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This is the crazy stuff we’re up to…

Working From Home!!

September 8, 2020

2020 has certainly been a year for the books – earlier this year, we decided to move our team to home working. This is the best option to keep everyone as safe as possible, and we’re extremely fortunate that our business can be run from home – as long as we have a computer and the internet, we can make games and support our customers from anywhere! So we left our Peter Andre cut out (don’t ask…) to take care of the office and gathered up our computers and supplies!

A glass office door with a Peter Andre cardboard cutout inside.
Peter making sure the office is safe!

There was a lot to get used to at first – not seeing each other in person was strange, so we’ve been catching up over instant messages on Slack instead. We’ve had to adjust to making sure we keep each other well informed via Slack too, since we can no longer use nerf darts to attract each others’ attention! And we’ve all had to set up our own mini office spaces at home – we had to improvise in places, and some of us had to quickly pop back to the office to fetch some things we’d forgotten!

Two pictures of computer desks. One has two monitors balanced on stacks of books, plus a laptop. The other is a multi level deep navy desk with gold fittings and two monitors.

One of the big positives of working from home, aside from keeping safe, is that many of us have new furry companions to keep us company – sometimes they even try to help us with our work!

Taco the chihuahua sitting on a leopard print blanket.
Having our 4 legged companions with us means we can grab a quick cuddle any time we fancy! Here’s Taco
A white dog leaning up against a person stroking it.
Suki checking in to make sure we’re working hard!
Lottie, a black and brown miniature dachshund, laying on a pillow on a sun lounger.
Another advantage of working from home is getting to enjoy the sun in the garden during our lunch break – Lottie loves a good sunbathe
Luna, a white and tortoiseshell/calico cat, sleeping on a desk in front of the monitor and keyboard.
We have to be careful when we nip to get a snack or drink – we might find our desk has been stolen when we return! Luna finds desks a comfy place to nap
Sirius, a black and white cat, lying on Kim's hand on her computer mouse.
Sometimes they invade even when you are there – Sirius was probably trying to help
Lottie, a black and brown mini dachshund, leaning on Lauren's arm as she uses her keyboard.
Lottie also likes to help out with all the important work tasks!
A muntjac standing next to a metal post and a brick planter.
We’ve been able to spot some local wildlife from the windows
A bat laying on cardboard with some yellow ice cubes melting next to it.
We’ve even briefly taken on the job of wildlife rescuer!
Two mini dachshunds curled up together sleeping in a dog bed.
And if our helpers get too tired, they can always curl up for an afternoon nap

Although it’s been a big change, we have all settled into working from home now, and found that using the right tools helps us communicate with each other really well!


Christmas Traditions

February 4, 2020

After a break last year, we decided to head back to Center Parcs for our annual festive outing this January.

Woodland with lots of brown ferns and tall evergreen trees.
A quick break relaxing at Center Parcs is the perfect way to start the year

We were excited to try out one of the new escape games they’ve recently added called ‘Escape the Forest’. The story starts when you discover some secret information in your late grandfather’s journals and if you do well you might escape with some treasure!! Following the storyline and challenges made us reminisce about some of our earliest puzzle adventure games.

We split into two groups to compete against each other, with Graeme and Greg heading up the teams, and Graeme’s team narrowly clenched the win; both teams were quick, but Graeme’s completed the challenges just a couple of minutes quicker!

Four people smiling inside a large frame they are holding. It's decorated in a forest theme with "We escaped the forest in 27:13 minutes" written on it and the Center Parcs logo.
The Escape the Forest victors!!

Over the weekend, we also enjoyed walks in the forest, trips to the pool and spa (including lots of rides on the rapids!), a couple of lovely meals at Las Iguanas and Rajinda Pradesh, and an archery session with Lauren winning a 2nd place certificate ?

A chicken wire and wood frame with a little door, a sign says 'Shhh... Hedgehogs sleeping'
There’s lots of wildlife around too

Before Christmas we also had our annual Secret Santa gift swap, as well as a Christmas dinner at The Old Fire Engine House in Ely, which after two visits is now becoming a new tradition! The food was delicious, and the company was great too!

Group of people around a dining table full of tablewear, everyone is wearing a paper crown and several have on Christmas jumpers. They're in an old building with sash windows
Us enjoying our delicious Christmas dinner
A Christmas tree with lights and three Catastronauts plushies on it, and wrapped gifts underneath it.
We went for a minimalist look with our Catastronauts themed tree decor this year!

Adrenaline Adventures!

July 30, 2019

This summer we decided to try something slightly different as a group social and visit a theme park!

We chose the nearby Thorpe Park for a visit, which features plenty of thrill rides to keep us occupied all day!! We got to enjoy lots of roller coasters and other rides throughout the day, and there wasn’t even too much queuing!

Kim, Greg, Lauren, Laura and Lucy standing in a queue line taking a selfie.

The park features the fastest roller coaster in the UK, Stealth, and it was definitely a fun experience! It goes from 0-80 mph in 1.9 seconds.

GIF of a roller coaster cart launching very fast from the right of the view and climbing a tall arc before slowly going over the top and coming back down - the climb and drop are almost straight up and down. It's so tall the camera has to move to fit it in when the coaster is at the top.

We also really enjoyed SAW – The Ride, a coaster with lots of twists and turns, Rush which was like a very, very big swing and Detonator which lets you drop from a great height!

A tall metal structure with people in seats being lifted up to the top.Photography taken at Thorpe Park by Daniel Lewis.

Roller coaster in brown metal with a loop on the right which is currently being climbed by a small cart and a tall straight up - straight down drop arch on the left. In the foreground is a sign reading SAW - The Ride.Photography taken at Thorpe Park by Daniel Lewis.

It was a really fun and different thing to try as a social, and we were certainly ready for a rest by the end of the day! We may have given ourselves a taste for adrenaline, so perhaps you’ll see us at another theme park next year!


Bringing our games to new platforms

February 21, 2019

With more and more gamers using multiple devices to play casual games, we’ve recently taken our first steps into the world of Facebook Instant Games.

Facebook Instant Games is a platform that allows players to play games across their devices, be they computers, phones or tablets, with a cohesive experience across the devices. With Facebook Instant Games, there’s no need to install a separate app for each game you want to play – they can all be played within the browser on a computer from the comfort of your News Feed, or from within Facebook Messenger on mobile. You can also embrace the social side of games by sharing what you’re playing with friends and family.

So far, we’ve brought two of our games to the Instant Games platform – SUDOKU plus is a completely free game, with a plethora of puzzle types and difficulty levels. It’s super simple to jump into and play, with intuitive controls and tools to help you play in the way you like best, so why not give it a go today? Play here, or search for SUDOKU plus on Messenger.

We’ve also created a new Instant Games version of our newest release, Pixel Tap. If you’ve been wanting to try out Pixel Tap but haven’t got round to installing the app, this is the perfect opportunity to give it a go! Play here, or search for Pixel Tap Colour by Number on Messenger.

Screenshot of Pixel Tap Instant - a partly filled in pixel art is shownScreenshot of SUDOKU plus - a Sudoku X is open


Start the Fans!

January 23, 2019

For our now traditional post-Christmas Christmas do, we took a trip to London this month!

First off we took on The Crystal Maze Live Experience. Based on the TV game show which many of us remember fondly from our childhoods, our team had to travel through different themed zones (the Aztec zone was our favourite!) and complete physical, mental, skill based and mystery challenges to earn crystals.

We don’t like to toot our own horn too much, but it’s fair to say we smashed it, collecting ELEVEN crystals – our host said eight was a good result, so he was very impressed with us! Our team name was “The Cat Stretchers”, named after Graeme’s love for gently stretching his pets*.

Unfortunately, we didn’t triumph in the Crystal Dome, where we were pegged to the post by another team who had some questionable help from their host, but we won’t bring that up, since we’re not sore losers…

The Inertia team in blue Crystal Maze bomber jackets, posing with excited expressions (except two men who look confused) and arms out, in front of a picture of the Crystal Dome.

We had a brilliant time in the Crystal Maze, and we all got involved in trying out the different tasks and helping each other with advice shouted through the little windows. We also only had one lock in (a word of advice – try not to send the clumsiest person on your team in for a challenge which involves lots of balancing)!

After a quick freshen up we were ready for some food, so we headed to All Star Lanes on Brick Lane. We enjoyed a delicious meal including amazing maple wings and probably the best mac ‘n’ cheese to have ever existed. We also got to try some delicious cocktails with fancy toppings and pun filled names.

Collage: 1 Lucy and Greg smiling at a table with cocktails, 2 Greg making a peace sign in gold room as Laura smiles with a cocktail, 3 Graeme, Lauren and Kim smiling at table with cocktails, 4 Greg and Lauren smile as they watch Graeme and Laura sing, 5 Kim, Lauren, Laura and Graeme around a table with cocktails, 6 Greg smiling while Graeme looks surprised

After the meal, we enjoyed a game of bowling (of which Greg was the deserving winner) and then a session in a private karaoke booth! If you’ve followed us for a while you’ll know that Rock Band is always a hit at the office; singer is always the most sought after role, so you can imagine how much we enjoyed this part of the night! We covered lots of the karaoke classics like the Grease Megamix and Total Eclipse of the Heart, alongside some of our personal favourites (did you know that Backstreet’s back?).

It was a very fun day, and a great way to relax after a busy year with several new games released. Here’s to a brilliant 2019 and many more days of fun!

Gif of Inertia team sitting on bowling alley benches as Graeme runs across the frame head down, blocking the view but clearly trying not to.

*No animals are harmed in the pet stretching process.


A year of puzzles!

January 8, 2019

As well as Catastronauts, 2018 saw us launch two new puzzle games!

In September we launched Just Jigsaws, and it was followed in December by Pixel Tap.

Just Jigsaws is a new jigsaw puzzle game; it can be played across desktop and mobile devices. The game has thousands of beautiful puzzle images and lots of new features – you can choose the number and style of pieces to play each puzzle in, create your own puzzles and use the ‘piece heap’ feature to sort pieces as you go along, and you can also play offline on mobile, making the game perfect for long trips!

Lots of images in rows, with scattered jigsaw pieces below and the words '1000's of stunning puzzles to choose from'Jigsaws in progress on a tablet and a phone, with the words 'Play across multiple devices'

Pixel Tap is a colour-by-number game with lots of different styles of artwork to suit every taste! From simple and cute pixel style patterns, to detailed larger patterns with thousands of blocks, you can choose your favourite packs to add to your collection. The relaxing gameplay has you fill in the squares by number with different colours – you can also choose the style of the blocks, and just like with Just Jigsaws you can play across desktop and mobile, and make your own patterns!

Collection of pixel patterns on a tablet screen, some completed and some partially filled in. Words at the top read 'Thousands of amazing patterns to discover!'
Partially completed pixel pattern of a unicorn with rainbow mane, on a tablet screen. Words at the top read 'Simple, easy and relaxing to play'

You can try out Just Jigsaws and Pixel Tap from the links on our homepage.


Catastronauts is coming to Switch!

December 19, 2018

We’re super excited to announce that Catastronauts will be blasting off on Nintendo Switch on 24th December (EUR/ANZ) and 3rd January (NOA)! To get ready for this much awaited release you can check out the trailer below to remind you of the interstellar chaos, testing challenges and frantic fun which you’ll enjoy in Catastronauts!

We know lots of Switch fans have been very eagerly awaiting the game’s release, so we’re really happy to be able to deliver this for you! Now, you’ll be able to take on attacking invaders wherever you are! We’ve also enjoyed the excuse to play lots more Catastronauts as part of our Switch testing.

Screenshot of a level in the game, with bombs, cracks and fire

Will you and your friends save the galaxy? Enlist in the Nintendo Switch eShop on 24th December and 3rd January! Or you can already pick up the game on Playstation 4, Xbox One and Steam for PC!

Close up shot of player putting out their fellow Catastronaut, who is on fire

Follow Catastronauts on your favourite social media to stay up-to-date with all the latest news and developments.

Follow Catastronauts on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram


Christmas Fun, Part 1

December 14, 2018

This year we decided to kick off our Christmas festivities and get into the Christmas mood with a proper Christmas dinner!

We headed to a local restaurant, The Old Fire Engine House, which is inside a lovely, homely Georgian building that used to house a horse-drawn fire engine at the turn of the century. We enjoyed a lovely three course meal, with nuts and oranges to finish. We shared some very, very bad but good cracker jokes, and Richard was the victor in the unspoken ‘who can keep their paper crown on the longest’ competition!
A round wooden table covered in cork placemats, glasses of various drinks and red and green napkins, Christmas crackers and flowers. People are seated around the edge wearing Christmassy clothes

After the meal, we headed back to the office to exchange our Secret Santa gifts!! They included some Harry Potter Lego, some cute animal socks, a Halo and Fallout themed t-shirt. We were all very happy with our lovely presents. We followed up the exchange with our much anticipated ‘Cola Taste Test’ – we stocked up on as many varieties of cola as we could get our hands on and undertook a blind taste test. It’s fair to say the confidence with which some players entered the contest was somewhat unwarranted… it’s hard to tell the difference between Cola when you’ve tried five types very quickly in a row! However, there were some impressive deductions, with Greg correctly identifying which two were the full sugar branded colas! Graeme managed a score of zero, which in itself is impressive, and everyone had started to pay great attention to the subtle differences in the sound of pouring cola by the end of the challenge.
An artificial tree decorated with red and gold decorations and fairy lights. There are various wrapped gifts underneath, a dinosaur near the top of the tree and a Pacman hidden in the branches. It's placed in an office with white walls and a blue carpet.

We ended the afternoon of fun with a traditional quiz, with rounds including Christmas movie clips, Christmas dingbats, identifying books from short extracts and general trivia. We also had a visit from some Catastronaut friends – Sarge and our cold-blooded recruit came along to enjoy the quiz with us!
Two plushies on a leather sofa, both in 'Catastronauts' uniforms. In yellow and black is Sarge with a black hat, pale skin and white hair and large moustache. In red is a dinosaur-like green lizard with sharp teeth and ridges on his head.

It was a fun afternoon, and we’re going to be carrying on the Christmas fun in January, with a trip to take part in The Crystal Maze Live Experience in London – stay tuned to find out how we get on!


Our visit to EGX 2018!!!

September 27, 2018

EGX is the UK’s biggest games event; this year it was held in Birmingham from 20th – 23rd September and we were lucky enough to get the chance to show off Catastronauts there!!

Needless to say we were very excited, especially with the event falling so close to our release date (28th September; that’s tomorrow!!!). We assembled our space crew, gathered our equipment and headed off to the NEC!

The group of us doing funny poses (mainly salutes) in front of our EGX stand, wearing Catastronauts t-shirts

The event was huge and we managed to get a prime spot, near to the entrance with lots of space for our newest recruits to gather as they try out the game. And it certainly lived up to our expectations! The stall was very busy throughout the event; we started off well, with with lots of people popping by to check out the game based on Eurogamer’s recommendation in their video which was playing in the lobby. Thanks to the team for their shout out!

Lots of players enjoying Catastronauts, while many others watch/wait behind them

We saw lots of great teamwork and strategising throughout the event, along with a few minor arguments concerning who decided to shut the safe room door and leave their friend to burn to a crisp in the heat of a solar flare – but most groups managed to make it up before the end of the demo 🙂

As always, we like to give a little shoutout to some of the other awesome games which we spotted while at the event. Here are some of our favourites:
+ Double Pug Switch, a challenging platformer where you play a pug in parallel dimensions
+ Heaven’s Vault, an adventure game where you get to decipher an entire ancient language
+ Obsol33t, a game where you take on the role of a hacker who uses a wheelchair in a futuristic but inaccessible city
+ The Bradwell Conspiracy, an immersive narrative-driven puzzler where you uncover secrets as you work to escape the complex of a company who may not be all they seem (plus they were handing out awesome Stonehenge hats!!)
+ Super Mario Party – we’re all huge Mario fans and, of course, we love party games, so this game was pretty much our ideal title!

Kim posing, screaming with her arms up in the air, matching the Catastronaut on the poster behind her

We finished the event tired but very happy; we were thrilled with the awesome reception the game received! A huge thank you to everyone who stopped by to have a look or take a play, and if you didn’t get a chance to, never fear – you can try the full game yourself tomorrow on PC, PS4 and Xbox One!!


Catastronauts is blasting off on September 28th!

September 14, 2018

We’re delighted to announce that Catastronauts will be launching on September 28th on PlayStation 4, Steam and Xbox One! To celebrate this announcement, we’ve made a brand new trailer to give you a glimpse of the interstellar chaos, testing challenges and frantic fun!

Gather your friends and arm the torpedoes!

Catastronauts is a fast-paced 1-4 multiplayer action game in which players become a crew of intergalactic spacefarers who must work together to destroy an attacking enemy fleet, whilst frantically struggling to keep their own ship intact. Co-ordination, co-operation and decisiveness are essential to victory, as multiple tasks need to be taken care of across the vessel.

In addition to the regular occupational hazards, each level offers unique challenges and dangers to deal with including solar flares and malfunctioning extraction doors. Meanwhile a whole host of unique mechanics will keep even the most experienced crew members on their toes.

Will you and your friends save the galaxy?

Screenshot of a level in the game, with bombs, cracks and fire

Enlist now on Steam

Don’t miss out on a second! If you plan to save the galaxy on your PC, you can add Catastronauts to your wishlist right now by clicking here.

Close up shot of player putting out their fellow Catastronaut, who is on fire

Coming soon to Nintendo Switch

Switch fans will not miss out on the mayhem! Catastronauts will be released on the Nintendo eShop in the near future so that you and your friends can take on attacking invaders wherever you are! Follow Catastronauts on your favourite social media to stay up-to-date with all the latest news and developments.

Follow Catastronauts on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram


Summer Fun!

August 13, 2018

Like most of Europe, we here in Ely have been experiencing a long heatwave these past few months. We decided to have a barbecue at Greg’s house to make the most of the warm weather; food was bought, playlists were made and an inflatable hot tub was set up and then, in typical British fashion, it rained!!

However, we weren’t about to let a small to medium sized (well actually quite large…) thunderstorm ruin our fun!

We were lucky enough to have a couple of hours of sun first, which gave us a chance to play some garden boules and tumble tower games, get most of the barbecue food cooked (compliments to Lucy the chef!) and rescue a tired bee!

Group of people playing garden tumble tower on the patio
Some tense gameplay!
Kieran carefully feeding some sugary water to a bee from a spoon
Helping out our new friend

However, the clouds soon rolled in and the thunder and lightening began!

Group of us happily gathered under the gazebo as rain pours outside
We took shelter under the gazebo

Although the weather remained overcast for the rest of the evening, the lightening and rain did let up and the temperature stayed high, which allowed us to make the most of the hot tub.

Alice, Lauren and Berni perched at the edge of the hot tub with their legs in the water, under a grey sky
Some of us took a brief dip…
Lauren, Graeme and Greg fully in the hot tub
… while others went the full way!

Following up from our mushroom eating contest at CenterParcs, we held a raw onion eating contest which was much regretted by Greg, who underestimated the strength of raw onion taste. The night ended with dancing to some classic party songs (who doesn’t like Mr Brightside?!).

Even with the uninvited storm it was a fun evening and a great chance to socialise outside of the office. We look forward to another one next year!


Canine Capers!!

July 2, 2018

Friday 22nd June was Bring Your Dog to Work Day! We didn’t need much encouragement to invite Albert, Lauren’s miniature dachshund, to work with us for the day!

Albert the Mini Doxie on Lauren's lap

Here’s what Alb got up to with us:

Albert the Mini Doxie hiding under a chair
At first, he was a little shy – it’s been a while since he’s visited!
Albert the Mini Doxie surveying the office
He eventually gathered some courage to start exploring
GIF of Albert the Mini Doxie licking Greg's face
And then, with even more courage, he decided to clean Greg’s face for him
Albert the Mini Doxie typing
Alb got to grips with using the keyboard. Apologies to any customers who received an email about bones last Friday!
GIF of Albert the Mini Doxie running away from having his photo taken
We also tried some photo posing for Catastronauts – Albert’s not a photo fan
Albert the Mini Doxie sleeping
Finally it was time for a well earned nap!

Bring Your Dog To Work Day is an annual nationwide event that raises money for charities dedicated to making a difference to the welfare of dogs. You can find out more here!


Norwich Gaming Festival 2018

June 12, 2018

Our Catastronauts team is currently very busy bringing the game ever closer to release, but at the start of June they managed to spare a few days to head off to Norwich Gaming Festival! Norwich is fairly close by to us, so we were excited to attend a local event and get the chance to show off Catastronauts a little closer to home!

Norwich Gaming Fest is a free, family-friendly celebration of games, held annually in the city centre. It’s packed full of indie devs exhibiting playable versions of their games; there are also unique and fun activities to try out such as retro games and a board game cafe, gaming merch to buy, gaming art on display, advice on getting into the industry and much more!

Norwich City Centre
Norwich – a fine city!

We were at NGF for three days and had a really wonderful time! The atmosphere at the whole event was very relaxed, so it was great for really getting into the game with members of the public and seeing which parts they enjoyed the most. The event is also perfect for families, which meant we had loads of younger players trying out the game – it was fun to see that our 7 year old players could still quickly figure out how to lock their teammates out of the safe room when a solar flare was approaching.

Table set up with Catastronauts and free merch
Ready to welcome our newest recruits!

On the Saturday evening, we headed to Epic Studios for the NGF pub quiz! This really put our gaming knowledge to the test, with questions spanning from retro console favourites (anybody else remember Cool Spot?) right through to the latest releases. We’re all (as you would expect) pretty big gaming fans, but gaming has such a huge field of potential questions, so to avoid disappointment we set our expectations from the off with our team name, which was ? (yes – the actual team name was the smiling poop emoji). However, we were pleasantly surprised that we were not right at the bottom of the list! The winning teams really impressed us with their very detailed knowledge of gaming.

While at the event we also got to chat to lots of fellow indie devs and try some of their games. A couple of projects that caught our eye this time were:
+ Locomotion, an awesomely intuitive train themed puzzler with a great art style
+ Switch ‘N’ Shoot, a one-button arcade style shoot-em-up which had it’s own special and very retro arcade cabinet at the show
+ Black Friday Simulator, which felt like being on Supermarket Sweep except you are trashing things instead of collecting them (great stress relief!)
+ The Dwarves of Glistenveld, a real-time strategy with some retro inspiration and a fun sense of humour

We had a brilliant time at the event – we got lots of great feedback about the game, experienced lots of chaotic fun as we played along with visitors, and all really enjoyed ourselves.

People playing Catastronauts
Lots of chaotic fun was had!

Have you seen Catastronauts in action yet? If not, why not grab yourself a ticket for EGX, where you can find us in the Rezzed zone along with lots of other wonderful indies! And don’t forget to follow us on social media for all the latest on the game!

Catastronauts on Facebook and Twitter; wishlist the game on Steam

Inertia Game Studios on Facebook and Twitter


Our trip to EGX Rezzed!

April 24, 2018

At the start of April we officially announced Catastronauts!! If you haven’t already, check out the trailer below:

Eager to get out into the world and show people what we’ve been working on, we had the awesome opportunity to exhibit Catastronauts at EGX Rezzed on 13th-15th April. Rezzed is London’s biggest consumer games event; hundreds of devs gather to show off recent or upcoming PC and console projects. From solo devs and small indie studios like ours through to bigger studios, the focus is on having playable versions of the games, making for a very fun weekend for all attendees!

We packed up our many, many bags and headed up to London where the event was being held in the super trendy Tobacco Dock (we’re totally cool and trendy you see!). After a few hiccups with a couple of deliveries (thanks are due to the brilliant Rezzed team who were the heroes of the weekend!) we were set up and ready to go.

Catastronauts Stand at Rezzed
Our stand, ready to go!

The weekend was, much like a level of Catastronauts, very hectic with lots of to-ing and fro-ing and talking! Luckily, unlike Catastronauts it was not friendship breaking – in fact, we had the chance to speak to lots of other devs, people from the industry and future players of the game! There was also, thankfully, no fire.

We had lots of great feedback about the game, and a lot of people went away excited for more in the future. Tons of people came to try out the game, sometimes coming back for a second go with new friends to shout ‘SOLAR FLARE!! INTO THE SAFE ROOM!!’ at. We also had lots of lovely merch to give away (we <3 wristbands and posters) as well as a ‘Design your own Catastronaut’ competition, which is still running if you’re feeling arty!!

Catastronauts Stand Busy at Rezzed
Things got pretty busy!
Catastronauts Competition and Merch at Rezzed
We got lots of awesome entries for our competition

On the final day of the show things were slightly more chill, and we were able to each grab a short break to explore some of the other games we were each looking forward to. Some of our personal favourites included:

+ Ooblets, a super-cute Pokemon and Animal Crossing hybrid
+ Phogs!, where you and a friend work together to control a double-ended doggo
+ Forgotten Anne, a story driven adventure/puzzle platformer, with a beautiful cinematic style
+ Vermintide 2, a four player first-person action game, the newest installment in the Warhammer universe
+ Bury me, my Love, an interactive fiction where you play as the husband of Nour, a Syrian woman leaving Homs to try and start a new life in Europe

This was our first time showing off one of our games at a big exhibition, and we really enjoyed it. If you are interested in checking out Catastronauts at future events, you can catch us at Norwich Gaming Festival where we’ll be from 1st-3rd June. You can also follow us on social media for all the latest on the game!

Catastronauts on Facebook and Twitter; wishlist the game on Steam

Inertia Game Studios on Facebook and Twitter

Some of the team at Rezzed
Thanks for reading!

Vivarium Adventures!

March 16, 2018

This week Gerard had a very exciting and much anticipated upgrade to his vivarium!

Bearded Dragons live in a desert climate, so they are often kept on sand – this was what Gerard was used to as a baby, and has been living on since we became his beardie family. However, we’re always researching, to help us learn more about how to keep him healthy and happy, and we decided it would be better for him to have tiles in his vivarium.

Luckily Graeme already had some tiles which were just perfect. After some measuring, more measuring and a final measure just to check, we got the tiles cut to size and had a big spring clean to get rid of all the sand!

We all love the look of Gerard’s new viv… it reflects the sleek, modern dragon he is. It will also mean no more orange hands and feet!! Gerard himself has been in a ‘sit as high as possible and look dominant’ kind of mood since he’s come out of brumation (which is like his low-effort version of hibernation), so he hasn’t explored the new floor much yet; when he did investigate, he seemed completely unperturbed about the change!

Check out Gerard’s shiny new viv below, plus an obligatory ‘I’m a handsome lizard’ shot!

A bearded dragon vivarium with a black tiled floor
The tiles in action!
Gerard the bearded dragon posing on a rock
Feeling very chill (Can you spot the photobombing locust?)

Welcome to our office!

February 22, 2018

We thought you might like to come on an updated office tour, to see a little more about the place where the game magic happens!

Let the tour commence!!

Some of our team hard at work!
Some of our team hard at work!
This is where our shoes and umbrellas live!
This is where our shoes and umbrellas live.
Our pool table, used for many a lunchtime game, with our Catastronauts team busy in the background!
Our pool table, used for many a lunchtime game, with our Catastronauts team busy in the background.
The perfect place for a relaxing break!
The perfect place for a relaxing break.
Here's where our Catastronauts  team plan for the year ahead...
Here’s where our Catastronauts team plan for the year ahead…
Time is ticking!
We’re very excited!!
Our testing station - grab a controller!
Our testing station – grab a controller!
Our meeting room, where great ideas are born.
Our meeting room, where great ideas are born…
... and elephants wearing unicorn horns, on their birthdays.
… and elephants wearing unicorn horns, on their birthdays.
Fancy a game of Point Blank 2? Plus, can you spot Gerard?
Fancy a game of Point Blank 2? Plus, can you spot Gerard?
Here's where we enjoy our social nights, as well as some lunchtime Super Smash Bros.
Here’s where we enjoy our social nights, as well as some lunchtime Super Smash Bros.

Thanks for checking out our office tour – come back soon!


Christmas Capers!

January 19, 2018

This year for our annual Christmas do we decided to head back to Center Parcs for some more fun in the forest!

First off, before Christmas, we had a merry afternoon in the office, where we exchanged our Secret Santa gifts, listened to lots of classic Christmas songs and enjoyed some games, including Jackbox, one of our office favourites.

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In January, we headed off for a weekend at Center Parcs in Elveden. On our arrival day we enjoyed a meal at Huck’s American Bar & Grill – unfortunately, Graeme couldn’t make the trip this time, so instead we had a competition to add him to our group photo…

Comp to add Graeme

On the Saturday Alice, Kim and Laura spent some time with birds of prey, while lots of us tried out field archery. Later on a group of us made a very relaxing visit to the spa, and we also enjoyed the outdoor hot tub – so much that we didn’t want to leave it! We also had our traditional Saturday games night, where we enjoyed a new game for the office – Game of Phones! There was also lots of music, chatting, enjoying the pool table and of course, the obligatory game of telestrations!

Collage of Saturday Activities
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Sunday meant it was time for the Inertia Company Treasure Hunt!! We split into two teams and followed a series of clues hidden around the park, and completed some bonus photo challenges along the way! The winning team were rewarded with medals (yay!) and everyone got a goody bag of sweets to take home (yum!).

Sunday collage

We all had a blast, and really enjoyed our trip – we were especially excited that we managed to mostly avoid the dreaded winter colds! Here’s to another awesome year at Inertia 🙂


A Heroic Death!!

November 7, 2017

At the start of November, we held another of our now traditional murder mystery parties!

The day started with a bit of a hiccup when we arrived to find the office had no internet.

Luckily we managed to find other things to do to amuse ourselves…

Making a rocket
Using our creative skills to make Alice a rocket
Playing Margrave 4
Enjoying one of our classic games, Margrave: The Blacksmith’s Daughter
Preparing for the murder mystery
Preparing for our murder mystery party

In the afternoon, after many fruitless calls to our ISP we decided to start our Murder Mystery party a little early. We all got in to costume, finalised our voices and had one last read of our character sheets before gathering to play out “A Heroic Death”! This murder mystery was by Freeform Games (who we highly recommend!) and was more than your average murder mystery game. Rather than just solving the murder, everyone had their own goals to work on – this resulted in lots of treachery, blackmail, theft and wild accusations!

Everyone in costume
The SuperHeroicJusticeDoomSquad ready to get solving!
Captain Amazing!
Captain Amazing! He got some weird looks buying those knickers in Peacocks…

In the game we played a group of superheroes, the SuperHeroicJusticeDoomSquad, trapped in their base and trying to solve the mysterious murder of their manager Bernard, as well as escape the base to save the world! With a group of people with special powers, there was also lots of tit-for-tat arguing with said powers, which included some pass the parcel style stealing of important items and one player stopping everyone from getting to the buffet!

Murder Mystery Props
Some of the props from our party
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Our Superhero Cards, a most sought after item from the night!

Although our heroes failed to escape their base to save the world, between everyone they managed to piece together most of the murder story (despite some excellent tactics from the murderer to throw people off!) and everyone achieved lots of their goals, including reversing global warming, gathering money to pay off debts and uncovering secrets from their own past. The debrief session at the end of the night was especially fun when players discovered who had been blackmailing them, stealing from them and lying to them all night! We all really enjoyed this murder mystery party and are already looking forward to the next one.


An introduction to our latest project - Catastronauts!

October 6, 2017

We’re excited to be able to give you a sneak peak of one of the most exciting projects we’re working on at the moment. May we introduce…. Catastronauts!!

Life as a space cadet is never easy; enemies constantly bombarding your ship, torpedoes exploding in your hands, your fellow cadets accidentally getting you sucked into the void of space…

Catastronauts is a hectic local co-op multiplayer game, where up to four friends work together to defeat enemy ships before their own ship is taken down, while getting to grips with a range of obstacles and new weapons. You can expect lots of mistakes, accidentally killing each other (don’t worry, your ship has a cloning bay, of course), shouts of “Get the toolbox you muppet!!” (actual quote) and other hilarious fun; you’ll be able to defeat the enemy only once you start to work together.

Screenshot of Catastronauts
Guys… I think I’m on fire

With influences from co-op games such as Ghost Town Games’ Overcooked (one of our favourites for office socials!) and space-themed sims like Subset Games’ FTL, we’re working hard to produce a game that we think groups of friends and family will love playing together, with some unique new mechanics and very fun levels. Right now our Catastronauts team is focusing on putting the prototype through its paces with lots of play testing to figure out which mechanics work best together and balance the level difficulties.

Catastronauts Character Select Screen
Our character selection screen
Concept Art for Catastronauts - The Enemy Ship
Concept art for an enemy ship

We’re really excited about this project and can’t wait to share more about it with you in the coming months. You can check out some prototype gameplay in the video below. Let us know what you think on Twitter @Inertia_Game.


Let's Get Quizzical!

September 1, 2017

Quiz
For a recent social we enjoyed our third office pub quiz, this time with Kim as a new quizmaster (so Graeme had a chance to compete)!

With music rounds, picture rounds, acronyms and trivia our two teams battled it out, and the Labracadabrador team claimed victory, with a 5 point lead over Chicken Ball-Z.

We thought we’d share a few of our questions for you to have a go at!

1. What does SCUBA stand for?

2. Name the eight core lessons which Harry Potter has to attend during his first year at Hogwarts.

3. What is the largest species of dolphin?

4. What year was Doom first released?

5. True or false – Maine is the closest US state to Africa

Ready for the answers? Click here!

1. Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus

2. Potions, Herbology, Charms, Transfiguration, Flying, Astronomy, Defence against the Dark Arts, History of Magic

3. Killer Whale/Orca

4. 1993

5. True!

As always, this was one of our favourite social activities… it gives us a chance to show our competitive side outside of video games (“but I’ve SEEN bananas grow on trees!”), and to come up with puns for team names as well as some comic answers for the questions we didn’t know (does anyone else think that DEFRA might stand for “Dubious Elephant Figure Rendered by grAeme?).


A fine day for a BBQ

July 27, 2017

This year we’ve been blessed with an unusually high number of good weather days – the sun has been working in overdrive to give us way more than the standard UK quota of 2 sunny days per year!

We decided to take full advantage of this by holding a BBQ at Greg’s house. A particularly mild and pleasant Monday was settled on and we made our way there in the afternoon. We started with a couple of rounds of telestrations – see if you can guess what is represented in Graeme’s picture below…

By Graeme (1)

Lucy then took on the role of chef and cooked us up some delicious burgers, sausages, wings, halloumi and kebabs, plus Alice made some delicious piña coladas! Once we were all fed and watered we moved inside for some Singstar – classic hits enjoyed included Meatloaf’s “I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That)” and Anastacia’s “Left Outside Alone”.

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We then moved on to the cardboard box game; players have to pick up an ever shrinking cereal box using only their mouth, while only touching the ground with their feet. Lucy and both Lauren’s managed to make it to the final round which involved picking up just a flat piece of card. The surprising flexibility of some office members made us suspect some people may have been practising over the weekend!

collagte box game

Lastly we enjoyed a game of sardines (we are grown ups, we swear!). We turned the lights off and shut the curtains, and one person went off to hide. The others then searched one by one and joined them in their hiding place. Lauren L found a particularly clever hiding place planking across the dining chairs under the table, while Graeme and Kim managed to hide undiscovered in Greg’s wardrobe for at least 10 minutes!


Our first year of Beardie parenthood

July 5, 2017

This June was a special month at Inertia – it marked one year since Gerard, our office bearded dragon came to join us!

This meant he got a shiny new UV lamp for his vivarium, and we thought it was a perfect time to give you a lizard update.

Gerard has grown quite considerably since we first brought him to his new home! Much like having a child, you don’t seem to notice him growing when you see him every day, but we’ve kept a growth chart for him (when he’ll permit us to measure him) and his tail is now almost as long as he was when we first got him!

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Gerard definitely seems to have enjoyed his first year with us! He still loves his locusts but his favourite veggies are now the leafy ones – rocket and watercress! He’s currently going through his second shed with us, and recently received a new addition to his viv – a hidey cave! After a week or so of looking at the cave suspiciously, followed by a couple more of climbing on top of it (climbing is one of his favourite pastimes!) he finally decided to venture inside, and now regularly curls up for a nap when he gets exhausted from the daily rigours of lizarding.

The year has also offered opportunities to practice his jumping skills, and we’ve had a few near misses around the office! Luckily one of us has always managed to catch him before he could fall any great height. We’ve also managed to (mostly) avoid any stray locusts…

We’ve all grown quite attached to our smallest colleague, and he’s proven to be a unique and surprisingly endearing office pet! Here’s to another year (and many more) of beardie companionship!

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Check out Gerard’s baby pics and see how much he’s grown here!


Oh I do like to be beside the seaside!

May 19, 2017

18422215_10155075868145528_7208135263268758158_oOne sunny day in May, we decided that it was the perfect day to take a well earned break from our recent hard work (with the release of Jackpot Bingo and big updates to Cross-Stitch World) and take a trip to the beach!

Hunstanton (or Sunny Hunny as it’s known locally) is the closest beach to our office in Ely, so we took a drive and arrived just in time for lunch!

First off, we enjoyed some fish and chips while successfully thwarting several attempts of chip theft by a menacing gang of seagulls.

We then headed to an arcade, where we changed up our coins for 2ps and had a go at winning some prizes! No-one managed to hit the jackpot this time, but we did collect a fair few tokens to exchange for treats.

Next stop was a sweet shop where we stocked up on rock, candy and a marshmallow man on a stick for Lucy! This was followed by a pleasant stroll along the front back to the beach at Old Hunstanton, where we explored the sand, although no one was quite brave enough (or appropriately dressed!) to take a proper paddle. Alice and Lauren did explore some fairly deep puddles though!

After that it was time to head back to the office to finish off the day and shake the sand out of our shoes. It was a fun excursion, which we will repeat in the future – Graeme who was on his annual leave has made us promise to make sure he’s in the next time we go!

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Jackpot Bingo!

May 2, 2017

We’ve just launched our latest game, Jackpot Bingo! It’s a new casual, social bingo game and is available now to play on Facebook!

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Grab your Bingo cards and join the fun! Jackpot Bingo features both US and UK style games, both are super easy and free to play.

Play and chat with hundreds of other people from around the world – make new friends and become a part of the community! Unlock colorful new daubers to mark your cards in style or treat your fellow players to a round of drinks to show your generosity.

There’s loads of rooms to choose from including free card rooms and high roller rooms with bigger payouts! You can relax in an automatic room or enjoy an exciting, fast-paced manual game. Play with up to 8 cards at once, with up to 6 prizes available per round! Jackpot Bingo also features special Jackpot rounds with mega prizes!

Play Jackpot Bingo today and become part of the community!

Head over to the game now to check it out You can also head over to the Jackpot Bingo Community Page on Facebook and like it, so that you can keep up to date with the latest news and offers from the game!

Play the game on Facebook here

Visit the Jackpot Bingo Community Page here


Amazon UK Developer Spotlight

March 8, 2017

This week we had the awesome news that Facility 47 has been chosen as a winner in the Amazon UK Developer Spotlight!!

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The UK Developer Spotlight is designed to show off great apps that were developed in the UK and is open to larger studios as well as indies like us! The initiative is editorial in nature, with the winners being selected by the Amazon team after a careful review.

If you don’t already know, Facility 47 is our most recent point and click adventure game. It is set in an isolated research facility in the depths of the Antarctic; players must solve puzzles and search for clues as they make their way round the facility and its surroundings, discovering the mysterious history of the facility.

We’re really proud of the game (if we do say so ourselves!) and hope that this win will help it reach new players who will hopefully enjoy it as much as the Amazon team!


If you haven’t already tried it out you can get Facility 47 on the Amazon Appstore. You can also find it on other platforms using the links below:

Facility 47 on the Apple App Store
Facility 47 on Google Play
Facility 47 for Windows PC


Or, if you need some more convincing you can check out the trailer.

 


Forest Frolics

January 24, 2017

This Christmas for our main annual social event, we decided to head to Center Parcs again – it was an easy choice after all the fun we had last year! This time we tried out Woburn Forest for something a bit different.

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The weather was kind for us this year, turning slightly milder for the weekend we’d chosen. When we arrived the first priority was to enjoy some delicious pancakes at The Pancake House! We followed this with a visit to the Subtropical Swimming Paradise to check out the slides and discover one of our new favourites, the lazy river, complete with rubber rings!

This year we all decided to head to the Aqua Sana Spa on the Friday evening, and enjoyed a lot of relaxation. There were fire and ice rooms, an outdoor heated pool, rainforest showers and a very relaxing room called the ‘Salt Inhalation Room’ where Greg fell asleep, and had to be woken by the staff at the end of our session. We all left the spa feeling very chilled out and ready for some fun the next day!

aqua sana day oneAqua Sana Woburn Forest, by Center Parcs – Shared under CC BY 3.0 license

On Saturday the braver ones of us decided to climb to the top of a tall pole and jump off, as part of the high ropes challenge!

pole ladder

We also had to balance up some poles with our eyes closed (and only a little cheating) and complete a vertical obstacle course. We tried out lots of other activities throughout the day too including archery, badminton, squash and table tennis.

badminton

Saturday evening meant time for a few drinks and some games – we started with Telestrations, our old favourite. Then we moved on to Quiplash, a fun game where you try and come up with the most amusing answer to fill in the blank – for example, “The worst thing for an evil witch to turn you into _____” for which we had the answer “The inside of a goat”. Finally we played the Hat Game (a mix of Articulate and Charades) – trying to describe the phrase “Is that a trowel in your lederhosen?” in one word proved quite tricky! We ended the evening by enjoying some music together and sharing some funny stories.

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Sunday was a more relaxed day – thanks to a rather persistent cold that has been making its way round the office lately (don’t worry, we’re all better now!) we weren’t quite up to the fearless battle of hearts, minds and physical fitness that is the team challenge, so we opted for playing some pool, exploring the village (including the very peaceful nature area!) and dipping our toes into the pool again one last time.

In the evening we enjoyed a few games of Ten Pin Bowling – the victors were Greg, and Kieran (who pretended to have bad bowling skills and then swept in to overtake us all!). We accompanied this with Slush Puppies, because what’s a trip to the bowling alley without one! We then went to Huck’s American Bar and Grill for our big group meal.

By Monday we were worn out but contented, and it was time for one last bit of fun before we left for home – half of us tried out the adventure golf course while the others went next door for a horse riding session at Brook Stables. A fun end to a very enjoyable weekend and a great way to start the year 🙂

Almost..

 


Twist and Shout!

January 13, 2017

We have recently launched an all new game ‘Tile Twist World’!! A unique new Twist on Puzzle Games, available now on Facebook, Android, Kindle and iOS!

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Twist interlocking shapes to reveal hundreds of stunning pictures in this unique new Puzzle Game! Featuring a myriad of intriguing tile shapes, all of which fit together perfectly to slowly reveal a hidden image as you solve the puzzle.

Tile Twist comes with a wonderful variety of puzzles, each containing a beautiful image – you can also create your very own puzzles from images and photos to share with friends!

Play Tile Twist World today and discover a unique new puzzling adventure!

Head over to the game now to check it out You can also head over to the Tile Twist Community Page on Facebook and like it, so that you can keep up to date with the latest news and offers from the game!

Play the game:

Facebook – https://apps.facebook.com/tile-twist-world/

Android – https://play.google.com/store/apps/details…

iOS – https://itunes.apple.com/…/app/tile-twist-world/id1182933103

Community Page – https://www.facebook.com/tiletwistworld

 


Festive Fun!

January 5, 2017

group-photoAfter a year of lots of hard work, including some great new features for Fishing World and the release of Tile Twist World, it was time to enjoy a little festive fun!

Shortly before Christmas we spent an afternoon enjoying some games in the office. We all got to open our gifts from our Secret Santas which included an awesome Harry Potter themed cushion for Alice, a book of pranks for Greg (which has put Graeme slightly on edge) and lots of very warm, cute and fluffy winter socks!

We then moved on to a den building contest – having been collecting boxes for several months in preparation, we split into two teams and each one raced to get the best boxes! We had half an hour to build the best den we could, before the den judge Richard graded them on stability, aesthetics and size.

It was a very close call, with both teams desperately vying for bonus points, but eventually the winner was decided – the Castle den!! You can check out both of our creations below.

winning-dendenFinally we settled down for the much anticipated ‘Graeme’s Christmas Quiz!’ This included a stat guessing round (did you know that, on average, 1000 people in the UK are injured by their own Christmas tree every year?!), some Christmas film acronyms, and the customary music guessing round. We also got to enjoy some delicious Biscoff cake courtesy of Lauren.

cake

Keep an eye out for a blog on the second part of our Christmas fun, coming soon!!

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Award winner!

December 7, 2016

Last week SyncDevelopHER held the 2nd Annual DevelopHER awards in Ipswich. Alice, one of our talented programming team members, was nominated for the Best Newcomer award and, we are very proud to say, won!!

Here’s Alice enjoying her trophy!

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The DevelopHER Awards is a not for profit award ceremony that is designed to raise the profile of women in technology in East Anglia and in doing so, help encourage the next generation of women in tech by providing female role models.

Huge congratulations from all of us Alice, and thank you for being a wonderful member of our team!

 


A Frightful October!

November 7, 2016

This October we’ve had our helping of scary experiences!

Part way through the month we held our second Murder Mystery evening! Everyone took on a different character linked to the Heavy Metal band ‘Satanic Saints’, and we got together to investigate the murder of its lead singer Tarantula.

The night was led by Kim Detective Rachel Owens, and there were many suspects after Tarantula’s money, love or fame. Stoney Walker, the band’s bass guitarist, was an obvious suspect due to his paranoid delusions and obsessive behaviour. Other guests included Peaches Van Helden, Tarantula’s ‘porn star wife’; ‘The Skull’, an obsessed teenage fan; and Sabrina Hitchmen, a PA on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

Lots of guesses were made but in the end it was revealed that the perpetrator was Rick Rocker, a roadie, who seemed to think singing classic rock hits to himself at random points throughout the night made him ‘down with the kids’ – he had been in love with Tarantula and murdered him after being rejected! We had lots of fun again and will definitely be having another Murder Mystery evening in the future.

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Then came Halloween itself; the bar had been set high from last year’s costumes (see our blog about them here but there was definitely a good effort this time round too! Costumes included Ghostly Bride, Mad Scientist and a very creepy Red Riding Hood Wolf! We had fun confusing a woman who came to deliver a package, and our newest temporary staff member Lauren certainly had an interesting introduction when she came to visit before starting the following day.

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And while Kim came dressed as Gerard, Gerard had his own Shark costume, courtesy of Lucy.

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After a day of fun and games in the office, including our new favourite the Hat Game, we headed into Ely for a Ghost Walk. We got to hear lots of local tales of ghosts and ghoulies, and explored some of the most haunted areas of the city, still wearing our costumes of course; finally, we all headed home to scrub off the face paint and fake blood and enjoy our free sweets from the Ghost Walk!

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Inspiring some creative writing!

September 26, 2016

Recently we were able to help out a class of schoolchildren using our games as part of their learning!

Mr Tregenza teaches 8-11 year olds in England – he got in touch with us as he was using our game “Escape from Darkmoor Manor” with his pupils. We were happy to help out by sharing a bit of the concept material from the game for his class to use.

The class played the game together and used it to inspire some very creative writing which they kindly shared with us – in fact, they enjoyed it so much that they decided to do the same with another of our narrative driven adventure/escape games – Facility 47!

Check out some of our favourite extracts from the work the children did:

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Luke:

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Aderyn3
Charlie:

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They even made a display of some of their work on the topic! We’re so proud.

Thanks for sharing your work with us, Mr Tregenza and class! We’ve printed lots more of our favourite bits and stuck them on our office wall 🙂

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Inertia Fun Day!

August 10, 2016

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It had been a while since our last release party so we thought it was time to celebrate the hard work we’d been doing to create and release new games over the last year including Petal Match, Facility 47 and Cross-Stitch World!

We settled on our now traditional children’s soft play area trip – but we decided to try something a little different in the daytime before we went. We started off with a yummy meal in a local pub and then it was time to start THE ELY TREASURE HUNT (Expertly planned and delivered by our very own Graeme)!!

We each had to trust Graeme to install an app he’d made on our phones (luckily he has a little experience in that sort of thing…) and then we split into two teams and set off into the wilds of Ely.

The treasure hunt came with a map which led us to various local landmarks; at each one we used the augmented reality feature of the app to reveal hidden clues… numbers and letters which led us to secret hidden boxes! Inside the boxes were some treats for us (chocolate coins are important sustenance during a busy treasure hunt) and messages from ‘Ernie the Ely Eel Catcher’, who was trying to convince us that Oliver Cromwell, one of Ely’s most well known former residents, was not the hero he is sometimes portrayed to be.

Both teams managed to complete the treasure hunt, with only a few hints needed! Graeme got plenty of exercise as he biked across Ely keeping an eye on both teams, and we also got to practise our social skills when we had to ask an employee at the Oliver Cromwell museum for one of the boxes!

We all had a very enjoyable afternoon and were extremely impressed with Graeme’s hard work – you can check out some photos from the treasure hunt below.

treasure collage

After all that excitement, we moved on to two hours of running around in a play area playing ‘zombies’, ‘capture-the-flag’, ‘find-the-flag’, ‘move-around-the-whole-play-area-with-a-ball-between-your-knees’ and ‘spin-on-a-pole-til-you’re-dizzy-and-then-fall-over’ (that last one was a new invention for this year).

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Lastly it was time to relax and visit a bar in Cambridge, where we enjoyed a few cocktails and some Busted songs before heading home to get some sleep and rest our various play area related injuries at the end of an awesome day 🙂

 


Here Be Dragons...

June 23, 2016

IMG_6154It was a quiet Thursday afternoon in the Inertia offices when a wild Greg appeared and exclaimed “Let’s get a dragon!”.
“Why would we need a dragon, Greg? Do we intend to take back the iron throne?”
“No not that kind – although that would be cool – a bearded dragon!”
And,  not 24 hours later, we were busy assembling a flat pack vivarium to house our new colleague! We may have made a mess of the office, but we managed to get it fully functional (temperature gauges and heat lamps included) before the end of the day which is when we rushed out to the reptile centre (conveniently around the corner).
And so, meet Gerard the Bearded Dragon!
He likes locusts, carrots and long baths. In fact, here’s him having his first bath; he had a bit of splash and looked as though he was enjoying himself. Of course, we all gathered round to watch the lizard in the washing-up bowl because who wouldn’t?

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He’s only been with us a week and we’ve made sure to give him lots of cuddles and attention.

We’ll bring you another reptile update as soon as he’s grown into his beard!

 


Our Latest New Release - Petal Match!

June 17, 2016

We’ve just released a brand new Facebook game into the world!

communityPetal Match: The Secret Garden will look familiar to players of our existing game, Mahjong: The Secret Garden. The gardening elements of the game are the same; you are given a secret garden which is yours to fill with beautiful and exciting flowers, trees, decorations, buildings and more, and you also get to travel to and explore many exotic islands in both games.

In Petal Match however the gameplay element is brand new! Players get to play exciting new match-3 puzzles. Make swaps to match up flowers of the same colour; there are different objectives to meet for each level. Take your time and pick your moves carefully – the fewer moves you use, the higher your score!

There are lots of special tiles that can help or challenge you throughout the game. Pesky weeds will need removing to clear the way for your matches and rotten fruit can wilt your flowers if you don’t get rid of it quickly! But don’t worry – you can use watering cans and fertiliser to perk up your flowers. If you match up more flowers at once you can create garden gnomes who’ll help you out by zooming through and collecting whole rows and sections of flowers at once. Our favourite helper here in the office is the bee – bees will always do whatever they can to help you meet your objective, be it getting rid of tiles that are in the way or making your flowers count for more!

You can even combine different helper tiles together for some pretty spectacular score-boosting effects (we won’t say too much, but when you get the chance try out a gnome with a sickle…).

Take a look at the game for yourself – check out the screenshots below and click here to start building your own secret garden and journey through the many exciting match-3 puzzles. You can also visit and like the Facebook page for the game to stay up to date with all the latest news!!

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The one with the Hammock

June 2, 2016

On a sunny Tuesday morning recently after a group meeting, we returned to the main office to be greeted by 6 huge boxes and there was no doubt as to what they contained… Six very brightly coloured giant bean bags! After unpacking them, they had to be tested out thoroughly of course (something we are experts in), before being moved to their new home upstairs, which provided us with some exciting mid-morning entertainment. To go along with the bean bags we also decided that a hammock seemed like a brilliant idea, because well… who doesn’t need a hammock in their office?! They should be compulsory for all workplaces! Now we have the perfect place in which to relax away from the main downstairs office and the ideal spot for us to spend our Wednesday Social evenings.

Here’s a sneak peek at the new relaxing/comfy corner of the office as well as the fun we had when they arrived (All that’s left is to convince everyone that a slide is the logical thing to get next!):

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Sweet Treats

April 21, 2016

There’s been a few Birthday’s in the office recently, which of course means 1 thing… CAKE! Everyone at Inertia loves a sweet treat, with the exception of Graeme who doesn’t like cake, and a few office members are keen bakers (Kieran keeps promising Monday Cakes, but these haven’t made an appearance yet) which means there is often something pretty tasty to try. Here’s a few of the things we have been enjoying recently:

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Murder Mystery Night

March 17, 2016

Last week we tried something a little bit different for our social night – we held a Murder Mystery party!

Everyone was assigned a character and instructed to fill in their own back story. Food was purchased and decorations set up and we were ready to start the evening!

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The night was organised by Kim, who acted as the host – Kimbrella Kumbra, the owner of the Black Panther casino where the mystery was set. A famous Elvis impersonator, Al Shookup, had been murdered and it was everyone’s job to try and figure out whodunnit! After taking in each other’s interesting costumes (take special note of Graeme who played a recently fired gladiator actor), we started chatting and introducing our characters.

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We enjoyed trying out our US accents, which seemed to change between different regions frequently. At first, a lot of suspicion fell on the reporter Flynt Coal, due to his frantic note taking. Other guests included Alex White who played a hit man under cover as a Scuba Diver, Chenaynay an escort who was once jilted by Al, and Tommy, Al’s singing coach, who was in a famous band known for their hit ‘hmm-bop!’.

The finger was also pointed at Randy, who carried two guns with him that night and had been seen heckling Al in the past. It emerged that he had lost a gun in that very casino and this had been used as the murder weapon!

Finally, after lots of discussion, suspicion and wild accusations, the guesses were made and the murderer was revealed! Greg, who played Tommy, had been having a secret affair with Al and killed him to avoid being outed to his wife!

It was definitely an unusual night, but a very fun one. We will definitely be hosting another one soon!


Dragon Words is here!

February 15, 2016

Icon_160x160_DW_FBOur latest brand new game has recently been released on Facebook!

Dragon Words is an exciting new word game. In it, the evil Jen has stolen the alphabet and scattered it among the stars and it’s your job to get it back! Help Sparx the Dragon defeat him using your word searching skills – fight back by linking letters together to form awesome words. It won’t be easy! Watch out for dangerous asteroids and fast spreading frost trying to block your every turn.

Help is at hand though, use your wit and spelling skills to chain together long words into super charged tiles, capable of blasting through the board and reaping huge rewards! There are also power ups and boosts which increase your score and create awesome special effects.

Players can puzzle their way through hundreds of challenging levels across countless constellations, and can play alone or compete against their Facebook friends to see who has the greatest word skills!

Check out the screenshots below to see some of what the game has to offer, and click here to start your own cosmic word adventure now on Facebook! Plus, follow our Dragon Words Facebook page to get all the latest updates, including information about the upcoming mobile app!

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Weekend at Center Parcs

January 20, 2016

This year we had a slightly belated Christmas party – on a cold January weekend we packed our wooly hats and wellies and went off to Center Parcs Holiday Village in Elveden, Thetford Forest.

We spotted lots of wildlife whilst we were there – Kim made friends with a squirrel who ate nuts from the patio, and Lauren opened her curtains one morning to see a deer right outside the window and of course we can’t forget the random peacock!!

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On Friday we headed to the pool for several trips on the exciting ‘Tropical Cyclone’ ride, breaks in the relaxing Hot Tubs and our favourite, the outdoor Wild Water Rapids. We went for a delicious meal at Huck’s American Bar and Grill, then popped back to the lodges for a quick game of Telestrations in our PJs (our current office favourite, we tend to get a little bit creative!).

Saturday was when the activities started! Laser Combat (paintball with lasers), Target Archery and Off-road Segway sessions were all enjoyed over the weekend. Despite all the adventure outdoors we managed to escape with only a few minor injuries!! And some of us even managed to squeeze in a visit to the spa to relax after a busy year at the office.

Saturday evening brought plenty of just the odd drink and more games – this time we played Wits and Wagers which showed off some of our horrendously poor general knowledge (hands up who thinks a Blue Whale might measure 30,000 feet?!). We then played ‘Guilty Pleasure’, a game where each person plays three cheesy songs and the rest of the group have to guess which one they secretly love! Some of our guilty pleasures included Rockstar by Nickelback, Rasputin by Boney M and What do you mean? by Justin Beiber! This one has definitely made the list for future socials.

We also hosted a Mushroom eating contest – in case you were wondering, Lauren can eat 11 mushrooms quicker than Graeme can! As well as a few of our team ending up with some interesting ‘temporary’ tattoos and a team effort of the most beautiful rendition of Britney Spears ‘Hit Me Baby One More Time’ to ever be performed.

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On Sunday, the Greg v Graeme battle from last year’s Christmas Party was reignited as two teams took on lots of amusing challenges around the village, including making mini movies about our games, posing as mannequins and singing ‘Let it go!’ from Frozen in public!!! Here are a few of our favourite photos from the team challenge.

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On Monday it was time to head home and have a rest at the end of an awesome weekend of fun! (Here’s some other photos of what else we managed to squeeze in to our weekend!)

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Our new office member..

December 18, 2015

We’ve had an adorable little visitor helping out here at Inertia Game Studios recently…

This is Albert the Miniature Dachshund puppy, he has been helping us with our programming, racing around the office and making everyone jealous over his extra long naps – the only staff member who can get away with sleeping under the desk!IMG_0302

IMG_0293This is Albert taking a well-deserved lunch break nap after a morning of hard work (and a bit more napping)!12308322_10156247357875524_5740048305526861800_n


Cross-Stitch World has arrived...

December 8, 2015

We have been busy working on a new Facebook game here at Inertia and we are pleased to announce that Cross-Stitch World is now live on Facebook! There are hundreds of Cross-Stitch patterns to choose from so that you can enjoy hours of fun watching your Cross-Stitch come to life stitch by stitch.

Here’s just a few screenshots of the game and what you can expect, click here to play it now and start completing some beautiful and realistic patterns available (we are pretty proud of how realistic the patterns look)!

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The newest addition to our games - Facility 47!

November 23, 2015

We have just released a brand new game! Facility 47 is an exciting Point and Click Adventure game available on iOS, Android and coming soon to PC.

Get ready to explore an isolated Research Facility in the depths of the Antarctic as Facility 47 hits iOS and Android stores (PC version coming soon!). In this point and click style adventure game, players must solve puzzles and search for clues as they make their way round the Facility and its surroundings.

Players begin the game finding themselves locked in an icy cell with no obvious way of escaping and no idea as to why they are there. They must use their wits to free themselves and start their journey through the Facility, surviving the polar conditions and searching for clues that will help them uncover and piece together the mysterious history of Facility 47.

Check out the screenshots below from the game. Click here to watch the game trailer! If you want to read some of the awesome reviews of Facility  47, just in case you need a little more persuading that you should download the game, here are some links:

‘Facility 47: The Rare Beast Of A Mystery Game Done Well’ 9.8/10 – Click here

‘Facility 47: Puzzle Me Pretty’ – Click here

‘Enigmatic And Beautiful, Facility 47 Is Here To Seduce You’ – Click here

‘Facility 47 – brilliant escape the room puzzler adventure!’ – 4.8/5 Click here

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Inertia does Halloween!

November 2, 2015

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With all the wonderful minds that we have in our office, Halloween seemed like the perfect chance to be creative and dress up and have a bit of a funday! There were many discussions before the day arrived and secrets kept as to the nature of everyone’s costumes as we all eagerly prepared our masterpieces. And so Friday 30th October (we celebrated a day early) rocked around and one by one everyone started to arrive at the office, albeit a little late for some of us! After discussing each other’s costumes in the morning and scaring the postman it was time to play some games, followed by takeaway and spooky cakes and an evening of bowling! (Still in costume of course!)

The winner of the best costume went to Graeme for his incredible prisoner/dinosaur combo, which required him having to source alternate means of transport for the day as the costume would not fit in his usual car! Check out the photos below to see all of the amazing costumes that were created!!

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Rock Band!!

October 15, 2015

Every Wednesday we try to have a social evening at the office… This week’s entertainment was a night of Rock Band!! – and a Subway or two to fuel the rocking.
Check out the photos below to see us all playing in our imaginary Inertia band! (PS. We are actually enjoying ourselves despite not looking like it, we were just concentrating so hard!!)collage


A spooky sneak peek..

September 11, 2015

Halloween is fast approaching and we have been working extra hard to get ready for it in Mahjong: the Secret Garden!! We know just how much our players love to create and decorate wonderful gardens, and Halloween means that they can create an extra spooky mysterious surprise using our seasonal Limited Edition Halloween items. Here are just a couple of examples of what has been made before…      This year we have been working our socks off to create a glorious selection of new Halloween items to add to the collection. Here’s a little sneak peek at some of them.. halloween sneak peek

Keep your eyes peeled for the arrival of these spooky new items and get your thinking hats on and ready to create a spooktacular masterpiece this Halloween!! We are super excited to release these items and see what you all think of them!

Click here to play the game: https://apps.facebook.com/mahjong_garden/


A Steak Challenge, a quiz and a farewell

July 30, 2015

This week, our University placement student Alex left after completing his placement year here at Inertia Game Studios! Having been with us for almost a year, we had all grown very fond of our intern. Having spent the majority of his time here astounding us with the amount of food he can eat, there was only one way to say goodbye… A 72oz steak challenge at the local steak house!!

After week’s of preparation, Alex was feeling quite confident that he would be able to complete the challenge but unfortunately he fell just short and managed a whopping 60oz before admitting defeat (although he did manage to fit in a few scoops of chocolate ice cream afterwards!).

Despite that being his last day, he did come back for a ‘Pub Quiz’ style social event for a final goodbye where we wished him luck for the future and told him that we would very much like him to return one day. Check out the before, during and after photos to see just how much steak he managed to eat as well as one with his incredible hand-made diorama gift!

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Inside our Office

June 30, 2015

We have recently done a bit of re-arranging in our office between upstairs and downstairs, here’s a sneak peek in to the home of Inertia… (You may also notice some of our staff really hard at work!)

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Margrave Release Party

June 3, 2015

Game release = Time to celebrate!!

We recently released the mobile/tablet version of the Secret of Margrave Manor and to celebrate this (and it finally being finished) we decided to have a little party. This involved a full day dedicated to playing games! A very wide range of games were played by everyone in the office, including Quake, Singstar, Telestrations, a table-tennis tournament, Buzz and more! We learnt that some people weren’t quite pitch perfect whilst others definitely need to improve on their artistic talents.

The games didn’t end there, the evening involved hiring out a soft play centre where we spent 2 hours running around like crazy children and thoroughly exhausting ourselves before heading out for some well deserved cocktails and a certain Tequila Suicide.

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Road Trip to Norwich!

May 27, 2015

We were invited to attend a Game Expo hosted by the Radio 1 Academy in Norwich this year and it happened to fall on Graeme’s birthday! Armed with laptop’s and tablet’s, 4 of us bundled in to the car and headed to Norwich where we would be showcasing some of our games, including Escape from Darkmoor Manor and Mahjong: the Secret Garden!

We arrived (albeit a tiny bit late), picked up our BBC lanyards and set off to set things up. Luckily we had some time before the Expo started giving us a chance to have a look round some of the other companies that were showcasing games and it was a great opportunity to do some networking. There was also some live music going on during the day, The Maccabees were performing a Radio 1 Live Lounge so a couple of us sneaked off to watch some of this! There were lots of people coming and going throughout the day and it was great to meet so many students/young people that are interested in joining the Games Industry.

The day ended with our Senior Programmer Lucy Satchell taking part in a ‘Speed Meet’ session where she was able to talk to groups of young people about her career path and answer any questions they might have had for her. Take a look at some of the photos below for an insight in to our day!bbc collage 1 tablecloth


The Secret of Margrave Manor..

May 12, 2015

The Secret of Margrave Manor has been revived and brought back to life!! This classic hidden object game was the first installment in our hugely popular Margrave series for PC and we have just released it on iPhone, iPad and Android devices featuring updated images and artwork!

You can immerse yourself in Margrave Manor and search its many rooms, with over 150 levels available in story mode! In between completing the hidden object games and working your way through the spooky family Manor in search of your missing Grandfather, you can also uncover the secrets of the Manor by piecing together letter’s and journal entries that can be found along the way.

Check out the screenshots below for a sneak peek in to the game!

To download The Secret of Margrave Manor on iTunes, click here.

To download The Secret of Margrave Manor on Google Play, click here to try out the free version. Click here for the full version.

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BBC Radio 1's Academy

April 21, 2015

This year the BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend is headed to Norwich and in the run up to Big Weekend,  the BBC are hosting the BBC Radio 1 Academy from the 9th-16th May. Aimed at 16-19 year old’s, the Academy will be hosting workshop sessions, live music, panels and Q&As to inspire you to take your interest in Music, Radio, TV and Video, Journalism, Gaming, and Digital careers to the next level.

Inertia Game Studios can announce that we will be attending the Game Expo event on Thursday 14th May as part of the Academy!! We will be showcasing our games and providing an insight to our company with the hope of inspiring young, new talent to join the games industry. To get involved and get inspired, tickets will be released on Saturday 25th April and will be available until the final day of the Academy – click here for more details! If you want the latest updates on the event, check out their Facebook page here and look out for the hashtag #R1Academy on Twitter!!11092619_808708459210275_4202349248415839924_o


Sneak Peek - Dragon Words

April 16, 2015

In between all the fun in the office, we have been hard at work on a number of new games! One of these is Dragon Words… here are just a few of the concept images created by our Senior Artist Jonathan for the game as well as a couple of sneak peaks, which should give you an idea of what you can expect when Dragon Words is released!

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Ping Pong has arrived!

April 14, 2015

There has been a new addition to the Inertia office this week.. a table tennis table! It has proved to be very popular with everyone in the office, including Greg and Graeme sneaking off to go and play in the afternoon whilst taking a break. Some of us had a little tournament one evening and intern Alex reigned supreme closely followed by Greg.

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One Million Players!!

April 8, 2015

Our newly released Fishing World game on Facebook has just reached 1 million players!! At the moment we are working on the app version of the game which will be available on mobile and tablet devices soon, enabling you to take the game with you and play on the go!

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A night in with Oculus

April 2, 2015

Wednesday evenings tend to be our social evenings, and this occasion was no different with the exception of a little blurring of the lines between reality and the virtual world. The night involved a lot of pizza, laughing at each other and taking turns to use the Oculus… this included a chicken simulator (because who doesn’t love pretending to be a chicken) as well as catching basketballs with your head and a game that a few were a little too scared to play. I’m not sure whether it was more fun being the player or the spectators!

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Christmas Party 2014

March 25, 2015

On a sunny day in late December, having spent the morning playing games and being festive in the office, we set off on a train journey towards the Capital!

En route to London, we found plenty of ways to entertain ourselves and spent our journey mainly playing the Who am I game.. although unfortunately it involved no stickers on foreheads.

After checking in to a very pleasant hotel, we headed off to activity number 1.. A real life escape the room game! Once here, we split into two teams – Greg v Graeme – and each entered two identical rooms with the challenge of using the clues in the room to solve the murder mystery and escape from the room! Despite a high level of intelligence across both teams, it proved trickier than anticipated. A few clues later and both teams seemed about even, however towards the end, Graeme’s team were held up by a faulty torch and this proved to be a costly set back! Greg’s team managed to get out before the hour was up whilst Graeme’s team were left frantically trying to put the clues together and after being given a little extra time, finally managed to escape.

Having escaped the rooms, it was time to document our adventure using the photobooth and dress up gear provided…

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There was still more fun to be had however! The part of the evening that Alex in particular had been looking forward to.. food! We all enjoyed a very festive meal (and a few festive drinks) as the evening got underway.

The evening progressed and next on our agenda was the Vodka Ice Bar! We all robed up and entered the frosty bar, where of course the only way to warm up was to enjoy a few more festive drinks, served in glasses made from ice.

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After 45 minutes we were thoroughly frozen and it was time to head to some bars of the traditional variety. This turned out to be just the one bar for the rest of the night, mainly due to the allure of the gaming tables that were discovered – Pacman in a club has never seemed so appealing! A number of hours, shots, Pacman games and dances later it was time to hit the hay and we all headed back to hotel for some well earned sleep after a very enjoyable day and evening.