Kahoots - The final push

We're heading into the final stretch of work on Kahoots, with some tweaks and changes to the look, new backgrounds and a shiny new title screen.

So out goes the Peg Beast, though he'll be loitering around the tutorial screens, and in comes the nemesis of the Kahoot, the Cardborg.


We're chucking in some achievements for the player with Nat getting herself in best punning mode for the titles of the achievements.


Ricky and Nat have been working to finalise GUI elements, which has involved more plasticine and also Nat holding small objects up against the screen to check they won't be too obtrusive to the game itself.


Perhaps you'd like to see some game screen shots, hmm?

Old Big 'ead is Back

No, we haven't made a football game based on Brian Clough's 44 days in charge at Leeds United, apart from anything else, there's very little unpredicability in how the game would conclude, instead we celebrate the arrival of Balloon Headed Boy on the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Balloon Headed Boy is supposed to be celebrating his birthday, with all his friends in Balloon Town, when a terrible storm scatters his balloon friends to all corners of the kingdom and dumps a load of no-good, hat-wearing frogs in their place. Faced with the prospect of the most rubbish birthday ever, he begins an adventure across 34 levels to rescue his friends.

Balloon Headed Boy (or BHB as he's known to his friends and those who can't be arsed typing his full name again) is a 2D platform game in which you navigate the titular boy rescuing balloon friends and avoiding hazards such as spikes, rising water and frogs wearing sombreros (!), however, BHB can't jump, so how does he get up to those hard to reach, nay, seemingly inaccessible platforms? Well, he can pick up Farty Flowers which help him inflate his head so he can glide gently upwards, but inflating his head also allows him to break through certain things. Some blocks are unstable and if dropped on by deflating BHB's head while hovering over them, he lands with a bump and dislodges the block to access other areas. Also, his friend the Helicat can be freed from its icy prison to push BHB up into seemingly closed off locations.

Here comes the science bit...Balloon Headed Boy has a long and rich heritage, originally a mobile Java game, he's made the transition to PC downloadable format, Flash and now iPhone. Many of the challenges faced making a game for iPhone are down to user interface, the biggest USP of the iPhone, it's lovely touchscreen and accelerometer (the tilt thing, non-tech types!), can also present their own unique challenges when transferring from more traditional button based control systems. Even when settling on a control system that works, you still have to bear in mind that the larger that control area is, the more it will obscure on-screen goings on. We worked closely with our colleagues at publisher Gimme5games.com to develop the control system which makes most sense, exploits the unique interface opportunities of the iPhone and impacts on screen real-estate as little as possible.

We're happy with the solution and we're sure you're itching to part with a meagre £2.39 to find out. If you want to have a try out before you commit to parting with £2.39 (or 4 Greenbacks for our North American fans), there's a fully playable Flash version on BalloonHeadedBoy.com as well as links to the appstore where there is also a Balloon Headed Boy Lite containing a selection of levels you can download and play for FREE on the iPhone. 

Come on! 34 levels for £2.39! That's *grabs calculator* 7p (or 11cents) per level. Get yourselves over to the Balloon Headed Boy Page where not only can you buy the iPhone game, you can buy BHB themed t-shirts, mugs and such like or download free stuff to adorn your myspace page. Bargains all over the shop!