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.

(more…)

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

Just now, some of the most interesting features you have suggested were added to an open roadmap. Keep on voting, we wanna know what’s hot!

Couple of words about this roadmap we are running. There are some opinions that we don’t care enough about the features you push to the top of the roadmap. Which is just not true, of course

First of all, there are features requiring quite a while to be implemented and our resources are very limited for the time being. Secondly, there is some stuff which is not present in the list and yet soooo important to the gameplay and fun.

Considering that, believe us that we care about the roadmap a lot. It helps us filter great and wanted stuff from the boring and unuseful one.

Notice that Messaging & Chat features were put out of the list as we already decided to implement them in the upcoming version of the UW. It’s gonna be legen… wait for it… dary!

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.

We’ve been pretty quiet lately. Which is because our hands are full with Underworld improvements. Thus it’s time to finally reveal what are we working on.

Well, our first priority is to make the world economy run faster, smoother and more transparent for players. Glad to say we already have a new version in an internal testing featuring all of this. Hoping to push it live next week.

Now to the sexiest and the long-awaited stuff. Thanks to all the feedback we’ve got from you, our development lab is now preparing the three most wanted features, as follows:

• death to the bots (AI players)
• the ability for the real players to interact even on some distance
• and… the messaging, eh!

Won’t promise any strict release date for this yet, but we want this stuff as much as you do, so…

Please don’t stop with suggestions and other feedback, we’re loving it so much! More, even more, make us beg you to stop :) An open roadmap (the one you can vote for) is going to be updated in the next couple of days.