VERTIGO
Brick-stacking influenced game for the iPhone.
7th July 2009: Underworld Entertainment Ltd, the developer set up by Col Rodgers, Industry Veteran with more than 15 years of experience and a slew of successful titles under his belt (Designer on Viking: Battle for Asgard with SEGA and Producer on Crysis with EA to name but a few) has announced it’s first title, VERTIGO, for sale very soon on Apple’s iTunes App Store.
Announcement video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytAj5_zOtxE
The game, which takes influence from the traditional brick stacking games such as Jenga played on thousands of beaches and in homes all over the world, makes excellent use of Apple’s multi-touch screen to take the level of interaction with the fully 3D scene farther than it ever has been in games based on similar concepts.
The game supports up to 4 player multiplayer as well as having 3 single player modes, all of which come in Normal or Expert mode.
The player can freely adjust the camera and select any block they wish to move, switching to block interaction mode to move the object around the world.
Key to the success of this title is the way Underworld have overcome the 3 dimensional nature of the game when played with friends. Dragging a brick to the top of the screen takes the game into brick placement mode, where the user can lower, rotate and place the brick where they desire.
Less than confident players can ask the game for hints which come in the form of the system highlighting wobbly bricks – how the player uses this information is up to them!
On top of the beautiful beach graphics in the game, and the excellent control method, the game is driven by true physics simulation, and as such, those long hours on the train with friends can be enjoyed without the need to keep building the tower or worry about an uneven track cutting the game short!
Underworld Entertainment became a reality in March 2009 when Col Rodgers left SEGA to pursue his own projects. VERTIGO is the first game produced by this exciting new start-up, having taken just 6 weeks to develop. Underworld is expanding, and currently plans to release a new title every 4-8 weeks. For more information, please contact info@underworldentertainment.co.uk.