blog

Recently we were able to help out a class of schoolchildren using our games as part of their learning!

Mr Tregenza teaches 8-11 year olds in England – he got in touch with us as he was using our game “Escape from Darkmoor Manor” with his pupils. We were happy to help out by sharing a bit of the concept material from the game for his class to use.

The class played the game together and used it to inspire some very creative writing which they kindly shared with us – in fact, they enjoyed it so much that they decided to do the same with another of our narrative driven adventure/escape games – Facility 47!

Check out some of our favourite extracts from the work the children did:

Zak: 
Luke:

Aderyn: 
Charlie:

They even made a display of some of their work on the topic! We’re so proud.

Thanks for sharing your work with us, Mr Tregenza and class! We’ve printed lots more of our favourite bits and stuck them on our office wall 🙂

It had been a while since our last release party so we thought it was time to celebrate the hard work we’d been doing to create and release new games over the last year including Petal Match, Facility 47 and Cross-Stitch World!

We settled on our now traditional children’s soft play area trip – but we decided to try something a little different in the daytime before we went. We started off with a yummy meal in a local pub and then it was time to start THE ELY TREASURE HUNT (Expertly planned and delivered by our very own Graeme)!!

We each had to trust Graeme to install an app he’d made on our phones (luckily he has a little experience in that sort of thing…) and then we split into two teams and set off into the wilds of Ely.

The treasure hunt came with a map which led us to various local landmarks; at each one we used the augmented reality feature of the app to reveal hidden clues… numbers and letters which led us to secret hidden boxes! Inside the boxes were some treats for us (chocolate coins are important sustenance during a busy treasure hunt) and messages from ‘Ernie the Ely Eel Catcher’, who was trying to convince us that Oliver Cromwell, one of Ely’s most well known former residents, was not the hero he is sometimes portrayed to be.

Both teams managed to complete the treasure hunt, with only a few hints needed! Graeme got plenty of exercise as he biked across Ely keeping an eye on both teams, and we also got to practise our social skills when we had to ask an employee at the Oliver Cromwell museum for one of the boxes!

We all had a very enjoyable afternoon and were extremely impressed with Graeme’s hard work – you can check out some photos from the treasure hunt below.

After all that excitement, we moved on to two hours of running around in a play area playing ‘zombies’, ‘capture-the-flag’, ‘find-the-flag’, ‘move-around-the-whole-play-area-with-a-ball-between-your-knees’ and ‘spin-on-a-pole-til-you’re-dizzy-and-then-fall-over’ (that last one was a new invention for this year).

Lastly it was time to relax and visit a bar in Cambridge, where we enjoyed a few cocktails and some Busted songs before heading home to get some sleep and rest our various play area related injuries at the end of an awesome day 🙂

It was a quiet Thursday afternoon in the Inertia offices when a wild Greg appeared and exclaimed “Let’s get a dragon!”.
“Why would we need a dragon, Greg? Do we intend to take back the iron throne?”
“No not that kind – although that would be cool – a bearded dragon!”
And,  not 24 hours later, we were busy assembling a flat pack vivarium to house our new colleague! We may have made a mess of the office, but we managed to get it fully functional (temperature gauges and heat lamps included) before the end of the day which is when we rushed out to the reptile centre (conveniently around the corner).
And so, meet Gerard the Bearded Dragon!
He likes locusts, carrots and long baths. In fact, here’s him having his first bath; he had a bit of splash and looked as though he was enjoying himself. Of course, we all gathered round to watch the lizard in the washing-up bowl because who wouldn’t?

He’s only been with us a week and we’ve made sure to give him lots of cuddles and attention.

We’ll bring you another reptile update as soon as he’s grown into his beard!

We’ve just released a brand new Facebook game into the world!

Petal Match: The Secret Garden will look familiar to players of our existing game, Mahjong: The Secret Garden. The gardening elements of the game are the same; you are given a secret garden which is yours to fill with beautiful and exciting flowers, trees, decorations, buildings and more, and you also get to travel to and explore many exotic islands in both games.

In Petal Match however the gameplay element is brand new! Players get to play exciting new match-3 puzzles. Make swaps to match up flowers of the same colour; there are different objectives to meet for each level. Take your time and pick your moves carefully – the fewer moves you use, the higher your score!

There are lots of special tiles that can help or challenge you throughout the game. Pesky weeds will need removing to clear the way for your matches and rotten fruit can wilt your flowers if you don’t get rid of it quickly! But don’t worry – you can use watering cans and fertiliser to perk up your flowers. If you match up more flowers at once you can create garden gnomes who’ll help you out by zooming through and collecting whole rows and sections of flowers at once. Our favourite helper here in the office is the bee – bees will always do whatever they can to help you meet your objective, be it getting rid of tiles that are in the way or making your flowers count for more!

You can even combine different helper tiles together for some pretty spectacular score-boosting effects (we won’t say too much, but when you get the chance try out a gnome with a sickle…).

Take a look at the game for yourself – check out the screenshots below and click here to start building your own secret garden and journey through the many exciting match-3 puzzles. You can also visit and like the Facebook page for the game to stay up to date with all the latest news!!

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)!