Jack Lumber: The Lumberjack - An absurd bullet-time path-drawing log-slicing game

Hey all! Alex from Owlchemy Labs here. I wanted to share with you what we've been working on.





Frontpaged here: http://toucharcade.com/2012/04/04/snuggle-truck-dev-announces-next-game-jack-lumber/

Subscribe to the TouchArcade YouTube channel

Brad Nicholson of TA says:
In a world where trees can murder grandmothers, a lumberjack who can distort time and space takes his revenge. Welcome to the premise of Owlchemy Labs' next absurd iPad and iPhone game, Jack Lumber. Set to hit later this summer, it's a log slicing game with a delicious looking bullet-time mechanic. But don't call it a Fruit Ninja-alike.

"Our goals with Jack Lumber were to create the best damn lumberjacking game this side of the Redwoods," Owlchemy's Alex Schwartz told us. "The scientists here at Owlchemy Labs love the Halfbrick guys with all our heart, but comparing Jack Lumber to Fruit Ninja is like comparing apples to logs. After six iterations of crazy log-cutting gameplay, we hit on something magical."

Alex shared an... interesting play-by-play:

Logs are flying by at breakneck speed. You're watching intently to find that exact moment where the logs have coalesced on-screen to form a perfect arrangement. You can feel that it's the right time, so you touch your finger down. Time slows to a halt. You're in "Lumber Time". Thankfully, you have supernatural powers, otherwise this would be quite difficult. You draw a smooth and calculated path with your finger, swooping through logs from end-to-end along the grain, weaving, dodging, and turning with the finesse of a brutish and hairy figure skater.

You see you have less than a second of draw time left on the clock and you catch the 'Time Extended' bonus log and sigh a breath of relief for a brief moment, drawing onward to grab the last four logs remaining on screen. But wait! A skunk is in your way and you barely pivot around him before he releases his raunchy green 'defensive maneuver' on you. You successfully clip the last log and triumphantly lift your finger as your axe replays your epic path of destruction, decimating every log with the fury you reserve only for the trees that killed your grandma. Combo points explode from the madness and 'Straight Shot' bonuses fill the screen as your eyes tear up from sheer joy and excitement.

Also, there are flying moose.
​

Also,

"Absurd" is the right word for this. We're hopelessly stoked to see this in motion, so stay tuned. We'll be bring you a lot more before its release.

Screenshots:










��



��



Launch Date:
August, 2012!

 

We've just come back from demoing the game at PAX East. Was anyone from TA there at the booth?

For those who weren't, we cataloged the happenings in this blog post!

http://owlchemylabs.com/jack-lumber-pax-east-recap

--

 

Soon! I don't have an exact date for you, but let's just say 'soon'. We're talking weeks, not months.

 

We've sent our designer extraordinaire, Kate, to the World Lumberjack Championships in Hayward, Wisconsin (no joke). She's been showing Jack Lumber to the burly folk there. Check out some of these pics!

Oh, and also, Jack Lumber is coming very soon!

Here's Kate, logging some time in Wisconsin!


And more photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/owlchemylabs
--
--
--

 

Brand new screen shot (and by that, we mean a literal shot of the screen )



Meet Buck, the wise-cracking sawdust-eating cabin-crashing beaver from Jack Lumber!

We love puns here at Owlchemy, and we are proud to announce that Jack Lumber officially has more than 100 puns scattered throughout the game. That's right.

Buck is leading the pack on puns, slipping in lumberjack or tree jokes at every opportunity.

CONTEST
Do you have a tree / forest / lumberjacking pun that you could share? Come up with a pun that really makes us laugh, and we'll put it into the game!

Check out our Flickr account to see more of Buck's quips for a bit of inspiration. You can find those pics on our Twitter as well!