Guitar Fretter

Happy 1st Birthday to Guitar Fretter!

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 20:31:00 -0700

The official cake! Thank you to Guitar Fretter players worldwide! You make it worth the effort of making and updating it. Lots of new features and changes since that first release 1 year ago and there's more to come!

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Guitar Fretter Sale Extended 1 More Week!

Wed, 01 Jun 2011 20:05:00 -0700

Guitar Fretter is still 99 cents (USD) through June 7th!

Why extend the sale? I want to extend it another week a spirit of let's spread the word - Guitar Fretter is a great way to have fun learning 6 string guitar fretboard (also 7 string and 4 and 5 string bass)!

There's a second factor as well. I put Guitar Fretter on sale on Amazon at the same time as the Android Market and iTunes App Store and they reflected the sale price rather quickly. The public price hasn't dropped yet on Amazon... let's call that my learning curve for Amazon's App Store. I hope it all works out within the week, because as of June 8th... it'll be back to the regular price!

I'm still super excited to have Guitar Fretter in the Amazon Appstore... being a one-person indie game developer is a fun challenge on many levels. Getting to learn the ins and outs of the different app markets/stores is certainly a thing to learn about and adapt to. This is the first time I've had a special sale price and first time coordinating that across the three different app markets/stores.

Thanks for checking out Guitar Fretter! Please tell your guitar playing (and guitar curious) friends!

--Rob

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Guitar Fretter - Half Price Through End of May!

Fri, 27 May 2011 09:27:04 -0700

To celebrate mobile gaming out in the warm weather now through the end of May you can get Guitar Fretter for half price - only $1 (USD)!!!

Get it for your mobile phone or tablet at one of these three app stores:

iOS Devices (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch)

iTunes App Store

Android Devices (2.2 and above - phones and tablets)

Please note - the sale price isn't showing on Amazon yet... stay tuned! I'll extend the sale on Amazon if I need to - don't want the Amazon Android community to miss out!

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Guitar Fretter 1.4 Update

Tue, 17 May 2011 22:56:49 -0700

Guitar Fretter's latest release (v1.4 on iOS, v6 on Android - same game just a new numbering method) was focused on performance improvements and minor tweaks. Not a whole lot to report since there's no new features in this release. Then again there's a few items since last release worth mentioning...

Thank you for your reviews and emails! Thanks to your emails I know Guitar Fretter is used in guitar classes by teachers and students. It's an honor to know Guitar Fretter is being used as a learning tool! I hope to delve more into that in the future, perhaps a dedicated article on the people using it in their classes...

The other big recent news We're now in the Amazon Appstore! In addition to iTunes and the Android Market, you can get Guitar Fretter right on Amazon.com. Amazon and Android are looking to have a great future together. Can't wait to see what kind of tablets Amazon comes out with later this year!

Speaking of tablets, it's worth mentioning: just like on iOS (it's a Universal app), Guitar Fretter works for phones and for tablets onAndroid. High resolution devices use the higher resolution art - it's all included!

Stay tuned for next release, planning to add a few exciting new features... more info to come!

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Guitar Fretter 1.3 Release Notes and Gallery

Fri, 04 Feb 2011 08:52:47 -0800

After months of development, I'm proud to share with you a significant update to Guitar Fretter. I call it version 1.3. I hope you call it really fun and an awesome way to memorize the guitar note positions. :)

It's live in the iTunes App Store for all iOS devices - that's right GF is now a Universal App which means it runs at an appropriate resolution on iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad!

Guitar Fretter is also live in the Android Market - which, by the way, the Android Market has received a huge upgrade from Google. The new Market is looking great and is easier to use. Now you can browse apps from any device, not just Android devices.

What's new in Guitar Fretter 1.3?

*** Guitar Chart mode!

-- See the fretboard, the fret note positions, and play guitar sounds for 6 and 7 string guitar and 4 and 5 string bass.

-- Guitar Charts mode is a "free play" where you don't have to worry about game rules, minions, or lives.

*** Save and Resume!

-- Save/Resume: Your game will be saved when you exit the game in Minion Battle or Ninja Mode. Your saved game will be available when you launch Guitar Fretter, you will see a "resume" option.

*** Multiple Difficulties

-- Start Minion Battle or Ninja Mode at Easy, Normal, and Hard difficulties!

*** Ninja Mode!

-- Match notes and fret positions without hints! Test how well you've memorized the note positions.

-- Ninja Mode gives 10x multiplier for points earned!

*** Battle Minions

-- Includes the New: Timed Ninja Mode, experience Ninja Mode for 30 seconds when you activate it by pressing the Ninja Minion.

-- Classic match - touch a minion, touch a fret note.

-- Instant match - touching a fret note first now matches all minions that share the same note!

*** iOS Universal App!

Guitar Fretter is now a Universal iOS app! Now with high-resolution support for iPhone4 and iPad!

*** Android - Built for Android OS 2.2 (Froyo) and Newer

*** Usability Improvements

-- "Extras" screen: a summary of what's in this release and link to the comic and blog (the blog you're reading right now).

-- Non-blocking minions: Minions don't block the guitar fretboard anymore! Note: the flipside to this is once a minion is over the fretboard, the only way to match them is to use the "Instant match" technique mentioned above. What that means to you during gameplay: just press a note on the fretboard that matches the minion and you're all set!

-- Alert balloons point to off-screen approaching minions.

*** Instructional Comic!

-- Added 6 instructional comics to introduce the core gameplay of Guitar Fretter

*** Fixes and Improvements

-- Game performance improvements - especially at high levels of play.

-- Graphic style improvements - better layout, colors, and other adjustments to game graphics.

-- New way of displaying health

-- Improved hint text in comic word balloons from the penguin character: Pick Wingvey

See the full gallery on Posterous

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From Comic to Game to Comic Again

Thu, 03 Feb 2011 14:29:39 -0800

Guitar Fretter began as a game when I made this Flash interactive guitar finger chart for E Minor. Afterward, I was pondering what kind of game I could make out of the guitar fretboard and stuff I wanted to learn about. Then I recalled - memorizing the note positions! That's always been something I wanted to do but never got around to doing. So I got to work on the prototype of what became guitar fretter.

But I the post title says "comic to game to comic again"... right? Well the catalyst for sharing that chart was my very guitar infused comic: Art Geek Zoo: The Way of Sound. One of the main characters is Crunchy the Mystical Guitar. He and his friend Pick Wingvey (a penguin who is a very talented guitarist with a case of stagefright) are the comic's main characters.

Pick and Crunchy are also the characters you play in Guitar Fretter and now in Guitar Fretter 1.3 they teach the basics of the game in the 6 included "how to play" instruction comics. Curious to see them? Wondering about the new "ninja mode"? You can also check out the instructional comics right here in this post!

See the full gallery on Posterous

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Guitar Fretter 1.3 Preview Gallery

Fri, 07 Jan 2011 10:31:00 -0800

Lots of exciting updates, improvements, and new features are coming with the next release of Guitar Fretter. Here's a preview gallery (1.3 is still work-in-progress) to give you a taste of what version 1.3 has in store!

Save and resume your game!
Start the game at different levels of difficulty!
Lots of little changes to the look and theme!
And more ... stay tuned for full details when this version goes live in the Android Marketplace and iTunes App Store!

See the full gallery on Posterous

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Guitar Fretter 1.2 Release Notes + Images

Fri, 01 Oct 2010 11:22:01 -0700

It's with great excitement I share the news of the cool stuff added to your favorite guitar fretboard memorization game: Guitar Fretter. When you launch the game you'll see 4 modes of playing: 6 string guitar, 7 string guitar, 4 string bass, and 5 string bass.

In addition to that, there's the new scales bonus mode where you can earn big bonus points by matching all the notes in a given scale!

I've been tweaking and improving the performance to make sure the game is fun as possible when you get up to levels 10-20 where the action gets really busy with all the note-wearing Minions flooding the screen. Also, this version has updated note letters for better readability.

Last but not least, I want to thank you all for the encouraging emails, kind words, feature wish-lists, and stories about playing Guitar Fretter! I also thank you very much for the great reviews and ratings in the iTunes App Store and especially the outpouring of awesomeness from the Android Market folks.

For those of you looking to get Guitar Fretter: Guitar Fretter 1.2 is now available in the Android Market. On the iOS, Guitar Fretter 1.2 is awaiting approval from Apple but will be out soon - currently you can download version 1.1 from the iTunes App Store.

--- A note to current Guitar Fretter customers on the Android platform ---

This release I've removed the Android Market DRM - which long term is a good thing. However due to complexities with both the Android DRM and different Android phones having slight differences some customers have had problems downloading the upgrade. I note in the app description to try to uninstall first before upgrading. For a few customers, this approach doesn't work and the solution that has worked for them is to do a factory reset of the device. I apologize for the inconvenience and please know this won't happen again in the future. The Android Market DRM is gone - and not coming back - into Guitar Fretter.

See the full gallery on Posterous

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Guitar Fretter 1.1 Gameplay Video

Sun, 15 Aug 2010 19:31:00 -0700

This video shows a sample of Guitar Fretter's gameplay along with a few tips and instructions.

Guitar_Fretter_1.1_Live_Demo_of_Gameplay.m4v Watch on Posterous

In case you're wondering why the video is a bit rough: it was made by propping a little Canon Elph between me and my iPod Touch. :)

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Guitar Fretter 1.1 Release Notes and Screens Gallery

Sun, 15 Aug 2010 18:28:00 -0700

Guitar Fretter 1.1 is currently available in the Android Market and iTunes App Store!

This release provides a variety of bug fixes and performance improvements:

Improved memory management for better speed and stability past level 10.
Updated the fret notes to use a more common spelling, for example the step below E is now "Eb" instead of "D#"
Most importantly in this release: fixed the "B#" bug.

See the full gallery on Posterous

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Guitar Fretter Gallery of Screens

Fri, 06 Aug 2010 10:35:00 -0700

Here are a few fun screen captures from Guitar Fretter 1.0! Available for only 1.99 (USD) in either the Android Marketplace or the iTunes App Store:

See the full gallery on Posterous

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Guitar Fretter 1.0 on iPhone and Android

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 21:22:00 -0700

I'm super excited to get Guitar Fretter out into the world. It's been a ton of fun to develop over the last six months and a huge push over the last two to get it finished. And by "finished" I mean version 1.0, I'm already working on the next release. Please feel free to post comments here with your questions and ideas.

For the IOS people using iPhones and iPod Touches you can check it out in the iTunes App Store!

For the Android OS 2.1 and newer people out there, you can find it in the Android Market (see it there from your Android device here or from or any other device here).

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What Is Guitar Fretter?

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 18:59:00 -0700

Defeat the attacking music-note-wearing Minions by matching their note to the guitar fretboard!

Guitar Fretter is an exciting action-puzzle game! Not only do you learn the notes on a 6-string guitar while you play - the action gets intense as you solve each level, unlock all the strings, and earn huge bonus points for full-matched frets and full-matched strings. Can you defeat the Minions?

Coming Soon to the iTunes App Store!

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