G, the gravity-based puzzle game from Soma Games, has been basically rebuilt for the PC from the ground up to take up (most of) the input Soma got from players.

About a week ago G 2.0 was released on iTunes. With everything that’s been added or changed it’s really a totally new game and is finally the game Soma wanted it to be.

To celebrate this milestone for Soma Games, they are running a big contest March 3-16.

So what’s new in the game:

• Twice the speed.
  The most common comment was that the game was too slow. So they gave it a major power boost and it plays a lot more like an arcade now. It’s still a puzzle game and not a twitcher, but this one thing radically improved game play.
• On-line leaderboards
  The second most popular request was a set of leaderboards and they’re pretty proud of what they’ve done here: http://www.somagames.com/ARC/top_contractors.php. A limited version of this feature was actually released about a month ago so they could test everything out, but 2.0 adds a lot of new features including a location sensitive option for local leaders.
• In-flight thrusters
  With the new thrusters they’ve dropped the whole fire-and-forget gameplay model for something much more interactive.
• New ranks and achievements
• Corporate Specific Benefits
  G is chapter one of four games, but now they’ve started to roll out the benefits players will get by working for different corporations. Keep in mind, other benefits will be revealed in future games and carry over from G to F to E...
• Facebook and Twitter integration
  You can also challenge a friend via email ala DoodleJump
• Better iPhone performance
  Interestingly enough, when they increased the speed of the game, they were actually able to reduce the processor load, so the whole thing runs a lot smoother now, especially on the older 3G iPhone.
• New Freeium -> unlock version
  This should be live by the March 3 contest opening but They’ll allow folks to play the first 20 or so levels for free before being asked to upgrade to finish the game.

The Contest.

They’ll be posting official rules on the website in the next couple of days but the basic idea looks likes this:

• Must play 2.0 version on the iPhone or iTouch (no PC/Intel players...yet)
• Scores must be posted to the on-line leaderboard between March 3 and March 16
• Any corporation bonuses don’t count toward contest score.
• Highest cumulative score in those two weeks wins the iPad.