Smithsoft Games have announced Pandora’s Books. This is the company’s first title, though they have hopes of releasing more in the future! Help Pandora defend cities in the worlds of classic books by unscrambling words. Challenge yourself on your iOS devices in August, and later on Android devices. Please see more about the company, and their first title in the press release below.
PRESS RELEASE
New Australian Indie Games Studio, Smithsoft Games announces Pandora’s Books.
Smithsoft, Brisbane’s newest Indie Games Studio announces their entry into the games market with a majority female line-up. The studio is set to launch their first mobile game ‘Pandora’s Books’ in August and has high ambitions to release more games in the future.
A veteran programmer, Sarah Smith (Founder of Smithsoft) has been developing games of all kinds since the 1990s, mostly in her spare time. As a Software Engineer, Sarah has worked for high profile tech companies such as Google and Nokia. Her work has taken her around the world including Silicon Valley, Germany & Norway. Since moving back to Australia in 2012 she established Smithsoft with her partner Raymond Smith where she acted as an IT consultant and worked as a solo Indie games developer. She’s now realised her ambition to bring her passion for games to life by establishing Smithsoft Games.
Smithsoft Games, consists of Sarah Smith (Founder and Programming), Wren Brier (Art and Design), Jane Dyson (Marketing and Production) and Crystal Htay (QA and Community Management) with the help from Zander Hulme Music.
“It’s interesting,” says Sarah. “People ask me if I set out to establish a mostly female studio. The answer to that is ‘No. Not really’. I just reached out to people that I knew, people I was introduced to or people I just felt were right for the job. Having said that though, in a traditionally male dominated industry I’m pretty proud of what we’ve got here. It’s pretty unique.”
Smithsoft are working on a fun mobile game called ‘Pandora’s Books’. Here you help Pandora defend cities in the worlds of classic books by unscrambling words. You can challenge yourself as much or as little as you like. It depends on how many clues you use. The words are from classic books, some dating from the 1800s.
“I really wanted to create something different. Something that still challenged people, was a little quirky but they could still have fun while they were doing it. It’s a bit of a different slant to your ‘Word Brain’ games or ‘Words with Friends’. But like those games, this is a game that anyone can just pick up and play,” Sarah states.
Smithsoft have big plans for the future and want to establish themselves as a small to medium sized games studio in the Australian industry.
“In a 100 billion dollar industry there is absolutely room for well-run, professional studios like ours. The industry is seeing an 8% growth year on year, so if everything goes well, we won’t stop here. The sky’s the limit. This really is just be the beginning for us. I’ve got so many ideas of different games that we could make. It’s a pretty exciting time.”
Pandora’s Books is set to hit the iOS App Store in August 2016 and Android later in the year.
About Smithsoft:
Smithsoft was initially founded by Sarah and Raymond Smith in 2012 as as a software consultancy company whilst Sarah worked as a sole Indie developer. Previous games released or developed by Sarah acting as a sole Indie developer include Space Bot Alpha and Ethex 2080.
