Galcon + iPhone = AWESOME
Hey, I’ve just finished porting Galcon to the iPhone and it’s now in the App Store! You can read about it here!
I don’t *really* have anything super pythonic to say about the porting experience, other than .. I probably wouldn’t have bothered to do it if I hadn’t been hanging out at pycon and having people show me their iPhones and telling me how I should totally port Galcon to it. So thanks to those people for getting me started!
The link above is where all the fun is, but just so this post isn’t all boring text, here’s a screenshot:
And if you want to know more about the porting experience, I’ve been blogging about it.
July 18th, 2008 at 10:19 pm
Okay, this is absolutely incredible dude. Great job, the controls are great, everything’s great! I actually like the iPhone controls better than the Mac controls.
I am sooo glad you did this, you rule, you rock, THANK YOU!!!!!
This is hands down my favorite iPhone app, thank you so much!
Now…about that multiplayer… *puppy dog eyes*
July 18th, 2008 at 11:39 pm
Awesome!
Bought and twittered. Will blog soon
July 19th, 2008 at 6:18 am
I know you were talking with those guys that did that multitouch table at PyCon, were you able to use any of those concepts?
July 19th, 2008 at 8:51 am
@Jt – I hope to do MP in the Fall if I have some time. I need a break first!
@Eric – seeing that was also an inspiration. I really love the touch interface 🙂
July 19th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
Haha, I don’t blame you! Fantastic work, I can’t wait for the MP but I am more than content with what’s out right now! 🙂
July 19th, 2008 at 11:02 pm
Phil,
Awesome job! Best $10 I ever spent. Congratulations.
July 19th, 2008 at 11:12 pm
John – Thanks 🙂 🙂
July 19th, 2008 at 11:15 pm
John: P.s. make sure to review it 🙂
July 20th, 2008 at 12:37 am
sure thing
July 20th, 2008 at 11:38 am
Are you planning on adding network play? And will it be a free upgrade? I’d love to give you money but will feel cheated if I pay 9.99 now and have to pay another 9.99 to get something everyone else would be paying 9.99 for
Thanks,
Eric.
July 20th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
[…] Spaß bringt auch Galcon, ein eher unbekanntes Spiel von Phil Hassey. Test folgt […]
July 20th, 2008 at 10:11 pm
I can’t give you enough praise! I left 5 star feedback on iTunes and rave about this game on the sites I visit. Outstanding game, you deserve to do well!
July 21st, 2008 at 9:20 am
Phil,
One suggestion: Pinch to multi-select would be very nice. Other than that it is pretty much perfect.
July 21st, 2008 at 5:14 pm
I gave this a 5-star review on iTunes, it is absolutely *awesome* (and I don’t use that word very often).
I was a big fan (and paying customer) for the Mac version, but I’ve got to say that the iPhone interface is even better! This is the best game on the iPhone, hands down.
A few comments / requests:
I see a few people asking for sound, count me as one user who doesn’t care about sound, who wants to put on headphones or annoy the people around you when playing a game on your iPhone? Not me.
Multi-player would be incredible.
I see a few people saying that the price is too high. Screw that! Galcon is far better than 99% of the apps that are charging over $9, its worth every penny.
My advice is to listen carefully to feedback, and continue to improve iPhone Galcon, and I see no reason why this shouldn’t be the #1 game on the iPhone for quite some time to come.
July 21st, 2008 at 7:08 pm
I saw the review at toucharcade.com, but didn’t feel like dropping $10. Then I saw this post and noticed you’re a Python guy, and the tinypy guy at that. Gotta support the Python folks, so I bought the game. Awesome stuff!
July 21st, 2008 at 7:58 pm
*hands down* the best iPhone game out there. I must have played about 200 games this weekend and pick it up whenever I can.
I’d love to see “Galcon Reloaded”. Give me the ability to build defense platforms around my planets and otherwise penalize enemies for attacking me all the way across space.
July 22nd, 2008 at 5:09 pm
Any chance we could get some music / sounds etc? I’m tired of what feels like the Atari 2600 days.
July 22nd, 2008 at 5:28 pm
Sound effects are awaiting Apple approval 🙂
July 23rd, 2008 at 12:01 pm
Phil,
A couple of minor nitpicks:
The app occasionally fails to launch. I haven’t nailed down the exact situations, but every so often it will go from the loading screen to a blank screen and then the home screen (iPhone home screen) appears. Once this starts happening I have to reboot the device to get Galcon to run again.
Also, I was playing level 8 today and sending ships at 100% and my home planet got taken over without a single enemy ship coming to it. It happened really fast and I thought that perhaps I had missed something but I played the same map a few more times and it happened twice more. Is the AI cheating? Could it be a wrap around bug? The computer was at the bottom of the screen and my planet was right at the top (portrait mode) so that struck me as a possibility. There was no enemy ship and even if there had been it couldn’t have traveled the length of the screen that fast.
July 23rd, 2008 at 12:09 pm
@John –
Hmn, I haven’t seen the app fail to launch yet .. how long does it take to start-up? Any other tips would be helpful ..
I don’t think wrap-around would explain it .. which mission were you playing? I’ll see if I can reproduce the situation.
July 23rd, 2008 at 1:28 pm
Phil,
I was playing Classic on level 8. It didn’t happen every time on that map, but I assume that the computer was reacting differently based on the fact that I’m not perfectly consistent.
July 23rd, 2008 at 3:07 pm
Thinking about it, it might be that the app crashes when I’m playing and a call comes in. I answer the call and then try to go back to the game and it dies. I’ll try to pay more attention.
July 28th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
Went ahead and bought it anyway. Great work Phil… It’s awesome.
I wasn’t all that good at the desktop version but this is really fun.
Eric.
July 28th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
I want to add that I too miss your awesome sound effects… I guess I’ll have to do them myself. Pew Pew…
July 28th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
Hey – thanks to everyone who’s liked it 🙂
– I’ve submitted an update with sound effects a week ago. Apple hasn’t approved it yet 🙁 Maybe this week …
– Please leave a review on iTunes 🙂
– I’m working on multi-player right now. Hopefully that will go smoothly.
Thanks!
-Phil
July 29th, 2008 at 6:24 pm
Hey Phil,
NICE WORK.
I love Galcon.
I just noticed however that with the new update:
I can’t mute sounds!!!
can you please put that in your multiplayer version!!
I really can’t wait, that’ll be cool.
Thanks a brazillion!
July 30th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
Just bought Galcon for my iPod touch. Great work.
Would be nice to have some sort of discounted double licence for when I come to buy the Mac version?
August 8th, 2008 at 11:39 am
Not sure if somebody suggested it but a highscore/best time would be nice.. even some sort of completion indicator. Great game on the iphone.
September 19th, 2008 at 8:05 pm
totally hooked on online play… would be nice to have all time game winners though… sucks that it starts over everytime you leave…but.. amazing game and has made up for all the garbage games in the app store…
September 20th, 2008 at 1:35 am
Got galcon lite and enjoyed it so when I saw galcon was on sale for 5 dollars I couldn’t resist. Best 5 bucks I spent in a long time, would have paid 20. I played the multiplayer 3-4 hours strait (no joke) the day I got it.
September 20th, 2008 at 1:50 am
Forgot to ask: Why Can’t you play multiplayer over the 3g network
October 4th, 2008 at 9:13 pm
I got hooked on the ‘lite’ version and couldn’t resist upgrading when I saw the cost had dropped to $4.99. I’ve been disappointed w/ a lot of games/apps I’ve paid for for my iPhone. This is certainly NOT one of them. I’m absolutely addicted to multi-player mode.
October 12th, 2008 at 2:51 am
Hello,
I want to know how many ships the enemies have admiral one stripe, 3 way battles… It appears to me they have more than just 100, each. Is it just my imagination? Can they really be so good ? I’m not bitching but it feels like it’s cheating !!!
October 16th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
This game rocks! Well worth the money man! 🙂