v1.0.1 and more

In our eyes, the first few weeks of Block’d has been a great success. We’ve seen roughly 300 downloads (and growing), as well as one update already! But we have much more planned for this game, as we think it has massive potential beyond what you have already seen.

First, let’s talk about v1.0.1 which went live a few days ago. We released this update the day Block’d went live on the App Store. This update served two purposes: firstly we got the Facebook share button working properly so that it shares the right link for us. Secondly (and arguably more important to us) was to upload it with the signed iAd contract. Hopefully we can start earning a bit of revenue for our hard work.

I know, ads suck, but hey, I wrote a blog post about that a while back.

Now, let’s get on to the more exciting bit. What’s coming next for Block’d! We’re already working on development for a few more updates, bot v1.0.x as well as v1.1.

v1.0.x will be various bug fixes. For those of you who are playing Block’d on an iPhone 5S may have noticed a bit of an odd delay after beating a level, before the button to move on to the next level. We are actively working on a fix for that bug, and we will have an update with that shortly. Other than that, v1.0.x has been mostly internal code cleanup that will have no real end effect on the product.

For those of you who have made it this far, I’m sure you’re wanting to know what is going to come in the future for Block’d. As I’ve already said, v1.1 is right around the corner, and I do believe we’re expecting an October release date. v1.1 will bring with it new levels, along with some new colors to play with (more information on that coming soon.)

As expected, we have many more levels planned past v1.1, but we have a bit more. We have ideas for new game modes and play styles; more colors and more sharing between friends; but most importantly, more of the same gameplay we’re coming to know and love.

If you haven’t stopped by the App Store to download Block’d, please take a second to hop on this wild ride as soon as possible! I promise, it’ll be worth your time.

Block'd: Release Day Bugs

Block'd is officially live on the App Store! And with it have come a few bugs that need to get worked out in the up and coming Block'd 1.0.1. We've already started working on this small update, and we should see it submitted here within the weekend. 

Here's what we've found so far: 

• We need to make "multi-tapping" as a mechanic more clear. We've found that several people get stumped on some of our easier "timing" levels due to not understanding that you can tap more than one tile at a time.
• Ads are not showing up because I'm (Austin) a dummy and didn't set up the proper contract in iTunes Connect. 
• On my phone (Austin again) there seems to be a massive delay between the win animation, and the actual "You Win" statement and button showing up. 
• Facebook sharing button seems to not be working properly. 
• Some sort of clarification that there are options to the left of the first group.

If you go about your day playing our wonderful little game and you notice anything else, please don't hesitate to leave a comment below, tweet me (@hicksaustinj), Matt (@mattshubert) or Symbiotic Studios (@symbstudios) and we will get it added to this list to be fixed ASAP. 

Keep an eye on the blog over the next few days, as we will be sharing our future plans for Block'd with you shortly!

Enjoy playing.

Austin 

Block'd Delayed

So, bad news time. Block'd has been delayed a bit longer than expected. We got the news yesterday that due to a single icon file (curse you Apple!) Block'd will need to be resubmitted for approval. 

We have seen a wonderful amount of traffic surrounding the release of Block'd, so thank you for all of that support. We hope it will continue moving forward as we wait for official approval!  

Thanks for the support. 

1 (ish) Day 'til Block'd

I guess I should start off this post by saying that we planned on having block'd live on the App Store today.  However, we may have miss-timed some things and so right now we are still waiting on approval from Apple which will hopefully come any day now.  But in the mean time check out the official trailer for block'd here:

Again, we would like to apologize for our release date mix up, but we will let you know as soon as the game is live. 

Thanks for all of your support

-Matt.

4 Days 'til Block'd

We’re super close to the release of block’d with only four more days standing in the way!  (I’m getting pretty super excited).  For today’s post in our 10 Days ’til Block’d series I’m going to talk a little bit about the music and sound effects in block’d.  But first, make sure you catch up on yesterday’s post here if you haven’t already.

When we first started developing block’d we weren’t thinking about what kind of sound track we wanted to go with it or what kind of sound effects would fit the game.  In fact, we weren’t really sure if we were going to have any kind of sounds in the game at all.  As we were getting closer and closer to the finished product we asked ourselves if we thought it would be worth it to put in some sound effects and maybe a little sound track.  I thought about this a little (and even wrote a blog post about game sound tracks and sound effects) and decided that a sound track could really help a game feel more professional.  So with that decision made it was time to get to work.

The first thing I decided was that I didn’t just want one four minute song to repeat for as long as you played.  I thought this would get rather annoying for most people that played the game longer than five minuets.  So I started with a main menu song.  I figured the song could be a little short and maybe a touch repetitive since most people aren’t going to spend a lot of time in the menu, but the next step was deciding what kind of music would fit the theme of the game best.  Did I want something very slow and drawn out, or maybe something with a little bit of a beat, or maybe nothing but a beat.  I eventually decided that the music should be relatively low key, but with a little beat to keep you going while you play though the levels.  I wanted the music to be simple, with not too many instruments vying for attention.

I eventually got a good song for the main menu and started to apply my criteria to more songs for the actual game play.  In the end I came up with three game play songs that will be on the game when it’s released.  However, I do have some plans to keep working on a couple more songs to add to the game for a quick update but that’s a story for a different time.  Now it’s time to talk a little bit about the sound effects.

Turns out sound effects were much, much, (so much) harder to come up with than the sound track.  Because you only hear the sound for a second, and the sound effect has to blend in with the background music, it made my life a little challenging to come up with the right kind of noises.  I spent a couple of weeks trying to find the right instrument at the right note at the right length of time for the sound effects.  It was a battle between what sounded good and what sounded good with the background music.  Because the background music is more electronic the sound effects would clash with it if they too had that electronic sound.  At the same time they could get lost in the background music if they were’t strong enough to stand on their own.  In the end I think I found the right sound and right pitch for the sound effects so that they would add to the background music and the overall play experience.

In the end I was happy with the way the sounds turned out on block’d and I hope you enjoy them too (if you don’t like them you can always turn them off in the options menu to the left of Group 1).

So thanks for sticking around through all of that, I know it was kinda long.  Don’t forget, block’d comes out 7 / 7 / 14 so make sure to get it at the App Store when it comes out.  Also make sure to check back here tomorrow for the next post in our 10 Days ’til Block’d series.

As always, thanks for reading

-Matt.