Freeverse Software has announced the release of a new upgrade form Burning Monkey Puzzle Lab, its frenetically-paced arcade-style action puzzle game. The new version’s most significant feature is the addition of support for GameRanger, the online gaming service.
Freeverse Software indicates that Burning Monkey Puzzle Lab 1.5 also sports various bug fixes, an improved mission mode and additional high-contrast pieces for users who suffer from color-blindness.
Burning Monkey Puzzle Lab is a puzzle game inspired by one of the classics — Tetris. Users must match colors and shapes in a variety of different gameplay modes. The game features Freeverse’s trademark offbeat sense of humor, sporting a science lab motif with an environment populated by cartoon monkeys in lab coats. The fast and frantic gameplay is complemented by the monkeys themselves, who do their best to distract, encourage and occasionally annoy players.
Freeverse offers its own online gaming service, as well — H.M.S. Freeverse sports support for the company’s current crop of Internet-compatible multiplayer games. With Freeverse’s specialty in card games, Burning Monkey Puzzle Lab fits a rather unique niche for them, according to company president Ian Lynch Smith. Smith spoke with MacCentral at length during last month’s Macworld Expo in San Francisco, Calif.
“BMPL is a different sort of game than our other titles, and therefore it makes sense to move it to GameRanger, leaving the HMS Freeverse as a separate product geared to our card games,” said Smith. “We’re happy to work with Scott to make this happen.”
GameRanger is a Mac-only online gaming service that gives users a place to gather and chat, as well as to join or host a variety of online games. The service current sports a membership roster of more than 40,000 users, with support for over 60 commercial and shareware Mac games. The service is currently free to download and use.
GameRanger will play host to a special chat to celebrate the release of Burning Monkey Puzzle Lab. The event takes place this evening at 6 PM Pacific time (9 PM Eastern), and will feature Burning Monkey Puzzle Lab programmer Mark Andersson, art director Steven Tze and producer Gareth Anderson. GameRanger users are encouraged to log on to chat with the GameRanger staff and to try to beat them at their own game, quite literally.
Burning Monkey Puzzle Lab is available for download from links of Freeverse’s Web site. The shareware game costs US$19.95 to register; a CD-ROM with additional character file plug-ins and demos of Freeverse’s other games is available for purchase as well.
For more information about Burning Monkey Puzzle Lab, please read MacCentral’s hands on review.