Thundersword Games, a small two-man indie team from Sweden, have just released their very first game, Bomb the ‘Burb, out now on iOS and Android.
On the one hand, indie puzzle games are a dime a dozen, with tons of developers releasing games engineered to emulate titles like Bejeweled or Tetris, rather than creating their own unique mechanics. On the other hand there are those indie games that do their best to bring fresh, original mechanics to the puzzle genre, bringing innovative mechanics to the table that bigger studios might not be willing to risk.
Bomb the ‘Burb strives for the latter.
Rather than relying on classic puzzle game mechanics such as match-3 gameplay or tile placement mechanics Bomb the ‘Burb asks of its players exactly what the title implies. You have a certain number of bombs, and a collection of structures you have to destroy with them. The goal is to utilize the game’s physics mechanics to take out as many buildings as you can in any way you can: every puzzle is intended to have multiple solutions, and, as the designers themselves say, if your solution works, then it works.
Surprisingly for a game with a title like Bomb the ‘Burb, one of the features developer Thundersword Games is most proud of with the title is the non-violent nature of its gameplay:
Despite it’s theme, Bomb the ‘Burb is almost completely non-violent. Explosives are of course violent in their own right, but the game does not feature any gore. There are no people visible or present in the game. The only thing you will see as you blow up the suburbs are the debris of buildings and trees.
The game features a light cartoon style with buildings and nature looking like small plastic Monopoly figures.
Though Thundersword Games is a new company, its two members — Fredrik Åkerblom and Marcus Laitila Ekelund — both have histories in the gaming industry through other mobile games companies. The team hopes Bomb the ‘Burb will do well so that they can bring even more games to mobile platforms in the future.
Bomb the ‘Burb was released on August 20 for both iOS and Android devices.