Ex-Atari Melbourne House Game Development veterans found Zengami and announce Nintendo Switch™ Exclusive, TurtlePop: Journey to Freedom
ZENGAMI ANNOUNCES TURTLEPOP: JOURNEY TO FREEDOM A NEW PLATFORM PUZZLE GAME LAUNCHING EXCLUSIVELY ON NINTENDO SWITCH™ IN MARCH 2018
New Game Marks First Collaboration for Zengami and DigiPen Game Studios
SINGAPORE, 31 January, 2018 – Zengami, comprising ex-Atari Melbourne House core team members, and DigiPen Game Studios (DGS), today announced a new platform puzzle game, TurtlePop: Journey to Freedom. The Nintendo Switch™ exclusive is expected to launch on the Nintendo eShop in March 2018.
TurtlePop: Journey to Freedom is a cross genre platform puzzle game that introduces Bebo, Deephi, Slimmie, Smarts, Willis and Sparky the Turtle. They are aided by ‘The Genie’, who is an airborne support turtle that players can use to manipulate the game world and enhance the abilities of the turtles!
The game’s Campaign mode challenges players to free the turtles from a menagerie of over 100 stages across seven game worlds in single player or two player co-op modes. Robust game mechanics seamlessly blend platform and puzzle gameplay with features including multi character control and turtle-linking, environment manipulation via block swapping, item deployment and match 3 mechanics that make challenges even more fresh, intense and fun! Through the journey, players collect Sun-Coins, Moon-Pearls and earn Treasure Chests to discover and level-up over 15 types of Building Cards and more than 40 gameplay items to help lead the turtles to freedom!
Battle and play with friends in local Multiplayer with 1-4 players in versus or co-op formats. Arena Battle Crown Thief and Arena Battle Lick’em Up modes pit players against one another in a classic Arena Battle tournament format where the aim is to wear the crown the longest or lick, color and free the most turtles to achieve victory. In Turtle Clash mode, players battle in split screen on over 75 stages that can be unlocked in Campaign mode.
TurtlePop: Journey to Freedom is exclusive and optimized for Nintendo Switch running at native 1080p 60 when docked and native 720p 60 in Tabletop or Handheld modes.
Zengami was founded by Andrew Carter, previously Head of Product Development, Game Director and Executive Producer at Atari Melbourne House together with Holger Liebnitz – Art director, and Graeme Scott – Technical director. The three game development veterans spent years honing their skills creating acclaimed titles and the cutting edge technology in StarWars (Nintendo NES), KKnD (PC), Lemans 24 Hours (Sega Dreamcast), GrandPrix Challenge (Sony PS2), Transformers Armada (Sony PS2) and more. Zengami is ready to take their console development expertise onto the Nintendo Switch™.
“We’re really delighted to be developing for a Nintendo console once again! We took a little break after Melbourne House and after years building licensed products, we decided we wanted to get back to creating our own original games and IP, like in the early years of Melbourne House. We experimented with a lot of ideas and finally came up with TurtlePop: Journey to Freedom. Nintendo really got us fired up and excited with the Switch and we decided we’d like to create something new for it! We formed Zengami with the idea of creating high quality, original and technically adept games and slowly built a new team with fresh talent here in Singapore. Through the development of TurtlePop: Journey to Freedom, Nintendo has been very supportive, and we’re big fans of the Switch. The Switch is a marvelous machine and one of my favorite consoles ever!” said Andrew Carter, CEO of Zengami.
TurtlePop: Journey to Freedom, also marks DigiPen Game Studios’ first game launch for Nintendo Switch™. Plans for Zengami to develop the game in collaboration with DigiPen Game Studios (DGS) and Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) were previously announced following the second annual DigiPen Game Conference, which was held in Singapore last February.
“DGS is excited to publish our first Nintendo Switch™ game made by a Singapore based game studio,” said Jason Chu, Chief Operating Officer – International of DigiPen Game Studios. “This brand new IP is testament to the technical capabilities of the Zengami team, headed by Andrew Carter. It is evident that the Singapore games industry has advanced to a point where we can make titles for the global market.”
About Zengami
Zengami is an independent Singapore based games company focused on creating original games and IP for the global market. The company also develops or co-develops products on a selective basis for international publishers. With years of experience creating highly rated titles for Nintendo, Sega and Sony game consoles, as well as PC, our highly talented team is creating fresh and innovative games aimed to entertain and delight game players around the world. Visit www.zengami.com for more information.
About DigiPen Game Studios
DigiPen Game Studios (DGS) is a division of DigiPen Institute of Technology Singapore. DGS works directly with third-party and independent developers to create, publish, and distribute original game titles. By building partnerships with other industry leaders, DGS helps bring the work of Singaporean game developers to a global audience. Visit www.digipengamestudios.com for more information.
