Doctor Who Legacy - interviewing Lee and Susan of Tiny Rebel Games

Doctor Who Legacy - interviewing Lee and Susan of Tiny Rebel Games

Doctor Who Legacy is a free gem-matching game that has a strong emphasis on the show's history, and uses RPG elements to take on teams of baddies while letting you play a team of your own making.

Fiendishly addictive and eminently playable, the game's been on my portable player for a while (to my wife's continued annoyance) and I was lucky enough to be granted a Q&A with the Tiny Rebel Games' team of Lee and Susan about their past, the game's past and future and the imminent launch of Bigger on the Inside (March 25th!).

First off, just a thanks for making a game that’s really taken off with the community . I’m keen to know how the idea of the game actually came to fruition?
We decided we wanted to design and produce our first mobile game, and to publish it at the same time. For two people this sounded like (and indeed was) a massive undertaking, so we decided that we wouldn’t make the whole project riskier by trying to create our own intellectual property at the same time. Instead we would find something we loved, something we would happily build a game around, even at the expense of having a chance of creating our own universe. We watch a lot of BBC shows, and at the time we had just finished watching the 2nd series of Sherlock (which we loved, huge fans of all of Moffatt’s work) so we approached BBC Worldwide about a Sherlock, which they said no to, but they wanted to work with us and were curious whether we wanted to make a Doctor Who game. We’ve watched so much Doctor Who in our lives that later that same day we pitched the Legacy project to them.

I know both of you had a background in gaming – can you tell us a little more about what you were doing?
Lee started in QA at Sony, before moving to Rockstar Games where he ended up producing on the Grand Theft Auto series, as well as working on many other projects there. At the same time, Susan was doing deals for Rockstar, then she co-founded 2K games, signing their launch slate of titles including gems like Bioshock and Borderlands. After they both left they founded several games companies together, launching projects such as the critically acclaimed Order Up Wii game, and War of the Worlds.

Was a Doctor Who game like this always on your mind to create?
This was the first idea we discussed after we found out that there was a chance we could work on a Doctor Who game, and we loved it so much that it’s changed very little from that first conversation. We love to play gem games in our spare time, and designed / produced a game together years ago, Puzzle Kingdoms, as a collaboration with Steve Fawkner, who created Puzzle Quest.

How much did your love of the show permeate the fact you were creating a game for it – did that make it harder?
It makes certain things harder. It would be better if we had a narrower knowledge of the show, since it becomes overwhelming trying to pick between so many amazing episodes, so many amazing characters. The game has heavily impacted our viewing of the show as well since we need to have a certain amount of spoiler filled information before an episode ends in order to create content which is launched alongside (such as the season 8 episodes, and the Christmas episode this year). As a couple who really love to watch new episodes together, having that impacted makes everything a bit harder.

I know the BBC has been supportive of what you’re doing with Legacy, that must make a real difference?
This game wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for the amazing, unrelenting support from the brand team at the BBC and the Doctor Who team in Cardiff. We have over 100 allies and companions, the actors behind each need to give us approval to use their likeness, and every enemy we add has to be signed off by the person who created them. It’s a colossal amount of work behind the scenes, and work which is vital to the continuation of the game. We talk to our producer at the BBC almost daily (and he frequently joins in for our weekly Twitch chats) because, if we didn’t have that level of constant communication, we could never dream of launching the amount of content that we do.

The game’s over a year old now, with something like 1.5 million players and it’s ever evolving, does it surprise you how far you’ve come in a year?
It’s shocked us. Before launch, rumours of a gem based Doctor Who game leaked out and the first response was very negative. The game launched, and reviews were amazing, but we weren’t sure if our grand experiment, a continually updated, live mobile game, running alongside a TV show, would make it to the end of the first month. We’re amazed every day by what the community which has sprung up around the game has allowed us to do. We launched new content day and date alongside an episode of the show many times, which is unprecedented in the mobile space. We’ve updated the game almost weekly (on average, easily weekly) for the last 15 months, which is almost unprecedented. Last year a new mobile game was launched something like every 9 minutes, the chances of the project failing (especially given the long, uneven history of Doctor Who games) were high. We’re eternally grateful to the fans who support the game, who trust us to be the caretakers of this project.

Partnerships with Big Finish characters, Titan Comics, Pixel Who - what else do you want to explore in the Who-niverse? And how much deeper into the worlds I’ve just mentioned will you go?
We definitely want to explore all those worlds in much greater detail. This morning we’ve been working on new levels to go out alongside the new 9th Doctor comic book series coming soon, and we’re talking to Big Finish about how to continue our relationship. Pixel Who have been amazing, and we’re less than a week from the launch of the Bigger on the Inside prologue, which we’re incredibly excited about. Our work with BBC’s books group led to the inclusion of Cinder from Engines of War, the War Doctor’s only companion, which is great to see in the game – these allies from the extended universe who finally get to go on adventures with the whole cast.

It feels to me like the game and your approach to it is one of fluidity and community (with your constant email support and also Sharee’s work on the FaceBook page, Adi’s weekly Twitch stream) – you’re always adapting to your community, creating levels like Anna’s Playground for the younger end, being shaped by feedback as well, is that why you believe your free-to-play game has been so successful?
We believe that the industry’s first attempt at creating a free to play space missed the mark a bit and created a space where users were forced into paying through hard paywalls, horrible ideas like energy meters and utilized exploitative social networking. Sadly this worked, which left a space where players felt exploited, and businesses face a choice of doing what is proven to make money, or try to create something new which could fail. We believe that there is another way, something more fair. Legacy is our first attempt at making a free to play game, and the game has been praised as “the most moral free to play game”, but we still think there are other ways the industry should be heading. People seem to appreciate this, and it seems to have gone a long way to us maintaining high ratings on the app stores. When you combine this mentality with a fierce love of Doctor Who, it becomes pretty powerful stuff if you’re a gamer interested in that specific space. For new users, especially fans of Doctor Who, that’s a pretty happy and awesome community to be welcomed into if you do love what Legacy offers, which is the real success of the game.

You’ve got Bigger on the Inside coming out on 25th March to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the new series; the artwork looks fun and the game is again evolving (some may say regenerating perhaps) – what are you excited for people to see with this release?
This is our first story which starts with all 13 Doctors present, which is an amazing opportunity. The full Bigger on the Inside story is over 120 levels, which is almost as big as the game was when we launched. The story is epic – many of the Doctors get their own story arcs, and it’s all set inside the TARDIS, which allows us to dive into some of her rooms you haven’t seen for decades. We’ve been working on this for many months now, we’re just thrilled that everyone gets to see the first level =)

Also, you’re rolling out the next season of the game too (you must be exhausted with all of this work), but I’ve heard the release of this is going to be different – is it true it’ll be more episodic and weekly? If so, why?
Our goal from the very start of the project was to have an ongoing, live story. Up until now this has meant that big chunks of content come out every few months, however with our super efficient content pipeline, and our ability to push new levels out on demand, we’ve always wanted a story which fans can “tune in” to play every week. Just like the Saturday morning cartoons we grew up on – once a week 3 or 4 new levels will be released, all driven by story.

To play Doctor Who Legacy for free and get into the game that's got Whovians buzzing, click on the various formats below:

Ori and the Blind Forest: XBox One Review

Ori and the Blind Forest: XBox One Review

Platform: Xbox One
Developed by Moon Studio

I won’t lie.

The opening moments of Ori damn well brought me to tears.

Mixing the very best of Studio Ghibli hand drawn visuals, hauntingly beautiful music and exceptional platforming mechanics, this tale of a white guardian forest sprite called Ori is pretty close to gaming perfection.

The game starts with Ori falling from the spirit tree and adopted by a creature called Naru (wearing a kabuki style mask) – but tragedy befalls this friendship and soon Ori finds it’s time to trek deep into the forest on his own. But, after an initial look around, Ori befriends Sein a blue floating light who helps on the journey by attacking creatures from the forest and keeping Ori safe (through the use of the X button)

So, Ori’s quest begins…

To say too much about Ori and The Blind Forest is to rob you , the player, of the experience and rich deep emotional immersion.

In terms of gaming, it’s nothing short of immersive and eye-wateringly gorgeous, thanks to hand-painted backgrounds that are reminiscent of the artwork of Rayman Legends. Lush greens, blues and nicely lit 2D graphics make it stand out beyond belief; it’s a game that’s using the best of the Xbox’s mechanics to present a visual feast.

Game play itself is relatively easy to start with, but grows progressively harder as time goes on with puzzles requiring a bit of intelligence to conquer as well as a lot of excellent timing on the keypad. 

The difficulty can at times be frustrating, but a continual save mechanic that’s in the game means you get to restart the tougher moments when you die when and where you want, rather than at a checkpoint. These are enabled in-game by the collection of energy which create “soul links” for you to utilise; the catch though is everything after the soul link’s use is lost if once you die, so you have to collect it all again. It takes time to gather the soul links, so you will be able to utilise them, but you’ll need to know when to activate them.

Progressions come through the ability tree mechanic which help you build up your skills and those of Sein too – they’re easy enough to instigate and require collections, so you’ve got to stomp the creatures and ensure you collect all you can to get to the top of this particular tree.

I think it’s safe to say that Ori and The Blind Forest is a classic game for its genre and for the XBox One exclusives; it’s got the storytelling down to a fine art, the platforming down to perfection and the graphics to grab you wholeheartedly from beginning to end. It may take a little time for this forest to envelop you, but trust me, when it does, you won’t want to leave.

Rating:

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1: Blu Ray Review

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1: Blu Ray Review

Rating: M
Released by Roadshow Home Ent

So, here it is - the beginning of the end of Suzanne Collins' trilogy.

Last time, you'll remember that The Hunger Games: Catching Fire ended with Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) being wrenched out of the Games of the Quarter Quell but finding that Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) was left behind, and that District 12 where she used to live had been razed as the rebellion began to take effect.

In this latest, President Snow (Donald Sutherland bringing a degree of absentee menace as the white-clad bad guy from afar) ramps up his campaign against the symbol of the revolution, Katniss, by decreeing all out war against the rebels and districts who have turned upon the Capitol.

Trapped in District 13 with her family, and finding herself part of the media war against the Capitol as Julianne Moore's president and the late Philip Seymour Hoffman's Plutarch push her to ignite the simmering embers of revolution. But Katniss finds that being the spearhead comes at a price - and her concern for Peeta trapped within the Capitol could threaten those plans...

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay: Part 1 follows up the relative action of the first two films with many deep (and occasionally powerful) philosophical discussions and demonstrations about the propaganda of war and the symbolic (and literal) weaponisation of revolutionary figure-heads.

Granted, there is very much the feeling that this funereal almost dirge-like movie is a dragged-out set-up for the final resolution and second chapter of Mockingjay as it negotiates the horrors of war and the post-traumatic effects on the survivors (our first re-introduction to the damaged Katniss sees her rocking back and forth, trying desperately to remind herself who she is and what's happened, scrabbling to retain some grip on a reality).

In among the rubble, and the strewn corpses of District 12's warzone, Jennifer Lawrence once again excels as Everdeen, as she frantically fights to try and keep the human cost front of her mind during the ongoing war and her assimilation into a revolutionary hero. Viewed in (almost) completion, this Everdeen has come far and Lawrence is able to harness the horrors as the debates take precedence over the action. (Perhaps, this almost depressing feel may prove too much for some). There's a harrowing quality to the ongoing plight, an acknowledgement that being the symbol can be overwhelming and an almost humanity to help through the overly demonstrated horrors of war - and Lawrence encapsulates those qualities of reluctance perfectly even channeling extremely dead eyes in several scenes as she becomes numbed to the reality of the world around her.

The romance is dialled down in this drab character-study based outing (that's almost as dour as the overalls worn by the inhabitants of 12; a far cry from the vibrant excesses of life within the Capitol) and unfortunately, Liam Hemsworth doesn't quite gel as much as perhaps he should. Philip Seymour Hoffman's Plutarch proves to be a welcome driving force for the film (and proffers up the conundrum of how his missing presence will be handled in the final outing after the movie's dedicated to him); Elizabeth Banks' Effie appears to be some kind of Land Girl prisoner of war and lacks the sparkle and Julianne Moore is relatively straight as President Coin who operates in a POTUS style as the strategies are espoused from within the bunker as the war effort readies itself.

At its core, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay: Part 1 is more a psychological tale of after-effects and the strategies of war. But there are patches which are doused with such a slow ponderous pace, you very nearly drift off before the Desert Storm style action sequence that sees the rebels trying to free the Tributes.

In among the exposition and expansion of the viewpoints, there's a good film lurking trying to break free of the embers, but there's not quite the urgency and perils of the prior outings (perhaps, in some ways, a blessing) in this almost mournful tale that works better as a completed first part than many other films split in two from their original tomes.

It remains to be seen if the closure is worth the build up; but in the words of famous polemic Tracey Chapman, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 is an awful lot of Talking Bout a Revolution.

Rating:

Insurgent: Film Review

Insurgent: Film Review

Cast: Shailene Woodley, Ansel Elgort, Miles Teller, Kate Winslet, Theo James
Director: Robert Schwentke

In the second of the trilogy (made as is Hollywood's wont, which will be made into four films), Shailene Woodley returns as Tris Prior.

Now on the run, with fellow fugitive and love interest Four (James), Tris finds herself hunted by Jeanine (Kate Winslet) who's determined to wipe out the Divergent strain. But Jeanine finds that the Divergents suddenly hold the key to opening a mysterious box that promises to deliver a message for all their futures.

So, with the net tightening around them, and with the guilt of the death of her family playing heavily on her, Tris finds the stakes are higher than ever.

There's an irony that the word Urgent is in the title Insurgent, given how lax and relatively flat the film is this time around, with the angst dialled up to 11 and the distinct lack of much happening sucking some of the life out of Veronica Roth's series which started off so promisingly.

The first film had an affable feel to it as it toyed with the unoriginal idea of trying to fit teenagers into factions and life with some discovering their alienation was a sign they didn't fit in to their assigned box.

In the first, Divergent, Woodley thrived as Tris; this time around, she's crippled by grief and hamstrung by an inability to hit the emotional pitches needed for the character's struggle in this dystopian YA outing. 

In a sign of Tris' growing angst, she cuts her hair off and it proves to be the only really defining moment for the character, as the teen posturing / moping and bloodless action begins to kick in. It's potentially more a fault of the writing, given there's little for her to do but even so she really doesn't quite convey the emotional weight needed (which is a real shame as she dealt with it brilliantly in The Spectactular Now) and those involved in the script prefer to hammer home the "Forgive yourself" message to the point of distraction. It doesn't help that Tris isn't really a character you'd root for in the latest; the weight of expectations and guilt weigh and wear her down, and the audience along with it.

Equally, the supporting cast suffer the indignity of having little to do; James is solid but unmemorable as the pretty boy Four, whose life is changed when he meets Evelyn (a bizarrely miscast and emo Naomi Watts) but who ends up merely moping; Elgort is wasted as Caleb, who's about as wet as they come and narratively an empty vessel and Teller suffers from a lack of screen time as his snarky and obsequious Peter is diverted due to story necessities. Winslet manages to channel some icy villainess as Jeanine preferring to go for effective menace rather than scene chewing.

Schwentke, who directed the likes of Red and RIPD pulls together some nicely executed VFX scenes that are a step up from what you'd have experienced in The Matrix and The Lawnmower Man, but they feel like expanded hangovers from music videos in part; visually impressive and diverting from how little is going on on screen.

The Insurgent trailer promised to deliver action and scope but what the second film actually does is fail to fully deliver to that premise and ramp up the action stakes.

In parts, a lot of Insurgent is one-note with consequences that aren't really that dramatic given how lightly sketched some of the supporting players are; it lacks the gritty conviction of its dystopian premise and thanks to its relatively dour execution, it's nowhere near as engaging as a second portion of a trilogy should be.

Rating:

Home: Film Review

Home: Film Review

Vocal cast: Jim Parsons, Rihanna, Steve Martin, Jennifer Lopez
Director: Tim Johnson

The fact an email nearly causes the end of the world in Home, the full length film based on the book and extended out from the short that played before the release of Peabody and Mr Sherman, should come as no surprise to anyone who's had Outlook issues.

Jim Parsons is perfectly cast as Oh, a little purple alien of the race known as the Boov. The Boov is a race which is constantly on the run, always searching for a new place to call home thanks to their race being threatened.

When the Boov arrive and relocate the entire Earth populace, one human is left behind - Tip (Rihanna). But Oh inadvertently sets in chain of events which see the bad guys coming to threaten their new Utopia - on the run, Oh meets Tip and the pair work together to try and save the day...

Essentially, Home's central character is the Big Bang Theory's Sheldon Cooper shrunk down to size into one colourful mini-blimp. Sheldon's penchant for taking things literally and annoying those around him has been transposed into Oh and magnified.

Parsons breathes a limited life into the little blob with curious syntax that younger kids may find endearing and amusing in equal parts, though one suspects if you're a Big Bang Theory watcher, you've already seen his schtick.

There's also an overuse of music to punctuate scenes, manipulate people into feeling and also encouraging you to buy the latest music from both JLo and Rihanna, who both appear in the film.

Occasionally, as well, the film stutters to an end with natural conclusions to the arcs showing up - but bizarrely, those endings signify even more beginnings to new threads, leading to the feeling of a lack of coherence all the way through.

The animation is pretty standard all the way through with nice hues of blues and purples setting parts of the screen alight and the tale of the misfits banding together gives somewhat of a diverting thrill to the younger end of the audience.

The problem with Home is that it doesn't proffer anything up that feels new and exciting; it feels somewhat formulaic and perhaps not mined for as much pathos and heart as it could have been.

Rating:

Cinderella: Film Review

Cinderella: Film Review

Cast: Lily James, Cate Blanchett, Richard Madden, Helena Bonham Carter, Stellan Skarsgaard
Director: Kenneth Branagh

It's hard to be cynical when presented with the 2015 live action version of Cinderella.

Yet, it's also potentially even harder to take the film at face value in a world where weary children are bombarded with cartoons rich in subtext and meaning.

That must have been the quandary for Kenneth Branagh, who's helming this latest take on the Disney classic, which more or less plays it right down the line when revisiting the original tale.

In this 2015 version, Downton Abbey's Lily James (all porcelain skin, blonde hair and looking very much like Elsa from Frozen - surely no coincidence that short Frozen Fever screens just before) is the Ella of the fairy tale. Her life's irrevocably changed when her mother (Hayley Atwell) dies, imparting the mantra "Have courage and be kind" to her as her dying wish.

After time, her travelling father (Ben Chaplin) takes in Lady Tremaine (an icy, tart with just the right amount of classic villainness and chic 1940s screen star Cate Blanchett) and her two daughters. But to compound Ella's own tragedy, her father dies on the road, leaving the girl a servant in her own home.

But hope for Ella is only a stone's throw away after she meets the square-jawed Kit (Game of Thrones' Richard Madden) in the forest... will this girl get her man and rise above the tragedy that's befallen her?

Ironically for a film so swathed in sumptuous colour, Branagh's workmanlike Cinderella is completely black and white.

Sticking almost rigidly to the formula and faithfulness of the original (as well as some CGI touches including comedy mice and a clever transformation of the old pumpkin carriage), this Cinderella is a refreshing blast of yesteryear brought vividly to life with a director who's got an eye for classic cinema as his camera swirls around.

It's not perfect though; it's a little too long with the 2 hour duration likely to cause some fidgeting within the ranks of the young and some pantomime comedy moments failing flatter than anything and not landing with perhaps the zing that would have been expected.

The worst offenders are the squabbling Tremaine siblings who irritate; but Branagh has the chutzpah to ensure this film is above all, a spectacle with a simple message of being kind and courageous rather than a post-ironic feminist take on it all.

In terms of the acting, James is solid enough as Cinders, breathing life where necessary and a veritable personification of kindness; Madden is little more than a square jaw as the Prince; a theatrical Blanchett is a cool blast of conflicted iciness as the step-mother, whose cruelty lies quietly bubbling behind a cold veneer; and Bonham-Carter brings life - and a bit of Disney magic - at the right moment as the toothy Fairy Godmother giving the film the oomph it needs as it threatens dangerously to sag.

But all of those stars are eclipsed by the work done by the costuming and set work, which are all infinitely more luscious and flourish more than anything else on screen.

Bright, vivid colours, cobalt blues and opulent sets garnished with bountiful beauteous touches bring more striking life to the screen than anything else (and should see three time Academy Award winning Sandy Powell take home another trophy if there's any justice).

This Cinderella is no ugly step-sister - and in a post-modern world where Disney's mocked its own conventions, it deserves praise for following the path already travelled and for giving us a fairy tale which breezes life into the old nostalgia and will ensure many want to go to the ball.

Rating:

Bloodborne: PS4 Hands on Preview

Bloodborne: PS4 Hands On Preview

There’s no avoiding the fact.

I died a lot in the demo for Bloodborne. 

Double figures amounts.

And with it, came a great big red graphic which proclaimed “You Died” as if to rub salt into the wound and make the booming bass of the OST really ring in my ears.

Let’s back up a little; Bloodborne hits PlayStation on 25^th March, and little is known about the game except a few scant details:

“From Hidetaka Miyazaki and FromSoftware – creators of the legendary action role-playing games Demon's Souls, Dark Souls and Dark Souls II – comes Bloodborne, an all-new, action-packed RPG brimming with unforgiving, unrelenting terror, developed exclusively for PlayStation 4.

Face your fears as you search for answers in the ancient city of Yharnam, now cursed with a strange endemic illness spreading through the streets like wildfire. Danger is an ever-present shadow in this horrific world, and you must discover its darkest secrets in order to survive.”

The demo I played takes place in the city of Yharnam, and your character is in a room with skeletons bubbling under the wooden floors as you approach them. These turn out to be Messengers which proffer up ideas of how to play the game, your movements etc and are a little unsettling at first as they lurk waiting for you to tread upon them.

The controls are relatively simple; dualshock sticks work and it’s a case of using the L1/ R1 to fight / power up when you take a swing. And take a swing you will, as this demo had no weapons available for me to use. Which was something that was both refreshing and a frustration as time went on.

It’s also very, very dark in Yharnam. 

Gothic architecture sings out but inside the buildings, there’s little to distinguish the rooms themselves except when you walk around them. It’s here a light in front of you opens your view up – and there you see that bodies litter the ground in places; it pays to ensure they get a search from you to collect what’s been left behind. A handful of pebbles, some blood echoes to help you revitalise - you'll all need them to ensure you survive. And there's little you can do in this hands-on to survive with no weapons and plenty of people in the grip of the "strange endemic illness". 

Wandering around the darkened room (Iosefa's home apparently) you can head upstairs to look around but a disembodied voice tells you that you're not able to go further because of what you're doing; heading down to the basement showed me a massive dog like lycan creature that proceeded to rip me to shreds. Twice. There seems to be no option for stealth, so it was a case of running past the critter and heading into the outdoors, hoping that opening the doors will happen before Fluffy (an ironic name) catches me. I manage to get out and wonder why I can't close the doors behind me, a thought that will rankle throughout.

It's here that the world of Yharnam opens up in some ways; as you get to explore the courtyards with its Notre Dame style steeples, chained coffins, discarded carriages and neo-Gothic architecture. But it also holds some pretty angry people who are ready to slash and chop you the moment you're disturbed. Armed only with a punch at this stage, combat's not the best option but I sense it's a necessity in places though I failed to fell anyone despite throwing punches and pressing triangle to recharge. 

Things got even worse when there were groups of people; the angry hordes were determined to fell me and even had guns. There's a frustration weapons aren't readily available around but I think this will be balanced by the fact that Bloodborne seems hard, and is punishing in the extreme. I do wonder if casual players will be into this level of difficulty (I'm not sure whether there are different skill levels) and the game slowly reveals itself like an onion, which feels duly rewarding. 

Various headstones scattered throughout give you the options to head into the Hunter's Dream where you can encounter an area inhabited by an elderly gentleman in a wheelchair known as Gehring, who gives you a very brief insight into what's going on before offering you some safe haven. Though his overall part in the bigger picture is still a little vague.

Atmosphere is also the big winner in Bloodborne too; from the haunting and terrifying score to the moody black darkness, this is a game that cries out to be played in the dark and at night (perfect for the nights drawing in). 

While the demo is quite a tough one to negotiate, I'm up for the challenge of the gradual discovery. 

In a world where everything is signposted as we go through, there's very little that allows for a challenge, a reveal and a reward. 

I'm not expecting Bloodborne to be a walk in the park, but I am expecting a campaign that delivers as much as it promises.