Reviewers and players have asked for it and we have added it – multiplayer! You can now play Rapture against up to 3 friends online via GameCenter or locally. Please grab the update and have a go, let us know what you think.
As well as multiplayer there’s a few graphical tweaks for solo players – new creation stories on start up, and blood red seas and global cracks which appear as you get close to the end of the world.
We have also reduced the price, so if you know anyone that hasn’t bought the game, please poke them – US/UK
We’re heads down at the moment, full pelt on getting the new update out. Multi-player is in and works great. You’ll be able to play online or over local wifi with up to 3 other players.
We’re also adding some graphical updates in game. Here’s a taster:
The cracks will appear on the globe as you approach the Rapture; reminding you that time is running out.
We also have a new feedback page on the website, which will link through from the game. We’re hoping to hear from you – what you like and dislike, and any problems you have.
Been a while since the last update. We’ve been busy working on multiplayer and getting it ready for a beta release. It will probably be available sometime in January. We’re planning on creating an update to the main game with the beta version so everyone can play the early release and give us feedback.
Plans are underway for a PC version of the game via Steam and we’re still considering an Android version, though this will come later next year.
We love to get feedback on the game, what you enjoy, what you’d like to see and any problems that you’ve seen. Please send comments through to feedback@tundragames.com
Busy time at Tundra the past few weeks. We’ve been working hard on the new update which has just been released; translating the game into French, German and Spanish. We’re hoping to get a few European review sites interested in the game, to boost downloads a little. At the same time we’re having a sale this week, with a 1/3 off the price. So if you know anyone that hasn’t bought the game, especially French, German or Spanish friends, then please let them know.
We are also up for a Tiga award tomorrow night, for Debut game. Crossing our collective fingers for that.
Multiplayer is coming on well. The first local game has been played and Andy and I have arranged to play the first remote game of Rapture on Saturday morning. I’m very keen to see who is the better player after so much solo practice. Will let you know the results. We’ll be asking for Beta players in the next month or so.
Lastly we’ll be at the London Excel next Wednesday and Thursday for the Apps World expo. We’ll have a stand in the Indie Village, so please stop by and say hi. I (Dan) will be giving a talk on a panel discussion on the Thursday, so please come along and ask interesting questions 🙂
We’re now 4 weeks since Rapture was released. It’s been quite a ride!
Now the app store features have finished downloads have slowed, but that’s to be expected, it’s difficult to get exposure for a small indie game if you’re not on the Apple front page.
We’ve been using the quiet to concentrate on translating the game into Spanish, French and German. All the new text is now in the game and we’re currently testing it. If you can speak any of those languages and fancy getting involved in testing then please let me know – dan.c@tundragames.com
Also in news we’ve been shortlisted for the TIGA awards in the Best Debut Game category; hopefully the judges will enjoy the game. The public can vote for the Best Game of the Year and we’d appreciate your vote for Rapture – here
We’re also working on the multiplayer side of things. Slow going making decisions on the best way of organising things, but hopefully soon we’ll be able to finally play a 2 player match in the office. Having played thousands of matches of Rapture, I’m especially looking forward to seeing if my skills can better Andy’s.
We’re booked up for Apps World on the 12th November at London Excel, so if anyone is planning on attending, let us know – we’d love to meet up.
Lastly we’re looking at a variety of updates – fun little changes to the game, new graphical effects, tweaks to game play. So if you have ideas for changes you’d like to see please email us at feedback@tundragames.com – all comments welcome.
We’re now two weeks after Rapture landed in the app store and it’s been another good week.
On Thursday 26th, we were contacted by Apple for some details of the game; they required them ASAP. I wasn’t too sure what to write, but I re-hashed a few bits of stock description and put them into their spreadsheet; along with a few other details. Didn’t expect to hear much, but Thursday evening got an email saying that Rapture was featured on the App Store. I opened by iPad and there it was on the front page – Brand New Games #5. Was a fantastic feeling. I also discovered we were featured in 77 other countries – including the UK, China and Russia. Wonderful to have that sort of exposure.
Our rank leaped up the charts in the UK. Our best position on the iPad charts was #1 on Arcade, #2 on Strategy, #9 on All Games and #14 on All Apps on Saturday.
Friday we came down off the USA and Canadian front pages. But we also found we’d got a 4.5/5 review from TouchArcade which was fantastic, especially as the game got knocked around a little on the TA Forums for including In App Purchases. The review was very kind regarding those.
Downloads have been very good. Not quite as skyrockety as you’d expect from being featured, but the weekend was our highest yet. Downloads are now starting to coming down, but we’re keeping a decent rank in the Strategy and Arcade charts. Hopefully the momentum can keep us there for a few weeks.
The user reviews have been quite polarized – people tend to either love the game and give it a 5star review, or hate it and give it a 1star – mostly the complaints are about the game being too fast or too simple. I’ve tried to stop reading user reviews, especially before bed, as it tends to keep me awake 🙂 If you haven’t already, please add a review on the app store, it helps a great deal.
We did discover a problem with iPhone 6+ devices where the tutorial text was going off the screen. We quickly got a fix out and Apple expedited it through the review process. It’s now up for anyone that has one of those flexible friends.
We’re currently running around trying to get the game into other languages – as well as getting multiplayer ready and looking at what’s involved with Android.
We’ve been getting some lovely emails through from people – it’s a nice feeling that people take the time to feedback like that. Please do get in touch at feedback@tundragames.com If we see any bugs or problems, let us know, we’re keen to iron out any glitches.
If you’re new to the game and haven’t seen it yet, here’s a video of a single game:
Currently iPhone 6 Plus owners will be seeing some problems with the tutorial – where the textboxes are overlapping the sides of their screens. We have submitted a fix for this with Apple and we’re going to ask them to expedite it through the review process. Normally it will take about 8 days to get through review, but hopefully they’ll get it through quicker.
So apologies to iPhone 6 Plus users, perhaps take a look at this gameplay video to give you an idea of how to play the game:
We’re stoked to announce that we’ve been featured by Apple on their Best New Games charts in 77 countries! Take a look, can hardly believe it!
It’s particularly awesome to see us on our home country charts in the UK. We’re at 21 overall on the iPad charts, 11 on the Games charts and 2nd on the Strategy charts. The downloads were dropping at the start of the week, so we’re hoping to see a big jump back up.
It’s wonderful news for us, it will be fantastic to have the game being played around the world and we’re hoping to get some feedback from players – what they like, what they don’t, new features they would like to see etc.
Rapture has been in the App Store for a week now, been a bit of a roller coaster for 7 days, but very enlightening, we’ve learnt a lot.
We submitted the game to Apple on the 1st September and looked happily at the “Waiting for Review” status. The time dragged on and the game remained seemed stuck with that status. Supposedly the average time is about 8 days, but that came and went and it became hard not to impatiently hit refresh on the browser. Our submission time may have been bad with the release of iOS 8 and the new iPhones possibly dominating Apple’s collective attention. On the 13th the email finally arrived switching us to “In Review” and a few hours later the approval email arrived. I’ll admit that I thought it might stay in review longer with Apple employees unable to put the game down 🙂 But in the end it quickly went through.
We had decided to do a “soft launch” – starting the game in a small english speaking territory to double check that it was all fully working – that there was nothing we had overlooked. So the game launched in New Zealand and we both nudged friends and family down under to buy and check the game. Most were asleep when the game appear on the NZ app store, but in the morning, it was successfully purchased and worked.
By the 15th there was nothing really holding us back. For me it was like sending your first child to school for the first time, letting them out into the wild world. Would they have the skills to cope out there? With a slightly shaky hand we pushed the game out to everyone.
The next day we were hitting refresh for figures. The downloads so far have been reasonable. We somehow managed to get featured on the US and Canadian New Games Chart, which helped give us a slight boost. Most of the start of the week was spent writing countless emails to journalists and websites. The response was surprisingly quiet – we had only a handful of responses. We did however get a news piece on Pocket Gamer and one on a new games list for IGN, both of which were great to see, though it’s hard to know whether that helped sales.
We also posted on several forums. The forums weren’t quite so much fun. We were knocked around a bit for having in-app purchases in a paid game. Hardcode gamers seem to take exception to IAPs, even though our title has very light coin pack style IAPs, which don’t affect the game at all. After reading and discussing with people, it seems as though many hardcode gamers feel that IAPs are having a damaging effect on gaming, and that they somehow “dirty” a game. There’s possibly a grain of truth in that, but it stung to have that charge levelled at Rapture.
On Thursday we uploaded an update to the game with a few bug fixes and a small change to try and add some balance to the coins you get in game. We also added a new Scottish Civilization to commemorate Scotland’s independence referendum. Perhaps the new civilization will be some consolidation to the Yes voters. We had hoped that it might get picked up by the press, but no luck.
Currently the sales are starting to dip down, whether this is after a weekend, we shall see. We’re still hoping for some big reviews to appear and we’re starting work on translating the game into French, German and Spanish (to start with). We’re also looking at Multiplayer and Android in the near future. The initial euphoria is starting to wear off now and it’s heads down again to push some updates.
Thanks again for the support we’ve had. And please get in touch if you have any thoughts or feedback.
September 19th 2014 – Oxford, UK – Tundra Games Ltd. announces the first update for “Rapture – World Conquest” now with a new Scottish civilization. The new playable civ has been added to commemorate the result of the Scottish referendum. Players can now play as the Scots in this god game about civilizations, miracles and destruction.
Rapture World Conquest is a real time strategy a god game, where you play a jealous god, intent on wiping out enemy civilizations with devastating miracles and carrying your followers to the heavens.
Rapture World Conquest has climbed high in the charts since it’s release on Monday 15th September, reaching the top 5 in the US strategy iPad chart.
“Unlike other strategy games it gets your mind racing, reacting to what’s happening, and before you realise it’s all over and you’re raring to go again.” – Pocket Gamer
“Like Sid Meier’s Civilization on a sugar rush, Rapture: World Conquest accelerates centuries of global conflict into mere minutes for a super-fast strategy experience the likes of which I’ve never seen.” – IGN.com
Tundra Games is a independent studio based in Oxford UK, made up of industry veterans Andrew Weinkove and Dan Collier. Andy and Dan having worked on many AAA titles including Skate It, Sims 3, FIFA, Madden, Angry Birds Star Wars, Angry Birds Go and Need for Speed. Their detailed bios can be found on the website and in the press kit.
Tundra
