Designer Blog Part 6 – Bits and Bobs

So we’ve been talking about the gameplay tweaks we made to Chime to get it ready for release after its long journey through the creative ether. We’ve dealt with the two biggest changes – to timers and to multipliers. Now we’ll cover all the other bits and bobs – we’ve got a lot to get [...]

Musical Style, Space and Structure

The Prototyping phase of Chime was great. I think fondly of my time in “the lab” (Zoe Mode’s prototyping department), working in the pinnacle of Zoe Towers, harnessing lightning and cosmic rays, surrounded by test tubes and half built doomsday devices … A very small team of brilliant mad professors. It was clear that having [...]

Designer Blog Part 5 – Fun! Fun! (or Fun 2)

Last time, we talked about some of the changes we made to the prototype version of Chime to make it ready for release. Hopefully, we’ll give you an insight into some of the design processes we go through in the life-cycle of a game. Or maybe you were just reading something to pass the time [...]

Chime release date announced – 3rd February 2010

Designer Blog Part 4 – Fun!

Gameplay. Designers love it. It makes us wobble like blancmanges and burst out in song for no apparent reason. This part of the blog’s all about what gameplay changes we made for the final version of Chime and why. As mentioned in previous blogs, the core mechanics were fantastic. However, the Lab – the experimental [...]

Chime Passes Submission

On the 4th January 2010 Chime passed submission. Talks are now underway to set a release date for the title.

Designer Blog Part 3 – OneBigGame… They’re Great

You’ll recall last time we talked about how Chime had matured into something beautiful, like a fine, full-flavored cheese. Oh cheese, beautiful cheese. This time round, we’ll talk about OneBigGame and take a peek at the challenges we’d face to make the game ready for release. So Zoë had a game that they really wanted [...]

Designer Blog Part 2 – The Travelling Troubadour

Welcome back to the Chime designer blog. In this installment, you’ll learn about Chime’s formative adventures through Zoёland, the magical world where all of us game elves live and work. To recap, Chime had started life as Cascade, a fun musical puzzler on the PSP. It was the first project of the Lab, Zoë Mode’s [...]