The Ball - Indie FPS Action/Puzzle Game

7 and 8!

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A new shot of our undead gorilla! This massive beast guards the Waterfall Bridge at the end of Teotl, ensuring that only the worthy can set foot in the sacred drylands of Hueca.

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A cool action shot of Survival, showing the worm towering in the background, and a bug attacking upclose.

Thanks people

Here is the full press release + the two last screenshots of our special:

Big announcement! The Ball will be published and distributed by Tripwire Interactive, on Steam and in retail stores!

Quote

Roswell, GA, July 13, 2010: Tripwire Interactive is delighted to announce that it will be publishing Teotl Studios’ first person puzzle-adventure game, The Ball, through Steam and in stores world-wide. The Ball won multiple top prizes in Epic’s latest “Make Something Unreal” contest and is now following in the footsteps of Tripwire’s own Red Orchestra in making the leap from mod to full commercial release. Providing an experience far beyond what the mod offered the commercial release of the ball is highly enhanced and expanded featuring a full 6 hours of single-player gameplay.

“Tripwire Interactive is a perfect match for us” says Sjoerd De Jong, founder of Teotl Studios. “We are thrilled to work with them and are confident this deal will help us maximize the potential of our game.”

“When we first tried The Ball we knew this was exactly the type of game we would like to publish – fun, creative and a blast to play” said John Gibson, President of Tripwire Interactive. “This is all the more exciting for us as the winner of the previous ‘Make Something Unreal’ contest to have the opportunity to help a winner from the latest MSU contest take their game commercial.”

About the game:

The Ball is a first person action-adventure game featuring a full single-player experience built on Epic’s Unreal™ Engine 3 technology. As a swashbuckling archaeologist working on the slopes of a dormant volcano somewhere in Mexico, you get stuck in a cavern. It doesn’t take long before you realize this is more than just a cave. You reveal ancient ruins that have been hidden from outsiders for centuries and discover a mysterious artifact, a gold and metal shelled Ball. As you progress towards solving the mystery of this amazing place you must unlock the secrets of The Ball and learn to control this ancient artifact. You will also start to encounter not just puzzles and traps, but also various strange creatures – the guardians of this mystery. These creatures also have to be overcome, using only The Ball to defend you. Venturing deeper into the volcano, you reveal some of mankind’s greatest secrets…

Key features:

* Six hours of single-player adventure

* Game mechanics that are very simple to pick up, immersing the user in the physics-based gameplay right from the start

* 8 huge levels to explore

* Includes bonus Survival game mode, with 3 additional levels

* Wide range of enemies to overcome, including mummies, an undead gorilla and boss characters

* Unique vehicles – an underground train and the mysterious “Ball Chariot”

* More than 30 secrets hidden away to be discovered, as well as multiple achievements for the player to earn

* Steamworks™ features including achievements and leaderboards

The game will be available on Steam and in stores from Fall 2010. For further information on the game, visit the game website: http://%7boption%7d.

About Tripwire Interactive

Based in Roswell, Georgia, Tripwire Interactive is an entertainment software developer and publisher founded in 2005 by the award winning mod team and winners of the 2004 edition of the “$1,000,000 Make Something Unreal” competition. Released in early 2006, Tripwire Interactive’s debut retail title Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 achieved both critical and commercial success garnering several awards including “Multiplayer Game of the Year” and “FPS of the Year” for 2006. Killing Floor, Tripwire’s second title, jumped straight to the top of the Steam best-seller list and instantly became one of the top-ten most played FPS games in the world. With some of the most played PC Multiplayer games on the market and over 1,000,000 units sold on PC, Tripwire Interactive have proven that with hard work, determination, and great distribution partners, independent game developers can still make a big splash in the games industry. For more information visit Tripwire Interactive’s website at http://%7boption%7d.

About Teotl Studios

Based in Vittinge, Sweden, Teotl Studios is a game development start-up focused on creating quality and immersive single player experiences. The staff is a unique mix of seasoned veterans and talented enthusiasts.

The studio’s first title, The Ball, started out as a critically acclaimed mod. It came second in the 2010 edition of Epic Games’ “$1,000,000 Make Something Unreal” competition, and also secured ModDB’s “Best Singleplayer Mod of 2008″ award. Recently the game was awarded funding by the Nordic Game Program, an initiative from the Scandinavian governments to promote and support regional game development. With the full version of The Ball, Teotl Studios aims to continue this success and present the world with an atmospheric, memorable, and above all fun experience.

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And these were the last two days of the Screenshot Special:

Day 9:

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A Tlaloc accompanied by a couple of mummies on the roof of the Tower of Cahua. Complete the Tower of Cahua to gain accesss to a raft, and travel deep into the very heart of the volcano!

Day 10:

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A mummy storming at the player in one of the golden cities of Teotl, with blood covering the screen from previous kills!

To be announced later, but it will be similar to other titles in our segment such as Zeno Clash, Killing Floor, Trine, etc.

Official Steam group - http://steamcommunity.com/games/theball (store page following in a bit)

Little developer profile on UDK website - http://udk.com/teotl-profile

Last fridays Developer Friday - http://www.theballthegame.com/?p=430

We are proud to announce Mystery Monday, and its accompanying contest! Mystery Monday is all about the story behind The Ball. Where does this adventure take place? When did it take place? Who is the player?

What happened to him after he discovered this mysterious hidden world? How did the world react to his discovery? Is history as we know it truly what happened, or is there more to it? Who really built the pyramids of Giza? How come the Maya had such an accurate calendar? And how does the Ball tie into all of this? We will be revealing a tiny piece of the puzzle every Monday from today all the way to the release of the game!

Tied into Mystery Monday is a contest. In every piece of the puzzle a word has been hidden. Be the first to find all the hidden words to win! We are giving away an Ipad, and copies of The Ball, Killing Floor, Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45, and Red Orchestra: Heroes of Stalingrad (when it is released)!

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The first piece of the puzzle is a scan of a local newspaper.

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The rules and more information can be found here

Join our Official Game Group on Steam, or follow us on Facebook!

Let me know if you think you figured it out by the way, I need to get a good view on what people consider difficult or easy. Don't post the solution though, just let me know if you think you got it

This one is suppose to be easy, we will gradually ramp up in difficulty.

The second piece of our Mystery Monday puzzle. A little more difficult than the first one! Remember we are looking for a single word or name. Something that is related to the story or the theme of the game.

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Number three of our Mystery Monday puzzle. This one is easy.

Remember we are looking for a single word or name. Something that is related to the story or the theme of the game.

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Loads has happened in the mean time, too much to do a recap but most important bits are:

To be released October 26 on Steam, and retail North America, and Russia

To be released retail in Scandinavia, on October 27

To be released on Gamersgate, Impulse, and our own site November 2

To be released retail in Europe November 5.

Iceberg Interactive takes care of Europe, Wendros of Scandinavia, Akella of Russia, and North America and Steam are being handled by Tripwire. So we got everything covered pretty much, world wide retail, and all digital shops.

Our Mystery Monday contest has come to an end, and the contest page is now up! Since its release last night 5 people have won, but we still got 21 The Ball/Killing Floor bundles we intend to give away (that is 42 games)! Still plenty of opportunity to win!

http://www.theballthegame.com/contest/

The goal of Mystery Monday is to find the 11 hidden words that we have hidden in our backstory. We have given away the solution to the first one to get people started (http://www.theballthegame.com/?p=720)!

The words can be hidden in numbers, photos, texts, and so on. The words we are looking for are single words or names. They do not contain spaces or non standard characters, nor any numbers.

Start looking now and win a copy of The Ball and Killing Floor!