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), 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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Version 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).

Cameos

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

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 from the Mario series appears 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.