Gunbrick (mobile)

Gunbrick, sometimes referred to as Gunbrick SD, is a puzzle platforming mobile game for iOS and Android (Google Play and Amazon Appstore). The game was released on Android and New Zealand (iOS) on January 7th 2015 and released on iOS for the rest of the world and Amazon App Store on January 8th 2015.

The game was silently revealed in 2012 on the Mobile page (called iPhone at the time) under the title "Top Secret", with no information about the game revealed until October-November 2014 when teaser trailers pertaining to it were revealed.

Controls

 * Swipe left/right - move left/right
 * Swipe screen and hold left/right - move left/right and continue in that direction
 * Tap screen - fire bullet

Gameplay
In Gunbrick the player controls a Gunbrick that has to reach a finish pad found at the end of each level. A Gunbrick is a block that has a shield on one side of it that is immune to all damage, and a gun on the other side of the block that can fire bullets. Gunbricks moves by rolling, caused by the player swiping the screen in the desired direction (left or right).

Firing is controlled by tapping the screen, each bullet fired moving the Gunbrick. Gunbrick is moved one block to the side if the bullet was fired in that direction, and one block up if the bullet was fired into the ground.

Levels
Gunbrick has three level packs.
 * Pack 1
 * Pack 2
 * Pack 3

Overview
Gunbrick takes place in a future age where cars have become obsolete and a machine called Gunbrick has become a world wide sensation.

Synopsis
The game opens showing the website Brick TV (which the protagonist is implied to be viewing) playing an advertisement for a new model Gunbrick before playing a short newscast that quickly transitions to a advertisement for Brickman. The protagonist then buys the new Gunbrick model and has it shipped to their building, and upon it arriving jumps into the box and begins controlling it. Rolling it out the window of their apartment and going through the next door building, the protagonist proceeds to explore the city with it.

The protagonists actions throughout the city in the Gunbrick attract the attention of the police, who dispatch police gunbricks to apprehend the player. Later on the player found by a large police gunbrick that demands that they stop, though a battle ensues when the officer tries to kill the player and ends with the player destroying the police gunbrick.

As squads of police gunbricks close in on the area, the player flees to Deeperfume Desert. Here, the player traverses the area and learns of a Mega Monsterbrick Rumble Mania, which they then try to get to. The player scales a tall tower outside the event and ends up in the arena's area where they fight a large monsterbrick, which they destroy. Getting first place, the player wins a ticket to Brickcon, a fan convention for various types of media.

Going to Brickcon, the player explores the area and ends up in a restricted area, though they later find a way out of it back to the main Brickcon area. However, further exploration causes the player to enter a larger restricted area that is protected throughout by various lock mechanisms. Though the player initially suspects they are the only ones in this area, a group of characters in space suits notice the player and charge into this area after them, also sealing this spot off with a giant UFO.

Solving further puzzles and advancing forward, the player enters a secret underground base area filled with various plans for brainwashing people through usage of the Gunbrick, and also coming across test subjects for this plan.

Avatars
Gunbrick related avatars for the game were added on January 14 2015, and can be accessed by clicking an avatars advertisement on the menu and then inputting the name and password to the user's Nitrome account.

The player has to be connected to the internet to get the avatars. If they are not connected, when trying to get them they will be redirected to the page to get the Icebreaker: A Viking Voyage avatars.

An option to receive the avatars is on the main navigation screen after the Pack 3. This icon shows a Gunbrick protagonist avatar emerging from a pink gift box. By selecting the icon, the device's browser will load, displaying a screen with the profiles module. The user can then log into their account to receive the eight avatars. Only users with access to the app can obtain the avatars.

Development
Development of Gunbrick presumably started sometime in 2012 or earlier, possibly prior to May 2012. The game was silently revealed when the Mobile page, then called "iPhone", of Nitrome.com was launched on July 12th 2014 , where it was called "Top secret", a name used to refer to it until its official reveal in 2014

Upon the page's release, Gunnbrick was 20% complete. Between August 15th and August 18th 2012 the game's completion was increased to 25%. Nitrome presumably continued to work on the game from then on up until late January 2013, though work on the game may have been impeded during this time by Icebreaker A Viking Voyage, Nitrome's first mobile game which was in development and a major news item for them.

The game's progress was halted at the beginning of 2013 when Nitrome accepted Rovio's offer to publish Icebreaker A Viking Voyage, causing the staff working on the mobile game to be relocated to Icebreaker A Viking Voyage. It is not known if development on Gunbrick started again after Icebreaker's release, though the game was being worked on July 2013 and work continued through July 2014, and from May 2014 onward the game surpassed its 25% completion mark. Gunbrick was projected to have been finished around the release of the Kraken map pack for Icebreaker A Viking Voyage (May 7th 2014), and so Nitrome hid a high resolution image of Gunbrick in the Kraken skin for Nitrome.com as a teaser for the game, though despite these high hopes the game was not able to meet this date.

Unlike their previous mobile releases, Nitrome withheld all other information on Gunbrick aside from its completion status. This was due to the game's slow progress, and later to not detract from Icebreaker A Viking Voyage's exposure. Although Icebreaker was a success and further mobile games have been released, Nitrome at the time felt that they were not yet ready to reveal information regarding Top secret.

In late 2014, Nitrome revealed information about Gunbrick in form of three teaser trailers released over the period of October-November 2014, each trailer spoofing a type of advertisement and also including jumbled up images of places from the game. On November 20, 2014 Nitrome revealed the game. By November 12 2014 the game was completed and had been submitted to the iOS App Store and approved by November 21, with a projected release date of January 2015. Nitrome was originally planning a much earlier release, though they later pushed it back as to not get involved with the competitive year-end holiday season on the Apple App store.

A release date of January 8th 2015 was decided in the new year, and the game was released on this day. During the game's development levels were constantly tested to make sure it was not possible to become permanently stuck and forced to restart the level, this causing levels to be revised many times.

Nitrome originally did not rule out the possibility of making future level packs for Gunbrick mobile and later on expressed interest in making more, but cited that the many ongoing projects made it hard for them to guarantee to working on any more.

Trailers
The first trailer, released on October 31, 2014, showed a block with a cat and a man and had the Japanese text "キティキャットブリック 愛すべき 歌舞伎�好きな 猫たちへ" (Kitty Cat Brick [:] Lovable Likes kabuki To cats), and also for a split second containing a jumbled up images of areas in the game, which appear to be a futuristic Japanese docking bay area with neon signs and floating ships.

The second trailer, released on November 7, 2014, showed a grayscale scene with a character sitting on an area overlooking an ocean, using a sort of perfume. The character spoke in French, saying "Water of 'Bovich', for men ". Jumbled up images of the game were shown again for a second, this time of a cave area in the game showing what looks to be an underground facility.

The third trailer was released on November 14, 2014, and showed an ad for a "Brickola" drink sponsored arena battle titled "Mega Monster Rumble Mania". Jumbled up images showed a drill, along with scenery from the jumbled up images in the previous video.

All of these trailer contained a blank screen at the end title "Loading..." with a different line shape at the end. When the frame containing these line shapes were all overlaid on each other as to include all the shapes, an image of Gun-Brick was created.

On November 19, 2014, Nitrome released an official trailer of the game revealing the game's name and more information about it.

Album
Gunbrick's music was released as an album by Eirik Suhrke. The album consisted of 16 tracks, 12 tracks from the game, 2 being prototype tracks, and 2 being remixes of tracks the game. The music was free to listen to on the site or could be downloaded for a price starting at $4 US.

Gallery

 * See also: Gunbrick (mobile)/Gallery

Flash version differences

 * The menu is slightly different from the Flash version.

Platform differences
While the iOS version of Gunbrick mobile has achievements, the Android version lacks these as Nitrome was unable to implement the ability to log into a Google Play account, this due to the game's framework being different from Cocos2dx (what Icebreaker: A Viking Voyage is made in) and Unity (when Nitrome's free endless games are made in).

Release version
This was the initial version of Gunbrick released on January 7th/8th for iOS and Android, being labelled 0.5 on iOS, 0.7 on Android and the Amazon App Store.

Further content
Nitrome has shown interest in making further level packs for Gunbrick mobile but are unable to commit to making anymore due to several other ongoing projects. As of April 2nd 2015 they are currently not working on any more.

Cameos

 * On level 2-4 there is a Icebreaker: A Viking Voyage style Viking helmet among some ice at the start of the level.
 * On level 3-7, Cuboy appears on a "No gundisks, no people, no cameras" sign.

Unused sprites
All sprites in the game's sprites folder (/assets/game.swf/sprites) that were created to be used in the game's levels have the suffix MC# added after the name, with # being a number. Sprites that have the suffix MC but no number are sprites that are cut from the game.

Grills
The grills moved over by the electric spheres have a sprite for each pack, a light blue coloured one for Pack 1, a brown one for Pack 2, and a light purple one for Pack 3, though the Pack 1 grill goes unused due to electric spheres being introduced in Pack 2. The Pack 1 grill is found in /assets/game.swf/sprites/DefineSprite (948: TurnGrillMC1).

Magnet block
Magnet blocks are an unused game component in Gunbrick. A rough design of the object's sprite can be found at /assets/game.swf/sprites/DefineSprite (968: MagnetBlockMC) and the created sprite for the game component at /assets/game.swf/sprites/DefineSprite (2465: MagnetTileMC).

Magnet blocks appears as two horizontal rectangles with the top one being red with a + sign and the bottom one being grey with a - sign and a circle of metal bolts going around the inside of the block; part of the left side for each block is coloured in a colour of the opposite block. The rough design of the block appear as a block split into two diagonal parts, the right side being red and left grey.

Oddly, the sprite for the object still has its rough design and the created sprite for it is listed as an unused variation of magnet tiles. The presence of "Magnet" in its name may mean that it caused the magnet effect that is caused by magnet tiles.

Considering that even though it went unused after having a sprite created may point to it being cut rather late in development, as other Nitrome browser games have cut game components who only have a rough vector design instead of a proper pixel sprite.

Ledges
Ledges are small thin platforms in Gunbrick that are found attached to the upper corner of platforms and also can be moved through and stood on if the player rocket jumps by firing bullets into the floor to move upwards.

At assets/game.swf/sprites/DefineSprite (968: LedgeMC) is what appears to be the temporary sprite of ledges, appearing as a horizontal thin grey box with black edges that has the same dimensions as the regular sprite for ledges, only lacking any design.

Sign
There is sprite located at /assets/game.swf/sprites that appears as a light blue sign that reads "STOP BREAKING MY BLOCKS" with "!!!", an angry Gunbrick civilian face, and "!!!". From the colour of the sign it was meant to be used in the background of a level of Pack 1. Though it was cut, signs with words on them that are used as background art in level are later used in the second half of Pack 3.

Wooden Gunbrick
Found in /assets/game.swf/images/ in the large sprite sheet of the game, in the upper right part of the image in the section with all the game's blocks (to the left of the column of people) are sprites of a wooden Gunbrick with a part of its blue glowing inside visible below its metal shield.

Unlike other Gunbricks, this Gunbrick has smooth curved edges on the top that has its shield, and the front part that has its cannon has a wooden-like appearance that makes its sides appear as though the entire front is very slightly cylindrical.

This Gunbrick has a sprite for facing all four directions, something shared by only other Gunbrick sprites that actually move in the game, though this particular sprite does not have any diagonal sprites for rolling.

From its appearance, this Gunbrick may have been intended to appear in Pack 2 (due to the presence of wooded object in that area), though this may not be the case due to this particular Gunbrick's polish and design which are not shared by any other objects in that pack.

Gear gunbrick variation
Present in /assets/game.swf/images/ in the large sprite sheet of the game, underneath the sprite of a firing gundisk are sprites of a Gunbrick with gears at its corners and exposed glowing hotspots on its sides between the gears. This same Gunbrick appears in level 1-3 in the construction site, only with the spots where its hotspots are being grey metal instead.

This Gunbrick was meant to be shot at, evident by the presence of its hotspots, and may have been intended to be an enemy or hazard. Notably, this is the only occurrence of hotspots outside of bosses.

Brown laser projector
In /assets/game.swf/images/ in the large sprite sheet of the game are sprites of an unused brown laser projector.

This laser projector is structured the same as regular used lasers with a few deviations: the brown laser projector has brown colours instead of the grey/light purple colours of a regular laser, the middle of the projector is different having an icon similar to that seen on the middle of a Gunbrick, the energy on the side is green, and the small square below the middle resembles an S.

From the appearance of this brown laser projector it was meant to appear in Pack 2, although why it was not used is not known.

Pad
Located in /assets/game.swf/images/ in the large sprite sheet are sprites of an unused metal pad structure. This structure appears as a metal pad attached to a vertical bar with a small square and light on it, this metal pad emitting a green electricity field.

This sprite has two animations and one sprite: an animation for operating (with the green field moving), an animation for being turned of, and a sprite for being off.

It is uncertain what this would have been used for, however, the presence of the bar likely shows that it would have been used in Pack 1 (as this bar appears frequently throughout Pack 1), and that the player would interact with it by moving on to it (indicated by the green electricity field).

Question mark switches
Present in /assets/game.swf/images/ in the large sprite sheet are sprites for a switch with a question mark. These switches appear square and grey with a line of bolts on the top of the switch, a green pad on top, and a small square screen in the middle with a question mark. Two animations for the switch exist: one where the green pad is up and the screen is grey, and one where the green pad is down and the screen is blue.

It is uncertain what they would have been used for, as other than the screen with the question mark, they do not seem to have any trait that differentiates them from the other used switches in the game.

Awards
Gunbrick was listed in the iOS App Store's "Best New Games" section on January 8 2015, along with winning an "Editor's Choice" award. Gunbrick was selected by Pocket Gamer one of the best games of January 2015.

Sales
Gunbrick was ranked #81 in the top paid iOS apps in the UK.

Promotions
A three game bundle consisting of Gunbrick mobile, 8bit Doves, and Icebreaker: A Viking Voyage was offered on the Apple App Store on January 29 2015.

Gunbrick was advertized among four other games on the Apple App Store under a section titled "Pay Once & Play", a section for games with no in app purchases.

Starting February 25 2015 Gunbrick was put on sale in the Apple App Store as part of an App Store feature that put a selection of iOS games on sale, dropping in the US app store from US $2.99 to US $0.99. Nitrome was offered to be a part of this sale by Apple.

Gunbrick was listed in the "Innovative Games" section on the Apple App Store when this section was launched on March 13 2015.

Trivia

 * During development, the mobile version of Gunbrick was referred to as "Gunbrick SD", SD standing for "standard definition", poking fun at how the mobile version of Gunbrick is more detailed than the icon version. Despite being used as an "in house joke", even after release it was still used on some official Gunbrick material to refer to the mobile game.
 * A ? Block and Brick Block from the Mario series appear in the room of the main character in the first level.
 * Jon Annal voiced some of the characters in the game.
 * Gunbrick was unintentionally released on January 7 2015 on Android and on iOS in New Zealand.
 * Gunbrick was accidentally made free on the Amazon App Store upon release, though this was soon rectified.
 * If the player tries to the get the Gunbrick avatars but is not connected to the internet, they will be redirected to the page for where they can get Icebreaker avatars instead.
 * At 9 seconds in the game's trailer, an animated version of the game's icon is shown.
 * In Magic Touch: Wizard for Hire Gunbrick related characters appear in the Gunbrick background (pictured below), these character being the Gunbrick, a cat in a Kitty Cat Brick, and a bird.