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Fruit Ninja for iPhone - Gameplay, Updates, Competitions and GAF!

yophlow

Banned
Hey everyone, Phil from Halfbrick back again to give you an update on what we are up to!

Just a day or two ago we release Fruit Ninja, our first entirely original iPhone title. So far it has been a great success and we have been rising in charts all around the world, hitting the top ten in several countries already. Today I hope to get the GAF community involved, hear some stories from those hwo have already bought the game and also try to give something back. Here's the scoop!

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fruit-ninja/id362949845?mt=8



Reviews

Touch Arcade

Slide to Play

Destructoid

AppSpy

AppAdvice

Trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6hUTC1Edyo

Screenshots

fn_screen_02.jpg


fn_screen_03.jpg


fn_screen_01.jpg


Competition

This one I'd love to see GAF get involved with! If you use Openfeint (which has also chosen Fruit Ninja as a Featured game), you'll notice there is a leaderboard for Best Score and Total Fruit Killed. Starting right now until the end of April for one week, whichever player has their name at the top of the Best Score leaderboard will be forever immortalized in Fruit Ninja. In the next update after the contest closes, we will name an Openfeint Achievement after the user with the highest score. So, if you're anything like me and use the same username on most places, you can get your GAF name in Fruit Ninja.

Why is this a big deal? Well, when Fruit Ninja sells ten million copies it will cement your legacy as the original and best Fruit Ninja player. You'll be iPhone famous, which pretty much kicks ass. We appreciate the community more than anything, so anytime we can do more to give back to the fans, we will certainly do so!

Suggestions/Updates

We are planning on updating this game as long as we can afford to, because there is an unlimited amount of possibilities for additions to gameplay and content. The Touch Arcade forums have constant input to myself and the team about stuff they might like to see, and we genuinely want to hear your feedback and ideas. At this stage the core game is solid and a hell of a lot of fun, but we know there is more to it and we will be making free updates on a regular basis. Inf act, the first update is coming in just a couple of days!

Bottom line here guys, I believe Fruit Ninja is a fantastic iPhone game and wouldn't be so evangelical about it if I didn't. Otherwise it would be pretty embarassing talking up a game which everyone knows in their heart sucks ass.

Thanks for your support and I look forward to chatting to you more about Fruit Ninja. We're an open developer at Halfbrick and anything you want to contribute I'll be here ready to take it on board!
 

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
the commercial was pretty hilarious and i've been craving another 0.99 score attack game, so i'll pick 'er up tomorrow. cheers, guys.
 

yophlow

Banned
Sounds awesome guys, we're really grateful for your support. We've been hanging around the Halfbrick office checking out the status of Fruit Ninja, and we've reached some pretty sweet milestones.

Right now Fruit Ninja is currently sitting at #2 spot in all paid apps in Australia, topped only by Angry Birds. That was basically a jump of around 250 chart places in 24 hours! In addition to that we are in the top ten in several European countries, as well as the top 100 for both UK and USA. It's definitely a slower battle but USA is still doing quite well. Really happy to see everyone digging the game!

I do have a question - we have heaps of updates planned (and actually submitted the first one today to show we are committed to the game), so what fruit would you want to see? Anyone know if any bizarre stuff we could throw in to slice up good and proper?

Also, a couple more reviews:

http://www.diygamer.com/2010/04/smoothie-fruit-ninja-review/

http://www.thinkdigit.com/Gaming/Fruit-Ninja-Apple-App-Store-review_4489.html

http://www.australiangamer.com/dlc_review/3081_fruit_ninja.html
 
I'm definitely buying this. I've loved pretty much everything you guys have put out on PSP Minis so far, so this is an instant purchase when I pick up an iPod Touch.

Was the game inspired at all by the similar mini game in Wii Sports Resort?
 

Raide

Member
HalfbrickPhil said:
I do have a question - we have heaps of updates planned (and actually submitted the first one today to show we are committed to the game), so what fruit would you want to see? Anyone know if any bizarre stuff we could throw in to slice up good and proper?

Some random thoughts and ideas.

Maybe mix in some objects that Ninja's like that you have to avoid slicing? Like Toasters, cats, sushi, Elvis CD's etc. It would make it much more interesting to actually save certain objects instead of just mashing the screen.

How about 1 really large boss fruit that requires multiple slices? Like an Uber-fruit where you have to attack his weak mushy centre.

How about fruit carving into certain shapes? Have a basic image appear and then you have 5 seconds to slice the fruit to match the image?

I will think up some other stuff but let me know what you think. :lol
 

Dexa

Banned
fun game... too bad it lacks of variety.
you could have added different stages - changing fruit based on the background, rising difficulty etc.
add some gameplay elements like a bonus for slicing multiple fruits in one swipe..
 

Karram

Member
I already bought the game and Its great so far. I've been Also thinking about making an iPhone game for a while but I would like to know how much Does the develompent cost, number of people that need to work on a game and how much copies does a game usually sell ?
 

mjc

Member
It's pretty fun but I think there's some issues with detection on the swipes. Sometimes I'll swipe a fruit and hear the sound effect but nothing will happen, and then it falls off the screen and I lose a point.
 
Dexa said:
fun game... too bad it lacks of variety.
you could have added different stages - changing fruit based on the background, rising difficulty etc.
add some gameplay elements like a bonus for slicing multiple fruits in one swipe..

mjc said:
It's pretty fun but I think there's some issues with detection on the swipes. Sometimes I'll swipe a fruit and hear the sound effect but nothing will happen, and then it falls off the screen and I lose a point.

This and this. Really cool idea for a game though-- I don't regret the purchase.
 

Gowans

Member
Damn it hit a bomb at 139.

Love it, perfect little time killer game.

Add me Gowans007

Now to get a good score...
 

Whimsical Phil

Ninja School will help you
Pretty fun little game. The artwork really does look great. I will agree with the two major comments so far: swipe detection needs a bit of tweaking and multi-slice bonuses would be a great addition.

My high score so far is 231. Feel free to add me: Radical Ninja
 

yophlow

Banned
Thanks everyone, some really fantastic suggestions! I'm happy to speak open and honest in this thread, as like I said we have a relatively open development philospohy here.

I can personally guarantee that you will be seeing multiple updates including additions you have posted here in this thread as well as many others. The thing with the iPhone is, we didn't want to go over budget or over scope - keep it tight, simple and fun. We created Fruit Ninja to the level we believed it could gain some traction in the market, despite knowing full well that there is so much more we could add. As a developer you need to know when to ship it otherwise things drag on and the game stagnates for too long. As you all know there are plenty of industry examples of this!

So, I am very happy to say that Fruit Ninja has done well and is continuing to rise in the charts, and we will most certainly be doing multiple updates. In fact, we have already submitted the first one with some polish additions, new fruit and a couple of bug fixes. We won't spend too long working on any one update, that way we can keep it fresh and bring you guys new stuff all the time.

Combos, multislash, extra modes, multipliers, bonuses - absolutely all on the cards. Myself and Fruit Ninja's creator and lead designer Luke Muscat are pretty excited about everything we are doing and have plenty of stuff designed and ready to implement. For a $1 purchase you will get a lot more. We will support the game as long as we can afford to do so!

We learn something new every day though, so keep the suggestions and high scores coming! I welcome any and all questions. Including this one!

I would like to know how much Does the develompent cost, number of people that need to work on a game and how much copies does a game usually sell ?

You could make a game by yourself for a cost of a few hundred bucks. All it will cost is time. You could also put together a huge team and make a massive RPG with cutting-edge graphics, ala Chaos Rings. For Fruit Ninja, we had a team of 2-3 people working for about two months. The iTunes store is always based on a little bit of luck,. but my job is to help promote the game and get involved with the communtiy to spread the word. Here is a good presentation regarding iPhone development from GDC, well worth the watch:

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/...ctures_From_Brathwaite_geoDefense_Creator.php

OK, now just for a quick update. Last night Fruit Ninja hit #2 in all paid apps in Australia, beating out Doodle Jump! The #1 spot is of course Angyr Birds, but Fruit Ninja is continuing to sell so we'll see what happens there. We've also reached top ten in many European countries and are rising in the top 100 in the USA! Australia is our home ground advantage so we are able to promote word of mouth much easier, so I'm hoping everyone in the US can help out by telling their friends if they dig the game! We've also had a few more great reviews:

AppSmile - http://www.appsmile.com/2010/04/23/fruit-ninja-serves-up-fresh-gaming/

148apps - http://www.148apps.com/news/friday-april-23rd-2010/

Appolicious - http://www.appolicious.com/games/ar...sonic-2-top-the-best-iphone-games-of-the-week

Thanks again for all your support, I'm very keen to hear some stories of your Fruit Ninja adventures around the place. Someone said they lost productivity when playing the game while taking a dump. So awesome.
 

Gowans

Member
Played again this morn, need to het focused.

I love how simple & focused the game is but here are my points.

I play the game listening to podcasts or music, the games volume level is max or off, would love a slider so I can still hear but can hear my podcast.

When you get multiple fruit I would love a point bonus for every extra fruit hit.

I have no idea why I get crits? Slice at top of arc?

I play this sleath, a swipe as soon as they popup & hardly ever miss, feels like there should be an award for that.


Great game, now to get my score up, I'm to low on my friends leaderboard for my own liking.
 

Dexa

Banned
Gowans007 said:
I have no idea why I get crits? Slice at top of arc?
the about screen says that they are random, thats my impression too.
(@HalfbrickPhil: another thing you should change if that is true...)
 
Just wanted to post my support for you guys. The presentation is what sells this game, such a simple concept, but executed SO PERFECTLY. Really looking forward to you building upon this solid foundation you've laid. My girlfriend and I are currently in a trash talking fruit ninja top score war, a game this casual is the only thing I can get her to play, so thank you for making something so simple and so fun!

I had a question about Critical hits. What causes them? At the moment they seem completely random.

Suggestions for the future:
Sword Runes - Draw symbols for big bonus points, more complex symbols require more time and risk you missing any fruit or hitting a bomb, if you pull it off something CRAZY could happen, ninja stars auto attack fruit for the next 2 seconds, a SHITLOAD of fruit flies up in a perfect arc, a blizzard freezes everything and slows down time... you know, general wackiness.

Bomb Ninja Mode - Get an X for hitting fruit w/ sword, get a point for exploding fruit w/ bomb.

Rain of Fruit - Every time your score reaches a multiple of 100 have a bonus round where fruit falls from the top for 10 seconds, you don't get an X if you miss it.
 

yophlow

Banned
All these suggestions and ideas have been taken down by Luke and myself, we will be working on implementation in its various forms every single day and submitting frequent updates as soon as we can! In regards, to criticals, they are random as we did want an element of luck to play a part in the initial experience. We'll be adding many more skill-based elements to gameplay including combos, multipliers and additional features, so rest assured that the game content (as well as online features/leaderboards) will be expanding.

I really dig the idea of the runes/symbols mode, that could make for some pretty rad ninja slashing moments!

Basically to keep the content coming we just need initial support from the community with ratings/word of mouth, that way the game stays visible while we work quickly to roll out the updates. As I said, one update is already submitted and will be live this week, and first thing Monday we will be working on number 2.

A quick question about Openfeint for you guys. I noticed many of you posted your username, that's great! Who uses Openfeint regularly, which features are the best for you, and do you take pride in your profile in the same way you do for say, Xbox Live? We're super keen on optimising the online experience for everyone.
 

yophlow

Banned
Very exciting times - Fruit Ninja is actually sitting at #102 in top paid apps in the USA. If we make it to the top 100, we'll get a huge iTunes visibility boost and hopefully head up there more as the general public catches on. We're still inching closer though, so thanks for supporting us and we can't wait until the update goes live!

As soon as we hit the top 100, it'll be cause for celebration so I'll be giving away some free download codes for the game in this thread!

Also, some of those fruit are bizarre. I want to murder them.
 

dream

Member
Oh shit, you guys made Fruit Ninja? The "fruit facts" in the game are just mindnumbingly awesome.

Good shit!
 
Well done Halfbrick, a perfectly executed (ha ha) iPhone game, and looking forward to any updates. The presentation is the best part, whoever did the art elements, trust them 100% on the next project, because if it looks half as good, its instantly purchased.

Good to see Aussie developers mastering the iPhone.

I don't know that you really need that many more features, but I'd love the criticals to not be random, but when fruit overlap and you slice two as they touch. That seems natural to me.

Fruit Ninja featured heavily in a game design class here in Melbourne last week. :)
 

Gowans

Member
236 boom! Just had a look at the OpenFeint achievements to look for some thongs to do and noticed I didn't get my 200point achievement tho.


Edit: for a fruit I say throw in a rare tomato with a achievement for slicing it called "Yes it's a fruit"
 

Karram

Member
HalfbrickPhil said:
You could make a game by yourself for a cost of a few hundred bucks. All it will cost is time. You could also put together a huge team and make a massive RPG with cutting-edge graphics, ala Chaos Rings. For Fruit Ninja, we had a team of 2-3 people working for about two months. The iTunes store is always based on a little bit of luck,. but my job is to help promote the game and get involved with the communtiy to spread the word. Here is a good presentation regarding iPhone development from GDC, well worth the watch:
Do you know where I can find people willing to work on game ?
 

aristotle

Member
I have to say I bought this solely on this thread. I absolutely love this game. I encourage everyone to get it. It's so simple and fun and for a buck, I don't think it can be beat.
 

Torquill

Member
Haha wow, what a coincidence. I actually bought this the other day. First iPhone game I actually paid for. For the price seemed like a perfectly good little time waister.

I was actually pretty impressed with OpenFeint. It was super easy to get it going. I'm going to look into it myself for development. Thanks for introducing me to it!

Congrats on your success! Hope it keeps going well! :)

EDIT:
Haha, I just had a really cheesy, but potentially amusing, idea.
You could incorporate a brick somehow. Cause, you know, you cut it and have HalfBricks!
 

Remy

Member
Bought this today before even seeing the thread. About to try it on my iPad, since my iPhone is in beta test mode.

RemyVJA on OpenFeint.
 

yophlow

Banned
Ladies and gentlemen, I need your assistance, and your reading eyes - I am here to tell you that Fruit Ninja is now featured in both the New and Noteworthy section of the App Store, and also the Hot New Games section of the App store - this is for the USA.

Can someone please confirm this on their iPhone, and also possibly someone in the UK to check also? We've already seen it from ehre but nothing beats the age-old acid test of a resident checking their own iPhone in the proper areas.

After we confirm this, I have some pretty exciting stuff to talk about. Thanks for your help!
 

Mike M

Nick N
HalfbrickPhil said:
I do have a question - we have heaps of updates planned (and actually submitted the first one today to show we are committed to the game), so what fruit would you want to see? Anyone know if any bizarre stuff we could throw in to slice up good and proper?

I'd like to see something like a pomegranate as a bonus round fruit or something, where slicing it open unleashes a bunch of seeds that you can slash to rack up extra points. Or maybe a bunch of grapes where you'd have to slice the individual grapes that fly off the bunch when you slice it.

My only real complaint with the game so far is that the plums really don't look anything like any plums I've ever seen. Peaches seem really obvious but are conspicuously absent.
 

yophlow

Banned
I can now confirm to everyone that Fruit Ninja has been featured in the USA app store, in both the New & Noteworthy apps section as well as the Hot New Games section (which can be found under the What's Hot banner).

10mlm6p.jpg


This is a good day! A huge thanks to everyone who supported us from the beginning, and we look forward to seeing even more players on the Fruit Ninja leaderboards!
 

Dragnet

Member
Really happy to hear the game is doing well and can't wait for updates, it's got so much potential! The game's been vital in passing an extra 3 days here in America after most of my friends have left to gone (my flight was delayed, volcano..)

So what's everyones top score? I'm currently at 276!
 

yophlow

Banned
Sweetness! THe very first Fruit Ninja update is live, and I have just released this information to the world. Enjoy!

April 28th, 2010 – Precisely one week after the worldwide release, Fruit Ninja's first juicy update is here with heaps of great extra content to improve the hottest new game on the App store! Halfbrick is continually working on the game to improve the slash-tastic experience, as well as taking feedback from members of the community on Twitter, Facebook and gaming forums!

Here is what you can expect in today’s free update:

- New fruit: We proudly welcome two new additions to the Fruit Ninja family - Mango and Pear! They can look forward to a short and painful life.
- Multislash: Take to the screen with more than one finger at a time and slash to your heart's content!

image_04.jpg


- High score: Now displayed in-game for you to keep constant track of your best Fruit Ninja score!
- Three new Openfeint Achievements!
- 10 new fruit facts!
- Improved font and background for even more beautiful fruit carnage!
- Collision / bug fixes and improvements!

Thanks for taking part in the Fruit Ninja way of life, and we look forward to serving you even more new content and gameplay in update 2!

And as a quick sales update, Fruit Ninja has been featured in the App store and is currently sitting at #14 in All Paid Apps! What an amazing result, and we really look forward to seeing more players and we add new content in future!
 
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