Daily iPhone App: The Blockheads is another great take on sandbox survival

We mentioned developer David Frampton's new iOS game The Blockheads when it arrived last week, but just in case you haven't gotten a chance to see and play it yet, here's one more spotlight on it as our Daily iPhone App. The Blockheads is a really great game -- it's Frampton's take on Minecraft, with a touch-friendly iOS 2D look, and a number of interesting innovations that change the game up quite a bit.

The biggest of these is the game's queue system -- unlike Minecraft or the great Junk Jack, you don't control The Blockheads' protagonists directly, instead you give them orders to walk around the world or dig up a certain square. This means the game is slightly more abstract than other survival sandbox games, letting you as the player focus on what you're building rather than tapping away on a certain block.

Blockheads' biggest weak point is that the game does cling to a very realistic view of the world: Your Blockheads needs to sleep every night, and after a little while, finding food in the wasteland-like world becomes a priority. Building some items can also be slow -- the game is completely free, but relies on a "time crystal" mechanic for in-app purchases that can be a bit annoying when some tasks take an extremely long time.

But aside from those small quibbles, The Blockheads is a really amazing title that's available right now for free on both iPhone and iPad. Frampton has tweeted that the game has already seen a sizable amount of success, and it's much deserved -- he's a talented and hardworking developer. If you missed this one when it arrived last week, don't make the same mistake again this time.