GameCity

The end of October is always a time we look forward to at Angry Mango - not for Halloween (although we are partial to fancy dress), but rather to the most exciting games industry event of the year: GameCity. For those who don't know, GameCity is an independent game festival held in Nottingham each year, and includes a variety of awesome events - from interesting and inspirational talks from big indie names, to street events that take over the city, to social evenings of crazy games like Joust and B.U.T.T.O.N.

This year, we were lucky enough to be showcasing Mush on the phone in the main tent for a total of five hours. It's always fantastic to get members of public playing the game, in particular seeing kids get so excited about it! For the first time, we were even handed some Mush fan art:

This inspired us to invite other visitors to draw some art on the blackboard by our display:

A huge thanks to everyone who came along to see us!

We also had a brilliant time taking part in other events, such as seeing the UK premier of the fantastically creative film Kooky, speaking on the Guardian gamesblog breakfast on Thursday alongside industry legend Richard Lemarchand (Naughty Dog) and my personal inspiration, Robin Hunicke (That Game Company), and watching Mush being played by Eric Chahi (From Dust)!

Sadly, it's all over now for another year. If you missed it, put next year's festival in your diary NOW - and Keep an eye out for the festival write up on the Guardian.

Mush is alive!

Yes indeed, Mush is alive and well and, what's more, it was officially announced as an Xbox LIVE title at Gamescom last month! Mush was showcased along with thirteen other titles, which you can read all about here, at the Windows Phone 7 booth and it has been featured on this awesome Xbox LIVE trailer!



The news seems to have had a pretty positive response from the media again (wpcentral, among others), and it's great to be back in the limelight, shown alongside such fantastic titles as Kinectimals, after beavering away quietly for so long! We can also tell you what it is we've been doing (other than completing our studies), such as adding a fresh new interface for the Windows Phone 7, those all important achievements and polishing a-plenty.

In the many months since posting, there has of course been two other very exciting events for us! Firstly, we had the privilege of attending the GAME BAFTAs back in March, which was a fantastic evening and a fitting culmination of our Dare to be Digital experience. Sadly, the only trophies we came away with were the complimentary chocolate BAFTAs, which were a bit smaller than the real thing but nevertheless very tasty, but a (belated) congratulations is in order for the Ones to Watch winners, That Game Studio. The second event was our win at BAFTA Cymru in May (that's BAFTA Wales for any non-Welsh speakers!), at which we received the New Media Award against competition from the BBC and Ethos Creative.

We promise that Mush isn't too far away, and more amazing updates will be coming your way soon!

We have a lot of thrilling news since the last blog post :)

After what seemed like a very long term last term working pretty solidly on Mush, with the aid of many energy drinks and the 24 hour corner shop, we managed to complete the game by the Christmas holiday and have a much, much needed break. Although the original plan was to submit Mush to the Marketplace in time for Christmas, we are currently discussing some exciting options with Microsoft, and unfortunately this has meant pushing back the release of the game.

We have also this week sent off a BAFTA goodie box!



As well as the phones and Zunes for the judges to play with, we included some promotional materials to help demonstrate marketability - hopefully the plushies will be as popular as they were at ProtoPlay! It also includes the brand new promotional video, which will be available for your viewing pleasure in the not too distant future...

And finally, if you've already bought your February edition of Edge magazine, you might already have found Mush in the preview section. If not, I would recommend it!

Progress and New Images

So we've been in development a good few months now and we've learnt to realistically schedule (and work unrealistic hours) but we seem very much on track.

Most of the progress has been behind the scenes with level design, phone integration and some tasty new features that we'll announce shortly.

Here's a concept piece for a new world theme:



And here's a new level select screen, giving a sneak peek of how many levels will be in the final version:

GameCity - The Lounge

Work is as intense as ever with the 10th December deadline beginning to loom. We've been mainly focusing on adding new content, creating some mega awesome levels and integrating a brand spanking new emotion to really mix things up.

The last few days we've been showcasing in the lounge down at GameCity in Nottingham. Having regular Vietnam-style flashbacks of ProtoPlay and intensely trying to sell the game to 5 year old's as if they were games industry veterans was an interesting experience. Note to self, this is no longer a competition and kids don't dig elevator pitches. All the same, everyone seemed to enjoy Mush and we got to meet some great people.



The highlight of the event for me had to be seeing Keita Takahashi playground designs. That and working with Studio Output in developing the Mush brand and how we should approach our viral video campaign.

Also, keep your eyes open when looking through Edge. There should be a delightful upcoming surprise.

Lots of Exciting News

It's been quiet here on the Angry Mango blog for the last few weeks, and whilst I'd like to tell you that we've all been having a nice relaxing break, putting our feet up and watching Neighbours, the reality is that there has been little downtime in which to recover from the emotionally draining climax of Dare to be Digital. So here is an update of what has been going on behind the scenes and, more importantly, the plan for the coming months.

With four of us now back in Newport for third year, this week has been one of planning and scheduling. The new goal in mind is now finishing and releasing the game, which involves not only reworking some aspects of the prototype but also introducing an entirely new emotional theme and mechanic. With a shiny new level editor, a phone development model, a strict schedule and as close to nine to five working hours as possible when juggling final projects and dissertations, we are confident in aiming for a Christmas release.

Thanks to Microsoft we have had some awesome opportunities to get involved in industry events such as the WP7 developers conference in London, PDC 10 in Seattle and, excitingly, the WP7 UK launch party. We are also investigating the possibility of attending Game City 2010, which is a free public event, so we will keep you posted on that.

And there is yet another exciting piece of news! With all this professional experience we feel we have reached the logical point at which to officially open as a business. At these early stages we are still researching seeking advice from various sources, but it is pretty certain that within the next few weeks Angry Mango will be a legal company.

That's all for now, since we need to get a good night's sleep for a full day of work tomorrow - and every day - until the end of time. We will leave you with this lovely video interview in which Henry, Greg and Dennis chat to Ubelly.

We won!

We won! The first ever mobile phone game nominated for a BAFTA Ones to Watch award is 'Mush' for the Windows Phone 7. It's also the first mobile phone game ever to win Dare to be Digital.

It's been a fantastic experience and we've really enjoyed the rollercoaster ride.

We're now pushing on with development and planning to release for the Windows Phone 7.

Thanks everyone for the support!