One of the most notable iPhone games in the early days of the App Store was Ethan Nicholas’ iShoot [App Store], a turn-based artillery game reminiscent of Scorched Earth. In January of last year iShoot took the #1 spot in the list of top 100 paid apps (and anything that could dethrone iFart Mobile has to be big news), enabling Nicholas to kiss his day job goodbye and focus entirely upon iPhone development. An easy decision, we’re guessing; Nicholas reportedly made over $800,000 on iShoot in its first five months.
But what was next for this successful first-time iPhone author? Time passed and we began to wonder just what Nicholas had in store for iPhone gamers, when word came in October that he would be bringing an outdoor hunting game made in partnership with four-time Olympic medalist, Kim Rhode. Yesterday, Kim Rhode’s Outdoor Shooting [link] arrived in the App Store.
Kim Rhode’s Outdoor Shooting challenges you to go on the hunt for deer, bears, rabbits, and wild turkeys in a 3D, first-person sports shooter set among a variety of outdoor locales (unlocked as you make progress). And it’s not just about pistols and hunting rifles; your arsenal includes AK-47s and even a rocket launcher. And, while some of our readers won’t have a taste for a virtual hunting title (with bunnies), the genre is a popular one on other systems and similar iPhone titles, John Moffett’s iHunt [$0.99] and Glu’s Deer Hunter 3D [$2.99], have been doing quite well, of late.
See our brief demo video for a look at the game (note that virtual animals are shot and killed in this footage — even bunnies).
[ Full HD version | Low Bandwidth version ]
App Store Link: Kim Rhode’s Outdoor Shooting, $2.99
Looks cool, but there's not really enough of a visual overhaul for me to upgrade... yet.
looks like it's coming along nicely.. as a huge fan of the original i'll definitely be picking this up when it's released!
This looks phenomenal. It looks like the paint is freakin' bump-mapped and I love the blur on the rope and in the deep background. Pretty striking comparison.
[add to cart]
Awesome, there's more rope in the sequel?
Please consider this screenshot just a technical preview of what we've accomplished on the 3GS so far. Formal announcement of Zen Bound 2 with more details will come later.
Bump mapping was a cool effect when Geforce 1 came out. In 1999.
Some sarcastic member of the audience was bound to say "they just added bump maps", and it's quite far from the truth.
Zen Bound 2 uses an entirely separate renderer for OpenGL ES 2.0 enabled devices. Currently the features provided by using the new tech are:
- Soft dynamic shadows (you'll notice the rope casting a shadow on the robot)
- Subtle light blooming on bright spots
- Improved lighting (secondary light source for artistic measure)
- Normal maps for improved surface detail
- Shaders for different materials (shiny vs. matte etc.)
- Anti-aliased polygon edges (to some extent)
- Depth-of-field, so objects that are out of focus are blurred
And work is still in progress, so it's too soon to say how the final game is exactly going to look.
Certainly the combination of the above techniques has been seen on PC and consoles before, but we believe to be one of the first to implement all of the above in a game on a mobile device. Definitely one of the first for iPhone games :)
For those with less interest in visuals, Zen Bound 2 will offer much more than just a visual upgrade, but that announcement is coming later. The above screenshot is just a technical teaser.
3GS version definitely looks good, but I wish the OGL 1.1 version's screenshot was taken at the same completion point -- I can't tell if the wood grain color and red paint pattern differences are a gameplay feedback features or are different texturemaps.
Looks great :) Kinda makes me want LittleBigPlanet on the iPhone even more :P
"Zen Bound 2" in this sections title might be a bit misleading - the actual quote from Frand, in the thread, reads as follows :
"Plans may change, but our current aim is to develop this as a technical and visual upgrade to the current game with no changes in the amount of levels (don't think of this as an expansion or a sequel, it's not). It will only run on a 3GS."
the images were captioned "Zen Bound 2".
Indeed, Zen Bound 3GS project has grown beyond a simple graphical upgrade. Our current plans are to give this game the time it needs and release a full-fledged sequel.
Zen Bound 2 it is.
Thanks for clearing that up, Frand!! Good luck with this new project, can't wait for more information about new content in ZB2!!!
Wohoo! That looks freaking *awesome*! The bump-mapping, the depth of field, the complete lack of jaggies. I'll buy it without a second thought - and I don't even have a 3GS yet. ...but I will. Oh yes. :)
Wow! Like, best game ever dude....
I don't even have an iPod Touch or iPhone, and I'm 110% gonna buy this AWESOME game!
/irony mode off
Im glad this is a sequel now. I wouldn't have bought just an upgrade to the first one, but I have to say that a sequel with these visuals? Insta-buy!
Looks like what devs of competing apps probably dream about doing to that infernal Minigore.
both these screenshots looks equally good to me
holy shit this is xbox 360 graphics. Of course it's only showing one object in the screen but the effects are damn impressive.
Bump mapping was used in the last millennium, man...
Now with a better graphics-this app will kill your battery in half the time of zenbound1
Faster than the first one? So it'll drain your battery instantaneously then? ^_^
I don't get it. Why does the original version look better?
The enhancements are cool but very subtle in that static screenshot.
I'm betting the differences are night and day when you see it moving.
i want it! i'm confident some skilled open gl development will lead the 3gs platform into the next level. cool :)
That looks really great. Nice upgrade. But why the sarcasm? I'm more than happy with the trade off of graphics at that quality in a tiny device I can carry in my pocket. I've a high end PC for cutting edge graphics that the graphics card alone cost a lot more than my ipod 3G but I can't exactly use it on the train.
I seriously /facepalmed multiple times reading these comments. Are people that retarded they aren't overly impressed by these visual upgrades? Not to mention this is being rendered onto a cell phone. It's quite an amazing difference from 1.1
I wonder if Frand remembers the old "PowerVR MBX-lite is more powerful than PSP's GPU" silly rants I and others went on before better informed (by Frand and others) of how the background operations running on the iPhone/touch platformer sapped some power out and therefore the platform itself wasn't as powerful in actual usage....
If you do Frand, would you state now that the 3Gs based devices with the increased RAM and better SGX GPU meet what folks like me mistakenly thought about the earlier gen devices? 'Cause, honestly...there's nothing on the actual portable game systems that look to have as good a technical capability as what is on this little mobile platform now.
It's obvious that the 3GS is more feature-rich when it comes to graphics than the PSP. But the limiting factor is still memory bandwidth, which is even more important for the OpenGL ES 2.0 features we are using.
The architectural concern of the iPhone is still a low-power mobile media device, after all :)