april 10, 2009 02:38am

Major Update: SuperBall 3!

I'm very excited to introduce SuperBall 3! It is an incredible update to the previous SuperBall. Everything has been torn down and rewritten to support some incredible new features.

The biggest improvement is an all new physics engine that allows objects to move inside of a physics-based world. The paddle will rotate exactly based on how it is hit, the blocks can collide against each other, especially during explosion bonuses, and new shapes are even supported, including squares, triangles and circles.

The effects are also greatly improved, including update graphics for everything in the game, new background images, and best of all new particle effects for block explosions, impacts, and ball bonuses.

Last and most importantly, there is now an advanced level creator built into SuperBall 3 that allows you to create full level sets exactly how you want them. In fact, every one of the new levels (now totaling over 1,200) was built with this level editor.

So, thanks to everyone for their patience for this update, it has been a very long time coming to address some of the issues that existed in SuperBall 2. Also special thanks to David Arnold for his help in building most of the new levels, as well as to Anthony Fredricks for his extensive beta testing help.

SuperBall 3 is of course available as a lite version as well, so try it out today!

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january 15, 2009 03:05pm

New Game: Gemlogic!

I am very excited to announce a new game (based on the jailbroken version released in March) called Gemlogic! Similar to it's jailbroken counterpart (v 0.35) it is a Bejeweled type of game where you move different gems around to get 3 together.

Unlike your typical Bejeweled game however, it is fully multi-touch, allowing you to move two or more gems at once, plus there are several different game modes, changing how you move and search for gems, creating a very unique gameplay experience.

You can check out the lite version to get a preview of the game, or see the full version here.

Now that this is complete, I have directed my full attention to working on a big update for SuperBall that a lot of people have been asking for. Rest assured I am addressing everything that everyone has been asking about, plus working on a lot of very cool other things. Rest assured it will very much be worth the wait!

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october 31, 2008 12:44am

Version 2.15 is up with options galore!

Quick post to let everyone know who hasn't seen the update that version 2.15 is now up. Mostly notably, the falling blocks are completely optional now, and if you are so inclined to enable them they are slower. I've had further requests for being able select the speed of how fast they fall when enabled, and I am considering that for the next update.

Additional options include a lot of things I have seen people request in comments on the site and in the iTunes reviews, including disabling the shattering sound effects, a tilt mode calibration, and adjusting the paddle height.

If there is anything anyone else would like to see, add a comment or shoot me an email to jazon . burnell @ gmail . com and I'll let you know if I can add it to the next update!

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october 21, 2008 10:33pm

Apple is really on it! Superball 2.11 is up (no more arrows!)

Wow, Apple is really on it! Typically it takes at least a week, and has taken as long as a month in the past, to approve updates. But the last two updates (2.1, great update with breakable grey blocks, bonus block updates and a vehemently disliked aiming system) and 2.11 (submitted an hour and a half after 2.1 went up to rid the world of said arrow aiming system) got approved in less than 24 hours after submission. That's incredible, hats off to Apple!

So, thank you to everyone who as emailed and commented about the arrows (rest assured there have been many). The update has been approved that makes them optional, my apologies to anyone who disliked them (which may have been roughly 99% of the user base, and "disliked" may be putting it lightly...). If you are so inclined to give it another try, the update also makes them less distracting and slows the ball down just a bit before hitting the paddle, so you have more time to aim. I think it's pretty fun, but as I've learned in the last couple hours, that very well could just be me, so shoot me an email if you have any suggestions on improving it :-)

I've also gotten a couple comments on the falling blocks, some like them (increases the challenge and lets you avoid the bad blocks such as mini-ball and narrow paddle if you're good enough), but others prefer the challenge of dealing with the narrow blocks and what not, while others still would just prefer the bonuses to fall slower. I'm taking all of this into account and promise improvements in the next update, which will likely include other things (all optional, I promise!) as well.

And thanks again to everyone who emailed their feedback, it makes it a lot easier to gauge what people like and dislike and to shoot out a quick update if there's a strong (or in this case, overwhelming) request for one.

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october 19, 2008 10:13pm

Updates on everything

First, I wanted to say thanks to everyone who has posted comments on the site and reviews on iTunes. Overall I'm ecstatic that people are really enjoying the game, and it's been great to hear from people, including fellow students and even fellow developers, on SuperBall 2.

Of course, there have also been requests for changes, particularly regarding a few of the overly challenging levels (e.g. Lv. 25 on Tech Jargon), so I wanted to mention that I have just submitted an update to resolve some of those so that they are a lot more reasonable and in line with the other levels. So keep an eye out for 2.05.

Lastly, regarding the legal situation mentioned previously, I can't say much for, well, legal reasons, but it's worth noting I don't believe we're out of the woods just yet, but it seems to be looking good for the moment. Fingers crossed :-)

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september 19, 2008 01:24am

May I introduce: SuperBall 2

Henceforth, the block blasting, ball bouncing Spiffyware game shall be known as... SuperBall 2!

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september 17, 2008 09:02pm

SuperPong 2 to be removed at request of Atari

Some very unfortunate news, I have been asked to remove SuperPong 2 from the App Store at the request of Atari Interactive due to infringements against the pong and breakout copyrights.

I think it is insane that SuperPong 2 could be forced out of the market due to resemblances to games made some 20 years ago, and I honestly don't know if they have a case. But, they do own these trademarks/copyrights and I am a student and don't presently have the time or resources to fight this, so it will be taken down by Friday.

This is particularly disheartening as the Lite version just got approved and went live, giving even more people an opportunity to try out this unique block breaking game. But it as well will be taken down.

I believe that the greatest tragedy is that I had many great and extraordinary ideas for the game, and have had only a brief chance to implement a couple of them. I am finally very happy with what SuperPong has become, but given a couple more months it could have been extraordinary.

Noah Witherspoon, developer of Tris, went through a similar situation. Likewise, I do intend to seek legal consul and find a way to repost SuperPong, but for the time being, people have until Friday, Sep 19th to download the lite version or the full version.

Thank you.

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september 06, 2008 07:20am

SuperPong 2

I'm am very excited to announce by far the largest update to SuperPong, SuperPong version 2.0. I have quite literally torn down and reprogrammed the entire game from the ground up, using modern programming techniques such as the Model-View-Controller design philosophy and following Apple's strictest User Interface Guidelines.

2.0 blows the previous version out of the water. It has a two player mode, a puzzle mode, and a whopping 350 levels. It would take several pages to go through all the changes to SuperPong, so I will simply say that it is an amazing game that will keep you entertained for a very long time, so please check it out.

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august 10, 2008 04:28pm

Super high SuperPong scores

It turns out that some of the extreme highest scores that people are getting in SuperPong are in fact too large to send between the device and the score server, and some scores are even too large to represent on the device itself (resulting in overflow to a negative number). Usually this is after about 1.4 billion.

Sorry to anyone who has encountered this, it will be fixed in the next version, but in the mean time, you can send me a screenshot of your high scores list (press the home button and the sleep button to save a screen shot to your photo gallery) and I will manually add it to the high scores list, thanks, and sorry for the issue.

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august 06, 2008 04:01am

New Game: Tilt Fighter

I am very proud and excited to announce Tilt Fighter, now available on the App Store! This is actually a game I've been wanting to develop for quite some time now, and I think it is a blast to play. It utilizes the accelerometer and multi-touch in a unique way, and appears to be among the first Space Invader / Galaga available on the store (technically, the only one as far as I can tell in the Shoot 'em up game genre).

To play Tilt Fighter, you simply tilt your device left or right to move your ship along the bottom of the screen, and your main guns, the plasma cannons, fire automatically. This leaves your fingers free to unleash an arsenal of weapons using multi-touch. Use repeated taps to fire the laser cannon, which can go in any direction, and a pinch or stretch (like you're zooming in on a photo) to unleash a anti-matter bomb, which goes to bullet-time and obliviates everything in your path.

For anyone who liked the classic arcade style space shooters and want to see a modern iPhone / iTouch rendition, I'm confident they'll really enjoy Tilt Fighter, so give it a try.

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