Hook Champ (Grappling Hook Platformer) + Trailer

I've been working on this game for a few months now. It's a physics platformer in which you have to use your grappling hook to race to safety. There's also a shop in which you can upgrade your character, buy new items to help you, or spend all your loot on buying new hats.

It's got about 24 levels right now. Each level has its own scoreboard, with local and internet options. After the release in a couple weeks, I'll be working on extra level packs for content patches.

Let me know what you think about the trailer! I'll be watching this thread.

 

We tried to go for a pixelly retro style for the game. Glad you like it!

Tap to latch your hook where you tap, hold to let go/jump/sail in the air, release to latch again. There's buttons for item use and reeling your hook in. There's also context sensitive touch for running left and right or changing hook direction drastically and suddenly.

There's a little, unobtrusive tutorial segment in the first level to teach players all of the above, too.

 

I forgot about this game. Montezuma's Revenge definitely had the best soundtrack of all time.

Thanks for the positive comments so far. When the game's released I'll be making a second trailer with all new footage, too.

 

I'm glad everyone likes the retro art style. I'll be checking this thread periodically, and I'll update it with any news as the game gets closer to release. We're doing a final week of beta then sending it for approval to the app store.

 

Answering various questions:

Difficulty starts off easy, jumps up with Gold levels, while slowly ramping up between each set of levels.

Level sets are arranged by theme, with four levels in each set, starting at Stone and ending at Gold. In terms of graphics, each level set has its own unique decorations to match unique gameplay differences in each set. Later on I'd like to add new level sets with sharply different graphics, like a green jungle level set or gray/blue spider lair level set.

This thread was the first time I announced my game at all. Afterwards, I contacted some news/reviews sites about it, but that was not long ago. For now, it's pretty much a Touch Arcade Forums Exclusive.

I have been playing Spelunky a lot recently, though the closest game this compares to is probably Dino Run, kind of. Bionic Commando was definitely an early inspiration, though it was decided to make the grappling hook less "bionic commando" and more open and fluid. Since the hook is physics-based, you can do more interesting things with it.

Thanks for the interest in the game!