The situation is this: mega-developer Futuracorp's newest epic science-fiction MMO game has entered "crunch time" (the last rush of work before the game’s final deadline), and has been besieged by an influx of bugs and corrupt data, seemingly out of nowhere. As a special agent for VMC Gamelabs, your job is to regulate the flow of corrupt data — removing as much as possible, as quickly as possible, via a match-3 gameplay mechanic — so that Vega (appearing as a virtual avatar inside the game world) and Pixel (providing support on another monitor) can clean up the bugs. Do your job, and the game will ship on time, making millions of people happy. Fail, and gamers everywhere will be crushed.
Tandem Games was able to take VMC's original characters and create an engrossing narrative without sacrificing casual gameplay. We hope you have as much fun playing "Crunch Time" as we did developing it! And did we mention, it's free? Yup, VMC Gamelabs commissioned "Crunch Time" to be demonstrated at their GDC booth, and they will be giving it away on USB keychains as well. But if you can't make it to the show, that's alright — it's available for download now (and yes, still totally free).
Go here to get it! [Requires Microsoft Windows 2000/XP/Vista]
We've recently completed our first professional game, which will be on display at the 2008 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco next week! We'll be releasing it for download here on this site as soon as the show kicks off, so check back for goodies!
Tandem is also in full swing developing Bumble Tales, the story-driven puzzler we unveiled at the 2007 Independent Game Conference in November (demonstrated under the working title "Tandem Elves"), where it came in second place for the Developer's Choice Award. Aaron is pulling his hair out trying to line up 1's and 0's, Jon is crumpling up pieces of paper with sketches that just aren't tight enough, and Troupe is busy orchestrating the flow of gameplay as well as the flow of bassoon notes. You'll be able to download the fruits of our labor, right here, this spring!Keep checking back for more news and goodies!