As part of this “thank you”, we’d like to announce that not only have Sheepstacker and Sheepstacker Lite been updated for iOS 4, but we’ve also given a NEW LOW PRICE to Sheepstacker! If you haven’t tried the game yet, now’s a great time to pick it up. You can buy it from the App Store or try out the lite version first.

We apologize for the inconvenience this issue caused our players. As always, our support link is available if you find you are having problems with one of our games. We will always give our best efforts to resolve any issues you may have with our games.

In addition to the Word Monkey update, Sheepstacker also received an update. The update fixes the freeze that would occur on iPod touches when trying to access the Options menu, as well as a bug that would occur only on first run of the game. Be sure to grab this update, which should be available now.

UPDATE: We’ve been notified of a problem where new high scores are not recorded or uploaded to the high score server. We have fixed the issue and have already submitted the fix to Apple. We apologize profusely for the inconvenience this has caused our users!

Word Monkey is coming to iPad courtesy of a new update that has just been submitted to Apple!

The new update makes Word Monkey a universal app that will run on iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Essentially, if you already have Word Monkey for your iPhone or iPod touch, you get the iPad version for free!

Here are some new features coming with the update:

• Play Word Monkey on the beautiful iPad screen with hi-res graphics.
• Compete against a friend with the new split-screen multiplayer mode that’s only available for iPad.
• Don’t have any good letters? Use two fingers to scroll the blocks upwards to get new letters quickly.

Note that with the new iPad support, devices running OS 2.x will no longer be supported. You can upgrade your device to a newer version from iTunes.

Most specifically, we tweaked one of the gameplay rules. Before, you couldn’t spell the same word twice in a single game session. The monkey would simply scratch his head, and the letters would stay on the screen. We realized this was confusing to some players (“Did I not spell the word right?” or “Is that word not recognized by the game?”). Now, the letters will disappear, but you won’t get points for a word that has already been spelled during a session.

In addition, we’ve added the “Smartest Monkeys” leaderboard in OpenFeint, so now you can see how your monkey stacks up to others that are playing the game. If you feel you must, you can also “Reset” your monkey and start all over again, though that would be a very mean thing to do to your monkey.

We clarified some of the instructions in the Dr. Schmachter intros, fixed a few bugs, and even improved performance on first generation devices. So make sure you grab the update from iTunes or in the App Store on your device. And if you don’t have the game yet, you can grab it here.

As always this update is free to you if you’ve already purchased the game. If not, you can always grab the game from the App Store here.

I’d like to reiterate my apology to all of the OS 2.x users out there. The transition to OS 3.0 has been bumpy at best, and with all of the exciting new features of Sheepstacker 1.2, we let this very serious bug sneak past us. We hope that you’ll find it was worth the wait though. Thank you for your patience. Happy stacking!

We have submitted a fix for this problem and are awaiting approval from Apple. Please note that you do NOT have to upgrade to OS 3.0. You simply need to update to Sheepstacker 1.2.1 when it is posted to the App Store. We are hoping the update will be posted by this weekend.

I would like to personally apologize for any inconvenience, and I thank you for your patience in this matter.

For 1.2, we partnered with the guys at Aptocore to bring global online high scores and award tracking to Sheepstacker using the fantastic AGON Social Platform for iPhone Games. Now you can see how you stack up against your friends, your neighborhood, your city, or the entire world!

In addition to online leaderboards, AGON also provides integration with Facebook. Want to brag to your friends about a great high score you got in Sheepstacker? With the tap of a button, you can publish a story directly to your Facebook feed.

We’ve made a few other changes under the hood as well. We’ve improved performance significantly, so the game should run much smoother now, and we’ve fixed a few bugs that we’ve come across. Overall, the experience should be much better and more complete.

Remember, you can still get Sheepstacker for 50% OFF this weekend only, so grab it now! We’ll see you online! Happy stacking!

UPDATE: You can check out the current high scores in REAL-TIME by heading to our Sheepstacker High Scores page.