Tønsberg situated Rock Pocket Games wins 3rd Norwegian Game Developer Gameplay Competition

For the third time in series the Norwegian Film Institute (NFI), which is also responsible for helping Norwegian Game Developers with funding for their games, organized the NM i Gameplay competition.

71 Entrants signed up to try their hands at the challenge to create a prototype or game within a week. The theme with the name “Size Matters” was announced on the 27th of December and the contestants had to present their game or prototype on Saturday the 5th of January to the audience and a selected Jury.

Rock Pocket Games' “Shiftlings”, a platform puzzler, which can be played both alone or with a friend, revolves around two Alien Twins who are attached to each other through a cable. In single player mode the player can switch the controls between the two aliens on top of switching the size of the two, while in co-op mode, each player controls one of the two twins. Switching size between the two characters is an important part of getting through the tricky puzzles. The smaller size enables higher jumps while the bigger Twin can’t jump but instead is able to push boxes and can be used as a trampoline by the smaller counterpart. The Cable, that connects to two Twins, provides both challenges but also solutions to get the two through the puzzles and to the end goal of each level.

"It's supposed to be a humorous single or co-op puzzle experience. The cable makes for some surprising puzzle solutions but can also create quite a challenge since in some of the more tricky puzzles you have to make sure the cable doesn't get cut by closing doors or other obstacles", says Natascha Röösli.

“The most amazing part was to see how efficient we can be as a team if we can concentrate all our resources on one project. Normally our team of eight in-house Rock Pocketeers is split up and working on different projects simultaneously, so we can fund our own games such as Oliver&Spike or Gametracer.” says Ivan Moen. “We really would love to be able to work in this way, with everyone concentrating on the same game, more often”.

"We used three assets from our Oliver&Spike Game as some background objects but other than that every single object, the characters, the design, gameplay, programming and levels were made within five days and developed in Unity."

The Final Event, which was held in Oslo, saw over 30 finished prototypes dreamed up and developed by Norwegian indie studios among them many students and one-man teams.

Rock Pocket Games' Prototype won 100 000 NOK and advertising space for 50 000 NOK on spill.no.

"We are currently evaluating possible platforms and hope to expand on the prototype levels. There is so much potential to create additional fun and challenging puzzles with possible inclusion of enemies and much more", says Natascha. 

At this point there is no deadline for a release but the studio hopes to have news on that front soon.