Ex-Pandemic staff announce iPhone game
Three of the people left out in the cold when EA shut Pandemic have now set up a new studio and announced their first game – Bullet Train on the iPhone!
EA bought up Pandemic Studios in 2007, and by 2009 had shut down the small developer behind such gems as Mercenaries, Full Spectrum Warrior, and Destroy All Humans. What do you do if you’re swallowed up by a bigger entity before being spat out just as quickly? Why, start again from the bottom, of course.
According to Meodia, former Pandemic devs, Manny Vega, Zach Haefner, and Ariel Tal have started Downsized Games, with Bullet Train, an iPhone exclusive, their first game.
A section of the game’s story makes it clear where the inspiration came from:
You used to run a small shipping company on your home planet of Glendon-19 but a hostile takeover by Elaborate Acquisitions, your local B-rail corporation, has left you out on the streets. With the help of your best driver, Atal, you scrape together your last credits and outfit your transport ship/bedroom with enough weaponry to take down the corporations B-rails. It’s time to hand out the pink-slips, in blood. BulletTrain!!!!!!!!!!!
It’s nice to see good talent not going to waste, although making games for the iPhone is a massive departure from making console games. Still, with a team of just three, and a name such as Downsized Games, I guess it’s what we should have expected.
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28 Responses to “Ex-Pandemic staff announce iPhone game”
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March 31st, 2010
who cares about Iphone games. Don’t you have a Iphone section on Blorge. Stick this over there.
March 31st, 2010
There is even game news in the tech section. Are you guys confused or what.
March 31st, 2010
It’s a gamble making game for the iPhone. On one hand they’re cheap to make, on the other, they can get lost in all the crap that finds it’s way on it.
March 31st, 2010
Many of these games are not different at all from several of the more popular offerings on XBL and PSN for 360 and PS3 (Peggle at #11 and 93 score for a HOME console???), let alone PSP. iPod Touch games (yes, that is what they are essentially, touch games, even though they can be played on the iPhone as well) just surpassed PSP games this year in total revenue, and there are more well reviewed games for it out this year than any other handheld. One of the reasons why is devs have more freedom to do what they want on the platform with less obstacles to overcome. iPod Touch games even took marketshare away from DS, which is no small feat.
March 31st, 2010
is braid any good? im thinkin about buying it off the playstation store.
March 31st, 2010
“who cares about Iphone games. Don’t you have a Iphone section on Blorge. Stick this over there.”
Exactly what I was going to post.
March 31st, 2010
“just surpassed PSP games this year in total revenue, and there are more well reviewed games for it out this year than any other handheld. ”
They wont get one more cent from me. Also the Iphone/touch is not a handheld. They are a Phone and media player.
March 31st, 2010
@Carlb
I’m trying after your suggestions. I have two hours a day of train commute and I still rather read the paper on my iPhone or browse this site then play those games.
I know I’m only playing the lite or demo version, but so far nothing has appealed to me while many PSN games have (Critter crunch is f’in awesome). The few PSP titles I played, I also enjoyed more (Daxter, LocoRoco, Chains)
@Liquid
Braid is reviewed well, but I haven’t been able to get into it (really didn’t try that much) I bought it because I received an Amazon $20 towards PSN titles on the site with a previous purchase. I got that, Shatter and Critter Crunch.
March 31st, 2010
“I’m trying after your suggestions. I have two hours a day of train commute and I still rather read the paper on my iPhone or browse this site then play those games.”
I have 1 hour. 1/2 each way and I watch movies or read emails.
March 31st, 2010
Maybe plants vs zombies will have a free demo. I’m not paying for something that I may very well hate.
March 31st, 2010
“Maybe plants vs zombies will have a free demo. I’m not paying for something that I may very well hate.”
Exactly why apple sells so many. They are so cheap people (I) take chances we wouldn’t on a $40-$60 PSP or DS Game. After wasting around $200 I gave up.
March 31st, 2010
CAD – “who cares about Iphone games. Don’t you have a Iphone section on Blorge. Stick this over there.”
agree…
March 31st, 2010
@Liquid
Braid is fucking boring dude, that was a waste of $10 for me….pick up something else.
Trine is really good
@Phranc
how is Critter crunch? I have been hearing good things about it but idk what kind of game it is
March 31st, 2010
Critter Crunch is great and so worth $4.99
It’s a puzzle games.
The concept is: You have the Toad like character that sticks his tongue out and grabs flies and then refeeds them to larger critters in which he refeeds those to larger ones. The puzzle aspect comes into play as when you overfeed a critter (two feedings) he explodes and takes out any same color critters above him. Reading this to myself, it actually sounds pretty fuckin stooopid, but it’s an enjoyable puzzle game and one of the better PSN titles I purchased.
March 31st, 2010
lol, I might give it a try since its cheap
March 31st, 2010
“lol, I might give it a try since its cheap”
LOL Thanks for proving my point.
March 31st, 2010
“LOL Thanks for proving my point.”
that’s the iPhone games logic CarlB’s brain cant understand
March 31st, 2010
I know, there is a lot of Logic Carl’s brain can’t comprehend.
March 31st, 2010
Braid is brilliant. How could you hate that game?
March 31st, 2010
Braid is boring as shit and there is alot of back tracking just to get things right and keep up the boredom and to make things worse, the soundtrack is horrible, slow and boring
March 31st, 2010
So basically the game is to hard for you. Stick to easy PS3 game then.
March 31st, 2010
@Cad
I don’t see how braid is brilliant it seems to me like a puzzled platformer. There were several for the NES
March 31st, 2010
I’ll give Braid some more of my time some time in the future.
My first impressions were far from spectacular, which I’ve seen it referred as.
Personally I’ve enjoyed Shatter and Critter Crunch more and they were a fraction of the cost and all bought at the same time.
April 1st, 2010
Even cheap games get universal acclaim on PS3. Hello Peggle. I get the whole price point logic, but then why aren’t cheaper PSN games that you can also play on PSP getting as good reviews?
April 1st, 2010
Carl
I believe this is because they usually post scores based on the system itself. Thats why several reviewers post multiple scores for different systems of the same game. Besides They don’t review the cross platformability from ps3 to psp.
April 1st, 2010
I think I misread or read to deeply into your post carl
April 1st, 2010
the price point logic was that people are more likely to spend money on a $1-$5 game than on a $30-$40.
they will just buy the cheap games just to try it out even if it suck or even if they will never actually play it after the first 20 mins. so that’s why cheap games sells more and create more profit
April 2nd, 2010
Yes, PS3 owners have bought Peggle because it is cheap, but it is also universally acclaimed for that specific console.