Announcing “A Small Favor,” A Hand-Drawn, LucasArts-Style Sci-Fi Game for PC and Mac

Steve Castro — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 19:25:24 +0000

Announcing A Small Favor, A Hand-Drawn, LucasArts-Style Comedy Game for PC and Mac
Indie developer ClickShake Games launches $30k Kickstarter campaign to fund development

April 15, 2013 – Indie developer ClickShake Games, creators of the commercial adventure The
Ballads of Reemus and numerous browser-based games, is announcing their next project: A Small
Favor. A sci-fi adventure reminiscent of the LucasArts classics, A Small Favor will be a DRM-
free download for PC and Mac. With an anticipated September 2013 release date and production
already underway, ClickShake has launched a $30k Kickstarter campaign to fund the remainder of
the game’s development: http://kck.st/ZlhUxk

A Small Favor is a hand-drawn, 2D adventure that combines the gritty, futuristic setting of Full
Throttle and Beneath a Steel Sky with the side scrolling sci-fi exploration of Another World. The
game’s alien hero—a laser-gun wielding mercenary indentured to a ruthless gangster—craves a
new life but is too deep in debt to pursue it. His luck appears to change when he stumbles upon the chance for a fresh start in exchange for just one small favor… but as he soon learns, a small favor can quickly become a big one. With a focus on story, exploration, and creative puzzle solving, the gameplay will rely on wit and lateral thinking—not the usual “try this on everything” inventory pitfalls that haunt the adventure genre.

A Small Favor will be the third commercial game from award-winning animator / cartoonist Jay
Ziebarth and prolific Flash developer Steve Castro, who formed ClickShake Games in 2010.

“We’re excited about delving deep into the story of an alien assassin in a dystopian world of illegal favor trading, and combining that with Metroidvania-style elements like open exploration and secret hunting.”

Though loosely based on ClickShake’s popular browser games, the PC/Mac version of A Small
Favor under development will have an expanded storyline, improved artwork, and hours of new
gameplay. The browser-based original can be played for free at http://www.clickshakegames.com/games/small-favor/.

About ClickShake Games
ClickShake Games is a two-man indie studio based out of Columbus, Ohio and Hamilton, Ontario.
Jay Ziebarth (a.k.a. Zeebarf) is an internet cartoonist, award-winning game designer, and former TV actor and writer. He also co-created the Gemini Award winning animated TV series Sons of Butcher, which currently airs in 150 countries. Steve Castro (a.k.a. EntropicOrder) has been creating Flash games since 2000, including Rooftop Skater (featured on TechTV’s Site of the Nite), Sik Trix BMX, Buried Alive!, Shape Switcher and more. Their partnership has yielded nearly a dozen browser-based games, the commercial adventure The Ballads of Reemus: When the Bed Bites, and a not-yet-announced iOS puzzle game in partnership with a publisher. To learn more and sample ClickShake’s work, visit the developer’s website at http://www.clickshakegames.com.

Contact
http://www.clickshakegames.com/contact.php

Social media site Newgrounds creates opportunity for indie game developer ClickShake Games

Steve Castro — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 18:25:00 +0000

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Newgrounds.com Power of Three event created the opportunity independent game developers Jay Ziebarth and Steve Castro needed to form the new company ClickShakeGames.com. They are now working on a 2 game simultaneous release: a new Several Journeys of Reemus chapter, plus The Ballads of Reemus: When the Bed Bites.

Columbus, OH, March 31, 2010 – Last summer, Newgrounds.com launched the Power of Three event, encouraging independent programmers, artists and musicians to team up and use their combined talents to create an original online game using Adobe Flash. The goal was to support the Child’s Play charity and to form teams of skilled developers who might stay together even after the event and continue contributing higher quality games to the Flash gaming community. As of January 2010, their goal was met when one of the resulting teams launched their own website ClickShakeGames.com and released several more games since then.

Newgrounds.com is an online community website featuring user-created movies and games long before “Web 2.0” was a buzzword. Its creator Tom Fulp himself participated in a collaboration with artist Dan Paladin through the site and this partnership turned into The Behemoth, a successful console game studio responsible for the hit Xbox 360 title Castle Crashers. Fulp’s announcement of the event included enticements to try to match this level of success, which generated a good amount of interest from the community.

The Power of Three event yielded several games, including IGN’s Best Free-To-Play PC Game of 2009, Time Fcuk. Among the entries was Paradox Embrace, a puzzle platformer game made by Steve Castro and Jay Ziebarth with music by Caulder Bradford. After the game’s release, Castro and Ziebarth went on to form ClickShake Games and develop 2 new games for Comedy Central, including an adventure game for their new animated series Ugly Americans.

Ziebarth, better known as Zeebarf, had independently created popular online game series The Several Journeys of Reemus, A Small Favor and The Visitor. His primary experience is in animation, but working independently meant he had to work with various programmers or even program the games himself. Ziebarth says having a partnership with programmer Steve Castro “frees you up to concentrate on your area of expertise instead of being a jack of all trades. It takes the pressure off in a lot of ways and strengthens the project all around.” This sentiment was echoed by Castro, who himself had been an independent game developer working with various artists, sometimes animating games himself such as with Shape Switcher.

Currently ClickShake is developing a two part simultaneous adventure game release for The Several Journeys of Reemus characters. Chapter 4 of the Several Journeys continues the story line and will be launched first to the registered members of their website and then later to sites like Newgrounds and Kongregate.com. The second game will be called The Ballads of Reemus: When the Bed Bites, the first premium game in the series featuring voice acting for the adventuring duo. Ballads will be a stand-alone adventure prior to the events of the earlier Several Journeys chapters. This ambitious dual game release might not have been possible if not for the collaboration catalyzed by Newgrounds’ Power of Three event.

Social sites with user-created content such as Newgrounds are an important online resource for independent developers like ClickShake, providing opportunities to learn, practice and get feedback on their work. Tom Fulp runs multiple annual collaboration events throughout the year that developers from around the world are encouraged to participate in.

For more information, contact Steve Castro at contact (at) clickshakegames.com

About ClickShakeGames.com:
ClickShake is a professional game development company focused on hand-drawn adventure, puzzle and platform games with colorful characters and imaginative story lines. It is run by Jay Ziebarth from Ontario and Steve Castro from Ohio. Both have developed Flash games and movies since around 2000. Play their games online at http://www.clickshakegames.com.

References:
http://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1060106
http://bestof.ign.com/2009/free-to-play/best-free-to-play-pc-game.html
http://www.clickshakegames.com/blog/2010/04/09/2-new-reemus-games-coming-this-summer/

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ClickShake's Dev Blog » Press Releases

Announcing “A Small Favor,” A Hand-Drawn, LucasArts-Style Sci-Fi Game for PC and Mac

Social media site Newgrounds creates opportunity for indie game developer ClickShake Games