From a press release sent out today:

FuturLab today revealed the much anticipated follow up to their critically acclaimed debut Coconut Dodge.

‘Velocity’, which was named as part of a competition for the PlayStation community, is a scrolling shooter unlike any other which features an innovative teleport mechanic, allowing players to jump around the screen and return to previous areas of a level to solve time sensitive logic puzzles.

That’s all very exciting, but the FuturLab team stumbled on a fascinating character when announcing the winners of the competition, a chap going by the name of Spidermann.

From James Marsden, FuturLab’s Managing Director:

“When we selected the winning entry for the competition, we all thought the winner’s name was a joke, and wondered if the email address would turn out to be fake, so we were delighted to discover that Spidermann is definitely real, and that his alias is not Peter Parker.”

It turns out that Spider N. Mann suffered a severe case of identity theft back in 2004, and after a “lightning bolt carrying an atom of genius” hit him, he decided to quickly change his name:

“Having been a fan of the character for the majority of my life I decided upon taking the surname Mann, using my nickname ‘Spider’ as my first name, and added an “N” as a middle name so that when people asked what it meant I could say “The ‘N’ stands for ‘nothing.’” – Spider N. Mann

Spidermann, who FuturLab now refer to as ‘Spidey’, will get his hands on Velocity for free along with three other lucky PlayStation gamers when the game is released in March!

The official Velocity website is now live, as is the Facebook page where artwork and screenshots can be seen, as well as back story.

http://www.velocitygame.co.uk
http://www.facebook.com/VelocityGame

From a press release sent out today:

FuturLab today revealed the much anticipated follow up to their critically acclaimed debut Coconut Dodge.

‘Velocity’ is a scrolling shooter unlike any other which features an innovative teleport mechanic, allowing players to jump around the screen and return to previous areas of a level to solve time sensitive logic puzzles.

From James Marsden, FuturLab’s Managing Director:
“We’ve achieved some notable innovations within the shoot ‘em-up genre, to the point where Velocity not only lives up to fond memories of shoot ‘em-up classics, but goes several steps further by introducing something completely new and exciting – teleportation! It also features a phenomenal soundtrack from Joris de Man, winner of an Ivor Novello award for his work on the Killzone series for PS3.”

Robin Jubber, Supreme Technical Commander added:
“Speaking as a handsome man, I can confirm this is just the sort of astonishing programming masterpiece I like to play, when I’m winding down after a nine hour coital marathon. With its fluid 60fps gameplay and remarkable hidden features, it very much reminds me of me. As an extra bonus, space is black, so you can always see your face in the Vita’s shiny screen. Modest yet beautiful men like me will find this game as polished as my Superbike. I like to watch my name in the credits while marveling at the sharpness of the font. Buy Velocity now, and earn my manly respect!”

The official Velocity website is now live, as is the Facebook page where artwork and screenshots can be viewed, as well as back story.

http://www.velocitygame.co.uk
http://www.facebook.com/VelocityGame

From a press release sent out today:

Joris de Man, winner of an Ivor Novello award for his work on Killzone 2, has been signed up to produce music for FuturLab’s futuristic PSN minis shooter, due for release in March 2012.

From James Marsden, FuturLab’s Managing Director:
“The team has developed some very innovative mechanics on this game, so we wanted to give it a big sound to complement the gameplay experience. We’ve been great fans of Joris’ work, both on the Killzone series and for the indie game N+, so we’re very excited that he’s onboard, and able to use his expertise to help realise our vision.”

Joris de Man added:
“It’s always exciting to be involved with indie projects; there’s an energy that comes from working with teams like FuturLab that’s contagious and fuels my ideas because they take risks where some can’t.

I really love the game mechanics that are being employed in the game; they bring a cool twist on a classic genre, something I love to do with music and its production. It’s going to be fun to delve into my Atari roots to bring an old skool flavor to the sound of this mini.”

The game was announced last year using an innovative teaser that saw gamers visiting a range of games industry websites in order to build up a picture puzzle that was solvable in two configurations; one showing the craft schematics, and the other the date and location of the reveal on PlayStation Blog. The reveal was accompanied by a competition and chance for readers to name the game.

You can imagine how excited we are, and if you can’t, get a load of this:

From a recent press release on Wired Sussex and GamesIndustry.biz:

Following the success of its entrance into the console games business in 2010, FuturLab announced today that a separate division, comprising veteran games industry professionals and junior hires, is to focus solely on developing new IP for current and emerging entertainment platforms.

From James Marsden, FuturLab’s Managing Director:
“We sit in a unique place in the entertainment industry, bridging the ever-closing gap between online, mobile and traditional console entertainment.

After years of experience building games quickly and efficiently for the relatively short timescales and small budgets available for advergaming, we have learned to focus on creating great core mechanics as the first priority.

With our new hires and recent successes, we also benefit from experience in the console game space, where games are built as products in their own right, and not just as marketing devices. We therefore know how to build addictive games that stand alone, irrespective of any campaign they might sit within.

We believe this combination sets us apart from the competition, bringing our expertise and knowledge from ‘proper’ game development, to the quick turnaround schedules and budgets of online Flash development.”

FuturLab entered the console space in 2010 with Coconut Dodge. The game was a cult hit, earning a Metacritic rating of 81, and named PSN Game of the Year by PSNStores.com, subsequently being picked up by EA and published for iOS platforms in 2011.