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Temple Run 2 downloaded 20 million times over weekend
Temple Run 2, the sequel to infinite runner Temple Run, was downloaded in excess of 20 million times over the four days since launch. The free app was chased down six million times on its release date alone."We are thrilled players want more of the Temple Run universe, and we hope to grow and expand the game over the coming months," said Keith Shepherd, co-founder of developer Imangi.The original Temple Run has been downloaded over 170 million times across various mobile platforms. The sequel is available on iOS devices at the moment, with an Android version scheduled for later this week.
Imangi surprises with Temple Run 2: interview with developer Keith Shepherd
Imangi Studios is one of our favorite game developers: Keith Shepherd and Natalia Luckyanova are a husband and wife team that have made some great titles for iOS, including Harbor Master, Max Adventure and the company's biggest hit, Temple Run. Since going freemium (and getting extraordinarily popular), Temple Run has turned Imangi into a very successful company, both with the original game's in-app purchases, and with a series of ports and spinoffs, including the Disney-powered Temple Run Brave. Now, without any previous announcement, the company has released a full-fledged sequel, Temple Run 2, on to the App Store, available right now as a free download. "It's going to be sort of a surprise announcement," says Keith Shepherd, who chatted with TUAW earlier today. "Being a sequel kind of gave us the opportunity to start fresh and use what we'd learned." Shepherd says Imangi wanted to "level up the look and feel of everything" with the sequel, but of course the couple was also dealing with the success of their first game, and the arrival of their first child at the same time. "We have a baby now in the house that's impacted our own time," says Shepherd, "and we decided if we were going to do something bigger that we'd need some help from other folks." So they decided to two add two more people to the core team of three, joining forces with another developer called FuzzyCube software. FuzzyCube hosts a few developers who've formerly worked at Microsoft's Ensemble Studios, and Shepherd says having their expertise around definitely makes Temple Run 2 look better than ever before. "It takes place in an all-new world and environment, and I think you'll be blown away by how great it looks," he promises. The game's look and feel isn't the only big upgrade: There are also new powers and abilities to encounter in the endless runner, and Imangi decided to accept some fan feedback and fill out the game's characters a little bit. In the original game, characters were only cosmetic, but in the sequel, each character has their own ability that players can power up and use at a certain time. "It adds a little bit of a strategic element" to the action-based gameplay, says Shepherd. Those abilities can also be powered up by the game's new currency: gems, in addition to the coins players earned in the original. Temple Run started out as a paid app, and Imangi only switched it to freemium to try and shore up some flagging popularity. But of course once the game went free, Temple Run found some huge success, and Shepherd says Imangi has decided to start out free with the sequel. That extra currency is designed to keep players playing -- "We are using the gems more for some of the consumable type things," says Shepherd -- but Imangi also wants to make sure that the freemium aspect of the game doesn't get in the way of players enjoying it. "What happened with Temple Run 1 from a gameplay standpoint is that we really ran out of things for people to spend their coins on really fast," Shepherd says. "But we followed that same path of being really generous with coins in Temple Run 2." Fans of the first game should love the additions to the second, but even if not, Shepherd says the original title won't be far away. "We're keeping it on the App Store," he says. "It's a classic at this point, and we don't want to remove it for folks who want to continue playing the original. We do have some plans for some things that we want to add to it still, and obviously we do have some plans for adding things to Temple Run 2." Imangi, like a lot of successful app developers, has known for a long time that updating a game post-launch is a great way to keep it popular, and Shepherd says that "with Temple Run 2, we completely rewrote the entire game so that it would be easier." Finally, Shepherd tells us that while this Temple Run sequel is the current focus, we'll still see some more original titles from Imangi in the future. "I think in the short term, we have a lot of work still to do on Temple Run 2 and Temple Run, and we're probably going to have most of our focus on that," he says. "But I think we're really itching to work on a new game too. That's why we got into this business: To really enjoy making games. We always have ideas that we're kicking around," he promises, "so you'll see some more things in the future." Temple Run 2 is now available on the App Store for free.
Daily iPhone App: Temple Run
The latest title from popular iOS developers Imangi Studios (creators of Harbor Master and Max Adventure) is called Temple Run, and was released to the App Store last week. We've watched the development of this one pretty closely -- I saw an early version of it at GDC, and we saw it again later on in the year, as well as in Imangi's own promotional footage. It's a running game in the style of Canabalt, though it features 3D graphics and a behind-the-back perspective rather than a 2D side-scroller engine. Gameplay is a little more complex than other titles of this ilk, too: You swipe to the left or right to turn, and swipe up or down to either jump or duck under logs in your path. The action's hectic and fun, with a Simon kind of feel, as you swipe ever faster trying to dodge all of the obstacles in your path. You can also tilt your device to collect coins on the left or right, and those coins can then be used for upgrades, offering a little progression system (as well as a way for Imangi to offer convenience-based in-app purchases). Playing the game once will probably show you all it has to offer, but then begins the score chase, made even more intriguing by Game Center leaderboards and achievements. Temple Run is another quality title from the husband-and-wife team at Imangi, one you definitely shouldn't miss if you're a fan of this genre or this developer. It's on the App Store now for just US 99 cents.
360iDev: Game Jam creations
Tuesday night at the 360iDev conference in San Jose, around 60 developers gathered in a room on the eBay campus around 8pm as security locked them in for the night (one developer joined the group via Skype -- that's him on the big screen above). Their goal? A game jam. Before 8am the next day, they would put together working prototypes of games, either based on their own ideas, or revolving around the night's theme of "Tiny." Not all developers were there to make new games -- a few were there to work on current projects or offer up their help to others. But up until 2am and beyond (that's about when I chickened out and let them work), the room was full of developers punching away on their keyboards, writing code, designing art, and, well, developing. I originally thought that it was just a lark; a fun project that gave everyone an excuse to spend the night on the eBay campus. But no, this was serious stuff -- apparently at least one App Store game has its origins in past game jams at these conferences. So while developers were just testing their skills at putting their ideas into motion, it's possible that we may see some of these prototypes show up on the App Store eventually as working products. After the break, we'll provide a look at what a few developers were up to at Tuesday's game jam.
TUAW First Look: Hippo High Jump
There are beautiful games on App Store and there are fun games on App Store, and there are some games that are cool just because of the story that goes along with them. Hippo High Jump [iTunes link] falls into the categories of strikingly beautiful, somewhat fun, and great back story. The story goes like this. Keith Shepherd and Natalia Luckyanova attended the 360iDev conference a few weeks back and joined in in the iPhone game jam. The jam offered an all-night coding marathon, where "people teamed up and had to build a fully working game in 1 night. We built the first version of Hippo High Dive from 8pm to around 6am the next day." You can see a video of the early prototype here. After polishing the game up with the help of their artist pal, Kiril, the pair submitted Hippo High Dive to App Store where it just recently went live. Costing just a dollar, Hippo High Dive does not offer a huge amount of play flexibility. You basically jump your hippo off a diving board and navigate her through burning hoops to a bucket of water below. I'll admit I have the attention span of a gnat with ADHD, but the game did not really keep my attention. The art on the other hand definitely did. The video above does not do justice to the beautiful look of the game. The artistry both retains the original hand-drawn "let's whip up a game" style while pushing it forward into gorgeous design. The layered three-d effects while "climbing" the ladder as a prelude to the dive took my breath away. So, in the end, it's a bit hard to rate the game. I found the actual gameplay a bit meh. My coordination skills are weak at best and this is not the kind of fine motion control I generally enjoy. At the same time, I absolutely adored the visual design. If you're a game developer, consider hiring that artist.
