A DERBY software firm has made a big splash with its latest game which has been played by more than a million people in its first week of release.
Scuba Dupa, an underwater adventure designed by Ashbourne Road business Eight Pixels Square, has hit the top ten in the iPad and iPhone charts in more than 50 countries.
The aim of the game is to steer diver Helmut through the depths while gathering pearls and avoiding a giant killer squid hell bent on consigning our hero to Davy Jones' Locker.
Available on iPhones, iPods and iPads, it has proved particularly popular in Germany, Italy, China, Russia and Brazil.
It was a result of what is known as a "gamejam" week, during which the 40-strong Eight Pixels Square team were asked to come up with and develop their own ideas.
The thinking was that the best ideas would be put into production and the Helmut character made the cut.
It is a considerable departure from Lawless, the company's first release in which players staged robberies and killings.
Scuba Dupa is a simple family-friendly game designed with children in mind.
It is free to play but those players who enjoy the game can buy a more sophisticated version from the App store for $2.99.
The business was founded in early 2013 by former directors of
Eurocom, the Derby company responsible for designing Harry Potter, James Bond and Pirates of the Caribbean games. That business went into administration in December 2012 after contract work with large games publishers ceased.
Eight Pixels Square published Scuba Dupa itself rather than use a third party, meaning that it can keep a greater proportion of any profits made.
It was a means of testing the water in order to gain greater expertise about the publishing process.
Eight Pixels Square director Mat Sneap said: "It is a small, fun game that we thought people would enjoy and the finished product has done a lot better than we thought it would – it has been number one in a few countries and reached number two in China."
Derby is known as having given the world Tomb Raider heroine Lara Croft but within the games industry itself, Eurocom put the city on the map, employing more than 250 people at its busiest and working on dozens of high-profile projects. The company is now working on a more ambitious, top secret, project aimed at older teenagers and adults.
