OUT NOW: Dead End Job (Ant Workshop)

Edinburgh’s Ant Workshop has released it’s procedurally-generated twin-stick ghost hunting game, Dead End Job on the new Apple Arcade.

Launched on September 19th, Apple Arcade is the tech giant’s new game subscription service. Offering over 100 games at launch, for £4.99 per month – with the first month free. It offers players the opportunity to play games seamlessly across all of their Apple devices and shares games with up to five family members. The service is currently available on iPhones running iOS 13, but will be rolling out to other Apple devices in the near future.

If you’ve not yet played Dead End Job, this is your chance.It’s already been picked up as one of the top five games on the service by the team at Pocket Gamer. Players take the role of Hector Plasm, a worker at Ghoul-B-Gone (the #1 experts in paranormal pest control). Players must blast ghosts, then suck them up using their vacuum pack. Every ghost caught, citizen rescued, and job completed is added to the client’s bill…

Tony Gowland, the man behind Dead End Job, told us the game began as the answer to a question: “What does a twin-stick shooter look like with no guns?”

The initial idea of tidying messy hotel rooms with a vacuum cleaner was improved by adding ghosts (Tony tells us that the team have found that most things can be improved by adding ghosts).

Approaching ghost hunting as if it were any other kind of pest control really appealed to Tony. As did finding humour in the most mundane aspects of a, well, dead end job.  such as itemised client invoices that list every ghost caught, as well as how many biscuits were eaten. This led to the idea of being an employee – far from a hero ridding the city of spectres, just a regular Joe doing his unremarkable job – working day in day out charging clients and making money for “The Man”

Dead End Job is also available on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and is coming soon to the Nintendo Switch and Mac/PC via Steam.

Tony told us:

“Being able to bring the game to Apple Arcade for the service’s launch has been fantastic for us – Dead End Job was always intended to have family friendly appeal to people who want some crazy cartoon fun, and this gives us the opportunity to reach loads of people who might otherwise not have given the game a shot.”

OUT NOW:

Dead End Job (Apple Arcade)