Night Raider iPad Submarine Game

[warpatroller]

Some of you may remember me, as I used to be fairly active on the forum, but have been away from it for many months. During that time I have programmed a retro submarine iPad game, inspired by the old coin-op Seawolf.

Night Raider is now available on the App Store, so I thought I'd let you guys know about it since it is submarine related.



[b]Description]

You are in command of a Type VII U-Boat hunting convoys at night during WWII. In this retro submarine arcade game, your mission is to sink as many ships as possible within a given time duration.

Night Raider contains 8 different types of ship targets. These include a submerging Submarine, Cargo, Tanker, Carrier, Destroyer, Cruiser, Battleship and PT Boat. All warship targets are modeled after real WWII British warships, including the famed "Vosper" PT Boat. Each ship type moves at a different speed and is worth a different point value. Some ships require multiple hits to sink them. Avoid hitting floating mines, while aiming your torpedos at the ships.

Touch screen control of torpedo launches. A single touch on the screen, both aims and launches a torpedo simultaneously. Your U-Boat has 4 torpedo tubes. There is a short reload delay after every 4 shots.

[b]Features]

- 8 different types of ship targets; Cargo, Tanker, Carrier, Submarine, Destroyer, Cruiser, Battleship and PT Boat.

- Each ship target has a unique speed and point value, with some requiring multiple hits.

- Touch screen control of torpedo launches.

- Electro-mechanical style explosion flashes.

- Floating mines which can block your shots.

- Ships sink and disappear under the surface of the ocean in a semi-realistic manner.

- Ocean and "Wolf" sky backdrop artwork.

- Lightning flashes and thunder cracks are both seen and heard during game play.

- High Score and option settings saved locally on user's iPad.

- Options menu including 4 different extended game time score settings.

- Listen to music on your iPod Player while you play by disabling game music in Options Menu.

- High Quality Stereo Sound Effects and Music.

- HD 1024 x 768 graphics.

Note: Night Raider is only compatible with iPad and iPad2. The game will NOT run on iPhones or iPod touches.

http://itunes.com/apps/nightraider

http://www.celtroniclabs.com/NRGame.html

If anyone on the forum here has an iPad and gets the game, let me know what you think of it..

Steve

[bob the builder]

Re: Night Raider iPad Submarine Game

I just downloaded it on my iPad. Its diverting.. for a while. Very much an arcade game. I wouldn't count on being amused for more than an hour tops before it got old. I guess for $1.99 you can't expect the world. Not a bad game, but not worth getting overly excited about...

Just my opinion, of course. Try it yourself and see. At $1.99 its not like you'll be taking food from the table or anything to pay for it.

[warpatroller]

Re: Night Raider iPad Submarine Game

Bob, thanks for purchasing, playing, and providing some feedback on the game.

I am glad to hear that you got some enjoyment out of it.

Yes, it is definitely an arcade style game. Night Raider is not intended to be a simulation like the Silent Hunter PC games.

Night Raider is a homage to the 70s coin-operated arcade machine, Seawolf. The intent was to create a game that allows you to whip out your iPad and immediately start sinking some ships when you have 5 to 15 minutes of free time available.

I have three promotional codes available to give away that will allow you to download Night Raider for free on your iPad.

For those SubCommittee forum members who are interested, I will give one of the codes to the first 3 forum members who send me a PM.

Steve

[JWLaRue]

Re: Night Raider iPad Submarine Game

Steve,

PM sent!

-Jeff

[warpatroller]

Re: Night Raider iPad Submarine Game

Two of the three promotional codes have now been taken. There is still one more code available..

[JWLaRue]

Re: Night Raider iPad Submarine Game

...downloaded and installed on my iPad last night. Only had about 30 minutes play time so far, but I like this program. It does a very good job of capturing the look and feel of the '70s arcade game. (...and did I ever sink a lot of quarters into that game!)

This is not intended to be a strategy game, but one where you can turn to for a diversion from whatever else you're involved in. I definitely see myself racking up hours of play time, but in short periods of say 10-5 minutes at a time. Well worth the $1.99. That's the same as 8 games onthe old Seawolf console!

Well done, Steve!

-Jeff

p.s. in the interests of full disclosure, I paid for the game.

[warpatroller]

Re: Night Raider iPad Submarine Game

Thanks Jeff!

I remember the first time I dropped a quarter in the old Seawolf machine. It was the summer of 77, on the Boardwalk, in Atlantic City, NJ. Playing a submarine game within eyeshot of the Atlantic Ocean...those were the days..

Steve

[warpatroller]

Re: Night Raider iPad Submarine Game

An update to the iPad version of Night Raider will go live on the stores on December 17th, 2011.

In addition, for the first time, a new iPhone version of Night Raider will be available soon!

An actual video of game play, finally, will be coming in the near future as well!

Made quite a few modifications for the iPad update. These mods will of course appear in the new iPhone version when it is released.

Below is a list of what has changed since the initial release of the game:

- App Name changed to Night Raider HD, to distinguish it from the upcoming iPhone version.

- Ship spawning code has been extensively modified. Ships spawn in pairs with a maximum of 6 on screen simultaneously versus only 3 on screen in the previous version. The sea lanes have higher traffic now, with more targets to fire at!

- The Warships appear sooner and the game pace is now faster.

- PT Boats spawn more frequently, especially during Extended Time.

- When a torpedo hits a ship, the ship changes to a cycling orange-yellow "flame" color, as a stylized representation of being on fire.

- A 9th Target has been added, the "Night Ghost". Hit him for a mystery score that varies with each successful hit.

- Mine spawning changes are no longer linked to player's score, they are now based on their own timer.

- Mine spawn patterns have been altered to be less of an interference to player's torpedo shots.

- A new game can now be started 5 seconds after the previous game ends, instead of the long wait for the music to stop playing.

- Options Menu now includes separate settings for turning Demo Music and Game Music on and off independently of each other.

- Initial Game Time has been reduced from 250 to 200 seconds.

- New App Icon

- Other minor changes and fixes.

Steve

[sam reichart]

Re: Night Raider iPad Submarine Game

If you still have a promo code, I have an ipad2 waiting for me under the tree...
if you don't that's cool as well....I'll still spring for the game. good on you for developing it. something I wanted to try myself, but I don't have a mac to develop on...

[warpatroller]

Re: Night Raider iPad Submarine Game

Sam - Before Night Raider, I hadn't seen a good "classic" coin-op style submarine game on the App store. That is why I chose to make it. I have also sent you a PM.

In addition to the 1.1.0 Update mentioned above, another Update 1.1.1, is waiting for review and hopefully will be on the stores before Christmas. I had some people indicate the pace of the game was a little too slow for them.. The latest update will change that.. PT Boats, Destroyers and the "Night Ghost" now make Big Dave's Sushi Sub seem slow!! If you don't already know, all updates are free once the game has been initially purchased.

New for the upcoming version 1.1.1:

- Progressive speed throttling added to game play. The speed of ships and torpedoes gradually increase as game time passes.

- New "Maniac Mode" game setting in Options Menu. Maniac Mode speeds the game up to an insane pace! For those that thought the old game speed was a bit sluggish, try Maniac Mode! It will make your head spin!

- PT Boats only emit a single alarm sound when spawning instead of two. With the increased spawning of PT Boats, the dual alarm seemed to get kind of annoying.

- Corrected the misspelling of the word "torpedoes" (it was torpedos) in scope view and on instructions screen.

[JWLaRue]

Re: Night Raider iPad Submarine Game

Steve,

I downloaded the update and have spent some time checking out the changes. I like it! Good job as usual.

....I do have a request for the next update: is there anyway to allow the user to change the background music for something else that they provide? I'd love to be able to add some music from Das Boot as the background!

-many thanks,

Jeff

[warpatroller]

Re: Night Raider iPad Submarine Game

Jeff,

Glad you like the update. You should probably like the latest update, currently waiting for review by Apple, even better!

You can have your Das Boot music in the background. The game already allows for you to disable all the game's music and only have the sound effects active.

Go into the Options screen and turn the following options off:

Demo Music-Off
Game Music-Off

Next, open up the music player on your iPad. Then simply select the Das Boot music tracks that you have on your iPad and set them up to play. Either a single track, or a playlist, or whatever you have set up on your music player.

Then once you have your own music playing, then launch Night Raider. You will now be able to play the game, while hearing your music playing in the background. You will still be able to hear the sound effects like the torpedo launches and the explosions etc.

Only possible issue with doing this is that you will NOT have independent control of your music volume versus the game sound effects volume. If you adjust the volume, they will go up and down in unison. There is no work around for that, it is just the way Apple has set up their devices.

I have done this myself, in the past, to play music in the background like you're asking about. In my case, I did it with the Pink Floyd track called "Echoes" from their album titled "Meddle". It made for an interesting experience with all the sonar ping sound effects and whale noises that are on that track. Actually, one of the "ping" noises in the game sounds almost identical to one heard in the Echoes track..

Regarding the Options screen, once you have set options on that screen they are stored on your iPad. So you don't need to keep setting those options every time you start the game. It saves what you have set until you go in and change them again.

Steve

[JWLaRue]

Re: Night Raider iPad Submarine Game

Yup....I have done the iPod background while doing others activities, like playing this game. I was looking for a way to add a single looped track of music as background and make it a permanent change that didn't require fiddling with the iPod all the time.

I'll see if there is a way to do it via the filebrowser.

-tnx,

Jeff

[warpatroller]

Re: Night Raider iPad Submarine Game

I assume your referring to the "FileBrowser" app or others like it. I have never used any of those file browsing apps..

If your going to try to replace the game's music files (I have never attempted that), the replacement file or files will need to have the identical name and extension of the originals. Otherwise, the game will either crash or not play back the file at all. It probably just will not play back, but I don't remember for sure.

The game's music files are .caf format. Again, I don't recall the specific file names, I'd have to look them up.

Licensing fees would be cost prohibitive to obtain to include any Das Boot music in the game (Night Raider's sales are, of course, miniscule compared to Angry Birds, etc.). That is why the game does not, and most likely, will not ever officially include Das Boot music.

Steve

[JWLaRue]

Re: Night Raider iPad Submarine Game

Yup, that's been the case for over apps where I've done that kind of file substitution.

I fully understand about the licensing issues and costs, which is why I was not asking for the app to have any particular music available.

-Jeff