Ever since we’ve ported Galaxy on Fire 2 HD to the PlayBook in July 2012, we’ve really enjoyed working with BlackBerry. Not only do they offer excellent tools and a lot of support to indie studios like us, but also do they produce excellent devices with high-performance capabilities, slick designs and intuitive user interfaces. Therefore, we didn’t need much time to make up our minds, when BlackBerry approached us regarding a potential porting of GOF2 HD to their upcoming hardware and operating system. So today we’re proud to announce the official launch of our flagship title for the BlackBerry Z10, the first-ever BlackBerry smartphone with a touch-display, powered by the company’s brand-new BlackBerry 10 operating system. Thanks to its 4.2” screen and 1280 by 768 pixel resolution as well as its 1.5 GHz dual-core CPU and 2 gigabytes of RAM, the BlackBerry Z10 is one of the most high-performance smartphones that money can buy these days![full] And this makes it a perfect match for one of the best-looking and most-engrossing mobile games you’ll ever lay your hands on!
BB10 is the first platform besides iOS and OSX for which Supernova, the most recent add-on to the GOF2 saga, has been optimized.
As of today, Galaxy on Fire 2 HD is available on the BlackBerry App World with full BB10 optimization. And that’s not all… besides the main game, we’ve also ported both add-ons, Valkyrie and Supernova, to the new platform! The expansions can be unlocked through GOF2’s main menu for the price of US-$ 4.99 (Valkyrie), US-$ 6.99 (Supernova) or US-$ 9.99 (Combined). In addition, players can also buy the Kaamo Club, the Kaamo Club VIP Ticket and various credit packs via in-app-purchase. All of these goods and services are available at the same rates as their counterparts on iOS. And last but not least, the BB10 version of GOF2 also supports external save game storage and synchronization via Scoreloop.
BlackBerry’s CEO Thorsten Heins first introduced the Z10 to the public at the BB10 launch event in NYC on January 30, 2013.
For more information on the BB10 version of GOF2 HD and its add-ons, feel free to read the respective press release in our press section. And if you’re already the proud owner of red-hot BlackBerry Z10 smartphone, you might also want to check out the download page for GOF2 HD on the App World by following http://bit.ly/gof2hd-bb10. And that’s it for now… we’re really glad that our best and most popular game is now also available on BB10 including both add-ons and we hope that all BlackBerry fans among you are already looking forward to fight space pirates and save the galaxy on their Z10s!
Today’s the six-month-anniversary of Supernova, the second add-on to the Galaxy on Fire 2 saga on iPhone, iPad and iPod touch as well as Macintosh computers. And to celebrate that event, we’ve decided to offer the expanion’s soundtrack as a free download on the official GOF2 website. Therefore, we’ve asked you precisely one week ago, to help us name the six tracks of the respective soundtrack. And, as expected from such an awesome bunch of people, you guys came up with a helluva lot of brilliant ideas! All in all, more than 20 fans from all over the world sent in their title suggestions and we really had a hard time picking our favorites among so many thoughtful, creative and enjoyable nominations. But we ultimately came up with a selection of fan-submitted titles that not only sound pretty splendid but also reflect the topics and themes of the respective tunes quite well. In the following, we’d like to take a little time to introduce each of the six titles to you and also let you know what made us choose this particular title to represent the track in question. So here we go…[full]
Let’s just assume the calculations of the Maya have been just as wrong as Khador’s early assumptions of how to stop the supernova in the correspondent second add-on to the GOF2 saga. If that’s the case, we’ll still be safe and sound tomorrow and I haven’t wasted some of my precious final hours on this blog. And honestly… the last 12 months have simply been too awesome and we still have too many aces up our sleeves to just call it a quits tomorrow. So let’s not waste any more thoughts on that stupid end-of-the-world prophecy and rather focus on the here and now instead. Since we’ll have company holidays from December 22nd to January 6th, this will be our final blog for 2012 and hence I’d like to take the chance to look back at the previous year and recap some of the most interesting, important and entertaining happenings and events of 2012 for you. After all, quite a lot has happened at the Fishlabs headquarters in the course of the past 365 days. So here we go.[full]
Almost four months ago, we posted a dev diary by the name of “Sorted Out” here on our blog. Among others, it contained a pretty kick-ass concept artwork of a heavily armed Terran fighter called the Dark Angel. Judging from the dozens of comments about it, our fans liked that ship quite a bit. I mean, almost everyone who posted about it on our blog or Facebook fan page said that they would have loved to be able to add that spectacular vessel to their personal fleet as well. And, guess what… that’s exactly what you’ll be able to do very soon! Next week, on November 21st, we’re going to launch a free content update for Galaxy on Fire 2, which will include the prototypes of three highly sought-after new vessels. Besides the Dark Angel it will also include a Nivelian fighter known as Ghost and a Vossk bomber known as N’Tirrk! Since both the Fishlabs team and the GOF2 fans really loved these designs, we thought that it would be a shame if they’d just end up in some folder of unused material.[full] And thus we decided to make them a part of the game instead. After all, we’re still very proud of the Supernova add-on and this is our way to say “Thank You!” for the awesome support you’ guys have given us over the years. Cause in the end, nothing says “You guys rock!” as loud and clear as a couple of kick-ass new space ships! And to make sure that all iOS gamers will be able to get hold of them at the same time, we’ve decided that the free content update will be released simultaneously in SD, HD and Full HD. So all iOS and OSX pilots will be able to enjoy the new ships on their devices, no matter whether it’s an iPhone 5, iPad mini, iPod touch 5G, iPad 2, iPhone 3GS or Mac!
Don’t you hate it, guys? Even though you just spent a fortune on a new navigation unit, you still ended up completely lost in space because you sold your Khador Drive in Y’mirr system and didn’t know that there was no jump gate to lead you back. Or you had to wash dishes at a space longue for two years on end, because you’ve spent all your money buying Collectible Dolls for 9,000 credits a piece in Mido system, believing you were scoring the deal of your lifetime. Well, don’t worry! The times of clueless errantry between the different star systems are finally over. Thanks to The official Pocket Gamer Guide to Galaxy on Fire 2, which has been developed over the past couple of months by Steel Media and Fishlabs, you’ll now be able to cramp tons and tons of informative, interesting and entertaining GOF2 trivia onto your iPad! From blueprint receipts and travel routes to attack strategies and insider tips, the new GOF2 guide contains everything you need to know in order to save the galaxy from its all kinds of evil aliens and become the most prosperous space trader on this side of the final frontier[full]
The good thing about totally unexpected happenings is that they occur both ways… sometimes they throw you back a little, but sometimes they also play into your hands. Not even two weeks ago, it looked as if the simultaneous launch of our new open space epic Galaxy on Fire 2 – Supernova in SD, HD and Full HD had to be postponed for quite a few days due to an unexpected rejection of the Full HD version on the one hand and a number of subsequent iPhone 5 optimizations of the HD version on the other hand. During that time, we still had a glimpse of hope that we could make a September release, but internally we were more expecting the new expansion pack to be launched sometime in October. Since we didn’t know a specific release date ourselves also and didn’t know if and when the re-submitted versions would get an approval from Apple, we purposely kept all information about the release as vague as possible and also didn’t announce the exact dates of new submissions of the Full HD and HD versions publically. After all, there has always still been the chance that we’d get rejected again for one reason or another and if that had happened, people would most likely be even more disappointed than they were after the new add-on’s first delay. [full]
Let’s face it, guys. If it wasn’t for Apple releasing the iPhone back in 2007 and opening the App Store back in 2008, Fishlabs would most likely no longer be around today. And to this day, iOS is by far the most important and successful market for us. We understand that many of you won’t be affected directly by the newly added iPhone 5 optimization of Galaxy on Fire 2 – Supernova and hence might be quite a bit disappointed by our decision to add a number of new features right away, rather than adding them afterwards in the course of another update. We also understand that those among you, who’ve not yet moved over to the HD version of GOF2, might not be too fond of our decision to stick to our plans of releasing all three versions of the new expansion pack simultaneously, despite the fact that only the Full HD and HD versions had to be re-submitted. Though all of these things don’t seem to be connected to one another, the matter turns out to be more complex than it might appear at first. If all had gone according to plan, we would have launched the add-on prior to the release of the iPhone 5 and then added the additional features with another update that would have gone live at the same day that Apple’s new smartphone hit the market.[full] But as so often in life, things turned out quite a bit different than expected and now we really need to do everything we can to make our title appear as appealing as possible on the new device right from the start. The better it looks and performs on the iPhone 5, the higher is the chance that we‘re going to get a lot of media coverage as well as an international feature upon release – and these things can indeed be crucial factors that decide whether a new title becomes a success or a failure.
As many of you will already know, the launch of the upcoming Supernova add-on will be accompanied by the release of a free update, which will contain a number of pretty cool features for all Galaxy on Fire 2 players – no matter whether they’re going to purchase the new expansion pack or not. So despite the fact that the novelties brought forth by the soon-to-be-released update are strictly speaking not part of the Supernova expansion per se, we’ve decided to put them in the centre of the attention of this week’s developer diary anyway. I mean, it still makes sense, doesn’t it? Cause on the one hand they’re rather closely connected to Supernova anyway and on the other hand they also cover a number of issue that you’ve repeatedly asked us about, such as the new actions you can perform at the Kaamo Club, for example. Oh, and just for the record, all three versions of Supernova (SD, HD and Full HD) have been submitted to the App Store in the meantime and are currently waiting to be reviewed by Apple. Fingers crossed it won’t take too long anymore before Supernova goes live and you can finally take on a new adventure on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch![full]
What the heck is happening here!? Another dev diary coming out of the blue? Has Khador found a way to manipulate the space-time continuum or has some Midorian spy hacked into our servers and released next week’s blogspot seven days in advance? Not at all. The reason for us not sticking to our two weeks schedule and cramping another dev diary in between is simply that our audio director Gero did a helluva good and quick job at cutting our video footage from GDC and Gamescom. Much earlier than expected he came up with a really cool montage that gives a pretty good impression of what it’s been like to visit GDC and Gamescom on behalf of Fishlabs Entertainment. And since we don’t wanna keep that kick-ass video of our trip to Cologne rotting on our hard disks for a whole week, we’ve decided that it would be best to upload it right away and make it the centerpiece of our 14th dev diary for the upcoming Supernova adventure! So here it is in all its beauty![full]