Hear from Kimi Sulopusti team leader and game designer of Dare to be Digital Winning 2012 team Kind of a Big Deal

Guest post from Kimu Sulopuisto, team leader and game designer for Starcrossed

The Finnish student team Kind of a Big Deal was representing Northern Europe in the game development competition Dare to be Digital 2012.

I’m the team leader and game designer, and our game is called Starcrossed. When we were invited to Oslo, Norway for the qualifiers, we started with a rough concept for a 2D mobile platformer game where the player character uses a bazooka to launch himself from asteroid to another while avoiding the extreme temperatures of outer space.

We even brought the judges a Windows Phone and a playable version of Starcrossed to show them our idea. It was very barebones, but along with a fluent pitching presentation it was enough to impress the judges and qualify us to take part in Dare to be Digital 2012 in Scotland.

In the Dare competition we had nine weeks to bring Starcrossed to life. We went through much iteration in regards to the movement mechanics, art style, scoring system, level design and much more.

The mentoring we received from industry professionals (Ruffian, Cobra Mobile and Jagex to name a few) was invaluable and helped us shape the game into a cohesive product. Many also wanted to see the game published, and so we set ourselves the goal to have Starcrossed in the Windows Phone Marketplace by the end of the year.

As for the competition, it came to a close in the Protoplay event where the participating teams got to showcase their games to an audience of more than ten thousand visitors. We were announced as one of the three winning teams and returned home with a BAFTA “Ones to watch” nomination!

We then spent the autumn polishing our product and creating more content. The end result was a fast and whimsical space platformer game that attempts to charm with its polished presentation and simple mechanics. Now we have published Starcrossed on the Marketplace, and it’s been met with very positive end-user feedback. This isn’t the last you’ll see of Starcrossed, either. Other mobile devices are likely to get their version early 2013.

Check out Starcrossed on the Windows Phone Marketplace: https://www.windowsphone.com/s?appid=3de88f3f-5005-4019-be78-c39f8172d39e and check out this video