Okay, this game has taken a very long time and I apologize to you all, and to myself and my wife and kids too, because the fact that it took so long really sucked. A lot. And it was HARD! However, it is **DONE**!! YAYAYAY!!!! Chillingo has the final build and they’ve approved it and they will be submitting it to Apple next week and they’ll be starting up their marketing machine.

They couldn’t really start it before, because - well, you know - my estimates haven’t been entirely reliable.

Now, because it took so long, the name The Relic that Chillingo had reserved, expired through Apple’s rules. As a result, The Relic will be distributed through Clickgamer.com, which is Chillingo’s other brand and the brand under which Angry Birds and Helsing’s Fire are also published, so we’re in great company.

Thank you for your patience!

(Oh, I’ll post the trailers and photos as soon as Chillingo releases them.)

[UPDATE: A final release candidate of The Relic is currently in QA at Chillingo as of Feb 2011.]

This is the long-awaited update on The (longer-awaited) Relic. Thank you for all your comments on the previous post.

As some of you pointed out, every delay hurts. This is something that weighs on my mind. For this reason, after much deliberation, we have decided to drop multiplayer from the initial release of The Relic. We will, however, add it back in future updates. Multiplayer consumed an enormous amount of development and testing time. It is time I don’t have right now. While we had a functional, albeit somewhat buggy multiplayer with both Bluetooth and WiFi, I don’t think the multiplayer experience was what it could be given more time. And time is something I have little of at this point, especially with the long delay in releasing The Relic. So, in conjunction with Chillingo, we have decided to release the single player Relic within the next month and rework multiplayer for a future update.

Paul Senzee
Axolotl Studios

[UPDATE: A final release candidate of The Relic is currently in QA at Chillingo.]

Wow, this has been incredibly difficult! Over a year and two expected release dates ago, I began work on The Relic. Excluding bugs (which are many right now), the current build I have of The Relic is nearly complete. It supports single player and multiplayer over Bluetooth (2 player) or WiFi (local, 2-4 player). I’m extremely happy with how it is turning out. Fixing bugs, polish, tuning gameplay and tightening the story will continue for a bit.

I truly apologize for the lateness. Axolotl Studios is - for the time being - an endeavor with a single part-time developer who also has an increasingly demanding full-time development job (This is me I’m talking about here). Chillingo has been extremely patient and fantastic to work with during this time. As I’m sure you know, it’s not a good idea to start an iPhone game company these days without some other income. My hope is that Axolotl Studios will become a full-time operation after the release of The Relic and that I can begin to develop iPhone games on a full time basis. Unfortunately, the consequence of the part-time nature of The Relic’s development coupled with its author’s somewhat perfectionist approach is, of course, the uncertainty of when the game will actually be complete. As a result, I cannot speculate on a release date.

The light is at the end of the tunnel. We’re beta testing single player and continuing to work the kinks out of multiplayer. I know it’s not late 2009, or early 2010 anymore, but The Relic is on its way.

Now for something completely different! The last few months we’ve been working with Chillingo on something that’ll knock your socks off.

The sneak preview -

The Relic at TouchArcade

The Relic at PocketGamer

The Relic at the Dallas Examiner

Indigo Ocho’s Facebook Page

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Find the iPhone/iPod touch game Indigo Ocho: Fall of the Ziggurat on Facebook, where you can also find screenshots, video links and fan updates. Indigo Ocho: Fall of the Ziggurat will be released on the Apple App Store early- to mid-June.

Indigo Ocho: Fall of the Ziggurat video:

Indigo Ocho is now being published by Gamesmith Studios. It will be unavailable on the App Store for the next week or so. When it reappears, it will be Indigo Ocho: Fall of the Ziggurat. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Our email address was previously incorrect on the Contact Us page.

The correct address is indigo8@axolotlstudios.com.

Welcome to the internet home of Axolotl Studios and of the game Indigo Ocho coming soon to the iPhone.