Wow, I submitted the game on Friday 12/9, they sent me an email this morning saying they were reviewing it and here we are at 9pm MDT and its on the AppStore!
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/polli...
What a journey, someday I'll have to write a post-mortum. So much more involved than I ever could have dreamed of.
I want to thank everyone who participated in the beta We got so much fantastic feedback and help that, as you can tell, our 10/31 release was pushed back slightly
Anyway, please hope for the best. The AppStore is a lottery from everything I have gathered (Just like Trychy's Amazon submission) and since this is our very first game actually making it out into the world... all I can really do is hope
So here are the final Marketing "blurbs" per se:
Join the hive! Use your keen flying skills to collect & transfer pollen while avoiding flyers & plants that damage stamina.
Create & explore custom worlds using power-ups to upgrade your bee’s performance.
Design unique flowers for your personal garden and share with friends and
family. Bee-autiful!
FLY THREE DIFFERENT BEES
Bees vary by speed, maneuverability, acceleration, stamina, and flowers to pollinate:
- Bumble Bee – Fast mover but lower stamina
- Honey Bee – Fine balance of all characteristics
- Mason Bee – Stronger but moves at a slower pace
FLOWER WORKSHOP & GARDEN
Design and build your own flower creations.
Use custom Stems, Branches, Adornments, Sepals, Flower heads and colors.
Cultivate your terraced garden as your personal showcase.
EVERY WORLD IS DIFFERENT
Dynamically Generated worlds means no two worlds are alike!
Choose from 3 different environments:
- Grassland
- Desert
- Forest
And 4 different world sizes:
- Small
- Medium
- Large
- Xtra Large
POWER-UPS!
Encounter 4 different powerups during your adventures to help you go further and further from your beehive:
- Invincibility – No damage from collisions
- Speed – Really get moving
- Stamina Regeneration – Recover lost stamina
- Stamina Increase – Increase total stamina
ACHIEVE MORE
38 Game Center achievements for your flying, pollination, and flower creation skills across 5 different leaderboards.
OTHER GREAT FEATURES
Sell earned flower parts for Pollen Points in order to purchase additional flower colors.
Share your flower creations by email, FaceBook or Twitter with friends and family.
Website: http://www.pollinategame.com
FaceBook: http://www.facebook.com/pollinategame
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/pollinategame
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/pollinategame
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PAR
That looks awesome! Sadly, I have no iDevices. Nice looking game, though!
I've got a lot of free time, right now, so I can help. I don't play a whole lot of games on my iphone, and know nothing about the development side, but I can tell you when something isn't working right, if that's what you're looking for.
I'll shoot you an email.
Emailed - I'd be happy to help out.
Yeah, no iDevices unfortunately, so while I would gladly lend a hand at some solid testing, it's simply not an option for me. Great to see this coming along so well for you though, Par!
I'd be willing to give it a shot. I have an iPad2 and a third gen iPod touch that needs a decent reason to be charged up anyway!
E-mail sent.
Got no iOS device atm anymore. But tagging to see how this comes along.
Looks neat. E-mail sent.
Email sent.
What game dev tools are you using?
Email sent.
Okay that is what I wanted to know.
I was wondering if you were using or had tried out something like Unity 3d. And if so, what your opinion of it was.
Boo! Scaleform is owned by Autodesk? Do they not own everything now? Gah!
While I don't think I'm a good candidate for a beta-tester, consider me curious and interested, and will happily pick it up when it gets released to the app store.
Aww man. I was hoping there was an Android version.
You had me at FLY DIFFERENT BEES.
First batch of beta emails have gone out Those who haven't received an email yet its due to not having your device UDID.
Let me know what you guys/gals think! And thanks again for participating!
PAR
Me not read directions. Me send new email.
Aww man. I was hoping there was an Android version.
If you ever do port to Android I'd be up for testing.
Early thoughts (which I will submit once I've had a chance to run through the start a few times)
It takes too long to first start playing the game.
I would suggest that after naming your Hive you should have a small default world ready to jump into.
As a first time player I had no idea what the options in the world creation screen I was selecting would influence and there were no tool tips to inform me what the difference between the sunny field and the darker square with the tree was.
A few of the loading screens took long enough that I thought maybe the game had locked... but that could be because it turns out my iPod is actually sh*ttier than I originally thought.
During the world setup the game would not let me create a third tier sized world because "the 2G iPod does not have enough memory." I looked it up and sure enough my 8GB iPod reports as a 2G, which after a little bit of research is because apparently the 8GB 3G didn't get any of the upgrades for that release cycle and is just a repackaged 2G. Hooray!
I played a few minutes and then handed the device to my girlfriend who had been watching over my shoulder.
We ran into a few cases where a flower was overlapping a branch enough that hovering near the flower would hurt. It wasn't immediately obvious that this was happening since the pollen starts flashing up to the bar and obscures some of the screen.
When we lose our stamina the bee is surrounded by a huge wormhole looking halo that persists through the rest of that session.
Not sure if I should submit those since my device falls below spec.
Ok! Second batch of beta's are out! Again, those who haven't gotten a beta email from me its because I haven't received your device info :)
Hmm, I sent my device info yesterday (just double-checked and it is definitely in my "sent" folder), did it come through? Should be from an email address that is obviously me.
As for the 3G issues, do you need a 3Gs tester? I have my old phone, but it's currently wiped. I can put my account back on it and get the UDID if that will help.
EDIT: AAAAHHHH it went into SPAM!? Ok, sending you your info!
Yup, got it, I'll check it out when I get home tonight.
Update: I managed to play a couple more short sessions before my iPod started crapping out. I think the battery has finally given up ghost and died because I can use it for about five minutes before it just shuts off.
Now I have to decide if I will replace it, fix it, or just say to hell with it and rock my iPad + ZuneHD.
Unfortunately, I'm having major issues with my computer, which is why it took me so long to get my info to you. I thought I had it figured out, but the issue returned. i pretty much can't run itunes at all. I do have the files downloaded, so when I fix this crap for good, I'll jump in and give you some feedback.
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