Plunderland Adventures
Adventure is the new game mode on Plunderland, it comes free as part of the 1.0.2 update and is a new way to go at the game from new angles. That way if your looking to escape the commute for a few minutes or ignore the terrible new hollywood movie you've been forced to watch, you can!
Levels in adventure mode are dynamically generated which means you'll never play the same level twice and we know from feedback that some of you play for short bursts while others really want a longer play time, so we made a few modes where you get to choose between short, medium and long play times.
The cool thing about adventure mode is that when you lose your shipmates you can find them later waiting on islands to carry on the fight. This is really helpful because without your pirates on deck, your boat cannot be repaired and will sink easier, you need a good stock of nasty pirates to keep fighting!
The new fire ammunition makes its debut in 1.0.2 as well and it's really awesome. Not only can you set ships ablaze but you can also char people. It's pretty gross, but gives you a good idea of how much life they have left.
It doesn't end there either because you've got Konstrukt objects that also burn to the ground when hit with fire, it spreads and sets off the TNT barrels making it faster and more exciting to combat complicated structures.
That's just a few of the things hitting in the new Adventure mode, keep checking your update screen to get this new content for free, courtesy of the Johnny Two Shoes brothers.
Check out more technical details about the upcoming 1.0.2 Plunderland update
Plunderland Update 1.0.2
So we didn't get everything with the Plunderland 1.0.1 update, so relatively quickly afterwards comes the 1.0.2 update. This isn't just a bug-fix update, this adds new cool content too.
Cool new stuff
- New arcade mode called "Adventure" which is dynamic game mode that creates levels on the fly as you play. You can choose from short, medium and long games. Read more.
- New "fire" cannon, fire ammo and pick-up. Read more.
- Split campaign menu into Arcade and Story modes with new menu system
- Aim your shot, then tap the boat to keep shooting that trajectory
- Information about each arcade game mode added to help players understand new content. This will eventually be rolled out through the entire game.
- Added lightning flashes when it's stormy weather.
Bugfixes
- "Hardly Survive" survival mode took ages to start on some devices
- Fixed invisible cannon balls on survival mode
- New camera to deal with multiple enemies at once
- Fixed save issue with credit screen
- Fixed audio drop-out when multi-tasking or receiving calls mid-game
- Potentially fixed the black-screen bug in a number of ways
- Optimised a lot of code
- Game runs noticeably faster on 3G iPhones
- Added comma to all gold references
The 1.0.2 update will be submitted to Apple shortly once testing is completed.
Win a JohnnyTwoShoes tee
We might be calling it JohnnyTeeShoes from now on, ok, that's a lie but look here, it's our first competition where we're giving away T-Shirts! The catch is, to win a t-shirt you have to actually design your own JTS related t-shirt.
We are hand-printing these shirts as a relaxing way to get away from the computer screens and do something really fun and messy.
The winner will get their t-shirt hand printed by us onto the top quality American Apparel shirts we're using, plus an original Johnny Two Shoes t-shirt designed by ourselves (which will also go on sale in a limited edition).
You have until August 30th to get your designs in to us, there are templates and guidelines to help you through the process plus me and Josh will be around to help you along the way.
Plunderland Review Round-Up
It's not often I post about reviews and such, but Plunderland is really getting some golden attention and some outrageously positive reviews. It's really blown us away.
While we're currently working on updates I thought it would be helpful to see exactly what people are saying and what the latest is.
TappedIn recently got in contact about their review of Plunderland, TappedIn is a video podcast about apps and is owned and promoted by Fox News. When Fox News knocks on your door, you feel like a bit of a king. So we're proud to show you the latest TappedIn video podcast right here.
Subscribe to the TappedIn podcast through iTunes
This week we've been featured in the UK appstore, we don't know about everywhere because we can't possibly keep track of everything but we wanted to give a shout out to Apple who have been so kind and supportive to feature us pretty much across the globe. Thanks Apple!
Guardian Mobile Tech Talk
Today at 1pm until 4pm Max will be available to answer any questions related to mobile game development on the Guardian Careers website.
The Guardian asked Max to get involved because of the recent achievements with Plunderland and the growing notoriety of Johnny Two Shoes on the web and mobile space.
So, get your questions ready and head over to the Guardian UK website where you can field your questions to Max and other relevant people. Remember, the Guardian requires you to register before you can post so make sure you do that before you get started.
Visit Guardian Careers "Mobile Tech" talk
UPDATE: Now the talk is over, you can see that there was some pretty interesting stuff asked -- some important information too if you're going to university and what to expect as you graduate.
Plunderland Update 1.0.1
We have been having awesome success with Plunderland on the AppStore, thanks for all your support so far. Today we're officially announcing the 1.0.1 update for Plunderland, it's only a 0.1 release, but it packs a punch.
If you've just joined us at JohnnyTwoShoes after buying Plunderland, you're probably starting to realise that we genuinely do listen to our players and our fans. So, this update truly addresses some of the biggest gripes you all had with the game.
For the list-o-phobes, look away now:
- Updated the cannon controls, now it's a lot easier to grab when the camera zooms out and also, context sensitive around certain areas.
- The pause menu now shows you how much gold you've made so far in the current level and lets you toggle the audio on and off.
- We tweaked the price of items in the shipyard and let you start off with a couple more items unlocked.
- The crows nest works properly on 'Sheffield' ship.
- The survival mode is now unlocked by default so you can jump right into the mayhem without having to play through all 3 campaigns. Each survival mode unlocks as you beat the previous difficulty.
- The credits screen now works too, most of you probably haven't got there yet but it's pretty cool. The music was performed especially by Josh.
- We've tweaked some of the expert scores too, some were nearly impossible.
- You'll be glad to know that the evasive final cod-piece on the serpent level can now be found! It was probably in a cloud before, outrageous. Even I couldn't find it.
- Performance tweaks, including much better handling of low-memory situations -- this effectively completely gets rid of the "black screen" bug people have been reporting. It's all gooooood now.
- And the biggest of all? Full support for OS3.0 and upwards, we know not all of you have iOS4.0 and it wasn't even intended but we re-wrote ALL the menus so you could get into this. That means it will also run on iPads (in the iPhone simulation mode)
If that's not proof that we listen, I don't know what is. A lot of you have been asking for an iPad specific version, more news on that soon and also, we know a lot of you are asking for more levels. We will be bringing some FREE new campaigns to Plunderland and a ton of other awesome stuff.
The update is about to be submitted to Apple after a bit more testing, we don't want you guys to freak out if we forgot to include a play button.
UPDATE: The 1.0.1 update is now live in App Stores across the globe.
Go Go Plunderland!
Today is turning out to be one of the greater days in Johnny Two Shoes history, but we still need your help! It's all about getting the know out about Plunderland, so that means Facebook, Twitter and anything else you can think of.
If you have the game, show your friends, get them in on it. We would love to say "We made it!" tonight. Thanks for all your help!
If you haven't already, you can buy Plunderland from the app store, follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook and retweet for the chance to win todays promo code for Plunderland!
Farnetti did our press shots!
This is our friend Tom, he's the guy that did our press shots and they're pretty sweet. We wanted to thank him for the great job he did —thanks Tom!
Tom is a freelance photographer and his work is of such a high-standard, if you need a photographer for your stuff around London (or further afield) then you should contact Tom through his website.
Check out our press shots on the official Thomas Farnetti site, if you enjoy his work it's worth liking through facebook as well so you can stay updated.
Photo credit: Michael Piper
Plunderland Release Date Set
Yesterday was a pretty eventful day for us at Johnny Two Shoes, the most spectacular news was that Apple noticed Plunderland and they got in touch with us. First it was Apple Europe and then Apple in Cupertino (you know, the HQ).
Well, it turns out they really enjoyed Plunderland and that's great because it should be featured in iTunes pretty well. It also means we have a release date, July 22nd.
So set your alarms and get your pirate paraphernalia at the ready because in just 9 days time there will be plundering aplenty.
First hands-on with Plunderland
Today we spend some time getting a hands-on video ready for you guys so you can see just how Plunderland plays rather than just staring at screenshots.
Here we're showing you Plunderland running on an iPhone 4 with high-resolution "retina display" textures. Enjoy!