New Icon Hey everyone, the update is almost done and ready to be sent to Apple. Here's a potential new game icon (I think it's a lot better than the previous one). What do you all think?
Yeah, you were up against some really popular well known games this week. But you beat Disney, that's great. The new icon looks good! I liked the old one too, but this one "pops" a bit more. Whirl is a great character. Have you changed the difficulty of all the levels or just 1-3 for the update?
Thanks, I'm glad you like the new logo. As for the update, there are plenty of things, but I'll post the most important parts here: - 1-3 is much, much easier. - 1-1 is now purely a tutorial level that you cannot lose (it's best to get people used to things). - All the levels in World 1 and 2 have a bit more time, and a few extremely hard parts have been fixed (usually in small ways). You'll still need to be great to get a gold star, but at least people will be able to progress. - There will be a Skip Level button in the pause menu after you lose a level once. - Control buttons have been tightened up on iPhone/iPod/iPad, and raised up slightly, for a more natural holding angle. Accelerometer control is still selectable in the pause menu, unchanged. - Orange Blobs are now white 3D-ish blocks with a big red X on them. When you hit them you flash red and the blocks are knocked away from you. No one will confuse them for something collectible now, that's for sure. That's about that. There are a bunch of minor tweaks I made based on community input, but the above are the major points. It's being tested right now, so I'll let the forum know when it's out. I hope everyone enjoys it. And has everyone seen syntheticvoid's excellent 4.5/5 review of Whirl the Squirrel on The App Shack? Here's a link: www.the-appshack.com/2013/06/whirl-squirrel-dioxis-mining-099.html
I was about to overlook this game, but then I saw this. Anything SV recommends is usually solid. I'll give this one a buy tomorrow.
Review Well, Whirl just received a TouchArcade review. Excellent. Thanks for all the feedback, everyone. I appreciate it. I'm sure you'll see how much it's helped the game once the update is live. Hopefully I can get a higher star rating on the update. http://toucharcade.com/2013/07/01/whirl-the-squirrel-review/
I know I'm a loser but I'd say that was actually pretty spot on. I have up at level 3 after dozens of tries and I know others have done it, but I just couldn't take it anymore. Hope with the update, I can get a little further as I can see it's a high quality game that I'd like to put more time into.
Just wanted to say, Wow! Just bought this and it looks and plays great! Can't wait for the update and look forward to future updates. Very impressed by this developed and can't wait to see your next game!
extreme472000, thanks! I'm very glad you like it. If you haven't heard, I'm releasing an update for it that I've been programming all week based on feedback in this forum and elsewhere. I think it will make the game even better, and a lot more accessible. awp69, the update is done, tested, and submitted. It could take a number of days, or more, for it to be approved, though. It's hard to tell. I'll make sure to post news here. The next update I'm going to start working on now is an additional world full of levels. I have some fun stuff in the works that I hope people will like.
For anyone who was waiting on the update for this to play it, it's out. And now I'm having a blast with it. It's not a cake walk (sadly still took me a three or four tries to get past the third level). But it seems to have the right level of difficulty to make it not feel impossible but still give a sense of challenge and also gives medal based times to beat for those looking for a higher challenge. With the skip level, it'll be easier for casual gamers to give it a fair shake as well. Anxious to see how the difficulty ramps up now that I finally got past the first four levels. Hopefully, it's a nice a steady increase that will still make it tough -- just not so early in the game. Great game that wimps like me can even enjoy now!
Good update, but are the achievements broken for anyone else? Completed all 6 levels in first world and no achievements.
awp69, looks like you beat me to the update announcement. Very quick! Yesterday Apple told me that the update might take up to 24 hours to be available, so I held off on mentioning it. I'm glad you like the changes. I always want a game to be "challenging fun," but not "annoying hard." I hope everyone thinks I got that right with this update. Plus, there's always the Skip level button. Shan82, thanks. I'm glad you like the icon and update. I tested the update into oblivion with my testing team, looking for the right balance. Now I'm working on some new levels for the game with new features. extreme472000, thanks. I think the new icon is much more attractive. I'll keep an eye on the achievements. I changed nothing about those, code-wise, so hopefully everything is fine. If you or anyone else has an achievement popup, and it doesn't update on Game Center within the day, please let me know here or in a PM. Thanks. So, about the update, for those who haven't played it. I'll just copy what I put in the new App Description: * Level skip button has been added (free). * World 1 has a much more gradual learning curve. * Level 1-3 is much, much easier. * Level 1-1 is now purely a tutorial level. * Almost every level has been tweaked for difficulty, and fun, based on community feedback. * Control has been tightened up, especially for iPad. And there are a few other tweaks, like the new icon, and the characters are now in the credits screen, for the fun of it. EVERYTHING in this update is because of the great feedback I received from this forum, and other reviewers. I greatly appreciate all the effort everyone has put into thoughtful comments and suggestions. If you keep playing, I'll keep making it better and adding more content. And feel free to keep throwing your thoughts and ideas at me here, whether for this version, or cool things to do for future updates. I love to hear them. Thanks everyone!
Limbo review So Whirl's been mentioned in the Limbo review comments, and Shaun Musgrave said possibly the best thing I've heard this week: "P.S. Whirl got a great update, it's at least 2x Limbo now! " Best comment ever! As I mentioned elsewhere, I would love the title of a re-review *crosses fingers* to be: ""Whirl the Squirrel - Now Twice as Good as Limbo." *lol* No problem with that whatsoever.
*lol* Thanks, Andy, I love chatting with people about Whirl and hearing what they think, so I'm always on the lookout for Whirl-related conversations. As a side note to everyone, the game center issue has been identified and I'm working with Apple to fix it as quickly as possible.
New review from 148Apps Hey everyone, 148Apps just gave Whirl the Squirrel a great review (4 out of 5 stars)! If you haven't tried Whirl yet, feel free to check out the review. If you have, I'm sure Rob (the reviewer) would love to hear from you in the comments (and so would I). This, of course, is for the updated version. http://www.148apps.com/reviews/whirl-squirrel-review/ Thanks, DioxisMining
