In September 2013, University alumnus Joel Tubre had an epiphany — what if he could take his childhood fascination of mazes and turn it into a mobile multiplayer game?
Nearly two years later, Tubre and a team of designers, programmers and artists at Iron 27 Inc., a mobile game development company based in Baton Rouge, are in the final stages of bringing that idea to life in the multiplayer dungeon-crawler, “Heroes of Shadow Guard.” The beta version of the game is expected to be released within the next two months.
“Heroes of Shadow Guard” features a turn-based RPG style which can be played in two modes: multiplayer and campaign. In multiplayer mode, players are invited to design their own labyrinths and battle monsters as they raid the labyrinths of opposing players in first person view. In campaign mode, players are introduced to a world of queens, heroes, villains and quests.
“There are games out there that have been around, like ‘Dungeon Keeper’ and some other ones where you create your own dungeon,” Tubre said. “But nothing where you can make your own dungeon and someone else would attempt to conquer it.”
While similar formats can be found in PC and console games, it is something Tubre said he considers to be new to mobile gaming. The opportunity for innovation and the growing popularity of mobile is the reason why “Heroes of Shadow Guard” is a game designed to be enjoyed primarily by iOS and Android users.
“There have been some shifting trends since we’ve been working on the game, but mobile is still a big deal,” Tubre said. “That’s why I wanted to pursue it.”
Tubre founded Iron 27 for “Heroes of Shadow Guard” specifically. He and design lead Taylor Tatum had the idea for the kind of game they wanted to create, as well as the platform they wanted it to be played on. But while figuring out the specifics, “Heroes of Shadow Guard” became a much bigger project than they had originally planned.
“We figured out fairly early on that we would need a team of people to do it,” Tubre said. “As soon as it came to that point, we decided to go for it.”
Currently, the Iron 27 team is made up of eight people, most of whom are affiliated with the University, with set skills ranging from programming to digital design. Many of the team members were recruited through recommendations when the company reached out to University professors.
With plans to open up an office in Hammond, the company hopes to pull even more skilled individuals from the University’s recently added digital media masters program, Tubre said.
“The people who are going to make the best games are gonna have the people who can make the artwork and write the code the most efficiently,” Tubre said. “So we’re just constantly on the look for new talent.”
The Iron 27 team has worked over a span of nearly twenty months to bring an idea to reality, and they’re still going. Mockups are still being put together by the digital artists, and gameplay is still being worked out by programmers. Using high-tech software and hardware, “Heroes of Shadow Guard” is still being built from the ground up.
Soon it will be released and Tubre will find the exit to his greatest maze.