ScottishGames.biz

Tag Games - Car Jack Streets Now Available

Tag's latest release may look familiar to those of you who remember the distant past of 1997.  Car Jack Streets is a top-down driving game in which the player runs around an enormous, active city (we refuse to use the now clichéd 'living, breathing city' phrase any more).  Jumping in cars and carrying out missions.

While the idea of GTA mobile is one which has been suggested several times, there are a number of fairly serious technical issues which promised to make any mobile implementation (or port) a less exciting prospect.

Car Jack however takes the basic concept and creates something quite different.  All optimised for mobile.  The player has to earn a certain amount of money per week to pay off the mob.  That's every real week.  So the player can dip in and out of the game, but has to come up with the cash within seven days.  It's a nice touch and one which plays to the mobile phone gamer's normal habit of short periods of play. 

How players come up with the cash is up to them.  Missions are available across the city and - in another neat nod to mobile's unique capabilities, Tag have made several missions show up only at certain times of the day.  So you'll have to visit the game at 5pm, or 8:15 in order to get those higher-paying jobs.

Tag haswisely focused a lot of effort on the driving elements of the game and the car handling, via the phone keypad, is surprisingly intuitive and easy.

Before anyone starts crying 'rip-off' however we should point out that Paul Farley, the MD of Tag, was one of the original level designers for Grand Theft Auto and indeed, introduced the world to the first ever incarnation of Liberty City.  So there. If he can't be inspired by the GTA concept, no one can...

The game is being published by I-play - though the company's new 'casual portal' layout makes it more or less impossible to find any direct link online.

However you can see the game in action here on Pocket Gamer and read Mobile GameFAQ's 86% (Gold Award) review here.

No matter, you can download the game directly to your phone.  text the word 'GANG' to 80010 and follow the instructions.

There's even a promo competition where you can win a 'Hummer V Ferrari' driving experience over on MobilegameFAQs too.

We'll be speaking to Tag about Car Jack at some point very soon.

Try Before You Buy - Rock'n'Roll For Less Than A Quid

Rock'n'Roll, Tag Games first iPhone title went live on Apple's AppStore recently.  To help promote the game, the company has released Rock'n'Roll LITE, a demo featuring the first three mazes.

To celebrate, Tag has reduced the price of the full version of Rock'n'Roll, to 99c (or 59p in real money) from now until Monday 27th of October.

Tag Games spokesman Robert Henning (aka Bert), explained:

“Rock’n’Roll has been receiving some outstanding reviews from the gaming press so we expect that the Lite version will be hugely popular with iPhone gamers around the world. This version will allow every iPhone user the opportunity to try this great game for themselves without fear! We expect the upgrade price of less than a dollar will appeal to gamers who wouldn’t normally play casual games or are of a slightly timid disposition. There has certainly never been a better time to be a mobile gamer! ”

Rock’n’Roll has been picking up some decent reviews and coverage:

PocketGamer.co.uk presented the game with a Bronze Award and called the game “superb”, iPhoneGamesNetwork awarded the game 9/10 for game-play, AppCraver.com exclaimed it "a great combination of action, puzzling, and humour" and marked the game 8/10 and AppRuv.com scored the game at 4.5/5 and declared the game “well worth $5”

You'll find Rock'n'Roll - original and Lite on the Apple App Store.

Tag Games Releases First iPhone Title

Mobile studio Tag has released its first game for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Rock'n'Roll is a brand new version of the company's existing mobile title.  Players must guide 'Rock' through a maze, picking up musical notes and escape.  In a neat twist the entire maze rotates and Rock falls downwards with gravity.  The new version allows players to either use the iPhone's motion senor, to rotate the whole device, or the touch screen capabilities to control the game.

Rock'n'Roll is now live on the iPhone AppStore and you can see a video of the game in action here.

You can read the whole press release after the jump.

Satisfaction Guaranteed. Tag Shakes Up Mobile Development With Money Back Offer

Casual games studio Tag announced today that the company is offering a money back guarantee on it's mobile game projects.  If a title does not meet specified quality criteria or external analysis, the company will refund the cost of development.

According to Tag's managing director, Paul Farley, this unilateral step is something they, as a developer, are doing to decrease the risk assumed by publishers and brand owners, who may be nervous about moving into the mobile market.

Let's hear from the man himself:

“Tag has first-hand experience of the difficulties involved in a publisher or intellectual property owner selecting a trusted development partner. We realised that we could immediately and effectively reduce the risk to partners, from the development side of the equation.”

“Tag has worked very hard to build its reputation of delivering an outstanding service in terms of scheduling, budget and game-play quality. We are proud to be the first developer to offer a money back guarantee for partners using our mobile development service.”

The offer covers all mobile technologies, including Java, BREW, iPhone, Smartphone and Blackberry. 

“Creating mobile games is a complex and specialist process that often belies the seemingly simple nature of the end product," says Farley.  "We are now supporting hundreds of devices, thousands of SKU’s, dozens of languages and a multitude of new technology features, such as full 3D visuals, multiple connectivity options, motion sensing and touch-screen controls. Tag Games provides a bespoke, end-to-end service which removes all of the barriers and risks for prospective clients. The combination of Tag's skill, experience and capacity with the money back guarantee provides an unbeatable proposition!”

It's a brave decision and one which is sure to provoke interest within the mobile sector. 

If you're interested in finding out more about Tag's offer, you can contact them here.

More on this story in the near future...

Tag Games Enjoy The Braes In New Office

A slightly delayed update from the chaps at Tag Games, who got in touch to let us know that they've moved once more - into new and larger offices, to accommodate the company's ongoing expansion.

Tag now commands a splended view of the Tay - or Dundee, depending on what side of the building they're on.

Tag's phone and fax numbers remain unchanged.

Their new contact details are as follows:

Tag Games Limited

Suite 1,
First Floor
Seabraes House
Dundee
DD1 4QB

Main Tel: +44 (0) 1382 220925
Fax: +44 (0) 1382 000046

Tag Bag Gong

Paul Farley, the oddly popular MD of Tag Games in Dundee let us know earlier that the company's recent game releases, funding and corporate makeover has paid dividends. 

Last night the company started closing the gap with fellow mobilists Dynamo and Dundonian games behemoth Realtime Worlds, with their first corporate award.

Tag picked up the Most Entrepreneurial Start Up Company award at the star-studded Tayside business excellence awards ceremony.  Paul himself picked up the award from Kane, the enigmatic chief of the Brotherhood of Nod (pictured).

This is quite an achievement for the company, which started a little under two years ago.  Since then the company has released a number of games - original and branded - achieved profitability and secured seed funding.

All in all, it's been going quite well for them.  Upon questioning, Mr Farley had this to say...

“It is a fantastic honour to receive this award at the end of a hugely enjoyable and successful year. We are delighted that the innovation, creativity and skills our team has shown over the last year have been recognised at this level. We entered a highly competitive market at a difficult time and yet have risen to the challenge of building a robust and profitable business in a short period of time. ”

You can read the whole press release after the link.  In the meantime, we'd just like to add our congratulations to the general acclaim tell Tag that we love them too.

 

A Complaint...

We ran the piece about Tag's new mobile title earlier this week and indavertantly used their old logo.  Not their shiny new one.  Paul Farley, the MD was kind enought to point out our mistake gently and with a minimum of bad words.

Here is the official shiny NEW logo.  See how it glimmers and glistens.

Update: After a bit of back and forth in the comments regarding the advisability - or otherwise - of using gradients on a logo, Mr Farley contacted us to point out they did indeed create a flat colour version of the new logo.  Sassy.

Pocket Gamer Profiles New Title From TAG Games

In a round up of the recent Mobile games Forum, which took place in London, Pocket Gamer mentions Tag's latest title in a round up of games to watch...

Football Pro (TAG Games/Sports Pro Games/Smoking Gun)
This comes under what TAG describes as 'persistent casual' games – casual mobile games with a persistent online aspect. It's like a Tamagotchi sports star, so you choose a sport and select your character's basic physical attributes, and then have to become a World Class Superstar. And it involves your player interacting with AI-controlled managers powered by the game engine.

So, connected, persistant, casual gaming.  And it's football.  Sounds like Tag could be onto a winner...

We'll bring you more information on the game as soon as we can prise it out of the company.

Finally - Tag Games Meets Pocket Gamer

Pocket Gamer has posted the last interview in it's Dundee 'cluster' series.  In many ways they saved the last, till the very end.  Paul Farley, level designer, game designer and all round Chap, gives Jon Jordan the background on Tag, the future of mobile gaming and the similarities between grannies and lemmings.

You can find the Interview here.

As usual, we provide the first question to whet your appetite and convince to you go read the rest...

Pocket Gamer: You've worked for some of Dundee's biggest console game developers, so can you give us a potted history of your early career?

Paul Farley: I graduated in architecture but didn't like it much. At that point, DMA Design was hiring level designers, so my first job was designing for the original Grand Theft Auto

I went there as lead designer on State of Emergency, which did okay commercially – it sold about two million copies – but got hammered critically. Actually, I left before it came out. I learnt a hell of a lot, especially about running a business and how to manage people. It was both a good and bad experience.

game. I worked on a bunch of other games there, but eventually got bored. I suppose as a career move I should have stuck it out and gone onto work for Rockstar. I'd probably be driving a Porsche now, but anyhow, a few of us left DMA and looking for a fresh challenge, joined Vis Interactive.

Go on, you know you want to.  It beats working...

Tag Games - Growing For Gold

Tag Games, Dundee's favourite mobile game developer (the mobile companies in Dundee all get on very well and swap this title between themselves weekly) and one of the UK's Top 50 Mobile Companies, is expanding.

The company moved into new, larger offices in the summer are are now looking to increase their headcount substantially. 

Tag is currently after...

• Entry Level Programmers
• Entry Level Artists
• Senior Programmers
• Senior Artists
• Head Of Game Technology
• Game Architect

So if you're interested, or you know some talented soul who would like to be at the forefront of the mobile games revolution (Indistria! Communicacion!  Prosperidad!), get in touch with the MD Paul Farley.