As promised, here’s a sneak peek of the current iOS mobile build featuring the new UI and gameplay in a hidden corridor somewhere deep inside the Great Pyramid. The colors are not as rich in the video as they are in person, so we occasionally switch to a full screen video grab to show the richness and detail of what we were seeing during the demo.

NOTE: All gameplay in the recording is actual gameplay from the same build I’m demoing on the phone. Some of the graphics are from an older build —the latest renderings are even more amazing!

What we feel really good about…

First, we love the interactivity of the mobile UI using touch and swipe. Navigation is very fast and gameplay just feels natural.The new menu and settings UI is very easy to access: a swipe up reveals the mini menu with a few taps to drill deeper, if needed. You can see the addition of an in-game camera, a much improved inventory system, and some additions to the settings screen from the original.

Also, we have made great progress on reducing the size of build as well as trimming down  memory requirements, especially for older devices. Desktop builds are not as sensitive, but optimization is helping here, as well.

What still needs work…

In working toward space and memory optimization, the trick is avoiding delays in loading or scene switching. The current build has a slight hesitation when entering a new scene, but we are working on ways to reduce or even eliminate this. As it exists, it is still very minor and the game is enjoyable.

We have also made great strides on reducing the size of the build. While ROTS Awakening will literally be a game of “megalithic proportions” compared to casual games, we believe it will be much smaller than the larger multiGB games even though the ROTS Awakening HD edition has a multitude of high res scenes and full screen animations.

And, of course, we are working hard on fixing the few “scarabs” (aka, bugs) that pop up as we continue with the alpha phase of testing and development.

Early beta access status…

When we have a working beta, those who have pledged the Limited Collector’s Edition will receive a download link for early access! We are working hard to get this to as quickly as possible.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!