More news, art and diaries to follow…..

Apologies to anyone trying to view this page recently, the web team made a slight booboo on the support site for Purgatory, this page will be updated as soon as possible.

Thanks for your patience.

Having attended Eurogamer last year and having missed out twice on getting to the Game Horizon Codeworks Conference,  we’re looking forward to the opportunity to rub shoulders with other game developers from around the country.

About Postal Panic

Postal Panic is the fun postcode delivery game. Your job is simple; deliver the parcels to the postcodes as quickly as you can. As the Parcels come down the conveyor belt, you need to deliver them to the postcode displayed before they hit the bottom, starting in London and then going national. Postal Panic is all about fast-fingers and good memories!

FEATURING
• Accurate map of the UK postal code system
• Simple, intuitive touch game controls
• Single or Multi-player with up to 4 players
• Addictively fun puzzle game play and scoring
• Learn the Post Code areas of the UK and impress your friends & family

Watch the trailer or click on the App Store logo on the right to visit the iTunes Store.

The Background

In December 2010 Train2Game posted a competition on their forums to take a supplied background graphic and create a game for it. Unlike many of their 48 hour game jams they gave prospective teams 11 days to come up with a game idea and proof of concept, so despite being already under a lot of pressure with our own projects and of course the run up for Christmas, Horizon Studios decided to jump in and give it a shot.

The competition stipulated that the game engine of choice was to be Yoyo’s Game Maker, in order to give as many students as possible the opportunity to submit something and although the initial idea was pretty much sorted within the first hour, the limitations of Game Maker compared to the versatility of the iPad’s multi-touch screen made for a few challenging decisions but ultimately we had something to work on and whilst juggling work, families, Christmas shopping and all the other little things life throws at you around that time of year, we pressed on creating art and code assets for our project.

Placeholder graphics were created so that Mike could implement them into the code and start to work on getting the general feel for the game and as always it didn’t matter what ideas Kevin threw at him, he always rose to the occasion and exceeded expectations wherever he could, adding his own unique ideas to the table as he progressed.

Martin designed the main character for the game along with a number of placeholder screens and titles then started to work on a rough animation to give our character Paul some life while Justin enlisted the help of one of his friends to add a voice to the character, while Kevin begun writing lists of requirements for the audio, the music, effects and speech to include in the game and worked with Justin to get them sounding as he wanted.

As time started to run out, ideas that we had discussed and considered adding into the game began to be put on the back burner so that we could focus on getting a playable game that could be expanded on in the future through updates, then after we’d given the project as extensive a test as we could given the constraints, we packaged it up and submitted it for entry.

Tangential Learning

As reported by the guys at Extra Credits earlier in the year, “games have more potential as teaching tools than most people realise, without being boring” and while there is still a lot of scope for edutainment games, games where you learn without realising can drive home the point a lot more and we’re proud that our game has the potential for both entertainment and education.

For those who don’t know local geography, once you’ve mastered this game you’ll have a clear idea of where anywhere is in the country, not just by name, but you’ll also have an idea of what postcodes are associated with those locations. I for one know that since we started developing this game that I now have a better grasp of where various locations are in relation to me within the UK and as a result I have a better understanding of what direction I would need to be heading in order to get from A to B.

Click the image above to see what the guys at Extra Credits have to say about Tangential Learning.

As the title says I’m Jonny Robinson and I want to share with you what I see in the game industry and where it is going to take Horizon Studios.

So let us talk about how I’m going to be interacting with you guys, as the title suggests I’m one of the designers who also deals with the promotions side. I get the awesome job of telling you guys of the ideas we have, as Charlie Sheen would say my job role is “WINNING”. As an added bonus every now and then I will make videos for you guys and maybe blow your mind with visual knowledge.

Well this was a quick little blog and I look forward to updating you soon in the future. Until then peace love and all that poop, I’m out.

First things first we have a new addition to the team Jonny Robinson, Mr Ironcore1 himself has joined the team and will be in charge of keeping you guys updated on everything going on here, what the team is up to and may even have the odd video blog who knows but that’s Jonny!

We have our first game coming to an iPad near you soon, that game is Postal Panic! It was our Christmas 2010 Train2Game entry, where we was challenged to create a game based on a theme in 10 days, from design through to playable concept. The winning entry would be recoded by DR Studios for and released on the iPad. We will let you know more as and when we find out ourselves.

Talking iPad there is more great news Galoop is coming to iPhone, iPad and Android!

We also have some other projects in the works all of which will be targeted at mobile platforms.

Being an avid gamer I have always asked myself this question: “Why don’t I try and get into the game industry?” A couple of years later I started the Train2Game course in Game design and I’ve never once looked back.

I am a very confident and bubbly person who loves to have as much fun as possible. I believe anything is possible as long as you apply yourself. I have various skills including communication, creative writing, character development, narrative design, moral boosting and last but not least pwning noobs!

The Horizon Studio team are not only winners of the 2010 Christmas competition for Train2Game, but are awesome people as well. I look forward to being able to further my knowledge in Indie Development alongside the Horizon family.

Now it’s time to GAME ON!

We’ll let you know more in here soon.

The event was a great show and we really wish we had more time to not only get around everything, including the developer shows, but also to populate the event with more galeps than we were able.

However, while we were there we were pleased to see Galoop on display, along with a few galeps sitting around it for support, meet loads of Train2Game Students, and also, with the help of our sister company Broadening Horizons, provided T-shirts for the students to wear with pride to identify one another throughout the event.

We’d also like to give a big shout out to Dave and Tony from DR Studios for taking us out for a few drinks at 3pm, and I’d personally like to thank Rico3k from the Train2Game forums for not only taking my son under his wing and showing him all the game demos, but for also inspiring him to want to buy every game and console that exists or will exist.

Looking forward to Eurogamer 2011, in which I’m sure we’ll hit all three days next year.

The new logo and site is all for the new and exciting direction we are heading in but more on that later. (watch this space!)

Galoop is well on its way to become more of a complete game and we hope to have a new playable version by the end of this week,

Changes include:

The scoring system has been changed

Removed the demo timer so you have longer to play

Better learning curve with difficulty that increases as you play through the game.

And a few other changes which will be disclosed soon… Again Watch This Space!!