Posted by XyrisKenn on February 15th, 2010 |
0 commentsSteamPunk Hockey v1.3 for iPhone is currently charting top 25 in 31 countries including Canada, USA and UK, due to the promotional efforts of OpenFeint and FreeAppADay.com.
SteamPunk Hockey is a re-think of the venerable and popular ‘frictionless’ table hockey concepts engineered in the early 70s by Phil Crossman, Bob Kendrick, Brad Baldwin (Wikipedia) and Bob Lemeiux. Many variations have been developed for the touch-sensitive iPhone and are very popular, but few have strayed from the original concepts with the notable exception of Glow Hockey.
Kenneth Mayfield takes the ‘touch hockey’ concept a step further. A love of 19th-century craftsmanship, Romantic-era artists, and modern steampunk & science-fiction concepts pulsing in his heart and veins, Kenn created a game redefining the touch hockey genre and opening it up to consistent thematic and narrative possibilities.
SteamPunk Hockey utilizes various obstacles to redirect the disc’s trajectory and change the gameplay for each level, much like a pinball machine and labyrinth game. The genre style allows for beauty and verisimilitude when introducing new obstacles, robots and layered narrative themes.
As the economic crash of 2009 cascaded across the world, Kenn decided that creativity was the personal and business solution to finding himself out of work in a small Czech economy.
Having purchased a used Mac Mini, a monitor and the $99 Apple Developer license, he set about learning enough Obj-C, Cocos2D, continuous physics and game AI coding to produce a sellable product.
To date Kenn had completed a single object-orientated Flash/Director game development project rendered as a business-to-business service in 2006.
Over the course of two months Kenn drew amongst his previous experience developing Flash e-learning applications for the Geological Survey of Canada and a small business training course taken through the YMCA in Vancouver.
By December 2009 enough work was completed on SteamPunk Hockey to enter the information into Apple’s iTunes Connect, and a single-player version without sound or music was released to the App Store on January 5th for $0.99 USD.
Two consecutive revision quickly followed adding obstacle, sound options, and currently two-player functionality and OpenFeint Achievements.
Throughout January, the game sold over 200 units, including $80 for Haiti charity as part of the Indie+Relief and AppRelief efforts.
By February 2010 sales had dropped to 0-3 per day. Lack of visibility and piracy appeared to be taking a toll. Kenn offered SteamPunk Hockey to OpenFeint and FreeAppADay.com for promotion, and the rest is (alternate) history in the making.
Version 1.3 of SteamPunk Hockey for iPhone is a physics-driven touch environment using the open-source Cocos2D for iPhone Objective-C game and Box2D physics frameworks.
For more information please contact the developer Kenn Mayfield VIA email: info (at) xyris (dot) ca.
Kenneth Mayfield is a graduate of the 1991 Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and a Canadian currently residing in the Czech Republic, near the UNESCO heritage city of Prague.
SteamPunk Hockey ranking via MajicRank, 11:20AM GMT+1
