News from our Blog

Conan the Cimmerian coming to your iPhone

Paradox Entertainment, through its subsidiary Conan Properties International, has begun internal development of mobile games based on its library of character properties. First out is Conan in ”Tower of the Elephant”, based on the original Robert E. Howard story, for iPhone and iPad. Developing the game with Paradox Entertainment is L.A.-based Dogtown Studios. Expected release in fourth quarter 2010.

As Conan, you scale the mysterious Tower of the Elephant, fighting vicious enemies and avoiding deadly traps, to finally reach the captive Yag-Kosha and the evil Yara. The game features stunning graphics and an open, mission-based gameplay where every mission will take you deeper into the world of Conan.

”Conan: Tower of the Elephant” is a new gaming experience for iDevices. The game uses Dogtown Studios’ proprietary iPhone 3D engine A2SA and features HD graphics. Using the retina display, iPhone 4 users will experience the best possible gaming experience.

“Our portfolio of character-based properties suits itself very well for interactive media such as mobile gaming. Dogtown Studios has produced several successful games and we’re looking forward to this and future games based on Conan and other characters,” said Fredrik Malmberg, President and CEO of Paradox Entertainment Inc.

Leading the production are Paradox Entertainment’s VP of Production Daniel Wagner and Dogtown Studios’ Creative Director Mikael Tyrsén. The official game page can be found on www.paradoxmobilegames.com. Read more about the development of the game on Dogtown Studios’ development blog: http://www.dogtownstudios.com/category/conan/.

While this is Conan’s first step into mobile gaming, the character is widely available in publishing (comic books, novels), collectibles (statues, action figures, model kits), gaming (MMO, strategy boardgame), apparel and other categories. The new Conan movie, featuring Jason Momoa as Conan, as well as Stephen Lang, Rose McGowan, Rachel Nichols, Ron Perlman and Leo Howard, is currently in post-production and slated for a summer/fall 2011 release.

About Paradox Entertainment Inc.

E-mail: info@moyostudios.com

So, today is June 18th, the deadline to submit the upcoming game [Codename] Project Unknown…

We did it!!! The game is done, and awaiting approval before submission to the AppStore.

We are working on the trailer and hope to have it ready sometime next week so we can start promoting the game.

Meanwhile, we wanted to give a special shout-out to a few people…

- Our fans for the continued support! We hope you’ll like this game A LOT!

- The Beta tester team. Great feedback during this short time! Keep it up!
Bronson Lane
Max (Dude From Ukraine)
Novaro Thomson
Andrew Brown
Tim Jordan
Jacques Burdet
Ahn Ly
Chris Judge

- The VO team.
Jesper Oland (Captain)
Imari Williams (Commander)
Sara Vahabi (— Main Character)

- The original score producer and king of Techno. We love every second of the soundtrack. Perfect match!
Bizan Moazzami

All Dogtown Boys for extraordinary efforts without much sleep!
Ivan Isaev (Crazy Ivan)
James Sparkman
Mikael Tyrsen
Rasmus Hansson

And last but not least, Radical Publishing for giving us the opportunity to produce and release the best iPhone game ever!

Stay tuned until next update featuring:
- Release Date
- Official Trailer

— REMEMBERODESSA —-

Dogtown Studios & Radical Interactive is getting very close to finishing the upcoming iDevice game, [Codename] PROJECT UNKNOWN! The results are stunning. After all, it’s our first 3D game and it’s all been completed in 1.5 months.

We apologize that we haven’t updated our site lately due to the deadline of Jun 18, but as of today it looks like we’ll make it. We have submitted 3 closed Beta apps to a small team of great Beta testers and the feedback we’ve gotten has been great. As soon as the first version of the game is finished we’ll send out the release candidate so that we can gather feedback for future updates.

Stay tuned for game submission!
/Dogtown Boyz

The first Beta of [CODENAME] Project Unknown was released this week. We have gotten some great valuable feedback from the testing team and we are working full-force to implement fixes, improve features and tuning the game to make it as close to perfect as possible.

BETA GAME PLAY DEMO

As you can see in the demo we are showing a little bit of everything. Some weapons, special powers, in-game-menu, etc.

Things are being perfected as we speak and we look forward to providing our awesome Beta team with the final Beta before app submission.

Good news, it looks like we have solved the performance issue. We are now finalizing the game balance and some minor tweaks that we need before we publish the Beta version. So we are still on track for Beta release on Friday.

Stay tuned poeple!

Due to unforeseen performance bottle-necks on earlier generation iDevices we have been forced to postpone the Beta release that was scheduled for June 7.

We have created an action plan to resolve the performance issue on the affected devices and we are aiming to release the Beta on Friday, June 11.

We apologize for the inconvenience!
/The Dogtown Crew

Hey people! We are getting closer to the scheduled Beta release. All the Beta testers have been chosen and are very excited to get started. Meanwhile we wanted to give you an overview of the User Interfaces in Project Unknown (codename).

Heads Up Display (HUD)
The HUD is designed to portray the feeling of being part of the character outfit. It is kept clean to avoid distraction while playing the game.

Player Status – In the top left corner of the HUD we can see a picture of the main character. The face expression will change during the game to reflect the current emotions of the character. If your character is angry or hurt, you’ll know.

To the left of the avatar picture, you’ll notice the player health bar. The health bar will decrease if an enemy carries out a successful attack on you. When the health bar reaches the bottom, it means your character is now in heaven.

Points – Points will be distributed to you as you complete tasks, kill enemies, and other events in the game. Your score is a token of your abilities as a player, and if you’re good enough, will be seen by fellow gamers around the world. In case your character is killed and you want to continue playing, your score will unfortunately be reset to 0.

Coins – Coins are used to purchase items in the shop. Each enemy could carry some coins for you to pickup, but you won’t find out until he’s dead. Completing missions will give you a larger coin reward so make sure you complete every mission that is assigned to you.

Incoming Transmission – When a new mission is available to you, you’ll notice this little mail icon in the top corner of the HUD. Tap the settings button to access additional information about the mission and where to go to enable it.

Settings / Pause Button – See the little cog-wheel in the top right section. If you tap this, you’ll pause the game and get access to an array of information described below as the “In-Game-Menu”

In-Game-Menu

Missions – This is your incoming transmission log book where you can see the details of what missions are available to you and which ones you have completed. If you ever forget what you’re supposed to do, you can always go back here to find out.

Shop – The shop is where you purchase upgrades with the coins you have collected. When you purchase an item, it will not be available to you directly, but rather appear as power-ups when you kill certain enemies. When you enter the shop, you’ll see a list of items that you can purchase. The items you can afford are lit up, and the items you cannot afford are grayed out. The items you currently own are lit green.

Stats – In the stats screen you’ll be able to see how your player has performed over time. All important statistics will be saved here so you can compare with your friends.

Map – The first thing you’ll see in the menu is a small scale map of the entire episode area. The map indicates your current location, surrounding enemy armies, and current destination targets. The entire map doesn’t fit in the little screen so you can drag it around with your fingers to see all the areas.

Quit – If you feel like you don’t want to play anymore right now, you can go to the Quit tab and pause the session. By doing this you won’t lose your current score and points and will be able to continue at any point later.

Phew… It’s been a rough couple of weeks here at Dogtown trying to coordinate all the production and promotion efforts for our most exciting title so far…

If you didn’t know, “Project Unknown” is the code name for the upcoming Advanced Dual Stick Action (ADSA), and the real title is soon the be announced. The production is a partnership and collaboration between Radical Interactive and Dogtown Studios.

The project was initiated on May 4th 2010. Today on June 3d we are working on the final features of the game and preparing to release a closed Beta to a very limited amount of our trusted testers.

So, what have we accomplished this month?

Game Engine… Check

Our latest and most advanced game engine up to date is a truly amazing piece of work. The engine is so fast, stable, and efficient that we are contemplating making it available to other developer teams around the world. We truly thank our lead programmer Ivan Isaev for his incredible performance in converting our former 2D engine into a full blown 3D engine, and one that will not be rejected by Apple.

There are of course many many amazing features that we have planned and hope to add in future updates of the game. But that of course depends on whether you, our fans, will like the game and purchase it.

Storyline… Check

We have turned the amazing story of the graphic novel by Radical Publishing into an interactive world filled with surprises for both the casual gamer, as well as the more advanced gamer. You are not forced to do anything in the game, except we hope that you try to stay alive and confront some of those evil armies. But if you are up for the challenge, we provide you the storyline of the game based on missions that you will gain access to based on your performance and brain-power Many thanks to Rasmus who’s been spending countless nights reading, thinking and aligning the original storyline with missions that are sure to keep you engaged for many many hours to come!

3D Models… Check
Modeling, animating and texturing has been taking a large portion of time and we have finished almost all of the in-game models and objects. We are currently tuning the textures and colors so that everything has the right ambience and is balanced in contrast to other objects and terrain.

Artwork… Check
With help from the original artists of the graphic novel, our team has dissected, retouched, and added motion and the result is stunningly beautiful game artwork. Sure, the file size of the game is waaay >20MB and requires at least a WiFi connection to be downloaded, but we say it’s definitely worth it!

Soundtrack… Check

Above is a new sample of what’s to come… The atmosphere of the soundtrack has been revised and perfected over the past couple of weeks. We are exceptionally pleased with the results and as we continue to implement the music into the game, we just keep getting happier.

Sound Design… Check

It’s all about the little things… We have been spending a lot of time perfecting the sound effects for the game. We are currently looking at implementing over 100 sounds, and the best has yet to come. This Saturday we have scheduled the voice-over team and will be recording all day so that the voices of the characters will be heard throughout the game-play.

User Interfaces… Check
We have been trying to keep the User Interfaces as clean as possible, without too many buttons, icons, and interactions. We will discuss the UI in closer detail tomorrow in the next post.

That’s it for today, and remember, to always go to REMEMBERODESSA for exclusive content…

We at Dogtown Studios are proud to announce that we have the intention to release our own 3D iDevice game engine after the release of Project Unknown, and the upcoming title ZC.

In the midst of all the rumors around Apple and the future support for current game engines, we are not willing to take the risk of adding another layer of code abstraction on top of the iPhone SDK framework. Our objective is to give back to the community in the form of Open Source, but the direction of the product is not yet decided and will depend on the level of interest from the community, as well as sponsorships.

At this time, we are seeking the help of the community, asking you to help us brand the new game engine with a name and logotype.

- The name must start with the letter C, or if there are two words, one of them need to start with the letter C.
- Should be able to associate the name of the engine with Dogtown Studios
- The brand should reflect “Power” or “Powerful”
- The color scheme and tone of the brand could be based on the Dogtown Studios brand

If anyone is up for this challenge, we will kick-off an official contest!

Got an e-mail from Scott over at AppVader letting us know they have done 2 write-ups about Project 72.

4 out of 5
“A sweet little pick-up-play that’ll have you twisting turning like it’s the 1950s”

Read both articles and check the videos out over at AppVader.