[Upcoming]Air Force vs Luftwaffe HD

[BenTim]

[Released]Air Force vs Luftwaffe HD

Edit: Game's out, you can get it here: Air Force vs Luftwaffe HD.
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Bitmen Studios is currently working on Air Force vs Luftwaffe, a fast-paced action game for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. You start with an airplane flying missions, gaining experience points and adding more planes to your squadron. We've invested a lot of effort into realistic graphics and animations, but we've invested even more time into game design to make sure that the game is fun - and the favorable feedback from our beta testers makes us pretty confident that we did a good job.

The game has its own custom physics engine and we've made sure that the controls are responsive to support the fast-paced nature of the game. There's also a wide variety of missions to complete and 12 unlockable, distinct planes to fly. Obvious stuff like leaderborads, achievements, different game modes (incl. an endless mode), upgrades, etc. go without saying.

For more info about the game, please have a look at » World War II: Air Force vs Luftwaffe (iPhone/iPad) Bitmen Studios – Best in iPhone Game Development.
Please be sure to check out the official trailer at [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXJDkeu5Hhk[/ame].

There will be an iPhone/iPod touch and a separate HD version for the iPad.
Last but not least, a few screenshots from the iPad version to give a first impression:

Dogfight while Escorting Allied Bombers

Bombing Run on Enemy Tanks in North African Campaign

Attack on the Tirpitz

Night Combat

I hope you like these first impressions. Please leave us a message or reply in this thread to give us valuable feedback. We'd greatly appreciate to hear from you. If you have any creative ideas, we're always looking for stuff to pack into updates. The game will be released in May as an iPhone and HD version for iPad. Please join us at Twitter @BitmenStudios to stay in the loop.

After more than 5 months of development and tweaking a lot of details for maximum fun, we at Bitmen Studios are convinced that we've created a great game and the feedback from our external beta testers from the community is very favorable. We're hoping that you'll enjoy the game as much as we do.

Cheers,
Mark, Bitmen Studios.

 

[SporkLover]

Sounds like a great title. Too bad you went with just the air force, because the f4u was the greatest fighter of ww2

 

[USBill]

Beautifully rendered. I will probably purchase.

I have lots of great games on my iPad, what do we need to do to get this ported to the Playbook?

 

[BenTim]

Chance Vought F4U Corsair

Sounds like a great title. Too bad you went with just the air force, because the f4u was the greatest fighter of ww2

By air force, we mean Royal Air Force and USAAF. It goes without saying that the f4u is in. Here's the proof:

We also have some less famous airplanes like italian aircraft on the Axis side, for example the Macchi MC.202 and lots of others. There are 16 different airplanes in the game right now, some with multiple paintings. We may bring one or the other additional plane in an update if the game sees some success (we have two more bombers in the queue as we speak).

We've gone a long way to create nice artwork but I can guarantee that the gameplay is where the game really shines. We wasted 5 generations of different AI implementations on the fighter AIs until we were happy with the results and we equally tweaked all other important parts like physics and tilt controls till we had that "feel good" sensation.

It is no simulation, we have tweaked the game for maximum fun, even though we simulate important parts like gravity, air resistance, acceleration, critical angle, and more. Still, the goal was to create a game that is really fun and we are convinced that we have created a really enjoyable thing here.

 

[a_steroids]

Looks nice, I love good aircraft games!

 

[SporkLover]

Sounds like a great title. Too bad you went with just the air force, because the f4u was the greatest fighter of ww2

By air force, we mean Royal Air Force and USAAF. It goes without saying that the f4u is in. Here's the proof:

We also have some less famous airplanes like italian aircraft on the Axis side, for example the Macchi MC.202 and lots of others. There are 16 different airplanes in the game right now, some with multiple paintings. We may bring one or the other additional plane in an update if the game sees some success (we have two more bombers in the queue as we speak).

We've gone a long way to create nice artwork but I can guarantee that the gameplay is where the game really shines. We wasted 5 generations of different AI implementations on the fighter AIs until we were happy with the results and we equally tweaked all other important parts like physics and tilt controls till we had that "feel good" sensation.

It is no simulation, we have tweaked the game for maximum fun, even though we simulate important parts like gravity, air resistance, acceleration, critical angle, and more. Still, the goal was to create a game that is really fun and we are convinced that we have created a really enjoyable thing here.

I am officially intrigued . Waiting for release!

 

[BenTim]

Air Force vs Luftwaffe in Review with Apple

Air Force vs Luftwaffe has been submitted to Apple for review. Provided Apple doesn't cause any delay, we should be able to release it on

May 6

Game will be on promo initially ($1.99 for SD and $2.99 for HD).

We're already working on additional scenes and local multiplayer is also something we're considering for a future update. If you have any cool ideas then please give us feedback.

We got a lot of valuable feedback during the beta phase and we were able to incorporate most of the (feasible) proposals (some others landed on the backlog). Nothing beats the community when it comes to creativity.

​

 

[Gabriel1]

I'm not a big gamer but ooooooh that looks good!

The Archangel

 

[addiosamigo]

Are the plane sounds realistic? Gt5 should have been an awesome racer but all the cars sound the same and some don't even sound like their real counterparts, sound imo is critical to the user experience

 

[tdmsu]

Did you include the p-38 lightning? How about a list of all the planes?
Thanks for the effort!

 

[DontUnderstandMyIpad]

Did you include the p-38 lightning? How about a list of all the planes?
Thanks for the effort!

There is a list on their website:

Hawker Hurricane, Supermarine Spitfire, P-47 Thunderbolt, P-51 Mustang, F4U Corsair, Me Bf109, Focke Wulf 190a, Me Bf110, Ju-87 Stuka, Ju-88, B-17 Flying Fortress, and many more

 

[BenTim]

Game's out

Air Force vs Luftwaffe HD is out (for the iPad only). The iPhone version will follow up Friday, 6th of May.

Link to the HD version is Air Force vs Luftwaffe HD.

As for your questions, addiosamigo, we have stereo sounds but they really only end up being stereo if you use headsets. With the default speaker it ain't really possible, sorry, but that's a hardware issue (built in speakers are on one side only and you can't get any stereo effects that way). We do not have different sounds for every plane, but sound also takes into account aircraft distance or engine load, of course, or special stuff like stuka dives, obviously. We also have pretty good music that suits the theme. Of course you can also listen to your own music, if that's what you prefer.

As for the list of planes, tdmsu, unfortunately, we do not have the P-38 Lightning in (we may add it in an update).

The current list of planes is (off the top of my head, hope I can recall correctly):

Allies:
Hawker Hurricane, Spitfire, Mustang (RAF painted), P47-D Thunderbolt, P-51 Mustang (US), F4U Corsair, B-17 Flying Fortress, DeHavilland Mosquito.

Axis:
Fiat G.50, Macchi MC.202, Reggiane Re.2000, Me Bf110, Me Bf109e, Fw190a, Fw190f, Ju-87 Stuka, Ju-88.

Overall, if you like action games, then you're almost guaranteed to like the game. We had several beta testers from the community who have tested the game during the last month and they all loved it. The beta test was generally very important to find usability issues and fine tune the details. It is really a polished game now.

@Gabriel1: as with all games, we tried hard to make the game accessible to more casual gamers. It contains a tutorial helping you with the basics. It is not totally necessary to play the tutorial if you are a hardcore gamer but if you are a more casual gamer, then it can help you get started.

Other than that, we have included a few settings that can make the game easier if you switch them on in the options menu. There's a Kid's mode that prevents you from crashing and automatically recovers from stall. Whenever the plane would crash, it will override your controls and make sure you stay in the air.

There's another option that is "intelligent auto-shoot" it doesn't mindlessly shoot all the time (that would be annoying esp. as far as the sound is concerned) but the game will check whether you have a chance to hit and then shoot for you. That way, you can concentrate on flying. We've seen during usability tests that with those settings, casual gamers can play the game as well. For the hardcore fans, you can leave these settings off and control everything on your own.

You can also move the on-screen buttons on the screen to suit your personal preference.

Overall, we really wanted to create something we can take pride in. We really wanted to create something special. To give an example: we've wasted 5 generations of pilot AIs until we were happy with the result.

As I said, if you like action games, then you can't go wrong. It is important to understand, that we like to see the game as an action game rather than a simulation. While we do simulate physics like gravity, air resistance, acceleration, stall, etc., and each plane has its own characteristics when it comes to speed, critical angle, turn rate, acceleration, fire rate, damage, plating, etc. (most of which can be upgraded), we have trimmed everything for maximum fun and action. If that's what you want, then you can't go wrong.

Anyway, if you have any specific questions don't hesitate to ask. Likewise, if you have tried the game, then please make sure to come back and tell us what you think about it. We've invested a lot into this baby and we'd be happy to hear some positive feedback. If you have any sensible suggestions, then we 'd be happy to hear those as well.

Have fun,
Bitmen Studios.