I put together a quick guide to Office Combat in pdf form. You can find it here. The manual goes over some of the basics and then delves into each of the units and what they do.

Version 1.1 is almost ready for release. There are some exciting new features including match scores and a player ranking system.

At the end of each match your score is uploaded to the server. Points are awarded for killing units and for a win, loss, or tie. Your cumulative score is used for the ranking. In addition to viewing the top 20 ranked players, you can also view the 10 players on either side of you rank.

If you are looking for a match, consider using the ranking interface to send out challenges!

I think the Office Combat icon is pretty cool, but the version on the iPhone is sooo small! Here’s a larger version that does the art justice.

There are now two YouTube videos for Office Combat that should help with getting up to speed on the game.  The first video is a great place to start for people who don’t want to spend a lot of time watching a video.  It quickly goes through all the UI elements in the game, how to deploy units, and how to switch between the offensive and defensive playfields.   It’s only 3 minutes long so give this a shot if you just want to start playing.

For those who think they might need a bit more help, check out this second video.  It covers everything in the first video but also goes into the pros/cons of each of the units, and also shows the turn play out.

Post ideas for additional videos in the comments!

Available on iTunes for free!

Office Combat is an exciting and unique new online multiplayer strategy game.  You can face off against your friends, or test your skills against another member of the community.

Office Combat’s gameplay will immediately remind you of your favorite tower defense games, but that’s just the starting point.  Rather than just defending against mindless waves of enemies, your opponent will be choosing which enemies attack your base, and you’ll be doing the same to him.  Will you spend your resources setting up an unbreakable defensive line, or take a gamble and press your opponent with an all-out attack?  Make the tough choices and test your strategic thinking.

Features:

• Play against another player online, or duel your friend by handing the phone back and forth
• A turn can be completed in just a minute or two, so Office Combat is a multiplayer game without a big time commitment.
• Turns are automatically exchanged between the players over the Internet.
• Optional push notification automatically lets you know when it’s time to play your next turn.
• Players may choose an opponent from their friends list, or may choose to be matched up against another player automatically.
• Keeps track of your win/loss record and other stats.

Office Combat is most fun when playing against a friend, so let them know about the game and start playing today!

Logging In/Out

On the first launch of Rapid Photo, enter your Facebook username and password to verify your account.  Facebook will then present a dialog asking for additional permissions.  Accepting this dialog will cause uploaded photos to become immediately posted.  Declining the dialog will still allow uploading of the photos, but they will need to be approved before they can be viewed by anyone else.  These two dialogs are only shown on the first run or upon logging out of the Facebook account (the button at the bottom of the screen).

Configuration Options

The app can be configured by going to the iPhone OS Settings application.  Scroll down to the application settings and select Rapid Photo.  Both the delay between photos and the total number of photos to take can be configured in this interface.  For the delay, a delay of less than 3 seconds may cause the camera to drop some photos.  This happens as the hardware cannot keep up with the requests.  In testing on an iPhone 3GS, dropped photos were rare when using a delay of 2 seconds and capturing 8 photos.  Additionally, for the first photo taken the delay is always 3 seconds.

Exiting the Application

In order to ensure successful upload of all photos, wait until the pinwheel in the top right corner of the screen stops spinning before closing the app.

Rapid Photo completely automates the process of taking a picture with your ipod/iphone and uploading it to Facebook.  That’s right, there is no user interaction (aside from pointing the camera!).  The software takes a preconfigured number of pictures and uploads them to Facebook.  After the uploads are complete the app prompts the user to close the application.

Rapid Photo is great for taking pictures when in situations where there isn’t enough time to take the shot and get it uploaded to Facebook.  With Rapid Photo you can take the pictures and throw it in your pocket while it is uploading.

Lets say you just got in a car accident and wanted to get some evidence up on Facebook.  Hit the Rapid Photo icon, point the camera at what you want to capture, and the software takes care of everything else.  There’s no looking for the snapshot button.  Rapid Photo is the ultimate in point and shoot (and upload)!

Rapid Photo is also great for people who do not have full use of their hands.  Have a friend perform the initial setup as that requires some typing!  After that, a single click is all it takes.

NOTE:  The first time the app is used you must provide login credentials for Facebook.  After that initial setup, all additional uses are button / typing free!

Available on iTunes:

Have you ever been at a bar and couldn’t decide what to order?  Have you ever really wanted a sweet and creamy drink, but couldn’t come up with any drinks that fit?  Drink Decider can help!

Drink Decider is unlike all those other drink databases out there.  Instead of providing you with 1500 drinks you’ve never heard of, Drink Decider keeps the database small and helps you find new and interesting drinks to try.

Here’s how it works.  Drink Decider walks you through a series of questions about the kind of drink you want to try.  Do you want a cocktail or shooter, do you have an alcohol preference, and finally, what flavors do you like?  Are you craving a shot with caffeine, or maybe something a bit on the fancier side?  With just a few clicks, Drink Decider will provide you with some options to quench your thirst.

Next time you go out for a drink, don’t forget your double DD’s (Drink Decider and Designated Driver)!

I have had several friends comment that Party Pal is similar to the boardgame ImaginIff.  I’m never sure what to say as I’ve never played the game.  The basis for Party Pal is a game I used to play called the Made Up Game.   The name came from the process of making up 5-10 questions each before starting to play.   Party Pal is the same game, but with pre-canned questions.

In talking with friends more, it sounds like the ImaginIff questions all take the form “ImaginIff <blank> was a type of candy.”  While Party Pal does contain a lot of those kinds of questions, it also has many that take the form “Who would make the best car salesperson?”  This works in Party Pal because it is electronic and all the players names can be entered before playing.

In the end, both games are only as good as their questions, though some good funny friends can make any slightly embarassing question hilarious.

Party Pal does not have an end game.  Questions will continue to be semi-randomly chosen until the group is done playing.  Here at Tall & Stout we generally play until we get bored, and really don’t care about the score.    For us it’s all about what answers people give and telling stories to support our answers.  However, it would not be hard to end the game when one person gets to 20 points.  They would be declared the “winner” and the game would go back to the home screen.  This changes the game a bit as competition encourages people to choose what they think will be the winnning answer.  Maybe it would be best to include an option to select “competitive” or “friendly” game types.  What do you think?  Leave us feedback.