You could probably guess what it is. Kepa, I sent you a challenge but never heard anything back - admittedly my run was fairly lame but I was curious to see what your efforts would be like.
Damn. Still waitin' for the update Apple! I need some new Hook Champ to get through this T-Giving week.
I saw it. I'll probably wait until, say, a week after release for running people's challenges. I've been busy. I'm also not unbeatable at this point, sadly: I end up being really good at the newest (usually unreleased) content, then pretty rusty at everything else. I am, however, FIRST on the new total-scores leaderboard right now. Looks like you're SECOND. Also, to totally spell it out, my Feint name is just Kepa.
It isn't out as yet; I'm lucky enough to be a beta tester. I can tell you the new stuff is AWESOME though if that helps.
Apologies if this has been asked before. Is there a 'cheat' or plan to add a way in an update to turn off the ghost? As someone who plays this game casually it would be fun to explore the caves without being chased. Could disable high score feature in this mode or tracknit as a separate play mode.
This, no highscores if ghost is off. Separate play mode wouldn't need highscores since highscore people only see ghost at the beginning.
Oh god, 65 pages. I totally haven't been checking this thread lately. D: Been busy, working deep in the hook mines, digging up hooks and hats. Kepa probably already mentioned it, but the update's finally been submitted to apple so we're hoping it'll be out quickly. These things usually still take 14 days but I'm hoping there'll be some kind of Thanksgiving miracle and it'll be out sooner, we'll see. Here's a few things I can share about the upcoming first update: * Bug fix: Game properly mutes itself when the silent/vibrate switch is set. * Settings menu: Sounds button separated into Sounds and Music buttons * Settings menu: Show/hide the ghost recording of your best score in single-player levels. * Controls: The screen has been divided into two separate constant, absolute tappable areas for walking or hooking (previously, the game would determine whether you walked or hooked by where you tapped in relation to your character's head). Additionally, an actual line showing the separation of these two areas will be shown in the tutorial level (Stone Wimpy) to reinforce just where to tap. * Environment: That nasty ceiling-breaking collision bug that cropped up from time to time (especially on Silver Skull) is pretty much totally fixed (crossing fingers). Kepa says he still broke through once but I believe it was a wild unrepeatable fluke and not related to the earlier problem. The collision detection should be much more 'solid' in general now; for example, your hook should no longer 'sink deep' into the ceiling, especially if the game is running slower due to background processes. * Environment: As an extension of fixing the collision bug listed above, breakable walls (the kind you swing through) should be slightly easier to break through now. * Minor feature: A zoom button has been added to the pause screen that toggles to a more closeup view of your character. Good for checking out your hat. * Minor feature: A restart level button has been added to the pause screen. Restart level is unavailable when playing a challenge: you must complete it or quit (forfeit). * Graphics: The Skull level set's tileset has been made more unique. * Graphical optimization: A minor optimization has been added to certain areas where lots of the obscuring brown foreground rock tiles are present. It probably won't be terribly noticible. * OpenFeint: OpenFeint has been implemented. When you first load the game, you will be asked if you want to use OpenFeint for scores, achievements, etc, or just our weekly scoreboards (which are the ones in-game now, we will be resetting them weekly when the update hits the app store), or submit no data at all. * OpenFeint: In-game notifications such as achievement unlocks will be displayed using our in-game font rendered in OpenGL for performance, rather than Cocoa layers. Achievements unlocked during a level session will be cached and submitted when the level is complete, rather than slowing down gameplay with background network activity. We believe we've done a pretty good job of keeping things running smooth despite the additional overhead (one of the things we're proud of is our quick loading times and framerate!) but we do welcome feedback on any "sticking points" you might find that we can try to optimize. * Challenge System: The game uses OpenFeint for sending challenges to your friends and playing them. To send a challenge, you first select the level you'd like from the Map screen as usual, but press the new "VS" button instead of the "Go!" button. There you'll be able to select a challenge type (High Score or Speed Race, more coming in further updates) and an OpenFeint friend to compete against. Then you'll play the level first as normal. When you finish, the challenge will be packaged up along with a 'ghost recording' of your playthrough and sent to the friend you chose. A user who has been sent a challenge will be notified of it when he enters the map screen, and a button is available to list and play the challenges you've received. * Challenge specifics: For both current challenge types, both the creator and the recipient each only get one chance to play the challenge. For a High Score challenge, if you die, your score is still computed as normal. However, if the creator of a Speed Race challenge dies during his playthrough, the challenge will not be sent and he'll have to start over. No coins or gems spawn in Speed Race challenges, the goal is simply to complete the level as quickly as possible. * New level set: I don't want to give away too much (though Kepa's already dropped hints here and there), but I'll say two things. One: while not unbeatable, the new levels take a different approach in difficulty, and should offer more variety, especially for multiple playthroughs. Two: This makes me nostalgic for our old pre-revamp Bull levels... * Actually I lied about it not being unbeatable. I totally haven't beaten the Gold one yet.. way to program my own doom. * New character: I think everyone knows about this already. Each character has a seperate pool of hats, and some of them are hidden unlockables as before. Also, unique usable items. Besides all the above, there's also been a whole lot of tweaks and updates all over the place here and there that I can't even think of now because it's late and I want to sleep. We're also still truckin' away at Update 2 already and hope to have this one finished up faster than Update 1 took. So goodnight, and happy hookin'!
Update 2: we're adding a 1 dollar DLC character. Among other things, this character will be exploration-based. The ghost can't hurt you, and you get recharging rocketjumps. You do not, however, get a shotgun-like ability, which actually turns out to be really crucial for really maximizing your speed runs. I'll be posting more information (and screenshots) about this later. We wanted to have the DLC characters actually provide new gameplay experiences (while not being essential to the game), rather than just being reskins. If demand was high, we could probably also add in some sort of practice-mode, on top of the above character. By the way, we're working on update 2 now, already. It's a smaller patch than update 1, so it shouldn't take a whole month like update 1 did.
Yeah. Jake and Gunny are the most similar characters to each other, though they do get different hats and slightly different special items. Each 1 buck character will have a completely new look (with alternate second look), different items (well, different special items), their own selection of hats, their own dialogue, and their own special trait. If the concept is popular, we're thinking about expanding the concept for our next game, so that DLC characters change the game so much that they're basically expansion packs. Our idea right now is that level packs and major features will always be free, and we'll hopefully supplement working on major new features through these character packs.
Ha! A #1 Global Score is finally mine, for Bronze Bull. It's extremely beatable though so no doubt some spiteful person will spend the rest of the day trying to beat it. Kepa, since I got this score in the beta, will I have to get another #1 score in the regular version when the update is out to get a crown? Or is there some way of transferring it over? I'll definitely be buying a DLC character, even if I rarely use it (so long as s/he has a wide selection of hats). I guess it should be some kind of archaeologist or professor if he's meant to slow down the frantic pace of the game. That would mean you could branch out into different spectacles, and different lengths of bushy white beards.
Just beat your Golden Skull challenge, Kepa. I unlocked the hat when I beat the challenge, but I didn't when you failed to beat mine - is that right? Also.. am I reading it wrong, or is it saying you cleared Golden Bull in 69.97 seconds? Edit: mikeg, curse you for beating my precious Bronze Bull effort by 0.03 of a second, and precisely 1 point
I wasn't sure if I was going to get that #1 spot back. I just about gave up. Somehow I managed that run this morning. What was strange is that last night I finished the level in 1:09.85 (0.01 of a second faster than your score), got the same score as you: 6981, and it still said that I had the #2 global spot. I figured it would of at least have said we tied -- but I did have the slightly faster time so I thought that was strange. I'm sure you or someone else will get the #1 spot back. Now I need to try and get my #2 spot on stone bull back (I don't know if I have any hopes of getting #1), and then work on silver and gold bull. I'm really looking forward to the update. I played this game a bit when it first came out, and got my first #1 global on bronze bull of all levels (which was immediately surpassed within 30 minutes), and then I stopped playing for a few weeks. But I have been completely addicted to this game for the past couple of weeks after starting the game up again. I also managed a #1 global on silver monkey, but Nappy it only took Nappy a day to take his top spot back.
Congratulations on getting #1 back, anyway. I've tried a couple of times to beat your score but for now I think I'll focus on a different level. beans' Stone Bull time is looking pretty tough to beat, as are the Silver and Gold Bull levels. The new Rat levels are great for speeding through, and I can see the leaderboards being extremely competitive. I'll be sure to send you a challenge or two once the update goes live. Edit: just had a few proper attempts at Silver Monkey, and am currently #3, 10 points behind you. Wasn't even a great run so hopefully I can shave off another half a second and claim #1. Edit 2: Just got #1 on Silver Monkey, 1 point ahead of Nappy. Sorry Nappy.
