by Kim McMinn

Kim McMinn is a fantasy writer who masquerades as a librarian by day while she completes her first novel. She has a Bachelor of Arts in English and Creative Arts from Murdoch University and lives in Perth, Western Australia with her husband and three world-domination-plotting cats. 


On a rooftop bar, on a warm Wednesday evening in Perth, local game developers Stirfire Studios, hosted by AFK, held their official launch party of Freedom Fall: a diabolical down-scrolling platform game.

Over one hundred close friends and fans celebrated the successes that the game has so far achieved since its launch last year at PAX Australia on July 19. They huddled on the couches, playing the newly released levels of the game, avoided the wrath of the eerily beautiful Princess in attendance, and imbibed the game’s custom cocktail, the Elicksir of Life.

Freedom Fall’s creative director (Art, Story, Level Design), Lisa Rye, created the delightfully twisted fairy tale adventure three years ago as a personal project. From there, it was pitched to Let’s Make Games, a non-profit association that works to support the game development community of Perth, where it sparked the interest of Stirfire Studios. Freedom Fall was launched initially for iOS, Android, Ouya, and Desura platforms, and in January this year it was given the green light for Steam, where it has already sold thousands of copies. Freedom Fall has been nominated for several awards and won Best Game at the WA Screen Awards in 2013.

Freedom Fall follows the trials of Marsh, the hero, as he attempts to escape a prison tower. But this is no ordinary prison; the beautifully creepy Princess, who finds the prison dull and dreary, has made some alterations for her own amusement. Marsh must avoid spikes, fire balls, and other devilish traps, while collecting bolts and cogs to create items that will help him through the labyrinth and find freedom. The walls of the prison are splashed in graffiti written by the Princess, delivering the darkly humorous backstory of her life. This is a Princess that you need to be rescued from!

Along with the reveal of two new levels to the game, and a door prize raffle of one of three collector’s editions of Freedom Fall, Stirfire Studios announced two more surprises for 2014. The first was the reveal of a new game called Dead End Alley that is in production with Meijer Creative. The second was a collaboration, still in its very early stages, with an Australian science fiction author who used to live in Perth, but is now based in Brisbane. It was all very mysterious and exciting, and we’ll have to keep our ear to ground to find out more about that!

So proud to share this news with you. Western Australian Indie games company STIRFIRE will release their game on STEAM tomorrow. We interviewed Garth Pendergast a while ago when Freedom Fall first came out.

PRESS RELEASE

Freedom Fall Levels Up for Steam Release
Bigger, More Beautiful, More Steam

Perth, January 9, 2014 — Freedom Fall, the delightfully diabolical down-scrolling indie platformer, hits Steam on January 10 with all new content and features.

It’s a fast-paced action game wrapped around a surprisingly layered tale of guilt and innocence, colourful taunts, twisted humour, a princess and a rogue, deadly contraptions and swooping dragons.

The Steam release delivers two new levels (taking the total to 14), updated animations for slicker hand-drawn action, smarter camera movement, achievements to earn, added trading cards, badges and emoticons to collect, and now you can pit your best runs against your friends on the new Freedom Fall leaderboards.

The two new levels in the game are The Garden and The Undersea Lair. The Garden is set early in the game, while The Undersea Lair is a super hard level unlocked after completing the game.

Freedom Fall Artist, Writer and Designer Lisa Rye says, “We wanted to do something special for Steam. I’m most excited to see how players react to the two new levels, but I’m also really glad I had this chance to go through and give the whole game another level of visual polish to get it closer to how I picture it in my head. You never quite have time for everything you want to get into your game, so something like this is a great thank you for everyone who voted for us on Steam, as well as the team.”

Freedom Fall was developed in Perth, Australia, and won the 2013 West Australian Screen Award for Best Videogame, and reached the final round of the Australia-wide Game Developer Awards in two categories: Best Game and Design.

It will be available on Steam January 10 for US$6.49, and will be US$9.99 after the launch sale ends. For more information, art assets or interview opportunities with Lisa Rye please contact us.

Awards

davitt-award  aurealis-award   logo-curtin-university

Peacemaker - Aurealis Award
Best Science Fiction Novel 2014

Curtin University Distinguished Alumni Award 2014

Transformation Space - Aurealis Award
 Best Science Fiction Novel 2010

Sharp Shooter - Davitt Award
Best Crime Novel 2009 (Sisters in Crime Australia) 

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