Rock Pocket Games celebrates Oliver&Spike Game Connection Feature with new development video

Tønsberg (Norway) – February 17, 2012 – Rock Pocket Games, a small independent studio from Tønsberg, Norway has been selected as one of 15 promising game projects to be featured at Game Connection 2012 in San Francisco.

“This is a great honor for us and of course a huge opportunity,” says Natascha Röösli from Rock Pocket Games. “It’s also all a bit fast however, since we recently completely overhauled the development build while practically improving the game-play, look and feel of the game drastically all within just one month. I am really looking forward to see what we can do in more than a month”.

Oliver&Spike: Dimension Jumpers is a mix between old-school adventure and platform game-play. We follow Oliver and Spike on their main quest to discover the past, present and future of the Multiverse they live in.

“While we were very much inspired by the immersive storytelling of the Uncharted series, the great cut scenes and character depth from Ratchet & Clank, and the game-play of the Zelda franchise, we also added our own flavor to the mix”, says Ivan Moen.

“As we have said before, the characters and the world are a driving force for the player to want to push on and solve those puzzles to unlock more secrets and learn what this story is actually about. That is the reason we are focusing on a storyline that begins even before you start the game,” says Natascha.

The most interesting game-play feature Rock Pocket Games is introducing with Oliver&Spike is the element of Dimension Jumping: 
Each of the worlds (called Clusters) consists of at least 3 alternate Dimensions which require Oliver and Spike to switch between in order to progress through the main quest-line. These Dimensions have the same basic shape but can be fundamentally very different. The Firma Dimension, for example, enables Oliver to bounce and jump higher, while the Aqual Dimension is submerged entirely in water. With Oliver’s special ability, he can switch to available Dimensions at any given time as long as a few pre-requisites are met.

These Dimensions, however, don’t just serve as a quick go-to point to get along on the main world. The alternate Dimensions have their own look and feel and characters with side quests, collectibles and secrets to uncover and explore. While you can quickly switch to the Aqual Dimension to swim up to an otherwise inaccessible ledge, you will also be encountering its quirky and often zany inhabitants. You can catch a quick glimpse of Oliver switching from Terra to the Firma dimension while running in the development video.

Rock Pocket Games explains that while the focus of the game is to make sure it can be played alone, they are trying to implement as much co-op mode game-play as possible too. In the newly featured development video you can see an example of this when Spike is distracting a vicious plant so that Oliver can climb past and push the log down which, in turn, enables Spike to progress to the other side.

“I have been a gamer since I was little and now I am in the age where I am really looking forward to playing Oliver&Spike together with my nephew”, Natascha says. “Our generation grew up with games and it’s great to have the option to share the same interest with our kids, especially if we can fit it into our busy schedules”.

“We never understood why you should limit a game to a specific platform either,” continues Natascha. “This doesn’t mean just porting a game from a Console to PC but also adding additional, different, mini games, which explain more about the world or give your more insight into a specific character, to mobile devices and social media channels. We do have this expertise in house and a very experienced team. It would be a total waste not to use its potential when it comes to different platforms. It also presents a unique opportunity for further immersive storytelling. We are currently researching for the possibility of a link between console builds and social media.”

Oliver&Spike Dimension Jumpers will be featured at Game Connection in San Francisco after being selected as one of 15 projects out of 85 which show promising and innovative new game-play. The team has the opportunity to present the game, including a featured trailer, to a wide audience and is hoping for interested parties to talk to about publishing and funding opportunities.