Holiday Update from Phat Games!

Greetings all!

I apologize again that it has been a long time since the last update, so without further delay, here it is!

1. GaymerX (GX3)
Burgal's Bounty won it's first ever award! There was a #BestIndieGX3 social media contest for best indie game at GaymerX! Burgal's Bounty received a lot of positive feedback both with the game play and the new artwork, and with the support of our friends and attendees at GaymerX, we managed to get more votes than any other game there! I also want to give shout outs to the two other winners - Fragments of Him by Sassy Bot Studio and Hex Heroes by Prismatic Games

We were at Table 9 in the expo hall, and had great neighbors on either side with Super Duper showing their cyber-punk FPS hacker game, Black Ice, on one side and Nuchallenger with their tactical brawler, Treachery in Beatdown City on the other side. It was really great meeting these teams at the expo, and it was really great meeting everyone who stopped by, played the game, hung out, and signed up for the mailing list!


2. The Artwork Update
I received some advice at GaymerX on this one. I am going to come clean about why the original Android release was pulled from Google Play and why we have rebranded Phat Games and Burgal's Bounty. Unfortunately, we had a falling out with the graphics artist who did the Phat Games logo and artwork for Burgal's Bounty. As a result, there was a grey area over ownership of the art work. Instead of trying to resolve the issue with the artist, I chose to cut ties and start again with the graphics. However, by that time Burgal's Bounty was live for 2 months, and we had collected a lot of information on the game with our in game analytics, feedback from players, IndieCade and others. We have also learned a lot about how to make a mobile game successful, and as a result we are in the process of making a ton of improvements to the game. This incident ended up being a blessing in disguise and we are continuing to improve the game to create the best possible game we can.


3. Burgal's Bounty Update!
Party on! So now for the game update! Well, with everything we have learned from the expos, the previous summer launch, and just general feedback from people in the industry here are the game plans and when and how we are planning on launching.

The game will feature:
i. More awesome polished looking graphics.
ii. 90 levels (10 of which are unlockable by collecting in game bonuses).
iii. Fully animated in game cut scenes.
iv. New game play elements including real time interaction with the puzzle map during game play.
v. iOS, Android, Mac, and PC releases (see more below).

This will be a multi platform game spanning both desktop and mobile devices. We are exploring ways to make it so that if users purchase / download the game on a mobile device they will also get it for free on the desktop version and vice versa. We have not committed to this, but this is certainly how we would like to approach it. Also we have not finalized how the game will be monetized this time around. If it is freemium again, there will be a combination of tastefully placed ads and in-app purchases. The last big update around game play elements will have to do with the casual nature of the mobile market. Burgal's Bounty's original release on Android was WAY TO HARD. Even watching some people play it at GaymerX, I noticed that some levels were more of a struggle than others. We very much want to appease both casual gamers with this and the more hard core market. How are we going to accomplish this? Here's how:

Similar to the original Android release, the game will be divided into subsets of 10 levels. The first 5 levels of each subset will be quick to play, taking 5 minutes or less to complete. The rest of the levels will be mixture of medium to difficult levels where the more medium to hardcore players can invest more time into it. The casual gamers will be able to play through the entire game without playing any of the harder levels. They will, however, not be able to unlock a lot of the extra in game content without buying an in-app purchase (if there ultimately is IAPs in the game). The idea is to let everyone enjoy the game in the way they want to. As for a release, we are still hoping for late spring, or early summer. Specific dates for the individual platforms will be announced early next year. We would also love to hear feedback on any these ideas! Please contact us on facebook, twitter, or even e-mail at hello [at] phat-games.com.


Happy holidays from Phat Games!