The Ball

As part of today's Steam Winter Sale, The Ball is available for 75% off for the next 24 hours! Don't drop The Ball on this one, roll up and find out what is rumbling with The Ball today!

As part of Steam's Holiday sale all Tripwire Games are going to be 50% off until January 2nd 2011. So if you have been waiting for a chance to get your hands on The Ball, Killing Floor, or Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 head on over to the Steam Store now:

The Ball Steam store page
Killing Floor Steam store page
Red Orchestra: Ostfront Steam store page

Go tell all your friends now is the time to get The Ball!!!

We've made it to the top 100 over at IndieDB.com. If you liked our game vote for us! Seven more days worth of voting left to go!

You can now find the demo for The Ball on the The Ball Steam Store Page. So if you haven't played this amazing game yet, be sure to head on over and give the demo a try!

Tripwire Interactive and Teotl Studios are pleased to announce the release of Teotl’s First Person Action-Adventure Puzzler – The Ball through Steam. The Ball puts the player in the shoes of a swashbuckling archaeologist that must use an ancient artifact and The Ball to battle and puzzle his way through ancient ruins. The game has already been getting great preview and review comments:

“An utterly beautiful game… may well be the next Portal…” – Strategy Informer

“The Ball is extraordinary” – PC Action

“…don’t let The Ball go under your radar, especially for that price” – Game Guide World

“a lot of gameplay value” – Curse.com

“I'm sold” - Kotaku

“A joyous and addictive action puzzler.” – PC Gamer (81%)

“The Ball is an action-packed puzzle game that provides an endless amount of replay value” – Gamerant (4.5/5)

“The Ball is a must-buy Indie game of 2010… The graphics are simply beautiful… A superb debut title” – MMGN (89%)

“very cool in execution and very fun to solve” – The Examiner (“Great”)

“I’ve enjoyed the game so much that I think I’m going to play it again after finishing the review.” – Gamers’ Route (85%)

“gives puzzle loving gamers exactly what they have been asking for” – Game Rant (90%)

The Ball is now available at a price of $19.99 on Steam (17.99 €/£14.99 for Europe). Head for the Steam store page now to see the launch trailer and buy the game: http://store.steampowered.com/app/35460/.

As of the time of this post, the game has been pushed live!

The Ball is now available for pre-loading on Steam so preload now and be ready to play the moment the game is released tomorrow! Additionally, today is your last chance to grab The Ball, the new First Person Action-Adventure Puzzler, with a 10% discount and an exclusive free character for Killing Floor. When the game launches tomorrow, the free KF character will never be available again – so if you want that extra, exclusive character, you need to act today!

The game is pulling in new praise from previewers and reviewers every day:

“a lot of gameplay value” – Curse.com

“I'm sold” - Kotaku

“The Ball is an action-packed puzzle game that provides an endless amount of replay value” – Gamerant (4.5/5)

“very cool in execution and very fun to solve” – The Examiner (“Great”)

“huge amount of fun … polished gameplay… great value” – TK-Nation (85%)

“gives puzzle loving gamers exactly what they have been asking for” – Game Rant (90%)


The Ball will launch on 26th October at a price of $19.99 on Steam (17.99 €/£14.99 for Europe). During the pre-purchase period, there will be a 10% discount – so now is the time to buy your copy of this great first-person puzzle game that is attracting so much attention! Head for the Steam store page now!

The second last Developer Friday! Paolo is our totally mad Italian translator, who took care of, of course, our Italian localization!

• Who are you and what did you do on "The Ball"?

Hiya, folks! This is Paolo R. Giaiero, I'm a specialist of Indoeuropean and Afrasian linguistics, Sanskrit, Arabic and other middle-eastern modern and dead languages. In my spare time I play drums and practice Japanese martial arts. Recently I did the Italian translation of the awesome new cult-game Zeno Clash, of the award-winning Eufloria (a.k.a. Dyson) and of the beautiful, hand-drawn Mesoamerican action-rpg Aztaka. Now, amongst other projects, I'm the one-man-team behind the localization of The Ball (ITA) too, and I was also one of its beta testers!


• When and how did you join the team?

I contacted Sjoerd De Jong soon after the UDK Demo came out. One evening, while I was mucking around the Net, I stumbled on a website that was babbling about a crazy game, namely: The Ball. "Let's find out what the heck this thingie is!" - I said to myself. I tried it and... Zap!... Love at first sight! I thought that both the design and the gameplay were really great and therefore that The Ball deserved a fine localization! So... here I am! This has been my modus operandi so far!


• How did you start out with translating?

By chance I guess! I think it all started exactly on the 21st of April 2009. The day before I had seen a Zeno Clash ad on my Steam account: it looked good, and since I'm a greedy scrooge I pre-ordered it to get a discount even on a low priced game. Go figure. I enjoyed every bit of it but I thought it was also a pity that the game wasn't available in my own language. I wrote to the ACE Team guys and they entrusted me its localization. That experience has been truly amazing and I decided to go on with this path!


• What has been the most challenging thing you have done on the game?

Now, seriously, I always try to be creative in my translations, whenever possible I use synonyms and circumlocutions a-plenty to avoid any repetition! Italian (like the other Romance languages, thanks to their ancient Greek and Latin heritage) has a huge lexicon to work with, and I spent a lot of time to find the best way to fit together what you are watching on the screen with what you are reading.


• What do you like the most about the game?

I really think that video games are the10th Art. Nowadays independent developers are the only ones trying something new in the medium; The Ball makes no exception and it's truly a must-have. I won't spoil too much, but you'll soon find out that The Ball is a kinda character on its own, and it does much more than simply rolling on the floor. People who enjoyed Portal and the Companion Cube will know what I mean.

The Reticule interviewed us!

The Ball is one of the most promising looking games coming out this month, I took a quick look at it recently and then had a chat with Sjoerd De Jong, Project Lead at Teotl Studios.

Also two more reviews popped up:

• gameon.co.uk - 7.5/10 "Impressive and challenging puzzles...Great debut entry for the developers "
• xboxplus.net (Portuguese) - "The Ball is a true "must have" for anyone who enjoys action, puzzles, mystery and exploration... provides a very intense experience"

Six days until release!

Pre-orders went live yesterday evening, along with our brand new and shiny trailer. Still not convinced? Here is what the press thinks of the game - the newest reviews and previews!

Reviews (8.2/10 average!):

• gamerant.com - 9/10 "it’s difficult to stop playing and you’ll be tempted to finish it in one long sitting."
• indiegamereviewer.com - 8/10 "There isn’t a single complaint to be made about the content of The Ball. It’s fun, it’s visually interesting, it has great atmosphere... it’s well worth the $20"
• fronttowardsgamer.com - 7/10 "The level of polish is high, and it doesn’t feel like a budget title when you’re playing it... whats included is very well done."
• NOWGamer.com - 7.6/10 "this is one of the year’s true surprises, and an absolute bargain at the price"
• tk-nation.com - 8.5/10 "The Ball is a huge amount of fun, and its polished gameplay easily surpasses its smaller flaws... this title is a great deal for your cash."

Previews:

• GameOn.co.uk - "The Ball should be an indie game that everyone snaps up."
• gamerlimit.com - "I am enjoying it thoroughly"
• gamerant.com - "The Unreal Engine appears to be utilized in impressive ways, and the graphics for the game look vibrant and smooth"
• platformnation.com - "...you will want to keep playing for hours. Very innovative."
• gameguideworld.net - "if you are a fan of action/adventure games or puzzle games, don’t let The Ball go under your radar, especially for that price"
• examiner.com - "similar in spirit to Valve's Portal, but with more mummies and exploding monkeys."

Check out our Press page for the full set of reviews and previews!

Tripwire Interactive and Teotl Studios are pleased to announce that Teotl’s First Person Action-Adventure Puzzler – The Ball – is now available to pre-purchase on Steam. Accompanying the pre-purchase is an all new launch trailer and some exciting pre-purchase exclusives. Pre-purchasing The Ball before October 26th will nab you 10% off the game and will instantly unlock an exclusive playable character for Tripwire Interactive’s hit co-op survival-horror shooter, Killing Floor. The Ball hero archeologist character for Killing Floor will only be available as part of this pre-purchase so move quickly if you don’t want to miss out! And The Ball is already winning praise from the critics in the previews and early reviews:

“An utterly beautiful game… may well be the next Portal…” – Strategy Informer

“Unbelievably satisfying to crush your enemies… a deep and captivating game.” – PC Gamer

“The Ball is extraordinary” – PC Action

“Portal gets competition” – GameStar

“…don’t let The Ball go under your radar, especially for that price” – Game Guide World

“The Ball is an action-packed puzzle game that provides an endless amount of replay value” – Gamerant (4.5/5)

“The Ball is a must-buy Indie game of 2010… The graphics are simply beautiful… A superb debut title” – MMGN (89%)

“a genuinely fun and challenging game” – Goozernation (4/5)

“I’ve enjoyed the game so much that I think I’m going to play it again after finishing the review.” – Gamers’ Route (85%)

The Ball will launch on 26th October at a price of $19.99 on Steam (17.99 €/£14.99 for Europe). During the pre-purchase period, there will be a 10% discount – so now is the time to buy your copy of this great first-person puzzle game that is attracting so much attention! Head for the Steam store page now: http://store.steampowered.com/app/35460/

Reviews for The Ball are starting to roll in just ahead of pre-order which begins this Monday the 18th.



8.9 - MMGM - "The Ball combines the solid Unreal 3 engine with an original concept and some incredible presentation, on both the audio and visual fronts. Little more needs to be said other than it's easy to justify comparisons between this game and Portal."

8.5 - Gamers Route - "there’s no doubt anyone will agree when I say that The Ball offers a very rich gameplay experience."

4/5 Stars - Nerdiest-Kids - "The Ball is just plain fun. Its unique gameplay, multitude of puzzles, and giggle-inspiring enemy smashing has me wondering what other awesome ideas game developer Teotl has in store for the future. This game has lovely graphics, is a good price for what you get, and will keep you very entertained and as a result I’m going to call it a “buy”."

I'll be adding to this list as we find more reviews, so stay tuned!