Flame wielding arcade action with a poetic atmosphere and irritable flowers

[ Press_kit.zip ] Le Press-Kit contient une version francaise des descriptions ci-dessous.

Screenshots

Game icon

Gameplay in depth

In Primal Flame you first find yourself in the dark surrounded by a myriad of fireflies in what sounds like a forest.

Using the screen as you would use the striker on a matchbox, swipe your finger rapidly to spark up a flame. Once lit, you can move the flame about to reveal different areas of the screen, creating a sense of immersion in this forest world. You will notice pretty quickly that the flame is vulnerable to the falling elements (leaves rain or snow) and the flowers that grow out of the overhanging floral silhouette.

Malevolent flowers will try to grab hold of your flame and drain some life from it. Your remaining life dictates the radius of light cast by the flame and as a result, a weak flame will make enemy spotting more difficult. All the while the falling elements must be avoided as they too reduce life and reduce visibility on impact.

Luminous seeds drift past regularly and collecting them not only reinforces your flame life but allows you to purchases new flames and spells later.

In game shop – Free from IAP

The shop does not involve any in-app purchasing but allows you to exchange collected light seeds for spells and flames.

Once acquired, spells can easily be activated during play with a simple three-finger touch. They can be used once every 30 seconds or so making it important to get the timing just right when choosing to deploy them.

Deus Ex is most useful for panic situations as it instantly destroys all attacking hands and gathers all available light seeds. Guardian is useful when the rain or snow is getting the better of you while slow motion allows you to dodge enemy attacks with ease.

The shop also gives the player access to a variety of different flames. Each richly-coloured flame comes with its own unique strength, with Helio making the world more visible, Rain Dancer more resistant to the elements, Ethereal Flame boosting spell power and so on.

Progression combined with infinite play

Reaching level 15 of the current world unlocks the next, creating a smooth game progression that is sometimes missing from ‘one infinite-level’ arcade games.

Each world has different falling elements; the leaves of the Primal Forest are very visible, fall slowly and have a low impact on the flame. The raindrops of the Rain Storm hang for a second before falling rapidly and have a more significant impact. In the 3rd world snowflakes drift across the screen gently, but as they are very numerous, it is difficult to move the flame around.

The reflexes of the flora also increase in difficulty from world to world and you will find yourself fearing the surprise attack from a plant, or checking if that glowing seed is really a friend after all.

Game Center

There is a leaderboard for each of the worlds in Game Center and nineteen achievements which award bonus light seeds upon completion.

Innovative use of one-touch mechanics

Striking the flame into existence feels as if your finger was scratching the rugged surface of a matchbox. It blurs the boundary between physical action and the in-game world – a simple and novel application of one-touch mechanics.

Future Plans

More unique worlds will be added in updates with various threats to overcome in new environments. Using the core concept of keeping your flame alive, the rest of the gameplay will vary from one world to the other. This presents us with the prospect of multiple arcade styles all wrapped up in one game.

Irrelevant Fish is the collaboration of Niamh Cunningham from Ireland and Pierre Aclément from France.

Although neither had worked in the game industry before this, their common desire for an artistic pursuit led them naturally to independent game making.

Irrelevant Fish is about crafting immersive games that appeal to players on many levels by drawing on a wide range of inspiration.

Primal Flame was spawned from the idea of combining a poetic atmosphere and the competitive nature of true arcade style gaming.

It was designed with its own custom engine for maximum flexibility.

They have many plans for how to expand the game and hope to get the opportunity to continue enriching Primal Flame

Niamh Cunningham
Game Designer/ Developer/ Artist

Pierre Aclément
Game Designer/ Developer/ Artist