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TAG | iphone
26
The mobile market place: how does it look today?
4 Comments | Posted by Agent Tom in business, making games, Marketing
We spend a lot of time being all creative and fuzzy and nice here at The Voxel Agents, but often we need to stand back and have a good hard think about what’s actually happening out there in the mobile games space.
To make sure we are all still on top of everything, I spent all of last week researching the mobile market space. I forgot everything I knew about iPhone and Android and had a good hard look at the information that is out there. Some of my findings certainly will be old news to you, and some might change what you thought you knew. So, if you’re interested in the business (pronounced “biz-niz”) side of being an indie game developer, check this stuff out:
You may think the iPad is a mobile device, but you’d be wrong.
- 43% of iPad owners use their iPad more than their desktop computer
- 28% say it’s their primary computer
- 34% use it more than their TV
- 83% use it primarily while at home. Only 11% use it on the go.
Developers are flocking back to the iOS platform
Sources:
http://blog.flurry.com/bid/
Even though iOS has more Apps, Android has more free Apps
Sources:
iOS has served 15 Billion downloads compared to Androids 4.5 Billion
Those numbers should have six 0's after them too, by the way
Sources:
Android App installs per day may be reaching parity with iOS installs
Source:
500,000 Android devices are activated every single day
and most importantly of all…
Sources:
14
Andrew plays Train Conductor USA
2 Comments | Posted by Agent Tom in Games, Train Conductor
Our number #1 fan, 4 year old Andrew of the U.S., has been waiting MONTHS for the chance to play Train Conductor USA.
He is a massive fan of the original Train Conductor Australia, and back in March we got an email from him wanting to know when he’d have more levels to play.
Well, after the release of Train Conductor USA today, Andrew got his chance and he was kind enough to record himself playing. Andrew, I have to say that you made my day.
Click here to listen (Warning! Incredibly cute!): Andrew Plays Train Conductor 2
We’re glad you love the game Andrew and we’ll get some more levels made for you to play soon.
Hello Agents!
For the past few months we have been planning to release the mega sequel to Train Conductor on the 4th of July.
Just like this blog post, our submission was unfortunately not released in time for the Independence Day celebration of fireworks and barbeques.
No need to stress! Train Conductor USA will be available shortly after the holiday weekend. It’s currently in the submission process. We’re simply waiting for Apple’s approval before we release – we thought it would be nice to give them the weekend off.
While we were researching trains in America, we were actually quite inspired by the enormous impact they had upon the American industrial revolution and the role they continue to play today.
We pay homage to this throughout Train Conductor USA. It features the steam trains of the old wild west, the modern monorails of Miami, and of course the electric subways of New York – enough historical transport to make Paul Revere proud.
No need to wait long! We expect to be approved soon after the long weekend is finished. After that we’ll start our own celebrations with a few competitions and prizes for our very patient Train Conductor fans. We’ll be running the comps over Twitter and Facebook so if you’re not already friends with us make sure you don’t miss out – join us at Twitter and at Facebook.
28
The Voxel Agents donate $1,697 to support the people of Haiti
0 Comments | Posted by Agent Matt in Misc, Train Conductor
Some time last week we stumbled across AppRelief. We thought it was such a great idea we decided to join up. We signed up for the period of our Australia Day Sale (Jan 20-26), donating 100% of our net profit during that time.
We’ve just received the daily figures from apple for the period, and after operating expenses, we will be contributing $1,697! We don’t pay ourselves (yet), so this represents quite a hefty commitment on our part.
Our most sincere thanks go to all the players of Train Conductor, in particular those in Australia, Italy, USA, Japan and Great Britain who represent the largest contributors.
Distribution of sales by country
Extra kudos goes to Japan and Italy, sales of Train Conductor jumped significantly in those regions during the donation period. (And thanks to AppViz for the PieGraph)
We’re still trying to decide between whether to donate to the RedCross or MSF or perhaps another worthy source. We won’t be receiving the cheque from Apple for the sales until the end of Feburary. If anyone can help suggest a worthy charity, please let us know before then by leaving a comment.
Update: We have chosen to give the proceeds to Médecins Sans Frontières Australia. The full amount of $1,697 has been donated and will go to helping MSF’s efforts around the world and in Haiti. Thanks to everyone for helping us to do this!
Train Conductor is in review at Apple HQ. To satisfy your train-spotting needs while the reviewers do their thing, we’ve posted these great screenshots for you.
Get started in Alice Springs, the first level of Train Conductor.
Sydney featuring Gold-rush trains.
Ghosts running amok in busy Melbourne
The Main Menu of Train Conductor
Welcome to Train Conductor!
The sunny beaches of Cairns
C2RBVUGGZ54U
11
Images showing the development and progression of Train Conductor.
0 Comments | Posted by Agent Matt in Train Conductor
Screenshot history. From early concepts to final release.
7
Introducing the artists of Train Conductor
0 Comments | Posted by Agent Simon in Train Conductor
Train Conductor is looking great and it’s thanks to the efforts of Logan Dowell, Derek Pritchard, Joe Gatling and Jarrod Andersen, our nationally distributed art team.
Logan Dowell and Derek Pritchard were selected to join the Agent ranks as part of the QANTM college internship program. together they developed the level backdrops of Sydney and Melbourne, created numerous train models, and designed the entire menu art style. They also collaborated together to produce the wonderful loading screens and game website, amongst many other things. The pending release of Train Conductor marks their explosive debut into the games industry.
Joe Gatling, a long standing friend and fellow university graduate member of our sif90 roots, initially set the style of the game seen in the early teaser images, and they became the defacto style guide for the rest of the development process.
Jarrod Andersen connected with The Agents through a serendipitous reddit post in July 2009. Jarrod developed the Mr. Train Conductor character and set the initial train model style, as well as the scary Skull Train.
We are tremendously grateful for their assistance and the beauty of the final game is a tribute to their efforts.
9
Train Conductor – game icon and desktop wallpapers
0 Comments | Posted by Agent Simon in Games, Train Conductor
Check out the newly completed icon for Train Conductor on your iPhone. We think it will look mighty fine on your home screen – what do you think?!
Tell us what you think in the comments or on twitter #trainconductor.
Also – we are reviving the somewhat dying art of the desktop background! While we were making the icon, we thought we’d put these images up as well – they’re the wallpaper de rigueur for everyone in our office now 
iPhone Wallpaper
Train Conductor iPhone & iPod Touch Wallpaper
Download link [320 x 480 pixels]
Desktop Wallpaper
Become the greatest Train Conductor of the Australian Outback
Download link
Widescreen: [1280 x 800, 1440 x 900, 1680 x 1050, 1920 x 1200]
Standard: [1024 x 768, 1280 x 1024]
5
Dolphin Hero Tactics – Getting High Scores
0 Comments | Posted by Agent Simon in Dolphin Hero
Swimming with Agent Duski the Dolphin Hero is a whole lot of fun regardless of how you play, but if you like maximizing your score and challenging the best secret agents in the world, this post is for you!
Can you master all of the Dolphin Hero tactics?
- Collect multiple people of the same color at once to get bigger combo scores
- Watch the arrows at the top of the screen for clues of what is coming
- Each person on your back is worth another 100 points when you eat cake
- Drop the victims at the party boat at the last minute – new ones could drop at any moment allowing you to get a bigger combo score
- When you’re in trouble, drop people quickly by swimming through a pufferfish. Use this method to drop one color to pick up the other.
- *ADVANCED TACTIC!* Try juggling two groups of blue and pink by ‘swapping on the puffer’.
- *ADVANCED TACTIC!* Swim through a pufferfish from above to release the people further up in the water, allowing more time to collect them later.
We’d love to hear other tactics that you discover and come up with… post them in the comments below!
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Crystal clear graphics in the upcoming Dolphin Hero update.
0 Comments | Posted by Agent Simon in Dolphin Hero, Games
The graphics rendering of Dolphin Hero has been massively upgraded and its like playing Dolphin Hero in HD! Everything is sharper and the colours are more vibrant.
The difference is astonishing!
The graphics rendering has been drastically improved.
The difference is due to a relatively simple change in the way we do things and we will post about it soon.