First to 50″ Contest Ended: Winners Announced!

The Radial 50 “First to 50″ contest reached its conclusion on August 7, and the first players to beat all 50 intense rounds each won a prize. The top 10 scorers won the coveted Fathead wall graphic, and the other winners each got an iTunes gift card.

The contest began July 7 with the release of Radial 50 in the App Store, and after a month of exciting competition, Radial 50 is happy to award the prizes!

If you were one of these players to beat the game, keep your eyes open for an e-mail asking you to claim your prize.

For more information on the contest and to see the top 10 scorers, check out the contest page at http://radial50.com/contests.

Congratulations to all the winners of the “First to 50″ contest!

To make Radial 50 the best it can be, we now have an updated version available in the App Store.  We’ve been working hard to talk with Radial 50 players and get suggestions on how to improve the game.  Here are the changes:

• Added a “halo” around the ball to make it more visible while playing
• Widened the touch location of the paddle control for those with larger hands
• Fixed the Save & Quit bug that occurred on the 3GS
• Added Loading indicators to sign up, sign in, and leaderboards.
• Various bug fixes

Since the most common complaint was that the ball is easily lost in the game action, the halo is the most significant part of this update. We noted options to this problem earlier on our blog, requesting your suggestions and comments.  You can see how the added halo looks here.

The new update also allows you to review and rate the game again (even if you already did with the first version), so feel free to hop on app store and send in your reviews and rankings.

For all you lite version players, now is a great time to upgrade to the full version and try all 50 levels!  You can get the new updates on iTunes now:

Radial 50 full version
Radial 50 lite version

Hey everyone,

With over 50,000 applications available in the iTunes App Store, how do certain ones get on top? The divide between a successful, money-making app and a no-name, money-down-the-drain app is great; cracking the top 100 applications is not as easy as it seems.

When we first began work with Radial 50, we thought: If we can get picked up by some of the top game and tech review sites, we’re golden. And we had many a fist-pumping moment, especially when sites like Mobile Crunch reviewed the game, giving their proverbial stamps of approvals. We also put some serious time into promoting the game, contacting everyone possible, tweeting to no end, and creating contests like the First to 50. We worked long hours, leaving no stone unturned, no resource untapped.

But we still found ourselves lagging behind the pack. Oftentimes, we would rank within our category, but just below the top 100. Not bad, but not spectacular either.

When you consider how much money it takes to create a truly good application, you’re looking at a sizable investment. Even applications that dive into the coveted top 100 apps might not necessarily make up the monetary difference, especially those that are creating something different than already well-known tools like Facebook and Twitter.

Recently, we received an e-mail from Apple stating that they enjoyed our game and wanted to feature it. Subsequently, we happily found ourselves in the “New and Noteworthy” section of Games. This actually produced some success for us, although we still have a long way to go.

In the Apple world, can a Little App That Could–the underdog–really succeed on its own? We pose this question to other app creators out there. We’d like to hear of others’ struggles and triumphs in the application world and see if they’re much like our own.

Apple featured Radial 50, then Radial 50 picked up speed. From our experience, the answer is yes: Apps need help from Apple to succeed in the App Store.

Follow us on Twitter to stay updated on our app’s progress twitter.com/radial50

Radial 50 has picked up speed, and Apple has decided to feature us in the App Store’s “New and Noteworthy” section!  You can access this by visiting the App Store game section and clicking on the “New and Noteworthy” category, or by clicking here.

This is a great opportunity for all the Radial 50 Lite players to find the full version easily and download it for all 50 intense rounds!

We at Radial 50 would like to share our game with everyone, regardless of the type of mobile device he or she uses.

To accommodate every tech, game or media reviewer (even if he or she doesn’t have an iPhone or iPod Touch.. yet), we are starting a program called The Traveling iPod.

Radial 50 will send, via mail, an iPod Touch to anyone who would like to experience the game but does not have a device on which to play it. Participants will receive the iPod Touch, complete with the full version of Radial 50 already downloaded, and be able to keep it for one week, then send it back. (All expenses paid by Radial 50).

We are so sure that writers will love Radial 50, we want them to try it–no matter what!

Those interested in participating can check out http://radial50.com/the-traveling-ipod

You can keep tabs on it by following us on twitter: www.twitter.com/radial50 and checking in periodically on the blog for new updates: www.radial50.com/blog

On Wednesday of this week we submitted an update for Radial 50 and Radial 50 Lite. Below is a list of the changes that were made. We hope this update will be live and in your hands sometime mid-next week.

• Added a “Halo” around the ball to make it more visible while playing
• Widened the touch location of the paddle control for those with larger hands
• Fixed the Save & Quit bug that occurred on the 3GS
• Added Loading indicators to sign up, sign in, and leaderboards.
• Various Bug Fixes

Follow us at twitter.com/Radial50 to stay informed.

Earning 900,000 points in Radial 50 Lite is no easy task, only a few people have done it.  So we are giving away promo codes for the full version of Radial 50 ($1.99 value) to the next 3 players to finish the lite version with 900,000 points.

The first 3 players to post their username and their score in the comments section will receive a promo code.

Ground Rules

• We will verify your score before sending the code.
• Codes will only be award to the first 3 players to qualify, starting from the date and time of this post.
• This task must be completed in the Lite Version of Radial 50.
• Once verified, we will email the promo code to the email address you used to create your Radial 50 account.

A change went out this morning that updates the configuration file in the game. You can verify you have the latest configuration file by going to the “About” page within “Settings” and then viewing the version number in the top right hand of the screen. You should see the numbers “205 /2″. The “2″ indicates you have the latest configuration file.

NOTE: You must be connected to a network to receive this update.

The following changes were made to the configuration file, based on feedback from players.

1. Speed at which the ball increases between non-paddle hits was reduced slightly.
2. The maximum speed the ball can travel was reduced by 15%
3. The angle at which the “curve” ball moves was reduced slightly to make this powerdown a bit easier to handle. The length of this powerdown was also reduced to 6 seconds from 8.
4. Some of the powerup/powerdown configurations on rounds were changed.

I welcome feedback on these changes, you can provide feedback by replying in the comments section.

We have been getting a ton of great feedback on Radial 50 - mostly positive, but the overwhelming gripe with the game is that users are often losing sight the ball.  We feel strongly that a big part of the “challenging” nature of the game is dealing with the intensity of what is going on on the screen - but losing the ball is not fun and we think fixing this issue will bring a more enjoyable experience while playing.

The primary suggestions for fixing this issue you been…

1) Make the ball glow/make it bigger
2) add a trail to the ball

Below is a video showing an example of the trail effect, followed by a screenshot of what the glow feature might look like.

We want your feedback! Let us know what you think about these options. We are working to submit this update very soon, so now is your chance to give us your opinion.

Trail Effect

Checkout the video below of the trail effect option. This would allow you to see the direction of the ball as well as be able to better see its general location on the playfield. We have control over how this trail effect is displayed, but so far we like how this looks.

Halo Effect

For technical reasons, we want to avoid changing the size of the ball. Rather than make the ball bigger, an option would be to create a “halo” around the ball. The halo would move with the ball.

Demonstration: Halo Fix for Lost Ball from Radial 50 on Vimeo.

Glow Effect

The glow affect demonstrated below could be a constant glow, or pulsate.