Minigore: retina display

Monday, September 27, 2010

Update Details & Promo Codes

There's several things we are throwing in from Episode 4 to the latest update, it turned out to be not so small update!

Let's start with how the beginning of the game looks on each version:

(Click for full-size comparison)

1. Scoring system reworked. "Score" has been changed to "kills".

2. Multipliers. You get more kills for bigger targets and blowing up the fur bombs when other enemies are in range gets you even more extra kills. Beast mode gives double kills.

Multipliers, hearts, muzzle flashes and kill counter:

3. Remade snow level. It has different layout and everything from trees to bushes is covered in snow. Remember the original Kid Gore? This is a change of similar magnitude.

4. New difficulty selection. Probably my favourite in terms of wow factor. The camera is zoomed way out to give you a better view of the level.

5. Unique muzzle flashes for all weapons. For now it's just a visual flavour but in Episode 4 it is used to communicate co-op weapon efficiency for each player. The closer players get to each other the bigger the muzzle flashes & faster the fire rate. It's made to encourage cooperative play.

Dual-wielding machine gun with the new muzzle flashes:

6. Hearts for health visualization. They are displayed in the top left corner. If the character has 5 health states you don't have to remember how each one looks.

7. Clover pick-up and slots right where you pick up the clovers. Makes it easier to see how many you have because it's displayed where the action is at.

Game Center related changes:

1. Achievements through Game Center with prettier achievement icons.

2. New leaderboards with less clutter and faster response time. OpenFeint leaderboards are gonna be removed.

Let's not stop quite here, then there's the bug fixes:

1. Retina display enabled on iPod touch 4. We got ipt4 at the office and it's working beautifully on it.

2. Flip screen bug fixed on iPhone 4 and iPod touch 4. This one should remain fixed until Apple rolls out the next device with different resolution. ;)

3. Sometimes fire direction got stuck, it shouldn't do that anymore.

Kimmo is working hard on finishing the Game Center implementation, then the update should be ready for testing & submission.

We get some new promo codes for each update. Most people who read this blog probably already have the iPhone version, in any case here's 40 promo codes for the iPhone version you can share with your friends!

Please leave a review on iTunes if you use one :)

EDIT! Looks like all promo codes are taken, I'll clear this space so you don't have to scroll so much EDIT!

Monday, September 20, 2010

Game Center

Hello.

We are currently working on the flip screen bug fix affecting iPhone 4, other models should not be affected. The fix itself shouldn't be too hard to make, we just hope it goes through Apple swiftly too. We plan to release support for Game Center at the same time. This naturally means the leader boards will be reset as we change the current system to kills instead of score.

As a side note, we are not trying to offend/disrespect/ignore anybody by releasing an update that does not benefit people with older generation devices. Making the game support Retina display is very important for the future development of the game as the amount of older devices will become smaller. In the Retina display update there was also a bug fix that DID benefit everybody. Especially the owners of older devices. The explosion of the crates lowered framerate and sometimes crashed older devices. We changed the explosion so that it is no longer as demanding on the hardware.

Retina display and framerate support for iPod touch 4 is being made too, we just got ipt4 to the office.

Friday, September 17, 2010

Retina display update is out!

The update should be available for download in the coming hours!
US iTunes is already showing the new icon:

The icon features Kimmo's favourite character "Easter Bunny", everyone else at the office would rather jump off the window (1st floor) than play as that character ;)

The update adds support for retina display (iPhone 4 only) and faster frame rate on iPhone 3Gs, iPod touch 3rd gen and iPhone 4.

UPDATE: We don't have iPod touch 4 at the office yet - it seems like the hires mode doesn't activate on it, also it's possible the faster frame rate doesn't activate either. This update was submitted around the time when iPod touch 4 was introduced so it's gonna need a new update to add support for it.

There's a huge difference in the level of detail between normal and retina versions:

For some reason JPG artifacting is more noticiable in the left side image, but other than that it's a fair comparison. I took the left side screen shot on an older iPod touch and the right side capture was done with iPhone 4.

You can download the update here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/minigore/id324016249?mt=8

bharter: Thanks for mentioning the missing link!

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