Yes the wait is finally over, Postal Panic Version 1.0 hit the iPad app store on 30th June, FREE for 3 weeks.

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.

The Journey Galoop has taken during development is almost as exciting as the journey the little Galeps embark upon themselves. Galoop has gone through many (and when we say many we mean a lot of) changes from where the project started out and has become a much loved game for the Horizon Team, as the team changed and the studio formed each member has put a little of themselves in to the game and it has become a labour of love for us.

The initial concept behind the game was based on a bedtime story designer Kevin Tapping came up with for his children which saw our little Galep happily popping together to form fizzy drinks and inspired one version of a game. However as the team was forming, as both a challenge to our new developer Mike Connell and also to give the Galep an origin, Kevin came up with the idea for a prequel, based on a variation of the old “match three” genre but as the game developed and the team grew in confidence, we started to see numerous twists to the original genre appear to give it an identity of its own.

Over time we have released a playable version of the original proof of concept on the PC built with Game Maker which was an instant success and the feedback we received from almost everyone was…”This would make an awesome game on the iPhone”, and so we decided to do exactly that.

We started to change the graphics and layout to suit the resolution of the iPhone and had to make numerous changes to the overall layout of the screen based on the physical size of the iPhone but after looking at a few engines with which we could deploy from we finally settled on Unity as a means to converting our proof of concept from PC to iOS.

In making this transition we’ve also started to look at the story in order to make a full featured commercial product people would feel glad they had purchased. The design has been ramped up and what we can say is the game will now tell the whole story in one package, which we hope will be a charming story and an adventure where you love the little Galeps as much as we do.

In the meantime while you wait, you can help us to spread the word and help our little galep friends to get around by visiting www.galoop.co.uk and adopting one of the lovable little creatures for yourselves.