Pennybridge Indie Game Studio’s The Deep Cave is one of the highlights on Microsoft’s Xbox Live Indie Games channel. While the developers of good games sometimes go missing in action after a couple releases (RIP Parasitus developer Heart Attack Machine), Pennybridge still kicking and is hard at work on a pair of games.
The game the studio is currently concentrating on finishing is an expanded version of Get Your Cell Together, which was originally submitted as an entry to Ludlum Dare 24 in August 2012. Development of the ten-level browser-based project took two days and fits the theme of ‘evolution’ quite nicely.
The expanded version of Get Your Cell Together will feature several upgrades over the original. There will be three game modes in total, two of which are new for the XBLIG release. The original mode — where avoiding enemies is the main gameplay hook — will now have at least 25 levels, though the developer said there might be more when development has wrapped up. The second game mode has the player navigating a maze while being chased. The third and final mode is set up like a shoot-em up, even featuring boss battles.
The XBLIG version of Get Your Cell Together will release in Spring of 2013 and cost 80 Microsoft points. For those who don’t have a conversion chart handy, that’s one whole dollar.
Pennybridge is also working on another game that’s a bit closer to their roots. The Deep Cave 2 is officially in development. There will be new challenges to face, like black holes that suck you in if you get too close. It also appears that there are NPC characters to talk to. Whether or not they’ll have gameplay implications or are just story-based is unknown, but it’s definitely something new to the series.
We don’t have many details on what to expect from the second leg of Pi’s adventure, but Pennybridge put up several work-in-progress videos on their Youtube page that displays the progress they’ve made so far. One thing is clear: The trial-and-error frustration-based platforming formula has not been changed, so expect to die over and over when this one lands.
