Don’t Kill the Squirrel is in the midst of some exciting development updates! We want everyone to know that distracted driving is nuts. To ensure that message reaches the largest number of people possible, we will be soon be releasing Don’t to the Squirrel for the iPod and iPhone. Don’t Kill the Squirrel version 1.1 is also in the works. The new version will include updates, enhanced features, and in app purchases to broaden playing experience.

Finally, we kicked off our leader board competition this week! Share your highest Don’t Kill the Squirrel score for the chance to win a $100 iTunes voucher. Competing is simple. All you have to do is upload an image of your highest score on the don’t kill the squirrles website.  The highest score submitted by June 30th at 10:00pm will win! June is National Safety Month, and we want you to spread the word about driving safety by sharing your top scores. For more information visit dontkillthesquirrel.com.

Buckle up! Our distracted driving game, Don’t Kill the Squirrel!, has been approved by Apple. Look out for the release of the premium version next week at a special launch price of just 0.99 cents! 

We’ve had so much fun creating Don’t Kill the Squirrel!. How could we not when you combine cute squirrels, chaotic cartoon roads and feral distracted drivers! We’ve also been busy developing new ways to use our game to educate people about the dangers of distracted driving with the aim to change driving behaviors for the better in real life! Stay tuned for a special announcement about our new partnership as part of our launch next week. 

If you think you’re a great driver and awesome multi-tasker, put your skills to the test in Don’t Kill the Squirrel!. Collect points for each second you last dodging pedestrians, avoiding dump trucks and swerving cute squirrels.  The game features 3D cartoon graphics, easy steering and a working in-car radio with multiple channels. 

Speaking of the radio we want to give a shout out to the following incredible musicians who were kind enough to provide the music for our game!

The Plants for ‘If I was a fish’- Check out their website, preview their new album onFacebook and follow them on Twitter.

Wayne Potash for ‘Ready for dinner’- Check out his music, like him on Facebook and follow him on Twitter. 

Kevin MacLeod for ‘Neolith’ and ‘Stringed Disco’ - Check out his music and follow him on Twitter. 

If you haven’t already signed up for first access to the game and entered our competition to win the new iPad, you have just a few more days to visit www.dontkillthsquirrel.com and enter your email. Share the message ‘Distracted Driving is NUTS!’ with your friends and get more entries into the draw.

If you’re a game reviewer or media and are interested in previewing/reviewing Don’t Kill the Squirrel! contact us at press@warninglabelgames.com. We have a limited number of promo codes available.

1.    What’s in a name?

We had our concept down for many months – a game about distracted driving. We were about two thirds of the way though development when we realised that ‘Distracted Driving’ as a title did not really capture the humor, sarcasm, irony and action of the game we were in the midst of creating.   

Over the course of the next week or two, while development continued, we brainstormed like mad, debating the pros and cons of what felt like hundreds of possibilities.  With our marketing team on board we visualized and weighed the options – and then… out of nowhere it HIT us like, well… a distracted driver… the perfect title - Don’t Kill the Squirrel!

2.    Stop the Coders!

In a throwback to cheesy black and white movies, we actually yelled this out loud in unison! The coders, being in a different country at the time, obviously didn’t hear us and we sheepishly turned and picked up the phone.  Clearly with a name like Don’t Kill the Squirrel! we were going to need some… Squirrels!

3.    What the hell is a Squirrel?

This is not really a question we were expecting, but when you’re part of an, albeit small, multi-national team, you can’t always assume. Not familiar with seeing squirrels roaming the parks and climbing trees every day, the graphics developers for our game needed us to spend some extra attention explaining just what a cartoon squirrel actually should look like. Getting squirrels in our game that didn’t look like mutant kangaroos was actually more challenging than you might think – but we made it and we love them! Check out the graphic below to see the evolution of our Squirrels.

p.s. The squirrels have certainly helped us make a name for ourselves. At the recent Game Developers Conference, on meeting us for the first time, the folks from Games for Change remarked “Oh you’re those squirrel people who keep emailing us!”.

4. “Our NUTS have arrived”

Not something we necessarily thought we’d be saying when we first came up with the idea for a distracted driving game… But squirrels and nuts go together like… texting and crashing… And we couldn’t resist the campaign slogan Distracted Driving is NUTS! to help us raise awareness of the dangers of distracted driving.

Naturally we were going to need some merchandise to go along with the campaign and what better than some Nut-shaped stress balls (mind out of the gutter – they look like acorns) and yes, “our NUTS have arrived”. Join us on Facebook and we might even send you one.

 5.    Splash Down!

In one of those “I can’t believe this is what’s stumping my start-up” moments we found out just days before submission that the development tool we had been using would charge us a very hefty fee if we wanted to have our own custom splash screen display while the game was loading. ARRRRGGGGHHH!!!! Did we resolve this one? You’ll have to wait to play the game and see. 

Speaking of which, if you want to be one of the first to know when the game is approved, head over to dontkillthesquirrel.com. Enter your email and help us spread the message ‘Distracted Driving is NUTS!’. You will also go into the draw to WIN an iPad 2.

Also don’t forget to check out the Don’t Kill the Squirrel trailer and follow us on Twitter and Facebook for all the latest news!