"Will our third game come from any of these ideas? Who knows!"
Hello dear reader, it’s your community manager Emily here. I am emerging from a long quiet period to tell you all about the things we did through autumn at Balancing Monkey Games!
We’re working away nicely on our cool new thing that we cannot talk about yet! I do have a few treats to share with you, though:
Before We Leave is now on Playstation!
We’re thrilled to announce that our cosy city-builder, Before We Leave, has arrived on PlayStation! You can read more about that here.
Sneak (Feet?!) Peek
Sam and I joined forces to give you all a very silly sneak peek into the aforementioned cool thing.
Sarah the Social Media Manager!
After 2 years of running the Before We Leave/Balancing Monkey Games social accounts, I'm moving on to other things in the studio and our producer/content creation queen Sarah is taking over! If you’re so inclined, please head on over to our Twitter page and give her a very warm welcome. She’s going to do amazing things!
Monkey Jam
The remote workers of the team (Mereana and I) flew down to Dunedin for a short and sweet in-house game jam at BMG HQ. For those of you who are wondering what a game jam is, it’s where a bunch of people in small teams try and make a game within a short amount of time, ranging from a day to a couple of days. Our game jam had teams of three, and went for about three days.
The purpose of this game jam was to get some ideas simmering for our third game, because we’re organised like that! As an indie, it’s always good to know what comes after the current thing you’re working on, too. Extra security is valuable for a small studio like us.
Our first game is Tumble, a cute 3d platformer made by Mereana (aka MJ), Isaac and Sarah! You play as Tumble, a magical bunny who has had a ...tumble...down the volcano. Scamper about, puzzle solve and even fly to find your way out to get wee Tumble out of the pickle he’s found himself in.
The original concept of Tumble was pitched by MJ and brought to life with the help of Isaac and Sarah. Tumble is a proof of concept for a longer 3d platformer that would focus on a fantasy creature (an "owl bunny", hence Tumble's ability to fly) who has fallen out of their nest and must face their fear of learning to fly in order to make it home.
Our second game is Lantern Run, a challenging 3d puzzle/maze runner made by Sam, Tom and I. You play as an adventurer with a magical lamp that can see through time! Dash through the ancient, dangerous maze and collect all the artifacts in the past and the present before the roof collapses - can you collect all 150 points worth?
I pitched to Tom and Sam the idea of a gullible archaeologist being convinced by his evil boss to go through ancient ruins with his magical lantern to remove artifacts for "safe keeping". The level that you play through here is a very simple version of that idea.
You can download these games for free over on the Balancing Monkey itch.io!
Will our third game come from any of these ideas? Who knows! Check back with us in a couple of years, and we will let you know. Maybe.
Patches and Fixes
We’ve shipped several new patches resolving issues with The Wasteland Update, and the console/Windows 10 versions of Before We Leave. If you’d like to read the patch notes, you can find the PC ones here, and the console ones here.
Thanks for reading, and we'll be back with news on what we did through our winter soon!