The 2024 Halloween event is packed full of treats, no trick! We've got the return of Screamin' Jack, new Halloween Challenge and a special Halloween crate full of goodies.
At GDC last month Gamerlivetv conducted an interview with Vector Unit's Creative Director Matt Small about Riptide GP2. Here's the video!
We cover tons of information about the game, including the new career mode, multiplayer, and more. Check it out, and let us know if you have any more questions of your own we can answer!
It's Fan Club Friday! Time to give away something awesome to the members of the most elite fan club since the dawn of humankind.
This week we're going to give away codes for free coins in Beach Buggy Blitz!
If you're already a member of the Vector Unit Fan Club, you don't have to do anything -- you're automatically entered! We'll notify the winners via email at the end of the day (US Pacific time), and will shout out in an update to this post.
If you aren't a member of the VUFC -- what are you waiting for? Join today, and you can download awesome ringtones, wallpapers, and -- of course -- win fabulous free prizes!
Giveaway provided by Vector Unit. Any questions regarding this giveaway should be directed to info@vectorunit.com.
Congratulations to our 10 winners this week! Each one of our lucky Vector Unit Fan Club members recieved a Super Pack of 25,000 coins in Beach Buggy Blitz. Join the VUFC and follow us on Facebook and Twitter for a chance to win free coins and other stuff on future Fan Club Fridays!
Here's a sweet video of Riptide GP2 running on Project Shield. One thing the guy doesn't mention is that the whole game is being rendered with real time shadows, which you can see when the rider casts a shadow on the hydro jet during the stunts.
Check it out!
So today Beach Buggy Blitz passed 10 Million downloads in the Google Play app store.
10 Million!
I come from a console development background. Back when I worked on console games for the PS2 and Xbox, and Xbox 360, we had a completely different idea of "audience".
The most successful console game I ever worked on was when I was at Stormfront Studios: Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. I believe that game sold something like 4 million copies across all platforms, and that was considered a huge success. Heck, it WAS a huge success!
Of course LOTR:TT sold for $50/copy or something like that so we're talking about a lot of money. Beach Buggy Blitz is free, and we depend on lots and lots of people playing the game in the hopes that a few of those people will pay. And in fact about 1.5% of players do eventually buy something. So for us, a small company, Beach Buggy Blitz is also a huge success.
But apart from the money, the thing that amazes me is the idea that 10 million people have played our game. And most of them really liked it! We know it's not perfect, there are lots of things we'd love to improve or do differently if we had to do it over again. But still, we poured a lot of our creativity and hard work into that game, and to think that 10 million people have played it and mostly enjoyed it is really staggering, and a little humbling.
I wonder how many total hours of gameplay that is... [Eyes glaze over].
Anyway, to all of you who have played Beach Buggy Blitz, thanks a lot for your support and your engagement, and for the ideas that you have posted on our Facebook page or tweeted or emailed to us. And thanks even for some of the criticisms which have helped us make the game better.
The Beach Buggy Blitz story is not over! There will be more updates and fixes and patches. And most importantly we have big Beach Buggy plans for later this year. Hopefully we'll continue to do justice to the parts of the game you like, and add even more stuff for you to enjoy -- I'd hate to have 10 million people angry at me!
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:
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!
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!
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.
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!
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).
All you have to do to enter is follow these simple steps:
We’ll choose FOUR winners at random from the entries. Two will win Playpads, and two will win Playpad Pros!
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.
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!
The new winter expansion update for Beach Buggy Blitz is now available for download on the Google Play Store. This is a major update to the game, a ton of new content and gameplay options!
First and foremost is the new Snowy Mountain environment, which you can discover when you drive into the hard sections of the mountain after about 6km. (It shows up around the same time as the Volcano stuff.) The new environment is full of slip-slidey challenges, including patches of ice and snow, squeaky toy penguins, and howling yeti! (For memory and perofrmance reasons, this content only appears on devices with dual core CPUs or higher.)
In addition, we've added a new 5th upgrade level for all Powerups in the game. There's a new +2 second upgrade for the Checkpoint, an even faster Boost, and more!
You'll also find the "Tune Up" Gadget in the menu alongside the Drop Ship and the Extra Life. It gives your car extra performance for the next race, perfect for a run at the leaderboards!
And -- as if all that wasn't enough -- you also get new achievements!
Happy holidays, everyone, hope you enjoy playing the update as much as we've had making it!
The Winter Expansion pack IS going to make it to iOS as well. We need to do some further optimization, and of course as always wait a little while after we submit the udpate for Apple Approval. We expect it to be available in mid-January 2013.
