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Canabalt goes 60 fps, Retina display and Open Source after Indie Sale success

And I ran

Canabalt goes 60 fps, Retina display and Open Source after Indie Sale success

Semi Secret Software has released a massive update, and a few other goodies, for endless running game Canabalt following the success of the Indie iPhone Holiday Sale charity drive.

If you remember, games like Osmos, Eliss and Canabalt simultaneously dropped in price to 59p / 99c just before Christmas, pledging a third of the money raised to the Child’s Play charity. In the end, the band of indie developers managed to bring in a whopping $25,000 for the kids.

Thanks to that impressive feat, developer Semi Secret Software has released this update. iPhone 4, fourth generation iPod touch and iPad gamers get the most new content, with super slick 60 frames-per-second gameplay, and full Retina display visuals on the pocket-sized devices.

And everyone gets access to Game Center, to unlock achievements and take on the leaderboards through Apple’s social gaming service.

Would-be iPhone developers get the best haul, though. The developer has released the full nitty-gritty source code to Canabalt, letting amateur creators have a look at how a professional goes about making an iPhone game.

Read the license carefully though: “Canabalt still helps pay our monthly bills,” says Semi Secret Software, “and it would obviously suck to have somebody just put a free version of it up on the App Store.”

Canabalt is still on sale for the ultra cheap price of 59p / 99c / €0.79c, so get it quick before the price rises this coming Monday.

Mark Brown
Mark Brown
Mark Brown is editor at large of Pocket Gamer