Way back in the innocent month of August, I interviewed an indie developer called Sic’em Studios about their plans to bring a duo of games to Windows Phone. Fast-forward to this month: I recently returned to San Francisco for an indie-focused event called Apps World. That provided the perfect chance to catch up with the boys at Sic’em and see how their Windows Phone plans have progressed.
As it turns out their plans have changed and Sic’em has decided not to port two of their older Android titles to Windows Phone. Instead, they’re going to release a brand new game called Text and Die for both Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8. With a humorous premise and retro-inspired gameplay, Text and Die should find a good home on mobile Windows platforms when it launches within the coming weeks.
Stick it to unsafe drivers
The driving concept behind Text and Die is that texting on a phone while driving is bad. Anyone with sense can agree to that, even if some of us make exceptions for those really important texts. From that reasonable philosophy, Sic’em has created a silly scenario. Players will take to the roads and make them safer by destroying unsafe texting drivers. Text on the road and die, baby.
Gameplay takes place from an overhead perspective, much like classic arcade game Spy Hunter. The goal is to ram texting drivers (who have a texting icon above them) off the road while avoiding safe drivers. Hitting a non-texting driver makes you lose fuel, which serves as a life meter in this game. Tapping the screen left or right will drive in those directions, while buttons at the bottom of the screen activate four types of items.
As you drive through a level, the speed gradually picks up – as does the number of cars on the road. Players also have a wanted level, much like the one found in the Grand Theft Auto series. The more wanted you are, the more cops will chase you. As you’d expect, cops can stop your vehicular mayhem spree for good. To get one off your tail, you’ll have to activate one of the items that sometimes appears on the road. Some of these include caltrops (spikes) and an EMP.
Level up to get the boosts
Text and Die will have a mission system similar to the ones found in Jetpack Joyride and other mobile games. Players start out with two objectives to complete, such as using a particular item or reaching a certain distance. Once both objectives have been completed, you’ll level up. Reaching new levels provides access to new boosts that can be purchased before the level starts with money from eliminating texters.
Sic’em’s Text and Die will be coming to both Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 within the next few weeks. The Windows 8 version will support controllers – always a cool touch. Both versions will be paid games, with the phone game ringing up at 99 cents and the Windows 8 version going for $1.49.
We’ll let you know when they arrive. In the meantime, whatever you do: don’t text and drive!