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!
Riptide GP2 Interview on Gamerlivetv
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!
Fan Club Friday!
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!
Free Club Friday Official Rules
- Competition is open to everyone 13 years old or older, except for employees or family members of employees of Vector Unit.
- Winners will be randomly selected from all registered and confirmed Vector Unit Fan Club members.
- 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.
Giveaway provided by Vector Unit. Any questions regarding this giveaway should be directed to info@vectorunit.com.
Update on 2013-04-06 00:51 by Vector Unit
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!
Riptide GP2 demo on NVIDIA's Project Shield
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!
10 Million
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!
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!