We recently posted that Blue Skies [App Store] from Egerter Software appeared for download in the iTunes App Store. After spending some time with the game, we can say it brings a solid shooter experience to the iPhone.
Blue Skies is a top-down 2D helictoper shooter that’s more or less a cross between Will Wright’s classic Raid on Bungeling Bay and Freeverse’s Wingnuts Temporal Navigator. The player pilots an accelerometer controlled helicopter across 30 search-and-destroy missions facing enemy tanks, planes, helicopters, blimps, and mines. Powerups and cash are acquired by destorying enemy vehicles. Accumulated cash can be used to purchase more advanced weapons from the home base R&D shop. There are 10 weapons in all.
Gameplay is set to a 10-song techno soundtrack that heightens the sense of action.
Blue Skies is a shooter, plain and simple. Fly your helicopter, blow up things, complete the mission. Gameplay proceeds at a decent pace and the accelerometer helicopter controls “feel right." The game’s graphics are simple and work well, but the tile-based playfield could do with more skillfully rendered textures; at times certain terrains are obtrusively blocky and unrefined. The mission setup dialogue verges on corny at times, but is short enough not to detract from the game flow.
The iPhone is lacking in quality 2D shooters (R-Type please!) and Blue Skies is a solid additon to the genre. 2D blaster junkies will find it worth its space on their iPhone or iPod touch.
Blue Skies can be purchased through the iTunes App Store for $9.99.
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Wow... this is pretty major news. Very glad to hear it.
about. dang. time.
Although, I don't buy their "protecting apple" crap. The rejection letters they sent out were covered under the NDA, and there's NOTHING in those that could contain any apple secrets.
They had the NDA to save face.
Maybe the hit to the stock value made Steve Jobs see that Apple is as vulnerable as all of the other companies. Wake up, stop with the restrictions, and put out the features that users are requesteing (or at least allow others to do it)!
Helpful to people like me who are way better designers than programmers. I look forward to the inevitable iPhone development books and help websites... ;)
This is great news. Apple are slowly but surely delivering the iPhone platform we all want. Are you listening Apple? We want more! We want:
* A crystal-clear, published definition of the acceptance critera for the App store
* A pre-approval process so that developers can submit a proposal to Apple and be told whether their app will be accepted on principle
* Apple to quit refusing apps that compete with their functionality. I understand NetShare would have violated their carrier agreements, but PodCaster and MailWrangler should be accepted. Unless of course Apple want to be the subject of an anti-trust suit...
* Apple to stop acting as judges of usefulness. If I want to waste my money on some useless junk (there's plenty that *did* get accepted) that's my prerogative
* Apple to stop acting as judges of good taste. I'm over 18 and if I want to play a strip poker game (which I don't) or a mobile Grand Theft Auto (which I don't) then I should be able to. You already have an age verification mechanism in the store - implement it for apps and get out of the way
* Reviews should be bound to an app version. Developers must be sick and tired of reading reviews whining about bugs that are fixed, or the lack of features that have been added
* There should be an Apple representative similar to Adobe's John Nack, blogging and responding to the community. This point may be too much to hope for...
The best thing for iPhone users would be some REAL competition from android. Some awesome phone designs, some apps that apple won't approve, things like that. Force apple's hand!
@Skip:
Yeah, I think the same. Until now only few tutorials could be found on the internet. Also a few books on iPhone-SDK programming are ready for release, but can only be pre-ordered at the moment (due to the NDA). Maybe that changes now.
To me this seems like they are just trying to look good without having to lose anything. The NDA doesn't cover 'released' software anymore. So, I release a new App, and I can now talk about it. Woot! I unfortunately still can't talk about anything during its development, nor anything about the tools, nor anything about whether a bug is in my code or Apple's code or how to do something.
@Podzoe I think you have misunderstood. They mean release versions of the iPhone software. Developers can (and always have) discuss their pre-release apps. They can now talk openly about programming iPhone in the way you describe.
What they presumably *can't* do is discuss programming features of iPhone that have not been released. For instance, a new API in iPhone OS 2.2.
As a developer, I think this is reasonable. It's worth bearing in mind that features change or are removed entirely prior to a software release. I wouldn't want to write a book with inaccuracies, or ship an app which was dependent on deprecated code...
Podzoe, the "unreleased" software covered is Apple software, not a developer's. In other words, developers can talk about the currently released SDK, but not about any unreleased version of the SDK that they may have access to.
This is probably the very key push to the community so it grows in a healthy manner. Can't wait to see the books on the stores.
Thanks
Small typo at the end... old = hold
great news for devs