The idea for Beasts of Balance took shape after its creator Alex Fleetwood shut his London-based game studio, Hide & Seek. "I took a road trip with my family," recalls London-based Fleetwood, 39. "I got into building campfires - after the stress of closing a studio, it was gratifying to balance the firewood just so, and get the reward of a fire. I got thinking about the balance of objects and of nature."
He combined that satisfaction with the lessons of Blocks, a Hide & Seek game that used PlayStation Move to stack "wobbly cubes". The result is, well, a different beast. Beasts of Balance ties physical pieces to a digital world. Players have to balance animals and artefacts on a plinth, connected by Bluetooth to a smartphone or tablet. Special items can transform or hybridise animals on-screen to create new combinations - it's a cross between Buckaroo! and CRISPR's genetic engineering.
Beasts of Balance's lead developer George Buckenham, whose previous projects include a competitive custard-punching game, singles out Inkwing - a half-octopus, half-eagle - as a favourite. "It has twin attributes of flying and squirting ink. I love how ungainly it looks as it flies, flapping tentacles as well as wings."
Fleetwood has established a new studio with Buckenham and a small team. After raising £168,360 on Kickstarter, Beasts of Balance is due to be released this month - and Fleetwood hopes that it will spark imaginations in the same way his camping trip did.
"Kids don't make distinctions between digital, physical and imaginative play," he says. "I hope families will play it together, and kids will get deep into the systems that drive the game - and show us some towers we hadn't imagined."
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
