After a few late nights, and some last minute bug fixing, we’re very happy to announce that Gravity Sling v1.1 has been submitted to Apple. We’re expecting this review process to take a while, but hoping it will be approved before Christmas so you can get your holiday swing on!

A lot has changed with this version:

Moving Planets

By far the biggest update is that we now have added in support for moving planets. While we like the static puzzle nature of some of our current levels, we love the effect that moving planets has on the game. It can make things a lot more challenging in some places, and a bit easier in others. Ultimately it definitely makes the game a lot more fun. Can you imagine trying to create a path like this in the current version?

Screenshot from the "Quadruple Box" level in Gravity Sling v1.1

Star Pickups

While most people seem to love creating long paths and seeing them play out, we always felt like Gravity Sling needed just a little bit more. With v1.1 we’ve added star pickups to most levels. Sometimes the stars will help you see the way to get a big score, and other times they may be a bonus to encourage you to try to get somewhere difficult.

"Oklahoma" level from Gravity Sling v1.1

Over 60+ new levels

We’ve more than doubled the number of levels in Gravity Sling increasing the total from 45 in the initial release up to 109 in this release. 4 of those levels are free to introduce you to moving planets, and the other 60 come in the way of 2 new level packs. We also updated almost every original level to add star pickups for an added challenge.

Deluxe Version

While we still believe that Free + In App Purchase is the best way to go for apps like Gravity Sling, we have decided to introduce a deluxe version. We’ve heard from several people that they can’t or are unwilling to purchase levels from within the app, and we also didn’t like that the initial release kept many iPod Touch users who haven’t upgraded to iPhone OS 3.0 from being able to enjoy the game. The deluxe version will sell for $2.99 (or your equivalent local currency) and comes with every single level pack unlocked from the start. Further any future updates we do will also be released with the deluxe version.

Numerous Bug Fixes and Improvements

We also spent some time improving the overall user experience. A few people had found some issues with menu performance, and some general bugginess in the UI. We think we’ve fixed all of those issues, so the overall experience should be much better.

Follow @RiptideGames on Twitter to keep up to date on the latest releases and be among the first to know when v1.1 is approved.