Just found out about this game and installed both the lite and the paid versions. However, for iPad only the light version is currently available. Hope you can release the paid version for iPad soon (retina display support for new iPad would be great). I will give you some game feedback when I actually have played the game.

Good news for you buddy, The updated version of the Paid app is now available on iPad. Please check it out, and leave feedback. So I can fix any issues.

The next step, now that the game is compatible with both iPhone and iPad. Is to look at adding more levels, new in-game features, and adding a social element to the game (local/global high-scores, replays, multiplayer?), more options (to customise the way the levels are played i.e. no. of bombers, no. of floaters, no. of turtles, release rate, gravity, size of turtles. game speed - might be better to be an in game option this).

How do you feel about the game speed? Is it too fast? too slow? There is currently no way to change the speed of the game, unlike other lemmings-clone games. However, the default speed is considerably faster than the default speed of lemmings, chicks, nooms, and perhaps pingus.

With the advent of the iPad 3's retina screen. I could make the game utilise this (higher res turtles, high res graphics for the same levels, high res interface, ability for the community to create levels).

I currently make the levels using a flash-based web app on the PC, as the iPhone/iPod Touch is too awkward. The iPad would be a good interface for making levels, but would take considerable time to develop, as opposed to just making the flash app I have already more user friendly (and thus iPhone/iPod Touch users can make levels, without needing to purchase an iPad).

Also I'm thinking of producing extra large super-levels (2048x1536 or 4096x3072 in iPad 3 retina), the equivalent of 4 ipad screens (2x2) or 20 iphone screens (4x5). As well as the introduction of small turtles (50% the size), which would give way for truly massive worlds.

Thanks Clam, you've made some excellent points. I'm in the process of releasing a new Lite version (should be approved in the next few days by Apple). It doesn't cover these new points you've listed, but deals with a few of the older glitches mentioned.

I'm going to work on some new features for the paid version, and in addition address the points you've mentioned. I think I may be able to get away with adjusting the turtle save requirement to make some of the later levels more difficult without annoying existing customers.

Thanks for your input!

I just picked up the Lite version, and had the same problem you mentioned above - the game crashes when I try to play level 2 (in either set). I'm using an iPod Touch. Can you assure me this won't happen on the full version?

Sorry about that, I'm going to release a new Lite version with a bunch of fixes in the next few days. (the crashing on level 2 bug on the 3GS has been fixed in the full version, just haven't re-released that yet). Some of the Fixes I've done (for the new Lite version)

/ - Bug: Remove high Post on cave_level10.xml (Trench Lock)
/ - Bug: Fix nuke restart (no music) bug./same with level failed. restart doesn't play music again.
/ - Bug: Nuking before turtle comes out messes up. (don't allow Nuke option until at least 1 turtle is alive)
/ - Bug: Umbrella should open way earlier
/ - Change: Consider making UIAction set at 75% alpha? so that it doesn't obscure turtles.
/ - world #3 Ad for get paid version. + need to add link.
/ - Change: Credits (ability to slide up - as you slide up - more than a few pixels in the negative, it'll drag the text up faster in accordance to speed ideally)
/ - Fix: Volume should be weaker when you zoom out.
/ - Fix: Add Death sound effect (Awwwwww)
/ - Fix: Add sound effect for lever
/ - Fix: Add trumpet sound effect for winning level!

Well, I went ahead and got the full game anyway, and it works just fine (so far at least). I'll try to play through the whole thing over the weekend, but for now here are some initial thoughts:

- As noted already, the graphics are excellent, and the characters are wonderfully cute (so much so that bombing them seems a bit mean ).

Thanks

- The restart function is too slow for my liking, it would be better to put this in the pause menu rather than having to nuke first.

I think the Lite version had Nuke outside as a button. I didn't like that as it was easy to accidentally press it, so I moved it to the menus, and removed 'restart'. So the full version has 'continue', 'nuke', 'quit'. I've been thinking of re-doing this menu. perhaps having big iconic buttons like other iOS games do (perhaps a '>' for continue, a recycle arrow for retry, and a door shut sign for quit, then an additional button for the nuke). If there was a neat solution to put the nuke somewhere in game i would, just wouldn't want it accidentally pressed. Of course the nuke is necessary for these lemmings-type games to get rid of the excess turtles.

- Diggers (of all types) feel very slow, I'd strongly consider increasing their movement speed. Even 2x as fast wouldn't be too much IMHO.

I think you could be right there, in consideration of the pace of the game (which is much faster than the default speed of most Lemmings games). I could double the speed of the digging. I could also introduce a Fast Forward button to toggle between slow and fast (with the game currently in Fast mode).
Note: I don't want to change the game mechanics too much as it can have an impact on the solutions for the levels. For now I can get away with minor tweaks, but soon I will have to keep everything the consistent.

- The ability to zoom out is great, but I'd prefer to start zoomed out and then zoom in if I need to. Maybe there could be an option for this?

Yeah, I've noticed people greatly appreciate this. There is extra CPU load whilst zoomed out though (which may be noticeable on some levels on the 3G or even 3GS device), and I was concerned about players' ability to select the turtles.

- The music doesn't play when you retry a level. (Though I typically prefer to play without music anyway )

Fixed for next release.

- Bombing the turtles on the title screen is wicked fun

Hehe.

Also, I do hope the 'coming soon' part amounts to something eventually, more levels are always good

I hope so too. I've got a lot of ideas of new levels, and worlds. Some of the features the game already has supported, I just didn't build any levels. A little hint of one of the features, is small Turtles (50% of normal size), so I'm thinking of introducing that in the next update (paid version only), along with many other ideas.

But it's not just about levels, I've got a bunch of ideas to further enrich the experience of existing levels, to keep them competitive. Don't want to spill all the beans here. But I like using forums as a means to gauge people's interest and what they would like to see changed/fixed.

So thank you very much for your input.

The full version of Turtle Trench is now available for download on your iPhone/iPod/iPads.

In this version, there are 120 stars to collect over 40 levels. Many new features have been added, that were not in the Lite version. Such as the ability to zoom out, water, reverse gravity, and many more...

Go to the following link for more info: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/turtle-trench/id496551999?mt=8

Look forward to hearing your feed back.

I'd love to try this, but my iPod touch needs an update that's gonna take 4 hours to download. Maybe tomorrow

(EDIT: maybe not, more issues...)

Did you manage to play the game now? Clam Spammer? What kinds of issues were you experiencing?

I'd love to try this, but my iPod touch needs an update that's gonna take 4 hours to download. Maybe tomorrow

Yeah, I've had a few people complain about needing to upgrade their iOS. I didn't realise that so many people didn't have version 4.2 or greater (released Nov '10). If I can put out a new version, or when I get around to the full version, I'll try and release as a 4.0. Since I don't use any features specific to 4.2+.

Here's penetration stats from March '11:

http://blog.jcmultimedia.com.au/2011/03/is-it-worth-supporting-ios-3-in-2011.html


(as of Mid-March, 75% of iOS 4 users should be able to run this app. About 90% of all iOS users have iOS 4+. So it's a small but significant minority of iOS users that can't run this until they upgrade. I'll lower the version requirement to 4.0+ when I make a new update.)

Those who are able to play the game, I'd love to hear feedback.

50% Shrink
I think an action that can make a turtle shrink to 50% size would be cool (including levels where all turtles are by default 50% shrunk), it wouldn't require new graphics, just scaling (I'm trying to keep the graphics/memory footprint as low as possible). There could be a level where there is a small passageway that a turtle needs to get thru, and then they can do something like dig diagonally back to bring their friends through. I think I'll also add a mechanical switch (Red, Green, Blue, Yellow) that toggles when a turtle traverses, thereby toggling a solid door (matching the color) or a light (for a dark world), the water level (water world), or a block of T.N.T boxes (cave world).

Zoom out
The ability to zoom out, using two finger pinch (can be replicated on a PC/Mac using the middle roller or a +/- button) has been mentioned before. Again this could be something where some levels have it zoomed out by default.

A combination of the zoom & turtle shrink would help satisfy those who like the classic proportions of lemmings even if it makes the game trickier to control. Conversely the ability to zoom in to 200% may give a retro pixelation effect.

Gravity changing Turtles
Whether this would operate as an action that flips the individual gravity of a single turtle 180 degrees. Or if it was done as a localised region on a level where gravity is different. Again, this would be an easy feature to implement.

Thanks for the replies. They're really appreciated, especially ccexplore, there's a lot of ideas there that I didn't think of while others that I did, so that's a good sign that I'm thinking on the same wavelength here. If anyone has other ideas they'd like to share, feel free to comment, as I'm going to be building the full version now...

I'm going to upload a video of the game being played on the iPhone. You'll have to excuse the poor quality of the video, I use my HTC Desire to video the iPhone, so I'm playing with one finger.

I started working on this project a year ago as a little hobby. Then I got caught up with work, so I put it on the back burner until recently. So it's been on/off. I decided to release a Lite version to see what reviews it got and use that to determine whether it's worth building a full version, and porting to other platforms (Android, Windows Mobile, and PC/Mac). Apparently it shouldn't be too difficult to port it to Android or PC since I've coded it almost entirely in C++ & Open GL ES.

Initially I had a level editor built inside the app. It's still there, but quite primitive, and I just figured it'd be a real pain making all the levels on my iphone (it'd be a lot easier on the iPad though), so just built it in Flash.

I see this as more of a soft launch/beta-testing phase. So apologies to those who aren't able to enjoy playing this game yet. It just wasn't wise to invest lots of time and energy into a project if it didn't gain interest.

I see the game as a Lemmings-clone, but one not confined to the rules of Lemmings. So I add my own twists. For instance the 3 Stars that you can collect on the level in addition to getting the turtles to the exit.

Anyway the next step is...

Lite Version
- In game tutorial (the basics, "Touch the turtle, select this icon, get your turtles to the exit etc.")
- Mostly bug fixes/optimizations.
- More sound effects

Full Version
- Around 50 levels, over 5 different environments (e.g. cave, sky, water, fire, ice) - (I've already built 20 levels)
- Around 15-20 different actions e.g. Dig, Build, Jump etc.
- In game tutorial (the basics, "Touch the turtle, select this icon, get your turtles to the exit etc.")
- More and better music
- More sound effects
- Other features/alterations (dependent on feedback from Reviews on App Store, and community forums including this one)

Possibly included in Full Version, or in a later upgrade
- iPhone Hi Res (Retina)
- iPad version (this would likely be the same, except you see the entire level on screen, no scrolling. but may have some iPad specific levels)
- Level Editor (Flash based/iPad Based), ability to play other's level packs.

Ports
- Android
- Windows Mobile
- PC
- Mac