Opening August 17, the movie ParaNorman by LAIKA animation studio has a companion mobile videogame called 2-BIT BUB that was partly developed right here in Myrtle Beach.
2-BIT BUB is an adorably odd action-puzzler starring mobile gaming's weirdest new hero. Bub is a ghost-dog in two bits, and it's up to you to slingshot his ectoplasmically conjoined body through 30 levels of stunning visuals pulled straight from the movie. Eventually, 40 more levels will be released to coincide with release dates for the film and Blu-Ray release.
Paul Reynolds, owner and President of Myrtle Beach-based Blast Off Inc (also co-owner of TheDigtel Myrtle Beach), was primarily responsible for working on the software development including the real-time 3D graphics, gameplay, animations, and physics. 2-BIT BUB is free to download and is currently available in the App Store for iPad and iPhone devices.
ParaNorman is a stop-motion comedy thriller where a small town comes under siege by zombies. A misunderstood local boy Norman, who is able to speak with the dead, is the only one that can help. It is the second feature film from LAIKA after their 2009 release of Coraline. You can follow some behind-the-scenes and making-of content here.
"I love that this project is a true extension to the ParaNorman story", says Reynolds. "We didn't take a simple existing game and slap the movie character or logo on it. For the game design, we started from a blank canvas and had long discussions about who Bub the dog is and how the game makes sense in the ParaNorman universe. Our team visited the LAIKA studio and took high resolution photographs the actual movie sets and characters. While having such rich and beautiful content to work from is amazing, adapting it to work in an interactive videogame takes more effort than making totally original art. I'm very proud of this project particularly in light of the strict timeline we had to work in. True fans of ParaNorman and LAIKA will appreciate that effort and will be rewarded with content not available anywhere else."
The game was produced by a very small team of highly experienced videogame development professionals managed by GRL Games' Graeme Devine and Lindsay Digital's Spencer Lindsay, both are located in Santa Cruz, California. The project was managed by Wieden+Kennedy of Portland, Oregon.
