Quick links
This months Edge Magazine has a great article on the current state of iPhone gaming, talking to developers about their opinions of the gaming potential of the device and the current state of the App Store. Several Rolandos have sneaked their way onto the page too!
Well the entire HandCircus East-London studio has migrated temporarily to the sunny shores of San Francisco to spend some quality time with Rolando’s publisher, ngmoco. Progress this week has been amazing, seeing so much refinement and polish being applied to the game, and ironing out of some of the few remaining issues and bugs. We had two-days of focus groups on Monday and Tuesday, which were hugely valuable in getting last minute feedback.
We also now have a localised version of Rolando, and as Chris mentioned over at the ngmoco blog, the little Rolandos look even cuter speaking Japanese 
Hopefully we will have more details over the coming week or so, but we are still very much on course for a holiday 2008 release.
(If you can’t see the trailer above, click here).
I’m very happy to announce that Rolando has found a friend in the form of ngmoco, a publisher focussed on bringing fresh, original and most of all fun games to the iPhone. They have a huge wealth of games industry experience and will help take Rolando to new heights.
The trailer above shows a ton of new and exciting features from the current version of Rolando, and all four of the playable worlds. All of the 36 levels are now at alpha stage and we’re now entering the final stretch of polishing, tweaking, bug-fixing and making it as fun as possible. Thanks for your continued patience – I know this was going to be a Summer release and its certainly not summer any more, but I hope the extra time we are taking will result in a better game 
You can find regular updates, screenshots and trailers, at the ngmoco Rolando site.
I’m going to be talking at this years Creative Quarter at the V&A in London, an event for 13-19 year olds to find out a bit more about a variety of creative industries. I’ll be talking a little bit about Rolando, showing some background on how it got started, and talking about the indie game development process (well at least my own version of it!).
If you’re at school and want to find out more about everything from architecture to fashion design, it looks like its going to be a great event. Theres more information here.
Rolando is in this week’s Design Week Interaction Design supplement, in an article focussing on indie developers working on iPhone games. It sits neatly between two great titles, Dizzy Bee and Trism. You can also read the article online.
Well the cold weather thats starting to creep in is a definite indicator that Summer is fading fast, but as some of you are aware, there is no Rolando in the AppStore just yet. Its been an amazing adventure so far but it is taking us a little while longer to finish, so for those of you waiting please accept this latest screenshot with our apologies Rest assured we are working long days, full-time, to get Rolando finished and looking as good as possible, and really appreciate all of the kind words. This screen shot is from World 3, “Rolando Central”.
I’m nearly finished on the new trailer which will show LOTS of exciting new things from the world of Rolando. It won’t be this week, and it may not be next week (as we need to get clearance for music) but it will be soon.
While the HandCircus blog used to be a bit of a blend between personal thoughts, comments and work related content, its starting to feel like the right time to split the two. As a result I’ve started up a second, personal blog at www.simonoliver.com/blog/.
This blog will stay focussed on HandCircus games and other projects, while my personal blog will be geared more towards commentary, thoughts, observations, and ideas.
Big apologies for the lack of updates on Rolando. Things have been progressing really well – the world of Rolando has been populated by all manner of new additions – slime pits, cannons, piranhas, evil spiders, torches and much more. I do plan to cut another video soon, but in the meantime, here are a few screenshots to whet your appetite!
Well the trailer for the Rolando site is now live. Go and take a look yourself and sign up for some Rolando news! The video is much better quality than the YouTube one above.
I’m currently knee-deep working on Rolando, the iPhone/iPod Touch game I’ve been toiling away at these past months, and the first official game from Handcircus. I’ve been having great fun creating it – it’s really coming together and the last few weeks have seen it blossom from prototypes and experiments to what feels like a proper game. Despite my best efforts, this one won’t be ready for the launch of the App Store but it will be ready soon – at some point over the summer (hopefully late July/early August).
I’m just finishing off a trailer, which I hope to put online today/tomorrow. Look, read and see at the Official Rolando site. In the meantime, theres a couple of screenshots above!
Also, this month you can take a bit of a peek at Rolando in Edge magazine.