Hello everyone! Someone asked if we’re still here, and yes, we are. We’ve been working on game projects under contract this year, and we’re not able to talk about them yet. We’re nearly at the end, though, and we’ll be able to announce what we’ve been doing soon. Subscribe or follow @otterlygames and you’ll hear about it.
Many thanks to all those who enjoyed playing Floe and told us so!
Floe gets a seasonal update and a promotional price! Now you can play with Flo in her santa hat. And are those sleigh bells I can hear?
It’s just a bit of fun. We hope you’ll enjoy it.
It’s all part of Chillingo’s “12 Days of Christmas” promotion:
On the 3rd day of Christmas, gets a seasonal update and has a special Holiday Sale price of $0.99! Help baby bear Flo navigate across the ice floes to find her mama in this thoughtful, intuitive, heart-warming puzzler that’s the perfect Christmas gift of fun!
In a conventional sliding block puzzle game featuring a protagonist (by which I mean Repton, Boulder Dash, and Kurushi; I couldn’t come up with any more in the time it took to write this blog article, but maybe elements of Zelda and Tomb Raider count) there is a degree of identity between the player and the player character. Even if the character is a green bipedal lizard wearing a t-shirt and jeans.
Repton
The player moves the character, the character moves the blocks (or avoids them, in the case of Kurushi). The player feels kinaesthetically involved. It would be fair to say that in Repton, the player is Repton the protagonist (thanks Wikipedia for telling me the name of the protagonist!).
In Floe, the player / protagonist is not so coupled. The blocks move, but Flo does not move them. The blocks move by a mysterious force; at least, it probably seems mysterious to Flo. The way Flo moves is slightly indirect too. The player causes a pulsating target to appear, that Flo clearly finds fascinating and feels compelled to move towards it whenever it appears. Even if she can’t.
90% of the mass of the floe is beneath the water. And yet the player can tilt it. About a point very near the surface. The player causes psycho-kinetic delusions in infant polar bears.
The player is god.
I recently wrote a feature looking at the broader concepts of iPhone audio design to tie in 
with my earlier article looking specifically at asset size, “Size Matters“.
Since the launch of the iPhone, apps have been big, especially in the games sector, which has seen some sell like AAA titles. Major developers have added the iPhone to their list of available platforms for existing titles, as well as moved to develop unique titles just for it.
The feature is published exclusively on Gamasutra.com and can be read here.
I hope people find this article useful when producing audio for the iOS devices. Please send any additional thoughts. Enjoy!
PJ Belcher
Floe is out, and people are asking what we’re going to do next. Well, in fact, we’re already making more games.
Floe was pretty complete in late July 2010, and we were ready to self-publish in August, but we decided to work with Chillingo to bring Floe to a wider audience. They asked for a few changes, and what with those, Crystal integration, and Chillingo being acquired, it’s taken a while to get Floe on to the App Store. And in that time, it’s not Floe that has been keeping us busy!
No, we’re working with another studio on something big, and famous! We can’t yet tell you what it is, but you have heard of it, unless you’ve been living in a cave. It’s really fun to work on, involves things dear to our hearts, and we’ll tell you about it just as soon as we can. Prototypes and early milestones have already been delivered!
In the meantime, please play Floe, and tell people about it. We made Floe in our own time, without any funding, in true indie style. We know it’s a good game, but every developer needs help to reach that critical mass of players and power us on to new and greater things. We need your support so we can develop new and original indie titles.
Thanks to all those who’ve told us how much they (and their children) love Floe!
Flo says hi
We’re absolutely delighted to announce that Floe has been released and is now available on the App Store!
Watch this blog for more news and reactions. (So far all reviews have been 5 stars, but I’m sure that can’t continue.) Meanwhile, please enjoy Floe!
Did you come here for your prize? You need to touch the orange “otterly.com” in the finale screen. Don't worry! Just do the last level again and you can get there.
We'll make this better in an update soon!
rptb1
PJ Belcher
edwardsludden
drj11
