Mad Wheels available on the Apple App Store worldwide:

iTunes link to the Lite version (Universal)

iTunes link to the iPhone version

iTunes link to the HD version

Hi everyone!

Today NewFX Games announces its next action-racing game — "Mad Wheels". For those familiar with our pedigree: Mad Wheels will be Horror Racing on steroids. For those who are not: Mad Wheels is a top-down action racing game that allows you to blow your foes to smithereens whilst still trying to win the race!

Feel the tight turns, dodge every obstacle and avoid the devastating explosive rockets. Each car has a unique super weapon that allows you to play dirty if need be. If your more of a brawler, each car can use whatever machinery they were built with to cause destruction.

You'll get the following at your disposal:

• A bunch of vehicles each with unique combat abilities
• 3 different level environments
• Online scoreboards
• Wi-fi multiplayer
• A high-octane high-adrenaline race!

Support for all iDevices: iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad and it will still run smoothly on older devices.

Also we are glad to announce that the game will be published by Chillingo - Leading Independent Games Publisher and division of Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS). "We're happy to collaborate with NewFX Games team on such a promising project" - Chris Byatte, General Manager of Chillingo.

At this moment in time the core game engine is almost complete, but there is still a lot of work left. We're experimenting with some features, polishing the gameplay and doing our best to make sure you will get the most of your playing experience!

Stay tuned and keep your eyes peeled for Mad Wheels!

P.S. The TourchArcade forum thread

Hi everybody!

We've got a surprisingly big attention to the update of our logo news including post's comments and private messages! And we're glad to inform you that everyone's favorite mushroom is back. It has undergo some minor improvements to fit the design of the web-site. So, enter the new old logo.

Update contains only iOS4 fixes. Also I'd like to inform that right now we have no plans to add new features or content to the Horror Racing. Our primary concern is to support the game in terms of its operability.

Cheers!

I've never considered seriously those stories about Apple's evil approval department. But lately we got the chance to feel their eternal wrath on our own hides. Yes, we regret to bring the bad news, but Apple has rejected our last update for Horror Racing (which contained various fixes for iOS4) due to our use of private API. Having said that I feel obliged to clear some things up.

In update v1.1 we've added the screen rotation feature to make sure the game runs in both landscape orientations (to allow people hold their iPhone the way they like). We've added this feature to the 3D OpenGL engine and to the native GUI, but eventually we got stuck with one particular issue on the character selection screen. Look at the screenshot below:

The car is displayed as a video file. And the problem is that the video player can't be rotated once it has started playing video, except by using some private API functions. So we had an option either to:

• reject the rotation feature
• release the game with a bug (the rotation won't work on the character selection screen)
• risk to use private API

And so we took that risk. The update v1.1 was approved without problems. We got warning on update v1.2 and finally our update v1.3 was totally rejected.

The controversy with Apple's policy stems from their strict stance on forbidding the use of private APIs because there is no guarantee that such APIs will be supported in future releases of iOS. From the first glance it sounds reasonable. But in reality, the same goes for the official API as well (we've spent the whole day trying to make the video player 'behave' on both iOS3 and iOS4). Moreover, the official API has often got really poor functionality - I have dozens of stories about employing ugly hacks to get the needed functionality within iOS SDK.

So we got tapped trying to implement better usability. Formally Apple is right. But in reality they simply raised unnecessary hurdles along our track.

Again, back to our problem. At first we decided to remove forbidden code completely - the rotation 'bug' smells, but it's not THAT critical. Yet, after another brainstorming we've found a new ugly hack to deceive the iOS SDK and preserve our intended functionality. The implementation is ready and today we will try a new submit.

We apologise for the inconveniences. Let's hope that v1.3 will soon be accessible via Apple's App Store.

Welcome to our new website! Currently the priority for NewFX Games is a development of games for the iPhone and iPod Touch. For the time being our public portfolio consists of a single yet highly successful game release - Horror Racing. More projects will be revealed quite soon as well. We strongly believe that iPhone is one of the best modern platforms for making great games. It's got top of the line hardware, software plenty and impressive user base - all of these benefits combined provide for truly unique possibilities on the mobile gaming market. The iPhone has got a bright future, and we hope to make a substantial contribution to securing that future with what we do best - making great games. All the fun is still ahead. Stay tuned!