Originally for the Playstation 2, it was something that we used to showcase our “supern” design and development skills .  ‘Bugs of War’ is a game we’ve been enthusiastic about right from its conception and we’re actually currently starting another round of pre-production with the aim of bringing the game to market next year.

So here’s what the game’s all about: “The Bugs Are Coming” – FACT!  Starting off as insects, our game subjects’ DNA has been re-engineered to create the world’s first biological control and eradication team.  Their small size means they can reach the heart of any outbreak and destroy it with shocking efficiency.  And the aim; to wipe out the enemy hordes!  Brilliant1

Why not take a look at the visual demo of ‘Bugs of War’ via the Strawdog YouTube channel, here!

We’ve expanded and moved!  No longer are we at the lovely iD Centre.  We’ve moved to the other side of our fair city of Derby and now reside in the penthouse of Friar Gate Studios, a superb haven for creative businesses.

Our Peppa Pig game, “Peppa’s Party” hit the iPad and we’re elated to see it take the #1 paid apps slot!  We also launched Peppa Pig “Theme Park Fun”  in March on the DS, which went down a real storm, gaining some great reviews.  Luckily, it came out in time for the grand opening of “Peppa Pig World” at Paultons Park.  We were lucky enough to receive free tickets and had a really great time.

To learn more about a number of exciting ;rojects we have in the pipeline, why not check out our latest newsletter which you can read here!

The rest, as they say, is history – this little cube game idea soon became “Cuball”, then renamed to “Ora”, and was finally released on Xbox 360 Live Arcade, PlayStation3, Wii, iPhone, iPad and the Samsung App Store as “Geon”!

You can enjoy this clip of our prototype movie, as well as other Geon promos on our YouTube channel – Click Here!

This month we say hi to James Curran, Lead Artist and Animator since 2005.  Most of James’ work recently has been focused on our Peppa Pig games for iPhone and the Nintendo DS ‘Theme Park Fun’, for which he produced all of the art and animation.

We asked James a few questions on his work, opinions and views…

What are your special skills? Most of my work is done in After Effects and we developed a script to export art and animation from AE for use in our games. Initially, this was just used for user interface design, but was later developed to allow art for entire games to be created in After Effects, as with Peppa Pig.

What do you think the year ahead holds in store for the industry? Digital downloads will continue to grow as more platforms are released this year, such as the Nintendo 3DS, Sony NGP, and Xperia Play. I think browser-based gaming will also be a big development over the next year giving people instant access to gaming, making it more accessible to a wider audience.

Your favourite game of all time? Super Mario World. I grew up playing platformers and this is still my favourite! Be a perfectionist. If you think something can be improved, then always take the time to improve it. If you aren’t happy with your work then other people probably won’t be either!

Your top tip for success?

A top Strawdog team member for sure.  Thanks James!

Turbulenz is suitable for casual and AAA games.  It requires no binary download and no install.  The best bits are that gamers play directly in the browser and games can be sold virtually anywhere on the web!

We’re really chuffed to be working with Turbulenz and looking forward to taking our already successful arcade style game Space Ark directly to a potential audience of 500 million gamers!

For more information and to talk to a member of our friendly team, click here.

We’re also celebrating a very momentus past year which saw us self publish our successful multi-level Xbox 360 Live Arcade game; Space Ark. We released Geon on the iPad and our two Peppa Pig P2 Games; Happy Mrs Chicken and Polly Parrot, currently top the UK kids’ AppStore charts!

“All told, Wet is a man who vomits on you on the bus and doesn’t even say sorry.”

Obviously as a developer I feel for the guys who worked to make the game. I know only too well how many factors outside of the developers control can result in a game failing to meet its design goals. Having said that, gamers do need to know and if you are going to put yourself/your game out there you need to take the resulting knocks.

I don’t think I have enjoyed a review quite as much since the 1992 release of Domark’s AV8B Harrier Assault for Amiga (developed by Simis). After all these years most of it is long forgotten but the line in the review which bemoaned the slow frame rate is forever burned into my mind…

“If i chopped my legs off and nailed the stumps to the floor, I could still run round the block faster than this game.”

The meter has multiple levels and each level you reach multiplies the points you get from collecting DNA, combos and any lives remaining at the end of a level. This means that fruit has an impact on every other scoring element of the game and is an essential part of your Space Ark game play strategy if you want to achieve mega high scores.

But beware – gravity is a harsh mistress. The good work you do collecting fruit can be undone if you let your Arkonaut hit the ground. The level meter will drop one level every time you drop your Arkonaut (and you will lose one life as well.)

Previous Space Ark design posts:
Space Ark – Introducing combos

Originally you just needed to collect all the bricks in a level to complete the level. It was fun and cute but there was something missing. There was no on-going challenge during the level. This is where the Combo feature came in. Space Ark levels have rows of coloured bricks. Collecting three or more of the same coloured bricks in a row generates a Combo and every level has a minimum combo score necessary to complete it.

Like the bouncing and collecting this Combo system is very simple but of course we have added more depth to make it challenging and fun. Firstly there is a reward for generating Combos (in addition to you being able to complete the level). Each level of Combo (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8…. upwards) that you create generates a different bonus fruit. Collecting the fruit fills your power meter, which in turn multiplies your score. This means that if you want to generate a really big high score you need to try and collect as much fruit as possible rather than just focusing on collecting the bricks. Secondly you have to keep bouncing your character (your Arkonaut) without dropping them. If your Arkonaut hits the ground they drop the combos (rather like losing rings in Sonic) and you have to try to recover them before they drift off screen. The result is much more entertaining game play as you are both challenged to meet your combo quota and rewarded as you do so.

At the moment we have a couple of bugs in the Combo system. If you look at the screen shots you can see the Combo trail (the line of numbers) following behind the Penguin. For some reason they keep disappearing or randomly appearing on screen in odd positions. Gotta keep testing to find out what is happening so the guys can fix it. Will try to pop back soon to talk about the level designs.

I’m not sure what the level designers have been taking but they are producing really amazing levels now. Challenging but at the same time immense fun to play. Going to have to produce another video soon showing some of the more bizarre levels.