Let the games begin! Bejeweld Jungle is a fun little game for Android that combines Tetris and Bejeweled. The result is a game that tests your reflexes and logic. Featuring impressive HD graphics, custom soundtrack and fun sound effects, Bejeweled Jungle is a game for all ages as it’s easy enough for young ones but fun enough for older users too.

The gameplay for Bejeweld Jungle is very simple, basically you’ll see a screen where animals are falling from the trees of a jungle and they will stack in columns. Your goal is to have two or more of the same animals either one near the other or on top of each other, in order to make those disappear and increase your score. You can swap the columns by tapping and sliding them, to try and match the animals that fall with those that you already have in the given column. If you feel that an animal takes to long to fall, just tap on it and drag it towards the bottom of the screen to have it slide faster. Here’s a video that shows how the game is played and where you can see its resemblance in gameplay with that of Tetris:

As mentioned this game is quite simple, its main features being:

  • Easy gameplay but fun enough to keep you entertained
  • The game has an Arcade mode, which you’ll be familiar with if you’ve played other games, where the purpose is to clear the current level to advance to the next one (the higher the level, the harder it gets)
  • It also features an endless mode, where your purpose is to try and improve your score by playing the game continuously. You can play it with a regular speed (Low) or if you feel like you’ve mastered the game switch to High speed to test your skills.
  • The third mode is that where you can play simultaneously with another player. The screen will get split in half and each player will be able to control the game on his half
  • Bejeweld Jungle has bright, vivid artwork (HD “retina” graphics) and enough fun special sound effects to make you laugh eveytime a pig falls from the trees

I recommend downloading and playing the game, especially since it’s free. To do so simply visit their website at InfinityK (they have other games on their main site, so be sure to check them out too) or download it from Google Play’s library: Bejeweled Jungle.

We’ve reached out to InfinityK for an inverview, and sure enough we got our answers which you can read below (both fun and inspiring):

Q: Can you share some information about yourself with our readers?

A: My name is Asier Marzo and I was born back in 1986, that’s because my parents had sex. I finished my degree on computer engineering five years ago, as they had money for paying it. Contrarily, being able to develop videogames, or at least trying it, is my own merit. I love it, since I was very little. Maybe this fact compensated my lack of the outstanding mathematical knowledge required for developing videogames.

Q: How did you come with the idea to create Bejeweled Jungle, what inspired
you?

A: One day my colleague approached to me and said, “Do you like these graphics?” And I answered, “Yeah, they are very cute”. We enjoyed Yosi and Bejeweled games, therefore we gave it a try. We wanted to offer to the players the best features that modern mobile devices are capable of: global highscores, two players on the same device and HD graphics. Furthermore, I think that a lot of people have learnt how weird the sound that zebras make is.

Q: How long did it take from that idea until the first public release?

A: The gameplay was clear and I had all the graphics ready. Consequently, it took only two weeks to be ready for release. That is really fast considering that preparing all the artworks and game descriptions is really time consuming.

Q: I know you have developed other games as well, which one is your “favorite” and why? Do they target only the Android market or others as well (i.e. iOS)?

A: I do not have a favorite one. It is not that they are all bad but I think that the good ones are still to come. Nevertheless, I would save “Bejeweled Jungle”. People seem to enjoy it, this is all that matters. We try to give something to the player, their time is very valuable considering the amount of free high quality games that exist out there. All our games are now developed for PC, iOS and Android.

Q: With hundred of thousand of apps in the appstore, how do you make people
aware of your apps?

A: You may see a lot of bad games wandering on the top lists (especially on Google Play) and hundreds of incredible awesome games doomed to not even recover half of the investment that the developers made on them. Press releases or forums are interesting options. Nonetheless, we are far from knowing the answer.

Q: What future plans do you have for Bejeweled Jungle (new features, sequels)?

A: Actually we do not have anything planned for it. It is just a tiny game which is fun and entertaining for the users. Perhaps it is better to keep it like that. We would like to focus on new games. One is a revival of duck hunt endowed with three different controls: dpad touch, gyroscopes and augmented reality. It is going to be free and will be released soon on GooglePlay and AppStore. I hope that players will enjoy it.

Q: What popular games are an inspiration for you as a developer and why?

A: Final Fantasy VII and Baldurs Gate 2. They are the combination of a great book and an awesome sound track without losing room for interactivity and exploration. X-COM UFO and Master of Magic. Two strategy games that force you to play from different points of view.

Q: Have any tips/advices for other developers that want to start working on
a game? Any tools that you consider to be a must?

A: I am more from the old school C/C++ with OpenGL, although I am not truly proficient with any of them. XNA with C# seems a good intermediate option as it is quick to start and C# is the one of the best languages to use nowadays. Nonetheless, Unity is the best option if you only want to enjoy developing games.

I am not a graphic designer but Photoshop, Illustrator and Flash seem to be the main tools for 2D. In addition ZBrush and 3d Studio or Maya are the most common applications for 3D.

For sure dropbox and a cvs (like svn or git) are mandatory.