Stunt Squirrels! MAJOR UPDATE!

firemaplegames

Hey All!

My second game, Stunt Squirrels!, has just been given a major overhaul!

Please check it out on gamesalad.com here:

http://gamesalad.com/game/play/34565

This is also my entry for the MacWorld Competition!

New Features:

60 Levels (30 regular levels and 30 secret bonus levels!)

Three themes: Big Top Bonanza, Daredevil Canyon and Construction Chaos - each with their own theme music!

A golden acorn hidden on every level! Try to find them all!

A magic hoop is hidden on each level as well - blast through the hoop to gain access to the secret bonus levels!

30 secret Outer Space bonus levels where you can try to collect 750 coins - while dodging small planets and pinball pop bumpers!

A new splash screen!

3 different trophies to collect!

Stunt Squirrels! keeps track of all stats as you play: levels unlocked, acorns found, coins collected, time played, failed attempts, etc...

***

Unfortunately, to squeeze under the 10MB limit for games uploaded to gamesalad.com, I had to seriously pare down the web version. The web version only has the first 20 levels (10 regular levels and 10 bonus levels) available to play. It should still keep you busy though! The iPhone version, which will be submitted in the morning, will have all 60 levels.

Please let me know what you think! I welcome all comments, criticisms, bugs, and feedback!!!

And now that my time is freed up again, I will be more active on the forums and will try to help out wherever I can.

Thanks!

Joe

Fire Maple Games

JCFord

A very very nice update Joe, I think you could have the MacWorld Comp in the bag with this - Good luck and look forward to playing the update on my iphone!

Bluefusion

firemaplegames

Thanks Bluefusion!

JoshKahane

Can;t wait for this to reach my iPod Touch! Great Joe, it really is. Keep up the work, your proving yourself to be very talented. I hope you do well in both the competition and with sales.

Weswog

Great Job I also can't wait for it to come out:) I saw that Danger Cats right now is 37th in puzzle,
congrats.

Cheers, Weswog

CoIin

I've just been through a couple of levels, and one of the bonus ones. Of course, it's still excellent, but here's some suggestions anyway...

The 25 stars challenge has an awful lot of "yee-hars" going on. My neighbors probably thought there was a squirrel orgy going on in my apartment. Might that level have a briefer sound effect?

Given that the hoop and acorn involve going the long way around, could they give you an instant bonus of one bomb's worth?

It might get dizzying, but could the compass be in the stars level? It could point to the nearest star. Or maybe some other mechanism to help you know where the stars are. For me I managed to collect 24 stars, but a long time later, and quite a number of yee-hars on the way, I still didn't find the last star.

CoIin

I found the +1 on level 2, so that helped, though that hoop is especially small it seems! I did also manage 25 stars on the level 1 bonus this time.

Crazybreadman

Great update Firemaple! Also thanks for the help yesterday. Traffic Ninja is on the release list today but I guess it didn't matter what I did because it's still set for 23rd :b oh well, I hope the new release games for today don't dump on top too soon.

firemaplegames

@everyone: thanks!

@Colin: Thanks for the feedback! I added a "yee-har!" delay to the bonus levels. Much better now.
(I was actually born in Texas so I didn't notice the problem!)

I would add the compass to the bonus levels in a heartbeat, but I can't think of a way to do it without storing 1500 attributes(literally!). Can you think of any other way?

As far as the difficulty is concerned, I wanted there to be three "levels" of achievements for each stage. You could just go for the goal each time, just like it was before. That earns you the first, and smallest, trophy. Next, if you were so inclined, you could hunt down all of the acorns and try to earn the 2nd, much more handsome(and larger!) silver trophy. Finally you can go back and try to conquer all of the hoops/bonus levels for the best trophy.

I was just trying to add some re-playability to the levels.

I do admit that the hoops are very difficult, but I promise that I made sure they were all possible! I did design the game, so I do have an advantage, but I am able to complete the game 100%...

And please tell me you're still not using a trackpad to play the game!! My index finger is cramping up just thinking about it! (knowing you, you're probably playing it on your phone...)

Joe

CoIin

I made some progress, still using my trackpad! I have done eight of the levels where I did the acorn, hoop, and goal, in one turn, and then got Perfect on the bonus. Even level 10, and in that case I had one bomb to spare.

Another level I've done in two passes, one that was the hoop and the bonus/Perfect, and a second go to get the acorn. One other level I can't remember what I had got. I was going to get all perfect levels and send you a screen shot, but as often happens in the Games area, I accidentally clicked on another game, and so lost all of my progress.

So, the point being that even with a trackpad it's possible to complete all the levels, in one turn goes (as opposed to three turn goes).

Meanwhile, a couple of new comments/suggestions:

The top of Space has a gray line on it.

How about lowering gravity in space? It would be more comical/correct, and be marginally less stressful to play on a trackpad! Also, how about making him have an airtight suit/helmet when in space?

StormyStudio

very cool game....look forward to seeing on my iphone soon...love the finish to your games, so well put together and looks like a proper finished product, unlike other things that I'm surprised get accepted on the App Store.

submitted my first app to the App store this morning, more App then game...hopefully hear something over the next week. Will post about it once/if it makes it into the store.

...it was a good education in GameSalad making it, now ready to tackle something a bit more tech. With lots of level, recently played Kill the King, and liked the difficulty level...so something similar to that or Stunt Squirrels...but obviously different and original.

butterbean

Awesome job! I think the Macworld contest is yours! Love your games, and how polished they are! Keep up the great work and you're truly setting the bar high!

firemaplegames

Ha! I was thinking the same thing about the gravity and the astronaut suit!
I'll see what I can whip up!

Yeah, I added gray walls to the sides and ceiling of the outer space area. I also tried different colors as well but none really looked correct. Even though it is just as silly, I wanted visible physical walls instead of just hitting the 'edge' of space...

firemaplegames

Just lowered the gravity in the Outer Space levels. Very nice! I'll work on a spacesuit for him.

firemaplegames

Added his little spacesuit for the bonus levels.
@Colin: thanks for the suggestions!
@butterbean: thanks!
@draper3000: thanks! good luck on your first app!

CoIin

About the gray wall, you don't see that when bouncing left and right, just when at the top. So either don't worry about it, or make it be a force field.

I see that you've taken out the gray wall, that seems fine. I mean, if a user can cope with imagining a speaking-flying-in-outer-space squirrel, bouncing off nothingness should be acceptable.

firemaplegames

Hey,

I updated Stunt Squirrels! on the gamesalad.com Games page!

I was able to use some serious image compression tricks and also that great tip from Micah about the .xml file to get it under the 10MB limit.

It now has all 60 levels playable (30 regular levels and 30 bonus levels)!

Please check it out if you get the chance!

Thanks!
Joe

micah

@firemaplegames, I hope my tip doesn't cost me the Macworld prize . You've made a great game, good luck!

firemaplegames

Thanks Micah! Good luck to you, too!

I just submitted Stunt Squirrels! to Apple as well. Here's hoping everything goes smoothly!!