Rockupied - Rockupied

Rockupied 2.0: A New Focus

Published on May 9, 2012 by Matt

I hope you have all been rockupying your time with our newest game: Blind Ninja! It has gotten great reviews so far, and we working hard on releasing a power update with immensely improved graphics and game play early this summer.

Do you have any suggestions to improve Blind Ninja? Please leave them in the comments below!

It is an exciting time at Rockupied. We are getting ready for an amazing summer, and we are greatly expanding our team to do so.

We are also refocusing what this blog is all about.

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Rockupied was started by a group of students at the University of Missouri who wanted to make awesome games together.

After building our first few iPhone games, we realized something: we aren’t the only ones with this dream.

We are in an incredibly exciting time where, for the first time, you don’t have to work with a professional publisher to make your own app ideas come to life. The power is finally in the developer’s hands.

It doesn’t matter where you live or what you what training you’ve had. All you need is passion, drive and focus.

It isn’t easy, but that’s why we want to be your guide. We want this to be a place where we can all build awesome apps together.

We plan on giving you an inside look at what we are doing so you can see how to do it too.

If you have made your own apps before, even better. Let us know so we can feature them on here. We want to help you break through the clutter just like we are trying to do.

This community vision is all about you. We can’t make this work without you.

Please reach out to us with questions about creating apps. Tell us if you have created an app so we can show it off for you. Let us know how you go about making apps.

This will be a place to share and learn together. Stay tuned!

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How ugly are you?

Published on March 29, 2012 by Matt

Are you ugly? Do you want to know? Now you can know exactly how ugly you are on a 1-100 scale for $4.99.

It’s an app called Ugly Meter Pro and has cracked the Top 10 Top Grossing apps.

Developed by Dapper Gentlemen, Ugly Meter Pro was released a month ago and is the sequel to the original Ugly Meter that launched in August 2010.

This new app “scans your facial structure and uses the mathematics behind the Golden Ratio to determine how ugly or beautiful you are on a scale from 1-100”. The new version also explains why you received the rating you did.

It’s the best new way to evoke jealousy and rage among girl friends or make fun of the most ugly guy in your group.

The original simply gave you a rating on a 1 to 10 scale. After the original topped the charts in October of ’10, the app was featured on everything from Howard Stern to Jay Leno.

It wasn’t good press though.

It had been hailed as the newest tool for cyberbullying and faced a huge outcry of concerned parents deeming the app “hurtful”.

The new pro version jumped back into the charts after a huge recent bump in China. A bump back into the media will be sure to follow.

What do you think? Does the ugly meter bother you or is it harmless fun? Reply in the comments or let us know on Twitter @Rockupied!

Matt

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Angry Birds Space…IT’S THE BEST ONE YET!

Published on March 22, 2012 by Matt

Move over Draw Something, there is a new #1 on the App Store charts.

And don’t expect it to drop any time soon.

Rovio has done it again with their release of the newest edition to the Angry Birds series…Angry Birds Space.

Do I dare say it? It’s the best Angry Birds game yet.

I’ll be completely honest. I haven’t played an Angry Birds game in quite some time. The original was incredible, and Rio and Seasons was fun for a while too. But even those got a little monotonous. I was tired of hurling birds at pigs over and over…on Earth.

Launch them all into space, and you change my tune.

This new setting brings an incredibly fresh spin on the old game play that we all love. You now fling the birds into gravitational fields in order for them to propel around the pull of each planet. This innovative twist can lead to chain reactions or cause the bird to go in an opposite direction altogether. You can even defeat pigs by popping their protective space bubbles or by knocking them into a planet’s gravitational pull.

Once you get the hang of it, you’ll be addicted.

It’s even hard not to smile when you first hear the game’s new space song remix.

Angry Birds Space comes with 60 levels of anti-gravity fun (don’t worry, they are promising more soon) with 30 additional expert levels for the extra bold. There are a few new birds with new powers, like laser targeting and the freezing of all things in the area. The game is also packed with unlockable mini-games and “eggsteroids”.

Discounting the “it crashes!” App Store reviews, Angry Birds Space is already getting unanimous approval from gamers and review sites alike.

I am predicting another smash-hit and the revival of the greatest mobile game franchise.

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Zombie Apocalypse Pie Chart

Published on March 12, 2012 by Zach

Check out Lost Little Zombie on the App Store!

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Big Band Theory Whips “Pocket Whip” into Shape

Published on March 12, 2012 by Joshua

Depending on if you watch as much TV as we do, you may have come across the Pocket Whip App. Recently on Big Bang Theory, the awkward cast spends nearly an entire episode using the pocket whip to demean, command, and whip their friends into embarrassment. Here’s a clip of some of the scenes. This mobile app has seen an incredible boost in the app store since. It’s rocketed to number 3 in free downloads and cracked the top 200 in grossing.

It kind of leads you to wonder if the advertisement was just a coincidence or if the makers of Pocket Whip paid for Big Bang Theory to mention the app on the show. Product placement is usually a pretty expensive form of advertisement, but judging from the fact that pocket whip came from a very small company, I think it was simply a lot of luck on App City’s part.

Whether it was paid or not, the results have been pretty awesome for App City. Tons of people have found the app over the past few days. I’ve downloaded it and whipped a good amount of people into shape already myself.

Go give the Pocket Whip a try here. Be careful though. Overuse can cause your arm to become sore.

Until next time. Stay Rockupied and don’t forget to try out our most recent game. Download Lost Little Zombie!

Josh

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You Can Run from Heyzap, But You Can’t Hide

Published on March 8, 2012 by Zach

The new startup, Heyzap, has made it even easier for you to find that friend who won’t text you back.

Yeah, that’s right, she’s at the Starbucks downtown playing Words With Friends.

Heyzap’s newly launched API allows developers to see where users have “checked-in” to play their favorite games, allowing them to view which ones have the most traffic and gather the specific demographic information about the players. This information could be huge for developers of location-based games or other companies trying to target the mobile-gaming market. And this is just the beginning. The API has huge potential. Heyzap’s co-founder even predicted that the API could be used for a “location-based chess game”. Techcrunch covers the details of the API in greater depth here.

It’s good to see startups like Heyzap putting a twist on the “Check-In” revolution by making location-based information more social. How much information do you think API’s like this will be able to access before individual privacy comes into question? Let us know what you think about location based games and the information that comes with them on twitter or comment below.

So remember, the next time you’re playing Lost Little Zombie down at the strip club with your bros, think about your poor grandma who is using Heyzap’s API to track you down for a lovely home-cooked dinner.

Zach

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The New iPad

Published on March 7, 2012 by Joshua

Today at 10 AM Pacific, Apple announced the new iPad. You can find more information about the new iPad here. There’s been a ton of speculation about the new feautres for a long time, including things as ridiculous as this iPhone 5 concept video.

Overall, everything is pretty much as expected in my opinion. I won’t go into all the features it has because Techcrunch and plenty of other sources do a much more thorough and in-depth job than I would. There’s also a few things that were missing that some people expected to see. Checkout these missing iPad features.

The new retina screen size is a much bigger upgrade/change than most will realize. It made the jump from the 3G S to the iPhone 4 well worth it, and I strongly believe it will make the jump from the iPad 2 to the new iPad worth it. Enhanced graphics will continue to improve mobile games, browsing, and the overall tablet experience. The only other real notable upgrade, the LTE network, is awesome. It is more of an obvious evolution than a game changing addition. 3G is definitely slower than LTE, but I don’t know how many more people will buy an iPad now that it has LTE.

Those are my quick thoughts on the subject. The iPad will continue to kill it, and the experience will continue to be awesome. I do wish there had been a more exciting new feature to get everyone amped up, but the new iPad is far from a disappointment.

With all that said, I’m a buyer of the new iPad at some point in the next few months and will be super excited to start using it. And as for Rockupied, we’re already at work making sure our graphics and overall app experience is ready for the new iPad. Just imagine Lost Little Zombie in full iPad retina glory. It’s going to be awesome.

What do you all you think? Tell us in the comments.

Don’t forget to to follow us on Twitter, and like us on Facebook!

Stay Rockupied!

Josh

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Lost Little Zombie Now On the App Store!

Published on March 7, 2012 by Matt

The Rockupied team is excited to announce that our first major game is now available to download for FREE on the iTunes App Store…

Lost Little Zombie

Poor Lost Little Zombie has lost his way and just wants to find his zombie family….but that’s the last thing the humans want! Help LLZ jump, smash, slide, scare and eat his way back to safety without being caught by the angry mob! Rockupied presents the first game where YOU are the hopeless little zombie running from the nasty, scary humans.

Please spread the word! If you have a minute and want to be extra awesome, rate it on the App Store!

Thank you for all of the support!! We truly couldn’t do this without you.

Let us know what you think of LLZ in the comments or on Twitter!

Matt

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Highlight: A New Kind of Social Network

Published on March 6, 2012 by Matt

In spite of the trippy logo, the new Highlight app really has the tech world buzzing. You only need two things for it to work: Facebook and an iPhone.

Reviews of this app range from “so creepy” to “mind blown”. There isn’t much in between.

Here’s how Highlight works. Login using Facebook and enable GPS. Then exit the app. It’s that simple.

When one of your Facebook friends are near you, Highlight sends you a push notification of their nearby location. You can then chat with your nearby friend in Highlight and view what other friends you have in common.

It also searches for people who have stuff in common with you, all the while running in the background.

Developer Math Camp, Inc. made this app as the perfect social network to go viral. The more people using Highlight, the better the service gets. It is simple and cool.

At least, that’s what they are hoping.

I have found services such as Foursquare and Facebook Places to be more of a novelty than actually useful. The commerce ideas Foursquare is now integrating are potential game-changers, but they haven’t found the secret formula yet. For now, I don’t want to constantly remind myself to “check-in” everywhere I go.

This is what I love about Highlight. It comes to you. I never have to think about the app as it works in the background. It will tell me when I should use it.

This is definitely one of the most intriguing ideas I have seen in awhile. All of Silicon Valley is pumped about this app’s potential.

A strong push at SXSW in Austin this weekend is vital to Highlight’s success. They have a cool product…now they need users.

Matt

Let us know what you think of the Highlight app in the comments or on Twitter!