Category Archives: Portfolio

02 Aug

Suddenly Meow and what’s next

We have spent over half a year completing a new Match 3 engine and a game using that engine. Our new game is Suddenly Meow, a Match 3 with puzzle elements, so you’re going to need your thinking hat! Suddenly Meow consists of 90 levels with progressive difficulty, varied challenges and Match 3 battles. In addition, for the first time we include in one of our games the possibility to choose between Relaxed, Timed and Limited Moves modes. Suddenly Meow is a step forward in terms of the direction we want our future games to take.

Suddenly Meow
Level 89 of Suddenly Meow

And today we have just completed the localization of Suddenly Meow into 6 additional languages (French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Dutch). We have been really busy, and without further ado we are already in the early stages of our next Match 3. At the moment, we don’t have a new DragonScales in mind, but maybe in 2022 we might find the opportunity to develop DragonScales 8 (we already have some ideas and part of the story). So our next project will also be a Match 3 in the conventional sense, and we will use the engine we developed for Suddenly Meow, incorporating some extensions and optimizations.

We hope you like Suddenly Meow!

08 Nov

10th Corpse: Tips and Solutions

10th Corpse Tips

10th Corpse is, at its core, a Match 3 game with an eccentric set of characters and an eclectic array of gameplays. Here we present a few 10th Corpse tips and comments. The game comprises several minigames and challenges, specifically:

  • Match 3: 100 levels. There are many challenges. Collecting icons, destroying crates, boss battles, gravity-immune icons, free-swap icons, killing gargoyles, rechargeable icons, breakable tiles, buttons that show hidden cells, keys that must be led to doors, magnifying glasses that must be led to fingerprints, and much more. The player will also have 5 rechargeable power-ups. Here are some videos showing solutions for a few Match 3 levels of 10th Corpse.
Match 3: Level 1 of 10th Corpse
Match 3: Level 8 of 10th Corpse
Match 3: Level 18 of 10th Corpse
Match 3: Level 21 of 10th Corpse
Match 3: Level 86 of 10th Corpse
  • Arkadiusz Boxtrap: The goal is removing all the skulls which are placed on a board. In order to remove those skulls you’ll have to place pieces on the board, trying to form 3 x 3 areas of squares covered by your pieces (or 4 x 4, etc.) Skulls trapped in those 3 x 3 areas will be immediately destroyed. Each turn you’ll get 2 pieces to place on the board. By the way, pieces can be rotated with a right-click before placing them on the board.
10th Corpse: Level 5 of Arkadiusz Boxtrap minigame
  • Arkadiusz KOMBI!: Groups of pieces will fall down, following gravity, and you’ll have to move and rotate them in order to form rows or columns with 4 or more pieces to remove them. The levels’ goals require combining a few pieces of some color, or destroying all the monsters in the level. Include monsters in your combinations of pieces in order to destroy them. Pieces can be rotated, and you can switch between mouse or keyboard controls.
10th Corpse: Level 3 of Arkadiusz KOMBI! minigame
  • Trivia questions asked by Jake (a.k.a., The Lover of Wisdom) and questions by other characters: from time to time, the characters in Mansion Vinterfragen (especially Jake) will ask you questions. Jake’s questions are trivia questions, like how old was Napoleon Bonaparte when he was crowned Emperor (the answer is 35.) The questions asked by other characters are not usually of this type, and are more related to the personality of each of them. The player will have to try to guess which is the answer that each character would like. For example, Arkadiusz is a bit masochistic, and therefore it is necessary to answer him in the most cruel way possible (for example, there is a case where Arkadiusz asks what he should expect from the critics about his game, and the correct answer is “Expect pain!”.) In any case, if the player gets these answers right, some of her statuses for the Match 3 levels will go up (e.g., the power bar will fill up faster, or her attacks in the battles will be stronger, and so on). The player does not receive any penalty for incorrect answers. However, as mentioned, getting the answers right improves the player’s attributes in Match 3 levels.
  • Hidden Objects: There are 13 HO scenes. Most of them correspond to 9th Corpse, a game inside the game. One of the central characters of the game is Professor Arkadiusz, a game designer whose games pervade Mansion Vinterfragen. The player will be able to play a few of his games: the above referred Boxtrap and KOMBI!, and parts of a fictitious HOPA entitled 9th Corpse. All the hidden object scenes have hints that can be used without any precondition. Simply, after using a hint, you’ll have to wait a while for the hint button to become available again.
Level 2 of “9th Corpse” Hidden Objects minigame

Further 10th Corpse tips can be found in this fantastic and complete walkthrough.

The official page of the game contains additional details and screenshots. You can purchase the game here.

20 Feb

NagiQ on Steam

We’ll be releasing our game NagiQ on Steam 🙂 The release date is set for March 5:

NagiQ is a family-friendly, word game. It’s a great game to practice English vocabulary, and you’ll have to think a lot to complete all the 100+ boards of the game. Here’s a trailer with the basic gameplay:

Basic gameplay: Type words and connect the mystic letters.

We’ve added 10 Steam achievements to the game, corresponding to the trophies you get for completing the following actions:

  • Capture 2 mystic letters in a single play.
  • Capture more than 2 mystic letters in a single play.
  • Length of a word greater or equal to 15.
  • Complete a board with an amount of words lower or equal to the number of mystic letters on the board.
  • Complete a board in less than 10 seconds.
  • 20 consecutive boards completed, without exit / reset.
  • 15 consecutive boards completed, without using hints.
  • Score >= 20,000
  • Score >= 100,000
  • Score >= 200,000

Updating NagiQ on Steam

NagiQ is the first game we released, back in 2011. The game was created with Ren’Py, and in hindsight those were really fun development times. In order to integrate Steam achievements I updated the game to use the latest Ren’Py version. In short, these are the changes I had to make:

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06 Jan

DragonScales 3 on Steam

We’ll begin 2020 by releasing our game DragonScales 3: Eternal Prophecy of Darkness on Steam. Here’s the game’s Steam widget:

Key features for the Steam version:

  • 150 levels.
  • Only for Windows platform.
  • 10 Steam achievements.
  • Languages supported: English, German, French, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish.
  • Updated libraries.
DragonScales 3 on Steam
DragonScales 3 on Steam

DragonScales 3 was the first DragonScales game with Gravity Mode and falling skulls. Furthermore, the game showcases 5 boss battles combining a new gravity approach with the classic DragonScales tile-matching gameplay. DragonScales 3’s story is based on a sinister prophecy, the Eternal Prophecy of Darkness. There is a group of dark cultists who want this prophecy to come true. Their plan is to bring back Specktr to life. Specktr! The ultimate embodiment of malice! Rumor has it that Specktr, once resurrected, will grant immortality to his followers. One of such followers, incidentally, is the powerful Archmage Cedric. DragonScales 3 is also the first DragonScales 3 with references to a fantasy kingdom, the Gravity Kingdom.

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12 Nov

Compatibility of our games with macOS 10.15 Catalina

Recently Apple released an upgrade for macOS, Catalina 10.15, which finally dropped support for 32-bits-only apps. This essentially means that 32-bits-only games won’t run on macOS Catalina. Regarding IKIGames titles, this is the current status of our games on macOS:

  • DragonScales 1 to 5: if your purchased them on iTunes, they will run on Catalina. If you purchased them on other stores, they should also be playable, but we cannot guarantee it.
  • DragonScales 6 won’t be available on iTunes, but you can purchase it on Big Fish Games. That version runs on Catalina.
  • NagiQ 1 will not run on Catalina. NagiQ 2 might not run either. Currently we have no plans to make these games compatible with Catalina and later macOS versions.
  • The Rainbow Machine, if purchased on iTunes, will run. Again, if you purchased it on other stores, the game should also be playable, but we cannot guarantee it.

If you upgraded to Catalina, it should be possible to play 32-bits-only games by using a virtualization program. That way you could install macOS Mojave (or previous versions) and run your 32-bits-only games.

If you need further assistance, please contact us.

13 Feb

Updating older games

We’ve finished updating several of our older titles, specifically, The Rainbow Machine, DragonScales: Chambers of The Dragon Whisperer and DragonScales 2: Beneath a Bloodstained Moon. These games were originally built with versions of LibGDX <= 1.6, so we took the chance to update them to the latest LibGDX 1.9.9. As expected, updating LibGDX broke a lot of things: several functions had been altered or simply removed, support for LWJGL3 was added, and plenty of other details we had to address. Once we managed to fix all the projects, we were able to create new Windows and Mac versions.
Extra steps were taken on Mac, as we had to produce a bundled Java app, code-sign it and resubmit the games to iTunes and other stores. Little by little, we’ve been getting the games live on iTunes again:

Our next goal is updating DragonScales 3: Eternal Prophecy of Darkness too. But this time we’ll also try to integrate the game with Steamworks 🙂

07 Feb

Recent Progress

Things have been a bit hectic over here, for good, since the beginning of 2019 🙂 We’ve managed to get new publishing deals and a few of our games have been recently released. Specifically:

    • All of our games were released on Shockwave.

Currently, we’re focused on updated builds for DragonScales 1 to 3. Of course, we’re also making progress on DragonScales 6. And other (secret) projects 🙂
Oh, remember DragonScales 5 is on sale (Steam Lunar Sale) until next Monday.

07 Jan

2019: Projects

2019. We’re back to the grind!

The first project we’ll be working on, undoubtedly, is DragonScales 6. That installment of DragonScales should wrap up the Zarya arc. We’re still in a very preliminar design stage (for instance, we’ve not yet reached a consensus regarding the title of the game,) but design of the new levels is coming out smoothly. DragonScales 5 had 200 levels, so the new level count must also be, at least, 200. At the outset, DragonScales 6 is expected to be a desktop-only game (Windows and Mac,) with no plans for a mobile version.

We also have plans for additional games. For instance, we’d like to deliver a mobile version of DragonScales. A totally new, custom DragonScales, different to the desktop versions of the game. In the past, we generated Android ports of DragonScales 1 to 3, aimed at tablet devices. However, we’d like to produce a novel DragonScales game, specifically tailored to cellphones. This version might pose a significant challenge, as we’ll have to fully redesign the UI and create new levels with proper dimensions for tiny screens.

There are other projects we’d like to tackle. For instance, we’ve been designing a new casual game with a non-fantasy setting. However, we’ve not been pushing this new franchise as much as we’d like because the casual market in 2018 has not been overly attractive. We’ll keep monitoring this trend. Nevertheless, we hope DragonScales 5 is released though several casual partners in Q1 or Q2 of this year.

There are also older projects we’d like to revisit, but we’ll handle them as (if) time permits.

Looking back, 2018 has been a good year: we completed two games (DragonScales 4: Master Chambers and DragonScales 5: The Frozen Tomb,) and we (finally) completed the submission for the greenlighted DragonScales on Steam. Please buy our game here:

OK. Now it’s time to return to work. First the story of DragonScales 6. It’s the beginning of a long journey.

20 Nov

DragonScales 5: The Frozen Tomb clinches the top spot on iWin

Good news! Our newest game DragonScales 5: The Frozen Tomb has reached #1 entry on casual game portal iWin.com. Yet more, DragonScales 5 clinched the top spot for all its 3 categories:

  • Match 3
  • Puzzle
  • Brain/Logic

We know new and fantastic games are released every day, and these “top spots” are temporal things, but today we’ll enjoy our little victory. Thank you very much to all of you who made this possible!