Phew! Underworld: SweetDeal 1.1 has just been submitted to the AppStore. Hoping guys from Cupertino are going to approve it till the end of this week.

Ok, the main question, as always, is what exactly did we prepare for you in 1.1?

The first and the most important feature of this release is Facebook Connect support. As any other MMO, Underworld is not only about making progress, but also about socializing. Bring your Facebook account into the game to communicate with friends, observe each other’s game achievements and struggle to the top of Friends Cream of the Crop. More details on that will follow in a separate post soon.

Another highly demanded feature added is stock controls. Review your current stock and dump something if you need space quickly for another commodity.

Cream of the Crop now will let you open dealer’s profiles, view their details and communicate. Finally, we did that

The last, but not least — we have put a lot of effort to fix all the known bugs and improve the overall game stability. Yes, «black screen» bug is in the past too

As usual, we’ve put out already implemented features from the roadmap and about to add some new stuff we are getting from the suggestion box. The work has begun on the next version!

Image credits: vox_efx via Flickr.

Hi everyone! Last night was sure tough. It was brought to our attention that some greedy cheaters hacked UW point packs. Which is kinda common thing happening to paid apps in AppStore, but still…

We would like to say two things regarding that.

First, we have found the solution to recognize unfair play and subtract leaked UW points. So, bad guys will be punished, just give it a time:)

Second, we can assure you all the honest UW players that the global game balance wasnt seriously affected, and the effect will be undone soon.

Keep rollin’ in Underworld!

Image credits: shinealight via Flickr.

April 20, 2009 — Cupertino, CA — Apple approved Underworld: SweetDeal, a location-based MMOG developed by A-steroids, for distribution through AppStore.

Download press kit >>

After the rejection this February and the successful beta-testing in Cydia and all the waiting last week, Underworld has finally made it’s way to the AppStore.

	Get it for free!
	Get 15 UW points!

Dedicated game site will be up and running very soon. Until then, you can drop us a note of here in comments or right in the game. Moreover, visit the unofficial messaging board and the chat room we’ve setup for such an occasion.

Don’t forget to vote up the game in the AppStore and stay tuned — more sweet stuff to come!

We did it! Underworld was sent to the AppStore. Let’s hope the wait won’t be so long this time.

So, what’s up with SweetDeal?

First — many of you are wondering about this — the game will still be free to play. Only this time you will be able to download paid extensions containing Underworld Points.

With UW points, you can pull some strings, like to gain full police protection for some period, to postpone your loan shark pay off or even to get a full refund for your equipment upgrades to rearrange them. Of course, more boosts are coming soon.

Second, we’ve added a cop alert indicator to the market screen. Now you can always see your actual chances to come through. Decide for yourself — take a chance or upgrade.

Next, we’ve fixed Cream of the Crop. See how powerful you are comparing to other players in different areas.

Finally, for those who had a chance to enjoy Underworld in beta phase, how do you continue playing the game? Just install the game from the AppStore when it comes live and it will automatically load your existing character. Your rank, cash and stock — everything will survive.

As a token of our appreciation for your hard work, we are offering you the Underworld veterans 15 UW points, as a welcome gift to the SweetDeal.

We have good news for all fans of the game: thanks to all the help from the jailbroken beta-testing community, we are now ready for the release of the game!

On the 8th of April we are submitting Underworld: SweetDeal to the AppStore. Let’s hope this time approval goes smoothly.

For those who aren’t familiar with the whole thing, what’s Underworld? It’s the unique location based massively multiplayer online game simulating trade on the global black market. Using GPS inside your iPhone / iPod Touch you discover a parallel world of dirty trade, cruel rivals and merciless loan sharks. Your job is to find good deals everywhere you travel in your real life and earn big buck by moving merchandise around.

Now to the less exciting part. Despite what we have said before, the news kicked in that we have to shut down our beta version for jailbroken devices. So be it. After all, Underworld is MMO — more players means more fun, right? Beta accounts will be moved to the SweetDeal, where you can continue your struggle to the Cream of the Crop.

Ok, now it’s a good time to summarize what’s happened with Underworld during the last time. Lets do it in the form of FAQ session. Feel free to ask more questions in comments or in twitter.

What’s Underworld about?

Underworld is an innovative location based online game for handheld platforms (iPhone, for the time being). Game simulates the trade on the global black market which exists parallel to your everyday life. Using GPS inside your iPhone/iPod Touch, you move between real-world locations, trade various stuff and meet real people online.

Read the rest of this entry »

Finally, version 1.1 has arrived. Here is what we’ve got for you:

• Dynamic local economy — supply&demand situation in your area will change from time to time
• Player-to-player messaging & public shouts
• Map improvements — you can see drug labs & junkies in your neighborhood thus make considered business decisions
• Tiled game world structure, allowing dealers to interact even on the distance
• Human alike bots don’t exist anymore — everyone you could encounter in the game is either a druglab, a junkie or another real dealer like you
• Lots of interface improvements & minor bug fixes

No worries, all your character data will migrate to the new version (only few hours of your activity will be lost).

Now go to Cydia and download the update. To do that, open Manage section, find UW:DrugLords from the list of installed apps, then tap Modify, Update and wait until it loads.

If you experience troubles updating the game, try installing all the essential Cydia updates first or removing the game completely and installing it from scratch again.

Game help we’ve promised some time ago is on it’s way!

Ask questions or tell us what you think about the new version here in comments or in twitter, we like it too

If you are an Underworld addict, you might have noticed a few server outages lately.

Sorry for that, but there is a good reason — we are preparing the launch of UW 1.1. Yes, the one we’ve been advertising since February. Finally, expecting to push it live next week.

All your characher progress will happily survive the update, the only thing you will have to do is to download a new version from Cydia. You will get a message in the game when it happens.

There still some outages might happen during this weekend, follow us in twitter to be in touch.

Did you ever think about smuggling candies? ‘Cause that’s what we’d like to offer you to do in the AppStore version of Underworld.

After our survey on the AppStore friendly commodity pack was launched last week, we have got a lot more suggestions than we could imagine. It’s so exciting that the game isn’t even distributed officially and the community is already so big and active and ready to help. Thanks a lot, we appreciate the support very much!

We examined the whole bunch of ideas scrupulously and have finally chosen the "sweet" setting. The logic behind this is that we don’t want to wait two more months to get rejected by Apple and want to make the game much more fun instead by letting all the AppStore people join it. Good point, right? Many UW players have put the same idea to the suggestion box. So, this is our decision on the commodity pack.

Due to a large amount of participants we are going to award not 10, but 25 of you (randomly chosen). The winners will get a special bonus in the AppStore version of the game (you’ll be informed).

Finally, two more things you want to ask probably. First, we intend to maintain Cydia’s version of the game after the official launch. Second, AppStore launch is scheduled to happen in the middle of March. Yay!