Year Walk dev details unique control scheme for ball-rolling follow-up to Beat Sneak Bandit

Simogo releases playable prototype and concept docs for cancelled 3DS title

Yet another developer has revealed details of a past game that didn’t make the cut.

Following in the footsteps of studios including Volition, which recently released its unfinished Saints Row game for PSP, mobile outlet Simogo has unveiled a cancelled puzzle title for 3DS.

Rollovski is a stylish puzzle game built around rolling its titular ball-shaped detective through circular environments in the fittingly-titled Round Room Hotel.

Revealing concept documents, art and even a playable prototype for the ill-fated title, developer Simon Flesser detailed the game’s unique control scheme, which would map the 3DS’ analog stick to the environment – rather than the character.

"We imagined a game where the circle pad was directly connected to a flat surface displayed on the 3D screen, so that they would ‘physically’ move around, 1:1 to your thumb movements," he explained.

This would then be combined with the 3DS’ 3D display to allow the various rooms to be layered on top of each other and jumped between.

Created as Simogo’s next game after rhythm-based mobile puzzler Beat Sneak Bandit, Rollovski was also planned as an expansion of the same universe and shared many of the same gameplay concepts.

It was by no means the only idea being thrown around at the studio, however, as Flesser rattled off a list of other possible game ideas: The Great Ziorawski Acrobats, Common Sense Police, My Triangle Friend, Observe Agents and Inverto Maze among them.

Rollovski was one of just two ideas to make it to the prototyping stage, the other eventually manifesting as creepy horror game Year Walk, which launched on mobile before coming to Wii U.

“We’ve been talking about this project for some years now, and it’s been so long that we think it would be a shame to just let it stay in the archives,” Flesser said.

“So, we’ve decided to share the playable prototype for PC and Mac with you.”

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