Aquastax

Aquastax
AquaStax splashscreen
Developer(s)	InfoSpace IOMO
Publisher(s)	InfoSpace
Designer(s)	Fergus McNeill
Programmer(s)	Steve Longhurst
Engine	J2ME
Platform(s)	Mobile game
Release date(s)	‹See Tfd› EU: 2006
Genre(s)	Platform game
Mode(s)	Single-player

Aquastax is a J2ME mobile game written in 2005–2006 by Infospace dev team (formerly iomo). The project was led primarily by Fergus McNeill and Steve Longhurst.

The Game was incredibly well-received and often compared favourably as a cross between Tetris and Lemmings platformer games.^[1]

Gameplay

The game featured 50 timed-levels whereby the player would try to guide the little people called 'Gumblers' up, away from rising waters, to a safe-haven. This was achieved by dropping interlocking blocks from above to dictate the Gumbler's path to safety. The block shapes included those with sloping surfaces, meaning that badly stacked blocks could slide off and fall down easily. While brightly coloured, the blocks were not direct copies of Tetrominos as seen in Tetris, though due to their bright colours and the similar stacking mechanism it is apparent why parallels to Tetris were made.

The levels spanned different world types, including Beach, Lava, Toxic & Industrial. Each level type had different hazards, like hungry seagulls or stinging wasps.

The player was scored on the number of Gumblers saved, the time taken and the number of blocks used. At the end of each level, the user could enter a 3-character-tag for their hi-score records, allowing the user to come back to replay the level.

Gumblers

In-Game action: a group of Gumblers wait for the path to the exit to be cleared.

Gumblers are a race of creatures on the verge of extinction due to a change in their habitat, caused by a wider change in the climate. They realised they would have to traverse 50 worlds to escape.

They love:

• fishing
• dancing
• climbing

The hate:

• water
• seagulls
• lava

They have been compared to Lemmings and when unable to climb have a wide variety of idle-animations. Gumblers wear wooly hats and a mountaineering rucksack. When a path is cleared above them, they will throw up a rope to indicate they are able to climb up.

The name originated after the project QA Lead Mark Rodgers successfully petitioned IOMO to name them after his former boss Dave Gumble.

Developer

IOMO started in 2000 developing software for Mobile phone companies like Nokia. In 2005, InfoSpace acquired IOMO: As a studio within the InfoSpace group, IOMO games were published under the InfoSpace brand.

The company committed a large team, under Fergus McNeill & Steve Longhurst, to deliver this key title across many contemporary mobile devices.

• Aquastax published by InfoSpace, 2006.

The game was part of IOMO's strategy to foster and create brand-new IP as part of the new Infospace group strategy. Other games in this period include the award-winning^[2] Dirty Sanchez title.

It was heavily promoted on Infospace's behalf at trade-events and featured promotional videos and demonstrations during 2005. It was launched 2006 across a range of devices to positive reviews.

Fergus McNeill and John Chasey fronted the promotion for Aquastax at the CTIA Wireless 2005 trade show^[3] - as was reported by GameSpot's Stephen Palley, "...InfoSpace Mobile's Aqua Stax looks like the real deal--a brand-new puzzle game that actually has a halfway original concept behind it.".^[4]

IGN's own Levi Buchanan was also at the 2005 preview and praised IOMO's development team's efforts by adding "...at a show where I have seen more than a fair share of licensed games, it's refreshing to see something completely original."^[5]

The official trailer used during the 2005 promotion tour was subsequently uploaded for posterity by Steve Longhurst: "...A fair bit of effort was spent promoting it too, including creating this video.".^[6]

Reception

Overall, it garnered favourable reviews: Chris Maddox, Pocket Gamer, 16 November 2006: "Easy to get into, nice bold visuals and an addictive quality makes Aqua Stax well worth a look for block-heads of all ages".^[1]

References