A fast, easy to use, free, and community supported 2D game engine
Just teasing for now, but this bad boy's been built with 100% Cocos2d (or perhaps 2.5d ???) and will be launching onto iDevices everywhere soon
Here are a couple in game shots to give an idea of what we've cooked up
You can follow Chuck on twitter: http://www.twitter.com/chuckgnome
Thanks! If you take a look at the twitter page there is additional artwork in the theme of the page.
Yep Chuck is shot into the screen. We've got lots of large sprites being drawn at different open gl Z levels that Chuck can impact. Also the iphone accelerometer is used to change what part of the scene the player is looking at in order to see other parts of the set off angle. We've got a short teaser trailer up at http://www.chuckgnome.com that (somewhat) demonstrates the effect.
@M.A.S., @charlie_fulton, @zombie, @MissLashes Thanks for all the encouraging words! My fingers are definitely crossed on this one!
@Codemattic "I really hope it sorts to the top of the new pile and doesnt get sorted by approval date. " . Well, guess I'll be able to tell you in just about a week :) I remember with Kretures, one day it was on the new release list, one day it was off, and then it was back on again. Here's hoping this time it just gets on and stays on.
@michaelm re: any advice on how you did the screen effect : Sure! What would you like to know ? I'm drawing sprites on different layers, each with different vertex Zs. Each layer is scaled proportional to how far into the screen it is (so that sprites drawn on it match a the single 2d comp they were all taken from). This is really the key to the popup book effect and you can tilt or orbit camera or have any other kind of camera fun you like once the set pieces are organized into different planes in 3d space. I also match the cocos2d z for each setpiece layer to its vertex Z. The gnomes are all drawn on the the parent game layer, but their vertex z changes with every frame and they get re-ordered among the game layer's children as they cross each layer of set pieces.
And we are live pretty much everywhere now!
Reviews seem pretty positive:
http://www.technobrains.com/quick-look-chuck-gnome-for-iphone/13005/
http://www.platformnation.com/2010/08/03/chuck-gnome-review-iphone/
http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2010/08/chuck-gnome-for-high-flying-fun-on-your-iphone/
@Codemattic I'm seeing it at the top of the new release pile in the stores I've spot checked so hopefully I'm in the clear :) Its mis-catgorized tho (probably our fault) and in action & adventure instead of arcade. Here's hoping when / if apple changes the subcategories for us we don't disappear!
Ok, I've got to link this while we're still on the homepage !
And for once we fall off:
http://www.tuaw.com/2010/08/05/tuaws-daily-app-chuck-gnome/
Thanks to the whole cocos2d community (and especially Riq) ! Chuck would never have launched without you guys!
Thanks @hm50 ! We're workin on it :)
We just submitted our first update to the app store!
Its got a new episode and a new mini-game. And of course new targets, new achievements, new effects, an all new background track, and remastered, higher bit rate versions of the current tracks.
Keys should also be a lot easier to find, the key well will glow when you hit targets that bring you closer to finding a key.
@hm50 - Sales are going ok, nothing explosive. Still getting amazing press tho. Got a shout out in the NYTimes the other day.
I think we had something of an uneven launch. The big lessons I learned from it were
1) We should have gone out on sale at .99 just to give us every possible chance to rise up in the charts while all the press was coming out.
2) We didn't pay enough attention to our description, plus we mis-categorized, made the splash our first screenshot, and forgot to upload a 5th screenshot. Also we got bit by itunes connect where we couldn't change the categories or the screenshots once we were approved.
3) Our first pay episode, ogres attack, was too hard. I can tell by seeing the number of high scores on that episode vs the subsequent ones. Way too many folks just aren't making it past there. Hopefully the new key discovery mechanic will take care of that. Plus I moved the key forward a little bit in the new version.
Point three is interesting to me because while we had three rounds of playtests / betas (apart from the dev previews), it was always hard finding play testers. Plus after participating in one beta, it was often hard to get feedback from a playtester in a subsequent beta. One reason we launched when we did was we ran out of betas :) If you guys have suggestions on the best places to find play testers in the future I'd love to hear em!
Oh, did I mention we're still on sale through midnight tonight :)
Chuck Gnome 1.1 is live everywhere! And its on sale for a limited time :) Here's a screenshot of the new episode:
And here are a couple codes for anyone who hasn't already tried it out! Please post if you take one and leave a review if you can :) Updates are so cruel in the way they hide all the existing reviews.
LF744949J39L
NH3T67KJEM4E
METK66HJA9JA
J3MYT3LEH3WY
NNEL4P76HW6W
Let me know what you guys think of the new episode and if you think the new Key finder helps the gameplay!
Thanks Tim! Looking forward to your feedback!
And for folks who didn't get one of those codes, appadvice is giving away a bunch more tonight :
http://appadvice.com/appnn/2010/09/chance-win-chuck-gnome-promo-code-retweet-comment/
Thanks Leo! And thanks to everyone here who voted Chuck for best looking game at the 360 iDev Community App Awards!
Chuck Gnome 1.2 was just approved! And just in time for the holidays. Now you can find and collect coins hidden throughout all the current levels and use them to unlock new Chuckables:
There are also several other smaller tweaks including new targets, new choreography changes and new achievements. Just PM me if your up for reviewing this release and would like a promo.
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