Spooky Bankers is version 0.3 of Greedy Bankers, with some nice Halloween effects added in. Why? Because October is cool, my friend. All those autumn leaves and the chilling sense of forboding around the 31st... :)
Download Spooky Bankers (Greedy Bankers 0.3) from here
Coming soon to iPhone and iPad!
I have decided to produce and iPhone/iPad version of the game, which will make use of the touch-screen interface. It seems like a fairly obvious direction for the game, so I'll be getting on with it as soon as possible!
Greedy Bankers has its own website!
I've also started up a website for Greedy Bankers, which will feature more updates, special content, and downloads. At the moment it's had a nice spooky facelift to coincide with the new version.
You can also follow Greedy Bankers on Twitter: @greedy_bankers
Finally, I've produced a new trailer for the game, which you can view here.
Updates in the new version
The new version also includes a lot of updates - some minor and some major. I've been testing the game out on people for the past couple of months and have made some changes accordingly. I'll list them below:
- New soundtrack - The old version had a placeholder soundtrack that I have now replaced with some neat Creative Commons music. I want to add my own music, but am a little out-of-practice at the moment!
- Magic orb - One of the problems with the old version is often a game would end because the screen was too full of rubble and there was no space to make large gems. The magic orb transforms rubble to gems, and gives the player a chance to turn the tables.
- Improved display - To some players it wasn't obvious how close they were to the goal at a given point in time. I tried to make the display easier to glance at, and added in the growing-stack-of-moneybags graphic to help.
- Balancing improvements - The player needs to always feel that they have a chance to cling on when time's running out. In the earlier versions it was easy to reach a point where there were obviously not enough gems on-screen to make the target. The drop-rates now change depending on how many gems are on-screen to combat this, and give a player a better chance to bounce back.
- Pause screen - This is a pretty obvious addition, which for some reason I hadn't thought to put in before.
- In-game hints - Another big problem was that many players got confused at first, and the instructions could not be read while playing the game. Hints now appear when you start the game, and can be switched off if you don't like them.
- High-score saving - Again, another one that I'm not sure why I hadn't added earlier, even though it seemed like an obvious addition. The game now records your best score and level.
- Mouse clipping - Some players didn't like the way that the mouse sometimes became detatched from the gem, but you were still technically holding it. Now the cursor should stay with the gem that it is holding.
