Years have passed since we have responded to Apple’s rejection of Drug Lords by rebranding the game to Underworld: SweetDeal. And still the controversy echoes from time to time!

A couple of recent articles covering grey areas of modern entertainment and possible abuse of location-based games:

• GPS Technology Allows Smart Phone Game Apps to Cross Realism
• Dealing Crack? There’s an app for that too!

While we don’t want to get into murky waters of what’s right and what’s wrong about location-based games, a topic worth discussion is which setting / set of commodities would be the best fit for UW2.

It’s interesting that even though the sweets were supposed to be a funny cover for the game’s true theme, SweetDeal has earned itself a lot of loyal fans who loved it because of the candies. And that makes the question of setting for the sequel even more complicated and tricky. What’s your take, folks?

P.S. We know you’re waiting some news on the feature set of UW2 — let me assure you we’re on track with that, please be patient! =)

Hey everybody, long time no hear! As already mentioned in comments to the announcement post, we’re not hiding — we’re working our asses off on UW2. So, what’s been done since the last update?

The most important part is that we’ve finished all the necessary research & planning and dived into the code! That’s right. We have decided to throw out the first game’s code base and start from scratch. It was a tough decision because usually it’s not such a good idea, leading to enormous development timelines and huge risks. In the case with UW2, after looking at the vast amount of features and improvements we want to see in the sequel, it was clear to us that the new game needed a new foundation. The awesome part is that the new code works on both target platforms, allowing for almost simultaneous release on both iOS and Android. Cool, huh?

Now with the code development on track, we’re finalizing the Game Design Document and deciding what exactly goes into the initial release and what will have to wait until the update. As soon as we figure it out, we’ll share the scope of work with everybody. That’s the topic of the next update — stay tuned, folks!

Phew, what a pleasure to finally share the news: we have officially started working on Underworld 2 (code name). And not the way we did it for the past few months, a flimsy side project with almost non existent resources (sorry folks). We are really pulling out all the stops this time!

For those who just joined us here: Underworld is our firstborn and the game famous for being packed with innovative stuff. For starters, back in 2008 it was the first location-based game on mobile. Not only was the gameplay using your real location and real life movements; we have introduced geo-aware Leader Boards  — with tremendous success. Finally, Underworld became ‘Freemium’ when ‘Freemium’ wasn’t even a thing!

With innovation all over the place, you can probably imagine how long it took us to balance the game, what a buttload of mistakes we did on the road and how much we’ve learned from that. Finally, we got an opportunity to re-use that experience.

One of the things that worked really well in development of the first game was that constant stream of support and feedback we received from the community. We intend to keep it on to gather your ideas and thoughts on the bigger, funnier and even more addictive second version! We promise to keep you posted on the progress as often as possible. Stay tuned for further details and spread the word!

Underworld: SweetDeal, our location based iPhone game has been updated. Read more about the new features on the game site >>

Good news for Underworld players: the Premium version is free now. Download it today and get some bonus: a full protection from cops for 2 hours. Go, go, go!

Another good stuff: we’ve put together a gameplay video. Check it out, comment and share with friends!

Background music: «To The On Position» by Wonderland Hollywood.
These guys are awesome! @Twitter / @YouTube.

Today, a new version of Underworld appeared in the AppStore. The one unique feature you will notice there is in-app purchase mechanics for paid in-game extras.

Right now, Underworld is the first MMO in the AppStore that has micro-transactions, so we decided to drop some knowledge on the whole micro-transaction deal and what troubles we were facing while working on it.

(more…)

Read the interview on PocketGamer >>

Ever since we launched Underworld, we’ve been asked constantly if there’s going to be a version for Android. Fair question, considering impressive platform capabilities and its growing popularity!

Today, we are happy to announce that Android people will be able to get into Underworld this fall. We’ve been working on it for some time already and the launch date is really close now.

Details on the upcoming game on Underworld site >>

Finally, the update has made it to the AppStore.

• Map blackout bug fixed
• New tiled-mode view added in the map screen
• Push notifications about your sales & received new messages

Quick, download it and let us know what you think!

Finally, we have launched a special place for Underworld dealers to meet and chat.

Please welcome an official game site!