With the release of Little Bit Games’ first title, The Seed, we thought it was time to get to know more about these up and coming Canadian developers.

Who is Little Bit Games?
The team is made up of developers/founders Cody Lee and Curtis Vogt, musicians Eric Cassell and Jennifer Vogt, as well as artist Jeffrey Taniguchi. Based out of Winnipeg, Canada, the team have been together since 2011 having been previously inspired courtesy of Ron Gilbert’s keynote speech at PAX 2009.

What is Little Bit Games most famous for?
Currently, its sole release: The Seed. It’s a physics puzzle game in which players must guide the Seed to the end of the level using droplets to manipulate its path. Minimalist in appearance, David Rabinowitz gave it 4 stars when he reviewed it earlier this month.

What’s next on the horizon?
We checked in with Cody Lee about the team’s plans. “The current version of The Seed in the App Store is part 1. We have plans to release part 2 as a free update later in the year, but we are planning for a quick project in between. We aren’t ready to announce anything yet, but we are currently experimenting with some really exciting and unique ideas that can only be accomplished on the mobile platform.”

Anything else I should know about Little Bit Games?
Having been intrigued as to just what makes the team tick, I checked in with Cody for a few answers.

148apps: What was the inspiration behind The Seed?
Cody: The original inspiration for the basic physics based puzzle mechanic of The Seed was an old PC game called The Incredible Machine. The game involved creating elaborate Rube-Golderg contraptions for each level and featured a very addictive tweaking trial-and-error type gameplay. Overall though, The Seed has taken a much different tone than its inspiration. We’ve noticed that most physics-based puzzle games on mobile platforms these days look and feel the same. Quite frankly, many feel like they’re trying to capture the Angry Birds “feel.” They’re colorful, and childlike and try very overtly to appeal to the casual audience. With The Seed, we really wanted to do something different and decided to take a much more mature and minimalistic tone which is what every detail [of The Seed] strives for. There’s very little text in the game, and the music and art are designed to give a zen-like experience, to offset what can often times be a very challenging game.

148apps: What’s your favorite thing about iOS development?
Cody: Developing for iOS (and mobile in general) offers many constraints when it comes to screen real-estate and memory concerns, but it opens up a whole world of exciting game design possibilities you just can’t get on traditional video game platforms. The tools available and popularity of iOS development also make it super easy to get up and running and find documentation and open source libraries when you need it. Above all though, my favorite thing is probably how easy it is for indie developers to distribute their games. Digital distribution such as the App Store has made it super easy for up and coming game developers to get their games out to the public, and as a result the indie game development scene has been stronger than ever. It’s a very exciting time for indie games and iOS is definitely part of the reason why. This easy distribution is of course a blessing and a curse, as it also means a lot of noise in the App Store, making it difficult to get noticed!

Where can I find out more about Little Bit Games?
Plenty of places. While we’ll be keeping an eye out for the next update to The Seed, you can also check out the developers’ website, Facebook page and Twitter account.

The Seed is out now, priced at $0.99.

As its latest title comes with the unique proposition of helping a children’s charity, we thought it time to learn more about Polish iOS developer, Shortbreak Studios.

Who is Shortbreak Studios?
Part of Techland, one of the biggest Polish game developers out there thanks to its work on titles such as the Call of Juarez games, Shortbreak Studios is made up of a core team of 9 passionate developers. A mixture of programmers, designers, level designers, artists and a producer, the company benefits from relying on Techland to work out the finances and allowing the team to focus on the creative side of things. As explained by producer, Pawel Rohleder, it means the combination of “the flexibility and creativity of a small independent development studio with the experience and knowledge of an established player in the gaming industry!”

Why should I remember the Shortbreak Studios name?
There are a couple of good reasons, so far. First of all, they made Sugar High, a game that perhaps owed a little too much to Tiny Wings but still proved to be great fun. More importantly, Shortbreak Studios has worked in conjunction with the Cape of Hope Foundation in order to create oncology clinic for children with Cancer.

How did Heal Them All come about?
Pawel Rohleder explains, “We have been supporting Cape of Hope for some time and it was our mutual idea to create a game about defending the organisms for mobile devices. We thought that fighting microbes inside the human body would be [a] very nice setting for a tower defense game as this genre is very popular on mobile patforms. Another idea was the freemium business model as we wanted to reach as many users as possible by offering a part of our game for free.” Notably, Heal Them All is entirely free to try out with the full campaign unlocked for $1.99.

What’s next on the horizon?
The team has lofty plans, with Pawel happily declaring the ambition that many hold, “Our main goal is to conquer the whole world with our mobile games!” At the moment, though, the firm is mostly working on two different projects that they aren’t able to discuss just yet, as well as porting to other devices. Possible updates for their current titles are also in the works and currently being brainstormed.

Anything else I should know about Shortbreak Studios?
Pawel was all too keen to tell us just what he and the rest of the team love about iOS development.

Pawel: Everything! We enjoy every aspect of mobile game development and we put a lot of effort and passion into every step of [the] production process. We believe this is the only way to make high quality games. One of the most important…[parts] in efficient mobile development is rapid prototyping. Each prototype must convince us that this could be a GREAT game. We cancel the project if we do not believe in its playable demo. And the sooner, the better. The development process itself is also very interesting because of tons of small decisions that the team needs to make in [terms] of hard negotiations or just [our] gut feeling . Personally, I love the final stage of the development where all individual assets turn into a working product and our vision materializes into a real game. This…shows us that it was all worth the effort but…it always makes us come up with a lot of new ideas and changes that we could make to improve the final quality.

Where can I find out more about Shortbreak Studios?
We’ll be keeping an eye on the company’s progress. There’s also its website, Facebook page, Google+ page and Twitter account.

Heal Them All is available now, for free. But do consider paying towards the full unlock, given where the profits are going.

With the firm’s first release, PUK, hitting the App Store this week, we thought it was the perfect time to get to know more about the folks at up and coming UK based developers, Laser Dog Games. Here’s what we’ve learned.

Who is Laser Dog Games?
Based in Manchester, UK, Laser Dog is a three man team made up of Simon Renshaw, Mike Milner and Rob Allison. Simon and Mike, previously, worked in creating user experiences and digital branding through web apps, which made games the “natural progression.” Rob works on the code side of development, while Mike deals with the visual design as a conceptual artist. Simon deals with animation, production and game mechanics.

How did the Laser Dog name come about?
Simon explained to us, “We throw around ridiculous fictional brand concepts and ideas regularly, Laser Dog was one such example, originally the name of our ’80′s inspired electronica band’…[which] was never going to work as I can’t play music for toffee. We were playing with ideas on a train back from a client meeting in London and I think it was me that remembered the name Laser Dog. We both debated whether we could seriously use it, laughed a bit, then agreed that it was perfect. Mike mocked up the brand the following day and Laser Dog became final.”

What is Laser Dog Games most famous for?
Currently, only PUK, a fast paced, minimalist action puzzler. It’s a pretty entertaining Endless puzzler with 1000 unique levels testing players’ ability to react quickly and think fast. It’s certainly entertained me in recent days. We should have a full review shortly.

What’s next on the horizon?
Still in the ideas phase, Simon told us that one possibility is a game focused “on the player having to destroy themselves” with the hope for a “deeper experience than PUK“. There’s also the possibility of expansion with the team’s eyes closely on Ouya (a new type of games console) as well as working on mobile formats.

What else is there to know about Laser Dog Games?
Simon Renshaw was all too happy to answer a few burning questions I had about the developer and their latest title.

148apps: What was the inspiration behind PUK?
Simon: We wanted our first game to mess with our players’ feelings of anxiety and stress so we started developing a simple concept about a fish repeatedly jumping out of a bowl, running out of air and having to be popped back in. [It] was nice but very limited…before we knew it, we were adding Super Meat Boy Saws and it became an all devouring mess! Scrapping this, but keeping with the fish theme led us to an idea about waves washing up on the beach and leaving pockets of water and fish in their wake. The basic game mechanic: to put the fish back in the pools before the pools dried up and the wave washed in again effectively clearing the screen…this was quite a nice idea, but fundamentally it didn’t require the theme.

We stripped the idea down to the bare minimum, designed a set of simple and pure game rules with a single clear objective: shoot PUKs at Portals before the time runs out, PUK was formed. We wanted the game to have enough ‘simulation’ freedom to feel like throwing a tennis ball around a court or bouncing balls around a snooker table so physics were essential. After some external play testing, the only thing players weren’t seeing were that the Portals (once puddles) were shrinking. This was replaced with fixed size portals and a timer…It didn’t really change the overall mechanic of the game, it just forced us to rethink the level design a little. I think (after a huge amount of play testing) if you can honestly say you still like your game after playing it for this long, you have to be proud of it, and we are!

148apps: As a relatively new iOS developer, is there any advice you wish someone had given you beforehand?
Simon: Yes, I wish someone had said ‘get going, you bloody idiots! It’s great fun but it’s gonna take you a lot longer than you think!’. Test your game idea in your mind for as long as you can, move up to a note pad, squeeze this, bang out a prototype (PUK was originally created with Game Maker in 3 hours, albeit terribly and with just a mouse touchpad to test) then do something pretty with it to inspire you to make it great. Be prepared to bin big chunks of work if you haven’t thought it through, no matter how good. Allow plenty of time for testing and get involved with local Indie Dev meet ups. They proved invaluable for us as you can get genuine feedback (learn to read faces, not words!), advice and wisdom from people who genuinely want to help.

148apps: What’s your favourite thing about iOS development?
Simon: One of the greatest things about iOS development is that it’s opened up a massive outlet for indie devs like us to showcase their work. It’s great when you open up the App Store and see so many indie companies competing with the ‘big dogs’ and, in most cases, maintaining more integrity with less in app purchases and generally more. As visual designers, we’ve always been inspired by Apple and their commitment to quality. Designing primarily for their devices and for iOS is a real privilege and it’s exciting.

Where can I find out more about Laser Dog Games?
As is customary, there’s a few different places to learn more (besides here, of course!). There’s Laser Dog Games’s site, Facebook page and Twitter account.

We’ll have a full review of PUK soon.

When I was a student, I was too busy playing games into the small hours of the morning, let alone thinking about making them. Fortunately, the folks at Pixile Studios were a bit more studious than that, spending their time creating multiplayer tower defense game, Stratosphere: Multiplayer Defense. I took the time to learn a little more about the team.

Who is Pixile Studios?
Founded in January 2011 in Vancouver, Pixile Studios is made up of two University of British Columbia students, Michael Silverwood and Chris Clogg. With backgrounds in mobile, web and mod development, the team have just released their first title: Stratosphere: Multiplayer Defense.

What is Pixile Studios most famous for?
As mentioned, there’s only the one title so far from the Studio, but with Michael graduating this year and Chris already having graduated, I suspect the work will be growing exponentially.

What’s next on the horizon?
Michael explained to us that the main focus is continuing to support Stratosphere: “[we] are working on lots of new content for the coming weeks and months. The next big update will include new levels and modifiers, as well as a bunch of tweaks and improvements based on player feedback.” It’s not just evolution either, with Michael going on to tease us with the prospect of “a couple [of] pretty exciting new features…but they’re still in the early stages”. He was kind enough to offer us a sneak peek at one of the new levels, though.

Anything else I should know about Pixile Studios?
Michael was all too glad to talk with me about the company’s plans and inspiration.

148apps: What inspired you to make Stratosphere?
Michael: We’ve been big fans of the tower defense genre ever since playing many of the early player created games in Starcraft and Warcraft 3, and even created some of our own that gained some popularity within the Battle.net community. It had always been a dream of ours to start our own game studio, so back in January 2011 we decided that we wanted to finally create our first full game.

We had been doing contract work building iOS apps at the time, and always had our iPhones and iPads loaded up with tons of new games, so we noticed that there was a bit of a gap in great multiplayer experiences. I’d be sitting at school studying and friends would always steal my iPad to play games, but there weren’t many we could play together even though the iPad’s large screen seemed perfectly suited for multiplayer. So we had the idea to design a tower defense game from the ground up for same device multiplayer. Even at that time the tower defense genre was starting to get crowded, but we thought that giving players the control of sending enemies, and designing the game around multiplayer would be something really unique and fun.

148apps: How has it been juggling University work with iOS development?
Michael: It has been pretty crazy, and I’ve had to make some sacrifices to my social life at times, but it has definitely been worth it. The entire second year of development basically ended up turning into crunch time, and a couple of my less interesting courses suffered a bit, but overall I managed to keep on top of everything and survive on very little sleep. I’m finally graduating this May with a degree in Business and Computer Science, and Chris graduated back in May 2011, so I’m looking forward to spending even more time on Pixile and Stratosphere very soon!

148apps: What do you wish you’d known before you started?
Michael: I’m tempted to say I wish we’d known how much work goes into creating a game, and what we were getting into, but I’m so happy we didn’t because it made us feel like launch was always just around the corner even though it took two years to complete!

148apps: What’s your favourite thing about iOS development?
Michael: The level playing field of the App Store is pretty amazing for indie game developers. Ten years ago it would have been a lot harder if not impossible to build a game, self-publish it, and release it on a platform with players numbering in the tens of thousands. We’re pretty lucky to be growing up during this time and be able to build something and launch it up against all of the big productions from established game studios.

Where can I find out more about Pixile Studios?
There’s the developer’s website which is regularly updated, as well as the Twitter account and Facebook page. We’ll be keeping an eye on the team’s progress, too!

With the studio’s first release, Zombies & Trains, gaining a very respectable 4 stars out of 5 from us, we thought we’d take a little more time getting to know the ins and outs of Dragonhead Games, as well as find out a bit more about what makes the staff tick.

Who is Dragonhead Games?
Based in Norway, Dragonhead Games is a family operation, founded by brothers, Vidar and Tor Martin Kristiansen. Previously known as Kristanix Games, the pair have been regularly developing small games for a number of years now and covering a variety of different systems including the Mac and PC.

What is Dragonhead Games most famous for?
Zombies & Trains, the distinctly gory yet rather fun train based smash em up. The developer is fast to make improvements too, given that since our review earlier this week, a new version has already been submitted to Apple in order to improve upon what’s already there!

What’s next on the horizon?
Tor let us know that the brothers are currently in the “planning stage on a Tolkienesque fantasy strategy/management game”. The game is set to allow players to “run [their] own guild of adventurers and heroes” with the ability to “create…heroes, train them up, craft weapons and armour for them, and send them out on quests and treasure hints…”. Tentatively named Heroes Guild, the game is set for release sometime in 2013.

What else is there to know about Dragonhead Games?
Tor was all too happy to provide us with some interesting answers to our questions!

148apps: What was the inspiration behind Zombies & Trains?

Tor Martin Kristiansen: We actually weren’t that interested in making a game about zombies, since it seemed like every other day, someone made a game about them. We were focusing on coming up with an idea that sounded cool when you shared it with other people. At some point, almost as a joke, we started discussing ways of disposing of zombies that hadn’t been used in games or movies, and the idea of a train blasting through a zombie-horde came up. It immediately struck us as an idea that we just had to try, and we made a simple demo that was so much fun to play. And it was incredibly challenging, something we liked!

148apps: What’s your favorite thing about iOS development?

Tor: I think it has to be just the fact that it’s so much easier these days to actually get a game out to a lot of people, and the whole process is very streamlined. All from the development, to getting the game to work on different devices, to actually releasing it and for the customer to purchase it. Every part of this was a lot more difficult for smaller indie developers like us just 6 years ago. Today’s smartphones are a lot easier to get it all up and running on than previous generations. And once you start thinking about features like online leaderboards, multiplayer, and all the fun stuff that make up the complete package of a game, and to make all that available to use for thousands of players at the same time. In the past that would have been very hard for someone like us to do, but now its possible.

148apps: Is there an iOS app or game that you wish you’d developed first? If so, what apps/games?

Tor: Oh, there’s many! Who wouldn’t want to have made one of the big top 10 sellers! But personally, one of the games I’ve spent a lot of time with, and enjoyed so much is Rovio’s Bad Piggies. That idea and its execution were just excellent on so many levels, and was so much fun to play. Just experimenting with what you could create in that game was something I spent way too much time on!

Find out more about Dragonhead Games

For its older work, the Kristanix Games explains all. There’s also the Dragonhead Games website, Facebook page and Twitter account. We will be keeping a very close eye on Heroes Guild‘s progress, too!

We thought we’d learn more about the quirkily named developer, Ham in the Fridge, just in time for their latest release, adorably weird, Bumpin’ Uglies.

Who is Ham in the Fridge?
Based out of an office in the Warehouse District of Minneapolis, Ham in the Fridge is a small team of talented designers, illustrators, animators and developers, with Bret Hummel at the helm as President and Creative Director. The firm was founded in 1998 by Bret, and he was also the originator of the idea behind Bumpin’ Uglies.

Where did the name come from?
It’s certainly an odd one! So we asked Bret just why it’s called that. “The name Ham in the Fridge came from something my brother Brady said once — actually over and over again — at the beginning of a family holiday weekend, which became an inside joke for over a year.” As he explained, “people don’t forget the name, and always remember it is some sort of meat in some sort of cooling device!”. And, of course, as he told me “… as they say in the deep south, times are good when there’s Ham in the Fridge.”

What is Ham in the Fridge most famous for?
Besides offering such quirky names for things, quite a few things. Bumpin’ Uglies is one such title (with its name origins stemming from a mixture of Bret seeing a commercial for an app involving bumping phones together to initiate a transaction, as well his “slightly sophomoric sense of humor”. The developer has also worked on the slightly disturbing yet no less intriguing, 5 Minutes to Kill (Yourself): Reloaded, as well as a number of Flash based titles.

What’s next on the horizon?
Bret kept his cards close to his chest when we enquired about this but he did go so far as to explain that they are in “development on a number of iOS titles for clients including Cartoon Network, WB, and KidsWB, due to release later this year. “, as well as working on an Android version of Bumpin’ Uglies.

What else is there to know about the developer?
Oh, yes. Besides explaining to us the meaning behind the name, Bret was happy to answer an all important question from us.

148apps: What’s your favorite thing about iOS development?
Bret: I really like the casual gaming aspect of iOS, and how the touch interface is very tactile and direct. Concepting and developing interactions for gamers with touch that are quick to grasp, but perhaps hard to master is the delicate balance we’re always playing with to make our games great.

Where can I find out more about Ham in the Fridge?
We’ll be sure to keep an eye on any new developments from Ham in the Fridge. You can also learn more through their stylish website, Twitter account and Facebook page.

Bumpin’ Uglies is out now and free to download.

Powering ahead with plenty of interesting updates for traditional yet challenging test of reflexes game, Blendamaze, we thought it was about time we got to know more about developer, BorderLeap.

Who makes up BorderLeap?
A one-man band, BorderLeap is solely Nate Dicken’s work. A 15-year veteran of web and mobile site design and development, as well as work conducted on Flash games, Nate has been going it alone since the summer of 2012. He does, however, plan to partner with other developers this year.

What is BorderLeap most famous for?
Currently, Blendamaze. We reviewed it in October 2012 and admired its twist on an old classic. Players have to manipulate colorful marbles in order to cross over paint palettes and blend colors appropriately. It’s a pretty challenging game but the tilt controls work well making it quite satisfying.

What’s next on the horizon?
Nate explained to us that Blendamaze is just the beginning. While he plans to add new levels and features, with a free version offering a unique set of levels, there’s also going to be a learning-focused version of the game, aimed at kids. Besides Blendamaze style games, there are also plans afoot for a multiplayer puzzle game, plus a few productivity apps, too. Looks like it’s going to be a busy 2013 for BorderLeap!

Anything else I should know about BorderLeap?
You bet! We took some time to get to know more about Nate’s plans for the company.

148apps: What was the inspiration behind Blendamaze?
Nate: When I was a kid I had one of those original wooden labyrinth marble games that we’d play often to see how far we could get. Early last year…I came across it in storage. With my love of drawing and painting, I’d been contemplating creating a color-theory game. Memories of playing the labyrinth game began to mix with ideas of how I could combine it this color theory component. In my dream to create something completely unique in the App Store, the idea behind Blendamaze was born – a unique combination of labyrinth board and artist’s paint palette. The difference with Blendamaze is that you actually want to drop your marble into the holes as each hole is filled with paint. Drop your marble into the hole and…whatever color was on your marble blends with the color in the hole. The concept is simple but the end result is a beautiful, yet challenging puzzle game that both adults and children enjoy.

148apps: What’s your favorite thing about iOS development?
Nate: I love the ability to create whatever you want and see it come to life. There’s a smaller, more defined set of variables in designing for iOS/mobile rather than building for the web in general and this creates a unique challenge. The market, while crowded, has a massive potential customer base ready for you and it’s fairly simple to publish apps into the App Store. What is truly exciting is to see that really great apps and games are regularly featured, even those developed by small studios or individuals. This…creates a pretty exciting framework for someone like myself to develop in.

148apps: As a relatively new iOS developer, is there any advice you wish someone had given you beforehand?
Nate: I wish I had a better grasp earlier on how competitive the market is and how important it is to build your network well before launch. Long story short, after I left Modea to start BorderLeap, I needed to pick up consulting work to help pay the bills. This left little time to build the game, so I had to focus 100% on development and push off all marketing efforts to launch time. While this led to what I believe is a great game, it’s been a struggle to market it post-launch. Friends had told me that launch day was vital, yet to a degree it was too late – I had to launch and strive to build up marketing efforts after going live.

Secondly, I wish I had a better perspective of really how different releasing an app into the App Store is than releasing a web site…there’s such a tremendous emphasis placed on the first version of a game and especially launch day. With so many apps in the marketplace, your app or game must stand out so there…is little to no room for launching with an app that is not fully ready to make its debut…within the competitive iOS space an app or game must be as full-featured as possible as an app’s early presence in the App Store is so important. While I’ve been able to integrate features since the game went live in September, there are times I’d wished I’d pushed it out a few more weeks to bring the game farther along before launch. Good examples are upgrading the app to be universal for both iPhone and iPad, and adding a rewards system along with the Painter’s Toolbox – items that help you solve tough levels. These have been time-consuming to add, but well worth it.

Where can I find out more about BorderLeap?
A few different places, besides here, of course. There’s the BorderLeap website, the official Twitter account, as well as Nate’s personal account where he keeps people up to date with developments.

Blendamaze is out now and is currently on sale at $0.99.

We’ve been keeping an eye on Fat Pebble since its latest release, Clay Jam, was announced last year. Offering an innovative claymation visual style and encouraging community participation through its competition, finally Clay Jam is here. What better time to learn a little more about the folks behind the name?

Who is Fat Pebble?
Fat Pebble is a games studio, based in Brighton, UK. Having developed numerous titles for a variety of mobile formats, the firm caught the eye of publishing giant Zynga, leading to Clay Jam’s release under that label. Combined, the team offers over 40 years of experience, having previously worked for companies such as Lionhead, Climax, Blitz and Zoë Mode.

What is Fat Pebble most famous for?
The Windows 7 port of MiniSquadron which is a pretty great claim to fame, and Kung Fu Touch. We reckon Clay Jam will propel Fat Pebble to more recognizable levels, though.

What’s next on the horizon?
Fat Pebble’s Michael Movel wasn’t giving away too much about this when we asked, explaining that the team will be ‘concentrating on updates to Clay Jam for the next few months’. Plans are there for prototyping a new game in 2013, with the hope that it’ll be ‘quirky and possibly hand-made again’.

What else is there to know about the developer?
Plenty! We took the time to learn more about them by chatting with Movel, art director Chris Roe and technical director Iain Gilfeather.

148apps: What’s your favorite thing about iOS development?
Iain: I like the fact that most of the players are not traditional gamers. It’s exciting to make games for an entirely new type of audience and explore new boundaries.

Chris: You don’t need big teams for iOS and mobile development in general. This lets you experiment much more and means you can be much more creative.

Mike: I think it brings developers and players much closer together. Updates are a big part of mobile development and what that means is that players can have a very direct influence over what changes we make to Clay Jam. We’ve had a whole heap of emails with suggestions and feedback, and we also trawl the forums – all this very much drives what we put in any new updates.

148apps: Is there an iOS app or game that you wish you’d developed first? If so, what apps/games?

Iain: Tiny Wings. It’s a really well-made game and great fun too. It all seems really well-thought out too. I would have liked to have made that.

Chris: Enviro Bear 2010! A physics-based, bear driving game! It’s flawless! I wish I’d thought of it.

Mike: I’m still playing Temple Run. I want all those achievements. It’s really nicely balanced. But I’d go for either (PC games) UFO: Enemy Unknown or Grim Fandango, for different reasons. They both really grabbed me when they first came out and I still play them today. I would be really proud to have written the script to Grim Fandango.

Where can I find out more about Fat Pebble?
There’s the website, Facebook page, and Twitter. And, of course, we’ll keep you up to date on all the latest about the colorful developer.

Clay Jam is out now and is free to download.

This week at 148Apps.com, we got to known iOS developer Lady Shotgun. Jennifer Allen writes, “Doing things a little differently from the rest, Lady Shotgun considers itself as a co-operative of freelance game developers, with the team working remotely from each other rather than through a central office. It might be unorthodox but this team is made up of folks with some extensive experience in the game industry. Uniqueness continues through the fact that Lady Shotgun is made up, predominantly, of female game designers and coders with men forming the minority here.”

Read the full interview at 148Apps.

GiggleApps.com headed to work for a review of the unique Grandpa’s Workshop. Amy Solomon says, “Grandpa’s Workshop is a fun interactive app which teaches about the tools found in a workshop as well as learning about simple math concepts.
I really enjoy how this app works, as a fun older gentleman walks children through workshop-related activities such as identifying tools, painting different projects or mending broken objects jigsaw style.

Simple math-related activities are also included such as using a tape measure to measure boards, cutting boards into fractions such as halves or quarters, choosing the correct number of screws or other parts grandpa needs as well as a spot-the-difference section involving tools that may be similar or different.”

Read Amy’s full review at GiggleApps.

Finally, AndroidRundown.com’s KickStarter spotlight this week was for the BlueTube Amplifier. Joseph Bertolini writes, “Being a sort of audiophile I appreciate the sound of a classic tube amplifier and I recently just started re-downloading my favorite albums as lossless FLAC files to preserve that original sound quality. Looking around the market today, it is really a sad time for those who really care about the quality of their music as cheap parts are appearing from overseas and there is a resulting flood of bargain Bluetooth speakers and docks on the market. These sound terrible, and combined with the super-compressed audio files that the average user has in their music collection music really has taken a technological step backward at a time when there has been nothing but technological advances. Well, audiophiles and smartphone owners rejoice because I have discovered our savior and it does not come from the likes of Sony or any large corporation. Meet the BlueTube Bluetooth Tube Amplifier, and built out of solid cherry and walnut hardwood it promises to look as great as it sounds.”

Read Joseph’s full article at AndroidRundown.

Thus ends November, but that means December fun is just getting started. Join us on Twitter, Facebook and now on Pinterest for the latest news, reviews and more. See you next week, true believers.

Having recently released its first title, Buddha Finger, which gained a respectable 3.5 stars from us, we felt it was about time we got to know more about developer, Lady Shotgun.

Who is Lady Shotgun?
Doing things a little differently from the rest, Lady Shotgun considers itself as a co-operative of freelance game developers, with the team working remotely from each other rather than through a central office. It might be unorthodox but this team is made up of folks with some extensive experience in the game industry. Uniqueness continues through the fact that Lady Shotgun is made up, predominantly, of female game designers and coders with men forming the minority here.

What is Lady Shotgun most famous for?
Only the one game has come from them, so far: Buddha Finger, a rather crazy rhythm action game with a soundtrack inspired by the 1970s and 1980s. Rightly or wrongly, its female weighted team has also garnered Lady Shotgun some extra headlines, within an industry so well known for its gender divide.

What’s next on the horizon?
Nothing has been officially announced but design director, Anna Marsh, did have some news to share with us, “…we’d still really like to bring Buddha Finger to other mobile platforms, and do a couple of updates.” She also discussed plans to release a lite version of the game, ensuring that anyone can try it out without having to commit to a purchase.

Other plans are slightly more secretive, but certainly varied: “There’s 3 projects…we’re…considering for [the] future, one is a very slow paced “transmedia” thing, very narrative led and totally different to Buddha Finger, one is another crazy action title and one is a children’s game”

What else is there to know about the developer?
We love to get to know more about interesting developers, and Anna was all too happy to oblige!

148apps: What’s your favorite thing about iOS development?
Anna Marsh: I love the touchscreen. I love the immediateness of it, that the player doesn’t have to learn the connection between a controller and the game but can just touch the game elements directly. We’ve given Buddha Finger to someone who literally has never played any game before but in 30 seconds they got it, and love it! That’s what I wanted to do, something completely different from the console, Triple A stuff I’d been working on. Of course there’s other devices with touchscreens, focusing on iOS was really just so that we didn’t stretch ourselves too far by trying to tackle multiple platforms with our first game. The coders who worked on the game all had a lot of iOS experience so we plumped for Apple. We’re looking at moving onto other platforms now.

148apps: Lady Shotgun is known for working remotely from each other. What challenges have you faced by not being in the same office?

Anna: Well not too many actually, and that’s largely because the bulk of us all had a fair amount of freelance experience prior to doing this. We’re all comfortable with working this way, in fact, we prefer working this way which was the whole impetus for starting up the company really. We didn’t want standard office jobs. Some of us have kids, some of us have other personal projects, some are studying – some of us are just plain misanthropes who prefer being alone, ha ha We use online tools like Assembla and Dropbox to co-ordinate, and we’re pretty organised. I guess that’s our strength really. Myself, Sarah (Executive Producer) and Derek, our lead coder, can break down the game into its smallest components which can then be easily tasked to the team. I suppose that’s the challenge – but we’re all fairly persnickety people who like doing that kind of thing!

148apps: How much of a change of pace is it going from working for major developers to working in a smaller, and virtual, environment?
Anna: Things go much faster if you want them to! We don’t have the many different meetings to attend and approval processes to get through which slows down a big console project. Plus of course, creating the tech for a mobile project is much less time consuming than for a big console or PC game. We got a game done in 10 months, even with us all being part time, whereas a console project it’s not unusual for it to take 3, 4 years or more. Its refreshing

Where can I find out more about Lady Shotgun?
Lady Shotgun are no strangers to social media! There are plenty of places to learn more. There’s the official site, Twitter account, Facebook page, YouTube channel and Flickr account.

We’ll also be keeping a keen eye on any further developments.

Having won two Editor’s Choice awards and a 2011 Best Apps Ever Award, it was about time we took a few moments to find out more about Polish developer, 11 Bit Studios.

Who is 11 Bit Studios?
Based in Warsaw, Poland, 11 Bit Studios is made up of experienced game industry professionals, with many of the team having worked in the industry since the 1990s. With 20 years of experience under his belt, Grzegorz Miechowski is the CEO alongside directors Bartosz Brzostek, Przemysław Marszał, Michał Drozdowski and the rest of the team.

What is 11 Bit Studios most famous for?
Most recently, Sleepwalker’s Journey, a fantastic environmental puzzler that richly deserved its Editor’s Choice award last week. Fast paced and topical title, Funky Smugglers and Tower Offense game, Anomaly: Warzone Earth have proven to be similarly high quality.

What’s next on the horizon?
As announced earlier this year, Anomaly Korea is in the works and 11 Bit Studios reckons that they are “squeezing as much as possible from iPads and iPhones with this one and the graphics looks stunning.” The developer also promises to be “putting more emphasis on [the] game’s dynamics” with “more explosion effects”. Next year promises the announcement of 11 Bit Studio’s “biggest project” yet, but that’s as much as were able to gleam from them.

What else is there to know about 11 Bit Studios?
We took some time to chat to senior writer, Pawel Miechowski, about just what makes the studio tick when it comes to iOS development.

148apps:What’s your favorite thing about iOS development?
11 Bit Studios: We are producers of PC and console games too, and iOS development is pretty different. The entire design process begins (after typical dev brainstorm for game’s main theme is over, hehe) with thinking about how to make touchscreen gameplay enjoyable in the project. At least that’s our way. We believe this particular gaming platform is based on the controls in the first place. PC games may be pad-controlled, keyboard-controlled, mouse-controlled or even be turn-based in a model where controls are totally less important comparing to story. That, of course, does not mean we are not putting attention to story, visuals et cetera, but there’s something in the statement, that iOS development is very controls-oriented. And those controls are all about tapping and finger-swiping.

148apps: What do you enjoy most about making iOS games?
11 Bit Studios: I think I can say it for all of us, but this is my personal opinion that I find it quite enjoyable [to] bring ideas for nice gameplay when you just tap here and swipe there. I know it sounds obvious, but look at how games do that in many different ways and how many different things you can experience in gaming just by tapping. From Halfbrick’s Fruit Ninja (oh mama what a game!), through Flight Control to Real Boxing, where you can feel how to be a boxer. When we were developing Sleepwalker’s Journey the fun was coming up with ideas for different mechanics, implementing them, giving the build to our family members and then listening to their feedback. Feedback from kids is total fun!

Pawel explained to us the story behind the visuals of Sleepwalker’s Journey, which was particularly charming. “I was given some drawings and early concepts from the main artist…our wives, sisters and daughters were involved in [this] design process…not full-time, but we purposely involved them in gameplay, audio and visual design by making them first critics and trying to be responsive as possible to their feedback.”

Where can I find out more about 11 Bit Studios?
There are plenty of places to learn more, besides this very site. There’s the developer’s website, Facebook page, Twitter account, YouTube channel and the developers’ official forums, also.

Given the recent release of Forever Lost: Episode 1, this seemed like the perfect time to delve further into the world of developer, Glitch Games, and see just what the folks there are up to.

Who is Glitch Games?
Glitch Games was founded in late 2011 when one time college friends Simon Pearce and Graham Ranson found themselves reunited post University studies and full of ambition where games development was concerned. As Simon explained to me, “…and the fact we didn’t want proper jobs.” And who can blame them? The Glitch Games office is based in Oxfordshire, UK.

What is Glitch Games most famous for?
Currently, Forever Lost, the very spooky adventure game. Previously, Glitch Games has produced educational titles such as My First Colouring Book and Kids Love Animals. The devs are also responsible for party type game Blox, word game Wordoodle and sinister The Hauntening.

What’s next on the horizon?
Only the first episode of Forever Lost has been released so future episodes are in the works. Simon explained that “Since we now have the story established and the main framework complete, we can focus our time primarily on the puzzles and structure of the games, which hopefully means we can be even more creative for future releases.”

What else is there to know about Glitch Games?
How about a few interesting things from the developers themselves?

148apps: Forever Lost is quite a change of pace from your past games, what lured you into pursuing the adventure game genre?

Glitch Games: Both of us love adventure games so the lure has always been there, we just thought that maybe they were a little too ambitious for us.

Then back in February we took part in the Techority 48 hour challenge. We decided to use it to experiment with the idea creating an adventure game to see just what we could come up with. By the end of the competition we had decided that we enjoyed making it so much that no matter what happened we would be releasing our entrant on iOS to see what people thought of it. We ended up winning the competition and people seemed to like our little game so it just seemed that right thing for us to do would be to make a full adventure game and 7 months later here we are.

148apps: What do you enjoy most about making iOS games?
Glitch Games: One of the most enjoyable aspects, for us at least, is in coming up with fun and interesting uses for all the various features like the touch screen and accelerometer. We also like the creative freedom it allows us by being able to be completely independent and self financed.

Where can I find out more about Glitch Games?
The developer has embraced social networking as any self respecting developer should in the 21st century. Besides the website, there is a Facebook page, LinkedIn page, Twitter account and YouTube channel.

We will also be keeping an eye on future episodes of Forever Lost.

Following on from our look at UK-based developer, Mojo Bones, we’ve taken the time to check out what Swedish developer Simogo are up to and just why they’re worthy of your attention.

Who is Simogo?
Simogo is made up of Simon Flesser and Magnus ‘Gordon’ Gardebäck. Simon works on all things art and sound related, while Gordon is responsible for the code and eating any dutch chocolate that happens to be in their office in Malmö. Before working as Simogo, they both worked on downloadable console titles such as R-Type Dimensions, Lode Runner, Tecmo Bowl Throwback and Ilomilo.

What is Simogo most famous for?
Besides the above titles, Simogo has done a great job of mastering various different genres. Last year marked the release of charming Endless Runner Bumpy Road while earlier this year, we saw puzzle-platformer Beat Sneak Bandit. Both gained great scores from us at the time.

What’s next on the horizon?
A very intriguing and potentially creepy game by the name of Year Walk. It’s set for release this winter and is a first person 2D adventure set in the dark woods of 19th century Sweden. Simogo promises that it will combine adventure, mystery, horror, the occult, supernatural happenings and interactive art all in one intuitive package. Check out the trailer below to get a feel for it.

Anything else I should know about Simogo?
Of course! We had a word with Simon and Gordon regarding how they felt about iOS development.

148apps: You’ve worked on many different types of games over the years. Do you have a particular preference for a genre, either to play or create?

Simogo: Actually no! We like being diverse, and trying out new things, as I hope you can tell from the Year Walk trailer.
When it comes to playing we enjoy a lot of different things. Some of our iOS favourites include Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery, Async Corp, Helsing’s Fire, Space Invaders: Infinity Gene and Eliss. So you can see it’s quite the spectrum.

148apps: What’s your favorite thing about iOS development?

Simogo: The best thing is coming up with creative interactions. The iPhone has a lot of neat features, and I think the most interesting thing is coming up with new ways to use them.
The way we can self fund our games and publish them easily ourselves is, of course, another huge plus.

Where can I find out more about Simogo?
Plenty of places. We’ll keep you informed on Year Walk’s progress but there’s also Simogo’s website, blog, Facebook page and Twitter feed.

Here at 148Apps, we like to keep you informed on all the latest developments and games or apps set for release shortly, but thought it was about time that we also learned a little more about the people behind such great creations. This week, we take a look at UK-based developer, Mojo Bones.

Who are Mojo Bones?
The company is comprised of art man Mark Norman, programmer Andrew Jones, design guru Stuart Ryall and Clarence, a slightly sinister sounding caretaker of the website.

What is Mojo Bones most famous for?
Currently, it’s Tongue Tied, an enjoyable physics platforming game. Players have to help two dogs called Mick & Ralph navigate 50 levels, while the dogs are permanently attached at the tongue. It’s not always the easiest of games, but it’s pretty fun and certainly quirky. Completing tricks is a particular joy to behold.

What’s next on the horizon?
Funny you should ask that, as Mojo Bones’s latest title, The Curse, is coming out this Thursday. It’s pretty different from Tongue Tied! as it’s a puzzle game with Professor Layton-style qualities. Players have to complete 100 puzzles in order to beat the evil Mannequin. Some are quite simple but many involve a lot of lateral thinking. We liked what we saw when we checked it out last month and we suspect you will too.

Anything else I should know about Mojo Bones?
Oh yes, we had a few words with Stuart Ryall to see how he felt about things.

148apps: What’s your favorite thing about iOS development?
Stuart Ryall: One of my favourite aspects of developing for iOS is the way that it forces you to approach development in different ways to more traditional platforms. Not only do you have to consider that the people who end up playing your game might not actually be gamers, but you also have new control methods to think about, alongside the fact that gameplay is much more ‘short-burst’. I think it’s great when you’re forced to revaluate what you already know, and the world of mobile always keeps you on your toes. Creatively, it also provides a lot of freedom.

148apps: Is there an iOS app or game that you wish you’d developed first? If so, what apps/games?
Ryall: Tough question. Every week there are interesting new games popping up on the App Store and the competition is extremely high (which, again, is a good thing). It would be tough to pick a single game as there are so many but I think there are key aspects from certain games that really stand-out. I love the artistic style of Sword & Sworcery and Machinarium (great soundtracks too) and you can never overlook the perfect simplicity (and influence) of games like Tiny Wings, Angry Birds and Cut The Rope. It’s also great when you discover games that make perfect use of the touch screen. Solipskier is a great example.

Where can I find out more about Mojo Bones?
Check out their website, Facebook page, YouTube Channel and Twitter account. And, of course, we’ll keep you informed on all the latest including a full review of The Curse very soon.