Lauren Lakey

On a sunny Tuesday morning recently after a group meeting, we returned to the main office to be greeted by 6 huge boxes and there was no doubt as to what they contained… Six very brightly coloured giant bean bags! After unpacking them, they had to be tested out thoroughly of course (something we are experts in), before being moved to their new home upstairs, which provided us with some exciting mid-morning entertainment. To go along with the bean bags we also decided that a hammock seemed like a brilliant idea, because well… who doesn’t need a hammock in their office?! They should be compulsory for all workplaces! Now we have the perfect place in which to relax away from the main downstairs office and the ideal spot for us to spend our Wednesday Social evenings.

Here’s a sneak peek at the new relaxing/comfy corner of the office as well as the fun we had when they arrived (All that’s left is to convince everyone that a slide is the logical thing to get next!):

There’s been a few Birthday’s in the office recently, which of course means 1 thing… CAKE! Everyone at Inertia loves a sweet treat, with the exception of Graeme who doesn’t like cake, and a few office members are keen bakers (Kieran keeps promising Monday Cakes, but these haven’t made an appearance yet) which means there is often something pretty tasty to try. Here’s a few of the things we have been enjoying recently:

Last week we tried something a little bit different for our social night – we held a Murder Mystery party!

Everyone was assigned a character and instructed to fill in their own back story. Food was purchased and decorations set up and we were ready to start the evening!

The night was organised by Kim, who acted as the host – Kimbrella Kumbra, the owner of the Black Panther casino where the mystery was set. A famous Elvis impersonator, Al Shookup, had been murdered and it was everyone’s job to try and figure out whodunnit! After taking in each other’s interesting costumes (take special note of Graeme who played a recently fired gladiator actor), we started chatting and introducing our characters.

We enjoyed trying out our US accents, which seemed to change between different regions frequently. At first, a lot of suspicion fell on the reporter Flynt Coal, due to his frantic note taking. Other guests included Alex White who played a hit man under cover as a Scuba Diver, Chenaynay an escort who was once jilted by Al, and Tommy, Al’s singing coach, who was in a famous band known for their hit ‘hmm-bop!’.

The finger was also pointed at Randy, who carried two guns with him that night and had been seen heckling Al in the past. It emerged that he had lost a gun in that very casino and this had been used as the murder weapon!

Finally, after lots of discussion, suspicion and wild accusations, the guesses were made and the murderer was revealed! Greg, who played Tommy, had been having a secret affair with Al and killed him to avoid being outed to his wife!

It was definitely an unusual night, but a very fun one. We will definitely be hosting another one soon!

Our latest brand new game has recently been released on Facebook!

Dragon Words is an exciting new word game. In it, the evil Jen has stolen the alphabet and scattered it among the stars and it’s your job to get it back! Help Sparx the Dragon defeat him using your word searching skills – fight back by linking letters together to form awesome words. It won’t be easy! Watch out for dangerous asteroids and fast spreading frost trying to block your every turn.

Help is at hand though, use your wit and spelling skills to chain together long words into super charged tiles, capable of blasting through the board and reaping huge rewards! There are also power ups and boosts which increase your score and create awesome special effects.

Players can puzzle their way through hundreds of challenging levels across countless constellations, and can play alone or compete against their Facebook friends to see who has the greatest word skills!

Check out the screenshots below to see some of what the game has to offer, and click here to start your own cosmic word adventure now on Facebook! Plus, follow our Dragon Words Facebook page to get all the latest updates, including information about the upcoming mobile app!

This year we had a slightly belated Christmas party – on a cold January weekend we packed our wooly hats and wellies and went off to Center Parcs Holiday Village in Elveden, Thetford Forest.

We spotted lots of wildlife whilst we were there – Kim made friends with a squirrel who ate nuts from the patio, and Lauren opened her curtains one morning to see a deer right outside the window and of course we can’t forget the random peacock!!

On Friday we headed to the pool for several trips on the exciting ‘Tropical Cyclone’ ride, breaks in the relaxing Hot Tubs and our favourite, the outdoor Wild Water Rapids. We went for a delicious meal at Huck’s American Bar and Grill, then popped back to the lodges for a quick game of Telestrations in our PJs (our current office favourite, we tend to get a little bit creative!).

Saturday was when the activities started! Laser Combat (paintball with lasers), Target Archery and Off-road Segway sessions were all enjoyed over the weekend. Despite all the adventure outdoors we managed to escape with only a few minor injuries!! And some of us even managed to squeeze in a visit to the spa to relax after a busy year at the office.

Saturday evening brought plenty of just the odd drink and more games – this time we played Wits and Wagers which showed off some of our horrendously poor general knowledge (hands up who thinks a Blue Whale might measure 30,000 feet?!). We then played ‘Guilty Pleasure’, a game where each person plays three cheesy songs and the rest of the group have to guess which one they secretly love! Some of our guilty pleasures included Rockstar by Nickelback, Rasputin by Boney M and What do you mean? by Justin Beiber! This one has definitely made the list for future socials.

We also hosted a Mushroom eating contest – in case you were wondering, Lauren can eat 11 mushrooms quicker than Graeme can! As well as a few of our team ending up with some interesting ‘temporary’ tattoos and a team effort of the most beautiful rendition of Britney Spears ‘Hit Me Baby One More Time’ to ever be performed.

On Sunday, the Greg v Graeme battle from last year’s Christmas Party was reignited as two teams took on lots of amusing challenges around the village, including making mini movies about our games, posing as mannequins and singing ‘Let it go!’ from Frozen in public!!! Here are a few of our favourite photos from the team challenge.

On Monday it was time to head home and have a rest at the end of an awesome weekend of fun! (Here’s some other photos of what else we managed to squeeze in to our weekend!)

We’ve had an adorable little visitor helping out here at Inertia Game Studios recently…

This is Albert the Miniature Dachshund puppy, he has been helping us with our programming, racing around the office and making everyone jealous over his extra long naps – the only staff member who can get away with sleeping under the desk!

This is Albert taking a well-deserved lunch break nap after a morning of hard work (and a bit more napping)!

We have been busy working on a new Facebook game here at Inertia and we are pleased to announce that Cross-Stitch World is now live on Facebook! There are hundreds of Cross-Stitch patterns to choose from so that you can enjoy hours of fun watching your Cross-Stitch come to life stitch by stitch.

Here’s just a few screenshots of the game and what you can expect, click here to play it now and start completing some beautiful and realistic patterns available (we are pretty proud of how realistic the patterns look)!

  

We have just released a brand new game! Facility 47 is an exciting Point and Click Adventure game available on iOS, Android and coming soon to PC.

Get ready to explore an isolated Research Facility in the depths of the Antarctic as Facility 47 hits iOS and Android stores (PC version coming soon!). In this point and click style adventure game, players must solve puzzles and search for clues as they make their way round the Facility and its surroundings.

Players begin the game finding themselves locked in an icy cell with no obvious way of escaping and no idea as to why they are there. They must use their wits to free themselves and start their journey through the Facility, surviving the polar conditions and searching for clues that will help them uncover and piece together the mysterious history of Facility 47.

Check out the screenshots below from the game. Click here to watch the game trailer! If you want to read some of the awesome reviews of Facility  47, just in case you need a little more persuading that you should download the game, here are some links:

‘Facility 47: The Rare Beast Of A Mystery Game Done Well’ 9.8/10 – Click here

‘Facility 47: Puzzle Me Pretty’ – Click here

‘Enigmatic And Beautiful, Facility 47 Is Here To Seduce You’ – Click here

‘Facility 47 – brilliant escape the room puzzler adventure!’ – 4.8/5 Click here

 

With all the wonderful minds that we have in our office, Halloween seemed like the perfect chance to be creative and dress up and have a bit of a funday! There were many discussions before the day arrived and secrets kept as to the nature of everyone’s costumes as we all eagerly prepared our masterpieces. And so Friday 30th October (we celebrated a day early) rocked around and one by one everyone started to arrive at the office, albeit a little late for some of us! After discussing each other’s costumes in the morning and scaring the postman it was time to play some games, followed by takeaway and spooky cakes and an evening of bowling! (Still in costume of course!)

The winner of the best costume went to Graeme for his incredible prisoner/dinosaur combo, which required him having to source alternate means of transport for the day as the costume would not fit in his usual car! Check out the photos below to see all of the amazing costumes that were created!!