BAUM’s Tree of Life to grow from Apple seeds

Published On Fri 22 Jan 2016

A fledgling Dundee-based games company will launch their first game in style this week as it goes live on the Apple App store in 12 different languages.

BAUM is an enchanting, highly-addictive 2D platform game and is the first release of Dundee independent games studio, A Fox Wot I Drew.

The company is the brainchild of the trio of Dominic Littler, Dan Allan and Kai Creedon, who originally joined forces for Abertay University’s `Dare To Be Digital’ competition in 2014, where they won the inaugural Design in Action / Dare to be Digital Prize for Commercial Potential, worth £20,000.

Translated from the German for ‘tree’, BAUM is a physics-based puzzle platformer, initially exclusively released for iOS. The game draws inspiration from sources as varied as Sonic The Hedgehog and Gustav Klimt’s famous mural of `The Tree of Life’.

Simultaneously exciting and tranquil, the games challenges you to guide your raindrop through twisted tree limbs, flowers, thorns, mushrooms and more using the power of wind across a beautifully designed backdrop.

“We are thrilled to be launching our first game and really excited that it is going straight into the Apple store and in twelve different languages, giving us a global audience straightaway,” said Dom Littler, Creative Director for A Fox Wot I Drew.

Local schoolchildren will be among the first to get to play the game, at a special launch event on Friday January 22nd at the University of Dundee.

The design team will be giving an educational talk on their experiences starting an independent games company with cross-institutional support, the various challenges they've faced and overcome, and the advice they'd give others who are interested in doing the same.

A Fox Wot I Drew have been supported by the University of Dundee’s Design in Action project, along with Abertay University.

As well as their prize money from the Dare To Be Digital Success, the prize also provided them with studio space and equipment within Abertay’s School of Arts, Media and Computer Games (SAMCG), business and marketing support from the University of Dundee’s Design in Action project, and mentoring from a local illustrator and designer, Lyall Bruce (co-founder of Creative Dundee and Fleet Collective).

Brian McNicoll, Design in Action Business Partnership Manager, was one of the DiA / Dare prize judges and has worked closely with the team as their business mentor. He said, “Not many debut games are of this calibre and the fact it’ll support 12 different languages at launch is a real testament to the hard work they’ve put in.

“This project also offers tremendous evidence of what our creative games companies can achieve when they are given proper support and room to develop, which has been the commitment of Design In Action. The reality of trying to make it in the games sector, which is heralded as a growth sector and is featured heavily in the Scottish Affairs Committee's Creative Industries in Scotland Report, is complex, competitive and resource-intensive.“

Professor Gregor White, Head of SAMCG at Abertay University, said:  “BAUM is a thoughtful, charming and well-crafted game, and its launch is a great example of how the games community in Dundee works together to support local talent.  We’re pleased to have been able to work with Design in Action to help A Fox Wot I Drew to develop and release this great game. It's always a pleasure to see our graduates release their first game, and we look forward to more work from this exciting young team.”

 
A Fox Wot I Drew - Key Contacts

 @afoxwotidrew
  afoxwotidrew

Design in Action is a Knowledge Exchange Hub for the Creative Economy funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and Creative Scotland to research, promote and create opportunities for the adoption of design as a strategy for economic growth within industry. Based primarily within Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design at the University of Dundee, the project is closely-partnered with Glasgow School of Art; Edinburgh College of Art (University of Edinburgh), Gray’s School of Art (Robert Gordon University) and the Universities of St Andrews and Abertay Dundee.

Since the project began in June 2012, DiA has involved hundreds of businesses in its seminars, workshops, annual Design Summits and 14 residential Chiasma, and has created 15 design-led businesses, of which three have launched, turning over £2m+ and creating 76 jobs.

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