Squeak's Dreams is out now! Buy it on the iTunes App Store now for $0.99/£0.69

Press reviews so far have said:

"When you're having Squeak jump from berry to leaf, or duck to log, you must take into account the fact your previous motions factor in. It can be quite frustrating at first, but similar to Mega Man or the newer Dark Souls, you get used to it, and are soon blazing across the lakes and hedges to reach your bed and sleep's warm embrace."

- 4/5 stars on ptfgn.com 

"A fun little foray into the cheese obsessed world of the noble field mouse. Short and sweet, with unique aesthetics, a great soundtrack and replay value coming out of the wazoo, for 99c/ 69p, it’ll make a great addition to your game library."

- 8/10 from FrontTowardsGamer.com

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Squeak's Dreams launches on Monday!

Finally, after all those months of hard work, my iPhone game is ready for launch. Squeak's Dreams will go live on the US and UK App Stores on Monday, 12th of December, 2011 for 69p/99c. I'd just like to take this opportunity to thank my wonderful girlfriend Louise for putting up with the hours and hours I've spent tinkering with interpolates, booleans and constrain attributes, not to mention the time I asked her to be quiet while I quacked into my iMac. All being well, I'll be writing an article about what I've learned from the whole process on www.gamesradar.com on Monday. I'll see you then - cheers everyone!

Justin

Squeak's Dreams is almost here!

It's taken the whole year so far, but my iPhone game is finished. And you may have noticed that I've bought the domain name 'squeaksdreams.com'. Pretty rare to get TWO URLS that you want with a .com extension. Anyway, I'm just waiting on confirmation of some admin stuff (yawn) and then I'll submit the game to Apple. Still on track for a 2011 release, then! But what's the game about? Well, let this new trailer explain all:

The game will run on any iPhone or iPod Touch from 3GS-era upward, and will run as an emulated iPhone game on iPad 1 or 2. I must stress, the game is optimised for iPhone 4S and runs beautifully on that system, so if you want to play it as it was intended to be played, try to get your hands on one of those babies. Runs just fine on iPhone 4 or Retina-display iPod Touch, and runs at around 25-30fps on 3GS. 

I'm intending to sell the game for 69p on the App Store, so start saving those pennies! The game is currently around 35MB in size, although I have no idea how that will be affected by the submissions process.

Keep checking for updates to find out the release date. Also, feel free to sign up to my Twitter feed. I'm @CatGoneCrazy 

Cheers

From Justin

07 Nov, 2011

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First video is live! Clips from the first area (The Garden) and the first Cheese Dream

24 Jul, 2011

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One more screenshot for you - this is what I've been working on today. Is nice, yes?

Squeak's all underwater - but don't worry, it's only a Cheese Dream :)

11 Jun, 2011

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Hello again! I had hoped to bring you video of Cheese Dreams in action, but I can't find a Mac screencapture program that captures at a good enough quality. So instead, I'll show you some more screenshots.

The screens I want to show you come from the new area that I've been working on. You've seen the garden and the first Cheese Dream, so these are from The River - the second area in the game. I'm actually going to be revisiting some of the earlier levels because I've learned so much in the time since I made them so there are plenty of improvements to be made. If you look carefully at these screens compared to those below, you might see that the main Squeak sprite is sharper (now in the correct resolution), the cheese count font is better and the sprite behind it sharper too. The Squeak sprite was actually completely redone, albeit using the old one as a template.

I'm enjoying playing it, which is surely a good sign, and the game is running smoothly. I'd say it's 45% complete, but progress is swifter than it was now I know what I'm doing! Well on the way to meeting its end of year deadline. Enjoy the pics - I'll try to get a trailer together soon.

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Hello everyone! I think it's time the world saw a little more of my iPhone game, which I'm aiming to have finished... "when it's done". Just kidding, my actual target date is the end of the year. So what's it about? Cheese Dreams is a platform game about a mouse named Squeak. The idea is that Squeak runs around during the day, collecting cheese like any other good mouse would do. He has to avoid the perilous hazards of areas like the kitchen, the garden and beyond as he eats as much cheese as possible.

However... what happens when you eat too much cheese before you go to sleep? That's right - Cheese Dreams! Those weird and wonderful dreams where you get chased by Vince out of Rex The Runt, or perhaps play guitar to a stadium full of chocobos. So that's what happens in this iPhone game. But not with chocobos. Your aim is to complete each level with enough cheese in your furry tum to trigger a Cheese Dream - and that's when things get a little strange...

The game uses a mix of hand-drawn sprites and photographic imagery, all sourced and created by CatGoneCrazy. And, of course, you can bet there's a full original soundtrack in there too, featuring real instruments, MIDI compositions and diagetic noises, all written and performed by CatGoneCrazy. Well, apart from the bit the blackbird sung - that was done by a real blackbird. Look out for more in the coming weeks!

Wed, May 4, 2011