Valet Hustle is on the App Store!

Miscellaneous Topics
#1

Are you wondering what I’ve been working on for this past… forever (at least it seems like it!)? Trying to figure out why I haven’t made a new Java project recently and have been mostly absent from competitions?

Even if you weren’t wondering, have a look at:

Valet Hustle
Get it at the App Store

New for the iPhone and iPod Touch. I programmed everything except for most of the main menu and the sound system. And I did it all from scratch in Objective-C. All 3D model loading, OpenGL workings, etc. etc. was me, and a few things were with the help of the JGO community (noticed any of my weird out of place questions?). So thank you all for the help you gave me and just for being around to keep me sane.

And now I’d thank you to buy it and give it a 5-star review. Yeah! Help a fellow JGO-er!

Screenshots:

http://www.valethustle.com/images/Screenshot1.png

http://www.valethustle.com/images/Screenshot12.png

http://www.valethustle.com/images/Screenshot11.png

http://www.valethustle.com/images/Screenshot5.png

http://www.valethustle.com/images/Screenshot10.png

Website (still in progress, note all the dolor opsum sit ament…)
http://www.valethustle.com/

Once again, app store link:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/valet-hustle/id352179893?mt=8

From the app description:

#2

Look very nice. Good job. Too bad I don’t have an IPhone :frowning:

I like the fact that you review your own game like if you were a random customer :). I guess it’s marketing.

#3

Hahaha yeah, pretty much. Even if you don’t have an iPhone or iPod Touch, you can still buy it on iTunes and then review it. It’s 99c.

#4

Looks awesome! …let me know when you port it to Android :wink:

#5

Nice work! Looks like you put a lot more into it since I saw it a few weeks ago. The mini map is a good idea.

I’ll get my flatmate to buy it on his iphone and put in a good review

So what about the disposition of the ladies running the business? :slight_smile:

#6

Haha, well actually you can now choose characters, either a lady or a man, each with unusual dispositions in their own way. :stuck_out_tongue:

#7

We have the website all done for the game:

http://www.valethustle.com/

You can check out a little teaser video here (it’s also embedded on the front page of the site):

#8

hehe, I just noticed that all of the reviews on the site are by relatives(or just connected to) of the developers :stuck_out_tongue:

#9

Yeah, basically until we get some real ones in. Hahaha.

I did notice a couple reviews / responses today:


#10

ahh, so that is what you meant by “unusual disposition”??

#11

Yes. :stuck_out_tongue:

#12

This looks very good! I don’t own an iPhone, though.

And good job standing up for gay marriage! I get a nagging feeling it’s “just” a marketing trick, but as marketing tricks go, this is a far less evil one than most. =)

I’d buy it in a heartbeat if I had an iphone.

#13

Actually the main game designer is a big anti-Prop-8 nut, and we all voted against it here in the office (in case you don’t know, Prop 8 is the ridiculous BS that was recently passed in California, reversing the decision of the supreme court to make gay marriage legal).

#14

Looks good. :slight_smile:

Also, Kotaku has picked up on it: http://kotaku.com/5479701/valet-hustle-the-game-thats-about-being-gay-but-its-not

#15

Yeah, I just found that today, I was pretty excited. There has actually been a really big amount of news on it, but what’s really annoying me is that all of these people are saying “OMG A GAME WITH GAYS (gameplay looks pretty fun).” Not a single one is playing it. Get over the fact that the story is a little different and maybe enjoy the gameplay? Damn.

Anyway, I’m still excited. Apparently 1up and IGN requested review codes. Rawk!

#16

what did you expect, if you make a political statement, ppl are gunna focus on that…

#17

I did expect that reaction to some extent, I just wish people would play the game! After all, I worked on gameplay, not the story or the graphics. I want people to see my handiwork! :slight_smile:

#18

It’s also on 1up:

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3178189

Unfortunately, I am now out of a job. The game hasn’t been selling nearly enough to even pay daily expenses, so our investors suddenly went stir-crazy and closed us down a couple months before we were even out of money. It’s really weird to me, because there are plenty of other ways we could have tried to promote this.

Oh well, I’ve already got a job offer and some other interviews so I’m not worried, but it’s still pretty sad. I was at this company from the ground up for a year and a half, I’m listed as the co-founder, and now poof. So goes venture startups, I guess.

#19

how do you fire a founder?? or did you guys sell your souls to investers?

#20

It’s a pretty complicated situation, but even though I was a founder I don’t have any ownership if the company. The two owners (a co-founder and an investor), through a lot of complicatedness that I won’t go into, decided to fold the company over. But in the end it all comes down to the fact that the company was out of money and even when there were hundreds of Google results (stories or reposted stories) about Valet Hustle, it sold at max 92 copies in one day. Daily fees at the company were at least $1000 / day, so you can see why it was pretty quickly decided to cut and run. I still think we had other opportunities to have a hit (especially because we have pretty much only gotten good reviews), but oh well.

I’m off to more likely to succeed and higher paying opportunities. :slight_smile: