Leamington Spa, United Kingdom – There is a commonly held belief that old school game developers are too complacent and slow to be effective in social/mobile game development. A small team of six developers at a large development studio want to prove this wrong. This is a fast-moving, creative strike force. Making a game so quickly – the company bosses won’t even know about it – and this is where things get really interesting.
The team are between projects at a large UK development studio and have been asked to research iOS game development and monetization. One way of approaching this would have been to read books and play games, which would have been a nice, relaxing way to spend a few weeks. However, this team has over 50 years game development experience between them, and only know how to do one thing – make great games. So instead of towing the company line, the team have set off to make a fun and compelling iPhone and iPad game in just six weeks – without the knowledge of the studio management. Not only do they need to take the game concept from inception to release in such a short time, but this needs to be done without raising suspicion.
“We are super excited about this project. It has been a lot of hard work to come up with such a compelling game concept, but there is a real sense of freedom too. This is pure back bedroom development, the way it used to be, and we love it.”
Steve Lumo
But if this project is so secret, why talk about it? There a number for reasons for this:
* Keeping it secret from the bosses is dangerous, keeping it secret from the public is completely stupid – they want people to get excited!
* Not being able to talk about the game openly in the studio is tough. When you are so excited about something you need to tell someone
* Living under the shadow of discovery is really driving the team to make the game as good as they can, as quick as they can. It’s an intense experience and they want to share everything they are learning with their fellow gamers and developers
* The ‘indie spirit’ is all about sharing development stories!
* Finally, if the game is successful, the studio management may be more receptive to the subterfuge
The game is looking good, which is just as well since the team are banking their careers on it. It just needs to stay undercover for three more weeks to make it to submission. Will they make it, and what will happen next?
Team Lumo are based at one of the world’s largest independent games studios, and have over 50 years game development experience across a diverse portfolio of platforms and genres. Their first title, Kumo Lumo, is scheduled for release on iOS in Q1 2012. Copyright (C) 2012 Team Lumo. All Rights Reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone, iPod and iPad are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.