Launching Pad news
Say hello to Scarlett
We’re extremely pleased to announce Scarlett and the Spark of Life, an original adventure game for the iPhone and iPod touch.
Expect to hear a lot more about this new title in the near future (we’re very excited), but in the meantime enjoy the screenshots and tidbits of information that we’ve allowed to be released from our Dark Vault of Utmost Secrecy!
Here’s a little bit about the game:
- Gripping story! Help a very cross princess make her getaway from malicious but slow-witted kidnappers! Uncover the secret spark that brings about life itself! Construct a mechanical horse and marvel at his insecurity!
- Fun with puzzles! Captivate your brain by solving Scarlett’s problems – and help other people solve theirs!
- No need to squint! Every aspect of the game has been created to feel good on the iPhone and iPod Touch.
- Spectacular graphics! A delectable visual feast that will make your eyes (metaphorically) salivate.
- Aurally pleasing! Crafted soundscapes, scientifically proven to add 85% more immersion to your gaming experience.
Stay tuned for more Scarlett goodness!
Zoo Lasso rocks the free charts
A big “thanks, enjoy!” to everyone who downloaded Zoo Lasso as part of the OpenFeint Free Game of the Day promotion. A few early statistics from the App Store:
- Over 90,000 of you downloaded the game
- #1 Puzzle Game in nine countries
- #1 Free App overall in Singapore
- Top 10 Game in over a dozen countries
- Top 10 Puzzle Game in over 20 countries
And remember, if you missed out on free, the paid version of the game is still only US$0.99 in the App Store!
Zoo Lasso is free: today only!
Arooga! Zoo Lasso for iPhone and iPod touch is free for today as part of OpenFeint’s Free Game of the Day promotion. Quick, rope it in on the App Store!
The Pretender Part Two: Available! Appraised! Acclaimed!
We’re proud to announce the release of Part Two of our puzzle platform adventure saga The Pretender. The game will be up on this very site later in the week, but for now you can play it at the official sponsored location:
http://www.gamesgames.com/game/The-Pretender-Part-Two.html
Much-beloved casual gaming site Jay is Games likes the game rather a lot (from their full review):
The Pretender was quite a delight the first time around, and Launching Pad Games has gone to great pains to keep all of the fun and quirkiness of the original, while ramping up the gameplay with new power-ups and scenarios. The levels start out fairly easy and progress to some real tricky ones by the end, with enough variety to keep the game interesting from beginning to end.
The little characters are delightfully Victorian, and the voice acting only adds to the illusion. The story, music, art, and voice-overs turn what could have been a standard platformer into a charming, quirky bit of fun. Add in the new powers and abilities and you’re looking at some seriously satisfying casual gameplay.
What are you waiting for? Your audience isn’t going to rescue itself!
Zoo Lasso ranks up with OpenFeint Achievements
We’re proud to present the very first update to Zoo Lasso! Version 1.1 is fresh out of the App Store, and it introduces some very cool OpenFeint Achievements.
- Gain the respect you deserve as a Master Rope Wrangler!
- Uncover the dark mysteries of Ailurophobia!
- Prove to the world that you’ve busted out a 16x combo! (Or even a 32x? Surely that’s impossible… or is it?)
To commemorate our first App Store update, here’s a reassuring presentation for those who fear for the animals’ well-being (you know who you are!). Set your mind at ease about the poor animals in approximately twenty seconds.
Zoo Lasso available on the App Store!
We’re very proud to announce that Zoo Lasso for iPhone and iPod touch is now available worldwide on the App Store!
To celebrate, here’s a little something we put together to help you get to know the animals better.
Enjoy that? Go on, grab the game from the App Store!
Zoo Lasso release date and gameplay video!
We’re very pleased to announce that Zoo Lasso will be released on the App Store on November the 25th! In the meantime, here’s a taste of the cute graphics, catchy tuneage and addictive gameplay:
Introducing Zoo Lasso
We’re very proud to announce Zoo Lasso, our first game for the iPhone and iPod Touch!
Lasso lions, monkeys, zebras and parrots as fast as you can in frantic combo-based puzzle action. Zoo Lasso has been submitted to Apple for approval — keep it locked to launchingpadgames.com or follow Tim and Tristan on Twitter for a release date!
Go play The Pretender!
Our brain-twisting puzzle adventure The Pretender is finally out! Play it on our sponsor’s site (thanks GamesGames.com and Spil Group!) or right here on launchingpadgames.com.
Pretender at 1.0, Tristan at E3
Two big bits of news: the first is that we’ve got The Pretender to version 1.0! This is a big achievement, and the game seems to have generated a lot of interest on Flash Game License, the site where we’re seeking sponsorship for this fruit of our labours. We’d love to be able to put the game up here on launchingpadgames.com right away, but some nice sponsor might want an initial period of exclusivity, so we’ll need to see how that pans out first.
The second bit of news is that Tristan is off across the Pacific to the Electronic Entertainment Expo (also known as E3) in LA. He’s going in his capacity as a journalist with NZGamer.com, but naturally we’re hoping that he’ll be able to make a few contacts for Launching Pad Games as well.
Run Boots Run hitting mobile phones!
Soon you’ll be able to take Run Boots Run wherever you go. We are currently developing an expanded version with four levels, new graphics, an addictive reward system, and much more!
Here are some screenshots of the work in progress:
In the works: a Flash version of The Pretender
News on the site has been a little quiet in the last month, but don’t think that we haven’t been busy. We’ve been hard at work on a new Flash version of The Pretender which you’ll be able play right in your browser.
It isn’t ready for prime-time yet; we’re seeking sponsorship based on a fairly well-advanced prototype (get in touch if you’re interested in taking a look). We hope to have the full project ready in March. There are lots of new features lined up that we’re looking forward to showing off. Stay tuned!
Much smoother framerate for Run Boots Run
We’ve made some optimisations to Run Boots Run, which means that it runs much more smoothly, even on older computers. The improved framerate makes it just that little bit easier, so now is the time to head to the game page and see if you can beat this ‘C.M’ person!
If you’re a Flash developer interested in how we achieved the optimisations, read our blog post on the topic.
Best Times Leaderboard for Run Boots Run
Run Boots Run now has a leaderboard for your best times. If you did well (or even if you didn’t), click on ‘Submit your time’ after your game to see how you placed. See if you can beat our longest times!
New game: Run Boots Run
We’re proud to present our second game: Run Boots Run. We had planned to make it within space of one week; it took three, but who’s counting?
We’ve already had a lot of enjoyment out of it, and we think you will too.
Another game coming later this month
We’ve had some fine feedback for our first downloadable title, The Pretender. Thank you to those who have contributed so far, and be sure to leave some comments of your own.
We intend to continue refining, adding to and generally improving The Pretender, but we also have some webgame delights lined up as well. Starting later this month, we’ll be flexing our newly-acquired Flash muscles (okay, they’re a little puny at the moment, but we’ll get there!) with some game-in-a-week experiments in the spirit of the Experimental Gameplay Project.
Putting together a game in only seven days can be a fantastic way to focus on the fun factor – usually at the cost of niceties like ‘good graphics’ (as I found attempting the same thing a few years ago), but we’ll do our best even on that front. We’re looking forward to sharing the results with you.
Up and running
Well, we’ve finally done it: we have our website up, and a beta of our first title as well. We have a long, long way to go, but getting something online feels like a great milestone.
So who are we? We’re a couple of guys who want to make games that are fun, creative, and not World War II-based first person shooters.
For now, we have an incomplete version of The Pretender online. It’s free to download, so check it out. We would love to hear your feedback on it (particularly if it doesn’t work!), so if you have some opinions you’d like to share, please tell us!
Thanks for popping by – we hope you like what we’ve got in store for the coming months.
The Pretender (Beta Testing)
Thanks for checking out the test version of The Pretender. It’s a work in progress right now, but hopefully you can see where we want to take it.
The game as it stands right now is a very, very reduced version of what we’d like it to end up being. We have a lot of ideas of where to take it, but we’d love to hear what you’ve got to say.
If you’ve experienced any bugs, or have any suggestions or feedback, post in the comments below! We’ll stay in touch with you all as we try and get your help on making this thing better.
Here are a few of the major elements we would like to introduce in subsequent versions of The Pretender:
- A fully functional level editor, with users able to create their levels and folders.
- Greatly improved graphics. As much as we like having only a single background in the game, we feel a bit of variety couldn’t hurt.
- Sound and music. This one goes without saying.
- Many more levels, and a greater sense of escalating difficulty.
- Integrating a story and more Victorian themes. We’ve got plans for introducing an overarching narrative, and will start showing things off in later versions.
