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Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor spins its web on iPhone

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Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor spins its web on iPhone

I know we've been going on about the iPhone a lot here at Pocket Gamer, but it really is an exciting turn of events for the entire games industry. It's helping the industry devolve back into an organic, living collective of designers who make games that are simply fun.

It's tempting the cream of the game design world to leave the ant hive of mega-conglomerates and rediscover why they joined the industry in the first place, which is where a new iPhone studio, Tiger Style, appears to have come from.

Two veteran game makers, Randy Smith - a creative developer at EA who worked with Steven Spielberg - and David Kalina - the lead AI programmer at Midway - have just released their first iPhone title, Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor onto the App Store.

The game casts you as a curious spider, exploring a strange, abandoned mansion in search of clues as to what happened to the Bryce family. Along the way you need to survive - spider style - by spinning webs to catch your next meal and fending off hornets, and coaxing moths into your traps using lights.

The game has just come out of an eight month development cycle (no small run for an iPhone game) and span itself a web in the corner of the App Store last night.

Spanner Spencer
Spanner Spencer
Yes. Spanner's his real name, and he's already heard that joke you just thought of. Although Spanner's not very good, he's quite fast, and that seems to be enough to keep him in a regular supply of free games and away from the depressing world of real work.