PewPew 1.2 is out!

And the scores are pouring in... can you guess when did Apple publish the update?

So far, I've used 0.6% of the maximum CPU load (and 0% of the bandwidth), so I should be OK!

URL time

PewPew 1.2 should be accepted anytime now, so the scores are going to start to pour in... luckily I have just completed PewPew's website:

http://pewpewgame.appspot.com/.

The most important features are the score board and the forum. I made the score board myself in python, and found the code for the forum here. The forum is pretty cool, because it allows you to post with your Google account, or without login at all.

Everything is hosted on the Google App Engine, so if the traffic stays under a limit, I will never have to pay for the servers, and the website will stay up and running for ever.

According to my estimations, I can handle 100 000 score submissions per day without paying for additional bandwidth. Since "only" 50 000 people have installed PewPew, I should be fine.

I have no idea what to expect regarding the CPU utilization, but I have cached a lot of database calls, so I should be OK.

At worse, I might have to pay 1 or 2$ per day during the first week; after the first week, the traffic should decrease significantly.

PewPew v1.2

I uploaded the 1.2 update to PewPew yesterday. I have been working on it for several weeks, so there's a lot of changes!

First of all, there is a new game mode! I was not planning on adding one right away, but the survey made me change my mind. I won't spoil the surprise about how it's played, but I guarantee it is without a doubt the best mode yet.

Not shown here: insane amount of enemies.

Secondly, there is now an online high score board! In a couple of days, I will post about a small website with all the scores.

Thirdly, all the old game modes have been tweaked: I added a bonus to reward speed in "Dodge This", and there is a new type of enemy in "Assault".

Of course, there are some small new optimizations that should improve the frame rate a bit on the old iPhones and iPods Touch.

Here's the complete list of what is new:

• new game mode, called "megagore"
• online scores
• the possibility to move the camera freely when watching a replay
• the possibility to flip the screen (useful for iPhone owners)
• the possibility to disable the text notifications during the game
• a tougher enemy in "Assault", forcing the player to move
• an efficiency bonus in "Dodge This"
• colors in the nick names
• lots of small optimizations
• one less spelling mistake (thanks for pointing it out in the comments Anonymous)