The 2012 Game Jam has begun. To our game enthusiasts, the Global Game Jam is probably a familiar topic. But, if you’re not in the know, a Game Jam is a 48 hour ‘competition’ in which teams take a topic and try to make a game out of it. It’s a fun way for developers to dust off their rapid prototyping skills and jump into the fray for some good ol’ fashioned crunch time panic!
We, of course, couldn’t pass up the opportunity. SmugBee Games will be at the Philadelphia GGJ site partying it up the only way nerds can…by pumping our bodies with greasy food, quaffing borderline illegal energy beverages, and staring at computer screens until our eyes are burned out of our heads. So, if you’re in the area, stop on by and say hello and check out what we’re working on. If you can’t make it, have no fear. We’ll be posting our 48 hour product to the SmugBee website once the competition is over.
To all our fellow developers taking part in the GGJ around the world, we salute you and wish you the best of luck.
Break out your crackers and spoons. Its time to jam!
The SmugBee team is excited. I mean, really excited. Party hard, slip’n'slide, beer commercial style excited!
We are proud to announce our official release of our first game title, Skyline. It is now available on both the Android Marketplace and Facebook for your playing pleasure. Skyline is an arcade style puzzle game that is designed to test your vocabulary and spelling skills. Your objective is to swap letter tiles around a board to spell words while racing against the clock. The longer the words or the more combos you create, the better the points awards. Being fast is key, as creating consecutive words quickly will increase the points in the form of a multiplier bonus. Tougher levels and special tiles help to mix it up a little, too, and test your abilities.
The game features a fantastic single player set of challenge modes but it really shines with our Multiplayer mode. You can pit your spelling prowess against your friends and other players online through our game matching system. You can create or join games with your buddies specifically, or just click ‘Quick Play’ to be matched with someone’s game at random. And with team games, free for all, and different game modes you really can pick your poison.
Not enough for you? Well we put together a few challenges for you to strive to get. Hey, playing games is easy, but what fun is there in not having some nice badges to flaunt. Skyline will feature 25 achievements for you to be smug about. These aren’t Mommy’s achievements, where you earn a badge just for turning the game on: We really wanted to present you with some challenges here. And when you’re done with those, perhaps we’ll have a few more up our sleeves to throw your way…
That’s a lot of game. I mean, how often do you see all these great features in one package? And we’re offering it all for the price of… Free. On the house. Gratis. Play all you want, because we wanted to share our first release with as many people as possible. SmugBee has worked really hard to deliver something that we can be proud of, and we’d rather see people trying it and enjoying it.
A special thanks to our team, who put so much of themselves into this game and remained so dedicated. And, thank you to the players. We hope to see you on the Skyline servers soon!
Well well well, it appears that it should be about time that the SmugBee check in and hand out updates to any curious surfers out there on the net.
It is official, SmugBee Games LLC is proudly ready to spread its wings and venture into the great unknown. By that, of course, I mean the great and wondrous world that is Game Development! While we’re certainly happy, it hasn’t just been champagne popping and dancing around with lampshades on our heads. It’s been a busy few months for the team as we’ve been working away and getting organized in time for our anticipated release of Skyline.
We have seen some fantastic improvements on the project over the last couple of months thanks to the invaluable input and feedback that we’ve received from interested gamers and fellow developers. The project is feeling more refined, polished, and fun with every passing day.
Recently, SmugBee Games has put forward a new effort to port Skyline over to mobile devices. We felt that Skyline’s gameplay and accessible puzzle challenges made it’s design particularly well suited for casual gamers who would want to sit down for a few minutes and play while they’re out and about. Our end goal will be to have Skyline available on both the Android and iOS in the near future. Wish us luck and stay in touch.
SmugBee Games recently attended and presented at the Too Many Games Show in Oaks, PA. The turnout was great, the presentations were impressive, and the tunes were jive. We got a chance to present attendees with a sampling of our current project, Skyline, both in its PC format and its touchscreen version. Nothing warms our souls more than seeing people sitting down and enjoying our games, so we’d like to give a special thanks to all those who swung by the table to take a gander and chat with us. We got some fantastic feedback from fellow developers and gamers alike, and even got some suggestions on how we can take this project to the next level.
Since we had so many requests from people who wanted to keep playing Skyline after the show, we have made a single-player demo available on our site. Head on over to the Skyline page to Check It Out.
The show was much larger than expected and we would like to give a round of applause to everyone involved in its organization and execution. To our fellow presenters, everything looked great and there were some very interesting projects on display. All around, it was impressive to see so many developers with such a wide array of interesting projects on show. Our team got a chance to meet to great people, get a hold of a little nostalgia, and even have fun learning the proper forms and mentality to be a Samurai warrior thanks to our friends over at PA Jedi. What purpose would the SmugTeam have for katana swordplay you ask? Stay tuned to our site to find out!
In summary, and for those who think the above was ‘tl;dr’, Too Many Games was a great show and thank you to everyone who made it happen and who took an interest in our company. We look forward to many more events with you all in the future.
The first official SmugBee appearance will be at this year’s TooManyGames show at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, PA. Come support SmugBee and other developers from the Philadelphia region. Play some games, share some laughs, and talk development with the friendly SmugBee team. Hey, we may even hand out some free SmugStuff!
We’ll also be offering some sneak peaks at our current in-development projects. Its an exciting time for us so come on down and share in the festivities, it should be a great show. We’ll be in attendance from May 6th – May 8th.
For more information on the TooMany Games Show visit their website here.
Welcome to the homepage and company website of SmugBee Games. We are an independent game developer based out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania specializing in game design and interactive entertainment. Our mission is to deliver innovative, unique, and fun gaming experiences to our customers and build a fan base for our work as a company. Above all, we want to entertain and serve as a shining example of what a team of independent developers can achieve when driven by passion and a constant desire to better our craft. We want our fans to know that when they see the smug smile of our mascot, they are assured that they are receiving a product with a high standard of quality and an experience that will keep them coming back for more.
We encourage you to explore our site and take a glimpse at what we have in the works. If you have any questions or comments feel free to contact us via the form at the bottom of the page. We are always happy to hear from curious gamers, fellow developers, and especially savvy investors so don’t hesitate to drop us a line!
And, before you ask, we have no idea why the bee is so smug. We just make games.
