Hello Matthew. I have to say, with Star Ninja now the #10 game, the Indie Gamer Chick leaderboard will be extremely tough to crack. Star Ninja has always been for me the barometer, because I believe (and still believe) that it is the XBLIG that has the most potential for mainstream success. And you know what? I can’t wait for someone to knock it off the board.

Don’t forget, there is a top 25 coming July 1.

Thanks for mentioning it, Grad. Kairi was spot on in the review: the port is the problem. When we brought the game over from the Windows Phone, we made a miscalculation when converting between different screen ratios. It resulted in some nasty clipping that means you’re sometimes in the dark about where to go next.

Not only are we zooming out the camera a little with out next update, I’m going through and hand-tuning the camera at each anchor to make sure the next target or path is more clear. When we kick it back for Second Chance with the Chick, I encourage you to give levels 4 and 5 another shot.

Early on in development, a friend mentioned CarneyVale Showtime and another game called Rotastic. I played both of them and there are definitely similarities. One thing that differentiates them both from Pendulous is item gathering. We’d thought about having cogs or something to pick up along the way in Pendulous, but ultimately decided that forward progress would be our focus and that collection would muddy the simplicity. Also, in those games, speed is generated a little differently; they both use a spin-and-release control scheme, whereas Pendulous is, well…pendulum-esque.

Comparisons aside, I’ll give a nod to Rotastic for their fun multiplayer. Sure it’s played for points and you’re supposed to be collecting gems, but the real joy is cutting other players’ ropes and sending them tumbling to their doom.

I have not. It is in my Katch-Up queue. Looks good. Might hold out a month just because I don’t want to compare two similar games this closely together.