Taking the fight for the number one score spot to YouTube with the leaderboard equivalent of a rap battle.
April 23, 2012
[This unedited press release is made available courtesy of Game Developer and its partnership with notable game PR-related resource Games Press]
The Pickford Brothers :
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Manchester, UK, 23rd April 2012
Players of #1 hit iOS sports / puzzle game Magnetic Billiards: Blueprint have sparked a flurry of online activity this month as they competed to post a series of increasingly impressive Shot Scores and revealing strategy guides on YouTube.
The notoriously difficult-to-master, critically acclaimed, brain-stretching puzzle game had left some new players scratching their heads, wondering how the incredible leaderboard-topping scores were even possible, but now some of the world's greatest players have revealed their secrets.
"The scoring system was designed around a number multipliers which can be activated simultaneously by skillful players," explained game designer John Pickford. "Other than through the game's physics, we imposed no upper limits on these multipliers. We wanted to create something with depth and the ability to be used in creative ways by expert players. No particular strategy is hard-coded into the game, but the potential for mega scores is absolutely there to be discovered."
It all started when world number #1 player Andrew Davies posted this video of his beautiful 26 million scoring record Shot Score: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDKgN1Hgrcw
"When we saw the 26 million Shot Score video our jaws dropped, and thought we'd seen the best shot possible in the game," said co-designer Ste Pickford, "but other players just saw it as a challenge." he continued. "Video responses of increasingly higher Shot Scores started to roll in, each one edging closer and closer to the magic 100 million mark, along with videos and Facebook posts sharing advanced scoring techniques and strategy guides."
Dethroned ex-world number #1 Jim McCauley followed up his 84m scoring Shot Score video the release of his brilliant strategy guide video, originally produced forTap! Magazine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y50AX7ZrDnE
The heat in this battle has now been turned up another notch with the release today of an epic tutorial video by current leaderboard-topper Andrew Davies, showing how he scored a record-smashing 197 million Shot Score from first to last shot.
"It's wonderful for a game designer to witness players innovating with creative strategies, pushing the rules of the game almost to breaking point - certainly way beyond what we were able to do when developing the game," mused John Pickford, "and it's a great feeling to be surprised by the way someone plays your game."
"Although this latest video could well be the highest possible Shot Score" added Ste Pickford, "we're braced for this record to be toppled again, which is why we're inviting our brilliant players to send us more videos of record shots and strategy guides, the best of which we'll feature on our website and YouTube channel, and may even include in the next update of the game."
Send videos or tips to [email protected], or post on the Magnetic Billiards Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/magneticbilliards
See videos on the Pickford Bros YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/PickfordBros
Magnetic Billiards: Blueprint was nominated in the Best Mobile & Handheld category of the prestigious 2012 BAFTA awards and was nominated for a Pocket Gamer 2012 Most Innovative Game award. The game also earned second place in the Puzzle Game category of the 148apps.com 2011 Best App Ever Awards, has been named one of the 100 Greatest Apps Of All Time by Tap! Magazine, was crowned App Madness Tournament Champion in September, received a Gold Medal award from Pocket Gamer, and has secured a Metacritic rating of 81.
Magnetic Billiards: Blueprint is published by Zee-3 as a universal app for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch devices, and is available on the App Store as a free download.
ENDS
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