Oslo, Norway – August 25. 2010 – DeRail Games are proud to present their first Xbox Live Indie Games title: Jump’n Bounce. Jump’n Bounce is a “new retro” game: featuring classic, skill based gameplay – just like in the good old days. 
Jump’n Bounce is now available on Xbox Live Indie Games for 1 dollar (80 points) and features 50 unique levels, including 10 additional Director’s Cut bonus levels specifically tuned towards the hardcore gamer. This is the first title in a series of three “new retro” games featuring Hug the bouncing emoticon.
Download the game here: http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/games/media/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d80258550616
Jump’n Bounce uses a unique combination of old-school gameplay and modern-day level design: You play as a constantly bouncing ball, always on the move. Add the mid-air high jumps and brick smash abilities, and you get a very interesting combination of typical arcade games from the 80’s and the modern platform games, creating some unique challenges for you to overcome.
Each Jump’n Bounce level consists of only one screen. There’s no screen scrolling or camera movement. This gives you the opportunity to plan your moves one level at a time. But remember: there is a lot of obstacles – as well as Hug himself – constantly moving around, and you may find out that your plan is hopelessly out of sync as soon as you make your first bounce towards the level exit.
Just like the arcade games of old, Jump’n Bounce is about high scores, time bonuses, juicy pickups and destructible level elements. And of course we haven’t forgotten the “Speed Runners”: Streamlined level design give skilled players an advantage, as they master the bouncing emoticon movements. Challenges that seem impossible at first will easily be overcome by practicing over and over again. Exceptionally skilled players will be able to set amazing time records and unbelievable high scores.
DeRail Games is an independent studio based in Oslo and was founded early 2010 by some award winning talents and an industry veteran. The studio’s design policy is bringing back the feeling of the golden age of arcade games, with good gameplay that appeal to old school gamers and modern gamers alike.
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VKI06xhybw
Download Jump’n Bounce: http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/games/media/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d80258550616
DeRail Games
Press Relations: Bjornar Herstad
Phone: 0047 950 13 302
Availability: 09:00 – 17:00 all days
Bjornar@derailgames.no
http://derailgames.no/
After five months of hard work and a lot of emoticons bouncing around in our office, Jump’n Bounce is finally submitted for review at Creators Club Online! Hopefully the game passes the review without delays and thus will be available on the marketplace in a couple of weeks. Follow us on Facebook for updates.
To celebrate that the game is ready and submitted, we have a couple of new screenshots for you. (For an older set of screenshots, check out Bjornar Herstad’s – the director’s – blog on Gamasutra.)
Here we go:
This Level is based on time: the longer the player waits the harder the level gets. Just a few of the testers have been able to complete this one, collecting all the pickups.
Director’s Cut Level. One of the hardest levels in the game but also one of the most “dynamic” levels.
More Director’s Cut – long and hard. Here the players must use all the techniques learned in the game to advance to an even harder level.
Bjørnar Herstad is our lead game designer. Here he talks a little about computer game history, our game design philosophy at DeRail, and finally he shares a few secrets about our soon-to-be-released title: Jump’n Bounce.
The late ’70s and early ’80s had a prevalence of arcade machines in shopping malls, traditional store fronts, restaurants and convenience stores. This is known as the golden age of video arcade games. Pong, Space Invaders, Asteroids, and Pac-Man are games the people talk about to this day.
What happened? Of course we like to play the awesome AAA titles on our HD flat-screens and watch the high quality cinematics. But where are the good, old-school arcade games? Where are the games that didn’t have infinite lives or save features, tutorials, or lifelike graphics? Where are the games that people really had to make a crazy effort to complete?
At DeRail Games we have jumped into our time machine and traveled back in time to the early 80s. Our mission: To get inspiration to make good, old-school games. And later this summer we will take Jump’n Bounce, one of our new old-school games, back to 2010 – to you! To XBox Live Indie Games, to be precise.
Our first title, Jump’n Bounce, is inspired by the old classics from the NES era of the 80s. Jump’n Bounce is for gamers that miss the good old days, when games where really hard to complete. But we haven’t forgotten the younger or more casual audience either: Just like the old classics, Jump’n Bounce is a skill-based platform game. Meaning that almost anyone can pick it up and play, but we dare say that only the persistent, skilled gamer will be able to advance far enough to unlock the hidden features, and finally “break” the game.
And for those of you that asked about the old school “kill screen”: We got no comment. 
-Bjørnar
CEO Tomas Sandnes
We are happy to announce that industry veteran Tomas Sandnes has taken on the role of CEO at our studio! Tomas is a first generation gamer and his experience with retro games will help us build our old school game studio profile. His work has already put a positive mark on our office and we are looking forward to fully integrating him in the DeRail culture.
Why did you choose to join the DeRail team?
Several factors were involved in this – like a tiny bit of luck and a nice timing. But mostly I knew the talent of the guys involved, and one has to be silly to say no to a team like that!
Can you tell us a little about your ambitions?
To take over the world! No, seriously, to have fun at work, be able to share that fun with others through our titles, and make a living of it.
What is your all time favorite game?
Oh my … I’ve been gaming for … around 25 years now. I have no idea how many hundreds of games I’ve played in that time. And you want me to pick ONE favorite!? Ok, I guess ten or so titles comes to mind immediately, and of those one that really stands out is “Ghostbusters” for the Commodore C64.
After several weeks of paper prototyping it was time to test the prototype on a group of students, the students are from the Game Design Bachelor program at the Norwegian School of Information Technology. The feedback was great; the students loved the game and got hooked in it right away. The testing lasted about 3-4 hours, and the students kept playing the game trough the session. We had several groups play the game without giving them any instructions, just an illustration. And it worked; everybody managed to understand the rules and enjoyed the game. Cross Wars is a very simple concept, but the strategic element is huge and very entertaining.
More details about the actual game will be released soon.
DeRail Games is official! DRG was founded by a group of talented Norwegian Game Developers in April 2010. We are currently working on 3 new titles for Xbox Live Indie Games and PC; our first title is Jump’n Bounce, a hardcore action puzzle game inspired by some of the old classics from the 80’s. More details about the game will be available soon.
