No introduction really necessary here. Just watch. OK? Just...shhh...just watch.
Bow Before the Hydro Jets of Riptide GP2!
Riptide GP2 offers a ton of awesome new content, not least of which is a whole slew of brand new super-fast hydro jets! You'll recognize some old favorites in this new trailer, as well as some new additions:
Not only are the new hydro jets more detailed than in RGP1, not only are they faster, but you can also upgrade their performance and customize their look!
Contest Time!
On top of all of this, we're announcing a contest to help us rename one of the hydro jets .. the Spinner. This is one of the fastest jets in Riptide GP2, with kind of a retro vibe to it. And yet we're not crazy about the original name we came up with...Spinner.
That's why we're announcing this contest!
We're asking your help to come up with a new and totally awesome name for this hydro jet. We'll pick our favorite name out of all the entrants, and the person who suggests it will get their name in the game credits, and win a wireless Bluetooth Nyko PlayPad Pro! And even if your suggestion doesn't get picked, we have nine more PlayPads and PlayPad pros to give out to people who enter!
Contest is open from June 28 to July 5. See the contest page for all the rules and details.
Good luck! And may the best name win!
Riptide GP2 Multi-Player Awesome-Sauce
Want to see what multi-player racing looks like in Vector Unit's upcoming Riptide GP2? Well my friends your desires are answered in this awesome video of a real, live multi-player match on 3 different Android devices using Google Play game services:
Vector Unit dives into Google Play game services
San Francisco, CA – May 15, 2013 — Vector Unit, the indie game developer known for top-selling mobile racing titles Beach Buggy Blitz™, Riptide GP™ and Shine Runner™, announced at Google I/O, Google’s developer conference, that all its games will offer full support for Android’s new Google Play game services starting immediately.
“We love to connect players in our games, but until recently on Android there have been a lot of competing social platforms without a single standout,” says Vector Unit CEO Matt Small. “Google Play game services offer a unifying platform that every Android gamer can join easily, has all the features we could want, and that we as developers can support without worrying about whether it’s going to still be around in 2 years.”
The company’s premium water racing titles, Riptide GP and Shine Runner, and its popular free-to-play “endless driver” Beach Buggy Blitz, all receive updates today that allow users to log in with their Google accounts to earn Achievements, post scores to Leaderboards, and sync their game progress using Cloud Save.
Vector Unit’s upcoming sequel Riptide GP2 is also showcased at Google I/O this week to demonstrate Google Play game services’ real-time multi-player capabilities. Google I/O attendees can play Riptide GP2 this week in the Sandbox on the third floor, and also with NVIDIA, where it’s being shown running with extra graphic features on NVIDIA’s new Tegra 4-based Shield devices.
“Multi-player is a major focus of Riptide GP2,” explains Ralf Knoesel, Vector Unit’s CTO. “Google Play game services provide a robust and easy to use real-time multi-player experience. The elegant invitations and notifications allow players to easily connect with their friends to show off their hydro jet racing skills.”
Riptide GP2 is due to be released on Android and iOS this summer. In addition to multi-player gameplay, the game features a new deeper career mode, player and hydro jet customization, and a stunt combo system with dozens of spectacular stunts.
Beach Buggy Blitz Nominated for 2 Best App Ever Awards
We're thrilled to announce that Beach Buggy Blitz has been nominated for not one but TWO Best App Ever for Android Awards!
Beach Buggy Blitz is nominated for both Best Racing and Most Innovative game categories. Please vote for us by clicking on one (or both!) of the links below. Voting is super easy, you don't have to sign up or give your email or anything!
| Vote for Beach Buggy Blitz for Best Racing Game | Vote for Beach Buggy Blitz for Most Innovative Game |
Voting is open til May 15, 2013. Winners will be announced at Google I/O in San Francisco that very same day.
Incidentally, Riptide GP is also nominated for Best Racing Game, so if you really love Riptide GP more you can vote for it, too!
You can find out more about the Best App Ever Awards here.
Update on 2013-05-20 20:32 by Vector Unit
We won! Thanks to everyone who voted and helped make Beach Buggy Blitz the #1 Racing Game in the Best App Ever Awards!
Beach Buggy Blitz hits 10M on Android, time to give some stuff away!
10,000,000 is a big number. Like, if you started counting from one right now and kept going til you hit 10,000,000, I'm pretty sure you would get bored or hungry and give up way before you got there.
As game designers, when we make a new game and release it to the wilds, we're hoping that somebody out there will like it. If a few thousand people like it, that makes us feel good. If a million people like it, we're like, "Woah!"
Well today Beach Buggy Blitz was downloaded for the 10,000,000th time on Google Play. We don't even know what to think about that, except to say, "Thanks!"
So by way of saying "Thanks!", we're going to give away some stuff! Specifically, this stuff:
- Grand Prize (5 Winners)
Beach Buggy Blitz T Shirt* AND a code for 100K Coins in BBB - Awesome Prize (10 Winners)
Code for 100K Coins in BBB - Super Prize (20 Winners)
Code for 25K Coins in BBB - Booster Prize (40 Winners)
Code for 10K Coins in BBB
Here's how to enter:
- If you haven't already, join the Vector Unit Fan Club. It's easy, and it's awesome.
- Leave a comment on this post. Say whatever you want. Say something about Beach Buggy Blitz, about your favorite car, your craziest moment. Say something about one of our other games, or about video games in general. Just be nice to each other.
Comments must be posted before Wednesday 3/13 at 9am Pacific Time. After that time we will randomly select the winners from the entrants, and notify them via email. See below for more rules.
*Please note you must be a resident of the United States or Canada to get the T-Shirt!
Official Rules:
- Competition is open to everyone, but only residents of the United States of Canada will get a T-Shirt.
- One entry per person. Employees or family members of employees of Vector Unit are not permitted to enter.
- Competition entries are only accepted via comments left on this post, and must be dated no later than 9am PT on March 13, 2013. Entries left in the comments section of any other post, or received by any other means, will not be recognized.
- Contestants who post vulgar or inflammatory comments will be disqualified.
- Winners will be contacted by a Vector Unit staff member via the email they use to create their Vector Unit Fan Club account, and will be expected to respond to that staff member within 24 hours, else their prize may be forfeit and another winner selected. Vector Unit’s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into. Winners agree that their name and details of their entry may be used for promotional purposes by Vector Unit.
- Prizes consist of five Beach Buggy Blitz T-Shirts, 15 Ultra Pack Codes, and 20 Super Pack Codes. There are no other alternatives for prize winners unless these prizes become unavailable, in which case Vector Unit reserves the right to substitute another prize of similar value. Giveaway provided by Vector Unit.
- Any questions regarding this giveaway should be directed to info@vectorunit.com.
Update on 2013-03-08 20:23 by Vector Unit
Wow! We're really excited that so many people are signing up for the contest and the Vector Unit Fan Club. We promise we'll do our best to actually give you some value to the club, with more contests and special content in the future.
In the meantime, because the response has been so big, we're going to add a 4th level "Booster Prize" to this contest, so even more people can share in the joy!
Update on 2013-03-13 18:30 by Vector Unit
Contest is Closed! Pencils Down!
The BBB 10M Giveaway is now closed. You can still leave comments of course but comments received after this morning at 9am will not be counted. If you didn't get a chance to enter - don't worry, we'll have more contests!
And thanks to all of you who left such nice comments about the game, we're really grateful to have such awesome fans for the game!
We'll start contacting winners today, and should have everyone tallied up by tomorrow.
The Sweet Taste of BlackBerry
Today Riptide GP splashes down on the BlackBerry World app store for BlackBerry 10.
Last week we released Beach Buggy Blitz for BB10, and it's already become one of the most popular and highest-rated games in the BlackBerry World store.
We've been working closely with the team at BlackBerry to ensure that we squeeze every ounce of juice out of their powerful new BB10-based devices, and we're excited to be part of this new step in the BlackBerry legacy!
In addition to performance enhancements, our BlackBerry games also feature full Scoreloop integration, with support for Achievements, Leaderboards, and cloud storage.
You can find Riptide GP for BlackBerry here.
And Beach Buggy Blitz for BlackBerry here.
... and keep and eye out for Shine Runner, due in a few short weeks!
Vector Unit Teams Up with Nyko for Playpad Giveaway
Guess who's the Nyko Playpad Game of the Week this week? That's right, it's our very own Beach Buggy Blitz!
Over the last couple of years we've had a chance to sample a lot of different Bluetooth gamepads for mobile devices. Two of our very favorites are the Nyko Playpad and Playpad Pro. Both of these controllers are durable and well made, with great-feeling joysticks and buttons and long lasting batteries. Best of all they offer support for multiple standard formats, like iCade on iOS and the standard HID on Android (which means they'll work with ANY game that supports controller inputs on Android 3.0 or higher.)
You can also find out more about the Playpad family and other Nyko products by following them on Twitter (@NykoTech) and Facebook (www.Facebook.com/NykoTech).
TO ENTER:
All you have to do to enter is follow these simple steps:
- Be a resident of the US or Canada (for shipping purposes).
- If you haven't already, follow @VectorUnit on Twitter.
- RT (Re-Tweet) the Twitter announcement from us about this giveaway (dated Feb 4, 2013). Your RT must happen BEFORE 9am PST on Wednesday, February 6, 2013.
- Sit back and wait for the end of the contest, and hope you get picked!
We’ll choose FOUR winners at random from the entries. Two will win Playpads, and two will win Playpad Pros!
RULES:
Competition is open to residents of the US and Canada only. One entry per person. Do NOT tweet multiple entries or tweet from multiple Twitter accounts or you will be disqualified. Employees or family members of employees of Nyko and Vector Unit are not permitted to enter.
Competition entries are only accepted via the specified Twitter tweet, and must be dated no later than 9am PST on February 6, 2012. Entries left in the comments section of this or any other post, or received by any other means, will not be recognized.
Winners will be contacted by a Vector Unit staff member via direct message in Twitter upon being selected and will be expected to respond to that staff member within 24 hours, else their prize may be forfeit and another winner selected. Vector Unit’s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.
Winners agree that their name and details of their entry may be used for promotional purposes by, but not limited to, Nyko and Vector Unit. Prizes consist of two Nyko Playpad Pros and two Nyko Playpads. There are no other alternatives for prize winners unless these prizes become unavailable, in which case Vector Unit reserves the right to substitute another prize of similar value. Giveaway provided by Vector Unit. Prizes provided by Nyko. Any questions regarding this giveaway should be directed to info@vectorunit.com.
Riptide GP 2 Announced at CES 2013
It's official -- Riptide GP 2 is in development!
Perceptive fans noticed the splash screen and icon for the sequel in Jen-Hsun's NVIDIA CES keynote on Sunday night. Reports are that the game is playable on the show floor in the NVIDIA booth, running on NVIDIA's blazing fast new Tegra 4 mobile superchip!
Riptide GP 2 will deliver all the fast action, incredible physics, and polished visuals of the first game -- and then some! The new game delivers even better quality graphics, including better splashes and wakes, more detailed water, and realtime lighting and shadows (on supported platforms). It will be available for multiple platforms, and includes special enhancements for Tegra 4 devices like the new Shield gaming platform.
In addition there's a new career mode, hydro jet customization and upgrades, and tons of new content!
Riptide GP 2 is coming to Android and iOS, and is slated for a release in early Summer 2013. Stay tuned here and in our other social channels for more updates!
