Tootle

We wish all of the Tootle chaps and chapesses out there a very merry xmas and happy new year!

Tootle

About a year ago we released our first application onto the appstore. That application was Snow Way To Draw, a doodling app come snow globe, and to celebrate it’s one year anniversary I baked a cake:

This one took longer than the Seaman Count cake due to me suffering a cold the day after I started the cake but it was definitely worth the wait, both visually and for the taste buds!

Look out for this one appearing on the Appcakes website as I’ll be entering it in the Great App Bake Off soon just for fun.

Today our application Ickle Count is available for free for a day.

That’s right folks FREE for a full 24 HOURS ONLY.

Why we hear you cry, when it is such a damn fine app, definitely worthy of it’s meager $1 price tag?

Well it’s part of the Appvent Calendar for Christmas where you can get a free app every single day for 24 wholesome days!! It’s like an advent calendar where you get iPhone apps instead of chocolate. What more could you want?

Anyway, if you haven’t got Ickle Count yet take advantage of it being free and spread the word. Make sure you also check out the Appvent Calendar for a new and wonderous FREE iPhone app every single day until December 24th.

Seaman Count is a welcomed addition for anyone who appreciates a challenge to the senses. This deep sea game will test your mind in ways that you’ve never fathomed possible. – appgirlreviews.com

Late last week a review of Seaman Count popped up on AppGirlReviews. It got a thoroughly spunktastic 7 out of 10 stars which we are pretty pleased with!

Conclusion: Girls must like Seamen.

After last weeks reviews I decided it was about time to make a celebratory cake for our Seaman Count release… even if it is about two months overdue.

And here it is, or was rather seeing as it’s all gone now! (Sorry G, next time I’ll post you some if there aren’t any postal strikes )

For those interested it was a traditional Victoria Sponge with a strawberry jam filling and butter cream icing topping. I made it in a bread tin to get the rectangular shape rather than using a normal round cake tin.

The seamen, sea monster, hand and fork etc were all made separately on a baking sheet by filling shapes that I draw on the baking sheet with melted plain chocolate and then cooling them in the fridge before adding to the cake.

Total time to make the cake was about 2 hours.

For more iPhone app related cakes to salivate over, check out the delicious AppCakes!

Anyway, that was the first sponge cake I’ve ever made and after thoroughly enjoying the process (I should be in my local W.I.) and nom nom nomming it down, I’m considering making a Snow Way To Draw cake around xmas time to celebrate it’s 1 year anniversary. I’ll have to try and resist making a cock shape though!

Earlier this week we had our first ‘proper’ review, i.e. not one of our mates, for Seaman Count, published by the good fellows at WePlayiPhone. We weren’t expecting much considering Seaman Count is quite a small casual game but it appears to have been quite well received and obtained a respectable ‘C’ grade.

Devilishly fun, simple game – WePlayiPhone

You can check out that goodness here

Not only did we get that review, we had another review posted in the online version of the Derby Evening Telegraph, our local rag, of all places!! Again it seems to have been well received so it’s looking promising for us being able to afford at least one pint this xmas, maybe even stretching to two!

Smashing your personal best will have you punching the air but, seeing that someone has edged you by a good 20 seamen will have you rushing back to the main menu and having another bash – Derby Evening Telegraph Online

Check out that bad boy here

Finally, we’ve had the Seaman Count scoreboard up for a while now, but it’s only recently we’ve seen someone from the good ol’ US of A on it.

We know there are many more of you American chaps and chapesses out there with a copy of Seaman Count, so get submitting your score and you too can then admire a map slowly getting filled with Seaman Count icons, as well as proudly announce to your friends, family and colleagues what your Seaman Count is.

My Seaman Count is 192 and I’m proud. What’s your Seaman Count? – Dibely

Now that gratuitous review and Seaman Count score fest is over, I’m going to go and make a Seaman Count cake just for kicks.

Earlier in the week we received an email from Apple saying that our submission of Ickle Count had been delayed.

This was an onymous sign as we had had a similar email before when Seaman Count was in submission. That ended up with us waiting for a month with no further info before eventually we removed the application, resubmitted, then waited another 2 weeks until it was finally accepted. This was frustrating considering the length of time we waited was about the same amount of time it took for us to develop the game in the first place.

As before though we decided to ride it out for a while, before deciding to take any extreme action such as resubmission. Then yesterday we had a missed call from Apple and we feared that our fairly small kids game Ickle Count was never going to make it into the appstore. Fortunately we were being ridiculously paranoid because one return phone call later and a minor error with the submission corrected, Ickle Count is now ready and waiting to be made available on the appstore of which we intend to do tomorrow!

Meanwhile, back at the steakout, work has progressed well on getting our engine ported over to Mac OS X. It’s still a bit rough around the edges but on the whole is now usable as the following screen shots show:

What’s the point I hear some of you cry?

Well firstly cos we can!
Secondly because I can’t stand using my rather long in the tooth and extremely slow Windows PC for development and thirdly because it’ll be easier to release builds for monkeys to test people to try on the Mac. That’s right lemon lovers. Easier on the Mac! Oh how the Mac reminds me fondly of the trusty Acorns of my school days…

Want to know who has the largest Seaman Count? Well now you can!

Seaman Count Scores

This will show you the top 10 scores along with a map using AGON’s online widget system, so if you’ve got Seaman Count already check out where you rank and if not then you can get it from the iTunes Appstore now!

We look forward to seeing who has a larger Seaman Count than us! :p

Seaman Count v1.1 is now available for download from the iTunes Appstore!

This update features the following:

• Fix for the slow down over time issue
• General bug fixes
• General performance improvements
• Score boards using Agon online. This will provide online and offline score boards
• Performance related feedback

We have also changed the difficulty slightly to make it a bit easier initially to help those of you that said it was too hard!

When we were doing focus testing for our Seaman Count iPhone game we obtained quite a bit of feedback suggesting that it would be great for kids and to help them count, but it would have to be more ‘child friendly’.

Taking this feedback on board, we recently submitted Ickle Count, a more colourful, child friendly counting game that is a lot easier to play and doesn’t have any of the crude humour of Seaman Count.

We expect Ickle Count to be available on the iTunes Appstore within the next couple of weeks so watch this space for more information when it is released.