New hotness on iOS & Android: Revenge of the Rob-o-Bot

[norbert26]

this table is awesome only thing is it would be nice if the ball was a tiny bit bigger but that didn't stop me for getting 11,xxx,xxx and completing 3 missions for a first game. A rule sheet would be nice too.

 

[Heretic]

rbot is my favourite aside from tpa i just hope feature pack isnt feature overload

 

[jaredmorgs]

rbot is my favourite aside from tpa i just hope feature pack isnt feature overload

I think it will be a logical extension to the rule set, Heretic.

 

[jhamdotme]

There's a post over at Touch Arcade about the new Marvel Pinball collection. I took it upon myself to hijack the comments and evangelize my favorite iOS pinball, and I wrote a bit about Rob-O-bot. Feel free to pile on, if you want, to try and enlightened the masses who haven't yet found this table.

Also, any news on the update Anders? I'm really looking forward to seeing what's new.

 

[jhamdotme]

Just a quick update here for anyone who's still following this thread. Rob-O-Bot obviously isn't paying the bills like it should be doing, so Color Monkey has apparently been working on a new game: Sortle. TouchArcade just did a little feature on this upcoming trivia game, and they even have a nice little shout out to Revenge of the Rob-O-Bot at the end of the article.

Anyways, I hope this new app makes them lots of money, and that they'll soon be able to finish the feature pack update for Rob-O-Bot. I really hope it's just delayed and not canceled.

 

[night]

Just a quick update here for anyone who's still following this thread. Rob-O-Bot obviously isn't paying the bills like it should be doing, so Color Monkey has apparently been working on a new game: Sortle. TouchArcade just did a little feature on this upcoming trivia game, and they even have a nice little shout out to Revenge of the Rob-O-Bot at the end of the article.

Anyways, I hope this new app makes them lots of money, and that they'll soon be able to finish the feature pack update for Rob-O-Bot. I really hope it's just delayed and not canceled.

I was just thinking about Rob-o-Bot! I wonder if it will get the update, I have a feeling this table has been put on the backburner.

 

[jaredmorgs]

I really hope Anders and the team release Rob-o-Bot 2 instead of the hinted Feature Pack. I would like to throw them a bit more money and have two versions of the game, plus also encourage them to produce another pinball title.

Think of it like Pin*Bot and Jack*Bot. Same table layout with different rulesets.

In an email conversation with Anders, he mentioned that they were keen to work with Nena again and produce a new table, but would use Kickstarter to fund the development. I would be more inclined to help on a Kickstarter for these guys. It is the small studios that Kickstarter is purpose-built for.

Just think how great the second table could be, based on the quality and lessons-learned from the Rob-o-Bot table.

 

[norbert26]

at least the existing table is playable and bug free as far as i can see. It would have been nice if there were chances to earn an extra ball other then that it was fine. That said if a second version ever does come i hope it doesn't replace the existing version as an update. I also hope they don't get no cute ideas like add "buyware" such as buy extra balls or buy a ball saver that are IAP consumables. There is a bad trend of this going on with others.

 

[Sumez]

Bug free? Did they ever fix the bug where the sounds disappear??

 

[Baron Rubik]

Bug free? Did they ever fix the bug where the sounds disappear??

Yes.

 

[jhamdotme]

I really hope Anders and the team release Rob-o-Bot 2 instead of the hinted Feature Pack. I would like to throw them a bit more money and have two versions of the game, plus also encourage them to produce another pinball title.

Totally. They should definitely do this.

Think of it like Pin*Bot and Jack*Bot. Same table layout with different rulesets.

Spot on analogy.

In an email conversation with Anders, he mentioned that they were keen to work with Nena again and produce a new table, but would use Kickstarter to fund the development. I would be more inclined to help on a Kickstarter for these guys. It is the small studios that Kickstarter is purpose-built for.

Speaking of Kickstarter, if they're planning on doing that, they're gonna need a lot more users than they currently have. Right now, according to Game Center, there are less than one hundred people that are playing this each week. That's not enough to fund anything.

So before they launch something like this, they need to re-work their business model a little, or something. Maybe they could grandfather in the original buyers and they could make it a free to play title. Maybe you'll get the first ball for free, or maybe you'll play up until a certain score ceiling, like in Pinball Arcade. Something. And I’m not talking about in-app consumables and BS like this, I’m just talking about giving everyone a taste and then unlocking the table with an in-app purchase. Because once people play this, I’m sure that they'll buy the whole thing. Or at least, a large percentage of them will.

Then, if they were to do a Kickstarter, there'd be more people that know how good Color Monkey is, and the campaign would be much more likely to succeed.

It would have been nice if there were chances to earn an extra ball other then that it was fine.

Don't you get an extra ball at 10 million? And the one time I got multiball, I’m pretty sure I got another extra ball there, too. So I’m not really sure what that was. 50 million, maybe?

Bug free? Did they ever fix the bug where the sounds disappear??

On iOS, I haven’t had this problem in a while. I’m pretty sure that they fixed this pretty early on. There were also some growing pains with the early Android releases, if I remember correctly, but I think they sorted those out, too.

 

[Anders]

Just a quick update here for anyone who's still following this thread. Rob-O-Bot obviously isn't paying the bills like it should be doing, so Color Monkey has apparently been working on a new game: Sortle. TouchArcade just did a little feature on this upcoming trivia game, and they even have a nice little shout out to Revenge of the Rob-O-Bot at the end of the article.

Anyways, I hope this new app makes them lots of money, and that they'll soon be able to finish the feature pack update for Rob-O-Bot. I really hope it's just delayed and not canceled.

I was just thinking about Rob-o-Bot! I wonder if it will get the update, I have a feeling this table has been put on the backburner.

I really hope Anders and the team release Rob-o-Bot 2 instead of the hinted Feature Pack. I would like to throw them a bit more money and have two versions of the game, plus also encourage them to produce another pinball title.

Think of it like Pin*Bot and Jack*Bot. Same table layout with different rulesets.

In an email conversation with Anders, he mentioned that they were keen to work with Nena again and produce a new table, but would use Kickstarter to fund the development. I would be more inclined to help on a Kickstarter for these guys. It is the small studios that Kickstarter is purpose-built for.

Just think how great the second table could be, based on the quality and lessons-learned from the Rob-o-Bot table.

at least the existing table is playable and bug free as far as i can see. It would have been nice if there were chances to earn an extra ball other then that it was fine. That said if a second version ever does come i hope it doesn't replace the existing version as an update. I also hope they don't get no cute ideas like add "buyware" such as buy extra balls or buy a ball saver that are IAP consumables. There is a bad trend of this going on with others.

Hey guys!

The update is as you all know very very delayed, but it is coming, promise. And also very very soon, so don't worry. The Robobot coders are not the same as the Sortle coder (me!) so I have been doing this while we wait for them to finish the update. So the fact that the update is delayed has nothing to do with Sortle being produced in parallel.

You guys are right, it doesn't generate a lot of money so we are gonna try some new things. We are gonna move it to the Color Monkey account in the App Store as we feel that our brand is stronger. We are also gonna make it free to download with IAP to unlock unlimited play, pretty much as you are used to in TPA.

So what is this gonna mean for you guys?

Name
a. Old Robobot will get a new name.
b. New Robobot will get a new name.

Content
a. Old Robobot will be updated, but not with the update (just wait and see...)
b. New Robobot will have all the new content.

If you own Robobot
a) You will have access to the old table (as many have requested), just keep the old app. We don't want to screw you guys.
b) You will also get access to the new version for free (as you have already payed for it) using magic. What you need to do is to update the old version and have it on your device the first time you launch the new version. Then you can decide to keep or delete the old version.

So by going free+IAP we hope we can get more people to try out the game as we are pretty unknown in the pinball community. We do hope to produce more tables in the future. We think we need to make three tables before we can really hit it big, we have some really cool ideas and we have learned a lot from doing our very first pinball table. So future tables will def be a lot better.

The above is the plan for iOS. We'll see how that pans out and then plan accordingly.


I hope this answers most of your questions, and thanks for the support, you guys rock!

 

[jhamdotme]

Good news, all around. Except for maybe this part:

You will also get access to the new version for free (as you have already payed for it) using magic

I appreciate that you're following through and offering the update for free, as you promised to do, but I’m quite happy to pay for this extra work. I suspect a lot of your users are, too. So maybe you could have an in-app purchase in there for those of us that would like to pay, just because. Call it a tip, if you want, but I wanna do my part and help out.

We think we need to make three tables before we can really hit it big

Three tables, eh? So this is Rob-O-Bot 2.0 plus two more? I’m curious, how long did Rob-O-Bot take for you guys to finish? I don’t want to pin you down into a specific time frame for your upcoming titles, because I know that things can change, but I’m very much looking forward to seeing something else from you guys. I’m just curious how long the first one took you guys to make.

And another thing, really quickly. You were probably already planning on doing this, but if you're doing in-app purchases now, it would be great if you could keep this new table and all future tables in the same collection, as part of a single app.

we have some really cool ideas and we have learned a lot from doing our very first pinball table. So future tables will def be a lot better.

Better than the best original table in the App Store? The mind boggles.

 

[jaredmorgs]

Good news, all around. Except for maybe this part:



I appreciate that you're following through and offering the update for free, as you promised to do, but I’m quite happy to pay for this extra work. I suspect a lot of your users are, too. So maybe you could have an in-app purchase in there for those of us that would like to pay, just because. Call it a tip, if you want, but I wanna do my part and help out.

Definitely agree on this. Anders, you have most certainly followed through with your promise, but I would be inclined to uninstall the first game, and then install the second one just so I can pay.

Seriously, just shut up and take our money Anders and Color Monkey team. I'll work around your pesky generosity if it's the last thing I do ::shakes tiny fist::

Also, please put in Google Play Games leaderboards into the Android version. This service is *crying* out for stellar titles like Rob-o-Bot and Rob-o-Bot LE. At the moment the Google Play Games app has mostly atrocious games that have the framework implemented.

Having both of these titles in there with Leaderboards and Achievements implemented would really give you guys some surprising exposure (in my opinion).

 

[Anders]

Good news, all around. Except for maybe this part:

I appreciate that you're following through and offering the update for free, as you promised to do, but I’m quite happy to pay for this extra work. I suspect a lot of your users are, too. So maybe you could have an in-app purchase in there for those of us that would like to pay, just because. Call it a tip, if you want, but I wanna do my part and help out.

Three tables, eh? So this is Rob-O-Bot 2.0 plus two more? I’m curious, how long did Rob-O-Bot take for you guys to finish? I don’t want to pin you down into a specific time frame for your upcoming titles, because I know that things can change, but I’m very much looking forward to seeing something else from you guys. I’m just curious how long the first one took you guys to make.

And another thing, really quickly. You were probably already planning on doing this, but if you're doing in-app purchases now, it would be great if you could keep this new table and all future tables in the same collection, as part of a single app.

Better than the best original table in the App Store? The mind boggles.

Well, just uninstall the old version before downloading the new one and you'll see a nice shiny button for IAP Yup Robobot 2.0 and hopefully we can afford to do more pinball tables, either using money from Robobot, Sortle or using Kickstarter. We have some really really good ideas for future tables. We will make our own "arcade" so just one app for all tables.

Definitely agree on this. Anders, you have most certainly followed through with your promise, but I would be inclined to uninstall the first game, and then install the second one just so I can pay.

Seriously, just shut up and take our money Anders and Color Monkey team. I'll work around your pesky generosity if it's the last thing I do ::shakes tiny fist::

Also, please put in Google Play Games leaderboards into the Android version. This service is *crying* out for stellar titles like Rob-o-Bot and Rob-o-Bot LE. At the moment the Google Play Games app has mostly atrocious games that have the framework implemented.

Having both of these titles in there with Leaderboards and Achievements implemented would really give you guys some surprising exposure (in my opinion).

Thanks Jared We'll have a look at using Google Play leaderboards.

 

[Sumez]

On iOS, I haven’t had this problem in a while. I’m pretty sure that they fixed this pretty early on. There were also some growing pains with the early Android releases, if I remember correctly, but I think they sorted those out, too.

I was talking about the Android release, didn't realise the problem existed on iOS as well. I don't recall ever seeing an update since I last experienced the problem.

 

[norbert26]

Hey guys!

The update is as you all know very very delayed, but it is coming, promise. And also very very soon, so don't worry. The Robobot coders are not the same as the Sortle coder (me!) so I have been doing this while we wait for them to finish the update. So the fact that the update is delayed has nothing to do with Sortle being produced in parallel.

You guys are right, it doesn't generate a lot of money so we are gonna try some new things. We are gonna move it to the Color Monkey account in the App Store as we feel that our brand is stronger. We are also gonna make it free to download with IAP to unlock unlimited play, pretty much as you are used to in TPA.

So what is this gonna mean for you guys?

Name
a. Old Robobot will get a new name.
b. New Robobot will get a new name.

Content
a. Old Robobot will be updated, but not with the update (just wait and see...)
b. New Robobot will have all the new content.

If you own Robobot
a) You will have access to the old table (as many have requested), just keep the old app. We don't want to screw you guys.
b) You will also get access to the new version for free (as you have already payed for it) using magic. What you need to do is to update the old version and have it on your device the first time you launch the new version. Then you can decide to keep or delete the old version.

So by going free+IAP we hope we can get more people to try out the game as we are pretty unknown in the pinball community. We do hope to produce more tables in the future. We think we need to make three tables before we can really hit it big, we have some really cool ideas and we have learned a lot from doing our very first pinball table. So future tables will def be a lot better.

The above is the plan for iOS. We'll see how that pans out and then plan accordingly.


I hope this answers most of your questions, and thanks for the support, you guys rock!

sounds good to me and please add something for a ruleset . The one i have now i didn't even know it had a chance to earn extra ball as there is no printed ruleset. everything else sounds great. Also all in one APP would be nice so i don't have to have an APP for each table.

 

[jhamdotme]

Spitballing here. Here's a gimmick that nobody's done yet, that will maybe grab headlines and mindshare for you guys: give us an option to have the DMD on another device, on another iPhone or iPad. The second device could be set to display mode, and it could talk to the main instance using Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. Hell, you could probably even charge extra for this feature.

Then, maybe build a little custom cabinet and make a video of this, or commission someone like Ben Heck to make one for you. He's Kickstarted three pinball projects, he's made a custom pinball table already, and he's working on another one right now with John Popadiuk. He loves stuff like this. Or maybe have a little contest that gives something away for the best custom pinball cabinet that's built by the community. The prize doesn't have to be much, because people will probably already build cabinets on their own. But maybe you could put their name in the credits or something in a future release, or you could spotlight their creation with a blog post.


Blogs that don't typically cover pinball will probably cover your game if you have a crazy feature like this. You might get a feature in one of the main tech sites like The Verge or Engadget. Or maybe they’ll write about this at one of the main video game hubs: at Joystiq, Kotaku, or at Polygon. If you pull that off, the money will just print itself.

Or maybe get really nutty and allow for TV-out. With this, people with real full-sized pinball cabinets could run the game this way, using two iOS devices. Or maybe the DMD device could be driving the TV-out itself? How cool would that be? I’m not sure how difficult any of this would be to implement, but you could consider it an investment in marketing. If you get featured in blogs like this, the cost and effort would probably pay for itself pretty quickly.


I evangelize this title as much as I can, wherever I can, but there are hundreds of thousands of apps out there. If this game is going to achieve the kind of success that it deserves, it’s gonna maybe need something outside the box like this to get noticed. Hell, maybe you could sponsor the free table of the month for the Pinball Arcade. I’m not sure if they’d go for that, or how much that would cost, but that would surely bring people your way.

 

[night]

I appreciate that you're following through and offering the update for free, as you promised to do, but I’m quite happy to pay for this extra work. I suspect a lot of your users are, too. So maybe you could have an in-app purchase in there for those of us that would like to pay, just because. Call it a tip, if you want, but I wanna do my part and help out.

Count me in as well! Looking forward to the new update and all the good stuff.

 

[Heretic]

Great news on the orignal table being kept around!

And ill also uninstall version one for a few minutes, its worth the money and support

Rbot is the best orignal table on ios...simple as