Fuel Games' 'Lifeboat' Released
posted by arn on August 2nd, 2009 2:57 AM EDT in $0.99, iPhone games, iPod touch games
Fuel Games finally released their casual tilt-based game Lifeboat [$0.99]. The game received a very warm reception from our readers when we previewed it in July.
The objective of the game is to save as many people as possible from a sinking boat. You accomplish this by tilting the boat (your iPhone or iPod Touch) and sliding as many people as you can into the lifeboats. Of course, your precision can only be so good, and many of the people tend to fall right off the boat. To recover them, you simply tap on them to bring them back into the boat before they drown or the sharks get them.
As you earn money during career mode, you can buy upgrades to improve the ship's handling, time and ability of your passengers to swim. The game comes with both career and quickplay modes.
[ Full HD version | Low Bandwidth version ]
Early forum reactions are positive and are being collected in the discussion thread. The game is certainly very well produced, but the actual gameplay is very simple and may not appeal to everyone. The video above should give you a good idea of how the game plays.
App Store Link: Lifeboat, $0.99
Nice article Arn:)
I feel Lifeboat is the type of game best suited to this platform. I've enjoyed this so far and think alot of others will as well. Nice job Fuel Games!
great. it looks like a great game
I mentioned this when they were just showing the preview, I love how the tilting ship almost has an unintended holographic effect (making it look like the ship actually comes out of the screen)!
Thanks for the post Arn!
We're really looking forward to hearing what all of you think of the game, both here in the comments on the TA forums, or even in an iTunes review.
Just downloaded it and played the first 4 or 5 missions. It's not bad, but i'm not really getting into the control scheme, feels a bit glitchy.
It took me a while to catch on but there seems to be a lag not in the tilting of the boat but the people reacting to the changes. Not even saying this is a glitch but, for example, if you need folk to fall off to the left and they're already moving that way you might want to straighten up the ship after a slight dip as opposed to keep tilting left until they drop where you want them.
Yeah, the tilt control feels like the control in the Rolando Special levels, where you guide the sleeping king in a maze.
This looks absolutely amazing… I'm off to the app store. It's brilliant to see how developers are using the elegant and new controls. We're really at a point where gameplay and useability is more important than cut scenes and long loading times… this is just what we need! Great work
Peter Hartwig
peterhartwig.wordpress.com
I got the game after I watched the video. I thought the people were running to the sides and when you touched them they moved away but that was not the case as they just fall around which looks just odd. It seems the tilt and the reaction is very delayed and it is random if you can land them in the boats. When they fall in the water it is hit or miss to rescue them.
It just does not seem like there is really any challenge to the game. I would really like to see the people running instead of falling around like dead fish. Also I think by tapping in an read the people should move away from that area so you can direct them to certain portions of the boat. Greatly increase the response time and then I think it will be a really good game.
couldnt really see what was going on in that demo…