Dave Pottingers Lego mission is complete + NewToy launch new iPhone game “Words with Friends”
Kicking off today’s ex Ensemble Studios members updates is Dave Pottinger who has updated his blog over on the Robot Entertainment with the final installment of the Lego Robot Logo design. With a bunch of new pictures and text discussing how the board came to be mounted proudly on the wall of Robot Entertainment can be found on the website.
![BLOG4_05_Foreman_Crow[2]](http://remember-ensemblestudios.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/BLOG4_05_Foreman_Crow2.JPG "BLOG4_05_Foreman_Crow[2]")
Carrying the Logo
In case you were wondering from the last blog what the mini lego adventures were on each letter of the logo I can reveal from the blog that the list is as follows:
• Star Wars for the ‘r’
• Indy for the first ‘o’
• Medieval for the ‘b’ (hey, we did do Age2 after all!)
• Pirates for the second ‘o’
• Batman for the ‘t’
And here’s what they look like:
![BLOG4_08_Success[1]](http://remember-ensemblestudios.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/BLOG4_08_Success1-300x225.jpg "BLOG4_08_Success[1]")
Mission Complete!
But of course all this wouldnt of been possible with out Mr “Lead Designer” Dave Pottinger and his family!
![BLOG4_15_Safe_from_the_Bad_Guys[1]](http://remember-ensemblestudios.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/BLOG4_15_Safe_from_the_Bad_Guys1.JPG "BLOG4_15_Safe_from_the_Bad_Guys[1]")
Standing proud with the family… away from the Bad Guys!
But thats not all!
Its been a little while but it looks like NewToy one of the iPhone development companies that formed out of Ensemble has released thier new game titled “Words with Friends” the game follows in the “With friends” series with NewToy’s last game, “Chess with friends” proving to be a real hit on the Apple App Store. NewToy is lead by the Bettner Brothers of Ensemble Studios. You can download thier latest game right now from the App Store!
![wwfboard[1]](http://remember-ensemblestudios.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/wwfboard1.png "wwfboard[1]")
Be sure to read all about it on the New Toy website!
Graeme Devine working at Apple’s iPhone group on mystery project
Graeme Devine who was Ensemble’s Lead Designer and Lead Writer for Halo Wars has now confirmed that he is working for Apple in the companies iPhone group. It seems yet another ex-Microsoft employee is working for products on Apple’s iPhone along with the Bettner brothers (NewToy) and FuzzyCube software.
What is Graeme working on at Apple? Well we wont have much longer to wait to find out as he is currently preparing for the WWDC on Monday. Perhaps he will be leading a new in house Apple games unit? Who knows, but hes certainly someone to be looking out for at the WWDC.
More news tomorrow when we should find out what hes up to! Good luck at the WWDC Graeme!
Link: http://kotaku.com/5281682/halo-wars-7th-guest-dev-lands-job-at-apple
Robot Entertainment website goes live!
Robot Entertainment has (finally) launched its website! The studio is responsible for Age of Empires and Halo Wars support along with developing thier own new game. Robot is headed up by Ex Ensemble Studios CEO Tony Goodman.
The website has a news section and a detailed studio information section. Similar to the independent days of Ensemble Studios the website lists all staff members and thier role along with a pretty humours description of each! The brand is actually quite a wild change from the brand of Ensemble, Robot is young and youthful, despite having the talent of Ensemble Veterans.
Be sure to check out some pictures of the studio, the office looks very funky just take a look at some of these:
Its a meeting, not dinner
Some funky chairs
Thats a rather fancy desk! What are you working on? A new game? :O
Mr Pottinger demoing the new conference room features. Is that Jerome on an iPhone?! What is with the Ensemble vets and iPhones?!?
Want to work here? I can understand why you would, but you cant as Robot isnt hiring at the moment.
Be sure to check out the rest of the Robot Entertainment website here: http://www.robotentertainment.com/
A list of Robot employees (bots) can be found on the website but also on the new “Robot Entertainment” page on this blog.
FuzzyCube preview iQuaterback 2.0 with preview screenshots
Ex Ensemble Studios devs FuzzyCube have posted some more screenshots of thier upcoming version 2.0 of popular iPhone game “iQuaterback”. “Drjest” posts on the touch arcade forums and you can find the post contents below:
We’ve added Achievements, over 50 at the moment and growing. A new game mode pictured below, called Shoot Out. Shoot Out has many targets racing across the field where you need to make snap decisions in order to score the highest points. A 3rd game mode is in the works and will make it into 2.0. Look for more screenshots and video of 2.0 at the end of May which will include the 3rd game mode! We are also continuing to improve the graphics and have added many more Leaderboards. The new Leaderboards show the Top 30 and allow you to flick scroll through each list.
“FuzzyCube” – Another ex Ensemble development house – Releases a game!
Yup! That’s right folks yet another development house has risen from the ashes of Ensemble Studios. This is the second development house which is confirmed to be working on iPhone games (the first being NewToy). The company has just released thier first game titled “iQuaterback” and is available to download via the App Store right now! If you have an ipod it may well be worth checking out!
It would seem alot of Ex Ensemble employees enjoy iPhone development – lets hope Apple culture inside Ensemble didnt affect their Microsoft shut down!
The FuzzyCube website can be found here: http://www.fuzzycubesoftware.com/ and they are starting to create forums here: http://www.fuzzycubesoftware.com/iquarterback/forums/
It looks like the developer is already showing Ensemble like success as already 1 million footballs have been thrown. More details on this title as more statistics arrive.
Good luck FuzzyCube!
David Rippy head of Bonfire “Ensemble was a victim of its own success.” “Next game wont be an RTS; wont be published by Microsoft”
Bonfire Studios head David Rippy (ex Ensemble management) has revealed his thoughts on the Ensemble closure relating the to Microsoft never green lighting projects outside the RTS genre resulting in the studio being pigeonholed with RTS games. Rippy went on to discuss Bonfire Studios and that the first game they will make would not be an RTS game and that it would not be published by Microsoft.
This will be the first time the ex-Ensemble team will have worked together on a game outside of the RTS genre and we will finally see what else they are capable of. No doubt it its exciting times within the studio and we wish them the best of luck. Keep with us for all the updates of the upcoming “too hot to handle” game. – any guesses on the platform? Word on the street is that alot of Ensemble people are playing around with iPhones.. could that be the next platform?
You can read the full informative article here: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/ensemble-studios-victim-of-its-own-success-bonfir and is well worth the read
