It's an exciting year ahead for Halbrick Studios who intends to release eight games for 2013. The first title announced so far from the Brisbane-based game studio this year is Fish Out of Water, which visitors who are currently attending the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco were lucky enough to be given a demonstration of.
Halfbrick covers some familiar territory in this horizontally scrolling timing-skilled game where the objective is to skip along the water to make the highest score with your fish using some well-timed taps. Six different fish on offer provide different abilities and attributes like speed and bounce, and you get three attempts to go as far as you can in each game.
Along the way, you can collect golden orbs to increase your boost bar, and there are also goal objectives that can be completed for gems. These gems in turn can be combined and crafted into many kinds of coloured 'charms' for special abilities.
Fish Out of Water takes a noticeable departure from the pixel art style which Halfbrick Studios are known for from many of their titles and has opted for a more sharper, colourful, and illustrative look. The game showcases some really nice water effects as well as changing weather patterns as you play. Special mention has to be given for the fantastically animated and colourful fish designs that will no doubt make excellent plush toys which I'm sure Halfbrick will be considering producing as they did with their hit game, Fruit Ninja.
There's no release date announced just yet, but Fish Out of Water is planned for an initial release on the App Store this year for 99cents.