Lucky Frame is a creative design studio based in Edinburgh. They’re not a game developer – though their last few releases have been game-like. They’re the recipients of critical acclaim for their last few titles and have a shiny BAFTA award for Bad Hotel, released in 2012.
The company has worked on a variety of projects, from creating musical instruments, to education, with partners including NESTA, Channel 4, Dundee Contemporary Arts Centre, the University of Edinburgh and the British Council. They are, in short, very cool indeed.
Play Pugs Luv Beats, Bad Hotel and Wave Trip and you’ll discover worlds of wonder and delight, in which tiny dogs harvest plants, a triangular astronaut rescues her comrades and a rogue Texan property developer attempts to eliminate Yetis and bomb-laden birds to extend his business empire.
…and they sound good too. All of the Lucky Frame title generate music and use audio in new and creative ways, making sound an integral part of the overall game.
If you’ve not tried any of the Lucky Frame games, yet, then you’re missing a lot. A lot. Go and download them now. We’ll wait…
Good, now you’re up to speed, Lucky Frame has a treat in store for you. A new game. It’s brand new. Another original:
Gentlemen! is a refined, considered, dapper, well-bred and frantically-paced two-player duelling game, set in the Victorian era. With glorious moustaches of the most elegant kind.
Gentlemen! sees two players compete head-to-head on a single iPad, to eviscerate, explode and otherwise bring to an end, your colleague, competitor and fellow assassin, in a number of fiendish, outlandish and sinister ways. Despite the widespread understanding of the Marquis of Queensbury rules, the gentlemen are under arms and wield a variety of deadly weaponry, including bombs, knives and – of course – deadly homing pigeons.
The players start at opposite ends of the tablet and can control the personal gravity of their gentleman, in order to proceed towards their dastardly foe. Upon finding him, they must deliver deadly force, followed by an urbane witticism. This is complicated by the fact that your competitor is doing exactly the same thing.
Players can change weapons by reaching a specific area on screen, adding an additional element of strategy and allowing the more rum or uncanny players to negate their opponent’s attacks and turn the very game itself to their advantage – Huzzah!
The player who reaches the upper limit of fragging, agreed by one’s seconds, is declared the winner and all participants retire, of good cheer, to the nook of an agreeable nearby hostelry for a fine wine, ale or some crisps.
Gentlemen! is another winner from Lucky Frame. Very easy to pick up, with intuitive and friendly controls, the game very quickly becomes a maelstrom of mad panic, savage competition and hilarious, yet always polite, death-dealing.
The game is OUT NOW for iOS and Android, priced, quite equably, at £2.99/€3.99/$4.99 and is jolly well worth it.
If you have a friend, then we can wholly recommend Gentlemen! as a thrilling, wholesome pastime for chaps and ladies, who yearn for the excitement of the early days of colonial exploration and the thrill of the big game. If you don’t have a friend, then buy it anyway and doubtless, friends will follow as your reputation as a fine fellow spreads among the gaming classes.
