Platform Panic

Platform Panic is an endless platform game released on iOS, Android, and browser on December 17, 2014 with an Amazon App Store release on January 29, 2015. The player controls a character navigating through an infinite platform stage.

The game was first announced on December 2, 2014. A major update to the game that would give each character a special ability was announced on January 21, 2015 and released on January 28, 2015.

Controls

 * Swipe left/right - move left/right
 * Tap screen - jump

Gameplay
Platform Panic is a platforming game where the player navigates their player character through an infinite platforming stage. The player is scored based on how many rooms they clear. Each room has an exit that leads to another room, though some have two exits instead of one. Most rooms have coins in them that can be collected and spent to unlock other characters.

A break from previous Nitrome endless games, in Platform Panic every time the player dies they are given the chance to retain their score and try the room again for a certain amount of coins. The starting price is fifteen coins, though it doubles for every subsequent restart again after previously using a restart during the same game.

Characters
Player can unlock various characters to play with by unlocking them with coins found during while playing.
 * Rosy Cheek Boy (unlocked by default)
 * Sir Jumpalot (20 coins)
 * Radd Bradd (60 coins)
 * Blue Rodent (150 coins)
 * Spacegirl? (250 coins)
 * Clive (400 coins)
 * Plumber (750 coins)
 * Awesome Ninja (1250 coins)
 * Mr Smooth (2000 coins)

In-game advertising
Platform Panic is funded through interstitial advertisements that are seen in between death and the option to play again.

In app purchases
The game contains an in app purchase that allows players to remove ads, and also three coin related in app purchases.

Announcements
The game's trailer was released on the December 2, 2014.

Porting
Nitrome is interested in porting Platform Panic to the Amazon App Store and Windows Phone.

Release version
This version is labelled 1.0.7 in Android and 1.0.2 on iOS, and is the release version of the game.

Android version update 1
This version is labelled 1.0.8 and fixed some bugs along with a bug with the game's achievements that caused the "collect 5 coins in a room" achievement not to work properly.

Android version update 2
This version was released on January 6 2015 and is labelled 1.0.9. This updates fixes minor bugs.

Upgrades version
This version, labelled 1.2 on Android and 1.1.1 on iOS, adds a special upgrade to each character that can be purchased with coins. Along with this, the Android version also fixes a crash bug.

Development
Each character having a special ability was a feature Nitrome wanted to implement into the game's initial release, though they were unable to due to time constraints. Despite this they did say this feature may be added in a future update if the game is popular, an update that later came about on January 28, 2015. The subsequent release of Platform Panic on the Amazon App Store was used to test the viability of porting further free games with advertisements to the said store.

Influences
Platform Panic's retro theme influenced much of the art and characters of the game.

Many of the characters appear to be references to various video game characters, though some may be based on more than one characters. These references are:
 * Rosy Cheeks Boy's character description is a reference to Bubble Bobble, as it is a reversal of the role of the main characters. Furthermore, when creating the character Nitrome was influenced by the protagonists from the Taito games Bubble Bobble, Rainbow Islands, and Liquid Kids; along with Kirby from the Kirby series.
 * Sir Jumpalot wears a pair of "lucky boxer shorts", which is a reference to Sir Arthur of Ghosts n' Goblins.
 * Radd Bradd may be a reference to the "radical" skater mascots of the 90s, such as Kid Chameleon.
 * Blue Rodent is the "slowest runt of the litter", the opposite of this character being Sonic the Hedgehog, known as the "fastest thing alive".
 * Spacegirl's armor, upgrades and gender ambiguity is a reference to Samus of Metroid.
 * Plumber is based off Mario from the Mario series.
 * Clive's was named after Clive Sinclair, who came up with the ZX Spectrum. Furthermore, Clive's sprite is based off the graphics of the system in question, also being influenced by the characters Colin the cleaner, Hen-House Harry from Chuckie Egg, and Captain Viridian from VVVVVV.
 * Awesome Ninja is possibly based off Ryu Hayabusa from Ninja Gaiden and/or Joe Musashi from Shinobi.
 * Mr. Smooth is a reference to the main characters from Prince of Persia, Flashback, Another World, and Canabalt.

The background of the testing facility has a series of clouds, ! boxes and hills (complete with eyes) painted onto it. All of these set pieces are common scenery in the Super Mario Bros series.

Trivia

 * Platform Panic was hinted in the Bad Iceberg skin released a few days prior, with the gold head robots and Radd Bradd appearing in the skin.'