Although it may sound as a minor patch, we have fixed plenty of annoying bugs (like the one with 1 million mark!) and added HTC Tattoo support.

Visit the Android Market to get the new version now.

Happy to announce that Underworld is finally ready for Android users! If you are one of them, just stop reading this, search the Market on your device for ‘Underworld’ and join the underground of street trade right away!

OK, so what’s noteworthy about the Android version of the game?

Original game theme. After more than a year since Underworld was first submitted to the AppStore (and then rejected after unreasonably long reviewing period) we are finally proud to present the game in its original theme of the grey trade. Yep. Real controlled substances instead of gummy bears and lollipops! Sorry AppStore folks, we did what we could.

Shared game world. As we promised before, the Android players have joined the current world that exists for iPhone/iPod Touch dealers. We think it’s totally OK considering how many of SweetDeal players already use the SD2DL re-skin plug-in bringing the original grey theme to the AppStore version of the game.

UW Points to boost your performance. Many iPhone/iPod Touch players have already forgotten the UW Points and switched to in-app purchase mechanics. Unfortunately, Android Market doesn’t support micro-transactions. Not sure if it will at all. So, if you want to boost your rising to the top of the Cream of the Crop, there are plenty of UW Point packs to use. Tap the U-shaped icon in the game to get to know more.

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The great thing about opening Underworld to new platforms is new players. Which not only make the game more interesting (rule #1 of MMO gaming), but also give a lot of feedback. Visit About section to submit bug reports or interesting ideas and don’t forget to become a member of Underworld forum!

Download the new version and let’s see what’s new.

Delivery Jobs

It’s the feature that was voted to top of the Open Roadmap in the very early days of Underworld. So, what’s the drill? Choose a job, buy the required amount of merchandize and bring it to the destination tile in time. If you succeed, extra cash is granted. In some cases that’s millions! However, you definitely don’t wanna fail the job: these guys always know where to find you and the punishment will be bad.

There are six types of delivery jobs. With the simplest Local delivery, the only thing you have to do is to find the merchandize, ‘cause the destination tile is the same tile where you get the job. Piece of cake! Starting with a Neighborhood delivery, you have to move around physically to get the job done. Follow the map and don’t forget about the time limit!

There are also two very special jobs: International and Super Cargo.

With an International delivery there is no actual destination spot: just take the commodity as far as you can. The twist is that the reward is only good if the travelled distance is hundreds of miles. So if you’re going on vacation or to a business trip, consider smuggling some stuff for a good reward!

Super Cargo delivery differs in a size of a parcel: the amount of commodity you have to deliver is HUGE! Sometimes it’s not even enough to have the max level of Carry Space. So visit Underworld to get some boost. Yep, that’s hard, but on the other side — the payment is awesome! Your choice.

New ranks

With the Delivery Jobs, you now have a whole new category of Equipment upgrades, which means there are 5 new ranks to compete in the Cream of the Crop.

By the way, we have adjusted upgrade costs recently so the step between #20 and #21 is even now.

Ignore List

If you have a stalker or just a dealer you don’t want to hear from, you can add him/her to your Ignore List. Use wisely as the communication is very important for your business!

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We want to say thanks to everyone who helped to bring this update by giving a lot of fruitful feedback. We appreciate it big time! Please keep up letting us know what you think, there are plenty of ways to do that. Leave comments, follow us in Twitter, open discussions on the Forum and don’t forget about the suggestion/bug report tools in the game itself.

Here is a little teaser of what’s hitting Underworld soon.

Oh, and to answer the most popular question: we are submitting it TODAY!

Comment and don’t forget to share with friends!

Track “To The On Position” provided by Wonderland Hollywood.
Totally worth checking out: @Twitter / @YouTube.

Download Underworld Premium!

In fact, it was a little bit more than a usual upkeep. First, we have fixed a couple of annoying glitches in the local tile economy. Labs and addicts that would suddenly go asleep or change their prices and commodities earlier than expected according to the cartel guy — both should be fixed now. Let us know if you feel like it doesn’t!

Another major change: those of you who have reached an ultimate rank #21 will notice that a price of the next upgrade is now visible. Yep, that’s because we have already added 5 new ranks! Can’t upgrade there right now, but please be patient — new version of the game is bringing real-world delivery jobs and it’s coming!

As a side effect of adding the new levels, the rank hierarchy has changed. For example, you were a Kingpin and now you’re Wholesaler again, what the heck? Well, this is the trafficking world in evolution: new powerful figures appear every now and then. Fight your way to the top or disappear.

Got questions? Welcome to the message board or twitter. Stay tuned!

• Map screen bug on 3.1 firmware fixed (incorrect positions)
• Interface improvements (‘stock value’ in Money screen, dealers’ profiles in Recent Deals, etc)
• Ability to choose how much stuff to dump in Stock controls

Download Underworld from the AppStore

Some features have already hit the game, some of them are in progress right now. Besides, we’ve got some new stuff from in-game feature suggestion tool and from other sources: worth adding for community’s consideration.

Here is what we took away from the list:

• iPhone 3.0: Notifications: implemented;
• iPhone 3.0: Improved Map: implemented;
• Missions: in progress. We’ll outline the new upcoming chunk of gameplay in a separate post.
• Messaging black list: in progress. Should explain this one. It is true that the feature is terribly unpopular in the Open Roadmap (close to zero votes right now). But for the past few months we’ve got so many abuses about receiving offensive and insulting messages, so we felt this black list feature is a must, just to save our time, you know.

The new things:

• Items discoverable on the map: find and pick up items in the world around you: cash, commodity, extras, etc;
• Real-time positioning: your position on the game map to be updated in real-time, just like in Google Maps app;
• In-depth financial stats: detailed view of your past financial history (prices, margins, stock, etc);
• Run from cops: ability to run away from cops. Risky thing, but might be worth it if you got busted with a big parcel.

That’s it for now. Visit Open Roadmap in the game to start voting for the new stuff. And your feedback is always welcome either here in comments, on the forum or in twitter.

Image credits to Bogdan Suditu, via Flickr.

• In-app purchase support
• Map screen bug on 3.1 firmware fixed (incorrect positions)
• Interface improvements (‘stock value’ in Money screen, dealers’ profiles in Recent Deals, etc)
• Ability to choose how much stuff to dump in Stock controls

If you know what the Premium version is, just go download it. If you don’t, read on!

What is Premium version?

It’s a version of Underworld supporting in-app purchase mechanics, that was brought to the AppStore by 3.0 firmware earlier this summer.

Underworld has always been free, why paid now?

Underworld is still free-to-play and it will always be. However, currently existing UW Points distribution scheme is neither convenient nor intuitive; this is why we decided to switch to in-app purchase support.

Right now, only paid applications can feature in-app purchases. That is why Premium version is paid after all: $0.99 in US iTunes Store. For this minimum possible price, UW Premium grants you:

• 4×1 hour of full police protection
• 4 days protection from the loan shark
• 1 Supply & Demand info request
• 1 Carry Space 30% boost for 4 hours

All the stuff you get is placed into your Inventory (a new entity in Underworld screen) and is activated/used any time you need it.

I still have some UW Points left, what do I do?

No worries! If you still have UW Points left on your account, there is a subsection in Underworld screen, which allows you to spend them.

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Still having questions? Ask here in comments, in our twitter or on the game forum.
See ya!