[zircon]

Space Whale Studios is an independent game development company I co-founded in Philadelphia last year with four other people. Our mission is to create addictive strategy, puzzle and retro-inspired games that are easy to pick up, but have lots of depth, unique graphics and kickass audio.

We're just now wrapping up work on our first title, an action-puzzle game called Return All Robots! (or RAR!). We'll have lots of videos about this game up on our YouTube channel soon, but in the meantime, here's the gist of it - you're a lowly intern at a big science corporation who gets tasked with cleaning up the aftermath of some kind of giant catastrophe that has released tons of 'good' and 'bad' robots all over the facility. Your goal is to travel through several different labs (worlds), rescuing the good robots while avoiding or destroying the bad robots and making sure they DON'T escape.

Exclusive First-Look Gameplay Video!

Your primary tool is a remote control which calls all robots to move toward you. Just get all the good robots to the teleporter square without any of them dying (or without YOU dying), and you're all set. There are a few twists, however:

1. Robots only move in cardinal directions. If you're diagonal from a robot, they won't know what to do.
2. ALL robots - good and bad - move at once.
3. You can't call robots while they're moving - in other words, you can't change their direction at all. Only when they've stopped (hitting a barrier) can you call them again.

As if these challenges weren't enough, the various labs you have to travel through are filled with a range of perils, from liquid nitrogen to cryo-fans, lava, tesla coils, acid and fire. New mechanics are unlocked as you progress in the games, such as a heat ray to melt ice blocks, a "robo buddy" that you can position as a mobile obstacle, turret/laser robots and more.

We're ultra-hyped about this game, which should be released on Xbox Indie Games and PC by mid-October. To celebrate, we'll simultaneously be releasing a physical + digital soundtrack (composed by myself and fellow Philly musician Mike Worth.) This brings us to:

REMIX CONTEST

The rules are simple. Remix, arrange or cover any track from the RAR! OST. Any length, any instrumentation. We'll listen to everything and pick our top 5 favorites based on creativity and overall enjoyability.

Prizes

First place: Your remix featured on the RAR! OST (= you get paid.) Plus, you get a copy of the physical soundtrack and game disc (or XBIG download code, if you prefer), any Impact Soundworks sample library, my entire discography (6 CDs!) and the Uhbik plugin collection for PC/Mac (amazing multi-effects by the creator of Zebra, REALLY powerful stuff.)

Second and third place: Physical soundtrack + game disc (or game code), entire zircon discography.

Fourth and fifth place: Game disc (or game code), any 3 zircon CDs.

Deadline

September 29th, 2010. Email your entries to aaversa@spacewhalestudios.com with the subject:

"RAR Remix Contest Entry - Yourname - Remixname"

Don't forget to mention which source tune you remixed!

Source Tunes

Check 'em out below! I had a ton of fun writing these tunes, which were designed with SNES, Genesis and 80s influences. Mike Worth collaborated with me on the main theme which is as cheesy and catchy as you might expect, but my personal favorite is the "Training Montage" tune, inspired by the track of the same name from Rocky IV.

http://www.zirconstudios.com/music/RAR/

We're looking forward to hearing what you've got!

Connect with SWS on:
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube

[Nutritious]

Soundtrack's sounding solid man, nice work!

Definitely will be checking this out.

[Neblix]

I'm entering this. It would be great to cheer up my 2010. :D

[zircon]

Excellent! By the way, we now have a gameplay video up so you can see how the game looks + plays:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bpsydm5p0-s

[Chernabogue]

The game looks really fun to play!

I don't have enough skills to enter a such competition, so good luck to every one who will make music! And congrats to your team, zircon!

[Neblix]

Originally Posted by Chernabogue

I don't have enough skills to enter a such competition!

i'm entering though

[Nutritious]

Are multiple entries allowed?

[zircon]

Sure! Why not

[Dhsu]

Wilhelm ftw.

Edit: Training Montage really is excellent.

[WillRock]

My brain is going to explode from doing too much but i'm entering this.

Guess what track i'm doing. I DOUBLE DARE YOU. (and no neblix don't bother since you already know)

Btw Zircon, I might as well say this here, you are far and away one of the most productive people i've ever been in contact with.