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.

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! 

This has finally happened — we have got a response from Apple, referring to the well known Section 3.3.12 of the iPhone SDK Agreement ("obscene, pornographic, offensive or defamatory content, etc."), which states that Underworld cannot be posted to the AppStore in the way it is.

Well, we have to change the way it is and yet not to spoil all the fun, right? And that is why we would like to hear from you now After the game was launched in Cydia, we have got tons of insightful feedback, this is really working! Now we want your ideas on the reskin. Please let us know, which commodities would you like to see in the AppStore version of the game!

You can drop a note either here in comments, or in twitter if you like. The same survey was opened in the game, check the About screen to participate.