This week we started working on the third big iteration of Boingo, which we will tell you more about in the weeks to come. Those of you who have followed the project since the beginning might be wondering what’s been taking so long, so I thought I’d try to shed some light on the whole thing. In order to do that I need to back up about 15 months, to the end of February 2008.

I (Peter) had just gotten back from GDC in San Francisco, where I had presented a prototype of our first game concept Bacteria. The prototype had been made in about six weeks, and I can readily admit that it wasn’t that much fun to play. It was met with an overall cool response, but I at least received some useful feedback which I took home with me. Back at the office I sat down with the team and we discussed our options. Based on the feedback that we had received we decided to can the project, but only if we managed to come up with a new, better concept that same day.

The pitch document submission deadline for the Swedish Game Awards was just 24 hours away, so we needed to put something together sooner rather than later if we were to be able to participate. We started discussing some ideas, whipped up some sketches on the whiteboard, and presto! The original Boingo concept was born. I then went on to create a pitch document for the Swedish Game Awards and managed to get it delivered on time. During the following twelve weeks or so we developed the first prototype, which went on to win the award for Best Execution as well as the Gamer’s Choice award at the Swedish Game Awards. Below you can watch a trailer that was released previous to the awards ceremony, showing the game as it was then. We went under a different name at the time, which is why the logo in the beginning doesn’t say Black Drop Studios.

We are just about to board the train to Stockholm and the Swedish Game Awards ‘09, which takes place tomorrow on Försvarshögskolan. Since Boingo was one of the games to receive awards last year, we have been invited to participate in the event. When we get back we will tell you what happened with Boingo after last year’s event, leading up to where we are today.