show up on the iPad itself when browsing the new and noteworthy list. To make matters worse, someone actually bought the game thinking it was for the iPhone and left a review about it. They were nice about it since it wasn't my fault, but I'm afraid someone will freak out eventually.
1.1 is still waiting for review, I'm assuming it will be out later in the week.
Personally I'd add more depth/variety/interactivity to the sound design. But that's cos I like music a lot. Dunno how many typical users are that bothered about sound. (I've only played a few levels so far though)