We somehow managed to squeak by with an update in what feels like the very last minute in July. Frostbite mode is finally out and the leaderboards are already filling up with some insane scores!  So what does this update entail? See for yourself:

New

• The all new Frostbite Game Mode!
• A new devastating weapon, the Burnicade!
• 7 new awards to earn!

Improved

• AGON updated to 1.5.1 – better leaderboard functionality
• player visibility improved

Fixed

• minor iOS4 issues
• sound effect issues

Thanks to all who’ve supported us! Next Up? Tilt to Live on the iPad!

Hello all, and happy Friday! As you’ve heard in our previous post, we’re in the middle of reorganizing. This is mostly me (Alex) packing up and relocating over the next week so that Adam and I can work in person. When we started developing Tilt to Live, we had very little idea on whether it’d be flop, mildly successful, or even a hit. The response was absolutely nuts! Our  fans truly enjoyed the game and went out of their way to let us know, and let their friends know. And for that, we can’t thank you enough! With us now transitioned to working fulltime to create awesome games for you guys, you can expect to see some cool stuff in the coming months with a bit more frequency .

To help celebrate this milestone for One Man Left Studios, we collaborated with freeappaday.com to promote Tilt to Live for a very limited time at the extremely ludicrous price of $free$ this weekend. So be on the look out! Got a friend who’s incapable of spending money? Are they on a strict app budget? They simply can’t find their wallet? Now’s the time to get them to jump in and have fun with Tilt to Live, on us .

Ahoy! We’ve sacrificed May’s update early this morning to the AppStore Gods so it should be live in a few days. So what’s new in this update? For starters, Gauntlet Mode and Code Red have new songs! We were able to work with the talented Whitaker Blackall on getting a custom track done for Code Red and it sounds intense, especially when trying to ward off the hordes of red dots! So hats off to him on creating a catchy piece of music! Here’s a quick preview of the track opening:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

… you’ll have to wait for the update to hear the rest .

So what else is new in the update? Lots of minor stuff, but the high notes are:

New Stuff

• New Music
• 6 new awards to earn
• Tilt sensitivity now available under options or the custom position screen
• You can now play tilt to live on your toaster. (finally!)

Improved Stuff

• Added some more graphical elements to Gauntlet mode
• Increased the invincibility time after getting hit in Gauntlet mode
• You can cross your eyes and play tilt to live in 3D mode. (James Cameron eat your heart out)

Fixed Stuff

• AGON pocket score display now shows correct number
• Music no longer cuts out
• No longer spawns hell demons devouring your family and dog after dying in first 5 seconds of Code Red (sorry about that one!)

The much requested tilt sensitivity is finally in, and boy does it help! I tend to crank it up because I’m lazy and the less tilting I have to do the better. It’s also great for those that wish to play at a steeper angle and were having problems with the horizontal movement.

So what’s next? Our June update will have even more new content with a new weapon and all new game mode.

So we’ve finished the massive game mode update we had planned for April release. Sadly, we finished it a bit behind schedule :[. Having submitted the final binary to Apple very early this morning we suspect it'll be a few days past our intended launch date before the game goes live on the app store. My frustration for shipping late was only outweighed by our vicious desire to not release something we felt was unfit for release. Those extra few of days of gameplay tweaking and balancing we feel paid off in spades in the end, so we're hoping you guys will get a kick out of the new modes . In case you already forgot about what's going to be in this update:

• 2 new game modes: Gauntlet and Code Red. Each with their own AGON leaderboards!
• 6 new awards to earn and brag to your friends about
• New how to play screen that gives a slightly better explanation of WTF is going on
• Fixed a nasty bug causing devices with some international region formats to crash

As always with game development, we didn't get everything we wanted in this single update, but we certainly got the fun stuff :]. We’ve got a decently sized list of user-requested improvements and features that we didn’t have much time to work through in this update, but will be hopefully addressing in a little while. We’ve got a few more goodies in the coming months for Tilt to Live so watch this space.

Oh, and mucho thanks to TA for the honor of being one of the Games of the Month for March.

We’ve got an interim update for Tilt to Live coming in the next week or so. It’ll be addressing some issues we’ve come across from the mountain of feedback we’ve received. We weren’t able to get to everything, so if you don’t see an improvement you were hoping for in this update, keep in mind we’ve got a huge update coming in April and it may be in that one. Hopefully it won’t take to long, but I imagine Apple is having it’s hands full with reviews of the slew of games and apps for the launch of the iPad in the next week or so.

So what’s in this update?

Fixes/Improvements

• The “Quit Blowing Bubbles” achievement exploit is now fixed.
• Cluster Missiles and Blackhole pick ups are now correctly muted when you mute the SFX in the options menu.
• Pausing the game is now no longer triggered on the very edges of the screen, avoiding accidental pausing.
• Simplified in-game HUD. No more HUD elements that obstruct the playfield.
• Some new loading screen material.
• Other minor bug fixes

Calibration

I think our biggest complaint (and strangely enough also our biggest praise) was the calibration for movement. Looking through all the e-mails, tweets, forum posts, and facebook wall post, we have a contingent of users who, as far as I’m concerned, play the game literally like the custom icon implies. I’ll spare you the technical details of trying to get an accelerometer game to work in as many positions as possible.

Out of all the presets, Sleepy and Custom were having the most problems. Namely, when someone tried to play the game in a ‘vertical’ orientation (ie, 90 degrees from the Top-Down setting) they would lose horizontal control. So to remedy this we had to add a steering control scheme for those specific types of calibrations. It’s not the most elegant way of going about it because it introduces a bit more complexity to the player, but hey, you can now play in “Sleepy” without your arms getting  tired .

Pocket Scores and YOU

We also did some UI tweaks to help better convey how the awards work with the the weapon unlock system. There seemed to be a lot of confusion as to how pocket score related to weapons, which wasn’t very clear in the UI. So hopefully this’ll make that a little easier to understand.

Tilt to Live is off to an amazing start, and it’s only going to get better! So help support Tilt to Live by letting your friends know about us!

Touch Arcade was kind enough to host our announcement for the new game modes we have planned in our April update!

Gauntlet

Run the Gauntlet to put your precision tilting skills to the test! In Gauntlet mode, players compete for the longest survival time rather than highscores or combos. Enemies waves will no longer relentlessly chase you. Instead, the dots work together to form an increasingly difficult treadmill course of smashers, battle axes, windmills, and more. It’s an entirely new gameplay experience! The difficulty curve will be comparable to our original gametype, a crescendo from manageable to kick-your-butt.

Code Red

Rather than guiding players along a polite difficulty curve, we’re chucking them off a difficulty cliff with Code Red mode. This gametype is best described as “Classic mode on crack”. Everything from Classic is there, but the red dots will spawn at their highest intensity right from the start. It’s tailor-made for experienced players that “just wanna get to the good part”, without enduring the buildup.

On your iDevice that is! It’s been pretty hectic since Tilt to Live’s release. We’ve been super busy working on some stuff we’ll be announcing soon. In the meantime….

Here’s some wallpapers we put together that we figured some of you might enjoy using for whatever devious purposes you can conjure up. We’ve got ‘em sized for desktops and iDevices as well. Enjoy!

Click the thumbnails to open the full size images and save them.

iPhone/iPod Touch

Desktop Mac/PC

1024 x 768
1280 x 800
1280 x 1024
1440 x 900
1600 x 1200
1920 x 1200

1024 x 768
1280 x 800
1280 x 1024
1440 x 900
1600 x 1200
1920 x 1200

Imagine my surprise when we noticed Tilt to Live is hovering around 30-40 in the Game Arcade/Action categories! The overall response has been amazingly positive! Special thanks to the community of iPhone gamers over at Touch Arcade for giving our game some early legs in the first hours of release! You guys have been great. Not to mention, all the reviews pouring in from the likes of:

• App Advice – “The game is extremely addictive, so this review comes with not just caution, or a warning but a full scale alert. Alert: You will be addicted.”
• Touch Arcade – “…it shows an attention to detail and knack for the inventive that escapes many games we see on the AppStore.”
• PocketGamer – “A title like Tilt to Live is as much a warning as it is a call to action.”
• Games Uncovered – “Tackling tough achievements earns you rewards; but playing Tilt to Live is a reward unto itself. We can’t put it down.”
• AppModo – “Tilt to Live takes addictiveness to a whole new level! It is probably one of the best pick up and play games on the appstore!
• The Tanooki – “Tilt to Live is a shining example of what arcade iPhone gameplay should be”

There are several other sites I don’t have in front of me at the moment, so blame my disorganized self :[. A HUGE thanks to all the editors, contributors, reviewers, and previewers that worked with us over the past several weeks, even months, to get the word out on Tilt to Live! Adam and I are both hoping this is sign of good things to come…

Now, I’ve gotta finish up some prototype builds before the night is done …

Tilt to Live has been submitted to Apple as of Friday the 19th! We’re super excited about it being unleashed on the app store in the coming days! After months of hard work, we were able to put the finishing touches on it and release our first independent game. Adam and I are both hoping this is the first of many more to come! Not only are we bouncing around ideas for our next project, we’ve got some cool content planned out for Tilt to Live in future updates, so stay tuned to this blog or our twitter feed to be the first to know!

In the meantime, I’m going to take this brief moment between projects and relax  a little bit with Assassin’s Creed 2…mmmmmm. I believe Adam is expanding his literary knowledge by playing through Dante’s Inferno, but don’t get me started…

Who We Are

One Man Left Studios is based in Virginia, USA. We dump the bulk of our workload on two people, because we view cruelty and comedy as interchangeable.

Alex Okafor
Programmer

Adam Stewart
Artist/Writer

Our Story

Like any great idea, One Man Left Studios began with a baby. I am speaking figuratively of course; the baby is actually a game. So, this baby was conceived between two men, who were at first frightened of the responsibilities which lay before them!  For their love had been only a frivolity, a fling, until this transformative moment.

“Our child has required a great deal of time and energy to rear!” observed the parents. “Would it be possible,” they mused, “to sell it to total strangers and recoup that investment?” Surprisingly the answer was yes, and it was with that entrepreneurial drive that we founded One Man Left Studios, which is a child trafficking syndicate for the purposes of this metaphor. Again, for clarity’s sake, we make video games.