Push Notification Multi-player Challenges Coming to StickWars

[Eric]

There are a bunch of press releases on news sites with the same information, which you can read one of here.

Long story short, StickWars will be one of the first games to use the newest version of OpenFeint which will incorporate Push notifications as well as micro-transactions.

I've been working long and hard on a bunch of really cool new features for StickWars. Remember the 'survival' mode everyone wanted to see where it's just one long level to test your stamina? Well I'm expanding on that idea...

I'm creating a brand new set of 'challenges' which are short games (1-5 minutes) based on the same basic StickWars gameplay. Each one will be designed differently, requiring different strategies and sets of skills. An example of one is the "Toss Challenge", where 100 stick figures charge your castle and you are awarded points based on how high you manage to throw them. There will be at least 5-10 challenges in the first release and I'll probably continue to keep adding more challenges as I think of them (or take suggestions from you guys!).

Now these challenges on their own would be a good bit of fun to play through. The player will be able to unlock the additional achievements associated with them. But through OpenFeint, they will become a means to challenge your friends to complete against one another for StickWars mastery.

After playing a challenge, you can chose to send a challenge to one of your friends in the Feint social network. Because the Feint social network will integrate with your Facebook and Twitter accounts, any friends you already have who also use Feint will show up in your list, ready to battle. Also, your Feint account is tied to your device, so even if they don't have StickWars, if they have another Feint-powered game (PocketGod, for example), they will be able to see your challenge and decide if they want to respond.

After sending your challenge to a friend, Feint will use their new push notification feature to let your buddy know that you want to fight, even if he isn't currently running StickWars. This new push notification will allow these 'turn-based' challenges to happen in real-time.

Your buddy can then play the same challenge game in StickWars and the results of his score will be compared to yours, and the winner will be announced to both of you. These statistics will be saved to your Feint account to show off your StickWars prowellnes .

There is one caveat to all these awesome new features--they won't be free. There will be two free full-featured challenges available, including the ability to submit scores to friends. However, there will be many more bonus challenges which require a one-time purchase of $0.99 to unlock for the entire pack. Once purchased, you will continue to receive additional challenges as I create them. At the initial release, I'm planning on including between 4-6 bonus challenges.

Those who decide to not purchase the ability to access the challenge modes will still have full access to all the other features and updates being added to the current version of StickWars. In addition, they will probably even be able to see challenges from their friends who have purchased the upgrade, and decide at any time to quickly upgrade and respond to challenges.

If you have any questions or comments, please let me know here. I'd like to see what everyone thinks about all these cool new features!

[Blaze]

The only thing I don't like about in app purchasing, is that I have to delete Stick Wars often to upgrade (beta testing), and I really don't want to be charged for every new beta

It all sounds really good though I'm sure many people will be interested.

[Eric]

The only thing I don't like about in app purchasing, is that I have to delete Stick Wars often to upgrade (beta testing), and I really don't want to be charged for every new beta

It all sounds really good though I'm sure many people will be interested.

It will work like the App Store, once you buy it, even if you delete it, you will be able to download it again for free.

[Blaze]

In that case, I better get more credit for my iTunes account

[UnknownToaster]

Sounds great! Can't wait.
They seem very nice.

Theres one issue, with multiple BIG new features, there might be a lot of bugs and issues.
Program bugs are highly ecological because program code is a renewable resource. If you fix a bug, another will grow in its place. And if you cut down that bug, yet another will emerge; only this one will be a mutation with long, poisonous tentacles and revenge in its heart, and it will sit there deep in your program, cackling and making elaborate plans for the most terrible time to strike.

So...Off to the Beta Testers! :P

[Mac]

Hmm sounds like just what we need to get Stickwars back up the paid apps charts. No wonder its ben so long since the last update. I'm looking forward to this next update. =)

[Stickwarsmaster14]

in my opinion, the $0.99 for extra features is ridiculous!! I would be more than happy to have that be a free update for current stick wars owners such as I.

No kidding. I can't see them possible taking another month to approve another update though. Developers will not hang around if updates go live a month or more after we finish them. I know I'm not willing to work my ass off and lose sleep to finish quickly just to watch Apple sit on much-needed updates for nearly a month.

It wouldn't be as big a deal if I was a big company with some real quality-control testing, but I'm one guy with friends for testers, and while I try very hard to not release a version with bugs, it happens and not being able to fix them in a timely fashion is terrible. And as the AppStore tends to get a lot of money from the little guys who manage to make some good games, they should pay a little more attention to the small guys working hard to put out great games and constant updates.

The only thing I don't like about in app purchasing, is that I have to delete Stick Wars often to upgrade (beta testing), and I really don't want to be charged for every new beta

It all sounds really good though I'm sure many people will be interested.

[tazboy]

I really don't like the fact that you are making the new update cost .99$. You said in version 1.0 that you will not add a price to all in game updates. I probably will boycott stickwars if the new update costs $

[Eric]

I really don't like the fact that you are making the new update cost .99$. You said in version 1.0 that you will not add a price to all in game updates. I probably will boycott stickwars if the new update costs $

Though I don't blame everyone for being worried about being charged money for an update, they need to read what I write more carefully. What I state is that future updates will be free, there will be no charge. What will change is there are brand new features coming to the game that are completely different than the current game.

There are a few free demos of these new 'challenges', but there is also a bonus pack that is $0.99. It is purely on optional purchase, as you still get all the updates to the normal StickWars for free.

[tazboy]

Though I don't blame everyone for being worried about being charged money for an update, they need to read what I write more carefully. What I state is that future updates will be free, there will be no charge. What will change is there are brand new features coming to the game that are completely different than the current game.

There are a few free demos of these new 'challenges', but there is also a bonus pack that is $0.99. It is purely on optional purchase, as you still get all the updates to the normal StickWars for free.

Alright thx for clarifying