After months of brainstorming, planning, development and design, our first game of the year has finally been released! Make way for–Totem! Totem is an action puzzle game that challenges the player’s reflex and reaction skills. The idea of the game came from our fondness with Lego bricks and Erick’s dream of Jack climbing a totem pole that reaches outwards to the sky instead of a beanstalk.

Totem is available for all Windows Mobile devices (WM5 and WM6 included) and supports 240×240 square screens, 240×320 portrait screens and 320×240 landscape screens. This game will definitely keep players glued to their device for hours of fun and excitement. And to add some more challenge, players can even post their scores online through the Totem Leaderboards.

Everyone can grab a free trial copy here and play Totem to their heart’s content.

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Once a game concept has been approved based on its prototype (see Part 2), the actual development phase begins and the game assets–sound effects, music, artworks, etc. are identified one by one. As the development progresses, the game assets are also coursed through the proper person/channel. In our case, since we are just a small company, we usually have these assets done by third party development partners like Groovy Audio and Jaybot7 for our sound effects and music needs, and freelance artists like Stefan Hoercsoeky. We don’t have full time musicians or sound engineers but we have full time in-house artists like Erick Garayblas, our Chief Design Architect.

Game assets play a major role on the final game design and lay-out because this is what the players see and interact with. The assets need to be synchronized with events within the game like screen transitions, tap sounds, etc. Game asset creation, depending on the complexity of the game usually takes around 4-5 weeks and we also allot a week more (or two) for revisions as we enter the Beta phase. Check out what happens after the final game is complete on Part 4!

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Contrary to what most people think, eSoft Interactive is actually a home-based indie company. Although we have established connections and partnerships outside the country, most of the operations and developments are still done at home. The games that we made (and you have played) were born in the confines of a home situated in the remote areas of Bulacan, a huge province north of Metro Manila, the capital of the Philippines.

It’s not a one-man show though, we have a dedicated team who makes sure that the company lives by its mission and vision. Erick is in charge of operations, support and design works. May and Tim are both focused on programming, design and development. Ben is our porting guru. Taylor handles all web-related stuff. From time to time, we also acquire the services of Stefan (artworks), Sherwin (artworks), Yannis (Sounds and music) and Jason (Sounds and music).

Over the years, the team’s goal was to always start small and dream big. We deeply prioritize our customers and our objective is to create high-quality games and interactive applications which people will enjoy. Rest assured, we will continue to develop engaging and fun games for your mobile device in the years to come! eSoft Interactive has been around for 5 years running now and we never would have gotten here if it weren’t for YOUR support. Thank you!

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Eric Pankoke of Rusty Sabre has published an in-depth review of Traffic Jam 2! Check it out! To quote Eric Pankoke: “When I first started playing eSoft Interactive games I basically dismissed Traffic Jam as not my sort of thing. After playing the sequel I realize I might just have made a mistake on that call. If you are looking for a puzzle game that is so easy it is challenging you’ve come to the right place. Good graphics, a catchy background song, and over 200 levels of mobile mayhem await you in another well conceived effort from eSoft Interactive.”

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