Quick Fact Sheet

Developer: Cohort Studios Ltd, based in Caerphilly, South Wales, UK.

Team : Darran Thomas - Game Director, Conrad Nelson - Art Director, David Griffiths - Games Programmer, Rhys Thomas - Games Programmer.

Release Date: April 18th, 2013

Platforms: iOS 6.0, recommended iPad2 and iPhone4s and up, optimsied for retina displays.

Price: Free to play with in app purchases.

Features explained

• The robots are semi-autonomous and will try to make their way around the track as best they can, but will not last long with all the hazards and enemies that fill the tracks. Use tilt or analogue stick to take full control of the robots position on the track and steer the robot left or right, press thrust to use its jetpack that will hurtle it forward at high speeds, and press jump to avoid obstacles, access different areas of the track and collect pick-ups.

• The robots will blow their ciruits if they fall too far from the track and lose connection, or take too much damage.

• You can customise a robots circuits by connecting 'boost chips' that can modify their performance that have 3 levels of power, these include:
  • Multiplier - increases the rate your multiplier climbs which is a key scoring mechanic. Only one can be used at a time and it will burn out if the robots circuits are blown.
  • Luck - this increases your chance of collecting high value items from robot loot drops or mystery boxes that can be collected on the tracks. This can be stacked to make your robot super lucky!
  • Magnet - This increases the time the magnet power-up lasts when you pick it up on the track. One is used at a time and will be consumed after use.
  • Turbo - This increases the time the Turbo power-up lasts when you pick it up on a track. One is used at a time and it will be consumed after use.
  • Health - This will accelerate the rate at which the robot repairs itself. Only one can be active and it will burn out if the robots circuits are blown.
  • Fuses - Although these are not chips, you can use fuses to save the robots multiplier if their circuits are blown as it will be reset to 0. You do this by hitting a use button during the Crash Cam sequence, the number of fuses needed to do this will go up if you continually use it in the same race.

• Each track has a set time, if the player manages to finish the track under this time then their score is multiplied by a tier bonus, the main aim is to strike a balance between scoring as many points as you can and finishing the track as quickly as you can.

• Each robot can have its attributes upgraded, by purchasing upgrades using in-game credits. These upgrades require some time to be completed, but players can speed this process up by using extra credits. These upgrades can be activated or deactivated once they have been installed, to further tweak a robots performance for each track if so desired. The attributes that can be upgraded are as follows:
  • Health - increases the maximum health of the robot
  • Speed - increases the maximum speed of the robot
  • Attack - increases the amount of damage your robot inflicts
  • Shield - increases the resistance to projectile damage

• There are currently 3 tiers in the game, Amateur, Semi-Pro and Pro, that increase in difficulty as you progress. An Elite tier will be released with exciting new tracks after launch as new content is added.

• Race against your MIMIC, a robot that has your best track score performance uploaded to it, and uses it to race and battle you. Can be turned on or off for player preference.

• Asynchronous multiplayer with a difference, receive a challenge from a friend via Game Center to beat their high score, and not only do you play the track trying to beat the score but you have to battle against their robot fully interacting with it. You can attack it taking it out and it can attack your robot taking you out.

• Full Game Center integration, with Track, Tier and Rank leaderboards.

• iCloud integration, save your progress in the cloud and continue playing seamlessly on any of your iOS devices.

• Facebook and Twitter integration, share your progress or brag to friends using these 2 social networks or email them directly.

• Uses the Unity 4 engine to create an immersive 3D experience.

Concept overview

Cirkits: Toy Robot Racing involves state-of-the-art toys that every inner child would love to get their hands on in real life, semi-autonomous robots that are super quick and agile. The fiction is that these actually exist and players can take their robots and race them on tracks set up in green screen studios.

Brief history

Cirkits is Cohort Studios second game for iOS, the first being Me Monstar: Hear me Roar! a port of its Playstation minis title available for PSP, PS3 and PS Vita, that was nominated for a Scottish Bafta.

Cirkits has been in production since the start of November 2012 having relocated to Wales earlier in the year from Dundee, and is part funded by the Welsh Governments Digital Development Fund. http://business.wales.gov.uk/digitaldevelopment

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