The game is called “The Exterminator” and it’s about a motorcyclist defending the earth from mega-sized mutant bugs. It’s an endless runner-type game with a totally rocking original electric guitar soundtrack. The gameplay is super addictive and feels a bit like a 1942 + Canabalt mashup. If you get going over 75 MPH it goes into “guitar-solo” mode where all points double. Combos (sequential shots without misses) gain you increasingly more points. For fun I added in GameCenter leader boards so you can compete with your friends. It’s only $0.99 and all the money we get goes towards the building fund. (Apple’s take is 30%.)

Developing the game with the teens was a really great experience. The project started out with us discussing what charity the teens wanted to raise funds for. The group was unanimous that they wanted to help raise money for the local community center because it would give future teens a great place to hang out. Rye, CO is a small rural town and there aren’t any actual hangouts outside of school activities.

After that we decided on a game theme. Wes really wanted to do a motorcycle oriented game and Shamoa was interested in some kind of game where we’d destroy mutant bugs. By combining those ideas we came up with “The Exterminator.” From there we spent two days developing the artwork, music, sound effects, and the actual game. Matt put together the electric guitar soundtrack using GarageBand. Wes, Shamoa, Shadrack, and Cameron all worked on the artwork. Most everyone did some sound effects. We also spent a lot of time eating food and generally goofing off. We wrapped up the project with some solid play-testing and tweaking and we were all really happy with how it came out. As a game developer I totally enjoyed the experience of working with teens and developing a game idea that I would have never come up with on my own!

Here’s a page that includes an overview of the community center plans and includes a PDF with a more detailed description.

Charity aside, it’s totally fun, so be sure to check it out!

Have fun!
-Phil

P.S. I’m “philhassey” on GameCenter, just try and beat my score!

Press pack with screenshots, icons, etc

I’m going to say right here right now that you should buy this iPhone game immediately! It’s $0.99, so it won’t break the bank. It’s a killer fun side-scroller which has gotten all 5-star reviews (except from people who have iOS 3.x on their device). If you want a second opinion, touchArcade really liked it too. So, yeah, support the awesome independent developer, hamumu.com (who I might mention appears in the credits of every single Galcon game as “Mike Hommel.”)

Anyway, again, you can get it HERE.

Cheers!
-Phil

P.S. There’s a Galcon Fusion tournament on April 1st!
P.S.S. If you like Galcon Flash, you might want to keep an eye on this blog.

Galcon Fusion is available now on the Mac App Store at the amazing launch price of 99c – that’s 90% off the regular desktop price!

I’m also doing a Mega-Sale across many of the other versions of Galcon! Be part of the “Galcon Community Rejuvenation Project” and help get the word out about this Mega-Sale:

Galcon Fusion for the Mac – 99c – Regularly $9.99

Galcon Fusion for the iPad – 99c – Regularly $4.99

Galcon for the iPhone – 99c – Regularly $2.99

Galcon Labs for the iPhone – 99c – Regularly $2.99

Galcon for Android – 99c – Regularly $2.99

Have fun playing!
-Phil

Enjoy the update!
-Phil

P.S. Okay, that “before” image is a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the idea

This iPhone / Android tournament will be an individual tournament, broken down into two game modes – 2v2 and FFA. We will be organizing groups of 4 for the FFA round, you will play 5 games total. For each win, you receive 3 points to your grand total. The next round is a 2v2 game-mode with randomized partners. You will play first to 15. For each win, you will receive 1 point. For more information and to join the tournament, click here.

New game development blog!

As of yesterday, I began work on a new game! This is going to be a crazy month as my deadline for completion of the game is OCTOBER 31st. As you can see from the picture, I’ve already made a handful of progress for just 2 days of work. You can read more about it here, and watch as I do daily blogs all this month covering my progress. I definitely want feedback as I progress, so be sure to tell me what you think. -Phil

As part of the “Community Restoration and Rejuvenation Act” I’ve changed the price of Galcon Labs for the iPhone to FREE for the weekend! This is a great opportunity for you to get all your friends in on the Galcon multi-player frenzy! So Go GO GO! Twitter about it! Facebook about it! Email about it! Get the word out!

Thanks!
-Phil

“Alpha-3 3/4″ is 3 players on a 4 player server.
“Beta-1 1/2″ is 1 player on a 2 player server.

Hope you have fun with this new feature   Tell me how it goes!

-Phil

A friend of mine (who helped me develop Galcon for the iPhone / iPod Touch) just put out a new game!  It’s called Smiles, and it’s quite a clever matching puzzle game:

“Smiles is a colorful collection of two carefully crafted puzzle games for gamers of all skill levels, filled to the brim with extra game modes, achievements and more!”

I’ve put up some screenshots and a video on my site, so be sure to check it out!

Enjoy!
-Phil

So Galcon 1.3 is finally in the AppStore today Here’s the rundown of the swell features:

• Colorblind option in settings. This changes the colors used in the game to be more accessible to colorblind users. Thanks so much to everyone who responded to my questions about color preferences. The colorblind mode restricts Galcon to using just four colors which I picked as colors nobody listed as conflicting with each-other.
• Deluxe Galcon Music – I’ve added the music from my first video into this edition of the game. For those of you who prefer to listen to your own music, you can go into the Settings App and turn the volume down to 0 and your iMusic should work just fine.
• Various enhancements – The most notable one is the addition of being able to click on enemies planets during the multi-player game to see what their rank and name is. This is handy for helping you gage a player’s skill.

This week I’m also launching a Super Sale of Galcon. The sale price is 4.99 (down from 9.99) and will be running for about one week. No promises I will run it for longer though! Here’s the scoop:

• We’ve (almost) reached our 100,000th multi-player game, it’s time to celebrate!
• Everyone wants improved match-ups in games. The way to do this is to have a huge increase in players. Right now there are usually around 12 people playing at any given time. If we can get this to 100 or more people, then there will always be people available with comparable rank to play against!
• So tell your iPhone / iPod Touch using friends that NOW is the time to get Galcon while it’s on sale! Yay!

Here’s some awesome user testimonials:

“Just imagine, a game so fast it could be over in 20 seconds, so strategic it could take 15 minutes, so well networked that at any moment there are always countless people blasting each other, so fun that you will play it hours at a time even when there’s no WiFi, and so addictive that you’ll soon start seeing little triangle spaceships every time you close your eyes!” – davidejorgensen

“Hands down, the most intuitive game for the iPhone. And multiplayer…are you kidding me?! This game is awesome and it truly shows the capabilities of the iPhone. Developers learn please learn from these guys as they have made one hell of an app!” – Higa27

“Wow!!! I bought this game because of the added ONLINE play, I am impressed! I think this game is officially the best Game on the App Store! You’ll be crazy not to own this game…$10 is a steal.” – tushoih

-Phil

Hope you enjoy Galcon 1.2 !!! If you want to help out, blog about it! Make a youtube video about it! Tell your friends and your enemies and your boss about it! And put up posters and start a support group and buy a t-shirt!

-Phil