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Tolaca Rocks, Won’t You?

13 Apr 2016, Posted by Sarina Simon in casual games, CD-i, Game Design, kids' media, Mobile App Development, Philips CD-i, Puzzle Games, women in technology


Tolaca Rocks

I used to play games of all kinds.  As a kid I loved board games, word games, almost any kind of competition – especially if I could win.  In recent times, videogames, computer games and mobile games have either been too violent, too time consuming, or too difficult for me to play.

Of course, like millions of other people, I played Tetris, and I especially liked it when we licensed it for its first appearance on a CD.  I still remember the tagline we wrote for it.

 

TETRIS The classic becomes a legend on CD-i !

Too bad so few people bought  CD-i machines. The others missed out on a legendary experience! (Yes, said with irony.)

Ah, but enough nostalgia.  I am writing today about a game my company recently released called Tolaca Rocks.  Tolaca Rocks is a puzzle game that is one of those easy-to-learn, difficult-to-master games that is endlessly entertaining to people who like puzzles. It’s not violent, it can be played in short bursts, and if you hang in there, it’s not too hard.  It’s not the deepest of games.  It “only” has 140 levels which are quite enough for me. (If you play it and find you need more, do let us know.)

Tolaca Rocks got its name from Peruvian slang for the word, naked, although there is no nudity in the game.  I never quite understood why our developers chose this name and assumed for the longest time that there was some cultural nuance that I just didn’t get.  The origin became clear to me when I was doing research for our launch and flat out asked.  Oscar Freyre, the developer who invented the ingenious game mechanic, explained it to me this way.

 

Out dev team bares all to launch Tolaca Rocks.

Out dev team bares all to launch Tolaca Rocks.

I had an idea that I had worked on for some time and finally decided to show it to one of the other developers in the office. When he saw it, the gameplay was there but the art was pretty much nonexistent. My buddy liked it but called it “Tolaca” because it was so bare bones. Even after our art department built an amazing character and world around the game, the name stuck and Tolaca was born.”

So much for cultural nuances!

Bottom line, I like this game and I want to recommend you try it. I would love your feedback and if you like puzzles I think you’ll like it.  I don’t normally tout our products on this blog but since it’s free to play, and I really can’t take any personal credit for it,  I thought why not.  So Tolaca Rocks, won’t you?

 

appstore

 

googleplay

 

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