Puzzlings Fan Art Gallery is LIVE!

I created this Flickr set this morning, starting with a Puzzlings drawing I did while I was on vacation this summer. If you are a Puzzlings fan and want to share your artistic interpretation of them with the world, drop me an email with your artwork attached and I'll post it in our Puzzlings Fan Art set.

Send images in jpg, png, or gif formats, with a file size no larger than 1MB. Please make sure you give us your name and any other relevant information you'd like to share with the Global Puzzlings Community so we can post that along with your artwork!

We at Bight Games reserve the right to choose which images will become part of the set.

Tyler Landry
Art Director
tyler.landry@bightgames.com

Fleeced - Shear Terror! Teaser from Bight Games

Bight Games is excited to show the first trailer for Fleeced! - Shear Terror, our newest game for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Fleeced! brings the mad world of pseudo-Peruvian Llama rustling and deadly fraternal bickering to your iPhone. Take aim at your opponents walls while rebuilding your own in a desperate bid to foil the opportunistic llama rustlers. Featuring real-time internet multiplayer Fleeced! is truly one of a kind. Look for it on the App store fall 2009.

Fleeced!

So, we're working on something new. Something a little bit different. Something........... fleecy.

MANY years back the guys at Bight Games began building a little mobile game about two Peruvian brothers at odds, their llamas, and a dastardly rustler intent on pilfering every last bit of fleece he could get his filthy hands on. This game saw its way to completion on various 3D and 2D mobile devices, but ultimately fell into obscurity.

A few months ago we were digging through our archives of untapped potential and things to revisit and we came across this little gem. We really felt that it hadn't gotten the love it deserved the first time around, and that there was something special about it that needed to be shared with the world of gaming. We've done a pile of redesign on this project, changing its look, its feel, and its play mechanics to get them juuuuuuuust right. It'll also be our first iPhone game with internet real-time multiplayer!

We're heading into the home stretch with "FLEECED!" so I thought it might be time to share this pre-release screenshot with you:




Enjoy :D

Tyler Landry
Art Director
tyler.landry@bightgames.com

What’s next under the Big Top?

We’ve been very happy with the feedback we’ve received from fans of BIG TOP 10, and we know some of you are eager to know what’s coming next, so I’m going to talk a little bit about what we’re up to.

For the next iteration of BIG TOP 10 we not only want to focus on the hardcore arcade players, but we’ll also want to offer less stressful options for casual players.

But first the hardcore! An all new combo system to will allow players to better rely on skill, and not just speed, earn more points faster by making successive, successful equations. We also have some new attack modes in the works for “hit it as hard as you can” gameplay. In the attack modes, the max time will start small and get even smaller over time. If you want to make it into the top 10, you’ll have to have keen survival skills, but you’ll also have to maximize your points per second because the game won’t last forever, no matter how good you are (promise!).

We’ll also be adjusting the way we handle our high scores. Each mode will store daily, weekly, and monthly scores, in addition to your all-time bests. Each of these can then be uploaded and tracked with the OpenFeint system. We realize how daunting people’s personal bests can be, and we want to add more activity and excitement to checking the leader boards.

And for players looking for a more relaxed paced, they need to look no further then the all new, level based, puzzle mode. The clock is gone, and all you’ve got to do is clear enough numbers to advance. Sounds easy, right? But you’ll have to consider each move carefully to score the most points and as you advance in levels you’ll encounter locked numbers and new challenges which cannot be shuffled. Run out of sums and its level over!

So for those of you who feared we’d forgotten about BIG TOP 10, we haven’t. There’s still plenty in the works… it’s just grown a bit larger. With any luck we’ll have more to talk about soon.

Matthew Edwards
Lead Game Designer
Bight Games
matthew.edwards@bightgames.com

A Brief Overview of Mobile Games Industry

So this week it is my turn to post to the Bight Games developer blog. I’ve spent most of the week trying to decide what to write about, having only been here about 5 months it seemed wrong to write some embarrassing stories. So as in all times of uncertainty I did what any good Englishman would do and went to the pub for a pint and some inspiration.

Unfortunately I’m unable to tell you about the latest game we have just completed so I eventually settled on a very brief overview of the Mobile Games industry and where we are today. I’ve been in the Games Industry since 1998 and moved to Mobile in early 2004. Since then I’ve found Mobile a fascinating and frustrating place to be.

When I first joined mobile it was very much in its infancy. There was excitement about developments taking place and the potential growth of the industry. When you consider the amount of phones on the market there was a huge potential for gaming sales. In 2004 colour screen handsets were fast becoming the norm and 3D mobile gaming became a possibility, the future was rosy.

Unfortunately the industry became stagnant pretty quickly. The quality of titles over the past 5 years has undoubtedly improved and there have been some awesome games on the market. Innovation however became lacking, there are numerous reasons for this which I won’t bore you with here. One I will mention is that from a Publishers point of view it was extremely hard to make money due to increasing development costs, increased handset support and deployment costs, operator and licensing fees.

With less of a return on investment publishers didn’t want to take a chance on a new idea and opted for tried and tested formulas. So for a number of years now it has been a bit doom and gloom with few highlights. Thankfully now though there is a light at the end of the tunnel and that light is the iPhone.

With the iPhone and the App Store there has been a refreshing amount of original IP and new gaming mechanics that have given Mobile gaming a boost. As a gaming device the iPhone is a good bit of kit and holds its own with the PSP and DS Lite. From looking through the App Store we see a number of quality and innovative games.

At Bight Games we have been blessed with strong Design, Art and Code teams which has allowed us to develop a number of strong titles like Big Top 10 and Puzzlings. As we move forward we have a number of exciting projects entering development now both licensed and more of our own IP which I’m sure will be every bit as successful as our recent releases.

The future looks rosy again.


Daryl Bibby
Producer
daryl.bibby@bightgames.com