Along with the introduction of the new game mode – and to celebrate the upcoming holiday season – we’ve also dropped the price a notch to $1.99/1.59€/£1.49. We think that’s a bargain for all the amazing eye candy and hours of kooky fun the game has to offer!

As a one more thing, we’ve partnered up with a new Japanese company that specializes in promoting western game titles in the Japanese market. The company is called 3rd Kind and they will be relaunching GOMG! on the Japanese App Store shortly with a new title ぼくのガラクシー！ (“Boku no garakushii!”).

We just submitted an update to GOMG! that will introduce Survival Mode, an all new game mode where the wikus are determined to get even with Waka. Watch out for the update on the App Store – as well as your back – in the near future!

Check out the video preview and feature list of the upcoming universal HD version of GOMG! We submitted the app on Monday, it should be out soon!

Since this universal version relies heavily on OpenGL ES 2.0 shaders that some of the older devices can’t run, we had to drop support for the original iPhone, iPhone 3G and the first two generations of iPod Touch. As Apple doesn’t allow dropping support to devices that have been supported in previous versions, this is gonna be a whole new app on the App Store.

These are the things that we’ve changed in comparison to the original iPhone version:

New Controls and Options
- Interactive map screen: move around with your finger, zoom in and out to select solar system, choose any open level to play and replay
- New touch-based control method optimized for iPad
- Listen to your own music while playing
- Buttons for direct access to achievements and the hi-score leaderboard in the main menu
- Applifier button for more games

Content Additions and Improvements
- Eight new bonus levels
- Collectable gems for unlocking bonus levels
- New music for bonus levels
- New deadly enemy type
- Eight new achievements
- New puzzle elements: electric fence, flip switch, light switches, pole
- Major tweaks to all levels
- Complete reworking of three old levels
- End boss difficulty tweaks

Graphics Improvements
- New planet decorations
- Camera adjustments
- OpenGL 2.0 ES shaders
- 60 fps support for iPad 2
- Anti-aliasing for iPhone 3GS
- High resolution textures
- High resolution character meshes
- Color toning post processing effect
- Graphic effects improvements
- Planet shadow maps

AppsJP just published an interview we did with them covering a wide variety of subjects – past, present and future. If your language skills aren’t up to par to tackle the original Japanese version you can read the whole thing in English here.

AppsJP: What does Ookoohko mean? Any special meaning in Finnish?

“Ookoo” is the Finnish variety of the English “Okay” or “Ok” and “-hko” is a suffix that translates roughly to “almost” or “nearly” (you could translate the name to English as “Okayish”). The name is a play on the fairly typical Finnish mentality where it’s very difficult for people to take compliments or to admit that they might be better than the average in what they do, even if they were absolutely awesome.

AppsJP: Could you tell us about you in more detail? Who you are, name, age, number of employees, other company info etc.

We’re three Finnish guys in our mid-thirties. Sami Arola (programmer) and Jarkko Salminen (artist) have been working together since the Commodore Amiga era in the early nineties. Toni Laakso (producer) met the two a couple of years after that.

Sami and Jarkko co-founded a pioneering mobile games company called Sumea in 1999 which later became a part of Digital Chocolate. Toni joined the company in 2005 and in 2009 we decided it’s time to start over again from scratch. That’s when we started Ookoohko.

AppsJP: How much time did you spend on developing a 3D game like GOMG? I know it can be quite time-consuming.

It took us over a year to get the first version finished – but that’s partly because we didn’t want to rush it and did other things at the same time as well. Sami and Jarkko are very experienced with 3D development so in that sense it was not a problem.

We built the game on a new platform, Unity 3D, and getting up to speed with that took some time. It was worth it though, in the long run Unity has proven to be quite the time saver.

AppsJP: I was really surprised to find out that GOMG was developed by just three people. What was the hardest part in making GOMG fun?

Tweaks to get everything “just right” was the hardest part. The list of small details that needed work seemed endless at one point. Perfecting the control mechanism was also a bit of a pain, not to mention the optimization needed to get the game running on all iPhones and iPod Touches.

AppsJP: Is there going to be a sequel? Or are you guys working on another iOS app right now? If so, what’s it going to be like? Another 3D action game app?

We’ve got other concepts but for now we haven’t really worked on any of them. We’re focusing on making the upcoming Universal update of GOMG! the best we can.

AppsJP: In my opinion GOMG is very Nintendo-esque game, like Mario Galaxy. I believe you guys must be fans of Nintendo games. Did you try to bring Nintendo flavor into the App Store?

There’s no denying that Nintendo (and Super Mario Galaxy) has been a major influence on us. Anyone can see that. We don’t aim to be a copycat however, no-one could do it quite like Nintendo does.

AppsJP: I wanted Waka to be more action-packed. What he does is nothing but slapping, right? It would be nicer if he could roll over Wikus and squash them. What was your intention behind this simple action?

We wanted to keep the basic gameplay simple and easy to pick up. We figured that by keeping it simple we could make the gaming experience as pleasant as possible. And to balance the simplicity with variety there are several different powerups in the game that give you new ways to deal with Wikus.

AppsJP: GOMG supports Japanese language almost perfectly. Not many Japanese users expect an iOS app to support the Japanese language. How did that come about?

At first we aimed to make the game with no texts at all but that soon proved to be impossible. The second approach was to keep the texts as short as possible and show them in four languages at all times. Japanese was one of those four because Japan is such a major market and Japanese looks good! Finally we couldn’t fit all four languages in and had to cut them down to two and English and Japanese won.

AppsJP: Who would’ve thought that a game from the other side of the planet supports Japanese language! I bet you guys appreciate and respect what Japanese video game have given you; otherwise you wouldn’t have localized to Japanese. If my assumption is correct, what is the meaning of Japanese games to you? Any particular game that influenced you the most?

The major role Japan has played in the video gaming history was naturally a major factor in making the choice to support Japanese. Personally we’ve got tremendous respect towards a lot of Japanese games and game developers, with Nintendo being one of the biggest influences in how we design games and characters.

AppsJP: I believe GOMG is solely available for iOS. Any plans to port it to another platform like Wii Ware or something?

At the moment we’re focused on iOS but in time porting – or expanding – the game to other platforms is definitely a possibility.

AppsJP: I loved the artwork of GOMG. Where did Waka and Wiku come from? What was the particular thing that inspired the graphic design for GOMG characters? This is 100% your original, right?

Yeah, the design is our original. The very first idea was to turn the basic concept of a good protagonist and a bad enemies upside down. We wanted to make the enemies cute but also a bit annoying and the protagonist slightly evil. Waka got four hands because we wanted to emphasize the basic interaction of slapping the enemies directly on the screen – and because it looks fun. The original concept for Wikus was onion people that grow in the ground and pop up when they’re ripe. That’s why all Wikus still are based on some fruit or vegetable. The upcoming fifth Wiku will be related to lingonberry, by the way.

AppsJP: The bottom line: GOMG is a polished, playable, fun action game. However, user feedback tends to be relentless. What kind of feedback do you get from the users all over the world? We’d like to hear both pros and cons. What is the biggest expectation the users are shouting?

We welcome all feedback and understand that sometimes even harsh critique only shows that people care about what you do. The majority of people are asking for two things: an iPad version and deeper gameplay. We’re fairly confident that the upcoming update will make a lot of those people happy.

AppsJP: What are you planning for the next update? Please be specific.

The upcoming version is gonna be a big one. First of all, it’s gonna be Universal so all those iPad users out there will finally be able to make the most of it with GOMG! We’re introducing an interactive map screen that makes it easy to replay any level you’ve unlocked. To make you wanna perfect the levels we’re adding collectible items that help unlock new bonus levels. On top of that there’s gonna be a new kind of Wiku, new puzzle elements and improved graphics.

AppsJP: What are your favorite games on the App Store other than your own?

Jarkko: Plants vs. Zombies, Cut the Rope, Sword & Sworcery
Sami: Cut the Rope, Death Rally, Rolando
Toni: Drop7, Zen Bound, Game Dev Story

AppsJP: How are the sales so far? It’s quite hard to be a winner in this market, isn’t it?

Yes, it’s a very crowded market and it’s hard to to stand out. Saleswise we still have a lot to accomplish but we’re confident that if we keep working on improving the gaming experience of GOMG! more and more people will find it and enjoy it.

AppsJP: What’s the best part of GOMG you want the Japanese users to enjoy?

The new update is gonna bring new kinds of challenges into the game but we believe that the core feature of slapping everything that moves will remain the most fun part of the game.

AppsJP: Any message to the tsunami victims?

The Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami was a very big tragedy that we followed very closely as we’ve got friends in Japan and we were worried of their well-being. We can only imagine what it is like to recover from something like that but we’re confident it is possible and wish to send positive energy to the people affected.

By popular demand, an optional virtual joystick. Enjoy!

Also, 1.0.2 with an optional control mechanism (virtual joystick that a lot of people asked for) is already halfway out the door.

- The levels in the first solar system were tweaked to ramp up the difficulty curve.
- A new setting was added for control sensitivity.
- It’s now possible to turn without moving back or forward.
- Map screen displays an icon when an achievement has been unlocked.
- Performance optimizations – the game now uses significantly less memory.
- Fixed a bug in achievement handling. Achievements are now reported correctly.

To take part, simply send us an email to gimmebadges@ookoohko.com and if you’re one of the lucky ones you’ll be hearing from us via snail mail (be sure to include your mailing address).

We’ll keep this going until we run out, drawing winners at the end of our workday every Friday. And just like the previous time, we want to give advantage to the people that live far away from where we work.

For full disclosure, we will be holding onto your email address and might be using it in the future for sending out information on what we’re up to. However, we will never share your personal information with anybody else.

Here’s the Press Release for Get Outta My Galaxy! For further information don’t hesitate to get in touch with us directly.