Hi,

Great if you could add a shake option, to move the animals around a bit if you have a bad arrangement......

Regards

i

Thanks for the nice comments everyone. I'm currently on holiday, but I'll definitely have a crack at some further articles when I get home. Merry Christmas and happy new year to all. :^)

Also would like to say thanks for sharing and look forward to the additional articles.

Hi,

Just bought it. Great casual game, well done. Looking forward to the articles continuing.

i

Thanks for sharing Tim... looking forward to reading the other articles as you get them done.

Hi everyone, I've written the first of what will hopefully become a series of posts about the inner workings of Zoo Lasso.

How Zoo Lasso works, part one: looping

I'm very interested to get people's opinions on what I've written. Is it in any way helpful? Any stylistic or content changes you'd like to see? Does it look like a promising direction for a series?

I'm about to leave on my Christmas holiday; I very much look forward to reading anyone's thoughts once I get back.

cool game. Very interested in how state was managed...looking forward to the blog!

Sure, well I've been meaning to write a series of blog posts on the inner workings of Zoo Lasso for a while now. I guess today is as good as any to get the first one finally written!

that would be greatly appreciated, i'm extremely interested in the game mechanics being a beginner to cocos2d and objective c. thanks!

jonathan0382: Argh, I'm so sorry, I never noticed your question! I wasn't ignoring you, promise! You must've posted at exactly the same time as me that day. I'll PM you as well, and I'd be happy to write a post about any or all of the game mechanics.

Thanks for the nice feedback, Genji. Easy-to-pick-up but challenging-to-master is a quality of all my favourite action puzzlers: Panel de Pon, Puzzle Fighter, Tetris, Rocket Mania... Of course, we might not exactly be up with those big names (yet!), but good to hear that we've got the right approach. :^)

Great game, it's very polished! The sound, ui and graphics all fit together well. The best part so far is that the game is easy to pick up (you 'get' the game immediately) but clearly has quite a bit of depth. Very addictive :) Congrats!

Goldplated: Thanks for the feedback! Yeah, one extra mode we'd like to add is a 'Zen mode' where the game basically never ends, and it never gets too frantic. (Or maybe gets a bit frantic but then calms down again, ad infinitum.)

I believe Popcap has introduced a no-death zen mode into their newer titles like Bejewelled Twist and it's apparently been very successful.

Genji: Enjoy the game! Looking forward to hearing what you think.

I think the game is very fun and the whole family can enjoy. I think a "kid mode" would be a good idea for younger kids so that they are able to keep playing the game longer since the difficulty increases as you go along. Otherwise i think it very nicely done. I also post a review on the App Store.

i grabbed R93HNXMHLAH6 and will review and post back also.

I took HKXN6MWM64JA and will post a review on the app store after trying the game out some, thanks!

Thanks leocck! Glad your girlfriend enjoys it. One thing we like about how the game has come out is that there's a very casual side (just circle some animals) and also a more competitive combo-obsessed side.

And yes, we're delighted to have Zoo Lasso in 'What We're Playing'! More recently, it's appeared in the US store's 'New & Notable', and I can confirm that being there really does boost your sales a bit. Things were looking pretty bad before that, so this has lifted Tristan and me out of our depression. :^)

We've just released a new version of the game which introduces 17 OpenFeint Achievements. I'm pleased to say that cocos2d and OpenFeint work together very well.

Here are some more promo codes from the new version as an early Christmas present. Just leave a comment if you use one.

TAAWT3AKN7JF
R93HNXMHLAH6
HKXN6MWM64JA

There's also a short new YouTube video to reassure everyone about animal safety. :^)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7_veNf4NHw

Hi there,

The game is on "What we're Playing", congratulations!

This game is very polished and casual. My girlfriend like it very much.

Zoo Lasso is now available on the App Store! Here's a little celebratory video we put together to show you the animals' hidden depths. :^)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gg73v5iWyY

tm - No problem. Enjoy it once you've got your Touch sorted out. :^)

Sorry, it might take me a day or 2 to review. (trouble updating my iPod Touch)

leocck - Thank you, we'll very much appreciate that! Glad you enjoyed it.

tm - I've emailed a promo code to you. :^)

millertim12@gmail.com
Thanks

Hi there,

I've got the AYPXTE4H6HHP code, and I have to say the game is very polished, congratulations.

I'll post a review on AppStore.

Tim - Thanks for what sounds like a comprehensive test run. That pause button caused some problems in earlier versions, but I think we finally got it sorted. Basically, the pause button checks:

• Did the touch start over me?
• Did the touch end over me?
• Were there no loops on the screen or being drawn?

Seems to get the job done. :^)

tw - Aw, sorry about that! If you let me know your email address I'll send one to you directly. And I'll see if I can post another batch here too; just have to make sure we've got enough left for review copies etc.

@Tim Knauf: congrats on the game - looks excellent! Would you mind sharing how you implemented the grouping mechanic? Did you store the touch points and then find some way to check if an animal was inside the drawn shape?

Cheers - Jonathan0382

I was too slow. They're all gone. :(

Hey Tim, I downloaded and tried out the game. Looks good and I like the use of the color. Using a 3G w/ 3.0, it ran fine and smoothly. I eventually got pummeled with lots of animals on the screen and it never showed any strain. I tried the pause button, resume, return to menu, pause in multiple iterations and it all functioned well without any problems as well as I goofed around with trying to lasso the pause button to see if it would accidentally trigger but it all worked as planned. I'll leave a review in the store once it goes live. Good luck.

Hmm, possibly email addresses are displayed somewhere but I wasn't able to spot yours.

Anyway, very much look forward to hearing what you think!

No worries, I was able to grab it (my bad, I thought our profiles displayed email addresses to everyone). I'll check it out later today and circle with you this evening.

thx