New Game Mechanic

I've got the new game mechanic working and it adds a whole new dimension to the game. Here's a clue as to what to expect:

Thought I'd add some detail from the development process. Here are a couple of images showing how the levels are constructed:

 

They are built in 3D to give the parallax effect of the backgrounds - although the camera is locked to a 2D plane, it's still doing all the usual perspective projection stuff.

You can also see the culling grids that I use to keep the processing of the backgrounds as efficient as possible. I haven't really had much feedback on performance - I'd be interested to know how the game runs on different devices.

The circles visible around the hooks are a guide for spacing grapple points - it's important to get this right because it has a big impact on the flow of the game. Not sure I got it right on every level.

All of this is output to a level xml file that the game loads.

When I came up with the design of the game, one of the interesting things for me was that you mostly start at the top of a level and finish at the bottom. This is opposite to how most games work but is a natural consequence of gravity being the driving force of movement through the level. I can't think of any other games that use this approach - I'm sure there are plenty, though - no such thing as an original idea, especially in the world of apps.

Here's an idea of the theme for the next set of levels. I'll refine the look as I go, so it might end up being a bit different. I'm also introducing a new game mechanic, but I'll keep that as a surprise.

I've decided to put a free demo up on Google Play. You can get it by clicking the link on the left. If it's not there yet, try again later.

I hope you like it!

I've submitted a small update to Google Play that changes the minimum Android version to 2.2. It was 4.1 before. This should open the game up to more devices. If there are any issues, let me know.

Update: Fixed a bug on older Android versions.

Published!

I've published the game to Google Play. Apparently it might take a while to appear but I'm really excited at the prospect of people getting to play it. I've put it up as a paid app because I hate adverts and I hate in-app purchases and I really hope it can do ok without needing to use those options.

If you have any problems, comments or suggestions for future features, please let me know.

I hope you enjoy it!

Now, it's on to creating the next set of levels...

Finished! (sort of)

I've finally got to the point where I feel I can release the game! I won't say it's finished because there is so much I still want to add, but it has enough in it to call it a complete game. I want to keep a steady stream of new content coming for as long as people want it, the first update will be a new set of levels with a new theme. Following that I have a list of features I want to add like:

Moving grapple points
Breakable grapple points
New block types e.g. TNT
Animated backgrounds
etc. etc.

Whenever I add a new feature, I'll create a new set of levels using that feature.

Hopefully, if people play the game and like it, I'll get some feedback on what people want adding in the future.

The last thing to do is get it submitted to Google Play. When it's up on the store I think I'll write a full post-mortem of the development process.

This is the promo image I've prepared:

I might simplify the text a bit to make it more readable at smaller sizes.