Indie Game Developers Take Aim at Reinventing Duck Hunt For The iPhone
Dec 19,2011 - Toronto. Bird Blaster, the first iPhone game released by indie developer Runaway Cog Studios, is now available for $0.99 on the Apple App Store. Bird Blaster is a modern take on classic arcade shooters such as Duck Hunt, requiring players to defend a litter of puppies from an onslaught of mischievous birds using nothing more than a ball-shooter.
Chief among the game's innovations is an attempt to tightly-integrate competitive social-play right into the game's interface. "Many iPhone games currently in the market support Game Center leaderboards, but we found the user-experience to be lacking," said Joannes Chan, Developer at Runaway Cog. "The leaderboards are often presented separately from the game, as if they were added as an afterthought. For Bird Blaster however, we are trying an interesting experiment where the leaderboard is presented to you at the start of each game, in the game's native interface. That way, you know your ranking at the start of the play session and can identify the next person you need to beat. We then drew some inspiration from the Google Chrome version of Angry Birds, and present the name and score of this person throughout the game itself as a reminder of your target. We hope that by doing this, it'll encourage more competitive play and in turn, act as a kind of natural social marketing."
Bird Blaster features:
- Easy to learn, one-touch gameplay
- Beautiful custom art and animation
- Multiple weapons and powerups to help boost the player's score
- Unlockable stages, birds and puppies- An original soundtrack
- Tight Game-center integration for online play with friends
- Compelling story mode with original comic strip
Runaway Cog Studios is also releasing Bird Blaster Lite, a free version of the game that includes most of the eatures of the full version except for the game's story mode and bomb weapon. The Lite version also supports the integrated leader board experience.
Links:
- Website: www.birdblasterapp.com
- Free version: http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/bird-blaster-lite/id485149209
- Paid version: http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/bird-blaster/id467163019
- YouTube 1 (gameplay trailer): http://goo.gl/slPxy
- YouTube 2 (trailer): http://goo.gl/1GgE9
- Twitter: @BirdBlasterApp
About Runaway Cog Studios:
Founded in 2011, Runaway Cog Studios is a small, independent, gaming company based in Toronto, Canada. Runaway Cog is committed to creating entertaining casual games for mobile devices.
