The Ant Ranch presents:

Moonbase: Lander is the stylish accelerometer-based moon lander game for the iPhone and iPod Touch using realistic physics simulation and stunning full 3D backgrounds.

Your PodHopper™ is little more than a seat, a fuel tank and control paddle! You need a steady hand and iron will to ride this flying bomb!

Join the Moonbase Lunar Pilot Training Program. Increasingly difficult terrain will challenge your skill and nerves. Discover alien technology and military hardware to enhance your PodHopper™. Land carefully for the highest point value. Can you qualify as a Pilot before you run out of fuel?

Leveraging the power of the Ageia PhysX engine, the simulation game play in Moonbase: Lander uses one of the best physics engines available. The mass and gravity are set to simulate a real landing on the moon. The backgrounds are a stunning full 3D, with the moon herself supplying the texture. Coded in the powerful and clean Unity3D game development tool, this is the best (in our humble opinion) lander game available for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Features:

- Addictive Gameplay

- Accelerometer based tilt controls

- Accurate power curve driving the thrust of the PodHopper™

- Physics simulation using the Ageia PhysX engine

- High quality graphics, lighting & effects

- Stunning 3D backgrounds

Available now on the iTunes App Store!

- Calibrating -

You will be prompted before your first game to "calibrate" your iDevice.

Hold the iDevice at a comfortable angle, and iLander will take a snapshot of the way you are holding your iDevice and set this position as the neutral or "zero-point" for playing the game.

As this is a tilt based game that uses the accelerometer inside the iDevice to drive your PodHopper™, it's important to get a comfortable playing position. You may discover that you will want to recalibrate if you change position or change hands for a better game play.

Recalibrating is easy. You can recalibrate your iDevice at any time when the game is playing from the PAUSE menu.

- Flying the Lander -

"For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction!"

This game uses physics simulation, so you will need to use your main engines

to slow, stop or change your direction.

The game uses the accelerometer inside the iDevice. Tilting the iDevice is the only way to fly your PodHopper™.

Tilt the iDevice away from you to thrust.

Tilt the iDevice to either side to turn.

The more you tilt your iDevice, the stronger the thrust from your main engines. Bring the iDevice back towards you to stop thrusting. The game uses a mathematical formula that relates the angle of the iDevice to a power curve that drives the thrust of the Lander. With practice, you can have very fine control of your PodHopper™.

Small and steady movements are best. Sudden or extreme movements can cause a disaster!

Because the user input is from the accelerometer in the iDevice, you will find that you can tilt the iDevice in a number of different ways to achieve the same effect. In the case of turning: to activate the attitude jets you can either tilt the iDevice in an upright position so the top swings from side to side, or while thrusting, you can bring only the sides of the iDevice towards and away from you. Both methods work fine.

Experiment and see what works best with you.

The velocity and roll of the PodHopper™ is indicated on the instrument panel at the top of the screen.

You can change the direction of tilt to activate the thrust and turn in the OPTIONS menu.

- Getting Lost -

If you are unsure where to land at any

time during game play, tap your

screen to pause the game and change your view. This will reveal the entire testing area and highlight your lander with a golden halo. Tap again to resume the game. If you cannot find your lander, you may have strayed too far from the course. When you tap the screen to resume the game, the camera will zoom in on your PodHopper™, showing you the way to return to the testing area.

If you stray too far from the landing targets, it is possible to leave the testing area. If you do so, you will see a warning message saying “Are you lost?”. At this point you will have the chance to fly back to the testing area. If you continue to fly out of the testing area you will be declared “LOST!” and you will be forcibly reset back to the starting position.

- EMERGENCY! -

If you are coming in too fast, get stuck or find yourself upside down: you can try to abort your descent or right your PodHopper™ with the emergency manual abort button indicated on your iDevice by the thrusting PodHopper™ icon in the lower left of your screen.

Pressing this button uses a large amount of fuel.

Only press in case of a real emergency.

- Taking Damage -

Your PodHopper™ is not the most well built nor the best designed machine in the universe, and the fuel tanks are the worst part of that design! Add to that the fact that the fuel you will be carrying is the most volatile substance know to man, and you've got a fantastic combination!

Your PodHopper™ will take damage if you collide with anything in the game, including the landing zones. The amount of damage you take depends on the velocity at which you collide. This damage is multiplied by your angle off center and your sheering velocity, so be very careful when trying to land.

If you take too much damage, your fuel tank will explode. The automatic pilot safety systems will engage at this point and you will be brought back to your starting position.

The damage taken by the PodHopper™ is indicated on the instrument panel at the top of the screen.

- Crashing and Fuel -

There are no "player lives" or "ship count".

Game play lasts as long as you have fuel.

Collect as many points as possible with the fuel you have.

Each landing zone should have a small ration of fuel to refuel you lander with. Rumor has it that extra fuel has been found on the lunar surface...

There is no overall penalty for blowing up, so crash as many times as you can stand!

The remaining fuel for your PodHopper™ is indicated on the instrument panel at the top of the screen.

When you run out of fuel, the game is over.

- Landing and Points -

You gain points by successfully landing your PodHopper™ on an indicated landing zone.

Landing zones are indicated by the flashing colored beacons and are identified at the beginning of each level by the arrow bouncing directly over it

Each landing zone is color coded by it's difficulty rating. Green is easy. Red is very difficult. The point value of each landing zone is set by a multiplier based on it's difficulty rating.

Each landing zone has a base point value that you will receive for successfully landing on that landing zone, no matter how ugly that landing was.

When you land, you always receive the base point value of the landing zone, but in addition, each landing zone has a skill bonus based on the difficulty of the zone and skill of the landing. The maximum value of the skill bonus is equal to the base point value of the zone. If you land perfectly, you could double your overall score for that zone.

Your skill bonus is scored on several factors: Distance from the center of the landing zone marker, impact strength, angle at impact, sheering velocity and collisions on approach all count against your score.

Distance from center, impact strength, angle at impact and sheering velocity all subtract from the base point value of the landing zone. Check your instrument panel to make sure you are lined up, slow, and ready to land!

Collisions on approach, on the other hand, divide your final score! Only collisions “on approach" count against you. All other collisions are ignored for scoring purposes. You know you are “on approach” when the camera zooms in to give you better detail of your landing zone. Collisions have the greatest impact on your score. For a higher score, if you've collided with something near the landing zone, you could back off and try your approach again - but your potentially higher score will cost you the fuel it takes to back off and set up again, so think carefully! The best advice is to try and not hit anything when you are landing, and definitely DON'T BOUNCE!

- Instruments -

At the top of your screen, you will find your instrument panel. This is where your flight data is displayed, including the Damage taken by the PodHopper™, remaining Fuel, current Velocity and the attitude or “Roll” of the PodHopper™.

The background of the fuel indicator will go yellow, then red, as you run out of fuel.

The background of the damage indicator will flash green, yellow or red when you collide with anything in the game, depending on how much damage you have taken.

Use the Velocity and Roll indicators when setting up your approach and landing to make sure land slow, steady and flat so you score the most points possible!

The instrument panel will also indicate your current Score and your current Rank.

- Score and Rank -

As you progress through the game, your score will increase. Each landing zone will award points for landing and landing skill. When you first enter the Lunar Pilot Training Program, you are a Candidate, and have no stripes. As your score increases, you gain rank. The highest rank is Pilot. See if you can make it!

Pilot

Master Chief

Senior Chief

Chief

JG

Senior Space Cadet

Space Cadet First Class

Space Cadet

Senior Apprentice

Apprentice

Recruit

- Specials -

As you play the game, you will pick up specials, or "Hoorahs!".

These Hoorahs! are discovered when you land in a designated landing zone. Hoorahs! can be things like Inertial Dampeners that let you stop on a dime to extra fuel or repair robots that upgrade your lander.

These Hoorahs! show up in your button rack along the bottom of your display, between your abort button and the gear widget.

You can find the following Hoorah!s in the game:

The first two are “passive” and act automatically. You don’t need to do a thing to enjoy these.

Fuel Cache! Extra Fuel Units! (Passive)

This adds fuel to your PodHopper™

Salvage! Temporary Armor Plating! (Passive)

This adds 3 charges of temporary armor, reducing or removing any damage on impact.

The next three are “active” Hoorahs! and you must press the button to activate them!

Military Hardware! Protective Shields!

Creates a protective bubble around the PodHopper™ that protects you from all damage.

Alien Technology! An Inertial Dampener!

Stops the PodHopper™ instantly.

Supply Cache! A Teleport Charge!

Teleports the PodHopper™ back to the start position.

A small number will appear on the button to indicate how many charges there are for this ability.

- Pause -

You can pause the current game by pressing the "gear-widget" icon in the lower right of your screen.

In the "Pause" menu you can select:

"Options" to change the game options.

"End" to end the current game. You will have the option here to start a new game.

"Calibrate" to immediately re-calibrate your iDevice and return to the game.

"Resume" to return to the game in progress.

- Options -

In the “Options” menu you can change the game options, or you can select the in-game Quick Help reference guide.

Audio Settings

Here you can toggle the in-game sounds on and off.

Music Settings

Here you can toggle the in-game ambient track on and off.

Hint Settings

Here you can toggle the in-game hints (Level 0 only) on and off.

Thrust Reverse

Here you can toggle the tilt direction for enabling the PodHopper™s thrust.

Turn Reverse

Here you can toggle the tilt direction for enabling the PodHopper™s turn.

Reset High Scores

Here you can reset the High Scores table.